“Oh gosh, that sounds so amazing.” Lucely’s mouth watered. “But I promised my dad I’d be home for dinner tonight.”
“No problem. Next time! Be down in five, Syd, okay?”
Before closing the door, he shot Lucely and Syd the finger-gun move, sound effects and all. Lucely loved how weird and funny Syd’s dad was. With everything going on at home lately, she missed just talking to her dad and joking around with him. Even if it was super cringeworthy.
“Tomorrow night then?” Syd raised an eyebrow.
Lucely smiled. “Tomorrow night.”
EVERYTHING IN LUCELY’S HOUSE WAS ancient—the boxy television, the plastic sofa, the cream-colored PC from the nineties. Everything. But perhaps the one thing Lucely didn’t mind coming from the prehistoric age were her dad’s old video games.
Simon had collected every Nintendo console since he was a kid, from the Famicom to the N64, and Lucely had played every game in his collection. Among her favorite games was Ghosts ’n Goblins, a side-scroller where you, a knight, had to defeat various ghouls with the use of a trusty lance.
Lucely sat in the living room—legs crossed, tongue sticking out—as she tried to fight her way through the skeletons and zombies in the early stages of the nearly impossible game. But as hard as she tried, she could never get past the second level. Once again, her armor fell off, and her avatar ran across the screen in heart-printed underwear, jumping and dodging monster after monster.
“Lucely, breakfast!”
Very few things on earth could pull Lucely away from a video game. The smell of bacon, eggs, and pancakes took the first three slots on the list.
As Lucely was filling up her plate and dousing everything in a healthy bath of maple syrup, the radio on their kitchen counter perked up with an emergency weather alert:
“There continue to be reports of erratic wind patterns and flash flood–level rains all over town. Some residents have even claimed to have seen ghosts—”
Simon switched off the radio just as it was getting interesting.
“I don’t know what’s going on in this town anymore. If there were ghosts flying around, why haven’t I seen any?” He paused and cleared his throat. “Sorry, Luce, I’m just exhausted from work.”
“You can’t keep staying up all night, Pa.” Lucely looked down at her plate. She knew her dad was sad—maybe even depressed—about the reality that they might lose their home.
“You all packed and ready for the weekend?” Lucely’s dad was a master at changing the subject.
Lucely had just scooped the last bite of scrambled eggs and pancake into her mouth, so she could only respond with a nod. She couldn’t let him see how scared she was, and she couldn’t admit it to herself either. If she did, all the things she knew she had to do would be even closer to impossible than they already were.
That reminded her—she hadn’t said goodbye to the fireflies yet, and Babette would be pulling into their driveway any minute.
“Be right back!” she said, darting off into the backyard.
The closer Lucely got to the willow tree, the more nervous she got. The light of the cocuyos all seemed to be slightly dimmer than when she’d checked on them the night before.
Mamá’s firefly wings fluttered so slightly that it was barely noticeable. To her surprise, Macarena appeared to be mostly recovered from the attack at the barrack. Lucely told her that she should keep resting, but upon hearing about Lucely and Syd’s plans that evening, she insisted on coming along.
“Ayo, Manny is gonna be so jealous,” Primo Benny teased, after Lucely asked him to come along too. “I’ll come as long as we can get Babette to play some hip-hop in the car. No offense to Tío Simon, but I’m tired of all the bachata he’s been playing lately. It’s depressing, even for a dead guy.”
Lucely held out a small jar for them to fly into for the car ride over before tucking it into her hoodie pocket.
“What ya doing, cuz?” Yesenia, one of Lucely’s far-removed cousins, floated down from her jar to sit on the edge of the branch where Mamá’s jar hung.
“Hola, Yesenia. I’m heading out for a few days, so I wanted to check in on everyone. Have you been feeling okay?”
“Mostly fine, except …” Yesenia zoomed close to Lucely until they were nose to nose. “Some of us have been having nightmares. Or something—I don’t know what to call them exactly. But the other day, Tío Fernando climbed the tree and then jumped off, screaming the whole way down.”
A shiver traced Lucely’s spine. Tío Fernando had died in an airplane accident a long time ago, falling to his death when the plane malfunctioned.
“Do you think … the nightmares are causing you to relive your deaths?” Lucely whispered. Tía Milagros was right, and it was all making sense now. Manny crashing into the wall when he died in a car accident. Mamá had passed on in their house—one moment she was sitting in her room praying and the next she was gone. Lucely tried not to cringe; this was spooky even for her.
“Yesenia … how did you die?”
“I got sick.” Yesenia had a far-off look on her face. “Too sick for doctors to help me.”
The air began to turn ice-cold, and Lucely’s breath came out in white puffs.
Yesenia’s eyes opened wide, her head twitching like she was stuck on an endless, broken loop. She turned a sickly shade of gray, and not just her face but everything—her clothes, her hair, her eyes—as if she were in a black-and-white movie.
Yesenia screamed, and Lucely reached out to her, but it was too late. Her cousin was gone.
Lucely scrambled up the tree to Yesenia’s mason jar. Inside, her firefly fluttered softly, her light almost out.
“No, no, no.” Lucely began to cry. She had made the mistake of asking about Yesenia’s death, and she’d caused her to suffer. Now Yesenia was hurt. There had to be some way to protect the fireflies while she was away.
Lucely ran into the kitchen to find the salt. Back outside, she made a large perimeter around the tree. Stepping inside the circle, she called for Tía Rosario, who appeared wearing a pink dress with tiny white flowers on it, her long hair in a sideswept braid.
“’Ción, Tía,” Lucely said. “Can you keep an eye on Mamá and Yesenia?”
“Claro que si, mija.” Rosario pushed her pink glasses up on the bridge of her nose. “Why is there salt everywhere?”
“I’m trying to keep whatever is giving you all nightmares—or whatever they are—away.”
“Ah, yes. It has been a strange couple of days.” Rosario closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “It already feels lighter. Thank you.”
Lucely smiled. “I’m going to Babette’s for the weekend. If anything happens …”
“I’ll do my best to get the message to you. Don’t worry.” Tía Rosario held her namesake in one hand and fingered the beads worriedly.
Lucely hugged Rosario, letting herself sink into her aunt’s warm embrace. “Thanks, Tía.”
“Suerte y fuerza.” Tía Rosario squeezed Lucely’s hands tight before floating back to her jar.
Lucely inched closer to the lowest branch—the one that seemed to reach out and stroke her hair whenever she walked past the tree.
“Mamá,” Lucely whispered, “I’m going to figure out a way to fix this. Don’t worry, you’re gonna be okay.” Lucely looked up at the lights of the other fireflies around her. “You all are. I promise.”
Lucely kissed two of her fingers and touched Mamá’s jar, getting up to run back inside to grab her bag just as her dad called out to tell her Babette had arrived.
“Alright, Luce, now you mind Mrs. Faires this weekend. I don’t want to hear even one complaint from her, understood?” Lucely’s dad bent down to kiss the top of her head.
“When has anyone ever complained to you about me?” Lucely feigned shock. “Wait, don’t tell me. I promise I’ll be good.”
“You’d better be.” Simon smiled. “I know you’ve never seen a real flying chancleta in your time, but trust me, I
can make it happen if need be.”
“Don’t worry, Simon. I’ll keep them in line.” Babette clicked her seat belt into place.
“Come onnnnn, Lucely.” Syd was bouncing up and down in her seat causing the entire car to rock.
“Hey, Pa?”
Simon took a sharp breath as if Lucely had startled him. “What’s up, Luce?”
“I love you. Like, a lot. And things are gonna be okay. I promise.”
Her dad smiled and wiped at his eyes. He looked at Lucely with so much love that her heart felt as if it might burst. “I know you do. And I love you.”
All their hope rested on the next three days. Lucely knew that if they didn’t succeed this weekend, there would be nothing anyone could do. No amount of money could stop Mayor Anderson from wiping out the entire town.
That’s why tonight, they wouldn’t be sleeping. They’d be ghost hunting.
BABETTE’S CATS SAT WATCHING THEM from the wraparound porch as they pulled into the gravel driveway. Before Lucely could even thank Babette, Syd had grabbed hold of her hand and dragged her upstairs to the loft bedroom where they’d be staying.
“I’ve been dying to show you something. I was searching through my grandma’s stuff downstairs, and look.” Syd pulled a candle out from her backpack. It was white with red flames painted on the side and some sort of symbol wrapping its way around the wax.
“What is it for?” asked Lucely, inspecting the candle.
“It’s a protection candle,” Syd whispered. “Supposedly it is meant to invoke the God of War.”
“That sounds dangerous.”
“If we come up against the library monsters again, it will be, for them. But the candle is supposed to work for whoever lights it, and it’s gotta be super powerful because I found it in my grandma’s hidden safe.”
“What? How’d you get inside? And what if she notices? We’ll be toast.”
“If she figures out we’re sneaking out tonight, we’ll be toast anyway. Might as well not die at the hands of a mega ghost.”
Lucely nodded in agreement. Syd had a good point. Besides, they knew now what they were up against, and they couldn’t exactly stroll into the next cemetery with no way of defending themselves.
“What’s the plan, then?” Syd stuffed the candle back into her bag.
“We’re going to check out Huguenot Cemetery tonight. According to my dad, it’s one of the most haunted. And there’s a church, which adds to the creep factor. I have our routes mapped out with all the mausoleums marked on my phone and on a printed map just in case we run out of battery.”
“Routes? Plural?” Syd’s eyes widened.
“Well … you’re not gonna like this, but I think we should split up …” Lucely cringed.
“Splitting up is the last thing we should do! But hey”—Syd held her hands up—“you’re the boss. If I die, please be kind to my ghost. Let me live in your tree or something.”
“Do you think we should bring Chunk?” Lucely picked the fat cat up and nuzzled her nose.
“Meow,” responded Chunk.
“You think she’ll be quiet when we sneak out?” Lucely asked.
“She’ll yell louder if we don’t take her with us. She’s so nosey, I swear.”
“We should bring some of those treats she likes just in case.”
“One question though: If we do find one of the missing pages from the book, then what?”
“Then we recite the spell. The sooner, the better. The fireflies are getting sicker every day, and the town is being overrun with spirits.” Lucely sighed. “And if we don’t find a new place to live soon—or find a way to save the house—I guess we’ll just be on the street.”
“We won’t let that happen.” Syd threw herself on top of Lucely and hugged her. “I’d tell my parents to let you stay with us. Or here with Babette. You can sleep with Chunk in her bed.”
Lucely giggled, melting into Syd’s arms.
“If we can fix it by Halloween, do you think there’s a chance you could stay?”
“Maybe?” Lucely got up on her elbows and turned to face Syd. “Last year on Halloween I remember Dad saying we made over five thousand dollars. That’s nowhere near what we need, but maybe if we make that much, it’ll be enough to convince Mr. Vincent to let us keep the house a little while longer. And who knows—once the real ghosts are gone, maybe tourists will be curious enough to come and see what the deal is.”
“Let’s work on that tomorrow. Tonight, we focus on finding the next clue,” Syd said.
For the first time since this whole thing started, Lucely had some hope, even if it was only a glimmer.
There was a sharp knock on the front door that startled Lucely out of her reading. They had been in Babette’s library—with her permission this time—supposedly reading up on ghosts but in fact trying to find more information on the counterspell. The library sat near the front of the house, and both Lucely and Syd snuck up to the archway between the library and the foyer to eavesdrop just outside Babette’s view. Lucely listened as Babette opened the door and a familiar voice greeted her.
“Mayor Anderson, this is a surprise,” Babette said. “What are you doing out visiting residents so late? You usually send that much smarter assistant of yours around.”
“It’s nice to see you too, Babette.”
Syd and Lucely looked at each other. What was Mayor Anderson doing there?
Lucely chanced a peek and could see the ridiculously tall man towering over Babette in the doorway. He tugged on his white handlebar mustache and then smoothed his long trench coat over his chest before handing something to Babette.
“As you know, the annual Halloween Festival is coming up soon, so I thought I’d do a bit of local canvassing, passing out fliers and such. It would be a great pleasure if you could join us for our little soiree.”
Babette looked at the flyer and crumpled it up. Mayor Anderson’s gaze shifted to where Lucely and Syd were hiding, his mouth spreading into an unnatural smile as if his face were made of putty. His eyes flashed a sickly green as he turned back to Babette.
Lucely’s hand flew to Syd’s mouth just in time to stifle the gasp she knew was coming. They both stood there, frozen in fear.
“I’m not interested.” Babette moved to close the door, but the mayor stopped her with one long arm.
“I think it would be advisable for you to at least consider—”
“I think it would be advisable for you to get off my property before I call the police. Or I can hex you.” Babette did not mess around.
The mayor held up two hands in surrender. “Have a pleasant evening, Babette. We hope you will reconsider.”
And with that the mayor left.
Babette slammed the door and whipped around faster than Lucely and Syd could pull back from their hiding spot.
“I think it’s about time for bed for you two little eavesdroppers.”
The girls waited until Babette had gone into her room and shut the door before going over their supplies. Chunk, Data, and Sloth had parked themselves on the girls’ bags and were watching them with casual disinterest.
“When I said be prepared, I meant to go ghost hunting, not for a weekend trip to Disney,” Lucely said.
“You said be ready, which means I bring all my ghost stuff. You know I’m like this. Accept me or lose my friendship.” Syd crossed her arms.
“You’re so extra.” Lucely laughed. “Okay, what’s in the bag?”
“So this is a protection amulet to help ward off evil spirits, all the way from New Orleans. And this is a fresh ghost catcher.” Syd held up a spray-painted mason jar. “I made it myself and took my time this go around, so hopefully it actually does something, unlike the first one. It might not work as well as Babette’s stuff, but it should do the trick. Did you bring the fireflies?”
Lucely nodded and put one hand on the skinny container holding her cousins Macarena and Benny. They were some of the youngest and strongest fireflies, plus she didn’t kn
ow if she could handle Tía Milagros and evil spirits all at once.
“Cool. We’re gonna put them into the mason jars, and they should help attract evil spirits.” Syd reached for the jar.
“Hold up.” Lucely held one hand up to stop Syd. “Two things: One, you promised they wouldn’t get hurt. And trapping them with evil spirits doesn’t sound very cozy or safe. Two, I still don’t know how a spray-painted mason jar is supposed to work against an ancient spell? It doesn’t look nearly as cool as the Muon Traps they use in Ghostbusters.”
“We’re not in Ghostbusters. This is real life. And my DIY ghost catchers are better than nothing. I had the formula all wrong last time; it’s all in the black paint.”
“You know what? You’re right. Maybe after we save the town from vicious spirits dragging us all into the underworld, you can sell your handcrafted hippie ghost catchers on Etsy. Name your store Sassy Syd’s!” Lucely couldn’t hold back the laugh that fought its way out of her.
Syd narrowed her eyes at Lucely, but a smirk played on her lips. “Anyway, I brought three more protection amulets, gifts from Babette on my birthdays. We should all wear one. Even Chunk. Also, Sassy Syd’s has a nice ring to it, and I’m putting that in my journal.”
Syd handed Lucely a necklace with a giant sapphire pendant in the center. Syd’s had a beautiful amethyst stone, and Chunk’s was made from a clear crystal. They each slipped an amulet on, and Lucely felt a warmth spread throughout her body. These things must have been strong.
Chunk mewed in protest when Syd tied it around her neck, trying to swat at it with her paws. Once she’d calmed down, Syd put Chunk back on top of her bag, and the cat began snoring in seconds.
“I picked up some Florida water too, which helps ward off bad energy and evil spirits. And these stones are supposed to ward off demons and possession.”
“Oh gosh, I need one of those.” Lucely held her hand out, remembering how awful it felt for Mamá’s ghost to go through her. Syd dropped the pink stone in her hand—it was cold and smooth. “You sure this is going to work?”
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