Ghost Squad

by Claribel A. Ortega

  “Well, I’ve never been possessed, but you have so stop trying to drag my tools. I made a ghost catcher for you too.” Syd gave Lucely an identical black mason jar with a wire handle and a lid that flipped open with the flick of your finger and closed with a clasp.

  Lucely inspected the jar; it had a small, clear compartment inside that was closed off from an open area around it. “Do my fireflies go in the middle?” she asked.

  “Yep, and the evil ghosts go on the outside. They’ll be safe, I promise. I washed all these in Florida water, and the ugly ghosts are gonna be useless once we trap them inside.”

  Lucely bit her lip and nodded reluctantly. She really hoped Syd was right.

  “I also brought El Libro de Lobos, just in case we find something. Two flashlights, a banana, some candles, a loaf of bread, some cash, and a fake mustache.”

  “I’m not even gonna ask.” Lucely shook her head.

  “Hey, we don’t know if we’re gonna get abducted or lost, but we’re definitely going to get hungry. And the mustache is a disguise in case we run into Mayor Creepy again and he spots us. I only have one though.”

  “You can use it,” Lucely said, laughing.

  “Alright, but don’t come begging me for my ’stache if we get caught.”

  Around ten o’clock, Babette fell into a deep, snoring sleep, just as Syd had predicted. By ten thirty, the girls, along with Chunk, were already riding toward the cemetery.

  They rode their bikes through the foggy night, the occasional specter rising from the tree-lined streets. Chunk sat in a basket at the front of Syd’s bike, swaddled in a blanket to keep warm.

  “What do you think the mayor wanted with Babette?” Lucely asked Syd as they rode.

  “Nothing good. That’s for sure.”

  Once they’d reached the entrance to Huguenot Cemetery, Lucely and Syd hid their bikes behind a giant elm.

  “I drew up a map of all the mausoleums in the cemetery. Some of them will be locked and some will be open, but I got this”—Lucely patted the crowbar sticking out of her backpack—“in case we have to muscle our way in.”

  Syd clapped softly, and Chunk hissed, startled awake from a nap.

  “There are twelve mausoleums in this cemetery. You sure you don’t want to split up—”

  Syd cut Lucely off with a raised hand. “Have you never seen a horror movie, ever? Scooby Doo? Besides, I’m scared, girl! We’re going together.”

  “Fine, chicken. We could’ve covered more ground separately, but if you’re too scared …” Lucely teased.

  “And if the evil spirits come for one of us, hmm? Then what? I am not about to die alone. No, ma’am,” Syd said, a hint of fear flashing through her before she broke into a nervous laugh.

  “Just follow me, Syd. I memorized the maps.”

  The iron fences of Huguenot Cemetery were rusted over and shot ten feet into the night sky. As Syd looked up at the fence, Lucely held the padlock keeping the doors shut in her hand.

  She gave the lock a few good whacks with her crowbar, but it didn’t even budge.

  “This is not just locked, it’s super locked. And unless you can magic up some sort of Alohomora spell, there’s no way we’re getting in.” Lucely shook her head.

  “You give up too easily, Luna,” Syd teased. She gestured for Lucely to follow her, and together they walked their bikes to the other side of the cemetery.

  “Here.” Syd put her bike down and pointed to a patch of dirt beneath a chain-link fence. The ground dipped right under the fence and left almost enough space for them both to get through.

  “We can dig a bit so there’s enough room for us to squeeze under,” suggested Syd.

  “How’d you even know this was here?” Lucely laughed.

  “I scouted the place before. Honestly, what kind of amateur ghost hunter do you think I am?”

  “Uh, I’m pretty sure this is only your second ‘ghost hunt,’ Syd.”

  “Technically yes, but I’ve watched and planned enough of them that it doesn’t feel like my first one.” Syd dropped down and started digging as Lucely joined her.

  “This is gross. There are probably, like, dead people worms in here.” Lucely made a face.

  “Oh my gosh, why would you say that right now?”

  The girls laughed and kept digging with their hands until enough dirt had been pushed out of the way for them to fit under the fence.

  “I’ll go first, you pass me Chunk, and then you go, okay?” Lucely said, and Syd nodded in response.

  Lucely pressed her body as far down as she could go and shimmied beneath the fence. It smelled like fresh soil, and Lucely hoped her clothes weren’t getting completely ruined. Once on the other side, she wiped her jeans down as much as possible while Syd coaxed Chunk to crawl under the fence.

  “Come on, Chunk, get your big butt over there.” Syd nudged the cat gently, but she wouldn’t move.

  Chunk let out one long meow in protest, and Lucely dropped to her knees, holding a piece of string cheese out and making cooing noises.

  Chunk bolted straight under the fence.

  “It’s always food with you,” Syd said, before slipping under the fence herself.

  “Good thing I brought string cheese,” said Lucely.

  “Good thing my grandma’s cats are solely motivated by food.”

  The cemetery seemed darker than the rest of the world somehow. And colder. The trees swayed, and Lucely tried her best not to look at them. In the dark, they looked like ghosts dancing.

  Chunk sat alert in a baby sling wrapped around Syd’s chest. As they walked through the misty graveyard, Chunk began whining softly, and Syd whispered comforting words. She was quiet for a moment but whimpered again as they approached the mausoleum.

  “She okay?” asked Lucely.

  “She shouldn’t have to use the bathroom; she went before we got here. She can probably sense the ghosts.”

  Lucely rubbed the cat’s head, and Chunk licked her before hiding her head inside the pouch, shivering.

  “Come on.” Lucely tried to ignore her nerves as she pushed open the heavy marble door.

  The mausoleum was even colder than the cemetery. They shone their flashlights inside, casting long shadows across the walls and floor. They stood so close, Lucely could feel the goose bumps on Syd’s leg up against hers. Chunk was crying frantically now.

  “Maybe you should stay outside with her to keep watch,” Lucely said. “I don’t want her tiny heart to burst.”

  “No way I’m standing out there alone.” Syd pulled something from her pocket and gave it to the cat. Lucely could hear Chunk chewing happily, and the whimpering subsided.

  They inspected the right side of the tomb together, Syd’s hand gripping Lucely’s arm so hard it hurt. “You gonna be okay? You usually love this stuff,” Lucely said.

  “I know, but I’m freaked out. Chunk is scared, and she’s hardly ever scared. I just have the heebie-jeebies.”

  “We’re in a graveyard in the middle of the night; it would be weird of you not to have the heebie-jeebies,” Lucely said. “I’m just trying to keep my cool because we have at least another four hours of this to go before we have to head back home.”

  “Right.” Syd straightened up and let go of Lucely.

  They inspected the other side of the tomb and were back at the entrance a few moments later.

  “Nothing.” Lucely ruffled her curls in frustration.

  “Come on, next one is about twenty paces to our left. No sense in messing up your hair.”

  The next mausoleum was much bigger than the first, with two corridors leading to separate rooms. They stuck together, not wanting to lose sight of each other.

  Lucely ran her hands along the dusty walls and looked for hidden nooks and traps. Syd shone her flashlight inside the coffin and felt around with a long stick.

  “No luck,” said Lucely after they’d searched the entire tomb.

  Loud squeaks came from every corner of the next mausoleum. The
flash of a long tail or musty gray fur scurrying across the ground made Lucely cringe, and she tried not to scream. But aside from the giant rats that lurked in its shadows, the tomb was empty. So were the next three. It was one in the morning by the time they reached the seventh mausoleum, and Lucely was beginning to worry they’d never find the missing pages.

  Syd shivered. Despite the normally mild weather, both girls had succumbed to a cold in their bones that they couldn’t seem to shake no matter how much they jumped around or rubbed their limbs. A light drizzle came down and made pockets of gray light in the mist.

  They made their way into one of the largest mausoleums in the cemetery. It was so cold that goose bumps covered Lucely’s body and her nose felt like that one time they’d spent Christmas in New York years ago.

  Every time it got unnaturally cold, something bad happened. With Mamá and Manny, and at the fort. Lucely shivered and pushed that thought out of her head. The mausoleum smelled like mothballs and wet clothing and the plastic of old toys abandoned in a secondhand store. Just as she thought of the toys, Lucely heard what sounded like a small child laughing and feet scuttling across the cement ground. She stopped and swirled around at the noise, but there was nothing there. Only darkness.

  “Something doesn’t feel right.” Lucely moved slowly toward the entrance of the mausoleum.

  Lucely opened the door, and Chunk howled so loudly it didn’t seem like it could have come from her. And then the door slammed shut. In the same instant, Lucely dropped her flashlight, and its light went out with a painful crack. Lucely put both hands on the handle and pulled, but the door refused to open.

  “What’s happening?” Syd yelled.

  “Help me! The door is stuck.”

  They both pulled on the handle, but it wouldn’t budge. They shook, kicked, and screamed, but nothing worked. Then something moved behind them. Both girls stood stock-still. They heard a creak again, and then there was a blast of air so cold the hairs on Lucely’s arms stood on end.

  “Who’s there?” Lucely asked without looking back.

  She reached slowly toward the door again, but the blast of cold air overtook her, and they both screamed. Chunk joined them with a howl.

  Somebody mumbled in the darkness, their words sounding almost like … a song. But the voice was inhuman, low, gravely, and menacing like the growl of a jaguar.

  “I’ve caught two little flies in my web, in my web. Two little flies, they disturbed me now they’re dead.”

  Syd’s flashlight began to blink on and off in tune with the song before plunging them into complete darkness with whatever was in there with them. The voice laughed maniacally and Lucely thought she might pass out from fear.

  “We’re sorry.” Syd’s voice trembled. “We were only trying to help you go home.” She slowly turned her backpack toward Lucely, who nodded. Syd laughed nervously but kept talking. “We’re just two kids. Not sure what we’re doing really. We thought we’d be able to help you, but you obviously don’t need our help.”

  Lucely started to take the bottle of Florida water out, but Syd shook her head. Instead, Lucely pulled out a cylinder from the bag; a giant piece of tape on it read salt in Syd’s bubbly handwriting. From the corner of her eye, Lucely saw Syd nod ever so slightly, and she handed the salt over to her friend.

  “We’re just gonna make our way out of here now. Thanks for your kind hospitality.” Syd raised the container over her head and spun it in a circle throwing salt everywhere.

  The creature screeched, the sound like nails on a chalkboard above them, and Lucely looked up. It was another mist monster. It had gathered above them and was swooping down again, coming right at her.

  Chunk had gotten free of her baby sling somehow and was now cowering behind Syd’s leg.

  The mist swept toward them again. They screamed, and Chunk jumped into Lucely’s arms. Lucely shut her eyes tight, her father’s face flashing in her mind’s eye. If she got hurt tonight, would she ever see him again?

  Syd made another circle with salt, but this time, as the mist came barreling toward them, they ran. The creature crashed into the salt circle and cried out in pain, barely missing the girls. In the same instant, the door creaked open, bringing a gust of wind into the mausoleum and getting salt everywhere.

  Lucely and Syd bolted through the door and into the night.

  Brambles scratched Lucely’s legs as she tried to keep a straight path in the dark. Chunk mewed and hissed in her arms as they ran.

  “She’s … so … heavy,” panted Lucely.

  “Don’t call her Chunk for nothin’,” Syd said.

  They scrambled under the fence, and Lucely tried not to think of worms and dead things. When they reached their bikes, Lucely deposited Chunk into Syd’s basket and hopped on her own bike. Just as they began to peddle away, Lucely turned to see the monster standing in the marble doorway of the mausoleum, the moonlight revealing a form they hadn’t seen before.

  Its vacant eyes were staring directly at Lucely and Syd, and aside from the gray skin and black hole of a mouth, it looked exactly like Mayor Anderson.

  THE GHOULISH MIST MAYOR stalked toward them, growing in size with each step. A cloud of dirt and bramble swirled around it like a powerful tornado, obscuring its human form completely. Mayor Anderson had become a roiling, shapeless, terrifying thing. It was like many spirits had conjoined; multiple sets of eyes glowed above mouths that howled in unison. Thick green veins pulsed over every inch of its putrid mass.

  “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. Go, go, go, Syd!” Lucely pedaled faster than she ever had in her life. Chunk hissed loudly from behind her as the tires of Syd’s bike crunched through the dead leaves beneath the elm tree.

  “Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.”

  The mist monster blasted a wall of frigid air toward them, causing Lucely’s limbs to stiffen. Pedaling became harder and harder until she was going so slowly that she was nearly at a standstill. Beside her, Syd was in the same predicament.

  “What do we do?” Syd looked behind them; the mist monster couldn’t have been more than a hundred yards away and was gaining fast.

  “The salt, the Florida water, all of it. Let’s use all of it. We can’t outrun it, so we have to try to fight it.”

  “Are you for real? That thing’s gonna swallow us whole!”

  “Syd, neither of us can even pedal, Chunk is gonna die of a heart attack, and you want to argue? Trust me!”

  Syd shook her head but got off her bike, taking out the rest of her ghost stuff.

  Lucely grabbed the salt that sat in the basket with Chunk and made a giant circle around them.

  “Stay here, baby girl,” she whispered to Chunk.

  Syd was lighting candles and putting them in as many places just outside the circle as she could. Each of them had a different saint depicted on it in jewel-tone paint.

  Lucely handed Syd the Florida water, and Syd dabbed some on her finger before making the sign of the cross on each of their foreheads. They ran back over to splash some on Chunk too.

  The howling was getting closer, and the girls stood in the circle, one ghost catcher in each of their hands, the faint twinkle of Macarena’s and Benny’s lights within.

  “I really hope this works,” Lucely said, reaching out for Syd’s free hand.

  “Me too.”

  “Meow,” added Chunk.

  Syd grabbed Lucely’s hand. Together, they stood—ghost catchers up and open—facing the oncoming mist monster.

  A howling noise pierced the ink-black night, and Syd’s hand shook in Lucely’s.

  Lucely looked at her friend and nodded, squeezing her hand. I’m here, she thought but could not say out loud, her fear keeping her words trapped in her throat. But Syd seemed to understand, and a look of determination replaced the terror in her eyes.

  The air around them became frigid; Lucely’s breath came out in tiny marshmallow-like puffs. She wished more than anything that her fireflies would be okay. Now that they’d been this far fro
m the tree for so long, she wasn’t sure they’d even have the energy to help.

  She closed her eyes just for a moment and imagined her fireflies surrounding her and Syd, creating an impenetrable ball of light to protect them.

  The creature was before them now—taller than even the biggest tree in the cemetery—and it took every bit of Lucely’s self-control not to run.

  “Don’t leave the circle,” said Syd through clenched teeth. “It’s our best chance.”

  Just as the words left her lips, the mist monster swooped down, shrieking as it barreled toward them, its howls mixing with the screams coming from Lucely, Syd, and Chunk.

  And just as fast as it had come at them, it was past them. Both girls looked back in unison and then at each other. The creature rounded back, but just before it reached the circle, it was split in two, as if the protection circle had cut it in half. Its scream was bloodcurdling, but still it was no closer to penetrating the circle.

  Chunk had escaped her basket and was now hissing at the monster, puffing up her fur to make herself bigger.

  The mist monster flew up so high Lucely could barely see it. Then with one terrible scream, it dove straight down at them.

  Lucely screamed and held on to Syd with her eyes closed, too terrified to do anything but stand there. Again, the mist monster could not enter their circle. It opened its hideous mouth, thick green veins flashing as if there were lightning within the monster, and roared like a lion as close to their faces as it could get. The smell alone was enough to knock out an entire soccer team. Then it turned with the force of a tornado and headed back in the direction of the mausoleum.

  An eerie quiet blanketed the graveyard. Lucely’s eyes remained half shut until a soft mew from Chunk gave her the courage to pop just one eye open. Syd was still holding on to her for dear life.

  “Syd, I think it’s gone,” she whispered.

  Syd opened her eyes and looked around. They were alone in the pitch-black night.

  Everything in Lucely’s body told her to run, to go home, but if that monster attacked them, it was for a reason. Maybe it was protecting something here on these grounds.

  “Should we check out the church next?” Syd asked, reading Lucely’s mind.