Ghost Squad

by Claribel A. Ortega

  “Now, where did I leave that … Ah! Here it is.” Babette took a heavy-looking book down from the shelf with both hands. “Magic is like cooking. Your outcome is only as good as your recipe, only as good as your ingredients and confidence in the kitchen, and only as good as your tools.”

  She walked out of the room, Lucely and Syd trailing her. Babette set the book down gently on the table out in the library and opened it.

  “This is the Spectral Master 4000. It’s made of haunt-proof leather and can catch up to one hundred ghosts before needing to be purged,” Babette said.

  “I never knew Babette was a Ghostbuster.” Lucely shook her head in awe.

  “Humph. I am not a Ghostbuster, or a scientist. I’m a witch. It might have a techy name, but the Spectral Master 4000 is very much tied to magic. I just thought I might be able to sell them on eBay someday, and I needed something catchy to call them.”

  The book had three tiny buttons on it—catch, contain, and release—along with one light beneath each word. It had what looked like a heavy latch on two ends and a handle on the spine.

  “How does it work?” asked Lucely.

  “You have to get the ghost to float over it while the catch mechanism is engaged.” Babette pointed to the button. “That sounds simple, but the button only stays engaged for thirty seconds. Then the trap reboots itself, and it won’t work for another two minutes.”

  “Why did you make this so complicated?” Syd let her head fall to the table.

  Babette bristled. “Containing magic is hard enough, let alone figuring out how to catch a ghost in the first place. Besides this is better than those raggedy mason jars you were using. This actually works. We just have to be smart about how we set the trap.”

  “I’m sorry, did you say we?” Syd didn’t bother to lift her forehead from the table.

  “Yes, we. I’m not about to let you girls go looking for the rest of those spells on your own. It’s dangerous,” Babette said. “You need a guide—someone who knows what they’re doing. Besides, I’m old and bored. Now let me see what else you have in that bag of yours.”

  Syd carefully laid out all her stuff, and Lucely took her amulet from her pocket and put it on the table next to the other mason jar, the Florida water, the salt, and the candles.

  Babette picked the amulets up one by one and weighed them in her hands. Then she held them up to her ear and shook each one before putting it down. She nodded in approval before moving on to the other items.

  “This is all fine, except for the mason jars,” she said.

  Syd scowled. “So much jar hate.”

  “If there’s only one Spectral Master 4000, how are Syd and I supposed to help?” asked Lucely.

  “You will each have your own, but it won’t look like this.” Babette sat with a flourish, her long dress fluttering behind her as she settled into her claw-foot chair. “The best magic always has a personal element to it. This was my favorite book growing up, and its power lies not only in the spell I cast over it but also in the book’s significance to me. I can do the same for the two of you with objects of sentimentality.”

  Lucely smiled. She already knew what her item would be, but she would have to go home to retrieve it.

  Syd had a confused look on her face. “Literally the only thing I care about that much is Luce, and maybe Chunk. But neither of them are things.”

  Babette picked Chunk up with a groan and held her in front of Syd’s face.

  “The amulet you put on her collar works.”

  “Won’t she get hurt?” Syd asked.

  Babette threw her head back and laughed. “You’ll sooner get hurt than Chunk.”

  Lucely and Syd looked at each other.

  “Is Chunk … magic?” Lucely asked. “Because it almost seems like she told you where we were when she ran away.” Lucely felt silly even suggesting it, but it was suspicious. The cat had disappeared at the cemetery, and then Babette had come to save them as if she’d been warned.

  “I guess you could put it that way. Let’s just say all my cats have something special about them. So, don’t you worry about Chunk. I’d feel much safer with her near you anyway.”

  “Cool. You’re my sidekick, Chunk. You hear that?” Syd scratched the cat’s chin, and she immediately rolled over to show her ample belly, purring as she did.

  “We should get her a cool T-shirt or something to solidify her new ghost-hunting status,” Lucely said.

  “Oh my gosh, maybe I can get my mom to make a little leather jacket to make her look like she’s in some sort of cat biker gang!”

  “Focus.” Babette clapped her hands, pulling a book from the wall to reveal another secret compartment on the opposite side of the room. She shot a warning glance toward the girls. “This is not for anyone else to know. Understood?”

  Lucely nodded, and Babette glided to the other side of the room. She reached inside the small, safe-like compartment that had opened, and pulled out a rolled-up parchment, putting two stones on either end of the scroll to hold it in place.

  “This is a map of St. Augustine from 1832, marking every cemetery in town,” Babette said. “The older the cemetery, the more likely it is to contain a considerable amount of magic and the more likely we are to find the missing pages. The plan is this: Cover every cemetery between now and the full moon on Halloween. Once that night comes, the spirits in town will likely gain enough strength that we won’t be able to stop them, no matter how many ghost catchers I make.”

  “What happens once we catch the ghosts? Do they just stay in the catchers forever?” Lucely asked.

  “No, we send them back to the underworld. I have a spell for that, don’t you worry. Or well, I will.”

  “You don’t have the spell yet?” Lucely asked.

  “There are spells we could use, but I can put the spell together myself. Any spell that comes from inside me will be more powerful. I’ll need an item of sentimental value from you, Luce, something I can turn into a real ghost catcher. Not all the ghosts around town are necessarily evil—some have just been rerouted, lost. It’s the spirit monsters in the cemeteries I’m worried about.” Babette rubbed her chin as if she were deep in thought. She clapped her hands together, her eyes lighting up as she did. “Do you know how you attract a ghost?”

  Lucely and Syd shook their heads.

  “Light.” Babette flourished her hand and a small blue wisp of light appeared above her fingertips. As she spoke, she moved her fingers and the light danced around her elegant hands. “Magical light will attract a spirit that has lost its way.”

  Lucely opened her eyes wide. “That is the coolest thing I have ever seen.”

  “My family is the weirdest. I love it.” Syd closed her eyes and sighed dramatically.

  “I’ll work on amplifying the power of Chunk’s collar amulet for you, Syd. And Lucely, we can get your item first thing in the morning. Do you know what you’ll use?”

  Lucely nodded.

  “Okay, I’ll have all the necessary equipment ready to go by tomorrow morning. You’ll each carry a flashlight and a ghost catcher and be wearing an amulet.” Babette reached out and held Lucely’s and Syd’s hands. “We have to take every precaution so that you girls won’t get hurt. Your parents will kill me if you are. But we need to help Lucely—and save the town.”

  “I can’t believe we’re gonna be a real-life ghost-catching gang,” Lucely said.

  “Gang is a good word for it.” Babette said. “I haven’t been in one of those since I was a kid.”

  Syd scrunched her nose. “I think squad sounds better.”

  “Fine, Ghost Squad it is, then.” Babette smiled.

  “Will you finally teach me how to be a witch now, Gran? I’ve been asking for years.”

  “And I’ve been telling you for years, being a witch isn’t something just anyone can learn. If you show signs of magic one day, then I will.”

  “Ugh.” Syd slumped her shoulders.

  “What will we do once we get to t
he cemeteries?” asked Lucely.

  “We will set up special crystal chimes that detect any ghostly activity and create as big of a perimeter of safety as we can while we search. The crystals will let us know if anything is coming our way so that we can prepare for a showdown. We’ll check each mausoleum and also a few hidden spots I know of in each area.”

  “And if a baddie comes at us?” Syd quirked an eyebrow.

  “You open your traps, press the button, and run like a pack of hornets is on your tail,” Babette said, laughing.

  “We can’t just leave you to face them alone,” said Lucely.

  “You sure can, and you will, or the deal is off.” Babette was firmer this time.

  “We need more than just ‘run’ as a defense. What if your spells don’t work or you get overwhelmed by ghosts? Then what?” Syd asked.

  Babette sighed, clearly exasperated. “I will think about it, but you do make a valid point, granddaughter of mine.

  “I have an idea. Something I’m not sure you’d feel comfortable with.” Babette turned to Lucely. “Would you be able to bring a few of your fireflies? Your gift of sight might be enhanced with them around.”

  “Sight?” Lucely arched an eyebrow.

  “The ability to see the other side, to see the spirits. Right now, there is a surge in supernatural power because of the spell, but normally people wouldn’t be able to see beyond the veil. You can. It’s a gift.”

  “My father … he said he could see them too when he was younger,” Lucely said.

  “Gifts and curses are usually passed on.” Babette smiled.

  “Lucely is pretty weird. It’s why we’re best friends,” said Syd, puffing up her chest proudly.

  “Yes, well, birds of a feather.” Babette waved her hands around. “As I was saying, Lucely, would you be willing to bring a few of them with you?”

  Lucely bit her lip. “So long as they’ll be okay … But do you really think they’ll be able to help at all?”

  Babette opened her eyes wide. “They’ll be able to fight, spirit versus spirit, to protect us and to push the ghosts back, returning them to their resting places.”

  “Wow,” Syd and Lucely said together.

  “And here I thought they were only good for being Lucely’s sole friends besides me,” Syd joked.

  Lucely pushed her playfully. “Shut up, Syd. I just never thought of the fireflies as ghosts in the same way the scary ghosts from the cemeteries are. I mean, they’re not scary, not usually anyway. Not before the past few weeks. Does it matter which fireflies I bring?”

  “If there are any you think might be especially good in sticky situations, bring them,” Babette said.

  Lucely nodded, thinking of who would be best. Celestino came to mind, her uncle who made booby traps. Tía Milagros could put the fear of God into anyone’s heart. And of course she’d bring Frankie, who had already saved them once. She tallied all the ghosts who might be helpful to her. By the time she wrote down all the names, she had fifteen on a list.

  “You think this will be enough?” Lucely asked Babette, holding up the list.

  “I think this is perfect.” Babette smiled. “And, Lucely … there’s something I need to tell you, both of you.” Now Babette sounded deadly serious. “The spell you found from my book, it wasn’t actually from my book. I mean, it was, but someone had altered it. They corrupted the spell—turned it into a deadly curse.”

  “Who would do something like that?” Syd asked.

  Lucely looked at Syd, clearing her throat. “We saw the initials E. B. written next to the spell—do you know who they could’ve belonged to?”

  Babette was quiet for a long time, a faraway look in her eyes. “Hmm … I do know of someone, but she died long ago. Her name was Eliza Braggs, a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution with a staunch hatred for anything that she deemed ‘unnatural.’ She publically accused Las Brujas Moradas of hexing her son—among other unexplained events—none of which was ever proven. Then she gathered a mob of townspeople and drove the coven out of St. Augustine for good.”

  Her attention snapped back to Lucely and Syd. “What Eliza did was cruel, but she’s long gone now.”

  An air of silence fell over the room, and Lucely realized that they hadn’t told Babette about Mayor Anderson and what they’d overheard at city hall.

  “Is it possible that she could be behind all this?” Lucely asked. “Like, trying to exact revenge or something?”

  “What do you mean?” Babette asked.

  “Umm … so we sort of spied on Mayor Anderson a little during our school trip.” Lucely braced herself for yelling, but instead Babette just nodded as a signal to go on. “We saw him the first night in the cemetery when we recited the spell—at least we’re pretty sure it was him. He went into the mausoleum after we’d run out.”

  “So, we decided to eavesdrop on his office at city hall,” Syd added. “And we overheard a bunch of voices plotting some sort of attack at the Halloween Festival this weekend.” Syd pulled the recorder out of her backpack and replayed the mayor’s conversation.

  “And maybe it was fear making me hallucinate, but I’m pretty sure the dragon-mist-monster looked just like him before he transformed into Drago,” said Syd.

  “Drago?” Babette hitched an eyebrow.

  “Just a nickname I came up with for the dragon monster. You gotta admit, the thing was pretty cute.”

  Babette let out an exasperated breath. “Try not to become attached to the monsters attempting to kill us, Syd. But that is troubling. We can’t be too careful. Stay away from Mayor Anderson. Even if he doesn’t seem like a bad guy, it’s possible he may be wrapped up in something nefarious, whether this has anything to do with Eliza Braggs or not. No more spying; it’s too dangerous.”

  The look in Babette’s eyes left no room for negotiation. “If this is Eliza, there must be a reason she led the two of you—someone with the gift of sight and someone with possible, just possible, ties to witchcraft—to recite the spell.” Babette looked at Syd, who was beaming. “Whoever’s behind this seems to have it all planned out. So be extra careful—and trust no one.”

  EARLY THE NEXT MORNING, Babette drove Lucely to her house to pick up Mamá’s mason jar from her bedside. Lucely knew of nothing else as valuable to her in the world.

  Before they left, Babette said a protection spell over the willow tree.

  “The magic contained in this tree is ancient,” Babette said. “Much more powerful than anything I’m capable of conjuring. But I hope this helps a little.”

  A few hours later, Babette called them into her living room and plopped a box on the floor in front of them. “I made something for you girls.”

  Lucely looked in the box and gasped.

  “Go on, take one,” Babette said.

  She picked up one of the black denim jackets and shrugged it on. The back had a ghost patch sewn on and the words Ghost Squad stitched above it in purple lettering.

  “This is so cool!” Lucely admired herself in a full-length mirror in Babette’s living room.

  Syd held up her own jacket. “This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

  There was even a cat-size one for Chunk.

  Babette was the last to put her jacket on, and with her dark jeans, black T-shirt, and long gray dreadlocks, Lucely was pretty sure she was the coolest person she’d seen in her entire life.

  “There’s more,” said Babette, handing Lucely her mason jar and Syd, Chunk. The mason jar had a slight, glittery sheen to it, and it smelled like dried roses. The amulet shone brightly from Chunk’s neck, and she purred as Syd inspected it.

  “Come on, we need a picture,” Babette said, setting up her camera.

  They posed with their respective ghost catchers, Chunk sitting smack in the middle of them on the floor. Lucely made her best tough face, and when they reviewed the picture, it seemed they all had. They looked like some sort of ragtag biker gang.

  A warm feeling spread through
Lucely, something like belonging. And love. She felt like she was becoming part of an even bigger family, like Babette might be her own grandmother. But no sooner had the thought entered her brain than Lucely began feeling guilty. After all, her own grandmother was sick or cursed. She wouldn’t let herself forget that.

  The sun had long since set by the time Syd, Babette, and Lucely struck out to their first destination in Babette’s old station wagon, with wooden paneling on the side and a license plate that read ETMYDUST.

  Syd climbed into the back of the car as Chunk jumped onto the seat next to Babette.

  “I guess Chunk called shotgun,” Lucely said, sliding in next to Syd.

  “That cat’s more her granddaughter than I am.” Syd gave Lucely a sideways glance, clicking her seat belt into place.

  “I can hear everything and see everything,” Babette said.

  Lucely opened her eyes and mouth wide in mock fear, and Syd laughed so loud Chunk hissed.

  Babette turned the radio on, and a pop song about heartbreak blared through the speakers. They all, including a mewing Chunk, sang at the top of their lungs, pumping themselves up for the night to come. But as they got closer to the cemetery, Babette turned the radio down and a somber mood fell over them.

  Respect the spirits, Lucely remembered, and closed her eyes, her hands wrapped around her ghost catcher. She said a silent prayer to whoever or whatever was watching over them, and she hoped they could protect her, Syd, Babette, and Chunk from whatever was coming their way tonight.

  “I put packets of salt in my dad’s fanny pack and sprinkled some in his shoes,” Lucely told Syd. “I hope it’s enough to keep any ghost monsters from hurting him.”

  “Babette also gave him a few charms and stuff for the customers. They’ll think it’s all for show, but if they’re wearing amulets, then it’s a lot less likely for anything weird to happen.” Syd put her hand on Lucely’s and squeezed. “Not much else we can do that we’re not already trying to do, Luce.”

  Things seemed pretty bleak, but the gesture filled Lucely with hope. The mere fact that she wasn’t alone in trying to figure this all out was enough to comfort her, for now.