Ghost Squad

by Claribel A. Ortega

  She didn’t have to look at her dad to feel the confusion radiating from his direction and all the questions he had for her, but instead of asking, he got to work. The moment Simon opened the jar, the fireflies flew out and gathered in a whirlwind of light, making a noise like water being poured onto a hot pan.

  Lucely kept one eye on them and one eye on the ghosts and her rattling Razzle-Dazzler. Her father was still holding the small jar, his face like a kid’s, soft and bright, full of wonder. Somehow, Lucely knew that he could again see the faces of his lost family members flashing in the light.

  At the same time as Lucely, he saw the one face they both missed more than anything: Mamá Teresa, his mother.

  “Mamá,” Lucely whispered, transfixed, her Razzle-Dazzler dropping to her side.

  “Luce!” Simon and Syd screamed at once, and Lucely raised her Razzle-Dazzler up. But it was too late. A mob of ghosts surged toward her, their mouths open wide and ready to attack.

  The ghosts pinned her down to the wooden floor, and she felt light and stretched thin as if she were disappearing, as if a light switch inside her was being shut off.

  “No!” She heard her dad’s voice somewhere above her, struggling, but she couldn’t see him.

  “I don’t think so,” boomed another voice, and a burst of bright purple light blinded her for just a moment. Babette.

  Babette blasted the mob of ghosts off Lucely, giving her enough time to stand and begin capturing them again. Then Babette turned toward the fireflies and held out her hands, beckoning them to her. She seemed to be harnessing their light as they enveloped her. She looked like a giant flower made of lavender and white lights.

  Simon now stood alongside Lucely, Syd, and Babette. To Lucely’s surprise, he wasn’t stopping her. He was backing them up like a bodyguard. The feel of his hand on her shoulder was reassuring; it was the only thing keeping her standing in place.

  Mayor Anderson screamed, clearly annoyed at their resistance. “You witches are all the same! You just want to take what isn’t yours and hurt the good people of this town.”

  “Leave the town out of this,” Babette said. “This is between you and me, Braggs!”

  Braggs? Lucely tore her eyes from the scene in front of her for just a moment and shot a look at Syd, who was staring back at her. So they had been right about Eliza Braggs.

  Mayor Anderson laughed. His skin began to shift as if a wave were rippling beneath the surface. The spirit of Eliza Braggs now stood where Mayor Anderson had been just seconds before.

  “I knew you’d try to meddle,” Eliza Braggs said. “Knew you’d be just like the rest of your awful coven. They were always such an inconvenience—a group of troublesome women. Las Brujas Moradas have brought nothing but disease and disorder to St. Augustine ever since they arrived. I thought I’d wiped you all out the first time, but clearly I was wrong. I vowed to take my revenge against you for what that … Pilar girl did to my precious son. She poisoned him against me, and now I will make you lose what you love most.”

  The aura of light surrounding Babette pulsed brighter now, reminding Lucely of the invincibility power-up in Super Mario Bros.

  “You can keep trying to cut us down, but our roots go deep,” Babette said. “You will never succeed.”

  Eliza laughed at that. “Clever words won’t save you now, witch. I will stop you once and for all, even if I have to use the souls of the townspeople to do it! Just like I used that little seer and your granddaughter. By midnight tonight—when the full moon is at its brightest—I will have raised the most powerful army St. Augustine has ever seen and destroy you all!”

  With that, Eliza Braggs transformed once again, this time into a hideous, growling beast. She was ten feet tall and dripping with green ooze, long strands of scraggly hair hanging from her limbs like moss. Ghosts with black holes for eyes and mouths surrounded the creature, moaning and outstretching their hands toward Lucely, Syd, Babette, and Simon. The horde of ghosts shrouded the monster like the hood of a king cobra, keeping her deep in their shadow and away from the light. Babette’s face lit up. The witch whipped her wrist in a circle, sending a needlelike point of light toward the demon and then back to Babette like a tiny boomerang.

  Babette’s attack weakened the monster, and beacons of light shone from the wounds her magic had made. The creature that was no longer Eliza shrieked.

  “Hold on!” Babette commanded, then shot out toward the ghosts. Babette erupted, sending an enormous shock wave of light and energy exploding out from her body—her attack terrible and big.

  Lucely couldn’t tell if it was just her senses playing tricks on her, but the next moments seemed to unfold in slow motion and, aside from a faint ringing in her ears, absolute silence.

  An ever-expanding dome of purple light froze any evil spirit it passed through in place. Eliza shifted back into her human form, her eyes full of fear, as the force trapped her.

  For a moment, everything was still. Then with the sound of crashing thunder, the light collapsed back in on itself like a dying star, pulling the spirits in.

  Lucely and Syd were launched backward by the force of the implosion, but Simon caught them and wrapped his arms around them both, shielding them from the flying debris. The ghosts and the beast were swept up into a giant tornado and went screaming out a window of the giant room, shattering it in their wake.

  Silence fell on the room. When Lucely looked around, they were the only ones left standing.

  “Don’t worry about them. They’ll be fine, so long as we can stop Eliza.” Babette stumbled to her knees, weakened by the amount of magic she had just expended.

  “Lucely, the paper. Where is it?” Babette asked hurriedly.

  Lucely pulled the paper with the impossible riddle on it, the one from the catacombs, from her pocket.

  “A light to guide you through the night,” she recited. “Confront your fate before it’s too late.”

  Lucely’s eyes brightened as she thought of the beacons of light coming from the monster after Babette’s attack.

  “The lighthouse,” Lucely said, remembering the marker on the spirit map that had disappeared.

  Babette smiled knowingly. “We must get there before midnight.”

  “The lighthouse?” Simon asked, sounding more than a little out of breath.

  “Las Brujas Moradas once convened at the old lighthouse. When they were banished, Eliza led a mob to burn it to the ground.” Babette was back on her feet. “Our only hope of putting an end to what Eliza has set in motion rests with whatever residual magic we can draw from that place.”

  Lucely and Syd looked at each other. Babette looked at Simon. Simon looked confused.

  “We’ll explain everything in the car, Dad.” Lucely tugged at his arm as they fled city hall. “We’ve got a city to save!”

  “DID THAT MONSTER EAT Mayor Anderson?” Syd asked as they all piled into Babette’s car.

  “What just happened back there?” Simon slid into the back seat with Lucely and Syd.

  “Meow.” Chunk’s voice was low and somehow laced with concern.

  “Chunk!” Lucely and Syd said in unison.

  “Seat belts!” Babette floored the gas, and they peeled out of the parking lot with a screech of tires and smoke, rain still coming down in sheets.

  As they made it to the Bridge of Lions, which would take them to the lighthouse, a heavy fog settled around them, leaving almost nothing visible beyond it.

  “So it was Eliza Braggs impersonating the mayor this whole time …” Lucely said.

  “The same woman who accused Las Brujas Moradas of hexing her son?!” Syd added.

  Babette nodded. “There was a lot of fear and superstition surrounding herbalists and healers in her time, and she wanted nothing more than to rid the town of their presence. However, a new generation of Las Brujas Moradas cropped up not long ago, reviving our magic and the commitment to protect the town. From the looks of it, I’m guessing that’s what called her back here, to seek re
venge.”

  “Our?” Syd, Lucely, and Simon all leaned forward in their seats.

  Babette sighed. “Isn’t it obvious? Honestly, I thought you girls would’ve figured it out sooner. I’m one of the witches of the Purple Coven. The younger generation anyway. Braggs knows that I have the power to stop her, that I can call on my coven, past and present, to stand against her.”

  “Is anyone gonna tell me what’s going on?” Simon asked.

  They tried their best to bring him up to speed, with Chunk supplying an occasional, insistent meow whenever she played a part in the story.

  “How are we supposed to stop her army of evil spirits from destroying the whole town?” Simon asked.

  “We go to the lighthouse—where the coven once met in secret—and recite the spell,” Babette said, biting her lip.

  “Except we only have the first half of the spell, remember?” Syd pointed out.

  Babette scratched her head. “The spell was intended to help you, and you have to remember why you needed it in the first place to finish it. I think what’s missing is an element that is personal.”

  Lucely’s mind raced as she held her mason jar close, the fireflies pulsing brighter now than they had in weeks.

  She remembered what Tía Milagros used to say when she was scared: “Fear the living, mija, not the dead.” But now, it was the dead they were up against. Not Mayor Anderson, but a monster and her spirit army made of pure malice. And those spirits would be rising from their graves at midnight.

  People walked around in costume, convinced the thick mist was a trick of the light or an illusion put on by the town for them. The streets were teaming with tourists, and though Lucely hoped the ghosts would be still, she knew better. Tonight, they would not be.

  “Get to shelter, you big dummies!” Babette yelled through her window, but they only clapped and hooted. Some of them looked scared enough to turn back, and Lucely could only hope they were going inside somewhere safe.

  When they reached the road leading to the lighthouse, the moon broke through the clouds overhead, illuminating the tower’s black-and-white-striped exterior in the distance. Felled trees made navigating any farther by car impossible.

  “Out!” Babette ordered. “We go the rest of the way on foot!”

  Babette led them through the rain toward the lighthouse, which had always reminded Lucely of something out of Beetlejuice. Syd quickly explained how their Razzle-Dazzlers worked to Simon, who was now holding a spare Babette happened to have in her trunk.

  “I’m glad you’re here,” Lucely said to him.

  “Don’t be too glad,” he said. “Once this is all over, you’re grounded till you’re sixteen.”

  “Woof.”

  When they reached the entrance at the base of the tower, Babette made quick work of the locks and they all shuffled through the door, grateful—Chunk most of all—to have a refuge from the wind and rain.

  Babette snapped her fingers, and a flame appeared in the palm of her hand. With a flick of her wrist, the flame began to float in midair, filling the room with a soft purple glow. “Look alive, gang. There could be any number of creatures in here waiting to attack us the moment we let our guard down.”

  They started up the spiral staircase leading to the top of the tower as Babette’s light guided their way.

  “How are we not to the top of this thing yet?” Lucely huffed. “I feel like we’ve been going in circles forever.”

  “Right?!” Syd was just as exhausted and confused. “Do you think it could be some sort of illusion, like when we were trying to reach the cathedral?”

  Lucely and Syd reached the landing and collapsed on the floor while Simon and Babette unpacked their things.

  “I am never getting up from this spot again,” Syd groaned. “This is where I live now.”

  Chunk mewed angrily.

  “Lucely, can you come here for a second? There’s something I need to tell you before we do this.” Babette’s face was grim.

  “Is everything okay?” Lucely asked, slightly panicked. Babette never acted nervous like this.

  “The spell … Lucely, there are always consequences when it comes to magic. Sometimes sacrifices are required.”

  “What sacrifices?” Simon walked over and put one arm around Lucely’s shoulder.

  Babette sighed. “There’s a chance that, if the spell is successful, your firefly spirits could disappear as well.”

  Lucely gasped, her hands reaching for the mason jar still hanging at her waist. No. She couldn’t lose them. She was supposed to save them.

  Lucely was completely overcome with rage and fear and sadness. This was all her fault.

  She walked across the landing, closing her eyes and taking deep breaths to try to clear her head for just one moment. When she opened her eyes again, a thick black fog surrounded her. She could hear the muffled voices of her father, Syd, and Babette calling her name, but when she tried to shout back, it was like trying to yell underwater. She took a few steps forward, arms outstretched, but they were gone.

  Something behind Lucely rustled. When she turned around, a shroud of darkness no longer surrounded her, and neither was she in the lighthouse. Instead, she was alone in the middle of a cemetery in the pouring rain. There were no more voices now—everything was deadly silent.

  Something in Lucely’s gut told her that this was just another trick, that Eliza was playing games with her to keep them from casting the counterspell before midnight. But the wind, the grass, the rain—it all felt so real. She looked around again and realized she recognized her surroundings: It was Huguenot Cemetery!

  “I know how to get home from here,” she whispered to herself, looking for a small piece of comfort.

  Something whispered to her from the back of her mind, unbidden. But Lucely couldn’t understand what it was trying to tell her. It was just beyond her reach.

  Lucely thought of her father, of Mamá Teresa and the rest of her firefly ancestors, of Syd and Babette. They meant everything to her. She wouldn’t let anything happen to her family, no matter what it cost.

  As Lucely started to unravel the final piece of the spell, something flew past, knocking her to the ground. On instinct, she whipped out her Razzle-Dazzler and blasted an arc of rainbow light through the fog. Lucely immediately wished she hadn’t.

  The undead were everywhere. The fog was not just made of mist but of actual ghosts. They blanketed the entire sky; they were a wall of gray and black around her. Even the ground below her seemed translucent, a pool of ghosts dancing beneath her feet. Lucely screamed and began to trap them. There were more of them than she and the others had ever anticipated; not hundreds of ghosts, but thousands. Their attention was now fixed on Lucely.

  The fireflies buzzed, and Lucely’s hand hesitated over the mason jar. Hurting the fireflies was the last thing she wanted to do, but she wasn’t sure she could do this alone. She needed to get back to her family, back to the lighthouse. A gap opened in the fog and a team of ghosts burst through. A group of people in pointy hats. Witches, Lucely thought. And the people from her dad’s historic paintings, Enriquillo and the Mirabal sisters … and another man Lucely recognized. It was Judge John Stickney—the ghost who was missing his teeth. They rushed forward and for a moment Lucely held up her Razzle-Dazzler instinctively, but instead of attacking her, they dove for the ghosts keeping her trapped.

  “Help the girlie get through!” Judge John yelled as he led the attack. The witches moved in tandem, magic wands up in one hand, holding their large skirts up with the other. They blasted group after group of ghosts, trying to create an opening big enough for Lucely to get through. Her heart beat so hard she could hear it pounding in her ears. The sky beyond the wall of ghosts turned darker as they fought their way out, as if all the lights in the world were being turned off at once.

  But the path was still not big enough for Lucely to get through. She needed more help and looked down to her fireflies as they flashed their lights trying to get her a
ttention. She knew they wanted to help, and she knew she had to let them if she had any hope of escaping.

  “Please be safe,” she whispered into the fog, her eyes closed for just a moment, and opened the latch on her jar.

  Tiny lights erupted from the mason jar, and where there was a small path created by her Razzle-Dazzler and the friendly ghosts before, there was now a massive tunnel of brilliant light. The ghosts pushed on all sides of the tunnel, trying to break through, but her fireflies created a golden net, keeping them back. Lucely ran, straight through the tunnel without looking back. She had to get back to her family quickly, and nothing else mattered in that moment. Because she had the final piece of the spell.

  LUCELY AWOKE WITH A START, gasping for air as if she had nearly drowned. The room around her slowly came into focus. She was back at the lighthouse, lying on the floor, with Babette, Syd, and her dad standing over her.

  Babette produced one of the small strawberry candies she always seemed to have in her pockets and offered it to Lucely. “Here, this’ll help.”

  “Luce! You’re not dead!” Syd squealed, nearly tackle-hugging her.

  “Goonies … never say … die,” Lucely groaned from the hug, her body still stiff from lying on the concrete floor for who knows how long. But she didn’t pull away either.

  Simon reached over and squeezed her shoulder. “I’m glad you’re okay, kiddo. But I knew you would be. You’re always so strong, stronger than I could ever be.”

  “That’s not true. Where do you think I get it from?” Lucely smiled at Simon.

  “Are we going to hug one another all night or get down to business?” Babette asked despite the clear look of relief on her face. “What did you see?”

  “Um …” Lucely began. “Well, one moment I was standing here, and the next I was alone in a cemetery—the Huguenot—when I was attacked by thousands of spirits. Some part of me knew it was a vision, but it felt so real.”

  “And did you get what you needed?”