The Fire Ghost (Phantom Elements Book 2)

by Jennifer Campbell

  “Okay, okay,” Dom agreed.

  That night, armed with cell phone cameras and back up batteries, they set out for the Phillips Museum. Ashley sensed a lot of apprehension coming from Dom. A big part of the collection belonged to the Phillips family trust. Price Phillips was the mayor and his brother, Wade Phillips sat on the city council. Wade’s wife, Jill Phillips was the curator of the museum’s collection. If they were caught trespassing, they would be in big trouble.

  Still, Ashley felt like she could use her powers to keep them from getting caught. She was as curious as Dom was about the Fire Ghost. The painting of Eva was part of the Phillips’ personal collection. Maybe they wouldn’t get in too much trouble if they could give the family some answers, and get more visitors going to the museum. Kylie Phillips might even lighten up a little. Ashley laughed to herself. That was probably wishful thinking.

  Ashley, Dom, Keegan, and Ruby crept around the back of the building. There was a motion sensor light at the back of the building. Ashley waved a hand over the breaker box and the light went out.

  “That was lucky,” Ruby chirped.

  “Was that you?” Dom hissed.

  “Of course it was me,” Ashley snapped back. “You want to get caught and be Kylie’s slave forever?”

  “Okay, okay. Get the lock, too.”

  Ashley grabbed the door knob to the backdoor and warmed the metal. Patricia told her that since most metals have been heated, the element of fire controls metal. Ashley clicked the lock and swung the door open. The basement behind the door was pitch black. Heavy cloths covered artifacts, making shadowy phantoms appear.

  “Wow, I can’t believe they left that door open,” Keegan said.

  The kids made their way through the maze that was the basement and came out in the first floor’s great hall. Keegan and Ruby jumped two feet in the air when a mist sprayed from the ceiling, but it was only the air freshener. The two of them smelled like a lavender meadow as they climbed the stairs to the second floor.

  Everyone was on edge, but the only sounds they heard were the air freshener spray and Keegan bargaining with Ruby to keep going down the dark hallway. He promised her the wasabi and Japanese hot chili Kit Kat bars they had seen on eBay, just to keep going down the hallway.

  “What about a normal flavor, like strawberry?” Dom asked.

  “Strawberry, Dom?” Ruby asked. “I have, like, twelve of those. Do you think I’m an amateur? I just got the Cool Citrus Blend Kit Kat, and I have Purple Sweet Potato and Cinnamon Cookie on the way. Sixty eight dollars plus shipping.”

  “For Kit Kat bars,” Keegan said, rolling his eyes.

  “For limited edition Japanese Kit Kat bars,” Ruby clarified, folding the arms of her satin, purple bomber jacket across the cartoon kitty face on her shirt.

  “Is anyone else warm?” Ashley asked.

  She was getting uncomfortably hotter and her sweater was itching. It felt like it was sticking to her neck in the back. They were nearing the second floor wing where Dom had seen the man in the fire. Ashley tugged at her sweater and pushed her hair back from her face. She closed her eyes and saw flames.

  Ashley knew it was crazy, but she swore she felt Eva. She felt her presence, her spirit around her. There was something else, dark and lurking, but Eva, in all of her fire and light was there, too.

  Footsteps echoed on the wooden floors. They were coming from a door, closed, but leading to the farthest part of the west wing.

  “Turn the cameras on,” Dom whispered to Keegan and Ruby.

  The footsteps grew louder. They sounded like heavy boots walking slowly toward the closed door.

  Dom was torn between running away and opening the door. If he ran, he could pretend that nothing was there. Everything in his world could stay the same as it was before, and he could go back to pretending that nothing was there. The thought struck him as a little funny, since that was the same way he felt about the girl standing next to him.

  Ashley grabbed Dom’s hand.

  The latch on the door unhinged and slowly started to open.

  “Was that you?” Dom asked.

  Ashley shook her head, no. The door was opening by itself.

  Ashley’s head started to pound. A violent wave of nausea came over her. Dom wrapped his arm around her to steady her. Whatever was behind that door was making Ashley horribly ill.

  The door swung open. A dark, misshapen form stared at them through glowing yellow eyes. The form was hunched over, but looked to be wearing boots, and an old overcoat from some long past era. A large leather hat covered most of the figure’s face, and piercing eyes stared at them. The figure had no nose or mouth, but was somehow able to produce a spine chilling snarl.

  “Run!” Ashley screamed.

  The kids ran through the building, pounded down the stairs, and streamed out the side door to the basement, tripping over each other and falling out into the park beside the museum. They ran all the way to En Fuego and up to Dom’s room. Ruby immediately crawled under his bed.

  “What did I just see?” she sobbed.

  “What was that thing?” Keegan asked, his voice high pitched, drilling into the air.

  “I don’t know,” Ashley said, heaving and out of breath.

  “You have some Skittles under here,” Ruby observed.

  “Are you serious?” Dom shrieked, dragging her out by her ankle. “Give me the camera.”

  Dom took Keegan and Ruby’s phones to watch the footage. A look of horror crossed his face. Ashley could hear the pounding footsteps and the inhuman growl from whatever was lurking in that room. Dom shook his head.

  “Did you get it on tape?” Ashley asked. “What is it?”

  “I don’t know what it is,” Dom heaved out an exasperated sigh. “Man bun and Kit Kat over there left the cameras facing the front, in selfie mode.”

  “Facing the front?” Ashley asked. “So, we can’t see it?”

  “No, we can’t,” Dom said. “We’re going to have to go back.”

  Chapter 14

  Memorandum

  The Phillips Museum loomed ahead as Dom walked to school. Ashley stopped by Valley of Ashes to ask Patricia about the shadow figure. Dom was confused. The shadow figure was crouched and snarling, like a beast. The phantom looked like it could have been human at one point, but it wasn’t anymore.

  Dom looked up at the windows to the second floor. He sucked in a deep breath. Nothing. There was nothing on the second floor. The windows were dark, and everything looked fine.

  Dom shook his head and continued on to school. The Watson Academy was buzzing when he stepped inside the hallway. Kylie was swishing through the crowd, handing out sheets of paper.

  “They’re going to have to get those decrepit storefronts up to code, or they’re going to be torn down,” Kylie bragged, like she had saved the world. “My dad, the mayor, has declared it a state of emergency.”

  Kylie lived in a mansion just off Greenwood. Baron and Tessa lived nearby in the new gated community. She shoved a paper at Dom.

  “Memorandum, Domino Chavez,” she chirped. “Your family better get these code violations taken care of, stat, or you guys will be closed, and your block will be bulldozed to make way for bigger, better, newer developments.”

  Dom had heard his parents talking. Price Phillips was dying to get his hands on the land that the historic storefronts sat on. Five years ago, the storefronts were declared to be downtown landmarks and unable to be torn down, only renovated. The only catch was, they had to be kept up to code. Price Phillips had found a way to get around that, by changing the codes. By the looks of the new codes, there was no way to have them updated without bankrupting all the owners.

  “New galvanized piping? New wiring throughout the existing structure? Tankless water heaters? What’s wrong with a normal water heate
r?”

  Dom was shocked. The codes were ridiculous. The existing pipes and wiring were perfectly safe. The storefronts had been thoroughly inspected just six months ago, right before the old city manager retired. To make matters worse, the pipes and the wiring were just a few items on a long list of smaller, insignificant codes.

  “We’re just trying to keep everyone safe,” Kylie said.

  Dom brushed past everyone on his way to first hour. The storefronts were perfectly safe and everyone knew it, but this spelled disaster for the small business owners who relied on the location to keep their stores open. Even Blaze was unusually quiet. The new codes affected everyone. Isaac and Keegan were talking in hushed voices. They both gave Dom a sympathetic nod.

  Ashley rushed in just before the bell.

  “Did you see-” Dom asked, but Ashley cut him off with a short nod.

  “Let’s sneak out at lunch.”

  Dom’s heart pounded. His parents were catering at the convention center, so they wouldn’t be home. He had never cut school before.

  “Come on,” Ashley tugged at his sweater.

  “We can just go after school,” Dom protested.

  “No, it has to be at noon, when the sun is at the highest point in the sky,” Ashley insisted.

  Dom and Ashley took the back alley to Valley of Ashes. Patricia Freya was sitting at what looked to be a large basin. It was swirled with different metals. A stack of papers burned in the center, sending curls of smoke up to the ceiling.

  “Won’t you set off the fire alarm?” Dom asked.

  Patricia laughed and pushed a sandwich over to Dom and Ashley. She obviously knew that they were coming. Dom was getting over his fear of the strange powers Ashley and her aunt seemed to have. There were tales of witches all over Mexico.

  When he went to visit his cousins in Chiapas, they told him a story of a witch living on the outskirts of town. When the entire town was in a drought, her crops grew in bountiful and lush. She had saved the town from starving. No one knew how she did it, but they were grateful that she had saved them. His grandmother had lit a candle for her at mass that Sunday. Dom would have to remember to light one for Ashley.

  “You set the codes on fire?” Ashley asked her aunt.

  Eva was back in the frame at Valley of Ashes, watching them.

  “I was angry!” she threw her hands up, causing the flames in the basin to nearly reach the ceiling. “We have less than thirty days to comply with the codes. I don’t know how that snake, Price, put it past the city council.”

  “He didn’t have to,” Dom answered. “He just declared it a state of emergency. I read it in the news, on my phone, on the way over here.”

  “Great,” Ashley chewed on her sandwich.

  “This turkey is good,” Dom said. “Did you conjure these sandwiches out of thin air?”

  “No,” Patricia replied. “I went to the deli.”

  “How did you know we were coming?”

  “My sight is the best at noon,” she answered. “Unfortunately, I have no idea what on earth we are going to do.”

  Ashley put her head down on the large walnut slab bar top that surrounded the area Patricia used to dip and form her candles. Dom could tell she was exhausted.

  The storefronts could be condemned if they didn’t comply with the ridiculous new codes. They had just been chased by a shadow phantom in the museum, with no proof. Dom still wasn’t any closer to finding out who the man in the fire was. It all seemed hopeless.

  “I’ll walk you home,” Dom offered.

  Ashley nodded.

  On the way home, they ran into Isaac.

  “You guys were skipping? I didn’t get the memo,” he joked.

  Isaac said he was going home to work on patenting the Mega Meat Scan. He could sell the invention if they had to close the deli.

  “No one is closing anything,” Dom said.

  “Someone’s fired up,” Ashley said, sounding impressed. “I hope you’re right.”

  “I have an idea,” Dom said, “but we’re going to need Brooklynn’s help.”

  Chapter 15

  Save the Storefronts

  The week flew by with Kylie looking patronizingly sorry for the storefront owners’ kids. She assured them that there would be a place in the homeless shelters for all of them. Baron had the flu, so Greg was scampering around, gathering Baron’s homework. Thanksgiving was next Thursday and school would be out for a whole week, so Dom put his plan into action.

  “What if we came back to Prue with you, just for a few days?” Dom asked Brooklynn, while she was putting away her books.

  The Aalish family got a quote from a contractor who said his crew could replace the pipes and bring the wiring in the storefronts up to code for four thousand dollars per unit. He could add tankless water heaters for an extra five hundred. There were twelve units, so for forty eight thousand dollars, they could bring all the storefronts up to code. All they needed to do was raise the money.

  “So, you guys want to do a fundraiser?” Brooklynn asked.

  It was a good idea. Most kids had the whole week off from school. If Dom, Ashley, Brooklynn and all their friends could organize a camp out during the days before Thanksgiving, they could help working families, and help save the historic storefronts from being torn down and made into new apartments.

  Brooklynn called her grandparents, who owned forty acres of campground on Lake Keystone, and asked if they could have a camp out to help save the storefronts. Brooklynn’s grandmother on her mother’s side, Marcie Dunn, was delighted to meet some of the other storefront owners, since she was looking into buying one that was vacant. She had a thriving antique business back in Prue, and was looking to expand.

  Brooklynn called all of her friends back in Prue to help. Dylan, of course, was more than happy to help. Averie had started a volunteer club at Prue Middle School and brought over thirty volunteers including Grace, Aiden, Kai, Harbor, and Olivia. They all met at Olivia’s house on Friday after school. They had sent flyers out all over northeastern Oklahoma.

  They were expecting over ninety campers for their three day camp. One anonymous donor was so moved by the kids’ generosity and pluck, that she decided to match the funds they raised and donate the rest of the money they needed to bring the storefronts up to code. En Fuego, Aalish’s Deli, Mr. Beantown, and some of the other local restaurants donated breakfast and lunch for the campers and volunteers, and Hathaway’s Soccer Shack donated t-shirts for all the campers and staff.

  Dom was on top of the world as Megan and Patrick Nirran drove Dom and Ashley to Prue. They were all staying at Brooklynn’s grandpa’s hunting lodge, but Megan had one stop to make.

  “We’re meeting my oldest sister at her daughter’s house in Prue,” Megan announced.

  “Your sister has a daughter, with a house, Mrs. Nirran?” Dom asked.

  “Yes, Domino. Actually, my oldest sister, Cynthia, has a granddaughter Ashley’s age, but they’ve never met. Cynthia is eighteen years older than me, so we’ve never been close.”

  She explained that she had four sisters. Patricia Freya owned Valley of Ashes. Camille Jasper, a former geologist owned a jewelry shop in New Mexico. Louisa Vesper, a boutique owner, lived on Jekyll Island, a small island on the Atlantic coast, and her oldest sister, Cynthia Stiles, was a painter and just moved to Prue, to be closer to her daughter Helen, and her granddaughter Olivia.

  Dom could sense Ashley’s nervous energy. You didn’t have to have special powers like Ashley to understand why she would be nervous about meeting her cousin. Dom knew Ashley hadn’t told her mom about being able to create magic like Patricia Freya.

  The car slowed to a stop in front of a navy and gray stone house with a dock leading to the lake around the back of the house. Dom noticed that the water level was up, and a small fishing
boat with “Harbor” painted on the side, was docked behind the house.

  “Megan! Ashley!”

  Cynthia, an older version of Megan Nirran, glided out the front door and swept Ashley and Megan into a big hug. The air around the three of them seemed to hum, vibrating with life. Cynthia’s daughter, Helen Tamesis, and her husband, Hugh, joined them and Cynthia made the introductions. The adults were crowded around, talking and catching up, when a girl with dark brown hair and grassy, green eyes stepped out of the house, in leggings and a baggy sweater. She was followed by a boy with shaggy blonde hair, in sweatpants and a thermal shirt.

  Ashley could feel Olivia’s energy rolling off in waves.

  “Olivia, this is your cousin, Ashley,” Cynthia Stiles beamed at her granddaughter.

  Do we know?

  Ashley read her mom’s thoughts.

  No, I’m afraid it’s too soon to tell.

  Cynthia and Megan were having the conversation telepathically.

  I can hear you, Ashley thought. She pushed the words out of her mind toward her mom and her Aunt Cynthia. Both of them gasped.

  Oh my.

  Her mom took out a bottle of oil, marked “Clarity” and rolled it over both her and Ashley’s wrists.

  “Just a little anti-nausea blend. We get a little car sick.”

  So I can hear you better.

  Her mom’s voice was clear in her mind. Her magic was powered by plants, just like Aunt Patricia had said.

  “Nice to meet you,” Olivia smiled. “This is my boyfriend, Harbor.”

  Harbor smiled at Ashley and gave a friendly nod to Dom.

  “Nice to meet you, too,” Ashley added. “This is my best friend, Dom. It’s short for Domino.”

  Ashley felt an instant warmth radiate from Dom. He wasn’t her boyfriend, but best friend seemed like an accurate description. They hung out all the time now, they understood each other, and Dom was the only one outside her family who knew her secret. They were working together to save the storefronts, and if that didn’t qualify as a best friend, Ashley didn’t know what did.