“The best of us are.” Keith raises his eyebrows and smirks. “The point is, you would not be in fighting condition.”
“Right. But what did this person or demon or witch or vampire or ogre for all I know want with me?”
“That’s the million-dollar question.” Nik brushes sugar off his shirt and stands, looking at the front of the restaurant. Ethan is making his way back to us and stops behind my chair. One of his large hands lands on my shoulder, and it’s all I can do not to close my eyes and succumb to the warmth of his skin.
“You guys ready to go?” he asks.
“Yeah, I’m done.” I take one last drink of iced tea and get up, grabbing my jacket that’s hanging on the back of my chair. I put it on, grab my purse, and we all head out. Nik, Ethan, and I follow behind Rene and Keith, getting to the house a few minutes later.
“This looks like a place I’d be hired to clear out,” Ethan says as we get out of the car. His eyes are almost wide with excitement. While some ghosts can get violent and dangerous, most are playful, annoying, and harmless in the physical sense when you’re clearing out a space. It’s the negative energy and the dark spirits you need to watch out for.
Ethan and I have enjoyed the calmness of our lives the last two months, but I do wonder if part of him misses going on assignments for the Order. It’s not like he can never hunt demons again, and I know there are probably more “freelance” hunters than hunters with the Order at this point. And mostly, given my appeal to things dark and dangerous, we’ll be burning demon bodies in no time.
“It’s creepy, that’s for sure.” Nik closes his door and looks at the house, clearly having second thoughts. As a half-faery, he’s much more sensitive to the supernatural than the others in our party. “And it’s giving off bad vibes.”
“Yeah.” I nod. “There’s one dark energy that’s stronger than the others. It’s oppressive and intelligent.”
“Then let’s do this.” Ethan goes to the back of the Jeep and gets out two large duffle bags. I go around to help and grab an armload of pillows. Nik gets the sleeping bags as well as a bag of food.
“Welcome home,” Keith says, sticking to the rough script we came up with, going with the premise that we all are going to be moving in. There’s one large bedroom upstairs with an attached bathroom that Lauren had intended on living in during the renovation process. It was the first thing she tackled since it didn’t need a crazy amount of work to make it livable.
The room and bathroom have been cleared, cleaned, and disinfected, and while there’s no way I’m getting in the shower—both because it’s gross and there’s no hot water— but the toilet will get the job done.
“This place has so much potential,” Rene says, shining a flashlight around as she feels for the light switch on the wall. “It’ll be perfect for us.”
“It’s definitely big enough,” Ethan goes on.
“With Hill House vibes,” Nik mumbles and I shoot him a look, seeing that his discomfort is visible on his face. I wonder if he’s feeling the same sense of unwelcome as I did, like whoever or whatever is radiating dark energy doesn’t like nonhumans.
“It’s great, isn’t it?” Keith pushes his shoulders back and motions for us to follow him. “We can do the grand tour once we get our stuff set up.”
The stairs creak and groan under our weight, and the hall light flickers above us. The wiring in the place needs to be completely redone and I only hope nothing blows a fuse or starts a fire tonight.
“This is it,” Keith says, swinging his arm out in front of him. We go into the room and get started right away setting up. Ethan gets the air mattresses blown up while Rene and I hang towels and put soaps in the bathroom. I put two rolls of toilet paper on the back of the toilet and go back into the room, taking a minute to take it in.
It’s a rectangular room, with two windows. This would have been marketed as one of the “large studio” units, though it’s not even as big as my master bedroom. There’s a little kitchenette to the right, with one of the windows above the sink. There’s a stovetop with two burners and an empty space next to the counter for a fridge.
The same female energy I felt the first time I came to the house lingers nearby. It wants to reach out but it can’t. Because he doesn’t want the truth to get out. I blink and go about getting things set up. If the spirits suspect we’re here to do an investigation, they might hide. I want to draw them out and force them to confront me.
“You think the bed will go here eventually?” I ask, watching Ethan disconnect the motorized fan from one of the mattresses and move it into a corner. “Or maybe over there, once we get that counter and stuff removed, of course.”
“I kinda like the kitchen area in the bedroom.” Ethan hooks up the fan to another mattress. “We could keep pizza and beer up here and never have to leave.” He wiggles his eyebrows. “And after some marathon sessions we can refuel and go at it again.”
“Yeah, because pizza and beer are so hot to smell on your breath.”
He laughs and turns on the fan, inflating the second mattress. I put the pillows and sleeping bags on the mattresses and arrange a little nightstand area next to mine. I move one of the other bags over, carefully taking out just a few items and leaving the salt, iron fire poker, and other weapons hidden away. Ethan might have overpacked when it came to the weapons, but since the last time we went on a “ghost hunt” ended with us getting attacked by goblins, I can’t blame him for being overly cautious this time around. Though Hunter already canvassed the area and Keith and his aunt had been here before without getting eaten.
About twenty minutes later we’re all set up and I’m actually quite comfy in my sleeping bag, snuggled up next to Ethan.
“Oh, shit,” Rene huffs.
“What’s wrong?” Ethan and I ask at the same time.
“There’s no microwave.” She holds up three bags of microwave popcorn and then motions to Keith’s laptop, which is set up on a box in front of us. “Ya know, for the movie.”
“I can help with that,” I say and she tosses me one of the bags. “Just don’t hate me if I burn it and we have to smell that all night. I’ve never done a bag of popcorn before.”
I move so the bag is on the floor and hold my hands over it, summoning waves of energy, starting out slowly and adding more. Smiling triumphantly when the kernels start to pop, I look up, expecting to see my friends’ excited faces.