Mack’s Horribly Hellacious Ghost Town (Mack’s Marvelous Manifestations #4)

Chapter 1

I stood at the kitchen sink, doing dishes, occasionally glancing through the window to see Mack.

My fiancé was on the back patio, talking with a ghost. Sometimes that was a cause for concern, but in this case, the ghost was from a neighboring house, and she liked to come chat with Mack.

In the year we’d lived here, we’d heard crazy stories through her, but she’d also been helpful, guiding Mack on how to properly care for the many plants on the property.

Usually, she showed up and Mack spent an hour or three with her, meandering around the yard, talking about this flower bed or that tree, and both had a grand time.

Let’s face it, a Southerner’s first hobby was chitchatting.

His curly brown hair was drying in the sun.

He hadn’t bothered to put mousse or gel in it, today being our day off, and we didn’t have plans to leave the house.

The sun wasn’t strong enough today to threaten his pale skin, so he should be fine.

Snorting, I left them to it. I could tell from Mack’s body language, he was utterly relaxed and enjoying the conversation. No need for me to put my big feet over there.

My mind wandered off as my hands moved. Jon and Don had gotten married three weeks ago, and it had put some ideas in my head.

Mack and I had been engaged for almost a year, but we never seemed to find the right moment to sit down and figure out when and where we wanted to tie the knot.

Case after case kept us busy, to say the least. Maybe today?

Since it was a lazy Wednesday with nothing planned, maybe we could finally nail some decisions down?

The memory of both proposals had me chuckling.

Mack’s first proposal, when he’d still been loopy from using Jon as battery, not even realizing he’d proposed, would forever be a favorite memory.

He’d insisted on redoing it properly, though, and had taken me down to Cloudland Canyon to propose again.

It was a beautiful spot in the mountains, and we’d taken perfect engagement pictures there.

I’d kind of preferred the do-over, as it meant we’d both had time to pick out rings.

I’d wanted him to wear an engagement ring, too.

Eli, upon learning the news, had thrown us a fun engagement party. I enjoyed having those three so close. We hung out often, and it was nice being able to pitch hit if one or the other was out of town.

Mack waving a hand around caught my eye.

He was very animated and clearly enjoying the conversation.

My hands stilled under the water as I soaked in the view.

He’d become so much happier since we’d gotten engaged.

Me too, honestly. Knowing this man loved me, wanted to be married to me, was its own joy.

My phone rang in my pocket, so I dried my hands off hastily. Oh? Sylvia was calling.

That probably wasn’t a good thing.

I answered, putting it on speaker. “Hi, Sylvia.”

“Hello. I’m calling you in, so I hope you’ve got nothing important planned for the next month.”

“Uh…I suddenly feel like I need to? What’s on fire?”

“A whole fucking town, if you can believe it.”

“Hold on. I think Mack needs to hear this straight from you.”

“Probably for the best.”

I abandoned the dishes, opened the sliding glass door, and headed outside. “Mack, Sylvia’s on the line, and we’ve got something gnarly she’s sending us into.”

Mack paused his conversation with our ghostly neighbor, turning to face me. His expression was one of severe misgiving. “Does it involve haunted trees? Because I refuse.”

“Utterly fair.”

Sylvia snorted. “Ha, no, although you’ll probably hate coal mining towns after this one.”

“The goal is not to traumatize us more,” Mack chastised her. He moved next to me, making it easier for Sylvia to hear him. “All right, what’s going on?”

“There’s a lot of history and context I’m missing, I can sense it, but here’s what I know for fact. There’s a coal mining town in Arizona—or a former coal mining town, I should say—that’s haunted as hell.”

I stared at the phone. “The entire town?”

“Unfortunately.”

Mack’s eyes met mine, and I could tell he didn’t like the sound of this.

All towns were arguably haunted, but some were much more densely populated with ghosts than others.

Eureka Springs, Arkansas, for instance, where Mack and I had met.

Or his own hometown. That said, even those towns had pockets where ghosts just didn’t go.

Saying an entire town was haunted…was something else. A beast I had no idea how to wrangle. To eat a whole elephant, you needed a spoon. What did it take for a town? A shovel?

“How big is the town?”

Sylvia flipped a page or two—I could hear the paper rustling. “Population about three thousand.”

“So it’s not a big town, per se.” Just bigger than the two of us could handle.

“That is the sole thing on your side. I’d like to remind you, Halloween is coming up right around the corner.”

Yeah, that would make it worse. Samhain meant the veil was thinner, the ghosts had more energy, and it was just a bad combination all around.

Mack rubbed a hand over his face, blowing out a stressed breath. “We’re called in if there’s a child in danger, property damage, or someone getting hurt. Which of these does this town fall under?”

“Sadly, all three.”

Mack’s stress started rubbing off on me. “Damn, Sylvia. Please tell me we’re not going in alone.”

“You’re absolutely not. In fact, I’m calling on anyone who can go and throwing as many people at this problem as I can. Eli and her crew are packing as we speak.”

“I already feel better. Who else?”

“Falisa Tate and her husband are coming as well.”

I perked up. Those two were solid and a good pair to work with. “That’s great. They’re awesome. Anyone else?”

“At this point, I’m taking suggestions.”

Mack rocked back on his heels, eyes meeting mine. “Just them for a whole town?”

“Sadly, they’re the best I can offer.”

Our department wasn’t very big, and we were chronically short-staffed. It was a problem with no ready solution, sadly.

“Sylvia, when do you need us there?”

“Two days, if possible. Eli’s arriving by then. She’s coming from California and will meet you there.”

“Got it.” I met Mack’s eyes, judging from his expression what he thought of everything, but he nodded. Ready to go. “Then we’ll be there in two days. How long will this take? What’s the scope of the job?”

“We’re going Charlie.”

Ouch. There were different levels of cleaning up a super haunted area.

Alpha, you only did the troublemakers and the rest could stay.

Beta, you did troublemakers and anyone who wanted to pass on.

Charlie, you tried to clear everyone out but if there were a few stragglers, fine.

Delta, you didn’t give ghosts options and you didn’t leave until the area was perfectly clear.

Our Scottish Highland case had been a Charlie level.

Yeah, so, I refused to go into this with just five other people. “Maybe Beau would be willing to step out of retirement and help a little?”

“Great idea. I’ll call him.”

“You got it. Email the briefing over, please. We’ll pack tonight.”

“Already done. Keep me posted.” She disconnected.

To Mack, I suggested, “You text Eli and Beau, tell them we’re going.”

“I can do that, sure.” Mack’s brows drew together. “I wish I could think of someone else to call.”

“Me, too.”

Like our conversation had summoned someone, my phone rang. I flipped it over to see the screen. “Huh, Lachlan’s calling. Hey, man, what’s up?”

Lachlan had an almost whine to his voice as he answered. “Mate, I’m bored to tears over here. Nothing to kill in weeks. I’m going stir crazy. Thought I might pop over and visit you, do some sightseeing or something.”

I met Mack’s eyes, an unholy grin spreading across my mouth. “Well, about that, we’re going into a whole haunted town. Want in?”

“I’m not a Medium, as y’ken, but…I mean, I’m sure I can help out in other ways.”

“I’m sure you can. And we’ll take all the help we can get right now. It’s just three Mediums going.”

“For a whole fucking town? Naw, mate, that’s not on.”

“I don’t like it either, but we’re short-staffed.”

He hummed. “Let me call a cousin. Davina is in the States already. She might be able to go with. She’s got a touch of Medium skills.”

“I will pray she says yes.” I was not kidding.

“Text you in a few. Wait, give me the location.”

“I’ll text it to you. Just let me know if you can come. Our goal is to be there in two days.”

“Aye aye. I’ll make a call and let you know.” He ended the call.

I now felt a lot better about life. Mack glanced up from his phone, beaming. “I’m excited to play with Lachlan again. And meet the cousin.”

“Oh, for sure.”

Mack’s head tilted a little as he listened to our ghost neighbor. Then he rolled his eyes. “Of course he’s a handsome Highlander. Sword, kilt, and all. Brandon, you got a picture of Lachlan on your phone?”

“I’ve got several.” Mostly from us touring Loch Ness.

I pulled one up and handed the phone to Mack, who immediately tilted the screen for the ghost to see. I couldn’t see or hear her reaction, but from Mack’s grin, she’d said something amusing.

“She says if she wasn’t already in a relationship, she’d make a play for him,” Mack relayed.

Lachlan wasn’t really my type, but I could see how he’d appeal.

“What did Beau say?”

“He hasn’t responded yet. Eli’s excited we’re coming, though. Oh! I should tell her Lachlan’s coming.”

“You should. All right, enough drooling, let me go inside and buy flights.”

Mack handed the phone back to me and I went inside. I sat at the table with my laptop to buy the flights, as that was just easier all around, then remembered I’d left dishes half done and got up to finish them.

The entire time I scrubbed pots, I thought about what this job would entail.

How much time it would take, what equipment we’d need—not that I could bring much of anything.

We only had so much room in a suitcase, and I had a feeling we’d need to bring a lot of clothes.

We’d probably be there a while and wouldn’t have much time to do laundry.

When buying this house, I’d known we’d need to be prepared to leave at a moment’s notice, so I’d set up automatic withdrawals for bills, and we had a timer on our watering system for the plants so a friend wouldn’t need to do it.

All said, though, we did have food in the fridge that would just go to waste. I decided to call up Mom.

“Hey, Mom.”

“Hi, sweetheart. I can tell from your voice you’re up to something.”

“More like the job has called us in.” I briefed her on the particulars before finishing with “The hell of it is, we just bought groceries yesterday. Can I off-load some food on you?”

“Sure, I’ll take it. I think Psy is up to their necks in some crazy case. Garrett came by begging for something not takeout.”

“Oh, ouch, that’s a sign all right. Sounds like you need the groceries to keep the two bottomless pits fed.”

I referred to Garrett and Don. Garrett, despite being half our size, could outeat Don and me on a regular basis. Pretty sure he was hollow on the inside.

“I’ll certainly take them. Heaven knows they’ll be happy to see food. But Brandon, it sounds like this job you’re going into will be just as insane. Surely it’s not only the two of you?”

“God, no. I’m not sure who all will come, but so far, we’ve got Eli and her husbands, Lachlan and his cousin, who I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting yet, plus another couple we’ve worked with before, Falisa Tate and her husband, Ken.”

“That does sound better.”

Mack stepped inside, held up his phone, and gave me an enthusiastic thumbs-up.

“And it looks like Mack’s mentor, Beau, is stepping out of retirement to help.” I got another thumbs-up, so good guess on my part.

“Wonderful. A whole group of experts. You’ll need it for a town of that size.”

“Trust me, I know.”

“Is this just ghosts causing destruction or do you have other sinister beings?”

“Another thing we’re not sure of. We only know people are getting hurt, kids are in harm’s way, and there’s been lots of petty destruction ramping up on the daily.”

“Brandon, I don’t mean to tell you your business, but maybe take the guns and the swords.”

My mother spoke words of wisdom. I absolutely should.