Chapter 18
After our first day at the theater, day two was an outright battle.
The ghosts on the main floor were well aware of what had happened to the ghosts in the basement, and the second we breached the doors, it was a pitched battle.
Just getting salt circles down to step into was hell.
Remembering the day was like poking at a sore tooth.
I’d had to half carry Mack back to the ranch afterward, as he was wiped, and despite us keeping Gwyn outside half the time, she was also exhausted.
The only upside? We got all the combative ghosts on the main level cleared on day two, leaving only the friendlies, which made going into day three less nerve-racking.
Certainly less taxing. Although, god, would we ever get done with this building?
Did I need to offer my firstborn as a sacrifice or something?
We still hadn’t laid hands on Joey. I wasn’t even convinced he was in the building at this point.
If he had any intelligence, he’d probably already escaped.
I really wished we could knock him out of the running.
Joey was a dark cloud hanging over our heads, adding pressure on top of an already crazy case, and I would love to get it over with.
We went for a hearty breakfast before starting day three of the theater. The restaurant was across the street, so all we had to do was walk over, but man, I did not want to.
Mack got called over by Eli—why, hello, nerves. It was never good when she grinned like that—which left me and Gwyn standing on the sidewalk. I asked her, “Want to walk to the store and get some more water bottles?”
“Yeah, we’re low.” She wrinkled her nose. “And I already kinda feel dehydrated.”
“I hear ya.”
I poked Mack real quick, told him where we were going, and he put in a request for a Coke as a pick-me-up. Gwyn and I walked along the sidewalk to the little market on the corner. It was a nice morning, at least, not hot yet. Barely a cloud in the sky. Damn shame I was spending today indoors.
“Hey, Brandon?” Gwyn sounded thoughtful more than anything. “Will I be doing online school?”
“Probably. We have to move without much warning for basically any job, so trying to keep you in a public school and working cases all over the US would be a bit much. That okay?”
“Sure. I was just wondering how things would work. Really, school is only sorta helpful for my future. I’ll learn more from Mack.”
“Mack and I agree with you.”
A light frown pulled at her mouth. “But I guess I won’t be able to make friends.”
“I wouldn’t say that. You’re not going to have school friends, true. But you’re going to meet a lot of people in the next several years, and I’ll bet you’ll make friends with some of them.”
She did seem heartened by my words. “I’ve never been able to really keep friends before. I was always too weird for most people.”
“You’re now surrounded by equally weird people.”
Now she was grinning, almost mischievous. “Weirdos, unite! Sounds great, being able to vibe with people who get it. Will I get to meet all the people you’ve talked about?”
I’d spoken casually of Abby and Skye, my family, the other colleagues we’d worked with, and Sylvia of course. “Sure, you’ll meet everyone at some point or another. We live pretty close to most of my family.”
I wasn’t surprised she was trying to feel her way forward. A lot about her life had already changed, and would continue to change, so naturally she had questions.
“Was his childhood really that bad?”
I blinked, the question out of left field. She was thinking all sorts of things over there, wasn’t she? “Mack’s, you mean?”
“Yeah.”
How to answer her? Naw, brutal truth sufficed.
“It was bad. I don’t know if he ever broke a bone because of a ghost, you might have him beat there, but he was chased, hounded, bruised, and sleep deprived for almost twenty years before his mom finally confessed Beau could train him.
He refuses to return home because of his childhood.
I think, when he looks at you, he sees himself in a way. ”
Her eyes came up to meet mine, and those eyes held understanding. “It’s why he’s so protective and sweet to me.”
“Yeah. I mean, I think he would be anyway, ’cause he likes kids.
Mack believes the best investment you can put into the future is to take care of the rising generation.
But with you—yeah, I think he sees a lot of his younger self.
” It was why I hoped when Gwyn was safely all grown up and trained, some part of his trauma would heal a little.
She accepted what I said with another nod. “Yeah. Makes sense. But what about you?”
“Oh, my childhood was amazing. My parents are wonderful, loving people. My siblings are awesome. If you’re wondering why I’m so naturally protective, seems to be in the genes?
All of my family are pretty protective of our loved ones.
Hell, my professor bookworm cousin is still an anchor and protector of his psychic. ”
“Alan, you mean?”
“Yup.” She really did pay attention, this kid.
“But all anchors are super protective, right?”
“Comes with the job territory. I mean, look at Booker and Quinn. Or Hannah, how she protects Beau.”
Another pensive look, like she was slotting this in.
Her future was all possibilities at this stage, which must be as nerve-racking as it was exhilarating.
I knew she had to be nervous about getting an anchor—everyone was.
Hell, Mack had flatly refused to anchor up until he met me.
But all I could do was reassure her; we’d help her find the right person.
We hit up the market, bought all the drinks and a few snacks, then returned to our group. We met them at the theater doors, in fact, as everyone had walked across while waiting on us. Mack held out a hand to me. “Cher, we’ve got a battle plan.”
I took his hand, because of course, and made sure Gwyn stood right next to me. I did not trust this building. “Sure. What’s the plan?”
“This main floor seems to only have friendlies left,” Mack explained.
“We cleared out all the baddies yesterday, so it’s just the trapped friendlies to deal with.
So, we’re thinking, leave half down here to herd the friendlies and pass them along, while the heavy-hitting half goes up to the attic and deals with the not so friendly. ”
Ah, so Eli’s earlier expression meant let’s fuck shit up. Got it. “If it means getting out of this building faster, I’m all for it.”
“That’d be most efficient,” Booker noted. “Let’s do it.”
“Then should we start in—”
I cut myself off when Booker’s phone rang. He juggled it in his free hand, swiping Accept, then putting it on speaker. “Hi, Sylvia. I’ve got you on speaker and absolutely everyone can hear you.”
“Oh good,” she trilled. “For I have news~”
She was…chirpy?
My boss could get chirpy?
This wasn’t a sign of a breakdown, right? Maybe I should call someone to do a wellness check or something.
“I have found a chaos magician~”
Hope rose in my throat so fast I nearly choked on it. “Did you really?!”
“And!” She punctuated this with a very proud smirk audible in her voice. “He’s on his way to you.”
Mack summed up my feelings by saying, “Well, knock me down and steal my teeth.”
I was stunned she had somehow pulled this off, but at the same time so euphoric she had. This job went from borderline impossible to absolutely doable just with this one addition.
“How soon? What’s his name?” Hannah demanded.
“His name is Seiji Ito. He’s freelance with us, and the only reason why he’s not FBI is because I don’t have the budget to pay for this man.
He’s very good and usually so busy he can’t rest between jobs.
Somehow, he’s managed to clear the case he was working on overnight and he’s now flying to you.
He’s promised to stick with this job until either it’s done or it’s down to something you can manage. ”
If she’d been in front of me, I would have hugged her. “You seriously pulled off a miracle, Sylvia, thank you.”
“I’m glad you appreciate my suffering, ’cause that took too many phone calls to pull off. Now, you still have room at the Airbnb I rented for you, correct?”
“We do if Lachlan and Davina share,” Hannah assured her. “Does someone need to pick him up from the airport?”
“That was my question. I can get him a rental car, but if someone wants to pick him up and then brief him on the drive in? I didn’t have time to get him a full packet, just forwarded him the email reports you’ve been sending me, and he’ll need more information.”
I agreed with her one hundred percent.
Some kind of silent conversation was going on between Eli, Quinn, and Booker. They looked at each other before Booker shrugged and volunteered, “I can get him. Shoot me his flight details and his number, and I’ll leave here shortly.”
“Perfect. His one request was for you to not work the ghost town until he got there. But I told him you weren’t, you were working on Black Rock. Please do not make a liar of me.”
“We do not want to touch Miner’s Creek without him,” Mack promised her wryly. “We’re trying to clear out the movie theater completely today.”
“Yes, good. Let me know if you need anything else.”
“We’re set for now”—Quinn seemed pretty sure—“but we’ll let you know if anything changes.”
“Good. Keep me posted.” Click.
“Seiji Ito?” Gwyn muttered thoughtfully. “Sounds Japanese. I wonder if he’s Japanese American?”
“Maybe?” I guess we’d see shortly. “In the meantime, let’s get this building knocked out. I have a feeling we’ll be working on Miner’s Creek tomorrow.”
There were a lot of haggard sighs. No cheering, for sure. We all wanted to return to Miner’s Creek with its many, many problems about as much as we wanted to do a round of dental work.