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Mystic Hollow Community Page
New post from Cressida Monroe: Warning! Keep your pets inside! I’ve been hearing wolves howling all afternoon.
New comment from Anonymous: There are no wolves in Connecticut! You must be hearing coyotes. Is it a full moon or something?
“You can see him too?” I ask Laney. If Laney is seeing them too, something is wrong.
“Yeah,” she says, sounding nervous and excited at the same time. “Hello.”
But she isn’t looking at the older man by the window. There’s another ghost coming down the stairs.
“Greetings,” says the young man as he glides down to us. He can’t be more than twenty. I try to place his time period, but it’s hard when he’s wearing a white shirt and pants with dress shoes—1800s, maybe? “It’s good to make your acquaintance, Miss . . . ?”
“Laney,” I say since Laney’s jaw is wide open. “I’m Katherine. We were just . . . leaving.” This is bad. This is really bad. I need to call—
I can’t tell my aunts. I can’t tell my parents. And I definitely can’t tell Harry. I have to handle this by myself.
My mom’s spell book should have the answers. I need to get home.
“She’s looking for Colton,” Laney volunteers.
“Colton?” comes another voice. Two ghosts pop out of the wall and float toward us. One is older, a woman, and one is a boy. They’re dressed almost identically. That’s when it dawns on me. The mayor didn’t see an intruder this morning—he saw ghosts!
“You can do much better than Colton, dear,” says the motherly-looking ghost. “Frankly an embarrassment to the Croft name. Our descendant, singing in the rain room as he cleans his behind.”
I did not need to know that. I feel myself blush.
The young ghost nods. “But I must say, that Taylor Shift is catchy.”
“Swift,” Laney and I correct him.
“A pity he didn’t get the height from my side of the family,” the stately-looking ghost by the window says in a deep voice. “Always adding that padding into his shoes to appear taller. Disgraceful.”
Colton wears lifts?
“Well, thank you for all this. We should really be going.” I grab Laney’s arm and head toward the door. I need to get home and get rid of these ghosts before Colton and his dad decide to get out of town to somewhere much less haunted.
The younger ghost waves. “You’re welcome to return later. We have many more embarrassing stories about our heir. Why, the other morning, he spent nearly an hour crafting his hair—”
I pull the door closed behind us. On the street, I see the strange pale women from earlier. They huddle close together and are whispering. Something is definitely going on.
“Now what?” Laney asks. “You’ve got to find Colton and talk to him about the party before it’s too late. We definitely need that ritual done, like, yesterday.”
“I know.” I pull a small slip of paper out of my pocket and the matches I took this morning from the house. I look at the words I’ve written as an intention. Let me host Colton’s party. I light the match and let the words burn.
The wind whistles through the trees and I look around, hoping to see some sign the spell worked. Like Colton appearing, but there’s nothing. I sigh.
Then my phone begins to buzz. It’s not Colton. “It’s my aunts.” I feel slightly ill. If they’re calling from the ship, this is bad. They know I used magic. They know about the ghosts. And possible vampires. I let it ring. Seconds later, a voicemail appears on my phone. I press Play.
“Kat, is something going on that we should know about?” Aunt Viv’s voice is clear.
“Tell her we know!” Aunt Diane whispers.
Aunt Viv shushes her. “Did you use magic to get us these tickets? Because this boat isn’t going to the Bahamas. It’s headed to Bermuda. We know something is wrong. And they say we have phone service now, but once we reach the triangle, they expect—” Click.
I need to get the family spell book and fix this.