Haunted Heroine

by Sarah Kuhn

  “Is that why you gave in so easily this time?” I gave my red catsuit a once over, making sure it wasn’t bunching up weird anywhere.

  “Not exactly, although I would have given in solely on the basis of you being pregnant and uncomfortable and therefore deserving of every little thing your heart desires,” Aveda said, giving me a queenly smile. “But, no. I think I figured out a long while ago that I am actually Wonder Woman, and quite proud of it.”

  “I love that for you. So, shall we?” I gestured to the door. “You got the plan down?”

  “Enter Morgan Hall with the ghost-hunting society,” Aveda said, ticking off the steps with her fingers. “Scope out this crawl and see if they’re doing anything that might be useful to us. Check out Clementine’s mirrored door to see if it illuminates Tess’s ghostly experience. Then, during a boring moment, we’ll say you need to pee—”

  “—which I probably will, because pregnant,” I said.

  “And then break into Provost Glennon’s office and find those donor files!” Aveda crowed, pumping a fist in the air. “Huzzah!”

  “Huzzah,” I agreed, throwing an arm around her shoulders. Despite all the drama and stress in our current lives, my heart lifted just a little. Aveda and I were actually getting some true fun times out of this whole fake college experience. “Come on, Wonder Woman, let’s go trick or treating.”

  * * *

  “What the fuck,” Aveda hissed at me. “What are their costumes supposed to be?! Or are they all wearing the same costume, and it’s something we’re too old to know about?”

  “I don’t think so,” I whispered back as we made our way through the courtyard and toward Leonora and the rest of the ghost-hunting society, who were clustered outside Morgan Hall’s back entrance. “Maybe Tess can tell us what’s going on.”

  The society was clad all in sleek black—long-sleeved shirts, leggings, and matching black ankle boots. Leonora’s long rainbow hair was wound up on top of her head in a multicolored bun that looked like the inside of a kaleidoscope.

  “Greetings, warriors,” Leonora said, giving Aveda and me a frosty nod. “I see you’re very persistent. Who gave you the information about our little event?”

  “We have our sources,” I said smoothly, forcing myself not to look at Tess. “I told you, we’re serious about expanding our paranormal knowledge base, and this seems like a key activity to help us do just that.”

  “And where’s your other little friend?” Leonora said, eyeballing our costumes. I could tell she was not particularly impressed.

  “Shelby?” I said. “She’s not as into ghost-hunting as Angelica and I. I think that one courtyard encounter was enough.”

  “I see,” Leonora said, her tone still like ice. “Come along, then.” She wrinkled her nose at Aveda’s cape. “You may want to remove that piece of your, ah, ensemble, warrior. The work we do here sometimes requires a quick escape, and I wouldn’t want anything holding you back.”

  “Of course,” Aveda said through gritted teeth.

  “All right, my warriors, remember: we must be as quiet as possible,” Leonora said, bringing a theatrical finger to her lips as she unlocked the door to Morgan Hall. “The spirits may not feel comfortable emerging if we’re making too much of a ruckus.”

  Tess hung to the back of the group as we filed in, moving closer to Aveda and me.

  “Hey,” they whispered. “I’m sorry about the, um, costume thing. You guys look super cute.” They gave me a little smile. “Most of us actually showed up in costume—it’s a tradition, like I told you guys. It’s all detailed in some of the ghost society’s files, going back to when the society first started. But Leonora told us we weren’t taking the business of the paranormal seriously by indulging in, as she put it, ‘silly pageantry.’ She made us change.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” I whispered back. “How are you holding up?”

  “I’m okay,” they said, giving me a one-shouldered shrug. “I’m glad Julie’s okay. I tried calling that hospital—I know it’s supposed to be all secret and stuff, but I couldn’t help it. And they just said they’d moved her elsewhere. No other information.” Their face crumpled, and I squeezed their shoulder, even as my heart sank—where had the college swept Julie off to now? I could only hope Jessie would call me.

  “I just . . .” Tess shook their head and trailed off, lost in thought as we came to a stop in the foyer of Morgan Hall, right underneath a swooping high ceiling topped off by a skylight. I looked up and saw velvet black night dotted by tiny stars.

  “This is where we start the crawl,” Tess whispered to me. “We do everything we can to make each spirit feel like they can emerge, and then we document any evidence of paranormal activity.”

  “What does ‘evidence’ look like?” I asked.

  “Eliza, Tess!” Leonora snapped her fingers at us. “Quiet, please. The time for socializing is over. We must begin.”

  “So much for keeping our voices down,” Aveda muttered, crossing her arms over her chest. I noticed she hadn’t removed her cape. “Or maybe that only applies to her.” She jerked her chin at Leonora.

  “Yeah, only to her,” Tess muttered.

  “We’re starting with one of the oldest known spirits here at Morgan,” Leonora said, her voice hushed and dramatic. “Clementine Caldwell.”

  Her gaze swept over to Tess and she gave them a sickly sweet smile—I could sense the unspoken menace oozing from her shiny teeth. Tess winced and looked at the floor.

  “As you all know, our Tess thought they encountered Clementine,” Leonora continued. “But I want to show you all what an authentic encounter with this esteemed elder spirit is like.”

  I patted Tess’s back and gave them a meaningful look—Don’t let her get to you.

  “We’ll start by sitting on the floor, directly underneath this skylight,” Leonora continued, gesturing grandly. “The way the echoes work in the soundscape of this building, this has been proven to be the optimal spot for hearing Clementine’s footsteps.”

  “Right, because it wouldn’t make sense to actually go to her office,” Tess mumbled. “No sense at all.”

  I exchanged a look with Aveda as we settled ourselves on the floor, Aveda arranging her cape around her. So far, this excursion seemed to mostly be giving us further insight into tensions within the society.

  “All right, warriors,” Leonora said, lowering her voice dramatically. “Now we must be extremely quiet. Think of yourself as a statue. Take fewer breaths if you can, even. We must create space for Clementine.”

  Silence fell over the ghost-hunting society. Leonora, true to her words, was so still, it looked like she’d actually stopped breathing. A serene smile lit her face, her gaze wandering upward, as if summoning Clementine from the sky. Tess, meanwhile, looked like they were grudgingly holding their breath, indignation emanating from their every pore as they tried to hold themselves in place.

  I snuck a glance at Aveda. Being forced to be still, to just not do anything, was like her kryptonite. I could see the tension in her face, her shoulders, as she tried to maintain her statue-like pose. She was practically vibrating in place. And her eyes were searching everywhere, darting to the skylight, the staircase, the darkened windows.

  Hmm. When I’d envisioned going on this mission, I’d thought there would be ample opportunities to sneak away. I’d imagined more active ghost-hunting, the kind Tess described the society engaging in pre-Leonora. Lots of noise and chaos and people running around, trying to track down various spirits.

  But this was actually kind of boring. And definitely not providing Aveda and me with much opportunity to sneak off and get into Provost Glennon’s office.

  “Listen,” Leonora intoned softly. “Can you hear her?”

  I sat very still. Tried to focus on really listening. But all I heard was the heavy silence of the majestic building surrounding
us. Not even a creak.

  We sat that way for a few moments more. Aveda kept trying to adjust her cape around her, making soft rustling sounds that earned us more disapproving looks from Leonora. Otherwise, everything was quiet. No footsteps from Clementine, no sounds of the building settling, no nothing. I was even starting to miss the wind against the windows that had creeped us out so much the night before.

  And at this point, I really did have to pee. My fetus, tiny as it still was, was practically stomping up and down on my bladder.

  I was just about to concoct some sort of medical emergency (which might not have been so far off the truth since working this hard to hold my pee in was surely the potential cause of many issues), when I heard another flurry of rustles next to me. I turned to see Tess leaping to their feet, the indignation they’d been trying to hold inside finally overwhelming them.

  “Clementine!” they called out. “Are you here?!”

  “Tess—young warrior!” Leonora admonished. “What have we said about non-interference?”

  “That’s what you said!” Tess shot back. They threw their head back, bellowing toward the skylight. “And I’m done listening! Clementine! Are you here?”

  No response. No footsteps. But Tess’s rebellion had an impact. The other society members were getting to their feet now, throwing the occasional worried glance Leonora’s way.

  “Clementine?” Miriam said softly.

  “We want to talk you!” another girl called out.

  “We really do—Clementine!” Tess yelled again.

  “Warriors!” Leonora scrambled to her feet, shooting all of them forbidding looks. “What is the meaning of this? We’ve been over the proper way to approach ghosts over and over again—”

  “And the proper way isn’t doing anything!” Tess retorted. “Students are in danger right now, Professor, we need to do everything we can to—”

  “To what?” Leonora said, frowning. “Provoke more flights of fancy? Really, Tess. I know you want to see ghosts very badly—”

  “I’m not the only one who had an encounter like that!” Tess snapped. “Shelby—”

  “Shelby’s claims are also quite suspect,” Leonora retorted. “Perhaps I should resign as faculty advisor, if you find my methods so problematic. Of course, that means you’ll need to find another advisor since you aren’t permitted to operate the society without one. What a shame it would be to see it all go away—”

  “Holy shit!” Miriam screeched.

  We all whipped around to see Miriam gesturing frantically at a small flicker of light. At first glance, it looked like something that might just be a trick of the eye, a car passing by or the phone of someone walking through the courtyard.

  But as we all scrutinized it more closely, I realized it was its own thing, a tiny burst of light floating up the stairs . . .

  “That’s her! That’s Clementine!” Tess cried.

  “We don’t know that for certain,” Leonora said. “The best thing to do is to sit back down and be still—”

  “Oh, fuck that!” Aveda interjected, scrambling to her feet. I was right there with her.

  Together, we ran through the foyer and clattered up the staircase, ignoring Leonora yelling after us. “If you follow that, I will have you expelled!” she screamed. “Society warriors, we must clear out now—everyone follow me to the exit! This encounter has been tainted.”

  I threw a glance over my shoulder and saw Leonora herding the students out of the building. Tess met my eyes, their expression panicky. I made a shooing motion at them: Go. Get out of here. We’ll handle this.

  “Pretty sure Leonora can’t expel us—we’re not even technically enrolled,” Aveda growled.

  I nodded in agreement, huffing and puffing as I tried to keep up with Aveda, who was taking the stairs two at a time. We passed by all those Halloween decorations again, the rubber bats bobbing and the plastic skeletons rattling as we swept by. I gripped the heavy, ornate metal banister even though my palms had gone all sweaty, and pushed aside the cotton ball cobwebs that brushed against my hands. And I kept my eyes trained on the tiny, glowing light flying up the stairs. It was like a little Tinkerbell, dancing through the air.

  On the third floor, the tiny light burst hesitated for a moment—then abruptly switched directions, bobbing down the hallway.

  “Follow that light!” Aveda cried.

  We bounded to the top of the staircase and skidded into the hallway, where another plastic skeleton friend greeted us. We were both breathing heavily (okay, me more than Aveda), the pounding of our running feet cutting through the silence.

  “I assume it’s going for Clementine’s office?” Aveda called over her shoulder.

  “Yes!” I yelled back. “I think it’s at the end of the hall, to the right!”

  “Roger that!” Aveda yelled, sweeping her cape around her in dramatic superhero fashion. I resisted the urge to giggle or maybe even applaud—the cape might be cumbersome, but she really knew how to make it work.

  The light bobbed merrily down the hall, seemingly unconcerned that we were so intent on chasing it. Or catching it? I wasn’t sure what the plan was if we finally overtook it. We’d figure that part out later.

  The light made it to the end of the hall. Aveda and I were almost there and I tried to pour on a little extra speed.

  “We got this!” Aveda yelled over her shoulder.

  The light paused at the end of the hall, drifting to the right, toward Clementine’s office . . .

  Aveda and I skidded to a stop in front of Clementine’s office door, the light bobbing in place above us.

  “What do we do now?” Aveda said, her eyes locked on the light.

  I shook my head—what was the light trying to tell us? Was it Clementine’s spirit? Had it led us here for a specific reason or was it an everyday haunting type of thing? Then again, if Tess’s and Julie’s theory was correct and demonic energy had fused with the paranormal . . .

  My gaze wandered to Clementine’s office door—and I did a double take, my heart dropping in my chest.

  “Annie,” I whispered, pointing a shaking finger at the door’s mirrored surface. “Look at the door.”

  She lowered her gaze and her eyes nearly bugged out of her head.

  “Oh my god,” she murmured. She took a step closer, scrutinizing the mirror. “Is that us?”

  It was just as Tess had described. Our reflections weren’t exactly us; they were a ghostly version of us. Blue glow, hollow eyes, screaming mouths. Glowering back at us, sizing us up. Projecting sheer malevolence.

  “Back away slowly,” I said. “Maybe if we . . .”

  Before I could complete that thought, the Evie ghost snarled and lunged—and stepped clean out of the mirror.

  “Fuck!” Aveda spat out. “Run!”

  We took off, propelling ourselves away from the office. The light seemed to pick up on what we were doing and flung itself after us, whizzing over our heads.

  “I think it’s still guiding us,” I yelled to Aveda, my eyes glued to the light as it bobbed down the hall—in the opposite direction of Clementine’s office. “It could be guiding us to our doom, though.”

  “Let’s get away from that doom first,” Aveda called over her shoulder, jerking her thumb at the situation behind us—the Evie and Aveda ghosts were hot on our heels, their snarls echoing down the hallway. “Then we’ll worry about whatever plans the light has for us.”

  The light threw itself to the left, rounding a corner at the end of the hall. Aveda and I followed suit. My footsteps felt heavy and slow, and my labored breathing rang through my ears, adrenaline spiking with every move forward. I tried to keep my eyes on the light, tried to avoid looking behind me, even as I heard the Evie and Aveda ghost snarls getting closer . . . and closer . . . and closer . . .

  I heard them crash into one of the plastic sk
eletons, roaring in frustration as it clattered to the floor.

  The light came to an abrupt stop in front of a door in the middle of the hall.

  “Wait . . .” Aveda skidded to a stop, frowning up at the light. I came to my own ungraceful stop, nearly crashing into her.

  The light just kept bobbing outside the door, looking oddly serene.

  And the snarls from the Evie and Aveda ghosts were getting closer still . . .

  “Goddammit,” Aveda snarled. “What should we—”

  The light responded by zipping high in the air, then plunging down low and flicking itself underneath the doorway.

  “Ahhh, fuck!” Aveda growled. She jiggled the doorknob, but the office was, of course, locked. “I can’t pick the lock with my telekinesis,” she said, stomping her foot in frustration. “It’s a delicate procedure, and I can’t . . .”

  Just then, the Evie and Aveda ghosts rounded the corner, barreling toward us.

  “Fuck it!” I yelled.

  I called up every bit of my emotions—the fear, the panic, the sheer adrenaline coursing through my veins . . .

  A fireball appeared in my hand—and I flung it at the doorknob, burning the entire thing clean off.

  The Evie ghost slashed a hand through the air, letting loose with a particularly vicious snarl—so close she almost snagged Aveda’s cape. A chill rushed through me, they were almost on top of us . . .

  I shoved the door open and Aveda and I tumbled inside and slammed it shut behind us. We heard the ghosts howl with rage on the other side.

  “Can they get through?” Aveda gasped, leaning hard against the door. “Did we just trap ourselves or . . .”

  Abruptly, the howling stopped.

  “Remember, Tess said their ‘echo ghost’ vanished,” I said, trying to catch my breath. “Maybe ours did, too? But we should wait a bit, just to make sure.”