Lance scrunched his face some. “I’ve got these.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small white paper square that looked to be holding something inside it. “Smelling salts. They work on people.” He looked up at Remington. “Think they’ll work on the Myther possessing the doll?”
“Why do ye have smelling salts in your pocket?” Frank asked.
“I got ‘em, too, just in my briefcase in the car,” Remington responded without looking away from their prisoner. “We never know when we’ll have to disable someone, but we don’t want to wait twelve hours for them to wake up.” He looked at Lance and shrugged. “I don’t know. Give it a try.”
Lance stepped forward and placed the small package under the doll’s nose. He held it there for a second, and then the thing came alive again.
Frank could hardly believe it. One second it looked like ordinary plastic, and the next it took on the features of a human.
The doll slowly raised its head and looked at the two agents in front of it.
Frank was to the right on the couch with a beer in hand, exactly where he wanted to be. He’d wanted to kill vampires, but he didn’t want anything to do with ghosts, or demon dolls, or whatever the hell was going on here.
“What are you?” Remington asked, his pistol still pointed toward the ground.
“I’m the guy that’s gonna cut you up,” the little doll snarled.
Frank snorted. He couldn’t help it. “Ye're a fella?”
The doll’s face whipped in his direction. “Don’t worry, green man. You’re going to get it, too.”
Frank leaned back on the couch and raised his beer can in a toast, then took a sip. Fuck this. I’m not getting involved. Claire can have it all to herself.
“Look, you can answer us, or things can get a lot worse for you,” Lance said.
Frank noticed that Lance stayed safely out of range of the doll, ready to react if it were to somehow get loose.
“Why don’t you gargle my balls?” the little doll asked, then spat onto the floor.
Frank’s eyes widened even more as the saliva evaporated into mist. That’s not actually spit.
Remington laughed. “Not sure if you noticed, Ms. Pretty, but you don’t have any balls.” He stepped forward and placed the pistol at the doll’s crotch. “Though I will happily blow off whatever you got down there.”
“It doesn’t have to be this way,” Lance commented from behind him, playing good cop. “You tell us what we want to know, and we’ll let you go.”
“If you let me go, you syphilis-infested sore, I’m going to take that gun of yours and shove it up your ass. Then I’m going to take the gun off him and shove it up his ass. How’s that sound?”
The doll plastered on a fake smile, but Frank saw only hate in its eyes.
What the hell is this thing? he wondered. I’ve never seen anything this angry. Ever. Not even Claire, when I break into her room.
Remington looked over his shoulder at Lance. “Should I just blast it? We don’t really need it, right?”
Lance stared at the doll for a few seconds in silence.
“Do it, punk,” the doll dared.
Finally, Lance shook his head. “No. We’re going to need to keep it. We need a way to transport it without it screaming.”
Frank hopped off the couch and walked over to pick up the duct tape sitting on an end table. “Let me solve the screaming part.” He placed his beer down and then pulled off a short strip. The sound of ripping tape filling the room. He yanked the piece free and walked over to the doll.
The doll bared its teeth as Frank approached. “You stay away from me, you little green piece of shit. I’ll rip your n—”
Frank slapped the tape over the struggling entity’s mouth. It kept making muffled threats beneath, but they were unintelligible.
“I’m tired of hearing its prattle.” Frank turned around and walked back to the table, picking up his beer. He took a sip, then looked at the agents. “What the hell are we going to do with it? Clearly interviewing it isn’t going to work.”
The thing was still trying to shout, but the screams were pretty much useless.
Remington holstered his pistol and walked over to the table where his remaining beer sat. He grabbed it and looked out of the window at the sun, which was beginning to descend below the horizon. “They had something like this at the west coast Academy,” he told Frank. “It’s not there anymore. I recall one of the students got a little overenthusiastic during training. You remember that Annie doll, Lance?”
Lance was still looking at the struggling creature. “No, but I remember the movie.”
“What the hell are ye two talking about?” Frank asked. He dropped his empty can onto the floor, then reached into the box and grabbed a full one.
“It’s an old movie. It’s about a doll that had some type of voodoo spell placed on it, and some dead psycho ended up in the actual doll. One of them crossed the Veil, and it was at the West Coast school.” Remington turned around, his eyes narrow as he looked at the creature. “I wonder if this thing is something similar, although maybe they pulled the ghost first then threw it into the doll. What do you think, Lance?”
Lance shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine, but this thing isn’t going to tell us. What about that new professor? Think he might know? I don’t think we have time to wait on Crenel for information.”
Remington sighed, knowing the agent at the West Coast Academy would know the answer. He looked at Frank. “I remember when I thought you were the weirdest part about all this shit.”
“I’m not weird. Ye two are weird. Tall and lanky, walking around like stick people.” Frank gave a short burp. “I’m the normal one.”
Chapter Seven
“You heard about the doll?” Jack asked.
“You think I’m a rat? You think I’d tell you?” Dr. Tharos responded. He stood at the front of their small room again. His sleeves were rolled up.
Claire got a better glimpse of his tattoos. Lots of ghosts and freaky looking stuff. The dude definitely likes his profession, she thought.
“So you did hear,” she said with a smile. “Otherwise, you would have asked ‘what.’ So, I guess you are a rat.”
Dr. Tharos smiled back, placing his hands in front of himself as if he were in cuffs. “Guilty as charged, I suppose. Yeah, I heard. They’re bringing it to the school for me to take a look at.”
“Holy shit, that’s cool.” Jack’s voice was filled with awe. “Frank just called Claire and said they’d found a possessed doll. Not that it was being brought back here.” He looked at Claire. “You gotta make sure we get to see it. Don’t give me no lip. Just make it happen, cap’n.”
Claire rolled her eyes. “Like I’m in charge of what Dean Pritcham does. That’s up to her.”
Jack turned around and looked at Dr. Byron. “What about you? You got any pull around here?”
Dr. Byron was nonplussed. “Mr. Teams, while I am used to you regularly interrupting my class with your antics, I’d ask you to please not do it to our guest here. That would be really, really appreciated. Clean up for company, as the saying goes.”
Jack shook his head and turned back around. “I loved those movies. I’m seeing this damned doll.”
Dr. Tharos shook his head in bemusement. “Okay. Let’s worry about the doll when it gets here. I’m sure we’ll be able to do a little field trip to wherever they’re keeping it. Wouldn’t make sense not to, if you’re expected to fight these things.” He turned to the table behind him and grabbed a thick bundle of papers that had been stapled together. “Everyone got their copy?”
“Marissa and I do. Not sure about him.” Claire looked at Jack. “Where’s yours?”
“It’s here. It’s here.” He reached into the bag at his feet and pulled out a similar pack of paper.
“Everyone read it?” Tharos asked.
“Same answer as before,” Claire replied.
“I read it. Jesus. You all have such little fai
th,” Jack responded.
Looks like he actually did, too, Claire thought as she glanced at the papers. The front page had underlines, and the rest looked dog-eared and worn.
“The hardest part for you guys…” He trailed off, pausing then smiling. “Awkward phrasing, given that there are two ladies and only one guy. My fault.”
“Ehh, you’re not far off.” Jack grinned until Claire elbowed him in the arm. Hard. “Sorry, Dr. Tharos. Please go on.”
Dr. Tharos smiled at Claire’s easy handling of Jack. “Anyway, the most difficult parts will be twofold. Fighting and killing ghosts. I’ve heard about the vampire battles, where you all had physical opponents to fight. Here, that might not be the case.” He raised one hand to his right side. “We have creatures like the doll they’re bringing back. It’s a physical being. One that can probably be destroyed physically. If it is a haunting, I imagine that the ghost will dissipate once the physical body is destroyed.” He raised the other hand to his left side. “On this side, we’ve got the things you can’t see. A lot of what we talked about in class yesterday.”
“In Ghost Busters, they had tools for this kind of stuff,” Claire mentioned, although she felt foolish afterward. It’s a movie. Not real life.
She glanced at her teammates on either side, but they both simply nodded.
Claire suppressed a smile. At least we’re all foolish together, then.
“That’s true,” Dr. Tharos responded, then pursed his lip for a moment as if in thought. “From what I understand, you’ve got a team here working on weapons. I haven’t been privy to what they’ve been doing, but I’ve got a meeting with them later.”
“We going to be able to suck the ghosts out of the air?” Jack asked seriously.
“Well, outside of Ghost Busters, that’s not how these Mythers operate,” Dr. Tharos answered.
“They haunt until something has been settled, or if they’re lost, they just keep being lost,” Marissa commented.
“That’s right.” Dr. Tharos leaned against the table again, moving the papers back a bit first. “So sometimes ghosts are going to leave if they actually achieve what they crossed the Veil to do, like kill someone.”
“That sounds great for us.” Jack was tapping his pencil on his stack of papers. “To rid Miami of ghosts, we just have to die.”
“I wish it were that easy,” Dr. Tharos responded. “They’re not here for you, though. So your death isn’t going to do much.”
“Then what do we do?” Claire asked. She’d read the papers last night, and most of it was on the conjuring of ghosts. The spells. The books—specifically the Book of Shadows. Witches. She placed her hand on the top sheet. “This doesn’t tell us anything about fighting them.”
Dr. Tharos nodded. “Nope, sure doesn’t. Anyone have any idea why I asked you to read it?”
Marissa sighed.
Claire looked over at her. “Tell me you haven’t figured it out. I can’t stand how smart you are sometimes.” She grinned as she spoke.
Marissa didn’t grin back. “You think we might not be able to kill the ghosts unless we kill the witches.”
“Say it ain’t so,” Jack chimed in, although this time he actually sounded nervous.
Claire was quiet, taking it in. She wasn’t amazed at how Marissa had come to the answer, rather that she was considering what it meant for them. In some ways, it would be easier. But in others…it would be much harder.
“How?” Claire asked, finally wanting to get to the center of the subject. “How do you know that’s true?”
“Ghosts are bound to something,” Dr. Tharos explained. “So if we have a dark coven pulling them over from across the Veil, what are they binding them to? These ghosts might not have actually existed, but they have been believed into existence. What would that mean?”
“People believed in them.” Claire paused, thinking it through. “But the ghosts weren’t tied to anything, because they didn’t exist here.”
“So, then they’re tied to the people that brought them over,” Marissa finished. “They’re tied to the witches.”
“Bingo!” Dr. Tharos stamped his foot on the ground. “That’s my theory. I’ve thought about this a lot, and that’s where the logic leads me. Attempting to kill the ghosts is a fool’s errand. You won’t be able to, because how do you kill what’s already dead? You might be able to hurt them or chase them away with salt. However, to fully eradicate them, they have to leave on their own.”
“Salt?” Jack asked.
The professor nodded. “Salt can harm ghosts or scare them away, but again, it’s not going to kill them.”
“So, they’re not what’s important.” Claire was getting an understanding now. “This isn’t like Dracula. It’s the people behind the ghosts that matter.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Dr. Tharos responded. “You should think of these things like mindless bodyguards.” He paused, looking up and pursing his lips again. “Mindless isn’t the right word. I’d think about them like insane bodyguards. They might not know they’re guarding whoever brought them over, but if there are enough of them, it won’t matter because you won’t be able to avoid them. You’ll have to survive them.”
Jack sank down in his chair. “I thought the vamps were bad. This sounds impossible.”
Claire didn’t even need to look at Marissa to know she was as pale as…well, a ghost.
“What’s impossible is you getting the new girl to date you,” Claire retorted. I’ve got to keep their spirits up because they both look about as dejected as I’ve ever seen them.
Dr. Tharos looked taken aback at her attitude.
Claire understood why. To him, this was all theoretical. This was teaching a class. Professor Byron had been in a war, and he understood the dangers facing them. Dr. Tharos was a cool guy, but he hadn’t thought through what this would mean to the people he taught.
The professor sighed and looked at Byron at the back of the room. “You think we should take them to the trainer sooner? I forget his name.”
Claire turned around and looked at Byron. “Dr. Kilgore?”
Dr. Byron nodded. “Dr. Tharos here has been working with Dr. Kilgore to help you when you come across these ghosts. They’ve been creating an environment that will help simulate what it’s like to fight the apparitions. It’s different than anything else you’ve faced, I can tell you.”
“We’ll deal more with some of the other ways they’ll attack you in this class,” Dr. Tharos told them. “But Dr. Kilgore is going to help us with the physical part.”
Claire turned to Marissa, who was looking down at her legs. She’s terrified, because of whatever happened to her in the past, Claire thought. She looked at Jack. “Want to go see Kilgore?”
He shrugged. “Might as well.” He leaned forward to Marissa. “You okay?”
Marissa nodded. “I’m fine,” she whispered.
Sooner or later, Claire thought, this is going to have to come out into the open.
“I didn’t even know this place existed,” Jack admitted with a sense of awe.
Claire felt it too. The university seemed to have endless secrets that unfolded when the professors wanted them to. She wasn’t super happy about how much was obviously kept from the students. Last semester, they’d been brought to an underground laboratory, and now they’d ventured further across the grounds than ever before.
“How big is this place?” Marissa asked.
They’d taken two golf carts across the lawns, entering a heavily wooded area that Claire would have never thought to go through. She did see a trail, though, so it was used by someone.
Tharos pulled up outside a building that stretched nearly two hundred yards in length.
It was on one level, and from what Claire could see, only one entrance—at least from this side.
“What is this?” Claire asked as she stepped down from the golf cart.
“A training facility,” Byron answered. “This building is off-limits right now to
the general student body, although I think Kilgore will start using it after you’re done. This building can be utilized for a variety of different training exercises, depending on what’s needed. We let Dr. Kilgore know about our current ghost infestation, and he got busy inside. He told us last night that he was ready for you all.”
“Ready for us, huh?” Claire mused. “I don’t like the sound of that, knowing Dr. Kilgore.”
“You don’t like the sound of anything, Ms. Hinterland,” Dr. Byron answered.
The five of them walked across the grass as Dr. Kilgore came out the door.
“Welcome! Welcome!” he called in his heavy Eastern European accent. “We are prepared for you three.”
Dr. Kilgore was a massive man, built like an oak tree. His shoulders were broad like a bodybuilder’s, and he stood well over six feet tall.
Claire nodded toward the building. “What do you have inside there, Dr. Kilgore?”
“Fun. All fun and games for training ghost hunters.” The big man smiled. His teeth were large and white. “Call it my funhouse. You don’t need worry. I will make sure you have a good time inside.”
“This is where we say goodbye, scholars,” Dr. Byron told them as he stepped up next to Dr. Tharos.
“Oh, you’re not coming in?” Jack asked.
Dr. Byron shook his head. “I stick with the academic side of things, as does Dr. Tharos, I’m sure.”
Jack rolled his eyes. “How convenient.”
“Professors know how to fight,” Dr. Kilgore volunteered. “When I see them, I get scared. When I see you three, I laugh. They don’t need to come in here to learn. You three? Much work to be done.”
“Are you going to at least leave us one of the golf carts?” Claire asked.
“Sure,” Dr. Byron answered, smiling. “We wouldn’t make you walk back.” He looked at Dr. Tharos. “Ready?”
Paranormal University: Second Semester: An Unveiled Academy Novel Page 7
