Ghostly Town (A Ghost Hunter P.I. Mystery Book 4)

by Aubrey Harper

  Twenty-Three

  Of course, before we went to the abandoned church and finished this thing once and for all, we all needed a breather after the harrowing experience of being stuck at the inn. And breakfast.

  We had breakfast as soon as one of the restaurants opened in town and then we went back to the ghost hunters’ house to make a game plan. I told everyone my theory that the preacher was the one responsible for all of this.

  We searched in vain for any information on his death and where he might be buried, but we came up with nothing. It was as if he never existed at all. Or maybe that’s how the town’s historians planned it. It must have been before the town was rebranded and renamed as Ghostly.

  It was close to noon when we finally made the trip to the church. We had been putting it off for long enough. I reminded the ghost hunters that it was better we went there before sunset. They got ready pretty quick after that.

  Rebecca came along as well. I told Charles and Rochelle to keep their distance. I didn’t want a repeat of what had already happened to Charles. They agreed and told me they would keep an eye out on the rest of the town.

  Rebecca, for her part, did keep her distance from the abandoned church. She insisted on coming along, but I made her promise to only come to my aid if I was screaming for help, no sooner.

  Once the van was parked, we all looked at the abandoned church like some kind of sleeping monster that would bite our heads off as soon as it woke up. Maybe that wasn’t such a far-off description.

  Kane, Mike, and Jacob were the first to enter the church. Then Chloe and I, and then Rachel with her holy water, salt, iron filings, and other assorted goodies that could be useful in fighting off an evil spirit.

  As soon as I was inside, I felt the spirit activity there even before Mike’s gadget flashed with bright lights.

  Chloe was nervous so I kept her close. I reassured her that pretty soon, all of this was going to be over. She didn’t look too convinced, but she soldiered on.

  We stopped when we reached the center of the church. The guys had also brought along shovels and other tools that might prove useful in digging up an unmarked grave.

  I made the mistake of looking up at the ceiling. Something had changed because now I could see the dozens of spirits gathered there like bats. I tried to ignore them and focus on the task at hand.

  “Are you getting any feelings?” I asked Chloe. It was her job to help us locate the proper bones, otherwise, we’d be here the whole day, tearing apart the whole church.

  “Besides the usual, dread and fear? No,” she said.

  “Maybe try touching the floor?” I said.

  “But there are rats everywhere,” she said. “And not to mention rat droppings.”

  “That’s why we brought this,” I said, turning on the flashlight in my hand. As soon as I pointed it to the floor, I heard several somethings scuttle away.

  I smiled at Chloe, trying to encourage her to do what needed to be done.

  She didn’t smile back, but she did kneel down and hold her hand over the floorboards. She closed her eyes and did her thing. I gave a cursory glance to the ceiling, but thankfully the spirits remained where they were.

  “Not here,” Chloe said and moved on to the next area of interest. She did this for about half an hour, until finally she ‘felt’ something. It was right where the pulpit was, or what was left of it anyway.

  “There’s something down there,” she said. “I don’t know what it is, but it’s giving off some seriously bad vibes.”

  She then moved as far from the area as she could.

  “Can I leave now?” She asked.

  “Not yet,” I said. “We need you to identify the bones, if we find any that is.”

  Chloe went and joined Rachel while the guys and I focused our attention on the area she pointed out. Kane and Mike were doing the main part of digging. Jacob was filming, and I kept an eye out for any incoming ghost attacks.

  Strangely enough, the ghosts remained where they were and the shadowy man responsible for all the trouble was nowhere to be found. Did this mean that we were on the wrong track? Well, there was only one way to find out.

  Once the floorboards were gone, it was down to digging deep enough to find anything. It took the guys a good hour of heavy digging to finally hit something hard. And then it turned out to be a rock.

  “Chloe, are you sure this is the spot?” Mike asked for the third or fourth time.

  “I already told you that I just felt some bad vibes. I don’t know if anyone is buried down there,” she said.

  Half an hour later, the guys hit upon something else. And this time it was actually bone. Human bones, from the looks of it.

  “Jackpot!” Mike said.

  Chloe stepped forward reluctantly. She knew that it was now her turn to identify the person the bones belonged to. She took the long bone in her hands. As soon as she touched it she went into a trance. I thought about touching her hand to see what she saw but then thought better of it. I still needed to be on the lookout for the ghosts and the man in charge.

  She came out of it a few minutes later. “It definitely belonged to the preacher. I saw him set himself on fire. Something about cleansing himself.”

  “Good,” I said. “Now let’s do this while we still can.”

  Rachel came over with the salt and the iron filings.

  I put the bone on the ground and first covered it with salt. Then I covered it with iron.

  “Whoever these bones belong to, come to me right now,” I said.

  Nothing happened.

  “What’s wrong?” Kane asked when he saw the look on my face.

  “It’s not working,” I said. “He’s not here.”

  “How is that possible?” Chloe said. “You said this would work.”

  “It usually does. Unless…”

  “Just say it, woman,” Jacob said, sounding more than a little freaked out.

  “These aren’t the bones of the shadow man. It looks like the preacher has moved on to the next world because if he was still around, he would be here with us right now.”

  Just then a cold wind blew through the church. The shadow man appeared and brought cruel laughter with him.

  “You stupid girl, did you really think I would let you uncover my own bones? What kind of fool do you think I am?”

  I ignored him. I turned to Kane and Mike. “Keep digging. His bones must be here somewhere.”

  The shadowy figure flew forward then, presumably ready to stop the digging from continuing, but I was ready for that. I threw some holy water at him. He dissolved immediately and screamed just like he had last time. Once he reformed, he sounded more than a little annoyed.

  “What are you waiting for? Stop them!” He yelled at the ghosts gathered at the ceiling. Pretty soon all hell broke loose as the ghosts came flying down. A great wind blew inside the church. Rachel was pushed to the floor. Chloe barely held on to one of the old pews.

  I threw salt and holy water in every direction until I finally got a bright idea. I threw iron filings at the ghosts as well.

  “Freeze!” I ordered them, and they did.

  Then I threw the iron filings at the shadowy figure, but they seemed to have no effect on him.

  “Keep digging!” I told Kane and Mike. “And Chloe, go join them! As soon as they dig up more bones, see if you can identify who they belong to.”

  Just as I turned around, I saw the dark shadowy figure fly through the frozen ghosts, effectively releasing them again. I did the same thing with the iron filings again, but instead, I told them to leave the church this time, and they did.

  “You will pay for this!” The shadow man said as he lunged for me. I was ready for that, too. I threw the remaining holy water at him. He dissolved as I knew he would.

  “Do you have any more?” I asked Rachel.

  She rummaged around in her bag. “There’s one more, I’m sure of it,” she said. But when she lifted the jar, it was empty. It had broken in the
attack before, and now there were only a few drops of holy water left inside.

  She handed it to me. I urged Mike and Kane to hurry up.

  “Easy for you to say,” Jacob said, cowering in the corner. He was still filming, though.

  “We found something,” Kane said.

  It was Chloe’s turn now.

  She entered trance as soon as the shadowy figure reformed and went on the attack again. I threw some salt at him this time, but that only seemed to be a minor annoyance to him.

  “It’s him!” Chloe said. “I saw everything he did.”

  I threw the remaining holy water at the shadowy figure, giving me just enough time to get to the now quite large hole that Mike and Kane had dug in the ground. I almost tripped and fell on my way down, but Kane stopped me from making a fool of myself just in time.

  I threw salt and iron filings at the piece of bone Chloe had handed me. As soon as I did, I noticed the shadowy man fully reformed and frozen right above us.

  “Not such a tough guy now, are you?” I mocked him.

  “Release me, witch!” He practically screamed in my direction, but he could no longer hurt me. I had outsmarted him.

  “You are done harming people,” I said to him. “And you no longer have anyone else under your control. You’re all alone.”

  “You will pay for this,” he hissed.

  “It’s time for you to move on from this plane. Go into the light and face what you have done.”

  As soon as I said that, a circle of light opened on the ground and sucked the dark figure inside. At the end there, he looked just like a regular man. Then he and the circle were gone.

  “Is it over?” Chloe asked.

  “Yes,” I said. “He’s gone for good.”

  “Good, because I’m ready to get out of here,” she said and then climbed out of the hole.

  Rachel looked down at me and the bone covered in salt and iron. “Should we burn it just to be safe?”

  “Suit yourself, but as far as I’m concerned, he’s not coming back.”

  We left the church. As soon as I was outside, I was greeted by dozens of ghosts looking confused, angry, or a combination thereof. The man in charge might have been gone, but his followers were still very much around.

  Rebecca floated toward me then. “I’m glad you’re okay,” she said.

  “If anyone wants help, I will help you. If you don’t want to move on just yet, feel free to leave now,” I said to the ghosts.

  About half did leave but the rest stayed.

  I turned to Chloe then. “What did you see when you touched that bone?”

  “Terrible things. That guy was a piece of work. He killed Native Americans for sport. He died as he lived, terribly. He roamed this land until he found someone that he could easily control. He took over the preacher little by little, until he took full control and turned the congregation into his own little cult. Then when he started to lose control, he set fire to himself and the church. But not before he locked the doors and took as many as he could with him.”

  “He’ll never be doing that to anyone else ever again. We made sure of that,” I said.

  “I just hope I never come across another spirit like him,” Chloe said.

  “Don’t worry. Spirits that powerful are rare. And now that you’ve faced him, all the other hauntings you might come across in the future will be a cakewalk.”

  “I guess,” she said and smiled a weak smile.

  We drove to the inn to check on the situation there. All traces of evil were gone. There were only normal ghosts roaming the halls again. The woman and her cat still ignored me, but I thought I detected a smile as she passed me. Was she thankful I had gotten rid of that evil man?

  I ran into Charles, Rochelle, and surprisingly, Madeline. They were all talking amongst themselves about what the afterlife would be like. Madeline was back to her old self now. She didn’t remember much of anything since her death.

  “Are you ready to go?” I asked the three of them.

  They all smiled and nodded their heads.

  “Do you want me to call Henry?” I asked Charles.

  “No, we already had our goodbye. And I just checked on him before you arrived.”

  Just then, I saw three doors of light open, one on each side of the room. I had never had that happen. Usually, I dealt with ghosts one by one.

  The three mediums said their goodbyes and went their separate ways.

  Charles turned around one last time. “Thank you for everything, Meredith. You’re one of the good ones.”

  “Thanks,” I said and smiled. He stepped through the door of light and disappeared with it, just like the other mediums.

  I felt a euphoric feeling until one of the ghosts that I promised to help flew right in front of me.

  “Now can you help us?” He said.

  It looked like my work in Ghostly, Missouri wasn’t done just yet.

  Twenty-Four

  It took several days to sort out the rest of the ghosts and help them on their way. I stayed at the inn for free this time, courtesy of Sheila. She said it was the least she could do.

  I spent a lot of time with the ghost hunters, listening to their recordings. I gave them permission to use any of it if they ended up getting their own TV show, however unlikely that was.

  I also shared ghostly tips with them. Rachel and I tried to figure out why the holy water was such a powerful weapon against the shadow man, but we didn’t come up with much. Maybe it was because of some of the beliefs he had when he was alive? Or maybe in death, he had really convinced himself that he was some kind of demon?

  Either way, I was glad it worked.

  Rachel and I did a spiritual cleansing of the church. Well, Rachel did most of the work while I observed and took notes. And then we sent an anonymous tip to the proper authorities.

  I had a few conversations with Chloe about her gift as well. She looked a bit more open to exploring it but she was still reluctant to fully embrace it, which was understandable. I gave her my number, as I did the others, and told her to call me anytime she needed to talk about anything, supernatural or not.

  Saying goodbye to the ghost hunters proved to be harder than I thought. It felt good to be a part of something, if only for a short time.

  Once Kane, Rebecca, and I were on the road back to Silver Bells Cove, I realized that I had a team of my own in a way.

  “What are you thinking about?” Kane said.

  “How lucky I am to have you and Rebecca by my side,” I answered honestly.

  “Well, speaking for myself but I’m sure Rebecca agrees, we’re the lucky ones,” he said, squeezing my hand while keeping his eyes on the road.

  “I believe you two are the lucky ones for having me around,” Rebecca said without missing a beat.

  “Rebecca agrees with you,” I said and laughed.

  It was going to be a fun ride back to Silver Bells Cove.

  Author’s Note

  I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my book! I welcome reader feedback and encourage you to leave a review if you can.

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  Thank you for reading!

  Also by Aubrey Harper

  A Book & Candle Mystery

  A Witch’s Guide to Murder

  A Witch’s Guide to Werewolves

  A Witch’s Guide to Hauntings

  A Witch’s Guide to Vampires

  A Witch’s Guide to Familiars

  A Witch’s Guide to Time Travel

  A Witch’s Guide to Family

  A Ghost Hunter P.I. Mystery

  Ghostly Apparitions

  Ghostly Illusions

  Ghostly Wedding

  A PsyChick Cozy Mystery

  Deadly Visions

  stery Book 4)