The Ghost's Call, page 3
Giving up for the night, I curled up on the sofa with Tilly. Spectre, our ghost cat, rested on – well, floated above – the sofa, watching whatever crap I’d put on the TV.
‘Mum?’ said Edie, coming downstairs from her room. ‘How can you tell when a ghost is out to get you?’
My back stiffened. I did a terrible job of hiding my freaked out expression from her. ‘Why do you ask?’ I said, trying to regain my composure as I sat up. Tilly glared at me, unhappy that I’d moved, and jumped off the sofa to go curl up in front of the TV instead.
‘The stuff the other day. And now Josh’s granddad visiting me. What if they’re linked?’
I’d hoped she wouldn’t make that connection, but Edie was smart. Smarter than me. It never took her long to connect situations. ‘They might be,’ I agreed.
‘But…’
She knew me well.
‘We have no way of knowing.’
‘So shouldn’t someone be looking into it?’
I stood up. ‘Not this again!’
Edie followed me into the kitchen, as I made myself a hot chocolate. ‘You know I’m right. I was visited for a reason.’
And I needed to find out what that reason was before she did, and before she or anyone else got hurt.
*
I stared up at the red-brick Victorian building. It was pretty intimidating for a library. It looked more like an old church or boarding school. But I had fond memories of it.
I’d missed spending time in it, even if that time had been related to ghosts.
Edie’s dad, Javi, and I had spent countless hours in there growing up, researching ghost lore. Even though my parents had been ghost hunters, they’d insisted we learned how to research on our own. It was a useful life skill, apparently.
Sometimes Maggie joined us, too. She’d stopped joining us when she met Harry, but she always asked about what we’d discovered. Even though Harry never believed us, Maggie was always curious. I think a part of her wished she could see ghosts, too. I wished I could pass my ability on to her.
I climbed up the ramp, my joints still waking up so too stiff for the stairs. The automatic doors sprung to life to let me in.
I loved the smell of libraries. The sweet smell of vanilla emanating from books as they aged always offered me comfort. Too many times I’d found the solution to my problems in a library. I always preferred to start there over the internet because online, the old knowledge held by books was sometimes watered down or viewed through the modern lens. That meant it was sometimes less accurate or more sceptical. You didn’t get any of that in a book, particularly the really old ones written before my grandparents were even born. They talked about ghosts as if they were as real as any human walking the earth.
And of course, they were, but nobody believed that anymore. Even when they saw them, they still didn’t believe in them.
I walked through the shelves, keeping my eyes down as I headed to the section on ghosts. It wasn’t a huge library, so it didn’t have the best selection, but it was a starting point. It had been a long, long time – over a decade – since I’d last perused the shelves of a library for books on ghosts. Would they have shrunk the section to fit the changing times?
I crouched down, studying the small selection on the supernatural. Yes, they had shrunken the section since I was last there. By far too much. Fiddlesticks.
Standing back up, I ran my fingers along the spines, feeling the crumpled plastic covers. But not finding what I wanted.
‘Looking for something in particular?’ said a voice. I almost hit the ceiling. ‘Sorry, didn’t mean to make you jump.’
I turned to see a guy with fluffy brown hair and glasses, flashing me a sweet smile. He was cute, in a bookish sort of way. A lanyard hung around his neck, indicating that he worked there.
‘Anything I can help with?’ he asked, gesturing to the books.
‘Um, no, thanks,’ I said. I didn’t tend to accept help from anyone when it came to ghosts, since most people didn’t believe me.
When they did offer to help, it was usually to either get information from me, or to make fun of me. I didn’t have the time or patience for that on a good day, let alone when Edie and the Morgans could be in danger.
‘Are you sure? I could help you find what you’re looking for.’
I narrowed my eyes at him. Why was he so eager to help? Usually librarians left me to it, especially with me hanging around the weird section. People didn’t exactly take you seriously when looking at ghost nonfiction.
‘I’m writing a ghost story and I wanted to do some research on, erm, how ghosts behave as a group. Make what I’m writing really accurate and vivid, you know?’ The lie rolled off my tongue easier than it should’ve. But then, I’d used the writer line countless times. It was one of the few useful things my mother had taught me. Nobody thought you were weird when researching unusual things if you said it was for a book. They wouldn’t question your motives, either.
‘I see,’ said the librarian. He crouched down to study the bookcase for a moment, his fingers running over the covers as he looked for something. ‘There is a book that might be able to help, but we don’t have it in.’ He stood up. ‘I can see if we can order it in from another library, if you’d like?’
‘You don’t have anything I can take away right now?’
‘Afraid not.’
He guided me to the desk, where he typed away on his computer. ‘Looks like it was loaned to another library, but nobody has it now, so I could get it in for tomorrow.’
Ideally, I needed it right away. But going to another library to pick it up wouldn’t work; they wouldn’t loan it to me unless I had a card for that specific library. It was a stupid system that meant I’d be on edge for longer, but what choice did I have?
‘OK. Sure.’
He typed on his computer. ‘Sorry I can’t get it to you sooner.’
‘Not your fault,’ I said. ‘Just bad timing.’ It was hard to hide the disappointment in my voice. I needed answers. Now. I was clinging to the notion that that book could help me. There were no guarantees, of course, but if nothing else, it might be a starting point. It annoyed me that I’d spent decades around ghosts but knew nothing about mass ghost activity. Or if it was linked to Edie. All I knew was that if Edie had been chosen, it was for a reason. And not knowing why she, specifically, had been targeted, was what really terrified me.
‘One book on ghost activity ordered for you,’ he said, meeting my gaze and giving me his most charming smile. I smiled back. It was hard not to. He had one of those charming, goose-bump-inducing smiles that made your legs go weak. But no. I needed to stay away from the cute librarian. I’d sworn off men after my divorce. ‘It’ll be here by tomorrow lunchtime.’
‘Great, thanks.’
Well, not great. I needed it sooner. I’d just have to hope nothing else went wrong in the mean time.
‘See you tomorrow,’ he said, a twinkle in his eye.
4
Edie
Josh didn’t turn up at college the day after his granddad’s death. I didn’t blame him. While I didn’t know his granddad very well, he and Josh had been close. They’d spent every bank holiday together for as long as Josh had been alive, as well as travelling to Spain and France on family holidays. Plus, from what I knew, Nathan was the soft touch of the family, which meant he’d let Josh do pretty much whatever he liked when he babysat.
‘Hey,’ said Josh, falling into step with me on the walk to college the next day. He had slightly farther to walk than me, so he usually walked past our house as I was leaving. Did he time it that way? Or was he just trying to be punctual? I was so overthinking it.
‘Hey,’ I said. ‘How are you feeling?’
He sighed. ‘You know.’
We carried on down the street of terraced houses, sandwiched between houses on one side and cars on the other. To walk beside each other, we had to walk close. I wasn’t complaining.
I wished there was something I could say to him to make him feel better, but I knew from my own experience there wasn’t. He just needed to know I was there for him.
‘I’m really sorry,’ I said.
‘Did you—I mean—never mind.’
‘What?’ I said. Something was on his mind. I just really hoped it wasn’t my visitation. That was the last thing I wanted to talk about. Hunting ghosts was one thing, but them seeking me out? That was a step too far.
He stopped walking. ‘How did you know what my granddad looked like? There aren’t any photos of him since he got sick.’
Frazzle. I’d described his granddad after his cancer diagnosis, not before, when he’d been fit and well. There were no photos of him since his chemo, and the last time I’d met the guy, I’d barely been a teenager.
‘And why did you ask about him right before – you know?’
I stared at my shoes, not knowing how to answer his question.
‘What, can you see ghosts or something?’
I looked up and briefly met his eyes, then looked at my shoes again.
‘What, you can?’
I nodded, just once.
Josh scoffed. ‘Come on, Edie.’
Of course he’d react like that. ‘Believe what you want.’ I stormed off without saying anything else. He didn’t try to catch up with me.
*
Josh and I avoided each other for the rest of the day. Easy when you only have one class together, and said class isn’t on Tuesdays.
We didn’t have the same circle of friends, either. Well, technically I didn’t have a circle of friends. Or a friend, beyond Josh.
It was difficult to hold conversations with people without getting distracted by the ghost haunting them, or another ghost being more interesting than the person trying to talk to me. So I preferred to keep to myself.
I got home and sank onto the sofa. Tilly ran over and dove onto my lap, jumping up with excitement because she hadn’t seen me in seven hours. At least she was my friend.
Mum walked in a few minutes later, an aggravated look on her face.
‘What happened?’ we chorused.
We both laughed.
‘You go first,’ said Mum, sitting beside me on the sofa. Tilly switched from making a fuss of me, to jumping up at Mum and licking her face. Mum kissed her forehead, giving her a hug.
‘Josh asked if I could see ghosts.’
Her face turned white. Whiter. She was a ginger.
‘Don’t worry, he doesn’t believe me anyway.’
‘He’ll come around,’ Mum said.
‘Will he?’
‘Give him time. It’s a lot to process.’
‘What about you?’ I asked, desperate to change the subject.
‘Nothing interesting. Fixing things, building things. Same old.’
‘Fun for you,’ I said sarcastically.
‘Yeah,’ she said with an eye roll.
Tilly jumped off Mum’s lap and started barking. A few seconds later, footsteps rattled the loose paving slab on the driveway. We looked out the front window to see Josh walking towards the house.
‘I’ll leave you two to it. Let me know if he’s staying for dinner,’ said Mum.
‘I doubt it,’ I mumbled, but I went to answer the front door anyway.
‘Can we talk?’ he asked as soon as I opened it.
Tilly jumped up at him, barking for his attention. He picked her up and hugged her. I stepped aside to let him in. Bloody dog hadn’t given me a choice.
‘I spoke to Mum,’ said Josh, sitting on the worn grey sofa. ‘She explained everything. About you and your Mum.’
‘I see,’ I said, sitting in a chair opposite him. I didn’t want to sit next to him after the way he’d been.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said, shifting forwards on the sofa. Tilly continued to try to climb over him. He rubbed behind her ears absentmindedly while we talked. ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘It’s not exactly everyday conversation,’ I said. ‘And anyway, would you have believed me if I had told you?’
‘Probably not,’ he admitted. Well, at least he was honest about it.
‘What did your Mum say?’ I asked.
‘That your mum can see them, and she passed the ability on to you. And that she quit ghost hunting when your dad died.’
A lump formed in my throat. We didn’t talk about my dad, and there was a reason for that. He’d been able to see ghosts, too, but when he’d died in a car accident, Mum had stopped ghost hunting. They’d always done it together, since before I was born, and I guess it reminded Mum too much of him, so she stopped.
‘Did she tell you why Dumb Dan left?’ I asked, hoping Maggie might’ve known from Mum, and passed the information on to him.
‘No. Said she didn’t know either, but figured it probably had something to do with ghosts.’
Didn’t everything in our lives? Even when Mum didn’t want it to?
‘I’m really sorry I didn’t know, Edie,’ he said, lowering his gaze and watching Tilly as she wiggled her bum excitedly.
‘It’s not exactly every day conversation,’ I said.
He gestured for me to join him and Tilly on the sofa. I got up and walked over, being pulled onto his lap by him. Tilly climbed over me, alternating between trying to lick my face and lick Josh’s.
‘See? She’s happy I know.’
Tilly barked, jumping off my lap and across the room. I looked up to see a furry grey cat floating on top of the bookcase. If you didn’t look too closely, it looked like he was sitting on it. But, since he wasn’t corporeal, he couldn’t interact with physical objects.
Josh watched her, his eyes narrowed. ‘What’s she barking at? There’s nothing there.’ He looked at me, the possibility of what he couldn’t see dawning on him: ‘Is there?’
‘Spectre, our ghost cat.’
‘You have a ghost cat?’
‘Yeah. He’s not hurting anyone. Tilly may be barking at him, but that’s because she barks at everything. She enjoys playing with him, so we let him stick around.’
He smiled. ‘That’s cute.’
Spectre jumped off the top of the bookcase, landing just past Tilly. With him being a ghost, his cat acrobatics were even more impressive. Tilly did an about-turn, chasing him out of the front and into the kitchen.
‘See? Happy puppy.’
He gave me a squeeze. ‘Happy owner?’
I rested my head on his shoulder. ‘Yes, happy owner.’
5
Niamh
‘Welcome back,’ said the cute librarian as I walked in the next day. He crouched under the desk and emerged with a book for me. He held it out.
‘Thanks,’ I said as I took it from him. It was wrapped in protective plastic, but there was no denying how old it was. I was surprised it was still in circulation. Libraries didn’t usually keep books that looked like they were older than me. ‘Wow, this looks—’
‘Old?’ he finished.
I nodded. ‘How do you still have this?’
He shrugged. ‘Obviously someone around here believes it’s still got something that needs to be shared.’ He met my gaze again, and this time, it was like he knew. Like he could see right through my book-writing facade.
Looking away, I shoved the book into my handbag.
‘How did the book writing go last night? Make any progress?’ he asked.
‘Um, no. Not really. I wanted to wait until I’d done some more research to carry on, you know?’
He nodded. ‘Of course, of course. Well, let me know how you get on. I’m Ben, by the way.’
‘Thanks for your help, Ben. I’m Niamh.’
I scurried out before I could feel any more like a teenager. I didn’t need butterflies in my stomach thank you very much. That part of my life was over. I’d been widowed and divorced. That was enough relationship drama to last me.
But that didn’t mean I couldn’t check him out from afar, did it?
*
I got home and opened the ancient book. It had that comforting smell of old books, which instantly put me at ease, despite the questions floating around my mind.
I was still reading it when Edie came home a few hours later. She came into my office and leaned against the door. It was her way of waiting until I was ready to speak, but also of demanding my attention.
I looked up from the book. ‘How was college?’
She shrugged. ‘Same old.’
‘You and Josh still OK?’
She tried to suppress a smile, but it didn’t work. ‘Yeah.’
‘Good. I’m glad. I told you it’d all work out.’
‘Yeah, you did.’ She rocked back and forth on her heels. ‘What you reading?’
I tried to hide the book. She didn’t know I was looking into anything ghostly and I wasn’t ready to tell her yet. ‘Just researching some stuff.’
‘You know there’s the internet instead of books older than this house, right?’
‘Books can be good sources of information if you find the right ones,’ I said.
‘Whatever you say, Mum. What are we having for dinner?’
‘There are some leftovers in the fridge.’
Edie gagged. ‘Is that it?’
‘Sorry, I haven’t had time to cook anything.’ I gestured to the book.
Edie rolled her eyes and walked off.
What was wrong with leftovers? They were perfectly edible! It wasn’t like I was a bad cook, but I was a practical cook. I made things in bulk so that I only had to cook every few days. Sometimes Edie found that boring, which was why she rolled her eyes. I heard her banging cupboards as she raided them for something else to eat. It didn’t make it easy for me to get back to my book, so I sighed, put a bookmark in, then went downstairs. ‘We don’t have much in.’
‘Haven’t you gone shopping?’
‘No, I told you – I’ve been busy.’
‘Online shop?’
‘I can’t wait around all day for a delivery.’
