He blows out a breath. “Right. Tea or coffee?”
“Regular coffee is fine. Thank you.”
“Sure thing.”
I watch him walk down the hallway to where I presume his kitchen is. Once he’s gone, I trudge up the stairs, ready to face the Horror. I didn’t think I needed to warn my target not to contact the spirit world alone. I figured he’d have his medium present to help, but apparently he’s a brave one.
The bedroom door is closed, but it rattles the closer I get. When I open it and step across the threshold, a shiver moves through me. The room is freezing, indicating the Horror’s growing strength. Instead of the swirling mass I saw earlier, it’snow more fully formed, almost looking like the man it used to be, but still translucent.
“Hello, again. Let’s have a chat, shall we?” I remove my leather gloves slowly, ignoring the pulsating presence above me. “You’re not supposed to be here, and you know it.”
The Horror reacts with a growl and spreads itself across the ceiling.
“You can be mad all you want, but you don’t scare me. It’s my job to get rid of you and that’s what I plan to do.”
Reaching into my pocket, I pull out a small satchel containing one of my favorite spells. It’s my go-to since it helps with communication between us. To banish the Horror, I need it to acknowledge its underworld name, and it can’t do that if it can’t speak directly to me yet. I’m not interested in waiting around for it to fully manifest.
I open the satchel and gather a handful of the powder inside, blowing it into the air as I chant the words “Locere nunc”—“speak now” in Latin.
The Horror reacts calmly, as they often do when receiving this spell, unknowingly helping me with my complicated task, solidifying in a way that makes it easier to detect its formerly human features. It slides from the ceiling to the floor, glancing down at its almost fully formed body.
“Ready to talk?” I ask.
It looks up at me, a snarl forming on its lips. “Get out.” Its voice is ghostly and faint, but I’ve spent years practicing how to hear it well.
“No can do, my wicked friend. You go first. I insist.”
It blinks slowly at me, flickering in and out of sight. “Where is my son?”
“Downstairs.” I remove my trench coat and lay it on the bed. “But that’s not important right now. You don’t belong here. It’s time to go.”
The Horror tilts its head, looking me up and down. “You can’t make me.”
“Actually, I can.”
As I expected, the Horror doesn’t plan to go easily. I’ll likely have to use my strangle technique, but I’ll keep that one in my pocket in case other tactics fail.
“This will be a lot easier if you cooperate.”
The Horror chuckles, pulsing with eerie gray light. “Even easier if you leave.”
With a flash, it darts across the room, pressing against a window. Dammit.
“I have some news for you,” the Horror continues. “Thanks to my son, I have a lot more help.”
My brow crinkles. “What do you mean…?”
Before the words are fully out of my mouth, the ceiling fills with ghostly spirits seeping out of the drywall. There must be a dozen of them.
“How about a game of hide and go seek?” the Horror taunts. “I’ll hide, and you go fuck yourself.”
With that, it disappears from sight as the other spirits descend, reaching out to grab me. Thinking quickly, I dart out of the room, slamming the door behind me and hoping they won’t follow me.
I hurry down the stairs, looking for Keagan, and find him in the kitchen sitting at a small table by the window. He’s staring up at the ceiling, his eyes wide and his breathing heavy. I follow his gaze, my heart sinking when I see what he’s looking at. They followed.
“Keagan?”
“What’s happening right now?”
