Page 78 of Purrfectly Haunted

Lana is still fighting off the two entities, while Shirley is trying to keep her guts in.

My voice is getting louder and louder as I give momentum to the Greek words. The ghost’s attention is on me, and I’m shaking in my boots, but then James shoots at his back with his PolterPulse.

“Hey, you motherfucker! I’m here too!”

The blue zaps hit the monster in the back, and he shudders, becoming more substantial.

What used to be Earl Lynch turns to James, motion unnaturally fluid. “You... little... pest...”

He throws a long arm out and James fails to dodge the attack. The entity’s claws leave three gashes along his left brow and cheek, just missing his eye, and his mask is torn away.

I shout, spell forgotten, as blood gushes over James’ face. This can’t be happening, I think. Ghosts aren’t supposed to hurt us like this.

Poltergeists can touch us, but they aren’t supposed to deal real physical damage.

But somehow, this one just did.

James wipes the blood from his face and shoots again. The monster laughs as the next zaps hit his chest. It seems to barely inconvenience him. As he’s about to float above the chasm, attention solely on James, I realise how dangerous this is. If he can deal physical damage, he’ll kill him. He’ll kill James.

No.

I jump at him and grab Earl Lynch from behind in a hold I learned in rugby. At first, I think my arms are going to just pass through him, like any other ghost, but as I focus I can feel him. I can touch him through the veil, just like he can touch us. He’s as slimy as he looks, and phantom fluid drips around my arms.

“I banish you!” I scream. “Go away, you are not welcome here! This house is our dominion, and you are not welcome!”

The ghost swivels into my arms, like the neck of an owl, and he backhands me so hard my vision darkens and I let go. I find myself on the ground moments later a few feet away.

James throws a fistful of salt from his pocket at the entity. This finally seems to do something and Earl Lynch lets out a sickening sound halfway between a groan and a howl.

Then he raises a clawed hand and the glowing spores twirl around it before flying towards James. They engulf his body, and he coughs. He no longer has his mask. What will the toxic spores do to him if he gets exposed for too long?

The monster leans over me, two black eyes barely visible through the oily darkness of him. “You... fools... this house... is... mine!” He reaches for my own mask and I scramble back, trying to get out of reach.

That’s when a pitiful scream comes out of Meredith, the ghost whose remains we stole. She’s convulsing and floating towards us. “Fergus... Fergus...” cries the old lady in a nightdress. “Help me...”

Behind her, Agnes has also turned her attention to the monster. Lana is dragging Shirley out of the room with the help of the cats. They're both covered in blood.

The ghost of Earl Lynch turns to his mother. Her form is wavering as her remains keep burning. Soon, her old bones will turn to ashes.

She reaches for him and he does something that freezes the blood in my veins. He grabs her by the shoulders and bites down on her head with a giant mouth filled with sharp teeth.

In front of our very eyes, Early Lynch devours the ghost of his mother.

He seems to glow for a moment once her pitiful cries have stopped. He just... ate the other spirit.

Agnes lets out a broken scream, blood gushing out of her mouth as she attacks the monster she kept prisoner for over a century in the foundations of the house.

But she, too, is no match for him now that he’s free.

What have we done? I wonder briefly as we watch him capture the second ghost and devour her, too. Agnes gives a good fight, and he has to bite down a few times before she truly dissipates. Her glow disappears inside him, her soul sucked away. The slimy monster seems to grow larger.

Then he turns to me.

“Come... Through... you... I’ll...live... again...” he says, floating towards me.

James is calling my name from the other side of the chasm, on his knees. He’s coughing blood.

I try to escape, but the ghost is faster and stronger. He grabs me by the throat, and I’ve never known such fear in my entire life. What will happen to me when he eats my soul?