Page 16 of Squad Ghouls

“I don’t think there’s an off-ramp even if I threw myself from the vehicle.”

I tilted my head. “Huh?”

Ryan sighed. “That means lead the way.”

I grinned and took his hand, eagerly pulling him along and rattling off my thoughts from earlier. Ryan watched me recite them with an expression of what must have been pure delight, but for some reason made him look like a creature drowning slowly and painfully.

Peculiar.

“Andrew’s room is here, but you won’t see him much. He’s very shy.” I kept my voice low and gentle.

Ryan snorted. “Is he a feral cat? Does the ghost need to be coaxed?”

“Are you a feral dog? You’re barking at everything for no reason.”

Ryan’s jaw dropped and he glared at me, stepping closer. I stepped forward as well, not really knowing why, but feeling like that was what I was supposed to do to seem intimidating. Maybe.

It ended up putting us toe to toe, and when Ryan slowly leaned down, nose to nose. I fought to keep my eyes straight and not to go cross-eyed, because I was great at staring contests if he wanted to challenge me to one.

Ryan had an unfair advantage though, because he smelled really good this close, even with the flour-y top note. It was something purely masculine that made my blood heat up and my heart race with excitement. Also, did I mention that he really was hunk.com? Because he was. And his stubble growing in was rugged and distracting. And his eyes were a deep shade of blue that was pretty and distracting. And the way he was now staring at my mouth was breathtaking and distracting. And—

“We’re going this way, idiot!”

“No. We’re going this way, moron!”

The bickering voices interrupted our stare-down. My face was hot when I turned to see the ghostly forms of Harri and Larri tugging each other in opposite directions at the end of the hallway. The ghostly chains that bound them eternally together rattled in protest but wouldn’t budge an inch in either direction.

“I curse the day we died. I wish we could die all over again so I could make sure I was nowhere near you,” Harri complained, trying with all his ghostly might to yank his lanky body forward.

“Ditto!” Larri spat back through gritted teeth, his squat frame straining the other way.

“Oh, how intelligent. Attaching yourself to my words, just like you attached yourself to my afterlife!” Harri said over his shoulder.

Larri met his stare with a burning one of his own. “Me?”

“You’re the one who got us into this mess in the first place!”

“I got us into this mess?” Larri scoffed. “Whose bright idea was it to take out all that money from those loan sharks, huh?”

“But you’re the one who came up with a ‘brilliant plan’ to get us out of it. And now look at us, genius!” Harri yanked their chains.

Larri yanked back. “It would have worked if you’d just listened for once in your miserable existence!”

“We ended up at the bottom of the River Solva!”

“Well excuse me. I was just trying to solve our problems.”

“When have you ever solved anything?” Harri bellowed as he stopped tugging. “You keep trying to help and it always backfires and I HATE it!”

"Well I hate that you keep moving that damn urn everywhere you go but here I am," Larri said. "Sneezing and keeping my mouth shut about it."

"Was I around for the mouth shut part? Must have missed it!" Harri picked up a dangling chain and tried to wrap it around Larri’s neck.

They began to struggle with each other, each trying to get the upper hand, and I laughed uneasily, glancing over to see Ryan’s baffled expression.

“They’re just joking,” I said, tugging at the collar of my turtleneck as Larri began to choke.

“Can ghosts kill each other?” Ryan asked.