Page 69 of Squad Ghouls

“A smart one,” Barth the puppet said, flapping its mouth at him.

“But didn’t you say at the start that this was the tale of how he died? How is that smart? Or pirate-like?”

“Shhh!” Adriana hissed at Seth. “Stop ruining the show, you idiot. I’m invested.”

I walked away, pulling out my EMF reader. With the ghosts all concentrated on that side of the house, I might be able to get a reading.

My equipment led me outside into the cold darkness, faint static on the spirit machine sounding like words I had trouble making out.

“Lock it…away.”

“Hide.”

“Hide what?” I asked into the machine. “What are you trying to hide?”

Static was my only response. I walked around a little more, holding the machine up, until I felt a chill creep up my spine.

I spun around and startled at the familiar spectral shape in the distance. I hadn’t even noticed him through the fog. “Andrew?” I called.

He paused for a second before he turned around to face me. “R-Ryan.”

“What are you doing out here?” I asked, carefully stepping closer. “I didn’t take you for the outdoorsy type.”

He swallowed visibly, an action that must have been left over from living. “I felt something off,” he whispered, shaking.

I felt vindicated in my paranoia. “You felt it too?”

Andrew avoided eye contact with me but nodded.

“I caught something on the spirit reader, but I couldn’t really make sense of it. Something about hiding.”

Andrew whipped his head up. I must have imagined him looking paler, you know, since he was see-through. “You heard that?”

I nodded. “Something’s probably sneaking around under our noses. We should keep our eyes peeled.”

“Right,” Andrew said shakily. He wasn’t the bravest, after all, even already dead. It was in a different vein to Barth’s brash cowardice though. Andrew’s was reclusive and quiet.

“Can ghosts sense other ghosts? Can you tell when an unfamiliar one is around?” I asked. “By their energy or something?”

“It’s hard to tell when so many ghosts are gathered in one place.”

I pursed my mouth. “A perfect hiding spot.”

“I-I guess. But why would they want to hide?”

“Not sure.” I hummed. “Whatever unfinished business is their business as long as they don’t make it my business. They can hang out under the cover of ghost for all I care, but as soon as they mess with Owain, all bets are off.”

“You’re really serious about helping, then?” Andrew asked. “Even though it’s not what you were sent here to do.”

“I’m taking some liberties with company time and policy, but it still falls under the umbrella of ‘getting rid of ghosts’ so technically I’m just doing my job.”

Andrew snorted, upper lip curling slightly. “I bet your boss loves that.”

“I mean…he’s a boss…” I shrugged because most people I worked for gave little to no shits about the workers. But maybe Andrew had had a more bitter experience than most in his living life.

“Is he, though?” Andrew asked.

“You sound like you know him,” I joked.