A Ghost in the Guest Room

Chapter 3

To my great surprise, nothing came rushing out of the bathroom to suck the life from our bodies.

Lockwood and I both let out a breath.

"Well, that was anticlimactic," I remarked.

We stepped into the guest bathroom, our faces bathed in the glow from the buzzing fluorescent lights. It smelled faintly of antiseptic.

The two of us were well-trained: immediately Lockwood used his Sight and I Listened. I heard nothing at first, though there was a low buzzing at the edge of my perception. Waiting for anything out of the ordinary, I rested my hands on the cheap tile counter.

Look, my Touch had been acting up at that point. When I used it, the memories would be so much more visceral and personal. Almost as if I were...becoming the person, in a way. It scared me, and I hadn't mentioned it to Lockwood for fear he would bench me. I couldn't risk staying home for cases, especially with his death wish. No, whatever happened, I'd keep it to myself.

So it was with no small amount of alarm that I closed my eyes and, upon opening them, had become a sad-eyed and willowy young woman. I was weeping, overcome with grief, the kind that left your lungs raw after screaming into the void. Through no communication, I knew that my--her-- brother had died. An image filled my head of a tall boy with the same dark hair and sad eyes that I saw in the mirror.

The grief was powerful. Whoever this girl was, she had never moved past her anger. It burned, a blaze in my head that would consume everything if left untamed. I had made up my mind. Whatever hell I would be sent to for ending my own life would be nothing compared to the fire that licked the inside of my skull. It had to end. Had to. If the cruel god who took my brother wouldn't take me, I'd spill the blood myself. 

All at once, I sat up. Me. Lucy Carlyle. Not the girl with the sad eyes. I was still alive. I took a heaving breath and extinguished the flames that had leapt from her mind to mine. 

I rose from the cold floor of the bathroom and straightened my skirt. "Well, I know what happened to the girl. Her bro-"

Lockwood cut me off. "I don't give a damn about the ghost, Lucy. What happened? One minute you were Listening, and the next you were out cold on the floor. What's going on?" he demanded. 

I waved him off. "Really, I'm fine, Lockwood. It's not a big deal. As I was saying, the girl lost her brother and committed suicide. My Sight isn't as good as yours but through my incredible powers of deduction, I'm betting there's a massive death-glow in the bathtub." I flashed a winning grin.

"Bingo," Lockwood replied begrudgingly.

"Well, there's our haunting! We'll just seal up the bathtub, have Greer remove the whole thing, take our pay, and-"

An earsplitting shriek cut me off. 

My earlier statement about Lockwood and I being well-trained was true in ninety percent of cases. However, the other ten percent comes to bite us at the most inconvenient moments. When the ghost started screaming this time, we two exemplary agents clamped our hands over our ears and ran for the circle.

We didn't get far: the ghost girl manifested right in our exit path. She was exactly as she had appeared in the psychic memory, billowing skirt and all. 

The bright figure rushed Lockwood. I hazarded a hand off my ear to pull out my rapier and give a pained swing at the girl. Unfortunately, all I managed was a glancing blow off her plasm. Letting out an unladylike oath, I shoved my rapier back into my belt and threw a salt-bomb at the ceiling.

The grains of salt fell like hail, burning green and igniting where they contacted the ghost girl. She fizzed and flickered out long enough for us to throw ourselves within the protective circle of chains. We both let out a sigh of relief, blowing out a shuddering breath.

"Well, there she is," I said as the girl reappeared beyond the iron. "The Source is most definitely the bathtub, so you distract her and I'll go in."

"Sounds good." Lockwood hesitated. "Luce...just be careful."

I gave him a funny look and took the first step over the chains. The ghost sped towards me but was met by Lockwood's rapier. Skidding inside the bathroom, I fumbled with a chain net. The links twinkled in the ugly fluorescent lights as I flicked it over the tub.

"That should do it!" I shouted over my shoulder.

There was no response from Lockwood.

I yelled again, my voice laced with fear. Panic gripped me as I moved to the bedroom and found Lockwood standing ghost-locked and vulnerable within reach of the ghost girl.