Misery County

Chapter 8 - Part 4

Found it! She had her secret weapon in her hand, and just in time too. The phantom was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairwell, evidently oblivious to her plan. As Cassie approached, its mouth opened wide and a horrible screech came out of it. She could feel the sound waves pounding into her rhythmically, but it didn't matter – she now had the ghost exactly where she wanted it.

Calming her nerves and steadying her hand, Cassie took the ofuda she'd just fished out of her handbag and pressed it against the phantom's forehead. The screeching stopped, and for a moment, the ghost's face wasn't wearing an expression of pure rage. Instead, it seemed almost mournful – almost human. With not a sound, the phantom began to dissipate. How much of its form was physical was a question far too deep for Cassie to answer, but whatever it was made of was now dissolving and floating away in a brilliant light. As it lit up the house, Cassie could almost see a glimpse of its past splendor, but that didn't last long – it disappeared. The haunting was over, and this time she had done it on her own. She couldn't wait to tell Eric about this.

More than that, she thought as she made her way down the hallway toward the back door, she was itching to hear Eric's opinion on what the burned corpse in the front room could be. The bookcase was still blocking the way out, but without otherworldly forces holding it in place, Cassie could easily push it out of the way and leave through the busted back door.

The sky greeted her wearing a deep, murky blue from the west. The sun had set, but it wasn't completely dark yet. Having grown accustomed to working in the early night – a busy time for monsters – Cassie could appreciate the view better than most people could.

A darting figure caught her attention from the corner of her eye, and this time it was no ghost. A coyote had come to see the action, it seemed.

"Hello there, cutie pie," Cassie called out to it. After the abominations she'd been dealing with over the past few days, it was nice to see a creature of a very different type – a more friendly one.

The coyote looked around, then back at Cassie.

"Come on. Come over here," she cooed, kneeling down with her hand held out.

The animal seemed unsure, and not just by its movements – it almost seemed to have a hesitant expression on its face. It must just be a trick of the light, Cassie thought.

"That's all right. You don't have to come over," she said to it. "I know you're feeling scared. I was feeling quite scared too not too long ago. Did you know there was a ghost in this house?"

The coyote's ears perked up, almost like it understood.

"Well, not anymore," Cassie continued. "The evil or confused or whatever-emotion-it-was-feeling spirit in this place is no more. Please, hold the applause."

The coyote grinned from ear to ear, its tongue lolling out as if it was a normal, happy dog.

"So yeah, tell all your friends. Missouri County is being made safer one monster at a time. I've still got a long way to go, but we'll get there."

Cassie knew that she should have felt stupid, but she didn't. There was no one around to see her talking to a wild coyote anyway, but who knows, now that the haunting was no more, maybe a new family can move back into the house and breathe some life into it. How people would know that the haunting was over was another story, but Cassie figured it wasn't her problem.

"It was nice talking to you, little friend, but I've got to get going now. I'm going to find my buddy, Eric, and bring him back here so that he can take a look at the weird crispy corpse I found in there."

Its tongue retreating back into its mouth, the coyote now turned its head to its side with that last piece of news.

"What's wrong? Too much information?" Cassie laughed.

Apparently she was right, because after a moment of contemplation, the coyote turned around and ran down the street at a speed that she didn't even know they could reach.

"Now let's just hope that Eric doesn't react the same way when I ruin his little date," she said out loud to no one in particular.