In This Together

Chapter Six

They weren't ready. When it came down to it, Luke and Delaney were completely out of their league. The ghost hunt had gone off without a hitch, that wasn't the problem. They probably didn't even need as many people there as they had.

They headed out in the afternoon, getting to the church as the dark was settling over the town. The ghost was most active at night, so it made sense. Maggie provided a few things for them to arm themselves with. Salt, iron, and the advice to stay calm; the ghost would be more active, more violent if it could feed off of their negative emotions.

"What's the salt and iron for," Luke asked.

"Purity," the older woman explained. "It won't get rid of a ghost, but it can stop them for a while."

"So how do we find it, how do we get rid of it?" Delaney asked, wanting to get down to business.

"Like Kate said: fire. We find which grave belongs to this ghost, we dig up the body, and we burn the bones."

"We do what?" Luke practically shouted.

"It's how you get rid of ghosts, it forces them to move on." Maggie cast a wary look at Howell. He knew that fact best of all.

"Doesn't seem right to do that to do that to a body," Luke said quietly, but he let the topic drop.

After some searching, they found what could only be the right grave. The headstone had toppled over, cracked right down the middle.

"Something as simple as this can make a spirit attack people?" Delaney said with a snort.

Luke smacked him in the arm. "Could you at least be a little respectful to the dead?"

"But yes," Maggie said, "it can be something as simple as this."

"This is too easy," Kate sighed, pulling long hair back into a pony tail. She picked up a shovel and got to work digging.

That's when the night started to get messier, and not just because there was dirt flying everywhere. If the ghost hadn't liked its headstone being broken, it definitely didn't like the entire grave being dug up.

The spirit materialized without anyone realizing it until Jamie went tumbling to the side, pressing a hand to his cheek. He checked his fingers. No blood, but there were raised welts across his face; scratch marks. And there she was. If you had seen her from afar, you might have mistaken her for a normal, middle aged woman, but up close like they were, you could see she wasn't quite all there. She was smudgy around the edges, her skin didn't look quite right, and there was inhuman anger in her facial expressions, her movements.

"Keep shoveling," Howell ordered Kate and Maggie. "Luke, grab the salt, try to make a ring around the grave, she shouldn't be able to cross it."

Jamie, Delaney, and Howell armed themselves with an assortment of iron weapons; crowbars, fire pokers. It might have been almost comical if it weren't for the situation they were in.

"If you see her, start swinging," Howell instructed. Delaney wasn't sure what that was going to do—she was a ghost, wouldn't it go right through her?—until he actually had to defend himself. It did go right through her, but it also broke up her form, giving them time to dig while she tried to materialize again.

Luke was doing his best to make a circle, but that was hard to do not only in grass but with the wind constantly blowing the salt around. He was shouted at when the ghost managed to break past the boys, knocking Kate to the ground.

"Abigail!" Luke shouted. The ghost paused, her form flickering like the name hurt her almost as much as the iron. "Abigail Marshall," he said, quieter this time. Behind the ghost, Jamie raised his poker to strike her but Howell grabbed his wrist to stop him, instead handing him a shovel.