Page 59 of Phobia

“More than likely. You have to do more than bid the spirit adieu. You must banish it.”

“How do we do that?” Larkin asked, ever the problem solver.

Dr. Corbin shrugged. “It depends. How gruesome do you want to get?”

“As gruesome as necessary,” Larkin replied without hesitating.

“For the fast and surefire way, dig up the corpse and pour salt over it before setting it on fire. Then rebury the remains in consecrated ground. Churchyards are usually best, but it can be any land sprinkled with some holy water. There may or may not be a perfect spot in the back corner of the Old Burying Ground here in Winslow that’s more or less shielded from the road, if someone had a vehicle with four-wheel drive.” He looked pointedly at Larkin.

Larkin swallowed thickly and gave a curt nod while I gaped at Dr. Corbin before spitting out, “Is there a slightlylessgruesome, not to mention illegal, option?”

Dr. Corbin considered it for a moment. “Halloween is almost here. I can write down a longer incantation to try, along with a cleansing ritual. That might be enough to solve your problem without doing anything drastic.”

“And if it doesn’t work?” Larkin asked as I slumped back in my chair, feeling less and less confident by the moment.

“I hope you know where the body is buried.” Dr. Corbin smiled. Behind him, the goat bleated in agreement.

Chapter 10

“Do you think he knows?” I asked after we were on the main road, headed back to Winslow, and far, far away from the huge, creepy house in the woods.

“Knows what?” Jamie asked, reading over Dr. Corbin’s weird shopping list for the tenth time.

“Abouthim? About what I did?”

“I doubt it. Even if he did, he’s the one who told us to dig up a corpse, which I’m sure is very illegal, even in Winslow. Not to mention that whole cemetery thing.”

“That’s the other problem—there’s nothing to dig up, remember? So if the magical weeds don’t work, then what?”

“Then I guess we’re taking a day trip back to Sunderland to look for some body parts.”

“I couldn’t ask you to do that.”

“You’re not asking me to do anything. We’re in this together.” Jamie gasped suddenly and braced against the dash with both hands. “Look out!”

My headlights flashed across something white in the roadway. I slammed on the brakes. The tires smoked and we skidded to a halt sideways in the road.

“What the fuck was that?” I asked, craning in my seat to check the dark pavement behind us. It was empty, except for a swirl of orange and brown leaves. “I don’t see anything.”

“It was him.” Jamie exhaled and ran a hand over his face, looking like a ghost himself.

“Next time, let me run his ass over.” I gradually pushed on the gas, resuming our drive, though I kept both hands on the wheel and a watchful eye on the rearview mirror, waiting for the sick bastard to pop out like the killer in a slasher film.

“I don’t know what happens if they touch someone who can’t see them. You might get hurt or possessed or something. The one time it happened to me, my arm was cold for over an hour.”

“Is that what Dr. Corbin meant by ‘inflicting damage’? I thought they just moved pictures and shit?” I snuck a glance at him out of the corner of my eye.

“Some do. Others can possess you. Even kill you, or get you to kill yourself, which is pretty much the same thing.” Jamie turned to look out the window, but the paper in his hand crinkled as he clutched it a little tighter.

At a loss for words, I took his other hand and squeezed it gently. Here I’d been harboring secrets from him and I never once stopped to think he’d have secrets of his own.

I was glad he finally told me, though. So much about our past fell into place with that bit of information. His reactions on field trips to museums and historic houses, how he hated ghost decorations in particular, and why he was so jumpy in the dark. It wasn’tjustHalloween and the PTSD from surviving my father. It wasn’t a lingering (and totally justified) paranoia that the monster would come back for him. No, it was so much more. My best friend was haunted, literally, by that night and he didn’t even feel comfortable enough to tell me.

A pang of failure wormed through my chest, like it was nothing more than a piece of rotten fruit.

“So what’s it like?” I asked quietly. If I was ever going to understand his ability, it seemed like I should start with the basics.

“Seeing ghosts?”