Page 96 of Real Fake Hauntings

“And be careful.”

The seriousness in his tone made me regret I’d told him to go check Bosko’s shop instead of getting him over here. Attaching myself to his solid presence sounded like a great idea right now. “I’ll try my very best.”

I ended the call and stared at the finger for a few long moments before shaking myself out of my stupor. Evidence to hide, evil witches to catch.

“Stay. Do not lick the blood or the finger,” I told Fluffy sternly. I slipped into the staff room and tore off a square of kitchen paper towel to mask my fingerprints as I rummaged around for plastic bags. After I found one and a freezer bag, I made sure to wipe all the handles I’d touched in the hallway, then returned to the closet of horrors. Fluffy was still sitting where I’d left her, so I gave her a fast scritch for being such a good girl.

Crouching by the bottom of the closet, I studied the white-grayish finger. For a morbid second, I wondered if it was part of Crane’s right hand, the one I’d shaken a couple of weeks back.

Fluffy, deciding that maybe this was a delicious sausage from the way I was staring at it, attempted to sniffle closer.

“No, Fluffy.” I gently moved her head away. “No eating the dead man’s finger with possible vestige of evil dark witch. It’ll cause you indigestion.”

Using the paper towel again, I went for the appendage.

Good Mother Earth but this was Weird, capital W intended.

Squirming, I picked up the finger and all but threw it into the freezer bag. There. Done.

Relieved that was dealt with, I closed the bag and went to put it in… Where? Ian’s jacket pocket? No, that was weird. My skirt’s pocket? That sounded awful. The dog walking bag, then.

Silently apologizing to Fluffy and Rufus, I unzipped the bag and dropped the finger inside.

I’d have to wash that with bleach and double cycle in the washing machine back home.

The rest of the spell was much easier to dispose of. I scraped everything into the other plastic bag, then tied it up tightly. This one wouldn’t fit in my pockets or the dog walking bag, so I’d drop it in a trashcan outside. The important bit was to get the finger out—nobody would think twice about some dirt.

Carefully, I made it back upstairs and back to the front door. A new group was gathered there, and another guide was going through the introduction speech, so I waited until they’d advanced into the first parlor before approaching the guy on duty at the door.

“Leaving already?” he asked.

“Yeah, I only needed to check something.”

“Cool.”

“You see anyone weird come in tonight?”

He gave me a look over. “Weird how?”

“Anyone acting shifty?”

His expression cleared. “Nah, not yet. We usually get a couple of those late at night when they get drunk and think they’re going to pull a prank on us.”

Since the witch had turned Crane into portable pieces, they probably had bought a ticket and come inside with a group, then slipped away to do the spell with none the wiser. It was a busy day; nobody had likely gone into the staff room or the office for hours.

I thanked the man and hurried toward the guardian at the gates. The sky was fully dark now, making the house all the more creepy. Or maybe it was the fact that I was carrying a finger in my dog walking bag.

The woman at the gates didn’t have much information to give me, either. Nobody extra weird, and shifty types usually came later at night. Tickets were all sold online, even for spur-of-the-moment visitors.

I could’ve tried to talk to the guides, but I didn’t want to waste their time. Jim would never allow me to stop the tour to ask questions, and I had a dark witch to catch.

Time to break into the Cabinet of Curiosities’ secret room.

TWENTY-NINE

I set off at a fast pace, Fluffy happily trotting by my side. I dropped the plastic bag with the soil into a not-yet-overflowing trashcan a couple of streets away and brought out my phone.

First, a fast text to Dru telling her things had escalated and I wouldn’t make it to the shop to help and to close if it got too overwhelming.

---