Page 49 of Soulbound Shadows: Part 2

“Bad news?”

“Bad news is that this place might not have any of its old magic left, but there’s definitely some magical bullshit going on.”

“And the good news?” Gabriel asked.

“The good news is that whoever you heard isn’t in this particular stairwell,” I said. “Which means I can give us enough light.”

That was when we heard the giggle, and my heart dropped to my stomach.

“You’re wrong!” said a voice. It was high pitched and clearly young, just on the wrong side of grating. “I’m right here, silly!”

17

EVANGELINE

The girl slowly became visible. Even though she was mostly translucent, I could tell she had freckles and a short tangle of hair that was probably meant to be a tidy bob but stuck up in every direction. She sat on the handrail of the landing above us, kicking her shiny school shoes in the air. Her outfit looked like a school uniform, although she’d swapped out the skirt for a pair of knickerbockers that were somehow muddy even in the spectral realm. She leered down at us, the expression made ghastlier by the way my light hit her from below.

She didn’t move toward us, though. I took a second to study her. Her horrible expression didn’t seem like it was anything malicious, more like the sort of hammy creepiness a certain sort of little girl loved. This little girl just happened to be a ghost.

Gabriel stepped forward and dipped a shallow bow toward the kid. “Please forgive us, spirit,” he said. “We had no intention of trespassing on your territory. Any misdeed we have committed against you was the result of ignorance, not malice, and I sincerely hope?—”

The loud fart sounds the girl made with her mouth drowned out his words and echoed around the stairwell.

“Thhbptthbt THBBBPFTTTT!” she finished with a flourish.

Gabriel and I exchanged a glance.

“Nice,” I told her. “Really… Really wet sounding.”

“Thank you,” she said primly. “I’ve been practicing.”

“And it shows,” Gabriel replied politely. He clearly hadn’t been around many kids because he was treating the ghost like a small, confusing adult.

“I’m Evangeline, and this is Gabriel,” I told the kid. “What’s your name?”

“Merri. What are you doing here? This place is gross and soooo boring. There’s nothing to do except look at bugs, and none of them are even poisonous or giant.” She floated down toward us and settled cross-legged in the middle of the open air between the staircases.

“We’re here to see if anything weird is going on,” I said. “Have you seen anything weird? You seem like you’d keep an eye out.”

Merri narrowed her eyes. “What’s it worth to you?”

It was always tough to meet a kid who reminded you so strongly of how you used to be that they made you realize just how much you must have annoyed everyone around you. It felt like looking into a mirror without realizing it was a magnifying one, and being jump-scared by your own pores.

“I might have some things to offer,” I said nonchalantly. “But I’d need more than intel. You’d have to let us out of this stairwell, too.”

Merri looked us both up and down with a calculating gaze. “Five magazines and two novels,” she said. “Spy or mystery ones. Lots of blood. Nothing mushy.”

“I think we can do better than that,” Gabriel said. “Excuse us for just a moment, please.”

He pulled me aside, although given how small the stairwell was, we couldn’t go far. Merri flipped onto her stomach and started humming, kicking her feet in the air.

“There was a specter at the citadel who could impact electronics,” he said. “He used to use the computers. Can all spirits do that, or is it a more niche skill?”

“Most of them can’t move much stuff around, but they can use touchscreens, and a few of them can charge up devices. It’s pretty cool.”

“Wonderful,” he said with a pleased smile that made me want to do extremely not-school-appropriate things to him. “Merri? If you let us out of this stairwell, help us avoid further traps, and tell us about anything odd you’ve seen, I will give you… this.” With a flourish, he pulled out his phone.

“I don’t need a little box,” Merri said dismissively.

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