Page 4 of Christmas Spirits

The crack opened more, and a shadow passed behind it—an eager spirit, ready to jump out the moment it could.

Panicked, I leaped into the room. “Stop it! Stop it now!”

Every pair of eyes whirled on me. Some of the girls screamed, frightened by my sudden appearance. But at least the chanting had ceased.

I looked up, noticing the glowing opening shrinking and melding back together.

“Who are you?” a short but stocky guy asked, the camera hanging off his forehead swaying with his every movement.

I said nothing until the hole was fully patched and the air returned to its normal density and temperature. God, that was close.

“Is she a cop?” the brunette who had spoken earlier asked her friends.

Everyone was staring at me with confusion and annoyance. Especially the male whose question I’d ignored. He stepped toward me and repeated his question.

“Who are you? And why are you here? This is a private meeting,” he said.

“I-I—” Still stunned by what I had witnessed and the sudden danger we were almost in, I couldn’t find my words. It’s not like I could have explained it either. Not without revealing myself, what I was, and a big part of the supernatural world to these humans.

“Brock…” The brunette came to his side and touched his arm. Her voice lowered but still trembled with fear. “What if she’s the law? I can’t get arrested, Brock. I can’t. My mom will kill me.”

Despite her attempt to whisper, I could hear her loud and clear, and from the sound of it, she was worried about the police crashing their investigation. Meaning, they weren’t supposed to be here.

I could pretend to be an undercover or off-duty officer and demand they leave, but wasn’t that illegal? Impersonating law enforcement? I’m pretty sure it was.

If only Jade was here. She’d know how to handle this.

“I am the buyer of this property, actually.” The words flew from my mouth before they had time to register in my mind. When they hit me, I knew I had to run with it, as silly as it sounded. Being the buyer of a money pit like this was logical, right?

When Brock’s brow raised skeptically, I pulled out my cell phone and waved it at him for good measure. “I’d hate to have to call the cops right now and get you all arrested for trespassing.”

That was convincing enough for the other members of the group. They spun around and began taking down their various pieces of equipment, but Brock was unmoved. He stared me down with narrowed eyes. He may have been younger than me, but that didn’t make him any less intimidating. The moment I showed a smidge of hesitation or weakness, he would pounce on my lie.

“Don’t let this punk bully you.”I could hear Jade’s voice bouncing around in my head as loud as if she were standing right next to me. It was something she would say whenever a spirit would harass me.

My friend wasn’t here now. I was on my own.

Guess I had to follow Jade’s lead and handle this how she would.

“You’re on private property,” I said and met his gaze. “That’s trespassing, breaking and entering… possibly even disturbing the peace, depending on the officer’s mood.” I held my phone up and pretended to dial in a fictional number.

Outside the house, the wails of a police car echoed from a neighboring street. Right on cue.

Finally, the hardness on his face cracked, worry leaking in.

“Fine. We’ll go,” he said. “We don’t need trouble.”

I smiled as Brock joined the others in cleaning up their things and starting to bring it all to the truck. Waiting on the sidewalk, I watched as they loaded everything up. Since my detour had already taken too much time and I didn’t want to stay much longer, I turned to the kids and said, “I’ll have a car pass through here in twenty minutes. That should be plenty of time to clear out.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll be gone,” the brunette from before said as she climbed into the back seat.

“And maybe consider a new hobby?” I suggested.

She nodded and slammed the door shut. Two other girls from G. O. A. T. joined her in the back through the opposite side.

Feeling like I’d efficiently gotten my point across, I walked away. That situation could have ended far worse if I hadn’t stopped them. Those college kids had no idea what they were doing. They had been unknowingly opening a portal to Hell. Who knows what terrible creatures could have crawled through. The supernatural was never something to play with. People could have died tonight.

I shook the thought out of my head as I continued down the sidewalk, toward home. Just thinking about the real danger of the situation made me nauseous. I told myself I’d managed to stop it and that was all that mattered. It was over now.

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