Page 48 of Monstrous Travels as Wicked as Sin

“I want to kiss you.” And Percy leaned across before Joe could argue, both adoring the other’s smile they felt beneath their lips. Meanwhile, the glass slipped from under their fingers, went flying across the room, and smashed against the wall, raining a thousand tiny shards into a puff of cremated dead.

“Homophobic ghosts?” asked Percy, watching the brown cloud settle.

“You are such a shit,” Joe mumbled. He grabbed the next glass and plonked it down, putting his séance voice back on. “Is there anyone in the room right now who would like to communicate with us via this here spirit board?”

The glass slid to YES.

Joe smiled, Percy watched him with a healthy touch of anxiety, and Joe asked, “Who are you?”

The glass scuffed along the old floor, scraping over the carved letters.

H E L P

Shifting forward a little, Joe spoke again. “We will. That’s why we’re here. Where are you?”

H O U S E

“Helpful,” Percy muttered.

Joe spared him a scowl, then said, “What’s your name?”

H E L P

“I can. Listen to me. I need to know where your… uh…” He broke off, unsure how to break the news of having been dismembered to the spirit.

Percy offered, “It knows, Joe.”

“Right.” Joe nodded, licked his lips, then pushed on as gently as possible. “If you’re talking to me through this board, you must know… you’re…”

“Dead, darling.”

“Hmm. Yes.” He cleared his throat. “You must know you’re dead. And I need to find your body to help you.”

H E L P

“Do you know where your body is?”

H O U S E

“Is it in the ceiling?”

H E L P

Percy leaned in close to the glass, and spoke louder than he had so far, addressing the spirit. “Who killed you?”

The glass moved smoothing and unerringly.

C L E O

That same unsettling feeling—that same something that Percy had felt earlier that afternoon—raised itself in a tingle about his shoulders and the back of his neck. “Cleo, and who else?”

“What?” Joe whispered, but the glass slid back across the floor.

C L E O

“This isn’t right,” said Percy.

But all the while, the letters were being touched by the glass, splitting Joe’s attention between Percy’s mumbled words and the board.

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