Everyone frowned, but Michelle’s expression cleared as she opened her laptop and began typing. “How uncommon would that be?”
“But it fits, right? The sudden gain in strength, the poltergeist activity, the silence of the other ghosts, the hate, the violence, it adds up,” I replied.
“God, yes. They need a trigger object to manifest,” Michelle added, scouring whatever she was looking at.
“It will get stronger now it’s been noticed.”
“Yes, until it’s uncontrollable,” Michelle agreed.
“Would someone like to explain?” Haunt drawled as everyone else looked on in amusement.
“An energy ghoul has to be one of the rarest types of haunting. It’s kind of like a filament but worse. A lot worse. Basically, it’s the spirit of someone who experienced a traumatic death. But they were so shocked that they returned weak. Nobody can see or hear them; they can’t move items and are literally ignored.
“The Ghoul tragically goes through life like this unless they get a shock of energy or someone notices them. A trigger object might also give them a jolt of energy. But once they get that, and if it’s strong enough, they can begin draining energy from the surrounding spirits. When they’ve done that, those spirits become like the former state of the energy ghoul. But that doesn’t bother the ghoul, it’s focus is on surviving,” Michelle said.
Callie pursed her lips. “It will feed on human energy, so strong emotions strengthen it. Fear, terror, hate, shock, all feed it and make it grow further. Finally, it will become virtually unstoppable. There was an instance in Rome when priests encountered a fully fledged energy ghoul. It took forty of them to stop it and move it over; thirteen died from the effort.”
Haunt
“What?” I gasped, not liking those odds.
“This is worse than some demons,” Michelle agreed.
“This can kill people?” I demanded.
“Yeah. And won’t hold back.”
“And you think this is what we have?” Lich growled out, looking worried.
“Yes. The entity fits all descriptions of one,” Callie stated.
“How do we defeat this? We can’t let it roam free,” I asked without hesitation.
Approval shone in Callie’s eyes.That’s right, darlin’, we’re up for a fight.
“First off, we need to understand how it was triggered. Did someone spot something and transfer energy to it, or did they find a trigger object?” Michelle answered.
“Call Angela. There’s no doubt that either Chauncey or Gloria did this. I bet they did something that set this energy ghoul off. Then I reckon they expected Angela would call them back and ask them to solve it. In other words, they were convinced they could manage this,” Sunny remarked.
“Ain’t arguing. It’s three a.m. and way too early to call Angela. We gotta examine these rooms carefully for anything unusual,” I remarked.
“Already did, but maybe teams should swap around? Someone might spot something that others missed,” Reaver suggested. I nodded; that made sense.
Damn, we had a lead after all.
“What happens when we find the trigger? You said thirteen priests died destroying one,” Suga inquired.
“That one was huge. This is just the beginning, its strong but still gaining power. We should be able to handle it,” Michelle replied.
“Michelle, no offence, I don’t like ‘should’. Let’s try to make that a definite,” I replied.
“There are things we can do, Haunt, to strengthen and protect us. We’re not naïve. Lucky, let’s get our heads together and check the stock levels. We’re going to need to bulk up on protection charms, salt and holy water,” Michelle said to Lucky, who nodded.
“I’ll stay with Callie,” Sunny said as Michelle and Lucky wandered off.
I began to split the teams, but a large scream burst through the Inn, followed by several wails and then a loud screech.
“No! I will not allow…”
