Page 13 of Purrfectly Haunted

Ewan follows me dutifully outside, then up the stairs and to our cramped room.

I wait until he has closed the door behind us before falling on my bed. “Well then, we need a plan of action for tonight.” I make the grabby hands motion, and Ewan looks confused for a moment. “Lana's notebook.”

“Oh! Sorry.” He pulls it out of his bag, alongside the ExorSquad handbook.

I leaf through the notebook and open it to the page about the grabby ghost from the communal showers. “The Urchin is a boy who was around age eight or nine when he drowned in the Water of Leith during the winter of 1795,” I read. “He was a child of the streets, a thief and a survivor, but he crossed the wrong people and they threw him in the river. Holy shit, that’s depressing. Due to the matter of his death, he seems to have a proficiency with water. He’s the one who did water damage to the second floor a few months ago.”

Ewan fumbles with the ExorSquad handbook. “There’s a chapter about the different kinds of entities. There are five levels. I think... I think he’s a level four. These spirits can manifest and interact with the physical world. They draw energy from what killed them...”

“Great,” I deadpan. “So he draws energy from the entire river crossing Edinburgh?”

“I think so...”

“Marvellous. Do they say how we’re supposed to banish the ghosts?”

I wait patiently as Ewan checks the other chapters of the handbook.

“We can set fire to the remains to weaken their connection to the material world,” he says.

I sigh. “He drowned in the river, so I doubt his remains are just lying around here. Anything else?”

“We can help resolve whatever is the cause of him staying after death. The handbook says that sometimes investigating the murder satisfies them. Or we can also help them get in touch with loved ones...” he trails off when he sees my face.

“The kid died in the eighteenth century, I strongly doubt his murderers are still around. If we can find where they’re buried, maybe we can piss on their graves.”

Ewan looks horrified. “Wouldn’t that just anger more ghosts?”

I chuckle. “I was joking. We’re not pissing on anyone’s grave.” I pause, then add, “Yet,” just to tease him.

Ewan paces our small room for a moment. He placed his air mattress along the wall. “We could always ask him?”

“Ask him,” I repeat.

“A—aye. Maybe he’ll tell us why he’s still here, and what we can do to help him move on.” He flops on the ground in front of me.

I hum. “Sure. Let’s ask the monster under the bed why he’s grabbing ankles.” I snort. “Let’s see what we have at our disposal.”

I grab my ExorSquad-issued bag and empty it on the floor at our feet. There is, of course, the PolterPulse we used last night, the EMF meter, and the S-TRK monitor to read the temperature map of the room. I discard these, they were pretty useless. There is also a small device labelled ECH000, but it looks like it’s only a small speaker box to amplify voices from the dead.

I sigh. “I guess we’ll use the guns again. We just have to remember that they’re unreliable at best. We’ll improvise. Does the handbook talk about the actual risks of facing a poltergeist? I want to know what we’re up against.”

Ewan looks reticent to find the answer, so I grab the book from his hands and find the chapter about the different levels of entities. “It says here that level three and above can touch and interact with the material world, thus can cause some extent of physical damage. Bruises, mostly, but it can be deadly if they interact with objects and cause an accident. Beware of being pushed from great heights,” I read.

“The Urchin touched me last night,” Ewan says.

“Touch you... where?”

He flushes. “My leg!”

“Hey, the kid is hanging around communal showers. He could be a pervert.”

Ewan groans. “Please, let’s not imagine ghosts can be perverts. I’ll never be able to shower again without picturing them lurking in the walls, watching me.”

I snort. “Ignorance is bliss.” I keep on reading. “The most powerful spirits can also manipulate the emotions of the living, and sometimes even possess their bodies. Peachy. Well then, we’ll need to stay together and have each other’s back with the guns. We can’t let the little shit get his hands on us.” I drop the handbook on the bed.

We spend the rest of the afternoon wandering the hostel, talking with the staff and witnessing the guests' interest for the ghosts. With October approaching, Lana has her employees setting up the Halloween decorations all over the house. They ask for Ewan’s help a few times, his height being quite the advantage to hang garlands on the walls and lanterns above doors. We all ogle him as he stretches his body, muscular arms bulging.

I’m right, we’re all perverts.