Page 89 of The Devil and His Ghost

“Don’t worry, Jonathan,” Kendyll appeased as the ghost started to fade in an effort to flee. “He’s friendly. Not a malevolent demon.”

“There’s no such thing,” Jonathan argued, staring at me skeptically.

I shrugged. “You’ve got a point.”

Bethelma was still asking Jonathan to do things and respond to her, clearly not knowing he had left the room. With no response in her devices, she dropped the act of a caring, talented medium and shouted at Kendyll through the cameras.

“Kendyll! Would you help me already? Make this spirit do something! He isn’t cooperating at all. Did you not talk to him? Huh? Are you listening to me, foolish girl?”

“She is an annoying woman,” Jonathan grumbled.

“Don’t worry,” I laughed. “I think I’ll go play ghost for a while.”

I disappeared and reappeared in the library, though I remained in the shadows, hidden from human eyes and their devices. Alex was trying to calm down the lead of the show with a patient smile and amiable tone, but the woman ignored him.

“Stupid girl,” Bethelma raged, staring into the camera that connected to Kendyll’s monitor. “What do I pay you for, huh? Make these damn ghosts do something!”

With a brief look at a book on the shelf beside me, I raised my clawed finger and flung it toward Bethelma. The tome followed the path of my pointing and fell at her feet. Her wrinkly face lit up, and she was back in acting mode. Fixing her hair, she demanded that Alex get his camera ready. The man obeyed and panned the camera between the book at her feet and her face.

“The spirits here are eager to show themselves,” Bethelma exclaimed excitedly to the camera. She gestured at the book. “Perhaps this book even has significance to Jonathan. Jonathan, please tell us. Do you wish for me to read this?”

I rolled my eyes. She thought I was meeting her demands, but that flying book was merely my warning. Raising my hand with a look at the opposite wall, a new book came flying off the shelf to whack her in the back. She yelped and whirled around in her gaudy black gown, rubbing at her back while frowning at the rogue paperback. At the same time, I tapped into the energy of the battery fueling the camera Alex held and with an inhale, I stole that power for myself.

“Huh?” he gasped, looking down at the camera and trying but failing to turn it back on. “What happened?”

“W-Wow,” Bethelma forced a laugh for the night vision camera mounted on the wall that connected to Kendyll’s live feed. “The activity is—Ahh!”

She threw her arms up as another book flew off a shelf toward her. Multiple books whipped off the shelf at alarming speeds, and she and Alex failed to dodge them. Their panic filled my bloodstream with a burst of energy, and the more they flailed and screamed, the more power I gained.

“Kendyll!” Bethelma screeched. “Get here now!”

Kendyll rushed into the room. Her green eyes bounced from where I leaned casually against a bookshelf to where her two coworkers tried to defend themselves against the dozen or so flying books. Kendyll barked a hard laugh before stifling it behind a fist.

“Kendyll,” Bethelma cried as a book hit her in the side of the head. “Help us! Tell Jonathan to stop!”

“Um,” Kendyll hedged with an amused glance at me. “It’s not Jonathan doing this. There’s … Well, there’s a demon here. He’s the one doing it.”

“A demon?” Alex and Bethelma screamed at the same time.

Laughing, I snapped my fingers to freeze the books mid-flight and projected my deep, grave voice around the room. “Boo.”

The old woman wailed and grabbed her skirts as she fled from the room while Alex went pale and dropped to his knees. The camera became forgotten as he clasped his hands tightly together and started muttering a prayer for safety from the devil.

Kendyll closed the distance between us, ignoring her babbling idiot of a man to jab her finger hard into my chest. “Not funny.” Even as she rebuked me, a smile twitched her lips.

“Let’s leave lover boy to the prayer for his soul,” I suggested and grabbed her hand to pull her from the room. I didn’t release her and instead wove my fingers through hers as I wandered through the manor.

Jonathan suddenly appeared next to Kendyll and I just as we reached the stairs. “I may not like demons, but that was amusing, indeed.”

“Don’t encourage him, Jonathan,” Kendyll chastised the middle-aged ghost. “It will only make the night even worse.”

“Worse?” I gasped in mock offense. “I don’t think there’s anything worse than Bethelma’s acting. Honestly, I did the show a favor. Or it would be if I wasn’t planning on corrupting the footage so that you guys can’t even use anything from the past ten minutes. Those two got terrorized and have nothing to show for it. Isn’t that great?”

Kendyll sighed and pinched her nose while Jonthan laughed and floated alongside us. The dead man was eager to show me around his home, and when we passed a few other spirits that lingered about the manor—a long gone servant, a dog, and his wife—he introduced us with pride. He didn’t even mind that Catsper toyed with his golden retriever, riding on top of the fluffy ghost dog’s back or darting around to make the dog give chase through walls. The mood was jovial. I guessed I’d won some respect from the man of the household.

We returned to the control room. On the camera’s live feed, we saw Alex still rocking on his knees while deep in prayer. Bethelma had fled outside, screaming at the front of the building for Kendyll to do something. I couldn’t help but shake my head at that. Did Bethelma think Kendyll could just control ghosts and demons?

Well, besides me.