Page 58 of Hot Ghost Summer

This was something I’d read in the ExorSquad handbook. Sometimes, being back at the site of their death can be enough for a ghost to move on, but it also said that if it doesn’t do that, it’ll probably provoke a strong emotional response, and Hollis is already so angry that I’d put it off.

My leg bounces in place. It’s not that I don’t want to go—it’s already on my to-do list—but after last night, and that he’s choosing to appear now, I’d thought that maybe…

What if we go, and he go goes?

I know that’s the whole point of all this, but when I think about it, I’m not sure if…

“Very sure,” Hollis answers my earlier question. “This is what rule two is for.”

He points to the screen with a ghostly finger.

Rule Two: Theo will check that all the telemetry equipment is operational and accounted for. He will also return it to the ExorSquad bag, which he will stop using for his laundry.

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” I ask, shooting him a look.

“Being corporeal? Having a form so I can sit in a chair and have an actual conversation like a civilised person? Putting in place some much-needed boundaries for my liability of a colleague? Yes, I’m enjoying it very much. You should try being locked up in an electrical circuit some time, it’s very restrictive. I don’t think you’d cope.” He turns his gaze my way, pinning me in place with his stern disposition.

Defiance surges through me. That almost sounded like a challenge.

Reaching out a hand, I tap his phone on the table with my finger. “I’m surprised you’re so keen t’ return, though, because you know…” I pick up his phone, pretending to examine it. “You’ll have t’ go back in ’ere t’ get there. And then you’ll be…” I slide the phone under the waistband of my towel as if it’s a pocket. “Entirely at my mercy.”

Hollis’s form glitches, dropping in and out of existence for a few seconds, and then he clenches his back teeth. In my peripheral vision, I catch him typing.

Rule Three: Theo will obey Hollis. Always.

“Non-negotiable,” he says around a cough.

I smirk. “I don’t think I like these rules.”

Hollis huffs a laugh. “You don’t?”

“No.” I lean back in my chair and stretch out my legs to mirror him.

“Alright, brat, I’ll play. What don’t you like about them?”

“Well, so far, they’re all for me, aren’t they? And t’ my understanding, you can’t do this without me. So, while I’m doing all this work, what’re you going t’ be doing?”

The laptop screen changes to show… I don’t even know what that is. Hollis has a smug look about him that riles me up, though. Like he expected me to ask this and prepared.

“Excellent question. This is a direct access point. You were right earlier; I’ll have to go back into my phone to get there.”

His glasses slide down the bridge of his nose when he dips his chin to look at me. “Which, by the way, take it out from where you have it—that’s unhygienic. I’ve already been in your mouth, and now I’m in your crotch.”

“Yes, you are,” I beam.

He uses a single finger to push his glasses back into place. “Remind me, Theo. What is rule three?”

Freeing his phone from the confines of my towel, I slap it on the table, then snark, “Thou shalt always obey Master.”

“I like that better.”

“What? No, wait.”

Hollis switches back to the other screen, and to my horror, amends the wording. “This raises another point, however.”

“It does?”

“Maybe there should be some consequences listed for disobedient Spirit Extraction Specialists.”