Home Sweet Home - Ch.47 - Good News, Bad News (Patreon)

"So there's two main types of hauntings," Michelle explained, "And most folks don't get that they're completely different. Like they all just think a ghost is a ghost is a ghost? It's not like that at all though."

After a sip of her beer she continued, "Most hauntings are more like a video short on your favourite streaming site? It's basically just a recorded event that plays the same thing over and over on a loop. There's no spirit there, no intelligence, nothing to communicate with. It's just psychic energy, usually tied to the location. It's harmless, but if it's scaring folks then it's easy enough to get rid of. Just purge the stored energy, like draining a battery."

I nodded slowly, "Ok? But what if this is something more than that? What if she's an actual person, like Bartholomew?"

The ghost rolled his eyes as he said, "You're welcome to call me Bart. And if you two don't actually need me I'm going to head back over there. This DJ is awesome, and you two are making me miss all the best parts of her set."

After all the other supernatural stuff I'd experienced over the last six or seven months I thought I'd be ok meeting and speaking to a ghost. And I sort of was, except I couldn't quite get my head around the idea that a guy who died in eighteen fifty-three would be a big fan of electronic dance music. I even caught him singing along with a few of the songs, like he obviously knew them.

"Yeah fine," Michelle told her spirit friend. "Go get your groove on Bart."

I tried not to stare as the spectre drifted away, back the far corner of the barn next to one of the speaker stacks. The three of us had come over to hang out next to the drinks since it was easier to talk away from the speakers. And also because Michelle wanted to get herself a beer.

She had another gulp of her drink then answered my earlier question, "Spirits like Bartholomew aren't as common, but obviously they do happen. They're what most people think of when they talk about ghosts. They're people who've died, but for one reason or another they haven't moved on yet."

"So if the girl I saw is that kind of ghost, can you help her?" I asked.

Michelle frowned, "Big if. The sighting you described could go either way."

"But yeah," she added, "If she's a true spirit then I can help her. I'd have to get access to the house though? I'd need to get in there to find out what we're dealing with. And if she's sentient, then yeah I can definitely talk to her. Find out what she wants, why she's hanging around."

"Could you um, put her to rest? Or help her move on, or whatever the correct terminology is?" I asked.

The necromancer shrugged, "If that's what she wants. If she's sentient and she's not hurting anyone then you don't just lay a soul to rest without their consent. A lot of spirits like that are only hanging around because of unfinished business, so best thing you can do is help them complete whatever task they're stuck on."

I nodded slowly, "Alright. I don't have access to the property right now, I'll have to speak with the key-holder first. I don't think she'll have a problem letting us go in there to try and help the ghost though. Especially if there's a chance we can get the spirit to move on."

"Can we exchange contact information, so I can follow up with you once I've got access to the place?" I added.

Michelle hesitated as she had another gulp of her beer. It looked like she needed a few seconds to think about it before she responded, "I'm not really in the business, you know? I'm still just a student. Normally I'd have sent you to my uncle Isaac for this kind of thing, but he moved away a few weeks back. So..."

Her voice trailed off as she paused again, then she finally nodded, "Yeah ok. I'm probably the only necromancer in town now, so I may as well get used to picking up the slack."

A half minute later I had Michelle Roslovic's number and everything, and she had mine.

"Vikki Lawrence huh?" she asked as she slipped her phone back into a hidden pocket in her skirt. "Good thing Bartholomew isn't around to hear that."

I frowned, "Why, what do you mean?"

She shrugged, "The guy who owned the mill where Bart died was a Mr. Lawrence."

"Oh," I grimaced. "Definitely a different Lawrence."

"Yeah I figured," she replied with a wry smile. After draining the rest of her beer she picked up her pom-pom and wood spike, then headed back towards the DJ and the dancing. And I looked around for my girlfriend.

She'd wandered off after Michelle introduced us to her ghost friend. Not that Jenna didn't like ghosts, but I got the feeling my genie had a low threshold for unhappy stories. Or maybe it was the gore she didn't like. Either way she'd excused herself as soon as Bartholomew started talking about how he died because of a work-related accident in an old sawmill.

And to be fair Bart's story was both sad and unpleasant. After getting his foot crushed in the machinery he ended up suffering at home for almost a full week, before finally dying of infection. Hearing that experience described first-hand was a visceral reminder of just how lucky we were nowadays, to live in a world with ambulances, pain-killers, and antibiotics.

Fortunately it only took me a second or two to spot my genie girlfriend. She and Ashley were standing together near the doors, so I headed over to join them.

"Hi Vikki!" Jenna greeted me with a happy smile and a quick kiss.

Ashley added, "How'd it go with Michelle?"

I'd just opened my mouth to respond when all three of us were distracted by Ember.

"Well!" the werewolf stated loudly as she joined the rest of us. Her expression looked somewhere between happy and uneasy as she announced, "Seems like Jenna was spot-on when she said Cassandra was gonna wreck those council idiots!"

My girlfriend cringed slightly as she held me in a side-hug, while Ashley gave her friend a confused look.

"What are you talking about? What happened?" the half-fae asked.

Ember elaborated, "I just got this from Mallory, and she got it straight from Kaylee Holt. Seems the little fox demon and her demon goddess girlfriend skipped classes on Monday so they could pop over to visit the council's HQ in Spain? Kaylee said they emptied the council's safe and drained all their bank accounts, dumped all their records, then handed all the incriminating evidence over to the human authorities."

"Now the council's bankrupt," the wolfgirl continued as she slowly shook her head. "Half of their leaders are facing criminal charges in a dozen different countries. And the rank and file have been told to quit bothering supernaturals, or they could face the wrath of an angry chaos goddess."

"Holy shit," Ashley gasped in shock. "Just like that? Those wankers have been threatening folks like us for five hundred years! Now they're gone, practically overnight?"

Jenna was still holding me as she grimaced, "I told you the impossible demon goddess was dangerous."

I gave my girlfriend a gentle squeeze, but my heart was racing as the wider implications started to sink in. I looked at the other two and asked, "Hold on, does this mean you don't have to hide anymore? The whole world's going to get crazy if supernaturals start showing off or introducing themselves to the public."

"Nah," Ember shook her head. "Mallory also had orders from her mom. Pack leader says nothing's changed, we're still not allowed to reveal ourselves to the public. Even without the council, people would freak out if they found out about us."

Ashley nodded sadly, "Some people around here are still prejudiced against gay or trans folks. I can't imagine they'd be happy to accept fae or weres with open arms."

The wolfgirl agreed, "I doubt anything's going to change overnight, but it's nice to know we won't have to worry about magic assassins lurking in the shadows waiting to pick us off if we step out of line."

The half-fae rolled her eyes then looked to me again, "Anyways on that cheery note, how'd it go with Michelle?"

My girlfriend seemed happy with the change of subject, and so was I. So I told the three of them about that conversation, and how our next step was to try and arrange for the necromancer to visit the Tanner property, so she could meet the ghost and hopefully help her to move on.

After that the four of us got ourselves another round of drinks as more guests arrived and the barn started to fill up, then we eventually we made our way to the dance floor.

The whole thing turned out to be a lot fun, there was a good vibe and the music was great. I made sure to switch over to drinking water partway through the night, so when it was finally time to head home I was ok driving. I offered Ashley and Ember a lift as well, but they both opted to spend the night in the barn. In fact it seemed like about half the werewolf attendees were doing that, along with at least a dozen other supernatural guests.

So Jenna and I bid our friends a good night, then we found Chuck and thanked him for hosting the party. He and his buddies looked sad that we were leaving, but none of them tried to change our minds. My girlfriend and I made our way out to my Jeep, and a half hour later we were back home, snuggling up together in our big comfy pillow pile.

• • • • •

"So this is it," I said as I unlocked the door and led the way inside. Then I gestured further down the hallway and added, "That's where I saw her. She stared at me for a second or two, then turned and disappeared into the bedroom off to the right back there."

Michelle didn't respond as she moved past me a little deeper into the house. She was holding her hands out to either side with her fingers splayed apart as if she was trying to feel the air. And her eyes were half closed while she had her head cocked to one side like she was listening intently for something.

The strange demeanour reminded me a little of TV psychics, but her outfit made her look like some kind of goth witch. She wore black Doc Martens, black leggings, a knee-length black skirt, and a long-sleeve black blouse. She had a black canvas purse dangling from her left shoulder, and her make-up was kind of dark and moody. Even her jewelry was goth, with little silver skulls dangling from her earlobes and a witchy silver medallion hanging around her neck from a black cord. About the only thing on her that wasn't black was her fair skin and her blonde hair.

I quietly followed the necromancer as she wandered around the house, and as we moved from room to room I noted that most of the furniture had vanished since I'd first visited the place with Jessie eight days earlier. A few other things were missing too, but the place hadn't been gutted yet. And it definitely hadn't been visited by cleaners either.

After a half minute I realized that the missing furniture and other belongings were probably the ones that were either valuable enough to be sold, or useful enough to be donated. Everything that was left in the house was probably going to end up in a dumpster next week. Then cleaners would come and scour the place, and after that Jessie would have me take some pictures and we'd put the property on the market.

"There's definitely a spirit here," Michelle's voice suddenly pulled my thoughts back to the present. "She seems reluctant to show herself though."

I nodded, "I was told she's very shy. Her name's Robin Tanner, if that helps?"

"It does," the necromancer replied. "Can you tell me anything else about her?"

"Yeah," I sighed, then gave her a quick run-down of everything I could remember from that conversation with Jessie last week.

Michelle listened quietly, then turned and headed to the room I'd seen the ghost disappear into. That would have been Robin's bedroom, so according to the expert it's where her spirit probably felt most comfortable.

We spent a few more minutes there, I stayed quiet while the necromancer tried a few times to work her magic.

In the end she looked at me and asked, "Would you mind waiting outside? I think she's too shy to appear before a crowd, but she might be more comfortable talking one on one."

That made me hesitate. I didn't really know Michelle, I'd only met her once at the party last week. And if anything happened to either her or the house, I'd be on the hook for it. On the other hand I felt bad for Robin, and if the necromancer could help her then I figured it was worth a try.

"Alright," I finally nodded. "I'll be in the car."

Michelle thanked me, then I headed outside and slipped in behind the wheel of my Jeep. After a few minutes I put on the radio so I could listen to some music while I waited, then after another five or ten minutes I ended up checking emails and scrolling social media on my phone.

In all it was almost a full half hour before the front door opened and the younger blonde emerged. Rather than motion for me to come back into the house she came and joined me in the car.

"What happened?" I asked as she settled into the passenger seat next to me. "Were you able to help her?"

Michelle shook her head, "Not as such. Robin's not interested in moving on. Not yet anyways. She's lonely and scared, but once we got talking she opened up a bit. She seemed nice, but she's definitely not happy at the moment."

"Question for you," she continued. "What's going to happen to that house? Jenna said you're into real estate stuff, so do you know if the place is going to be rented out? Or is going up for sale?"

The blonde frowned as she added, "It's not going to be torn down, is it?"

I shook my head, "It'll be put up for sale, probably in another week or two? What happens after that will be up to the new owner, whether they want to tear it down or fix it up. Why?"

"That's not great news," Michelle grimaced. "She's tied to the place because it's her home. The more it's changed, the worse things are going to get for Robin. And that goes double for whoever buys the place."

She added, "I'd have tried to rent it if that was an option. I've always wanted to live in a haunted house. More importantly though, I think it'd really help Robin to have someone around who'd appreciate her? Like a roommate, or a friend."

** This chapter is brought to you courtesy of Meg, who commissioned it! **