We hadn’t seen Fadil’s ghost. I was taking that as a sign he was still alive even if Edie’s powers weren’t working how we’d hoped. I wasn’t sure if her powers were wonky because Fadil was leeching, she was afraid to hurt Josh, or her confidence was beaten since the last time we’d faced Goodfellow her powers hadn’t helped. It could’ve been a combination of all of them. All I knew was that we couldn’t rely on her powers to get us out of this. Which made facing him even bloody harder. As if we weren’t already short on ways to take him down.
Goodfellow watched Fadil, clearly smug at his handiwork. Git.
Ben formed his forcefield around the murderous ghost, protecting us from him and allowing us to run – or in my case, hobble – over to Fadil.
‘Do something! Why aren’t you doing something!’ screeched Tessa. Seeing her glowing figure floating a few feet away, I was reminded of what Javi had done to protect another spirit from an evil ghost. Could she…?
‘All right,’ I said, ‘I think I have a plan. But you’re not going to like it.’
Tessa flapped her arms in the air, causing her to float upwards a couple more inches. ‘As opposed to this?!’
Branwen flew overhead, waiting for her next instruction, while Goodfellow was standing in the forcefield, trying to whistle. Except he couldn’t. Because Josh couldn’t and he was bound by the restrictions of Josh’s body. Ha. At least something was working in our favour.
‘What’s your plan?’ Ben asked.
None of the others had been present when Javi had pulled the other spirit from someone’s body, but I didn’t have time to explain how I knew it could work. ‘You need to go in there and pull Goodfellow out of Josh.’
‘I need to what?’
‘You can’t be serious?’ said Edie.
‘Why can’t you do it?’ said Tessa.
‘Because she’s alive?’ said Edie. ‘The rest of us can’t just go into someone else’s body. You can.’
‘Oh,’ said Tessa, floating down to the ground. Or as close to it as she could get. She squared her shoulders, as if ready to go. ‘So I just float right on in there and…pull him out?’
‘Yeah,’ I said, even though I knew it was unlikely to be that easy. If I told her that she wouldn’t do it, though, and she was our only hope. I also didn’t want to tell her that in case she crumbled under the pressure.
‘Here we go!’ Tessa flew through the forcefield and into Josh. Ben had allowed her through, but Goodfellow wasn’t going to. Almost immediately, she was thrown out of him. ‘I can’t do it,’ she said, her voice wobbling as if she was trying not to cry. He’s too strong.’
‘Try again,’ I said in my calmest voice.
Ben was still cradling Fadil, using his forcefield to keep Goodfellow away from us. It offered us a temporary reprieve, but it wouldn’t stop him, and that was what we really needed.
‘He targeted you because you’re strong. Maybe in ways you’ve never even considered,’ I told Tessa.
Tessa grunted, then flew back into his body again. And reappeared just as quickly. ‘Son of a—’ She ground her teeth together. ‘There has to be someone else who can do this. Someone with actual powers they can use against him. Wait. I know someone. But I don’t know how to get to him.’
‘I could cast a tethering spell?’ suggested Edie.
‘We don’t have time,’ I said. ‘Tessa, let go of Josh.’
‘What are you talking about?’ she screeched at me, as if I was a mad old woman. Offended.
‘If you let go of your death grip on Josh, you could go and get us some actual bloody help!’ Fine so that was a little harsh but so was she. And we were getting very short on time. We had no idea how long Fadil had left, or how long Ben could sustain his forcefield. Tessa frowned. ‘I don’t have a death grip on Josh.’
‘You can barely leave his side,’ grumbled Edie. ‘That’s on you. You’re in control of how far you can go.’
Tessa wrinkled her nose. She really didn’t like hearing this. Tough. Now wasn’t the time for her to give up, admit defeat, or let go of the control over her life. Afterlife.
‘You wanted control over your life? After your parents dictated everything you said and did? I get it,’ I said. I got it more than Tessa would ever realise, even if she’d never actually said her parents controlled her life. It was all over the way they spoke about her on the news. I’d had to stop watching it because every interview made me want to vomit. Their behaviour was way too close to home, even if it wasn’t identical to how my mother had treated me. ‘I’m truly sorry you’ll never get that. But you’re the only one who can take control of your afterlife, and you’re the key to helping us.’
She nodded, her body relaxing. ‘Do you know where Thomas is?’
‘Thomas?’ I said. ‘Why Thomas?’
‘Ghosts talk. And it just so happens he’s more powerful than you think, which is why he’s been hiding. So, where is he?’ said Tessa, crossing her arms impatiently.
Edie and I exchanged surprised glances. Thomas had looked like your average, translucent ghost since we’d known him, and Edie couldn’t sense anything unusual from his life essence. If it turned out he was really powerful, it completely changed everything we’d ever known about ghost lore. Because Goodfellow hadn’t done that enough already.
But Tessa had no reason to lie, and even if Thomas wasn’t as powerful as she said, the chances were, he was more powerful than her and was therefore able to help.
‘He’s at our house,’ I said.
Tessa squished up her features as her figure flickered in and out. A moment later, she vanished.
Edie looked around, searching for Tessa. ‘Did it work?’
‘We’ll soon find out,’ I said.
Ben was still keeping Goodfellow at bay using his forcefield. Thankfully. Goodfellow was still trying – and failing – to whistle. Every so often he’d let out a high-pitched burst of air, but that was about it. It was the same struggle I’d seen Josh have over the years, whenever one of us had tried to teach him to whistle. For whatever reason, he just wasn’t able to do it.
Branwen circled ahead, watching. Waiting.
‘He’s still breathing,’ said Ben as Edie and I bent down next to him. I put my hand on his neck to check his pulse, just in case. It was still there, but barely. Fadil’s blood was gushing out on to the grass below. We were lucky it was going on to the grass and not a gravestone, really. That would lead to a whole lot of questions.
‘That’s good, that’s good,’ said Edie.
Goodfellow pushed against the forcefield. What looked like a bolt of lighting flew from the forcefield and hit his hand. He jumped back, gasping.
Ben smirked.
‘Since when can your forcefields do that?’ I asked. Not that I was complaining.
Goodfellow stared at his electrocuted hand, pouting. What was he, twelve?
Ben grinned triumphantly. ‘Found a new spell recently. What do you think?’
‘I like it. Definitely a contender for new favourite spell.’
Ben chuckled. ‘Where’s Tessa?’
‘Helping. I hope,’ I said.
‘I can feel him slipping,’ Edie whispered, her eyes flitting to Fadil. ‘We have to do something.’ She shook her head, tears glinting in her eyes. ‘But I can’t use my powers. They don’t work.’
‘I think I know what to do,’ said Thomas, appearing in front of us with Tessa. ‘Don’t worry about Tilly – Gwendoline is with her.’
Me? Worry about the dog as much as I worried about my daughter? Yeah, that was me.
‘I did it!’ said Tessa, a huge grin on her face. The grin also made it look like she was expecting praise, a pat on the back, a medal, a letter from the king…whatever reward she could get. It pained me to reinforce her negative habits, but I didn’t want to seem ungrateful either.
‘Thank you, Tessa,’ I said, smiling.
She looked at me as if to say, ‘is that it?’ but we had bigger problems to deal with.
Goodfellow cleared his throat. ‘You know, I don’t have all night. You can’t hold me here forever.’ He pointed upwards to his raven, who was still circling us. We didn’t think she could impact Ben’s forcefield like she had the salt circle, but we couldn’t be sure.
Branwen wasn’t going to target the forcefield, though. She flew at Ben, launching herself at his head. He ducked, dropping the forcefield. Fiddlesticks. Ben moved away from Fadil so that the bird didn’t hurt him, but being away from all the gravestones just made Ben more exposed. He crouched down, waving his arms around to keep the bird away from him, all while mumbling different spells. Nothing seemed to work. And since I was used to dealing with ghost people who weren’t directly attacking me, I didn’t have anything that could help, either.
Goodfellow laughed, watching as his pet fought my boyfriend. Git.
Spotting an opportunity where Goodfellow was distracted, Thomas dived for Josh’s body and disappeared inside it. Was he going to try to take Goodfellow down from the inside, like Javi had with another ghost?
Branwen’s cawing as she pecked at Ben echoed through the graveyard. Ben yelped, doing his best to fight her off. She was too fast for him to get his forcefield back up and protect himself. Was it possible to exorcise a ghost bird?
Thomas fell out of Josh’s body, landing on his side, mid-air. He turned back to Goodfellow/Josh and glared.
‘Are you all right?’ I asked.
Thomas lowered his head. ‘I don’t think I can do it. It’s not working.’
‘What were you hoping to do?’ I asked.
‘You think you can do anything to stop me? Look at you!’ Goodfellow waved his arms in the air. ‘You’re all weak. Pathetic. Powerless. There’s nothing you can do.’
Thomas shook his head, as if trying to shake the thoughts away. ‘No I’m not!’ He dove back into Josh’s body. I’d never seen him so involved or determined before; he’d always been a passive observer. Not this time.
‘Get…out…’ Goodfellow as Josh snarled. His body convulsed as it dealt with the three spirits battling inside of him. His movements were disjointed; frenetic; desperate. He fell to the floor, his body twisting in almost unnatural angles.
That didn’t stop him. He rolled on to his front and crawled towards us. It seemed to take an almost insurmountable amount of energy for him to make it a few inches. Thomas’s head stuck out of Josh’s body, then disappeared inside of it again. Then, Goodfellow’s. Josh’s. Thomas’s. Goodfellow’s. They were fighting it out. Josh seemed to be helping Thomas in whatever way he could. He was literally fighting for his life.
‘We can’t just wait to see who wins!’ said Tessa. ‘Do something!’
‘You keep ordering us to do something. If you’re so bloody worried why don’t you?’ I grumbled.
Pouting, Tessa crossed her arms and knelt down by Fadil. At least she could be useful by keeping an eye on him. And consoling him if his spirit did leave his body. Which it wouldn’t. That was not allowed to happen.
‘I think I have a plan,’ I said. Whether or not it would work, I had no idea. But it was all we had. I just had to hope Goodfellow was too busy to hear it. ‘Ben, can you trap them with your forcefield? Keep the pressure up as much as you can? Maybe make it suffocating? Like, painful?’
Ben was still cowering under Branwen’s attack. If he couldn’t free himself from that, my plan would never work. He gave me a thumbs up while mumbling something. A moment later, Branwen flew backwards and out of sight. Well, that was one of them down. At least temporarily.
He stood up, brushing himself off. ‘Knew one of them would work eventually.’ Gulping in a few deep breaths, he walked over and put his arm around my waist. He looked drained from the amount of power it’d taken him to sustain the forcefield and fight Branwen off, but there was something in his eyes that suggested he was far from done yet, no matter how he felt. Which was exactly what we needed.
‘What about Josh!’ said Edie in reference to my plan.
‘He’s been tortured by demons. He can handle a little bit of pressure to get rid of a ghost,’ I said. All right, it was harsh, but we needed to make his body a hostile environment for Goodfellow. He’d had it easy compared to Josh, which was why I knew Josh could take it.
Thomas, meanwhile, seemed determined to take down Goodfellow for whatever reason. So I knew he’d go along with our plan.
Ben nodded, standing up and holding his hands into a circle to create a glowing, pearlescent bubble around Josh and the three spirits wrestling inside of him.
I put my hand on Fadil and gestured for Edie to do the same. ‘Now, focus on Goodfellow’s life essence. Channel it into Fadil, the same way you did with me and Dominic.’ I really hoped my words gave her some form of confidence.
‘I—I can’t,’ said Edie, tears in her eyes.
‘Yes you can! Now isn’t the time for self-doubt.’
‘What if it isn’t self-doubt? What if my powers just don’t work anymore?’
‘They do, Edie. They do! With or without the spell, you’re still more powerful than I’ll ever be. And Fadil is right here, which means you can use some of the power he’s still borrowing from you to heal him.’
She squeezed her eyes shut, as if having an internal battle.
‘He’s fighting me!’ said Ben through gritted teeth.
Thomas flew out of Josh’s body again, landing just outside of the forcefield. He shook his head. ‘It’s not working! He’s too strong and Josh is too weak!’
‘There must be something we can do instead! This can’t be it!’ said Edie, squeezing her face up to hold back her tears.
Thomas floated over. ‘Edie, hold my hand and focus on me. Focus on my energy and channelling it into Fadil.’
Edie looked confused, but took his right hand anyway. Then, he pointed his left at Josh/Goodfellow.
Edie inhaled so deeply I thought she was going to start levitating. The air around all of us changed. It felt tense, like something was building. A tornado began to form around us, trapping us with Goodfellow and the forcefield that was exhausting Ben to maintain.
I really hoped nobody looked out their windows while all this was going on. How would we explain it to someone who couldn’t see ghosts? What would they see?
Thomas closed his eyes, his grip like iron on Edie’s hand. There was a faint golden glow coming from where they connected, and another from Edie’s other hand into Fadil. I couldn’t be sure, but it looked like whatever they were doing was working.
Josh fell to the ground, leaving Goodfellow floating above him. Tessa ran over to him, trying to cradle his unmoving body. There were no signs of his spirit, which meant he was still alive but unconscious. Now we just needed him to stay that way long enough for us to finish off Goodfellow and get his body some medical attention because he looked seriously beaten up.
Ben diverted his forcefield to focus solely on Goodfellow, leaving the pressure on him so that there was no escape.
Not that he didn’t try.
He wriggled. He chanted. He cursed. He banged against the forcefield, fighting through the jolts of electricity. Nothing worked. Ha.
Branwen, who’d made an annoyingly timed comeback, pecked at the edges of of the forcefield. The glowing white magic rippled, but it never gave way.
Panic radiated from the doctor, but it didn’t change that he was getting weaker. Instead of looking almost human like he once had, he was getting faint. So translucent I could almost read the tall gravestones behind him.
Fadil gasped, sitting upright and almost head butting Edie.
‘Oh my god you’re OK!’ Edie wrapped her arms around his neck, squeezing tightly.
‘Not if you suffocate me I won’t be,’ Fadil choked out.
Edie’s cheeks flared as she let go of him. ‘Sorry.’
He smiled, ruffling her hair. ‘Thank you.’
Her smile grew as she rested her head on his shoulder.
Phew. Ben glanced over his shoulder and smiled, too. Even Tessa looked happy to see him upright again, and she barely knew who he was.
‘Edie! We need to keep going!’ said Thomas. He pointed to Goodfellow, who was flickering again, as if trying to regain his power. Could he recover that quickly? I wouldn’t put anything past him.
‘Niamh, can you write an exorcism?’ said Thomas. I’d never seen him take charge before, but I kind of liked it. It suited him. He was a surprisingly calm, confident leader for someone who looked ten.
‘You want me to exorcise him in a cemetery?’
‘We’re all too drained. You’re the only one with enough power left.’
I’d exorcised dozens of ghosts. Maybe even hundreds. Why did this one feel more challenging?
‘Can I help?’ asked Tessa from her spot beside Josh.
‘Can you write a spell?’ I asked.
‘Erm, no?’
‘Then you can recite it but it won’t make a blind bit of difference,’ I said.
She rolled her eyes. ‘Why am I so helpless here?’
‘You’re not. It was your idea for me to come here,’ said Thomas, his words and expression far beyond his years. Apparent years. Ghost age. Ugh. ‘I needed that pep talk you gave me. Thank you.’
Tessa turned away with embarrassment. That was not something I’d have expected from her, especially with the way she’d been compliment-seeking moments ago.
Right. Focus. I needed to write an exorcism. One that only affected Goodfellow. Using his full name would be more powerful. That was a good start.
Ben shrank the forcefield even smaller as I wrote the spell. Goodfellow’s figure was fading fast. He was a faint, glowing orb, meaning he had very little left. He was the weakest he’d ever been. It was now, or never.
‘Randolph Goodfellow, you’re not a good fellow, so it’s time for you to say hello, to the dark place where you belong, the realm you should’ve been exorcised to all along.’
Not bad for something I made up on the spot. I needed to give my spell-writing skills more credit.
The glowing orb shattered into millions of pieces. We all turned away as if it could hurt us, but it was still trapped inside the forcefield. And not technically corporeal for most of us either. When we turned back, he was gone. No Goodfellow. No glowing orb. Just an empty forcefield.
Ben released it, lowering himself on to the tarmac and resting his weight on his gloved hands. He was panting, trying to catch his breath, but otherwise, he seemed fine.
Fadil crawled over to him, engrossing him in a bear hug. After everything they’d been through, a hug felt like the perfect remedy.
Edie and I ran over to Josh.
‘I think he needs a hospital,’ said Tessa, frowning. ‘He looks really bad.’
‘I could—’
‘No, Edie! No more powers tonight!’ I said, perhaps a little too aggressively. But she’d used her powers enough for one night. I wasn’t having her risk her physical or mental health by relying on them. They hadn’t even worked when she’d tried to use them on her own. What made her think they’d work now? Now it was time for the doctors – real doctors, not crazy Victorian ones – to work their magic.