The Ghoul Next Door

chapter Eleven

“This doesn’t look like a good situation,” Elvis said.

Mindy watched on with her mouth still hanging open.

I gestured with my hands for a time-out. “Let’s set the record straight. I did not break that ball and had nothing to do with letting you free.”

If she was stuck in that thing, it couldn’t be a good thing. She had been there for a reason. And it wasn’t a good reason either. This situation had bad written all over it.

She jutted out her hip and placed her hand on it. “Well, one of you broke it. I sure didn’t do it myself. If I could, I would have done that years ago, don’t you think?” She scoffed.

“Okay, instead of arguing about how you got here, how about you tell me who you are and how you got stuck in that ball in the first place.” I folded my arms in front of my chest.

Mindy stood behind me as if I was a perfect shield between her and the paranormal world.

The spirit moved over closer to Elvis and smiled. He gave a half-hearted smile in return. Did he sense what I did? Her eyes held an evil glare as she looked from me to him. I didn’t trust her any further than I could throw her. And have you ever tried to throw a ghost? Let me tell you, it was impossible. Yes, I’d tried once, don’t ask.

She shrugged. “It was a pretty ball. I was mesmerized by it. It was twirling around and I was watching it dance, then the next thing I knew I was in that sucker. There was no getting out. It was a trap. I know someone specially set it for me. They hated me.” She puffed out her bottom lip. “I was like a mouse going for the cheese.”

“Do you know who this person is who hates you?” I asked.

Her pouting wouldn’t work with me. I’d seen it all before. But I didn’t know what to think of this woman. She had a certain naivety to her, but an evil feeling underneath that. I’d never experienced that before.

Mindy touched my arm. “If you get me killed today, Larue, I swear I will come back and haunt you and will be your worst nightmare. Mrs. Stevens has nothing on me.”

“Duly noted, Mindy. I’ll keep that in mind.”

If at all possible, Mindy had moved even closer to me and was hanging onto the back of my shirt.

“You’re stretching out my shirt. Will you please loosen your grip? It’ll be fine. I promise.”

Mindy eased off, but I still felt her breath on the back of my neck. She could be such a scaredy-cat sometimes.

“Okay, Larue. I can’t even see her any more. I don’t like that woman. Can you get rid of her now?” Mindy said with a slight panic in her tone.

What would Mindy think if she could see the look in the ghost’s eyes? That would really freak her out.

“I agree with Mindy. You should get rid of her, Larue.” Elvis stood beside me.

Mr. Fine took a drag from his cigarette, then said, “She’s a babe. I think she should stick around.”

He would say that.

“It’s not that easy to get rid of her, Mindy. I can’t always get them to leave.”

The female spirit smiled devilishly. I knew there was no way she was going to move into the light peacefully without putting up a fight. It was going to be a long night. I needed that pitcher of margaritas now more than ever.

“I’ll back off. I promise.” She smiled innocently.

“Well, I know that’s a lie, but can you stay away from my friend?” I gestured over my shoulder toward Mindy.

“Trust me, doll, she’s a pain in the ass. Larue isn’t much better, but at least she can hear us,” Mr. Fine said, then took another puff from his cigarette.

I wanted to shove Mr. Fine out the window so bad. “Don’t listen to him. Listen, if you’re going to hang around, can you at least tell me your name?”

“My name is Candy Cherry.” She picked an imaginary piece of lint from her dress.

“Are you serious? I don’t want to play the guess-your-name game.”

She glared at me. “That is my name. It’s a great name and everyone who I’ve ever known has loved it.”

I held my hands up in surrender. “Okay. Okay. Candy Cherry it is.”

Mindy snickered in spite of her fear.

“Oh, she thinks it’s funny, huh?” Candy moved toward Mindy and Elvis stepped in front of her.

Mr. Fine stepped from the corner. “I told you that one was a pain.” He pointed at Mindy.

“I think we should give Larue and Mindy some time alone,” Elvis said through his gorgeous smile.

To my amazement, after a brief pause, they both nodded and followed Elvis out of the room. He really was like my guardian angel. He stepped in and saved the day.

“They left the room,” I said, then let out a deep breath.

Mindy reached for the broom and began sweeping up the mess.

“Well, that was bizarre. I still don’t know how that thing fell off there,” she said. “Didn’t it look like someone picked it up and tossed it to the ground?”

So she had noticed that too. It wasn’t just my imagination. I smelled a rat… a rat by the name of Candy Cherry.