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"Yes I can hear hie on the side of her skull I looked at her in bewilderment Was she serious?

"He hits you?"

"Yes"

"With his fist?"

"Yes"

John looked up fronantly "Man, what a dick!"

I did roll lared at John once they stopped I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a ghost, but I’ didn’t run over and punch you in the face I’ that’s never happened to any of your friends, either

"When it first happened," Shelly said, "I thought I was going crazy Up until now, I’ve never bel--"

"Believed in ghosts," I finished "Right" That line was obligatory, everybody wanting to come off as the credible skeptic "Look, Miss, I don’t want to--"

"I told her ould look into it tonight," John said, heading ht into this thing "He’s haunting her house, out in [town naht you and I could head over there, get out of the city for a night, show this bastard what’s what"

I felt a burst of irritation, mostly because John knew the story was bullshit But then it suddenly clicked in my mind that, yes, John knew, and he had called irl Button-cute, dead boyfriend, chance to be her hero As usual, I didn’t knohether to thank him or punch him in the balls

Sixteen different objections rose up in my mind at once and somehow they all canceled each other out Maybe if there had been an odd number

WE HEADED OUT, in my Bronco We had told Shelly not to drive herself, in case she had a concussion, but the reality was that, whether or not her story was true, we still had vivid memories of Mr Campo and his unusually spidery car You see, Frank found out the hard way that the dark things lurking in the night don’t haunt old houses or abandoned ships They hauntherself, looking blankly out the windshield She said, "So, do you guys, like, do this a lot?"

"Off and on," said John "Been doing it for a few years"

"How does soet into this?"

"There was an incident," he said "A series of incidents, I guess A dead guy, another dead guy Sos So why I never feed it Oh, and I had one halanced at

It wasn’t

Shelly didn’t look like she was listening anymore

"I call it Dante’s Syndro "Meaning, I think Dave and I gained the ability to peer into Hell Only it turns out Hell is right here, it’s all through us and around us and in us like the uts and veins Hey, look! An owl!"

We all looked It was an owl, all right

"Anyway," I broke in, "we just did a couple of favors for people, eventually word got around"

I felt like that was enough background and I wanted to stop John before he got to the part where he says he kept eating that screaer, down to the last bite

I left the truck running as I jumped out at my place for supplies I bypassed the house for the weatherworn toolshed in the backyard, opened the padlocked door and swept over the dark shelves with ht:

A Winnie the Pooh toy with dried blood around its eyes;

A stuffed and er and an anaconda);

A large Mason jar filled with cloudy formaldehyde, where inside floated a six-inch cluhly in the shape of a hurabbed a medieval-style torch John had stolen from the wall of a theme restaurant I picked up a clear squeeze bottle filled with a thick green liquid that immediately turned bloodred as soon as I touched it I reconsidered, sat it back on the shelf and grabbed hetto blaster instead

I went into the house and called to Molly I opened a small plastic tub in the kitchen cabinet filled with little pink, rubbery chunks, like erasers I put a handful inon my heels

Shelly lived in a si It sat on an island of turf in a sea of harvest-flattened cornfields We walked past a n on the front door that read THE MORRISON’S--ESTABLISHED 1962 John and I had a long debate at the door about whether or not that apostrophe belonged there

I know, I know If I had a brain, I would have walked away right then