A Pocket Full of Posies (Book 3)

Chapter Twenty-Four

It turns out assembling an army of the dead in under twelve hours isn't easy, especially with the strict candidate criteria of zero murderous tendencies. A fun fact I learned today is that there are statistically more dark spirits on earth than pure ones. It makes sense, given most pure spirits cross over to The Beginning immediately, and the ones with unfinished business are generally pretty quick on fixing that.

Nonetheless, we've amassed a sizeable amount of backup. I say we, but it was all Kato. She's been messing about with her aura to attract pure spirits, and convince them into agreeing to help us. My sole role has been looking pretty when one needs convincing of my existence and abilities. How many will actually show up when it boils down to it is another story.

Convincing the budget ghostbuster gang not to follow me to their inevitable deaths has been less simple, and is continuing to prove to be a nightmare. Both Carmen and Tom want to join the Medakis and me in meeting Connor at midnight. Jamie's happy not to die, but the other two are determined not to be left here twiddling thumbs while Armageddon is happening in the town below.

Sefu, however, decides to throw a spanner in the works by pointing out being left alone could be more dangerous for Carmen, Tom and Jamie. The moral of the story is that I've royally screwed them over, and they run the risk of facing a violent death either way.

Sefu then goes on to highlight how their blessed stones could prove to be useful weapons at the beach if need be, but he wouldn't want to risk taking them and leaving Carmen, Tom and Jamie vulnerable without their protection. Much to my dismay, the choice ends up in their hands, and it's the option I disagree with.

Even Jamie ends up deciding to tag along because he refuses to be left completely alone at the cabin. They agree on a compromise; I'll let them join, so long as they stay in the car. Kind of like the family dog, except there's three of them, they don't have fur, and one is my girlfriend, so probably shouldn't be compared to a canine.

What feels like no time later, we're preparing to leave the cabin to face whatever's ahead. It's pitch black outside, and it's as if the world around us has switched off. Not even the sheep in the fields behind the cabin are making any noise, though admittedly, that might be down to me. I've probably traumatised them into silence.

The spirits Kato has assembled will be lurking close to the beach, and have promised to intervene if things turn nasty. I don't know why everyone's acting like there's any if involved; things will turn nasty. I don't have a single doubt they won't.

"Does everyone know the plan?" is the first thing Sefu questions once we've crammed ourselves into Mosi's jeep, as if he's not asked us to individually repeat it step-by-step several times over.

"We get there, I hop out alone, say hi, hope he doesn't try to murder me, convince him I'm seriously considering joining his evil scheme, get him away from Ava, then when he thinks he's got my trust: KO him." I pause for breath. "Best case scenario. Worst case scenario: hope enough good guys show up."

I anticipate to get some sighs, or at least an eye roll, but no one acknowledges my poor phrasing. I think the anxiety is too high. No one has requested I literally knock Connor out, just restrain him, which Sefu and Mosi plan on helping me with. I worry we're underestimating the potential dark spirit army sized elephant in the room, but as I acknowledged, this is admittedly a best case scenario plan.

The worst case scenario plan is if any dark spirits appear during or after the KO step, then we better hope to hell that the pure spirits we've gathered come to our aid. If that does happen, the Medakis claim the extent of the aggregated paranormal activity would attract more pure spirits. What they're less enthusiastic about is that it would also attract more dark spirits.