Phoenie’s team were assembled in their self-made office. Theseus, at the back of the room with his feet up on a desk, sat munching on an apple with the same look of boredom on his face he always carried when Phoenie was about to talk about ‘those bloody schizophrenic delusions’, as he referred to them. John was close at hand, working to fine-tune the archaic lens system on the auragraphic camera. Katrina’s attention was fixed on his work as she clutched her plush toy close to her chest.

Phoenie was at the front of the room, pacing back and forth with one hand rubbing her chin and the other drumming on her thigh. Behind her, in her unique, uniformed handwriting, the words ‘PERSONAGE OF SUPERNATURAL SIGNIFICANCE’ were written across the whiteboard. Underneath was a chart that listed various ‘forms’ this ‘P.O.S.S’ could take, such as ‘malevolent incorporeal entity of a violent temperament’ and ‘dangerous astral abomination with penchant for body-stealing machinations’. It was common knowledge that Phoenie hated generic terms for anything she deemed supernatural because, in her paranoid worldview, such ‘slang names’ could be deemed ‘entitist’, a word Theseus liked to mock because it contained the word ‘tit’.

Phantasia arrived late to the meeting after Hermia had badgered her into some after-school practise in the forest but Phoenie had been waiting for their resident ‘psychic’ to arrive before she started. Once Phantasia was seated, the editor stopped pacing and stood before the whiteboard, hands clasped behind her back.

“Team Veritas, tonight we will finally hit the big time!” she said, ignoring a sarcastic mumble from Theseus, “Without the Inquisition around rumours of supernatural and occult happens have begun to spread. The ones I’ve been researching in particular are of super-special importance!” – she slammed an enlarged photograph of the derelict house on the whiteboard – “This auragraph, taken several weeks ago by Katrina during her analysis of the town’s ‘spiritual field’, lends creditability to these rumours.” She jabbed her pointer at the aura in the mansion’s attic. “This is a ‘personage of supernatural significance’. It is our job as professional paranormal investigators to search the premises and contact this spiritual entity, so as to persuade it to pass on to the world beyond,”

Theseus leaned back on his chair, head resting on his arms. “Great, I’ll make sure to pack my key to the afterlife,”

Phoenie ignored him. “We will be relying on our experienced skills of negotiation and the powers of our resident psychic, Ms Celeste,” she said, “I fully believe we can come to an amicable solution with the personage of supernatural significance, don’t you, Ms Celeste?”

“I hope so,” said Phantasia. It was more important that she protected her friends, though, as the real reason the residence was abandoned would be because it lay just outside the town’s designated ‘safe zone’. The chances of a demonic encounter were slim, but she couldn’t take that chance with all the strange events Torsten was famed for. “I’m bringing Dante along as well, if that’s all right?” she added, almost as an after-thought. It gained more surprised gasps and whispers than anything Phoenie had mentioned.

“Mr Orpheus?” said Phoenie, breaking the silence, “Why on earth would he want to be involved?”

“Yeah, the kid’s never been one for getting involved with, well, anything,” said Theseus, “Unless it’s ’cause of Kat?”

Whereas Phoenie had her arms crossed and was tapping her foot from nervous disapproval, Katrina’s face had lit up and her grasp of her happy mascot loosened.

“You managed to convince him to come with us?” she said. “You managed to get thought to him? Oh, at last!” she blundered over and hugged Phantasia, the cat toy abandoned for a rare moment. “I’ve been trying for so long, but he’d never listen to me. He always insisted we wouldn’t want him. That we didn’t need him around. I’m so glad!”

John was looking at Phantasia over the top of his glasses, the camera sitting unattended in front of him. “H-how on earth did you convince him?” he asked.

“I just told him he was coming, and that was that!”

*** 

Chapter 30
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