"You what?" Sara gasped in disbelief.
"I told Ashford about us."
"The words are in English but I don't understand…"
"She was asking me all these questions," Shaun quickly said. "Wondering why I was with you instead of Emma on the last night of my holiday. I thought she knew something was going on between us, she had that smug 'I know your secret' look. So…I admitted that we spent the night together."
"Shaun, why?"
"What's the harm in telling the truth?"
"Because I'm already on Ashford's shit list. In fact, she wants Julian and I on the next train out of town. Now you've given me a motive. Hell, you gave yourself a motive." She paused and ran her hands through her hair, instantly regretting her harshness. "I know that your intentions were good, but you picked a really bad time to start being truthful."
"I had to."
"Why?"
He approached her and took her face in his hands. When the time comes, Mum said…you'll know. He didn't, to be honest, but he was being driven by gut instinct now.
"Because I decided I'm not going to lie about the fact that I love you, Sara."
For a moment, she allowed herself to look into his eyes and know that he meant it. She'd wanted him to say it, she'd dreamed of hearing him say it, but not now. Maybe later, at a time when everything was happy and stable and the sun was shining and birds were chirping, but not now. She shook her head and moved away. "Please don't say that."
"Why not?"
"Because…this isn't a good time."
"It's never a good time."
"Exactly. I doubt there will ever come a time when we're not being menaced by monsters or mourning a loved one. And that's not exactly a good foundation for a solid relationship, is it?"
"You think I'm not up for it."
"You've saved my life several times, Shaun. I know you're up for it."
"So what is it then? You've changed your mind since this morning? Everything you said about doing whatever it takes to make this work, was that complete bollocks?"
"Of course I meant what I said. Do you think I go to bed with every successful zombie slayer I meet?"
"Then why are you upset with me?"
"I'm not, I just…you're in shock, Shaun. Your girlfriend's just been murdered. You're not thinking clearly."
"I may be in mourning, but I'm perfectly lucid."
"Look, circumstances change. Priorities change. That's part of the joy that is my screwed-up life. But my feelings for you are the same as they've always been. It's just that right now, there is some seriously bad stuff that needs to be dealt with. And if you believe that I love you, if you think that what we have is worth waiting for, then you will understand that we can't have this conversation right now."
"Shame playing second fiddle to a sacred calling, isn't it?" The voice came from the shadows and they both turned to see the fading sunlight settle on the gruesome figure sitting in the chair next to the window.
Shaun let out a girlish scream and backed away towards Sara. "There's a…a thing in your room!" he stammered, pointing madly.
Sara's eyes bugged as they darted back and forth between them. Cute, not so cute…cute, not so cute…
"Hang on, you can see him!" Sara asked.
"Yes," Shaun squeaked uncertainly. To his apparent shock, Sara burst into a huge grin and sighed.
"Whew! Thank God for that."
"What!"
"I mean, I was taking this at face value, y'know? Ghosts all around, what's another ghost even if it's somebody I know? But some little part of me was reeeeally afraid I was going crazy, Shaun…"
Sara poured her heart out to Shaun about the nightmares, relieved that he seemed to be hanging onto her every word. She had no idea that in reality he was miles away: She was real, he thought to himself. Mum was real…well, as real as a ghost gets, I suppose, which is to say not real at all. But sure as shit, he hadn't hallucinated her. Undead of the brain-eating and blood-sucking varieties he could handle. He wasn't so sure about this…
"If I might interrupt, you've always been a bit mad, Sara," the decaying apparition wisecracked.
"Oh, shut up. Shaun, it's just Will. Will, you remember Shaun, right?"
"How could I ever forget the legend?" he said with a sarcastically genial wave.
"Will?" Shaun asked. "As in your former handler Will?"
"Yes."
"As in your deceased former handler Will?"
"Yes. He's been haunting me all weekend."
"That doesn't strike you as odd?"
"No more than anything else I've seen. Tequila?"
"Two, please."
"Last one, sorry, hon." She tossed him a bottle from the mini-fridge and then crossing her arms, turned her attention to Will. "And you? What the hell are you doing back?"
"I'll assume you mean that in the most polite way possible," Will replied.
"We don't have time for politeness. Here you are claiming to be my self-appointed spiritual liaison, and you don't even know what your ghostly friends have been up to, do you?"
"I'm not following…"
"The spirit of Malcolm Ryland just appeared to me."
"Is that right?"
"Wait, Davrok's minion?" Shaun interjected. "The guy that killed Will, and almost killed you?"
"He didn't kill me," Will corrected. "And he certainly is not my friend. Sara, really. Sniveling coward had Davrok kill me, and he did have the unfair advantage of surprise. And a very large broadsword. Takes a fine piece of weaponry to bring me down."
"And here I thought it took a fine piece of tiramisu," Sara remarked.
"That, too," he granted.
"Sorry, why would Ryland be here?" Shaun asked. "He didn't die here at the inn, he had no connection to it."
"Now you're the paranormal expert?" Will mused.
"Be nice," Sara warned. "And Shaun has a point. Neither you nor Ryland have a connection to the inn, so why are you here?"
"Every person has their own set of ghosts," he explained. "Family, friends, exceptionally handsome and intelligent colleagues…"
"Your point, Will?"
"These spirits follow you wherever you go. Sometimes they're visible, sometimes not. In places like this, where the rift between dimensions is weakened, a spirit's visibility is increased. But it's also possible that Ryland was just a physical manifestation of your fears and uncertainties. Did he say anything to you?"
"No, he just tried to kill me, as per usual."
"Sara…" Shaun uttered with great concern.
"Shaun, I'm fine," she said dismissively. "And I think we can all agree that there are slightly more pressing matters here than my warped psyche." She turned on Will. "For instance, you told me that all the resident spirits around here were tortured, lonely souls incapable of violence."
"They were," he insisted.
"Were?" Shaun wibbled.
"Are!" Will crossed and uncrossed his dusty leg. "Are. Oh, alright, were."
Shaun looked at the now-empty mini-bottle in his hand and pouted. "Christ, I'd kill for a fag now…"
Sara momentarily regretted being a nonsmoker but continued her questioning of Will. "Then maybe you could tell us what murdered Shaun's girlfriend this morning. Is one of your phantom friends getting uppity? Did some delinquent teenage ghosts come into town and start causing trouble?"
Will straightened in his chair and took on his patronising-lecturer tone. "Sorry as I am to have interrupted your little lovers' quarrel, I needed to inform you that things have taken a turn for the worse. The spirits that are trapped in this vicinity -- some benevolent, some not so benevolent -- are beginning to declare war on each other. That war is spilling over onto the earthly plain."
"Why the sudden change?"
"Evelyn Fairfax. When she opened the portal to a hell dimension, she provided a channel for all the rage and resentment that Mad Maggie's been building up for almost two centuries."
"Mad Maggie?" Shaun asked, trying to keep up.
"She's the ghost in Room 34," Sara explained. "Margaret Winfield. Drowned in the bathtub on her wedding night, which left her a rather irritable poltergeist with an apparent deathwish for the living."
"Riiiiiight." Shaun's eyebrow peaked; Sara took comfort, he seemed to be calming to the point where he could get his game face on.
"She was feeding off the malevolence that the demon brought into this world, but now she's strong enough to do things on her own," Will continued.
"What sort of things?"
"Not sure yet. But if she's strong enough to kill a human, there's no telling what she might do next."
"Well, there has to be some way to counteract it," Sara suggested. "Can't you unite all the benevolent spirits against her. Y'know, recruit them into the good fight?"
"Afraid not, Sara. I did all my recruiting when I was alive, thank you."
"And you were good at it, Will - you recruited me. And you recruited Shaun."
"Don't remind me..."
"Look, Shaun and I know how to deal with the undead. But ghosts are a completely different matter. Any suggestions on how to fight this Maggie?"
"Proton packs?" Shaun offered. "Max Von Sydow and some holy water? That midget woman out of Poltergeist…"
"Anything you didn't see at the movies?"
"Not as such."
Sara's cell phone began to ring. She ran to answer it. "Hello?"
"Sara, it's Julian. Look, I've found something at Prunella Davies' shop."
"What kind of something?"
"I don't have time to explain. I need to call Nicola to check on something, and…"
There was silence. An eerie, unsettling silence. "And…" Sara demanded. "And what? Jules? Julian, are you there?"
"What happened?"
"I don't know, the phone just went dead."
"What did he say?"
"He said he found something at Pru's shop."
"Pru? Who's Pru?" Shaun asked.
"A local wiccan who helped Evelyn summon the Velkor demon."
"Why would she do that?"
"That's the $64,000 question. Maybe Jules found the answer."
"You think something happened to him? Listen, I hope he knows what he's doing, he was quite green when I knew him," Will commented.
"Yeah, well, you're on the green side now, aren't you?" Sara quipped. "Look, my spidey sense is tingling. I need to go." She grabbed her messenger bag, tossing in some small weapons.
"How do we find this Pru?" Shaun asked.
"Wait, no…we don't do anything. You stay here and keep Will company."
"I'm not staying here."
"Shaun, I think I've already done enough damage to you this weekend."
"What damage?"
She lightly poked at his bandaged side.
"Ow! Okay, point taken. But I'm not letting you go alone. This is my fight as much as yours. I brought Emma to this ghost-infested rathole, and even though I didn't love her like I love you, I cared about her and she died on my watch."
They stared at each other, and Sara felt the color rising in her cheeks; Shaun seemed to linger waiting for an answer until he realized what he'd said.
Sara paused to process this, then allowed herself a smile. "Guilt, moral conflict and the righteous burden of responsibility? Careful, Riley, someone might mistake you for a slayer."
"It's just that if we have to face another apocalypse, I plan to go down fighting. Because…" He paused, a flash of recognition lighting up his face that took Sara by surprise. "Because it's the right thing to do. And I'd rather do it by your side." He then nodded toward the window. "Plus, Will is kinda' creeping me out. No offense."
"None taken."
"OK, Flash, let's go," Sara agreed. "And you," she said, pointing to Will, "get your little phantom friends to chill out."
"I'll do my best. Sara?"
"What?"
Will flashed a half-empty set of teeth. "I hope she doesn't turn you into a newt."
"Funny." She wrapped her arm around Shaun's and slammed the door behind them.