They orbed into Magic School. Melinda threw the bag of materials on the couch.
"Okay, any thoughts?" Melinda asked.
Helen thought for a moment and took out her small brown baggie full of vials.
"How about we make a potion for Chris to drink that'll separate him from his body, and we make the potion to revive him just in case, and then he says the spell to vanquish the ghost," she suggested. Chris shook his head.
"Come on," Melinda begged. "I did it last time, it's your turn." He groaned.
"Fine. Let's make the potions and get this ghost over with," he said. They orbed over to Chris's home, the Halliwell Manor. They found the right herbs and started mixing the right ingredients together. In several minutes, Helen slammed the table with her hand.
"Done," she said. Melinda nodded to Chris. He flicked his hand, orbing himself and the girls to the house. They slowly approached the steps. The area was deserted, except for the yellow 'Caution' tape tied around the house. Melinda reached for the handle, which creaked. They stepped in and spread out. Melinda clutched the potion tightly. Chris walked slowly up the stairs. His foot landed on the ninth step. He felt his air being taken from him and grasped his throat. Melinda turned briskly around.
"Chris!" she shouted. Helen saw him and ran for the stairs. Chris took a step back and tripped over the step, falling to the ground. Melinda ran to him and quickly opened his mouth, forcing him to swallow the potion. He coughed until he felt dizzy. His head fell back. Melinda quickly stood up and took a step back. A transparent form of him slowly rose above his limp body. Helen stepped next to Melinda. They heard a loud 'thump' from behind them. They turned around to see a teenage Native American girl, staring at them with scared eyes.
Helen ran to her. "Are you okay? What are you doing here?"
The girl looked from Chris's ghost to Melinda back to Helen.
"I…I, my friends, they…" she stuttered out.
Helen groaned. "Honey, did you not hear about the killings here earlier today? What kind of friends do you have?"
Chris's ghost floated up the stairs. "I see him!" He started chanting.
"Ashes to ashes
Spirit to spirit.
Take his soul,
Banish this evil."
The ghost started yelling as Chris kept repeating the spell. White holes of bright light shot through the transparent body. He screamed in pain as he exploded in a bright light Chris slowly hovered downstairs. Helen walked back to Melinda's side. Melinda prepared to throw the potion to bring Chris back into his body. He stopped her.
"Wait!"
She stopped. "What?"
He looked to his side. "Where's that girl you were just talking to?"
"Right here…" she turned around. The girl was gone. They heard a scream from the kitchen. "Oh great." Melinda and Helen ran to the kitchen.
Chris stayed back. "I'm going upstairs. I think I sense something."
They ran to the kitchen to see the girl's body on the ground, with a knife in her stomach, surrounded by blood. Helen winced. She quickly yanked the knife out and placed her hand over the wound. A bright glow shone on the girl. Melinda noticed a brown bracelet on the girl's wrist. She looked sideways at it. The blood swiftly went back into her body. The girl gasped and jumped up.
"What happened?" Helen asked her.
"The knife," she said in between gasps. "It came out of nowhere." Melinda picked up the knife and stared at it. "But Chris killed Yankee Jim. It doesn't make sense."
The girl looked at Helen and Melinda.
"Yankee Jim?" she questioned. Helen looked back at her, helping her to her feet.
The girl shook her head. "If you guys are talking about ghosts, it's probably one of the Whaley's," she stated.
"Hey, missy, if you knew this place had ghosts, what the hell do you think you're doing sticking your nose in here," Helen asked, placing her hands on her hips.
"The Whaley's?" Melinda asked, ignoring Helen. "But, those ghosts were banished years ago. I read it in the book."
Helen finally led them out of the kitchen. "We shouldn't stay in here."
"Oh no," Melinda said. Helen looked at her, who ran to Chris's body.
"Chris?" she yelled out. His ghost floated down the stairs. Melinda quickly threw the potion at his body. His body shook as his ghost placed itself in its rightful spot. He got up.
"Let's get out of here…quick," he orbed all of them back to the Magic School. Melinda grabbed the girl's arm and led her to the side of the room.
"Listen, you have to get home, and you cannot go back to that place. I can't stress this enough," she said, looking into her eyes. The girl nodded. She motioned to Chris. He looked at her curiously. She motioned to orb the girl out of there immediately. He flicked his hand, orbing her back home.
Helen looked at Melinda crazily. "Why did you just do that? She saw us use our magic."
"Because, I needed this," she lifted up her hand and unclenched her first. In her hand dangled the brown bracelet Melinda had spotted earlier. Helen looked at her.
"What?" she asked. Melinda walked over to one of the books they were looking at earlier. She turned a couple of pages and pointed to a picture of a young Native American girl who shared some features of the girl they had just been with. An identical bracelet was shown from the girl's wrist. Helen looked at the entry.
"Carrie Washburn," she read out loud. "The Whaley's neighbor who ran into a clothesline, rupturing her trachea. She was dead within minutes in the house and now haunts the place, running and playing throughout the house."
"Great, so she pretended someone stabbed her in the gut just so we would believe she's human?" Helen questioned.
Chris nodded. "Yeah, it's gotta be true. I sensed there was another ghost in the house, I just didn't think it'd be her."
"But she wasn't transparent," Helen said. "And she bled. Ghosts don't bleed."
"That's what I thought too. But ghosts could possess other bodies," Melinda stated. "I think Carrie Washburn stabbed her with the knife and then possessed her body. She knew you would heal an innocent. Besides, she's not strong enough to possess just any body. She possessed the closest thing to her."
Chris and Helen waited for her to finish.
"A young Native American girl wearing this," Melinda showed them the bracelet.
Chris took it and looked at its intricate designs. Helen peered at it.
"It's from the Native American reserve down in San Diego. Carrie Washburn had one just like it when she was younger. What easier body is there to possess?"
Chris handed the bracelet to Helen for her to look at.
"So this Carrie girl just got really lucky? I mean, what are the chances of a Native American girl, wearing this bracelet, coming into the house?"
"I don't know. But you know ghosts, they have plans for these kinds of things," Melinda said.
"So what do we do? We can't just kill the girl," he said.
"Yeah, but now that she's in a human body, she can feel what other humans feel," Melinda said.
Chris thought for a moment. "Meaning we could trap her in with crystals and then we'll see what we can do after that?"
Helen nodded. "Sounds good, but we just let her go. And that means that she could be out killing right now." Chris's eyes widened. He grabbed crystals from nearby and orbed with the girls.
Carrie Washburn stared at herself in the reflection of the door.
"I am loving my new look," she said out loud. She opened the door to the silent building. She made her way to a specific office. The doorplate read 'Jonathan Kreimure'. She punched the door open. A young man sitting at his desk, bent over papers with a single lamp light on, jumped up.
"Who the hell are you?" he yelled out in a panicked voice. She grabbed his collar and pushed him up against the wall.
"Because of your family ancestors," she spit out, "my good friend Jim Robinson was hanged. I will hunt down everyone involved in that, including your family, to avenge his death." He let out two short breaths.
"No, please," he managed out.
"Let go of him," a voice came from behind her. She let go of Jonathan to face Melinda and Helen standing next to each other, with arms crossed. Jonathan fell to the ground. He scrambled, trying to run out of there. Carrie stopped him with her foot and took out a knife. Melinda quickly flickered her hands at her, sending her flying across the room in a fiery explosion. Chris orbed in placing the crystals around her as she struggled to get up. Helen led the man out of the room, telling him to get out of there.
"If you tell anybody what you saw here, you'll be sorry," he looked at her bewildered. "That's a promise."
He nodded, running off. Carrie got up slowly and looked after him. She tried stepping out of the circle but fell backwards as a wall of white blocked her. The crystals glowed. She looked down. Helen put her hands on her hip.
"Hmph."
Melinda approached her. "What I don't get, is why are you trying avenge Jim's death? He was already long dead by the time you were alive."
Carrie laughed. "What do you think we do for hundreds of years?"
"Kill?" Helen answered.
"No. We do what any other human person does," she spit out.
"We talk. We become friends, and his death was unfair. Come to think of it, I should kill you." She pointed to Chris.
He chuckled. "Alright see, but if you did that, then we wouldn't be able to do this." He emerged with a potion.
"Crystal," he yelled, orbing one of the crystals out of place. He threw the potion at her feet. She screamed as her face flashed from Carrie to the body she was using. The ghost split from the body, which fell limp on the ground. The girls started chanting a spell.
"Infernal bones turned to waste
Give this ghost what she has chased."
Carrie screamed as her ghostly body seemed to burn away. Red acidic fire enveloped her body as she disappeared. Chris covered his eyes. The crystals died down. Helen walked over to the silent crystals and picked them up.
"Nice spell," she remarked.
Melinda nodded. "I figured since we didn't have time to burn away her bones with our potion, the spell would work. She wanted to kill other people to avenge his death, so her desire for death came back to her. Karma."
Chris nodded. "Okay, we better get out of here before somebody gets here and finds us." Melinda and Helen huddled with Chris as they orbed back.
Helen walked over to the books in Magic School and started putting them away.
"We totally sucked the fun out of the Whaley House," she said. Chris laughed.
"Well at least people aren't dying anymore. Besides, people like to believe what they want to believe. And I'm sure half the world still thinks it's haunted."
Melinda agreed. "Don't be surprised if the next visitor feels choked on the ninth step."
Chris turned to her. "Hey, you know, that was not a myth. He did start choking me." She patted his chest.
"Alright buddy," she walked over to Helen, who headed down the long hallway of Magic School, laughing. Chris stood there, open-mouthed. He let out two sarcastic huffs and coughed. He shook his head.
