“Why do the kids insist on messing around on Darkhollow Road?” Sanderson Lee, University Vice-Chancellor for Occult Affairs, moaned.

“I know, Sandy, I know.” Margaret “Peggy” MacGinty, the most experienced paranormal councilor under Occult Affairs, replied. “But that’s in the past, and we have to look toward the future. Tell me who it was and what they saw.”

“Right, right.” Lee pulled up the file on his computer. “Police report with UPD filed at 1:47AM last night. Reporter is one Madison Reeve, a second-year pledge out of Digamma Theta Mu. She says she was, and I’m quoting here, ‘chased by a screaming ghost car.’”

“Did she get the make and model of the car?” said Peggy.

Lee gave her an arched-eyebrow glare. “Surely you’re joking.”

“Lee, this is why you’re an administrator and I’m a councilor. If it’s a 1924 Maxwell phaeton, then it’s the restless spirit of J. S. Weatherford and his cronies, who ran off the road and wrapped around an oak in ’26. If it’s a 1960 DeSoto Firedome, then it’s Richard ‘Dick’ Bottoms and his three lovers, who went into Darkhollow Gorge one after the other. Do I need to go on?”

“Okay, okay, I’ll have UPD ask her. How soon can you be onsite? You could ask yourself.”

“I have a lunch appointment with the biology major from Kyoto that accidentally brought a malevolent oni from the Kajurasama Shrine in Osaka,” Peggy said. “I can’t reschedule it because I need Nakamura-san from Modern Languages to translate for me.”

“This afternoon, maybe? Say, 2 or 3?”

“We’ll say 2:30,” Peggy replied. “And we’ll say that you owe me big, and figure out what exact form that takes when we have a moment to breathe, hmm?”

“Of course, of course,” said Lee.

“You’ll notice I didn’t ask why the hurry,” Peggy added as she moved toward the door. “I’m assuming we have another donor’s daughter?”

“Trustee’s stepdaughter,” Lee sighed. “And a transfer student to boot.”

“I’ll see you at 2:30,” Peggy said with a sweet smile. “It’ll cost you.”

  • Like what you see? Purchase a print or ebook version!