Ghost Guard Read Online Free Page B

“Rev, how do you feel?”
    “A little grumpy, but that’s because of you know who here,” he gestured his chin toward Abby. “Other than that I feel like shit. Why? What’s going on?”
    “Rev, you’ve got to get into your SME recovery chamber, right now!”
    “What! No!” Rev lifted out of his seat, straight up through the Phantom’s roof, to the low basement ceiling. “Oh no! I’m not getting in that thing! Not again!”
    Morris reached for air.
    “Rev! Don’t try going through that! You don’t have enough energy! You’ll drain yourself to expiration!”
    “Listen to Morris, Rev! For once!” Abby commanded. But he didn’t listen. Instead, he pushed up into the ceiling. He felt like he could make it all the way, gliding smoothly, small bolts of crackling blue electricity at the points of resistance. Then something happened. He stopped cold. His legs dangled from the ceiling, kicking and fighting. And, worse, they were fading.
    “Oh, no! Oh, no!” Morris hurried toward the stairs leading to the first floor. Brutus glided up and hovered next to Rev’s feet. “No, Brutus! Don’t try to help him! You’ll get sucked in too. He’s hitting terminal feedback—you must stay away!”
    Ruby appeared out of thin air and joined Brutus, both of them trying franticly to wedge Rev free.
    “You guys! This is serious!” Abby added to Morris’s warning. “Get away!”
    The two ghosts backed off from their friend. But not too far. Ruby looked at Brutus and shrugged her chubby shoulders. Brutus scowled an angled, blazing scowl. Morris had no time for hurt feelings.
    “Abby!” he ordered. “Follow me—quickly!”
    She shadowed him wordlessly up the ancient yet solid steps, emerging from the dimly-lit basement to a slightly less dimly-lit first floor. The lobby, at one time a grand hall, complete with a massive fresco of the greater Portland area circa 1903, several stained-glass motif windows, a sparkling granite floor with gold inlay and, in the middle of the dazzling space, a ten-foot tall glass-enclosed grandfather clock. Time had been a merciless enemy to the clock and its fellow occupants of the formerly stunning lobby. The glass, now long-gone, had been replaced by thick, knotted plywood. The mural only showed small signs of its erstwhile glory, most of it having been torn away by vandals or shredded by the ravages of age.
    Abby and Morris both hurried around the centrally-located chronometer to where Rev’s upper half protruded from the floor. He squirmed and struggled, trying to free himself from his sticky predicament.
    “Just-just back off,” he muttered weakly. “Don’t try to help me, and keep that-that damn machine away!”
    Morris waved his hands as he approached.
    “Rev, don’t speak! And stop exerting yourself…lose any more energy and you’re in serious danger!”
    Rev didn’t want to listen. He grunted, lifting his left shoulder.
    “Did you even hear a word he just said?” Abby skidded to a stop as Morris fell to all-fours and studied Rev’s face with his SME meter. “Your numbers are almost flat. Do you know what that means? That means no more Rev, forever!”
    Ruby circled above their heads, squealing. Her shrill voice bounced much in the way she did—chaotic and seemingly random. Her message came loud and clear , telling Rev to do what Morris and Abby were saying, and that she didn’t want to lose him.
    “Okay,” Rev slumped his shoulders. “But just for you, Ruby.”
    “Brutus!” Abby yelled. “Go upstairs and get his SME chamber! Bring it down here, quick!”
    Brutus acted instantly, streaking like a murky comet straight through the ceiling to the second floor. Abby knelt next to Rev and tried to hold his hand, but her touch passed right through him. She covered her mouth to keep from letting out an audible gasp. She was supposed to be tough, at least that’s what she wanted to portray to the team. Crying, complaining, and shrieking like a schoolgirl was not