Picking up the candle, Allan rearranged the placement of the sword, and then set it down again. “This would probably work better with more candles and more people,” he admitted, “but we’ll do what we can with what we have.” He glanced at me. “The banishment ritual merely bound his soul more tightly to the object he’s haunting, in this case, the sword. It also stripped him of any power he had.”

“Power?” I asked.

Allan nodded. “A ghost depends primarily on the energy of those around him. That is why if you fear him, his power grows. The banishing ritual can take away that power, but it doesn’t destroy the ghost, especially if it’s a powerful one. In a few years, the effects would wear off naturally and he’d be just the same as ever. The only way to truly get rid of a ghost is to help it cross to the other side, but that’s easier said than done.” He heaved a tired sigh. “In this séance we both need to put out good, welcoming energy. We need to invite his spirit back. If there’s any part of you that secretly wishes that he stay banished, he’ll stay banished.” He chewed on his lip for a moment. “I really hope you’re right about him not being malevolent. If he is, this could get dangerous.”

“He’s mischievous and aggravating, yes,” I said, “malevolent, no.”

“Then let’s begin,” Allan said. He held out his hands.

I stared at his hands for a moment before reaching out and taking hold of them. “My goodness,” I joked, “first date and we’re already holding hands.”

He rolled his eyes and laughed. “Little did you know, this whole thing has been a set up just for this.” He laughed again. “Do you know the ghost’s full name?”

I cringed. “No,” I said. Why had I never taken the time to ask? “His first name is Gray-gor, or Gry-gare, or something like that. It’s hard to say so I just call him Greg.”

“Oh boy,” whispered Allan.

“Just try, uh, Gray-gor,” I said quickly, feeling flustered, “but try to sound Scottish when you say it.”

Allan smiled and shook his head. His fingers held onto mine a little bit tighter as he closed his eyes. His hands were cold. “I am calling out to the spirit of Gray-gor,” he began.

It didn’t sound like he totally butchered the name. I closed my eyes as well and tried to conjure up the feeling I got whenever Greg was around. Even though I couldn’t always see him, I almost always knew when he was close. He carried with him a distinct presence and I tried to remember how that felt. I focused on the empty place in my mind where I would hear his voice.

“We invite you to return to us,” Allan continued. “We invite you to speak with us and make your presence known.”

I think I was starting to feel it. There was a tiny nudge in my emotions that felt like Greg. I got the distinct impression that he was angry. That was fair enough. I’d probably be angry too if I’d been through what he had. Concentrating on that feeling, I tried to make it stronger.

“We compel you to come back,” Allan said. “Our hearts and minds are open to receive you. I invite you to speak through me if you have anything to say.”

My heart started beating faster as a strange feeling filled the room. I was probably squeezing all the blood out of Allan’s hands as the feeling grew stronger and stronger. We were definitely not alone. I couldn’t see Greg yet, but he was here. I could feel waves of his anger, but I didn’t sense any real danger in his fury. Without warning, an icy feeling poured through me for the second time tonight and I could feel another consciousness in my head.

“I wouldn’t speak through you if you were the last person on earth!” I said. My eyes snapped open in surprise. Those words weren’t mine. I’d said them, I’d heard my own voice, but the words were definitely not mine. The Scottish accent wasn’t mine either.

Allan’s eyes opened as well and he stared at me in surprise. I could only shrug helplessly at him.

“You sniveling, pale English pig! How dare you banish me?” Again, my voice, not my words.

Allan’s confusion quickly turned to concern. “We got him back,” he said as he let go of my hands. “Take a deep breath Jessi. Stay calm and try to get back in control.” He leaned forward and gripped my shoulders. He was really close to me.

“Take your hands off of her, you ill-bred maggot!” I snarled. The words came out before I could stop them. “She ought to be more fearful of you than of me.”

“Concentrate,” Allan’s voice was soft, but firm. “We’ve given him enough power now. He’s angry and he might be a danger to you on accident.”

I took a deep breath, but it was hard. I felt so cold, like my lungs were filled with ice. I was starting to get scared. “Greg,” I whispered in my head, “Don’t be mad. This was all a mistake. As soon as you calm down and stop possessing me, Allan will leave.”

Greg’s rage within me surged. He wasn’t about to calm down. An icy, tingling sensation spread through my arms and suddenly I was raising my hands. My heart beat faster as panic filled me. I wasn’t the one moving my hands. I could only watch as I gripped Allan’s arms and tried to push them away. Allan held onto me tighter.

“You’ve got to stop letting him posses you,” he said. I could hear panic slip into his voice. “Remember, you are the one in control.”

I felt so cold and lightheaded. The room spun around me as I pushed against Greg’s consciousness. “Please!” I yelled in my head. “Greg, please, you’re scaring me!” A sick feeling was rooted in my stomach. “Didn’t you say we were friends?”

Suddenly, I could feel his anger abate. Shakily, my hands were dropped back down to my lap and I could feel my will growing stronger than his. He was slipping, and with all my might, I pushed him out of my mind. All at once, the icy feeling was gone.

Looking up, I expected to see him beside me, but I saw no one. I could still sense his presence though, as if he were in the room.

“You did it!” Allan said with a deep breath of relief. He let go of my shoulders and leaned back. “That got kind of intense for a second there.”

“Yeah,” I replied, still shaking. I was freezing. As soon as all this was over, I needed to change into some dry clothes. “Can you see Greg now?”

“Yes,” Allan said with a nervous laugh. He was staring at the empty space above my left shoulder. “He looks like he’s ready to murder me.”

I glanced up to where he was staring. “Why can’t I see you Greg?” I didn’t hear a response.

Allan stood up to turn on the light. “You might not be able to see him for another day or two while he gets his strength back. You’ve become sensitive to his energy, but even so, the banishing ritual took a toll on him.”

I blew out the candle and rose to my feet. Black spots filled my vision and a dizzy feeling came over me. I held still for a moment, waiting for it to pass.

“Are you okay?” Allan asked.

I took a deep breath. “I think so,” I said, “I just—I don’t know, I feel weird.”

“That’s pretty normal after what you just went through,” he said. “Possession takes a toll on a person, especially when they’re fighting it. You did a really good job tonight.”

I laughed weakly as the lightheadedness faded. “Thank you. What’s a first date without a little possession?” I smiled as he laughed. “But really though,” I continued, “thank you for everything.”

Allan looked skeptical. “Everything?” he asked. “Even making you think I was trying to drug you and then banishing your friend?”

I tilted my head. “Maybe not that part so much, but thank you for helping me get him back, even if it got a little rocky there at the end. Surprisingly enough, this is not the worst date I’ve been on.”

“That sounds like a story you’ll have to tell me later,” he said with a chuckle. Then his face grew somber. “I’m sorry for messing around in your business though. I noticed you during my shows and I saw that there was a ghost hanging over you.” He shrugged and smiled. “I know how much being haunted can suck. You feel like you’re going crazy and you can’t tell anyone because they’d never believe you. Even though I tried to talk myself out of it, I knew I had to try and help you, because nobody deserves to go through that.” He laughed. “It turns out that I’ve just got a hero complex though, because you didn’t need to be saved.”

My stomach did a horrible little flop as I realized what he was saying. “So the date tonight,” I whispered, “it was just to save me from a ghost. It wasn’t actually to go on a date with me.” I knew it all along. There had to be a catch.

He shrugged, a sympathetic smile on his lips. “Yeah,” he said. “Huge relief to you, I bet. You don’t have to worry about spending time with the creepy, ghost-seeing jester ever again.”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh yeah, because as a goth with a ghost for a best friend, I find you utterly terrifying.”

“In that case,” he said, his smile widening into something more genuine, “maybe I will see you around.” He bowed his head slightly. “And I’m sure this goes without saying, but I would deeply appreciate it if you didn’t mention me being able to see ghosts to anyone. It’s not something people really know about.”

“O-of course,” I said.

There was notable relief in his eyes as he took a step back. “Goodnight then,” he said.

“Goodnight,” I echoed as he turned and left.

As soon as he was gone, I closed the door and leaned against it.

Tonight had been a rollercoaster. At first I thought Allan was the man of my dreams, then I thought he might be a serial killer, and now—now I didn’t know what to think. He could see ghosts. He got Greg banished. But then he’d done everything he could to get Greg back again. He had a disarming smile and infectious laugh. And the only reason he went out with me was because of a ghost. I sat down on the edge of my bed, feeling hollow.

“Are you alright Jessica?”

I looked up in surprise. “Greg! I can hear you again!”

“Good,” he grumbled. I glanced around the room, but I still couldn’t see him. “I am sorry for frightening you earlier. I was just so caught up in my anger for that boy—that half-witted, rotten—”

“You can stop with the insults,” I sighed. “We probably won’t be seeing much of that boy in the future.

“You sound saddened by that.”

I leaned forward, resting my chin in my hands. “I am.”

“You shouldn’t be.”

“Yep,” I said, a feeling of frustration washing over me, “but guess what? Knowing something doesn’t always stop you from feeling something!”

Greg was silent for such a long moment that I wondered if I’d scared him off. “I too often forget that,” he whispered at last. “It got me killed, and still I forget it.”

My eyes widened at his cryptic statement, but before I could question it, he continued.

“Still, it is best that you do not see him again. The boy gave me a bad feeling.”

I shook my head. I was sick of talking about this. “I’m going to bed,” I mumbled, “and I fully intend on sleeping for the next eight years.”

***

Two days later, I was in one of the guest rooms, scrubbing a super antiquated bathtub that had clawed feet. I’d been able to talk to Greg the past two days, but he was still too weak to appear.

“But what was life really like back then?” I asked, continuing the conversation we’d been having. “I have so many romanticized ideas about the past, but I know it wasn’t ball gowns and jousting tournaments all the time. Being in this castle makes it seem like a fairytale, but how awful was it really?”

“You have some inflated notions about your current time period,” Greg’s disembodied voice said. “Look at yourself. You’re slaving away for a wealthier family. If you’d lived in my day you’d be doing much of the same thing, only you’d be married by now and you’d have a slew of children that wouldn’t make it past childhood. Then you’d die before you were thirty.”

“Yeesh,” I muttered. “For some reason I was thinking that if I lived back then, I’d be royalty or something.”

Greg’s voice became teasing. “If you’re not royalty now, I can assure you, you would not be royalty then.”

I was about to respond with a retort when he spoke up again.

“Jessica, look up, can you see me?”

I glanced up. There was a shadowy form appearing over the bathtub, but it was vague at best.

“Um, kind of?” I said.

I could hear him grumble in Gaelic. Turning my attention back to the bathtub, I kept scrubbing. Leaning down further, I tried to get to a black spot I could see underneath the tub. The black spot moved. I fell back, a startled scream escaping my lips.

“What is it?” Greg asked. He sounded worried.

A massive, hairy black spider shot across the floor towards me. I scrambled to my feet and jumped out of the way.

“Holy crap!” I yelled. “Greg, I’m really wishing you were alive right now!”

“Why?” he asked, still panicked. “What is going on? What’s wrong?”

The spider had stopped moving. I stood frozen as well, my heart pounding. “I need you to kill a spider for me,” I whispered.

“Are you in earnest?” Greg cried. “I thought you were in danger!”

“I am in danger!” I squeaked. I didn’t dare move. Sure, as a goth I might like looking at creepy crawly things, but I didn’t really want to interact with said creepy crawly things. “It’s huge, I don’t know what to do!”

“Kill it,” he said, sounding bored. “It’s not that difficult.”

I glanced around the bathroom, searching for a weapon. There was a spare roll of toilet paper that I’d just stocked, but it was too far away to reach. Keeping my eyes glued to the spider, I inched around it, reaching out for the roll. When I finally got a hold of it, I moved ever so slowly toward the spider, hoping I wouldn’t spook it.

Before I could talk myself out of it, I lifted the roll of toilet paper high, and then smashed it down on top of the spider, pressing it hard against the ground. My heart was pounding as I held the roll in place. It probably took me a full minute to get composed enough to lift the toilet paper and inspect the damage underneath.

I screamed again as the spider scuttled across the floor as soon as I lifted the roll. How was it not dead yet? With a yell of fury, I chased after it, smashing it with the roll of toilet paper over and over. The legs of the spider curled underneath it and finally, it stopped moving.

I dropped the roll of toilet paper and fell back a few steps. Taking a deep breath, I tried to calm my heart. “Did you see that Greg?” I asked. “Did you see what I did? That was straight up heroic.”

Across the room, I could see his shadowy form. It was still pretty indistinct, but I could tell that it was him now. “Heroic is not the word I would use,” he said.

I took a deep breath and moved closer to the scene of the crime. The spider looked nasty, all curled up and squashed. I stared at it for a long moment, a strange feeling overcoming me.

“I just killed it,” I whispered.

“That was the point.”

“That’s not what I mean,” I said, shaking my head. “It was alive a second ago, moving and stuff, and now it’s not. It’s dead. It’s all stiff and gross and it will never move again.” I leaned back, looking up at Greg’s shadowy outline. “You’re dead.”

“Well yes,” he said haltingly, “I thought that was fairly evident.”

I sighed, staring at the spider. I wondered if bugs could become ghosts. “I know you’re dead Greg,” I muttered. “We joke around about it, but it’s never really sunk in for me. You were alive once, with a family and friends centuries ago. But now they’re all dead too, and you’re here, talking to me.” A weird realization hit me.

“I’ve been going about my life, with a ghost for a friend, and I haven’t thought twice about it!” I glanced at what I could see of Greg. “You are proof of an afterlife, and I just took that in stride. People would give anything for knowledge like that!”

I could see Greg give a shadowy shrug. “I wouldn’t call this much of an afterlife,” he said, “this is just a pathetic attempt to not die.” He heaved a sigh. “There is something far greater that awaits us all, after this.”

My heart was starting to beat fast again. “Do you see other ghosts? Can you talk to them?”

“I don’t usually take note of them,” he responded, “but yes, I suppose.”

I clasped my hands together, an impossible hope rising within me. “Could I ask a favor of you Greg, an enormous favor?”

He sounded hesitant. “It would all depend on the favor.”

“When the summer ends and I stop working here,” I said, my voice shaking despite myself, “could you come home with me? Could you come to my house and see if there are any ghosts haunting there?”

Greg’s appearance flickered, and he came in clearer. I could see his face now as he furrowed his eyebrows. “Is there a soul you are searching for?”

I pursed my lips. “No, no one is particular,” I lied. “I’m just curious.”

His voice was hard as he answered. “I do not believe you, but I will fulfill your favor. You have my word, Lady Jessica.”

I stared at him in confusion. “Lady Jessica?” I asked.

He smiled at me as he stroked his short beard. “You expressed that you wished to be royalty,” he said. “Had you lived in my era, only a woman of nobility would have screamed at a spider the way you did. To me, you are now Lady Jessica.”

“I don’t know if I should be insulted or flattered,” I said.

“Both,” he answered. “Always both.”