Ghostfinders 03 -Ghost of a Dream

glowering at the world in general. Happy was the team telepath, observer of the hidden realms, and full-time grumpy bugger. He’d only recently hit thirty, and thirty was hitting back. Hewas short, stocky, and prematurely balding, all of which he took as proof positive that God hated him personally. He might have been attractive enough if he’d ever stopped scowling, slouching, and saying inappropriate things in a loud and carrying voice. He wore grubby jeans, a staggeringly offensive T-shirt, and a battered leather jacket that had probably looked better when it was still on the cow. Happy’s marvellous mutant mind allowed him to see and hear things no-one else could detect, and even have long conversations with them, and, as he was fond of saying,
If you could see the world as clearly as I do, you’d be clinically depressed, too.
Neither of his fellow team members knew who had originally named him Happy. They could only assume his school days must have been an absolute hot-bed of irony.
    Happy used to take an awful lot of pills, potions, and special medications, mixing and matching as necessary to keep the world outside his head. Because both the real and the hidden worlds were full of things he didn’t want to think about. He was trying to do without his little chemical helpers these days because they got in the way of having lots of sex with Melody. Happy and Melody were something of an item; and it would be difficult to decide which of them was more surprised. The things we do for love. Love, or something like it.
    “I really don’t like that sign,” said JC after a while. He indicated the
Bradleigh Hell
sign with a jerk of his head. “That sign speaks of well-established phenomena, ghosts and hauntings and general weird shit, seen by far too many civilians. As in, ordinary everyday people completely untrained or unused to dealing with bad things onthe move. I say we withdraw and nuke the whole place from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.”
    “If I hadn’t seen your lips move, I would have sworn I said that,” said Happy.
    “We all know you don’t want to be here, JC,” Melody said carefully. “We’re worried about Kim, too.”
    “I’m not,” said Happy. “I mean, come on; it’s not as if she’s in any danger, wherever she is. She’s a ghost! She’s dead! What else can happen to her?”
    “For you, tact is something other people do, isn’t it?” said Melody.
    “What?” said Happy.
    “Mouth is open, should be shut.”
    “Oh. Okay.”
    “Somebody has her,” said JC. “Somebody took her from me. And if they have the power to hold a ghost against her will, who knows what else they can do? I swear…I will move Heaven and Earth with a really big stick to get her back. I’m only staying with the Carnacki Institute so I can make use of their resources.”
    “I don’t trust the Institute any more,” said Happy.
    “You never did,” said Melody. “In fact, you are famous for never trusting anyone or anything, including yourself.”
    “And I was right!” Happy said loudly. “I was dangerously paranoid even before we found out the Institute had been infiltrated by Big Bads from Beyond! Imagine my shock when all my worst dreams were proved true. I was so much happier when I only thought I was crazy…”
    “Let us all concentrate on the mission at hand,” said JC, not unkindly. “Since we all have so many thingswe’d rather not be thinking about…it’s best to keep occupied. And hopefully come across something here so sufficiently nasty we can justify kicking the shit out of it in the cause of justice and therapy. I feel like hitting something.”
    “Never knew you when you didn’t,” muttered Happy.
    JC led the way down the steep, grassy slope, leaping and bounding along with cheerful abandon. Happy followed after, far more cautiously. And Melody brought up the rear, lowering her trolley of piled-up special scientific equipment foot by foot while filling the air with foul language every time something inevitably fell off, and she had to stop and put it back on again. She glared after the others, but knowing better than to ask for help. JC and Happy could break delicate equipment merely by looking at it the wrong way. Bradleigh Halt loomed up before them, still and silent, holding shadows and secrets within. It didn’t look any better as it got closer.
    “Talk to me, my children,” said JC as he descended. “Tell me things I need to know.”
    “Starting with,