Regina Blunder, Ghost Hunter: a short story



  Regina Blunder, Ghost Hunter:

  A Short Story

  By Phil Skaggs Jr

  Copyright 2013 Phil Skaggs Jr

  “Mom! Dad! I’m going for a hunt!” Reggie shouted as she galloped down the stairs. Her dark hair hair flopping in her eyes. She double checked to make sure she had everything in her pockets. Yep, each coverall pocket had what she needed.

  “Hold it!” A voice came from the back of the house.

  “Ugh.” Reggie dropped her large knapsack with a loud thud at the foot of the stairs. She rolled her eyes and headed towards the kitchen.

  “Hello, my long lost daughter.” Reggie’s mother said with a grin.

  “What?” Reggie tried not to cross her arms or tap her foot or look at the clock. Her mother would notice. And Reggie knew from experience that it would only make things worse.

  “Nothing. Just haven’t seen you in a while.”

  “I’ve been busy. You know, preparing for tonight’s hunt.” Reggie felt her eyes trying to roll back again.

  “Alright. So where are you headed off to?” Her mom made it extra cheery just to be annoying. Reggie was sure of that.

  “Out to Old Town. As usual. Some ghoul is running wild out there. As usual.” Reggie added the ‘as usual’ just for her mom.

  “God, they sure have been stirring up a lot of spirits lately.” Her mother frowned and took a bite of the waffle that just popped out of the toaster.

  Reggie started edging herself towards the hallway. Slowly. She was hoping she’d be out of the kitchen by the time her mom was done with the waffle.

  “Hey, Regina!” A hand came down on her head and rubbed it until her hair was wild everywhere.

  “It’s Reggie, Dad.” She brushed the hair out of her eyes and smiled slightly. Then quickly frowned again.

  “What’s going on?” Her dad leaned in to take a bite of the waffle.

  “Regina’s got a job down in Old Town.” Reggie’s mom told him in between bites.

  “Oh man, they’re getting a lot of activity over there, huh?” Her dad raised his eyebrows almost cartoonishly high.

  Reggie knew what her dad was doing. He was trying to get her to mention the renovation of Old Town. The main paranormal nexus of all ghostly activity in the United States was located there in the Old Town section of Betterton, Ohio.

  It was filled with old Indian burial grounds, Donner-esque parties, Civil War massacres, 1920’s serial killers, a circus fire, and much more than anyone was willing to study or discuss. Well, anyone but the Blunder family. They knew all about the history. And the subsequent abandonment of the fifteen square miles in the 1980’s after some particularly bad cult activity.

  Finally, Mr. Blunder couldn’t wait any longer. “You know you wouldn’t have to go out there if they’d listened to us.” Her mother nodded along.

  “No, we wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t agreed to move all the way to the middle of America. Right in the middle of our East Asian tour.” It was a sore point for Reggie.

  “Oh boy.” Mrs. Blunder rolled her eyes. “You know we needed something with a little more stability. We only had so many friends and family willing to put us up.”

  “Yeah, I know.” Reggie shoved her hands in her pockets and felt the old charm her grandmother gave her before they moved to Betterton.

  “Oh, look at the time. You should get going. Don’t make your bosses wait or whatever.” Reggie’s mom looked at her watch and frantically tapped it.

  “Seriously? You’re the one that stopped me to talk to you for no reason.”

  “Don’t argue with your mom.” Reggie’s father sighed. “That’s so cliche. Sorry.”

  “Alright. Well, this has been a riveting morning, but I’ve got stuff to do. Don’t wait up.” Reggie waved without looking back. Swiping a waffle from her mom’s plate as she headed towards the front door.

  “She’s so like you.” Mr. Blunder laughed and hugged his wife.

  “No I’m not!” Reggie made sure to shout before the door slammed behind her.

  She threw the bag of equipment over her shoulder and put her hand up to block out the sun. It was still bright for a November midday. Reggie was happy about that. She needed some time to set up everything.

  HONK! HONK!

  “Hurry up!” A short blonde was hanging out of a large van with a blue dragon airbrushed on the side.

  “Shut up, Samantha.” Reggie tossed her bag in the back and headed to the front of the van.

  “What’s up?” Sam grinned behind some pink and yellow sunglasses.

  “Just another stupid morning in Blunderland.”

  “Oh yeah? Your parents try talking you out of your gig, again?”

  “Yes. But they’re being real subtle about it. And I don’t know if that’s worse or not.” Reggie nibbled on some waffle.

  “That seems better.”

  “Yeah. I guess. Easier to avoid yet more annoying.”

  “You’d think a couple of new age anarchists wouldn’t be so uptight.” Same paused for a moment. “Waffle me.” She held out her hand.

  “That’s why they’re so uptight.” Reggie tore off a corner of the waffle and handed it to her best friend. “They’re trying to make up for the little suburban life they bought in to. It makes me sick.”

  “I thought you liked the suburban life?”

  “I do. But they traded in their ideals. And are now trying to make me feell guilty. What a bunch of sellouts.”

  Sam opened her mouth to say something but changed her mind. So she said something close to her original thought to make herself feel better. “So how much are you getting paid for this one?”

  “Same as usual. You’d think I’d be making some decent cash by now. I’ve been doing this for a while.” Reggie dusted the waffle crumbs from her finger.

  “You make like 45 bucks an hour, Regina!”

  “Yeah. And for like ten hours a month if I’m lucky. You know how much it costs to keep up equipment? After that I barely have enough for a freaking movie.” She slumped back in her seat. “I’ll never move out at this rate.”

  “What about all those side jobs you do around here?” Sam would have been happy just to have a job.

  “They can’t afford my pay rate. Mr. Durgell paid me in pound cake last week.”

  “He does have an awesome bakery.”

  “This is true.” Reggie wished she’d grabbed some pound cake for the road. The waffle just wasn’t cutting it.

  “Look at it this way.” Sam smiled and batted her eyelids even though they were hidden behind her sunglasses. “We’d never have so much bonding time if you could afford your own car.”

  “Kill me now.”

  “Hahahahahaha!” Sam turned the corner and looked at the seven way intersection. Here all roads led to Old town. Just depended on where in Old Town you needed to get to. “Which way?”

  “By the old library.” Reggie was lost in thought. Mostly of money and moving out of the house.

  “Oh nice. We can stop at the STOP-N-GO.” Sam looked at Reggie. Reggie looked at Sam. Both of their stomachs gurgled.

  “Do it.” Reggie smiled as Sam sped off.

  Sam moved in and out of the two lanes with one thought on her mind. Candy. After seven minutes of speeding and weaving the van came to a sudden stop in the tiny STOP-N-GO parking lot.

  Sam and Reggie leapt out of their dragon van and headed inside the old convenience store. Standing side by side the two of them were an odd pair. Reggie in her beat up mauve coveralls and long black hair from her mother’s side. Her height from her father. Her friend, Sam, was decked out in pink and yellow sunglasses and mismatching beads and brace
lets. Her member’s only jacket was rolled to her elbows and looked at home next to the faded jeans. She was going through an 80’s phase. Reggie just accepted it and learned a while back to stop asking about Sam’s fashion choices.

  Sam hit the bathroom right away. And Reggie walked over to the rotating hot dogs. She knew that there was a chance something foul was happening to their insides on a molecular level but she didn’t care. She knew that STOP-N-GO hot dogs were one of those superfoods you come across only once in a your life. It had given her the energy to finish a mission more than once. She didn’t know how it worked. She just knew that it worked.

  “You ready?” Sam was back with an armful of candy and giant cans of ice tea.

  “Yeah.” Reggie’s shoulders slumped at the sight. She did some quick math in her head. She was hoping her bank account could take the hit. It seemed like such a good deal to trade food for gas at the time.

  “Oh crap.” Sam ducked behind an aisle.

  “Huh?” Reggie look around.

  “Don’t look now, but Gomez is here.” Sam mouthed the last few words as quietly as possible. Reggie followed Same hectic pointing to the the door.

  Gomez Beltran was a nice enough guy except when he was around Reggie. Then he was just a pain in the ass. He was almost as tall as Reggie but lanky in his jeans and t-shirt. He spent most of his time in front of his computer where he played a necromancer in some famous online video game. The interest in Reggie was purely fanatical.

  “Hey, Reggie!” Gomez smiled broadly and walked as casually as he could towards her. It wasn’t that casual.

  “Hey, Gomez.” Reggie immediately focused on the hot