The Partner

Chapter 3

Anvy is able to get five hours of sleep before her cell phones wakes her up. She groggily reaches over and searches for it blindly on the nightstand. When she presses it to her ear, she yawns a hello. "Anvy, you need to come back in. Our squad is being called against the Council. They're having a meeting in thirty so Vane wants everyone here in fifteen." Paenn, one of the other two wraiths on her squad, says with urgency in his voice.

The Council...this is serious then. The Council is a group made up of representatives from each ruling body of the eructa; the Overseers, the First Pack, the Archdaemons, the Coven Prime, and the Boss. Anvy doesn't know anyone who has been requested to attend one of the highly secretive Council meetings. It would be considered an honor under better circumstances.

Anvy sits up in bed and rubs her forehead with a groan. "Okay. Got it. I'm on my way." She hangs up and turns on her lamp. She quickly changes into her uniform; her black dress and black boots. Following a trip to the bathroom and running a brush through her hair, she runs out into the living room to grab the last part of her uniform; her black cloak. She left it on the couch when she came home last night. Anvy's home, currently, is a small, contemporary ranch house in the middle of a house complex in a small suburb right outside of Los Angeles. It's not technically hers. A family of five owns it and lives here with her and her roommate, but they don't know it. Most haunts instead of living in the present world among other eructa and humans prefer to live in the spirit world, one of the three worlds haunts can travel between; there's the present world, spirit world, and after world.

The present world contains eructa and humans. The after world houses the dead humans and eructa who have passed on and moved on to the final chapter in life. Then, the spirit one is that world in between. It contains the ghosts, cousins of the reapers, wraiths, and ghouls, who refused to move to the after world following death, and any haunts who travel here. So, like Anvy, most haunts live in houses owned by people living in them in the present world. She just only comes home in the spirit world, leaving the humans who own the place at peace. Some haunts like to mess with the humans by moving stuff around or calling out to them. Then there are the ghosts who want to go back to the present world and torment the humans and eructa to help them. Few succeed to make contact.

Anvy slips on her cloak and is about to teleport to headquarters when her roommate comes in. Her best friend, Raspeck, strolls into the living room in his long pajama bottoms and t-shirt, yawning and scratching his sun-bleached blonde hair. "Going back out again?" His voice is dripping with disappointment.

She nods with a sigh, also missing her friend. "Yeah, duty calls. My squad's being summoned before the Council. So we'll see how that goes."

He leans back against the couch, his smile showing off his square jaw and high cheekbones. "Oo, the Council. I'm sure you'll do great. Be careful, though."

"I will. I have to go. Vane's gonna kill me if I'm late."

"Tell the reaper to give you a day off or two, Anvy. He's working you to death!"

She straightens her uniform. "Ha, yeah right. Vane would sooner kick me off the squad. See you later." She teleports to the headquarters, an office building in downtown Charleston, West Virginia. To humans and eructa, it's a normal office building. But if a haunt enters the spirit world, it's the Haunt Squad's base. Perfectly hidden, like all things to do with the haunts. She teleports to the lobby and after checking in at the front desk, she waits on an elevator.

Someone comes up behind her. "You're almost late." Vane scolds her.

Anvy turns to face him, his gray eyes squinting at her like he's searching for a flaw in her appearance. She crosses her arms. "Sorry I'm running on five hours of sleep, thanks to you."