Mr. Carter felt they were all close enough now for him to give voice to that rumor which had been nagging him ever since he arrived in Blackwall.

True, he had only known the manesologists for a short time, and he was quite upset with them through a good portion of that time, but none of his friends in Essex ever waited on ghosts with him, not even his closest, lifelong friends.

“Which rumors are you talking about, Mr. Carter?” Joseph asked. “The ones that say I’m a vampire, or the ones that say I’m a devil?”

“There are rumors that you’re a vampire? I’ve never heard of those!” Mr. Carter exclaimed.

He had stumbled upon another rumor to add to his collection.

“Oh, that’s just one of the typical rumors.” Joseph said.

“I’ve heard rumors that you’ve destroyed vampires, but never that you are one!” Mr. Carter said.

“‘I’ve long been perplexed by all the vampire rumors.” Martin said. “There was a surge of reported vampire attacks in 1861 after Edward James published the first scientific work on manes, “Multiple Intelligences Within the Human Body.” That’s understandable. The rational confirmation of something long suspected of being folkloric caused people to wonder what else might be real. But that was four years ago! The idea that ghosts are real and vampires aren’t should be as commonly accepted as the idea that horses are real and unicorns are not--and yet people still claim that we once dispatched a vampire in the Battersea ruins!”

“I never believed in that rumor.” Mr. Carter said, feeling rather proud of himself.

“Anyway, Mr. Carter, what rumors are you talking about?” Joseph asked. “You need to be specific.”

“Er, I’m talking about the ones that say you’re… really a ghost wearing a person’s skin. A dead person’s skin.”

Mr. Carter felt very silly, now that he had finally said it, like when he talked about electric lamps.

“Oh those!” Joseph grinned. “Let me guess, “Only a ghost can truly understand a ghost, so the Ror Raas put a bunch of ghosts inside dead bodies and ta-dah! Manesologists!””

“The rumors were…like that, more or less…”

“As if humans couldn’t truly understand a ghost!” Joseph said.” Ghosts come from humans! Ghosts are troubled by loneliness, confusion, and regret, just like humans. You don't hear people saying that a zoologist can’t understand a tiger without being one himself, now do you?”

“No…I suppose not.” Mr. Carter answered sheepishly. It had seemed like such a viable rumor not that long ago…

“Let me tell you something more--bodily possession doesn’t work like the rumor suggests, Mr. Carter.” Joseph said. “A ghost can’t just enter into a dead body and move it around. We’ve met ghosts that have tried just that. They recently decoupled from their bodies and felt very strongly that they were the body lying still beneath their ectoplasmic manifestation. They thought “Dear God, I’ve gone outside of my body. Maybe things will go back to normal if I just go back inside and put it on like a coat?” But it doesn’t work like that, sadly, it doesn’t work anything like that.”

“But haven’t ghosts taken possession of people before?” Mr. Carter asked. “Like Legion in the Bible? Like the Contagious Song of Boston?”

“Yes. But they work by taking over a living mind and using that to control the body. Possession is an Astral power rooted in the sekhem When there’s no living mind to take over in a dead body, the ghost has to operate the meat manually.”

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“Oh dear.” Mr. Carter said. “That’s an…interesting and descriptive way to put it, Dr. Morton.”

“It’s an interesting sight to see.” Joseph said. “Interesting, but a little disturbing.”

Mr. Carter instantly regretted ever starting a conversation with the manesologists.

“At first, there’s a rumbling sound. It’s not like a death rattle, though when you first hear it you might think that’s what it is. But a death rattle is from air moving through compressed passageways. The rumbling sound I’m speaking of comes from things inside the body moving in ways they shouldn’t. There’s a stretching sound, like guitar strings being tuned too tightly, that comes from the ligaments. There’s a grinding sound like mortar and pestle that comes from the bones slipping in their sockets. There’s a wet, sucking sound like--”

“We have action, my friends!” Matthew suddenly exclaimed.

Mr. Carter was thankful that something stopped Joseph’s speech--but his thankfulness was short lived.

The Astral hand at the edge of Matthew’s olprt radiance was darker and larger and stretched like seaweed through a sea of silver.

There was a sound. At first, it was quiet and crackling like people whispering in church, or in court, but it quickly grew, like a tidal wave moving closer to shore, until it was like a roaring wind.

Mr. Carter covered his ears. “Good God! It’s like being inside a tornado! They’ve never been this loud!”

Mr. Carter gasped. The olprt radiance was suddenly as black as a beetle’s shell.

“Stay calm, Mr. Carter.” Joseph said. “It’s just a gush of ectoplasm and Odic force, not uncommon, not a cause for alarm. We just need to adjust the strength of our olprt radiance to match.

The manesologists turned the knobs on their gaeite candles and the deep, dark color of the olprt radiance faded to a light gray and then to the familiar silvery-white.

Mr. Carter was happy to see the silvery light that had once frightened him return.

Then he looked down and gasped again.

“The stake in my chest!” he exclaimed. “It’s gone!”

“No, it’s just invisible now.” Joseph explained. “It’s still in you. It’s just that it’s such a weak manifestation, and our olprt radiance is now so powerfully tuned, that your shard doesn’t displace the olprt, and thus doesn’t appear.”

Mr. Carter looked beyond the olprt radiance and saw something that made him shout--the blue ghostlight was surging.

The ghostlight pulsed powerfully from the door. It did not seep through the door as it had nights before, it burst through the door and continued on its way until it glowed down the entirety of the hallway.

“Ah! Look! Ghostlight! Ghostlight everywhere!” Mr. Carter exclaimed.

“Please don’t scream when you’re this close to me” Joseph said.

“It goes all the way down the hallway! We’re surrounded!”Mr. Carter screamed.

“So?” Joseph shrugged his massive shoulders. “What, does the color of the ghostlight scare you or something? The ghost could light up all of Essex and we would still be safe inside our olprt radiance.”

“Are we truly safe here?” Mr. Carter asked. “I don’t feel safe in here…”

Joseph rolled his eyes. “Oh, please…”

“We are absolutely safe.” Matthew assured him. “We have a system. Even as we speak, my friends and I are performing the appropriate Operations to protect us, silently, in our minds. The manes cannot hurt us, neither physically, nor psychically. Calm down, Mr. Carter. Trust to us. Trust to the science of the modern age and the secrets of the Dyeus age.”

Mr. Carter nodded. “Okay…I feel calmer now. It’s not so bad if I don’t look at anything but my hands…”

“That’s the spirit.” Joseph said.

“So, what do we do now?” Mr. Carter asked. “Do we wait for this to pass like a storm?”

“Of course not.” Matthew said. “We’re going to talk to the ghost and figure him out. First, we’re going to see if he reacts to us the same way it reacts to you. We’re going to leave you here with Dr. Morton while Dr. Glass and myself have a look inside the theater.”

“I don’t suppose I can switch with one of you?” Joseph asked. “I really want to see what the haunting looks like, and I would be ever so grateful if one of you volunteered for babysitter duty in my place.”

“Babysitter duty?” Mr. Carter exclaimed indignantly.

“Stay with him, Joseph.” Matthew said.

“Your prodigious size might have a calming, subconscious effect on him.” Martin said.

“What?” Joseph exclaimed.

“Indeed, what?” Mr. Carter exclaimed.

“You’re tall. Mr. Carter likely sees you as a source of safety, subconsciously” Martin said. “You were an alienist, Joseph, you should know this.”

“I do not see him as a source of safety!” Mr. Carter said.

“Oh! Well, in that case, I’ll go in with Dr. Glass and Dr. Ernst, and you can stay out here” Joseph said.

“...I do not see him as a source of safety for his size.” Mr. Carter quickly corrected himself.

“Stay with him, Dr. Morton.” Matthew said. “We’ll be right back.”

“Please don’t take too long!” Mr. Carter said. “I’ll worry with you two out of sight! Are you sure there isn’t some sort of Operation you could perform that would allow me to see you two through the wall while you work?”

“Sure, there’s an Operation.” Joseph said. “It’s the punch-a-hole-in-your-wall Operation. Want us to try it?”

“Uh…I think not.”

“I thought so. Now sit close by me and I’ll protect you from the dust bunnies, Mr. Carter.”