Ghoulies Abroad by Julie Steimle (bts book recommendations txt) 📖

The snake slithered into the seat and maneuvered into Chen’s clothes. Rick shielded everyone from view as the small monkey reappeared and tugged on the pants to fit. He seemed to expand into a chimpanzee, pulling on his shirt next with effort. Once human again, Chen shuddered, muttering, “Damn… opposable thumbs.” He then looked to Rick. “Hi there.”

“Was it the snake or the dog that managed to get on the train?” Rick asked.

Chen colored. “Uh… would you believe mouse? Dogs have to be in carriers.”

Tom plopped by their seats, hunching over the back of them. “Hi guys. I hope you don’t mind if I hang here for a minute. Dan and I don’t exactly have seats as such, and I think I may have to remain ‘afoot’ so to speak, in case security comes along.

Rick nodded. Some late passengers were ‘standing only’.

“So…” Tom said, leaning a little closer. “How’s it going?”

Rick stared up at him, confused.

Frowning, Chen shook his head. “Not good. Apparently my family name is going to cause me trouble. I had no idea.”

“Something similar happened in the airport,” Rick murmured.

Chen nodded. “But only just. However, I have a feeling those demons have connections with the law enforcement in some places—you saw that cop. I think they might be looking for me now, like Tom.”

Tom nodded. “Most likely.”

That was a problem. Rick frowned.

“Ok.” Tom then looked around himself, checking to see if someone was coming. “I am going to find a place to nap while we travel. It will be a few hours yet.”

“Get in sleep while you can, I guess,” Rick murmured.

Patting Rick on the head, Tom hopped off. He hoped Tom was going to nap in a safe inconspicuous place. He had a habit of causing trouble wherever he went and they really did not need that right now.

“A nap sounds like a good idea,” murmured Chen. He drew in a deep breath and immediately made his chair recline, closing his eyes.

Watching him for a short while, Rick sighed, agreeing that a nap would be a good idea. But he was nervous. They were exposed on that train. All of them separated. He didn’t think it was safe. And yet… a train might be the best place to avoid demons. Though… some demons were fond of tech. But those kind were not inclined to attack people—at least not directly.

As he closed his eyes, a dream drifted into Rick’s thoughts. He was back at the wolf village, though neither Chen nor Tom were with him this time. Daniel had not followed them either. The wolves greeted him with friendly howls and drew him into their home where they were having a typical Chinese style dinner party. Rick had been to a number of those over time. Most had served various dishes around huge a lazy-Susan, lots of men challenging each other at drinking, many toasts, and general jovial conversation. A she-wolf at the table flirted with him, but Rick resisted with grace and respect. But then the Asian she-wolf’s face began to shift. Her smooth shiny hair turned honey blonde, curling up in frizzy thick waves around a more Caucasian face with shining blue eyes and peaches and cream skin—a face which had haunted his dreams thousands of nights over. Daisy. Her honey colored hair and bright eyes caught the light as she smiled at him, caressing her slender fingers along his face the way she used to when she… well… seduced him. Rick shivered, breathing shallowly. She was as beautiful as ever, and the warmth of her touch electrified his skin. He leaned toward her eagerly, drawn as always to her.

Gently, she guided him from the table for a more private ‘conversation’. Willing and desperately eager as her smell and touch was all he wanted, Rick left the party with her into the darker building. She slid aside one door, into a bare room where she pulled him in and began to kiss him. From there, the dream turned into one of his thousand dreams about him making love to Daisy. Yet in this dream, while they were engaged in passionate embrace, Daisy’s gorgeous soft face twisted with a sharp teethy grin and red glowing eyes, promptly biting down onto his neck with needle sharp teeth.

Rick woke up with a jerk, panting.

Tom was standing next to him.

Chen was also staring at him, eyes nearly the size of silver dollars.

“You ok?” Tom asked, seriously concerned.

Swallowing, panting, Rick nodded, but then shook his head. “Nightmare.”

“I had one too,” Chen said, but he was eying Rick carefully. “Same one as before.”

Rick nodded, getting back his breath.

“What about yours?” Tom asked.

Blenching, Rick peeked to Chen. “Uh, it was a little private.”

Tom nodded, not caring. His eyes lifted to Chen who said, “I know about Daisy.”

Rick shot an accusatory look to Tom.

“I touched your hand, Rick,” Chen added, shifting the blame quickly.

Closing his eyes, Rick nodded, remembering that Chen could read pasts.

“Fine. She was in it—until she turned into a demon and tried to eat me,” Rick moaned.

Nodding more, Tom sighed. He peered down the train toward Andy and Eddie. “I think those demons are right behind us. Daniel had a dragon dream and nearly wet his seat. Chen’s reliving the past and is getting bad premonitions. I heard Semour shout out a battle cry with severe PTSD. I’ve been dreaming of being back at the Wicked King’s house. And those two up front aren’t sleeping at all. I don’t know where James went, but I am sure he’s going through the same thing.”

“The Wicked King?” Rick peered at him. This was something he had never heard of. Tom had nightmares, but he never told Rick about the content ever.  

Tom colored, startled at himself for admitting something personal. He muttered, “My grandfather.”

Rick stared more. Had his imp father introduced the whole imp clan? They didn’t seem the family type.

“My mom’s dad. Jeeze!” Tom shook his head, following Rick’s train of thought. “I once lived with my grandparents during my mom’s first arrest. The worst year of my life.”

Now it made sense. Tom never talked about his childhood except to say how awesome his mom was. Of course Tom’s mom had been in prison on felony charges for the past ten years for armed robbery, so Rick never knew quite what to think. All he knew was that Tom’s mother had run away from home when she was a teenager and later got impregnated during a fling with an imp on Halloween and kept Tom as a happy souvenir. He never mentioned his other relatives.

“So those demons can affect our subconscious,” Rick murmured to himself. He thought on that. “They can draw out our greatest fears.”

“Is there a way to stop that?” Chen visibly cringed, mostly wondering out loud. Rick could tell Chen didn’t expect him to have all the answers.

Rick shrugged.

Tom looked thoughtful, though. Then he shot Rick a glance. “Your greatest fear is you getting eaten by Daisy?”

Moaning, Rick shook his head. “No. But Daisy tends to haunt my dreams, and I don’t like how I lose control in them.”

Chen raised his eyebrows, almost impressed. Again, it made Rick wonder what he truly thought of him.

Tom said, “Maybe they can only mess with surface thoughts. I was thinking about the Old Creep right before I nodded off because some old man looked like him in the other train car.”

Rick peeked to Chen. “But what about Chen?”

Chen nodded.

Shrugging, Tom said, “I think Chen is connected to another plane of consciousness—the same one which allows him to read our pasts.”

That made sense.

“Try to clear your head before going to sleep,” Tom said. “In the meantime, I’ll keep watch.”

For some reason, Tom saying he would keep watch made Rick feel a whole lot better.

 

The arrived in Xinghua very late. Each one of them staggered off the train to the platform feeling groggy and wishing for a bed. They trudged through the train station dragging bags and carrying heavy backpacks, their eyes watching eyes the crowd in case any other demons set upon them. From there they stepped outside in the brisk winter air looking for a bus or a taxi to take to a hotel.

Something not quite whole yet clearly humanish came at the eight of them like sharp wind, katanas held aloft by translucent hands.

“Riben guibing!” people screamed as they scattered.

The five from the Seven instinctively whipped out their swords, clashing blade against blade as they stared at what looked like ghosts of fallen Japanese soldiers. They were in Japanese uniforms and cursing Japanese words under their ghostly breaths—though each word came out like icy puffs of wind.

“Crap!” Eddie cursed. “How do you kill a ghost?”

One of the Japanese soldiers drew an old World War II pistol.

“Take out the bullets!” Tom screamed to the invisible imps around them.

But that gun discharged before any imp could remove it. The bullet zipped—luckily skimming through Tom who could go immaterial. It struck the far wall.

“Where is JJ when you need him?!” Rick shouted, ducking away from a sword swipe.

“In New York,” Andy shouted, swiping his red blade straight through the ghost to no effect. “Flirting with my girlfriend!”  

“Stop aiming for their bodies!” screamed Daniel, lopping at the hilt of one blade. “Take out their swords!

“Disarm them?” Semour slashed away yet another katana. “What good will that do? They’ll just pick them up again!”

A katana skimmed under James’s arm, barely scratching his skin. He had moved just in time.

“No! Destroy the swords!” Daniel shouted, taking out another.

“Right!” Andy said, nodding, going for it.

“Of course!” Tom hopped up into the air and flipped over three katana wielding specters who for some reason were quite grounded as if they did not realize they were ghosts. “Take away what fixates them to this world!”

Every man in the Seven immediately went after the swords. Some of the katanas were brittle, chipped and chinked, and most were rusted. Daniel shattered two with precise blows just above the hilt. His two-handed sword was so much larger and in better shape. Semour disarmed his ghosts and snatched up the katanas, bashing the remains against the concrete until they snapped. The others hacked and even used their red crystals to melt katanas out from the ghosts’ hands. Chen and Rick did their best to stay out of the battle, though the ghosts went after them as much as the rest of them. Tom had his hands full, or rather his feet, as he flew overhead and kicked away the swords as best as he could. But one katana wielding ghost went after Chen, and almost stabbed him in the chest.

Almost.

The monk from hotel seemed to come out of nowhere, whapping away the katana with a long, ancient-looking staff. He did it with such precise skill that both Chen and Rick staggered back, watching him expertly beat off the Japanese ghosts that had gone after them.

Not one katana remained whole when it was all over. And the ghosts themselves screamed when they had nothing else left to anchor them to that world. But they hung on, staggering there with shadows of wounds, struggling desperately to attack the Seven. Ineffectually, really.

As the Japanese ghosts fought with their transparent hands to battle their group, the monk made a supremely weird Buddhist gesture with his hands. An abrupt pop of air followed by a gust filled that space. And entering it came two distinctly weird individuals as if through a door. One of them had the head of an ox. The other the head of a horse. Both were as brawny as any hooded executioner from a comic book, staring with eyes like fire as they peered down on the Japanese ghosts.

Yowling, the ghosts tried to escape. Tried. But not one could. The pair of animal-headed beings hooked the ghosts in with long staffs and dragged them back into the portal they had taken to get there. With a wink to Eddie, Horse-face turned and all of them were gone.

“Weird,” Tom said, his feet settling on