Surrender by Lee Nichols

“Maybe the original plumbing.”
    â€œOh.” I imbued my dagger with power and stepped farther into the cellar. “Well, where’s this ghast?”
    â€œCareful,” Max warned from the safety of the stairs.
    â€œWhy? Because it’s
haunted
?” I said, maybe showing just a little more bravado than I felt. But since battling the last ghasts, I’d fought dozens of wraiths, a siren who could control my thoughts, and Neos. I wasn’t too concerned. “This is nothing.”
    â€œJust summon the damn thing and dispel it already.”
    â€œFine.” My boots
were
getting a little filthy from the dirt floor. “Come out, come out, wherever you are,” I recited in a sing-song voice.
    I sent summoning energy into the void, and it took only a moment for the ghast to appear beside me. Well, not beside me so much as right in my face.
    â€œWhoa!” I backpedaled, almost losing my balance.
    It was a woman. I don’t know why that surprised me, but it did. She was what I believe they called “strapping” back in the day, about three hundred pounds of fleshy shoulders, wide hips, and tree-trunk legs, with mean eyes and stringy hair pulled into a sloppy bun. I didn’t see more after that first glimpse, because before I could dispel her,she swiped at me with one massive paw and I ducked out of the way, narrowly missing the attack.
    Surprisingly quick for all that girth, she grinned at me from across the room, next to the old well. Her teeth were all blackened and drool dripped from her mouth, sizzling beneath her. She made a sort of sickening giggly noise that grated along my spine.
    â€œOoh, boy,” I heard Max say behind me. “Not exactly beauty-pageant material. Just dispel her already, Em.”
    â€œJeez, I don’t know what I did without your wise advice, Max.” My knife tingled with dispelling force; one cut and I’d have her.
    I shot the ghast a warning look. Y
ou’re not going to make a fool of me in front of my broth—
    She launched herself at me, moving shockingly fast, but instead of burying my dagger in her heart, I only managed to scrape a long furrow down her side. She howled and spun at me as I jumped backward, smacking into the old stone well. I gripped the dagger in my hand, waiting for her to get closer, and felt a sudden surge of energy from across the room. Max was trying to come to my rescue, but he’d only get in my way, so I called, “I got this. Don’t interrupt.”
    â€œI’m not doing anything.”
    â€œYou’re—”
    â€œEmma, watch out! There’s another one!”
    As the first one attacked, I leaned back against the well and planted my boots on her belly, driving the dagger like a stake into her heart—then found myself staring into the face of a second ghast, identical to the first, excepther stringy hair streamed messily around her pallid face. Hoo boy.
    â€œTwins,” Max said. “Sumo ghast
twins
.”
    I blasted a stream of power at the new ghast, but she was as quick as her sister and dodged almost faster than my eye could follow. I could feel Max unleash his powers as he compelled her to freeze on top of the old well. I clambered onto the rotting planks next to her and slashed her neck with my dagger.
    â€œDie,” I said between gritted teeth as I blasted her into vapor with a surge of power.
    I stood there for a moment, panting in relief—until the plank sealing the well snapped under my feet. I lunged for safety as the wood tumbled into the well—and heard my dagger
plink, plink, plink
down the stone walls into the dark pool below. It had slipped from my grasp as I’d jumped.
    I thought I heard a disembodied giggle echo as the well began to collapse in on itself, sealing my dagger inside.
    I stood beside the mound of stones, stunned and breathless.
    Behind me, Max said, “Not bad.”
    â€œNo,” I said.