Ghoul Me Once

By Gareth Vaughn

Rob and the rest of the SIPS (Society for Investigative Paranormal Study) are eager to spend the holidays at the Dead End Inn, a bed and breakfast where a supernatural encounter is guaranteed. When they arrive, though, and find that the inn’s proprietor, a certain former Decrypter with a professor boyfriend, has booked a second band of ghost hunters, friendly rivalry threatens to spill into outright hostility.

To make matters worse, Rob can’t stop thinking about a member of the rival group, Edward. And despite trying to stay focused on the job, it seems like fate, or perhaps the resident mischievous ghost, is determined that the two men spend time alone together in rather distracting circumstances. Will Rob be able to help the SIPS find their first proof of the paranormal, or will it be he and Edward who end up going bump in the night?

• Language: English
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC
• Release date: Dec 17, 2022
• ISBN: 9781685503260

Gareth Vaughn

Things Gareth Vaughn is terrible at: Whistling. Card games. Writing bios. Not adopting cats. Things Gareth Vaughn is okay at: Snow shoveling. Star Trek trivia. Writing stories. Fishing cat toys from under the couch.

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Ghoul Me Once

By Gareth Vaughn

Published by JMS Books LLC

Visit jms-books.com for more information.

Copyright 2022 Gareth Vaughn

ISBN 9781685503260

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Cover Design: Written Ink Designs | written-ink.com

Image(s) used under a Standard Royalty-Free License.

All rights reserved.

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No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission from the publisher, with the exception of excerpts used for the purposes of review.

This book is for ADULT AUDIENCES ONLY. It may contain sexually explicit scenes and graphic language which might be considered offensive by some readers. Please store your files where they cannot be accessed by minors.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are solely the product of the author’s imagination and/or are used fictitiously, though reference may be made to actual historical events or existing locations. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Published in the United States of America.

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Ghoul Me Once

By Gareth Vaughn

This is really out in the middle of nowhere, isn’t it? muttered Kelsey as she slowed at a potential driveway, only to find another snowmobile trail. Help me look for our turn.

Rob had been thinking it but was glad someone else had said it. The B&B outside Bleu Falls hadn’t seemed as far away from all life on the map online, but with intermittent connection to GPS and a whole lot of snow on the ground, traveling five minutes outside town was like venturing into a different world. Nothing looked right. The tension made him even more excited for their latest excursion—if he was already feeling creeped out, he hoped it was a kind of omen that the place they were headed to really was haunted.

It was difficult to tell with this one. Chris had tracked it down, and though the pictures of the house were just what they wanted to see, and the guy running it posted reviews backing up his claim it was haunted, none of them had been able to track down a clear history of the place. The most information about it was a news article a few months back mentioning the previous owners and their untimely demise due to mixing cleaning supplies.

I guess that could result in a dissatisfied spirit, Angela had said, and they’d all shrugged and went with it. They’d been going through a dry spell when it came to their ghost hunting anyway.

It’d be great if they actually put a sign on the entrance, said Kelsey, glaring at the side of the road.

Like that one? asked Chris, pointing.

Rob squinted against the low light of an early dusk and could just make out a diamond shape hanging next to the road. As they neared, the flat, yellow marker revealed itself to be a dead end sign, with the word, Inn, hand-painted at the bottom. Not the sort of thing Rob was expecting, but that was the name of the place, so that had to be it.

This doesn’t fill me with optimism, said Angela as Kelsey made the turn. You think anything online was accurate?

I would’ve thought a wooden sign, something professionally done, said Rob. He was with Angela concerning the hesitation.

That sure would fit better with what the place advertised as, said Kelsey. "How long is this driveway?"

At least it’s clear of snow. Chris seemed the least annoyed by all of this, but then, he was the one who initially made the find on the place, and Rob figured he wouldn’t want it to be a waste of time. I mean, you’d expect a haunted house to be out of the way, right? It’s gonna be well maintained if the guy can clear this much snow regularly.

It’s hit-or-miss on our luck with the well-maintained ones. Kelsey’s irritation hadn’t faded yet, even though they were in the right place now. "How many times are the hotels we go to that are done up to look period-creepy actually haunted?"

How many times is anything advertised as haunted actually haunted? muttered Rob, thinking of the many disappointments their group had accumulated over the years. It wasn’t that the Society for Investigative Paranormal Study (SIPS) was bad at what they did; it was more there were fewer truly haunted places than people seemed to think. More people than expected wanted to believe something supernatural was going on where they lived or worked or drank, but when SIPS dragged their equipment in and spent the hard hours gathering evidence, well—usually that resulted in nothing of substance.

Could you at least give this a chance? asked Chris. It took me, like, three hours to track down this place.

I can’t believe this is where I’m spending the holidays. Angela toyed with the resin-encased beetle pendant she wore. My mom’s gonna kill me for missing the big family meal.

You could’ve skipped, like J.J., said Kelsey, but they all knew Angela looked for any reason to stay away from her family now that she was out as asexual and everyone back home seemed to be pressuring her. Here, finally.

Kelsey drove up to a large house, the outside of which looked,