Excerpt from PJ and The Paranormal Pursuers – The Phantoms of Pittenweem
School’s out and The Paranormal Pursuers, PJ, Freya, Shuggie and Sunny catch up at Starbuck’s. Things suddenly take an unexpected and spooky turn, however…

“Good to see you both.” Sunny smiles. “Sit down. Here, PJ, hot chocolate for you and Freya, a vanilla Frappuccino.” Sunny never changes – always polite and concerned for everyone else’s comfort. I give him a fist pump.
“Just what the doctor ordered, Sunny, after a day worse than being trapped in Mackenzie’s tomb!”
Everyone laughs. The smile is quickly wiped from my face, though, when I catch some familiar faces in my peripheral vision. They’re tucked away in the corner, their heads together, looking like they’re plotting something evil. It’s Heather who sees me first. She kinda gives a look of disgust and tuts audibly. I don’t know why, but they’re always huddled together in the school yard, giving me dirty looks, or pointing and sniggering whenever they see me and Freya. I give Freya, who’s absorbed in lively banter with Shuggie and Sunny, a nudge, and tilt my head surreptitiously in their direction.
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say they were stalking us.” Freya snorts and shakes her head disdainfully. She gives the girls defiant side-eye, as if to say, you lot don’t worry me, but just as she does, there is a whoosh, followed by the clattering of breaking crockery and the three girls are screaming in horror, coffee dripping from the table and staining their clothes, a mass of broken plates and glass mugs lying in pools of milky liquid on the floor surrounding them.
Other customers are looking on in shock as one woman stands up, clutching her beads and says, “Did you see that? Those plates and coffee glasses shot up in the air of their own accord!”
“I saw it too!” A young woman in distressed jeans and white t-shirt is standing open-mouthed. “It… it’s like a ghostly hand tossed everything up from the table!”
My heart flutters wildly with excitement. Maybe I don’t have to look too far for a new investigation, after all? I’m brought back to earth with a bump as things take an unpleasant turn.
The three girls are sobbing hysterically, and a barista comes running over to see what all the commotion is about. He gives them a bunch of napkins to wipe themselves down. Heather, who is gulping in air, looks aghast and shrieks, “It’s her! Freya!” She points at Freya, whose face is ashen. “She did it. The witch! Nothing like this happened to me until she stayed with us at our other house last year. Her and her mother. They’re evil, I tell you. They make stuff happen. Her and those – those – others! They were summoning up the Mackenzie Poltergeist last year! She’s a witch, I tell you.” Heather now is gurning and wailing uncontrollably.
“Now just wait a minute! That’s not fair, Heather…” I stand up to defend Freya, but almost instantly I’m aware of my cheeks reddening in embarrassment as it’s all eyes on us, the silence deafening. “So just leave Freya alone,” I say, self-consciously sitting back down. Now I’m beginning to understand why Heather’s been so off with us. Freya has paled in open-mouthed horror, her hand shaking as she puts down her cup. Shuggie and Sunny look at each other, eyebrows raised in shock at the sudden fracas that’s developing in the far corner, which also seems to involve them.
The woman with the beads pipes up. “Now, now, dearie. Those young people over there were minding their own business. They did nothing that could have caused this.”
“Are you not listening to me?” Heather is insistent and is not backing down. “Of course she didn’t move. But she gave me the evil eye! I saw it.”
“Well, she did give you a sideways glance,” the younger woman in jeans agrees, “but I wouldn’t say it was the ‘evil eye’, as such. Anyway, there’s no such thing as witches and ghosts,” she adds definitively.
Heather is puce with anger and determination.
“Do none of you recognise them? They’re that bunch of ghost hunters that found Sophie McGregor in the Mackenzie Tomb last year. I know that Freya one! Her mum runs Magickal Moments in the Grassmarket. They’re all into witchcraft and spirits and she’s put the evil eye on me. This isn’t the first thing that’s happened!”
The barista is now looking very worried. I guess he’s thinking that business could be affected if people think there’s a poltergeist in Starbucks. Freya is shaking and looking really upset.
“Och, c’mon, guys,” says Shuggie. “Ah’m no sitting here listenin’ tae that daft girl insultin’ oor Freya and the rest of us any longer. Let’s get oot of here an’ find somewhere else tae talk.”