Norman peered out of his bedroom window, watching the ghosts.
The incident with Aggie had only been a year ago, but the town had already forgotten. The town had phased the event out of their collective minds, blaming it on mass hallucinations brought on by a gas leak. Not everyone forgot. Those who with Norman when everything started could remember. Neil, Mitch, Alvin, and Courtney, could remember. They had gotten closer to the undead than anyone else, they had been right amongst the danger. Everything was too crystal clear for them to forget, to blame on images created by a chemical warped mind.
Those who forgot didn't bully Norman anymore. Now, they just ignored him, clinging to the visions of logic and mundanity. It was somewhat better for Norman as that was what he had wanted in the first place, to be left alone.
Norman didn't care about any of this. It had been weird for him to be accepted. When everything started going back to normal, part of him was almost relieved. The only thing he wished stayed changed was his parents. They forgot as well. Believing Norman was crazy was easier than knowing it was all real. So Norman let them forget. He remembered his mother breaking down after he helped Aggie, stressing over the painful reality of the supernatural. He preferred them happy to having all their paranoias proven true. He wished they could know he wasn't crazy but be able to accept the world Norman had brought them into, but they couldn't handle the pressure.
Right now, Norman was watching a new ghost, who was dressed in Greek armour with a t-shirt and jeans peeking through. Norman guessed that the ghost was from the Greek times but the jeans confused him. Norman hadn't seen ghosts coming from two time zones. Maybe he was from now and had died in a costume.
The ghost was a teenage boy. He seemed to be pretty muscular with a mop of blond hair resting on the top of his sinewy forehead. The teen was pacing back and forth down the road, not caring, maybe not even noticing, when somebody would walk into him, which didn't occur regularly.
Norman let his eyes wander through the street. He noticed a dark haired, emo-looking teenager begin to head down the street, going by where the ghost boy was. He wore a black aviator jacket and black jeans. The teen was staring gloomily ahead as he walked.
Oddly, Norman couldn't remember seeing the emo guy before, or even when he had come to the street. A part of Norman thought the teen had just appeared out of the shadows, but that was impossible.
The emo teen was nearly up to the ghost. Norman knew he would just pass through the ghost like everybody else, but something made Norman keep watching. Something was off about this teen.
Then the teen stopped. People stopping was not normally an odd thing for Norman but stopping right in front of a ghost then talking to it was.
Norman rubbed his eyes. The emo teen was still standing there, talking to the ghost. Norman's hopes lifted. There was someone else like him! Other than the late Mr Prenderghast and Aggie.
Norman instinctively banged on the window glass, hoping to attract the attention of the mysterious teen. The teen spun around, much faster than Norman expected, and glared up at the window.
Norman froze, a deer caught in the headlights of the teen's gaze. The look the emo gave made Norman feel like someone was walking over his grave.
He shivered. This teen was definitely not normal.
The teen turned back to the ghost who stared unconcernedly back at him. The teen looked back at Norman one last time, before running into the bushes across the road.
Norman desperately reached out to bang on the window again, words to stop the teen already forming in his throat. But it was too late. The teen was already gone.
Norman let his hand fall to his side. He had just let the teen just get away! Another abnormal person, someone who might be a friend, and he had slipped through Norman's fingers. Stupid, Norman thought.
Maybe he could talk to the ghost. Norman scanned the landscape, but the ghost was gone too. He must have disappeared when Norman was despairing.
Norman frowned. The teen had again left in as unusual a way as he came. Norman couldn't remember seeing the teen run through the bushes, just up to the shadows cast by the trees. It was almost like he had gone through the shadows.
But that was ridiculous. Norman shook his head. He was watching too many zombie movies. No one could travel by shadows!
No matter how the teen travelled, Norman was determined to find him again.
Next time he would not lose him.
The idea for this came when I was looking through Paranorman crossovers and there were no Percy Jackson ones. Thus, I decided that I will have to make one to fill the hole in Paranorman crossovers. So here it is!
I also thought that the town would not actually be able to comprehend what happened with Aggie because well, who could? But I wanted Norman's friends to know which I thought was plausible.
In the Percy Jackson timeline, this is set after The Last Olympian but before Percy went missing.
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