Chapter 1: The Ghost
"Justin, do you hear that?" Brooke opened the bedroom window to see something off in the distance. It was a tall, blue box. The excitement in the pit of her gut put a grin on her face as she grabbed Justin by the wrist. They ran out the door to the abandoned residence behind his house.
"Where the heck are you taking me?" She felt the tug of his arm trying to get out of her grip.
"I heard the freaking TARDIS now come on!"
"There is no way you heard the TARDIS." Justin broke free of her grip and stopped.
"I'm not lying! Fine. If you don't want to meet the Doctor, fine by me."
"This better not be some kind of joke." Justin said giving her a look of skepticism.
"It's not, come on. Please!" Her face turned from her usual gleeful smile to a serious no nonsense one.
They run behind the old house, and saw a tall blue box sitting in the backyard. It had two windows, and "POLICE" was written at the top.
"This wasn't here before." Justin said in a bit of a shock
"I still don't understand why you didn't hear it before. I guess you're going blind AND deaf." Brooke gently nudged him in the ribs, tongue sticking out.
"You know I zone out when I'm playing video games, and it seems you're the one who's blind, cause that box is empty." He points to the slightly ajar door, and inside was nothing but the small wooden walls, not a TARDIS.
"But I swear I heard it!" She runs up to the box and starts checking everywhere, "If this was the TARDIS, then why would the door be open? And you said it wasn't here before. Explain that!"
"That is odd." Justin says as he walks up to the box as well, standing next to Brooke in front of the door, he tries to stick his hand inside, but the door slams shut, making a familiar creaking sound. "Ok...That just happened." Brooke and Justin exchange shocked looks.
"Bob Saget, we don't have a key..." She looks to her right at the old abandoned house, seeing that that back door was ajar as well. "Do you think he went inside the old house? I don't think there would be any reason for him go in there unless there was some sort of trouble. I have been here for a few days and haven't seen anything out of the ordinary. Have you?"
Justin gives her a small shrug. "I've lived here for years, and this is just an old house that no one lives in anymore." He notices the backdoor as well. "But if you are right, and if the Doctor did come here, something must be up. There's only one way to find out." He looks over at her and grins. "Here's hoping." He takes her hand and leads her to the slightly open back door.
The duo opened the door just enough so both could fit through. Taking it slow, Brooke was insistent she went first. Despite protests from Justin that the gentleman should go first and make sure everything was ok. Elbowing him in the arm, she walked into the open room. The room smelled musty and spider webs hung in every corner. White sheets covered the various furniture scattered throughout the room.
Something fell over from above, along with a muffled voice, "That has to be him!" Brooke exclaimed in a loud whisper, "Come on!"
"Come to think of it, there has been a couple of stories about this place." Justin said in a whisper, "But they're all silly."
"Well what if all of them were true? I'm guessing ghosts?"
"Something along the lines of a spirit that roams the halls, it's white as snow and can be seen floating past some windows at night." They get to the staircase as he says this.
Brooke goes up the stairs first, she takes one step at a time with Justin right behind her. Meanwhile, the noise above gets more hectic, "What in blazes is going on up there?" She says not breaking her whisper..
"No idea, it sounds like someone stumbling into the furniture or something." Justin said, still whispering.
Brooke gets to the top of the stairs first with Justin right behind her. She looks off down the right side of the hall while Justin looks down the left. "Uh, Justin?" she said still whispering but with a hint of fear in her voice.
"What is it?" Justin asks, slightly alarmed.
"You mentioned a ghost. You said it was white and floated through the air, right?" She remained frozen at the top of the stairs.
"Yea, but those were dumb, kiddy ghost stories."
"Did it look kind of like that?" Her voice remained nervous and she tilted her head slightly.
Justin turned his head to look down the hall Brooke was facing, and he saw a white, flowing figure that was hovering above the floor. "Yea, kinda." His voice became nervous too, and the two friends, as well as the odd creature remained frozen for what seemed like forever.
"Do you think its like the weeping angels? Can it only move when you're NOT looking at it?" Brooke finally said after only a few moments. The feeling of excitement that was in her stomach was replaced with extreme anxiety.
"I dunno." Justin said, that same feeling of anxiety running rampant in his gut. "We best not blink just in case." Then, as if to answer their question, the creature suddenly flew higher, and zoomed down the hall, passing over their heads and heading into the other side of the hall.
"I can't tell if it's chasing something or the one being chased." Brooke said. With extreme caution, they followed the spirit down the hall.
Then, from behind the duo, they hear a new voice. "Oye! What are you doing in this place?" The voice had a distinct British accent and spoke with an air of importance.
Brooke looking for her words, took a deep breath and spoke back to the familiar voice, "I heard a uh, "She paused looking for the right phrase," grinding noise while over at his place," she turned toward the voice and gestured to Justin, "and I dragged him along with me."
Standing at the other side of the hall was a tall skinny man with brown hair, a blue suit, and a brown overcoat. He had an odd, silver device in his right hand and a perplexed look on his face. "But how could you have heard it? No one can unless they're listening for it." He puts his hands in his pockets and begins to walk towards them.
"Honestly, I have no clue." Brooke shrugged.
The tall lanky man took a few more steps towards them and looked them both up and down, that strange look still on his face. "And you two are?"
Justin let go of Brooke's hand and crossed his arms over his chest. "Oh, yes. You'll have to forgive her rudeness. I'm Justin, and this is Brooke. We came here to...Investigate after we saw the...That blue box in the backyard."
"Nice to meet you both." The strange man grinned widely at them. "I'm the Doctor. Now as much as I'd love to chat, I actually was in the middle of something. Did you happen to see anything odd up here?"
"If you mean a flying white...thing, then yes. Were you chasing it?" Brooke twiddled her thumbs.
"Yes actually. Well...that depends on your definition of 'chasing' its more like...'pursuing.' Ah, but now I'm rambling. I really should get back to, uh, pursuing."
"Then come on!" Brooke ran down the hall after the spirit forcing the Doctor and Justin to follow suit.
"Is she always like this?" the Doctor asked Justin.
"Feisty, energetic, a bit cocky? Yea, but those aren't necessarily bad things." Justin smiles and the Doctor smiles back.
"Yea." The Doctor says his voice drifting off. "I know exactly what you mean."
Brooke catches sight of the creature and hides behind the corner, waiting to see where it went next. Justin and the Doctor get next to her, and she motions for them to stay quiet.
They all peek into the room that the creature was in, it simply hovered over to pieces of furniture, sometimes bumping into them. Then it stopped at a couch in the middle of the room and the couch began to float as well.
"Fascinating," The Doctor said, reaching into his jacket pocket, pulling out a pair of glasses and putting them on. "It seems to posses a large amount of telekinetic ability."
"Yea," Justin said, "But what IS it?"
"That" The Doctor replied, "I have no idea, but I intend to find out."
"Why don't you use your soni-?" As soon as those words left her mouth, Justin slapped his hand over her mouth.
"Soni what?" the Doctor looked in confusion.
"Uh." Justin said fighting to keep his hand over Brooke's mouth. "I think what she means Doctor. Is that we should, uh, scan it or something."
Brooke bites Justin's hand and he yanks it away, trying not to groan in pain. "Yes, that's what I was going to say." She gives Justin a mean look and he gives her one back.
"Ok." the Doctor says, giving them both that same confused look from earlier "Luckily I have a device exactly for that!" the Doctor pulls out that same silver device they had seen him holding earlier, "This is a sonic screwdriver. It scans things, unlocks stuff and the like."
The Doctor sneaks up behind the creature and scans it, but the noise caused by the device startles the spirit. It uses it's telekinesis to throw the couch at him.
"Doctor watch out!" Brooke exclaims as the couch narrowly misses the Doctor with a well timed roll.
"Ok, it's angry now, RUN!" He scrambles up off the ground and catches up to Justin and Brooke as they dodge planters, paintings, and chairs.
"Why is it so angry at us?" Brooke jumped over a chair.
"I don't know, why do bees get angry at us? Just keep running."
They got to the end of the hall with no way to escape, except the two story window. The creature came closer, holding multiple pieces of furniture in the air around it, ready to use them as makeshift missiles.
Justin cringed and Brooke put her hands in front of her face, but then the Doctor took a step forward. "Now that's quite enough." He didn't yell, but his voice was very stern. "There's no reason for any of this, we're not going to hurt you, and I don't know what your problem is, but whatever it is, hurting us, won't solve it."
There was a unnerving pause, then the creature released the objects and they clattered to the ground. "Now that's better." The Doctor smiled then looked back at Justin and Brooke. Then the creature started to make a sound.
Brooke whispered to the Doctor, "It sounds like...wind, is it trying to communicate? I can't understand what's it's trying to say."
"Neither can I...and believe me, that's rare." The Doctor took another step closer to it as he said this. "You are fascinating...but what are you?" He took out his sonic screwdriver and tried to scan it again, but it began to jerk and the noise it was making became louder. The Doctor stopped and put the Sonic away, putting his hands up. "Ok, ok, I stopped, see?"
"It doesn't seem to like your...screwdriver." Justin said as he and Brooke both stepped closer to the creature as well.
"It seems to be...young." Brooke observed.
"How can you tell?" The Doctor asked.
"Well, the noise startled it and it cowered when you brought it out again. When it was throwing the furniture at us, to me it felt like it was throwing a temper tantrum of some kind."
"She's right, it wasn't very accurate, like it was just throwing stuff for the sake of throwing it." Justin and Brooke both stared at the creature.
"You two are good." The Doctor said turning to them. "And I don't say that often either. So what would you two guess it is then?"
"From everything I've seen, this is the 'ghost' that haunts this house, I've heard stories about a white, floating figure, and the sound of wind in the house." Justin said.
"But if you're talking about species? No clue. My guess it's a lost child looking for a way home, but doesn't know where to go." Brooke hypothesized, "We should help it."
"If it is a ghost," the Doctor said turning back to it, "Then we shouldn't be able to touch it." He reached his hand out and touched the white creature, it made a different noise this time, like a soft whistle.
"Haha, you're tickling it Doctor." Justin said, reaching his hand out as well.
"I'm pretty sure ghosts don't laugh." The Doctor said smiling
"Now that it's on our side, how are we going to help it get back home? We know almost nothing about this creature. We can't scan it since the noise will freak it out... We're stuck." Brooke touched the creature and it felt airy and soft beneath her fingers.
"It feels like...cotton, like cloth or something." Justin said, as a puzzled look came across his face.
The Doctor inhaled deeply through his nose. "It is cloth actually, ten percent cotton and ninety percent..." he scrunched his nose, "other stuff, and it seems to have been here quite a while."
Brooke's eyes lit up, "I have an idea. Follow me!" She races back down the stairs to where the covered furniture was as the Doctor, Justin, and the creature followed. She walked over to the nearest sheet and touched it. The material felt the same way as the creature upstairs!"Haha I think I'm onto something!" Brooke kicked her leg up and jumped a bit in glee.
"Indeed you are Miss Brooke. It is the same, but how can that be?" The Doctor looked back at creature. "You are a mystery little guy."
"Let's call him Casper." Justin said, looking back at it as well.
"But he's not actually a ghost..." Brooke pointed out.
"He looks like one, he's got the sheet and everything."
"Hmmmm. Casper. I like it. Rolls off the tongue. What do you think Casper?" The Doctor stroked the creature as he said this, and it made the whistling sound again. "I guess that settles it."
Brooke started to pace back and forth, her hands behind her back, and blonde hair falling to the sides of her face, stuck on the problem at hand, "If Casper is made of the same stuff as these sheets over the furniture, does that mean the sheets are his family member's but-" Brooke couldn't bring herself to finish her sentence.
Casper floated over to the various couches, chairs, and tables gently nudging each them. By the way it floated, the three could tell he felt alone.
"The poor thing, do you think the rest are all gone?" Brooke looked at Casper with concern and pity.
"We've got to do something." Justin said, crossing his arms and looking at Casper the same way as Brooke.
The Doctor took his glasses off and put them back in his pocket, "If he is lost, I have a way to get him back, but without knowing what Casper is, it's going to be difficult to figure out where he's from." The Doctor put his hand on his chin and turned around.
"Uh, Brooke, Justin." There was a hint of urgency in his voice and both of them turned from casper to look at him. "Don't make any sudden moves. I think we've found Casper's family."
On the other side of the room floated three more white creatures, they were larger than Casper, and each of them were holding pieces of furniture around them. The one in the middle made a much louder and more shrill version of the sound Casper had made.
"This can't be good." Justin said as the creatures began to come closer.