Chapter 2

It was Halo night.

And as usual, Penny was dominating.

"Haha! You lose again Moonpie!" She crowed, doing a little victory jig in her seat.

"Don't call me Moonpie." Sheldon pouted. "Only my Meemaw calls me Moonpie."

"Uh-huh." Penny high-fived Leonard.

Sheldon's phone buzzed. He picked it up, and with a quick glance, sighed and turned it off.

"Who's that?" Howard asked as he set up a new game with Raj.

"Kripke." Sheldon glared at Leonard. "Thanks to that picture you posted online, he's been pestering me to give up my office."

Leonard shrugged sheepishly. "But you already hate it, right?"

"That's hardly the point! I am not going to just 'give it up.' Especially not to Kripke." Sheldon snapped. After a brief silence, broken only by the sounds of Halo, Sheldon broke it further, saying "Speaking of my new office, I found something today that rather puzzles me."

"Did you find it in the hole in the wall?" Howard asked sarcatically.

"No." Sheldon replied, not catching the sarcasm. "Look." He pulled the locket out of his pocket and dangled it in front of Leonard's face, swinging it back and forth, back and forth...

Annoyed, Leonard snatched it from Sheldon's hand. Pushing his glasses up on his nose, he examined the chain, working his gaze down to the locket. When he opened it, he looked mildly surprised.

"Is that Rothman?" Leonard asked.

"Lemme see." Howard paused the Halo and took the necklace from Leonard. Penny and Raj moved in closer for a better look.

"Holy crap, that is Rothman." Howard said in disbelief.

"Who's that baby?" Penny asked.

"Perhaps the said baby is Proffesor Rothman's daughter." Sheldon interjected casually.

Raj whispered something into Howard's ear.

"I didn't know he had a daughter either." Howard muttered.

"How do you know Rothman even had a daughter?" Leonard asked Sheldon.

"I overheard President Seibert discussing it." Sheldon replied.

"What happened to her?" Penny asked.

"She died." Sheldon said dissmissively.

"What?!"

"And you just found this in Rothman's office?" Leonard asked in a way that said 'seriously?'

"Yes."

"Well that explains a lot." Howard muttered.

"Should we give it back to him?" Penny asked worriedly.

"I don't think he needs to remember his daughter dying. He's enough of a nutcase as it is." Howard snorted. "Besides, this thing looks pretty valuble. We could sell it or something."

"You want to sell a dead girl's locket?" Penny looked incredulous.

"Well, she's not gonna be using it anymore." Howard replied. Raj smirked, and again whispered something into Howard's ear. "No, I'm not worried I'll be reborn into a banana slug, so shut up about it!"

Leonard stood up. "I think we should at least see if there's any other family members of Rothman's. They might want it."

"Hey! I found it! Shouldn't I get to decide?" Sheldon asked grumpily.

Penny rolled her eyes. "Fine, Sheldon, what do you want to do?"

Sheldon thought for a moment. "Never mind." He muttered.

She could sense it the moment he picked up her locket. Apparantly, this Sheldon person thought her father's office was now his own. She didn't care of course, but when he discovered her locket, she knew she had to track him down and get it back. It was her only link to her previous form, for her to become solid again. All sheers had something like that, but very few chose to use them.

That's what made her special. Unlike the other moaning, lifeless, lost little ghosts, she still had a desire to live. Her death was a mistake, and it had eventually driven her father to madness. She wanted to find a way to come back to life, even though she knew it was strictly impossible.

She wouldn't visit her father though, once she came back to life. She liked him where he was, locked up in an asylum. She and her father had never gotten along, and she didn't care if he was now senile. He could rot in a padded room for all she cared.

'You'll never be like your sister.'

Ha.

He should see her now.

But first, she had to deal with a certain Sheldon Cooper. She had to admit, his intelligence impressed her, though he was far too narcisstic for his own good. But part of her admired his pride, his confidence, his way of speaking his mind. Sheldon Cooper was not a genuinely bad person. He knew he was a genius, and he wasn't afraid to show it, but she believed it was more of a honesty issue then a vanity. Though vanity was a big trait of his, that she would not deny.

He had actually managed to make friends. That surprised her greatly.

And they planned to give the locket directly to her family. Well wasn't that nice.

She didn't want her locket to go to her 'too good for anything sister' or her pushover mother, or one of her annoying cousins. She had hoped she wouldn't have to directly intervene, but the way things were playing out, she might have to.

Perhaps it was best to play the one who had found her locket in the first place.

Sheldon Cooper.

Oh, she would have fun with this.

Hopefully, she wouldn't have to damage him too much. It would be a shame to do that to a brilliant mind.

Sheldon was lying in bed later that night, in his classic 'Dracula pose,' when he heard a voice whisper in the back of his mind:

"Sheldon."

Odd, Sheldon thought, I seem to be hearing things. Have I gone through all the REM cycles already?

"Get out of bed Sheldon."

I must be dreaming, Sheldon decided.

"Now Sheldon."

Fine. Sheldon got out of bed.

"Go to where you put the locket Sheldon."

Sheldon obeyed. He walked out of his room and to his desk in the living room.

"Now give it to me."

"Who is 'me'?" Sheldon asked.

"Me." A gust of wind slapped the back of his neck. Sheldon jumped, and whirled around. There was no one there.

"Leonard? Is this a joke?" Sheldon called.

"He can't hear you." There was a girlish giggle, and the hairs on the back of Sheldon's neck stood up.

"What's going on?" Sheldon asked nervously.

"I want my locket Sheldon." It sounded like a teenage girl's voice. "And what I want, I get. So give it to me."

"How can it be 'your' locket?" Sheldon replied, edging away from his desk.

There was a silence, before she replied. "Don't question me Moonpie."

Sheldon swallowed, and turned back to his desk. When he did, he tried to scream, but the scream got caught in his throat, leaving his mouth wide open.

What he saw could have been described as a shred of mist, except this mist was in a vague shape of a woman, and the said woman looked very angry. And very, very, terrifying.

One word screamed through Sheldon's mind: GHOST!

This had to be a dream. Ghosts weren't real. They weren't. They went against the laws of physics, and his own mother's Christian philosophy. The philosophy that people either went to heaven or hell, and that was it.

Ghosts weren't real.

"Give me my locket Sheldon." She whispered, and reached a see-through hand out towards him.

Sheldon didn't give her the locket.

Instead, he fainted.