Ghost Slayers
Chapter Two
By Relm
Lina, Sylphiel and Filia went downstairs towards their headquarters parking lot. As Lina started descending a flight of stairs a chunk of drywall fell almost hitting the red head. This very fact did little to amuse the leader of the Ghost Slayers. Instead it left Lina muttering about why she had chosen this building as their headquarters.
Ghost Slayers headquarters was, in fact what used to be an old police station. In its' heyday the building had seen many arrests, convictions and criminals. It had also seen many deaths as strange accidents were a common occurrence at the large three level police station. It could have been the fact that the building had been built over an old gravesite that these accidents happened in frequency. Or it could have been that old woman who put a curse on the lot who the building contractor pissed off when he went to build the police station. But of course she was crazy to begin with so we don't speak of the old woman anymore. So then let's get back to the graveyard.
In order to blame the gravesite as the source of their problems you would have to believe in ghosts first and most of the police officers didn't. Even so the few that were aware of their station was sitting on top of an old graveyard had been informed that all the graves had been relocated before the construction.
That couldn't be further from the truth.
Still no one brought up the subject of ghosts even when officer Marks happened to die from a strong blow to the head from an item that had been bolted to the floor but somehow managed to go airborne and strike him.
But soon enough a new police building was built, rendering the old one unneeded and so the whole department was relocated. And the old police station? Well it had been left to rot.
Though there were a few occasions where building companies had tried to destroy the old police station to build a new building. The ghosts residing in the building retaliated and stopped those companies. And by then the building had gotten the reputation as being haunted so realtors couldn't sell the place.
The last incident before Lina bought the building had been over fifteen years ago and the ghosts residing in the old police station got bored. What was the fun in haunting a building that no one visited? Some of the ghosts left for new places to haunt, while others had crossed over in the after life. A few vigilant spectres remained but they too were on their last spirit legs.
So when Lina had bought the building there had been very little protests from the ghosts. They even welcomed Lina and her friends, as they were remedies to their boredom. Until that is when Lina and her friends had decided to 'slay' the ghosts to test out their new equipment. And for the record the equipment worked very well.
Lina bought the building for one reasons and one reason alone. It had been dirt cheep. Before starting Ghost Slayers Lina had very little cash to play with. No one wanted to invest in her new business so the only funds she had were the ones she had saved up. She couldn't even get a bank loan. (Though that was because she had bad credit but we'll ignore that little fact for now.) So Lina needed a building that was as cheep as she could get. And also the free ghost test subjects were a nice bonus. One would guess the reason for the old police station's poor market value was because of the ghosts it contained. But as it was the real estate agents weren't suppositious (though most would be buyers were), the building was in violation of dozens of safety codes. Nether less she bought the building, and falling drywall was an everyday occurrence.
'I'll start getting the place fixed next month.' Lina told herself all the time. But when next month arrived there was always something else requiring whatever profit Lina had managed to salvage.
At the very bottom of the stairs Lina reached for the knob for the door that lead to the parking lot. As soon as she touched the knob she recoiled. It was covered with a fine film of slime that now stuck to Lina's hand. "Ewww." She muttered unimpressed as she opened the door. In the parking lot she was greeted to the sight of a green floating spectre that lacked legs 'washing' the Ghost Slayers car. Of course the term washing was a tad subjective because the ghost seemed to be covering the car in as much slimy goo as he was soap.
"Slimer." Lina muttered shaking her head while laughing under her breath.
'Slimer' was the only remaining ghost in the old police station. As it was generally accepted that most ghosts with exception of deceased animals, were human in appearance. But Slimer fell in neither category of human and animal spectres. Lina and company had no idea what Slimer had been before it became a ghost. He was green, he had no legs, but he did have eyes, mouth, arms and hands. It looked like what a mutant would like if it became a spectre. It was for that very reason that Lina had spared the little ghost. She had intended to do further research as to what it had been but had came up with no plausible conclusions. So instead Lina kept Slimer around because it wasn't dangerous and at times it could be quite helpful in its' own weird way. Though it did have a tendency to cover things in a slimy good wherever it went. Thus his name. Oh and they decided it was a he, because even though he did on occasion like to dress up in dresses and flower hats he didn't like to be called a 'she'.
"Well Slimer it's nice to see that you're washing the car. Thank you very much that's very kind of you. But we need to use it so could you please rinse it off please?" Lina asked with a small grin.
Slimer cooed as he floated over to the hose and proceeded to wash the soap and slime from the car. Funny thing about Slimer's slime, it seemed to bond to dirt. And when rinsed down with water the slime washed off easily taking all the dirt and muck with it, leaving surfaces sparkling. As was the case with the Ghost Slayersmobile. It sparkled like it was made of diamonds. Well navy blue diamonds, seeing how the car was navy blue to begin with.
"Thank you very much Slimer. Now why don't you go upstairs and keep Amelia company. There's donuts."
Slimer didn't need any further encouragement. He flew right through the ceiling leaving goo in his wake.
"You know if we could market his goo as a cleaning solvent we're be rich." Filia observed looking at the sparkly clean car.
"Yes but it would be real hard to bottle it." Lina cleaned off the goo from her hand.
"I'm curious as to why Slimer would bother to use the door to come down here but then just fly through the ceiling to leave." Sylphiel wondered out loud as another glob of the goo fell from the ceiling to the puddle on the floor.
"When it comes to donuts Slimer can't be bothered with such trivial things as doors." Lina said with a laugh.
"But ghosts don't eat food either. Why would Slimer be so crazy over something that he doesn't need?"
"I gave up trying to figure him out a long time ago." Again Lina laughed. "Anyway all fun aside let's get going." She said while getting into the driver's seat of the Ghost Slayermobile.
The Ghost Slayersmobile was really just an old hearse that had been painted navy blue with racing stripes and the Ghost Slayers logo. In fact that very car also had a history with ghosts before Lina purchased it. But of course it's not as interesting as the police station story and it's just as long. And well since you all suffered through the police station story already how about we just skip the explanation for now and get on with the rest of the story? Unless of course you want me to explain it but I'm tried and I don't feel like it. Let's just say it was dirt cheep too. There are you happy now?
Even though Sailune Publishing was within walking distance and not far enough to warrant the use of the car, Lina still drove the car anyway. The equipment they had in the car and their own personal ones were heavy and cumbersome to transport. So it was just easier to bring it all in the car.
The street was busy with traffic. Everyone had some place they wanted to be and wanted to be now. Everyone was in a rush and everyone was irritable. Especially Lina, even though she was driving only a couple blocks away. But it wasn't the actual driving that was bothering Lina. It was the parking. Parking a big boat of a car on such a busy street for most would be stressful and worth parking on a side street. But Lina wasn't one to shy away from a challenge. So she parked in the only available spot by Sailune Publishing causing over drivers around her to honk, make rude hand gestures, and swear. And honk, make rude hand gestures, and swear back is exactly what Lina did. Not the most professional behaviour from an owner of a business but Lina didn't care.
Sailune Publishing was rather busy with lots of people chatting, typing and pushing paper. It was so busy that no one paid attention to Lina, Sylphiel and Filia as they walked in wearing their dark blue jumpsuits and various technical stuff packed onto their backs. Or at least for the first minute.
"Hey where can I find Miss Norman?" Lina said very loudly stopping everyone in the room from doing what they are doing.
No one said anything for a while, they just stared blankly at Lina, Filia and Sylphiel like they were aliens.
Finally a small timid woman with brown hair and glasses spoke up. "I'm Pearl Norman." Her voice was as timid as her appearance. "You must be the people from the Ghost Slayers."
"Yes that would be us. I'm Lina, this is Sylphiel and this is Filia." Lina introduced herself and her friends. "So perhaps we should get down to work. Show us where the spectre appears and where he goes."
Pearl Norman led the Ghost Slayers trio over to a back supply room on the second floor.
"So this is where he appears?" Lina asked while taking some readings.
"Sometimes he does yes." Miss Norman nodded her head.
Lina stopped and looked at the woman. "Sometimes?"
"Yes that's right."
"Where does he appear on other occasions?" Lina took out a notepad and started writing notes.
"Well I guess he likes to appear in the break room a lot. And the washrooms. And the maintenance room. Oh and the conference room too."
Lina looked at her sceptically. "So what you're basically saying is that he shows up just about anywhere."
Miss Norman hesitantly nodded her head.
"Okay where was the last time he appeared?"
"In this room."
"Filia, Sylphiel start doing some scans." Lina ordered while checking her wristwatch. It read 11:50am. 'Got ten minutes before he shows up.' "Does he ever show up in the same spot more then once a week?"
"Oh sure. Sometimes he'll show up in the same room like ten times before he changes to a different room. Though it is somewhat random."
Lina frowned. The more and more she heard of this ghost the more she was beginning to wonder. "Any interesting readings so far?"
Filia nodded. "Yeah right here it seems to be a hot spot."
"Really you're getting a real good spectre reading?"
Filia shook her head. "No I'm not, this spot right here is hot, the temperature in the room seems to be rising and the heat is being sourced from there. There isn't by chance a heating system under this floor that's active?"
Miss Norman bit her bottom lip in confusion. "Why no there isn't one that I know off."
"Well the temperature is rising."
"Is that the ghost?" Miss Norman asked timidly.
"No." Lina answered. "As a rule ghosts have no heat to give off. They're dead and have no physical bodies to radiate thermal energy. In fact they need to absorb the surrounding heat just to become visible. Which is why it will get real cold all of a sudden if there's a ghost in the room." She explained.
Just as Lina spoke a man with blue lavender hair and deep blue eyes appeared. He wore glasses and a grey suit and held a black briefcase in his hand. And like most ghosts Lina had encountered, the man seemed to be transparent. He didn't pay any attention to Lina or anyone else in the room; he just stared forward into space.
"The readings are off the charts Lina!" Filia exclaimed.
"But it doesn't seem cold in here. Maybe the machine is busted." Sylphiel suggested turning her own scanner on the apparition.
"No they're not broken. They just can't read the high temperatures. They're meant to read low temps after all."
Miss Norman looked around confused. "So this thing is giving off heat? I thought you said ghosts don't do that."
"They don't. This isn't theoretically supposed to happen." Lina muttered confused as well.
Just as Lina had spoken the 'ghost' turned his face to look Lina straight in the eyes. That was something that this thing had never done before. And he did something else just as strange, he smiled.
