He had not meant to fall asleep in his armchair. But Skulker's warning did not leave him be. It did not have him particularly worried, it was only speculations and Vlad had honestly been in deeper trouble over less, yet it kept nagging him at the back of his mind. His unrest had led him to stay up longer than planned and he had accidentally fallen asleep with a binder containing various project evaluations that he'd started to read in hope to keep his mind distracted.

He woke up to Maddie's mewing and a melodious jingle, she must have entered the room sometime later during the night, dragging one of her toys with her. The study was cast in darkness, save for the reading lamp creating a small island of warm light, while the rest of the study was laid in inky black.

Bleary eyed he peered at his clock. It was eleven thirty. That could not be right, he was pretty sure that he had stayed up well after midnight, and in doing so, ignoring Skulker's invitation to the Ghost Zone. The damn thing must have stopped working at the specified time. Vlad lifted his wrist up to his ear in puzzlement. He could hear the ticking of a clock but he was pretty sure that the second hand on his wrist clock hadn't moved a fragment. Maddie mewed again, this time followed by the giggle of a young child, what he had earlier thought was the sound of bells, was in fact, laughter. This had Vlad rousing out of his half wake state instantly.

There, just on the edge where the darkness began, sat a small child playing with Maddie. Giggling with mirth and clapping its hands in excitement over the feline's antics as the snowy white cat played with a simple paper butterfly tied to a string. The child was dressed in a royal purple riding cape that hid the young intruder's face from view. He could see that its arms were covered in several wrist watches and was what had probably produced the ticking noise. Vlad beheld the scene in silence, but not for very long. Realizing that it was being watched, the child raised its head, revealing a round cherub face. It was a boy, no older than four years old, Vlad estimated. Its skin was blue with an unearthly glow to it, its eyes were ruby red, where the legs should have been, was now a wispy tail. A young death. In Vlad's earlier days, the encounter with a ghost of a child, especially one this young, would have left him with a sting of sorrow. Now, its presence had him wary. He had learned that ghosts that bore the resemblance of youth, were some of the more powerful ones. This due to their raw power as a result of their development and in most cases, the age of their death he figured, combined with childish capriciousness and lack of understanding of consequences. They were a force to be reckoned and should be approached like a dangerous animal that could lash out instantly without warning.

It finally spoke.

"Slept well, Vladimir?" The voice leaving the infant's lips was deeper and fuller than what should be for a child that age, "Or is it Plasmius? Masters? Vlad? So many names for just one man." There was a slight lisp and lilt to the ghost's words as it turned its head to one side and gave him a calculated look, as if he was looking at a puzzle to be solved.

Vlad remained as he were, he was rarely called by his full first name. It felt so foreign to him now and hearing it gave him paus. But the ghost's voice and wording spoke of an age and intellect that was far beyond than what met the eye.

"It's Plasmius." He informed curtly.

"Very well then, Plasmius." The ghost swept its riding cloak in a flourish and gave a bow. "You may call me Clockwork."

The name rang vaguely familiar, maybe he had heard of this particular ghost before? However, he could not remember from where. Vlad leaned back against the backrest.

"May I then as well ask you what brings you here?" He was starting to feel like the entire day had consisted of a never ending tirade of unwanted guests.

"Don't be coy, Plasmius. Did Skulker not pay you a visit earlier?"

"Was it you who sent him?"

"Always on the defense I see." The small ghost, Clockwork, smiled. "No, I did not send him. I simply know these kinds of things."

Vlad spread his arms. "Well, as you can see I am upholding the truce, I have not started any fights, nor do I plan to in the near future." He folded back again and gave it a smile that were all teeth. "Thank you for stepping by, but clearly your services are not needed." He mocked.

Clockwork's smile only widened into a grin, showing off small pearly milk teeth "I am here for your own benefit, Plasmius. Upholding the truce has very little to do with this."

"Excuse me?"

Clockwork picked up a staff. Its top was crowned with a silvery stopwatch. Vlad had not seen it as it had been blocked out of his view from behind the ghost and he cursed his own lack of observance. The staff was longer than the ghost's short stature and clearly meant for an adult. It should have been awkward, but it wielded the object with ease and made it look natural, as if the staff had always been meant for the ghost and not something to grow into.

The closer the ghost floated towards him, the more Vlad tensed up. When the ghost reached him, he was gripping the armrests in a white knuckled grip.

Clockwork grasped his arm gently. Vlad's gaze instantly fell to the offending hand and tried to shake it off, but the ghost would not let go.

"Unhand me." Vlad growled." The infuriating smile was still on the ghost's face. This up close, in the light, he could now see that the face was marred with a jagged wound running down over its left eye and went a bit down on its cheek.

"Follow me, Plasmius."

"Give me a reason."

"I know you are prone to suspicion, but you have nothing to lose by me borrowing some of your time."

"Even if I were to believe you, what's in it for me?"

The smile was replaced by the calculating look again and Vlad was 'almost' wishing for the Cheshire grin to return.

"The future."

Vlad didn't know why those simple words affected him so. He could feel his will capitulate and he reluctantly stood.

"Fine then." The faster he got this underway, the faster he could get back from wherever this Clockwork wanted to take him. And install a better ghost shield afterwards.

Clockwork hummed approvingly and led him to the edge of the lightened area. Vlad finally managed to shake off the hand and took lead, but hesitated when they reached the edge. Vlad could not see anything through the impenetrable darkness and could not help the sinking feeling that the world did not exist past this threshold.

"The unknown can be scary, I know." Clockwork spoke softly from behind him. "You have nothing to fear."

"I'm not scared… Just cautious."

Vlad changed into his ghost form. One step and the darkness engulfed him. Clockwork chuckled, then followed.

The first thing that greeted Vlad was the distant roar of waves, carried by the wind and seagull cries. He found himself looking out over a frozen shore. Unlike Amity Park there were at least one foot of snow and the sun was visible in the sky, which would mean that it was midday. He recognized this place. The large body of water he was looking at was Lake Michigan.

"What the...?"

Shouts and laughter were approaching his location and he instinctively turned invisible when a group of children came into view.

Clockwork floated up beside him, still visible. "There is no need for that, they can't see us anyway."

Vlad questioned the ghost's claim, but after the children ran past them without the slightest sign of noticing the purple clad ghost, did he turn visible again and gave Clockwork a questioning look.

"We aren't existing in this sequence of time." The ghost explained, "Actually, you could say that we right now don't even exist in neither time nor space." The look on Vlad's face was the complete opposite of the ghost's amused one. He did not like the sound of that the very least. Outside of time? Vlad was starting to get an inkling of the type of power the ghost was wielding. It spelt trouble.

"Do you recognize where we are?"

"Recognize? I was born and raised here." Vlad took off along the shore, heading in the direction of the town.

"And yet, you seem to have forgotten it for so many years." The small ghost mused when it caught up to Vlad, who chose to ignore it and kept flying.

They finally stopped when they had reached an apartment building on the outskirts of the town. There wasn't anything particular about it compared to its surroundings. It was a three floor brick building. It was worn and clearly had seen better days, so had the entire block to be fair. Vlad frowned up at it. "This is not supposed to be here." He stated.

"You are referring to when they tore it down in ninety-eight. I told you that we were outside time. As is tied to my current form. This," It gestured to the apartment building, "is your past."

"My past, you say. And you are a shapeshifter?"

"All in due time, Plasmius." Clockwork pointed with his staff up to a window on the second floor. "I recall that there was a boy that used to live here. A lonely boy at that."

Vlad's frown deepened, but he flew up to the window and phased inside the room it belonged to. He found himself inside a familiar sitting room. A few Christmas decorations typical to the era was placed around the room and below the TV sat decorative dolls clad in colorful foreign garments. The dolls were the most festive objects in the bleak apartment. The TV was on, supplying background noise for the lone occupant in there. Curled up on the sofa sat a skinny young boy. His nose was buried in a book and he was surrounded by stacks of other books and paper sheets covered in scribbles.

The boy was a younger Vlad in his pre-teen years. The hair was short and unruly in dark locks, in contrast to Vlad's silvery gray he'd had since his early twenties. The younger version's head shot up from his book and for a split second Vlad thought that the boy had detected their presence. But instead, he stared straight through them, grabbed a sheet of paper and jotted down new notes on it before he returned back to his book.

However, the reading was cut short by the jingling of keys and the sound of a door opening. The boy shot up to his feet and ran to the hallway. Inside the narrow space stood a slim woman in a big powder blue coat. Her hair was tied back in a bun and she pushed back strands of wispy blond hair with a pale hand behind her ear. Her features were too sharp to be considered conventionally pretty and her pale complexion made the skin look pasty, no thanks to the coat. But at the boy's exclamation, "Mum!", her face transformed into a thing of stunning beauty when she smiled and her dark blue eyes sparkled, the same eyes that Vlad had.

"Surprise Vladimir! I managed to switch shifts!" She had an eastern European accent and she pronounced his name the way it was supposed to; 'Vlah-dee-meer'.

He flung his arms around her waist and buried his face in the lapels of her coat. She snorted at his antics.

"I thought you were going to work this night!"

She stroked her son's hair and tugged him closer. "I couldn't let my baby spend Christmas all alone. Again" She added wistfully.

"She pulled him from her and went down on eye level with him. I'm sorry your dad couldn't make it back from his trip today."

"It's okay, mum."

She gave him a tender smile and kissed his forehead.

"Muuuum!" The boy objected and rubbed his forehead with the sleeve of his shirt. His mother laughed and stood.

"So what have you been up to?" She asked her son as she took off her coat and shoes.

"Studying."

"All day? It's been lovely outside. You need fresh air too."

Her son only shrugged at that and she sighed disapprovingly. They stepped into the sitting room and she plucked the abandoned book from the sofa. It was physics, far above the regular reading level for a child of Vlad's age. "My smart boy." She spoke softly. "Would you clear up this mess and put away you books? I brought you a present."

The young boy collected all of his study material in a hurry and ran off into the direction of his room. While he was gone she had produced a small book from her hand bag.

She held it out to him when he came back. "Merry Christmas, Vladimir. I thought that you would like this. You've always been so fascinated with ghost stories." He took the book and read the cover, it said 'The Canterville Ghost'. The boy's face split into a wide grin and he hugged his mother again.

They would spend the rest of the day together, she watching the Christmas specials and the boy reading his new book. Vlad knew this.

This would be one of his last holidays with his mother before she fell ill.

The scenery shifted before their eyes. And they found themselves in another room in the apartment. The boy had grown taller and he was lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling above him. His room was only big enough to accommodate his bed, a desk and very little else. Outside, the murmurs of voices could be heard of people that had come to his father to express their sympathies. They would probably not be that sorry for him, if they knew that the man was already making preparations to move in with his girlfriend that he'd had on the side in secret for years, in the guise of being on business trips. The teenaged Vlad held a small book to his chest. It was the same novel book he had received as a gift years earlier from his, now late, mother. His door knocked and a short round man with an impressive moustache entered. His hair was snow white, which made him look even older than he was. He sat down by the desk and sighed before his gaze fell on the teenager, whom had ignored his entrance and had kept staring at the ceiling.

"I'm sorry, kiddo."

"I hate him."

"I know."

The teenager finally turned his head to look at his paternal grandfather. None of the family members on his mother's side could make it to the states. "I wish that it had been him and not her."

"Outright saying that I agree with you would make me a horrible father, but marrying your mother was the best thing he ever did and I do share your sentiment." The man sighed. "Even if I didn't approve of it at first and called her a 'commie', she was a wonderful woman and I regret how things turned out." Young Vlad didn't reply to that, he'd had his fair share of name calling and bullying due to his heritage.

His grandfather sighed again and got up from his seat. He cast one glance back at his grandson. "Watcha know, maybe she's at a better place now? I'll leave you be. You can join us whenever you feel ready."

The door shut with a soft click behind him. Silence befell the small room again and the teenager raised the book in front of him and stroke it's cover. His face scrunched up in a grimace and he flung the book into the opposite wall with a loud bang before he turned onto his stomach and screamed into his pillow.

The two spectral onlookers hadn't uttered a word since they had entered the building. Vlad inhaled through his nose and let out a long shaky breath. He rubbed his face and eyes. Trying to control his breathing, fighting hard not to cry, but his breath kept hitching and his eyes stung. He glared at Clockwork, "I hate you." And he meant every word. "You've had your fun. I hope you're happy now." He felt like he had been run over by a truck, that then had reversed and backed over him, just for good measure.

"She was a remarkable woman wasn't she?" Clockwork said sympathetically.

Vlad hissed and bared fangs. "Don't you even dare! You can take your pity and shove it. I hope that you're satisfied with whatever you tried to accomplish by taking me back here!"

"Oh, but we are far from done, Vladimir."

"Do 'not' call me that."

"As you wish. But we need to be going. There is still much to be seen."

Vlad grit his teeth and wanted nothing more than blast the accursed ghost out of existence, to punish it for making him relive these feelings again.

"Bring it." He said and the scenery changed again.


The Ghost of Canterville was one of my favorite stories when I was a kid and it felt only fitting to use it here.