word count: 1968

I usually try to keep my chapters around 2000 words. It's not terribly long, but i'll get bored if I drag it out any longer seeing as i usually write my chapters in one sitting if i can help it.

I want to thank those who took the time to review. I really appreciated it and I hope you continue to follow my story. And for the newcomers, welcome! I hope you enjoy this story and don't forget to review at the end. It takes but a moment.

Note: odd spacing on the FAKE website in this chapter because this site takes out anything that's a website.

Disclaimer: I do not own Casper.

From the Beginning

Casper considered himself a light sleeper, especially considering the fact that he did not need sleep. The only reason he actually slept was because old habits die hard. That's why he was so surprised to find Kat gone when he woke up in the morning. How had she gotten up without him realizing it? And where was she? Casper rose off the bed and headed down to the kitchen, surprised to find it empty. What time was it?

Whipstaff manor did not have very many clocks in it. In fact, there were only four other clocks in the manor besides the large grandfather clock in the entry room and two of those other clocks were digital ones brought in by Dr. Harvey and Kat when they moved in. Casper headed towards the grandfather clock, hoping to find someone along the way, but instead he ended up in front of the clock reading the time to be 11:47 a.m. Whoa, Casper thought. How had he slept that long? Well, that explains Kat's absence. It was Monday, and despite yesterday being Halloween, school was in session.

Raucous laughter echoed through the manor and Casper knew his uncles were still home, most likely hanging out with Dr. Harvey. But Casper was hardly in the mood to deal with his knucklehead uncles, so he flew up to what he called the TV room, seeing as that was the only thing he used the room for. Actually, he didn't think anybody else knew about the TV. Huh.

Flipping on the TV, Casper realized that he left it on the same news station that he had heard about Dr. Harvey and Kat on. He left the channel on. Who knows, maybe they'd have a segment on someone who could bring him back to life next. Casper laughed. He wished.

"—J.T. McFadden, an inventor who was thought to be mentally unstable after he dedicated the rest of his life to something called The Lazarus, a machine that was meant to bring his dead son back to life after he died of pneumonia, is seemingly not as crazy as most believed, at least, according to a man named Jeffrey Cryder. Mr. Cryder is starting where McFadden left off. He says he already has a machine built and it's close to working order. Soon he will be returning ghosts back to life. Many protest at this, but Cryder assures that he will have a very selective process on who is allowed to live once more."

Casper watched, mouth agape, as the screen switched to an older man with a scruffy blond beard.

"I plan to bring young ghosts back to life, the ones that didn't deserve to have the rest of their life taken away from them so early. McFadden inspired me when I read about his works when I was younger. I never thought he was crazy; I thought he was brilliant. He had a good cause and I want to continue in the same direction as him. People will call me crazy, but they'll have to bite their tongues when I prove to them that this is possible."

The screen switched back to the newscaster.

"Well, there you have it. If you want to find out more about what Jeffrey Cryder is doing, head to his website jcsecondchance . com. That's it for—"

Casper didn't hear the rest. He had turned off the TV and was now staring in shock at the blank screen. This couldn't be real. He was dreaming. Casper pinched his cheek and looked around. Nothing had changed. Slowly, a smile spread on his face and he shot up into through the roof, twirling in the air and whooping for joy. After a moment he quieted down. He didn't need to get ahead of himself here. This Jeffery Cryder hadn't even created a working machine yet.

He had to bring him here. Seeing The Lazarus might help him finish his invention faster. Or maybe he would be able to just create the liquid that the Lazarus would need. Now how was he going to get Mr. Cryder to come here? He remembered the newscaster giving out the website. He hadn't used a computer before, but hopefully it wasn't too difficult. He didn't want to ask Kat or Dr. Harvey. He needed to do this for himself.

Casper arrived at the library in town in record time. He kept himself invisible and went to one of the computers. He had realized a little while after his father died and he was alone (his uncles hadn't come found him until a couple years later), that as a ghost, he had a knack for anything electronic. Squeezing himself inside the smaller object, Casper zoomed past the login process and made it straight to the Internet where he promptly went to jcsecondchance . com. Mr. Cryder had his phone number listed on the site and Casper repeated the ten-digit number in his head until he was sure he wasn't going to forget it. Slipping out of the computer, Casper kept himself hidden from those in the room, amused to see a woman staring strangely at the computer he was just on. Hurrying from the library, Casper found a payphone a few blocks down and dialed in the number he had memorized.

It rang three times before a man answered, his voice a match to the one Casper had heard on the news, "Hello. Jeffrey Cryder speaking."

"Hello Mr. Cryder," Casper deepened his voice, hoping he didn't sound like the twelve year old boy he was, "I just heard about your invention and I'm quite fascinated by it. I was hoping you would be interested in coming to Friendship, Maine to visit the Whipstaff Manor where J.T. McFadden created The Lazarus. It may be able to help you with your invention and I know for a fact that it is haunted by ghosts, one of them being the son of McFadden."

"May I ask who this is," Mr. Cryder responded.

"Uh," Casper fumbled for a name, only to spout out the first name that came to his mind, "yes, this is Dr. James Harvey. I am currently living in Whipstaff Manor. I have met the four ghosts who live here myself and I think they may be the perfect ones to test out your invention on. So what do you say?"

The line crackled and Casper almost thought that Mr. Cryder had hung up, but then he replied, "It would be great to see McFadden's invention for himself, but it will be hard to move my invention."

The line went silent again and Casper waited on bated breath.

"I will be there tomorrow and I'll work from there to get my invention delivered safely. I look forward to meeting you Dr. Harvey," Mr. Cryder informed him.

"I look forward to meeting you too. Goodbye Mr. Cryder," Casper told him, a grin on his face.

"Goodbye," Cryder hung up the phone.

Casper followed suit, hanging up the phone and exploded through the payphone ceiling into a burst of fireworks. Hey, being a ghost definitely had its perks.

He headed back to Whipstaff in a similar manner, probably causing a lot of confusion to the towns people, but Casper couldn't seem to make himself care at the moment. He subdued himself as he reached the manor, not wanting to alert Dr. Harvey or his uncles.

A thought soon occurred to him, and Casper found himself sinking down onto the floor. Mr. Cryder was going to be here tomorrow and he thought that it was Dr. Harvey that invited him over, but of course, Dr. Harvey would be clueless to Casper's slight indiscretion. How was he going to fix this one? Hmm. Was it too much to introduce himself to Mr. Cryder as soon as he arrived? The man was looking to bring ghosts back to life, so he shouldn't be frightened by the existence of one.

That settles it. He would let Dr. Harvey greet Mr. Cryder, but as soon as he said anything about talking to him on the phone, he would interrupt and change the subject. He just hoped Dr. Harvey wouldn't realize something was off. Yeah, that seemed like a good, solid plan. He'd go with that.

Casper, bored once more, wandered up to his room. He had to admit, he had a lot of cool stuff, but there was nothing he could really entertain himself with. He was, after all, almost a teenager and much too old to play with a lot of his old toys. So instead, he decided to reorganize his room seeing as a lot of his stuff was just clustered in the middle of the room.

Time must have gotten away from him at some point because it didn't seem like it had been too long before he heard a call of "I'm home" ring throughout the house. Kat was home from school. Having already forgotten his worry from last night, Casper zipped through the house until he reached the entry room.

"Hey Kat," he greeted, "how was school?"

"It surprisingly went really well. Despite running out of here scared last night, my class thought that was the best Halloween party ever and said they wanted to have it here again next time," Kat shook her head, semi-amazed, "And you know what? I'm popular. I never thought I'd end up one of the popular kids in school."

"I'm happy for you Kat. It just means that everyone realized what an amazing person you are," Casper complimented, the words leaving his lips easily.

"Thanks Casper," Kat smiled at him and Casper felt like his heart would've stopped, if he had a beating heart that is, "I bet you were popular in school when you were alive."

"Actually, I was homeschooled. I was always kind of jealous of the kids that got to go to school. I always thought they were having more fun than me," Casper revealed, "But my dad insisted on teaching me himself. He said it was his duty as my father."

"Don't worry. Public school isn't as fun as you think it is. It all depends on the people in the school. I'm just lucky that Friendship, Maine lives up to its name, for the most part," Kat reassured, shifting her backpack on her shoulder, "but like any other school, I get tons of homework. I'll have to talk to you later Casper; I need to get this done so I don't have to stay up through the night. Catch you later."

Casper nodded his understanding, holding in a sigh. Looks like he had to find something else to do until Kat was done. Why did he never realize how little there was to do here until Kat and Dr. Harvey got here? Speaking of Dr. Harvey…

"Hey honey. How was school? You learn a lot?" Dr. Harvey inquired as he entered the room.

"Yeah Dad. School was good and the teachers are still teaching," Kat answered as she jogged up the stairs, heading to her room, "Listen, I have loads of homework to do so just call me when dinner's ready, okay?"

"Sounds good. Work hard," Dr. Harvey called after her before turning to him, "Ah, Casper. I haven't seen you all day. What have you been up to?"

"Eh," Casper shrugged a shoulder, nonchalant, "Nothing much. I've just been hanging around."

"Kind of boring around here after yesterday, huh?" Dr. Harvey smiled knowingly.

"Yeah, definitely," Casper agreed, "Well, I better go make dinner before my uncles get cranky."

"Do you need some help," Dr. Harvey offered, "I have time."

"Nah, that's okay. I can handle it," Casper sent him an appreciative smile before flying off to the kitchen, mind focusing on what to make for dinner.

Seeing as Casper doesn't have too much background history, I took some creative liberty with his education. And I usually don't like adding characters, but it was necessary for where i want this story to go.

Please review. It makes me happy when i know that people are enjoying my story. That's one of the reasons i write, so i can here what other people think. ;D