A/N: Still by Lillith. That won't change any time soon.

This is the first time I don't know what this chapter is going to be like before writing it, so at this point, I know just about as much as you do, since I gave you a brief summary last chapter, and that was pretty much all I knew about this chapter. So the quality (or lack thereof) and contents of this chapter is just as much a surprise to me as it is to you.

Summary: Ghoul finally gets a place to stay, money, and coffee, and finds out just how confusing identical twins can be.


Chapter Three

Seeing Double

One thing Ghoul quickly learned about Chucko and Bonk was that they had absolutely no computer knowledge whatsoever. The computer in their little hideout, an abandoned and out-of-date apartment building, was gathering dust in the corner. Updating everything and setting up their network gave him an excellent reason to avoid speaking to the two men for the entire day. And it honestly needed it. The computer had to have been sitting there, unused and unwanted for years. Maybe a decade. Maybe more. Chucko said that it had been there since before they'd 'moved in'. And judging by the state of, well, everything in this place, it had been abandoned a long time ago.

Shortly after getting the computer running at a state where it at least didn't freeze every couple of minutes, and getting the network to a state where it didn't take 20 minutes to load a webpage, he got to doing what he did best. In less than an hour he had put 2 small companies out of business and had about 2000 in his bank account. It wasn't much, but it was best to only take small amounts to avoid getting caught. And some money was better than no money. He'd have to continue living in this filthy apartment, but he could mostly support himself. And more importantly, he could buy coffee.

He hadn't had coffee since before he'd left home, and the lack of caffeine was starting to get to him. Especially after his week long stint of no sleeping, over than the whole 'being knocked unconcious due to being run over' ordeal. So, bank card in hand and ATM around the corner, he set off, Woof following him, as he didn't much care for Bonk or Chucko either.

"I'm going out for a while." he told Bonk, the only one still there. Chucko had left in the early afternoon, about 6 or 7 hours ago, and hadn't come back. He really didn't care why. "Don't touch the computer. Don't look at it, don't breath on it, don't even think about it until I get back." For emphasis, both he and Woof turned to glare at him. He got the message and stared off into space, his gaze turned away from the computer.

Soon after aquiring his alloted 200 and tucking it safely into his pumpkin, he made his way to what could have been a nice little ma-and-pa coffee shop until the squatters and addicts overtook the neighbourhood. Now it looked more like a filthy little diner, but it still sold coffee. He bought two, one for himself and one for Woof. Woof filled his with cream and sugar until it looked more like milk than coffee, but Ghoul took his black. He found that the caffeine worked more effectively that way, in spite of how much he loved sweet things. Thinking about how much he loved sweets made him crave some, so he bought a half dozen unidentifiable pastries and split them with Woof. He split a lot of things with Woof.

He got back to the apartments a happier man, especially when he saw that Bonk hadn't gone anywhere near the computer. With Woof vegged out on the couch he'd pulled near the desk, Ghoul downloaded and installed his favorite program; FrostWire. He'd been deprived of his music for much too long. Evening faded into night faded into early morning, Woof sleeping peacefully on the couch behind him, as he downloaded more music than he could ever possibly listen to. But one of the first ones he downloaded was the one that had given him his name. He remembered doing exactly this, sitting in his perfectly tidy room, waiting for his parents to stop screaming at each other, and hearing that song.

'And death danced with the queen as her life fell away,

and the ghoul's rose from the earth and burned the world to the ground.'

How fitting.


Life with Bonk and Chucko was annoying, but at the very least it was easy. They mostly stayed out of his way, except to bug him for money because they were clearly incapable of getting any on their own. They lived mostly on take-out and junk food because none of them could cook. Ghoul remembered trying to cook once. It had taken them 3 weeks to repair the kitchen.

That night was his night to get food. There was a cheap fast food place nearby that made half decent food. He decided that would be a good place to go because the people working there never gave him any trouble. At other places they did. They werent particularly fond of his persona. Which was too bad for them. And this place didnt care whether or not animals entered, in spite of the no animals sticker clearly pasted on the door, so Woof didn't have to wait outside.

He opened the door, ignoring the obnoxious chimes, and held it open for Woof. The pimply faced teenager at the counter looked up from his magazine annoyedly as he strode lazily to the counter, just generally annoyed at having to be there. He ordered and strode away from the counter before the kid could ask him any more questions, and sat at the second booth, waiting for the food to be cooked. He would have sat at the first booth but it was occupied by two girls, identical by the looks of them, wearing orange yarn wings and white caps, red tube tops and boots, and white short shorts, along with clownish makeup. They whispered and giggled as he passed, but he ignored them.

"He looks a little strange, doesn't he, Dee Dee?" one of them said, quite obviously talking loud enough for him to hear.

"I dunno, Dee Dee. I think he's kind of cute." said the second.

"Maybe if you like scarecrows, Dee Dee." said the first.

"Interesting friend he's got there, too." said the second.

"Kind of like a science experiment gone wrong."

That was the last straw. He turned around in the booth, having been faced away from them, and looked at them with an almost lazy confidence that he'd seemed to have developed from living with Chucko and Bonk.

"Do you girls mind keeping it down? All that shrilling is hurting my ears."

The first girl, the one who'd been making all of the snappy remarks, made an attempt to punch him in the face, but between his ducking out of the way and her sister stopping her he was luckily spared the embarassment.

"Order up!"

Ghoul ducked out of the booth, Woof following behind, unsure of what to think of the twins. He grabbed the greasy paper bags and slipped out into the quickly fading evening light.

Back in the restaurant, the twins looked at each other deviously.

"You what would be fun, Dee Dee?" the first one asked.

"I think so, Dee Dee."

They grinned at each other and, abandoning their milkshakes at their table, dashed out of the restaurant.


Ghoul nearly dropped the bags of food.

When he opened the front door, the first thing, or rather things he saw were the twins he'd seen at the fast food place.

"Fancy meeting you here." said one of them. He suppressed a growl of rage and dumped the paper bags, slick with grease, on the table.

"Bonk, Chucko, food." he called out, hoping that the age old philosophy of 'ignore them and they'll go away' would work. It didn't, and Bonk and Chucko came into the room and looked at the girls, shocked. Well, at least he thought Chucko was shocked. It was kind of hard to tell while he was wearing the mask. Which was all the time.

"Who're the chicks?" Bonk asked.

"They followed me." was all Ghoul said.

"Actually, we got here first." said the twin who hadn't spoken to him earlier. He could tell because one, the one who had just spoken, was perched on the edge of the unused kitchen counter, and the other was sitting on the armrest of the ratty armchair. "I'm Delia." she said.

"And I'm Deidre." said the other.

"But just call us Dee Dee." they said in unison.

"So, what're girls like you doing in a dump like this anyway?" Chucko asked. The Dee Dee's giggled. Ghoul rolled his eyes and retreated to his corner, Woof following. He didn't want anything to do with this conversation.

"Actually, we were looking for a place to stay." said Delia.

"Our mom ditched us at our grandma's place and she's just an old stick-in-the-mud." explained Deidre.

"So we decided to leave." Delia said.

"But we don't have any money."

"Well, you girls are more then welcome to stay here." said Chucko. Ghoul rolled his eyes again.

"Thanks, uh..."

"Chucko." he said. "And that's Bonk. And over there, that's..."

"Ghoul." Ghoul finished. He didn't like being introduced by others. "And the one you said looks like a 'science experiment gone wrong' is Woof." Woof growled at the statement. There was some truth in it, as he was something of a science experiment, it was still a degrading comment.

As the girls passed by, he tapped the one he thought was Deidre on the shoulder and gestured for her to come closer. He slipped something into her hand.

"Chucko's good at picking locks. You'll want to attatch this to the doorknob." he said. "Just remember to take it off in the morning before one of you electrocutes yourself."

"Thanks." she said.

"Deidre, hurry up!" her sister yelled.

"Coming, Delia!" she yelled back as she jogged down the hallway.

Maybe Deidre wasn't so bad. He couldn't say the same for her sister, though.


"What'cha doing, Ghoulie?"

Ghoul nearly had a heart attack as someone snatched his newly-purchased earphones out of his ears and spoke loudly directly next to his ear.

"That's not funny, Delia." He could pretty easily tell the difference between them now. At least, he could when they actually said or did something. When he just walked into the room he still had a nasty habit of mixing them up, and somehow he was always wrong. He was beginning to wonder if they did it on purpose.

"Sure it is." she replied. He remembered his little sister always doing the same thing. In fact, the Deed's were a lot like his younger sister. They were both annoying as hell.

He wondered if Bethany missed him. He doubted it. They'd been close when they were younger, but when she'd turned 12 his mother had decided that it was time to mold her into the 'perfect child'. They never really spoke after that, except when she bothered him.

Grabbing his earphones back from Delia, he turned around in his chair. Woof was sitting on the couch, looking appologetic. He seemed to get along better with the Deed's, as Ghoul had started calling them, than he did with Chucko and Bonk. He didn't seem to like growling at them. Well, Deidre at least, and Ghoul couldn't blam him. Deidre did seem to be a pretty decent person, but unfortunately she was always following her sister and doing whatever she said. A veritable puppet, and a mean one at that. When Delia wanted her to be. It was kind of sad, really. He probably could have gotten along well with Deidre.

"D'you what I heard, Ghoulie?" Delia asked.

"One, I don't care, and two, stop calling me Ghoulie." he said.

"Supposedly they're supposed to be getting a big shipment in at that place downtown where they manufacture super-computers. I bet there'd be a lot of nice computer parts there that you could use." she said.

Ghoul's interest perked. It was true, there would be a lot of nice computer parts he could use. Probably more than he'd ever need.

"I was thinking that maybe we could borrow some of it..and sell what you don't need, of course." Delia continued, tracing a circle on his cheek. He swatted her hand away but the idea was tempting.

"I'm not the one in charge here. Go ask Chucko." He heard Delia turn around and high five Deidre because they knew that really, he was sort of the one in charge, as he was the brains of their little group. And he was basically saying yes.

He sighed, knowing he'd regret it later.


Note: Those aren't lyrics from an actual song, but I didn't just make them up off of the top of my head. They're actually lyrics from a song my friend wrote a few years back that never made it past the lyrics sheet. All I had to do was change a word, as it didn't say 'ghoul' before. And yes, I do have permission to use them.

Also, during the Deed's restaurant conversation, Delia is the first one speaking. Deidre is the second. In case you hadn't noticed, I do enjoy the Ghoul/Deidre pairing on occaion, but I don't think I'll make it an actual pairing in this story. I might make a one-shot in the future, though.

Next Time: Ghoul discovers that they actually make decent thieves.

(We're getting really close to the end here, folks, I assure you. Only 2 more chapters to go.)