Sorry this is late! But it's a nice long chapter, enjoy!

Chapter 10: Post from the Dead

Layton was so shocked that he stumbled over backwards, tripping over Luke and sending them both tumbling to the ground, Flora's scream confirmed that what he had just seen was not his imagination. Luke and the professor got to their feet they saw the grim man levitating above them, an awful cackle echoed through the the hall, the entire house seemed to vibrate, the laughter getting louder and louder. Sycamore turned to Flora, who was staring at Bronev, covering her ears and sobbing all in one.

"Get out!" He cried, hardly heard. "Get outside now!" This time she had no objection, she made a dash for the door. Bronev grinned wickedly and waved his left hand. The mirror simultaneously smashed, firing razor sharp pieces in Flora's direction. She kept running, missing most of them, but they were only the first. The frame that had recently held the mirror flew off the wall and slammed into her side, knocking her to the ground.

"Flora!" Luke yelled, the professor ran to her.

"Are you alright?" He panicked as he helped her sit up.

"Ngh…" Flora clutched her head and continued sobbing.

"Layton! Look out!" Layton turned to see the grandfather clock was flying towards him, the hands were spinning so quickly it chimed every second, adding to the horrific professor ducked just in time, barely avoiding losing his hat, the clock hit the front door as other heavy pieces of furniture followed. Sycamore tried to pull them away.

"It's no good!" He called to the others. "They're stuck fast!"

"Oh no!" Luke wailed, he had tears in his eyes now. "We're trapped!"

"This way!" Layton half pulled, half carried Flora into the sitting room, Luke and Sycamore followed suit. Sycamore slammed the door and pushed a sofa in front of it, though he was uncertain that it would have much effect. In this time the professor had opened a window and was lowering Flora out of it. "We're done here, now we must get out as soon as possible." the professor called. the Luke and Sycamore hesitated.

"Youngest first." Sycamore offered, Luke glared.

"A gentleman always lets others go before him." He recited, arms folded.

"LUKE!" Flora had come to the window and was shouting with annoyance. "Now is NOT the time!" Slightly irritated by this, Luke started climbing onto the windowsill, when Bronev materialised in front of him.

"Boo…"

"Waaaaaaaaaagh!" Luke fell on his back, tipping over a bucket of paint and getting a large splodge of it on his jumper. Sycamore helped him up and practically pushed him through the window. Once everyone was out they ran down the path, only stopping when there was a good 40 meters between them and the house. The younger two collapsed onto the grass, all were heavily panting, getting so rather odd looks from the locals.

"Is everyone alright?" The professor checked, dusting off his jacket, there were general murmurs of 'yes' and 'I'm okay'.

"Ahhhhh!" Luke cried, pointing to the house. "H-he's following us!" The others turned to see… Nothing.

"Luke… there's no one there." Flora tried to reassure him.

"Y-yes there is," he wailed, tears were streaming down his cheeks and he was still pointing. "H- *gulp* he's right there!"

"My word…" Sycamore pushed his his glasses up his nose as he gave the boy a sorry look. "That must have really disturbed him mentally."

"Quite." said the professor, stunned.

They walked back to The Duke's Arms, Luke was whimpering all the time, occasionally catching glimpses of Bronev. Layton felt truly terrible for letting him and Flora come with them, what good had it done? And they were no where closer to the truth…

"Mr Layton!" All turned their heads as a strange old man jogged towards them.

"Bruno?" Flora was shocked to see St. Mystere's caretaker here. Bruno gave her a smile. "How are you? How is everyone back at the village? Oh, I hope no one breaks down while your gone!" Flora couldn't stop the questions flowing but Bruno held up his hand to silence her.

"I wish I could stop and chat Miss Flora," he said, panting. "But I need to have a quick chat with Mr Layton." The professor turned to the others.

"Go on ahead, I'll catch up with you." Sycamore nodded and lead Luke -who was in such shock he hadn't noticed Desmonds hand on his shoulder- in the right direction, Flora hesitated for a moment, then followed. Layton turned his attention back to Bruno. "So, what seems to be the problem?"

"Oh, there's no problem, I just, well, you weren't at home and I heard you were here…" Bruno sighed. He reached into a pouch in his belt to reveal a package, which he handed to Layton. "Augustus instructed me to give this to Flora when was adopted, however, due to the… Excitement of that day I forgot about it. I found it the other day and I've been looking for ya since." The professor examined the parcel, the words 'Private, for Flora Reinhold ONLY'. "As you can see, supposed to be for Miss Flora's eyes only, but…" He gave a sad smile. "If Guso was with us now, I'm sure he'd 'ave rathered you read it and, gave it to her when you saw fit." Bruno sniffed, the checked his watch. "Right! I'd best be off! those robots don't supervise themselves you know!"

"Thank you, very much."

"No problem! Any time!" And with that, he jogged back off in the direction he came.

When the professor got back to the hotel he found everyone in Luke's room. Luke himself was huddled in a chair with a cup of tea in his hands, he was still shaking and his cheeks were red and swollen. "Are you all okay?" The three nodded back at him. The professor sat in another chair. "Alright, then we may as well look back on our visit , did anyone find anything that might serve as a clue behind the ghost?" Everyone remained silent, no one could think of anything.

"You know, I came here thinking it must all be one big trick, and that something simple had been overlooked," said Sycamore, sadly. "But after that… It just seemed so… Real."

"Umm." The professor agreed. "If no one minds, there's something I'd like to have a look at, I won't take long." There were general nods and gestures of approval, the professor got up and left the room, entering his own where he had left the package. It took him about ten minutes to read it all. "My word…" He uttered to himself, how was he going to tell Flora?

Meanwhile, Flora was making Luke some more tea. "I don't get it, how come only I can see him." Flora, once again, was trying to laugh off the situation.

"Well, you never know, it may turn out for the best!" she said, handing Luke the tea. "perhaps it's your oracle powers coming back!" Luke frowned at her.

"You mean the oracle powers I never had to begin with?" Flora rolled her eyes, then she noticed the paint on Luke's jumper.

"Oh! I hope none of that's got on the chair! No? Good. Quick, get that off and I'll wash it before the paint stains!" She helped Luke pull the jumper off -he had his white button up shirt underneath- and she rushed into the bathroom, filled the sink with water, dunked the jumper in and started scrubbing the paint with a sponge. The professor knocked on the door and came back into the room.

"Oh, hello professor." Luke greeted him. "Did you find what you needed?"

"Yes…" The professor replied, he was about to continue when Flora reappeared.

"Sorry Luke, it looks like it isn't coming out, I think the water made it shrink too. But you have more like this haven't y- AHH!" Flora stumbled several steps backwards, her eyes wide with shock. "L-Luke's right!" She gasped. "He's here!" there was a dead silence, nobody moved or barely breathed. Layton was staring at Flora with a stunned - but thoughtful - expression, that then broke into a grin.

"Ah ha! I've got it!" All turned to him, Luke's mouth hung open.

"Y-you have?!"

"Almost certainly," he replied, then addressed the younger two. "Are you two fit to do a quick job for me?"

"Of course, professor!" They chorused.

"Very well," the professor smiled at them. "Could you go downstairs and ask the Walkers the following question?" Luke wrote these down in his note pad.

"You can count on us, professor!" Luke beamed.

"Professor Sycamore?"

"Hmm?"

"Could you go to the town hall ask the Mayor these questions?" The professor recited another set of questions.

"Alright," Sycamore answered. "But where will you be?"

"I need to make a quick trip into London."

"What?" Luke exclaimed. "But that's an hour's drive each way!"

"Yes," the professor confirmed that this was true. "But I should be back in time."

"In time for what?" Flora asked, dreading the worst. The professor gave her a reassuring smile.

"We're going back to the Walker's house." He told the disbelieving listeners. "Tonight."

By the way if you have worked out what Layton has (or even just have a theory) PM me because I need to know if I'm leaving to many clues lying around, once again, thanks for reading and please review!