Chapter XII - Paranormal Investigation

The four amigos had arrived a bit too early for Marty's taste, but, then again, he was eager to see the ghost. Melman had been a bit hesitant to point out the specific spot where he had seen the ghost. But Marty couldn't blame him too harshly for it, the giraffe only cared about Gloria's sefty but she reassured him that she could take a ghost on. The others believed her, but Melman wouldn't take any chances.

They arrived on a tiny hill, with lots of eatable grass that made Marty's mouth water. He just had his dinner but a snack wouldn't hurt, right? He bent down to take some but was stopped by Alex.

"You brought us here to see you eat?" the lion questioned. Marty nervously chuckled before coming foward and taking a small microphone out and a recorder. The others stood behind him. Marty had instructed them to do so, in case somehting happened between the Zebra and the ghost.

"Who are you?" the Zebra questioned. After awhile, waiting for a good amount of time for a ghost to respond he asked again, "Are you a circus animal?". Still, no answer, but who could hear ghosts? Nothing but the wind and a few bugs. Marty walked to another part of the hill and looked at his friends. "You guys ask. How 'bout you, Ally-al?" the Zebra asked, handing the lion his recorder and microphone.

Alex grunted, and stepped towards his friend, getting ahold of the equipment, htinking for awhile of what to ask, then spoke, "What was responsible for your death?"

"Good question!" Marty piped. Alex shrugged and then handed his friend the recorder. Marty smiled widely and looked at Melman and Gloria. He held them out, "You two wanna try?"

"Yeah!" Gloria smiled, taking the microphone. "What kind of Circus were you a part of, if you were an animal?" she asked. Marty nodded, then looked at Melman. The poor guy was shaking. He took the microphone, poked it to see if it was working, then spoke into it.

"Don't haunt me, please"

"Melman!" Gloria exclaimed. Marty merely chuckled, and Alex smirked at Melman's request. Marty then concluded about asking whatever it was some questions about it's history, why he/she was killed, and how. When they went down the hill, close to where their Circus was form afar, Marty went over their evidence. Hoping to get some evidence to rub it into Alex's furry face, he removed the audiotape from the recorder and inserted it into the cassette player.

Nothing. No voice, no noise, not even a whisper, no anything. It was as if there asn't any ghost to be found. Marty's excited visage dropped. They had caught nothing. Alex stood behind him, smiling. He couldn't help it, he just bested Marty in a bet. Now the Zebra was his slave for the whole competition. Ha! Marty sighed.

"Maybe it just didn't-"

"Nah ah ah" Alex said, wagging a paw in front of his face, "We made a bet, and there's no ghost; you lost big time dude" Marty didn't want to accept it. He looked towards Melman, his eyes begging. There's just couldn't be no ghost!

"But you saw somehting, didn't you?" Melman nodded. Marty looked back at Alex. "Well if it wasn't a ghost, then what do you think Melman saw?" the lion shrugged. He did not have an answer, but there was certainly no ghost.

"Marty. There is no ghost!" Alex said. Marty was about to protest when his eyes diluted into slits, looking past Alex's shoulder- no, on the hill... it couldn't be... could it? Alex frowned at his friend and waved a paw in front. Watching where his pal's eyes focused at, Alex turned, and he couldn't believe what he was seeing. He wanted to screech. Melman and Gloria did the same and both of their mouths hung open.

At that same hill, the sky had gotten darker, but they could see a hwite figure atop of it, only, this time, it wasn't alone. A black figure stood next to it, arms crossed, and the white figure beckoned it's head towards them. The four gasped. The figure turned it's head, two, evil red eyes stared at them through their core from afar. It got cold really quick. Alex turned to the others.

"DUDE, RUN!" he screamed and then ran towards the Circus, with Melman screaming at the top of his lungs and running close behind the lion. Gloria looked at the two and ran after them,

"GUYS!" she called. Marty merely stood there and watched the two figures, and watched how they shrank back into the hill. He then saw them travel into the neighbooring Circus tent. The ball in his throat did not disappear unil he remembered how to swallow. His throat went completey dry and he had not noticed. He ran after the figures to the Circus, he had to find out more. Why did they enter? Were they after someone? He had to warn someone. He completely failed to noticed Gloria holding both Alex and Melman who tried to fight their way out of her grasp but Gloria was at least ten times stronger than them both, she was a tight gripper.

"Marty!" she called as she spotted the Zebra running towards the other Circus. She did not see where the figures had gone off. Why was he going over there? Marty kept on running, he would not turn to her calls, or to Alex and Melman's cries. Finally, he was right at the entrance the two figures, he hestitated at first but then found his courage and entered.

"H-hello?" he asked, fully entering the tent. The lights were off, which made it harder to see but it made no difference with a ghost and its- its- demon friend. "Hello?" he called again. He heard a rough snarl and turned to face a figure engulfed in a black shadow.

"Vhat you vant?" he heard her speak. "Better speak quick, Zebra. I don't like intruders. And I am hungry, too" Marty stood still. Gloria appeared with Alex and Melman, gasping for breath and a tighter grip. She spotted Marty, and was about to ask him what they were doing until she spotted the figure. She kept quiet.

"Th-these are my friends. We just saw someone, well, something come in the tent and we wanted to find out who it was" the figure stood quiet, probably eyeing them all before replying.

"Vhat did you see?" Marty gulped.

"We saw-"

"A ghost!" Melman answered, trying to free himself from his girlfriend's grip. Alex answered next.

"And a demon!" the figure shook, before reaching it's hand out on a lever and pulling it upwards. The lights flickered on, revealing a black feline with scorching red eyes.

"Is that vhat you think ve are!" she spat angrily. "Lucky I am in good mood tonight. I kill you quickly!". Marty blinked and shook his head.

"What, what?" he asked. The feline snorted and spat towards her side.

"Ve are Freak show circus. I vas outside with comrade, said she heard someone scream" Melman blushed sheepishly. "Vanted to see for self. Saw you four. Two of you screamed and ran, like little girl" Alex joined Melman's in this blushing parade. "Ve are different. All of us... vell, most. Ve only stay in place, do tricks, and if not right trick, ve are unfed. Ve fed until do right trick" she explained, her arms crossed. Alex and Melman had gotten off Gloria by then, the two coming foward to hear what this strange feline said as well as Gloria.

Marty was in his own trian of thoughts. If she was the demon, then who was the-

"Ghost" he said quietly, enough for not any of his friends to hear. If she was here, that must mean the other was close by. He retreated behind a few crates, he went unnoticed by his friends and by the feline and he ventured through the crates. He found himself surrounded by cages filled with different animals. An albino Burmese python held her head up and hissed.

"Intruder. We have a vissssitor" she smiled, likcking her forked tongue across her scaly lips. Marty ignored her, he was deathly scared of snakes, and she seemed a little too- creepy. He saw sights of two-headed animals, sleeping or growling in distaste. He caught a look of a lion with an extra limb on his left arm, a little paw poking out, his mane stripped, looking a bit torn off by force, skin showing. It was a good thing he was asleep. Many otehr creatures he saw that spurned his imagination as well as nightmares. He never thought animals like that could be possible.

Finally, he spotted an animal out of it's cage that could be his possible suspect of the ghost. It had four hooves, a kind of pale hide, and a very pale brown-colored stripes down it's back. It had a mohawk thing going on with it's hide. As Marty ventured closer, he paused. Could this be a- yes. It was. The animal held it's head in trough, chomping and drinking from it. It looked as if he or she had not heard him yet. He walked almost a bit too closely to it.

"Hey" he greeted. The animal jumped and turned. It was a she. Her eyelashed were long, her eyes were shiny and oval-shaped, she had a fringe down her forehead. She was absolutely stunning. "Wow" he spoke. The Zebra furrowed her brows.

"W-who are you? What are you doing here? Why did you 'wow' at me? Get out!" she hissed, lookign terrified. Marty held his hoof up.

"Oh, no, I didn't mean to hurt you, I just came with a few friends, talking to your black-kitty friend back there to find out what we saw at- hey, were you out at that hill near Zaragoza last night?"

"Yes" she replied hastily, eyeing him suspiciously. Marty grinned.

"So it was you! You're the ghost!" the female looked offended.

"I am most certainly not a ghost!" she cried. Marty's face fell.

"No no, it's just we though you were a ghost from afar, and-"

"Don't lie to me!" she exclaimed, turning to leave, "You just saw me and thought I was the ugliest animals ever! JUST LEAVE!" she cried before running away. Marty wanted to go after her until he heard Alex call him.

"Marty! Get ove here! We're leaving" Marty understood Alex was in his "mood" and decided he would meet with her the next possible moment and make things right with this female. He had unknowingly offended her and he can't just let her hate him for how stupid he sounded. He snook his way through the crates and cages once more. And again greeted by the albino snake.

"Ah, don't leave, friend" she smiled. "We're jusssssst getting to know you" and he was out. Alex, Gloria, and Melman were already waiting for him at the exit, the black feline was no where to be found. As they had gotten out, Alex gave Marty a harsh look. Marty stared at him innocently.

"It wasn't that bad was it?" Alex looked towards the Circus, the sky already a dark blue.

"Her name's Natasha, reportedly the only black Tigress in the world, born in the Moscow Zoo, stolen by a thief, sold of to the Freak Show Circus, lived here ever since" he merely replied. "She reminded me alot of Vitaly" he added. For the rest of the walk, neither friends said nothing. What a night, what a night.

0O0

Admit it, did you guys really think it was a ghost this time? *Giggles* It's just Natasha and *BLANK* X3 Ya gotta wait for the next Chapter to find out more! And I have to admit you don't see any more of our ghostie until maybe after Chapter 17. So it's gonna be awhile. Every few days or so I may not completely update regularly as I did the 1st 10 Chapters. Mostly because I have a DA account and I need to finish sketches and work on my other fic to get some DBZ in my blood system again. Good thing I might use this all day tomorrow. The bulk may be on DA but the other will certainly be working on the next few Chapters.

So I hope you guys enjoyed this. For an extra bonus to see how the investigation would work, I saw The Haunted on Animal Planet today. Demon House. Very scary. Still, hope you guys get a little joke here. And it is NOT from The Hainted, but it IS from another ghost-related show. Guess it right and you win a virtual cookie. And NO funkywatermelon, you cannot guess, you know it and that would be cheating *giggle*

Have fun!