Ghost of a Chance

Part 3: Enchanting Moments

Chase and Di stood at the terminal waiting impatiently as a dark slim figure stepped up to them. "Agents Chase and Di?"

"Y-yes." Di stammered, "How'd you know?"

Talia extended her hand and smiled, "You'd be surprised at what I know."

"Cool." Di laughed.

"Weird." Chase muttered.

"I hear you've come across some very 'interesting' aliens." Talia spoke in a very soft and smooth as glass tone, "Tell me, when you were grabbed by the alien, did you sense anything odd?"

"Yeah," Di grunted, "I sensed I was being hauled through some boards by an invisible thing and my partner was just standing there doing nothing!"

"HEY!" Chase defended himself, "How was I supposed to know that you weren't just pulling some kind of prank?"

"Like I'd kid around about something as serious as---oh---DYING!"

"Agents please," Talia held up her hands, suddenly both agents felt strangely calm. "Back to the matter at hand. Where did you see these beings?"

"In an old abandoned house not far from here." Chase answered.

"Well then perhaps we should gather the other two agents and search for them? It will nearly be nightfall by the time we set out and they will have left their abode to search for prey."

"We're not waiting on me." Di mumbled and headed off to get A and Y.

Chase folded his arms and stared at her as she hurried away, "I swear if I live to be a hundred, I'll never figure that human out."

Talia grinned and placed a hand on his shoulder, "I imagine that my husband once felt the same way about me. In fact," she added certainly, "I know he did."

******

The sun was sitting behind the abandoned house as the agents filed out of their vehicles. Sighing A got out lugging her Carbonizer behind her. "Let's just hope Ms. Mystery is right about those things being gone right now."

"That's Mrs. Mystery," Talia corrected, "And they should be leaving just about now."

"WHAT?!" the agents gasped.

"They're still here?!" Di squeaked.

"Yes," Talia nodded, "we've arrived earlier than I had first anticipated."

Y took out his sidearm, "Looks like we've just put ourselves on the menu."

"We're all gonna die." A gulped.

"Not necessarily," Talia spread her arms far apart above her head and chanted a few words in a language far from English, "Remember, you're with an enchantress now."

Chase was about to speak when eerie howls eked out of the house. The boards sealing the door shut now gone there was nothing to keep the agents safe…or so they thought.

"Uh…now would be a good time for you to use some of that hocus pocus." Di stuttered glancing over her shoulder. Talia's irises glowed an electric blue. Di stumbled backwards to escape the strange sight when she found herself stopped by an invisible wall. Running her hands along the wall she found it to be a dome. "We're trapped!" she yelped, "We can't get out!"

"Correction," Talia spoke, her voice more entrancing than it had previously been, "We're safe. The Phantites can't get in."

Almost instantly the howls grew louder and the sound of thumping and knocking could be heard all around the agents. "Ha!" A taunted, "I hear ya knockin' but ya can't come in!"

Y held up his firearm. "NO!" Talia warned, "If you use that in here we'll all be killed, it will just ricochet off the inside of the protective dome."

"Then what are we supposed to do?" Y asked irritably. "We can't just stand here while those things go after the populous."

"We'll just have to wait till they're gone." Talia said calmly.

Y grunted and crossed his arms, "Sounds like a cowardly plan to me."

"I could always transport you outside the dome Agent Y," Talia smiled mischievously.

A turned, "Really?"

After a few more minutes of trying and getting nowhere the Phantites gave up on attacking the agents and soared off to satisfy their gruesome appetites elsewhere.

Talia put her arms down and the dome faded away. "Now to get to work." she stated.

"Took the words right out of my mouth!" Y huffed, storming off down the sidewalk with his weapon drawn, "Time for a REAL agent to get things done."

He turned to find the other agents were entering the house, "AW FOR THE LOVE OF VENUS! WHAT ARE YOU CLOWNS DOING NOW?!"

Inside Di and A wandered around, noticing a banister and some decaying steps beside it Di decided to climb them and find out where they led.

Carefully she scaled the steps and pushed open the first door she came to, all the rest being either locked or boarded up. The room was full of cobwebs and dusty furniture with dingy white clothes spread over everything. "Frankenstein would've LOVED to call this place home," she muttered.

A creaking sound behind her made her jump. Talia would know if all the Phantites had gone off down the street---wouldn't she? The door slowly shut as Di backed away into the room.

"Whoa," she gasped as the doorknob slowly turned, "freaky."

Creaking as it opened the door was gently swung aside and a dark figure staggered into the room. She couldn't make out the face as the creature moaned and towered over her, "F-Frankenstein I presume." Di gulped pointing up at him.

"Ooooohhhh."

That was enough for Di, glancing around in a panic she grabbed a loose piece of wood leaning against the wall next to her and swung it like a bat at the creature's head. Smacking him hard in the shoulder when he attempted to dodge the lumber she screeched as he yelled in an unearthly voice and shoved past him. Stumbling down the stairs she rushed straight to A and began nervously explaining what had just happened.

"Your tiny human mind must've been hallucinating." Y laughed.

A glared at him then looked up at the door that Di was frantically pointing to, "S-see! It's it's Frankenstein!!!"

"Ooooohhhh." the figure moaned, moving down the steps towards the agents.

"Don't let him get me!" Di begged, clutching A's jacket and shaking her brains out. "I don't wanna become the bride of Frankenstein!"

No use, the miserable figure kept coming closer to the panicking agent and finally reached out, grabbing her arms and spinning her around. Before either of the other agents could react Di was facing the creature and unable to pull her gaze away from his angry yellow eyes.

"Look pal, you're a dead corpse, well, many dead corpses. And I'm a human---ALIVE!---it'll never work out." Di tried to reason with her captor.

A look of puzzlement crossed his dusty face and he let go, using his sleeve he wiped himself off and coughed a moment, "Di? It's me, Chase. What in the name of the Worm Emperor possessed you to deck me with a piece of wood? What do I look like---a baseball?!?"

Di opened her squinted eyes and stared at her dirty partner for a moment, A and Y started laughing. "B-but you were a sickly green and you staggered into the room moaning and-"

"So I got a little dirty," Chase remarked, "this isn't exactly the ritziest joint in town. And I was walking funny because of all these dang cobwebs that I kept getting caught in. You'd moan too if you banged your knee on the top step."

"Oh." Di glanced around at the other agents laughing it up and Chase staring at her as if she were some kind of lunatic for thinking what she had. Why did these things always happen to her? How embarrassing. Grumbling she tried to play it off. "Well, next time you'll think twice before sneaking up on someone."

A chuckled at poor Di and then turned to notice that during all the ruckus Talia had managed to disappear. "Hey, where's the spell slinger?"

"The what?" Y mocked.

"The spell slinger, it's a nickname agents use when referring to Talia, you are so out of touch with your coworkers," she informed him smugly.

A scream in the next room caught their attention. Worried glances were shot all around as Chase finally shouted, "The kitchen!"

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