Chapter Four

Dennis woke up to the subway passing by his apartment. He groaned in agony and pain as the train passed by. He got out of his bed and stratched his chest and walked to the bathroom to take a shower. He stepped into the shower stall after taking off his black boxers and turned on the hot water.

He yelped as cold water hit his lanky frame body. "I didn't pay the damn water bill. Damnit!" he thought as he had to no choice but to shower in the cold water.

After spending a cold fifteen minutes in the shower, he turned off the water and grabbed a towel to dried himself off. As soon he walked out the bathroom, his phone rang.

"Don't let this be the landlord again. It's not my fault I can't exactly keep a job more than one hour." he thought as he picked up the phone.

"Hello? Dennis Rafkin speaking."

"Hello Dennis. I'm here to offer you a job." said an older's man voice.

"Sorry buddy. I'm not too great with a keeping a job."

"No no Dennis. This is a different kind of job. Nobody as to touch you and you don't have to touch anybody."

Dennis shuddered. "How do you know about me?"

"Let's just say I have may ways of knowing."

"Who are you exactly?"

"You will know my name tonight if you accept it. Let's just say I'm a collector of strange and rare things."

"What do I need?"

"Just pack a lot of clothes and whatever medical things you may need."

"Okay. Any other information?"

"You will start working tonight at 10 o'clock. Be outside your apartment at 6:30 for the transportation there. Oh yes, there is somebody with similar abilities working with you. Her name is Angel Aria."

"Okay but what exactly--" Dennis began to asked before the old man hung up.

"Great. Just as I was about to ask him what the hell what we are collecting. I hope he pays well. A woman with similar abilities as me? I wonder if it's the woman from my dream." he thought as he hung up the phone and put on his black square frame glasses.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Angel, wearing a long sleeve royal blue shirt with a pair of black jeans and black and white ADIDAS shelltop sneakers, was sitting in the backseat of limo that was driving to pick up another person.

"I wonder why he didn't tell he was going to have another person working with him." she thought.

The driver stop and rolled down the window that blocked his view of the backseat. "Miss Aria, I have instructions for you to welcome your partner."

"Thank you." she waited for him to unlock her door and when he did, she stepped out and took a look at her partner, who was wearing white sweater, blue jeans, and black boots.

Dennis eyes grew wide as he saw Angel. "It's you."

"I was about to say the same thing," she said as she walked towards him. "My name is--"

"Angel Aria. I already know. The old man told me on the phone earlier." he said, grabbing his bag.

"I know, I really want to know who this guy is and how does he knows us." She watched him put his bag in the limo trunk, that was open for him.

"Me too. He also told me that you would have similar abilities as me." He slammed the trunk closed.

"He did?" They both got in the backseat of the limo and Dennis closed the door.

"Yeah. My name is Dennis Rafkin. I've seen you in my dream."

"How strange is that. I've been seeing you in my dreams too."

"So what are your abilities?"

"Near a dead person or a ghosts, which never happens, shortness of breath. Touch somebody, have a headache while a life full of shit flashes before my eyes."

"You're lucky. I have seizures and nothing really happens when I touch somebody."

The two of them began to talk some more but carefully not revealing anything private of their personal lives.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Around 10:15, the limo came to a stop in a neighborhood that looked it came straight out the sixties. Limo driver got out the car and let Dennis and Angel out the backseat as they took a look at their surroundings. Angel got a little worried.

"Aww. Welcome Ms. Aria and Mr. Rafkin." said a man, who looked in his early fifties, that got out of a car that was apparently from the twenties.

Dennis looked around and saw a bunch of guys in blacks suits wearing a pair of glasses that looked a little funky. He also noticed the black vans with a weird symbol on the side and a glass cube with something eteched on the glass.

"As I promised, my name is Cyrus. Cyrus Kriticos."

"Hello Mr. Kritics. Exactly how did you know about us?" Angel asked, being given a pair of glasses that the guys in the black suits were wearing.

"Let's just say I've been tracking you two for a long time. You two are probably wondering why we are here in this lovely neighborhood at this time of night."

"Yeah. And why we are being given these glasses." Dennis said, taking a pair from somebody that appear to be Cyrus assistant.

"To see our guests. Here Dennis, take this toy gun."

Dennis took the gun from Cyrus and a shot of pain hit his head as visions flashed before his eyes.

*~*Two little boys, cowboys verus Indians, little boy, real bow and arrow set, stand-off, arrow being shot, cowboy getting hit in the back of the head, woman runs out screaming, blood*~*

He threw the gun on the ground and grabbed his head. "You son of a bitch! Why the hell you do that for?" he yelled.

"So you can know a little about our guest. His name is Billy Micheals. He loved watching cowboys and Indians on television. His parents thought it was phase and later dubbed him 'Billy the Brat' when he was asked to stop playing. One day his friend found a real bow and arrow set in his dad closet. They had a stand-off. The boy with the arrow shot Billy in the head, before he could turn around. Billy's mom watched through the living room and ran screaming as she saw her poor Billy lying on the ground dead with a arrow through his head."

Angel's eyes grew wide. "So we're capturing ghosts?"

"Yes. I told you I was a collector of strange and rare things."

"So what's the purpose of having us here?"

"To locate our guests. This is the house where Billy fought in his last duel. I like to call him the 'First Born Son'."

Dennis sighed as the pain went away. "Great. We're looking for ghosts that may possible kill us." he thought.

"These glasses that you were given allow you to see our guest. That cube you see over there is a contaiment cube."

"Wait. You're expecting to keep our guest in that cube? It's may out of glass!" Dennis said.

"Yes. On the glasses are containment spells to keep our guest in there. If they fail, there are hidden barrier spells to back up. Now you two start walking around until you can find him."

Dennis and Angel put on the glasses and started to walked around the house property. Angel looked around, hoping Cyrus was kidding about the glasses. She didn't want to see a little boy with a arrow through his head. Dennis on the other hand wanted this night to be over with soon.

When Angel got near the backyard of the house, Angel had to grabbed her chest as her breathing started to shorten. She fell to her knees and closed her eyes. When she opened them, she saw Billy standing in front of her with a hachet. Before she could screamed, Dennis quickly grabbed her before Billy could strike her with his hachet.

"Bring in the cube! Now! Start the spells and lure him to the cube!" Cyrus ordered. The guys in the black suits started to do the orders that Cyrus shouted out. Angel and Dennis were running for their lives. They both stopped in their tracks as they saw Billy got after a guy with his hachet raised high above his head. The guy didn't even stand a chance as Billy force his weapon on the guy's skull.

"Did Cyrus lose his fucking mind?!" Dennis said as he saw the guy fall dead onto the ground.

"I think he already has!" Angel yelled back. Then they heard the speakers play a chant in Latin. They saw Billy listening to chants but still on a killing spree as he killed another guy on his onto the cube. Before he reach the cube, he turned his attention to Dennis and Angel.

"Shit!" Angel thought when she saw Billy suddenly in front of them, with a sick smile on his face.

"Run!" Dennis grabbed Angel by her shirt and they started to run towards the cube. Dennis let go of Angel right in front of the cube when Angel tripped on a branch.

"Angel!!" Dennis yelled. Angel groaned and quickly looked up. Billy smiled at her and raised his bloody weapon above his head. She shut her eyes, expecting death to comes towards her. She opened her eyes and saw that Billy was trapped in the cube. She saw him pound furiously on the glass.

"Great job! The limo will take you two to a hotel and tomorrow to the airport to our next guest rest site." Cyrus said, glad that Billy was captured.

"Great job? I nearly got killed by a eight year old ghost with a hachet!" Angel yelled, getting up and away from the cube.

"Did you not expect any risks to come along with this job?"

"What if one of us was to die?" Dennis asked.

"I would still have the other one to find my guests. I have a greater chance of finding my guests with two pyshics."

"You're fucking insane!"

"I prefer genius. Now into the limo you two."

Dennis and Angel walked towards the limo while Dennis realized something. He had touched Angel earlier and nothing happen to him. "I can touch her? I can touch her! Finally somebody I can touch!" he thought as he got into the limo. Angel took of her glasses and threw them on the floor.

"That son of a bitch! I was nearly killed and he doesn't give a damn!" Angel said, angrily.

"I wonder how many more of these we got to catch." Dennis said.

"You two got eleven more to get." said the driver.

"Eleven more?! He is fucking insane!" Angel said.

"But he pays very well."

That caused Dennis to think. "Sure my life is bad but I need the money damnit," he thought. "But I could lose the only person on Earth that I can touch."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

They finally reached the hotel around 1:30 in the morning. Angel was asleep when they arrive. Dennis gently shook her to wake her up. "Hey we're here." he said, when he saw her waking up.

"Finally." she said with a yawn. They both got out and grabbed their bags from the trunk. They enter the hotel and went to the front desk.

"Here are you're key cards. Your rooms are on the fifth floor." said the old woman sitting at the desk.

"How did you know to give us the cards?" Angel asked.

"Mr. Kriticos told me what time you two would be arriving here."

"Wow. Cyrus does care about us being at the hotel on time." Dennis said, sarcastically.

"I don't care. I just want to go to sleep." They headed for the elevators and waited for one to come down. Dennis watched Angel lift up her right arm sleeve, revealing two armband tattoos. He saw that the top one was stars and that the bottom one was musical notes. "Nice tattoos" he said.

"Thanks. I rarely show them to anybody unless I have to stratched my arm."

"How come you rarely show them?"

"It's personal." She felt tears coming to her eyes. A elevator finally came and the both of them stepped in. They rode in silence and walked out together in silence when they got to the fifth floor. They walked to their rooms, which was next to each other.

"I guess this is good night." Dennis said.

"Yeah I guess. Good night." Angel said, using her card to get in the room.

Dennis did the same and walked into his room, which was better looking than his apartment. He threw his bag on a nearby table and began to take off his sweater and boots. He laid down on the bed and went to sleep.

Angel put her bag in a armchair and got into bed, not caring she still had her clothes on. She later fell sleep.