Gaz is Spirited Away
Written by: Cartman's Girl

Notes: It's been three months, and I apologise for that! Things have been hard with my PC dying; but here is the fifth chapter! Do enjoy, please. And if you can name who was the Stink Spirit you'll get… well… something!

~*~

"C'mon, get to work!" Gaz snorted to herself. The first day of work had begun, and what was her job? Cleaning the floor… with the other brats. Scowling, she dunked her washer into a bucket of water, wrung it out and began to push it against the floor. Well, to be honest she tried. While the others streaked along the floor, pushing the washer in front of them Gaz was struggling. Once she was done she was wringing out the washer again, as Skoodge walked up and placed some cushions around the bath that was set in the centre of the room.

"Haven't you worked a day in your life?" he asked, before straightening them up.

"Hey, Skoodge!" another workman hurried up, "You have to clean out the big tub today."

"What?!" Skoodge cried, sounding enraged. Which he was. "That's Cleaner's work! I'm an organizer

"No arguments! It's from Ms. Bitters, so do it!" with that, the workman hurried away. Skoodge scoffed, and glared out the window. Outside, it was raining. Raining very much so.

"Stupid work. Gemmae!" he turned to Gaz, "Go empty the water into the garden then join me at the main entrance." With that he stalked off angrily. Gaz sighed, grabbing the bucket that was full of water and dragged it out to the doorway. She slid it open and poured the contents out, into the garden. Just as she was about to slide the door shut again, she stopped. Outside, was a figure.

He was tall, to begin with. A light purple robe seemed to cover his entire body from head to foot, and only a white mask stared at her. He was the one who'd noticed her on the bridge, and who had watched her cross it earlier.

"What are you, some kind of stalker?" she asked. There was no reply. "Aren't you sort of getting wet out there?" it was an obvious question, but most people replied to the more obvious ones. Still no answer. "Look, I'll leave the door open for you." With that she went off to join Skoodge.

He stood out in the rain for a while longer, before stepping forward. He vanished into thin air, then reappeared as he stepped into the bath house. Glancing around, he faded into nothingness once again and was gone.

~*~

Gaz's jaw dropped. The tub was huge! And the entire floor was covered in grime, dirt and even straw. The tub itself had grease caked on. Skoodge glared at the mess as he held onto a mop.

"Those ingrates, they haven't cleaned this tub in months." He muttered. Laughter could be heard from other rooms, but Skoodge ignored them and proudly marched in. Gaz followed, and promptly slipped on the floor. Soon the two got to work. They mopped and swept up the mess into a pile, where Skoodge would carry it out and into the incinerator.

Then came the awful part. Skoodge rolled his pant legs up over his knees, displaying his skinny legs; grabbed a thick brush and leapt into the tub. There was a dignified 'Plop' as he landed in. Then he began scrubbing. His antennae perked forward and he glanced up at Gaz who was staring down at him.

"Well come on, you have to do this too." He said.

"No way am I getting in there." Gaz muttered, folding her arms defiantly. Skoodge narrowed an eye.

"Oh yes you are." He replied.

"No I'm not." Gaz glared.

"Yes. You. ARE." With that, Skoodge grabbed Gaz's hand and hauled her into the bath. "I am your Superior and you WILL do this job! If you'd rather go to Ms. Bitters again and end up turned into Slark knows what be my guest!" Gaz shivered. Not in fear, but because of the feeling of the grime and slime. It worked its way between her toes and fingers, and seemed to cling to her legs. She shivered again before beginning to scrub.

"This bath's usually used for our REALLY filthy guests, like garbage spirits, or toilet sewer spirits." Skoodge explained as he cleaned at the bath. "The grease is caked on; it'd take weeks to clean!"

"Skoodge! Gemmae!" a voice rang from the door. Skoodge and Gaz looked up. "You have some customers waiting!"

"Now HOLD on one Cotton Picking minute!" Gaz glanced at Skoodge; in all her life she'd never thought she'd meet someone this ill-tempered. Besides herself. He leapt clear out of the bath with ease, despite his weight. "This is clearly harassment! How are we supposed to clean a bath that hasn't been touched in MONTHS and get it done in time for customers?!"

"I don't care how, just do it!" snapped back the other worker; before marching off. Skoodge muttered some not-so-nice words under his breath. He spun around and leapt back into the bath, showering Gaz with the mess again. "Look, go to the Foreman 'n get us a Soap Token. If we use a strong enough one it'll cover up the mess. Now go." Before Gaz could interject, Skoodge hefted her out of the bath.

"All right, fine!" with that she stormed off.

~*~

Up above all of the workers, Ms. Bitters sat in her room. One of her glasses had telescoped into a little machine. It whizzed in and out as it observed a jewel she was inspecting. Suddenly she stopped. She sniffed the air.

"…something's coming." She said.

~*~

"What? Waste a token on you? No way!" Bob the Foremen scoffed from atop his high chair. See, due to his height he had to sit on a high chair to reach the tokens. At that moment Zita walked past with a guest, and held out her hand. Bob handed her a wooden token. "Relax, enjoy your bath!" he glanced back at Gaz, "You still here? I said no!" another girl walked up, another passing of the token and a false grin and greeting. "Get lost!" he said that to Gaz, if you're wondering.

"But I was told I need a soap token and I'm not going until I get a soap token." Gaz glared up at him. Bob rolled his eyes, but then began scribbling down his records of who's taken what. At that moment, the being from outside slowly appeared besides him. Gaz stared at him, and returned a wave he sent her way. Bob glanced up to see her waving, and glanced to where she was looking at. But nothing was there.

"Great, we got a deranged human working for us. That's just perfect." Then the phone rang. As Bob answered it, a soap token suddenly took to flight. It lifted itself up into the air, and landed in Gaz's hands.

"Ha-ha!" Gaz ran off gleefully, leaving Bob to look confused. But he went back to the phone call. "Yes Ms. Bitters?"

"I want you to be on the alert, put everyone on alert. Something is coming." She hissed into the phone, which to her was a talking skull. It chattered back with Bob's voice.

"Is it another human?" he asked.

"No idea. But just be on the look out."

~*~

Skoodge whistled in admiration.

"Wow Gemmae, you got a good one." He turned the token over in his hands. It was black, with a single red dot at its base. With that he knocked on the wooden wall, and a small part of it popped open. "Now, this is what we do." Ah, he was explaining to Gaz. "We connect the token to this string," as he spoke he acted out what he said. "Give it a tug," he pulled it down, "Release it," he released, "And it goes straight to Red, and he sends us out water." a longer plank on the wall slipped open, it leant all the way down until it was almost touching the bath. Skoodge walked over to it, and up the side of the bath, Gaz followed.

"Then you give the rope a tug. Go ahead." Gaz nodded, grabbed the rope and heaved down. She lost her footing, but held tight to the rope. Water poured down from above, steam emitting into the air.

"What's in this stuff?"

"Grounded Lizard Scales. It's meant to be really good. See, as I said. The colour covers up the mess. You can let go of the rope now." With that Skoodge headed off, maybe to sign off to say they've done their cleaning at least. Gaz released the rope, until she heard a faint breathing behind her. Turning, she saw it was the tall draped being again.

"You again?" she asked. The mask seemed to be smiling now, and he held out his hands. In his hands, were tokens. So many tokens, and in a box too. How sweet. "Uh… thanks… but I only needed one." The mask seemed to look confused. "Look, I only needed one token, not all of them." She explained. The face then turned to sad, and the whole being vanished; dropping the box to the floor.

~*~

The pungent aroma filled the air, even suffocating the scent of the rain. It was a gigantic blob, making its way through the streets of restaurants. At the smell, the black spirits imply closed up shop to escape the vile smell. Ms. Bitters was leaning out the window, and she could see the moving blob from where she was. He left a greasy oily residue behind him, which made the smell even worse.

"Ugh." She rapped on the skull's head, calling Bob again. She didn't even wait for him to answer. "It's a Stink Spirit, I should have guessed. Just give him a bath and get him out of here."


At the gates, everyone was in a panic. The smell was awful, and made most of the flowers wilt in an instant. Wait, make that all the flowers and grass and trees. Ms. Bitters has made her way down to the entrance hall; and hauled Gaz along with her while Skoodge had simply popped out to get some lunch.

"Gemmae this is a very big job, so don't mess it up! If you do, I'll turn you into soot and throw you into the boiler. Got it?" Ms. Bitters asked, waving her wand at Gaz.

"Yes ma'am." Gaz muttered.

"Ack, here he comes!" cried a workman who scamped to safety. The spirit hadn't even entered the room yet, but the smell was awful. Gaz's hair actually grew flat and hung against her head, and Ms. Bitters' eyes grew wide. Gaz quickly covered her nose, as the oily residue began imprinting on the drapes.

"Hands down you'll insult our guest!" Ms. Bitters strained. Gaz forced herself to do so, just as he entered. He was very tall, very big, and very stinky. The oily residue kept leaking, filling up the floor of the entrance room. "Ah. A valued customer so… so nice to see you!" Ms. Bitters coughed, trying to hold back some vomit. He then held out a tentacle of grime, "Oh its money! Gemmae, take the nice man's money!"

"Y…Yes ma'am…" Gaz took a forced step forward and held out her hand. The money plopped into her hands, splattering her hands and chest. The oily and grime leaked between her fingers, and even under her nails causing her to shiver all over.

"Don't stall! Get him to the bath!" Ms. Bitters ordered, tears now leaking down her face.

"T… this way…" Gaz turned and began walking rigidly away. The Stink Spirit pulled himself over the step of the Entrance Hall and slimed after her, leaving his oily grimy trail behind him. Like a diseased snail of sorts. Everyone covered their noses with their hands as he slinked past them.

"Gemmae, I got-" Skoodge stopped short, he saw her walk down the hallway, and the Stink Spirit in toe. In an instant, their soup turned rotten. "Oh nutbunnies." He muttered. Ms. Bitters was running, technically flying, through the hallways ordering people to open the windows quickly to ventilate the smell. She then stopped on a balcony and stared down. Down below was the big bath, as Gaz lead the Stink Spirit in.

"This shall prove interesting." She grinned maliciously. Gaz stopped walking and motioned to the bath. The Stink Spirit lifted himself up onto the bath's sides, and then splashed in. Immediate contact turned the water brown and oily, his weight forcing the water that was in the bath to overflow with the grime. Gaz shrieked slightly as she grabbed the box of soap tokens and was washed up against the wall.

"Heh heh. Disgusting!" Ms. Bitters cackled. Bob, who had a 'Michael Jackson' mask over his mouth looked up at her.

"I don't think it's very funny!"

The Stink Spirit lifted his tentacles, and stared. Obviously angry, he let out an unhappy noise and looked at Gaz. Upon opening his mouth, the smell of rotting flesh, garbage and other rotten foods filled the air. Gaz held her breath, but knew what to do. Forcing her way through the mud-like grime she found the wall to open, opening it she clipped a token onto the string. Releasing it, mere seconds later the water chute fell down.

"Who gave her soap tokens?!" Ms. Bitters hissed violently, and glared at Bob.

"I-it's wasn't me! I-It's must have been Keef or something!" Bob twittered innocently.

"Ugh… right…" Gaz walked through the grime again, up the bath sides; even if they were slippery. As she got closer, the Spirit opened his mouth again, hitting Gaz in the face with the pungent vile smell. Her hair stood on end now, but she leapt up and grabbed the rope and pulled. Water poured over the Stink Spirit, cascading over his lumpy body and onto the ground below.

"AH! That's our best token! She'll use all our water up!" Bob shrieked like a sissy, hopping from foot to foot.

"Shut up! Don't make me push you down there!" Ms. Bitters scorned, and then leant forward. "Something tells me that isn't a Stink Spirit…"

Gaz suddenly lost her grip, and fell straight into the bath. The walls of the bath were even more disgusting then before, and it wrapped itself around her whole upper torso, gluing her to the wall. She kicked with all her might, until she felt a hand grab her and unstick her. The Stink Spirit lifted her out the water, she gasped and flailed her arms but her arm hit something.

"Whua?" she asked, and felt again. It was something; something was sticking out of his side. At that moment Skoodge hurried up, wearing galoshes/gumboots that were a bit too big for him.

"Gemmae! You all right?!" he called out,

"Whatever," Gaz replied, "Look there's something caught in his side, I think it's a branch or something." She said, talking loudly so her voice could be heard over the rushing water.

"What?" Skoodge blinked.

"We need something to pull it out with!" Gaz instructed. Skoodge shrugged, looking over his shoulder at the other workers. At that second, Ms. Bitters hovered down.

"That's no Stink Spirit you dolts! Now!" with that she made a rope appear out of thin air and gave it to Gaz. "Tie it on tight! Now!" Gaz began tying the rope around the 'branch', and secured it. "Come on! Everybody grab on!" Ms. Bitters instructed; and seeing as how everyone was her employees they obeyed. Grabbing the rope, they all heaved together again and again. The 'branch' became loose, and was pulled out. But it wasn't a branch; it was a bike!

"A bike?!" Gaz asked, aghast.

"Thought so! Now, everybody heave together!" Ms. Bitters instructed again. "And, HEAVE!" they all heaved, and hoed, and pulled, and tugged, and yanked, and all other kind of words to explain their motions. Gunk began to spew out from inside the Stink Spirit as the bike was pulled out, pulling with it more garbage. On one last heave, an avalanche of garbage spewed out. It hit the workers, sending them reeling back into the grime and dirt and oil; and soon the entire room was cluttered with junk.  A voice, one as quiet as the wind spoke up and only Gaz heard it,

"Well done…"

"Holy s-" Bob began,

"Gemmae!" Skoodge shoved past him, looking at the mess. "Gemmae, where are you?" Gaz was thus spat out of the water, landing on the ground with a thud. Seemed the Spirit had kept her safe from the avalanche of garbage. At that moment, Bob glanced down. Little shimmering pieces of stone were on the floor. It was…

"Gold!" someone cried out. Now of course, if you see free money lying around what do you do? GRAB IT AS FAST AS YOU CAN YOU FOOLS! That's what the servants did. Ms. Bitters let out a hideous and loud hiss, and everyone froze.

"Our guest is still here you dolts! Open the main windows!" she ordered above. The windows were open, and the water in the bath began to bubble. It bubbled until it looked like someone had lit a fire underneath the bath. Suddenly it ruptured. He leapt clear out of the water. It was a dragon-like creature with a man's head. He had flaming blue hair that ran all the way down its scaly body, and pupil-less eyeglasses shone in the light.

The long dragon flew upwards, spinning itself around a support beam and then straight out the window and into the night sky. It continued to fly until it vanished from sight. There was a long pause, until all the other guests in the bathhouse shouted and cheered. The smell was gone, thank Slark!

"Gaz!" Ms. Bitters leapt down, "You did excellent! We've made SO MUCH MONEY! That was a rich and powerful river spirit!" she turned to the workers, "Everybody! Learn from what happened here today! And dinner's on the house." Everyone cheered again, "BUT." Ms. Bitters butted in, "Return all the gold you picked up."

Everybody groaned and complained, and no one seemed to notice the tall purple figure hidden in the corner, who was staring down at the gold with a look on his mask depicting the image of someone who just had a brilliant idea.

[Oh, what could the idea be, pray tell? You shall find out, next time! So, to be continued!]