A Phantom Awaits You
Chapter Six: Kim, Larry, Nate, and Lotte
Disclaimer: Don't own Phantom Manor, blah, blah, blah…
"Ms. Fox?" A voice I recognized as Ms. Meyers's called.
"Larry, you better hide!" I whispered to him.
Lawrence nodded. "Good idea." He then dematerialized right before my eyes.
I blinked. That is so damn creepy. "I'm in the portrait gallery, Ms. Meyers!" I shouted.
A few moments later, Ms. Meters appeared through the doorway that had been MIA only a few minutes ago. "Ms. Fox, you have some visitors."
"Visitors?" I chirped.
"Their names are Charlotte O'Connell and Nathan Evans."
I was silent for a moment. Hmm…Those names don't ring a bell…oh, wait, right.
"They're my interns." I laughed sheepishly. Duh. "My boss told me about hem yesterday."
Ms. Meyers nodded. "Okay. I'll show them in."
I looked around the room. "Larry? Larry? You still here?"
Lawrence re-materialized under the picture of Melanie in the boat. "I'm here, Miss Kim."
"Larry, you may want to stay de-materialized for awhile. I've got these interns to deal with and-"
"Hi, um, Ms. Fox? A young, unfamiliar voice said.
I turned around to face two teenagers who were walking through the doorway. "Yup. That's me!" I said cheerily. "You must be Charlotte and Nathan. I'm Kim Fox." No duh I'm Kim Fox. They already knew that. I am such a ditz.
Charlotte was really pretty, much shorter than me, had long, wavy light brown hair with really chunky blonde highlights, the kind I've been too chicken to get, and had hazel eyes. Nathan was pretty cute for a teenager. He had floppy brown hair, tanned skin, and brown eyes.
"Hi!" Charlotte said brightly. "Charlotte O'Connell. Just call me Lotte."
"Hey." Nathan smiled. "Nathan Evans. Just…call me Nate."
I shook their hands. "Nice to meet you two."
I noticed Lotte smiling towards the back of the room. "Who's that?" She questioned.
"Who's who?" I asked.
"That guy standing behind you!" Lotte laughed.
I turned around. Lawrence hadn't de-materialized after all!
"Oh, um, this is Lawrence James." I stumbled.
"Nice to meet you." Lawrence smiled.
"Hi! I'm Lotte!" Lotte said, shaking Lawrence's hand enthusiastically and shooting him a toothy smile.
Lawrence smiled sheepishly.
"And I'm Nate." Nate said quickly, also holding his hand out to Lawrence.
"Nice to meet you, Nate." Lawrence responded.
"Yeah." Nate said as he cast a funny look in Lotte's direction. He looks sort of jealous and…
Oh…I get it now! Nate likes her!
"Are you a reporter too?" Lotte asked Lawrence.
"Well, um, no, actually. I used to be a railroad worker."
"How fascinating!" Lotte exclaimed.
"How fascinating!" Nate mocked in a falsetto voice.
Lotte shot him an annoyed look.
"What are you going now, Lawrence?" She continued.
"Well, actually, I'm a ghost."
I slapped my hand to my forehead. "Smooth move, Larry." I said flatly. Well, at least he's being honest…
Lotte laughed. "You're joking, right?"
"No, Miss Lotte. I am a ghost."
"Lawrence, I wasn't born yesterday." Lotte said, and she said that as if she really did think he was joking.
"I was." Nate said. "See, yesterday was my birthday and-"
"You'll have to excuse him." Lotte cut him off. "As a baby, he was repeatedly dropped on his head."
"I was not!" Nate protested.
"Well, it sure seems like it." Lotte said. "Anyway, Lawrence, stop joking!"
"I'm not joking, Miss Lotte." Lawrence insisted.
I decided to step in at that moment. "He's not joking, Lotte."
"What?"
I took in a deep breath. "Now, I know this sounds really, really, really exceedingly freaky, but Larry really is a ghost." I turned to look at him. "Prove it."
"What?"
"Do the disappearing thing!"
"Huh?"
"The disappearing thing you were supposed to have done when Nate and Lotte got here!" I shouted.
"Oh, um, okay." Lawrence said, slightly taken back. I hadn't realized that I had sounded so mean.
"Oh, sorry, Larry. I didn't mean to be so, uh, mean." I laughed.
"It's okay, Miss Kim." Lawrence smiled, before he disappeared and reappeared.
"Whoa!" Nate and Lotte both exclaimed. They both got really wide-eyed and sort of pale.
"That's SFX, right?" Lotte asked.
"SF what?" Lawrence echoed.
"You really are a ghost." Nate breathed.
"No way!" Lotte exclaimed. "There's got…there's got to be some other…Oh my God!"
"But don't worry!" I burst in. "He's a nice ghost! He's not one of the ones who goes around killing people like the Phantom." I blabbed.
Nate and Lotte looked up sharply.
"Phantom? Like in Phantom of the Opera?" Lotte asked, still totally shocked from the finding out that Larry is a ghost.
"Well, now that I think about it, yeah, sort of." I said. "But um, sort of not."
"Wait- he goes around killing people?" Nate exclaimed.
So Lawrence and I told Nate and Lotte the whole story, right up to the stretching portraits from a few minutes ago and our theories about the Phantom being Mr. Ravenswood.
When we finished, my new interns were giving us very strange looks.
"You don't believe a word we just said, do you?" I said.
"I believe it." Nate nodded solemnly.
"Well, it's kind of hard to believe." Lotte said, sounding sad. I guess she's crushed because Lawrence is taken and hopelessly devoted to Melanie. You should've seen how her face fell when she first heard that Lawrence was taken. And you also should've seen how relieved Nate looked.
"Well, as hard as this is to believe, this kind of thing happens quite a bit. Miss Kim, tell them the story you told me about-"
"NO." I cut him off.
"Oh, okay." Lawrence shrugged.
"What? What story? Is it a ghost story? I love ghost stories!" Nate said eagerly, sounding almost exactly like Lawrence did yesterday when he wanted me to tell him my story.
Lotte stared at Nate incredulously. "How can you be so…so…normal right now? Didn't you just listen to what Lawrence and Ms. Fox were saying?"
"Yeah, Lotte, matter of fact, I was listening. But I think it's kind of cool, like being trapped in a movie like The Mummy or something. Lawrence, you should totally go to Hollywood producers and sell them your story because-"
"Nate, don't you have to go be stupid somewhere else?" Lotte snapped.
"Lotte, don't you have to go be bitchy somewhere else?" Nate fired back.
Lotte looked like she was going to verbally barrage him, so I stepped in and said, "Whoa, hey, calm down!"
"But Ms. Fox-" Lotte started.
"Don't call me Ms. Fox. Just call me Kimberly or Kim or K.F."
"K.F.?" Nate asked.
"You know that show Kim Possible? Ron, her best friend, calls Kim K.P., and one day, when my best friend and I were watching the show with his 8 year old niece, he heard that and started calling me K.F., in addition to Kim Impossible."
"Kim Impossible?" Nate laughed. "That's good! Are you impossible?"
"My mother seems to think so."
Lotte looked weirded out. "This is crazy."
"Yeah, yeah, it's crazy." I agreed. "It's more than crazy. It's demented."
"Anyway, now Miss Kim and I want to find out how the Phantom's controlling Melanie. I have to know. I mean, for so many years, she's been lost to me, and I, I, I just want to be with her again."
The expression on Lotte's face went from confusion to sympathy. "Oh, wow, Lawrence. I'm so sorry." She said softly.
"It's okay, Miss Lotte." Lawrence smiled weakly.
"We can help you! Nate and I can help you and Ms. F-er, Kim."
"Cool!" Nate said. "I've always wanted to be a Ghostbuster!"
"Nate, get real." Lotte said.
"Hey, five minutes ago you were all, 'this is so unbelievable' and now you're all, 'Oh I want to help you rescue your dead girlfriend'." Nate interjected. "Whoa, what is it with dead guys and their dead girlfriends? No offense, Larry."
"None taken, Mr. Nate. At least I'm not trying to kill anyone because they're potentially my love's reincarnation, right, Miss Kim?" Lawrence grinned.
"Right." I said sharply while shooting Lawrence a look I hoped said, "Shut the hell up, dead boy."
Lawrence appeared to get the message.
"Yeah, that happens a lot in the movies, doesn't it?" Nate commented.
Neither Nate nor Lotte seemed to realize that Lawrence died long before movies were invented.
I nodded. "Yeah, it does."
"I mean, it sort of happened in The Mummy, but it didn't really because Imhotep never really thought Evie was Anuck- Anack- um, whatever her name was. He just wanted to use her as a human sacrifice to bring his girlfriend back. But still, I mean, dead guy and dead girlfriend!" Nate rattled.
"Nate, your stupidity astounds me." Lotte rolled her eyes.
"Lotte, your bitchiness astounds me." Nate shot back.
"Whoa, hey, let's not get argumentative." I broke in.
Lotte nodded. "Kim's right. We've gotta concentrate on helping Lawrence."
"Yeah." I nodded.
"So, um, well, what are we gonna do?" Nate asked.
"Well, see, that's the problem." I said. "Larry and I don't really know."
Again, I'm sorry this chapter was late!!!!! I'm swamped with work, and tons of other stuff. I'll try to get Ch. 7 up by Tuesday, but I'm not making any promises.