Disclaimer: I own nothing. However, if Power Rangers did those spiffy novels like Star Trek and Star Wars, I'd be set for life. No infringement is intended.

DEAD MEN DO TELL TALES

By Etcetera Kit

Chapter Two: Ghostbusters Gone Wrong

"I knew we shouldn't have trusted that little weasel," Eric muttered. "He's gone and locked our sorry asses in here."

TJ went forward to the door with the keys, trying to entrance key. He rattled it in the lock, but to no avail. The doorknob—and the lock within—would not budge. Cole Evans swallowed the lump of fear that had formed at the back of his throat. Eric was probably right—the publicist was going to make it look like they had been locked in by a ghost.

"Watch out for trip wires," Eric continued his muttering. Cole felt slightly better. It was hard to be afraid of a ghost if Eric was standing right near you, muttering about trip wires and sleazy publicists.

Andros sighed. "Well, we might as well make the best of it," he said.

The group moved forward. The switch Jason had flipped seemed to light up the entire house, as all the lights in each room they moved through were on. Not that Cole minded that any—it made him feel better to know that they weren't going to stumble into a pitch black room and run into something… unusual.

"Anyone think to bring a flashlight?" Carter asked.

"I did," several voices said at once. That caused some shuffling as people pulled flashlights out of their bags and backpacks, including Carter. The flashlight bit was amusing because they ranged from a little kid cow flashlight that mooed (Andros and it probably belonged to one of his children) to a huge industrial flashlight that nothing could destroy (Tommy).

"We should set up a base camp," Tommy said, taking charge. When all ten of them got together, for whatever reason, then they defaulted to Tommy as the leader, mostly because he had been their leader for the mission to the moon where nine out of the ten of them initially met. (Of course, he, Wes and Eric had known each other previously.)

"Which room?" Andros asked.

"Right here," Jason suggested.

"Are you crazy?" Conner exclaimed. "They could take out all of us with that chandelier!"

Jason looked up and, for the first time, saw the chandelier. Cole had to agree with Conner. There were a plethora of horror movies where chandeliers were the first thing to fall and almost kill someone.

"Good point," Jason replied.

"I suppose we can't stay in the kitchen now," Eric said sarcastically. "The cupboard doors might fly off and bludgeon us to death."

"The parlor," Tommy said loudly to prevent any forthcoming argument. The group moved off the front hall and into the parlor. The only thing in this room was a few large pieces of furniture covered with sheets.

"Let's hope the furniture doesn't decide to come alive and eat us," Eric said as they entered the parlor with his usual sarcastic tone.

"Eric!" Wes yelled, punching his shoulder. Eric glared at him, but kept his mouth shut. Cole remembered seeing a Muppets episode where the furniture came alive and tried to eat various citizens. Of course, since that had been the Muppets and everything that happened around them was harmless and amusing. He didn't imagine that if the furniture really came alive, it would be as harmless as the Muppets.

They spread out around the parlor, moving the furniture against the wall, giving all of them room to sleep comfortably and not packed in like sardines. Cole watched absently as the sleeping bags were placed in a pile and Conner pulled out a deck of cards. Drinks were pulled from the cooler along with some snacks. Cole didn't know how anyone could be hungry after all the dinner they had, but it seemed to give them something to do.

After a few moments, Eric stood up, his flashlight in hand. "Well, if we're going to stay here the night, I want to find out what's in this house. Anyone want to come?"

Everyone hesitated, looking at one another. Finally, Conner volunteered. Eric glanced his way and Cole inwardly groaned. He didn't want to go exploring the house, but he knew that Eric would find a way of getting him to go. He saved Eric the trouble and stood up, digging through his duffel bag for his flashlight.

Heart beating an irregular rhythm, he followed Eric and Conner out of the parlor.

"Think they'll find anything?" Carter asked, an amused grin on his face as the trio left the parlor for the vast reaches of the house.

TJ snorted, returning the grin. "No."

"Eric just needs something to do," Wes added. "He can't stand sitting around in situations like this for very long." He paused. "Think there actually are ghosts?"

"I know Conner thinks so," Tommy replied. "And Cole looked pretty certain about it from the look on his face."

"Great," Carter laughed. "Eric's got the two most superstitious guys here with him."

"He'll be back," Wes yawned. "And those two will probably be missing something vital."

Carter just shook his head as Jason dealt out the cards to play poker. None of them had anything to bet, but playing the game helped to take their minds off things. The power of suggestion was extremely potent and, if someone started hearing things, it would probably be enough to put all of them on guard. And then no one would feel comfortable. To his mind, they were just spending the night in an old house. Older houses creaked and groaned like newer houses didn't. Noises like that could often be attributed to ghosts because people had overactive imaginations. Plus this house was old and falling apart—that probably accounted for the 'death threats' that people had received.

Like Eric, he imagined that most of them were there for the money on some level. If a rich guy was willing to throw away that kind of money on a publicity stunt, then he wasn't going to pass it up. Not all of them were comfortably off for life like Wes. Most of them had blue-collar jobs and worried about their bills every month. He also, inwardly, seconded Eric's idea that there would be trip wires and tricks set up in the house. It would probably be juvenile stunts, but would be enough to scare someone faint of heart.

"Do you hear that?"

Carter was drawn from his reverie at the sound of Wes' voice. He was frowning and appeared to be listening intently to something. Everyone in the room fell silent and still. There was a ghostly howling going on somewhere far off.

"It's the wind," Jason scoffed.

"Conner and Cole managed to get you worked up?" Carter asked.

Wes frowned. "That didn't sound like any wind I've ever heard."

"You don't live in an old house," Tommy told him. "The wind howls like that through old houses."

"No, I don't live in an old house, but I do live in a big house." He paused. "And if it's really windy outside, the wind makes weird noises through the place. But that didn't sound like the wind."

"Wes, don't worry about it," TJ reassured him, looking at his cards. "It's nothing."

"Or its Eric trying to scare all of us," Andros added.

Wes visibly relaxed at that prospect. "You're probably right."

"I can't see really see Eric doing that," Leo said slowly. "I mean he can be really indifferent and sarcastic, but would he ever purposely scare someone?" He shook his head. "I can't see him playing practical jokes, because he hates having them played on him."

"That's true," Wes replied. "So what is it?"

"The wind," Tommy repeated firmly.

Wes still looked unsure. Carter sighed and tried to concentrate on his cards. Sure, he was a little uneasy about being here, but he wasn't going to let something like the wind howling through the attic scare him. Perhaps the publicists had made a huge mistake in picking them to stay here the night. They didn't, or he hoped they didn't, scare easily.

"So what's the story about this house?" he asked TJ, just to take the focus off of the wind that sounded like ghostly howling.

"Apparently a bunch of people were murdered here back in the twenties. The family that lived in the house was respectable Victorians, but they had to cover up some less-than-respectable relatives who were into bootlegging and gangs." TJ paused. "If I recall correctly, the father in the family tried to put a stop to the unscrupulous activities going on in his house. The circumstances surrounding his death are questionable, but it is generally accepted that he was murdered. All the members of the gang were haunted by him and went insane eventually."

"Do they all haunt this place?" Jason asked.

"Ghosts of some of the gang members have been seen, but the ones people see the most are the father and his wife."

"What do these ghosts have against the living?" Leo questioned absently.

TJ shrugged. "They have their own war going on and anyone who gets in the way is nothing more than collateral damage."

Tommy let out a low whistle. "Interesting."

"One of the most severely haunted places in Angel Grove, according to all those paranormal specialists," TJ continued. "I saw a special about it right before the guys called me to say that we had been chosen."

"So do these ghosts like turn out the lights and throw things?" Jason asked with a laugh. "Kind of like those Halloween cartoons the kids were watching today?"

"Ghostly gunfights have been seen." TJ shrugged again. "They didn't really go into what happened to the people who bought the place after the owners died."

"Weird," Tommy said in his 'spooky' voice and they all laughed.

"Well," Carter said in light of the joviality. "I figure that if a ghost has my name on it, then there's not much I can do about it."

And he had spoken all too soon. As soon as the words left his mouth, the lights in the room went out, plunging them into pitch blackness. He felt his heart start to beat wildly. A male scream filled his ears.

Before the lights went out, Eric, Conner and Cole had been walking along the upstairs corridor. Conner had to admit that this place would be pretty nice if someone took the time to renovate it and fix it up. A little paint and a few drapes and the place would be good as new. Not that he was an interior designer. When Eric had asked if anyone wanted to check out the house with him, he had decided he might as well. His outburst about the chandelier earlier could be attributed to nerves. The thing with the chandelier only happened in really cheesy horror movies. He followed Eric up the stairs.

The upstairs hallway held side tables with vases of rotted flowers. Conner would have been reminded of a hotel if the place didn't look so abandoned. With Eric leading the way, they had crept up the stairs and down the hallway. At the first door, Eric had turned the doorknob and pushed the door open.

"What is it?" Conner asked. Cole had hung back behind them, not looking entirely happy with the situation.

"Master bedroom," Eric replied. "Check out the canopy."

The two of them poked their flashlights in the room and were struck by a huge four poster bed with a molding canopy and curtains. "Cool," Conner replied. As he waved his flashlight around, he caught a glint of metal off of Eric's left hand. He pointed his flashlight at the offending spot.

"What the hell are you doing?" Eric asked him.

"Oh," Conner replied. "That's your wedding ring."

Eric snorted. "Not married yet."

"Then why are you wearing it?"

"Taylor makes me."

"Ah." Conner had heard something of the relationship between Eric and Taylor. From what he had gleaned from the others, Taylor ran Eric's life, but Eric was not ever going to admit to that. Conner was briefly reminded of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour where one of the comedians had said that women were training men. He could believe it.

"Guys!" Cole spoke up suddenly, pointing into the room.

Conner and Eric looked up in unison. Their flashlights were pointed at the ground in front of their feet, but they could make it out clearly. There were two ghostly apparitions on the bed—pearly, transparent. Conner's heart began to beat wildly in his chest. The male ghost started to undress the female ghost and the ghost-clothing was dropped to the floor. And as much as he wanted to run away, he was frozen to the spot in both horror and fascination.

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Conner hissed, still frozen.

"Two ghosts about to fuck?" Eric replied. "Yup." He paused. "Let's get out of here."

"Good call."

Eric grabbed his shoulder and shoved him out of the doorway, slamming the door shut as they went. Conner went stumbling away from the door and right into Cole. The Wild Force Ranger steadied him. Breathing hard and knowing that his eyes were wide, he glanced between Cole and Eric. Cole looked petrified, while Eric looked thoughtful.

"What was that?" Conner gasped.

"A ghost," Cole said in a matter-of-fact voice. Just underneath that tone was another that indicated extreme panic.

"Could have been a projection above the doorway," Eric said.

Cole gave Eric and unbelieving look. "I suppose you want to go back in there and find out?" Eric gave him a bored look and pushed open the door. Conner peered in and the room was as it had been when he and Eric had initially been looking in there.

"Wha-?" he trailed off.

"Nothing," Eric said triumphantly.

Cole, for once in his life, looked mad. "You were scared when you thought it was a ghost!" he nearly yelled.

"At first," Eric replied reasonably. "But then rationality takes over." He tapped his temple with his index finger as if it were the most reasonable thing in the world. Cole looked livid beyond words, but swallowed anything he was about to say. Conner was inclined to agree with Eric—the thing could have been anything, but the fact that it didn't stick around probably lent to the evidence that it wasn't a ghost.

"Dude, you think all these rooms are bedrooms?" Conner asked, both of them studiously ignoring Cole who seemed just happy to be ignored.

"We can but find out," Eric replied.

They went down to the next door on the hallway and Eric opened it. They shone their flashlights in and it was much the same as the first room, only the bed was not anywhere near as big and as ornate.

"I should see about getting me and Taylor one of those huge canopy beds," Eric commented absently as they moved to the next door.

"Yeah," Conner replied.

Suddenly, the lights in the house went out and they were plunged into momentary pitch blackness. Conner instinctively threw his arms out and hit Eric. Eric grabbed his forearm to keep him steady as the pale beams of their flashlights came back into focus. Conner shone his flashlight behind him.

"Where's Cole?"

Eric frowned, his features distorted by the pale light. "I don't know." He paused. "Someone downstairs must have hit the master switch. The lights will come back on in a second and we can find Cole. He probably just slipped into one of the bedrooms because he's sulking."

Conner nodded. The next thing he heard caused his heart to freeze. They heard a male scream and from the expression on Eric's face, they were thinking the same thing. It was Cole. The part of the hallway they were in opened up to the larger living room/ballroom downstairs. A banister ran along the balcony. Conner glanced aimlessly over there and then froze.

"What the hell-" Eric said trailing off.

Both of them looked at the high ceiling of the living room. The others wouldn't be able to see this if they were still in the parlor—a small room off the front hall. At first glance, it had looked like white, swirling clouds. A second look brought it more into focus. It was people, flying around in a circle up there. They flew seamless in the formation, their bodies pearly and transparent. All of them were clad in Victorian clothing.

Conner opened his mouth to scream, but Eric clapped a hand over his mouth. "Shhh," he hissed. "Too bad no one brought a video camera."

The ghosts appeared almost like they were making a whirlpool. Conner used the flashlight to glance at his watch. It was just after nine o'clock. Didn't weird things like this not happen until midnight? The ghosts slowly faded one by one into the walls. Conner looked over to Eric. The man was visibly pale. And he knew he probably didn't look any better.

"Are you scared?" he hissed.

"Scared?" Eric whispered back, incredulous. "Oh no. I've gone way beyond scared. Right now I'm somewhere between bed-wetting and a near death experience." He shook his head. "Let's try to find Cole. I'm not going to explain to his fiancée that he died at the hands of some crazy ghosts."

Conner nodded and they headed back down the hallway, following the pale beams of their flashlights.

Cole had no idea what had happened. One moment he had been following Eric and Conner down the hallway. As much as he might have been angry with Eric, his fear of being left alone outweighed any anger he felt, so he crept along behind them. Then the lights went out. He had reached out to grab Conner, but felt something pull him from behind back into the master bedroom that they had seen the ghost in.

Breath coming in ragged gasps, he frantically shone his flashlight around, trying to figure out who or what had dragged him back in there. His light fell on the door and he shot forward, hand grasping the knob. But it was locked. He rattled it some, before giving that up and pounding on the door with one fist, the other fist clutched around his flashlight.

"Eric! Conner!" he yelled. "This isn't funny!"

But deep down, he knew that Conner and Eric had not stuffed him in this room. They had been in front of him and the wrong direction to shove him back in here. His heart was beating even more wildly than it had before—almost so that it was hurting his chest. He hoped that he didn't have a fear induced heart attack and die. Scared to death… would he be the first to have that honor and distinction? Alyssa… he wanted to get out of here.

He shone the flashlight around wildly some more, before slumping against the door. A lump lodged at the back of his throat and hot tears stung his eyes. He was scared—more scared than he had ever been in his entire life. This was not being scared during a fight with orgs or a ranger battle. This was just flat-out scared. It was liked being afraid during a scary movie.

"Okay," he said aloud, for his comfort of hearing something other than the deafening silence. "It's not going to do any good to panic. Eric and Conner are just out in the hallway. If I make enough noise, they'll hear me and get me out of here."

He turned back towards the door and started pounding on it, calling out Eric and Conner's names, hoping that they would hear him. He strained through his own noise to hear them out in the hallway. They would come to the door and call through to him, letting him know that help was on its way and he wasn't by himself.

"Guys!" he cried. "I'm sorry! Don't leave me in here!"

Dry sobs racked his entire body. He was petrified.

"It won't do any good to call. They can't hear you from here."

Cole looked up at the voice. It was a male voice—tenor and tremulous with a slight British accent. There was a man sitting on the edge of the bed—the same man they had seen in this very room earlier. He was dressed in the style of Victorian aristocracy. And he was pearly white and transparent.

Cole screamed.

To Be Continued...

Author's Note: Thank you to my dear reviewers-- I saw a lot of familiar faces from ROTW, or was it all familiar faces? I don't know. Please excuse my sleep-deprived brain. Just keep in mind that this is supposed to be a fun fic (albeit a bit creepy) with a little bit being done for Jen/Wes and Eric/Taylor at the end. So this is like... brain candy. Just be sure to brush your brains afterwards. Oh and can someone tell me why the DT teens are not yet listed for the characters lists around here? Does someone need to e-mail the PTB? Because I'll do it. Cheers! --EK