Sing to Life

Chapter 2: Jailhouse Louse

Ralph had always avoided this particular part of the prison. Of course, so had everyone else except for the mouthy chump walking next to him.

"It's a myth," Lars asserted while his meaty, lime-glowing hand fidgeted with the plasma gun on his belt. "I used to work for Plas- for someone pretty clever, and I talked to him and he sez this thing ain't nothing but a trick to scare little chickens."

Ralph heard the skittering of rat's feet behind and ahead, the creatures themselves concealed in the faint light. Drops of water snaked down the walls into little dirty puddles on the stone. Ralph's eyes flickered about, seeing the dark eyes of malice and oblivion in every shadow. He wondered if it was sheer pride or just incredible stupidity that made Lars so thick.

Ralph gulped the fear from his throat. "Nuh-uh," he objected. "Now I know someone who actually saw this guy in action with his own two eyes, and this guy, he can shoot lasers out of his eyes and drive you insane with them. That's what my guy sez."

Lars shook his head. "You're just a chicken, Ralph, that's all. Who ever heard of a ghost that can drive you nuts? Not even that one chick, who was that...?" Lars snapped his fingers and looked into the ceiling. "Um, the school one."

"Spectra?"

"Yea yea! Spectra. Anyway, she can't even do what you're saying this guy can do." He shook his head again. "It's a myth for sure."

"Look, Alex has been here six months," Ralph snapped. "Do you know anybody who's worked here longer than that?"

"What're you sayin,' that this ghost of yours got out and beat the entire guard force?"

"Maybe."

"You guys are just paranoid," Lars maintained.

Ralph heard a snap, and he looked to see Lars toying with his gun. Lars caught Ralph's glance and pretended that he had only been adjusting his vest. Ralph rolled his eyes.

"So something opened up somewhere and they all went to work for Skulker, or maybe Plasmius, or some other boss. Doesn't mean this Alex ghost drove 'em all bonkers," Lars scoffed.

"I'm just telling you that there's no amount of money to be gained or lost that'd get me into the thing's cell. Y'know the guys say he isn't even really a normal ghost..."

"Just cuz you don't give about your money doesn't mean I don't give about mine. I'll be damned if I'll let it go just cuz I was too yellow to even open this fake ghost's door."

Ralph shrugged and put his hands up. "Suit yourself. I'm just here to witness and count a minute." He gave Lars a solemn look. "You know, if anything happens, I'm not going to be holding that door open for you."

Lars snorted. "You're just a little yellow chicken."

Ralph frowned, but he didn't feel obligated to give too much argument. In all likelihood, Lars would be comatose for the rest of his life, and Ralph didn't need to make his last moments any worse. He felt a pang of shame at the thought, but Lars had it coming. He'd strutted around and shot his mouth off about Alex enough that someone had finally put money on the table and said all right tough guy go down there and prove us all wrong.

So here they were.

"This the door?" Lars was picking mold out of the door's number. "Sixty-six?"

Ralph gulped and checked a scrap of paper. "Yeah, uh, yeah this is it."

Voices at my door. I can hear them I can hear those voices under my door. Those fools they have not learned their lesson so they offer me new sacrifice in exchange for another class. I will not disappoint them.

Lars bent down and looked at the knob. "Hmph. We don't have a key. I guess we'll-" He stopped as Ralph dangled an iron key in his face.

"We thought of that." Ralph bent to slide in the key, but jerked up suddenly and ruffled in his vest.

Lars frowned. He wished that they could just get it over with and prove the stories wrong. "What is it?"

"The stuff we have to remember." Ralph finally withdrew a folder of notes and formal records.

At the sight of official records, a bolt of fear shot through Lars. "I didn't know Walker kept files."

Ralph flipped through, searching for something. "He doesn't because the turn-over is so high in here. Alex was a special case."

"How? He get the red carpet coming in here?"

Ralph pulled out a page and began to scan it. "More or less. That halfa brought him in personally. Most of the personnel disappeared..." He paused, perusing the file.

What's this? They have a file? I shall have to be careful if they know too much.

"If you're going to tell a tall tale, you should know your story. How'd they go?"

Ralph opened and closed his mouth a couple times, searching for a way to phrase it. Finally he just read it off the paper. "Prisoner Sixty-six attempted escape a month after incarceration. The entire guard was compromised, but I managed to contain it using the halfa's method." Ralph glanced farther down the page. "I don't see a footnote or anything about this method."

Lars forced a grin. "That's all B.S. Walker would have trained us to handle-"

Ralph shook his head vigorously. "No he wouldn't. Nobody comes down here. Ever. We'll both be fired-or worse-if we get caught." He looked through the papers again. "I can't find this method Walker talked about. We should just call this whole thing off."

"No. I said I was going to do it," Lars shouted. "And none of your yellow papers are going to spook me."

"Come on, don't do this," Ralph entreated. "You'll lose money, but you won't lose face." Ralph crossed his arms. "It'd actually improve my opinion of you if you didn't insist on this stunt."

Come on, you dumb bastards. Open this damn door or go away, but shut your damn mouths and do SOMETHING.

"Put in the key," Lars ordered. Ralph stared at him a moment longer, but Lars had his jaw set and his mind made up. Ralph shrugged and shoved the key in, the swift motion hiding the trembling of his hand.

YES. YES YES YES.

Ralph looked up. "One minute." Lars nodded. Ralph turned the key and swung the door open.

Lars rushed inside, plasma gun at the ready. The metallic clang of the door rang out as Ralph slammed the door behind him. Lars glanced about feverishly, waiting for something to come for him. He licked his lips and cased the room with a fearful eye.

"Are you okay?" Ralph called through the door.

Lars was careful not to let his voice waver. "Just fine, ya chicken. I don't see anything in here, though."

"He's supposed to be really smart. He could be invisible."

Lars nodded and kept his plasma gun up. He tensed, waiting for something to leap out at him, attack him and drive him out of his mind.

He jumped at Ralph's voice. "Thirty seconds."

Lars forced his muscles loose. What was he worried about? If this thing was so bad-ass it would have been on him the second he was in the room. Besides, he had it on good authority from both Plasmius and Skulker that such a thing as Alex was impossible. Completely bogus. Lars puffed out his chest.

"I told you guys that you were all just chickens."

Ralph sighed. "You've still got time. Forty-five seconds."

"Piece of cake." Lars slipped his plasma gun back into its holster and leaned against the wall. He counted out the time in his head, bored and feeling rather smug. Official files. What a load of crap he'd been fed.

"And, that's time," Ralph marveled. "Okay, I'm going to let you out. The minute the door comes open, run like hell."

"Huh. No way. There's nuthin' here." Lars came up to the door. "Open up, timekeep."

The door swung open. A presence flushed by Lars and he heard Ralph make a little choking sound behind the door. Lars rushed out thinking oh man I'm wrong Alex is real-

And he was. He was just a kid, maybe nineteen or twenty years, with untended brown hair, ragged jeans, and a white t-shirt. He was enveloped in an electric black aura that rippled excitedly with his every move. The kid stood over Ralph, fists balled and cocked for a fight, but Ralph could only stand and stare. Lars stumbled back until he hit the wall and just kept edging away. Little black tendrils reached out from somewhere on Alex's face, and these tendrils were dancing and playing in Ralph's eyes. Ralph moaned and collapsed on the floor, mouth open in a silent wail and eyes bulging ebony.

Alex was turning around.

Lars released a strangled gurgle and reached for his gun, but Alex's eyes outraced his motion. Lars gazed into them, entranced and unable to break away, but suddenly, he didn't even want to break away. It was all so pointless, the eyes told him. There was nothing all his empty posturing would ever accomplish, nobody liked him, and he didn't even like himself. The eyes sang a perverted hymn of pure emptiness, nothingness, and futility, and Lars saw in them that he was without purpose, that there was no reason for his life to go on, that he was also a part of the void in those inky orbs.

Alex's face contorted in a hideous rictus of a grin. The oblivion poured out of his soul, through his eyes, and into Lars. He could taste the defeat in him, and it was a marvelous, thoroughly enjoyable taste after nearly five long months of abstinence. This poor meat-head, deluded as he was, had a spirit that burned quite brightly, making Alex's victory all the sweeter. His ocular tendrils withdrew into his eyes as Lars folded, thumping to the floor.

Alex stood over him a moment, relishing the feel of another spirit crippled. The irony was delicious. He'd just convinced this meat-head that nothing in life was worth living, but Alex himself was just now about to race off and enjoy his own life. Alex's face clouded with doubt for just a moment, wondering if 'enjoy' was really the word he wanted.

Alex picked up his feet and streaked away down the halls, impatient to be out. Whatever the word was, he'd get out this time. Alex could feel it. This would be his lucky day. Those fools would never catch him now, if only he could steer clear of that prick Walker. The stench of the basement was already lessening. His memory still held the path through the labyrinth he'd worked out last time. Alex smirked. Lucky for him. Bad for everyone else.

He came to a door and burst through it. Two guards stared at him, eyes wide and bodies frozen. Alex released his darkness, figuring that these two shouldn't take long. And they didn't. Alex's gait developed a drifting swagger as he resumed his flight. That fool Walker hadn't even trained his men against him. What an idiot.

A triumphant smile bloomed across Alex's face. A staircase rose up before him, a grimy chipped cement staircase, and then another door. This door would lead to the upper floors, to the ground floor.

Careful now, Alex thought, hand on the knob. We can't do this all gung-ho like last time. Be systematic. Don't lose control. You can't move when you let everything fly at once, and he'll be able catch you. Hit the underlings and let's GO!

He shoved the door open and let out the darkness in his eyes, taking a certain amount of pleasure in watching the guards fall to the ground insensate under his stare. Just a moment to relish that. There.

Alex dashed for the gate. From his peripheral vision he saw Walker storm into the courtyard. Almost there... The gate rose up in front of him. Alex realized that he couldn't scale it. He needed a key. The guards had keys.

"Alex," Walker shouted.

Alex chafed. He wished that Walker would respect his powers at least enough to sound worried. But he didn't sound worried, he sounded pissed. Alex leaped back towards the fallen guards, closing the distance in a blur. He came to the bodies and tore through their pockets and belts, looking for that one piece of copper that would let him free. Ah!

His fingers closed on a ring of keys and Alex spun around to rush to the gate. Walker missed him by inches. The keys jangled in Alex's fist, an obliviously cheery sound that mocked his dire circumstances. He was at the gate. Alex slammed a key into the hole, praying it was the right one, but he knew it wasn't the right one because it was impossible that he could ever manage to randomly choose the one key he wanted from a ring with about a bajillion others because that sort of thing only happens in movies-

But the gate creaked open.

And a broad, calloused hand closed on his collar.

Alex screamed and whipped around, scratching and kicking at Walker. Walker shoved him back inside the compound and shut the gate, tearing away the key ring with a disdainful jerk and tossing it away. Alex backed up, breathing heavily, as Walker shook his head at him.

"You're a horrible little punk." Walker sauntered towards Alex, matching his steps to Alex's crawling scramble. "No manners. No respect for the law."

Alex's eyes burned and reached, those black tentacles grasping vainly for purchase. He was losing it, he was going to lose it, but he didn't care. If he was going down, so was everyone else within his reach. "I was there. I was out."

Walker sighed. Talking to this one was like trying to explain the criminal justice system to an infant. "No. You weren't out, and you'll never get out. Not on my watch. Do you know why?"

"Danny warned you." The raw hatred oozed from Alex's words. "This is ALL his doing."

Walker shook his head, continuing to advance until Alex backed against the wall. "No. You're not getting out because anybody who knows what you are can beat you."

Alex crouched against his wall, every ghostly muscle in him tensed taught as a piano wire. Walker grabbed him by the collar and lifted him off the ground without effort while Alex thrashed and ripped at his gloved hand.

"You're a phony and a fraud. Fraudulence is a crime, where I come from. You sell stuff that isn't real to people who aren't smart enough to know they're getting a bad deal."

"Let me go. Let me GO you bombastic FOOL!" Alex's eyes exploded all around the two of them. Walker heard a thump as someone unfortunate enough to be within Alex's grasp hit the cement.

Walker sighed. "I've lost enough guards to you for one day." He smashed Alex alongside the head and the darkness petered out and dissipated like fog. "Let's get you back to your cell. We've got a big day tomorrow, you and me." He dragged Alex's limp, black-glowing body back down the hall.

---

Outside the prison, a strange ghost drifted. His green mane flickered unevenly as it watched the prison, waiting to see if there would be anything more.

Things seemed to have quieted down. The ghost clicked open a compartment on its arm and reviewed a tape of the main events. There had been the alarms, first. Plasmius' man had done his job, albeit unknowingly.

The alarms had lasted about a minute and a half, by the count on his screen. Then he had seen the gate opened by a humanoid hand. Humanoids had low physical strength, so this one must have a special power to have made it so far. The ghost smiled, pleased at this, and continued the recording.

There had been the black, inky stuff. Just a spatter of it had escaped the prison walls, and it had seemed to him to be fairly solid, like an arm or boneless appendage. Within five seconds, however, this had dissipated.

Skulker shut the panel and activated his rockets. It looked as though Plasmius had been right about this one after all.

A/N: Thanks to all my teeter-totteriffic reviewers. You guys are shuper cool: cheerin4danny, Shadow Spider, Mujitsu Yume, Jaks-girl, and Mrs. Granger-Weasley. Yes, I've changed both title and summary. Notes on that are on my profile, if you guys are interested. In response to cheerin, I was originally planning to have these first two chapters in one long chapter in order to show how Danny is doing in comparison with Alex, but their lengths kind of ruled that out. Thanks fer yer time, and don't forget to drop a review!