"And how does that make you feel?" the woman asked in that stereotypical psychiatrist's tone she used.
Vlad scoffed and turned away. "How do you think it makes me feel?" he demanded. He wasn't even sure why he was still talking to her. She was Spectra; she fed off misery, and had no reason whatsoever to actually be trying to help. Still, she was a sympathetic ear, and he found himself unable to resist.
Spectra shook her head and sighed. "I'm sensing some definite hostility, there," she pointed out the obvious. "Maybe you need to just step back and reevaluate your life."
"And what could there possibly be to 'reevaluate'? My love for Maddie burns like the heat of a thousand suns, and that idiot Jack Fenton stole her from me!" He slammed his fist into the brick fireplace mantle, then jerked back in pain, cussing. Psychiatrists were supposed to make a person feel better, not worse.
Why was she still there, again?
"But is that really the problem?" the ghostly woman persisted. "I think you know, deep in your heart, that Jack's just better than you." She ducked a blast of red energy and clicked her tongue disapprovingly. "Now, now, Vladdy. There's no need for that kind of behavior."
"I am ten times the man Jack Fenton could ever be!" Vlad shouted, almost shaking with rage.
"Are you? Hm, and here I thought you were only half the man. You are, after all, only half human."
He clenched his fists, shocked to realize that he had transformed. He didn't remember doing it. "No!" he retorted, trying to recover his aplomb. "Maddie wouldn't care about that…" He trailed off, uncertainly. They had hunted ghosts together; he knew well her distaste for them, and had always harbored a secret fear that she would find that half of him repulsive.
Spectra smiled slyly, having finally hit that one particular nerve. "She's a ghost hunter, sweetie," she said, echoing her victim's thoughts. "You can't honestly believe she'd fall for a half-breed freak like you. Why, she'd probably even try to wipe you from existence!"
"No…" Vlad protested, but there wasn't much force behind it. Something about the casual, even optimistic way the woman spoke struck his mind like a gong. Lying or not, she was telling the truth; she had to be. That was just the way it was.
"No one can possibly understand you, right?" Spectra continued, moving in for the kill. "You're an outcast in two different worlds; you don't really belong in either of them, do you?"
"You know me too well…" he muttered, looking away. He felt a hand on his shoulder and sighed sadly.
"Well, of course, I do," the ghost said. "I've been waiting a long time for you…"