It'd been a couple of weeks and still Fiona was pissed over everything that had happened. Why hadn't her plan worked as well as she'd hoped..? Well it didn't matter, no, she'd still get what she wanted one way or another. These thoughts had crossed her mind as her and Stinkie floated their way through the park scaring couples here and there. It was then that it crossed her mind, what would be the one thing that'd get him to be so upset and pissed at Melle..? Of course, jealousy...! Why'd she only been doing things one-sided...? Well at that moment it changed rather quickly. She made so that she had wandered out of Stinkie's sights and cleverly morphed herself to look like Melle. It was then that she planted both of her feet to the ground and rolled her eyes. "Ugh, I look...hideous... and not in a good way." She mumbled to herself as she looked around at the people in the park. All she needed was just one guy, one guy who was all alone and looked convincible. After she'd searched for a few minutes a gasp escaped her as a twisted smile formed. Finally she had found the guy that was destined to be her decoy. In a dash she grabbed onto the mans arm tightly and grinned up at him. The man startled looked at her and cried out having not expected this obviously. "You'd BETTER play along if you know what's GOOD for you human..." Fiona's eyes flashed furiously at him in her Melle disguise. The man cried out in fear and nodded quickly and gulped as he prayed he wouldn't be harmed.
Stinkie who'd suddenly lost track of Fiona raised an eyebrow and almost cluelessly scratched the top of his head. His eyes darted about trying to find her when low and behold he spotted something way different! "Melle?!" His voice creaked out of his mouth as he stared in disbelief. It wasn't until he managed to float around and view her face to face that it really started to sink in. "Wh...What's goin' on he'e??" Puzzled he motioned his arms towards the man she was with.
"Oh him...?" A giggle escaped Fiona's lips as she masterfully deluded him into thinking she was Melle. "Well with you always being out and busy, I decided to spend some time with a real man. Hmn... Y'know.. humans are so much better than ghosts... warmer too..." A smirk played across her face as she plucked a those unseen heart strings.
"..." At first Stinkie didn't know what to say but as it all settled into his mind his voice erupted, "OH YEA'...?! WELL DEN... HAVE YA FUN!! Y'Stinkin' fleshie...!! See what I care!!" And without a second thought he turned and floated off forgetting about even bothering to look for Fiona. She knew her way home and besides all he wanted to was to be alone right now.
An sinister grin formed on Fiona's face as she morphed back into her normal self and shoved the man away from her. "Good boy, now run along and scream..." The man had no problem with either of those requests as he fled the scene panicked and concerned about his own mental health. Now that her plan was set into motion it was time to work on the SECOND half. Make it so BOTH of them were currently upset with each other. After all if it was only one sided then the other one would be mellow enough to talk, then the whole thing might come unraveled! No, Fiona couldn't have THAT happening. With a turn of her tail the ghoul made her way towards Melle's work. This was going to be rather fun, she'd see just how far she could push Melle before she was annoyed.
Melle who had been working on her newest animation for the studio paused almost in mid sketch and furrowed up her eyebrows. There was a sudden ache in her heart that she felt something troubled her. Though she tried to ignore it and continue on with what she'd started. Once it hadn't gone away she finally stood up and walked over to the window. Her blue eyes scanned the sky and the street a little as she pondered why she felt so uneasy. Had something gone wrong with Azriel again...? What about Stinkie...? That would soon be answered as she grabbed herself some water from the tap. At least she tried to get some anyways. The second she pulled on the tab Fiona flooded out from it with a burst of water as she appeared to Melle as Stinkie. "HIYA!" Fiona's voice blurted out loudly through the room as she attempted to mock Stinkie's voice. Melle who was now soaking wet from the water spray just stared with an eyebrow perked up high. At that moment she was confused of whether or not to pounce him, yell at him or just walk away with a groan.
Ultimately she decided to say something to him. "...Hiya." Her voice sounded rather annoyed, but, she was far from it after all it'd probably just been one of his accidents. Though she wanted to make sure he got the point that it was the WRONG thing to do.. "You're voice sounds different... did you catch a cold...?"
"Hehehe, Oops...Thought dat I'd pop in for a visit!" Fiona shrugged nervously as she tried to pull this thing off. "A cold!? Uh...Yeah... It's jus' somethin' dat uh Fatso gave me! It'll go away in a few hours." Fiona tried her best to lie about this. Melle luckily accepted it and sighed as she walked back to her desk.
"Well I'm glad it's nothing serious..! I'm sorry if I seem a litle uneasy right now, it's just rather hard to be seen talking to a ghost while you're at work. Either they'll think YOU'RE crazy or THEY'RE crazy. Not to mention it's no fun working in wet clothing .." Her voice trailed off but she wasn't really angry at him. She just wanted him to think a little more before doing something like that in her work place. If he wanted to do it in others, well that she didn't care about at all. Well either way it was pretty random and funny that he popped out of that tap. A smile cracked itself on her face as it was nice to see him being goofy. Even if it caused her some minor grief. "Well the main reason is I'm trying really hard to get these all done on time! This animation is taking far longer than I expected it too"
"Oh really...? Lemme see...!" An evil thought had crossed Fiona's mind as she eyed down the papers. Oh before this day had ended she'd make sure those were ruined! That's when the plotting started and she snapped her fingers. "Wow...dey look great, HEY! I got an Idea on how's ta make ya's get dry...!" Fiona cackled in her Stinkie disguise as she morphed into a fan that was blasted on high. Thus it sent poor Melle's papers flying everywhere around the room.
"GAH!! NO!! What're you doing!? T-turn that off!! Gah...!!" Melle panicked as she tried her best to catch them all. When she reaccquired them she groaned and eyed down 'Stinkie'. "Look I know you're trying to help but don't do that again!! Okay?? For one it'll get me sick, 2 it'll mess up my papers and... augh... I've gotta reorganize them now..." A frown formed on her face as she stared at the pile. Fiona morphed back to looking like 'normal Stinkie' again and forced herself to frown at what had happened.
"D'aw...gee..I..I'm sorry I was only tryin' ta help! Hmn, I know! I'll get ya's a hot chocolate! Dat'll ease ya up...! Hehe, Be right back girly..!" And with that Fiona flew out of the room before Melle could stop her. Melle in turn just sighed and smiled a little thinking that it was at least nice of him to offer that. At least now maybe she could get her papers back into order. What was with him today though? He really seemed to be acting klutzy! As far back as she remembered he never seemed to be this bad before. Was it just because of the arguing lately that she started to notice..? Really not caring either way she plopped herself back down at her desk and proceeded to sort out the papers. Meanwhile once she was alone Fiona morphed back into her self and laughed herself up a storm. Watching Melle panic and get so irritated about everything was priceless. She hadn't enjoyed herself this much in years. What a wonderful way to induce misery upon a human and scare them at the same time. She just adored that feeling. Quickly she gathered up the Hot Chocolate and if that wasn't enough she stole one of the pigeons from the outside window ledge and brought it inside. These two would play BIG in her screwing up this job!! First off she brought the Hot Chocolate back out again disguised as Stinkie. "Here y'go...! Dat oughtta warm ya's up...!"
Melle smiled up at him widely and nodded. "Thanks hun! Well I managed to finally get these things all sorted out and ready to go." Reaching out for the cup she gasped as she watched it slip from 'Stinkie's' hands. It was almost as if everything was being played out in slow motion as she watched the hot chocolate splatter all over her artwork. "AAH! ... OH NO...!! Get something QUICK!! " Shouting at 'Stinkie', Melle quickly picked up the papers hoping to have saved some of them from the Hot Chocolate. Though it was too late for a good portion of them. Fiona quickly moved to fetch Melle the paper towel and while she was at it, she let the pigeon out into the room. That devious grin formed widely upon her face as she eyed the fleshie in the other room. This would be sure to split those two apart now at least long enough for HER to get in the way.
"He'e y'go...! Got da papuh towels..." Fiona chimed doing her best to sound like Stinkie again. "Y'know, I didn' know dat boids were allowed inside da office buildin's! I thought dey had t'stay outside..." Her voice trailed off.
"What do you mean...?" Looking up from the mess she'd now started to clean up, Melle raised an eyebrow at 'Stinkie'.
"Well y'gotta pigeon right ovuh dhere o'course!" Smirking, Fiona pointed behind herself.
"Oh my gosh, STINKIE CATCH IT! Get it out of here, it's not supposed to be in here...!" Having had nearly enough of this already, Melle whined and chased after the bird trying to get it.
"Oh... OH OH, I'LL HELP!! I'LL HELP!!" Fiona grinned as she enjoyed making 'Stinkie', look bad to Melle. She chased the bird around and opened up a window to try and get it out. As the two dashed around the room trying to catch the bird, Melle's artwork wound up getting messed up even more. "I've got it... I've got it...! HAH! Dere it is...!!" An EVIL grin formed over Fiona's face as the bird landed on the stack of Artwork. "I'll get it now, just give me... one... second...!" Turning into the fan Fiona again aimed it at the bird and the papers turning it on full blast.
"STINKIE, NO!!" Racing towards him to stop him Melle's eyes widened as she watched both the bird and most of her artwork get blown out the window. "OH NO!! NO!! " Covering her mouth and her face Melle collapsed to the ground in tears. She couldn't believe all of that hard work that she'd done was just blown out the window like that. Fiona looked over her shoulder and stopped unmorphing from the fan. She'd made sure to leave some of the artwork there. After all she wanted something that'd keep Melle busy for the next few days.
"Oops... Well, at least da boids gone! Heheh, Y'could always draw dem pictuhs again! In fact even bettuh dis toime! Dey weren't dat great..." Fiona tried to make out Stinkie's nervous features on Melle. In turn Melle slowly looked up from her hands and glared at 'him'. She couldn't believe what he'd just said to her while she was in so much pain. There were no words that she could speak to explain all of the anger and sadness that she'd harbored inside at that moment. Though she did the one thing she could at that moment.
"Out. NOW." Melle pointed to the window as she gave 'him' a look that could've killed him again. Fiona just swallowed having never seen anyone get so pissed off before and nodded leaving without another word. It was alright, she'd completed her mission just as she'd planned. Everything went perfectly. Melle hadn't suspected a thing and Stinkie hadn't suspected a thing. They were now played against each other and would be equally mad at one another. Enough to stay away from each other for the next few days she hoped. That's how it needed to work anyways.
That night despite that both of them were home and sitting at the dinner table, everyone else talked except for them. They didn't even bother or try to make contact, in fact most of the time while she was at the table Melle worked on her art trying to trace over some of her other ones that'd been ruined. Azriel stared at his Mom quietly and then looked to his father. It bothered him so much that the two of them were fighting all of the time. Ever since that new ghost girl came into the picture. It didn't take him long to figure out that she was the source of their problems. She'd hog his father away from him and his mother. In fact she seemed to enjoy taking pleasure in watching his mother as she squirmed and cried. This set off a red light to him and he frowned.
"I'm toinin' in for d'night... I'm tired.." Stinkie grumbled and floated off into the other room. Melle in turn looked over her shoulder and frowned a little bit more as she watched Fiona eagerly follow after him. A tear soon tumbled down her cheek as her lower lip trembled, though she didn't know what to do at this point. Shaking her head she just continued on with her drawing. Dr. Harvey, Ghastly, Kat, Casper and the two Uncles all watched Melle as this happened. They all quietly exchanged glances as they weren't sure what to say. What could they say in fact? They hadn't seen anything that'd happened so they couldn't go pointing fingers, though Stretch and Ghastly would've loved to anyways. Casper and Kat were nearly about to speak to Melle when Dr. Harvey raised his hand and shook his head.
Stretch glared at the Doctor and looked at Ghastly before speaking up finally. "So, I thought ya's was nearly done wit them things Melle, What happened...?" As he noted the stains on the pictures.
"Stinkie decided to drop by at work today. He was more clumsy than usual... to put it kindly." Irritatedly Melle smiled up at Stretch who questioned on whether or not that was the truth. "After spending hours gathering what I could find off of the streets, I now have to trace or even re-draw every single one of them, JUST so I'll get this finished on time. Instead of even telling me that he was sorry he just stated that they never looked good anyways...!" With that Melle buried her face into her arms and cried. Azriel had heard ENOUGH of this and without another thought he opened up the door to the kitchen and ran out. Everyone except for Kat and Melle chased after the kid wondering what he had planned.
"Papa...?" Azriel stared up at Stinkie who ranted away to Fiona about earlier and what he'd experienced with Melle. "DAD!" Once Azriel had Stinkie's attention he frowned and hugged onto his tail tightly. "Dad, Dad, Do something with me...!! I want you to watch cartoons with me...!" He begged his father as he looked up at him with those golden eyes. Though Stinkie was far too hot-headed over earlier to even want to sit still for a moment. In fact he wanted to take it out through scaring, which is what he intended to do that night to relieve the tension.
"I..I'm sorry kiddo, but I was jus' gettin' ready t'go scarin' wit Auntie Fiona he'e...Maybe t'morruh...?" Stinkie ruffled his sons hair as Azriel in turn narrowed his eyes.
"Mom's right, You... you are mean...! You always spend time with Fiona, not with Mom, not with me! Always with her...! when are you going to spend time with us?? I wanna watch cartoons...! Why is it ALWAYS about her and scarin??" Azriel stomped his feet on the ground angered by the fact his Dad didn't want to spend time with him.
"Don't you raise yer voice T'ME YOUNG MAN...! You'll find yaself bein' grounded!! I'm an adult an I can do what I wanna do right now y'got it?! You dun understand grown up things kiddo, an' Daddy needs t'go scarin' ta get some things offa his moind! Remind me t'have a woird with ya mudder when I get back. She's teachin' ya some real great material he'e!" Stinkie didn't really know what to do or say, he'd never been talked back to by anyone other than Stretch really. He sure as heck didn't expect to be yelled at by his son!
"Well someone's has to say...something...! You... You care more about that stupid Fiona than about us...! Can't you see... Mom's hurting...! We don't know you anymores..." Azriel cried out at him and ran upstairs. Stinkie's brothers, his nephew, Ghastly and Dr. Harvey all stared at Stinkie a moment before he hung his head low and floated on out. Stretch needless to say was more than a little disappointed in his brother. Ghastly just shook her head and followed after Stretch and Fatso to comfort the kid right now knowing that he needed someone to talk with to calm down. That night as he finally calmed down it was just Stretch and him left in the room. Melle had come in to check up on him and make sure that he was okay, but she needed to get her work done as well. Ghastly was doing well to keep her company while Dr. Harvey, Kat, Casper and Fatso all had a discussion on what needed to be done. The kid hadn't spoken a word for a few hours as he sat on the floor and played with his toys. Stretch had placed himself on one of the chairs in the room and smoked his cigar as he read a book to himself. Of course from time to time he'd look at Azriel to make sure the kid hadn't hurt himself.
Every time though he was just sitting there and hugged a toy or watched the television. It was only when it was time for Azriel to go to bed that Stretch finally spoke up to the boy. "Alright Ozzie, It's time t'go t'bed... It's actually a half hour past yer normal time." Stretch put out the cigar and closed his book floating over to Azriel. Quietly he folded his arms as he stared down at the boy.
"Hey... Uncle Stretch...? Why is Dad... acting funny...?" Azriel frowned a little as he climbed into his bed. Stretch just stared at the boy a moment then rubbed the back of his head.
"I... uh, Sometimes adults can be dat way I guess. Not all of 'em.. but a good portion. Da thing is Ozzie, remembuh, you's gotta be tough kiddo. Even though you may wanna cry, think 'bout ya ma. Take care of her okay...? It's times like dis dat she needs ya d'most. Yer gonna have to make sure she's always happy... got it shorty...?" With a light smirk he poked Azriel on the nose.
"Hehe, yeah, I've got it... Good night Uncle Stretch...!" Azriel chimed as he mellowed out and covered himself over in the blankets and drifted off to sleep for the night. It was good what his Uncle had told him, he was going to need it for what the future held in store. Though things were bad, they would only get worse in the future. As things progressed with Fiona always stirring up trouble over the next 10 years. Dr. Havey had even worked and done his best to keep Melle mentally in check. Everyday she'd go to Dr. Harvey for a session and it helped her through her daily troubles. Soon Melle had just come to accept Fiona being there and how both her and Stinkie interacted with each other. He hadn't been cheating on her after all, at least not that she could tell. Yes, there were things that happened but by this time Melle just tried to remain calm and strong for Azriel's sake. Wanting him to live a some what normal life.
Though it was already too late for that by this point. Azriel had grown up extremely bright and strong at that. Using his newly found spare time to play with his Uncle Stretch and learn new ghost tricks. Not only that but he'd also spent it getting better with his school work. His specialty seemed to fall in the place of Science and Shop working a trait that seems to have been passed to him through the McFadden bloodline. The whole time Azriel grew up watching Fiona as she caused troubles for his mother. Now that he was older he'd been able to place what Fiona had planned all along to do. Though this hadn't stopped him from growing cold in ways towards his father for being led by something so stupid. Now, only time would tell if things turned better...