Three pairs of shocked eyes whipped from Ghoulmaster to Vincent, desperately trying to comprehend. My head swam. How could the two of them keep such a secret from our former community? And what other secrets…?

"I liked it when she was sick," Ghoulmaster said bluntly, looking at each of us in turn. "I liked it a lot. I was finally the only person in the house who could really help her. When she started getting better, I knew that it was because of my caregiving, and mine alone. Even when you started helping, Vinnie, you couldn't really help her, because I thought then that you had caused her grief. She had to comfort you instead.

"But then she started talking about getting out of bed, about getting back to normal life, as if life could ever be normal again. Were we really going to just go back to how we were, minus one? Didn't she need me any more? Why did these days of taking care of her, of her holding us, have to end? If I could nurse her back to health once, I could do it again. And again. As many times as she needed."

"Homemade poison," Vincent flatly clarified to our group.

Ghoulmaster's eyes flashed. "I swear to you, Vincent, I meant only to keep her sick, not to kill her," he said intensely, taking another step forward.

"Munchausen by proxy," Chester said in horror.

"I don't care what psychological term it is!" Vincent yelled suddenly, causing me to flinch. "I spent my entire existence, my entire non-existence, thinking that I was responsible for two deaths! I spent all this time depressed, when I should have been mad as hell!"

"I couldn't bear to lose both her and you. Everyone knew of your crime, or lack of crime, whereas I have never received absolution," Ghoulmaster responded heavily, taking three more steps to close the distance between him and his brother. My breath caught in my throat as Ghoulmaster dropped first to one knee, then to two, in front of his brother, gripping either side of Vincent's belt in an intimate gesture. "And finally, here I kneel: begging, pleading for your forgiveness."

Vincent instinctively stepped back, pushing Ghoulmaster's hands off him in surprise. "What?" he hissed. "How can you put this on my shoulders? How can you make this about you?"

"The day our mother died was the day I followed the chain from our farmhouse, up the mountain, and down to the underworld, and gave away my existence for the worthless entity that it is," Ghoulmaster said intensely from his position of supplication. "If you forgive me, you will be free, as you never committed any offense in the first place."

"You took away what I loved most in the world, as I have now taken what you love most in the world," Vincent responded hotly. "You will now be required to take your remains and leave this park. There's no way the mortals will tolerate your presence after all this. And now your friends, the people who respected and revered you, know as much of your full story as I do, even though I originally agreed to never speak of our shared past."

"Your friends too, not so long ago," I contributed, and was rewarded with a brief wary glance.

"We still respect Ghoul—" Chester began, but I shook my head at him.

Ghoulmaster was still on his knees, an expression of unspeakable pain on his face, when Madame Pestis burst through the wall, holding a small box. "I heard from the others where you were," she said hurriedly, and stopped abruptly to gawk at Vincent.

"Thanks for welcoming me home," Vincent addressed her. "Go ahead and give my remains to your master."

Madame Pestis looked uncertainly at Ghoulmaster.

"Where were they?" Falcon asked.

"At the top of one of the water slides at Hurricane Harbor, safe from the guests since it's closed for the season," she responded, a hint of surprise in her voice.

Falcon slowly turned to Vincent. "Not a very difficult hiding spot," he remarked.

Vincent swallowed, a look of fear briefly passing across his features. "Stand up," he ordered Ghoulmaster, who complied. "My work here at Six Flags is done. You have the power. You've always had the power. Over all of the ghosts under your command, over this park, over our family, and over me, both in life and in death. So, what you're going to do, do it quickly, and end this."

Eyes widened in comprehension, and Ghoulmaster strode forward, gripping Vincent's shoulders tightly and shaking him once. "I will not burn your remains, Brother!" he shouted in rage.

"You burned them a long time ago!" Vincent shouted in return, eyes blazing. "You finished me in life, now you can finish me in death!"

"Give that box back to Vincent," Ghoulmaster growled to Madame Pestis, turning on his brother in fury. "I have no power at this moment. All I can do is beg for your forgiveness, although I will never forgive myself."

Madame Pestis began to move toward the stage, frantically assessing what do with the box. Shadow Falcon and Chester fidgeted awkwardly, wondering if they should get involved. My nonbeating heart in my throat, I impulsively stepped onto the stage, yanking Ghoulmaster's chain from around his belt loops and wrapping it around Vincent Wolf Fang. He yelled in surprise, thinking I was attacking him, but I stepped back and put my hands up.

"I'm just helping you follow through on your decision, Vincent," I said calmly. "This is the chain that my master chose to wrap around himself, and it appears that you are choosing to wrap one around yourself as well. It's just a different chain than the one you carried up until now."

He stared at me with an expression of perplexity. He looked at Ghoulmaster, his shoulders beginning to slump. "This is not how I thought you would react, Peter," he said in resignation.

Ghoulmaster flinched. "I like to think that I've changed," he responded. "But there is no defense for what I did, even as a seven-year-old boy. Think of other, better moments that we have shared, and think better of me. I'm…I am sorry for what I did, and I'm sorry that I was too cowardly to tell you the truth."

Vincent's anger was wavering, replaced by exhaustion. "But I…" he paced angrily. He glared at Ghoulmaster…"And you…then you…" he jerked a hand through his short hair. "But if I forgive you…" his voice broke and his vision swam with unshed tears.

"This will be the hardest thing you have ever done," Falcon said gently.

Vincent looked from one of us to the next, his expression conflicted, and wiped his sweaty palms on his pants. "I…" he began, and never finished. The outline of his body quickly thinned in front of us, and he disappeared from our vision. The box of his remains fell from Madame Prestis's hands and clattered to the floor, now empty.

"He has no more unfinished business," Falcon said quietly.

"I will never see him again." Ghoulmaster sat hard on the floor. "Please, please leave me," he choked huskily, and we did.