Ghost Slayers
Chapter Five
By Relm
"No I'm not the only one seeing him." Lina said exasperatedly on the phone. "Yes I know group hallucinations are probable but that's not what's going on here!" Lina hung the phone angrily. "Argh! This is getting annoying!"
"Not having much luck are you?" Amelia observed out loud not looking away from the computer.
"No I'm not. The only good suggestion I've gotten was that maybe our friend is stuck in a temporal loop. But my high school physics teacher didn't know how we could test for that." Lina rubbed her temples gingerly hoping to ebb some of the pain pounding away in her head.
"You called your high school physics teacher?"
"Yeah well he was a very good teacher. How's the search coming?" Lina asked changing the subject.
Amelia frowned. "Not well. Couldn't find anyone that resembles our subject that's died."
"Hey wait those are the missing reports you're looking at." Lina observed looking over Amelia's shoulder.
"Well I figured I'd give that a try before I check older death records." Amelia explained.
"Good idea. Call me if you find anything okay?"
"Where are you going?"
"Going to see how Sylphiel and Filia are doing."
"Okay. Bye Miss Lina."
"Bye Amelia." Lina walked down the old dusty halls of the old police building turned Ghost Slayers base of operations. Another piece of drywall fell from the ceiling and just missed Lina. Lina looked back to the newly fallen piece noting its size. She also noticed a big glob of slime right by it on the floor. A sidewise glance revealed that Slimer was floating right next to Lina on the right. "Decided to go for a 'walk' eh Slimer?"
Slimer grinned nodding his head eagerly.
Lina chucked at the ghost's enthusiasm. She came up to a door at the end of the hall that was simply marked with a taped up piece of paper that read 'Lab B'. The door creaked loudly as Lina turned the knob and pushed the door open.
Inside the room Sylphiel sat on a stool while analyzing the newspaper.
"How's it coming with the paper?" Lina asked.
"Well I analyzed a sample of the paper and compared it to a sample of today's Sailune Times."
"And what did you find out?"
"This sample has the same composition as the other sample. As near as I can tell they are both standard newspaper paper." Sylphiel said sighing and taking off her reading glasses.
"Well what about the articles? Anything special?"
Sylphiel shook her head. "Nothing especially relevant. I did a comparison with what I could find on the Sailune Times website. From what I've read it doesn't seem like any of the articles are different. Though I really should go do a check at the library to be sure."
"Okay what about residual residue? Did you get any readings?"
Sylphiel shook her head yet again. "Sorry Lina, the scanners came up with nothing."
Lina frowned. This was turning into a very complicated mystery.
Slimer was not paying any attention to what Lina and Sylphiel were talking about. He was quite busy trying to see just how many petri dishes he could stuff in his mouth. At the moment he was at eleven.
"Has Filia told you anything about her experiments?"
"No. She hasn't even left Lab A at all."
"Well I guess I'll go see if Filia has made any progress."
"Okay I'll do another check on the paper to see if there are any differences in the ink." Sylphiel went to get more samples to look at when she noticed all of her petri dishes had vanished. "Hey where did all my dishes go?" She looked around in confusion.
Slimer turned around and flashed Sylphiel a large toothy grin. Well it would have been toothy if he didn't have fourteen petri dishes stuffed in his mouth.
"Slimer!" Sylphiel tried to use her best scolding voice on Slimer, but the sight of the green ghost's mouth stuffed with petri dishes was quite comical. So Sylphiel ended up giggling instead. "Get those out of your mouth! I need those!"
Slimer spat them out and looked down at the floor out of guilt.
"C'mon Slimer. Let's leave Sylphiel to work." Lina ushered the little ghost out of Lab B.
"Bye Lina! Bye Slimer!" Sylphiel waved goodbye.
"You'd better not go stick stuff in your mouth when we go see Filia." Lina advised Slimer as they walked back to the hall and towards Lab A.
Slimer nodded eagerly, but by the blank expression on his fact it was doubtful he was even listening to Lina.
In the next lab over Filia was working very hard on her assignment. Though the sight of Filia jolting her subject with various voltages of electrical current wasn't exactly what Lina had expected to see.
"Filia?" Lina exclaimed in 'shock' "I said minor tests! Not try and electrocute him!"
Filia shrugged. "Well I did all the minor tests already. According to our instruments he's alive and not a ghost."
"So that makes it okay to electrify him?"
Filia rolled her eyes. "You're over reacting. I'm not using really high voltages here. He can get of the way if it's bothering him. But he's being a perfect subject and staying still."
"Okay but what prompted this series of tests?"
"Well until we 'zapped' him with our guns he was stuck in a sort of loop. Afterwards he followed us to our car. So I wonder what sort of reaction I could get out of him with different current levels of electricity."
"And what results have you had?"
"Well take a look." Filia threw a pencil at the ghost. As expected the pencil went right through him. Though the ghost did try and catch it, but it wasn't able. "Now with a low level of electrical current running through him." Filia turned on her machine and gave the ghost a very minor shock. She threw a pencil at the ghost again but this time he caught it. "And now without the current." Filia turned off the generator. For a couple moments the ghost still held onto the pencil. But moments later the pencil went right through his hand and fell to the ground.
"Wow it's like electricity gives him temporary physical capabilities." Lina mused out loud.
"Yeah and the higher the voltage the longer he can touch things. But it seems to bother him at a certain voltage. He flinches like a person being lightly shocked. And that voltage is what would make any living person flinch." Filia explained.
"You have been shocking him with anything higher than that, have you?"
Filia shook her head. "No I'm keeping within safe levels. If I go higher I'll do it gradually and after I know more about our subject."
"Okay good well I-" Lina didn't finish her sentence as her cell phone started to ring. Curiously Lina answered it. "Hell, Lina Inverse speaking."
"Miss Lina, it's me Amelia."
"Oh hey. Did you find out who our guy is?"
"Yes I did. Did you want me to tell you over the phone or did you want to come back see the article for yourself?"
"I'll come back and I'll bring Sylphiel and Filia with me. They could both use breaks."
"Okay see you in a couple minutes."
"Bye."
"Amelia found out who he is?" Filia asked trying to find the pencils that fell to the floor.
"Yeah she did. We're going to go get Sylphiel to find out who our guy is together. Unless of course you have some experiment running that you need to stay for."
Filia shook her head. "No. I'm good to go anytime."
"Okay then, but why are you on your hands and knees on the floor?"
"I want to get all the pencils I threw at our subject. Wouldn't want someone to slip on any of them. But of course I'm having trouble finding them."
Lina frowned. "I think I might have an idea where they are." She said dryly.
"Where?" Filia asked getting up
Lina didn't answer, instead she just pointed at Slimer whose back was facing them.
"Slimer?" Filia frowned not quite understanding what Lina was implying.
Slimer turned around and smiled a rather 'penciled' grin.
Lina shook her head. "What is it with you and sticking things in your mouth today?"
"What else has he been cramming in his mouth?"
"Like fifteen petri dishes."
Slimer held up four fingers in protest.
"Sorry fourteen petri dishes." Lina corrected herself. "Spit them out little green man."
Slimer did as told and the pencils landed on Filia's table in a big green gooey heap.
"That's gross. Looks like we're going to have to restock up on pencils." Filia commented. Washing petri dishes was fine but washing pencils was a bit questionable. Well it could probably be done but Filia wasn't all that enthusiastic about using writing utensils that had at one point taken residence in a green ghost with bad breath's mouth.
"As if we don't have enough expenses." Lina said while sighing. "Anyway let's go get Sylphiel."
...
Sylphiel leaned back slightly on her stool as she stretched. Her eyes were starting to hurt from reading articles and analyzing data. 'Maybe I should go get my eyes checked. I'm probably due for another prescription.' She thought as she put back on her glasses.
"Hey Sylphiel!" Lina yelled opening the door very quickly.
"AHHHHH!" Sylphiel jumped and fell off the stool and landed hard on the tile floor. "Ouch!"
"Whoops! Sorry Sylphiel." Lina smiled sheepishly from the doorway.
"I'm okay. A bruised butt is probably the worst of my injuries." Sylphiel commented while regaining her composure.
"Good. You're taking a break now. Come with us to go see Amelia. She found out who our ghost is." Lina ordered while retreating back to the hall.
When Sylphiel got to the hall Lina was already sprinting off towards their office.
"Hey Filia!" Sylphiel yelled trying to catch up. "You'll never guess what Slimer did earlier!"
"He stuffed fourteen petri dishes in his mouth."
Sylphiel frowned. "Hey! Lina told you!"
"Yeah well he stuffed a whole pack of pencils in his mouth in my lab."
"Will you two please get a move on! I could walk the hall four times over at the speed you two are going." Lina said rather huffily with Slimer imitating her.
"Wow she's impatient." Sylphiel observed. "Where's our ghost anyway?"
Filia pointed to Sylphiel's right.
Sylphiel looked over and yelped. "Eeeep! Why does he keep doing that to me?" She commented on the fact that the ghost was walking in pace with her on her right.
"Maybe he likes you." Filia joked.
"Or maybe he just wants to stay away from you after you shock tortured him." Lina said while grinning evilly.
"You did what to him?" Sylphiel's eyes were as wide as saucers.
"Never mind what she says. You like me don't you Mr. Ghost?" Filia called out to the ghost.
The ghost wasn't paying attention. He seemed to be more interested in Lina and where she was going rather than the other people around him.
Lina's evil grinned intensified.
"Okay laugh it up. In fact you can have him Lina. I hope you and him have beautiful ghost children together." Filia stuck her tongue out at her.
"He's cute. If he was alive I'd date him." Lina mused.
...
In the office Amelia was taking a call while writing down information. "… okay then we'll come by tomorrow around 6pm. Thanks for calling Ghost Slayers, bye!"
"Oooooh! We got another case?" Lina clapped her hands excitedly.
Amelia nodded. "Yup looks like your standard old house haunting. Nothing serious just things moving, occasional whispers, lights flickering on and off. That sort of thing."
"Any visuals?"
"Nope. No one has seen the ghost."
"Why do we have to wait until tomorrow?" Sylphiel wondered.
"They weren't calling from town. They should get back tomorrow morning. It was just the most convenient time for them."
"Okay that's nice, let's see the computer!" Lina went over to the computer screen.
"Alright I found him in the missing person's file. He was reported missing about nine months ago by his employer. He worked for the Sailune City Library. His boss reported him missing when he missed a couple shifts." Amelia summarized for them as she scrolled up so that they could see his picture. "His name is Zelgadis Greywars."