Ghost Slayers

Chapter Seven

By Relm

"Miss Lina there is something that's bothering me." Amelia said looking out the window of the car as Lina drove.

"What's that Amelia?"

"Well let's say your high school physics teacher is right and Mr. Greywars is in fact stuck in a loop. Okay so he's been stuck doing the same sequence of events for like a year. I understand him getting confused or a temporal glitch that caused him to end up in the wrong building. But then how did he end up coming to our headquarters? And further more why isn't he following the same sequence of actions as he did at Sailune Publishing? He seems to be a lot more aware then what you told me about him before." Amelia pointed out.

"That's a good point Amelia. But when it comes to loops he'd be doing the exact same thing every single day. From what I was told at Sailune Publishing Zelgadis might have been doing similar things each day but they were still different." Lina explained.

"So you're on a fist name basis with our ghost Lina?" Filia teased Lina.

"Didn't you mother tell you not annoy a person while they're driving?" Lina snapped at Filia glaring at the road. She would have shot that glare at Filia but glaring at someone while driving wasn't the best of ideas.

"But we're almost there."

"I don't care. If you want to act like a smart ass then you can wait till after we get out of the car." Lina threatened. She was serious; there was nothing she hated more than people pissing her off while she was driving.

"Alright, alright. But to go along with the explanations… I think I might have an idea why Mr. Greywars is acting more aware of surroundings and why he came back with us." Filia mused.

"Oh really? And what do you figure?"

"Well from my experiments with electricity it seems that Mr. Greywars is affected by electrical currents. He's able to touch things to a certain degree for a small period of time. So I think that it was our guns that triggered the change in him. When we zapped him he disappeared. And when he came back he seemed to be more aware of what's going on around him. It's almost like we pulled him from his loop that he was in." Filia explained.

"Okay then why don't we try and zap him again?" Amelia suggested.

"Because our instruments read him as human. And we know that our stun ghosts. But they aren't safe to use on living people. Until we know for sure what Zelgadis is I don't want to risk doing anything that can potentially hurt him." Lina interjected. She didn't like the idea of torturing him as a science experiment.

"Assuming you can hurt him." Filia mused as Lina parked the car.

"Well I don't want to try." Lina got out of the car and put money in the parking meter.

"Yeah okay. So I guess this is where we part ways." Filia observed.

"Yup. Make sure you two be careful." Lina cautioned them.

"You too Lina."

The three of them parted ways, Amelia and Filia went in the direction of the library while Lina went towards the apartment complex of Zelgadis Greywars.

...

Sylphiel sighed rather bored while she tried to look up information on the case for tomorrow. The house according their clients was haunted and Sylphiel was trying to find any sort of relation with the house to any local ghost stories over the internet. But that was the problem with the net. Unless you were going to a very factual website like an encyclopaedia website, then the information may not be completely accurate. Anyone can start up a website saying whatever they want. So the content on said site wasn't guaranteed to be accurate.

That being said Sylphiel still couldn't find any information regarding the house. 'I wouldn't even be surprised if this place isn't even haunted.'

Sylphiel closed the search windows and turned off the screen. She got up out of her chair to stretch while looking around the room. Slimer was exactly where Sylphiel remembered seeing him last, sitting at the table 'playing' checkers. Zelgadis had originally 'playing' checkers with Slimer, but Zelgadis seemed to have disappeared.

"Slimer where did Mr. Greywars go?" Sylphiel asked Slimer knowing very well that he couldn't answer her as it is.

As expected Slimer gave Sylphiel a very blank stare while grinning. Checker pieces oozed out of his mouth making a nice little puddle on the checker board and table.

"Well that's a lovely mess you have there Slimer. But seriously do you know where Mr. Greywars went? The other ghost that was here?"

Slimer thought real hard for a minute. And then shook his head splattering goo everywhere, including on Sylphiel's shirt.

"Yuck. I'll take that as a no."

...

Lina looked up at Zelgadis' apartment complex. It was not what Lina had been expecting. Zelgadis looked to be a real distinguished and classy person, and Lina had expected an expensive apartment to reflect that. But it was the exact opposite. The building was run down looking and was covered with graffiti. "Hmm… I guess the rent is cheap. Oh well better try and get some readings." Lina got out her scanner and started doing sweeps of the area. 'That's odd.' Lina thought noticing the large thermal spikes. "Why am I getting such high thermal readings?" Lina looked at the scanner and as walked towards the source. When she finally looked up she noticed why she was getting strange readings. There was Zelgadis Greywars stood before her smiling a big smile.

"Zelgadis what are you doing here?"

...

"Excuse me do you mind if I ask you a couple questions?" Amelia asked an elderly woman at the front desk of the library.

"Yes dear what would you like to ask?"

"I was wonder if I could ask about an employee that used to work here. His name is Zelgadis Greywars."

The woman's smile left her face. "Mr. Greywars is missing."

"We know, we read the missing person's file on the public bulletin board website." Filia explained. "We wanted to know if there has been any strange occurrences since Mr. Greywars' disappearance. Like things moving on their own or seeing strange transparent figures?"

The woman frowned. "No not that I know of. Who are you people? Why are you asking questions like that?"

Amelia and Filia both looked at each other.

"We're from Ghost Slayers." Amelia said sheepishly.

"That company not too far from here that deals with ghosts that are haunting places? You girls exterminate ghosts? For a living?"

Amelia and Filia both sweatdropped.

"Well it's a very valuable service. Many people are in need of ghost removal from their homes and places of business." Amelia said quietly.

"Either way why are you here? And why are you asking about Mr. Greywars? Do you think he's dead and haunting this place?" The woman's voice got louder and more higher pitched with every question she asked. It was easy to see that she was really starting to get upset.

"No of course we don't think he's dead and haunting the library. But we do believe something bad happened to him. And we think we might be able to help the police with their investigation if we can just have a look around Mr. Greywars' work area and do some readings. We wont touch anything." Amelia assured the woman.

"Do the police know you're doing this?"

"Yes they do." Filia nodded her head.

Amelia shot Filia a look that said 'what the hell are you saying'.

"They do?"

"Yes they are aware that we're trying to solve this mystery. If you don't believe me call the police station. Ask for Officer Gaberieve, he knows the situation."

The woman gave Filia a suspicious look. "Alright I think I will. Give me a moment." The woman went off to use the phone.

Amelia pulled Filia aside. "Miss Filia what are you doing?" Amelia demanded in a hissed whisper.

"Don't worry Amelia. Officer Gaberieve will back us up. Quick get your scanner out. May as well get a couple quick readings."

Amelia grumbled but complied.

...

Lina looked at Zelgadis with curiosity. She had asked him what he was doing there but of course the only thing she got in a response from him was a bigger smile. "Well I guess you'll be tagging along with my investigation." Lina brought her scanner up to look at while she walked towards the apartment front doors.

Zelgadis walked closer to her and walked right through her.

In an instant Lina felt a strange sense of vertigo, which made her blink. When she refocused her vision she noticed that she was no longer outside the apartment building. She was standing in what looked like a living room of a very nice and neat apartment. Or it would have been nice if everything didn't seem to be in black in white. This struck Lina as odd, why would someone do their home completely in shades of black, white and grey? It didn't take long for Lina to realize that it was her vision that was in shades of grey, not the room. 'Why can't I see any colour?' Lina went to move and say something when she noticed that she could barely move. The air seemed to be as thick as molasses, making it very difficult to move or breathe. This realization made Lina start to panic, until she noticed Zelgadis walk around the room.

Zelgadis didn't seem to notice Lina at all; he just walked around the room going about his daily business.

Lina tried to say something to Zelgadis but she couldn't will her voice to sound.

Suddenly Zelgadis looked in Lina's direction. Lina was sure he knew she was there. But as it turns out Lina was standing in front of the door and he was leaving to go to work. Again Zelgadis walked through her and as he did the scene changed. Now instead of his apartment both Lina and Zelgadis were in the Sailune Library. He was reading and drinking coffee sitting at his desk. There were many books scattered about on the desk, many of them old and in ancient languages. There was this one particular book that looked quite old and seemed to be glowing. It was the only thing in the room that Lina saw in colour, it glowed bright red. Though the book was right next to Zelgadis, he failed to see its glowing aura.

Lina knew there was something horribly wrong with that book and tried to warn Zelgadis. But like before he could hear or see her.

The book's pages started to flutter with more and more of its' red aura escaping. It seemed to mist off as though it were a hot object that was steaming.

Zelgadis turned another page in the book he was reading still unaware of the danger wafting to his right.

'What the hell is going on here?' Lina thought to herself, which was all that she could do.

The glowing book opened further and a misty red hand snaked out reaching towards Zelgadis. As the hand got closer Lina's heart raced more. 'Zelgadis watch out!' Lina tried to scream out loud but instead screamed in her head.

As Zelgadis put his coffee mug back down the red misty hand grabbed hold his arm. In that sudden instant Zelgadis screamed a soundless scream as his eyes turned blood red.

...

Lina opened her eyes and noticed where she was now. She was back outside the apartment complex. The air was no longer thick and the world no longer lacked colour. Zelgadis was standing before Lina with a look of deep concern gracing his well-defined face.

"What was that?" Lina shook her head trying to shake off that feeling of dread that still welled in the pit of her stomach. She shivered despite the fact that it wasn't cold.

...

Amelia cautiously took readings while Filia kept watch for the library lady. "Amelia got anything?"

"Just normal readings. No ghost activity that I can read." Amelia said with a sigh.

"Put the scanner away she's coming back."

The woman walked back to join Amelia and Filia with a look of annoyance evident in her face. "Well it seems that you are telling the truth. I didn't get a hold of Officer Gaberieve, but I did talk to his partner. According to him you're allowed to take a look around, but you'll have to wait for him to get here first. He'll be here in a couple moments."

"Thank you very much. We'll wait outside then." Filia smiled at the lady and dragged Amelia outside.

"Why'd you want to leave for?" Amelia asked in confusion.

"I want to call Lina and see how things are going with her." Filia pulled out her cell phone and started dialling. "Last I checked you weren't allowed to use cell phones in libraries."

"Hello this is Lina."

"Hi Lina. It's Filia. We got to the library and wanted to check out Greywars' office but the lady at the desk wouldn't let us. I told her we were helping with the investigation and she should call Officer Gaberieve and check with him if she didn't believe us."

"Did she call?"

"Yeah but she got his partner. Strangely he's going to let us look though he wants to be there. So we're waiting for him to show up outside the building." Filia explained.

"Okay but did you find out anything so far?"

"Not much. The place isn't exactly steaming with ghostly readings and according to the lady there hasn't been any strange things happening around the library."

"Hmmm… I suppose you'll get some readings in his office."

"Yeah hopefully. What about you Lina? Anything interesting happen on your end?"

"You know what, something very strange happened. Something I'm not quite sure how to explain."