Ghost Slayers

Chapter Eleven

By Relm

The ride back to GS headquarters was a quiet one. Zelgadis seemed very vacant and unresponsive (not that he was extremely much to begin with) and the girls didn't feel like chatting. It was as though recent events had casted a spell of uneasiness over the four of them. Though they had found out some information, they had more questions than when they started. And they were not any closer to figuring out how to help Zelgadis with his situation.

Lina chewed her bottom lip in thought as she parked their car. 'In the vision the book was glowing red so I guess it's not a real stretch to believe that the book was in fact the red text. But seeing how everything was in black and white then the red might just signify evil energy. So it could still be one of the remaining twelve books. Of course if that's the case then what happened to the thirteenth book? Which brings me back to the possibility of the missing book being the evil book. And what would make that book an evil book in the first place? Is an evil spirit or demon trapped in those words of text? Or was it a trapping spell? And if so where is Zelgadis' body and where did the book go?' Many more questions flew through Lina's mind. Amelia and Filia were thinking similar thoughts.

With all the serious and intense thinking the walk up to the Ghost Slayers main office was a quiet one. That was until they were greeted by everyone's favourite green spectre.

"BALLAAA!" Slimer bellowed as he proceeded to give everyone (Zelgadis included) great big bear hugs. This might have been a nice gesture had Slimer not covered each of the hugged in green goop.

"Yuck…" Lina sighed and half-heartedly shook some of the gunk off her. After having Slimer around for so long, Lina had long since stopped caring about the messes Slimer made. All the Ghost Slayers knew very well to keep many spare changes of clothing at work.

Sylphiel tried to stifle her giggles as she glanced at her friends. "Well I guess that teaches you guys to come back looking so glum. You know Slimer likes his friends to be happy." Sylphiel said in an almost singsong sort of a way.

Lina, Amelia and Filia collectively glared at Sylphiel, which in turn made Sylphiel burst out with uncontrollable laughter.

Zelgadis on the other hand seemed quite distressed with the green slime that he had been covered in.

Lina cleared her throat. "If you're done laughing at our expense Sylphiel do you have any more information for us?"

Sylphiel shook her head. "The internet isn't exactly the most reliable place to get information. All the stuff I could find was stuff we already know. And I couldn't find pictures of the book covers. I even tried to see if I could get my hands on some pictures of language samples, but all I got were just references. It seems that Mglahan people and their culture is one big mystery." Sylphiel explained with a sigh. "There doesn't seem to be much research going on about them."

Lina's eyes lit up. "Right because Zelgadis here was one of the few doing the research."

"I know that look in your eyes Lina. You've thought of something haven't you?" Filia mused with a raised eyebrow.

"Follow me on this one. So Zelgadis here is one of the few people doing research on these books right? Well that means that he has most likely backed up some of his research on a computer. Like scans of the books themselves. All we need to do is see if we can get access to office and personal computer!" Lina exclaimed.

"One problem with that Lina. We're not allowed to touch anything at the office, and unless you broke into his apartment I don't see how we're going to get a chance to look at his files." Filia dashed Lina's plans with a grumble.

"Who says we have to be at his computer to look at his files?" Lina asked with a devilish grin on her face.

"But we do Miss Lina." Amelia interjected. "How can you look at stuff in a person's computer when you're not physically at that said computer? It's not like we can hack into them."

"Why can't we?" Lina's grin grew.

"Because that's wrong! Hacking is illegal Miss Lina!" Amelia protested.

"It's only wrong if we're hacking into a computer we don't have permission to hack into." Lina turned to Zelgadis. "So what do you say Zel? Do you mind if we hack into your computer?" She asked sweetly while batting her eyelashes.

Zelgadis grinned and shook his head.

"See? No problems." Lina declared.

"Yes there's problems. A, Zelgadis probably has no idea what you're asking him. B, we don't even know if either his personal home computer or office computer is hooked up to the net. And finally c, even if Zelgadis is giving his permission to hack into his computer that is not the same as saying it's okay to hack into his office computer. Technically all the research information that would be on that particular computer would actually belong to the library as it is one of their computers." Filia chided Lina.

Lina waved her hands in the air. "So then we try Zelgadis' home computer first. It's not like he could do anything to stop us."

"And if it's not hooked up to the net or doesn't have any useful information?" Filia prompted.

"We'll burn that bridge when we get to it. Besides I highly doubt the library would even notice that one of their computers was being hacked into."

Amelia frowned. "You're forgetting one thing Miss Lina. We don't have a hacker to hack for us."

"Sure we do." Lina's devilish grin reappeared.

"Who?"

"You." Lina patted Amelia on the back.

"What? I'm not a hacker!" Amelia protested.

"You're good with computers."

"That's not the same thing!"

"Sure it is. C'mon Amelia I'm sure even in your perfect cookie cutter world you still rebelled a bit when you were younger. Being a big computer nerd as you are I find it very hard to believe that you spent your rebellious years doing vandalism or stealing."

Amelia shifted uncomfortably where she stood. "Why does everyone suddenly have a rebellious past? Can't it be possible that I was just a good kid?"

Lina glared at Amelia. "Everyone is a little bit rebellious when they're a child. If not hacking you must have done something else."

"Fine!" Amelia surrendered. "Maybe I tried hacking… once or twice a long time ago. But that doesn't mean I'm an expert and know what the heck to do!"

"Sure you do Amelia. You know why?"

Amelia shook her head.

"Because I believe in you. Now get your butt in the computer chair and start hacking!"

Sighing in defeat Amelia assumed her spot in front of the computer.

Lina grinned in triumphant. She knew damn well that Amelia was once a hacker, and a good hacker at that. Lina did extensive background work on all her potential employees. It's not that Lina cared about criminal records; she just wanted to be prepared for unexpected things. Plus useful things like a history of hacking was a bonus in situations like this.

"I just want it to be on the record that I don't want to be doing this and that you Miss Lina are making me do it. Therefore if I get caught you're taking the blame for this." Amelia announced as she started.

"Yeah, yeah stop your whining and start working." Lina badgered Amelia while standing right behind her.

"Well this is going to take a little while. So would please stop hovering over my shoulder? It's ruining my concentration." Amelia huffed. Though she was putting up a front of discontent about the situation, Amelia was actually secretly thrilled to get a chance to do some hacking again. Ever since her father caught her hacking when she was 12 she had been forbidden to even go near a computer. It wasn't until she proved that she was a good girl that she been given her computer privileges back. Amelia wanted be a good girl, but deep down you can't ignore those mischievous tendencies deep inside. Hacking was an art to Amelia and a thrill. She loved the feeling of being able to breech the toughest security locked computers. Not because of the information they held, but because of the challenge.

"Okay Amelia. So I guess we have to figure out what to do in the mean time." Lina sat in her chair.

"Well we can prep for our job tomorrow." Sylphiel suggested.

Filia rolled her eyes. "Did you even find any special information on the house?"

Sylphiel shook her head. "No, not a single bad event has ever seemed to have happened to or around that house. And no reports of anything strange prior to this families' experiences." Sylphiel explained.

"Probably just a nervous family that hasn't gotten used to the creaks of an old home. Mostly likely it's just figments of their imagination." Filia scoffed.

Lina frowned. "Just because there was no previous supernatural activities recorded there doesn't mean there wasn't any before. The other residents might not have reported it. A lot of people think that they are crazy for believing in ghosts. Maybe the other residents were afraid they wouldn't be taken seriously. And you never know, maybe it's not the house that is haunted, maybe it's the family."

Sylphiel shuddered. "That's creepy."

"It is, and it does happen. You get a particularly stubborn spectre that encounters a family and for whatever reason it decides to abandon what it is haunting. And then it starts haunting the family instead. So even if the family moves the spectre follows them to their new home and haunts them there. Take Slimer for example. He's haunting us." Lina pointed out. "I'm sure if moved to another building and got a new car that he would still follow us around at work. It's hard to say what attracts a spirit to a person. Places are easy to explain. Like it's the spirits home or where they died yada yada, but people are a completely different story. Unless this is a ghost that is haunting a loved one there is no real reason to explain why all ghosts haunting people would want to haunt people. Slimer likes us that's why he sticks around, but maybe other spectres haunt people for sinister reasons. Like out of spite for living in a home that originally belong to the spirit."

"So what you're saying Lina is that I shouldn't be so quick to assume things." Filia responded a very bored voice. Lina going into ghostly lectures wasn't an uncommon thing at work.

"That's right. When I die I plan on haunting Vinny's All You Can Eat Buffet."

Amelia frowned in confusion and looked over to her boss. "Why would you want to haunt that place for?"

"To terrorize the customers and ruin Vinny's business." Lina explained.

"Why would you want to do something mean like that?"

"Lina's banned from that restaurant. It seems Lina's large appetite was too much for Vinny's buffet and she was declared bad for business. So Vinny had her thrown out." Filia interjected.

"Oh. I really don't think you get a big say on what area you end up haunting Miss Lina." Amelia mused.

"We'll see about that."

Sylphiel chuckled. "Lina isn't the only one that was banned from that restaurant. Gourry was too."

"That's right." Filia donned a mischievous smile. "You know speaking of Gourry…"

Sylphiel cringed, she knew by Filia's voice she didn't like were this was going.