Ghost Slayers

Chapter Nineteen

By Relm

Since she was dying of boredom Lina decided to finally go over the company's financial records, current and past due unpaid bills, payroll and whatever assets Ghost Slayers had. Lina hated going through all this crap. Because of this when Lina had announced that she was going to work on the bills everyone decided to scatter leaving Lina alone in the office.

Lina was a very money minded person. She loved money, loved to count it and usually loved anything to do with dealing with the finances of a business. But it wasn't fun when you were up to your eyeballs in debt. Which due to their recent job with Sailune Publishing thankfully they weren't that far in debt... yet.

Really Lina was quite lucky that the city building inspectors hadn't come to Ghost Slayers in a while. As it was the state of old police station currently was not safe. In fact if the inspectors came they wouldn't demand Lina fix a million things, they would condemn the place. It was definitely not up to code.

So with the way the finances were there was no way Lina could afford to fix the building. But since she had 'slain' all the ghosts save for Slimer if worst came to worse Lina could always sell the property and start up Ghost Slayers in another location. This was always Lina's plan b. But she didn't really want to do that because then she would have to deal with the hassle of getting their number and address changed. And the last thing she wanted was to finally get established and have potential clients getting the wrong number or going to the wrong address.

'I hope this job pays a lot.' Lina mumbled as she went over their electrical bill. It wasn't as high as it had been in the past but still much higher than a normal business.

Lina was so absorbed with her work that she didn't notice that she wasn't alone in the office any more.

Zelgadis stood over her shoulder looking at the bills Lina was mulling over. "You guys have a lot of bills past due." He commented.

Lina whom was already on edge from boredom reacted badly to transparent being behind her. She grabbed the closest thing on her desk and went to club the offending voice by her ear. Of course since Zelgadis was transparent Lina only swung wildly at the air. "Don't do that! You scared the crap out of me! I could have clubbed to death."

"I'm kinda dead like it's not that it matters." Zelgadis sat down in a nearby chair. "But sorry I thought you heard me come in."

"How would I have heard you?" Lina glared at him.

"Right I sort of walked through the door. How could you have heard me?" He chuckled darkly. It wasn't the sort of chuckle one did in the spirit of humour but one of bitter irony. "Lina I wanted to ask you something."

Lina threw down the bill in her hand on her desk and rubbed her temples. "Yeah what is it?"

"Well you're all waiting around for the phone to ring or until it's time for the job... Does that mean you've given up on me?" Zelgadis' voice was small and sad. His vision was focused on the floor before him rather than the nearby redhead.

Lina let out a sigh. "No we haven't, but I don't know what I can do at this point. I'm kinda out of options. I'd love to figure out what's with you and put your life back to what it was. For all I know there are people being attacked by this book and are walking around in limbo between dead and alive. I just wish I knew where that book was."

"And what would you do with the book if you got a hold of it?"

"I don't know." Lina admitted. "But I swear that book is the answer. I'd have it scanned for sure. If it's a demonic ghost we could bring it out of the book and contain it. Hopefully it will release everyone it took."

"How would you bring it out of the book? Zap it with your ray guns?"

"Possibly."

Zelgadis frowned. "In your vision a misty red hand emerged from the red text and grabbed me. I don't think it would purposely want to stay in a book. I think it wants to be free."

"And it took your body to do it?"

Zelgadis shivered at that idea. To think of a demonic spirit walking around in his body, his skin taking away what belonged to him. His humanity, his life. "I was reported missing. If some demonic spirit was walking around in my body I'm sure that missing person report wouldn't still be open."

"Well I could understand a spirit wanting to use someone's spiritual energy to escape a prison but stealing a body and not the soul too seems strange to me." Lina mused.

"Maybe I got away before it could take that too. But there is another possibility..." Zelgadis' voice trailed off.

"What?"

"That it wasn't trying to escape... it was trying to... feed..."

Lina's face softened into one of concern and empathy. "I think if it ate you'd be an actual ghost not this ghost wannabe that you are. And besides it was a red misty hand. Misty as in transparent, so I'm sure it was a ghost. Also there aren't many actual living demons around these days. Most have them were exterminated hundreds of years ago. That's one of the reasons why people are so quick to dismiss the ideas of ghosts and monsters. Since most of the recorded accounts are riddled in mythology most assume it's just fanatical fantasy/horror stories that aren't true. If only people knew the real horrors that exist out there."

"You mean like werewolves and vampires?"

Lina rolled her eyes. "Yes werewolves and vampires are real but in the way they are depicted in horror movies. They are just people who suffer from genetic disorders. They aren't people that change into wolves at the full moon or bats and have to drink blood. There was this one case of a guy who tried to hire us to exterminate his neighbour because he had that condition that made him have extreme facial hair. The guy was convinced that his neighbour was a movie style 'werewolf' and wanted us to deal with him. I swear just because we're called 'Ghost Slayers' doesn't mean we have to deal with all the loons in town. But no they call us. I'm thankful april fools was yesterday. We always get lots of pranksters that day."

"What about Halloween? You'd probably get lots of prank calls that day. And I'd bet a lot of business too."

Lina shook her head. "No, we do get prank calls but no business at all. Halloween is not considered a real holiday. Adults and students do not get the day off. But here at Ghost Slayers it's our only true holiday. We close up shop and have nothing to do with the slaying business."

Zelgadis frowned in confusion. Halloween was always portrayed in the media as being such an evil day. For a ghost slaying business Halloween should be a golden day. "Why would you guys do that for?"

"The main purpose of Halloween is to ward off bad spirits. Because so many people carve pumpkins, decorate their homes and dress up in costumes it tends to weaken spirits and puts them into hibernation. They never cause problems on Halloween. Truthfully Halloween is actually the purest and holiest day of the year. It's living people that cause problems on Halloween."

"Well if I'm still around like this at Halloween it will be interesting to see what happens."

Lina frowned. "Don't talk like that, we're going to figure this out and you'll be in your own body at Halloween dressed up in a stupid costume, eating candy just like everyone else."

"I'm sorry but it's hard to be optimistic given the situation." Zelgadis idly poked a paper weight on the desk. Or rather his finger was going through said paper weight.

"If only we knew what happened to that book." Lina muttered.

"Well last time I walked through you you saw what happened to me. So if we tried that again?"

Lina unconsciously shook from the thought of merging with Zelgadis' mind again. It hadn't been a pleasant experience the last time. She thought she was going to suffocate to death. "I can't say that was my favourite thing I've ever done. But if it could help, then I'd be willing to try it again." Lina got up and stood before Zelgadis.

Zelgadis got behind her and slowly walked through and into Lina's body.

...

Xellos looked at the clock and looked at the phone. He had been debating for at least an hour debating on what to do. To call or not to call?

"Filia can't get upset with me for calling about a legitimate question. And I could always hang up if she answers the phone." Xellos picked up the phone and dialled Ghost Slayers.

...

Lina felt the exact strange sensations she felt the last time Zelgadis walked through her. It robbed her of all her worldly senses. Including her hearing, so the ringing phone on the desk went unheard.

...

Xellos frowned as he let the phone ring and ring. No one was answering the phone. When it went to the machine Xellos decided to hang up the phone. 'They must not be in or busy. What should I do now?'

...

The vision was the same as before, Zelgadis going through his day before getting attacked by the misty hand in the book. It was devoid of colour and Lina felt like she couldn't breathe.

But since she knew she wasn't going to die Lina calmed her screaming lungs and managed to breath if not somewhat laboured.

Though this vision appeared to be the same as before there were differences. Like it was a longer vision than before, Lina was privy to more of the actual events that lead up Zelgadis researching in his office. At lot of the things Lina saw Zelgadis do, drink coffee, reading a newspaper and walking around were some of the things she'd seen him do when she met him at Sailune Publishing. It was all the events that happened right before Zelgadis got attacked. Lina was sure of it; Zelgadis had been stuck in a temporal loop making him repeat similar events that led up to his disappearance. But for some reason Zelgadis ended up in the wrong place.

As the events let up to Zelgadis right before that book reached out and grabbed him Lina's heart rate sped up. She was aware of what was going to happen next and she knew that she couldn't get excited. There was a chance her state of mind is what broke her connection to Zelgadis' mind and separate the two of them the last time. So Lina was keen on keeping her nerves in check.

That being said Lina couldn't help but hold her breath as she watched that misty hand reach out and grab Zelgadis. He screamed again and his eyes went red like they did before. In fact Zelgadis' whole body seemed to explode with red energy. Though Lina couldn't hear the scream she could almost feel the pain Zelgadis felt at that moment.

When the energy subsided she saw Zelgadis as she was used to seeing; transparent like a ghost. The book which glowed bright red fell to the ground and when it hit the floor both the book and Zelgadis disappeared.

...

When Lina opened her eyes she found herself standing in her office with Zelgadis standing before her looking very concerned. She felt quite dizzy and for good reason too; she hadn't realized she had been holding her breath. Letting out the air held captive in her lungs she quickly went for her chair to sit down.

"Lina are you alright?" Zelgadis' eyes were filled with much concern.

"Yeah just forgot I could breathe."

"What did you see? Do you know where the book is?"

Lina frowned. "I think your body is in the book. I think whatever is in the book stole your body and pulled it back in with it. As for where it is, it disappeared."

"What do you mean disappeared?"

"It fell to the ground and both you and it vanished. I think you ended up in Sailune Publishing and it must have ended up in somewhere else in Sailune. But where?"

...

Xellos idly flipped through the pages of the strange book with the red lettering. It was a mysterious book that had many questions surrounding it. Including what the heck he was supposed to do with it?

The idea of actually going to Ghost Slayers with the book in hand did cross Xellos' mind. But if they weren't there to answer the phone they wouldn't be there to answer the door.

Xellos sat back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. His contacts were dry and bothering him and were doing nothing to help the situation.

While Xellos was unaware the red letters of the book glowed as that misty hand formed and reached out to grab Xellos.