Ghost Slayers

Chapter Twenty

By Relm

Xellos let out a yawn while stretching in his chair. He was unaware of the misty red hand that stalked closer to him.

The thing trapped inside the book almost laughed as it got closer to its goal. Just a few more inches and it would have it desired.

As Xellos lurched forward to stretch his lower back he got just the barest glimpse of that evil red hand. It was so quick and brief that Xellos didn't have time to react.

The hand grabbed Xellos' arm and Xellos felt his whole body explode with pain. He felt his mind and body be ripped apart. The misty red hand pulled Xellos' body back into the book with it leaving a ghostly form of the professor standing in the classroom.

As Xellos' body was pulled into the book it slammed shut with such a force that it knocked the book off the desk. As the book fell to the ground both it and the ghostly form of Xellos vanished.

...

"Make sure Slimer doesn't cause any trouble." Lina ordered Amelia before getting into the Slayersmobile.

Amelia frowned. "I'll try but I'm not a miracle worker. Be careful at the house."

"Aren't I always careful?" Lina shot Amelia devil may care smile.

"Miss Sylphiel, Miss Filia make sure Miss Lina is careful please?" Amelia pleaded with the other two Ghost Slayers.

"Don't worry Amelia we'll be fine." Sylphiel assured the youngest Ghost Slayer as she and Filia got into the car with Lina.

Slimer waved as he did so drops of slime few in every which direction.

"Goodbye and good luck." Zelgadis also waved as the Lina, Sylphiel and Filia drove off.

"Okay Slimer let's get cleaning!" Amelia went to turn to her ghostly green cleaning partner for the night but strangely the little green man had taken off. "Oh no where did he go now?"

"You start cleaning, and I'll look for him." Zelgadis offered.

"Thank you Mister Zelgadis! I'm going to start the area I want to do least, just to get it over with. So when you find Slimer send him to the bathrooms."

"Who knows maybe he's already started."

Amelia chuckled. "That would be nice but more likely he's raiding the mini fridge we have in the break room."

"You guys have a break room?" Zelgadis wondered out loud. He had pretty much spent two days now at Ghost Slayers and he had yet to look around and see what the place actually had.

"Yup and many other rooms too. That room with the bed you were supposed to sleep in last night used to be an interrogation room. Miss Lina was going to set up her rest area in the prison but it's too far downstairs and it gets really cold." Amelia explained.

"Plus I'd bet there had been a lot of death there."

"There's a lot of death in this whole building if you want to look at it that way."

Zelgadis eyed the closed elevator suspiciously. It was the area in the whole building that creeped him out the most. But then again he hadn't really explored the place as it is. A small part of him wanted to poke his head through the steel doors to take a look. He squashed that impulse pretty quickly. "Which area of the building creeps you out the most?"

"The boiler room. It's dark and wet and there's always weird noises coming from there. Sometimes I think we missed a few ghosts and they are hiding there." Amelia shivered thinking about the room. When she very new to the job Lina had wanted to toughen her up so she sent Amelia to that room to check for ghosts. There had been three in the room, two of them bordering on poltergeist and had been quite frightening to Amelia. Since all the pipes were firmly set in place there wasn't really anything they could throw around. The two of them were just very loud and kept getting in Amelia's face. It was the third ghost that came to her 'rescue'. It was Slimer and he distracted them enough so that Amelia could trap the two. That was how Amelia first met Slimer. After getting the two ghosts Slimer smiled at her encouragingly and spent the rest of the day following her around. It was only because of Amelia that Slimer was spared being 'slayed'.

"I guess even people like you have things that frighten you."

"Well not Miss Lina. I don't think she's afraid of anything!" Amelia beamed with pride. She did look up to Lina, Lina was her idol after all.

"Amelia why did you come to work for Lina anyway? You don't seem like the type that would chase after spooky things."

"Miss Lina was my teacher and I was very impressed by her science. So many poor lost souls wander the earth with malice and hatred in their hearts because they can't let go. They can't move on and they are doomed to remain in this mortal coil. And as a shining star of justice I cannot turn a blind eye to such suffering! It is our duty to free those that cannot leave! To give peace to everyone in the land!" Amelia struck a pose while standing on top of the tallest car left in the parking lot.

Zelgadis just stood there blinking. "Amelia you should get down from there." He mumbled in a small voice. He hadn't expected Amelia to get so passionate in that speech. Or rather he hadn't been expecting a speech at all. In reality he didn't know Amelia that well.

...

Lina was in high spirits when she drove to their new job. Even though typically the people that she met for these kinds of jobs were at the end of their rope and desperate, Lina couldn't be happier. This was guaranteed money and possibly the beginning of a lot more jobs. Lina was so happy that she hummed a cheerful tune.

"Miss Lina I don't think you should be so happy." Sylphiel commented while frowning. "These poor people are being terrorized by a supernatural being. You should be a little more sensitive about the situation."

"Yeah don't hum and cheer until we're leaving with the cheque." Filia added.

Lina gave one last chuckle before settling on a more serious face. As the car turned the corner and pulled in front of the house air in the vehicle got considerably colder.

Standing outside the house was a weary family of four. There was a mother, a father a little boy and a baby girl. With exception to the baby girl the whole family looked like they had been through the wringer.

"Hello you must be the Parsons. I'm Lina Inverse head and founder of Ghost Slayers and these are my associates Filia Ul Copt and Sylphiel Nels Rada." Lina introduced them.

"I'm Frank and this is my wife Lucy." Mr. Parson went to shake Lina's hand. "And these are our two children, Peter and Joy."

"Our other associate Amelia was the one that you talk to on the phone. Am I correct in assuming that she talked to you about the rates we charge?" Lina pulled out a paper with a printout of their rates and handed it to Mr. Parson.

"Yes Amelia was quite helpful. We're willing to pay whatever it takes to get rid of this menace to our lives." Mr. Parson said in exasperation.

"Unfortunately Mr. Parson it might not be so easy. In doing research for this job we realized that the probable cause for the haunting of your home is because of one of that house." Sylphiel pointed to the ghost magnet house. "That house had been previously haunted and the owners at the time had hired a faulty spiritual cleanser that messed up and turned the house into a ghost magnet."

"It's most likely that you're getting haunted because there are already too many ghosts residing in that haunted house that they are being forced off to haunt other houses in the neighbourhood." Filia added.

"Since finding this out we have contacted the current owners of the ghost magnet house in hopes that they would hire us and we could deal with the problem at the source. But they refused. Apparently they don't believe in ghosts. So even if we deal with your haunting problem, you may get haunted again because of your neighbours." Lina finished off.

"Why those rotten scoundrels! They don't even live here! They bought the house and they haven't moved in yet! Now I know why they've just left the place to rot." Mr. Parson grumbled. "You know because of that house being such an eyesore with all the weird sounds it brings down the value of all the houses in the area. It's the reason why we were able to afford our home. But if I'd known why I don't know if I would have bought our house! The neighbourhood is going to hear about this for sure! Something has to be done about those irresponsible people! You wouldn't have any cards we could hand out? I know we're not the only ones being haunted."

The dollar signs almost popped right into Lina's eyes and as she pulled out a stack of business cards. 'That Zelgadis is a genius!' "So you still want us to do your house?"

"Yes even if it's temporary I would like to be able to sleep at least one peaceful night in my own house!" Mr. Parson stomped his foot. "You don't know how frustrating it is to finally get enough money to buy your own home and you can't even sleep in it."

"How long have you been living in your house?"

"About four months." Mrs. Parson answered while readjusting her hold on baby Joy. Joy giggled in response. Though the family was upset about the haunting but Joy was true to her name. She looked as happy as happy can be.

"And when did you notice something haunting your home?"

"A day or two after we moved in."

Lina frowned. It was possible that the house was haunted before the Parsons moved in. But there was also a chance that they were being haunted and not the house. Ghosts sometimes were attracted to families because of small children. "Well I'm not sure if Amelia told you but in the case of residence haunting I generally like to start with some scans of the people living in the residence."

"What for?"

"To make sure that the ghost isn't haunting you instead of your home." Lina pulled out her scanner and started to give each family member a quick scan. The scanner made all kinds of noises but that was just because of the house behind them and not the family themselves. "Okay looks like you're clean. I would suggest that you go somewhere while we work on your house. Perhaps going out to dinner would be a good idea."

"Will us being here cause problems for the ghost slaying?"

Lina shook her head. "No but with residential haunting sometimes the ghosts can get violent and I wouldn't want anything to happen to any of you. Especially when children are involved. So for safety I'd prefer that you weren't around."

"Alright will you call us when you're finished?"

"Of course."

The Parsons got into their car and drove off leaving the Ghost Slayers crew to face down with their new assignment.

"Alright girls, let's get go get us some ghosts!" Lina smirked evilly charging up her gun.

...

While Amelia started on cleaning Zelgadis went looking for Slimer while exploring.

Zelgadis didn't realize just how large the Ghost Slayers HQ was. There were many floors with many rooms he hadn't been before.

As he searched the still and quiet halls Zelgadis was starting to get that eerie feeling in his gut again. It was the same one he got the previous night that made him end up at Lina's apartment.

Zelgadis had to constantly remind himself that he wasn't alone in the building and that he had nothing to be afraid of. Perhaps if he could hear his own footsteps it wouldn't be so bad. The still silence was what was creeping him out after all.

"Slimer? Slimer where are you?" Zelgadis called out cutting the deafening silence like a hot knife through butter. His voice echoed through the halls and bounced back distorted as if to mock him.

Out of the corner of Zelgadis' eye he saw a dark blur move. He spun himself around to see but he found nothing. As he tried to calm his transparent heart he kept moving.

'There's nothing to be afraid of.' He told himself several times over and over.

Another movement in the corner of his eyes made Zelgadis jump. Again he spun around and found nothing out of the ordinary.

Zelgadis' earlier conversation with Amelia about ghosts in the boiler room played over in Zelgadis' mind. Ghost Slayers was a large place maybe Lina missed a ghost or two. Maybe it was a ghost stalking him in the hall.

That thought made Zelgadis more edgy. Though he himself was something not all unlike a ghost Zelgadis couldn't shake the fear building. "Ghosts can't hurt me, ghosts can't hurt me..." Zelgadis mumbled while closing his eyes. When he opened them there was a pair of eyes staring at him.

"AHHHHHHHH!" Zelgadis screamed and disappeared.

...

Right as Lina and her gang of merry Ghost Slayers were about to enter the house a very bewildered Zelgadis popped up in front of them.

(Author's Notes: I really starting to feel like I'm treading molasses with this one. It's getting harder and harder to write. I think it's because I can't make any clear cut decisions till it comes to typing it. This part for instances could have gone one of three ways. I had originally had one idea that I was going to follow by this point a few parts ago that I ended up scrapping. Yet while writing this suddenly it came back to that idea. As if the will of the story dictated it to be. So the path it took wasn't even one of the three ways I had decided but kind of a mishmash of them with the original idea shining through. I really want to see this one through to the end but unlike the other fic series that I finished I do not have a clear cut ending already in the back of my mind with this one.)