Author's Notes: Sorry for the lateness. I had most of this part written in my notebook and was planning on typing it up on Sunday when I got home. But then I didn't end up getting home till it was way too late. Hopefully it was worth the wait. ^_~

Ghost Slayers

Chapter Twenty-three

By Relm

The more Zelgadis walked around the more lost he felt. And it was getting colder, much colder. The room he discovered wasn't as large as he first thought and there didn't appear to be any windows or doors to escape. It was like he was stuck in a large box or a prison.

Now for someone who could walk through walls being trapped in a room with no physical means to escape wouldn't be that distressing. Initially however Zelgadis forgot that he could go through walls and got quite distressed. An extreme wave of claustrophobia hit him making him start to panic. It took him a little while to re-register the fact that he could walk through things. With that piece of information firmly re-planted into his non-physical brain Zelgadis went to test one of the walls of his prison.

But even though he was pretty much a ghost his hands or any other part of his body for that matter couldn't go through the very solid and very cold wall.

"HEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!" Zelgadis screamed. "SOMEONE HELP ME! I'M TRAPPED! IS ANYONE THERE?"

But alas there was no one there to hear him. Or if there was they didn't care to answer or help the trapped man.

...

With Sylphiel leading Lina and Filia followed her down to the basement of the Parson's home. Since getting rid of most of the ghosts in the residence the home felt considerable warmer than it had been. But as the trio of Ghost Slayers discovered the basement was still quite chilly.

Having a cold basement didn't mean there was a ghost haunting the place. A lot of basements were quite cool at any given time of the year. So it was more than likely that the basement wasn't haunted.

Of course Lina's scanner disagreed. "There's definite ghost activity here." Lina whispered.

"Multiples or one?" Sylphiel whispered as she almost reached the bottom step.

"Based on the readings I've got it's either a few low levels or one mid level ghost."

The lights that had been on in the basement before the trio had descended the stairs started to flicker once they got to the bottom. Off and on they flickered as if it were mocking them.

As Lina swept her scanner across the room she felt a strong force knock it out of her hands. "Ahhh!" Lina exclaimed in annoyance. "This one's a playful one."

When Lina went to pick up her scanner it moved on her rising to the air and floating around in circles. Since it was so close to the ghost the scanner made all kinds of racket.

Sylphiel took this as a cue to zap the ghost with her scanner. Her beam hit the ghost momentarily stunning it, but the ghost managed to free itself.

Though smart enough to get out of a stunning electrical zap the ghost wasn't smart enough to let go of the scanner.

"Hurry it's trying to get away!" Lina yelled while chasing after it. Not that Lina could do much, but if she kept it distracted so it wouldn't try and leave the room.

Sylphiel and Filia both tried to zap the ghost. But the ghost knew what would happen if it got hit so it avoided the beams.

"Be careful! You almost crossed the beams!" Lina screeched. Not that crossing the beams was a definitely bad thing to do; it was more that they didn't know what would have happen if they did cross. Hoping to distract the ghost Lina picked up a random object from the ground and threw it at the ghost.

The ghost stopped what it was doing.

Lina didn't need to see the ghost to know it was glaring at her. Especially when it turned the scanner and pointed it at her.

While Lina had the ghost distracted Filia and Sylphiel took that chance to zap the ghost.

The ghost flailed around the room lighting up brighter than a Christmas tree. It knocked things around but the beams held this time; it wasn't getting away. It tried to hit one of the two Ghost Slayers that had it trapped with Lina's scanner hurling it at them. But it missed and Sylphiel and Filia held their ground.

Wasting no time Lina readied the containment box and slid it across the floor and under the ghost. "NOW!"

Guiding the ghost downward Sylphiel and Filia got the ghost into the box.

The room immediately warmed up and the lights went back to their normal lightness.

"Is the room clear?" Sylphiel asked while making a sweep of the room with her gun.

Lina picked up her scanner and went to scan. But it just beeped once and shorted out. "I think it got busted when it hit the ground."

Filia pulled out her own scanner and checked the room. "It's clear."

"Okay then." Lina put her broken scanner on her belt with a triumphant grin. "Time to go upstairs and give the Parsons a call. Money is a waiting!"

...

Zelgadis sat on the cold floor curled into a ball. He desperately tried to get some warmth back into his limbs. But it was in vain; his body was as cold as ice.

He was scared. Of all the crazy things that had happened in the past two days this was by far the worst. He didn't know where he was, how he got there and how to get out.

'What if I am near Lina after all? Maybe I'm stuck in one of her containment boxes.' That thought brought chills up and down Zelgadis' spine.

'The boxes are cold one they have a ghost in them... And it's cold here... If I'm in a box Lina would noticed it's me when she unloads it. But can she get me out of the machine once I'm in there?'

With little options of things to do Zelgadis went back to yelling for help. "HEEEEEEEEEEELP! IS ANYONE THERE? I'M TRAPPED!"

...

"Is it okay to leave Mister Zelgadis alone in the car for so long while we wait for the Parsons?" Sylphiel asked once they got outside after Lina called the Parsons. "Shouldn't we check on him?" Sylphiel looked at the Ghost Sayersmobile worriedly.

"They shouldn't be too long; they are at a restaurant a few blocks over. Besides I don't want to draw any more attention to him. The last thing we need is to be accused of added ghosts to a place rather than slaying them. He should be fine." Lina insisted. But even as sure as she was he looked over to where they left Zelgadis. The windows were somewhat fogged up so it was hard to see who or what was in inside. 'No he's fine, stop worrying so much.' Lina berated herself. The sound of a car engine brought the red head out her thoughts as the Parsons drove down the street and pulled into their driveway.

Mr and Mrs. Parson looked very happy when they exited their car. Joy and Peter were both asleep, and Mr and Mrs. Parson looked like they were tired too carrying their youngsters but it didn't seem to dampen their spirits.

"Thank you so much!" Mr. Parson went to shake Lina's hand while manoeuvring the hold on his sleeping son so he could free a hand. "You don't understand how much this means to us."

"Yes thank you!" Mrs. Parson also thanked them and handed Lina the cheque.

Lina had told them over the phone how many ghosts they dealt with and what the cost would be for it. She had been expecting shock over the size of the bill but the Parsons had been fine with it. In fact the only thing that seemed to distress them was that one of the poltergeists had been in Joy's room. There's no telling what sort of danger the baby might have been in if the house had been left as is. So the Parsons were just thankful.

Lina almost let out a giddy giggle when she actually saw the amount on the cheque. But she refrained from doing so.

"How much is the cheque?" Filia asked right as soon as the Parson's went into their home. "They didn't write the full amount did they?"

"Nope! The cheque is exactly the amount I discussed with them over the phone."

"Then it must be post dated." Filia insisted.

"No, it's a good cheque that we can cash any time. This is great! And hopefully we'll get more business from this street after the Parsons talk to the neighbours. Look how many ghosts we had just in the Parson's house. I can't even imagine how many there are in that mega haunted house." Dollar signs were in Lina's eyes as she went back to dreaming about riches again.

"Well if we're going to take on that house we're going to need more batter power for the guns for sure. And a lot more containment boxes." Filia mused holding up just a few of the boxes they had filled with ghosts. Each of them had brought two boxes with them with a few more extra in the trunk if needed.

"You're also going to have to fix my scanner."

Filia frowned. "Is it completely busted?"

"I don't know." Lina tried to turn it on again. It beeped for a couple seconds before going to dead again. And then beeped some more and then silence. "It kinda works a little I guess?" Since it cut out Lina didn't bother to shut it off. It appeared to be dead anyway.

"Probably a short in one of the wires." Filia mused. "I can fix those easy enough. Or make another one if it can't be fixed."

"Well we'll definitely have the money to get more stuff if we need it!" Lina waved the cheque around in the air. "Amelia is going to flip when she sees how much we got!"

"That's got to be smoothest time we've had getting paid for a residential job. Usually they are hesitant to hand over the cash." Sylphiel mused as she put her stuff into the trunk of the Ghost Slayersmobile.

"Maybe they were okay with it because they knew the cheque was going to bounce." Filia darkly joked.

Lina glared at Filia. "If it does I'm going to smack you."

Filia just rolled her eyes as she also put her stuff in the trunk of the car. "Have you cashed the Sailune Publishing cheque yet?"

"Not yet. With all the excitement with Zel's condition I haven't gotten around to it. I didn't want to make multiple trips to the bank so I wanted to wait until we got paid for this job before I cashed that cheque. But I probably should have done it this afternoon when I was bored out of my skull. Oh well, I'm not worried about that cheque bouncing. Big companies like that rarely have fund problems. I'll probably cash them both tomorrow." Lina explained as she took off her pack and threw it in with Filia and Sylphiel's stuff. "We'd better get back, I'm sure Amelia is freaking out about what to do with Xellos."

As the trio of Ghost Slayers were about to go into the car Lina had this odd feeling that Zelgadis wasn't going to be in the car.

'That's silly.' Lina mentally shook her head. 'He wouldn't take off like that anyway. No he has to be in the car.' But even as Lina thought this she still looked in the back as she got into the driver's seat.

Sitting in the back in the seat closest to the curb appeared to be Zelgadis sitting staring at the house the Ghost Slayers had just dealt with.

Lina almost let out a sigh of relief when she saw Zelgadis. But this made her frown. 'What were you thinking you silly twit? Of course he's there. He may be stuck in a ghostly body but that doesn't mean he's stupid.'

While Lina started up the car Filia got herself situated in the front passenger seat while Sylphiel sat in the back with Zelgadis.

"Are you doing okay Mister Zelgadis?" Sylphiel asked when she buckled her seatbelt.

Zelgadis turned his head from the window and nodded with a very strange smile to his face.

Sylphiel didn't notice anything strange about Zelgadis even when he turned his head back to look out the window.

"Is it me or is it a bit cold in here?" Sylphiel shivered while trying to rub some warmth back into her arms.

"We'll we've been dealing with ghosts for like the past hours. So I would be surprised if you didn't feel a bit cold. Plus the car was parked outside at night near an overly haunted house. It's bound to be a bit cold in here. I'm sure it will warm up when we get away from this street." Lina assured Sylphiel as she pulled out into the street.

As the car went over a bump in the road Lina's broken scanner started going off in the trunk. It was beeping furiously signalling the presence of a ghost even as the car got further and further away from the haunted neighbourhood. But even with its' warning beeps a blaring the trio of Ghost Slayers couldn't hear it over the sound of the car engine.

...

Zelgadis kept yelling for help till his throat got too raw and his voice hoarse. Had he not been so confused and frightened he might pondered the soreness in his throat.

Since becoming a 'ghost' the physical pains that Zelgadis had experienced were only when he was zapped with electricity. The only sensations he had felt was the cold and sleepiness. He hadn't suffered from normal human aches and pains. No stiff or sore muscles to contend with at all.

So this 'new' sensation of pain should have registered at least a little bit of interest in Zelgadis. But in reality there was only one thought running through his mind.

'Where am I?'