Ghost Slayers
Chapter Fifty-one
By Relm
He disappeared. He disappeared right before her eyes. Naga just couldn't believe it. She had seen magic shows where people vanished but it wasn't like that. Val had been in so much pain and then poof he was gone. What the hell just happened?!
The first thought that came to mind was that Naga was really drunk. Clearly she had drank too much and she had just imagined the whole thing. Val hadn't disappeared because he had never been in her changing room in the first place.
Three bottles of wine tucked away in a bag in the corner said otherwise to this suggestion. Often she would drink part way through a play but she hadn't wanted to be tipsy when she finally got to see Val. She hadn't drunken a thing yet.
So how could Naga explain what she just saw? And what was she to do about it? She could call the police but given that she didn't even have an explanation herself about what she saw how could she tell the police?
In the back of Naga's head she heard her little sister's voice repeatedly asking her about something bad that was supposedly could be at the theatre. At the time Naga had glossed over what Amelia had said repeating but not really listening. With her brain fully wired and heart beating like a jack hammer she really wished she could recall what Amelia had said. Was that evil thing Amelia had talked about the reason why Val disappeared?
...
With dinner done and plans picked out for the next day it didn't seem to make any sense for the members of Ghost Slayers to still be at their HQ. The proper thing would be to go home and get some sleep. But doing so involved moving and driving and everyone was just too tired to do that.
The after dinner hours found the Ghost Slaying bunch vegging out in front the one television set that Lina had acquired for the building. It wasn't a large TV but it did well enough in the room had converted into a 'lounging' area in the old police station. Lina wasn't sure what the room had been used for but assumed it was for storage of some sort. It was large and open and good for the massive couch and other furniture items Lina filled it with.
The girls were all flopped on the couch while the boys hovered about here and there. They were watching a DVD from the bunch of movies that Lina had brought with her to work. This one in particular was a horror movie with all kinds of guts, gore and spooky ghosts. For most people this would have been a very scary movie but for someone like Lina it was a comedy that Lina liked to kick back and watch after a hard day.
Even though they dealt with ghosts on a regular basis this was the sort of movie that would have really freaked Amelia out. But as it was she was just too tired to care. Many times during the movie Amelia found herself nodding off. Really she should have just gone home but she was just too tired to drive herself home. Every so often a loud noise from the movie would jar her awake and then she'd go back to actually watching the movie. This was always short lived as Amelia would drift back off to sleep.
RING RING!
"I'm awake I'm awake!" Amelia shot up from where she was slouched.
"Amelia your phone is ringing." Sylphiel mumbled in a very tired voice.
RING RING!
Amelia just looked around blankly as if she didn't understand what was going on.
RING RING!
"Amelia answer your damned phone!" Lina screamed while pausing the movie.
Completely awake this time Amelia pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. "It's my sister... Hello?"
"AMELIA!" Naga screamed into the phone causing Amelia to jump.
"Gracia what's wrong?!"
"It's Val he's gone!"
"What do you mean he's gone? What happened?"
"The play was over we were in my dressing room... I had him pinned against my vanity ripping his shirt open while showering him with kisses-"
"Gracia I don't need those details!" Amelia cried out in mortification.
"-when he just started screaming in pain while thrashing about!"
"Did you accidently hit him in-between the legs?"
Suddenly everyone in the room was very interested in Amelia's phone conversation.
"NO! He vanished! He screamed in pain and vanished! Oh Ame I don't know what to do! I don't even know what happened! What if something attacked him and is still in my dressing room?! AHHHHHHHHH!"
"Calm down Gracia! It's not still in your dressing room! It would have left after it attacked Mister Val." Amelia tried to reassure Naga.
Right away Filia shot up in her spot and glared at Amelia. "What happened to Val?! What attacked my brother?!"
"I thought he was your step-brother." Xellos piped up.
Before Filia could react both Gourry and Zelgadis hit Xellos on the back of his head.
"What was it Ame? What attacked my sexy Val?!"
"I can't be sure but if I'm right then it was that book I was telling you about. Remember? The one that attacks people by stealing their bodies? I asked you a million times if it was in the theatre."
"So it was here?! IT WAS IN MY DRESSING ROOM THE WHOLE TIME?! I could have been attacked! Are you sure it's not still here?!"
"Again if it was the book it's not there now. The book attacks its victims and then disappears off to a new location."
"Val, what about Val? Where is he? Is he dead? Please tell me he's not dead!" Naga pleaded over the phone at Amelia.
"If it was the book then right now he's probably somewhere else in the theatre and probably lacking his body."
"He's turned into a ghost?! Oh gods he is dead!"
"Not dead Gracia just lacking a body. Hang tight Gracia we'll be there soon. Just stay where you are and I'll call you when we get to the theatre."
"Hurry please!"
"So it was in the theatre!" Lina exclaimed after Amelia hung up her cell phone.
"And it attacked my brother instead of your stupid sister!" Filia growled. "I'm going to kill your sister when I see her!"
"Miss Filia you can't do that!" Sylphiel scolded the blond Ghost Slayer.
"Suit up and get your gear. We're leaving in five." Lina commanded ignoring Filia's outburst. "Once we get there we'll scan the area. We can't be sure it's the book until we get some readings. Then we'll find Val, zap him, and bring him back to Ghost Slayers HQ."
...
Naga was shaking like a leaf when she opened the doors for the Ghost Slayers crew to come in. The first thing Naga did when she saw everyone was grabbing onto her younger sister in a bone crushing hug. "Ame it was so frightening!" She cried out loud nearly squeezing the life out of Amelia.
"It's okay Gracia we're here now. You can stop hugging me now!" Amelia choked out her words.
"Where did the attack happen?" Lina pulled out her scanner and started taking some readings.
"My dressing room."
"Show us."
Naga's dressing room was exactly how Lina expected it to be, messy and full of random bottles of wine. What did surprise Lina was that there were three of them in the room that hadn't been opened yet. It wasn't like Naga to leave bottles of wine untouched.
"So where was he when he got attacked?"
"The vanity." Naga pointed to her vanity.
"And what were you two doing?" Lina prompted her as she swept the room with her scanner.
"We were-" Naga started to say.
"Nothing we need to hear about!" Amelia quickly interjected.
Filia shuddered and shook her head. There were some images she just didn't want in her head. The thought of her step-brother and Naga... Yuck!
"So what do you think Miss Lina?" Sylphiel asked. "Do you think it was the book?"
Lina nodded. "Yup. And it was probably on the floor here somewhere around the vanity."
"Then Mister Val is probably somewhere in the theatre." Amelia mused. "But how are we going to find him? The theatre is such a big place... It's going to hard to figure out which room he's in."
"And that's not even considering the fact that he could be moving around and not staying in one room." Filia added grumbling.
"Miss Filia don't fret I'm sure we'll find your brother." Sylphiel tried to reassure Filia.
"Step-brother." Filia corrected her.
"OHOHOHOHOHOH! Why are you reassuring her for? My sexy Val is the one that went missing! You should be comforting me!" Naga bellowed.
"Because he's my brother!" Filia growled at Naga.
"You just said step-brother therefore you're not even really related. OHOHOHOHOHOH! And seeing how I'm his girlfriend I actually care more about him than you do!" Naga retorted back.
"Two dates doesn't make you his girlfriend!" Filia yelled.
"OHOHOHOHOH! Try three. And one of those dates was a very intimate and knowledgeable one. I'll bet I know more about Val than you do. At the very least I can say I've seen more of him than you have." Naga puffed her chest out and stared Filia down.
"Gross!" Lina shuddered. "No one wants to think about you and that temperamental ass naked and rolling around sucking each other's face!"
"So how are we going to find Mister Val? Split up and take different corners of the theatre?" Sylphiel wondered. "It's not like we can scan him like a ghost."
"Actually maybe we can..." Filia mumbled in thought. She pulled out a couple tools from her tool belt.
"Filia what do you mean?"
"Shhh!" Filia shushed Lina and continued to fiddle with her scanner.
Naga and the other Ghost Slayers just stood there and waited not quite sure what Filia was up to.
"Ah-ha! I've done it!" Filia announced.
"What did you do?"
"I've reversed the energy signal on the scanner. Now it will scan for heat signatures rather than cold voids." Filia declared.
"So you've turned it into a thermal scanner? Hmm..." Lina drummed her fingers against her crossed arms in thought. "That would make finding Val easier if this place is as haunted as Amelia told us... Alright Filia lead the way."
...
Near an hour later Lina and company tracked down a rouge heat signature that was in the lighting control booth. They had already searched down a couple other heat sources that turned out to be a heating fan, a small stray cat and very large mouse that almost bigger than the cat. Since the mouse had scared everyone but Lina the red haired leader was hoping that this last heat source was actually Val.
"If the cat and the mouse got into a fight who do you think would win?" Lina asked trying to make light of the situation in the hopes that she could curve the fear out of her people.
"The mouse. It would eat the cat." Naga declared.
"Ewwwww!" Sylphiel, Filia and Amelia all exclaimed and shuddered.
Lina just shrugged. She actually agreed with Naga though she as hell wasn't going to say that out loud. At the top of the stairs the lighting control room door was closed. Lina tried the knob but the door was clearly locked. "Do you have a key to open the door?"
"Yup." Naga pulled out a credit card and jimmied the door open.
"I could have done that." Lina grumbled in annoyance. 'I also could have kicked the door down if I wanted to.'
"Is he there? Is he in the room?" Filia tried to see over Lina and Naga.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEK!" Naga screamed. "ANOTHER MUTANT MOUSE!"
This started up another chorus of screams out the others sans Lina. In fact Lina wasn't too impressed by this sight. Where the hell was Val?
...
In a very dark room Val mindlessly went about his business. He appeared to be shaving though he wasn't in a bathroom nor did he have a mirror or sink in front of him to do this task properly. Also the fact that he had no water either did seem to make the motions pointless but somehow he managed to be shaving. Very strange given that he was in a bedroom.