Ghost Slayers
Chapter Fifty-seven
By Relm
The traffic didn't appear to be getting any better and neither did Lina's patience. Her grip on the steering wheel was getting much tighter and her knuckles were going white as a result. To make matters worse the partly cloudy day they were supposed to have had turned into a cloudless day with the sun beating down hard. This did not help Lina's mood one bit.
"Maybe should just walk it..." Zelgadis mumbled while looking outside.
"Are you going to help carry the equipment all the way there?!" Lina snapped at him.
"Well... maybe I could try... if I concentrated hard enough..."
Lina rolled her eyes. "Shut up! Don't say stupid things! Besides we go walking out there on the street with all those damned people someone is bound to notice something is different with you and freak out."
"Okay fine... you don't need to be so snippy."
"Yes I do! I'm annoyed and it's hot in here!" Lina growled.
"Miss Lina is always snippy like that when she's annoyed. Don't take it personally Mister Zelgadis." Amelia assured him.
"CAN IT AMELIA!" Lina yelled.
RING RING!
Lina looked at her phone and frowned. "It's Sylphiel. She better have good news. Hello?"
"Hi Miss Lina. I just got to the firehouse. The traffic is crazy!"
"Yeah tell me about it. I'm still trying to get to city hall but we're stuck. So is the book at the firehouse?"
"No I don't think so. Gourry isn't reacting at all. In fact he's fallen asleep! Gourry wake up! He was awake when I started calling you..." Sylphiel sighed.
"Okay then that's two down..."
"So I guess then Miss Filia and Mister Xellos didn't find anything at the community center..."
"Yup that's right. So that just leaves City Hall. Or City Hell in this case seeing how it's taking forever to get there." Lina grumbled.
"How's Amelia doing?"
Lina did a quick spy of the backseat of the car. Amelia wasn't quietly praying anymore. Instead the youngest member of the Ghost Slayers crew was staring out the window while nervously biting her nails. It was clear that she was trying not to show that she was listening in hard to what she could hear of Lina's conversation. "Well I'll say she's been better."
"I'll try and get to City Hall as fast as I can."
"Can you do me a favour?"
"Sure what do you need Miss Lina?"
"Could you call Filia to let her know that there's nothing at the firehouse. Just in case for whatever reason she decides to head there instead of City Hall."
"Alright Miss Lina I will."
"Okay see you soon." Lina hung up her phone.
"It's at City Hall!" Amelia exclaimed as soon as Lina put her phone down. "It's after my father I know it is!"
"Amelia calm down! We're already heading to City Hall and now so are Filia and Sylphiel. We'll get there in time. Your father is a stickler for protocols and safety! He wouldn't do anything stupid you know that!" Lina snapped at Amelia.
"You're right he wouldn't do anything stupid. He'd leave the building right away following procedure." Amelia agreed. Lina's point did make her feel better but still she worried. 'I hope Father isn't in City Hall...'
...
"Okay that's the last room on this floor." Mayor Sailune said to himself as went through his mental floor plan of City Hall. "I still can't believe what Janesly and Marric were doing in that bathroom stall! And during a code blue too! But I suppose sins of the flesh can be more sinful with the threat of danger."
Janesly and Marric weren't the only ones Mayor Sailune had found doing things they shouldn't have. In one case he found one of his more petite employees eating the cake they were going to have later to celebrate 50 accident free days at work. Now seeing a slender woman eating a piece of cake wasn't that big of surprise but seeing that same woman eat an entire slab cake by herself was. Honestly Mayor Sailune didn't know where the woman put it all. Some people were just blessed with good genes.
Thankfully Mayor Sailune didn't find anyone stealing or doing anything particularly illegal (hanky panky aside of course). These sorts of situations tending to bring the immoral opportunistic people out of the woodwork. One always wants to believe that the people they choose to work for them are honorable, but that wasn't always the situation. It pleased Mayor Sailune that his people were good honest people.
Since he was always surest of the people in his floor going through the proper procedures Mayor Sailune was checking the floors in a way that he'd end up on his floor last. At present he had only two floors left to check.
The last stop on Mayor Philonel Sailune's route was going to be his office. Where from there he will pick up his cell phone from his desk and leave the building knowing every one of his people were safe.
Well that was Mayor Sailune's plans. But a certain blood stained book had either ideas. And its ideas were not very good or honorable. And the worst of it all was?
It wasn't going to end with Mayor Philonel Sailune. It was going to start with him.
...
"Okay that's it! I'm done with this shit!" Lina yelled and pulled the car into the next available parking spot.
"Lina what are you doing?!"
"Miss Lina we can't park the car! We have to save my Father!" Amelia cried out while tugging on Lina's sleeve.
"We're not getting anywhere driving. We're going to get out of the car and run it!" Lina declared.
"But Miss Lina you said that it was too far with all the equipment!" Amelia protested. "And what about Mister Zelgadis? The people on the street will freak out if they see him!"
"That's what I'm counting on." Lina said with evil glee while shooting that gleeful look Zelgadis' way.
Zelgadis frowned with deep concern furrowing into his forehead. "I don't think I like the sound of your voice and the look on your face... what you planning on doing and what does it have to do with me?"
"Nothing. We're just going to run all the way there." Lina stated cryptically.
"Oh? And everyone is just going to move out of the way for us?" Zelgadis retorted sarcastically.
"Yup. They will have to. When they see two Ghost Slayers screaming and chasing a 'dangerous' and 'frightening' ghost running amuck on the street they will have to get out of the way." Lina stated with much glee.
"There's a dangerous ghost?! Where?! WHERE?!" Amelia looked around frantically.
"Amelia... she means me..." Zelgadis said with a sigh.
"But you're not scary and you wouldn't hurt anyone... And technically you're not even a ghost." Amelia mused.
"That's not the point Amelia!" Lina snapped. "He doesn't need to be a bad evil spirit he just needs to make everyone think he is."
"And how exactly am I going to do that?" Zelgadis wondered in a less than impressed tone.
"I don't know... Just groan and roar while waving your hands in the air."
Zelgadis just glared at Lina. "Are you serious? That sounds like a damned zombie! Don't you have anything better to suggest than that?! You deal with scary ghosts for a living!"
"Well I don't pay attention to that stuff! Ghosts don't scare me! And even if they did I don't exactly see them running around to know what they would look like doing it." Lina countered.
"Slimer runs around. Or flies around. He scared me when I first saw him." Amelia admitted.
"And what does Slimer do to scare people?"
"Waves his hands around, slobbers, says boo and makes silly noises and faces."
"That's not scary that's stupid!" Zelgadis exclaimed.
"Well he scared me..." Amelia mumbled.
"Zel just run. I'll take care of the rest. But first I need to call Filia and Sylphiel. There's no way they are going to get to City Hall by car so they may as well do the same thing." Lina picked up her phone after she put the car in park.
"Call Officer Zoanna first." Zelgadis suggested.
"Why?"
"So that when we all come there running he'll know what's going on." Zelgadis explained.
"Yeah that's probably a good idea..."
...
"GET OUT OF THE WAY GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Lina screamed as she and Amelia ran down the street.
"IT'S A GHOST!" Amelia also screamed. "A SCARY SCARY GHOST!"
Zelgadis just rolled his eyes as he ran.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEKKK!" A chorus of screams started as people immediately jumped out of the way.
"GET BACK HERE YOU DANGEROUS CREATURE!" Lina 'demanded'.
"IN THE NAME OF JUSTICE I DEMAND THAT YOU SURRENDER!" Amelia added.
"AH GHOST!" One woman cried out.
"OH MY GOD THEY ARE REAL!" A man exclaimed.
"RUN AWAY RUN AWAY!" Yet another woman screamed.
Though Zelgadis found this incredibly silly he had to admit, it was working. Everyone was moving out of the way for him. They still had many blocks to go but they were making good time. It wouldn't take them long now for them to reach their goal. There shouldn't be anything in the way now. It was smooth sailing from this point.
Or at least that should have been the case but as Zelgadis soon discovered things were not going to be that easy.
It started out as a dull ache in his chest. It didn't concern Zelgadis very much as he was running after all. Any normal person would get winded after running for a while. But it wasn't the feeling of being winded though he was starting to having problems breathing too.
The main reason why Zelgadis, Xellos and Gourry had came with each of the Ghost Slayers was to gauge their reactions to potential demonic book attack sites. So as such the closer Zelgadis got to City Hall the more his body protested it.
Zelgadis wasn't alone either. As soon as Filia and Sylphiel were in running distance they ditched their cars and followed suit. Their 'ghost' pair running while they 'chased' after them. Both Gourry and Xellos were starting to feel rotten as they neared the building.
"Miss Lina... Mister... Zelgadis..." Amelia started to puff out as she ran. "Is..."
"Acting... weird? I know! The... book... it's in...City... Hall!" Lina frowned. It was what she had expected to happen. Zelgadis could have been right in that the book could not show up right away at one of the three locations. So for that Lina should have been relieved to know they were finally going to not only catch up to the book but even get ahead of it. But relief wasn't what Lina was feeling at that moment.
Sure she was getting winded running through the streets yelling her head off while carrying heavy equipment but it was more than that. Doing any one of her assignments had risks but they didn't scare her for the most part. Yes she had the thrill of the chaise coursing through her veins most of the time but right now that thrill was ice cold with dread.
To think the worst she had ever had to deal with was angry poltergeists before. But how was she going to handle a murderous entity within a book written with blood? Was this a ghost? Or was it an honest to god demonic spirit? Lina wasn't sure how this was going to play out. Would they triumph or would they fail?
Whether they win or lose this was it.