Norman and Rockster are back again to bring you another chapter of Echoes of Yesterday. No author's note, really, so let's just dive right in. Please leave a review.

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Chapter Three- Whispers

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A loud creak was heard once Todd flopped down on his bed, almost panting from the amount of activity he was doing. After the first time going outside, Todd simply couldn't stay inside and felt the outdoors calling him. This was his fifth time going outside as long as he could, and almost disappearing multiple times did take its toll on him. But either way, though it was less than one hour since he started going outside, Todd felt satisfied with his outdoors time for the moment and was ready to take a short nap. Just as Todd's head met the mildewy pillow, a loud shriek from the hinges of his room's door almost shattered his hearing ability.

Todd, emitting a loud groan of annoyance, sat up and stared at the new comers. It was the twin boys and a little girl he had yet to meet. Though the girl had a sleepy look to her, it was clear by her jittering that she was anything but. The girl quickly floated over to Todd and poked his nose.

"Wow, you guys were right! He does kind of have a permanently grumpy look to his face!"

"Excuse me, what are you-" Todd got interrupted before finishing his question.

"Yeah, he looks like Uncle Grimmly!" giggled Henry

"Why are you coming into my room and insulting-"

"No, no, Uncle Grimmly only looks depressed, not angry. Besides, Todd's nose is too big. I'd say his face looks like Biff when we disturb him in the middle of a workout." Orville chirped.

"OKAY, THAT'S ENOUGH INSULTS!" Todd practically screamed at the kids before noticing that they looked scared. Todd had floated up into the air in anger and had his fists clenched. "Look, sorry about that kids. I shouldn't have done that. Anyways, why did you come to see me?"

The little girl, clearly a drama queen who milks everything for what it's worth, answered with her bottom lip still quivering.

"M-mister Todd... we only wanted you to play with us..."

Todd sighed, relaxing a bit more as he floated down to get eye level with the girl. "Fine, to make up for my outburst, I'll play with you. But first, I need to know your name so I can address you properly."

The girl giggled before doing a small twirl. "My name is Sue Pea."

Todd chuckled a bit. "Sue Pea? Who the heck names their kid-"

"I KNOW IT'S A BIT DOPEY!" Sue screamed, eyes flashing red for a second, causing all three boys in the room to flinch. "Sorry... but let's show you where we're playing!"

Before Todd could as much as react, all three ghost children grabbed him and started dragging him through the wall of his room. The hallways started to rush by as the kids pulled him at a surprising speed before finally pulling him through a wall into what looked like an old nursery. Sue Pea quickly floated up to a crib in the room that had the faint shape of a ghost baby at the bottom, presumably sleeping.

"Oh Chauncey!" Sue whispered in a sing song voice.

"Kid- I mean Sue, are you sure you want to wake the baby up? Lydia and Neville probably won't be happy," Todd said as he almost flinched when he saw the baby float up from the bottom of the crib. "See! Now the baby is going to cry."

Sue turned to Todd with an odd look mixed with a smirk before turning to Chauncey. "Hey Chauncey, wanna play with the four of us?"

Todd felt his jaw drop as the baby took the pacifier out of his mouth and began to speak. "Oh dearest brethren and sister," Chauncey began with a deep hearty laugh, "what a pleasant surprise. And thee sees that thine hath wrought the new man hither. Regrettably, thee wants a nap, but be beseeched to have as thy calls it 'fun'."

"Okay,"replied Sue casually as Chauncey put his pacifier back into his mouth and sunk back down to the bottom of his crib. "And Todd, you might want to close your mouth before a ghost mouse crawls in there."

Todd quickly shut his mouth and desperately tried to regain a dignified air to himself. "And before I continue on," began Todd as he turned to the twin boys, "can you tell me who's Henry and who's Orville?"

The boy wearing blue and purple floated in front of Todd's face and glared at him. "Wow, you're pretty stupid. I always wear the color blue, which is easily affiliated with the car emblem of the Earth guy Henry Ford. So clearly, I'm Henry! Even Chauncey knows that!"

Todd snorted. "Well excuse me for not knowing something that nobody ever told me! And with Chauncey's old English vocabulary, it wouldn't surprise me if he knows that!"

Henry only glared as he backed away.

"Anyways," Orville piped up, "let's get to the library and start playing. We finally have enough people to play the game we want!"

Henry, clearly still somewhat upset for some reason sighed. "Okay. Let's go."

Once again, the kids snatched Todd's wrists and pulled him away into the hallway, Todd trying his best to master intangibility at will so his face didn't scrape the floor repeatedly. After a sudden stop, sending Todd straight into a library bookshelf, the kids began excitedly whispering to each other.

"Okay, kiddos, what do you want to play?" asked Todd, not caring too much and just wanting to get out of his situation.

Henry beamed. "We're going to play a game called Super Mario Brothers!"

Todd frowned. "Those three words in succession mean nothing to me. You're going to have to explain if you want me to play along."

"Why do you have to be such a dope to where we have to explain everything to you?" Orville asked, his arms crossed.

Todd was beginning to lose his patience. "Listen up, kid-"

"We've been ghosts for quite awhile, so technically speaking, we're older than you."

Todd felt his anger rising, slowly burning faster and hotter and tinting his vision red. Since talking to them, the kids have done nothing but insult him and disrespect him. Who did they think they were? A crackling feeling started coming from deep within, making Todd's hair stand on end, turning his hearing to a dull hum before realizing he was floating higher above the children, whose faces were frozen in infinite terror. It was then that Todd noticed the new burn marks on the floor.

"What have I done..." Todd whimpered, his voice barely a squeak as he looked on, scared, of what he did.

The twins, having clearly gotten over their fear, floated up to where Todd was.

"No way!" yelled Henry, "You were shooting out lightning and glowing green!"

"Yeah, that was way cool! Madame Clairevoya won't teach us any magic, so you gotta show us how you did that!" squeaked out Orville, too excited to contain himself.

Todd felt himself tremble as he sunk to the floor. "What was that?" He whispered, fear enveloping him, before Todd felt himself being poked by Henry and Orville, Sue joining them in the poking.

"Come on, get up! That was cool! If you're not going to do it again, please at least play with us like you promised," Sue whined.

Todd sat up straight. "S-so what was the game again."

The children, sensing Todd wanting to move on quickly away from the weird occurrence, happily started explaining. "Super Mario Brothers is about an Italian plumber named Mario who saves the world and the prettiest princess in the land because he's a hero. But, a giant turtle monster named Bowser tries to thwart the man's every step, so he teams up with his cowardly little brother Luigi to save the day."

"Okay, I know this is just a silly make believe game, but I have some questions. So let me get this straight, a dude of Italian descent, who probably has a giant pasta gut, and works as a plumber has to save the world? Couldn't they find a better guy to do it? Wouldn't a princess have better guards? What does a turtle monster want with a princess? Is this all a misunderstanding? And why even involve the cowardly little brother? This Luigi guy sounds as if he's a Grade-A loser, so why even include him?"

The ghosts floated there and stared at Todd. "You realize that this is just a game, right? Because you're ruining it. Either way, you get to be Luigi."

Todd scoffed. "Why do I get to be that loser?"

"Because you look like a loser."

"Oh wow, real original material guys. How about we just play with a ball." Todd picked up a dusty ball off the floor from next to a bookshelf before throwing it at a wall, expecting it to bounce back. Instead, a loud crash sounded as the ball flew through a hole in the wall into another room.

"I'll get it," muttered Todd as he glided over to the wall, cursing his bad luck as the children laughed after him. "Why does it have to be me?" Todd asked himself before he froze cold.

The new room felt as if all heat had left it and only had cold within. All around were taxidermy animal heads staring at Todd, their glassy lifeless eyes staring deep into his very being. All around was the inanimate animal carcasses frozen in time from their deaths. But what especially chilled Todd was the table. Not what was on it, but what he saw above it. It was a simple mahogany desk, empty and covered in dust proving disuse for years, but above it was a shadow plastered to the wall. It was a shadow of a knife, but what was truly alarming was that there was nothing in the room casting that shadow. It was existing independently of anything else.

This place was pure evil and Todd had to get out of there. A sudden screech of door hinges caused Todd to scream in pure terror.

"Geez, and everyone else said they could barely get you to react to anything," said an unfamiliar feminine voice.

The shadow was gone before Todd turned, deciding not to say anything about it to the newcomer due to the terrible feeling he was getting inside. The voice belonged to another ghost, a female who had a beautiful and delicate figure. Her blonde hair was glorious and spilled down from her head, perfectly framing her face.

"I don't believe I've ever introduced myself to you. My name's Melody. I heard that the children were messing with you and making you angry."

Todd, still somewhat at a loss from this ghost's beauty practically tripped over himself to respond. "I-I-I didn't mean to get angry!"

Melody giggled. "It's alright. The kids could make the calmest most reserved people angry. But either way, I'm here to take you away from them and save you." Melody did a small curtsey, indicating she had a playful nature, before grabbing Todd's hand and dragging him off again, this time at a much slower pace than the kids.

"Where are we going?" Todd asked after a few seconds of floating along in silence.

"I'm going to show you my music room before you talk to Lydia and Neville. They have requested you talk to them to get any questions answered about us you need, but after dealing with the kids, music is the only way to get you to relax."

At the end of the corridor the two were floating down was a door. It was made of oak wood and had a stain to it. But unlike the rest of the house, this particular door looked well maintained to the point where it almost looked new. Carefully burned onto the surface was small music notes in a pattern on lines- clearly a musical piece.

Melody opened to door to reveal the room, in better condition than the rest of the house, regally decorated with red velvet curtains and a dark wooden floor devoid of decay or scuffs. What was most amazing, however, were the instruments. Many instruments of all shapes and sizes were neatly spread across the floor in rows. Todd stared at all the instruments, as well maintained as the room, in awestruck wonder.

"This place is... amazing!"

"I know," Melody said simply. "I try to keep things clean in here. But let's get to playing. Do you by chance play an instrument?"

Todd stared at Melody with a blank expression on his face. "If I can't remember anything about my previous life, what makes you think I'd remember what instrument I played if I did at all?"

"Touche. But you strike me as either a bass or violin type of guy, so let's see if that works for you."

Melody led Todd to a nice shiny Bass and sat him down in the chair and set a piece of paper containing music notes in his lap. Todd stared at the piece, feeling almost a sense of confidence. Todd's fingers started flying across the strings, playing the piece of music perfectly. Before Todd knew it, he heard a piano start it, playing with him in perfect harmony. The music floated around the room and filled Todd with a feeling of bliss, the small amount of light filtering into the room through the curtains suddenly seeming so much brighter and better. Before he knew it, he had reached the end of the piece and as all good things do, it came to an end.

"Wow," breathed out Todd, amazed at how good he felt.

"Aren't you just full of surprises? Who knew that you knew how to play the bass? And you were good too!"

Todd beamed from ear to ear before settling down after a second. "Yeah that was fun. What was the name of this piece?"

"Mario's anthem."

"Wow, that sounds like that silly Super Mario Brothers game that the kids were trying to get me to play. Is this related or coincidental?"

"Oh no, it's related. In fact, Mario, to our knowledge, is a real person who is still alive."

All of Todd's questions about the game the kids wanted to play came back to him, making his head spin as he tried to make sense of it, before realizing logic might not apply and giving up. After floating in silence for a few seconds, Melody attempted to break the ice that Todd's blank gaze seemed to hold over the room.

"To our knowledge, Mario himself composed and named this, funnily enough."

Todd stared blankely at Melody, still taking her in and committing her every feature to memory. "And why is that funny?" Todd honestly didn't get it, which made him feel a bit bad due to it being clear that Melody was trying really hard to interact with him.

"Well... I guess it's that it seems a bit narcissistic to compose a song and name it after yourself, don't you think?"

Todd let out a small chuckle. "I guess you're right. I mean, why do the heroes always feel a need to build themselves a statue to errect in their own honor? It is kind of funny, really. And the fact that a farfetched story of a tubby guy going out to save a princess from a turtle monster is true is hillarious."

Melody smiled before getting a thoughtful look on her face. "Even though we ourselves have never seen this Mario guy before, I think I saw him in a strange dream of my own once. He was as you described him in the tubby department, and he wore red with a monogrammed hat. He had a bushy mustache that could have used some better care. But the funny thing, is in the dream, he's always getting carried away by non-sentient ghosts, screaming and crying for help. And then a taller man in green, I believe his little brother, came to fight to get his brother back. He looked terrified, yet determined. As if nothing could stop him. He sorta looked like... eh, never mind. It doesn't matter."

Todd smiled gently at Melody. He felt like something was tugging at his brain. He felt as if he had met the green guy before and done something important with him, but the inkling of an idea floated away before Todd's mind could fully grasp it. With Todd's luck, he was probably running this Luigi guy's fanclub in his life, thus making him an even bigger loser than Luigi could ever be!

"I saw a guy in green this morning walking away from a house ino the kingdom. Do you think that was the green guy, Luigi I believe? Though I couldn't see too well, he seemed to be burdened as he walked, as if he had a lot on his mind."

Melody laughed. "That might have been him. Either that, or it's some other schmoe wearing green out there looking depressed. However, considering how few humans there are in the world since our time, I would think that's him. But either way, I think you've calmed enough to go talk to Lydia and Neville."

Todd floated further up from his seat, feeling renewed, yet still slightly apprehensive, but he didn't know why. A simple reassuring look from Melody caused him to loosen up.

"Wow, the kids are right, you do look permanently like a grump!"

"What?" asked Todd defensively, "How did you hear that?"

Melody gave another giggle. "We're in a decaying house, dummy. Not all the walls are very thick anymore."

Todd have her a glare. "How was I supposed to know? And why do you all act like children?"

Melody gained a serious look to her face, sharply contrasting her usual playful look. "Not all of us got to finish growing up before our death. We're more or less stuck here and pranking is what we can do to pass the ages by. You at least got the liberty of growing up and living around others who in turn helped you mature. You may not be able to remember, but at least it remains as a part of who you are."

A look crossed Melody's face, making it look extremely ugly for a second. Todd recognized what it was. She was jealous.

Todd's face softened up as he realized that he was being incredibly insensitive. He may not remember dying and that might make things difficult for him, but Melody and the others, it seemed, could remember every detail of their deaths and that would have to be rough. Far rougher than knowing nothing. After all, ignorance is bliss.

Todd floated closer to Melody. "I'm so sorry, I didn't even realize-"

"It's fine. That's my past and there's nothing you or I could do about it, so let's just leave it be. Sorry for bringing it up."

Todd was about to say something, but a call of Melody's name interrupted him.

"Nana!" Melody's face lit up as she dragged Todd along as she bolted out of the room. "Now Nana is someone you have to meet! She's so warm and caring! Not to mention she's practically a wizard with the ghost cloth she uses to do crafts!"

Todd wondered how someone could still be exciting after living a long time in a decaying house together, but decided to hold his tongue and see what happened. Melody passed through a wall, bringing Todd into a peculiar room. While the decaying state of the room was on par with the rest of the house (except the music room, of course), what was truly eye catching was everything had a sweater on it. And by everything, that means everything. Even the old decaying lamp that clearly was long past functioning, had a long and thin sweater covering it, even complete with little holes for non-existent arms. That definitely got some raised eyebrows from Todd.

Eventually, Todd removed his eyes from the features of the room that truly did embody the name "Nana", and stared at an old ghost in the rocking chair. The transparent form of an old lady had a big smile on her face as she looked at Todd. "It's so nice to have a handsome young man join the family, isn't it Melody?"

Melody gave Todd a jesting smile. "I wish they made glasses for ghosts, because you clearly need them."

Both women chortled for a second as Todd couldn't help but pout a little.

"Why is everyone targeting me?" Todd cried.

The women ignored Todd before Nana cleared her throat. "I invited you to come in because I have something for you, Todd. You like going outside, don't you?"

Todd nodded.

"And of course we can't stay out there too long without risking disappearance, so in order to help you cope, I made you something to wear."

Nana reached behind herself and pulled out a long flowing piece of a dark navy blue fabric, clearly made of real material rather than whatever the ghostly stuff he saw everywhere was made of, whatever that is. Nana placed the fabric in Todd's hands, making Todd realize it was a cloak as he saw a hood and a golden button to keep it closed. The button was a beautiful gold color with a rich luster and an emerald-green lightning bolt touching the inner boundaries of the circle. Todd couldn't help but gasp at the beauty.

"It's... perfect... are you sure it's for me?" Nana gave Todd a nod.

"Go ahead and try it on, dear."

Todd quickly pulled the cloak on and pulled up the hood and buttoned the button and suddenly felt darkness close in on him from all sides inside. Cool, dark, calming, and reassuring darkness.

"It was enchanted by Madame Clairevoya so that it's dark inside at all times and you can travel a bit if you wanted. But I do warn you to not interact with humans... There was a pretty bad accident once that I'd care not to mention and we were involved."

Todd looked at Nana and Melody quizically, but the looks on both their faces very clearly deadpanned "don't ask".

Todd also looked down at what was used as the button on the cloak. "And where did you get this button? The design is amazing!"

Nana laughed. "Oh, it was just an elemental medal that was laying around and we simply-" Nana continued talking, but Todd was no longer paying attention. Something behind Melody caught his eye. It was another shadow existing independently of all else.

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