A/N: Hi. Here's Chapter 6. This story will probably only have one or two chapters left, just to let you know. Please read and enjoy.

As Sally said, they did have dinner first. Percy returned with her bag in tow, which she promptly tore from his grasp, cuddling it in her lap as she glared at the demigod.

He shrugged with a slightly apologetic look before pulling the girl off the couch and dragging Colt into the kitchen for dinner.

She felt a constant urge to reach down and grab her bag, but she had left both of them by the couch. Apparently the Jackson family had a strict set of rules for weapons. Why they would need a special weapon rulebook, Colt guessed, would have to be from certain demigods practicing. She gave the black-haired boy a sidelong glance. He continued stuffing his face as he usually did when eating a meal. It was something he and Dean had in common to her amusement.

Percy and his mom kept up a constant stream of conversation as dinner processed. Paul, once again sitting across from Colt, stayed relatively quiet, only contributing a couple of comments and laughs here and there. It was…surprisingly nice. Colt only wished that she was here just for a visit and not to sort out the whole ghost situation.

Eventually though, dinner was over and it was time for Colt to actually get some work done. She had already wasted the entire day and while the ghost wasn't going anywhere, the ghost was not going anywhere. It was both a problem and a gift. Poltergeists rarely traveled long distances, tending to stay attached to one location, while many other creatures were free to roam around and create havoc.

Sally couldn't give Colt any information that she didn't already know, however. The elder woman merely recited the boys features that Colt had already noted down in her now reclaimed notebook, a similar occurrence of attempted conversation through garbled speak, and that the sightings didn't begin until about a month ago and have picked up frequency since then. There was only one event were the ghost ever went past talking and it was to push a glass off a table (Colt felt safe to assume it was to draw attention to itself since Sally said she couldn't see the boy at all).

Although Sally had seen the ghost boy several times, Paul had never seen any sign nor felt any of the usual signs or presence of a ghost. Colt noted this down quickly, using Percy's upper arm as a table. The ghost appeared to be specifically targeting Sally. It broke its pattern with Colt, however. So the question was, why? The only thing Colt could think of as a connection between her and Sally was Percy Jackson. If this was the case though, he should have also attempted communicating with Paul.

Percy didn't know of any major demigod activities or quests that happened a month ago that could have possibly attributed to this.

"Recent wars?" Colt questioned as Percy went around the room, turning lights on. The night was passing far too quickly. Sally and Paul had already retired to their room for the night.

"No, thankfully," he told her, flopping back onto the couch. He sat mirroring the hunter with his knees drawn up so he could rest his arms on them. Their feet tangled together on the middle cushion. "There isn't going to be another body, right?"

"I don't think so," she told him truthfully. "The more I think about this, the more I think the soul isn't actually attached to anything. It seems to me that he may be a restless spirit with unfinished business."

"So if he finishes his business, he will go to the underworld?" Percy asked.

"He'll be at rest," Colt corrected because she couldn't guarantee the underworld was where the boy would end up. "I just wish we knew what his unfinished business was, so we could help him."

"What about the message?" Percy suggested. "You said he was trying to say something right? Maybe whatever he's got to say will explain what his unfinished business is."

"But we can't hear him," Colt said. She tipped her head back over the arm, feeling the weight of her hair lightly dust the floor. "It's not even that he's speaking another language or something. He just isn't speaking loud enough."

"Get him a microphone." Percy told her, gently nudging her leg.

"Don't be sarcastic with me, Mister 'I Take People's Prized Bags Without Permission' Jackson."

"Wow. You've finally succeeded in finding a longer and more complicated first name than my actual one."

"Perseus isn't that long or complicated," Colt informed him. "At least you were named after a hero with a happy ending instead of a kind of gun."

"Or a baby horse," the demigod added cheerfully.

Colt flicked her pen at him. He caught it with ease. "This isn't helping me figure out a way to solve this."

"Well," Percy said. "Why don't you get one of those Squeegee board games and do that with him."

"You mean Weegee Board," Colt told him, "and, technically, it's called an Ouija Board. That won't help us if he's a demigod—and I'm pretty sure he is—I don't think he magically recovers from dyslexia if he's dead."

"But what an inventive cure."

"If you're not going to be helpful, then go to bed." She told him sternly. Percy raised his hands, palms face out, in a surrendering pose. Colt sighed. "Let's say the ghost can actually speak vocally and we just can't hear him. We would need something that could match the ghost's frequency to hear his broadcast, so to speak."

"Like the EMF is on ghost frequency," Percy added.

Colt nodded. "But the EMF reader isn't an amplifier of sound. It would need to be something like a cell phone-"

"Which demigods don't use, so he wouldn't go near it," Percy said, gesturing for her to continue.

"Or a radio," she finished.

"Have you ever used a radio to talk with ghosts?" Percy asked curiously.

"Nope," Colt replied, shoving herself off the sofa to retrieve the radio she saw in the kitchen. "But there's a first time for everything."