I could not let the show's 10th anniversary pass without finally finishing this story. Dude, That's My Ghost! is still one of my most favorite cartoons and it holds a special place in my heart. This is not even supposed to be the final end of the story (I planned to do a Part 2 with Spencer's first week at Beverly Beverly High School) but you can pretend it is finished now because of how long this took to wrap up.


Chapter 8

Haunting in the Heights: Spectre's Cut

"Thanks for coming everyone." Spencer hurriedly finished hooking up his laptop to the pool's giant screen display embedded in the back wall. Hugh, Jane, and Jessica all sat silently on the patio, still pretty miffed. The girl yawned and Hugh could barely keep his eyes open.

"What are we even doing here?" Jessica asked annoyed, trying to cover another yawn.

"You'll see." Spencer turned toward Billy, who was floating above the pool. The teen gave the ghost a thumbs up, and Billy excitedly threw up the devil horns in response before flying straight into the television and turning it on. Spencer cleared his throat and faced his family with the bravest smile he'd ever had to muster since he starred in and posted his first movie onto MeTube. "Wright Family, welcome to the grand premiere of the first horror movie shot in our new pad, 'Haunting in the Heights!'"

"What!?" Jessica snapped, waking her parents out of their drowsy stupor in the process. "I thought you woke us up this early because you were going to bribe us with an apology breakfast! I don't want to watch your stupid movie!"

Jane frowned as well but kept an arm wrapped around Jessica to hold her back from pouncing on Spencer. "I have to say, I'm not really looking forward to seeing myself screaming and covered in food in HD either."

Hugh tugged his waffle bib off in disappointment but smiled back at his son. He could see the look of a kid trying to make things right in the only way he knew how. It was the Wright look. "Come on honey, we've already made it through the worst of it. As the stars, we might as well enjoy the premiere. Right, Spence?"

"Actually Dad, I ended up deleting the dinner haunting scene. This is a new, special cut I spent all night working on." Spencer smiled as his family looked at each other with surprise. He was trying to hide it, but the truth was that Spencer was the most tired of anyone present. His ankles wobbled from fatigue and he was blinking twice as fast as he fought the urge to shut his eyes. But he couldn't let his family think he humiliated them just for a movie for even one day longer. Despite how weird and sanity-draining they could be, he loved them more than anything. "So without further ado, please sit back and enjoy!"

He hit play on his laptop and then joined his family's side on the patio. Their attention turned to the huge screen mounted at the back of the pool which began playing the start of his latest film. The opening title card featured the title with a transparent glowing effect and oozing ectoplasm, mimicking that of a ghost. Jessica hung her tongue from her mouth to exaggerate a gagging expression but Jane and Hugh both shushed her. "Hmph!" Jessica crossed her arms and defiantly sank in her patio chair.

The very first scene was of the morning the Wrights pulled up to the house, shot entirely from Spencer's camera's first-person point-of-view. Following the scene of him ducking out of helping his family in the foyer, which got a few chuckles out of Billy who was also watching and chilling out on the pool deck, the movie showed condensed footage of the first house tour Spencer had taken by himself. However, last night, Spencer spliced in last minute reshoots he filmed with Billy's help. He had to be careful since the time of day between the original footage and reshoots were completely different, but the magic of digital light editing and avoiding reshooting near any windows kept the inconsistencies to a minimum.

The first spliced scene was his initial encounter with the Freaky Tiki Room. Spencer's character aimed his camcorder all over the room as he admired the exotic décor. "Man, this place is awesome!" The camera POV drifted toward the dry, empty waterfall basin. "Huh, I wonder what this is?" He flipped a nearby switch on the wall. The sound of rushing liquid sprung from above as the indoor waterfall was activated. When the camera looked up to see the water falling into the plunge pool from above, small droplets dotted the lens. "And an indoor waterfall? We really hit the jackpot finding this place." The camera view lowered to the pool basin. Spencer's reflection, muddled by the choppy waves of the waterfall, looked back into the camera while holding its own reflected camcorder pointed up at Spencer.

With the only sound in the room coming from the cascading waters, a second silhouette silently stepped out from behind the teen's reflection. The barely recognizable reflection of a lean man more than a foot taller than Spencer with a jaggedly misshapen physique and face hidden by shadow and the rippling pool water suddenly lunged toward the back of the teen's head. A sharp, loud music sting played just as the figure sprang toward Spencer and engulfed the camera's POV, causing Hugh, Jane, and Billy to scream in terror. A frightened yelp quickly made its way up Jessica's lungs and throat, but she was able to swallow it back down before it could escape her mouth.

The sudden appearance of the unknown silhouette's reflection behind him activated a pure reflex of flight in the teen's legs milliseconds before his scream filled the room. Seemingly avoiding the figure's reach, Spencer fell forward into the waterfall basin along with the camera gripped tightly in his hand. The first-person camera POV was briefly submerged underwater before Spencer regained his senses and quickly spun himself back around while in the water to face the man. The figure however, had vanished. The camera POV darted around erratically looking for any sign of him, only to be met with an empty room. Spencer, breathing heavily and heart still pounding, climbed out of the basin pool and ran out of the tiki room with his clothes and shoes sopping wet.

"Ahaha, oh my goodness. This movie really is something," Jane chuckled, embarrassed from how loud her scream had been moments earlier.

"Pfft, a jumpscare? Y-you're going to have to do better than that," Jessica scoffed toward her brother, playing off the fright that had shaken her as well.

Billy had his face hidden behind his popcorn bucket, and his floating body hidden behind Spencer, trying to shield himself from the horror. "Did this movie have to be so Fooly Ghouly?" the ghost whimpered.

"Why are you scared? You were there filming this with me. You're the one playing the ghost. You know none of this is real," Spencer whispered back at him.

"I know, but it's still mega-scary when it's played back in movie form. I'm so freaked, I can't even feel my heart beating anymore," Billy complained, causing Spencer to stifle a laugh.

In the film, Spencer ran through the mansion's hallways yelling for help, but received no answer in return. "Oh no, that thing must've gotten Mom, Dad, and Jessica!" He bolted for the exit in the foyer but the doors wouldn't budge no matter how hard he rammed them. Trapped. The mansion was silent apart from the teen's heavy, panic-stricken breathing. Then, a creaking metallic moan that sounded as if the house's pipes were being slowly warped out of place filled the dead air. The reverberation of twisting metal grew louder until what looked like the walls themselves were distorting around him.

The distortion was a simple editing effect in weMovie Maker, but combined with the right lighting and sound effects and it was enough to make the viewer feel like the walls were really closing in. Spencer ran for the elevator. From the corner of the camera's field of view, the indistinct visage of a floating, twisted up man with extremely pale skin was chasing after the teen at breakneck speed. This time, both Jessica and her parents screamed.

Since Billy could not show up on Spencer's camera naturally, the teen coated him in make-up and flour, put a wig on him, and used Billy's shapeshifting ability to create the impression of a truly terrifying poltergeist.

Spencer dove into the elevator and hurriedly pressed the button for the bottom floor—the garage. The elevator descended before whatever was chasing him could reach it. Again, the camera POV had not captured a clear image of the figure, but it was unmistakable at this point that it was not fully human. Spencer, however, had no desire to see what it looked like up close. Escape was the only thing on his mind. When his family first drove up to the mansion, Spencer saw the garage's door leading straight out to the street. Assuming that it would also not open normally, all he would need to do is pull the garage door's emergency manual release and he'd be scot-free.

The garage was pitched in darkness, with only small cracks of light seeping through the tight gaps of the shut garage door. As Spencer had filmed this scene late into the night, that light was not natural sunlight but the headlights of Billy's stretch limousine that the two had moved outside, creating a convenient amount of additional space inside the garage for the movie. Nearly a dozen bulb lights hung down from the ceiling, but they appeared to all be burnt out as flicking on the light switch did nothing. Straining his eyes in the dark, Spencer found the garage door switch and pressed the open button. Just as expected, the door didn't budge. He felt around near the door until he found the door's emergency release cord and pulled it. The door was now free from the automatic opener carriage, but still would not open when he tried to pull on it. Next to the garage door, he found the door's sliding lock mechanism. Though normally capable of being unlocked manually, Spencer's relief turned to sheer terror when his attempt to pull the lock's release lever revealed it had been rusted beyond salvation and would not release.

Cloth tarps with layers of dust covered bundles of items strewn along the sides of the room. Spencer threw off the tarps in a panic trying to find a suitable blunt object strong enough to break the locking mechanism. He finally found a small pile of cut reddish-brown stones that matched the stone exterior of the garage and picked one up. Using his limited strength, he pounded the release lever with the stone again and again, desperate to get out. After several blows, he began to hear the cracking of rusted metal with each strike.

After finally hearing a chunk of the lock break off and clang onto the floor, Spencer dropped the stone and reached for the door's handle like his very life depended on it. Exhausted but overflowing with adrenaline, he pulled the door with every ounce of strength he had left. The door slid open a few inches before the teen was violently pulled back into the garage by an unseen force without warning, dropping the camera onto the floor as he was dragged away.

Jane and Jessica gave piercing shrieks and hugged each other. Hugh had long since passed out from fright in his patio chair.

The camera POV was now stationary and aimed at the corner of the garage, with the slightly opened garage door just off-camera allowing more light into the room. Spencer's blood curdling screams could be heard from off-screen. The camera captured shadows on the wall showing Spencer flailing on the ground, trying to fight something off. Something that did not cast a shadow but was able to pick Spencer up and toss him across the room. Spencer's horrified, lifeless face fell right in front of the camera, covered in blood (ketchup and barbeque sauce). Jane and Jessica jumped up from their seats and screamed loudly enough to wake Hugh from unconsciousness. The screen cut to static, and after a few moments the movie credits rolled. Spencer's name was on every role, except for the roles of the Evil Spirit and the Executive 'Broducer'.

Jane gasped after forgetting to breathe for the last minute of the movie. Her eyes were still wide open, almost unable to blink. "I-is it over? Did we make it to the end?"

Hugh yawned and stood up. "Great film, Spence! I think I blacked out before the ending but any movie that scares people that much must have a grade A director," he smiled, patting a blushing Spencer on the back.

"I w-wasn't s-scar-red! I-" Jessica could barely get her first few sentences out as she tried to calm her heart pounding like crazy. "-I was t-try-ing t-to make y-you fee-el be-better! F-found footage mo-movies are s-soo lame!" she stuttered, shaking like a leaf.

"W-well I liked it. It was so…creative!" Jane smiled, having calmed down enough to perk up again. She ruffled Spencer's hair and kissed him on the forehead. "Thank you, sweetheart. But next time you want to apologize, please, buy a box of chocolates!"

Spencer and his parents laughed while Jessica practiced karate moves against an imaginary enemy on the patio. Her own way of putting herself back together.

"Well, I have a feeling no one's going to have the energy to make breakfast after that cinematic experience. Why don't we go out to eat?" Hugh suggested.

"Yes!" Jessica and Spencer both agreed ecstatically. Jessica ran inside the mansion to get ready with Jane and Hugh strolling peacefully behind her. Spencer was set to run off to his room as well before realizing that Billy was nowhere to be seen.

"Billy? Billy, where are you?" Spencer looked around. On the ground, a large, overturned popcorn bucket was shaking suspiciously. He picked it up, only to find that there was nothing under it. He looked inside of it. Billy was stuffed all the way in there, looking terrified and afraid to come out.

"Please tell me it's done," he moaned in fear.

"Yeah, it's done," Spencer laughed. He patted the bottom of the bucket, knocking Billy free. "Dude, your plan actually worked. I'm off the hook! Thanks for doing me a solid. Even though it was kind of all your fault."

Billy popped back into his normal shape. "No big, Magnum Bropus. That's what buds do. Just as long as I never have to watch another movie as scarodactyl as that again."

Spencer chuckled. "Come on, a huge stack of pancakes'll make you forget all about it."

"Pancakes!? I'm there! Wait, forget about what?" Billy asked, following Spencer into the mansion.

After getting dressed, everyone piled into the Wright-mobile and buckled up. Billy planted himself in the center backseat, between Spencer and Jessica. Hugh drove the car out of the garage and onto the road. While Spencer was nodding off after a night of no sleep and Jessica was scrolling on her cellphone, Billy smiled and put his feet up on the center console. "Maybe this family thing might not be so bad after all. Come here guys!" He stretched his arms around the two and hugged them tight.

"Hey! Quit it, Spencer!" Jessica punched her brother in the side of his ribs, assuming he was the one squeezing her.

"Ow!" Spencer was shocked awake by the blow. "What was that for!?"

Jessica huffed and returned to her phone screen. Billy smiled innocently and turned his head to look out the window.