Chapter 15 Chasing Shadows

Lemmy made sure to be as discreet as possible as he and his brother exited Mavery's house. They shut the door behind them carefully, all while Lemmy's heart pounded. What emotion was attached to that sensation was unknown; it could be excitement, fear, or maybe even both. Either way, Lemmy didn't talk for a few minutes as he and Ludwig snuck away from the house.

Once they were a healthy distance away, they stopped. Lemmy took in a breath, turning toward Ludwig and noticing that he had a raised eyebrow. Not wasting any time, Lemmy reached into his hammerspace and pulled out the eye shadow. When he did, Ludwig's uncertainty became all the more noticeable.

"Lemmy? Makeup?"

Lemmy nodded. "It's the same color as the glitter we've been finding everywhere, and it's even sparkly too." He held out the palette, which Ludwig took telekinetically and started to examine. "It may be a clue that Mavery is the one responsible for all this."

Even as he examined the palette, Ludwig still looked unsure. He cringed, looking like he wanted to believe Lemmy but was having all the trouble in the world doing so.

"This is probably just a coincidence, Lems."

"Possibly. But in these cases, we have to turn over every leaf possible. Even if it is a coincidence, it's the closest thing we have to an answer to this mystery."

Ludwig's features slowly softened up. While he still looked uncertain, he at least wasn't cringing as he looked at the eye shadow. "Alright. So what do we do now?"

Lemmy took a minute to think about this. "We split up." Ludwig opened his mouth to say something, but Lemmy stopped him before he could make a sound. "You need to go back to the castle and have Iggy look at this stuff under a microscope. You know, to see if it also has some Galaxium stored up within it. As for me…" Lemmy adjusted his hat. "I'm gonna stay here in Stonebrim. There are some other people here that I need to question."

Ludwig frowned. "But if one of those phantoms shows up when you're alone…"

"I know, I know. It's not ideal in the slightest." He pulled his phone out of his hammerspace. "But we can always call each other. Plus, when we're done with our tasks, we can easily find each other and reunite." He smiled. "Does that sound good?"

Ludwig squirmed for a little bit before sighing. "It sounds fine." He wiped some sweat off his brow and looked back down at the eye shadow. "Well… I guess this is where I depart…."

"Yes." Lemmy continued to smile at Ludwig as he rose into the air. "Good luck, Lutz."

"You too, Lems." His voice wobbled and shook when he said that, almost as if he was about to faint or even run away screaming. He rose higher into the air and headed toward the castle. Lemmy watched him do this while his heart pumped. This… this was going to be fine. This was all going to be fine; there was no reason to get all up in a tizzy just yet.

"Well," he said out loud, facing forward as he did, "time to go to the next house."

He began walking. It was while he was doing this that he noticed that Stonebrim was pretty… creepy after dark. Usually, the town was gray and drab, with nothing special or interesting about it. But at night? At night, it sent chills down the spine and made breathing rates speed up. It looked like it would be the perfect location to film a horror movie, and it made Lemmy's nerves borderline unmanageable.

"It's okay, Lemmy," he said out loud to himself. He rubbed his arms, both because of his fright and because of the late autumn chill. "This is… just fine." His teeth chattered as a breeze whipped through the town, so cold that it felt like a ghost passing through Lemmy's body. "Everything is going to turn out just fine. You'll find out who attacked Roy and Celia. You'll figure out the cause behind the phantoms." He smiled. "And when you do, you'll feel so satisfied. All the trouble that you and everyone else have experienced will all be worth it." He sighed, the smile still sticking to his face. "Everything will be fine, Lems. Everything will be…"

Snap.

Lemmy blinked, fear shooting through him. Battling the chills running up and down his spine, he looked around to see who or what had made that sound. "Hello?" The feeling that he was being watched overcame him, making his heart pound. "Who's there?" He continued looking around, battling the cold and fright. "Whoever you are, come out and show yourself!"

It was then that he noticed movement in the corner of his eye. He turned, squinting into the darkness. It was really hard to see; almost impossible as a matter of fact. But something was there. Something was there in the shadows, watching Lemmy like only the worst kinds of psychopaths. It… could it be…?

Lemmy gasped. It was a phantom! A phantom was right here in Stonebrim! Oh Mama Mia, if a phantom was right here, right now….

"Hey!" Lemmy stepped towards the ghostly figure, preparing himself to ask it questions. Sure, he didn't know if it was intelligent enough to answer any of those questions, and the possibility of this phantom doing something dangerous and attacking him was pretty high. But Lemmy was willing to take that chance. These phantoms were potentially responsible for hurting Roy and his girlfriend and they were definitely responsible for stealing all that stuff from the people Lemmy cared about. He was going to get the answers out of the phantom no matter hos risky it was.

"Why did you take all the…" Before Lemmy could even finish his sentence, the phantom turned and ran away. Lemmy gasped when he saw this, his heart skipping a beat. "HEY! GET BACK HERE!"

Lemmy didn't waste any time and began running after this phantom. This presented a potential problem though; since Lemmy was the shortest of the Koopalings and a really short guy in general, his stride was significantly shorter than most other people's. As such, he struggled to keep up with the phantom, who ran with a speed too incredible to be captured with words. On top of that, Lemmy's stamina wasn't the greatest either, so he started running out of breath fairly quickly. His lungs stuck with each inhale, and when he tried to push himself to go faster, he felt like he was going to collapse.

I can't collapse though, Lemmy told himself, all without stopping. I need to get that phantom! I need to figure out what's going on here!

So, despite every inch of his body telling him not to, Lemmy kept on running. He squinted through the darkness, hoping that he wouldn't lose sight of the phantom. After all, he was trying to keep track of a shadow in the middle of the witching hour; the likelihood of him losing track of it was dangerously high. Thankfully, he didn't lose track of it yet. He still saw it even in the darkness and was still able to follow its winding, erratic path.

"COME BACK!" Lemmy didn't even care that there were people who were trying to sleep at this time. "I NEED TO TALK TO YOU!" He also didn't care that yelling only piled onto his physical exhaustion. At this time, all he cared about was catching up to this phantom.

Speaking of which, the phantom kept looking back over its shoulder at Lemmy. The closest thing it did to eliciting an emotional response at the sight of him was speeding up, barreling through Stonebrim like a honing bullet bill. It was… it was maddening. Lemmy's whole body hurt already; the fact that the person he was chasing kept putting on a burst of speed made the strain on him only grow even stronger.

"GET… BACK… HERE!"

Miraculously, the phantom came to a stop. Lemmy blinked when he saw this, a smile growing on his face. He couldn't believe it! He actually couldn't believe it! The phantom had stopped in its tracks, and was now standing right out in the open! Lemmy would be able to catch it! He ran towards it, his heart dancing in ways that it didn't normally. He was just about to run over to the phantom and tackle it to the ground…

When it rose into the air. Lemmy's jaw dropped when he saw this, and he came to a screeching halt. The phantom looked down at him for a brief spell before flying off into the night. Chills ran down Lemmy's spine as he watched it fly away. His eyes were wider than the circus balls that he loved to balance on.

"I can't believe it." Lemmy put his hand to his head. "How is that even possible?" Maybe it was some sort of ghost? That would make sense, but… wait, how would it have been able to make the noise that alerted Lemmy to its presence earlier? The last time Lemmy checked, ghosts had trouble interacting with the physical world to that degree. This… this made no sense. Nothing about this added up, and it made Lemmy feel stuck.

Bring bring!

Frowning, Lemmy pulled his phone out of his hammerspace. He didn't know whether to feel hopeful when he saw who the caller was and as such, he put the phone to his ear with a notable lack of enthusiasm. "Well?"

"It's not a match," Ludwig said. "There's no Galaxium in the eye shadow."

Lemmy sighed. "Dammit." He shook his head. "So I guess both of us just went on a wild goose chase."

"What do you mean?" Ludwig asked. Lemmy explained what had happened with the phantom he had been chasing, with Ludwig gasping at some of the particularly exciting parts. "No way! That… they can fly?"

Lemmy nodded. "I was pretty surprised myself." He sighed, tugging at a loose strand of string on his shirt sleeve with his free hand. "I mean…" Lemmy frowned. A low growl built up in his throat, one that contained only the most negative of emotions. He tugged on his mohawk and titled his head up to the sky as he let the growl out. "I don't understand! I don't understand any of this!" He felt like screaming. "Why is all this happening, Ludwig? Why are these phantoms here? What do they want from us? Why do they want our stuff, and why do they have all these powers? Why… why do… why do they…?"

"Lemmy, you're amping up," Ludwig said, his voice level and soothing. "You need to step back and take a deep breath."

The desire to object to that statement was pretty strong, but even still, Lemmy decided that he was going to follow those instructions. Deep breath in… deep breath out. Deep breath in… deep breath out. After he had taken and released a third deep breath, Ludwig spoke up once again.

"There. Do you feel better?"

Lemmy frowned. "No." He felt anger building in him, an emotion that was usually so foreign to him. "Not even a little bit."

"I see…" Ludwig was silent for a second. "Well, I'll tell you what. I'll fly back to Stonebrim right away. Maybe me being there will help you out."

Lemmy snorted. "Yeah. Maybe if anymore phantoms show up and fly away, you'll be able to actually catch them." Lemmy wiped some sweat off his brow. "Well… I'll see you then. In the meantime, I'll go to the next house."

"Okay. See you then, Lemmy."

With that, Lemmy hung up the phone. He frowned as he put it away in his hammerspace, feeling so uncharacteristically frustrated. He took in another deep breath before facing forward.

"Well… off to the next house I go."