A/N: Thanks for following along with the story guys! I had a really rough week and have no clue how I managed to write out two chapters for this fic, but I guess it goes to show I'm invested in it.
I've depicted the family as mostly sticking to itself so far. Let's add some other characters into the mix, why don't we? Mike might live by himself, but he does have friends.
This isn't going to be a "pure humor" chapter like the others, but it's not going to be dark either. I was originally going to have this be a darker chapter, but I'm going to push that a little farther back.
Chapter 10 – Old and New Friends Part 1
The rest of the week had passed by in much the same way that the first two days had. Mike had taken the time to introduce the ghost kids to various games they could play while teaching them the basics of good grammar, and then either left to take care of his own business or joined in on the fun depending on the circumstances. The kids had settled in with relative ease all things considered, and Mike couldn't help but smile as they started calling him "Dad" or other variations instead of "Mike", like they had when they'd first met him.
It was now early Saturday evening, and Mike had pondered the earlier question of how and when to introduce the ghost kids to the outside world or other people. The issue had never quite left his mind, and the earlier he could find an answer that would satisfy him and everyone else, the better.
As it turned out, the answer came much sooner than he'd expected.
RING! RING! RING! His cell phone suddenly started beeping, and Mike looked at the number. It was Ryan, one of his closest friends from his college days. He let the call through. "Hey, Ryan! What's up?" he greeted the man cheerfully.
"Mike! How're you doing?" Ryan voice was as friendly as usual, but Mike could tell that something had gone awry in his friend's life. "Everything is just dandy."
"No, you're not," the man cut him off. "Ryan, I've known you for 25 years. What's wrong?"
Ryan sighed. "Straight to the point as always, Mike. There was a big gas leak in my house today. Nobody's hurt – I noticed it quick enough and the kids and I got the hell out of there as soon as we smelled it. But it's going to take the utility company all goddamn night to fix it."
"What about your wife?"
"She had a family issue she needed to deal with and she was out for the weekend. I offered to come with but she told me she wanted to handle it by herself. Whatever she wants, I guess…"
Mike rubbed his forehead, already knowing what was coming. "You and your kids need a place to stay, don't you." It wasn't a question.
"Mike, believe me when I say I tried to hit every other option first before contacting you. All our buddies are either busy this evening or out of the area. You're a good guy, Mike, and I didn't want to bother you. But this leak is gonna take a huge bite out of my finance already, and all this happened way too quickly for me to deal with it properly."
Mike groaned inwardly. Normally, he would've been more than happy to let Ryan and his family stay the night. But now there was the issue of seven ghost kids complicating matters. He did trust Ryan enough to keep a secret, but he wasn't sure about his kids.
Although, maybe this could be the answer to his earlier problem…
"Two questions," Mike decided. "How old did you say your kids were, and can they keep a secret?"
"Uhmmm…" Ryan wasn't sure how this was relevant to his issue, but he was already asking for a huge favor from Mike and he didn't want to jeopardize it by refusing to answer. "They're 11 and 13. And yeah, they can keep a secret. I raised them to be as trustworthy as possible."
Good answer. "All right, Ryan, you can come over, but just until the problem's fixed."
He could hear Ryan breathe a tremendous sigh of relief on the other end. "Oh my God, Mike, you are a goddamn lifesaver. I promise, as soon as the leak is fixed we'll be out of your hair."
"Are you sure you don't want me to just pay for your gas leak instead?" Mike asked dryly.
Ryan laughed. "Hell no, wouldn't be right for me to mooch off you that hard. See you in a bit."
Mike shook his head and hung up. Even after 30 years, his old friend hadn't changed.
/
"All right, guys," Mike called out to the ghost kids. As soon as they heard his voice, they immediately paused the game they were playing. "Got a very important announcement to make."
"What is it?" Gabe asked.
"One of my friends had a big gas leak in his house and needs a place to stay for the night. He'll be coming over with his two kids."
The ghosts' eyes widened at the implications. "Does…does this mean we can finally play with other kids?" Cassidy asked excitedly.
Mike thought for a moment on how to respond. "Here's the thing," he finally answered. "I can trust my friend. I've known him for 30 years. But I know almost nothing about his kids, the last time I met them were when they were like 5. I have no idea if they're good kids and if they can keep a secret, though my friend promised that they could. I want you to make the call. Do you like them? Do you think you can trust them? If both of those answers are yes, then I don't have a problem with you meeting them."
"In other words," Gabe clarified, "don't just run in and say hi."
"Exactly," his dad agreed.
The Marionette gestured towards the other ghosts. "With the exception of myself, being in a physical body and all, the others are naturally invisible and should be able to conceal themselves."
"I'm really hoping we can finally have some fun with other people," Susie said wistfully, and the other ghosts made various noises of agreement.
The doorbell suddenly rang, and all of the ghosts looked up startled. "Crap, he's here already?" Fritz asked.
All of the ghosts disappeared as Mike went over to the front door and swung it open. "Hey, Ryan!" he greeted him cheerfully. "You sure got over here quickly!"
Ryan grinned. "You're the best, Mike. Thanks for doing this on such short notice." He gestured over to his car. "Alex, Meghan! Say hi to Mike!"
A 13-year old boy and an 11-year old girl climbed out. "Hello, Mr. Schmidt!" they chorused. Their eyes widened when they saw the house Mike was living in. "Whoa…" Alex exclaimed, "your house is so cool!"
Mike chuckled. "I get that a lot," he commented. "You guys can do anything and go anywhere in the house except the basement," he told them as they eagerly entered the house. He turned to Ryan. "Guess your wife's lucky she isn't around."
Ryan shook his head. "I dunno, man. I think she'd rather be here than dealing with whatever she is right now." He followed Mike into the house and into the kitchen.
"Want something to eat?" Mike asked.
"We had something before we came here. I'm already in your personal space for an entire night, I'm not gonna take advantage of you anymore than I already am."
Mike shrugged. "Suit yourself."
Ryan's sat down at the table, and his smile faded slightly. "Now, what was that question you asked me earlier about if my kids are trustworthy?" he asked, deciding to cut to the chase. "Normally, I would've gotten annoyed if someone asked me that, but I know you a lot better than most people, Mike. You wouldn't have asked that without a good reason."
Mike sighed. "It's…something that I'm not sure I'm ready to tell you yet. Still debating."
Ryan put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "You know you can trust me, right?"
"That's not the issue at all, Ryan. Please…" he looked at earnestly at his friend, "drop the subject for now."
Ryan looked a bit disappointed, but he decided to let it go. "So!" he asked in a cheerful tone that indicated a change in subject. "What've you been up to, Mike? I don't think I've seen you around in a while outside of church and the monthly reunions with our buddies."
Mike smiled dryly. "Been busier than I've been in a while, Ryan. You have no idea…"
Meanwhile, in the Living Room
"How does Mr. Schmidt have so many video games?" Meghan exclaimed. "There's like, 10 consoles here!"
"I don't even know why he'd have this many video games, but I'm not complaining!" Alex agreed. "But what's that thing over there?" he pointed at what looked like a gigantic gift box.
Meghan shrugged as Alex approached the box. "Help me lift it up," he said, and the two of them opened the box. The lid swung back and they peered in.
"Yeesh…" Meghan shuddered. "What is that?"
"I dunno," Alex mumbled. "It looks like some kind of…Puppet thing? Kind of creepy…"
"It looks…kind of sad. Like it's crying," Meghan stared at the purple lines flowing out of is eyes. It almost felt like it was looking back at her…but that was ridiculous…right?
Alex shuddered. "Let's just leave it alone," he decided. "I don't want to get in trouble with Mr. Schmidt if we end up breaking something after he invited us to his house."
They closed the box and returned to the center of the living room. "Sooooo…" Alex gave his sister a challenging smirk. "Mario Kart?"
"You're on."
The two kids set up the console, completely unaware of their invisible audience watching them from the next room.
"They seem nice enough," Jeremy whispered, deciding that the noise of the video game would drown out the conversation. "Had enough responsibility not to touch Mary."
"Hold up," Gabe replied, "did they get permission to touch dad's video games?"
"Dad said they could do anything except go into the basement. Which they haven't," Fritz pointed out.
"That's fair," Gabe conceded.
"Ooh, they're playing Rainbow Road! And they're so good at it too!" Susie pointed out excitedly.
"Shhhhhh!" Liz warned. But she wasn't quite fast enough. Meghan paused the game and looked around confusedly.
"What's up, sis?" Alex asked.
Meghan frowned. "I dunno…I thought I heard a girl's voice just now."
Alex raised an eyebrow. "Mr. Schmidt doesn't have any kids," he pointed out skeptically. "I think you're just hearing things."
"Okay…" Meghan reluctantly agreed, and two of them went back to their game. They raced on to the third lap, and the ghosts couldn't help but marvel at how good the two were. Neither of them fell off once, and by the end of the final lap they had left the CPU players in the dust. Meghan had a green shell and Alex had a mushroom he'd been saving from a three-pack.
Then one of the CPU players threw a blue shell, and the ghosts sighed as they knew what was coming. "Watch this," Alex grinned. He activated the mushroom just as the blue shell hit, dodging the explosion entirely. Meghan's jaw dropped as Alex sped away, securing an easy first place with a play that she didn't even know was possible.
"How did you…" she gaped. "I can't even be mad. Just…how did you…"
Alex laughed. "Cause I'm the best Mario Kart player ever," he replied smoothly.
"That was the most amazing thing I've ever seen!" a voice interrupted them.
Both of them turned towards the source of the voice. It was a red-haired boy, around 10 years old. This wouldn't be anything out of the ordinary, except for the fact that he was translucent, pale, floating, and emanating a ghostly aura. The boy's eyes widened as he realized his mistake.
"Uhm…Alex?" Meghan asked with a surprising calm. "That guy's a ghost, right?"
"I believe he is," Alex agreed emotionlessly.
"So, I haven't gone insane in the past few seconds, right? I'm not imagining this?"
"Unless we've both gone insane at the same time, no, you're not."
"Oh, okay," Meghan said calmly.
The two kids stared at the ghostly boy for a few seconds. And then…
/
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Ryan looked up from the table in shock. "Alex! Meghan! What's going on?"
He looked at Mike in a panic, but to his surprise, instead of sharing his shock and fear, Mike simply smacked his forehead with his palm in exasperation. "Fucking damn it," he groaned. "I didn't expect the secret to be blown open this early." He sighed and got up from his chair. "Don't worry, Ryan, your kids are completely fine."
"So…why are they screaming?"
Mike rolled his eyes. "Come over to the living room. You're about to learn why I asked about your kids and secrets earlier."
/
"Wait, calm down, please!" Fritz desperately tried to pacify the two screaming kids. "I'm not gonna hurt you, I promise!"
"What the fuck?" Alex exclaimed. "Why is there a freaking GHOST in Mr. Schmidt's house?"
A second ghost, a boy with black hair, also materialized. "Nice going, moron!" Jeremy snapped at Fritz. "You just blew your cover wide open!"
Meghan's eyes widened. "There's MORE of you?" she asked.
A third voice sighed. "Might as well get this out of the way now," it muttered. Four more ghosts materialized, one boy and 3 girls. The voice's owner turned to Alex and Meghan. "Sorry about giving you that scare earlier," Gabe apologized. "Please excuse my friend. He's a nice guy, but he's also an idiot."
"Uhmmm….uh….uhm…." neither Alex nor Meghan could come up with any kind of coherent response.
The youngest of the ghosts, a little girl with long black hair, spoke up. "I mean, we were thinking about showing ourselves eventually."
"Not like that, Cassidy," Jeremy muttered. He heard rapidly approaching footsteps coming from the direction of the kitchen and looked up to see Mike and Ryan coming towards them from the doorway. Ryan's jaw dropped when he saw the six ghost children looking uncertainly back at him.
"All right then," Mike immediately asked, seemingly unfazed by what had happened. "Who screwed up?"
Every single ghost pointed at Fritz, who smiled sheepishly at his dad. "Uhm…in my defense…Alex dodged a blue shell…and I got excited?"
Mike facepalmed. "Somehow this doesn't surprise me…" He turned to Ryan. "Kids, meet Ryan. Ryan, meet the six kids I adopted at the beginning of the week."
Ryan repeatedly switched glances between the ghosts and Mike. "Hey, Mike, was this house built on an Indian Burial Ground?" he finally asked. "Any unholy or satanic rituals happen here? Any violent suicides or murders?"
The ghosts all shuddered at the last part, but nobody aside from Mike noticed. "No, Ryan, none of the above."
"Okay, then why are there six ghost kids currently living in your house?"
"Seven," the Marionette corrected as she started climbing out of her box, and Meghan couldn't help but shudder as she realized that what she thought she'd imagined before had turned out to be completely real. "Seven ghost children."
"Yeah, that." He looked a little more closely at the Marionette. "Weird…I could have sworn I've seen that puppet thing somewhere before." He shook his head. "Anyway, what were you saying, Mike?"
Mike sighed. "It's a long and incredibly complicated story that would take me all night to explain, and I don't feel like being Mr. Exposition right now. All you need to know is that they've been lost for a very long time and needed a place to call home, so I gave that to them."
"I'd say you're way too nice for your own good, Mike," Ryan replied dryly, "except I know for a fact that I'd be wrong."
The ghost of a blond-haired girl spoke up. "Mr…uh, Mr…"
"Marshall," Ryan helpfully supplied.
"Mr. Marshall…" Susie continued, "…we haven't talked to anybody besides Mike for a long time. We just wanted to meet other children and maybe play with them."
Ryan raised an eyebrow. "By play, I'm going to assume you mean 'video games and board games' kind of play and not 'screw around and torture their minds and souls until you move in for a sadistic and brutal kill' kind of play." The moment he said that, he wanted to smash his head into the wall. That was an incredibly harsh thing to say to children, dead or otherwise, and he knew it.
The ghosts all looked at him in horror. "No!" Gabe exclaimed, unable to fully hide the hurt in his voice. "We'd never do something like that to them!"
"Sorry about that," Ryan apologized. "I'm kind of a horror buff and there's lots of ghost stories that don't end well for the living people involved." He looked at the ghosts, searching carefully for any sign of hidden deception or cruelty. Finding none, he shrugged. "I guess it's all right, then." Visible expressions of relief appeared on the ghosts' faces. "You seem like good kids from what I can tell. Mike trusts you and believe me when I say this doesn't happen often. Besides, this'll give Alex and Meghan something else to do besides play Mike's video games all night." He sat down on the couch heavily. "I'm probably going to break my brain if I think about this too hard. I need a freaking drink…" he muttered.
"Come with me and I'll go get you one," Mike offered. The two men got up and Mike guided Ryan down into the basement, leaving both the living and dead kids behind.
Alex and Meghan stared silently at the ghosts. Seeing just one had thrown them off guard; meeting seven had wreaked havoc on their mental processes.
"Are you guys all right?" a girl with orange hair asked with concern.
"I'm guessing this isn't something they see every day," Jeremy muttered.
This time, Meghan was the first to recover. "I have so many questions and I have no clue how to begin," she replied dumbly.
Mary gestured at the clock. "We have all night to get to know each other," she said. "I'll be the first to admit that this wasn't how I imagined the night to progress, but maybe this isn't a bad way for things to play out."
Despite everything, Alex couldn't help but chuckle sardonically. "Looks like I was completely wrong when I said this was going to be a boring night."
/
A/N: It's funny how Mike thought taking the kids outside was going to be the easier problem to deal with between that and having them meet other people, but the other problem was the one that got (kinda) resolved first.
So yeah! It's time I bring in some other living people into this fic. There won't be very many of them, but they will show up every now and again. The point of Ryan and his family is to give the kids an opportunity to do something they've wanted to do for over 30 years.
There's no way I could write something like this in one go, so this will be the first multi-chapter arc in this fic. It will not be the last.
Anyway, I hope you liked Ryan, Alex, and Meghan! Mike and his ghostly children are special characters in their own ways, so it felt weird writing "normal" people for a change.
