Chapter 10

"So you have any kind of preference?" Andrew asked as he took out a box and presented it to Zach. Inside were rows and rows of tea bags. Zach looked them all over and hesitantly picked one at random. Andrew took it and one next to it out of the box and retreated towards the kitchen.

"Whoa," Blue slowly floated around the room, making sure to not stray too far from Zach. When they'd arrived at the normal looking suburban house, nothing on the normal-looking outside had given away what awaited them on the inside.

AS soon as they stepped through the door, they were met with piles and piles of clutter. Books on shelves and stacks on the floor. Corkboards and papers lined the walls, complete with the conspiracy string. The few parts of the walls without them had glass cases containing what looked like weapons. Zach spotted guns, swords, and other sharp things that he kept a wide berth from.

Instead of explain what any of it was, Andrew had cleared space on the table showed Zach his box of teas and said nothing more.

"What is even going on today?" Zach asked himself as he looked around the room and waited for the man to come back.

"Well we tried to figure out how I died, then we got chased around by a random dude, then we agreed to come to his house to learn more," Blue made sure to fly in front of Zach and count the three events on her fingers one by one. By the time she was done, Zach's eye was twitching.

"That's not what I meant and you know it," he rubbed his forehead with his fingers in an attempt to stop the headache he could feel coming. "I'd ask when my got life got so weird, but we both know the answer to that one."

She pointed at herself with a smirk that almost made Zach want to hit her if she wasn't incorporeal.

"Well get used to it kid," Andrew reentered the room with two steaming mugs. "Once you fall in with the supernatural, turning your life back to normal is almost impossible. You want sugar or milk with your tea?"

"No thank you," he took one of the mugs and looked down at the brew. In all honesty, he'd never had tea before. It was like a coffee, but made from leaves instead of beans right?

"Good because under this roof, we only drink tea straight," Andrew sat down in the chair across from Zach as Blue floated over to Zach's side. "Now, this will probably go better if you start explain what you know so I can fill in the gaps."

So they told him, they told him everything. How Zach had learned the tale of Thomas Pickerpepper, met Blue, escaped from Samuel, and everything else since then. Andrew stayed mostly silent, only interrupting to ask a quick question here and there. By the time they were done, his mug was empty and he couldn't stop looking at the two of them, like they were some sort of grand puzzle to solve.

"And then we saw you at the library and you know the rest," he finished explaining as Andrew took a deep breath.

"Okay, so I'll tell you a few things to fill in the gaps. The first is about that form you saw Blue in the first time you saw her. You said you also felt the hairs on the back of your head stand up right?"

"Yeah, it's done that twice now. Once for Blue and the other time for Thomas," Zach reached up and touched the back of his neck. Despite Blue being right next to him, the hairs were perfectly flat.

"You're one of the unlucky few to have a sensitivity to ghosts then. If you didn't you wouldn't have seen or felt anything at all. As for the pain… think of it like this. Before you met Blue, your eyes were closed. Being around her for so long forced them open. Look on the bright side, if she hadn't done that, you would have seen every ghost the same way and felt the same pain with all of them."

"Oh," Zach looked up at Blue and gave her a weak smile, "thanks?"

"You're welcome?" The two of them looked equally confused as Andrew groaned. The two of them broke eye contact to look at him.

"And now I need to explain something of vital importance to you two. In the exorcism business, there are two kinds of possession. The first is the overshadow, where a ghost takes control of a person," he started to explain as he grabbed two of the smaller books from a nearby pile. He held one of them in the air before holding the other above it. He then took the upper book and put it under the other one. "And the other kind is the undershadow, where an exorcist uses a ghost in order to use their power."

"So which one are we doing?" Blue asked as Andrew grimaced at the two.

"Neither… both?" Andrew sighed as Blue and Zach looked at each other. "I've never seen or heard anything like this. A possession is supposed to be one party taking control of the other, not some sort of equal partnership."

"So what you're saying is that we're unique?" Blue smirked at him. Andrew just stared back at her.

"Oh, you have no idea," he sighed as he tried to take a sip of tea before he noticed the mug was empty. "There are some other things you guys need to know about ghosts."

Blue and Zach leaned forward as the man began to explain some things about ghosts.

"Most ghost have more in common with Thomas then your friend here. They tend to be stuck in their ways and not very talkative. I've been an exorcist for almost ten years now, and I've fought more ghosts than I can count. I've never seen one act like her, ever."

"What do they usually do?" Zach asked as Andrew raised an eyebrow at him. "Let me guess, start attacking living people?"

"Pretty much." Ryan looked up at Blue. "Ghosts also tend to decay and degrade over time. If she's really been around for ten years, she might be one of the most intact ghosts I've ever seen."

"So what does it all mean?" Andrew leaned back and took a second before answering Zach's question.

"It means she's something unique, something to be figured out," he explained as Blue smiled at his words. "I think the bigger question you guys have to worry about is, what are you going to do now?"

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"What do you mean?" Blue asked as her grin fell.

"I'm not the only exorcist in the world," he explained as he got up and walked over to a phone. "In fact, as soon as we finish this conversation, I'm going to call a friend of mine to go handle Thomas Pickerpepper."

"And you think some of the other… exorcists would attack us even with our explanation? Also, you keep calling them exorcists, I thought the term was ghost hunter?"

"I'll handle the easy question first. A ghost hunter is someone who stumbled into a building which might be haunted with a flashlight and a camcorder in the hopes of shooting a video to put on the internet where he screams and runs away." Andrew had a slight growl to his voice and both Blue and Zach wondered if it came from personal experience. "An exorcist is someone who walks into a building they know is haunted, equipped with the proper tools and training to leave the place ghost free."

"And they might turn this training and equipment on us?" Blue asked, snapping Andrew free from the mini rant he seemed on the verge of starting. He blinked at the two of them, as though only now remembering they were there.

"Yes," he finally answered, "that would be the most likely scenario. Any ghost hunter would be insane to turn their backs on an unproven ghost and a boy claiming to be some sort of… whatever you are."

"Evenshadow," Zach chimed in. "You said a possession could either be over or under depending on who was in charge," he looked over at Blue who smiled at him. "Well, since we have even control we're an evenshadow."

"I like it, sounds cool," Blue added as Andrew sighed.

"Cool as it is, it doesn't change your problem. As it is now, if you kids met another exorcist, you're going to have trouble. I went easy on you because I was prioritizing saving someone I though was the victim. Other exorcist might be a bit more… pragmatic."

"Then what do you think we should do?" Zach asked as Andrew opened up the cabinet under his old home phone. He rummaged around a bit before pulling out a notepad and a pen. He scribbled some things down before crumbling it into a ball and tossing it at Zach. He caught it with no trouble and unfurled it to reveal and address, a time, and tomorrow's date.

"Like I said, no exorcist would trust an unproven ghost and a kid they claimed to be working with. And since you can't change the 'ghost' or 'kid' bits, you're best bet is the 'unproven' part. On that paper is the location of an exorcism I'm going to be performing tomorrow night. Hang out with me and go on enough of those, and other exorcist might leave you alone."

"So that's it?" Blue narrowed her eyes at him. "Work for you or else your buddies will come after us? Sounds kind of fishy if you ask me. Plus, how do we even know you're telling the truth?"

"You don't," he shot back, "but if you don't believe me, you can find out on your own when an exorcist tracks you down and takes care of you."

"What kind of ghost are you going after?"

"Zach! You cannot be serious right now?" Blue demanded as she gestured towards Ryan. "Everything about this guy has been sketchy so far. Plus this whole exorcist thing sounds dangerous."

"Breaking into Thomas Pickerpepper's cabin was dangerous, but it led to me meeting you. I say that one turned out all right," he pointed out as Blue felt the need to slam her head through something rising. "Plus I don't think he's lying. Ghosts are real, so is it really that much of a stretch that people who hunt them down are also real?"

"Well…" Blue hesitated, trying to think of what to say. "Do you really want to follow this guy around and fight some ghosts?" Zach gave her a silent look before blue scrunched up her face. "Okay you're right, dumb question."

"Here's a copy of the file I made for the ghost we're going after," Andrew reentered the conversation by putting down a yellow folder on the table. "Feel free to take it, I have copies."

"Oh, thanks," Zach took the file and flipped it open to a picture of a pair of red eyes staring at him from among some graves. The eyes and the vaguely animal shipped mist they were in were circled by a red pen.

Phantom Case: The hound among the graves

Case Start

"You won't have to do much, just hang back and pay attention to how I do things," Zach closed the folder as Andrew explained his role. "If everything goes, well, you won't be in any danger."

"Okay I'll be there," he said as he put the folder under his arm and made sure he had it steady. "I should probably get going. It was nice meeting you… kind of."

Ryan waved them out as Blue and Zach started the long walk home. Neither of them really said anything for most of the trip, the one exception being when they reached the road and Zach asked Blue if she could fly up to see if there were any busses coming their way.

There hadn't been, and Zach had ended up walking the whole way home. Luckily for him, he'd arrived well before dark. His parents also didn't question him on the folder he was carrying.

Zach walked into his room and cleared some space on his desk before opening the folder back up to get to its contents.

"You really need to clean this place up," Blue pointed out as she stared at the big pile Zach had put everything in, "Last thing you want is your room ending up like his."

"Maybe If I got some more storage," Zach sheepishly admitted, "I could put everything away correctly."

"You should at least try," Blue huffed as she looked at the top of the pile. It would take a bit of work, and a lot of concentration, but she'd been practicing this so might as well try it right?

Zach spent the rest of the night studying the file Andrew had left him while Blue did her best to pick up and put away the books Zach had scattered all over the place. It was slow work for both of them, but by the end of the night, it was clear Zach had made far more progress.