Chapter 12

“So a hospital? Yeah, those usually have ghosts around. Been a while since I’ve heard of a ghost going after the patients though.”

“So it’s happened before?” Blue asked from the backseat of the car as everyone tried to not think how she was doing that.

“I can’t believe I’m getting used to having you around,” Andrew muttered as they pulled up to a graveyard. “But yes, it has. It’s rare, but sometimes ghosts go after people on the brink of death in order to harvest and consume them.”

“So what are we going to do about it?” Zach demanded as the car came to a stop. Andrew looked over at Zach for a second before letting out a sigh, almost like he was bracing for something.

“Nothing, for the moment.”

“What!” Two sets of voices demanded at the same time, almost sounding like Gestalt instead.

“And there it is,” he muttered before locking the door, “listen I get it. Your friend is in danger and right now you want to charge in and save her. But you need to think about it like this. If we rush in to exorcise this ghost right now without any preparation, we’ll walk away unsuccessfully, if we walk away at all. If that happens, we’ll be in no shape to do anything about the clown ghost and then what happens to your friend?”

Zach grit his teeth, unable to say anything back. Fortunately for him, Blue was there for him.

“You have a whole car filled to the brim with ghost fighting equipment. What’s stopping you from starting this car back up, driving to the hospital, and dealing with this thing with the stuff we have?”

“Two things. The less important reason is that the grave keeper’s already paid us to deal with his ghost dog problem,” Zach’s eyes widened as Andrew quickly cut him off before he could protest. “And more importantly, I have the equipment to deal with ‘this’ ghost. Every exorcism bring unique challenges, and what works for a ghost dog won’t work on your freaky clown ghost.”

“So what are you going to do then?” Zach demanded as Andrew finally unlocked the doors.

“We’re going to exorcise this ghost dog tonight. Tomorrow morning, we start preparing for this clown ghost. Doing research, trying to figure out who he is, reaching out to see if anyone who can help is in the local area. Once we’re ready, we go and exorcise this thing.”

Zach watched as Andrew threw the car door open and walked out. He did the same as Blue simply floated up through the roof. The pair watched as the man threw open the trunk of his car. It was mostly empty with only a single toolbox in plain sight. Andrew reached for a spot in the carpet, dug under it, and grabbed something.

Zach and Blue watched as Andrew pulled the false bottom up to reveal an armory. There were three shotguns lining the top, and rows upon rows of bottles, stones, gems, scrolls, small machines, and other ghost hunting equipment at the bottom.

“Now stop worrying about the clown ghost and start thinking about the ghost in front of you,” Andrew scolded as he started pointing towards the various equipment. “The file I gave you laid out the general plan right? What can you remember about it?”

“Well, you said the ghost hound wasn’t a real ghost, but the remains of another ghost of a hunter who used hunting dogs. That means it’s weak, so a single blast from a salt round should take care of it.” Zach pointed towards the shotguns. If he remembered right, they’d be filled with special rounds that explode in a blast of salt upon impact. “But just in case, you wanted to try and trap it using some bait,” he pointed to some beads that resembled candy on the bottom row, “as well as some… I don’t remember what you called them.”

Andrew reached up and picked up a small crystal. “Harmonic spiritual barrier. Put four of these in a perfect square and they become an unescapable cage the second a ghost walks into it… as long as the ghost is weak enough.”

“Right… that,” Zach watched as Andrew put the crystals and candies into the many pockets of his huge coat. It was a far cry from the casual clothing he was used to seeing from the man, but at least he finally looked like someone who fought ghosts for a living.

Andrew reached for what looked like a small grenade for a second before hesitating, and then deciding to take it after all. He held it up for both of them to see.

“Anti-ghost gas grenade. Releases a cloud of smoke infused with lavender and parsley. Causes ghosts to freak out and get disoriented.”

“Is that what you tried to use on us in our fight?” Blue asked as she floated an inch or two away from the grenade.

“No, what I used on you two was a more concentrated version meant to separate a ghost from the human it’s possessing.” Andrew explained as he finished his preparations and sealed everything back up. He took the shotgun and rested it on his shoulders before gesturing forward. “Well, time to go. You two going to do that weird even-shadow thing again?”

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Blue and Zach glanced at each other for a quick second before Blue flew into him. The two held their hand out and pulled the trigger, fusing together into Gestalt.

“Okay,” Gestalt said in their fused voice as their eyes started to glow and the blue line appeared on their chest. “Let’s get going.”

“Never going to get used to that,” Andrew mumbled before leading them towards the graveyard. Despite the popular image, the graveyard was mostly neat rows of white gravestones with barely a single creepy tree in sight. The stones came up to their waists, and the only lights were a couple of lanterns on the outskirts of the graveyard. Plenty of shadows for ghosts to hide in wait in ambush.

Gestalt waited behind some graves as Ryan found a conveniently empty space near the back of the graveyard. He set up the trap and placed the bait in the center. Gestalt could hear a soft click coming from the bait before Andrew dropped it and ran back to where Gestalt waited.

The second Andrew reached them and took cover behind the gravestone, Gestalt was hit with a blast wave of smells. It was like, someone had managed to combine all of their favorite scents all at once. There was the cinnamon scent of fresh apple pie, the dusty smell of old books, the fresh mint of a stick of gum, and at least seven other flavors which had no right to work together but somehow still did.

Each and every one brought to mind a memory of something in their past. Or at least the smells Ryan half could smell. The Blue half could smell amazing things and feel the emotional connection she had to them, but she had no clue what they were. It was like smelling something on the other side of a wall of fog.

“Hey, you alright?” Gestalt blinked as they felt an arm smack their shoulder. They glanced down and saw Andrew’s hand there. Oh right, the ghost dog, the whole reason they were here in the first place.

“Sorry, it’s just, that thing smells amazing. We kind of got lost in it,” they admitted as they crouched back down behind the gravestone again. At some point, they had stood up and started trying to climb over it.

“Huh, didn’t think it would work on you…” his whispering was interrupted as they heard a low growl. All words halted as they turned to see the object of the hunt.

Stalking their ways through the graves was what at first glance looked like a black retriever. However it only took a second look to notice things wrong with it. The eyes were empty, with nothing but fire on the inside. It made no noise as it walked, and parts of its coat had red markings that almost looked like carvings. And most noticeable of all was the steam. The constant steam billowing from the dog’s mouth, ears, eyes and nose.

It was quickly reached the bait. Two pairs of eyes locked onto it as it walked over the invisible line, leaving it trapped. Andrew took a calming breath before carefully aiming the shotgun right at the ghost hound’s face. He waited for the ghost to reach the bait and knell down to smell it and was ready to fire when a second growl came from his left.

Both Gestalt and Andrew turned to see a pair of red eyes at the end of the line of graves. The eyes approached and as they passed out of the shadow of the grave, they could see another ghost hound like the one in the trap. Andrew turned his gun only to hear a third growl from his right once again. Gestalt turned around to see a third ghost hound sneaking up behind them.

Both free hounds started barking, getting attention of the third still stuck in the trap. All three of them started barking and started running towards the pair, only for the trapped one to smash into an invisible wall and fall to the floor.

“Get ready!” Andrew aimed his gun and fired a shot at the first of the hounds as Gestalt ran towards the other one. They jumped and then used the boost to completely jump over the hound. From there they could land behind it and give it a kick or some… what was that light?

Gestalt could only watch as the hound looked up, unhinged its jaw, and began to glow from the inside. They brought their hands up and tried to will the ghost energy they used for boosts to form a shield in front of them. A tiny amount of blue mist appeared in front of them as a blast of fire erupted from the hound’s mouth. The mist held up just long enough for Gestalt to jump past the hound’s range. It closed its jaw and start turning around just to see a foot coming for its face.

On one hand, gestalt felt bad about fighting a dog. On the other hand, it was a ghost dog which had just tried to set them on fire. In the end, they felt a little bit guilty as the dog went flying back through the graves towards Andrew, but not too much.

“Heads up,” they called as Andrew turned with his gun and took aim at the dog flying right at him. With a single blast, the ghost was filled with holes and quickly faded away into the night. They all turned towards the one Andrew had shot first. It was dissolving just like the first one. With both of them taken care of, all that left was the trapped one.

The pair turned towards the trapped one only to see a fourth ghost hound about to roll a crystal with its nose, breaking the trap and letting the other one free.

With zero hesitation, Andrew reached into his jacket, pulled out the gas grenade, pulled the pin, and chucked it between both ghost hounds. The grenade hissed as a cloud of white mist erupted from it. The hound on the outside of the trap took one whiff and took off running, stumbling and nearly hitting a few of the graves on the way. The other hound had no choice but to sit there and take the full force of the mist. It nearly collapsed as Andrew took aim. Before he could pull the trigger, the fourth hound appeared again, lunging at him with its teeth out.

Andrew opened fire as Gestalt appeared crouched down in front of the dog. The exploded out of their crouch with their fist out and uppercuted the dog, sending it flying back. Andrew turned his gun to it as Gestalt jumped to the side. With nothing in the way, Andrew opened fire, taking care of the last of the dogs.

“And we’re done here,” Andrew said as walked over to the trap started waving away the mist. Once it was gone, he picked up the remains of grenade as well as the four crystals. With all of his gear back in his pocket, he turned around and spotted Gestalt looking at their hands.

“Something wrong kid?” He asked as Gestalt’s head snapped up to him. They blinked and then closed their eyes as the two of them separated back into Blue and Zach.

“Sorry about that, just…” Zach trailed off, as though unsure what to say.

“We got caught up in thinking about something.” Blue finished for him. “Don’t worry about it, just something we need to figure out on our own.”

Andrew shrugged his shoulders as Zach saw an out to this conversation.

“So what time tomorrow do you want to start doing the research on the clown ghost?” Andrew raised an eyebrow at the obvious attempt to change the conversation. Still, better let them know about this now.

“Yeah, about that.”