Chapter 23

Zach buzzed in his seat as he kept darting his eyes to the clock. Only a few more minutes and his grandpa would be here and they’d be off the Green Brook.

“Is there something you’re not telling us?” His dad asked from the couch as he flipped through TV channels. “You look way too excited for a teenager about to visit a town in the middle of nowhere. There has to be something else there.”

Zach froze, glancing towards Blue who just shrugged her shoulders. He looked back at his parents and thought about just telling them everything. About ghosts, about Blue, about being an exorcist, about the real reason he wanted to go to Green Brook.

And before a single word could leave his mouth, he squashed the thought like the little bug it was.

“Oh let’s just say I have a sneaking suspicion I know what grandpa wants to talk to me about.” He lied through a smile. In all honesty he had no clue what could be so important, but there was no way it was as important as what he was actually there to do.

“Oh, mind telling us your theory?” His mom walked into the room holding a folder. Zach felt his heart skip a beat before noticing the name of the realtor group his mom was a part of on the front. He really needed to put those files in a different colored folder.

Maybe black. It was more fitting with his look and his mom could question them less. Did they even make manila folders in black? He would have to look into that once he made it back home.

His momentary distraction was broken by the sound of someone knocking on the door. Zach zoomed over there and threw the door open.

Looking at his maternal grandfather always gave Zach the feeling he was standing in front of a fun house mirror. One which made him look older, and replaced his dad’s small ears with a bigger set. It also replaced his dark colored t-shirt and jeans for a deep red dress shirt and pants. At least the hair was the same shape, even if it was pure white instead of pitch black.

“Hey there grandpa,” Zach stepped back to allow the older man to come in, “how was the trip up?”

“Quick and uneventful,” he didn’t say anything further until his daughter walked out into the hallway. The older man finally smiled as he threw his arms open for a hug. “Taylor, good to see you again.”

“Hey there dad, are you going to be staying long?” She asked as Zach’s dad looked on. “You want anything to eat? We were about to make something for lunch.”

“No can do. I’m on a bit of a time crunch and need to head out now. Zach and I can get something quick to eat on the way.”

Zach’s mom pulled herself out of the hug and gave her father a chiding eye.

“Dad, you know what the doctor said. You need to start taking care of yourself more.” Her own dad waved away her concern.

“A single burger isn’t going to kill me,” he tried to give her a confident smirk, but it faded as he looked back at Zach who was still standing by the door, “especially with that I’ve been through. Zach, you ready to head out?”

“Pretty much,” he held up the backpack he’d left by the front door the night before, “I’m ready to head out when you say the word.”

“Good, go wait for me in the car, I need to talk to your mother about a few things.” His dad coughed and the older man smirked. “Oh and I guess Lucas too.”

“Sure thing grandpa, I’ll be waiting for you.” He said as he took off out the door, blue following after him.

It didn’t take him long to find his grandpa’s beaten up old car in the garage. It was parked in the one of the guest spots. Blue was the first one next to it.

“Wow, this thing is kind of beat up. You sure it’s can make the trip all the way to Green Brook? Not much point in trying to figure out my past if you just end up joining me as a ghost.”

Zach ignored her morbid joke as he took off his bag and leaned with his back to the wall. Now all they had to do was wait.

A couple of minutes later, Zach watched his grandpa emerge into the parking garage with a smile on his face. He waved over to Zach before taking out the key.

A couple of minutes later, the three travelers were driving down the road. Zach scanned the side of the road, looking for a fast food restaurant.

“How about Burger Queen?” Zach pointed out the incoming fast food joint.

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“My stomach did flips last time I ate something from there. Anything but there.” His grandfather shivered in place as he drove past it. He took a quick glance to the side of the road and smiled. “How do you feel about Burrito Drum? I love that place.”

“Never really gotten anything from there. I guess I can try it.” Zach shrugged as his grandfather pulled over into the drive through. A couple of minutes later, grandfather and grandson were enjoying delicious, if fake Hispanic food as an envious ghost looked on from the back seat.

“You’re going to need start forming Gestalt with me more often,” she pouted as Zach hid his laughter into his burrito, “I want to taste stuff too.”

The rest of the trip went by uneventfully, with Zach and his grandfather making idle conversation and Blue occasionally putting in an odd word here or there. Zach felt himself relax, even with the missing persons files hidden the backpack in the backseat.

At least, until the car reached the last gas station before the bridge to Carolina Key. Zach’s grandfather pulled over despite the car’s tank still being half full and there being plenty of stations on the island itself.

Zach expected his grandfather to pull up, get gas, and then head out again. Instead he parked near the corner of the parking lot and started opening the door.

“Okay out of the car,” he had already put one leg out onto the concrete, “I have something to show you.”

Zach looked at his grandfather n confusion for a second before shrugging his shoulders and getting out of the car to follow him, a second later, he noticed Blue joining him out of the corner of his eye. The three of them made their way to the edge of the parking lot until they found a spot where they could clearly see the bridge and the island on the other side.

And just like that, Blue remembered. It wasn't a memory from life, but from death. The last time she'd gone through Carolina Key, she'd felt something there so powerful it could have swallowed her whole.

Her first sight of Sunny Shore and the resulting memory it unlocked had managed to make her forget. But now that she was back here, staring at the island in question, it all came flying back to her.

Zach found himself standing in front of a shivering Ghost using him for cover. Blue's sudden shift in demeanor was enough to make him forget who he was next to. He looked back in clear concern before his grandfather's words brought him back to the present.

"You can feel it, can't you?" There was a sad smile on his face as he brought his arm around Zach's shoulder for a one handed hug. "You have no idea what it is, but you just know there's something on that island. Something powerful, something dangerous."

“What are you talking about Grandpa?” Zach kept glancing between the island and Blue still shivering behind him.

“Don’t lie Zach, you’re not good enough for it,” the older man snickered as Zach heard blue slowly approach his other ear. “Now focus boy, tell me what you really see.”

“I’m sorry about this, buy you need to see this.” Zach braced himself as Blue went into him. The marble and blue flame heart, the chains, the finger gun. Zach closed his eyes, the pair pulled the trigger, and Gestalt opened theirs.

And almost immediately fell apart once he saw the island. Or rather, once he could feel what was over it.

At first glance, it didn’t look too sinister, just impossible. A glass dome covered the whole island, solid looking at the top and becoming more transparent as you went down. The glass was mostly clear with a faint purple tint, and near the very top were small clouds of smoke circling around.

And with the sight came the grip. Gestalt gulped as a giant hand wrapped itself around them. They had to tear their eyes away from the island just to check to see if there wasn’t anything there.

There wasn’t but they could still feel the fingers.

“Calm down and stay still,” [his/Zach’s] grandpa advised and Gestalt followed through, “it’s only checking you out. Once it feels you’re too strong for it to control, it’ll back off by itself. Try to fight off and it’ll see you as a threat.”

Gestalt nodded as the fingers poked and prodded them, like they were an [action figure/doll] being inspected by a curious child…

“Really?” The two halves of Gestalt asked each other after feeling that last disconnect.

“Yes, really. Now calm down. Once it lets you go I can explain some things,” the older man looked at Gestalt and raised his chin. “Huh, an empowered state marked by glowing blue eyes and a blue stripe going down the torso. That’s a new one.”

“Wait you can see those?” Gestalt let themselves relax as the fingers finally let go of them.

“Of course I can boy. Where did you think you inherited those psychic powers you’ve been throwing around all summer, your dad?” The older man barked out a laugh as Gestalt took a step back and tried to process that single word.

“Psychic… what? But I’m not…” The two halves of Gestalt felt each other’s minds working in overdrive. Taking everything they already knew of ghosts, and how their powers worked, and linking it all to the new word they were given. Well, there was one way to test this…

Gestalt closed their eyes and choose to split apart. Zach turned to his grandfather and pointed at Blue. Time to get some answers.

“Grandpa, can you see her?” Blue gulped and turned towards the older man. She did a polite bow and started fidgeting with her hands.

“Her? Well I do know there’s something there.” he scratched his beard and started inspecting the space where Blue was floating, “But I thought it was… well back in my day we called them guardians, but from what I’ve heard, young psychics have a new name for them. Watchers because they ‘watch’ your back or some nonsense like that.”

“And just what is a watcher or… guardian?”

“A physical manifestation of your psychic abilities, which can them be used to extend your will upon the world. I imagine you got… ‘her’ after a moment of trauma or danger forced your powers to the forefront?”

“No.”

And with the single word, Zach completely threw his grandfather off from his game. The older man coughed and waited for Zach to continue.

“Blue here’s not a part of me. She’s a ghost of someone who died. I can fuse with her in order to get powers, but none of it is mine… I think.” Zach looked down at his fingers. “At least, that’s what I thought until you threw the word ‘psychic’ at me.”

The three of them stood in a silent circle until Zach’s grandpa started to walk away back to the car.

“I think…” He took a second to collect his thoughts, “the two of us need to have a longer conversation, but we need to get in there to back up your cousin.”

“Wait my cousin? Who…?” he called out as he and Blue rushed back to the car.

“I’ll give you the details later, for now, tell me everything you about these so called ‘ghosts’."