Chapter 28

"You know…" Zach glanced up at his grandpa as the two made their way down the forest path back from the cabin. Neither had said a word since leaving the ritual room, so Zach was curious to see what the older man had chosen to break the silence with. "With everything going on, I think I choose the right time to retire."

"What do you mean?" His grandfather chuckled and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Zach, I don't think you understand how insanely powerful you are." Zach raised an eyebrow. "That trick you pulled in there, creating that little ball of pure psychic energy, never seen anyone do something like that, ever."

"Is that rare?" When he'd first started practicing manifesting the energy like this, a blast of energy had felt like a natural extension of his skills.

"God yes," his grandpa muttered. "Do you know how hard it is to draw up as much energy as you did? I can only think of a couple of psychics who could do something like that, and they all have years on you. Most psychics just figure out how to levitate objects, and maybe push and pull people like Aoi can."

"Well when we started with the whole levitation thing, but after figuring out the whole 'energy blast thing' we kind switch over." He admitted with a shrug. "It just felt… more useful? Maybe I could go back to it?"

"Why not give it another try?" The two of them came to a stop as the older man led Zach to the edge of the road. He gestured out towards the woods. "The forest is filled with sticks and leaves, why don't you see what you can pick up?"

"Well, no harm trying." Now how did he do this again? He thought back to Gestalt's training on the Broken Beach. He'd done half the work last time, time to see if he could do the whole thing.

He held his arm out with his open palm forward and let out a pulse. The wave of blue went forward rolling and enveloping every small thing it could. Anything too big or heavy was ignored as the wave went past in its quest to pick up as much as it could.

Once it had gone as far as it could, Zach closed his hand into a fist and pulled his arm back. Her grit his teeth as a blue glow erupted from the forest.

"Holy mother of god," Zach heard his grandpa mutter at the sight in front of them. He hadn't just picked up a few leaves and a stick. Instead every single loose object on the ground in a ten foot radius rose from the ground, surrounded by a blue glow. Leaves, sticks, small rocks, and what appeared to be a wallet. There must have been enough here to fill a few trash cans at least.

"I'd ask you to try and pick up a tree or something, but I'm scared you'd pull it off." Zach's grandpa grimaced as Zach let it all drop to the ground, the rocks and sticks making a mess of scattered bangs as they made impact. "How are you feeling after that Zach?"

"About the same," he put it plainly as his grandpa's face shifted to a slight scowl. Instead of answering back right away, the older man started leading them back down the road.

"First Aoi, then the girl in Caroline Key, then Trevor, and now you." He grumbled as Zach felt the weight of the older man's hand on his shoulder again. "Four insanely powerful psychics, all of them young and untested, all of them appearing in the last ten years. It almost feels like the world is building up to something."

"Well isn't that a comforting thought…" Zach grumbled.

"In other news, I think I have a new idea," His grandpa put on a smile, probably to try and bring the mood back up. "Remember how I mentioned how different kinds of psychics have specialties? It could be that being able to perceive and deal with ghosts is one of these specialties. Of course this just means it's even stranger that the two groups don't seem to know each other."

"Didn't know each other," Zach countered. "After everything I've figured out, there's no way I'm not going to tell them all of this."

"Just be careful. Watch what you say and who you say it to. Exorcists have been split off from the rest of us psychics, there may be a reason why." Zach nodded as his grandpa's warning before the old man scratched the back of his head. "Here I am bringing down the mood when I was trying to bring it up. What I was trying to say before I got distracted, was that since exorcism is a specialty of psychic abilities, you could probably still learn general skills."

"You mean stuff besides levitating objects and shooting energy blasts?" It would be nice to have a few more tools in his arsenal. Anything worth learning would probably take to master before the Nightmare made Manifest hit, but who knew what the future held.

"Oh much more than that. I'll give you a couple of books I have up in the attic before you go." He smiled. "I was going to pass them down to your Mother or Uncle, but when neither of them inherited the gift like me, I figured better to save them for a psychic grandchild, and now I have two."

"What about Trevor?" Zach pointed out as his grandpa shrugged.

"Trevor's a bit closer, so it's easier to teach him in person. Plus with his skillset, book learning won't be as useful for him. What he needs is practical training."

"Oh I suppose that makes sense." Zach nodded.

"Plus I only have one set of books and I am not crawling back to the rest of the family to ask them to print me a new one," Zach's eyes widened at his grandpa's words. Was he actually talking about the rest of his family? "Not after the stunts they pulled with your grandma. Try to force me into a marriage I don't want…" the older man spit onto the ground.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Huh," Zach watched the wet spot on the ground as his brain made a couple of connections. "I'm starting to see why you don't talk about them that often."

"Don't worry about it Zach, the only thing you inherited from those monsters are your green eyes and psychic abilities." He smirked and looked upwards. "And even those you unlocked with the help of an outsider."

Zach smiled at the words as his grandpa looked around into the dark woods.

"Speaking of, where is that little ghost of yours? She flew out during that whole thing with Aoi right? Did she ever come back?"

"No, but…" Zach took a second to pick his words here. "I can still feel here close by. It's hard to explain, but after a while I was just… able to tell how far away she was. She's been keeping her distance, but I can tell she's following us."

"Okay then, good to know…" he trailed off, like there was something else he wanted to say. Zach could guess what it was. A single look from grandson to grandpa was all it took to kill the conversation before it could start.

Probably for the best. There wasn't anything the older man could tell Zach which would change his mind. Blue was a person, simple as that. She wasn't like other ghosts, she was stable, and funny and his friend…

Did he owe Aoi for her existence? Did her coming back from the dead help Blue keep herself stable? It would make sense, that was the big thing separating Blue from any other ghost.

He would just have to ask Andrew and Lady Gray after the Nightmare Made Manifest passed through town. Speaking of the disaster, he wondered if he should tell his grandpa about it. It might get them some extra help… which it sounded like they might need… but other psychics couldn't see ghost. The one exception seemed to be Aoi, and she had made one so she was outlier anyway.

No, any dreams of a psychic/ exorcist alliance would have to be put on hold for now. At least until after the Nightmare made Manifest was dealt with.

They reached the house a couple of minutes later. Zach's grandpa was the first to go in. Zach himself was about to go in to the house right after him when he noticed a blue glow right behind him.

"Oh, you made it," he turned back and found Blue floating a couple of feet away. His ability to sense her wasn't as exact as he'd liked. He'd known she was following her, but never noticed her getting this close.

"Hi." She said simply before floating over to his side.

"Can you give me a second grandpa?" he asked the older man who silently nodded and closed the door. Zach walked to the side of the door and onto the porch, reaching the far end and leaning on the wooden railing. Blue took her place floating right next to him.

"So how much of our conversation did you listen in on? Need to know what parts to fill you in on." He gave her a comforting smile. Talking about the main issue at hand would only upset Blue, so best to talk about something else. Plus, Blue already knew he saw her as a real person, no point in going over that.

"Most of it," Blue admitted and then copied Zach's pose to float her elbows right above the railing. "You don't have to fill me in on anything."

"Okay then… so what did you think of the whole levitation thing?" Blue smiled as she remembered the glowing blue forest. Zach cheered internally at the sight of Blue's happiness. His plan to distract her and cheer her up was working.

"Made me think of what we could do as Gestalt," Despite itself, Blue felt its metaphorical heart rise. Even after everything he'd learned today, Zach was still willing to think of a mere footprint as a friend. Just went to say how good a friend he was.

"So what else do you think we could find in those books?" he glanced up at the attic and smiled. "Maybe some crazy stuff like making ourselves invisible."

"That would be nice. I'm sure whatever we find, you'll be able to figure out no problem." There was no point in it wondering what secrets the books would hold. She was nothing more than a footprint, with no right to voice opinions or even have them in the first place.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Zach smiled as he got off the railing. Blue floated away from it, following his lead. "Good to see that you're doing okay after everything that happened in there."

Blue just laughed, managing to even fool itself with fake cheer as the two of them went back into the house.

The next day, Zach's grandpa would drive them back with a small chest of books loaded into the trunk. Without any trouble in Carolina Key to slow them down, they made the trip a lot faster this time.

"Are you sure you don't want any help." Zach's grandpa warned him as Zach himself rubbed his hands together.

"Need to get all the practice I can, right Blue?" The ghost just nodded from her spot to the side. She'd been oddly quiet during the trip, but Zach was sure she'd be back to normal in no time.

With that said, he reached for the heavy chest and concentrated as a blue aura surrounded it. With muscle and mind combined, he had no trouble bringing it in without Blue's help.