Chapter 8

About an hour later, Zach was walking the streets of South Palm City. Blue floated by him, looking at everything and taking in all the sights. They'd left the apartment building behind and were now walking through Palm Street, the main street that ran through the center of the town. There was even a free trolley car which took them up to their destination.

"Well, here we are," he announced as he jumped off the trolley and onto the sidewalk, "shopping street."

"Whoa, look's cool," Blue commented as they stood at the entrance of the street.

Shopping street was a wide street that crossed Main Street near the northern part of town. The whole place was one long strip of stores of every kind starting from Main Street and going until you reached one of the bridges to Sunny Shore. Most of the cars were expected to park in a nearby parking garage while the street was filled with pedestrians.

Zach walked down shopping street going past restaurants, a movie theaters, an arcade, café, and even a stage where he'd attended his first concert. Blue kept darting around, asking him about everything she saw. He openly grinned as he carefully answered her back in a low whisper.

But for all their searching, nothing helped Blue unlock anymore memories.

"It doesn't make any sense," Zach grumbled as he stood with his back to the fountain that marked the center point of Shopping Street. "Everyone in town goes to shopping street. Even the introverts and nerds come here for the comic book and game shops."

"Maybe I'm just not from here," Blue pointed out as Zach grimaced. She might have a point. If nothing in shopping street jogged any memories for her, then she probably wasn't a South Palm native. And since he wouldn't have any chances to leave the city anytime soon, he would need to start looking for other ways to investigate.

He looked around, making a little list of the nearby stores when he saw a certain bookstore in the distance. It was a creepy looking place with blacked out windows, a robed skeleton with glowing eyes and fog coming out from under the door. Most people would have called it creepy or out of place.

Zach called it Mr. Chopin's collection of curiosities, the place where'd found most of his books about the supernatural. He and the owner were on good terms, and let Zach know about anything knew that'd come in. Maybe it'd be worth it to take another look now that he had an actual ghost with him?

"Do you want to check that place out?" He subtlety pointed towards the store so only Blue would notice. "We might be able to find some more information over there."

"Sure I guess," Blue glanced over at the store subtly backed away. Zach took a step forward as Blue sifted so she'd be behind him. He took a single step forward and stopped. He took a slow, deliberate look back at Blue who starred at him. Blue crossed her arms as Zach raised an eyebrow at her. "It looks creepy."

"You'll be fine," he kept walking forward, occasionally glancing back to make sure Blue was still following him. "I've been to this place a whole bunch of times, and nothing's ever happened to me."

Zach neared the door and the robed skeleton lit up and turned to look at him. Blue shrieked and flew back as the skeleton laughed. Zach just starred at her, trying to silently tell her that she was a ghost, and therefore the scariest thing in this building. From the way she was pouting and trying to not look him in the eyes, he felt as though it had worked.

"You fought another ghost," he whispered as he opened the door and a wave of mist blew past his ankles. Blue silently trailed after him as he went in.

"Oh Zach, are you back in town already?" The store's owner, an elderly man by the name of Mr. Chopin, greeted him from his seat behind the counter.

"Yeah, family vacation's over and boy am I glad to be back," he sighed as Mr. Chopin laughed. The old man rose to his feet, grabbing the wooden skull cane next to him and shifting from behind the register.

"Well, if you want, I've had a few things brought in," he told Zach as he stood at the front of the store.

Blue alternated between starring at the odd old man and his equally odd store. The man was dressed in a black suit with long coattails and a blood-red undershirt. His white hair was carefully pulled back into a single ponytail and his face was cleanly shaved.

The store wasn't too strange in layout. There was a counter at the front, a window to the outside, and five sets of book cases filled with merchandise. Out of the corner of her eye, Blue could see a staircase leading up to a second floor with a balcony overlooking the store. If she floated up, she could see three smaller shelves up here.

What was strange was everything else. The counter was covered in a black cloth and the cash register was old and made of metal. The windows were covered in black cloth, and the whole place was instead illuminated by fake candles that somehow managed to light the room despite their small size. The floor was covered in a thin layer of mist that was coming from somewhere, but from where exactly, Blue had no clue.

And then there were the things on the shelves. Most of them were odd books on ghosts, vampires, witches, monsters, and other things which would have fit right in on Zach's shelves. But two of the shelves were covered in skulls, strange crystals, looking glasses, and bizarre metal tools she couldn't make heads or tails of. And those were just the thing she could understand.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

She grimaced in front of a glass jar filled with flowers that almost seemed to be moving around to follow her. Better to not think about it too much and just stick close to Zach.

"A few new things have come in, is there anything in particular you might like?" The old man asked as he led Zach through one of the aisles.

"Do you have anything on ghosts Mr. Chopin?" He asked as Blue saw the old man raise an eyebrow.

"Ghosts? Why I do have a new book on ghosts," he slowly walked down to the end of the shelf and pulled out a small book with a cloth cover. "Here we are, Famous Hauntings of the Northwest United States in the 20thcentury. Is this the sort of thing you were looking for?"

"No, not in particular," Zach admitted as he looked the book over. "But this one looks pretty nice. I'm looking for something more general. Like what to do once you've found a real ghost."

"Oh, any interesting stories for this old man?" Mr. Chopin smiled and Zach matched his grin.

"Well I had a bit of a supernatural encounter with the ghost out in Green Brook," a sudden look of understanding fell over Mr. Chopin.

"Oh you must be talking about Thomas Pickerpepper. Ugly story that one. All ghost stories are tragedies in their own ways, but there's something about his in particular that just feels plain ugly."

"You know it?" Zach asked as Blue's eyes widened.

"Oh I make sure to keep track of all the local ghost stories," he simply said. Blue almost wanted to point out that Green Brook was way too far away to count as local, but held back to not mess up Zach. "But unfortunately, I don't have any kind of book like the kind you're looking for."

"Don't worry about it, we can keep looking somewhere else," Blue said in Zach's ear before a bell somewhere in the store chimed. Blue looked around wildly, trying to find the source of the noise.

"But if that's what you're trying to find, I might have some tips for you," the old man smirked as Zach perked up. "I'm no ghost hunter, but I know too many to not pick some things up."

Mr. Chopin walked back to the front of the store and got out a piece of paper and a pen. He scribbled a few things and handed it to Zach just as the door opened again.

Blue looked back at the door and froze in place. Standing at the door was a normal looking man. He wore blue polo and black pants, with a black watch on his wrist. His hair was cut short and combed over, and his shoes were polished and neat.

And despite his sunglasses, Blue could feel in her soul that the man was looking right at her.

"Oh, Andrew, you're back in town?" Mr. Chopin asked with a chuckle. "Looks like all of my favorite customers are coming back all at once."

"Good to see you Mr. Chopin," Andrew politely greeted the old man before looking down at Zach. "Didn't know you had such young customers these days."

"Zach here is a bit of a horror fan," Mr. Chopin smirked, putting a weird emphasis on the words 'horror fan' that Blue didn't like one bit. It didn't help that right after he said them, the two men gave each other weird looks. Whatever unspoken message was passed between them, it was quickly forgotten. "Your delivery arrived. It's waiting for you upstairs."

Zach's eyes widened as he watched the older man headed to the stairs.

"Wait, I thought the second floor was off limits?" Zach asked the old man who just smiled at him.

"Oh, it is, to all but the most… specific of customers," he explained as the pair watched Ryan reach the second floor. "Don't envy him Zach, you don't want to be allowed up there. Although something tells me that you'll get up there sooner rather than later."

Blue felt weirdly uncomfortable as the old man just looked Zach in the eye.

"Okay then," Zach held up the paper Mr. Chopin had given him. "So thanks for the help. I'm going to go see if I can't get started on this before it gets too late."

"Good luck young Zach. And please, do stay safe," Mr. Chopin's smile dropped for just a second. "Ghosts are all fun and games until you start peeling back the layers."

"Got it Mr. Chopin, I'll be careful," Zach awkwardly said as he made his way out of the store and back into the sun. He reached the fountain again before looking at the paper and mumbling to himself. "Well that was weird."

"That place, and everyone in it, gave me the creeps," Zach's eye twitched as he looked at the actual ghost finding something else creepy. He took a deep breath before letting it go and looking at the paper again.

"Looks like one of the basic things to do is to research the ghost to try and find out who they are…" the two of them looked at each other with pursed lips, neither of them wanting to point out that they should have done that first. "I know a library we can go and use."

"Lead the way," Blue added as Zach powerwalked away from shopping street, wanting to get the trip over with as fast as possible.