Chapter 9

“I didn’t think it would be this hard,” Zach mumbled as he starred at the screen. His first thought was to look up Blue in the state’s death records. But those only searched by name, age and death date. Since he didn’t have any of those he was forced to think of something else.

With that end as dead as Blue herself, he tried using what he already knew. But looking up “Asian girl dead” along with her probably death date hadn’t done any good either. He had found a handful of newspaper articles about some dark incidents over the years, but none of them matched. Most of the cases happened far from Green Brook, and the few that were in the local area came with pictures of the deceased. None of the girls looked anything like Blue, and after a while, looking at the faces of dead girls old enough to be his classmates was starting to bother him.

He sighed as he closed the window and looked over at Blue. It was around noon on a weekday, so most of the library was empty, giving the pair a chance to just research without worrying about anyone wanting their PC.

“You got any other ideas,” he whispered to Blue as she starred at the screen.

“I guess… you can… maybe… I have no clue,” Blue hummed as Zach sat back to let her use the keyboard. She leaned down as he moved over so no one would see the keys moving on their own.

“Let’s see. How about ‘dead girls’… wait you already did that,” she grumbled at the screen as Zach thought back. From the moment he first met Blue to this very second. What had she known, what she hadn’t known…

Or maybe the key was something she didn’t knew she knew.

“Sorry,” He muttered as he took control of the PC again. He quickly opened a writing program and started typing.

“When we left the apartment and got on the trolley, did you have any trouble with the people? Did you feel squished in with the crowds?”

Blue read over the words and looked up, like she was trying to remember what she’d felt. After a second or two, she started typing back.

“No, it felt like nothing. It was just sort of normal. I didn’t feel anything different from normal.”

Zach saw back as he read her words. So now the question was, did that come from Blue being used to crowds, or was it due to her being an incorporeal ghost?

“So you had no trouble on the bus, everything felt familiar and normal to you?”

“Well yeah, it’s just a bus. I’ve been on…”

The words stopped as Blue froze. Zach’s fist tightened in victory as he realized he’d been on to something after all.

“I’ve been on them a million times before,” Blue whispered aloud before slowly floating away from the screen. “I… I don’t remember ridding the bus, but I know all about them. How to pay, how to get on, a route… I remember a route…”

Blue froze in place as Zach noticed her eyes starting to glow.

At the same time, within Blue’s mind, she could see an image appear in front of her. She was alive again, and looking at a map of the local bus routes. It was a colorful map of the whole county and all she had to do to get home was…

There was a car honk from the left that caught her attention. She turned away from the map as the memory started to fade.

She blinked and found herself back in the library. She looked down and saw Zach starring at her, and the few other people in the library starring at him in turn. He seemed to be ignoring them so she did the same. She darted down to the PC as Zach moved to the side so she’d be able to use it comfortably.

“Let’s see here, need a map of the county… Now that’s not right,” she frowned at the screen in front of her. It was a map of the bus routes in the county, but it wasn’t the right one. It was kind of similar, with all the population on the eastern coast and nothing to the west, but it was too tall. The map she remembered was wider than it was tall.

She said all this to Zach who quickly took back the keyboard and searched something. A few keystrokes later and Blue was grasping the sides of the monitor.

“That’s it! That’s the map I remember from my memory,” Blue declared as Zach contemplated what this meant. On the screen was the bus routes for Broward County, the county to the north of them. If this was the map she was remembering, then Blue was no local. And if she was from Broward, then that explained everything. Everything they had looked up had been with the assumption that she’d been from Miami-Dade.

“We’re going to have to start all over, but at least we know what to look for this time,” Zach mumbled to himself with a tight grin. “Or at least, we know a little more than before.”

Blue floated back to watch Zach start researching again when she felt a shiver going down her back. Strange considering that she was dead, but she was pretty sure she wasn’t imagining it. She turned around to see if she could spot whatever was causing it.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

There, sitting at the table, she saw him. The same causal clothing, the same watch, and the same pair of sunglasses that seemed to see her instead of see through her like almost everyone else. She gulped as she slowly floated down to Zach.

“Zach, I think we might need to run,” she whispered, “don’t look behind you, but the guy from the spooky bookstore is looking at me…”

“He’s looking at you? Or is he looking at me?” He asked as he started swinging his legs around.

Blue moved around a bit in the air, just to see if his head would track her through the air. He didn’t do that, instead he just got up and started walking towards them.

“Me, he’s looking at me, no doubt,” and that was all Zach needed. He got up from the desk and started power walking towards the exit. As soon as he picked up the pace, he could start to hear a pair of feet following after him.

“Have a nice day,” the clerk at the front desk waved as he passed by her. He did the same, trying to not look like anything was out of place even as Blue was trying to get him to hurry.

Zach walked past the entrance and immediately broke into a run as Blue dashed through the air besides him. She took advantage of her legless state to look behind them.

“He’s started running too,” Zach grimaced as he ran out onto the sidewalk wand tried to think of where he could go. Maybe the police station? No, too many streets in the way and Andrew could catch up to him while he was waiting on a light. Maybe he could run back home? No, that would just end with Andrew knowing where he lived. Maybe back to shopping street?

Zach almost stumbled as the idea hit him. Shopping street was the perfect choice. It wasn’t too hard to get from here, and it was big and public enough that Ryan wouldn’t be able to do anything.

Zach smirked as he ran down the hallway, destination in mind and plan in hand. At least, he was smirking until they reached the edge of the sidewalk and Blue came to a stop.

“What is this?” She angrily demanded of the air in front of her. Zach skidded to a stop and looked back at Blue and the ever approaching Andrew.

“What’s wrong?” He asked as he looked at the spot in the air where Blue was yelling.

“There’s this wall here, it’s keeping me from going any farther.”

Zach starred at the air for a second and saw a shimmering light that could have been a wall. It was almost impossible to see, but it was there.

Blue looked back and saw Andrew about to catch up. She grimaced at the wall and started flying down the side, Zach following after her.

Over the course of the next few minutes, Blue kept finding more and more walls. Each and every one forced her to change her course and took the pair further and further away from Shopping Street. And after the third or so turn, Zach noticed something else. Each and every turn had funneled them towards a quieter, emptier part of town.

They made one last turn only to arrive at a small park with walls on almost every side. Blue flew to the brick wall at the back and found the barrier floating over it. She grimaced before following the path of the walls. All it took was one loop to confirm her fears. They had reached a dead-end and the only way out of here was back the way they came.

“We’re trapped in here,” she floated down to Zach who looked back at the entrance of the park. Standing there was Andrew, a tight frown on his face. “The only way out is through him.”

“Well, I don’t want to do this, but are you ready to put all that practice to use?” It took a second for Blue’s spectral brain to figure out what he was saying. As soon as it did, she dived towards him as Zach braced himself.

The Marble and Blue Flame Heart appeared in the void. Chains materialized around it as a pair of imagined guns had their triggers pulled.

Gestalt opened their eyes to see Andrew grimacing at them. They put their fists up in the best fighting stance either half of them knew.

“An overshadow? So you’ve taken a hostage?” Andrew reached into his pocket and took out a small vial. “No matter, I’ll force you of him and have this done by sundown.”

Gestalt watched Andrew as he suddenly threw the vial at them. They jumped back as the vial smashed onto the pavement in front of them. The blue liquid hit the open air and exploded into a cloud of blue gas. They eyed the gas as it slowly approached them despite the wind blowing the other way. It was almost like it was crawling towards them.

They ran back only for Andrew to dash through the cloud and grab at Gestalt. They jumped back and made the blue circle under their feet. They used their second jump to flip over Andrew and land on the nearby grass.

They landed with their back to him and turned around just in time to see him quickly approaching with some sort of stick in his hand.

Andrew swung down and Gestalt took advantage of their advanced senses. They swung their arm up and blocked his arm, stopping his momentum and dropping the stick to the ground. As it fell, it slightly brushed against Gestalt’s arm. Their eyes widened as they felt an electrical shock erupt from the point of contact.

In their head, the blue flame flickered as the chains made a worrying sound. The winced in pain but recovered quickly enough to launch a punch at Andrew. The older man just barely managed to move his head out of the way when Gestalt felt a pain in their stomach. They coughed as all the air rushed out of them.

“Sorry about that kid,” Andrew dug his knee of out of Gestalt’s stomach, “but it’s for your own good.”

“Somehow I don’t believe you,” Andrew’s eyes widened under his sunglasses as Gestalt got to their feet. Gestalt flexed their fingers as an idea came to them. Something [He/Zach] had seen on TV they’d be able to use here.

Gestalt ran forward and swung his foot at Ryan in a high kick. Ryan brought his arms up to block the hit, only for a blue circle to appear right in front of the foot. The older man had no time to dodge as he was hit with a small explosion of force and blue smoke.

Of course, Gestalt didn’t fare any better. The force of the blast sent the strange existence off balance. They fell backwards with their back on the grass just in time to look up to see Andrew falling to the ground a few feet away.

“How’d you like that?” Gestalt taunted as they got to their feet. “You still want to do this?”

In all honestly, Gestalt really hopped the older man would say no. They were already feeling the strain of the merge and there was a non-zero chance they’d just hurt their foot with that last move. But until the older man said something, they’d keep their guard up.

Andrew got to his feet and didn’t immediately get ready to fight them again, which Gestalt took as a good sign. Instead, he was watching them with a careful eyes with his hands dropped to his sides.

“The eyes and markings of an overshadow, but with the control of an undershadow? And all that with some sort of voice synchronization? Just what are you?”

“I’ve started calling myself Gestalt when we’re like this,” they carefully said as they could feel the fight ending.

“A creation greater than its parts… I suppose it would fit,” Andrew stared at Gestalt with new eyes. “So assuming that you’re not possessing that boy against his will, I think we have a lot to talk about.”

Gestalt blinked and allowed their chains to drop as Blue emerged from Zach. The pair looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders. They’d started the day by trying to find information, but in the end, it looked like it had found them instead.