Ghosts

Haunting Gone Wrong.

*Next morning*

Cassie was woken by the sound of her dad screaming and the shower running. "Hot water's out." Cassie grumbled, dragging herself out of the warmth of the bed and heading towards the door of the room her dad was in. "THE HOT WATER'S NOT WORKING!!!" Jay shouted, causing Cassie to giggle. "Hey Isacc." She greeted as the ghost walked out of the bathroom.

"Oh. Hello there, Cassie." He replied before turning to the other ghosts in the hallway. "OK, people, he's coming out, man your posts!" He instructed.

"Good luck, everybody." Pete yelled down the corridor. "And have fun!"

"Fun? It's haunting." Cassie mumbled. The door opened as her dad said, "Just wait a second for your shower." Then yelling to Sam, "The hot water's out again!"

"One second." Sam called out.

"And... Go for it!" Isacc commanded Thor. Thor began to use his power to send the lights flickering in the hallway, which was successful in grabbing Jay's attention. "What the? 'Scuse Cass." He said, his daughter obeying and stepping aside to allow her dad to try turning the light switch on and off again. Cassie watched in sympathy as Thor struggled to battle against the light switch, and she couldn't help him unless she wanted to compromise the ghosts. Eventually, Thor lost concentration and started slowly collapsing, falling on his knees and lowering himself onto the floor. Jay, unaware, stared in confusion at the light that had stopped its constant flickering.

"Man down!" Isacc called. "Alberta, you're up. Trevor, you're on deck." Then tried ran to be further down the hall to watch his ghost army. He was stopped by Alberta, saying, "Y'know it kind of feels like I'm opening for Trevor. Now I don't need to headline this haunting bu-"

"NOT NOW!" lsacc hissed.

"Ugh, OK, fine." Alberta scoffed, beginning to hum as strongly as she could while focusing on Jay, who was strolling down the hall. "You OK, Thor?" Cassie asked the viking, who was still trying to regain his strength.

"Am fine, Little One." He reassured. "Now go. Can't ruin plan." Cassie reluctantly agreed and stood up, falling in stride with her dad as they travelled to the room Sam was currently in when Alberta's humming finally broke into the human world, causing Jay to look around the hallway in pure confusion. The ghosts believed their plan was finally working until Sam came in dancing in a very stiff, weird way, music blaring in the background. "Got the stereo working." She informed the duo, causing the ghosts to let out exasperated sighs. "Cool." Jay said, a twinge of fear started to grow. "Come on!" Pete said, gesturing for Isacc to do the one thing no one wanted. 'Oh no! Not the fart thing!' Cassie thought as she slyly sidestepped away from Isacc's path. Isacc sighed and looked up, preparing himself for this next, unplanned step. Once Jay was close enough, Isacc walked straight through him, sending a pungent scent in the air, causing the three livings' faces to contort in disgust. 'Trevor's right. It does smell like farts! BAD!' "Ugh! Babe!" Jay groaned disgusted.

"Nice try, that was you." Sam said.

"Are you on a juice cleanse?"

"Dad, no."

"Maybe it was you, Cass."

"I didn't fart in New York in front of you or anyone in public. Why would I do that now? Think Dad!" Cassie said, striding off to the stairs Hetty was currently on. "Oh, I wanna see how this 'fart fight goes down."

"Close it out, Trevor!" Isacc yelled, doubled over, heavily panting while the ghost behind him covered their noses from the smell that hung in the air. "You're our only hope!"

"Ok, you can't blame the other person when there's only one other person. Oh, no,no,no,no,no." Jay argued whilst Trevor was trying to focus really hard on making the vase fall. "Dad, ya sounded like a woman there."

"You know I couldn't produce that if I tried." Sam counteracted.

"Maybe it was a gas leak." Cassie volunteered, trying to hide the wince she felt as she could still Trevor screaming in a mix of pain and concentration.

"Come on, man!" Flower encouraged.

"Bring the fortitude!" Hetty said.

"That is disgusting!" Sam complained.

"Oh, come on. Gaslighter."

"Wait, you were still arguing about the fart thing?!" Cassie questioned in disbelief, still hearing the ghosts egg Trevor on, but to no avail.

"You got a cute butt, but it's got a foul mouth." Jay said to Sam as they left the room.

"Gross, Dad!" Trevor let out a disappointed cry as he realised he failed his mission.

Pete, ever the optimist, put a spin on their failed mission, "Huh. Haunting is hard. Who knew? Woo, that is rank!" He exclaimed as the bad smell still lingered.

"Shut up!" Isacc demanded, his hands on his knees as he recovered.

"Alright."

As the others gathered to try and create a new plan, Cassie went over to Trevor, who stood sulking, staring at the vase. She placed a hand on his shoulder, causing him to jump. "Oh yeah, sorry. A ghost in New York taught me how to harness this so I can, well, allow ghosts some form of human contact after death."

"That's actually pretty cool." Trevor admitted, still looking glum. By now, the other ghosts had left, except for Pete, who stayed watching the interaction.

"Hey, it isn't your fault." Cassie spoke softly, placing her hand back on his shoulder. "It looks like a pretty hard power to harness. You did your best, and that's what counts."

"Thanks, Cassie. How many friends do you have in New York?"

"Too many to count."

"That tracks. You seem like a really good friend." Trevor said, his smile returning.

"Hey, I got you to smile!" Cassie celebrated, causing Trevor to laugh. "Point for me." This caused Pete to smile, glad that Trevor had someone to bond with like every other ghost before him had. It reminded him of the bond he used to have with his daughter.

*******************

*Da Basement*

Jay opened the door and began to climb down, delving deeper into the basement with Sam on his heels. "Babe, what are you doing?"

"I'm gonna fix the water heater. It's probably just the gas, right? This has gotta be simple. Just turn the pilot on?" Jay asked, inspecting the water heater from the light of Sam's phone torch.

"This place is so creepy." Sam said, looking around before turning the light on, revealing several ghosts, all covered in scars and robes that looked like potato sacks. "Much better." Sam spoke, satisfied.

"Who are these guys?" A ghost with unkempt hair and beard questioned.

"I don't know." A balding ghost responded.

"Jay, that looks kind of ancient. Maybe we should just call a professional."

"No, no. We're not dumping a bunch of money into this house. Plus, I want to take a shower now. Then Cass does, and I am not allowing her to have a cold shower first thing in the morning."

"Counterclockwise." The bearded ghost instructed.

"Okay, it's just I don't think you know what you're doing." Jay then turned something which caused a loud THUNK! to be heard.

"Uh oh." The bearded ghost said

"That's not good." Spoke the balding ghost.

"That should do it." Jay said, satisfied.

"That won't do it." The bearded ghost spoke.

"I think I got it."

"He didn't." Informed the balding ghost. As Sam and Jay walked away, believing the problem was fixed, the basement ghosts were all smiling. "At least they left the light on." Said the balding ghost. However, they were plunged into darkness once again when Jay doubled back and turned the light off. "Dammit." One of the basement ghosts commented.