Thick as Thieves

Ghost Machine

Ghost watched the old man's house; the machine shown them what he had done all those years ago. They never went in, though, but one man did. Ghost heard the raised voices as Ed screamed at the man to leave his house. They watched the man walk stiffly to his car, quickly shifting their eyes down as they realized he had been one of the people from that night.

The night the machine was taken from Ghost. But the movement caught the man's attention.

The man glared over at Ghost "You!"

Ghost was grateful for the fence between them and the man and booked it across the dog park.

"Oi!"

Ghost quickly touched a woman's hand, playing it off as bumping into her.

"Do you mind..." The woman argued.

"Sorry!" Ghost called out. They changed their mind as they realized she was elderly, and that wouldn't do for a quick getaway. Ghost jumped over fences to tire the man out, only to realize their mistake when a brick wall was too tall to jump over, and the other gate had a padlock.

"So you're the Ghost," The man stated.

"Don't hurt me, please," Ghost pleaded as they held out their arm to keep a distance.

"I'm not going to hurt you. I'm going to bloody kill you,"

***

"Why do they call you Ghost?" The man questioned inside a pub.

Ghost shifted uncomfortably in their seat "I'm good at hiding," they shrugged only to stiffen when more people joined the table, people from that night.

"Well, this is cozy." A man in suspenders stated, "I hope he bought you flowers,"

"Look." Ghost said as they stood up "I'm flattered, but I'm not a prostitute. And even if I was, I don't do foursomes, no matter how good-looking they are," They looked over at the woman who had taken them down that night in the station. "So I'm gonna...."

The man in suspenders placed the machine on the table. "Well, it's worth knowing we're probably the only people you can tell,"

Ghost sighed and took their seat again. "I was using this lock-up down on Moira Street. It used to belong to this old guy. Soft in the head, he was. There was still loads of his stuff, but I chucked most of it. There was this old biscuit tin full of foreign coins, weird bits of rock, and that." They nodded to the machine. "Thought it might be worth something. I might take it down the Antiques Roadshow or something,"

"Yeah,"

Ghost rolled their eyes "Well, you don't know, do you? Cash in the attic and all that. So I take the tin home with me and that thing starts switching itself on. It makes you see things. Real things. Real people. I was down at the old wharf in the bay. I saw this woman with a bundle. Something wrapped up. It was nighttime, and she was putting it into the water, all secret-like. She was scared. She knew what she was doing was wrong. I knew without seeing it was her baby, wrapped up, dead. She hadn't told anyone. Then she just ran away," They looked up and realized that the team was looking at them differently; Ghost glanced down and realized that they had done it again. They stood up abruptly and backed away. "I can explain..."

The man in suspenders grabbed Ghost's arm and began dragging them out of the pub.

"Please...Please, just let me go...." Ghost looked up at the man that was dragging them to their unknown fate. "I can show you where the other half is,"

***

Ghost watched as the team scowered their room as they were handcuffed to ensure they didn't run off.

"The other half," The man in suspenders handed the piece to the Asian woman.

"Weird bits of rock. Foreign money," The officer woman listed off.

The man in suspenders walked over to the items "Alien rock. Alien money. Driftwood, washing in through the rift. So, Ghost, was this thing in two halves when you found it?"

"I got it," The Asian woman cheered. "Like clicking Lego together,"

The officer took it from the Asian woman and looked over at Ghost "You split this into two pieces, didn't you?"

"I only used it once." Ghost explained, "That half, anyway. I couldn't use it again,"

"Why not?"

"I don't have many memories of who I am. Don't even know if this what I actually look like..." Ghost recalled as they looked in the mirror "All I remember is the name of the warehouse where I found that thing. I swear I was only looking for answers, but considering what they did to me. I wasn't going to let them have a device that they could use against others,"

"What was the name?" The officer asked.

"YANA"