Jimmy Casket watched from a hole in the dark wall. He was spying on Johnny Ghost.
Ghost was tied up and gagged to a wooden chair in the middle of a dark, dirty room filled with bones and empty cartons and cans.
Casket smiled. It was all going to plan. He looked at his watch. 6:43 AM; perfect. "Wake up," he said. Ghost started to stir. He twitched a few times. Suddenly, he threw his head up, looking around at this surroundings. All he could see was the darkness around him; and the reek of mold and blood. Suddenly he heard shrill laughter.
A window of light flashed against his eyeballs, making him squint. A dark, hunching figure stood in the open doorway. "Rise and shine, Johnny!" Casket said, walking into the room. "Had a good sleep? Yeah, I thought so." He flipped a switch on the wall and a blinking lightbulb dimly illuminated the dreary room. Casket's face was shocking; almost a year ago Casket had looked like a young adult. But now, he looked like a teenager...but with the face of a wise old man. Casket pulled a sizable curved knife out of his jean pocked it and waved it in Ghost's face.
"Now, I thought I had killed you for sure the first time I shot you. But I didn't feel the world burn...so I tried a second time and planted a bomb on the ambulance you were on. I braced myself but felt nothing but anger. So I left you to bleed to death on 29 Avenue. Well, I know now you don't die easily...In fact I even came to the conclusion that time couldn't be made new again...Hopefully I can prove that wrong." Casket said, now pacing around Ghost on the chair. "Mmph ma mpeumph mauph mmph mouh mmphing mhmm?" Ghost attempted to say through the dirty rag in his mouth. Casket laughed, "I've done it again," he said, pulling the rag out of Ghost's mouth. Saliva and blood dripped out of his mouth. "What in the name of- what are- why am I- no, what...WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOU-" Ghost mumbled as the rag was forced back into his mouth. "Don't yell, John, you're making my already-painful head turn around it its socket!"
He took the rag out again. Ghost growled "Where am I and what's your plan?" Casket looked down. "Aw, but you figuring it out is always the best part of our playtime!" "PLAYTIME?" "Well what else would you call it?"
"MURDER, CRIME, MI-"
The rag went right back in. "Playtime, exactly. At least that's what I used to call it..." Casket looked into Ghost's bloodshot eyes. "Don't you remember? You pointed a gun at my head. You said I was under...arrest. Oh I try hard to remember the name you were arresting me under but it was so idiotic." Casket stood up, scratching his head. "Oh darn, I forgot, time travel hasn't been invented yet, has it?" he said. Ghost's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. Casket smiled, leaning down at Ghost. "Oh my...We do have a lot to talk about. But..." he removed the gag. "I want you to talk back because hopping back and from through time is just... exhausting. You tend to forget where you are. I won't say much."
"Just what you need to do."
