Ghost Boy || Boyf Riends

.:9:.

Michael was pacing back and forth in his living room, Christine and Jeremy sitting on the couch and watching him.

"How didn't I see this before?" Michael said, mostly to himself. He'd been pacing and thinking for an hour. Jeremy was surprised his legs hadn't given out. "He has degrees in technology and psychology, of course he created the fucking Squip!"

As Jeremy listened, he heard someone hiss, "Jeremy!"

He looked up and saw Selena, poking her head through Michael's front door. Jeremy smiled and stood up, walking outside. "Selena! Hey! You disappeared the other night, I wasn't sure what happened to you."

She didn't acknowledge that he said anything, frowning. "You need to stop looking."

Jeremy faltered. "What?"

"Stop looking," She said again, more firm this time. "There's no point."

"But... Selena I'm so close! We already know who it is, we just gotta find him!"

"So close to what?" Selena asked bitterly, taking a step closer to him. "Coming back to life? Finding a way to talk to Michael, just to confess and have to leave him for good?"

Jeremy blinked. "What the fuck are you talking about? Confess what? I'm trying to figure out why I was killed! I want to know why my life was taken away from me! I was finally happy, after so long, and it got stepped all over!" Jeremy had taken a step closer as well. They were glaring at each other, threateningly close to one another.

"Is that a good enough reason for you?" Jeremy asked lowly, not waiting for an answer before he stepped back into the house, fuming with anger.

Michael was still venting to Christine. Christine stood and tried to speak logically. "Michael, we don't know if it was him."

"Bullshit," Michael said. "Who else could it have been? His ID was there. You said it yourself, he didn't want to be found. Why else would he try to erase himself like that?!" Michael growled, pacing again. "I'm gonna beat the shit out of him."

"Michael!" Christine frowned. "He's an old man!"

"Yeah, Chris, and old man who murdered a 16 year old kid! He deserves what I have for him."

Michael looked around frantically for the ID card, grabbing his laptop and sitting down to begin looking. Jermey sat next to him and looked at the screen, as did Christine on Michael's other side.

The three of them sat on that couch searching for hours. They decided they would tell the others when they found out how to find Dr. Takahashi. For now though... They still had to find him.

Christine stood, making phone calls and asking around, while Jeremy and Michael stayed at the computer.

The sun had began to go down by the time Christine set her phone down, and they found nothing.

"It's hopeless." Christine said.

"No, it isn't."

"Yes it is, Michael."

"No, Christine!" Michael out the computer down and stood up. "It isn't! We-- we just have to keep looking! I am not resting until I find that man!"

Christine sighed. "Alright. Well, I think we should look on the bridge again. You could have missed something."

Michael nodded. "Good idea... I'm sorry."

Chris smiled a bit. "It's okay. C'mon."

They walked along the bridge, using what little sunlight they had to look around. They searched between cracks, under pieces of metal, in between rivets. They even looked under the bridge, but there was nothing.

Jeremy sighed, hugging himself. It was hopless. They couldn't find anything, and he'd stay a ghost forever, and he'd never get to tell Michael that--

... He saw something flash in the corner of his eye. When he looked over, there was a sort of energy in the air, glitching like a broken computer screen. He recognized it immediately.

He looked at Michael and Christine to see if they saw it, but they didn't seem to. Jeremy looked at it again. It blinked out for a moment, then traveled through the air and into a forest like an electric current. Jeremy quickly followed it.

He chased it through the trees, running to keep up and thankfully phasing through every branch that stood in his way. He stopped at the other end of the forest, looking down at a shipping dock from the top of a hill. He slid down, walking around slowly. He heard a voice and froze up for a moment.

He followed the voice until he was against a cargo box, listening in.

"Well?"

"I can confirm that they have no means of finding you. You're completely safe."

Jeremy peaked around a bit, and saw a greenish-blue figure next to a man. The figure was glitching slightly, just like the energy he'd seen at the bridge. Upon closer inspection, the figure resembled a man Jeremy had never seen before. He automatically knew it was a Squip.

He didn't know, however, how he could seen it. He was pretty sure Squips could only be seen by their hosts.

He looked at the man, and saw that he was short and a bit old. He was smirking.

"Excellent. When, do tell, will we be ready to get rid of the other two? They know too much. We can't have them spreading my presence around."

"As soon as you would like. They're but mere children. They would be as easy to dispose of as the first one."

Jeremy clamped a hand over his mouth to stop himself from making any noise.

"Great. It would be wise if--"

"Wait." The Squip said, putting a hand up. He looked around for a moment. His eyes scanned over Jeremy's hiding spot. "We're not alone..."

"Jeremy."

Jeremy turned, frowning when he saw Selena standing there. "What?"

"You have to leave. They'll kill your friends if they find them."

"Please," Jeremy said. "That guy's old, and the other one can't touch us. I think they'll be fine."

"You don't understand what you're getting yourself into."

"Whatever. Why don't you go bother another ghost?"

Selena fell silent, and walked away.

Quest Complete. New Quest: Vengeance.