Return of the 13 Ghosts of Friday the 13th

Chapter XI - Wizards, Spells and Sakura

I waited an hour and a half for Cricket to come. My alarm clock read 3:37 P.M. I layed down on my bed and stared up at the ceiling with my thoughts about the girl's location and the eleventh ghost. There is a knock at my door. I got up and opened. A green bug with a striped torso, four arms, reverse joint legs, insect wings on his hips, three nostrils, purple cheeks, yellow eyes and antennas. He is wearing a red super suit with four arms, reverse joint legs with claw feet and a rocket engine on the rear end. Almost like the Power Armor suit from Fallout 4 that I played but without a helmet.

"Willis. Great to see you!" Cricket smiled.

"Good to see you too. Come in. I gotta show you this photo strip."

Cricket looked at the Chest of Dark Spirits that I had as he stepped inside. "Hey. I've seen it before. Why do you have it here?"

"Because Psy-Crow opened it and set the thirteen ghosts free earlier in the morning today. And, I already caught ten of them." I replied as I take out the photo strip, "So. Can you tell me what that smell is?"

Cricket took out his smell detector put it up against the photo strip. And then, it showed an image of water on the screen. "It's salt water and fish. From a place where every human has ever been before."

"But, where? What place?" I questioned.

"There are lots of places on a planet where Cthulhu, the Mi-Go and the other creatures live." Cricket laughed.

This thought came into my head. A place where Cthulhu, the Mi-Go and the other creatures live. The only planet. "Come on, Cricket. Let's go. Maybe the eleventh ghost is out there on this planet."

I grabbed the chest, my plasma pistol and the photo strip with me and then we hopped into my car. I turn on the teleporter and we transported into a flashing green light.

The lightning vanished. We are on another planet. Everything is dark and the sky is green. Around here are retrofuturistic cities of black supertall skyscrapers and giant emerald pyramids. The trees are wavy and the oceans, lakes and rivers are warm and there's still lots of oxygen. This is planet Yuggoth.

"This is it, huh? But I wonder where the eleventh ghost is." I studied.

"Here. Let me scan for ghostly activity." Cricket took out his motion tracker from the back of his suit and turned it on. It scanned the whole abandoned city but are no signs of a ghost anywhere. Not even a single one.

"What about life forms?" I asked.

Cricket switched to life form and then scanned again. There are millions of life forms on this planet but there is one, however, that is in one of the abandoned buildings. "There's someone living in there."

"Only one way to find out." I shrugged.

Then, we drove into the abandoned city. Green mist is everywhere. Statues of an insect with an ant head and a monster with dragon wings and an octopus for a head appear in the headlights as we went past them. Arriving at the old abandoned luxury hotel (where the one living being is), we hopped out of my car as I grabbed the chest and the photo strip. Another living being shows up on the monitor and we hear heavy footsteps coming from right beside the building on the left and then fade away.

"Nevermind. Let's go inside." I shrugged.

We went through the doors and everything is shown in the dim light from the atrium's windows. The pillars are square shaped, and there is a casino, a swimming pool, ten giant elevators and an atrium lobby that is the same height as the building itself. The building is one hundred stories high and the atrium is so high that we could barely see the ceiling. A song, Night of Fire, by Niko echoed down the atrium from the top floor, like it sounded like it's coming from a piano. So, someone definitely is in here.

"Okay, Cricket. You go downstairs and find the power switch to turn the power on." I whispered.

Cricket nodded. Then he zipped into the basement with his rocket engine and I waited. A click noise came. All the lights and the electricity went on and the music stopped. Cricket came back and we went to the elevator all the way to the top floor (Floor 100). At the top floor is a restaurant with a cabaret stage and a bar and the colorful lights on the ceiling are flashing. There is a grand piano next to the window. We walked up to it and I looked around to see if there's anyone up here with us. Cricket pressed the "E" key and saw the fingerprints on the dusty keys.

I whispered to him quietly. "Can I have the motion tracker for a sec." And then he gave it to me.

The being is near and is in front of me as I looked at the darkness. It must be hiding. I stepped closer and closer until I hear breathing from a nose with anxiety. It jumped right in front of me as I fell over and a girl landed on me while holding a dagger in her hand. I studied the girl. Red hair? Glasses? No. It can't be!

"Who are you? And, what are you doing here?" the girl asked.

"We are just looking for the eleventh ghost and we just heard the piano." I shuddered.

She looked at the chest that I'm holding and sighed as she got off me and stood up. I got up too as I realize her from the missing poster.

"Josie Sakura?"

She is wearing a short black kimono dress, white jeans and a pair of geta sandals. "How did you know my name? Who are you?"

"I'm Willis Wright. People in Gloom City had told me all about you. You've been missing for three Earth months." I explained.

"Okay? And, why are you holding the Chest of Dark Spirits that I used to catch the ghosts with? Don't tell me that Psy-Crow opened it again." she frowned.

"Yes, he did. I already caught ten of them and had three more to go. Just looking for the eleventh one." I sighed.

She put her dagger back into the holster on her thigh and said, "Come with me. I'm gonna show you something while we wait."

Cricket and I followed her into the elevator to the 97th floor and into Apartment 18. So, this is where she stayed for three months. Her apartment has circular windows, a living room with two white victorian-style couches with a coffee table in between, a kitchen next to the door that we went through, two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a laundry room. But, why did she stay here? She made some tea for us as I set the chest down on the coffee table. Cricket and I sat down and shared the same couch together while Josie sat on one on the other side of the table.

"You see this symbol right here?" She asked as I took a sip of tea and flipped the chest over. Underneath is a picture of what look like thirteen people and a chest in the center. I nodded with agreement. She continued, "This is the symbol for the thirteen ghosts from the Chest of Dark Spirits. After I caught all of them, I scraped every single one on the chest with my dagger so I thought, hey: they're not gonna hurt or destroy anything ever again."

"But, Josie." Cricket gasped, "Didn't you hear? Willis told me that he's looking for the eleventh ghost. Ghosts can't die."

"I know." she sighed, "I thought it would be over after I did it."

"Then, why did you stay here for three months? What is the purpose?" I questioned.

She begin to explain. "It was a plan. I scattered the puzzle pieces all over the place so that Psy-Crow wouldn't find me after I escaped. Although, everybody had a choice. Mine was to leave and find a hiding place where Psy-Crow wouldn't find me. That's when my friend, Earthworm Jim, helped me out. That's why I stayed."

I sighed as I took a sip of tea. It tastes like raspberries and lemon mixed together. Suddenly, we heard a rumbling of an explosion coming from outside the building. We ran out of the apartment as Josie grabbed her binoculars and stopped at the balcony. She looked throught her binoculars and saw something coming towards the hotel and then stopped. A glowing thing appeared as it began to throw sparkly orbs at the glass door that Cricket and I went through. A koopa wizard went through the door after it broke the lock and then looked up at us.

"It's Kamek. Do you have the chest?" Josie asked me.

I realized that I left it in her apartment. "I gotta go get it." I ran back inside the apartment and grabbed the chest as I came back out. The two are not here, but I heard blasts from a laser gun. I got into the elevator to the main floor and found Josie and Cricket fighting against the ghostly glowing Kamek.

"Don't just stand there! Help us!" Cricket shouted as he saw me.

"You can't make me go back into the chest again." Kamek growled.

Yes. This definitely must be the eleventh ghost. I pulled out my plasma pistol and fired directly at him. He fell over onto the chair as we ran up to him. I threw the chest at him and closed it so that he doesn't escape.

"We did it! We caught him!" Cricket cheered.

"How did he know we're here?" Josie questioned.

Just then, a missile went through the window and exploded, sending us away along with some chairs, coffee tables and floor lamps onto the floor as I slammed my head on the desk. While struggling to get up, I saw a bunch of boos and King Boo taking Josie away while she's being unconscious.

My gun and the chest are lying on the floor as a crow came in and walked up to me with a furious look on his face. "What a foolish guy you are, huh?" Then, he punched me in the face, knocking me out. Everything went completely black.

End of Chapter XI