Mutated Ectoplasm

24. Phantom Menace

Hey everybody! Finally got this chapter out. It wasn't that much of a struggle, but the new job is finally kicking in and things are going good right now. It's online, though, so hours are random depending on things. However, other than that, there's nothing really new to report!

Anyway, I'll see you all at the end of the chapter.

Trigger warning: Death mention. Nothing graphic, but still a mention.

Karkat didn't exactly see a lot of silver linings after his battle with that Peter Pan wannabe, but there were a couple of things to be happy about. One, Spades was able to legitimately lock the place down after they got testimony from Jonjet about what happened to convince Bronya to do so. The second was that maybe this could get wrapped up faster since this ghost didn't seem so powerful.

The only problem was that now he needed to find out how fight a ghost he couldn't even see.

"Are you the ghost wasn't just using invisibility or something and you couldn't disrupt it?" Aradia was helping him go through some of his dad's equipment while Spades investigated the site. Anything a little higher grade than the usual ghost detector would have to do. "It doesn't make sense how they can just appear to only one person."

"They've been doing it for a while. It's probably a unique ghost power related to them." Karkat shifted put away a prototype carefully. "Somehow they can hide themselves from anyone that isn't a little kid. Which, I'm not going to lie, is a little bit creepy."

"If it makes you feel any better, I don't think it's a pedophile ghost. Haven't found anything like that so far." Sollux was put on research duty again, going through some files. "Everyone that's worked at the daycare, past and present, is completely clean. Ursama runs a tight ship."

"Thank fucking god. I'd probably let dad dissect them if that turned out to be the case." Karkat was not even remotely joking when he said this. He put away another box before giving Sollux a curious look. "Maybe look some stuff on that theatre that used to be there. You'll probably find better results."

"Amity Park used to have a theatre?" Aradia looked like the very concept wasn't possible. "Jeez, why'd they tear it down?"

"Give me a minute." Sollux typed in a new Google search, hitting the enter key with a flourish. He stopped to read the first few results before clicking something. "I think I may have something here."

"Lay it on us." Karkat opened another box as he said that, keeping his ear open.

Sollux cleared his throat before reading a part of an article out loud.

Charity Play for Handicapped Children Ends in Tragedy.

A rendition of the classic play Peter Pan by charity Wheeling Around ended with one teenage boy being lost forever.

16-year-old Tavros Nitram, star of the show and organizer of the event, died today after a malfunction occurred during a flying scene at the end of the play. While the owners of the theatre deny any knowledge of faulty equipment, it was found that the equipment used to raise Nitram off the ground had significant wear and tear and resulted in the fall that broke the boys' neck.

It was said Nitram was alive for about three minutes before he died of asphyxiation, unable to breath due to a broken neck and a severe head wound. Charges have not been filed against the owners of the theatre, though an investigation is currently underway.

Nitram allegedly wanted to conduct the play in order to show children like him that even if they couldn't walk, that still didn't mean they couldn't shoot for the moon, the second star to the right, and straight on till morning...