Chapter Text
In a town far, far away,
A young man sits at a bunch of dials and sliders. Staring out at the performance on stage, the feeling of Deja Vu creeps up his back. He turns his head at the perfect moment, the door that was
supposed to be closed is open and a gunshot rings out in the quiet of the room.
Detective Jowd stepped into the technician's room of the theatre. The body still lay there, dead. The victim was one Graham Calloway, an electrician touring with the Australia Opera company. He'd been shot in the side of his head at the end of the performance, causing people to become confused when the lights did not change. His body was found quickly, and police were called.
Huh... Who'd want to kill some poor electrician?
'I don't know either Sissel.' He replied to the ghost hitch-hiking in his pocket. He leaned closer to the body. ‘The shot is clean, he wasn’t given any time to react.’
“Have we interviewed his co-workers? Anything on his phone?” Jowd asked, turning to the other police officer in the room.
“W-well, we’ve interviewed a couple so far! The only thing they’ve brought up was his weird disappearances and that reportedly he had some serious amnesia.”
Disappearances? Amnesia? What’s this guy done?
“His phone has yet to be fully checked but-“
The door slammed open and a woman with platinum blonde hair stepped into the room.
“This investigation has been taken over. Please leave the premises.” She stated, almost cold. She held out an ID for some agency named “ACME”.
“H-Huh? You can’t do that!” The other police officer hissed.
“I assure you I can. This investigation is no longer under your jurisdiction. Please leave the premises.”
‘I don’t think we’re going to get anything out of her. Sissel do you think you can…’
Of course!
Jowd waited a moment before rising from his spot.
“Alright then, We’ll leave.” As the detective walked through the door, time seemed to shift-
--4 MINUETS BEFORE DEATH—
“Lets see how you died, Mr Calloway!” Sissel thought, preparing himself to watch the murder of the electrician.
“…You say something…?” Another voice called out. Sissel paused for a moment, as he hadn’t expected for the other soul to become conscious. The face (…Soul?) of one Graham Calloway stood there.
“You’re Awake now, I see.”
“What happened… Why’s there a talking cat?”
Graham’s accent was Australian, which was quite obvious given who he was working for.
“You died.” Sissel replied. “I’m here to save you! But first I need to see how your death played out.”
“I’d expect dying to hurt more. How’s a talking cat going to solve anything?” The man’s tone was obviously skeptical.
“With my ghost tricks!” The cat puffed up with pride. “Now let me do my job!”
“Fine.”
Time started, and the pair of ghosts watched as Graham (the one from the past, the alive one) focused on his job. The four minuets ticked to an end and the door slid open, Graham turned and a person in a mask shot him in the side of his head.
“Well.” Graham hissed, “That’s what got me killed. Amateur job, I’d say. You could hear their footsteps.”
“Do you have any idea on who’d do this?” Sissel asked, curiously.
“Plenty of people, probably. But I didn’t recognise the mask, and the people from the top my head who would are still locked in jail. They’d probably go after Carmen before me.”
“Carmen?”
“Carmen Sandiego, International Super Thief? The red one…?” Graham dragged the end of the last word on, but stopped once he realised he was in a losing battle against the cat’s confusion. “Doesn’t matter. My betrayal wasn’t publicised. ACME isn’t after me.”
“…They came to investigate when your body was found.”
“Huh… Do they think some remnant of VILE was involved then?” He asked rhetorically.
“VILE?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Graham’s voice was harsh. “How about you get to fixing my death, if you’re actually planning on doing that?”
“Fine, Fine.” Sissel says grumpily. “But I’ll ask again after I save your butt!”
‘(Just how am I going to prevent it? It’s only by chance he turned around…)’ The cat scans the room. ‘(Maybe if I make a noise loud enough at the right time, he’ll come investigate and hear those footsteps?)’
The room was not totally bare outside the large console, but it was bare enough to be a worry. There was some sort of old speaker close to the corner, likely laying there until someone could patch it up or something. The console could be used too.
Sissel thought for a moment before deciding to put his plan into action. Using the ghost world, he hops from the location of Graham’s body into the console. He pulls one of the sliders, before hopping back into the ghost world. He moves towards the speaker, just barely managing to catch onto the core of the speaker. He switches back to the living world, where Graham takes a moment to notice the slider in the wrong place, moving his chair closer to it. He removes his headphones from his head to be able to reach it and move it back into its proper position.
In the moment between putting his headphones back on, Sissel played a sound from the speaker. Graham’s head spun towards the speaker, confused at its usage of sound. He glanced towards the stage and quickly hurried towards the speaker. He looked at it for a moment, tilting his head close to the wall.
Suddenly, he stood shock-still. Obviously, he could hear the footsteps, or at least their vibrations. He tensed for a moment before pressing his back against it. The person behind it stood for a long moment, almost as if psyching themselves up to do their deed.
The door swung open silently and a gun sneaked in. It lowered when the person didn’t see Graham immediately. Taking it as a chance, he swung himself towards the person wielding the gun, kicking them in the chest. They hissed in pain and the gun accidentally went off, catching part of Graham’s leg. Pushing through the pain, he grabbed their hand and forced them to drop the gun onto the floor, where he crushed it under his heel.
Seeing that their weapon was useless, they tried to grab at his neck but Graham managed to dodge. His legs were unsteady but he managed to push them down and into the technician room, slamming the door behind him to give him extra time to get away. By the time they got back up and out of the room, Graham was long gone.
[FATE AVERTED!]
“And another victim saved by the power of Ghost tricks!” Sissel said, smugly.
“Huh… you actually help save me.” Graham stated. “Thanks mate.”
The world spins back red when Sissel realises he forgot to ask about VILE again.