Quickly, Libby closed the door behind her and positioned herself between the group outside and the charging brigade. Julian stepped back a pace to allow enough room to take aim at something with his pistol, on which his hand was resting.
“Great everyone’s here,” Libby said, casting a stern look at the Professor and his overzealous companion. Her gaze clearly conveyed that they should collect themselves, as the time was not appropriate for confrontation. Kevin’s shoes squealed on the waxy floor as he skidded to a halt in front of her, surprised that he didn’t tackle the entire group of them.
“What’s going on?” Sarah said, finally within speaking distance of the bunch of them.
“Uh, could you guys hang out here for a minute. I’ll be just a sec,” Libby claimed as she motioned for Sarah to enter the room. Sarah looked at Tala then sized up Charles before following Libby into their room.
“Hey, I’m glad to see you guys,” Charles said with a concerned look. “I was worried that everyone was disappearing.”
Charles’ concern struck everyone strangely.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve,” Kevin started. His anger once again began to boil up inside.
“What I think Kevin means is,” Professor Swann interrupted, and paused, trying to come up with an explanation, “is that you should have checked in with me. My office has been the center of operations, and you should have kept in touch yourself.” The professor had a hard mental swallow, then said, “We were worried about you, too.”
“Yeah, I should have thought of that. Sorry,” Charles said reproachfully.
Kevin could see that this location was probably not the best to turn Charles, or whatever he might be, into mulch, so he decided to reign in those impulses, for now. However, he noticed that Julian decided to keep his hand on his weapon. He noted this and made a discrete acknowledging gesture toward him, on which he seemed to pick up.
“Have you guys heard from Lily, yet?” Tala asked, made a little nervous with all of the testosterone in the air.
The professor started to shake his head when Libby came out of her room and closed the door behind her. “Ok, we’re going to have to go somewhere else since Sarah’s going to be studying. Professor, how about your office?”
Professor Swann remembered the mirror that he left there, hoping that it was still running. “Sounds good to me.”
“And I was thinking,” Libby continued as they started walking, “Charles, remember last month you were telling me about how your dad was working for that General in South Korea?”
The professor was somewhat shocked by the fact that Charles’ father, the campus minister, had been working for a general, then realized Libby’s stunt to flush out the impostor.
“Hmm…” said Charles, “No, I think you’ve got me mixed up with someone else. I mean, my dad’s been to South Korea, but I don’t remember him working for a General.” His voice tone seemed steady, and didn’t give any indication that he was lying.
Neither Libby nor Aramis knew what to make of this, and it certainly didn’t make Libby happy pretending that everything was normal as she continued to the professor’s office, nearly arm-in-arm with the horned beast that apparently no one else could see.
Lily found herself staring into the black. As the world came into focus, pinpricks of light began to form a glittering tapestry across the moonless sky.
Shrugging off the effects of whatever had happened to her, she propped herself up on her elbows and took a look around. The surroundings were familiar to her. The well-known outlines of the trees cast by the lights of Sundown campus indicated that she had teleported herself back to her magic clearing.
How she had managed to do that was another thing entirely.
She slowly rose completely to her feet, wary that her sudden shift through space might leave her feeling dizzy, but it did not. In fact, she felt more firmly rooted to the ground than ever, even though the past hour had been one of the strangest and destabilizing events she had ever experienced.
The memories of the last 60 minutes of her consciousness flooded back to her. The strange man who grabbed her, the fantastic magic that took her away, the bloody scene in the man’s apartment, and finally her miraculous return to the safety of her clearing in the woods all flashed through her mind. She wondered if she would be able to do it again.
She hugged her arms around herself in the cool night air and decided what to do next. Surely she should consult the professor, her assumed mentor, about the strange magic. Although she wasn’t sure if she was ready to reveal the whole ordeal, she resolved to stop by his office on her way back to the dorm, and if he was in, she might bring up the topic.
“What the…” Charles yelped as Kevin threw him into the chair on the near side of the Professor’s desk.
“Kevin, be careful!” Tala screamed, fearful of a full-scale fight breaking out.
“Tie him up, whatever he is,” Libby said as she tossed Kevin and Julian a couple of lengths of nylon rope she had filched from her room while talking with Sarah. She wasn’t sure what to do, but she surely knew that she didn’t want to give the monster she saw a chance to get at them before she got some answers.
The phantom Charles had followed the group to the professor’s office, and was now nervously watching Julian and Kevin tie the red-skinned beast to the professor’s guest chair. The creature wasn’t really resisting, but he had a curious look on his face, like he expected to be the brunt of a joke.
“Can you see Charles now?” Kevin asked, wrapping a final loop of the twine around Charles’ body’s hand.
“What are you talking about?” the corporeal Charles shouted, now somewhat more aware that they weren’t messing around. “Have you all gone mad? I’m sitting right here!”
Charles struggled against his bonds as Julian looked between Kevin and Libby, hoping to glean the next step in this plan to oust the demon that he had suspicion had been in that body for quite some time.
Libby was slowly pacing in a small area in the corner of the professor’s office, obviously deep in thought. She was sure that in a moment a plan would come to her.
“Is he here?” Kevin asked again, purposefully directing his query to Libby.
She looked at him, then to the ghostly Charles in the room, which was enough of an answer for Kevin.
“Who ARE you?” Kevin said, backhanding Charles across the face. Kevin’s harsh treatment of Charles, whether it was truly him or not, caused Tala to scream and tuck her gaze into Julian’s comforting arms. “WHAT are you?” he asked, striking him again.
“Kevin,” Aramis said, gripping Kevin’s shoulder and trying to ease him off. “Calm down.” His reassuring grip lasted only a moment, though. His eyes wandered up to the enchanted mirror he had left there earlier, and could barely see Kevin’s chest with the beast’s huge red skull and grimy horns in the way. He almost jumped backwards into the hall before he caught himself.
“Yeah, Kevin,” Libby said, agreeing with Professor Swann. “We don’t know what’s going on yet, so let’s take a minute to calm down.”
“All the more reason to beat the answers out of him, the rotten, stinking DEMON!” Kevin’s obvious anger had boiled over into near insanity, and when his words had passed, he let another fist land solidly across Charles’ jaw. Blood dribbled out of the minister’s son’s mouth and ran down his chin onto his shirt.
“That’s enough!” Libby yelled, pulling Kevin back away from Charles. When he turned, the pupils in Kevin’s eyes were very wide. Something animal had taken over in him, and he wasn’t going to be easy to reach.
“If this thing knows anything about how to get Charles back, it had better talk,” Kevin shook his index finger threateningly at Libby. “And if it doesn’t, and it dies in questioning, then it deserves what it gets for what its kind did to my mother and sister!”
Libby grasped genuinely for a way to talk Kevin down, then said and a soothing voice, “We should let the Professor try. If you beat him senseless, we may not get any answers and we’ll end up hurting the body that Charles might have to return to.” She tried to infuse her statement with as much sincerity and hopefulness as she could muster, even though she wasn’t sure if even she believed what she was saying.
But apparently, Kevin bought it and stepped back to let the professor through. He took deep breaths and kept his fists clenched as the professor made his way by.
The professor gulped as he strode toward the creature he saw in the mirror, then shook himself out and regained his composure. “Tala?” he called to her. She had since turned toward them to watch the argument, but had not left the comfort of Julian’s hold. “I need you to help me.”
She walked to him, and he positioned her in front of him. Together, they stood to the side of Charles’s body. The professor reach around her and placed his right hand on her lower stomach and the other on top of her head, then began to chant, “Power flows like rivers ancient; Power falls like driving rain; Power grows like might forests; Power burns like fire’s pain.”
He repeated the chant several times, and began to feel the mystical energies flowing within her. The rest of the group looked on in avid anticipation as the room filled with the murmuring voices of ambient magic.
While he continued the chant, he reached out to her mentally, encouraging her to take control of the power within her and to channel it toward the creature. His thoughts held hope that her benevolent energies would banish the demonic presence from the body, and the spirit Charles would be welcome to rejoin with his original host.
A magical wind began to rustle papers in the office. Tiny glowing particles floated around in the swirling air in the small room. The frosted glass in the closed door of the office rattled in its frame, then the door flew open violently.
He thought for a moment that he was successful in passing these thoughts to her, because he saw the demon beast materialize in the chair where Charles’ body had been. But when he saw that the twine that had bound him there had suddenly snapped from its ties, he knew that something had gone terribly wrong.
Julian had barely reached for his gun, and Kevin for Charles’ throat, when a swooshing sound split through the magic-filled staff office, thudding solidly in the beast’s chest. Two colored feathers dangled from the long hand-whittled wooden shaft of a well-crafted javelin. The javelin’s two inch diameter cleanly pierced the beast’s rib cage and its sharpened tip protruded through its back at a respectable length.
This scene lasted for a moment until the creature burst in a magical display. It exploded in a cloud of dust, but instead of a dusty residue, it left a pile of steaming goo, upon which the end of the javelin rested.
“It’s done,” said the man in the hall. All eyes now had his attention. His apparently weary arm dropped a small glassy orb, which wobbled toward the office and came to rest against the jamb. Before he turned to walk away, he uttered, “My son may finally rest.”
Lily passed Charles’ father while jogging up the hallway toward the professor’s office. As she slowed her approach toward their grim faces she asked, “What’d I miss?”
“Ok, let’s go over this again,” Lily said plainly, rolling over on her bed.
Libby was doing push-ups on the floor of Lily’s dorm room. After the previous night’s events, the two of them decided it would be best if they “buddied up”, so Libby returned with Lily to sleep on the floor of her single room.
While she did her push-ups Libby explained, for the third time or so, about the events of the day before. Lily had gone missing after Kevin saw some girl being kidnapped. Lily interjected the bits about what had happened to her, how this guy had teleported them to New York and she narrowly escaped some gunmen by teleporting herself back.
“We’ll have to keep an eye out for those guys, just in case,” Libby said. Lily nodded.
While Libby was jogging, she got a huge headache, and when she woke up in the infirmary, Charles was there. Only, it wasn’t the physical Charles, it was his ghost. She bumped into Kevin in the Public Safety office, and they were both a little loopy from the previous experiences, so they didn’t think to put anything together just then.
“Hey, come to think of it,” Lily said, “That kidnapping must have really put him in a psychotic mood, what with his mom and sister, you know…”
Libby agreed. She continued her reprise while counting through her push-ups. Julian and Tala tried to call herself, Lily, and Kevin, but got no answer at anyone’s place. He arranged to meet Charles, or at least Charles’ body, at her room. Eventually, the professor and Kevin figured out that this meeting might be a “bad idea” so they high-tailed it over to her room and managed to get everyone back to the professor’s office.
“Does Sarah suspect anything?” Lily asked.
“I don’t think so. At least, she didn’t when I left last night. She’s probably too busy boffing that frat boy boyfriend of hers to notice anything extraordinary.”
Lily chuckled once then let Libby proceed. When they all got back to the office, the professor used Tala in some crazy spell, and it seemed to piss off whatever had inhabited Charles’ body. Luckily, before it could cause any harm, Charles’ dad showed up and popped the beast with a javelin.
Lily looked sullen for a moment while thinking about Charles. It might have only been his body that was vanquished, but it was body, after all.
Libby did her last push-up and sat cross-legged on the floor, huffing slightly. “What I don’t understand is how the minister knew that Charles wasn’t Charles,” she stated. “He wouldn’t have thrown that javelin at his own son, otherwise. Obviously, it had something to do with that ball that he dropped.”
Lily sat up in bed for the first time. “Yeah, it was a crystal of Endochian. They’re used to seek people out. Kinda rare, which is probably why the professor didn’t have one on hand to come looking for me. Anyway, you say a short incantation and a little needle appears inside that points toward who you’re looking for. I suppose that the minister set it to point toward the demon that possessed Charles, somehow.”
“But first he’d have to know that he was possessed, right?”
“Maybe he already suspected, like we did.”
“Or maybe he set it to point at Charles’ spirit, and he saw that it wasn’t pointing at Charles’ body.” The two girls mulled over this point for a moment.
“So what happened to spirit Charles when his body exploded?” Lily finally asked.
“Oh, he’s still around. He seemed a little… well, lost. I suppose I would be, too, if I saw my body explode. Anyway, he said he had something to take care of. I suppose that he might try to speak to his father.”
“Good luck with that,” Lily wished aloud to the surrounding ether, then turned back to Libby. “You’re the only one who’s been able to see him so far.”
“Hmm,” Libby agreed. There were still quite a few unanswered questions. While she tried to put the image of the goo left by Charles’ body out of her head, other thoughts flooded her mind, specifically those concerning Angela Osborne and the strange visit from Maggie LeTorneau. “I think I want to try knocking on some doors again today. Hopefully it’ll keep my mind off of Charles for a bit. You wanna come?”
“Sure.”
Julian spent the night on the couch at his own insistence, while Tala took his bed. In the spirit of the buddy system they decided that they should watch out for each other. At least, that’s what they talked themselves into.
In the morning, Julian cooked them a quick egg and toast breakfast. There wasn’t much talk of the previous night’s events, but there was some unspoken communication over the breakfast table. Obviously, Charles’ death had affected Tala deeply. Julian hadn’t known Charles for that long, but whatever melancholy was affecting Tala was bleeding over onto him slightly as he ate the last of his eggs.
Before Tala headed back to the dorm, she gave her protector a good-morning/good-bye kiss.
As Julian cleaned up the dishes, he noticed the receipt that he had obtained from Madame Gitana sitting on the counter next to his keys. The receipt showed that Sid Anderson had sold her the book “Cogitations on the Present State”. “Good Condition,” said the handwriting at the bottom of the slip.
Certainly, if Madame Gitana had inspected the book, she would have read a good deal of its contents. She would have noticed any irregularities about the text of the book. There must have been something extra going on there that she couldn’t expose without using the book herself.
He rinsed and dried off his sudsy hands, then grabbed up the slip of paper to use as a means of concentration. He felt as though he was missing something.
Whatever it was that eluded him, he decided, could probably be worked out of Sid Anderson - one way or another. He snatched his jacket and keys on the way out the door.
Kevin found the professor already sipping tea in the minister’s office when he answered the door. He had been upset all night. Unable to sleep for a variety of reasons, not the least of which were Charles’ demise, his rage at not being able to do the job himself, and his guilty feelings for wanting to kill one of his friends.
“I understand,” Minister LeMagne told him, handing him a cup and saucer. “I feel somewhat responsible myself.” Kevin wondered briefly how the minister could empathize, before he began to explain.
Charles’ mother, Rosemary, was born into a wealthy family. She went against her family’s wishes in marrying Phillip LeMagne, a poor, god-fearing boy from the heartland. But they loved her dearly, and did not cut her off from her inheritance. With Charles born, their new family benefited greatly from the money left to her from her parent’s death in a mysterious accident at the family estate.
“Rose wasn’t satisfied with the police’s explanation of her parents’ accident, though,” Phillip said. “She became rather obsessed with her own investigation, and she was tempted by the infernal.” He took a sip of his tea, a blank look of memory in his eyes.
“Charles was just three years old at the time. It wasn’t until he turned ten that I explained why I had become a minister and were travelling around the globe - to search for his mother and try to bring her back from the devil.” The minister took a deep breath to stifle some oncoming emotions, and regained his composure.
Professor Swann set his tea on the coffee table and leaned forward in his seat. “That’s where you picked up the artifact, the globe of Endochian,” the professor prompted as a sideways means to distract the minister from his sorrows.
“Yes,” he answered. “I’ve picked up quite a few odd baubles chasing my wife around the world.”
“What,” Kevin began, then hesitated. “If you don’t mind me asking, what happened to her? Did you find her?”
“We found her on two occasions,” he replied, sipping tea with a shaky hand. “Neither time were we able to convince her to return to God. Finally, I decided that it was time for Charles to choose his own way, so we settled here. I knew I couldn’t protect him all the time. I just didn’t realize that God would take him from us so soon.”
“What happened to Charles? How did you know?” Kevin asked.
“The minister and I were discussing that when you arrived,” said Professor Swann. Phillip stood up and removed the tea cups from the table into another room. While he was gone, the professor spoke to Kevin in a stern whisper, “Say nothing about Libby.”
He nodded his agreement, but with a puzzled expression, then asked aloud, “So, how?”
The minister returned to the doorway from which he exited. “His behavior was a little odd. I started to notice little things since he returned from the ill-advised Las Vegas trip.” Kevin and the professor felt a slight pang of guilt, but continued to listen. “One day I asked him to fetch me a Hopatchiwa feather from the chest,” he gestured to a small box on a shelf, “and he returned with a fake.”
The professor turned to explain, as he had apparently already heard the story in full. “While globe-trotting, Charles used those native American feathers almost daily to ward off evil. Minister LeMagne kept a supply of the feathers in that box. He would have known the correct feather by touch alone. Instead, he returned with the feather of a common crow. If he was possessed by some demonic entity, he wouldn’t have been able to get near the feathers at all, which explains his efforts to deceive his father.”
“I pretended to believe it was him,” the minister continued, “but his behavior became more and more unlike him. Finally, I used the orb of Endochian to locate Charles’ soul.” He suddenly broke down in tears.
The Professor walked the minister to the sofa and seated him there, providing him with his handkerchief. “Obviously, it did not point to Charles’ body,” the professor finished. “So he followed Charles’ body to my office, and slayed the abomination that had taken it over before it could hurt any of us.”
“Can I get you anything, minister?” Kevin asked.
“No, thank you,” the minister replied. “I think I just need some time alone to grieve.”
Professor Swann gathered his coat. “If there’s anything we can do, please contact us.” Minister LeMagne nodded.
Aramis and Kevin left him alone. Outside, Kevin asked the question that had been bothering him since the minister cleared the dishes. “Why shouldn’t we tell him about Libby? Won’t he want to know that his son’s spirit is still around?”
The professor thought for a moment how to phrase his answer. “At best,” he said, “we would condemn Libby to a life of relaying messages from Charles’ father. Perhaps there is a reason that only she can see him. Besides that, we should consult Charles before we tell his father that his spirit is still around. He may wish for his father to make peace with these events without burdening him with the knowledge of his presence.
“No matter what we do, we should wait. No one is in a strong enough position to take the news right now.”
Kevin didn’t fully agree with the professor’s take on the issue, but he didn’t see much harm in letting things calm down before disputing him.
Julian started his investigation on campus, looking for someone who knew something about this “Flock” group of which Sid Anderson was supposedly a member. It didn’t take long for him to find the flyers stapled to the cork board announcing last weeks meeting.
“Join the Flock,” Julian read the poster advertisement for the upcoming (yet previously passed) meeting. “The Flock began as a loose-knit circle of friends who shared a common interest in neo-paganism and the politics of organized religion. We now take an activist role in making the new age accepted by the main-stream.
“Our newsletter, Soar, goes to fifteen hundred subscribers across the region, and we have meaningfully endorsed a couple of local candidates in city elections.
“Last summer’s Soar Festival was a complete success. The fairgrounds had over five thousand attendees who shared a weekend of music, rituals, panels, and speeches.
“Join the Flock today! Attend your first meeting at our headquarters, the Circle’s Edge Bookstore.”
The flyer gave the address of the store at the bottom, under an image of a spread-winged crow. Julian looked around for observers, then quickly ripped the poster off the board. Shoving the announcement in his jacket pocket, he strode across the campus toward his car.
“Too easy,” he said as he unlocked the door and slid behind the wheel.
“Can I hitch a ride, stranger?” said a female voice on the passenger side of the car.
Julian smiled, “Sure, hop in.”
Tala had literally ran into Libby and Lily on her way out of the dorm. She was in a rush to meet Julian, who she spied through the window of her room. Lily and Libby thought it a good idea to stick with her until she figured out where she was headed, even if it meant a little detour. But when Julian told them where he was going, they were anxious to join him.
Tala returned to the dorms late in the morning and showered. At least that’s all he noted in his notebook. He didn’t make mention of the white cotton underpants she selected, nor her strange shower habits. Of course, he didn’t write her name, either, since he just noted her existence the previous evening.
The work was becoming a drag. Who was he kidding? It had been a drag for quite a bit longer than that. The tireless hours, the awful pay, and the feeling he got from a job “well done” all contributed to his malaise. And after the previous night’s botch-job, he’d be well advised to hit the right target. But soon he’d be sure of who he was looking for, finish the job properly, and the payoff would put him that much closer to the paradise of retirement.
When she left the dorm, he noticed the other two girls, especially the one from the night before, and noted the encounter in his steno pad. He watched them cross campus to a parked car, where they joined a male driver and headed off. His well-trained body had already carried him to his Cadillac, where he revved the engine and threw it in gear.
For some reason, Sundown’s religious fringe liked to flock to this fake of a new-age bookstore, the Circle’s Edge, making it the most popular of the several that polka-dot the city. It’s a storefront operation located in a block with four other businesses, including the Cat’s Inn coffeehouse, an art gallery, a used-clothing store, and the ever popular Planet One natural-foods store.
Lily noted the sign in the store’s window, listing its hours of operation: 10am to 8pm, Monday through Friday, and 1pm to 6pm on Sunday, not that she would have any reason to come to this facade of paganism.
Inside, the store had high ceilings and lots of bookcases. The little placards on the shelves named astrology, the paranormal, UFOs, wicca, and so forth as topics covered in the books. A selection of music CDs by local performers and some jewelry sat in a dusty glass case. Candles were everywhere, but none were lit.
Lily released her contempt for this mainstream mythology for a moment, and began to search for a book that might explain what had happened to her the day before. “As if such a store would carry it,” she thought, shuffling through the stacks.
She finally made her way to the back of the store, where several piles of books sat, presumably waiting to be filed. They were all brand new, obviously of no real significance whatsoever, however the topic of a grouping of about five books on the bottom of one of the piles did grab her interest for the way it was completely out of place amongst the other psuedo-magic books: Male Sex Fantasies.
By the register, a small magazine rack held a stack of printed schedules. The schedule listed several classes which apparently took place in the shop itself. Tala looked around for space where these classes might take place, but the store was simply packed with shelving. However, to the left of the counter there was a door, covered in Flock posters. The door was ajar, and she could see a few stairs leading up. Presumably, the alcove at the opposite end of the store had a door that led to a downward set of stairs.
Tala let her senses drift, but her sense of smell was overcome with the wafting odor of at least fifty different flavors of incense or scented oils. The only thing she could pick out over the din of the store patrons was the clicking of keyboard keys coming from the second floor. At least, that was the only sound that made sense. For a moment, she thought she heard a faint screaming coming from under the floorboards, but she didn’t hear it again.
Upon reaching the glass case labeled “magical tools and artifacts”, Julian wasn’t entirely let down, but that was only because his expectations were already sub-par. The case contained an assortment of magic paraphernalia, from tarot cards to incense, but it was mostly things you could buy through mail order. Certainly none of it was worth the numbers that were scrawled on their tags.
As he stared at the items in their case, a man came up behind him. He was perfectly aware that the man was there, and wasn’t startled when the man asked, “Is there something I can help you with?” Julian looked at the man’s reflection in the glass case before turning toward him. He was very thin, with short black hair cut at odd lengths. He wore a black turtleneck sweater, and a necklace from which dangled a pentagram-shaped charm. He seemed utterly disappointed that he hadn’t shocked the hell out of Julian with his question.
Libby grabbed a copy of the schedule, and skimmed it while she toured the store. On weekends and Wednesday nights, a professional tarot reader would be present to give readings. The store apparently scheduled special events once or twice a month, including author appearances and classes in meditation. The schedule also indicated that the next scheduled meeting of the Flock would take place on Saturday, just two days away.
Just as she was convincing herself to drop in on this meeting, she bumped into the back side of a book-perusing Angela Osborne.
Professor Swann invited Kevin back to his office to help recount the previous evening’s events. Although his excuse was practical, he put off the thought that he was scared to travel about campus alone, even in daylight.
Kevin reluctantly agreed. Perhaps going over the events with someone else would clear up some of the inconsistencies he had, and maybe help him get a little sleep at night.
When they arrived, he recounted his actions from the day before. The professor took copious notes, while not interjecting much. At the end of it all, Kevin felt quite sure of two things. First, he had a very clear picture of what had happened. Second, it wasn’t making much sense.
He didn’t have much time to consider what seemed off, however.
“What’s wrong? Kevin? Can you hear me?” the professor screamed as Kevin seized up and tumbled out of the guest chair.
Kevin was writhing on the floor, having become overtaken with an extreme pain in his head. To call it a headache would have been an insult to the origin of the pain.
Professor Swann felt panicked, but managed to pick up the receiver to his rotary phone and begin dialing. Before he had the third number completed, however, Kevin sat upright.
Kevin rubbed his head wearily. “Aaagh,” he cried. “What the hell was…” his words trailed off. In front of him, perhaps an hallucination due to the blitzing pain, stood the ghostly image of Charles LeMagne.
Kevin leapt from the floor and backed into the wall, knocking over the coat rack.
“Kevin? Talk to me,” said the professor. “What’s going on?”
“Do you see him?” Kevin asked, pointing to the specter.
“See what?” Professor Swann looked around the room, then came to a sudden conclusion. “Can you see Charles?”
The ghostly Charles was weeping, but only Kevin could see or hear the apparition. “Yes, " Kevin replied hesitantly, “I do.”
The ghost looked up with a look that could have been both surprise and relief, then said, “Kevin? Kevin, you’ve got to help me… My father… He’s…. He’s… dead!”
