Infinite

Where the Heart is

𝄃 𝄞♬♪ 𝄂
Come on come on now
We can't be hesitating
Our time is right now
So why are we waiting
𝄃 𝄞♬♪ 𝄂

"Explain to me again how in the world you managed to get me out of Caleb's club." Willie didn't believe it was merely by accident, yet that was the only thing Alex could come up with as an explanation.

"I don't know." Alex started to think, but it didn't get him very far. "All I was doing was wishing I could get you out of there. Then, bam! You were standing in front of me. I wish I could say I knew something else about how it all happened, but I don't." Willie and Alex both knew that there weren't many ghosts around that part of Los Angeles, seeing as they often spent days wandering around there without a single glance in their direction.

"So you wished me out of the club? How does that work?" Willie didn't know any other ghosts could do what Caleb did. He also didn't bother to go looking for them, for fear that they were exactly like him.

"I don't know. Before I met you, I didn't even know it was possible to pick up things. Whatever I know is thanks to you, pretty much." That was when Alex came up with the idea to visit the ghost Hugh mentioned. Prescott Hoffman, if Alex remembered correctly.

"You're one of the prodigies." Alex and Willie turned around to see the very man Alex had been thinking of. Mister Hugh Winston. "You've got more magic in your finger than most do in their entire soul."

"I don't want it." Alex didn't want the responsibility that came with that kind of power. He imagined Caleb was the same, and look at how that turned out.

"You don't get a choice, kid. But, I do have to ask: did you die with anyone else?" Hugh asked, leaning against a nearby light post.

"Two other people. They're ghosts, too." Alex was almost afraid to ask what that might mean for them.

"I know I said I wouldn't teach you, but I'm afraid Prescott knows nothing about prodigies." Hugh sighed. Willie was beyond confused. What was a prodigy and how was the one ghost he actually had let himself like one of them? Alex, unlike his friend, wasn't confused at all. After all, Caleb had to want them for one reason or another. "You and your friends, thanks to an alignment of the stars or something else entirely, are three of the most powerful ghosts in the world."

A couple hours later, after Alex had tracked both Luke and Reggie down (which was a feat in itself), Hugh took his chance to break down everything that came with being a prodigy.

For one, using one's powers for evil purposes was off the list. Take Caleb for example. The things he did disobeyed the natural order of things. Eventually, it would all catch up with him one way or another. He'd heard tall tales spun by some of the oldest ghosts he knew—all of whom had crossed over at least a hundred years ago—and none of them ended well. The fact that the Earth still spun was a miracle in itself. (Then again, they were called tall tales for a reason.)

Branching off that, messing with lifers was bad. Talking with them was one thing—some could see them, apparently, not just Julie—and messing with their ability to live and/or die was another. Even Hugh, at one point in time or another, had talked with a lifer that possessed a keen sense of understanding of their world. And, of course, screwing with a ghost's ability to cross over (even Hugh didn't know precisely what that meant) was even worse. Ghosts were not meant to stay in the world of the living forever. (The longest Hugh had heard of himself was just under half a millennia, though they were a special brand of ghost, whatever that meant.)

"I have a lot of questions." Reggie didn't quite get why they were having this talk. Luke didn't either, but Reggie had beaten him to the punch. "To start, what, exactly, are we doing here?"

"Did Alex not tell you?" Hugh groaned internally when they shook their heads. He'd never had to deal with three ghosts because, well, it'd never happened before. It hadn't happened to any of his fellow ghosts either, even the one that lived for five whole centuries. "You three are prodigy ghosts. You have great power, but you are held to a much higher standard than other ghosts because of this. Most ghosts never have to worry about these things because they can't do any of them."

"And how do you know we're— what is it called?" Luke couldn't believe they were ultra-powerful. They'd never done anything impressive aside from escape from Caleb's club. And he chalked that up to sheer willpower and desperation.

"A prodigy. And I know it because your friend," Hugh pointed directly at Alex, "managed to pull another ghost out of Caleb's club."

"We got ourselves out of Caleb's club almost two years ago. How is this any different?" Luke asked, ticked that this man was making as many assumptions as he was.

"It's not that it's much different, it's that Caleb, like you, is a prodigy. He is one of the most powerful ghosts in the world. How do you think he can trap lifers and ghosts for eternity? He might be a century dead now, but he started doing that when he had only been dead for a decade." That, alone, seemed to scare them into submission. Or, at least, quiet them long enough to allow him to explain the circumstances of the situation.

Goodness, it was going to be harder than he remembered to train them.

"Guys, we can be as powerful as Caleb." Reggie only saw this as a plus. Luke could see the good and the bad, but Alex couldn't see how that could possibly be a good thing. "We can finally beat him at his own game."

Even Alex had to admit that wasn't a bad thing.

"Well, that is not what I'm going to teach you, but I do hope to show you some useful things. You're short spirits and prodigies tend to stay ghosts a lot longer than other spirits, so you'll pick up things on your own." Hugh didn't want to get their hopes up.

"What are short spirits?" Reggie wondered. They'd never heard the term. It wasn't a common one, but it wasn't common to ask how long another ghost had been dead.

"Ghosts who haven't been dead for a long time." That seemed to track, except for the part about when they died. They'd only been ghosts for a little under two years. But, they died in 1995. That was twenty-seven years ago.

"We died in 1995."

"How did you— I'm sorry, I don't follow. Why did you go to Caleb's club when you were twenty-five years dead?" Hugh wondered. Something didn't add up. "No one goes there unless they're a short spirit."

"See, the funny thing about that is that we died in 1995, but we were in this creepy dark room for twenty-five years and then Julie brought us back a couple years ago," Reggie explained.

Somehow, everything started to click for Hugh. They weren't really short spirits, they just hadn't interacted with the living world in quite some time. The more time a ghost spent in the black space, the more power they had magically acquired. He'd never heard of a ghost (much less three) who had stayed in the black space for more than a couple years. Even he had only been in the black space for five years, and five years was a long time compared to most. Most only stayed there for a few hours, maybe a couple days at most. On top of that, it explained how they didn't completely understand the complexities of the modern world. He could sense that they were still a fair bit unfamiliar with some of the technology he'd managed to scrounge up in the last couple decades.

"Well, this should make things easier, then," Hugh muttered under his breath, just low enough so that they couldn't hear him. Or, if they did, they didn't say anything.

"So, are you going to teach us?" Alex asked, taking a step forward.

"It shouldn't be too hard. But, I'm not going to show you everything." The last time he did, it ended with a corrupt global superpower who vowed to never cross over. Even Hugh had yet to figure out whether it was possible to forcibly cross a ghost over. "There are some things you need to learn on your own."

"So, we're supposed to just learn all of this on our own? How are we supposed to do that?" Luke wasn't the only one thinking that.

"Just figure it out." Hugh shrugged. They had no idea what they were getting themselves into.

Author's Note: Hugh has decided to teach them how to be as powerful as Caleb. Kind of. We'll see how that goes. I have a ton of things to do for class, so I'll see you later. Vote and let me know what you think in the comments. All the best, MistyRider921.