The Phantom Touch

Doubts of the Past

I woke up the next morning with bags beneath my eyes. After a busy first day on the job and an eventful evening, I thought sleep would come racing into my arms. However, something nagged at my thoughts and teased my dreams. A fitful night of tossing and turning had me up at the first signs of dawn. After snagging an apple and a croissant from Spencer's buffet, I made my way down to the town center. There I hoped to put my concerns to rest.

"Can I help you find anything?"

I jumped, nearly slamming the cabinet door on my fingers in the process. "Oh, Trevor," I said with a hand to my chest, my heart beating in my throat, "it's you."

"Sorry," he replied with a wispy, white smile, "I'm not sure how to best alert you to my presence when I don't really make noise. I didn't mean to scare you."

"It's quite alright," I replied, returning his grin. "I think I'm just a bit jumpy since these files were further down into the archives than I had hoped." My eyes glanced over the dusty, dark basement floor of the library. The polished, furnished, and more public levels of the library were just above my head, but it was easy to forget that once I stepped into the dank, low lit brick floors of the subterranean archives.

"Still afraid of Jessie," he said, his words dripping with remorse and disappointment.

"I, um, well," I stuttered, trying to find the words to appropriately define my mixed feelings for the tormented ghost. "Yes, I am afraid of her, but I don't blame her. If that makes sense. In fact, I feel bad for her. I'm still figuring out my own feelings about being brought to Whisper Valley, but I know many have found happiness in a second chance at life. So I'm sad she hasn't been able to find that."

With that, Trevor's pale face lit bright with an ethereal glow. "That's very kind of you. It warms my nonexistent heart that you would care so dearly for a ghost. Especially one that most have given up on."

"Clearly you haven't," I said with a smile, before glancing over at the filing cabinet I had been perusing. Sitting beside it were a few folders I had already retrieved in my quest, however, it was difficult to know how far ahead I'd need to look to find the end of the story. I decided to clear my throat and remind Trevor of his initial question. "You know, there is something I could use your help with."

"Oh," he said, straightening up, or at least that's what it looked like, it was always hard to tell what exactly a ghost was doing. "How may I be of assistance?"

"I've been looking into some of the town council minutes. I've found a few records of meetings in regards to the ban on grave robbing, but I haven't been able to locate the results of that." I picked up my pile to show Trevor what progress I had made, but was uncertain what to do with it from there. I couldn't just hand it to him. Thankfully, Trevor managed to take hold of the copies, before I spent too long debating what to do. Although, saying he took hold doesn't quite seem like the right word. His hands weren't physically grasping the copies, instead he had his arms across his chest while he skimmed over the papers before him. However, those papers also weren't completely held aloft on their own, all they had was a dusty white-blow glow billowing around them.

Noticing my curious gaze, Trevor paused his assessment of my finds and smiled at me with amusement. "Remember, a ghost can take any form they choose," he replied to my unvoiced question. "The older and wiser we are, the more of ourselves we have to work with. That's why new ghosts can't manipulate earthly objects right away. However, with time and practice our aura grows. I'm using some of my aura to hold up these files."

"I'm not sure I'll ever get used to this world," I mumbled.

"I have no doubt that you will," he said with sincere confidence. "Now, in regards to these minutes, it seems you already have your results. The five clan heads gathered to discuss the growing concern of exposure due to zombie grave robbing and the unanimous decision to ban it."

"I'll admit, I'm a bit surprised by that. Seems the zombies didn't even put up a fight. Of course, it appears Raid wasn't the leader back then."

"He wasn't even around then," said Trevor with something that looked like a shrug. "Colton Carver was the first zombie elder to live in Whisper Valley. He always had high hopes of proving his zombies were superior creatures. So when the others voiced their concerns he supported it."

"And apparently claimed the clan would do without human flesh," I said, my voice dipping with thought. "However, Kyra suggested the zombies should pursue an animal based diet, sustaining on the leftover cuts of meat from Antonov's farm. She didn't believe they could survive without some form of dead flesh."

"Yeah," replied the ghost with a grimace, "Colton didn't take that too well. He didn't see how they would ever come off as superior when they lived off of someone else's table scraps."

"Right, I saw that. The last copy of minutes I found on the matter stated that Colton would be leading his clan in a sort of vegan diet. That he hoped to prove they were stronger than the virus."

"That he did and then the council agreed to his proposition..."

"Only because they determined that so long as the zombies weren't grave robbing, it wasn't a town problem," I interjected. "They believed the zombies' diet was a zombie problem, but a few of the elders still had concerns. Particularly the vampires."

"Yes, but this is still the end of the matter," he said, before sorting my papers out and returning them to the filing cabinet. "I'm not sure what else you are hoping to find."

"Well, I mean, Colton isn't here anymore and Raid is. That and obviously the zombies were under an animal based diet with Raid. So clearly something happened between now and then. I just want to know what happened."

Trevor paused. I couldn't tell if he was looking at the filing cabinet full of council minutes or the wall, but eventually he shut the cabinet door and faced me with a devious half smile.

"Is this about your budding relationship with Bungee?" he asked with a mischievous rise of his brow.

"Wha-What?" I stammered, not expecting that assertion to spring up from my questions. "Why does everyone think me and Bungee are, I don't know, dating or something?"

"I just hear a lot of things in this library. You're not the only one that often doesn't hear us floating around. I pick up quite a bit of gossip in here."

"And people really think we're together?" I asked, biting my lip and looking to the floor.

"Oh yes, but I wouldn't worry, most people think you are quite cute together."

"W-well, I, that's not the point," I said with a shake of my head. "I didn't come here because of what may or may not be happening between me and a zombie. I'm here because a zombie has recently returned to town with a new meat free diet and, well, it seems the vampires still aren't thrilled with the idea. Lord Antonov said..."

"Oh, the vampires," said Trevor with what may have been a roll of his eyes. "You'd think the ghosts would be the clan that's the most stuck in the past, but we're simply apathetic to everything material. It's the vampires that can't get out of the dark ages. It's a bit arrogant to think that technology won't some day out pace magic."

His words gave me pause. Mercedes had said something very similar. I thought about old fairy tales of witches and ghouls, and it did seem like some of the things they were said to do, would be easy to accomplish nowadays by simply applying the laws of physics.

"So, who knows," continued the ghost, "maybe this diet will work. However, it seems to me that if a zombie is here with knowledge about the diet, it's probably best just to ask her about it instead of looking at council minutes that are a few decades old. Technology has changed a lot during that time period."

"You're probably right," I muttered, casting a glance back at the filing cabinet. "I have to get to work anyway. Thanks for your help, Trevor."

"Anytime, Del."

We said our goodbyes and I headed out of the gloomy basement and back into the light of day.

***

Is Del right to wonder what the implications of Mercedes' diet might do to the zombies?  Or is she putting too much stock in the concerns of a vampire who has proven to be manipulative in the past?