Mutated Ectoplasm

6. Gory Gourmet

Another chapter sent in, though I'm not entirely sure how well I did this one. There's plenty of action in it, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the actions good. Either way, I hope it's good enough for everybody and that you all enjoy the chapter ahead!

The meat on the stove was beginning to burn, Karkat dully noted to himself. He wasn't sure why he was thinking about this now, but the ghost in front of him seemed to agree with him and immediately went to flip it over. He could see one side was slightly blackened from where he stood.

That solved one problem at least.

The other was the fact that fucking ghost was standing right in front of him.

"Dearies?" The woman tilted her head to the side curiously, confused. "Is everything alright? If you're feeling lightheaded, you might want to have something sweet. Can't have your blood sugar getting low." She tutted as she moved toward the oven, taking a look inside. "The cookies aren't finished yet, so you might have to wait a few minutes."

"That's fine." Karkat said, voice higher than he'd like it to be. He sent a look behind himself to his friends, noting Aradia's rigid frame ready for a fight. Sollux was clicking furiously on his phone, repeatedly looking up to keep an eye on the ghost as well. "Doris was just acting a little weird and we wanted to see what was wrong."

"Aw, the poor thing. I think she's been working herself to death! I think I took too many sick days and it left her ragged." The dead lunch lady cooed, dicing up some vegetables. "Figured that she should take a sick day herself. She needs the rest."

"Right. Makes sense." That wasn't ominous in the slightest. A laugh riot, this one.

The red-eyed boy watched her carefully. He was starting to wish she was an ectopus rather than a person at this point, because he could explain away those things. They were some native animal of an alternate dimension or something, practically aliens in a way. Things that didn't have to be explained too in depth unless you want to.

This was a different though. This was a real ghost. An actual dead person that probably had family and friends that missed them, who knew them.

This was absolutely fucked.

"KK." Sollux whispered to him, pushing his phone into Karkat's hand. He pointed at the screen, never taking his eyes of the ghost. "I found her. I don't think she's bullshitting."

Karkat looked down at the phone screen, scanning the information below. He gulped as he read the headline.

Casper High Lunch Lady Found Dead due to Work Related Stress

A Casper High cafeteria worker was discovered dead in the kitchen area Friday morning due to a heart attack.

52-year-old Lisa Littlemeyer's body was found on the kitchen floor of Casper High by a fellow employee after they came into work that morning. It is believed that Littlemeyer was working late that night to receive overtime when the heart attack occurred. No one else was reported to be in the building at the time of her death.

The employee that called it in was said to be a Doris Grail, who claimed that...

...Karkat promised to send Doris some flowers or some comfort food to her later. It sounded like she was going to need it after the day she's had.

"Okay, Mrs. Littlemeyer?" He said experimentally, hoping that she at least knew her own name. At the nod from her, he felt a small amount of relief and continued. She's willing to talk, so maybe this'll be easier than dealing with the ectopi "Are you sure you should be here right now? You might still be sick."