Momo: A Jinx in Pure Heart

Chapter 6: Haunted Housewarming

The little ghost fluttered in the attic once again, slumped over its second costume failure. It was so close that time.

Initially, it dressed up as a mummy, wrapping itself in long white ribbons of cloth until it felt sufficiently covered. It figured it didn't need to fly very far when it noticed the kids, along with one another plus two adults, standing in the field just across from its house, so it made its way outside without further hesitation. Going out the door, the mummy-wrapped ghost drifted closer and closer to the group of fun-lovers but realized too late that one particular piece of cloth in its costume had snagged with something back in the house. By that time, the ghost was within reach – touching distance – of the people outside and turned away at the moment, but was slowly pulled away by the stuck and stretched cloth before culminating in a spring-loaded unwind and launched right into the air. By the time it landed right back into the safety of its house's attic, the rest of its costume became undone and fluttered down onto the other houses outside, leaving quite a mess.

The ghost, seeing no other way, returned to the attic junk, hoping to again find a costume that would both keep it well disguised and last much longer and better than the last two.

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Outside, Adorabat was witnessing a lot of drama from Badgerclops as they finished most of the area they were searching. Badgerclops, on that note, was practically storming as he made his way towards the back of the school's backyard. "I can't believe Mao would do this to us," he growled, "going off with kids who have fun and treats while we're stuck working ourselves tired and hungry..."

"Badgerclops, we already had a whole basket of candies from Penny and Benny a while ago," Adorabat pointed out. "It'd be nice to have more candy but maybe we don't need 'em that bad..."

"True, Adorabat, but the real question is what sort of candies we're missing out on," Badgerclops gently refuted. "We had lots of cinnamon and cobbler candies, but what about the carrot candies? And pumpkin pie?" He sighed at that last part.

"You really like pumpkin pie, do you?" Adorabat giggled.

"Only the best," the badger affirmed with pride, "especially when it's made from the pumpkin raised with love and care by our respected Farmer Bun." The two made their way to one location they hadn't scoured yet, which was a dark, rundown little house at the other side of the school's backyard that evidently served as a sort of toolshed for the school's custodian.

"That looks like a pretty old house," Adorabat commented once they got close. "I didn't know Momo's school had that."

Badgerclops simply shrugged. "Me too. Makes me wonder if someone lived in there before. It looks pretty old." At first, nothing else happened as both he and the bat were now standing on the porch. "It doesn't look like anyone's taken care of it for a long time. Barely looks used too."

Adorabat watched Badgerclops grab the handle of the front door and tug at it, expressing surprise that it was unlocked. "You think it's haunted by a ghost?" she insinuated with a dark glee.

"I wish," Badgerclops laughed, stepping inside and allowing the bat to follow him in. "Momo and Mao Mao got rid of all of them months ago. If there is one, I'm not sure how we'll find it."

The two began their search, looking through the few but cluttered rooms that composed the house-that-was-a-shack. There was nothing special about any of them on the first and second floors, so there was nowhere else left to go but the attic. Badgerclops stepped up the creaky stairs while Adorabat flew up there ahead of him, leading them both to a quiet narrow room filled with boxes of junk along with other assorted items.

"Wow, there's a whole lot of stuff in this part of the house," Adorabat gasped, looking over all the varieties of things that she was sure she hadn't seen before. "It's kinda like how we had stuff in our attic."

Badgerclops concurred as he looked over the room with his own eye as well, though he also rolled it. "Yeah. If Mao was here," he said that part lowly between his teeth, "he'd say this place needs a decluttering." He walked right up to the circular window at the end of the attic room, looking out of it to gaze at the school building ahead outside. "I really hope we make it back in time for the pie-cutting at Town Square."

Adorabat occupied her time with a tall mirror that stood in the middle of the room, its reflective surface facing the window that Badgerclops stood in front of. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary as she only saw the room, herself, and Badgerclops reflected back at her. She did, however, notice the reflection of a painting sitting just at the side of the room. She looked back to see the painting itself, noticing the depiction of frightening ghosts and fearful Sweetypies below.

The sight reminded her all too well of the incident at the school that happened months ago. While it was technically Momo and Mao Mao who saved the day, she and Badgerclops helped too. It was mostly thanks to Badgerclops's inventiveness that got them both the glory, though Adorabat also had her moments using her powerful screaming voice and versatility with a broom; she was proud to have figured out the flying broom first, even if Badgerclops was the one who rode it out of the school after the invasion was thwarted.

Adorabat turned her eyes from the painting back to the mirror to look at its reflection again, but noticed that there looked like an extra pair of eyes on the painting, particularly on the part that showed the ghosts. She turned back to the painting to find nothing of the sort. It was unchanged. She looked back at the mirror to see that the painting's reflection still had the suspicious pair of eyes. Adorabat looked back and forth multiple times, confirming to herself that this strange sight was limited to only the mirror.

"Um, Badgerclops?" Adorabat said hesitantly, tapping the badger on the shoulder. She waited until he turned around from the window, then pointed at the mirror. "I think there's something watching us."

Badgerclops turned to look at the mirror that Adorabat was talking about, looking at it to see the same painting reflected on its surface. Both the reflection and the painting itself appeared normal. There was nothing to suggest anything out of the ordinary. "Uh, what am I looking at here?"

"There's another pair of eyes on the painting that's looking at us!" Adorabat insisted, holding Badgerclops's head in the direction of the mirror. Adorabat even pointed a wing at the part of the painting she saw the eyes on for good measure, making sure the badger was looking where the frightening ghost depictions were positioned.

Badgerclops still couldn't see anything unusual apart from the art style used for the painting's visuals. "Adorabat, it's just a painting!" he tried to reassure the bat, however frustrated he sounded. "Sure it looks like it's watching you, but that's how they're done. Artists are just crazy that way!" He then looked at the painting again as he kept talking to Adorabat. "If you think those painted pupils are pointed at you, it's just a trick of the light. It's only your ima –"

One of the ghosts in the painting blinked.

Badgerclops and Adorabat screamed their lungs out.