Ghostfinders 02 - Ghost of a Smile

fog,” said JC.
    “You see.” said Happy. “You had to go and spoil it, didn’t you?”
    “Everyone stay right where you are,” said JC. “Don’t get out of sight of each other, or of the doors. Lose track of where you are, and you might never get out of here.”
    “Life was so much easier when I was paranoid,” Happy said wistfully. “When I was delusional, and the world really wasn’t out to get me.”
    “It’s not simply fog,” said Kim. They all looked at her, but she had nothing else to say.
    “I think the creation of the New People damaged the state of reality itself, inside this building,” said JC. “Or at least, I hope the changes are confined to this building . . . Either way, their arrival has placed an unnatural strain upon the local environment. You’ve heard of sick building syndrome, where the building itself can affect people’s health in unfortunate ways? That’s low-level genius loci at work. But there is also haunted building syndrome, a building that’s gone bad, that either creates ghosts or calls ghosts to it. The whole of Chimera House has been adversely affected, psychically stained, by recent events, an imprinting that will take decades, maybe even centuries, to clean up and make right. Things that would normally be improbable, or wildly unlikely, become more possible in places like this. Even inevitable . . .”
    “Like the Bio Reactor’s mobile organs?” said Kim.
    “Exactly,” said Melody. “You don’t normally get to see things like that outside of a Cronenberg film.”
    “ They Came from Within !” said Happy. “Oh, that’s a classic! I had to sleep with the lights on for days, and I never felt the same about swimming pools.”
    “Strange little man,” said Kim. “I’ve never cared much for horror movies.”
    “Did you join the wrong team!” said Happy.
    “Shut up, Happy,” said JC. He stared thoughtfully at the curling fog. “When this is all over, we may have to destroy the entire building. Blow it up, tear it down, crush the rubble, and scatter it at sea.”
    “Chimera House has become a strange attractor,” said Melody. “Attracting, pulling ghosts to it.”
    “Like moths to a candle,” said Happy.
    “Oh dear,” said Kim. “You mean proper ghosts? People ghosts? I’ve always found them rather unnerving.”
    “But you are one!” said Happy.
    “But I still think I’m human,” said Kim. “I still feel human. Even though I do sometimes see or hear things that only the dead can know.”
    “Like what?” said Happy.
    She stared at him very seriously. “You really don’t want to know, Happy.”
    “I’m a Class Eleven Telepath!” said Happy. “I see things every day that would make grown men rip their own heads off!”
    “But I’m dead,” said Kim.
    “You’re right,” said Happy. “That does trump a hell of a lot of things.”
    “I don’t know much about ghosts,” said Kim. “Despite being one. It’s one of the reasons I joined this team. I don’t understand ghosts. They scare me as much as they do you.”
    “I am going to change the subject,” said Happy. “Because this one is creeping the hell out of me. Given that the computers didn’t have anything to say about this floor, and so therefore it couldn’t possibly contain anything important or significant, why don’t we skip it and move on up?”
    “Doesn’t the fog fascinate you?” said JC.
    “Let me think about that for a moment no not at all,” said Happy. “I have officially decided I can take it or leave it.”
    “We are staying,” JC said firmly. “Because we need all the information we can gather as to what went down here before we have to meet the New People. In a situation like this, information is ammunition. And . . . we really don’t want to overlook anything that might come sneaking after us and creep up on us from behind. Do we?”
    “Very good point there,” said Happy. “God, it’s coming to something when you’re the paranoid one on this team.”
    They all went back to staring into the great grey expanse before them. JC stepped cautiously forward and swept one hand through the fog. It felt cold and damp, as though it had blown in off some ancient unknown ocean. He shuddered suddenly, not from the cold. Whichever way he looked, endless shades of grey filled his sight, with no trace of the floor they were supposed to be on anywhere. Lights flickered and flared, glowing and fading in the grey deeps, like taunting