Ghostfinders 02 - Ghost of a Smile

diffidently.
    “Don’t interrupt me when I’m on a roll!”
    “Sorry, dear.”
    “I’ve got a pair of trousers I could lend you,” JC said solemnly. “Since you don’t seem to be wearing them at the moment.”
    “Are you kidding?” said Happy. “She scares the crap out of me!”
    “I thought you two were having lots and lots of sex?” said Kim.
    “What’s that got to do with anything?” said Happy.
    “Stop trying to distract me from feeling unappreciated and hard done by!” snapped Melody. “Why didn’t we get a special gift?”
    “We are not worthy,” Happy said solemnly.
    “I will slap you in a minute, and it will hurt,” said Melody.
    “Trust me—if you want this gift, you’re welcome to it,” said JC. “I can see the world more clearly than I ever did before, but that’s not always a good thing. You wouldn’t believe some of the things we share this world with. We walk in dreams and nightmares, in beauty and horror, and the sheer pressure of it all is more than my eyes can bear. And did you know, I can’t see colours any more? Except when I take my shades off? When I wear my sunglasses, which is most of the time, for my own sanity . . . all I see is black and white. Makes me wonder what else I’ve lost, as the price for this special gift.”
    “I really would like to run some tests on you, JC,” said Melody. “Put you under a microscope and see what’s become of you. For your own sake, as well as my curiosity. Glowing that fiercely can’t be good for you.”
    “Hold everything, go previous,” said Happy. “Are you talking radiation? Kim was glowing all over me, back there! Am I going to be sterile now? Are you going to make me get my ya-yas out in your laboratory, Melody, and poke them with sticks?”
    “You know you love it when I wear the nurse costume,” said Melody. “Now behave yourself. The glow isn’t any form of radiation I’m familiar with. I have done some research. It’s not even light, as such, it’s the indication of an Outside force coming into contact with our lesser world.”
    “Not really any wiser,” said Happy.
    “That’s why I won’t let you run any more tests,” said JC. “I have enough worries as it is, without you adding to them.” He looked at Happy. “Nothing’s changed, Happy. Not really. I’m still me, in every way that matters. I never envied you your telepathy, I always knew what it did to you. Do you think this is any different?”
    “God, we’re one hell of a team,” said Happy. “The psychically walking wounded.”
    “Speak for yourself,” said Melody.
    “I am, I am,” said Happy.
    “So, are we still a team?” said JC.
    “Of course we’re a team!” said Melody. “Who else would put up with the likes of us?”
    “Yay!” said Kim, uncurling in mid air. “We totally bonded! Yay for us!”
    “Oh God, now she’s getting enthusiastic, too,” growled Happy. “Bad enough when JC does it. I warn you all now, there is only so much sweetness and light I can put up with before the projectile vomiting starts.”
    “Since we are all clearly back to our usual selves, make yourself useful, Happy,” said JC. “Scan the surroundings. See if you can pick up any hint of what we might be heading into.”
    “Way ahead of you, as always,” said Happy. “I’ve been trying to force a scan through the general psychic jamming all the way up here, but it’s useless. The entire building’s affected, and it’s only getting worse the higher we go. The closer we get to the New People. It’s like they’ve psychically pissed in all the wells, poisoning the whole building’s ambience. If I didn’t know better, I’d say Chimera House is possessed. It’s like normal reality has been overwritten by something far more powerful.”
    “The New People,” said JC, thinking. “We are going to have to do something about them.”
    “When we finally get to meet these all-powerful, godlike people, don’t stand anywhere near me,” said Melody. “I plan to be right at the back saying, He’s nothing to do with me .”
    “I don’t know,” said Happy, frowning. “It might be them, whatever they are now, or . . . I keep getting this feeling that someone’s playing games here. And that maybe the New People are pawns who only think they’ve become queens and kings.”
    “How very eloquent,” said Melody. “I’m impressed. Really. I told you hanging out with me would be good for you.”
    “Some of you must be rubbing off on