Ghostfinders 03 -Ghost of a Dream

“Far too broad a character.”
    So,
thought Happy.
That’s the way we’re going to play it, is it? All right. But you’re going to have to talk to me eventually.
    “It was an amazingly strong and coherent manifestation,” he said. “Solid to the touch. Real enough that none of us suspected his true nature. That’s not easy to pull off.”
    “I was sure he wasn’t what he seemed to be,” said Benjamin. “But it never even occurred to me that he wasn’t
real
. Are ghosts usually like that?”
    “Sometimes,” said Happy. “I told you, ghosts love to pull tricks on the living. They’re people, after all. With problems and pasts that won’t let them rest, won’t allow them to move on. They can pass as one of us because in many ways they still are.” He looked thoughtfully at Benjamin and Elizabeth. “Did Old Tom seem in any way…familiar, to you? Was there anything about him that suggested…someone you might have known before?”
    “The last caretaker I remember from here was Jerry Clarke,” said Benjamin. “About our age, and camp as a row of tents in Tent Land. Nothing like Old Tom.”
    That’s not what I asked,
thought Happy.
    “What does the ghost want with us?” said Elizabeth. “Why won’t he leave us alone?”
    “You’d know that better than I,” said Happy. But they both fixed him with their stubborn gaze, so Happy sighed quietly and moved on. “The Past has a hold on the dead, as well as the living. Particularly when it involves unfinished business. Now, you two can lie to me all you want about what really happened here twenty years ago. I’m easy to lie to. But that won’t protect you from what’s here in the theatre. Something here has waited twenty years for revenge. Something has not forgotten or forgiven.”
    Benjamin and Elizabeth looked at each other, excluding Happy completely.
    “We could leave,” Benjamin said tentatively. “We could walk out of here, and never come back.”
    “We can’t go,” said Elizabeth. “We’ve sunk everything we have into getting our play off the ground again. This is our last chance, to make it the success it should have been. We’re not young any more. Not old, not yet. But I can see old from where I am. We’re running out of time…to be an overnight success.”
    “We can make more money…” said Benjamin.
    “This isn’t about the money!” said Elizabeth. “This was never about money! I want our play! I won’t be stopped, and I won’t be beaten. I won’t be driven out of here, by the living or the dead or our own damned past!”
    Benjamin smiled suddenly. “That’s my girl.”
    And this time, when they looked at each other, Happy could see exactly what they saw in each other.

    They all looked around sharply again as they heard footsteps approaching. Outside, in the corridor, slow and heavy footsteps that didn’t even try to seem human were heading their way. The sound came clearly through the closed door, as though carried on something more than the air. Each step more than naturally heavy, like something pressing down on the world, imposing its presence through a sheer act of will. The same kind of footsteps they’d heard before, up on the stage.
    Elizabeth clutched at Benjamin. “Not again. I can’t stand it again. Make it go away.”
    Benjamin looked at Happy. “If Old Tom was the ghost, what’s that?”
    “I think…” said Happy, “that Old Tom was a mask for the real ghost to hide behind. As though he was putting on a performance. Old Tom may be gone now, but the threat is still here.”
    He moved forward, to face the closed dressing-room door. It worried him that he couldn’t remember exactly when it had closed, or who had closed it. Outside, in the corridor, the footsteps were drawing slowly, chillingly, closer.
    “Lock the door!” said Elizabeth. “Keep the bastard out!”
    “Do you have a key?” said Happy.
    “Of course we don’t have a key!” said Benjamin. “The renovators had all the keys. When they left, they gave them to the caretaker…Oh God.”
    “Do something!” said Elizabeth shrilly.
    “You really think locking a door will keep a ghost out?” said Happy, incredulously. “They’re famous for walking through doors! And walls…”
    “You’re the expert!” said Benjamin. “There must be something you can do!”
    “There’s no other way out of here,” said Elizabeth. “We’re trapped!”
    “Yes, I had noticed that, thank you!” said Happy.
    He didn’t want to be