Ghostfinders 03 -Ghost of a Dream

time. There were a few tears, and somelaughter, then they all stood back and looked at each other as though they could never get enough.
    “You look the same, Alistair,” said Elizabeth. “You haven’t changed at all! Oh, don’t look at me, Alistair. I’ve changed so much.”
    “Not in any way that matters,” said Alistair. “Nothing else matters except that we’re together again.”
    “I’ve missed you so much,” said Benjamin. “We both have…”
    “And I’ve missed you,” said the ghost. “That’s why I brought you back here. For one last performance.” He looked across at the fascinated Ghost Finders and grinned broadly. “‘All the world’s a stage…and one man in his time plays many parts…’ Why should death be any different?”
    “So everyone we met here was you?” said Elizabeth.
    “All of me,” said Alistair. “Everyone you’ve seen, and everything you’ve been through, has been down to me. In one guise or another. Until Little Miss Faust here turned up and started interfering.” He stuck his tongue out at the Faust, then turned to smile winningly at JC. “The whole costumes thing was down to him. Including the appearance of your ghost girl. Which is why I couldn’t see her; he was working directly on your mind. I did rescue you, as Lissa and Old Tom.”
    “Yes,” said JC. “You came on to me as Lissa!”
    “I knew it!” said Happy.
    “Shut up, Happy,” said JC. “Nothing happened.”
    “Alistair always was very…promiscuous,” said Elizabeth, and Benjamin nodded solemnly. Alistair beamed on both of them.
    “This whole show was for your benefit, my dears. I wanted to prove to you…what a great actor I was. Far more talented than that conceited movie star, bad cess to his name. He ruined your play. I hope you told everybody about his toupee…Good. I brought you back here so I could have a little fun with you, and to say good-bye, properly. Because we never got the chance. But the performance is over now. Ring down the curtains and get on with your lives. Go ahead with your play. All is forgiven. I always said…it was a bloody good play.”
    “So there was never any real threat here?” said JC. “Never any real danger, to anyone?”
    “Of course not,” said Alistair. “It was all me, putting on a show. Oh, it’s been so much fun, my dears, to have an audience again!”
    “But why go to such lengths, to create things to scare the crap out of us?” said Benjamin.
    “Because I owed you both a good scare, like the one you gave me,” said Alistair. “And, perhaps, a little punishment. But it was all perfectly harmless scars. Think of it as a good old-fashioned ghost-train ride. I always loved those…”
    “Oh bloody hell, not another one,” muttered Happy.
    “Hold everything,” said Melody. “What about the dead homeless guy?”
    “What about him?” said Alistair. “He broke in one evening and died of a heart attack in his sleep. Nothing to do with me.”
    “Excuse me!” said the Faust, very loudly. “Will you all please shut the hell up and pay attention to me!” He glared around at them all until he was sure he’d goteveryone’s attention again. “Do you really think I give a damn about some twenty-year-old sob story and some half-arsed ghost who can’t take a hint and piss off to the afterworlds where he belongs? Life is for the living, and the flesh is all that matters.”
    Happy smirked at Melody. “He’s talking to you.”
    “What? Him? That scrawny piece of shit in the off-the-peg suit?” said Melody. “Look at the state of him—no two pounds of the man hanging straight. I’d rather sleep with the dummy the suit came from. He couldn’t keep up with me, anyway…”
    “Not many can,” said Happy.
    “This is true,” said Melody. “Now stop fishing for compliments.”
    “You’ll have to excuse them,” JC said to the increasingly frustrated Faust. “They’re just being themselves. But they do have a point. For all your fine words, what can you hope to do against trained operatives like us? We only had to give your Phantom thing a hard look, and it fell apart on us.”
    “The Phantom of the Haybarn was only a bit of fun,” said the Faust. “Now it’s time to get serious. The best way to overcome an enemy is to make them a part of you. Even if you’re clearly not worthy…So, I’m going to eat you all up with spoons.”
    He gestured languidly at the trap-Door, lying forgotten on the other side of the stage,