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Lewis thought he’d been dating both of them at the time of his death?!

…

Well, it was better than Lewis thinking Arthur stole his girlfriend.

“Now the simplest solution would be to remove whatever curse is keeping them from remembering me,” said Lewis.  “…Unfortunately, I know nothing about this curse, including where it came from or how to remove it.  So do any of you know anything about this?”

The deadbeats shrugged while Mystery nervously looked away.

“Right, figured that was the case,” admitted Lewis as he crossed out that option.  “Probably not gonna happen, which sucks for many reasons. Still I won’t take it completely off the table since we might manage to find something.  So we go to the next option:  Rebuild our relationship.”

Lewis started pacing, his legs going through the floor of the van as it was too small for him to actually stand in.  “So they’re not gonna just fall in love with me.  That only happens in bad rom-coms.  And occasionally magic manga.  Which I guess this could sort of be.”  He paused.  “I guess they might have some subconscious memories of me.  It would explain why they trusted me so easily.”

The deadbeats nodded along with some chirps.

“That being said, there will be no taking advantage of them,” insisted Lewis.  “So you can be friends with them, but no trying to eat Arthur or anything.”  The deadbeats gave him startled looks.  “…Well, it’s happened before, and, um, anyway, just be nice and treat them with respect,” finished Lewis.

The Deadbeats saluted in agreement.

Lewis nodded. “Good.  Now, as for me…”  He paused for a moment.  “Well, I guess they’ll have to get to know me again.  Traveling with them should work for now.  When we get back to Tempo, I can probably still spend time with them since they’re interested in the whole ghost thing.  The real problem is that I can’t really go out in public with them unless I’m invisible, and then I can’t really interact with them.”

One particular deadbeat chirped at Lewis.

Lewis nodded towards…him? Her? It?  What pronoun applies when even the ghost doesn’t know its gender?  “Good point.  If we’re investigating a haunted house with other ghosts, that won’t matter. We didn’t run into them very often back when I was alive…although we might not have been aware of any ghosts. We’re pretty good at hiding when we want to.”

Lewis huffed. “So we’ll need more haunted houses…but that might not be a good thing considering Arthur.  Suddenly all the crazy stuff that happened to him during cases makes a lot more sense.”  Seriously, now that he was a ghost Arthur had some sort of magnetic aura that felt like a warm pile of laundry on a cold day.  No wonder he was such a weirdness magnet…  “On the bright side, since we’ll be spending a lot of time in the van we’re kind of stuck together…in a good way!  I hope.”  Lewis thought for a moment.  “I guess the most I can do is extend the road trip so we spend more time in the van, but I won’t exactly have a lot of control over that.”

Lewis tapped his arm a couple of times.  “I guess that means…just keep doing what we’re doing.”

…

Vivi turned back to look at Lewis and Mystery.  “Would you mind feeding Mystery?”

Lewis nodded. “Sure, it’s no problem.  Would you mind putting on some sort of music before you leave?”

“Sure.”  Arthur fiddled with his computer and put on one of his Indie tracks.  “There we go.”

“We’ll try not to take too long,” said Vivi as the two living humans got out of the van.

“No need to hurry on my account,” said Lewis.  “I want to do some thinking anyway.”

That was good enough, and Vivi and Arthur walked into the restaurant.

Once they’d gotten some food (an obscene amount in Vivi’s case) and found a table, Vivi decided to ask Arthur something important.  “So what do you think of the ghost?”

Arthur blinked. “Uh, I, uh, I guess he’s okay.  We only met him yesterday.  He acts more or less like a normal person though, which is nice.”

Vivi nodded between bites.  “Yeah, I can’t say for sure since we didn’t know him, but I think that he’s acting the same as he did when he was alive.”

Arthur frowned. “It’s just…He acted like he knew us, but he doesn’t really seem familiar.  Did he seem familiar to you at all?”

Vivi shook her head. “Nope.”  She grinned at Arthur.  “Maybe he had a crush on one of us in high school.”

Arthur blushed. “I, uh, maybe.”  He huffed in frustration.  “I wouldn’t be the best person to notice that sort of thing.”

“Yeah, you’re really oblivious with flirting,” agreed Vivi.  “Oh!  Maybe your uncle or my parents know something!”

“Well, maybe if he had to have his car looked at,” admitted Arthur.

Since Vivi was busy eating her huge meal, it was up to him to check this potential lead.  He took out his cellphone and hit his uncle’s contact information.

It took a few minutes for Lance to pick up, but considering how busy he was, it wasn’t surprising.  “Hey Arthur? You two okay?”

“Yeah, we’re fine. Great.  Actually, came across a ghost last night.”

“…What kind of ghost?” questioned Lance.

“A surprisingly friendly ghost,” admitted Arthur.  “He acted like he knew us, but neither of us recognized him.”

Lance was silent for a moment.  “And what did this ghost look like?”

“Uh, good question. He’s got a floating skull with no jaw…or face.  The rest looks…normal-ish.  He tried doing some sort of glamour to show us what he used to look like, but he seems to be under some sort of curse that makes his glamours all…pixelated-smoky-distorted-unpleasant to look at.  He tried telling us his name, but it made us pass out for some reason.  Really the only definitive things I can tell you about his appearance is that he’s like seven feet tall, really muscular, and has an actual pompadour.”

“And he can cook,” added Vivi.

“Oh, yeah, thanks for reminding me,” said Arthur.  “And he said he was a professional chef…and went to our high school.  Does it ring a bell?”

Lance was silent for a moment.  “No.”

“Huh. Weird…”  Arthur thought for a moment.  This meant the ghost was either lying or the curse was affecting the whole town, possibly others.  “Think you could ask around and see if anyone recognizes him?”

“Sure.”

“Okay, thanks. Talk to you soon.”  Arthur hung up.  “Lance doesn’t know him.”

“Oh, right, you mentioned that you were a chef,” recalled Vivi.

Lewis nodded. “Yeah, I really enjoyed it.  I haven’t really cooked anything since I died so I’d love to be able to cook for you guys.”

“If you do, I should warn you that Vivi and Mystery eat obscene amounts of food,” warned Arthur.

“Eh, I’m used to cooking large amounts of food,” pointed out Lewis.  “I just need supplies.”

“Oof, we might need to rework the budget for that,” commented Vivi.

“I dunno, it’d probably be cheaper than eating out all the time,” pointed out Arthur.

“Healthier too,” added Lewis.  “I might need a couple of tries to get the hang of it again though, especially if I cook using my ghost fire, which I’d really like to try.”

“I would literally pay to see that,” said Vivi.

“Uh, what if there are weird side effects from cooking with ghost fire?” asked Arthur.

“We still have that campfire stove, right?” asked Vivi.  “Dunno why.  It’s not like we ever use it.”

Lewis suddenly felt very concerned about his lovers’ nutritional health.  “I know how to use a camping stove so I can use that instead if you’d be more comfortable that way,” he offered.

“I’d still like to see you cook with your ghost fire,” commented Vivi.  “It’s just energy transfer so it’d probably be safe.”

“Maybe I could try making popcorn,” suggested Lewis.  “It won’t actually use fire, but there will be heat.”

Arthur thought for a moment.  “I guess it would work to see if anything odd might happen.”

“We do have a couple of bags of popcorn somewhere,” said Vivi.  “Wanna give it a try now?”

“Sure.”  Lewis started looking through the supplies. “So where are we going?  The Techno Con?”

“That’s not for a few days,” said Arthur.  “We’re gonna stop at a couple of other places on the way.”

“We’re gonna go to a Ripley’s museum today,” said Vivi.  “We might be cutting it a bit close, but we’ll definitely be able to make the ghost tour.  We have a couple of free days just in case, so we can explore the museum tomorrow if we don’t have time today.”

“We’ll probably get to Techno Con at least a day early,” continued Arthur.  “We figured we’d relax a little and go on a date…” Arthur glanced back at Lewis.

“Don’t worry. I’ll give you two some privacy if you need it,” said Lewis.  “Just leave me a book or something, and I’ll be happy.”  He groaned.  “You wouldn’t believe how boring it was without books…or TV…or music…or generally any sort of entertainment.”

Arthur physically recoiled.  “Ugh, yeah, that sounds awful.  Hold on, I have some audible books.  Or some really old cassettes of books.  Could you hand me my laptop?”

Lewis grabbed Arthur’s familiar laptop.  “Sure, here. Got any romance?  They’re my favorite.”

“Huh.  I would not have guessed that looking at you,” commented Vivi.

“I get that a lot for some reason.”

“I like sci-fi and action,” said Arthur.  “They’re might be one that’s more romantic than usual.”  He frowned.  “Actually, maybe you should look through them, but I’m not sure how that would work. Most ghosts seem to have a weird effect on electronics.”

“I haven’t really had a chance to try,” admitted Lewis.  “I have been curious though.”

Arthur handed his laptop back to Lewis.  “Why don’t we find out?  Don’t worry about the files.  I backed everything up on flash drives before we left.”

Lewis examined the laptop in confusion.  The wallpaper was a picture Vivi had taken of all of them heading into a dark house, except Lewis had somehow been removed from the picture.  Had someone photoshopped him out or something?  Or was this part of whatever was keeping him from telling Vivi and Arthur who he was?

It disturbing whatever it was.

Lewis decided to ignore it for a moment and just see what he could do.  “So…I don’t think the touch screen is working.”

“Makes sense. Those work by picking up on the tiny electrical signals at the tips of your fingers,” explained Arthur.

“I wonder if a ghost with electrical powers could use a touch screen,” wondered Vivi.

“Oh, the mousepad isn’t working either,” said Lewis.  “I think I can still type, but I don’t think I can use a computer without a mouse.”

“Oof, yeah, that’s difficult,” agreed Arthur.  “I guess we could see if a physical mouse would work, preferably one with a cable. Until then, I guess you’ll have to direct one of us from over our shoulders.”

“That’s fine. I’ve managed to survive…uh, exist this long without electronics.”

“Now, let’s see what we’ve got.”  Arthur scrolled through his list, reading a quick summary of the books he had on his computer.

Turns out he had the first Harry Potter book.  They figured it would last most of the day, and everyone liked it, so that’s what they went with.

“You know, I was adopted when my parents found me on their porch,” commented Lewis.

“Heh, seriously?” asked Vivi.

“Yeah, although I was, like, five at the time, and they tried to find my birth parents first,” continued Lewis.  “I could never remember anything from before that though.  Made figuring out where I came from kind of difficult.”

“I never really understood why stories use the cliché of leaving a baby on the front steps of a house for the owners to raise,” commented Arthur.  “It seems like most people would either call the police to report child abandonment and possibly endangerment or just take the kid to a nearby orphanage.”

“Plus it might be really cold,” added Vivi.  “I mean, this takes place during Halloween!  In Britain!  Given, I’ve never been there, but I think it would be pretty cold.”

Arthur nodded. “That too, plus unless you know the people really well, you have no idea how they’ll be treated.”

“Yeah, I was a lot luckier than Harry,” admitted Lewis.  “He probably would’ve been better off in an orphanage.”

“How come no doctors ever wondered about why Dudley had a pig tail?” questioned Arthur.  “I mean, humans do sometimes have tails, but they’re usually removed pretty early on, and they aren’t curly.”

“They probably did talk about it,” said Vivi.  “Remember, the books are told from Harry’s point of view, and he really doesn’t want anything to do with the Dursley’s.”

“Maybe Vernon bribed someone?” suggested Lewis.

“I dunno.  I can’t remember his position in the company he works for, but how much money could you make making drills?” questioned Arthur.

“Hey, some drills are pretty big,” pointed out Vivi.  “They gotta cost a lot.”

“Yeah, but a lot of that will be in materials and other resources used to make the drills,” argued Arthur.

“Maybe he’s embezzling from the drill company,” suggested Lewis.

That got laughs from Vivi and Arthur so he counted it as a win.

“Why wasn’t Peeves in any of the movies?” questioned Vivi.  “I mean he was in the videogames, so why not the movies?”

“Budget,” Arthur said simply.

“I’m pretty sure time was a problem too,” said Lewis.  “The movie was made before 2 hour movies were considered normal, so they didn’t want to make it too long.”

“Annoying, but it makes sense,” muttered Vivi.

Mystery averted his gaze with a whine.

“I guess I should wait for them to wake up, but I’m not sure I should move them,” Lewis continued to mutter.  “Ugh, I really hope they wake up soon.  I really need someone to have a two-way conversation with.”  He waved a hand and formed a very comfy looking bed that he put the two on. He sat at the foot of the bed and pat his lap as an invitation.  Mystery happily jumped up and settled down for some ear scratching.

It didn’t take too long for Arthur to wake up.  He sat up with a groan, rubbing his head.  “Oh man, Vivi I had such a weird dream.”

“Was it about me coming back as a ghost?”

Arthur shrieked, waking Vivi up.  “Huh, what?” She blinked at Lewis and looked around. “Is this the haunted house from before?”

“Uh…”  Arthur looked around.  “Maybe?  I don’t actually remember coming in here.”

If Lewis could gasp, he would have.  “You don’t remember actually coming in here?!”

Vivi shook her head. “Nope.  I remember walking up to the doors and then…Nothing.”

Arthur frowned. “Yeah, what did you do?”

“Nothing!  I just let you know it was me!”

“Oh, do we know you?” asked Vivi.  “I don’t recall anyone dying recently…”

“Wha-?”  Lewis felt his face to make sure it was still in place.  “It’s me!”

“Me who?” asked Arthur.

“Lewis!”

Vivi and Arthur promptly passed out.  Lewis stared in confusion.  He awkwardly slapped at Arthur’s cheek but got now response.  Lewis gave Mystery a confused look.  “Did I do that?”

Mystery winced but nodded.

“But I didn’t even do anything!” protested Lewis.  “I just let them know who I was!”  He groaned and flopped back on the bed.  “Come on! I was so close!”  He huffed and lay in thought.  “Okay, so they were fine until I told them who I was…”  He frowned.  “Actually, they didn’t faint until I said my name…”  He growled.  “I swear if that spirit in the cave put some sort of curse on me to cause this…”

Arthur groaned. “Oh my God, my head is killing me…” Arthur blearily opened his eyes. He blinked.  “…Uh…”  He looked around before his eyes landed on Lewis.  “Did you kidnap us?”

“No!  No.  You came in here to explore my haunted house, and when I told you my name you passed out. And forgot stuff.  Twice,” explained Lewis.  “I think my name might be cursed.”

“Uh…Look, my head hurts so badly I can barely think straight,” admitted Arthur.  “Plus Vivi’s better at this sort of thing than me…Anyway, do you own the house or are you a ghost or something like that?”

“Uh, well I was a fairly normal human until I died a few months ago,” explained Lewis.  “Now, I’m a ghost.”

“Okay. Ghost.  That’s simple.  Usually,” muttered Arthur.  He looked at Vivi and poked her.  “Yeah, she’s not waking up.  So, uh, I figure ghosts can get cursed, but I dunno how to…uncurse ‘em.”  Arthur groaned and rubbed his eyes.  “Could…could you stop doing that?”

Lewis blinked.  “Doing what?”

“Your face is all blurry and looks like a photo negative and positive and smeared at once,” explained Arthur.  He groaned. “Seriously, it hurts just to look at you.”

Lewis blinked and summoned a mirror.  His glamour looked fine to him.  He dismissed it anyway.  “Is this better?”

Arthur made a face. “Uh, you’re a bit intimidating, but it doesn’t hurt anymore, so that’s good I guess.”  Arthur groaned and removed his prosthetic.  “I’m gonna pass out now.  Please don’t kill us or anything.”

Lewis shook his head. “I could never do that.”

“Great.”  Arthur curled up around Vivi.  “Wake me up in the morning…”

“Sure thing Artie,” Lewis said softly.  He watched as Arthur fell back to sleep holding Vivi.  He wanted to hold them so much…

“Oh, I’m so excited!” said Vivi as she practically bounced in her seat.  “At least two weeks of traveling, maybe more, and all sorts of fun stops!”  She turned to Arthur.  “What are you looking forward to the most?”

Arthur hummed in thought for a moment.  “I’d have to say the Techno Expo.  There are some really interesting exhibits there besides mine.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to take some time to check ‘em out. There’s a one about using body heat to power electronics that would improve my arm.”

Vivi very carefully did not look at Arthur’s new arm.  He didn’t enjoy people staring at his prosthetic, especially if they were the nosy sort who asked questions.  Yeah, that probably didn’t apply to Vivi, but she still felt Arthur ought to be treated like he still had both his arms.  “I have no idea how that would work, but I’m sure you’ll figure it out no problem!”

Arthur smiled at her. “Thanks.  What about you?  Anything you’re looking forward to?”

“I’m just hoping we see something supernatural this time,” said Vivi.  “I know that the hoaxes with get us some more funds for traveling, but they’re just so disappointing, ya know.”

Arthur chuckled nervously.  “I’m not really sure which I prefer.”

“That’s fair.  At least we only have four items on that itinerary.  Well, if you don’t include the Ripley Museum we’re going to.”

“It’s haunted? I don’t remember seeing that in the brochure…”

“Not so much the museum as the items inside of it.  Some of them are cursed or haunted or magical.  Fortunately, Ripley was aware of this and put up all sorts of protections,” explained Vivi.  “So do the regular triple photographing.”

Triple photographing was the term they’d given to the method of photographing when they were ghost hunting. Nothing complicated.  They just took three photos in quick succession.  It helped them determine if anything odd that showed up was just a weird artifact instead of a spirit of some kind.

“You and Ripley would’ve gotten along,” commented Arthur.

Vivi giggled.  “Yeah, we would’ve, wouldn’t we?”

“Hey, random thought, if you could, would you-what the heck?”

“Hm?”

“The engine just stopped!” said Arthur.  Sure enough, the van had gotten a lot quieter, and they were slowing down quickly.  “You gotta be kidding me!  I went over every part and made sure it was in tip top shape before we set out!”  Arthur glared at the various displays in front of them.  What were they even called?  Was it part of the dashboard?  Was it all considered part of the dashboard?  Should she ask?

Vivi’s thought process was derailed as a large mansion came into view.  It was old, dark, decrepit, and generally creepy looking. What was weird was that it was visibly beating.  The three stared at it for several moments before Arthur broke the silence.  “Vivi?”

“Yeah?”

“That’s a haunted house, isn’t it?”

“Or a very good fake,” admitted Vivi because she has learned that you can fake anything with the right technology.  “But if it’s real it would explain why the van stopped working.”

Arthur groaned. “Great…”  He turned to look at Vivi.  “I don’t suppose I can talk you into helping me push the van out of range?”

Vivi did consider it. “I’m not sure we’re strong enough to do it, and we were planning to check out haunted houses on this trip.  I mean you can stay here if you want to. If it is an actual haunting, it’s probably a pretty powerful ghost.”

Arthur bit his lip but shook his head.  “Nah, I-I’ll be f-fine.”

Vivi smiled and gave Arthur a peck on his cheek.  “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure nothing happens to you.” That got a thankful smile from Arthur.

And that was how they found themselves walking up to doors (that opened on their own and then closed on their own) into what looked like a fairly fancy if damaged manor. For some reason there was a lot of purple.

“Hey, the candles are burning purple,” commented Vivi.  “Think we’ll be able to tell if they’re those specially made rainbow candles if we take them apart?”

“Uh…I’d avoid breaking anything,” said Arthur as stared at a painting with glowing eyes that seemed to be staring back.  “’Cause I’m starting to lean towards the ‘actual ghost’ theory.”

Vivi made a pleased sound.  “Well, better say hi.  Hello! We don’t mean to intrude, but our van broke down, and we’re kind of stuck.  We’ll be out of your hair once we figure out how to fix it.  If you aren’t happy about our presence, let us know, and we’ll leave.”

“Just, uh, p-please don’t, you know, try t-to k-k-kill us,” added Arthur.

Mystery didn’t react to what either of them said.  He was more distracted by the familiar scent he was picking up.  He let out a few barks.

And that was when several purple bedsheet looking ghosts started popping out of the woodwork and floating around the group.  Vivi let out an ecstatic squee.  Arthur recoiled with a shriek.  Mystery barked at them.

“They’re so cute!” squealed Vivi.

“Why are there so many of them?” questioned Arthur.  “Isn’t it usually just one or two ghosts?”

Vivi paused in thought before carefully reaching out towards one.  When it didn’t react badly to being touched, she gave it a pat.  “Actually, you’ve got a point.  These guys don’t seem to have enough power to manifest. Maybe if they were pooling their energy together (which would explain why they all look the same) they could manifest.  Or maybe there’s another, stronger ghost that’s helping them manifest.  That does happen sometimes.”

Arthur blinked as he tried to shoo several of the ghosts away from his prosthetic, which they seemed to have taken a strong interest in.  “Uh, how much st-stronger are we t-talking ab-about here?”

Before Vivi had a chance to answer, something tugged his arm up with a surprising amount of strength. The surprised look on Vivi’s face made it clear it was not one of the tiny, purple ghosts.  Arthur gulped and slowly turned around.

The first thing that came to mind upon seeing the ghost was ‘big’.  The second thing was ‘skull’.  The third was ‘purple pompadour?’ because the ghost did indeed have a glowing purple pompadour sprouting out of its jawless skull.    Arthur wasn’t sure what to do as the ghost studied his prosthetic for several moments.  “You have a metal arm.”

Arthur nodded.  “Y-y-y-yeah.”