Parchment crinkled under the fingers of Maddieâs gloves, the sound echoing weirdly off the vaulted ceiling of the ruin she had discovered floating only thirty minutes from the Fenton Portal. She wore a Fenton Ecto-Exploration suit, designed to protect a human being from all the dangers of the Ghost Zone, a tether and hose tying her back to the Specter Speeder. Â
Already, this first foray into the Ghost Zone had yielded more data than she and Jack had gotten in all the time before opening the portal, and more data than they recorded in a week back in Amity Park, waiting for the ghosts to show up on their own terms. Minutes after entering, they had encountered whole swarms of lesser ghosts, little creatures that barely showed up on their scanners, and to their surprise, a vast variety of ghostly architecture.
True, most of the buildings were ruins, and there were far too many stairs and free-floating doors to be at all logical for entities that could fly, but their presence had been entirely unexpected and brought up whole new lines of inquiry. Â
Who built these structures? Why? How? Had humans once lived here? Because ghosts didnât have the focus, the organization, or the intelligence to do something like this. Perhaps they were stolen. She and Jack had researched occurrences of people and vehicles being spirited away, most notably in places like Bermuda. But for all these buildings to suffer a similar stateâŚ
Maddie had to investigate. That meant leaving the relatively safe confines of the Speeder. Jack had objected, of course, not to the concept of entering one of the buildings, but to Maddie being the one to go. But she had talked him over to her point of view. She was the better fighter, after all, and less likely to set off any traps the ghosts had left in the buildings. Â
She had lucked out, too, in their choice of buildings. This appeared to be an abandoned library, or some kind of record repository, full of scrolls and bound books. Â
There were too many for her to take all of them, sadly. The ecto-preservation box she had brought for samples would only fit a few of the thick, dusty tomes- and she had to put them in the box. There was no telling how quickly they would decay if exposed to normal, real-world air. Â
She picked the five books that looked best preserved, with leathery covers and silver-edged pages. The scrolls appeared to be more fragile, even if she could probably fit more of them in the box.
Giving the room one last glance and snapping one last picture with her Fenton Ecto-Imager, she turned, and followed her tether back to the Speeder.
They kept the books in a sealed glass containment unit, using attached gloves to reach in and manipulate the pages, as if they were handling lethal chemicals or disease-carrying vials. For all they knew, the books could be just as dangerous. Even something as innocuous as a musical instrument could become a weapon in a ghostâs hands. Â
Still, the main reason for their precautions was to preserve the books. The pages were fragile enough, and scans showed that the paper and parchment they were made of had a high ectoplasm content; a high enough content that, were the ectoplasm in them to disperse, the pages might crumble entirely. Â
Maddie and Jack painstakingly took pictures of every page. They were written, and beautifully illuminated, in a language neither of them were familiar with, forcing them to send the work of translating them to a linguist friend.
Jack literally held his breath, waiting for the linguist to call them back. Maddie was less optimistic about the response time. Jocelyn was a friend, yes, had been a friend since college, but Maddie was well aware of the reputation she and Jack had built up over the years. They would be lucky if Jocelyn looked over the images this month, let alone within five minutes of-
Maddie hit the speaker button.  âHello, this is Fentonworks, Dr. Fenton speaking.â
âMaddie, this is Jocelyn. Where did you get these books?â
âThe Ghost Zone!â said Jack, excitedly.Â
Jocelyn laughed.  âRight, right, donât tell me, thatâs fine. Anyway, four of them look like theyâre in Voynich script-â
âSo you can translate them?â asked Maddie, excitedly. Â
âAfraid not! Before you showed me these, I thought there was only one example of that in the world, and no one has been able to translate it. You should get these all tested for authenticity, by the way. If any of them are legit, you have a fortune on your hands. Anyway. The fifth one seems to be mostly in Gaelic script, with some notes in Latin and Ogham. Very interesting. Subject matter seems to be ghosts from what I can tell, which, well, Iâm not surprised, exactly.â
âSo you can translate that one?â Maddie asked, eagerly. She didnât want the trip to come to nothing. Â
âWell, some of it. Iâm not super familiar with Irish languages. Iâll have to ask my colleagues, and theyâll really want some kind of confirmation about the books before they spend too much time on it. You know?â
âThatâs reasonable,â said Maddie, even as she winced. Sheâd have to follow up with Jocelyn on what kind of âconfirmationâ translators would want. Â
âAnyway, from what I can tell just by looking, this is a treatise of some kind on the âhalf-dead,â compiled by a couple different authors over a long period of time. The Latin notes read like clarifications, or personal anecdotes, but there are also a lot of references to the god Janus. Thereâs a bit much to go over on the phone.â
âYou can email us,â said Maddie. Â
âHow about I drive down to Amity? Iâll bring my notes, and I really want to hear where you got these.â
âWe told you! The Ghost Zone!â
âYou always were a joker, Jack. Good to see life hasnât changed you. So, do you guys mind if I come?â
âNot at all,â said Maddie. Â
Jocelyn regarded the portal with guarded disbelief.  âI canât believe it. I really canât. No one is going to believe this.â She paused.  âWere those books written by ghosts?â
âUnlikely,â said Maddie.  âGhosts lack the mental capacity. Itâs more likely that these were stolen from people who were researching ghosts.â
âRight, right, that makes sense, I suppose. Anyway, I think Iâve put together a good summary of whatâs in that book. I had to call in some favors, by the way, so you owe me. Also, youâll have to pay to get the whole thing done, sorry.â She put her bags on a clean counter top, and gazed longingly at the books under the glass.  âMan, I hope you can get more of those. Wouldnât it be wild to translate the Voyinch manuscript?â
âWell, lets work on the one we have now,â said Maddie.
By the time Jocelyn left, Maddie was obsessed.Â
The book was about half-ghosts, a species of ghost that had to be either entirely mythical or, at least, extinct in the modern day. Humans simply couldnât have ghost powers. The science didnât work. Â
But the stories were fascinating. The descriptions of how âhalf-ghostsâ developed and acted were detailed. The logic of the ancient authors compelling. Â
As far as the translated portions went, in any case.Â
It left Maddie wondering: What if half-ghosts were possible? Â
She and Jack spent hours pouring over the notes Jocelyn had left, staying up all night. Her visit hadnât been nearly long enough to go over everything. Â
Maddie felt a little guilty. She knew her children, Jazz and Danny, worried over them when they got so invested in a project like this, especially a project so likely to come to nothing.  Danny, in particular, had come down several times to bring them snacks or peek over their shoulders. Â
Maddie and Jack, feeling guilty, and also tired, had relented towards dinnertime, and ordered pizza for the family. Then, they had gathered on the couch to watch a movie. Jack fell asleep right away, but Maddie was too wired. Â
âSo,â said Danny, his eyes fixed blankly on a dialogue-free action sequence.  âWhat are you guys working on, down there? Youâve been busy since yesterday.â
âWell,â said Maddie, âyou remember that we took our first trip into the Ghost Zone a few days ago?â
âYeah,â said Danny. Â
âWe found those books there, and Jocelyn translated some parts of one of them for us. We think theyâre field observations made by medieval ghost hunters.â
Skepticism and exasperation flitted across Dannyâs features, but quickly vanished. Maddie pushed away her disappointment. Danny and Jazz had never been very enthusiastic about their work, and she despaired of what would happen to Fentonworks when she and Jack got too old to keep it up. Â
Still. He was showing interest now, even if it was only to be polite. Â
âOkay,â said Danny.  âWhat are you guys going to do with them?â He rubbed his hands back and forth on the couch upholstery. Â
âWe were planning on running a few tests to see if the claims made in them are feasible.â
âDonât worry, weâll make sure everything we do is perfectly safe,â said Maddie, patting his knee. Â
âYouâre going to be playing Mythbusters with ghosts,â said Danny, dryly.  âI really doubt thatâs going to be safe.â
The characters in the movie started talking again.
Danny had a point, Maddie had to admit. On the other hand, it wasnât as if she were testing these things on herself, and Jack was around to double-check all her calculations.Â
â⌠manuscript retrieved from the Ghost Zone,â said Maddie, clearly, into her recorder, âsuggests that natural portals formed an important role in the formation of the first generation of so-called âhalf-ghostsâ or âdoorway spirits.â The exact role is unclear at this point in our translation efforts, however, based on our own interaction with the Fenton Portal, and the fact that we do not exhibit the abilities of âhalf-ghosts,â we believe the most likely cause is being âcaughtâ in a forming portal. If, of course, thereâs any validity to the manuscriptâs claims in the first place.â
Maddie paused, adjusting some of the controls in front of her, making sure everything was in place. Jack was taking care of the mice. Â
âWe are going to test this theory with mice. Based on our current understanding of portal physics, our current expectation is that the mice will simply die. However, we ignore the wisdom of the past at our own risk. Are you ready, Jack?â
âJust about!â said Jack, fitting the last mouse into a harness to keep it from escaping the opening portal. He jogged over to stand with Maddie behind the blast shield.Â
Maddie nodded, checked the cameras, and then pulled the lever to bring the portal gun into alignment. They both pulled on their tinted goggles.Â
âWill you do the honors, dear?â she asked Jack, nodding at the firing button. Â
âYou betcha! Geronimo!â
The lab was filled with a flash of light, making both of them wince, and then everything went dark.
âI think we tripped a circuit breaker, Mads,â said Jack, sheepishly. Â
âIt happens,â said Maddie.  âI hope the kids werenât in the showerâŚâ She tapped the night-vision switch on her goggles and walked over to the breaker box. She flipped the culprit switch.  âThere we go. Now, letâs take a look at the mi-â She blinked at the wreck of the mice cages.  âTheyâre gone!â
They would have to revise their theories. None of them had predicted the mice being vaporized. Â
âI think I know why our experiment with the mice didnât work,â said Jack.
âOh?â said Maddie. She was working on preparing the Speeder for another expedition. Â
âNo Obsession. To get a halfa, we need something that would have become a ghost on death anyway.â
Maddie frowned.  âHalfa?â
âEasier than saying âhalf-ghost,ââ explained Jack. Â
âYou may have a point,â said Maddie.  âBut that just means weâll never be able to create a halfa in the lab. We canât predict what will make a ghost.â
âThatâs true,â said Jack.  âBut, we agreed before, halfas would be able to blend in with the living pretty well, right? Their human brains would override most of their ghostly impulses?â
âExcept for a slight tendency towards violent and possessive behavior, yes,â said Maddie.  âWhat are you getting at?â
âWell, natural portals still form all the time! And there are more humans than there have ever been. Halfas could be all around us and weâd never even know it! What we need is a way to detect them.â
âYouâre right,â said Maddie.  âBut how?â
âWell, in theory theyâd have ectosignatures, like ghosts, right? So, we could use our regular scanners, and if a human showed up as a ghost on them, then theyâd be a halfa!â
âBut, Jack, our scanners never work properly. They keep latching on to Danny, remember? Ever sinceâŚâ Maddieâs brow furrowed.  âEver since⌠his accident with the portal.â
Jack had gone an odd, pasty color.  âYou donât think-?â
âNo,â said Maddie, firmly.  âIt isnât possible.â
Maddie looked up, as if she could see through metal, concrete, wood, laminate, carpet, and drywall, all the way to Dannyâs room on the second floor.  âIf it wasâŚÂ Weâd just have to ask him, wouldnât we?â