The Ghost September 2016 Issue: The Maze

Inspired by and perchance dedicated to Kodaka. Who killed an entire class of students? Who is the masked figure that has placed three people in a deadly game for survival against a ticking clock?

The Ghost September 2016 Issue

The Maze

By Daniel Rodriguez


Ghost: I hear voices. They tell me to do things. They cry out for vengeance and justice. Only I can answer their call. The dead must find rest. They shall be avenged. I am "The Ghost".

Announcer: The Ghost!

FX: Wind

Announcer: Fighting for the supernatural, defying those who would take advantage of spirits, and keeping the boundaries safe. When the dead can't speak!

(Music; something mystical)

Announcer: Born able to communicate with the dead, Rick Hart, Private Eye, has established an agency secretly dedicated to serving those who passed and keeping balance in the two worlds. Should there be a murder most foul, should there be a grave threat to the powers that be. Then prepare for an otherworldly encounter with The Ghost!

FX: Clock counting down the time till it rings midnight.

Announcer: The fates have set. The time has come for the fantastic adventure of paranormal proportions. The Maze. Brought to you commercial free by LunaSense.

Fade in

Background: Students Chatting.

Student 1: The professor seems to be running late.

Student 2: Yeah, with finals around the corner, I really need to talk to him about my paper I am writing.

Student 3: How goes it?

Student 2: Not very well.

Student 1: Well I havent seen him for the past week, I really do hope he shows up today.

Student 4: I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t.

Student 2: This past week has been really strange, I have been hearing rumors that…someone was murdered.

Student: Shh. I think I see someone.

FX: Walking on stage.

MIM: Greetings everyone and welocme to the final class of Criminal Psychology 304. I am sure….

Student 2: I can’t get a good look of him, is that our professor?

Student 3: He doesn’t sound like our professor.

Student 1: Is he wearing a mask?

MIM: You all probably have many questions and that is good. It is always good to want to ask questions and often the right questions, getting the right answers can lead to great rewards. Now…

Student: Are you the professor?

MIM: I might be. How is that for an answer?

Student: Not a good answer.

MIM: So, I have decided that to best further mans quest for questions, and answers that we must play a game.

Student 2: What kind of game is this sir?

MIM: Well, unfortunately, none of you will be participants in the game, a tragedy really. But the events that will transpire in a couple of seconds will echo for along time, and I am looking forward to seeing just how far this coming rabbit hole will go.

Student 3: And the mask?

MIM: Not only to make it hard to find my identity, but also, it comes with a breathing device that will help weed out the toxic fumes that has been spreading for the past minute.

Student 1: Toxic Fumes?

MIM: Lethally so. I suspect you are all infected to the point that none of you can be saved. The poison takes only a minute, and is quite painless. You should feel a slight sleepiness. As I see some of you already yawning. So it is safe to say that many of you are already getting close to your final moments.

FX: Thump.

MIM: And the first few have already…

Student 1: Are they…(yawn)

MIM: Yes. They are quite…

FX: (Thumping continues)

MIM: Anywho, as I was saying before I was interrupted, I have plans and I look forward to your essential passing participation as I move onto the next phase.

(Thumping has stopped)

MIM: Any more questions? No? Okay, the class is clearly dismissed.

Dramatic Music.

Background Noise: Raining

FX: Windshild whiper moving.

Malina: You need to be careful driving Rick.

Ghost: I am driving as best as I can.

Malina: Well going 65 in the rain is begging for you to be on the other side of a murder investigation.

Ghost: We just need to turn off on this street.

Malina: Rick, slow down.

Ghost: We don’t have much time.

Malina: There is always time to obey the law.

Ghost: I quit being a cop, time and law being one of them.

Malina: Does this have to do with the negative vortex or because of Mason and Detective Thomas?

Ghost: It has been three days since anyone has seen any of them. For them to both disapear at the same time cannot be a coincidence.

Malina: And you think this vortex has something to do with their disapearances?

Ghost: We are heading to an abandoned university wing that is going to be demolished by sunrise. The time deadline seems to be having an adverse effect and it is pooling the negative energy.

Malina: But Thomas and Mason?

Ghost: It is a magnetic feeling. It is as if we are being called to this place.

Malina: So why is it abandoned?

Ghost: Three years ago, an entire classroom was murdered. Professor Brando, who was supposed to be teaching the class, he was never found. They think he is still at large. No one wanted that building to stand there anymore. And no one had the gall to build over it until now. So now it is going to be demolished. And if it is demolished, all those souls who never found peace…

Malina: It will be okay Rick.

Ghost: Yes. It wiill, after all no one can take out the two of us. Right sis?

Malina: Well I am a ghost, all it would take for you is a bullet to your face and then yeah, we lose.

Ghost: I think that is the bulding right there.

Malina: I…I don’t like the feel of it.

Ghost: Over 30 people died over the course of a couple of minutes. It is a very dark place to be.

Malina: I don’t see anyone parked here, are you sure this place is to be demolished tomorrow morning?

Ghost: At sunrise.

FX: Door opens.

Ghost: Okay, let us move in.

FX: Walking.

Malina: Sounds like a plan. But what do you expect to find here?

Walking Stops.

Malina: Brother?

Ghost: I…

FX: Body falls on gravel.

Malina: RICK WAKE UP!

FX: Creaky door opening.

Det. Thomas: Hello?

FX: Footsteps on hard floor.

Det. Thomas: Hello?

The Ghost: (Coughing)

Det. Thomas: Who is there?

Ghost: I…

Det. Thomas: Someone, help me!

Ghost: Thomas….

Det. Thomas: My name is detective Thomas with the police. I have been trapped in this room for I think the past two days.

Ghost: Thomas? It is me….

Det. Thomas: Can you hear me? I need help.

Ghost: Detective Thomas. I have come to rescue you.

Det. Thomas; You must be on the other side of this wall. The door is locked.

Ghost: So you are in a locked room? But I don’t see a…ah, here is the door.

Det. Thomas: Ghost, it is you isn’t it?

Ghost: Yes, it is I, The Ghost.

Det. Thomas: How did you find me here?

Ghost: I was on a scent. There is a darkness in the place and it has brought me here.

Det. Thomas: Darkness? Look Mr. Ghost, I don’t even know where here is. I was leaving a donut shop when I got into my car, and…

Ghost: And?

Det. Thomas: There was a figure in a strange mask….I blacked out. I woke up with the worst headache ever. But that only lasted what felt like a few hours.

Ghost: And you can’t get out of the room?

Det. Thomas: This room…I been staring at this blinking light, it is the only thing in the room I can look at. That and this wooden floor board on the concrete floor.

Ghost: Did you try seeing if there was anything under there?

Det. Thomas: I couldn’t break it, no matter how hard I tried.

Ghost: Let me check the door.

FX: Knob shakes.

Ghost: No good. Malina, want to see what you can do?

Malina: Okay, ill phase into the room and see what we are working with.

Ghost: Okay, do you see anything?

Det. Thomas: Just the same blinking light.

Malina: I see the light brother.

Ghost: And?

Malina: I believe it might be a simple puzzle.

Ghost: Oh?

Det. Thomas: Did you say something?

Malina: I think its an electronic lock, we break the circuit, the door opens.

Ghost: Detective, I believe the lock is electronic, that is what you are seeing. I am certain if all you have in that room is a broken floorboard, underneath might be a tool to help you get out,

Det. Thomas: But I don’t have the strength to open it.

Ghost: Perhaps that is the point of this room. However….

Malina: Rick, if I use my energy to create a magnetic pulse it should short the cricuit.

FX: Tick.

Malina: ugh…

Ghost: You okay?

Det. Thomas: Very hungry and thirsty but that is about it. And bored. Lots and lots of boredom.

Malina: I am fine. Just sapped.

Ghost: Try the door now.

FX: Door Opens.

Det. Thomas: How did you?

Ghost: It is good to see you.

Det. Thomas: But tell me how you opened the door?

Ghost: The important questions is what are you doing here and why?

Det. Thomas: I don’t know.

Ghost: We need to find out immediately and leave this place.

FX: Creaky Knob shaking.

Ghost: Oh no.

Det. Thomas: What?

Ghost: The main door wont open.

Det. Thomas: What? You got me out of one room just to lock me in another.

Ghost: this building is coming down sooner rather than later, we need to find a way to get out.

Malina: I havent seen any open windows, the only windows I have seen seemd barred by metal.

Ghost: So, it is designed for people to come in, but not get out.

MIM: Very good.

FX; Distant footsteps walking down stairs

Ghost: Who is there?

MIM: If you havent guessed by now the way out is locked. It is a crude design to get people to play this game but I got to admit, I really didn’t expect the local legend himself to show up for this. Infact I am rather surprised at all you knew of this game.

Ghost: Who are you?

MIM: Well it was a simple trick to escape the first room. But the rest of this maze of ours is going to be a little harder.You see, and as you said, the place all comes down by sunrise but… there are two other participants in this game, and none of them have escaped their room yet either. I do look forward to matching witts with you Mr. Ghost. I do believe however, and I say this from experience, you are out of your league.

Dramatic Music.

Ghost: He went up to the second floor but no one is here.

Det. Thomas: Are you sure.

Malina: I suggest we split up.

Ghost: Okay, lets check this place line by line, we would do this best if we split up.

Det. Thomas: And if one of us gets caught?

Ghost: You are too good to get caught twice. If anything I would be more worried for the man in the mask.

FX; Walking.

Det. Thomas: I will yell if I see anything interesting.

Ghost: Me too.

Malina: So Rick, what do you make of this place?

Ghost: I can’t sense anyones energy here, it is so dark. But fortunately I can keep moving but it is taking all my will not to pass out again.

Malina: Huh, the teachers lounge.

Ghost: The first floor was designed very basic, but this feels like part of an actual halway for a school.

Malina: Lets take a peak, maybe we can find an important clue in there.

FX: Door opening.

Malina; Spooky, the room is pitch black.

FX: Click.

Ghost: Huh, the power seems to be working in here.

Malina: A fridge, I dare to not think about what expired product is in there. Cabinets. A table with…

Ghost: that seems to be a tape recorder on the table.

Malina: I don’t trust it.

Ghost: Whoever we are dealing with, I bet he wants to play games. No game isn’t fun if you leave a little clue behind.

FX: Click.

Prof: Professor Brando’s log. The day has begun like any other. The sun rises, and I drink from my coffee contemplating on the events that have led me to teaching another year at the school. Professor Brown has been eying my job and I try to take no note of this. In reality I find myself growing the paranoia within. How can I pay bills on my new house if my tenure is gone? But that is just a dark voice in my head. He will not beat me on this day.

Malina: So this is a rivalry? Why…

Prof: I have been granted two aides who are going to help make this year the most productive yet. Ella is getting ready to graduate next semester and is looking forward to using me as a springboard to get her head on what she wants to do post university. Tobias is getting situated quickly. He is very eager to start and whenever I say jump, he leaps.

Ghost: Seems like an interesting start.

Prof: Professor Brando’s Log. Things have been getting complicated. It is crazy but when me and Ella are together, I feel that life is unknown. A new event always lurks in the next few seconds, but then as always, she is gone. I notice the eyes she has been giving Tobias lately, and I find myself wondering as I drift to sleep, does he know, or does he return her feelings. I find myself wanting to be professional and yet, its easy for my mind to be distracted by more inappropriate thoughts. Professor Brown must not find out about this, as I saw him the other day, clearly browsing through my office for, what he said, was nothing more than a stapler to put his documents in order.

Ghost: Is that it?

Malina: This is too well planted to be an acident. I think the man in the mask left this here for us.

Ghost: So you think the man in the mask is the professor then?

Malina: We have four suspects clearly.

Ghost: You really think so?

Malina: Well if this is a game, he just gave us the potential players to our mystery. The Professor, who is in love with his aide. The male rival for their love, and lastly…

Ghost: The Professor next door who is coming for his job.

Malina: He could just be paranoid.

Ghost: If this is a mystery, we should focus on finding the other two people trapped in the building and how we will get out of here.

Malina: But we have to stop the man in the mask.

Det. Thomas (Away): Mr. Ghost, I think you need to see this.

FX: Running.

Ghost: Yes?

Det. Thomas: News clippings.

Ghost: They are about the mass murder that took place

Det. Thomas: Mass murder?

Ghost: You didn’t hear about the wing at the Pyschology department in the university?

Det. Thomas: The 30 some students that all died?

Ghost: And… four bodies were never found. Including the professors.

Malina: The four in the tape! That was them! I forget that two were students and the other was another professor.

Ghost: We found a tape relating to the four missing people. I think one of them is the gentlemen in the mask.

Det. Thomas: But one of them was a woman, no?

Ghost: Correct, but the way the figure was dressed. He could easily be a she.

Det. Thomas: If I had a gun, I would just shoot the bugger next I see him,

Ghost: I wouldn’t be surprised.

Det. Thomas: So this figure really seems to be leading us around.

Ghost: The game wouldn’t be fun if we didn’t find all the pieces of the puzzle.

Det. Thomas: Why is he doing this?

Ghost: To watch us squirm.

Malina: So we are dealing with a psychopath.

Ghost: The worst kind of human being.

Det. Thomas: I have dealt with worse. He will regret the day he messed with me.

Ghost: Us. But let us go, we must find the other two before sunrise. We don’t have much time.

FX: Walking.

Det. Thomas: So after the school closed down, no one would sign up for classes. The entire wing had to be shut down. They later, the past two years opened a new campus on the other side of town.

Ghost: But they are going to tear it down, so clearly someone came along and decided it was a good idea to build over.

Det. Thomas: More reason we need to move now.

FX: Clicking

Chief: Stay back!

FX: Walking stops

Chief: I said stay back!

Det. Thomas: Oh my gosh!

Ghost: No way!

Malina: We must do something!

Chief: The bomb will go off if I get up.

Malina: Im going to have a look at the bomb Rick. I will be right back.

Ghost: Everything will be okay.

Det. Thomas: Okay? The boss is strapped to an explosive?

Chief: Calm down detective. The Ghost is right, we need to have hope. We can’t give into despair right now. That will make us all dead.

Malina: There are two electrical currents moving from the bomb. I am going to follow them real quick.

Ghost: So how did you get here?

Chief: I was going home after playing a round of cards with some friends.

Ghost: Did anyone follow you there?

Chief: No but when I think about it. I could swear someone was watching me the whole time. I didn’t get any type of look though.

Det. Thomas: Ghost…the bomb….

Malina: I figured out how the bomb works Rick. It wont be deactivated by my sending out a pulse. The trap is that for it to be undone, there are two switches that have to be deactivated simultaneously. If one gets shut down before the other, it will go off.

Ghost: So it is a sensitive little number.

Malina: How do you want to do this.

Ghost: So where are the switches?

Det. Thomas: Switches?

Malina: In the two rooms to the side, the wires go through a hole in the walls.

Ghost: Okay then. Detective Thomas, I want you to follow the yellow wire over there, coming from the Chief’s chair to the inside of the other room. I will follow the red wire. Now, I need you to keep that door open so you can hear me.

Det. Thomas: What is this?

Ghost: We need to deactivate the switches at the exact same time.

Det. Thomas: Okay. You sure?

Ghost: I have a feeling with the detonation there is a chance it will clear out all three of us if I am wrong. Have I been wrong before?

Det. Thomas: But to the point I can risk my life on it?

Ghost: Let us forget wether or not you trust me, and focus on wether or not we all want to get out of here.

Det. Thomas; Very well.

FX: Walking.

Det. Thomas: Im following the wire now.

Ghost: Me too.

Chief: Careful boys. I would hate for this to end on a south note.

FX: walking stops.

Malina: Okay the exact moment.

Det. Thomas: Okay Ghost, he is how I want to do it. We are going to do two rehearsals, so we can get our timing down. I want us to count to three, and then clap at the same time. On the third set, we count to three and then flip.

Ghost: Very well! Okay. 1...2...3...

FX: Simulatnious claps.

Det. Thomas: 1...2...3...

FX: Simultanious claps.

Malina: And now…

Ghost: For real.
Ghost: One.

Det. Thomas: Two.

Both: Three.

FX: Flips.

FX: Powering off.

Pause.

Ghost: Are we dead?

Det. Thomas: That was highly undramatic for a finale.

Malina: There is currently no power coming from underneath the chief. The bomb is off.

Chief: Can I…

FX: Walking up.

Ghost: Yes. You can get up. The bomb is nothing more than a piece of useless plastic.

Det. Thomas: Chief, you are alright!

FX: Chair moving.

Chief: it is good to be back on my feet. Now someone gave me this and told me, when I get rescued, to give this to my heroes, whoever they may be.

Malina: Another tape recorder.

Ghost: We came across one of these earlier.

Chief: Lets give it a listen then.

FX: Click.

Prof: Professor Brando’s log. The end of the semester seems to want to draw closer and closer and I feel the weight of time catching up to me. The two youths seem to be getting on well. To be blunt, too well. Tobias and Elle act like perfect foils for one another yet every bit of logic says their union is foolhardy. They have nothing in common and I do not see his behavior as one who is in love with her. On her end, she seems attracted but he does not engage nor bring out the best in her. I want to say it is doomed but I chide myself for even giving this as much thought as I do. Lately when Elle and I are working on what the next set of classes and lectures should be, she seems to go off into the distance. I want to say, if she doesn’t want to do her work, then fine. But I do not think she wants someone who will give up on her. Her mind is just wondering and she doesn’t know what she wants right now. I can steer her in the right direction. Meanwhile, I see Tobias when he is alone. He looks at his typewriter, and not a single letter has been typed on that crisp white paper. I can see the pain in his eyes. Tobias is fighting a deadline and he has no answer. I know the boy to be bright and would love to help him on his path, but he doesn’t even know where to begin on his thesis.

Chief: So what does this have to do with why we are here?

Prof: Professor Brando’s Log. Elle is having an affair with Professor Brown.

Malina: What?

Prof: Only I know this and I can’t bring myself to turn in Brown. It is highly inappropriate but I fear that my outing him will also out my own personal feelings and I cannot lose this job. I also cannot throw her future out the window. All four of us were in the teachers lounge yesterday. Me and my aides were working on constructing a lesson plan and Brown was grading papers. No one in the room could really talk to one another. The tension, it is choking me. In the end, I know something has got to give. This, it is going to end in disaster. I just don’t know how. As I sign off on this night, I think of what would be ideal. Brown backing off, Tobias finding his purpose with his paper, and Elle sorting her priorities so that we can all move forward. But as I lay in bed, dictating, I know this to be impossible.

Det. Thomas: So how does this silly little story end?

Ghost: You of all people should know… 30 people dead, and four people missing.

Det. Thomas: Chief?

Silence.

Det. Thomas: Chief?

Chief: Yes?

Det. Thomas: You seem to be staring off into space. Are you alright.

Chief: I am just looking down at that countdown timer.

Ghost
Det. Thomas
and
Malina: WHAT!?

Ghost: We only have so little time. And we need to save one more person, as well as catch the killer and escape.

FX: Walking down the stairs.

Mason: Gentlemen.

Det. Thomas: Private Detective Mason!

Mason: It seems you felt I needed to be rescued.

Ghost: You were the other kidnapping victim?

Mason: I just got out of the trapped room and I wanted to hear what the noise downstairs was.

Ghost: Then all we need to do is catch the man in the mask, and get out.

Malina: Easier said…than done.

Dramatic Music.

Fade out.

Mason: It was two day ago. I was surrounded by what I believed were charred remains of the people that once stood in that very class room. There was a lot of them. To say there was many would be an understatement. The figure came up to me and told me, I could not leave the room until I solved an impossible puzzle. And so, I stood there, in that room staring at a math problem. Even now, I can’t recall what exactly the math problem was but it was taunting me. Two days passed. Two whole days of running numbers in my head. Division, multiplication. Adding and subtracting to the point that I was eventually convincing myself that I was slowly learning an entire new language. On that second day I was about to grow mad when I realized something. The masked figure came up with the problem, yes. But was even he smart enough to know the solution? It was a gamble but I was willing to bet that all the intelligence a mastermind could muster wouldn’t be able to create and solve equations on his own. So I began my search. I would say the clock warningly told me that I had been searching and rummaging for three hours when I came across it. A book about the most complex math in the world. Math so advanced I dare not give its genre a name. In the back…I found an answer key. I searched, and searched and finally came across the puzzle I saw. The answer was a beautiful forty two. He yelled at me. I bet he didn’t think I would outsmart him. But then, I found the anger in me growing. Who was he to steal the originality of another for a problem that he was to inflict on me. It was like a cruel joke. And when I addressed him with my problem about this, he simply said, I was free to leave the room and join the guests that were on their way.

Ghost: Wait. So if you are here, that likely means there should be another tape near by.

Mason: A tape?

Det. Thomas: We have been finding tapes lying around and I think the clues to who the man in the mask is, is in those tapes.

Mason: You mean like this one I found here.

FX: Click.

Prof: Professor Brando’s log. Elle has declared it quits with Professor Brown and now I can see that she is nothing more than a shadow of her former self. The end of the year seems to be drawing near. I met with Professor Brown the other day and everything he has done has been with a sense of scurry and urgency. A man unhinged and willing to do anything to get what he wants, but he doesn’t know what he wants.

Malina: What does that mean?

Prof: I don’t even know what I want. I find myself hiding in my study with the lights off. Nothing to keep my company but my stuffed animal trophies from when I used to go hunting. It’s calm in here and I don’t have to worry about the students, essays and papers, and the drama on campus. I finally read the two papers though that my aides were writing for their thesis. Tobias sent me an interesting concept, what defines a sociopath and free will. However when sitting down and reading it, it was less of an investigative piece, and more of a defense saying that there is no such thing as a sociopath, or unsympathetic human. Rather he claims that all humans are humans and we unjustly look fown on those who are different, giving them mental labels.

Ghost: An interesting debate about free will I wager.

Prof: But in the end, it was just ramblings. A shame. Elle wrote about about walls. Just that, walls. Why do we invent them, why we build them. Why we must rely on them and use them to survive. Also why we should find ways to bridge past these social walls and boundries and open ourselves to others. I cannot tell, while expertly written, what she is seeking to uncover. Why she is the way she is? Why she has had relations with both a professor and a fellow student? I find the matter disconcerting and saddened that I am the one left out on this. She talks about breaking walls but I am right here trying to open the walls I myself have built up and she dares scorn it!?

Malina: Sounds like someone was jilted.

Ghost: A lover scorned?

Mason: Sounds like jealousy. Can’t say I know the feeling.

Prof: Brown stopped me in the hallway this morning. He said, he will not let this go unchecked. I had no idea what he meant, but I fear his eyes are always upon me.

FX: Static

MIM: Ladies and gentlemen, the final puzzle remains, if you wish to get out of here in one piece or in many pieces. Your choice.

Ghost: Sis, I am going to need you to look around for anything we might have missed, I have a feeling we are being led in the dark here.

Malina: Got it.

MIM: Come on, the daylight is not going to wait for you and neither are the explosives!

Chief: We have no choice but to move forward.

Mason: And I personally will deal with this punk when I get to him.

FX: Group walking away.

Malina: Dear brother, I hope you are alright…

Ghost: Okay, so where are you?

Det. Thomas: This room is massive. It must have been a theater.

Chief: On the fifth floor?

Mason: I recall they were reconstructing one of the wings, this must have been what they were talking about.

Ghost: In the rafters!

Mason: It’s him.

MIM: It is great that you all came to this final puzzle room but I am sure as you have noticed that this labyrinth was always built with an answer for every riddle and yet, meant to be a one sided game. I never expected an outside source to show up Mr. Ghost. I do have the pleasure of crossing swords with the most infamous masked individual the world has known. Or atleast the city. May I have the honor of knowing who it is under the mask?

Ghost: Unlike you, this is my true self. I don’t wear a mask.

MIM: And I thought I had issues.

Ghost: How about you come down from the rafters and we talk.

MIM: Or how about you find out how you are going to spend what precious time you have left and make peace with your maker.

Background Noise: Distant laugh fading

Malina: Time, I am running out of time. Wait. The professor said there were two papers… The Professors Study. It must be here! RICK! I HAVE AN IDEA! STAY ALIVE UNTIL THEN!

Student 1: Who is there?

Ghost: huh?

Student 2: Who are you?

Student 3: I sense a presence.

Student 4: Is someone here for us?

Ghost: No…

Chief: Are you okay?

Ghost: They are all in this room.

Det. Thomas: Who?

Ghost: All of them!  

Det. Thomas: You seeing things?

Ghost: The voices. The dead. Their spirits have lingered in this room. They too have been searching for a way out. With this building destroyed they will all become silent phantoms. A stain on this plane.

Student 5: When is the professor coming to class?

Student 6: I need to turn in my final…

Ghost: All of you, can you hear me?

Student 1: A voice? Is someone here?

Ghost: I am here.

Student 2: You can hear us?

Ghost: I can see you all as well..

Det. Thomas: I..the air is getting heavy in here.

Ghost: Side effect, you may want to space apart from me for the next minute.

Student 2: Are you a friend?

Ghost: I am.

Student 2: I want to go home.

Student 3: We can go home?

Voices rise in almost chaos

Ghost: Calm down, all of you. Calm down and breathe your lifeless breathes. Now come towards me.

Student 1: You feel warm sir.

Ghost: Hold onto each other like a chain. Each of you a link.

Student 3: Is this…

Ghost: Yes, this is the end, your torment is over. You can all pass on.

Student 1 (Completely coherent): But you must promise us. You must promise us all that you will avenge us!

Ghost: With all my power. The man in the mask will fall. Now one of you, grab my hand.

Det. Thomas: I…can…t

Chief: The air is so thick…

Ghost: And with this vow, let the light take you. Let it take you to your peace.

FX: Voosh

Det. Thomas (Gasping): I can breathe again. What just happened.

Ghost: The dark vortex has been closed. The concentrated energy that was threatening to choke the life out of you has dispersed. The darkness that has plagued this place is gone. As to is the time in which this game will continue to take place.

MIM: So have you figured out how to get to the next room?

Chief: You are back?

MIM: I never left. I saw that little song and dance number Mr. Ghost and got to say I am unimpressed.

Malina: Rick! I have it!

MIM: I mean, really, ghosts?

Ghost: And I suppose you yourself are a man of science?

MIM: Something like that.

Ghost: So what do you believe makes the soul? Is it his true self, or is he simply the mathematical sum of his physical and psychological traits. He can’t overcome those?

MIM: And what would you know what I think?

Malina: Rick: The answer is this.

Ghost: I know that you were a failure.

MIM: What?

Ghost: I didn’t have the answer completely right away. I knew there was a shell corporation that had been hired to demolish the building but it didn’t all make sense until now. That meant you literally had the key to hide your crime scene forever. You escaped the massacre, changed your identity and put up this silly front so you could have us all here to play in your crooked game.

Det. Thomas: All the doors are locked.

Ghost: The ones we can access yes. But. I am willing to bet that our friend in the mask never had the intention of letting us leave the room. So tell me. Why did you do all this?

MIM: You want to know? But if I told you that would mean you would know who I am and I am rather fond of this game of masks and…

Ghost: Tobias Simms.

MIM: Did you just pick randomly?

Ghost: No. You told me who you were by putting these silly tapes around for us to find.

MIM: And what makes these tapes say I am Simms?

Ghost: Cause he was the failure of the lot. And this all reeks as the plannings of a failure wanting to prove himself. No. We are not dealing with a mastermind, or some genius. We are dealing with a man who wasted his life when he found out he had no potential.

MIM: Prove it.

Ghost: Your essay. Quite an egotistical piece of work. They defended the mentality of an evil mind, claiming it to be normal and rather misdiagnosed. When Professor Brando read that, he knew the truth at once, didn’t he?

Fade into

FX: Knocking on door.

Prof: Come in.

Tobias: Hi professor, you wanted to speak with me?

Prof: Sit down. And please close the door.

FX: Door Closes.
Tobias: And what did you think of my paper?

Prof: Your biggest problem has always been organization. No I am not talking about how you obsessively comb your hair to not one iota is off, you’re the pressings of your shirt. You are one of the most sharp individuals I have ever met.

Tobias: I do not follow.

Prof: Your essays in the past, at times, have rambled a little on tangents and through proper editing and going over the structural details have we been able to make well your work.

Tobias: But…

FX: Paper slam

Prof: But this is the ravings of a madman.

Tobias: Sir?

Prof: You start of with a strong introduction. Very strong wording, but once you get into the support, you just tangent. You ramble, you become a man on a soapbox trying to plead a case.

Tobias: So with work…

Prof: No. What you are defending is you.

Tobias: I don’t understand?

Prof: You are broken. I never saw it until I read this piece. You are a lunatic, a personality who gravitates towards torture and the desire to murder with no remorse or guilt. And not only do you defend this, you claim that the entire psychological community has misdiagnosed you and that you are normal.

Tobias: I was using a person as an example..

Prof: This John figure you use, it’s you. Your cruely to animals in the past, your use of human guinea pigs…you have a barbaric history and you want the world to excuse that?

Tobias: No..I…

Prof: Did you or did you not drug your roommate to see how he would react under different types of poisons.

Pause.

Prof: I think what you wanted in this semester, was perhaps a way to feel like you could be normal. That you are not guilty for your actions and at the same time, you are mislabeled and we should overlook people with a personality that gravitates towards crime. In fact, you almost ask to be showered with praise.

Tobias: So…you reject it.

Prof: I think you need a therapist, not an internship to validate your life.

Tobias: Very well. I have come up with a new thesis.

Fade into

MIM: So, you too eh?

Ghost: And you killed him?

Tobias: Yes. I killed a lot of people. I wanted to prove something but it was something that unfortunately the people I wanted to prove it to, would be dead before. I had to make anyone who could connect me disapear. And then, I used the chemistry kit to create a severely toxic gas. I flooded the room with it while I fashioned some cloth onto a gas mask to hide my identity.

Ghost: And what were you trying to prove?

Tobias: This world that has rejected me. It never truly appreciated me. So I wanted to prove that I was too good for it.

Ghost: By mass murder?

Tobias: Oh no. that was me ending the dreams of plenty of students. Their hope, the collective hope. I had to end that. And so I decided to take it one step further.

FX: Climbing down the stairs.

Malina: Good job Rick.

Ghost: It was you finding that paper.

Tobias:: You see gentlemen, you are the light of this city. Its warriors. Det. Thomas, how many criminals have you put away over the years?

Det. Thomas: I don’t see…

Tobias: Hundreds? Even if I were to low ball ten a year, hundreds. How many lives have you indirectly saved by putting those people away?

Chief: He is my best man.

Tobias: And you! You are the face of law and order in the city. With the two of you dead, no. Not dead, missing, the collective world would be darker for it. Saddened and despaired.

Mason: And me?

Tobias: Well you were on the case and I needed one more participant. But I did not count on you Ghost. A crazy man who talks to himself.

Ghost: Those I talk to are the reason why you failed.

Tobias: And how so?

Ghost: How do you think I was able to cut the power in the room that freed detective Thomas. Why do you think I was willing to walk in here, what you believed exposed while I had support watching my back. Spirits are real. And they will have me end this farce of yours.

Tobias: (Laughs) You are so clichéd.

Ghost: Cliché, you kill everyone you knew because you couldn’t handle faliure. You are a dime a dozen. A sick dime a dozen tragically.

Det. Thomas: But why would you want the city to despair?

Tobias: Because, despair is real. Don’t you know? Despair is when we feel alive. Hope, fleeting moments of happiness, they are gone and we never truly apreciate them, but when the darkness comes, only then are we alive. Only then do we feel every waking moment and how it taxes us. The other, that’s a lie. Every happy face that wakes up to life with a smile is lying to themselves.

Mason: So you are projecting your world view onto the world. That’s a little selfish.

Tobias: Is it really?

Ghost: We are done with this game.

Det. Thomas: We are?

Ghost: Yes. We aren’t going to try and escape anymore.

Tobias: You would die?

Ghost: We won’t die either.

Tobias: And why is that?

Ghost: Because one of my spirit helpers has informed me that the bombs to detonate the building require a key.

Pause.

Ghost: That only you have in your pocket.

FX: Gunshot.

FX: Body falls.

Tobias: You…shot me.

Chief: Detective Thomas.

Det. Thomas: He has the key! Mason would you be so kind as to take it from his pocket. He doesn’t look like he is going to be moving any time soon.

FX: Ruffling.

Tobias: Get your hands out of my pockets…

Ghost: Quiet, it isn’t like you have the strength at the moment to do anything.

Mason: Well looks like no bombs for you.

Tobias: You cheated.

Ghost: I cheat, I have help. That is what I do.

Malina: Hey brother, I found a switch on the rafters. I think it will lead us out of this room. Want me to flip it?

Ghost: Have enough strength to will it?

Malina: I think so. It will take a bit though.

Tobias: You still talking to ghosts again Mr. Ghost?

Ghost: And we will walk out the front in 3...2...1...

FX: Click.

Ghost: And that would be the gate gentlemen.

Det. Thomas: Tobias Simms, you are under arrest for a whole lot of things I cannot even begin to list.

FX: Rustling.

Tobias: Ow!

Det. Thomas: This is me being gentle for your information.

FX: Walking.

Chief: Well I muse say, that has been an interesting night of events.

Mason: Never thought I would be in a life or death game before. That is usually stuff I read in cheap magazines and comics.

Det. Thomas: You read those penny dreadfuls?

Mason: I only read penny dreadfuls.

Det. Thomas: But they are trash?

Mason: It teaches life.

Det. Thomas: In what way?

Chief: We are almost there. You sure this door will open?

Det. Thomas: I have many opinions on The Ghost, but he doesn’t seem like he would lie about this.

FX: Walking stops

Chief: We are at the door.

Det. Thomas: Want to do the honors of opening the door?

Chief: Ghost?

FX: Door opens.

Chief: Where is he?

Det. Thomas: Like him to disapear.

Mason: Look gentlemen. The purple hue of the dawn sky.

Det. Thomas: So…morning is to come.

Background: Morning outside noises

Fade into.

Malina: So Rick. That was some crazy night we had.

Rick: Yes it was sis.

Malina: Have you heard any update?

Rick: Well I enquired and Tobias Simms has recently began to cooperate with police, but he is still in the hospital. They just found what they expect are the remains of the three missing bodies.

Malina: So they all died without a trace.

Rick: Yes. So it seems.

Malina: A sad tale.

Rick: It makes you wonder though.

Malina: What?

Rick: Was Tobias Simms born evil? Or was he made?

Malina: I think your average person is born more neutral at most than born evil.

Rick: So that makes you wonder. What happened that made him the way he became?

Malina: A boy who loved despair?

Rick: Whatever the case, a tale that started on the worst of notes has finally come to a successful conclusion.

Malina: So, a story that would end on a note of hope.

Rick: Or something like that.

Dramatic Music.

Fade out.

Announcer: The Ghost and all characters are copyright by Supernatural Magazine Monthly. All characters living or dead are fictitious and all similarities are practically coincidental. All rights reserved.

End

Author's Note

Thanks for reading and please leave feedback and thoughts on the work.