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Post by Maggie Russell on Oct 14, 2009 2:29:43 GMT -5
Maggie barely even glanced at Jaye. She didn't know how Faye handled these things but this was how she did it and she wasn't going to change that. She sighed grimly. "First off, what's your name?"
"It's Amy" Scott piped up with, a dangerous glint to his glassy brown eyes, warning and begging his niece at the same time to refrain from being her usual rude, tough self with this ghost. "And she's had a pretty rough time of it."
"So she died." Maggie turned from her uncle to Amy and basically repeated what she had just said, merely changing the preposition. "So you died. Get over it. Look, I know you didn't get a very fair shot at life and I'm not saying I'm not upset for you or anything, but killing that man will not make it better for you."
The shaking increased.
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Post by Jaye Wingard on Oct 14, 2009 2:33:46 GMT -5
Jaye blinked at Maggie. She tried to think if she'd ever heard Faye be so rude to a ghost right off before. Not that Jaye was ever around when Faye was speaking with the ones that show up randomly, but she'd heard some stories from her friend. Jaye decided she'd try her hand at the whole mediating bit, even if she couldn't see whom she was addressing. She turned in the general direction Maggie was facing.
"Hey, I'm Jaye," she started. "I'm sorry my friend here is being so rude to you. I know it must be hard to see your killer in here, but would you mind not destroying my shop? I know that the cops know who this guy is, maybe if we called them they could arrest him and he'll get what he deserves, yeah?"
"Maggie," Jaye hissed at the younger girl, "tell me what she says please."
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Post by Maggie Russell on Oct 14, 2009 2:42:00 GMT -5
Maggie crossed her arms and stared sourly at the floor while Jaye spoke to Amy. The shaking didn't stop entirely, but there was no doubt that it slowed a bit. She had half a mind to lie and ignore whatever Amy said next, making something up to tell Jaye instead.
Amy crossed her thin arms as well, eying Jaye skeptically. "She can't see me." It was a statement, not a question.
Maggie rolled her eyes again. It was a habit she was starting to do more of whenever she was around ghosts. "No she can't. Because you're dead." She thought she had used a kinder voice than she had been previously, but the shaking began to increase again. "Ok, ok" she whisper-snapped so as not to alert the other two or three customers. "Look, do you want me and Jaye to call the cops? Or try to talk to him ourselves or something?"
Amy narrowed her eyes. "I want him dead" she said simply.
Maggie was almost amused by this answer. She turned to face Jaye. "This is going to be a little harder than you thought." She worked extremely hard to keep the mocking from infiltrating her steady tone.
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Post by Jaye Wingard on Oct 14, 2009 2:45:43 GMT -5
"Oh?" Jaye asked. "I'm guessing she doesn't want us to call the cops then. What does she want?"
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Post by Maggie Russell on Oct 14, 2009 2:50:41 GMT -5
"She wants him dead" Maggie replied just as simply as Amy had phrased it the first time. "How do you propose we keep her from ruining your shop while still reaching her goal?" This time there was no stopping the tinge of mockery in her tone. "Or do you have a way where we could just stop her from killing him entirely?"
"Stop me? You're not going to stop me" shrieked Amy in near hysterics. "He killed me! He tried to kidnap me and he killed me instead!" Tears were pouring down her pale face as she began to glow even brighter than before, the books closest to her toppling from their stacks to the floor.
Maggie couldn't help but feel that someone was going to notice soon if they didn't do something.
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Post by Jaye Wingard on Oct 14, 2009 2:54:45 GMT -5
"I'll tell the people wandering in that I'm closing early today," Jaye suggested. "You can touch her can't you? Keep her from stopping me." She jogged over to a couple who had just wandered in and told them she had to close early due to an emergency that just come up. She did this for the other few people she found in the shop, but she wasn't stupid enough to try and shoo the man out, so she left him in the shop and swung the lattice-work gate over the arch, locking it from her side. She glanced quickly into The Pub for Faye, but there were too many customers in there to drag Faye out of work. Jaye sighed, knowing this was going to end badly. She turned around to go back toward Maggie, thinking up ways to get the guy out of her shop before the ghost started doing some serious damage.
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Post by Maggie Russell on Oct 14, 2009 3:02:14 GMT -5
"She thinks you could stop me from stopping her" laughed Amy bitterly.
"Don't even go there girl" Maggie growled, taking a threatening step forward. "I could detain you if I needed to. Don't make me need to. See, Jaye isn't going anywhere near the guy so there's no reason to start anything with me, is there?" Maggie did her best to speak in a calm, nurturing way. It was then that she realized her uncle was no longer there. Great, just when she needed him the most, he dissappeared. She sighed and glanced over her shoulder just in time to see Jaye closing up the last of the doors into the shop. The only other remaining customer was the one that Amy was so intently focusing on. Maggie waited until Jaye was close enough before asking over one shoulder, both eyes never straying from Amy, "So do you have any ideas?" She prayed that Jaye would know what she was talking about without her spelling it out, as that would just make Amy angrier.
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Post by Jaye Wingard on Oct 14, 2009 3:08:44 GMT -5
"I'm working on it," Jaye replied to Maggie, trying in vain to see what Maggie was staring at. She couldn't even make out a shimmer.
That was when the first book flew from the table and at the old guy. It missed his head by inches and he spun around quickly to glare at the girls. Jaye immediately pointed her finger at Maggie. "I'm terribly sorry sir, I'm trying to contain this delinquent. That won't happen again." she called to him. But he started to walk over anyway.
"Crap," Jaye said under her breath.
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Post by Maggie Russell on Oct 14, 2009 3:14:21 GMT -5
Maggie was nearly beheaded by the book that Amy had propelled towards the older guy and was just regaining her balance - as she had had to do some sort of duck and twist to avoid it - when Jaye's finger was stabbing at her and she was rambling about control and delinquints. Maggie was so shocked she couldn't even find her voice to protest. She just stared with her mouth partially open until the man began to walk their way. She agreed 100% with what Jaye had uttered, especially because she saw what the man and Jaye could not, and that was Amy. She had this delightfully evil look on her young face and the books around her, as well as the miror above her head, were back to their incessant shaking.
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Post by Jaye Wingard on Oct 14, 2009 3:19:41 GMT -5
Jaye was very glad at that moment that, although she was sure it would have been more helpful to her survival, she could not see the ghost--whose name she still did not know because she could not remember what it was from the article, and Maggie hadn't exactly been forthcoming with information. Jaye did wish the old man could see the ghost though--it might make things easier. Some of the books on the display tables beside them were actually levitating by the time he reached her and Maggie.
"Um, hi," Jaye said to the old man. "Would you mind stepping outside with me and this girl and we can calmly talk about what just happened? I think she has a mental disorder, you see, and I've contacted her parents and they will be pulling up outside in a matter of moments..."
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Post by Maggie Russell on Oct 14, 2009 3:26:33 GMT -5
A mental disorder?! Maggie scowled at Jaye, not even sure what to say to that, but it didn't matter.
Amy had heard everything and now knew that they were trying to help the man escape. Screeching shrilly in a voice that only Maggie could hear, she hollered, "Now you've done it! Now you'll pay! You'll both go the same way as the old man!" Her anger was such that a slight stare in the man's direction caused three heavy, leather bound books to fly directly at his head and another three books to head the opposite direction at Jaye's head.
A third set of books would have been tracking Maggie if she hadn't launched herself at Amy, pinning her to the ground with one knee in the small of her back. She realized that if Jaye and the old man had managed to miss being hit by those books and were looking at her, she must have looked pretty silly, but hey, she was saving their lives.
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Post by Jaye Wingard on Oct 14, 2009 3:30:43 GMT -5
Jaye had been wondering how much time she'd have to try and scoot the man past the ghost. It was a risk but it had been the only idea she had. Now she launched herself at the man as she saw the books heading for him, and by doing so avoided the books she hadn't noticed that had been sent in her direction. She landed on the floor on top of the man, his body cushioning hers, and she heard a sharp rap as his head bounced off the floor.
"That's not good," Jaye muttered as the man's eyes didn't open. The coffee he had spilled started seeping into his clothes as Jaye stood up and looked around quickly. She saw Maggie on the floor wrestling with an invisible being and made a run for the phone hanging on the wall behind the counter (she couldn't remember where she'd put her cell phone). She hoped the ghost was distracted enough not to notice, and that she wouldn't squash the man's head as he lay helpless on the floor.
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Post by Maggie Russell on Oct 14, 2009 3:42:09 GMT -5
"Get off me" shrieked Amy, rolling around underneath Maggie's weight. She used her anger to create an avalanche of books to come tumbling down on Maggie's shoulder, bruising it as they did.
Maggie, wincing, was forced to get up or be burried by books. Once on her feet, she ignored the stinging pain in her left shoulder and looked around wildly for the ghost. She saw Amy heading for the unconscious man and sprinted across the room. She grabbed Amy by the ponytail and pulled her backwards. "Leave. Him. Alone" she panted.
"Why do you care about him" she snapped, beginning to glow with anger again.
"Believe it or not, I'm not a fan of witnessing murders." Maggie stopped in her tracks, realizing what she had just said.
Amy lost it then. "Neither were my parents! Yet they did, and look what happend! And if you're going to stand in my way then the store owner will witness two murders!" Her head flashed towards where Jaye was running and her eyes darkened dangerously. She waved a ghostly hand, using her powers to disconect the phone with one powerful snap of the power lines. Her anger boiling over, one fist connected solidly with Maggie's jaw, knocking her backwards into the miror (having fallen to the ground in one of the latest "earthquakes"), which shattered immediately, spraying glass pieces everywhere.
Maggie spit blood from her mouth and staggered to her feet, delivering a punch of her own before calling out, "Jaye, a little help would be nice...don't you have a cell phone?!"
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Post by Jaye Wingard on Oct 14, 2009 3:51:25 GMT -5
"Crap!" Jaye muttered again when she saw heard a snap from somewhere distant and the phone in her hand went dead. She heard Maggie call out to her.
"Not one that I can find immediately!" Jaye called back, dropping to her knees to get out of the ghost's line of sight and frantically searching the recliner. She found her phone wedged in the side, it was constantly falling out of her jeans pocket, and dialed 911 rather quickly.
"911, what's your emergency?" Came a male voice over the line. Time for some more speedy improv, Jaye thought.
"I own the bookshop on Main Street and I need to report an attack," Jaye said hastily into the receiver. "A girl in the shop recognized a murderer and he started beating on her. I'm hiding behind the counter making the call but I have to go help her now so hurry up and get here!" Jaye stayed on the line a few moments longer to give the exact address and name of the shop and then hung up.
She jumped the counter and ran toward Maggie, though she hadn't quite figured out how she would help her against an invisible attacker yet.
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Post by Maggie Russell on Oct 14, 2009 4:05:37 GMT -5
That's the thing about ghosts, they heal almost immediately, Maggie was aware of thinking, but other than that brief thought her mind was blank. She was focusing solely on dodging Amy's blows, and returning as many as possible. She was vaguely aware that Jaye had called something in response to her plea for help and then had gone silent for a few moments. And now her hurried footsteps were on their way back over.
Amy slugged Maggie in the stomach. It made her laugh to see that the pitiful book keeper thought she could stop her when she couldn't even see her. She wasn't even worth her time. Taking Jaye's upperarm in one hand, she spun her around three quick times. Quick for a ghost is like super quick for a human. Without waiting to see how her handiwork affected Jaye, she turned back to the unconscious man on the floor with a dark gleam in her eyes.
Maggie, still clutching her stomach, crawled to her feet, and waited a moment until the nausea passed before getting Amy in a headlock from behind. "Give up already" she snarled.
"You give up already" Amy responded in an airy tone. "You'll never win, mediator. You can't kill me, because as you oh so eloquently put it earlier...I'm already dead. However...I can kill you." She body slammed Maggie into the glass littered ground like a professional wrestler and kicked her in the ribs before turning once again to the lifeless man...
Maggie used the last bit of strength she could muster to silently and urgently gesture in the direction she could only hope Jaye was, pointing and waving wildly, almost like charades. She couldn't speak...partially because it would alert Amy, but mainly because it was too painful to try through her broken ribs and bruised jaw. She hoped her message got through: "Amy is heading for the unconscious man...she's on his left side."
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