~The Primordial Void~

Chapter 2

After flying down the sidewalk that led directly to Friendship Junior High, the way Kat normally took when walking there and back, Casper began to retrace his own path, imagining that she may have wandered off the main walkway and got lost. There was no sign of her at the school, never mind close to home. A tinge of guilt tugged at his metaphorical heartstrings. If he tagged along with her like he almost always did, perhaps none of this would have happened and by now she would be at the dining table, enjoying the dinner he prepared near the soothing fireplace that she and Dr. Harvey stood by anytime they were chilly, instead of being alone in the night and likely freezing. Especially during this night in particular.

Passing through Friendship Cemetery, the walkway Casper often used to fly to his own school almost daily, he grimaced at the sight of more ghosts hanging out there than usual. The cemetery was not only used as a passageway by the younger ghosts around his age when heading back and forth to the schoolhouse, but was also a common meeting place for the older, more experienced ones when plotting scare raids or hauntings. Sometimes others his age, particularly his nerdy classmates would use the place to hang out after school or to get their work done together, occasionally frightening a few wandering fleshies that dared to step foot there at night.

Peering through the transparent crowd, Casper could spot something glowing, roaring louder than any vacuum. A vortex, just as he feared. It was a swirling, wicked green void, one that allowed the king's servants to retrieve the fuel held by ghosts like him that scared fleshies everywhere. Although most of that energy was brought back to Kibosh's higher forces, ghosts in the overworld would keep some of it which strengthened them over time. Of course, Casper laid low, constantly trying to escape the system and refusing to scare anyone under nearly no circumstances. Shivering, he suddenly felt puny around them, effortlessly strong and powerful unlike himself.

The boy facepalmed, looking around frantically at the sight of the portal multiplying all around town by the minute. At this rate, finding Kat would be impossible.

That was, until the sound of a faint whistle rang through his senses. In an instant, he was teleported elsewhere and before he knew it, there was Kat in front of him, shivering as she peered through the darkness with her breath visible in the chilling breeze.

"What the- Kat? W..Where have you been, me and Dr. Harvey have been looking everywhere-"

"Look Casper it's a long story, I tried taking a shortcut home after an away softball game, and somehow out of the blue, I ended up here. Ugh, where am I?" She threw her hands up in frustration, tucking away the whistle that she only used for emergencies. Observing their surroundings, he chuckled awkwardly. They were in the middle of nowhere, in Friendship's woods that remained untouched for centuries and likely ran for miles. How did she manage to get there?

"Uh, good question," He said with a nervous shrug, folding his hands behind his back. "But don't worry, I'm here to get you home, amiright?"

"Oh yeah, no worries. I mean, we're just stranded in the middle of a forest, with only a ghost who doesn't even know his way around his own house. Ack!"

Casper looked around doubtfully, seeing nothing more but trees with no other landmarks. "Wait- I've got a great idea!" He exclaimed, snapping his fingers in delight. Rubbing his temples and squeezing his eyes shut, he began to identify his surroundings. Every sound was amplified, promising to his ears. "Oooooh," The boy murmured under his breath, waiting for his voice to bounce around any object that could point a way home. "I got it!" He announced proudly, pointing east. "We've just gotta go this way and we'll be home in a jiffy, just..follow me, okay?"

"Okay.." Kat trailed off, raising an eyebrow as she blindly followed him. "What exactly were you doing back there?"

"Echolocating! Kinda useful when you can't see much around you, y'know?"

"Uh yeah, whatever.."

As they began to approach the cemetery once more, Casper gaped at the sight of several more portals than earlier. They seemed to be spreading themselves throughout Friendship like an ugly virus. Usually he stayed home during such nights and had only seen one vortex before on one early evening.

"Hey, what's this?" Kat asked, interrupting his thoughts as she snatched the Infrared Light from his pocket. Switching it on and shining it around, the light revealed a group of invisible ghosts that could never be seen with her own eyes. The town was more crowded with them than usual, but they were too occupied to notice her quiet presence.

Sensing the girl's discomfort from the way she held on to him, clutching his arm tighter as they passed by the wildly chattering ghosts, he wondered why she remained so close to him. Normally the sight of other ghosts no longer fazed Kat, unless any of them other than his uncles tried to mess with her. Perhaps she was good at hiding any trace of uneasiness, practically an expert at it after moving in at Whipstaff. Casper was unfortunate enough to encounter many frightened faces over the decades, but on this night her anxiety was undeniable.

As he offered his arm by wrapping it around her shoulder, he could feel her relax beside him, as if his amiable presence was enough to comfort her nerves. Casper giggled sweetly, "Heh, I guess the coast is clear now..but ain't that the coolest? It's kinda like a flashlight, but it's made to see stuff you can't see. My dad used it all the time on me, especially when I'd go incognito during hide-and-seek!"

"He really had a keen eye for everything, huh?"

"Sure did!" Facing away wistfully, he floated ahead of her once it was safe to do so. "Well..he usually did, anyway." The ankle-deep leaves that littered the grass divided into a path, one that led to Whipstaff just beyond the hill. Sometimes Casper raked around the backyard, having even created a walkway for himself to help him fly to school every morning without losing track of directions. "Hey, we did it! I think I see Whipstaff!"

Before he could let her catch up, Casper heard a halt in Kat's footsteps that previously crunched in the crinkled leaves, followed by a horrific scream that faded away more by the millisecond. As a yelp escaped his own lips, Casper trembled as he forced himself to turn around, imagining the worst. Stood frozen in shock, he stared at the swirling whirlpool that appeared beneath him. Kat was gone, and the little ghost knew full well of where she was headed.

Kat had fallen into a vortex; one of the many that oddly blanketed Friendship that night instead of only one in a desolate area as usual, and it swallowed her as quickly as it manifested at her feet. Without anything else to lose, Casper gulped, trying to courageously pull himself together as he stared into the dark abyss. Pinching himself first to make sure he was awake, he soon dove in after her, no matter how much his instincts screamed at him to turn back before its entry would close up from behind them.