Empires SMP Halloween prompt oneshots

Day 16 - Poltergeist

           Pix hummed to himself as he worked on his redstone contraption. He'd been working on it all night and was hoping to get it done by morning as it was currently midnight. Not that he felt tired in any way. Since he was now a ghost he didn't really need to sleep. Which helped with the fact that Pix was a very busy emperor and had barely enough time for a functioning sleep schedule anyway.

           Just as he was connecting the last few wires into place Shelby came flying into the room through the open window in her broom, looking fearful. "Pix, I need your help." Shelby said breathlessly, her white face looking paler than normal in terror.

           Pix stopped what he was doing and looked at her. "Shelby? What are you doing in the ancient capital? And at this hour of the night?" He said. Shelby looked rather apologetic. "Sorry," She said, "But it really spooked me. I didn't really want to wait until morning."

           "What really spooked you? What is it?" Pix asked concerned. "Pix I'm being haunted again." Shelby moaned. "Again? I thought you got rid of all of the Evermoore ghosts." Pix said in disbelief. "Yeah, so did I, but now there's a ghost in my house again and he's throwing stuff around and messing with my things." Shelby fretted, twitching.

           "Ah, so it's a poltergeist." Pix said, recalling what he'd heard of those tricky ghosts that liked to prowl around houses and toss things around. "Oh, right, so that's what it was called," Shelby said. "I was wondering about that. I didn't really pay that much attention in witch class when they were explaining the different types of ghosts to us." She looked a tad bit embarrassed. 

           "So, uh, what do you need my help with?" Pix asked. "The ghost?" Shelby tried, sounding like it was a given. "You want me to help you get rid of the poltergeist for you?" Pix asked. "Yeah!" Shelby said, looking relieved. "I'm not an expert on ghosts, though, Shelby," Pix said. "You are one." The witch pointed out. "That doesn't make me an expert." Pix said a bit flatly. "Hey, you're the smartest emperor." Shelby said. "So can you please help?"

           Maybe it was the compliment that did it, but Pix somehow got convinced to go to the Evermoore at literal midnight and help Shelby with her poltergeist problem. "Shelby, you really need to stop getting haunted all of the time." Pix said as he floated through the air using his ghostly powers, following Shelby as she flew to her empire on her flying broomstick. "I know." Shelby said, going red. 

           When they got to Cogsmeade it was fairly obvious that Shelby was being haunted by a poltergeist. The lights kept flickering on and off even though Shelby only used candles. Doors opened and shut even with no one in sight. A frog was floating through the air, ribbiting rather boredly to no one in particular. Shelby waved her wand at it and it plopped back down into the lake with a soft splash. 

           "Okay, poltergeist, come on out, I don't have all night." Pix grumbled. He would really rather be working on his redstone contraption right now instead of dealing with a ghost but Shelby was his friend and he needed to help her. There was no reply from the poltergeist as a bucket of water suddenly sailed through the air and headed towards them. 

           Pix didn't even move as the bucket sailed right through him and instead doused Shelby, drenching her from head to foot in sopping, frigidly cold water, making her yelp. "I'm a ghost too, if you haven't noticed." Pix said in a deadpan voice. He wondered if other ghosts could tell that he was a ghost too. 

           "Pix, I don't think the ghost is inclined to talking." Shelby whimpered, shivering from the cold of being soaked in the middle of the night. "You should probably dry yourself before you get hypothermia or something." Pix advised the witch. She nodded and went back into her house, but a second later the door to it opened and closed a second time and Shelby came back out again, shrieking about poltergeists and waving a strange white candle around in her hands. 

           "Just leave Shelby alone, poltergeist." Pix ordered, frowning. He could've sworn that he heard someone giggling from somewhere behind him, but when he turned he saw no one. Pix sighed and glanced at Shelby again, then at the white candle she held. "Shelby, what is that?" He asked. "It's an anti-ghost candle. Sausage gave it to me." Shelby said. "But it doesn't ever seem to work." She shook it up and down experimentally. 

           "Be careful, that's a candle with fire." Pix warned, but Shelby just awkwardly laughed. "Oh, no, it's fine. Sausage said that it doesn't actually hurt living beings and is supposed to repel the undead, that's all." To prove her point Shelby literally passed her hand through the flame and she didn't get burnt or hurt at all. "See?" She said. Pix found that fascinating and would've inquired more if he wasn't so busy with trying to get rid of a poltergeist.

           Suddenly glowberries were plucked off of the glowberry vines that Shelby had growing around her little hollow by an invisible hand and were thrown one by one at the unsuspecting witch. Shelby yelped in surprise and her hand jerked, sending the candle flying forward. Suddenly it ricocheted off of an invisible barrier and both Pix and Shelby could clearly hear a yelp coming from it. 

           Was that the poltergeist? Had Shelby actually hit him with the anti-ghost candle? But poltergeists were ghosts and would have passed through the candle, right? Unless the candle's status of repelling the undead made it tangible to ghosts. But if that part worked, why wouldn't it repel the poltergeist that was very clearly not repelled? 

           Suddenly Pix got an idea and looked down at the ground, right by where the candle had bounced off of the poltergeist and landed on the muddy floor. Pix suddenly realized that he could see footprints in the wet mud. Determinedly he got a milk bucket and threw the entire contents over where the footprints were. 

           Suddenly Pirate Joe was standing there, covered in milk. "Hey!" He sputtered, but then realized that Pix and Shelby could see him now that his invisibility potion was countered by the milk. "Oh... uh... boo?" He tried. "Joey?!" Shelby gasped in outrage. "You're the poltergeist?!" "I wanted to play a prank on you for revenge..." Pirate Joe admitted. 

           "You scared me half to death!" Shelby accused and Joey shrugged. "Eh, you can go to sleep now." He said. He started to go, but Pix was just so incredibly fed up that he was called away from finishing his important redstone contraption just because of a prank that he wasn't about to let Joey get away that easily.

           Pix reached out and grabbed Joey with his ghostly hands, making the pirate yelp. "Nuh uh, you're not leaving until I show you what it's like to really be haunted by a ghost!" Joey gulped. He was in for a long night.