Reflections of the Past | Ghost and Pals fanfic

19# Shattering News

Flower pushed the old door open, walking into the workshop of Mister Emily, who was facing his back towards her while sitting on a chair, sticking his tools into what seemed to be the interior of a phone. Slowly, she approached him from behind and watched him work.

As he was about to turn around to grab a different tool, he got startled by the sudden presence of Flower, and stared.

"Oh, sorry about that..." she apologized, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. "I hope I'm not interrupting you, Sir."

He sighed and leaned back into his chair. "What do you need?" he asked, looking at her as if he was unhappy with her being in his workshop.

"Well, I have some questions regarding a certain ma—"

"Christopher Pierre?" He raised his brow. He had been used to receiving questions about that man a lot. "You must be Maggie, correct?"

"Huh? Oh nononono, I'm not Maggie. I'm Flower," she corrected him. "Magnolia is my great grandma, the bakery used to be hers."

He scanned her facial features, her skin, her form. Not in a creepy way, but rather as if recognizing that light skin and white hair, her big black eyes and slim figure. "Ah. Well, doesn't matter... What does matter is your issue. What kind of questions do you have?"

Odd enough, he was being open with that topic, despite Say having told her that he never talked about it. "Do you know what kind of man he was before he turned into... y'know, Shatterman? What were his motives?"

His eyes darkened just at the memory of him, and he took a deep breath before telling her. "There isn't much I can add other than the fact that he was a very secretive man when it came to his source universe. No matter how directly you would ask him about his old life, he always found a way to change the subject. But a fact I know is that shortly before he turned into the monster he is today, he expressed how much he regretted being a traveler, but he had no other choice but to either leave or end his life early in his source universe." He went silent for a moment.

Flower frowned a little. "I'm sorry to hear that, Sir. It must've been very tough seeing your friend turn into a monster and... commit these crimes."

"Not my first time, kid." He cracked a subtle smile on his serious face. "But anyways... I don't know much more, I'm sorry."

She returned the smile. "Don't apologize, Sir, thank you for your help." She began walking towards the exit of the workshop, until she accidentally stepped on a toy car on the way. "AH—" Its little wooden wheels rolled and sent her flying towards a closet. As she slipped, she grabbed the handle of the closet to keep herself from falling, accidentally opening the door in the process and causing something large to fall out of it. But as clumsy as she was, her hand slipped and she let go, her body hitting the cold hard ground.

Mister Emily got up from his chair to walk up to her, taking her hand to help her up. "Are you bleeding?"

"Nope." As she was back on her feet, she couldn't help but feel a little dizzy as she held onto the back of her aching head. "I'm alright, thanks..." She then looked down at the floor, finding what seemed to be some sort of backpack with mechanical hands attached to them. She couldn't help but gasp and take a step back.

Now that Flower saw it, Mister Emily couldn't hide it anymore. He carefully picked up the backpack-like object and put it back in place.

"What is that?"

"A prototype of a device I made for him," he answered quietly, his eyes resting on the backpack with regret. "He forced me, and now he's roaming, committing his crimes with multiple arms and a mask." At the sound of Flower gasping again, his baggy eyes then darted to her as he spoke in a low tone. "But I haven't told you that. You've never heard of anything. At all."