Reflections of the Past | Ghost and Pals fanfic

26# Adapt

The man's slender fingers were holding onto Cakey's shoulders as he pushed her past the distortions, whose wide morphed eyes were curiously staring at the supposed daughter of their leader.

"Welcome to Crazy Town, my dear," he spoke before stopping, the gates behind them closing. He released his grip from her as he continued walking. "This is where your Papa has been for..." he trailed off, staring into the distance. "Actually, time doesn't matter in the mirror dimension, what does matter is—"

He turned around to find Cakey being surrounded by the many distortions, her hair being touched and pulled and her cheeks poked and pinched. "W- Sorry—" she said quietly, barely finding the confidence to even say anything as her personal bubble was being invaded. "Distance pleas- AH!" She felt a sweaty hand taking hers, causing her to retreat it instantly.

"LET GO!"

Her yell caused the distortions around her to step back, staring at her wide-eyed. Christopher approached her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder as she lead her away from the crowd. "I'd need you to give her a bit of space," he told the others. "She needs rest after this entire adventure of ours."

A collective "sorry" came from the reflections as they lowered their heads in shame.

Cakey went silent again in the presence of the strange man, feeling tiny next to him, despite her not being much shorter than him. He began rambling something in French as he pointed around the town, most likely explaining where everything is. The abandoned amusement park had lost a bit of color over the time, and since the founding of Crazy Town, each building had regained a new purpose. The food stands stayed the same, while the bouncy houses had been turned into actual homes to live in and rollercoasters had been rebuilt completely to be railways as a way of transport for the disabled.

They soon approached a smaller building, on which the sign "FUNHOUSE" was still hanging. Whipping a colorful key out of his back pocket, Christopher was still blabbering endlessly, and he sticked it into the keyhole before twisting it and pushing the door open, revealing the interior that looked nothing like a funhouse: Dull red walls, fancy wooden or black furniture. He approached a small table and pulled one of the chairs back as he looked at her, saying something again, so she took her seat on it.

Christopher walked towards the countertop of the kitchen and turned on the gas stove, filling a kettle with water and setting it to boil. While he was making tea for the both of them, she was sitting, her eyes wandering to her shoes as her leg was bouncing. The man spoke up again, suddenly on the chair opposite Cakey, and she looked back up.

His smile faltered. "You don't know French anymore, do you?"

Cakey's gaze averted from his. "Not really. Gave up on that." She crossed her arms over her stomach with a bit of shame.

Christopher sighed and leaned back into his chair, the disappointment evident in his tone. "I should've known your mother Americanized you. But that's fine, it's not your fault anyway. You'll relearn a lot from your Papa either way."

The kettle whistled and Christopher got up from his seat to turn the heat off. "Tea or coffee?" he asked as he got two old-fashioned mugs out of a drawer.

"I'll take whatever you'll have."

"Black coffee it is then," Christopher replied as he added two teaspoons of instant coffee in a mug each.

The strongest coffee Cakey could drink was probably a caramel macchiato... black coffee would be a nightmare.

Christopher soon returned with the two mugs of coffee and placed them on the round table before sitting back down. "Tell me, my dear, how has life been?"