Book 1: The First Fallen Human

Ghostly Tunes

The ghost floated through Waterfall quietly. He settled in a field of echo flowers, listening to the past conversations. It wasn't eavesdropping, right? If they were conversations that had already happened? He sighed and closed his eyes. He enjoyed the way the chatter just blended all together into wordless sound. It was almost like silence to him. Then, he felt a chill as the flowers fell silent. He heard footsteps.

"Hello... Napstablook..." 

That voice... Napstablook turned and looked towards the figure behind him. "H-H-Hello, Scooter..." He said softly. Immediately, he flinched as all the echo flowers around him began to repeat his stuttering phrase. He never knew why they never repeated Scooter. It was like she didn't even exist to them. It must've been nice... He blinked as she suddenly glitched next to him. 

He found he enjoyed her company. Scooter was quiet and the feeling she spread around her, created silence, which Napstablook enjoyed immensely. "O-Oh, you don't have to join me..." He stammered as he noticed Scooter sit down next to him. He paused, seeing as she'd closed her eyes. She probably wasn't listening anymore. He looked down. 

"I love those..." 

He blinked and looked up to see she had opened her eyes. She was looking up at the dots of light on the roof of the Underground. Napstablook blinked before settling down next to her. "Th-They are pretty nice..." Napstablook admitted softly. Scooter nodded. They'd met by accident. Scooter had been following the human earlier and had run into Napstablook by mistake. She seemed to have taken a liking to him. Why did she seem so familiar to him? Like they'd done this many times before? 

He jumped as she spoke. 

"Any new tunes...?" 

Oh! Napstablook brightened up a bit. He loved talking about his music. He'd discovered Scooter was a very good listener. "I-I haven't done anything since y-you saw me earlier... I-I-It's all the same stuff..." He admitted sheepishly. Scooter blinked before nodding. She didn't seem disappointed. She didn't seem... anything, really. Napstablook blinked at her. "Y-You're not disappointed, are you?" 

"Of course not." 

Emotionless as he voice was, there was genuineness in her statement and that made Napstablook relax a bit. He blinked. Why had the echo flowers gone silent? Around them, the glowing flowers had fallen quiet. In the distance, he could hear faint chatter from other flowers, but the ones around them made no sound. It was somewhat peaceful. He closed his eyes and laid back. 

Napstablook felt at ease around Scooter. Maybe it was because she didn't show emotions. So there were no signs for him to pick up on and worry about. Maybe it was the way she brought silence wherever she went. She had her eyes closed. He couldn't help but wonder about her. She was clearly a human. But why wasn't she with the other human? Why was she able to teleport? Why did she seem so drained of color and life? 

Napstablook sighed and laid back once more. It wasn't any of his business. They sat there, for several minutes, in complete and utter silence. Suddenly, Napstablook felt a tension. He opened his eyes and sat up. Scooter was staring off into the distance, her eyes seeming to be set on something, even though he couldn't see anything. "Wh-what's wrong?" 

In the opposite direction, Nabstablook suddenly saw smoke rising and his eyes widened in alarm. Something was on fire in Waterfall! He shot up. "O-O-Oh no!" He sputtered. He blinked as Scooter suddenly spoke, turning back to face him. 

"It... isn't your house..." 

Well, that was relieving. But at the same time, who's house was it?! He gulped and turned to Scooter. "I-I-I'm going to go ch-check, if that's alright..." He stammered. Scooter blinked at him calmly.

"Of course..." 

He nodded and started to drift away. Napstablook became invisible, not wanting to speak to anyone. He blinked as he remembered something and turned back to Scooter. He stopped. She'd frozen, staring straight ahead. He jumped as a small, red, blunt sphere appeared above her and shot towards the darkness. It hit something and something gurgled as there was a small boom. A red glow had lit up in her eyes for a moment. And for that moment, Napstablook saw a red outline separate itself from her before she seemed to relax and the red glow disappeared completely. 

Napstablook was shaking. What had that been? He watched as she sighed and stood up, turning around. 

"You know better, Doctor, than to scare me like that." 

Napstablook shivered at her tone. There was something... menacing underneath her normally emotionless words. He didn't want to know. 

Napstablook turned and fled, leaving Scooter and the mysterious threat behind him.