Night Vale Unsolved

24

"Woah, woah, woah," Cecil hurried over to try and help calm Ryan down. The poor guy had backed himself up against the wall of the stadium, and he looked like he was about to pass out. Meanwhile, Shane stood exactly where he was, mouth agape.
"Ryan, it's ok! This is my friend, Lucia. Lucia?" Cecil called over to the ghost, "Can you maybe...give him some space? Sorry."
"Yes, of course, Cecil." Lucia backed up, going over to stand next to Carlos, who seemed slightly uncomfortable, but turned and nodded.
"What...is that...what?" Ryan's breath came short and hard, his face pale.
"Ryan, just come and talk to her! She's nice, you'll see."
Ryan started to nod, but shook his head instead.
"Alright," Carlos walked over to join them, "Cecil, this is not the right way to do this. You go check on Shane, ok?"
Cecil nodded, then went over and started talking to Shane.
Carlos turned back to Ryan. "Are you ok?"
"...Yeah. Yeah, I-I think so. Is that...?"
"A ghost? Yes. Lucia died back in 1843."
Ryan whimpered a little, and Carlos rushed to comfort him. "But it's all fine! She's actually the third base coach for the little league baseball team! The kids love her!"
Finally, Ryan managed to tear his eyes away from Lucia, who was politely not still staring at him, despite her curiosity.
"The...the kids? Baseball?"
"Yes!" Carlos sighed with relief, "Exactly! She's not evil or malevolent or anything, see? She just...happens to be dead. That's all!"
Ryan whimpered again, but with less fear than before. Carlos could tell he was making progress.
"Do you want to talk to her?"
Ryan looked back at Lucia, who, noticing his returned gaze, glanced over at him. Her blank eyes were curious, but maybe even a bit weary.
Ryan then looked over at Shane, who was now engaged in some sort of conversation with Cecil. It looked normal, but Ryan noticed that Shane kept glancing at Lucia.
"Shane," Ryan said, starting over to his friend, "Shane?"
Shane turned. "Hey, buddy. How you holding up?"
"Um..." Ryan rubbed his neck, fighting every urge to look back at the ghost. "How do you think?"
Shane let out a half-hearted chuckle. "Fair enough. I mean, it's a ghost all right. A ghost!" Shane glanced away, distracted.
"And you?"
"What?"
Ryan caught Shane's gaze again. "How are you doing?"
Shane sighed. "I don't know. I mean, we've already seen weird stuff. Why not ghosts? It's not that I don't believe it - how can I, now? But...all that other stuff was completely new. Before this, we'd never even heard of floating cats or whispering trees or whatever. But ghosts? We've been pretty much everywhere looking for them. And nothing. Nothing until now, and we weren't even looking for one."
Ryan hesitated. "I guess I hadn't thought about that."
"Yeah, well, here we are."
"I don't know, man. I...almost feel like we should walk away."
Shane stared incredulously at Ryan. "What?"
"I mean, I don't know, I'm just...Something feels off."
"Of course something's off!" Shane laughed, "Ghosts, apparently, are real! This is what you've been looking for for what, forever? You can't just walk away!"
"Oh yeah, and what about you? Mister skeptic? You're not going to try and pole holes and say this is all one big hoax?"
"Is that what you think this is?" Shane asked quietly.
"I...no." Ryan conceded. "No, I think it's real. But that's what you do. You're the one who doesn't believe, who I have to argue with over everything. And...your not believing gives you a courage that I don't have. I need that, and I'm..." Ryan sighed, "I'm scared this is going to change all that."
Shane didn't answer for a few moments, processing what Ryan had just confided in him.
"Ryan..." He finally started, "Yeah, this is going to change some things, but we'll still be doing this together. And anytime you need me to taunt some demons," Shane continued with a grin, "Just say the word, alright?"
Ryan groaned. "God, I hope there aren't demons. Ghosts are just about all I can handle."