Seance Spooktacular Part One
It had taken a fair amount of effort for Abe to convince some of his employees to join in on the seance he wanted to hold; some of his newer employees still weren't quite willing to trust him with any deep mysteries of magic, which hurt a little but it wasn't as though he'd never had a scummy boss who wanted to take advantage of his employees. He'd even been that scummy boss a time or two! But eventually after no small amount of work he'd managed to convince Professor Crumbs that he only wanted to know what was possible, and that frankly with the recent zombie issues they needed all the understanding of the undead that they could get.
To be honest it wasn't exactly hard for Abe to believe that ghosts existed and could be summoned. He believed in dragons after all! (Rotwood had gotten a very pained look on his face when he'd idly mentioned that, one that made him not want to press any further about the subject). And while he wasn't quite old enough to have been around during that whole Fox sisters hoax he'd grown up in it's aftermath, with people eagerly devouring any shred of information about hauntings and such.
And so Abe, Professors Crumbs and Rotwood, Hunter, and Lena had arranged for one of the larger rooms in the manor to be cleared out and decorated to the elder wizard's exacting specifications. The shades were closed, candles were lit, and a crystal ball was placed in the center of a table large enough for them all to sit around.
"Is all of this really necessary?" Abe asked as he helped arrange the chairs around the table, "It all seems like…Pageantry and hokum."
Crumbs stroked his beard in a way that to most probably would have looked dignified, but Abe had seen Jasper do the exact same thing enough times to be pretty sure that the man was just making sure none of his dinner had fallen into his hair. "It can be hard to say. Certainly having the right atmosphere can have a positive effect on a number of spells. I did once know a wizard who claimed he'd had success in summoning spirits with the aid of a skeleton he obtained from a place called Party City." Crumbs nodded in a sage-like manner, "I've never had the chance to visit the place myself, but it sounds quite nice."
"Aunt Magica was always really dramatic about this kind of thing," Lena interjected from where she was polishing the crystal ball, "The candles have to be made from black wax, the table made from an oak tree in a cemetery that was struck by lightning…I'm pretty sure she was just really extra about it though."
Regardless, before long the five people were seated around the table, Crumbs at the head of it. He cleared his throat before speaking up. "Spirits of the unquiet dead, hear my summoning. I beckon to you now as one of the Wise, appear before us as honored guests!"
The candles flickered for a moment, as though a wind had blown through the room, though they had made sure to keep all windows tightly closed. Crumbs nodded again as the room's temperature seemed to drop a good few degrees. "We feel your presence spirit," he intoned, "Appear before us!"
The candles flickered a little more, and for a moment Abe thought that might be all they were getting, but suddenly a glowing pair of arms reached up through the table, the fingers visibly damaged as though they'd been in a fight! The hands seemed to push on the table, and a moment later they were followed by the rest of the ghost they were attached to. The ghost was young, Abe noticed to his discomfort, and he had a gaunt look to him that told him some unfortunate things about how he had died. He was dressed in clothes that vaguely reminded Abe of the kind he would have worn at one of his earliest jobs as a factory line worker.
"Why have you called me from my restless sleep?" The boy asked, his voice having an echoy, pained quality to it as he turned his gaze around the table. Crumbs gave Abe a significant look, making it clear that he should answer quickly.
Looking at the lad, who even now had glowing 'blood' dripping from his fingers, there was only one question that came to Abe in the moment. "How did you die spirit?" He asked, trying his best to keep his tone level.
If the spirit noticed Abe's discomfort, he said nothing of it. "In life I worked the line in the Power Works," he began, and Abe vaguely recognized the name as an old one for the Plant, "The work was hard, and the pay feather light. To feed my family I tried to steal atoms to sell outside…But I was caught by that damned Clifford Burns!" On saying that name the boy's face took on a monstrous expression that made the teens shudder, and Abe grateful that it wasn't directed at him. "To punish me he had me bricked up alive in an old coke oven, where my bones rest to this day…Please, find my bones and lay them to rest, that I can finally join my family…" Abe risked a look at Hunter and Lena to make sure they were all right, and while the duck girl looked relatively fine, if frightened, the other teen was staring straight ahead, not looking at anyone or anything in particular. There was something not good in that look, Abe knew, and he knew that if he asked the boy probably wouldn't tell him whatever was going on underneath that mop of unruly hair.
The ghostly boy began to fade as he finished speaking, his time clearly up, so Abe was quick to respond. "I will," he told the spirit, "If they're still here we'll have them found and buried in a proper grave."
His body starting to fade from his toes up, the ghost managed to give a slight smile just before his chin started to disappear as well. And just as the top of his head faded away, they would all hear a sourceless "Thank you," that echoed through the room.
The seance team didn't speak at first, wanting to make sure it was all over before they began to stand. "I'll get a team together in the morning," Abe commented, his old bones suddenly feeling especially weary, "See if we can't figure out just where that lad met his unfortunate end."
There were agreeing nods, none of Abe's workers having any problems with that. All in all it had technically been a successful seance, doubtlessly the first of many…Though there did not seem to be any particular rush to try another one any time soon…
It's a little early for Halloween, but here's something spooky to get us ready for October! I have ideas for other restless spirits who could be summoned in future omakes, but this kid (from the episode Last Exit To Springfield) seemed like a good choice for a first attempt at a seance.
