THE GHOST AND THE EARTHBOUND DEMONS

SUPERNATURAL INTRUSION

I want to leave this body, Terry thought. I want to just float out the same way I came in. And that's what he did, detached himself like a wet Band-Aid, flopping to the ground beside a suddenly exhausted Jimmy. 

Jimmy's lungs were pumped to bursting, and his legs shook like reeds, "Oh! You have not only broken my mother's favorite chair, but now you have made me break our television. What have you gotten me into, Terry?"

"It's okay, Jimmy," Terry mumbled to pacify his near-to-tears friend.

"You know, for a second there..." Jimmy puffed. "For a second there, I was scared and thought I was dying."

"It's kinda eerie to me as well."

"So, why are you back, Terry?"

"You won't believe it?"

"Try me."

"I'm back to capture some earthbound demons and then send them back to Ghoul."

Jimmy snorted. He had believed Terry came to haunt those who killed him, and anything besides that wasn't welcome in his ear. 

"What about Bobby and his gang of hyenas?"

"Well," Terry said. "I may pay them a visit since I'm here."

Jimmy smiled broadly. Nothing made him happier than hearing Bobby and Co will be punished for their crime.

"And about the demons, how did you plan to do that?"

"I have no idea," Terry answered back, "I was expecting a kind of hologram to help me with that."

Jimmy blinked and inhaled deeply. Is it possible for his mind to have conjured up this whole scenario? A sort of prolonged hallucination. Quite doubtful.

"Can we pay Bobby a visit while I wait for my hologram?"

A smile appeared on Jimmy's face. "Terrific. What's the plan?"

"I will think of something along the way. Did you have any idea where he may be?"

"School just resumed today, so I believe he will still be at home," Jimmy answered back and then pulled himself from the floor. "I suck in these old clothes. Spare me a minute, Terry."

"Sure, buddy."

Jimmy was out of sight instantly, and Terry was seen trying to familiarize himself with his new abilities. It was strange to him also. All those body snatching and unbelievable power that surges through him. So, whether or not he made contact with something was apparently up to him. A mental sort of thing. Very Kung Fu. If you wish it, it shall be. He likes it. 

Terry also discovered that everything had a bit of life in it. Even the old armchair had a few memories floating around inside its timber and foam. Most of them involved various bottoms and the functions thereof. Terry instantly decided against occupying any furniture in the future. 

Out of something to do while he waited for Jimmy, Terry pilfered a chocolate mousse from the fridge and scooped it out with his fingers. Disgusting, certainly, but delicious. 

And that was fine, just as long as he was concentrating on the mousse. The second he stopped thinking about it, the sloppy goo began to float out through the walls of his stomach. Once they'd cleared his aura, gravity took hold and the dessert splatted onto the floor. 

Terry grimaced. Look like he'd never be hungry again. But he'd never be stuffed either.

Jimmy inched down the stairs, eyes squinted for focus.

"Hello, ghost. Are you still there?"

Terry sat up on the sofa. " Why did you want to kill yourself?"

Jimmy froze, one foot halfway between steps. "Who told you that?"

"The sofa," Terry said simply. 

Jimmy scanned his face for sarcasm but found none. Why should there be? Anything was possible. He stepped heavily to the foot of the stairs, lowering himself, grimacing into his easy chair. Terry could almost hear his bone cracking. 

"I testify against Bobby and Co. And since then, they have made my life a misery. So, I decided to put an end to it tonight."

Bobby Shit had solved the broken remote problem. Not that the television's remote control was broken, but it might as well be for all the chance there was of Bobby dipping into his cigarette money for new batteries.

Anyway, he'd solved the remote problem. The problem is: what do you do when your remote's broken and you want to change channels?

You could get up out of the armchair. But that was a bit extreme. Bad enough that you had to raise yourself for food and bathroom breaks, without exerting yourself every time the advertisement came on. 

You could befriend some local kid and get them to lie in front of the television. But the problem there is that kids nowadays are notoriously unreliable, and their parents had an annoying habit of wanting them back just when Bobby needed channel change the most. 

Bobby reluctantly decided that it was up to him. 

He would have to rise above his distaste for mental exercise and devise a plan. Something ingenious to dazzle his critics. 

His first thought was to use his toes, but they were pudgy and inaccurate. Besides, the sweat caused the buttons to stuck. 

The second idea was a masterpiece of simplicity. Bobby dragged the armchair over to the television. Close to perfect except for a few bugs. Placing the screen in front of him meant that he still had to lean forward to manipulate the now slightly sticky buttons, placing it to the side caused a shift in his viewing position and a resultant pain in the neck muscles. Such a conundrum. Was he to be denied his only pleasure?

At last, with a craftiness born of twenty years of lying around, Bobby hit upon the solution. He lumbered up to the bedroom and wrenched the wardrobe's door from its hinges. He then propped the mirror side before the chair and angled it slightly to reflect the television screen at his side. Ingenious.

Now, the speakers were playing directly into his ears, and the convex nature of the mirror meant that for all intent and purposes, he now had a thirty-two-inch screen. Oh! Beautiful. Now, if only he had a bottle of gin...

Blue and Shrek hovered across the room to Bobby, who was blissfully unaware of all this supernatural intrusion. 

"All we need to do is possess him and then siphon off some of his life force," Blue informed his comrade. " I am sure you still remember where it is. A bright orange button just below the eyeballs."

"Sure... sure. I still remember. Right. So let's do it," Shrek paused. "One more thing. I want him to see me."

"Whatever for?"

Shrek raised his hairy hands. "Because what's the point of being a demon if I can't scare anybody?"

Blue nodded. He understood perfectly. He was, after all, a demon like Shrek.