The Town of Casper

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"I protected my town. Nothing more, nothing less." Leone answered her question gruffly, not wanting to give up too much information just yet. He turned on his heel and began to walk away, only to stop and glance back at the woman. "You aren't going to be able to get back the way you came. Follow me." He sighed, beginning to walk in the opposite direction of the trees she had climbed across on her way to the little island. A large fallen tree spanned across the mucky water to the solid land on the other side. He stepped up onto the tree and made his way across.
 
She started following him, wondering why a ghost would even care for her way out. Besides, she took a moment to think about his answer. Protect it from what? Spirits? Why would he give his life for the town that considered him crazy? He was surely the most interesting dead man she ever met.
Hannah wanted to aks him probably more than a hundreds question, but didn't want to annoy him so quickly. She imitated him making her way across the spanned tree to the other side.
"Thank you" told him when she got to the solid land.
What would he do know? Banish? She clearly didn't want to see that happen... but how could she stop that?
 
"Don't worry about it." Leone sighed, beginning to walk through the woods. He could see her car through the trees, and he wilted slightly. He was not getting into another car for a month. That was decided. He began to walk down the road, heading towards town. Hopefully the woman wouldn't get in the way of his work. And hopefully the book he wanted to read would still be in the library.
 
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He watched him as he went walking down the road. He didn't look as if he wanted her company, so she just sighed and got into her car. Hannah still had a lot of questions of what happened that odd day, but she would probably need to answer them in some other way. The library was probably a good idea, only that she needed to take a nap before continuing with that madness.
She turned on the engine and stoped next to Leone, pulling down the window.
"I'll keep doing my investigation. So, I guess I'll see you around, Leone." told him with a slightly smile. It was a weird thing to say, but she actually liked that spirit. After greeting him, she accelerated towards her hotel to take that really diserved nap.
 
Leone merely nodded his head in return to the woman, though no words escaped him. He watched as she drove away, definitely glad that he wasn't in a car. He reached the library in about an hour, and quietly glanced over the massive collection of books. He found an odd book, one which was bright pink with a golden pentagram on the front. "I really shouldn't be interested by this..." He muttered softly to himself as he opened the book. The pages were black, covered with white pentagrams, and a small box warned readers of graphic violence and content. He immediately shut the book and put it back on the shelf. "Hell no to that one." He sighed, and began to look for more books. Hopefully ones lacking in the creep factor.
 
She arrived to her room and collapsed into her bed. She laid there for a while, exhausted, but was uncapable of getting some sleep. Now, she could see and even talk to ghosts. She had that ability that very few would find it as awesome as she did, and she still had a lot to learn. The excitement was probably the thing keeping her from her nap. Hannah finally gave up half an hour later and took her laptop to make some research.
She googled many things, and they all lead her to crazy people that were clearly just crazy. She couldn't find anything that seemed real about her new ability. The Internet was full of crap. So, what would be better than the local library of the town that gave her that power? Hannah put her computer away and went back into her car. Ten minutes later, she was entering in the library.
 
Settling down at a table with an old Charles Dickens book, Leone slipped off into a wordy world which was already threatening to put him to sleep. Why did they pay authors by the word back then? Everything would be so much easier without so many words obscuring the main focus of the novel. He began to doze off as he read about an orphan boy in a swamp coming across an escaped convict. He was completely asleep by the end of the conflict.
 
She went into the library and walked directly to the history section. She spotted the spirit on her way. He was completely asleep with a book in front of him. Hannah chuckled, she had never imagined that ghosts could look so... normal, so alive. She watched as the woman from the library took the book he was reading and put it back on a shelf. Sometimes it was probably annoying not being seen, even though he didn't look as if he would want to keep reading that book. She kept going her way until she found the books she was there for. Maybe a little history from that town could help her understand what happened and how it happened.
 
Leone woke up with a jolt as he felt like he was falling. Blue-grey eyes wide, his hands went to grip the table automatically. He sucked in a breath, before he let it out in a deep sigh. He hated dreams like that. His gaze drifted to where he left his book, only to find that (to no surprise) his book had disappeared. He groaned and looked to the shelves in a vain attempt to relocate it. He shook his head, and instead stood and ventured into the history section. He could remember most of the American history, due to his former education and his bored ness in the afterlife. But here he found Miss Hannah as well.
 
It took her a while to find something useful. Most of the books, as expected, where about american and global history. Luckily, she found a pretty old hand written book with the name of the town in the cover. She smiled at her discovery and headed to sit down and analyse it, but she found her new friend as soon as she turned around.
"Morning, sleeping beauty." told him without giving much think to it. Was she really teasing a ghost? It was weird how comfortable she could feel around him. She did sensed the presence of spirits before, and she did feel comfortable around them, but that situation, where she could clearly see him, was suppose to be much different.
A man, looking for a book in a near shelf, turned around to look at Hannah and frowned. He was probably thinking who was she talking to. Hannah let a slightly smiled invade her face. She was going to get the reputation of the crazy-woman-who-talks-to-herself soon.
 
Leone rolled his eyes and allowed a smirk to cross his face. "What do you expect when some ghost hunting nut keeps you up 'till one in the morning?" He countered, teasing her right back. His gaze flicked to the unfamiliar book in here hands. A small, curious frown crossed his face. "What book is that?" He asked curiously.
 
She chuckled at his answer. He was actually a nice ghost.
"You probably tried to say perfectly sane paranormal investigator." corrected him. She looked strangely at the book she was holding, it was weird that a 200 hundreds years old ghost who seemed to love books didn't know about it. "I think it's about local history." answered him, handing him the book so that he can take a look.
 
"Doesn't look like one of the library's books, though. Mrs. Dolores usually doesn't put handwritten books on the history shelves." Leone didn't take the book, as he saw that the man had been looking at Miss Hannah strangely. A levitating book in public view was not going to be good. "Perhaps we should look at this somewhere a bit more private..." He stated with a frown and looked past her to the man.
 
She followed his sight and realised that the man was still staring at them. It was probably a good idea to go somewhere else, she still didn't want to be promoted from the crazy-woman-who-talks-to-herself to the one who talks to ghosts. She remembered the section where he first lead her, where the old newspapers were. There weren't probably many interested in that section, so she just nodded at the ghost and walked over there. As she expected, they were alone. She sat down and put the book at the table, expecting him to join her.
 
Leone followed after her, and took a seat across the table from her once he was sure that their privacy. He gestured for her to go ahead and look at the book first. After all, she found it, and it was custom for ladies to go first, however fleeting it was with this current day and age.
 
She opened the book and read some pages of it. It was clearly supposed to be something about local history, but it was really, really old, and it wasn't easy to read. From the lines she understood, the book contained some supernatural tales that were written as if they were real. They were mixed with some ordinary stories about the foundation of the place. It was all disorganised and there were a lot of pages missing. She sighed with frustration and passed the book to her companion, maybe he understood better the books from his age.
 
"Worst handwriting I've ever seen. But it does have some correct information. The town was officially named in 1760. It was originally an Indian village." He frowned softly as he continued to read. "The land around town was a large swampland, which is still true. I'm not to sure about this next bit, though..." He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in thought. "The Indian cheif was also a shaman, or something along the lines. He predicted that evil spirits would try to take over the town. As a means of defense, he held a protective ceremony around one of the older mangrove trees in the swamp, in which he channeled all his life force into the tree. The energy traveled through the root systems of the trees, forming a barrier that forced out the evil spirits." He turned the page for more information, and found that more than a few pages were missing.
He frowned softly. Surely, the old tree was the tree mentioned in the book. He wasn't entirely sure about the rest of this. He was from Salem, for Pete's sake. He simply wasn't around to pick up on the folklore of the town when it was still orally spreading. He hated not knowing something.
 
She paid close attention to him and tried to analyse the information on her head. The missing pages and lack of information were frustrating, but at least it was something. It seemed that the town had a couple of ghost problems before, not only with the indian but also when Leone died, according to what he had told her earlier.
"And, if this is true, that tree somehow manages the power to see the dead?" asked, more to herself than to her companion, assuming that it was the same mangrove tree they touched before. "You never asked yourself how was it that you could see spirits?" added with a frown, not caring about the little deviation she gave to the subject. She didn't have the ability for more than a day and was already dying to know how she got it.
 
"I really don't know. I've had it ever since I could remember. It's half the reason I moved down here." Leone shook his head and sat back in his chair. His gaze was thoughtful as he went over what he knew. "I'm almost sure that the tree balances energy, not necessarily the ability to see spirits." He frowned softly, his thoughts on the tip of his tongue. "Lightning is a current of electricity... A form of energy. When I touched the tree way back then, it took in both my life energy and the lightning." He explained, his brow furrowing. "It takes energy and puts it to use. If that book's to be even remotely believed, it must have transferred the energy throughout the swamp." And the residual energy from his old ability, which he'd kept up until yesterday, must have just gotten transferred into this woman.
 
She nodded, understanding the logic of it. It sounded possible, it explained how she got the ability from him. But she was still frustrated at the mistery of how he got it in the first place. She sighed, it was a strange town with a strange past that not even a 200 hundreds years ghost understood, how was she supose to? She copied the spirit and sat back, still thinking about the whole thing. Anyways, she remembered that the real case she was there for was about the library ghost, so maybe she should try to ask more about him instead than the town.
"How is it that you are still here after all this time? I mean, according to my knowledge, spirits are supose to go somewhere to "rest in peace", unless there is something holding them back. Of course, I may be wrong. But if I'm not, it's ok if I ask you what is it?" asked after a few seconds of silence.
 
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