FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter Three

Just as Ned had assumed, Laura was late meeting him in the library. He'd already started scouring the school's yearbooks for the mysterious elephant friend of hers, before realizing the futility of the task, since he had no idea what the ghost looked like. His hand hovered over the computer mouse before he opened up the public records for incidents involving the school.

He was surprised by how much was present within the historical archives. Fires, floods, and everything in between had happened at least once in the school's nearly century old history. Part of him almost regretted having taken the case, but at least it was something to do.

The tingling of the bell above the library's door signaled that someone new had entered and, looking up, Ned noticed Laura out of breath and rushing straight towards him. "You'll never guess what just happened!" she gasped as she dropped her satchel on the table and sat beside him.

Ned looked at her, waiting for her to continue. He couldn't let on that he had been following them when it happened. When Laura didn't, he sighed. "Fine, I'll bite. What happened?"

"My friend Ashley got hurt today."

"Ashley...?" he asked, playing dumb.

"Ashley Felix, the cat."

"Oh. Her. I'll try to remain sympathetic." he replied.

"Ashley says she tripped, but there wasn't anything there for her to trip on. I'm pretty sure this was the work of the ghost. She had just said something kind of mean to me. But it doesn't make sense; he doesn't hurt anyone."

"Typical Ashley maneuver. Being mean that is, not tripping. Well, let's look at the evidence: did anything odd occur before she fell?"

The rabbit put her paw to her head as she tried to remember before nodding. "Yes. I remember it became very cold all of a sudden. I was able to see my breath in the hallway just before she fell."

So Ned hadn't imagined it. There was definitely a cold spot. "Was she injured when she fell?"

"It was bruised pretty badly." she answered. "The Nurse is checking up on her right now. That's why I was late coming in."

The prairie dog steeled himself for what he had to say. This had suddenly become much more serious than previously. "I'm sorry Laura, this has just become an exorcism case. Your friend has become a poltergeist."

"A what?"

"A poltergeist." he repeated. "Sometimes, when a ghost has been dead for a while, they start to go a little crazy. As would anyone who's spent too much time being invisible. Poltergeists aren't like normal ghosts. Instead of just showing up or playing tricks, they can do real harm to people. I guarantee you, if we go to look at Ashley's leg, it'll have a bruise in the shape of a trunk."

Laura shook her head fervently. "No way, that's not possible. My friend wouldn't have hurt someone like that."

Ned frowned. "I'm sorry, Laura." For the first time in a long time, he genuinely meant it. He could tell how much the spirit meant to Laura, but he also knew it would be best to make it pass on.

The rabbit glared at him, stunning him as she snapped, "Don't say you're sorry! Your job is to help me find him, that's it. I won't let you exorcise my friend." She went to leave, but Ned quickly went after her. "Don't you have research to do?" she sniffed.

"Laura, you need to listen to me." he instructed, moving in front of her to block her path. "I understand he's your friend. But he is really, really dangerous. You could get seriously hurt or worse."

"How do you even know?" she demanded. "Maybe he was just protecting me or defending me or something. You don't know if he's dangerous."

Ned sighed; this wasn't working. He didn't like the thought of deceiving anyone, but he couldn't let this spirit just go about attacking people. "Alright, we'll just find him." he lied. "We won't exorcise him. Maybe you can calm him down and talk to him."

"You swear?" she asked, sticking out her paw. "Shake on it if you mean it."

He hesitated. How could he possibly bring himself to shake her paw? "I...can't." he whispered.

Laura's eyes lit up. "Oh, right. The touching thing. I'm sorry, Ned. Just...promise me, okay? I need you to say that you promise you won't exorcise him."

"I promise that I won't exorcise him." he repeated, trying desperately to swallow the guilt he felt. "Now will you please sit down with me and help me go through these yearbooks?" The rabbit's seriousness faded almost instantly as she smiled at him.

"Sure! I'm sure it won't take too long at all." Her bubbliness always took Ned off guard. As she began flipping through the books, he began to wonder if he was doing the right thing. He didn't want to hurt Laura's feelings, but he wouldn't back down from what he said: a poltergeist meant trouble, and the only way to get rid of one was to exorcise it for good.

As lunch began to come to a close, even Laura's energy was starting to waver. "This is taking forever." she yawned, flipping another page. "If only our school had a searchable yearbook, this would be much easier."

Ned sighed, closing his own book. "I don't think it would matter. We're looking for someone from a long time ago. They probably didn't even have computers back then." Glancing at the clock, he let out another sigh. "Worse, we used up all of the period. We're going to have to go back to class soon and we haven't even made a dent."

Both investigators gave a frustrated groan. "Well...after school?" she pleaded. She didn't even try to hide the desperation in her voice, and so Ned nodded in agreement.

"Sure. After school. Try to think of any other major details about your ghost friend. Maybe we'll find an additional clue that will help." he suggested, packing up his bag.

"Will do." Laura agreed before waving farewell to him.

Pulling his backpack further on to his shoulders, he felt another pang of guilt in his chest for having lied to her. Steeling himself, however, he tried to press it from his mind and pushed on to his class where he sat in the back, awaiting the lecture. Unfortunately, as soon as it started, he began thinking about the lie all over again.

"So you see class," his teacher announced near its end, "those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. The reason why we study our history and society is to prevent tragedies from happening again. It wouldn't do us any good for our people to continue making the same mistakes."

Ned blinked. Had he really missed the entire lesson? How had he lost that much time? As the bell rang once more, he lifted his backpack and walked towards the door. He'd have to read the book tonight so he could catch up.

As soon as he stepped foot from the room, he froze. He could feel Laura's gaze once more, but that wasn't possible. Looking around for her, Laura was nowhere to be seen, but the presence was unmistakable. Unless...he exhaled, inspecting to see if his breath would appear, but nothing happened. No cold spots. And then, as quickly as it arrived, it was gone. The experience worried Ned greatly; was this also an effect of his guilt?

He had a free period next, so taking the opportunity to try to distract himself, he threw all he had into the case. Despite doing more research, he didn't find himself any closer. That was when a thought occurred to him. Searching for incidents in the school involving an elephant, Ned was surprised to find only one.

Running his finger over the text, he began to read it, though nothing was conclusive. It didn't even state that the student died; just that he disappeared one day. There wasn't even any information about whether he came back or not. "Did something happen?" Laura asked from behind him, causing him to turn towards her with such a start that he fell from his chair.

"How long have you been there?" he demanded as he used the table to shakily get back to his feet. "Don't you know it's rude to sneak up on people?!"

She bowed her head, muttering an apology. Another pang of guilt hit Ned as he saw how regretful she was. Why was it that any time Laura had that somber expression on her face, he would immediately seek to comfort her?

"Hey, relax. Look, I'm not angry, okay? You just surprised me is all." he tried to assure her.

Thankfully, the young rabbit brightened visibly when she heard his words and quickly set her bag down. "So I've got some great news. I have more information on the ghost!" She clapped her paws excitedly. "On his uniform are the initials "NP". Maybe it's his name?"

Ned's eyes widened. "You saw an apparition of the ghost? When? Did it come into your class or something?" This was the first time he'd actually met someone who had truly seen a ghost. Even he'd yet to lay eyes on a full-bodied apparition.

Laura touched her paws together meekly. "Not exactly." she whispered. "I had a dream when I fell asleep during class. I saw you standing in the middle of the hallway, looking around for someone." The prairie dog visibly shuddered as she spoke. "Then I saw the ghost coming up behind you. He looked pretty upset, but then he turned and saw me before vanishing. Then I woke up."

"About what time did you have this dream?" Ned asked, his mouth suddenly feeling dry.

She considered it for a moment before replying, "About an hour ago." Ned was suddenly horrified as he backed away from Laura, unsure of how to process what was happening. "Ned?" she asked, concerned, but he just shook his head.

"I'm sorry. I-I have to go." he blurted, grabbing his bag and immediately heading for the door. This was not normal; it was far from it. She could see him from across the school while she was sleeping, and Ned could vaguely remember reading about something similar. He had to find out.

"Ned, wait! Aren't we supposed to..." Her words were cut off behind him as the doors to the Library slammed shut. Ned ran as fast as he could back to his house.