Work Text:
Molly entered her house with a smile, like she did every time she got home from school. Not only had she had a fun day at school, but she got to hang out at Libby's place afterward, which was always a treat. Although, despite the fun day she had, she was ready to be home and hang out with her best friend, Scratch.
Scratch wanted some time to himself, so she let him stay home while she was with Libby. She knew how much he loved being alone. She remembered seeing the slightest bit of panic on his face when he mumbled his request to be alone, but she dismissed it quickly and made her way to Libby's. She walked up the stairs of her house, then slammed opened the trap door leading her into the attic, popping her head through. "Scratch! I'm home!"
She waited for a little bit, waiting to hear her friend's voice in reply, but the room stayed silent. Confused, she climbed into the room, kicking the door closed. "Scratch?"
Nothing.
She set her backpack down on her bed then started searching for him. He had to have been in the bedroom, there was no way he couldn't. She bent down near his dollhouse, peering inside. "Hey, Scratchy, ya in there?"
She couldn't see any trace of him. No blue glow coming from any of the rooms; no ectoplasm laying around anywhere. She picked up the dollhouse and began examining every window or opening she could find. Nothing. She stood back up. Where was he?
Then, from the corner of her room, she could hear a faint whooshing noise. It was almost silent and barely noticeable, but it was still loud enough for her to hear. It was definitely out of the ordinary, too out of the ordinary for her to dismiss, especially with her friend's strange disappearance. She listened for the noise again to follow where it was coming from.
After a few minutes of searching, she finally detected the noise coming from behind her art easel she had used to paint her ghost friend on it. She picked it up and moved it to the side, only to see a void-like portal sitting right on the wall.
She wasn't surprised, she had seen the portals before. Every time Scratch wanted to travel between his world and hers, all he had to do was trace a circle with his fingers and the exact same portal would be right there for him to use. She was sure he was just in the Ghost World for some important ghost work and left it at that.
But what she didn't understand was why the portal had been left open.
Whenever Scratch went into the Ghost World, the portal always closed up right after him. She didn't know what was wrong with it. She wanted to hide it with her easel again and forget it was there, but after finding it, she knew she couldn't just leave it alone.
She curiously reached her hand towards it to see if it still worked. Her arm was instantly pulled through the portal, much to her surprise. She yanked her arm out of the portal with fear, stumbling back and tripping over a dried-up paint palette that was left on the floor. She quickly picked herself up. "Huh. That's... weird."
She wondered if she could maybe even see Scratch from inside. He could definitely help, since he was the one who created the portal in the first place. She poked her head through, looking around.
Everything in the portal was black and hollow, like a tube. She could see the faintest glow coming from the very end of the portal, but it was too small for her to figure out what was on the other side. She called for her friend again. There was no reply.
Then, very quietly in the distance, she could hear a soft voice - and a familiar one at that. Her eyes went wide with hope. "Scratch!" She exclaimed. He must've heard her calls and realized the portal was left open and was coming to fix it.
Her friend didn't respond, but she was starting to hear what he was saying. "Please, I promise, I'll keep Brighton miserable, just don't send me there! I'm begging you! Just... please..."
His voice sounded scared. Sad, even. She knew Scratch was a generally upset and grumpy person, but she had never heard him sound this pained before. She was unsure of what was bothering him, but didn't think too much of it as she leaned farther into the portal to hear what was going on.
"I can do better! I promise! I'll raise those misery numbers as soon as you let me leave, okay?"
"Scraaaatch? Helloooo?" She singsonged his name, climbing in further. It wasn't until it was too late that she realized she was fully inside the portal and couldn't be let back out.
Fear washed over her instantly. All she could see was black emptiness where the gateway to her world used to be. The only way out was through the Ghost World. Scratch told her the Ghost World was off-limits, but maybe if he heard her out he wouldn't be too mad. Besides, she always wanted to know what the Ghost World looked like, and this was the perfect chance to get a small glimpse of it.
She slid down to the end, then fell right out of the other side and onto her back. She quickly sat back up, looking around.
She seemed to be on some sort of floating-rock thing. The rock seemed small, which made her slightly confused as to how any of the ghosts were supposed to live on it. Surrounding the rock was a green, tornado-shaped formation of something that she couldn't quite make out yet. She wanted to learn more, so she decided to search for her friend and ask him some questions.
"Please! Just hear me out! I can raise my misery numbers in five days! No, wait, three days! Or maybe even two!"
Her attention gravitated towards where the voice was coming from. She quickly spotted her friend, who was on the opposite side of the rock. "If you just give me two days, I promise, I can--"
"Scratch!" She exclaimed, waving her arms at him to get his attention.
He turned to look at her, his eyes wide with fear. "M-Molly?!" He stammered.
She suddenly embraced him in a tight hug, making him even more shocked. He was so shocked that he couldn't even move to return the hug. "Molly... what... what are you--"
"Okay, okay, listen," She started her explanation before he could get too mad. "I came home from Libby's place and I saw that your portal was left open. I was confused, but when I went to go examine it... I fell in." She ended her sentence with a laugh, hoping he'd laugh and shrug it off, too. He didn't. He seemed scared. "Moll, you aren't supposed to--"
"Scratch," A voice said to the two. Molly looked up to see four ghosts, a pink one, a green one, a blue one, and a purple one sitting in a large podium, with a grim reaper-looking person standing behind them. One of the ghosts in the bunch (the green one) had called out to him. "Care to explain who that human is?"
Scratch cursed quietly under his breath. He shoved Molly back a bit, then approached them slowly. "Well, y- you see, the funny thing is that... umm... she... uhh..."
"She's a human you brought from the living world, right?" The pink ghost asked, raising an eyebrow.
"N- No! Where'd you get that idea from? I'd never do tha--"
"Hey, Scratchy, is this really what the Ghost World looks like?" Molly asked, peering off the edge of the floating rock they were on. "It actually looks kinda cool!"
"MOLLY!" He screamed, flying over to her as fast as he could. He caught her just before she fell into the bottomless void below them, pulling her away from it quickly.
"Molly, eh?" The purple one repeated. "So do you know the human then?"
"Wha- of course not! I don't know her! I don't know her at all!"
"What are you talking about, Scratch?" Molly asked. "What's going on? Who are they?"
"My bosses." He whispered sharply back. "Now shut it or we're both gonna be in trouble!"
She fell silent instantly, her face turning bright red. He had told her a bit about the Ghost Council, but she didn't know much besides the fact that they were in charge of him.
"As I was saying," Scratch continued with a chuckle, trying his best to hide his fear. "I know a lot of humans that live in Brighton and this one must've just followed me into the Ghost World. I'm gonna get her back right now."
"Scratch, that human clearly knows you, otherwise she wouldn't know your name." The green member pointed out. "And she'd probably be way more terrified that this has even happened to her."
"What have you been hiding from us?"
Scratch bit his lip, not knowing what to say. "I... she... we..."
"Wait a minute..." The purple member traced a square with her fingers, a holographic screen appearing in front of her face. She typed something onto the screen. Scratch couldn't see what it was, which made him even more nervous. "Aha!" She exclaimed, showing the other council members her finding. "I knew that girl looked familiar."
"Molly McGee." The pink ghost read the girl's name as all four of them looked up from the screen.
Molly sheepishly waved, letting out a small "hi" before Scratch covered her mouth with his hand to cut her off. "Okay, look, I can explain everything, I promise, just give me--"
"Scratch, what's the number one rule of being a ghost?"
He knew exactly what it was, but decided to play the dumb card and pretend he had no idea. "Uhh, well, I dunno, scare people? Spread misery? Isn't that what ghosts do? Because I think--"
"No. It's to not be seen by any humans."
Molly glanced at him, confused. He never told her he wasn't supposed to befriend humans. Was their friendship putting him in danger?
"Really? Huh. I must've just skipped over that one or something, I'm sorry, I'll--"
"No, you've known that rule from the start. Everyone has. The more humans know about ghosts, the less scary we get, and the less misery we can spread. Do you see the problem?"
He slowly nodded. "Yes. But, you see, if I can just--"
"Yet, here you are, floating next to a human who knows you. In fact..." The blue council member snapped his fingers, showing a scroll. "Wait a second..." He read over the scroll, then looked up at Scratch with wide-eyes. "You've revealed yourself to five humans already?!"
"What? No! That's not it!"
The blue member started reading off the scroll to prove his point. "First we have Molly McGee over there, then Sharon, Pete, and Darryl McGee, who I assume is her family. There's also a young girl named Libby Stein-Torres who knows who you are, which makes five. Five humans who know about ghosts."
"This is unacceptable!" The pink member added.
"I'm sorry!" He begged. "I didn't mean to!"
"You've broken the one rule that you couldn't break. You can cheat and lie out of everything else, but this is too far. Humans can't know we exist."
"And, not only do humans know who you are, but it also seems like they're distracting you from doing you ghost work, which is probably why Brighton is the way it is."
"Scratch, what's going on?" Molly asked softly.
He shushed her again, then went back to pleading. "I can fix this! I promise! If you would just listen to me I can--"
"I'm sorry, Scratch, but we have no choice." All members of the Ghost Council instead looked up at the grim-reaper like figure standing behind them, whom Molly assumed was the head of them all, the Chairman. He slowly lifted his arm up and pointed it at Scratch, then quickly made a thumbs-down with his hand.
"NO!" He screamed. He scrambled to cover himself with his hands, like they were about to hurt him. She could see tears flooding his eyes. Something wasn't right.
She jumped in front of him quickly and spread her arms out wide to prevent them from doing anything bad to him. "Whoa, okay, what is happening?" She pestered. "I want answers!"
"Well, little human, it's simple." The pink council member started. "Scratch's job as a ghost is to keep the town he was assigned to - Brighton - miserable. He does this via scaring people. But, the more people who know about him, the less scary he is. And, as you can see from his latest misery reports--" She snapped her fingers to show a meter of some sort, making sure Molly could read it clearly. The meter had two sides, a red one and a blue one. The meter was on the blue side and she had no idea if that was good or not. "--he's failing at his job."
"His town is too happy." The green member clarified.
"Exactly. Which means we have no choice but to punish him. See? Simple."
"Wait, did you say punish him?" She repeated. "What does that mean?"
Pained, agonized screaming noises suddenly started ringing throughout the area. Molly yelped, covering her ears from the terrible noise. Scratch frantically tried to shove her out of the way in hopes of protecting her from what was about to come. "Moll, get back!"
He shoved her so hard that she had fallen to her knees on the other side of the platform. After taking a second to recover, she slowly turned back to face where her friend was, only to see a giant, green-ish tornado thing coming down towards him. He seemed to be gravitated to it, since he had started floating near it the closer it got to him. She stumbled back to her feet, then dashed over to him in an instant. "SCRATCH!"
"MOLLY!" He screamed back, trying to reach out to her as the tornado started pulling him closer. She did the same, but their fingertips simply just grazed past each other in return. They weren't close enough.
She jumped as high as she could into the air, finally being able to hold his hand. She didn't know the feeling of his cold, blue, slimy ectoplasm would feel as nice as it did in that moment. She looked right into his eyes, her face full of worry. "What is going on?"
He didn't want to alarm her, so instead of telling her the truth, he simply replied softly, "They're sending me to a better place. It's fine."
"They said they were punishing you." She argued, not falling for his lies. "What's really happening? What's this... thing?!"
He sighed. He couldn't hide everything from her anymore. "The Flow of Failed Phantoms." He mumbled, avoiding looking into her eyes.
"THE WHAT?!" She shrieked. She was so startled by his response that she nearly lost her grasp on him, which made her start to fly up into the air. She quickly regained her footing again and held onto him even tighter, this time making sure she wouldn't let go again. "You mean... the Flow of Failed Phantoms?"
He gently nodded his head.
"No..." She said softly, tears welling in her eyes. Scratch warned her about the Flow. He described it as a fate worse than death with every victim sent there crying and screaming for a way to get out. The agonized screams were ghosts sent there in the past, never to leave or be free again. She looked around, imagining her best friend as one of those ghosts. She instantly started sobbing.
Scratch grew a third ectoplasmic arm to wipe the tears out of her eyes. She looked up at him as his arm melted right back to where it belonged. "Molly, go." He whispered.
That statement made her more angry than sad. She was determined to fix this, to keep him with her. Despite the loud yelling the Flow was causing, she was still able to get the attention of the Ghost Council in the distance. "Please! You can't do this! You can't send him away, I'm begging you!"
"I'm sorry, kid, but this is what needs to be done." The purple council member replied. "Scratch broke the two biggest rules of being a ghost: spreading misery and not being seen by any humans. He deserves to be banished to the Flow."
"Please!" She cried. "He's my best friend, I don't know what I'd do without him! You can't take him away from me! Please!"
"Best friend? Ha!" Three of the council members burst into laughter at her statement, while the fourth one decided to set her straight on what was going on.
"I wouldn't waste your time with him if I were you. Scratch is worthless. He has no friends, no family, nothing. He's one of the most hated ghosts in our society. Why bother even trying to be friends with him when you could be friends with someone much better? It's just nonsense to me."
She turned to look at him, even more tears pooling in her eyes. "What...?"
He didn't know how to respond. "I... I..."
"You told me you were popular!" She said, frustrated. "You told me everyone in the Ghost World loved you! What are they talking about?"
He took a deep breath. "I'm not popular..." He admitted softly. "I'm not important, I'm not special, I'm a nobody. I'm sorry I lied to you, but they're right, I am worthless. I am nothing. I just thought you'd like to be cursed with someone better than me..." He burst into even more tears.
The Flow tugged on him a bit more, making both of them jerk into the air again before Molly descended back down. She looked down at her feet, making sure they were grounded before looking back up at him. She tried to smile at him, as if trying to tell him that everything was okay, but all he could see was fear. "Scratch, don't worry, I'm gonna get you out of this mess." She stated, trying to swallow up what little confidence was left inside her. "We're gonna go home and everything is gonna be fine. Y'know what, when we get home, we can even eat tacos! I'll get Mom or Dad to drive us down to the nearest Mexican restaurant and we'll order as much tacos as I can afford. If you just keep holding onto my hand, everything'll be fine, and we can--"
"Molly, I lied to you." He repeated, trying to sink the info into her head. "Don't you see? I'm a terrible friend! I kept secrets from you. I told you I was special but I'm not. I'm nothing."
"N- No!" She argued. "You're not nothing, you're a McGee! You're a member of my family and that'll never change."
"No--"
"And, when we get home, we can say hi to our family that loves us! That loves you! I promise, everything is gonna be fine if you just--"
"This is all my fault!" He exclaimed. "You've seen the underworld, you've seen the Ghost Council, you've seen the Flow of Failed Phantoms, none of this would be happening to you if it weren't for me! It's all my fault that you're in this mess!"
"No, none of this is your fault!" She insisted. "Why are you blaming this on yourself? Your bosses over there who are big jerks are the ones responsible for this! Nothing is your fault, Scratch, don't worry."
"But... but..."
"Hey, Scratchy, look at me." She stated. She gained his attention in an instant. "None of this is your fault. Sure, you've lied to me, but I don't care! You're the greatest friend I've ever made and I love you more than anything in the world." She forced herself to smile, hoping to make him feel better, too.
"Yeah, but here's the thing, Moll," Tears flooded his eyes in an instant. His tears ran up his face as they started getting sucked into the Flow above, which was very close to the two by now. "I don't deserve your love."
She could feel his hand slowly starting to lose it's grasp on hers. Her eyes shot wide. "NO!" She screamed.
He closed his eyes, feeling even more guilty and pained. "I'm sorry..." He let go entirely, floating off into the distance and away from her.
"SCRATCH!" She screamed his name, louder than she had ever before. She tried to jump into the air and reach him, but she was unfortunately too short, so she fell to the stone-cold ground below her immediately. She looked up, only to see the smallest speck of blue fading away as it became but a small part of the tornado that looked like it was sent from the depths of hell. "No, no, no!" She suddenly burst into loud sobbing, trying to reach her arm towards where he used to be. She could hardly even speak between her cries. "Scratch!"
"Now, if we're all done here, it's time to send you back to your world." A black portal her size suddenly appeared in front of her face, and she was instantly shoved through. She came back out on the floor of her bedroom, but she quickly jumped up and scrambled to climb back through. "No, please, I have to go back! I have to save him!"
But, before she could even try to shove her body through the portal, it had closed up right in front of her eyes. "NO!" She screamed, pounding her fists on the wall where it used to be. "No, no, no!" The rage and anger inside of her faded into sadness almost immediately, and she slowly fell to her knees, crying harder. "No..."
She was sure this was some sort of dream. Some sort of awful nightmare she was having. She was certain that she'd wake up soon to see Scratch sleeping in his dollhouse or scavenging the house for food. She waited there for a little while, but it never happened.
She sat there for what felt like hours. She didn't even want to move. She couldn't move. Nothing was worth it anymore. It wasn't a dream, it was real. Everything was real.
She forced herself to her feet, then walked over to her desk, grabbing a photo that was sitting there. It was a picture of her and Scratch, covered in little fun stickers. Underneath the photo was the word 'besties!' in sparkly pen. The two were both very happy in the picture, as they both seemed to be smiling. She closed her eyes, her tears falling on top of the photo. She held it close to her chest as she started crying even harder.
There was nothing she could do, nothing she could fix. No matter how much she wanted to deny it, everything she had witnessed wasn't just a sick nightmare. It was all real, whether she liked it or not.
Her best friend was gone.