Phantasmic Annoyence

Who: Pandect
Where: Amy’s Apartment
When: 4:30 am

Pandect sat at Amy’s kitchen table with his head on the red and white checkered tablecloth. He could still hear sirens from outside of her broken window, the singed lace curtains flapping in the corner of his vision. He wondered idly (he deserved to be idle for a few moments) how she kept all her little knick-knacks clean and dust free, she must put a lot of effort into her household chores. He didn’t know how much effort it would take, he hadn’t owned much more than he could carry (trucks, horses and bicycles not included) on his back since he had lived at home. He could darn socks, but he wasn’t sure how maintained lace curtains.

There was no point in sitting and thinking about it, Pandect sat up slowly wincing at the way his shirt stuck to the wound on his side. It wasn’t much of anything really; honestly just a scratch with more of a sting than anything else, but it was annoying. More that he had been caught off guard by the exploding window than anything else. He slid back with a satisfying squeal of chair against linoleum (peeling linoleum now from the heat) and walked over to Amy’s kitchen sink which was still resolutely cheery and bright and turned on the faucet, leaving a satisfying smudge behind (he was willing to take his satisfaction where he could get it right now) before beginning to wash his hands slowly.

Pandect wasn’t by nature an angry man, while his temper could certainly be riled (and he went through his fair share of irritation); he had never struck anyone or anything in anger. He had come to Amy’s apartment tonight to protect her, a courtesy he liked to think, he wanted to think, had more to do with how he would react to save any human being then someone for whom he felt some measure of some fraternal desire to defend. He had been, he admitted caught off guard by the ghost. It had started wailing at two o clock sharp (at least according to Amy’s vaguely creepy cuckoo clock) and the barrage from Amy’s curio cabinet close after.

Guiltily he looked over the jagged remains of Amy’s figurines (few of which are any color found in the natural world with the possible exception of the rain forest), he’d have to box those up for her. He could find a shoe box somewhere, probably. The fire had been a surprise though, that had caught him off guard, and for a few moments caught him by the throat. He had been waiting out the china barrage, getting a look at the scratch on his side when the walls started to hiss. The sound had put Pandect into immediate motion, he had spent most of his life as a handyman of one sort or the other. He knew intimately the sounds of breaking pipes, rotting timbers and the sound of electrical fires. And this definitely belonged in the last category.

But now was not the time to think about that, someone with a brain had flipped the electrical switch and Pandect had taken care of the rest. (He made a mental note to himself to buy a few new shirts; Marquette was hard on his clothing.) The only thing left to do was clean the place up a bit and break the news to Amy that her place was haunted. It seemed everywhere was haunted now anyway. Drinking fountains. Zoos. Pre-schools. (It was all the news wanted to cover now a days, gasp there are ghosts! The newscasters were far too startled by something people had been talking about for years, another reason to avoid public news sources. Most of the people he actually knew though were taking it in stride.) Why not Amy’s apartment as well?

He only hoped she wouldn’t try to do something like try to keep it as a pet.