No call back

Aiden smirked, feeling giddy just thinking about Lucas' face as he continued without giving him a chance to respond.

"And no, please don't rush over, I am as safe as one could be. I am not lying. Let's meet in the morning, then we can fight the specter together. Let me sleep for now. Cya." 

Aiden turned to Hellen who had one of her eyebrows raised as she gazed at him with a questioning look. He knew she wanted answers regarding why he had chosen to expose the matter of specters.

He quickly relayed their conversation to her, who had a surprised look on her face towards the end. Turning her body completely to face him, she remarked, 

"He might have joined the Bureau. Or at least be in a collaborative relationship with them like how I was. That's the only way he could've known about this. Or at least that's the only way I know."

Aiden's expression morphed to one of surprise as he exclaimed, "Holy damn! Do you think he is a super now?"

Hellen quickly shot him down. "I wouldn't jump to such a conclusion so fast, young man. But yea, there's a possibility. And a rather considerable one."

Aiden nodded, coming down from his high as he asked, "Why do you think so?"

Hellen once again took that as an opportunity to explain to him about the workings of the Bureau in case he came in contact with them in the future. It was good to know who you were dealing with.

"The Bureau usually doesn't send a single person to deal with a situation which involves ghosts. At least never a single normal human. They always send a team. But when it comes to supers, they sometimes only dispatch one to take care of the situation as it's more often than not enough. Did you ask him if he was alone though?"

"Oops. I didn't. How would I be in the mind to ask that anyway? So do you mean if he has come alone, there's a higher chance of him being a super?"

"Yes."

Aiden raised both of his eyebrows as his face betrayed his excitement over his childhood close friend's possibility of being a super. 

And I am one too!

Hellen then commented, "I must say, it's a good thing that he is here now though. Would be so much better for you now."

"Why?"

"What do you mean why? It's simply better to have a teammate, especially when dealing with ghosts. You want someone you can banter with and maintain a light hearted environment so the stress doesn't accumulate, which would result in decline of mental capabilities. 

"I've seen people lose their mind and forget to analyze the situation when it becomes too difficult for them. It's necessary to have a teammate, preferably a friend so you can share the burden."

"Weren't you there though?"

"Do you not yourself agree that you would be much more stress free with Lucas though?"

Aiden shot her a look and shrugged as he said, "Can't deny."

"See?"

She glanced at her laptop, then continued addressing him.

"I like how you said specter instead of ghosts. When you are dealing with people who are in the know, it's better first to say specter. When you're sure after recognizing some clues if the other person deals with ghosts then you can switch to ghost. If the other person does indeed deal with ghosts and is from the Bureau, they would be doing the same, so you be sure to drop clues for the other person to recognise. It's an unspoken rule."

Aiden complained as he listened to her, "Why such complication over naming?"

Hellen simply shrugged as she turned back towards her laptop. 

"Don't know. But it's important, at least according to the Bureau. We used to get reminded of it constantly. It was literally hammered into us with how many times they've repeated it and drove home the fact."

Hellen herself had a look of resignation and complaint on her face, letting Aiden know she wasn't doing it out of her own will but continuing what the Bureau did by assuming it was really important.

"I'll keep that in mind."

After going through his phone once for messages and updates, he went back to sleep after reminding Hellen to wake him when it was his time to keep watch.

*****

Aiden gargled the water in his mouth and spit it in the basin after brushing his teeth as he checked his appearance in the mirror. It was 10 in the morning and he had gotten a nice 6 hour sleep. Aunt Hellen, who only got 4 hours of sleep, was much more energetic than him, already going through exercises in her lawn.

He approached her laptop and looked through the live feed of her home. They had gone back and installed the equipment in the room they fought in, since that was the only one left.

Looking through all the squares, he finally noticed the ghost in one of them. It was hiding in a closet again, but this time in some other room though. Aunt hellen had already removed all the necessary items from storages and transported them into his house. She didn't want to dirty her clothes and other items in the process of dealing with the ghost.

He looked away and entered the kitchen where breakfast was already ready. It took him twenty minutes to finish it before cleaning the plates and placing them in their rack nearby.

Taking off the apron, he opened the fridge to have some juice then seated himself on the sofa and took out his phone. There were a few missed calls from Lucas which Aiden had ignored last night. He first saved his number by Crybaby, then thought for a second and called.

He should be awake right? Most probably. It's 10 in the morning.

The call was picked up quickly on the second ring. 

"You fucker, leaving me like that."

Aiden first had a good laugh in his face then asked his location. 

"Checking out of the inn. I'll be there in a few minutes." 

Lucas cut the call after Aiden informed him that he was temporarily at aunt Hellen's home, and once again checked his call logs just to be sure. 

No one called back. Did no one except me accept Evander's invitation to save Aiden? Even Evander himself didn't come. Could he have been caught up somewhere?

Lucas heaved a heavy sigh as the prospect of never meeting his rest of the childhood friends again. He was extremely jubilant and worried when he got the letter, the former so he could meet his friends and the latter for Aiden. Ironically, the situation seemed to have been flipped. Aiden was safe and even capable of battling a specter but there were no signs of the rest of their group of friends.

Is Evander safe?

Unlike the rest of the group, Evander was the one who sent the message and now couldn't be contacted. He had called once when he got the letter, it was at least ringing then. Now it simply didn't even connect. Shaking his head, he left the inn and headed towards their parking lot.