Sleeping with the ghost

All thoughts of aunt Hellen were thrown out of his mind as he was fully focused on battling the ghost. His eyes took in every minute detail as he once again reacted exactly as soon as the ghost swung its arm. Aiden stepped diagonally behind and tightly swung his club on the hand.

No sooner than the ghost wailed did Aiden once again swung his club on the other side of its head. There were now two identical dents on its skull, with a few patches of ugly organic matter sticking onto the club. As the ghost took a few steps back due to momentary lack of balance as a result of taking a hit to its head, Aiden closed the gap and swung his club vertically on its head.

The hit almost took its head out as it almost looked like the head was hanging downward on its chest, connected to the neck only by a thin margin. With adrenaline in his bones, Aiden breathed deeply, his mind completely filtering out the smell as he took a big swing at its torso. 

Hellen who stood to the side for the entire fight had a look of admiration on her face as she witnessed the entire situation. Resisting the urge to find a wine to sip on, she had to settle for watching a nice show empty handed. It was a pleasant surprise for her. 

A fucking genius. Brains and brawns both. I couldn't be more surprised. And here I thought he was a scaredy cat, I couldn't be more wrong. Experience. Experience. He definitely was only lacking in experience. Indeed, how could a man who was a coward stay behind to look for ways to deal with a ghost after sending off his sister? Even if it was for the sake of his sister and himself, it still signified that he had the courage to stand up against the situation. I've found a gem. 

The ghost wailed extremely loudly as it went tumbling on the floor. Lying completely flat, Aiden panted while gazing at it. Coming a bit down from the high, his attention was caught by aunt Hellen who was looking at him with surprised eyes, and shortly after started laughing out of uncontrollable joy.

Indeed, how could their son be nothing short of extraordinary?

Hellen reminded him, noticing throughout the battle that he seemed to have forgotten about it in the heat of the moment. 

"Aim at the heart. Destroy it. The club would work just fine. Want to use the gun?"

Aiden replied without looking at her, already having raised the golf club above his head.

"No thanks, the club is very satisfying to use."

A heavy metal sound resounded as both Hellen and Aiden looked downwards to witness that the ghost's body had turned incorporeal, faint. 

Hellen softly whispered, "Phaseless."

Aiden struck the ghost a few more times, but he only hit the floor, completely passing by the ghost as if nothing was situated there. They watched with a sense of regret as the ghost slipped through the floor. Regret for not being able to finish off the ghost. Hellen quickly took out her phone and looked through the feed of all the cameras. The ghost was just below their current room, glancing up at Aiden, she said, "C'mon, there's still a chance."

Aiden swiftly nodded and followed Hellen out of the room to rush towards the room below. No sooner had they entered did they witness the sight of it turning incorporeal and passing through another wall. 

They chased the ghost through almost a dozen rooms, repeating some in the process, but failed to even catch up to it. 

Panting heavily while lying flat on the carpet of the living room, Aiden asked, having completely gotten down from the adrenaline rush he felt earlier. 

"What's up with it being able to use the phaseless ability all of a sudden? Was getting hurt one of its conditions or something?"

Hellen was equally confused as she sat on the sofa nearby, thinking deep about what transpired as she replied.

"Nope, they aren't that smart to be able to lay out such an elaborate scheme to fulfill one of its conditions. It might have simply angered you using some methods and laid down for you to beat it. Didn't you see it was aggressively trying to fight back? That's not someone who wants to get beaten. Also, I don't know what's happening either. Not to mention how it could suddenly use the phaseless ability, they generally don't have the ability to continuously use it so much. The amount of times it was used was a lot."

Aiden brows furrowed as he listened to aunt Hellen. 

Even she doesn't know? What's happening exactly?

"I feel sleepy."

Hellen snapped out of her thoughts and asked in a teasing tone.

"You dare sleep with a ghost present in the house?"

He rolled on one side to face aunt Hellen and replied, "It would be difficult, sure. I didn't know exactly how ghosts looked or even if they existed at all. I simply assumed they existed and deemed my house haunted, it wasn't too difficult to sleep in that. But now? Considering I've seen it and even battled with it, it certainly feels a little unsafe to be sleeping under the same roof. What if its aggression was high enough to disregard its need to fulfill the conditions?"

Hellen nodded her head at him, "You made good points. We can try and wait a little here. We'll see if the ghost comes to attack you, if not, I guess sleeping would be safe?"

"You guess?"

"Everything is a guess when you are dealing with them. Neither me nor the Bureau have complete data on them, a lot of parts about them are missing. Well, there's a higher chance of you being safe if the ghost doesn't attempt to attack you within the next few dozen minutes. That should be enough time for it to be able to heal its arm enough to swing."

Aiden just dramatically sighed as he committed the information about their incomplete data to mind. If possible he would keep analyzing them from his own end to resolve questions which hadn't been answered. It would be unlikely, but keeping hopes wasn't bad.

They spent the next few minutes doing nothing while basking in the coldness of the air conditioner. Aiden got up, having rested well enough and approached the half eaten apple. 

His brows furrowed. Hellen noticed his hands pausing mid air and confused expression as she asked, "What's up?"

He turned around to ask, "What's the time right now?"

Hellen didn't understand why he was asking that but still answered after checking her phone. "12:07am. Why?"

He shifted a little to give her the view of his half eaten apple and pointed at it, "The day has changed, this could be the first attempt of the ghost. I remember putting down the apple and simply following you. I didn't have the time to set it up nicely. This half eaten apple here has its posture of lying changed as it's now in a more optimal position to hold it. This can be counted as a help right?"

Hellen's eyebrows raised as she responded in an impressed tone. "That's one hell of an acute observation for a beginner."

Aiden simply smiled as he gave the plate a violent shake, toppling the optimal posture it stood in. Only then did he pick it up and give it a bite, sitting by the table waiting to see if the ghost would attack.

It didn't. 

The conflict between them would continue. The stakes had increased. With yet another day, the possibility of the activation period of the helping ghost's ability coming to an end would increase, making it more dangerous for Aiden.