Archive of Our Own ^beta

   Trapped again. Same stupid trap too. Scratch hadn't seen the spectral snares placed in his regular places he liked to visit during the day while Molly was at school until it was too late. The local shop owners must have tipped them off to missing merchandise. (Mostly food items) He felt so dumb falling for the same stupid thing again. However, the weight of his situation didn't fully hit him until he was surrounded by the entire Chen family, ecstatic that they finally caught a real ghost.

He'd been sitting in their basement for what felt like an eternity. (He should know, he's quite familiar with the idea of being confined to eternal torment.) He could see dangerous gadgets and blueprints littering the dark basement only barely illuminated by his own body and the harsh red laser wire of the trap he was uncomfortably caught in. His arms were bent in an awkward way, rendering them completely useless. And forget shapeshifting, he already tried that. Ouch. All he could do is sit there with the quiet whirring of the device around him and the muffled cheers of the Chens upstairs. Sociopaths.

He started to think. Molly's at school, she's not gonna know anything's wrong for a while. She'll probably just chalk it up to him getting caught up in chairman business and he'd be back soon. She'd only start getting suspicious by dinner and by then, it'd be too late. Whatever they have planned for him… he shuddered, horrified to think any further than that. It'll be fine, by then Molly can just call his name and… oh… yeah… the curse. Sometimes he forgot it broke months ago. 

His situation was really getting to him now. He curled in on himself as much as he could without touching the barriers and stared down at the floor. He felt his vision cloud with tears as he thought about Molly. What would her reaction even be to all of this? He felt his body shake slightly, wracked with grief. He just wanted to see her again. Wanted to know she'd be alright if he never saw her again. He quietly called her name as his tears hit the floor. He so desperately wanted to tell her he's sorry for being so stupid that he got caught again, but deep down he knew he was sorry for a lot more than that. His pity party was interrupted by the harsh light suddenly casted on him by the basement door opening.

A human figure stood in the doorway, Scratch blinked the tears away and allowed his eyes to adjust to the sudden change in lighting. He recognized the shape anywhere. It was Ollie. Probably the last person he wanted to see. He let out a low growl and bared sharp teeth at him. If they wanted a monster, they were gonna get one. Ollie reached to grab the device and Scratch moved to swipe at him with his arms, only getting about halfway before the laser wire cut into his ectoplasm, burning him and causing him to wince loudly before returning his arms to the position they were in before. After a moment of hesitation, the human reached for the trap again and brought it up the stairs with him. 

   As they walked, they passed the three other Chen family members in the living room, too busy discussing what their plans for him were than worrying about what Ollie was doing. He looked down at the ghost with conflicted concern, Scratch looked back with bitter death in his eyes, now looking less human and more reptilian than anything. The boy could practically feel the seething rage coming off this poor creature. Was this really a good idea…?

He sat the trap on the floor of his room and sat cross legged in front of it, one hand on his knees and the other rubbing his chin. The ghost squinted harshly at him, just wondering what on earth he was even doing. He let out another low hiss in response. 

Ollie stood up, "Y'know, that really isn't helping your case." He walked over to a specially marked drawer and started rifling through it.

Scratch's eyes widened and his non-existent heart dropped as he pulled out a large tool and started walking over to him. He could feel the caging burning his ectoplasm as he tried to struggle free again to no avail. The human was speaking softly to him, reassuring him that everything was fine and he should just sit still. On closer inspection, it seems the large tool was just a big screwdriver. Oh. Well now he felt really dumb. Ollie knelt down and began loosening some screws on the steel parts of the trap. The ghost felt a switch flip as soon as that laser barrier went down. Free. Free.  

His form expanded suddenly and knocked Ollie off his feet, large claws gripped the carpeted floor and the room warped around them. A piercing, cold, evil laugh sounded throughout the room and shook the human to his core. He was confident in his assessment of this particular ghost. But that bone chilling killer look it has in its eyes is not doing any favors for his racing heart and regretful mind.

"Ohhhhh hohohoho~" the ghost slowly turned to face him, showing him a sinister sharp toothed grin, "you and your family just made a HUGE mistake… I can't wait to watch you ALL SCRE—"

Ollie cut off his sadistic speech by speaking flatly, "Go straight up and out."

"... What." The word was phrased more like a statement than a question. The warping dissipated and the small objects in his room went back to their places.

"If you go straight up and out from my room, y-you won't run into any traps or detectors up there. I happen to have a particularly weak part of the roof above me so instead the heavy equipment is just kinda spread out along everywhere else. If you try to go straight out the window, you'll get detected so go straight up, around 30 feet, then you should be home free."

Scratch was dumbstruck. He was at a loss for words (for once) and started slowly reverting to his softer base form. "... Thanks. I guess. But why free me at all? You had a real ghost , the thing you and your family have been after for ages. I-I just… I'm confused, what's in this little favor of yours for you? Because as far as I'm concerned, I don't owe you people anything." He folded his arms over his chest.

"... Not a lot, if I'm honest. You would be pret-ty good to have on our MeTube channel! And the research I could conduct with you is mind boggling to this about… but there's… something more important here… some one. "

"Yeah and who's that?"

"... I don't know why… but you seem like you mean a lot to Molly. I… I-I saw you two and heard you talking after the dance."

Scratch's expression finally softened and he looked genuinely surprised. He opened his mouth, about to say something when Ollie interjected;

"I didn't tell my mom! Or any of my family for that matter. I didn't even set out that trap you got caught in… I haven't really… been into ghost hunting since seeing you two, y'know? A-and if… it makes her happy, I'll try to bail you out. It looks like she really depends on you." A sadness overcast his face after he says that, "... It's the least I can do. After all, my number one goal has always been to make the world a better place. So go. She needs you."

The ghost just stared at him with wild confusion. He almost couldn't believe what he was hearing. If it wasn't for the genuine heartache in his voice and in his eyes, he would have believed he was trying to pull a fast one on him. He heard his family calling for him and jumped. He started for the ceiling before turning back to Ollie.

"Hey kid. Molly and I will be at the ice cream place tomorrow at three. We'll talk more then."

A soft smile grew across the human's face, "... Understood. See you both then."

Scratch glared down at him for a few more seconds, "... Just fyi, I still really don't trust you. So don't try any funny business, got it?"

"Got it now go, they're almost here!" Ollie urged, waving him on.

He phased through the ceiling just as the rest of the Chens came upstairs to find Ollie standing in front of a broken spectral snare.

"Oliver! What happened?? Are you okay?" Esther asked worriedly. June and Ruben already had their weapons pulled by this point.

"Yes yes mom, I'm fine! Just that… ghost broke free. I-I was trying to inspect the device and I guess it deactivated for long enough for it to get out." 

"It's okay son. What matters most is that you're okay." Ruben replied, lowering the blaster in his hand. Ollie's mom quickly pulled him into a hug which he reciprocated appreciatively. Frankly even if nothing bad happened, his nerves were still a wreck. Ghosts are scary.

Outside, Scratch takes a moment to stare into the Chens house. He rested his head in his hand as he sat on the roof of the McGee's house. He still didn't understand why he spared him. If he was in his shoes… he probably still would have released him because he was worried about Molly. She has that effect on people. He phased through the roof and into Molly's room where she was waiting on him, reading a book.

"Oh hey buddy! You were gone a while! Where were you?" She, as expected, pulled him into a too-tight hug again, although the trap had made him especially sensitive. He hissed in pain a little when she touched where he was burned. She pulled back immediately.

"Are you okay? That's not your usual play pain noise, that's your 'you actually hurt me' noise."

"Y-yeah! I'm completely fine. Just got a little banged up is all. You busy tomorrow?"

"IIIIIIIIIII have no plans yet, I was gonna kinda go for a spur of the moment thing, why?" She puts her hands against her cheeks and gasps, "Do you have a super cool bestie activity for us to do TOGETHER ?????" If he didn't know any better, he'd think she's about to explode.

"Ehhh kind of. I got someone I wanna talk to meeting me in the ice cream shop around three. Figured you might be interested." He made the smuggest face. Oh he got her number now.

"ABSOLUTELY!!!! I'm SO there!" She was practically vibrating with excitement.

He smiled, even if it was just an hour or two, he really missed that energy and positivity. Turns out it was actually him that needed her instead of the other way around. He felt bad keeping who this "someone" was from her but he knew she'd never show up if she knew Ollie was there. He'd rather have her with them though, just in case. Either way this goes, it was going to be an interesting afternoon. Maybe he could get the deal about these ghost hunters straightened out and maybe even get Molly to let him have it about why ghost hunting is so bad. That'd be fun to watch.

He could at least get pointers on how to avoid those stupid traps.