Several long, coarse black hairs were caught between two sections of the fire escape. He quickly removed them and slipped them into a pocket in his cape.
‘Now I have something to go on, I just have to find someone to help me. But who?’
He ascended into the sky, then quickly flew off to Riverburgh University, at the northwest quadrant of the city. The Grim Spectre floated invisibly until he determined where the science building was and descended through its roof, past classes being given and through working laboratories until he found the one he wanted, a biology lab. It was empty save for one man with black hair and greying temples. He landed silently next to the man, who was looking through a microscope.
Still invisible, The Grim Spectre said, “Professor, I have need of your aid.”
The man put one finger in the air and never looked up from his microscope, “I’ll be right with you.”
“This cannot wait,” The Spectre implored.
Annoyedly, the Professor looked up and then around the room frantically, seeing no one there. Finally he said, “Am I going mad? Has too much dedication to my work finally addled my mind as my wife had said would happen many times?”
“I think not, Professor,” The Grim Spectre said, while once again slowly fading into view.
The Professor stumbled backward, knocking several items from his work table onto the floor. His eyes and mouth were wide in terror.
“You have naught to fear from me, Professor; I came seeking your aid.”
“Y-your that ghost that everyone is whispering about. The one who is attacking thugs and thieves, wh-what do you w-want from me?” I-I have done nothing to incur your wrath.”
“No Professor, you have not. But I need your aid in tracking down someone who was kidnapped. I found this on the scene of the crime. There is a young woman’s life at stake, professor. I need to find her immediately or it may be too late.”
He handed the shuddering Professor the hair sample he had found on the fire escape.
The Professor, still shaking, grudgingly accepted them from The Grim Spectre.
Nervously he looked at the Spectre then finally at the hairs in his hand.
With one last, furtive look at the skull faced intruder in his lab, he placed the hair samples under his microscope and began to examine them.
“What are you seeking to discover here, M-Mr. Ghost?”
“You may refer to me as ‘The Grim Spectre,’ Professor, and once again, I mean you no harm. You may relax.”
The Grim Spectre looked around the room, finally settling on the desk of the man working before him. On that desk was a name plaque. It read ‘Professor Morris.’
“V-very well Grim Spectre; nonetheless, what are you seeking here in these hair samples?”
“Are they human?” The Spectre replied without hesitation.
“No. Close, but not entirely. They appear to be some sort of simian/human hybrid. It is actually quite fascinating.”
“Where can I find such a creature? Quickly man, a young girl’s life hangs in the balance!”
Morris gulped hard then turned back to his guest and said, “W-would that I could tell you, but I do not know; no such creature exists.”
“You hold the proof of that existence in your hands now, Professor. Look beyond the hair, what else is there? Is there anything I can use to track down this beast? This tormentor and kidnapper of women?”
The Professor looked at the horrific hooded and caped avenger before him with the glowing eyes deep set in a half hidden skull and gulped hard at its eerie voice and countenance. Then he hesitantly turned back to his microscope and after a moment said, “Chrysanthemums.”
“What?” The Grim Spectre almost roared.
“Keep your voice down, man, or spirit, or whatever you may be. Neither of us wants security men rushing in here,” the Professor admonished, “There are flowers here, microscopic pieces of roses and chrysanthemums. This creature, whatever it is, if it truly exists, has surrounded itself with flowers, perhaps to hide its own stench from the world. It may be embarrassed about its scent, or it may be trying to hide from others seeking it.”
“Yet where would one find an abundance of such flowers in this city?” The Grim Spectre asked.
Both men turned toward one another at the same moment and said almost simultaneously, “The Botanical gardens.”
“Yes, of course,” The Professor said aloud, “That would be the most logical place to start.”
“My thanks, mortal,” was all The Grim Spectre said. He turned and floated upward and through the wall, disappearing halfway through it. The old Professor sat down at his desk and removed a bottle of scotch from the drawer and with shaking hands put it to his lips, saying before he did, “Damn the glass.”
Chapter 17
The Grim Spectre flew over the city, covering its distance faster than he imagined he would be able to, holding the ends of his cape, he landed quietly, and more importantly, invisibly outside the brick and glass building that housed the offices and the underground work area for the Botanical Gardens.
‘I have to find this monster, this abductor of women. Tammy, what have I done by not telling you about The Grim Spectre?’
Anguish tearing at his very soul, The Grim Spectre walked through the outside wall of the building and then began floating down between basements and sub-basements.
Finally coming to the last level he began to float about it; through walls and doors, passing rooms full of flowers under different colored light bulbs, but still ultimately finding nothing.
‘Was I wrong? Is she not here? Where could she be, then?’
Now almost frantic The Grim Spectre ran through walls and rooms, not caring if he made sounds or alerted others to his invisible presence. He covered the entire floor and stopped, ‘She’s not here. I-I don’t know what to do? If she’s not here, then where could she be? I-I’ll have to start over. There has to be something I overlooked.’
Then he noticed something on the floor of the room he was in. It was a rectangular outline in the center of the room. Without hesitation he became immaterial once again and slipped through the floor.
‘A sub-sub-basement. Probably long unused and forgotten by the Garden’s themselves. From the looks of this staircase going down it could be fifty years old-maybe more.’
There was no lighting in this long, dank hallway. There was nothing at all, save for rough-hewn walls and steps of stone.
He continued to silently float down the dark hallway toward a spot of light up ahead.
‘There, in the distance, something up there. Perhaps a room? I see the outline of a doorway ahead, as if light was shining from within.
He quickened his pace, still invisible and still floating down the hallway toward his objective. His heart raced within his costume as he finally came upon the door. Without hesitation he passed through it and into a nightmare made whole!
Before his terror stricken eyes he beheld Tammy tied to a medical operation table. A mask was affixed to her face; the type that gasses are pumped through to anesthetize a patient.
Quickly he said in a low voice, “Tammy, Tammy wake up. I must get you out of here.” He removed the anesthetic mask from her face and removed the straps holding her to the table.
She lay in his arms like a limp rag. With her eyes closed and more asleep than awake and mumbling to herself, she flopped her arms around his invisible neck.
He hesitated a moment, unsure if he should awaken her, or leave her alone to sleep.
‘The only thing I’m certain of is that I have to get her to a hospital.’
He began to walk invisibly and intangibly through the doorway toward freedom when a door at the far end of the chamber was flung open and the strange ape-like man bounded into the room,
Immediately he saw the empty table and shouted, “No! She has escaped! But how?”
The ape-man began to head out into the corridor and then stopped instantly. He spun around like a mad wild animal and hunch
ed over he began to sniff the room.
“You are here yet, my dear and are somehow hidden to my eyes, but not to my nose. I know the spoor of my wife to be.”
Without hesitation the Grim Spectre floated through the door and back out into the secret corridor,
Now hurrying he floated out the way he had come.
But behind him and now bellowing madly came the man-ape in the white lab coat.
‘I could easily float straight upward with Tammy in my arms and return her to safety; but beyond being unconscious she seems unharmed. Right now I want to pay this monster back for whatever crimes he has committed against Tammy while I have him here. If he escapes he may never be found again. It would be very easy for him to slip away to another city and begin anew whatever madness he is perpetrating there.’
The Grim Spectre stopped where he stood and set Tammy Thomas down. The instant he released her she immediately became visible and solid once again.
With a start, the ape-man suddenly halted in his headlong charge. He sniffed the air more like a great ape than a man. Then he began to cautiously pad toward Tammy.
In a blinding, terrible flash of light, The Grim Spectre appeared in the man-ape’s path, with his arms outstretched toward the bizarre creature, and his booming voice shouted, “Stop! I know not who, or what you truly are, but you will back away from this young woman, and you will do so now!”
Wide eyed, and with a surprised look upon his horrible face the creature halted in its tracks and its eyes played over the terrible figure before it.
“W-who, what are you?” the man-ape asked with a mixture of fear and curiosity.
“I am the spirit of retribution, and I seek out evil to destroy, evil such as yourself.”
“I? I am not evil, you misunderstand. I merely sought out a mate of my own choosing, one who would be perfect for me in every way, shape or form. One whose body I could corrupt to be my perfect mate, one such as her,” he pointed a hairy arm at the unconscious girl.
The Grim Spectre immediately positioned himself between Tammy and the bizarre half man/half ape and said, “Surrender now, madman, and I will make certain no harm comes to you. Oppose me and I will lay waste to you.”
The man ape growled and said, “Very well, let the battle begin,” and like a wild beast, he savagely launched himself at the Grim Spectre!
Chapter 18
The crazed creature leapt toward The Grim Spectre, ape-like arms and hands outstretched, immediately The Grim Spectre thought ‘Immaterial,’ but then he realized if the mad creature passed through his insubstantial form he would collide with the helpless Tammy unconscious behind him. Steeling himself for the terrible impact The Grim Spectre stood his ground and was immediately bowled over by his powerful foe.
Dazed by the impact, The Grim Spectre was shaken again and again by the terrifying ape-man in the lab coat, then the creature threw The Grim Spectre from him, as if he were garbage. The Spectre careened uncontrollably into a wall and lie there, still.
“Bah, this is no spirit. Do spirits bleed? This one surely does!” the ape man bellowed, unafraid that any would hear him.
He scooped up the unmoving body of The Grim Spectre like so much garbage and carried him over to another examination table, then proceeded to strap him to it.
Quickly he returned to the hallway and retrieved the still unconscious Tammy and placed her back on the examination table she had been strapped to. After re-securing her bonds, he turned back to the captive Grim Spectre.
Grunting he tentatively reached over to the Spectre’s mask and touched it, then he began to remove it.
“AAIIIIEEEE!” Tammy screamed in terror.
The Man Ape dropped the mask before removing it and turned back to her. Lumbering over to her side he stroked her terrified forehead, “There, there my dear, what is it?”
“W-what are you doing to me? Release me, immediately. I demand it!” she shouted.
The bizarre creature slowly shook its huge head and said, “I am sorry, my dear, but I cannot do that. You must understand, I have been alone for so very long, and you will assuage that loneliness, once I complete the very same process I applied to myself. You should be thrilled; you will be the first female of our kind, the first human/ape female hybrid. We will be the Adam and Eve of an entire new race. We will rule this entire world someday. You will be at my side throughout all of it. We will have an entire army of our soon to be brethren at our command. Of course I will have to adjust their intelligence down from ours, so that they will always be more…open to suggestion. But you will never have to worry about any such thing. Once I complete your transformation you will never want to leave my side again, as we will be the progenitors of a new, more powerful race. I will be the king of this world starting here, in Riverburgh, and you will be my queen.”
“I do not think so, Beast,” a terrible voice said from behind the bizarre creature.
Quickly it turned toward the sound of the voice and saw The Grim Spectre floating there above the table he had been tied down to moments before.
“You!” it exclaimed in surprise, “But I had you conquered and at my mercy; how did you free yourself?”
The Grim Spectre merely shrugged and said, “I am a spirit, you fool, not some human you may injure and harm. I must work within the rules of the corporeal world, but I also have the ability to work outside of it. Do not misinterpret your momentary obstruction of myself as a victory for you. Our battle has not yet begun in earnest.”
“Then let us get to it, Ghost,” again the ape man hurled itself at The Grim Spectre, but this time the Grim Spectre merely turned himself immaterial, and the lumbering creature fell right through him and into the table The Grim Spectre had been restrained to.
Howling madly the creature leapt at him again, but this time the Spectre reached out with crackling hands and grasped the startled monstrosity with his shocking touch.
Instantly the man-beast howled in agony.
But still it fought back, seeking to shake its way free from The Grim Spectre.
“You’ll not be free of me that easily, ape-man,” the Spectre intoned, “our battle is far from finished.”
The ape-man smacked The Grim Spectre across the chest with the back of his hand in a moment of uncontrolled pain, severing the connection between the two.
The Grim Spectre rolled across the room, and almost instantly stopped. He stood immediately, having become immaterial again.
“Surrender ape-man, this is your final chance.”
“Foolish actor, charlatan, I know you are merely a man beneath those raiment’s, as surely as I was at one time, but now I am so much more, now I am Dr. Simian, and I will be your doom!”
“Very well, Dr. Simian, so be it.”
The Grim Spectre quickly reached into his cloak and hurled several throwing knives; each found their mark on the enraged man ape’s body.
“Raaawwwrr!” Dr. Simian howled in pain, his beady eyes wide.
The Grim Spectre was not through yet though, as he snapped his whip out, to wrap itself about one of the creature’s legs.
“Enough, Monster, this Girl is leaving with me. Whether you survive this encounter or not is entirely up to you.”
The Grim Spectre tugged mightily on the whip, seeking to pull the ape man’s leg out from under him.
But instead Dr. Simian merely stood his ground. He had just pulled the last of the Grim Spectre’s knives from his chest when the whip wrapped about his leg.
“Hahaha, you seek to pull me to the floor? Me? I think not, Ghost.”
Dr. Simian grasped the whip and tugged hard on it, seeking to pull The Grim Spectre toward him.
‘Immaterial,’ The Grim Spectre thought and released the whip. The crazed man-ape stumbled backward and looked dumbly at the whip in his stunned hand.
The Grim Spectre bounded across the space between them and then jumped into the air, slamming both feet into Dr. Simian’s chest.
Off balance already, Simian fell over
backward.
Even as he fell he was reaching for The Grim Spectre, but his outstretched hands only encountered air. The Spectre was immaterial once more.
Reacting like lightning, The Grim Spectre slapped the grotesque creature across the ears simultaneously, then reached down and grabbed Dr. Simian’s arms as he tried to grasp his own pained ears. Again the terrible shock touch flowed through the stunned and bleeding Dr.Simian.
Simian shook violently, trying to dislodge The Grim Spectre from atop him, but to no avail. The ape man was weakened now, and hurt. He was receiving far more damage than he had been dishing out, and it was beginning to show.
His strength gone, Dr. Simian’s struggles grew weaker and weaker until finally he fell to the ground and fought no more. His eyes rolled up into his bizarre face and he lie still.
“I-is he…dead?” an almost forgotten Tammy asked from behind The Grim Spectre.
“I think not, merely unconscious. It was not my intention to kill this creature, Miss Thomas; rather it was always to rescue you.”
“Good,” she replied.
The Grim Spectre turned from his kneeling position to face Tammy Thomas just in time to receive a metal stool smashed across his jaw by the fiery red head. He fell to the ground, consciousness fading immediately.
Chapter 19
“Ohhhh…” The Grim Spectre moaned. His vision began to clear and he scrambled to his feet.
‘I’m bleeding, and my jaw feels like it was kicked in by a mule.’ He looked at the nearby floor and saw a metal stool lying there, where it was discarded, then it all came flooding back to him.
The Grim Spectre turned suddenly, his cape flowing about him as he looked around the room.
‘Gone,’ he thought, ‘Both of them. Dr. Simian must have escaped while I was unconscious. Why he didn’t kill me I’ll never know. Perhaps he was too hurt from our battle, or maybe he feared I’d awaken and kill him. Either way there is nothing I can do about it now. But Tammy…’ he rubbed his jaw tenderly.
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