Fan: The hunt for Maxwell: a PIE case

The two Johnny's drove up to the side of an abandoned hotel in a bright blue sports car. The PIE team were in the slums of France, a place Johnny Ghost had longed to go, but never went due to Toast's bad memories in the area. "alright Toast, do you have everything?" said Ghost.

"Of course, sir." said Toast in an english accent. He pulled out an EMF detector, every light blinking red. "Sir, I'm getting massive readings, Possibly multiple level 4 spirits" said Toast.

"Well it's an old place Johnny. Sure to be lots of history, there has to be a reason it closed all those years ago" Ghost replied.

Toast laughed and said "long before my time, sir." He reached for a bottle of whiskey but Ghost put his hand on it before Toast could take his first swig in five minutes.

"Toast, are you gonna be alright? I know the last time you were in France was the day your wife..."

"Lets just do the case, sir." Toast interrupted "We've been tracking Maxwell for 3 months now, lets end this." Ghost stared at him, expecting him to say more. "I'll be fine, sir, I promise."

"Well I hope so. Lets put Maxwell Acachalla to rest." The two got out of the car, with three bags of equipment in tow, and walked to the hotel. As they approached the door, Toast said

"It is a bit strange, sir, how after days of no leads someone from this address phoned us saying maxwells name, but not leaving any other information" as Ghost pulled open the door he said "Are you kidding me, Toast? Anonymous tips are the best kind! You can claim the credit for yourself!" he laughed and went inside after Toast. The building was very old fashioned, red and gold wall paper, chipping paint and wood, and dusty chandeliers on each floor. Ghost detecting and removing equipment at the ready, they spent almost an hour searching all 10 floors of the building, to no avail. finally the PIE team reached the final floor, room 10F, when Ghost's EMF spiked. "Johnny! My detector's going haywire! There's a ghost somewhere around here and they're very excited!" Ghost said, a massive grin on his face.

"It's strange, sir, but I'm not getting any readings." Toast said, timidly.

"The readings are nearly as high as what I've seen from a level 6! There's no way this is a glitch. Toast, are you sure your..." then 10F's door flew open, Ghost was suddenly thrown inside by an invisible force, and the door flew back closed again.

"Sir! Sir! Sir, are you alright? Do you see anything? Sir?" Toast rambled, banging on the door. No matter what Toast did, the door didn't move in the slightest. Ghost dragged himself up, shook his head, and yelled

"I'm alright Toast! Everything's fine on my end. Any way of opening that door?" Ghost scrambled to the door, on the other side Toast said

"I'm searching our pack for anything useful, sir. Any paranormal activities where you are?" Ghost looked around the room. Everything inside seemed to be form the renaissance, old fashioned mirror, bed, dresser, night stand, even the wallpaper.

"Nothing here out of the ordinary I can see. What readings are you getting, Toast? Is anything happening?" Toast replied again, closer to the door this time.

"Nothing here, sir. According to the detectors,something powerful is keeping this door closed tight, But no where near as powerful as Maxwell. This is something different. I didn't prepare for this, sir. My apologies. It might take a while for me to get this open." Ghost thought for a moment, then said

"While you work on that, I'll try to convince the spirit to open the door. Hang tight Johnny" Ghost stepped away from the door, turned around, and spoke to thin air. "spirit that resides in this room. My name is Johnny Ghost, Paranormal Investigation Extrordinaire. I promise you that if we are allowed to continue with our mission, you shall not be harmed. My partner and I are searching for a different entity, By the name of Maxwell Acachalla. He is malevolent, and the murder of hundreds. Considering the state of my health, you are not as malicious as he. If you allow us to continue, we shall remove this dangerous spirit from the vicinity, and be on our way." Once he had finished speaking, a translucent, young girl appeared before his eyes,with long light hair and a silk nightdress, who appeared to be in her early 20's. "Well, hello there" Ghost said, stunned. she giggled and said

"Hello Mr. Johnny." she spoke with a french accent. Johnny gulped and said

"So, what's your name?" Johnny heard more banging on the door.

"Sir! Sir, is something going on in there? What's happening?" Toast shouted

"My name is Amiee" she said, a faint smile on her face

"Well Amiee, Would you mind?" he asked, motioning to the door. Amiee had a glint in her eyes and Johnny was thrown backwards, and pinned to the wall. He could not turn his head nor lift a finger. Amiee approached him slowly.

"What is wrong, Mr. Johnny? Do you not like me?" Amiee whimpered.

"Sir! Please tell me if something's happening. Are you alright? Sir! Si..." then Toast's voice cut out, as did the banging. Not as if he had stopped, more like a sound proof barrier now enclosed the room.

"No! No, it's nothing like that! I mean you appear to be a nice enough girl!" Ghost lied, Amiee drawing nearer. "It's just that, well I mean my partner over there, he's a bit useless without me. And I'd really like to help him out, and protect him! You know, there must be loads more ghosts in here meaning harm. N-Not like you, th-though!" Ghost stuttered as Amiee came nearly nose to nose with him.

"Good, Mr. Johnny, because you know?" she said, smiling, and placing her hands on his shoulders. "I've known you for a very long time."

"What do you mean?" Johnny asked

"Before that, Mr. Johnny, would you mind giving us some privacy?" she looked briefly at the wall.

"You mean Toast? He won't bother us, it's just us right now." Amiee raised her eyebrows and said

"I would really appreciate it if the Toast man would let us be." then the barrier lifted, and a sound of rattling came from the hallway.

"Sir! Sir, something's happening out here! Can you still hear me, sir?" The shaking grew louder and stronger, then the shattering sound of a chandelier hitting the floor not to far away.

"Alright! Alright, I'll tell him to leave, just please!" Ghost said. Amiee smiled and the shaking stopped. Ghost found he could move his head, though with great effort. he slowly turned his head to the wall and said "Johnny! Johnny, are you alright in there?" he shouted.

"Sir! Sir, thank goodness! Yes, I'm alright, how about you? I lost you for a moment there." Toast said from the other side.

"Toast, you need to keep looking for Maxwell."

"No, sir, I'm not leaving you! What are you talking about, are you insane?"

"I'm fine, here Toast, you need to neutralize Maxwell, that's our top priority! You need to keep going!"

"Sir, be reasonable. I've almost gotten through, then we can go..."

"Find Maxwell, That's and order Toast." after a moment of silence Toast said

"Alright, sir. But as soon as I've found him I'm coming straight back to you. I'm getting you out." Ghost sighed and said

"I wouldn't expect any less from you, Toast. Now go!" He heard some rustling, footsteps, then nothing. His head snapped back into place and he said "There, now how do you know me?"

"Well, this is a very old place, I lived here may centuries before. But the last time it closed was only 3 years ago, and the last family to live in this room were big fans of you and the toast man."

"Is that so?"

"Yes it is. It would be hard not to be, your show is quite thrilling!" Amiee said, her smile widening. "You and the toast man go out and risk your lives! You destroy the evil spirits and ghosts that do humanity wrong, it's very exciting"

"Well, a fanatic such as yourself would want me to continue my adventures, Fighting evil and whatever else you said. The ghost we're tracking really is dangerous, and if you don't let me go, hundreds more could die." Amiee looked sad and said

"But I worked so hard to bring you here, I cannot let you leave now."

"What do you mean,brought me he-. Oh, you sent that message."

"Of course! When Maxwell arrived, I knew that you had to at least know his legend, so I phoned you and waited for you to come and see me. And here you are." She lowered his hood and leaned in for a kiss, but Johnny blurted out

"How did you die?" she leaned back, sadness on her face.

"A fire, so very long ago. This building did not have any fire escapes and the ceiling colapsed.

"I'm sorry" he said, but she couldn't hear him.

"Sometimes I still feel it. It hurts, why won't it stop, I just want it to STOP!" she backed away, hands clutching her head. The room was now on fire. Her dress charred up and she disappeared into a puff of smoke. Johnny fell down, now free to move. He turned and watched as the door creaked open. He rushed outside and down every flight of stairs, calling Johnny's name. When he reached the bottom floor he noticed a door marked basement, slightly ajar. He rushed down the steps to find a dimly lit room with an old, yet modern, couch, table, and television set. Behind the couch he saw a pair of legs wearing Johnny Toast's boots. He ran towards them but was punched in the face by Maxwell Acachalla. He pushed Johnny to the ground and said

"I am Maxwell Acachalla" Johnny wiped his bleeding nose, looked up at him, and said

"Yea, no kidding"

"You shall die at my hand Ghost" then Maxwell put his foot on Johnny's throat, Johnny tried to push him off but it didn't seem to affect a thing. Then an echoing voice said

"Let go of Mr. Johnny!" A fiery cloud flew down the stairs and enclosed Maxwell, who took his foot off of Johnny. Maxwell screamed and the cloud closed in on its self, taking Maxwell with it. Ghost got up and scrambled to Toast's body

"Toast! Wake up, Johnny!" he yelled, shaking his shoulders. Toast grunted, squinted his eyes, and said

"Sir? Sir, is that you? What happened, where's Maxwell?" Ghost helped him up and Toast rubbed his head. "The last I remember, I found a door marked basement. Wait, sir, you were upstairs, what happened, how did you get out?" Ghost laughed and said

"Trust me Toast, It's a long story. Lets get to the car." As Ghost explained, they didn't know if Maxwell had died, nor Amiee. The only thing he knew for certain is that Amiee looked a lot like a picture of Johnny Toast's late wife he had on the dash. Ghost pushed the thought from his mind as the PIE team drove back to London town.