Issue 1 Downtime

It was midnight and Regan took a break from her television regimen to drift through the gardens. She roamed through the branches of trees and wandered the hedge maze for awhile before finally sitting on a bench and just looking up at the moon.

As Regan stares up at the moon, she almost looks hypnotized. Without even realizing it, she floats up high above the trees in the garden. A dark cloud begins swirling around her and the air fills with threatening whispers.

Chloe, who had been sleeping in a tree, let out a squawk of horror.

The fog formed into three dark specters. None of them looked particularly human. They spun around Regan for a moment before one of them headed straight for Chloe, letting out some sort of screeching howl as it charged her.

Meanwhile, Regan kept looking up at the moon, looking hypnotized.

Chloe flew up as quickly as she could, frantic to avoid the specter.

The other two specters watched Chloe for a moment before heading off in opposite directions, disappearing onto the grounds.

The specter chasing Chloe spun around wildly, slashing at the air with long claws as it tried to catch her.

Chloe dove towards a stand of trees, flapping frantically as she tried to avoid the ghost.

As it inched closer to Chloe, it was suddenly slammed into from above by a freaked out looking Regan. The blow knocks the specter out of the air and towards the ground, where it writhes and screeches for a moment, seemingly staggered.

"What the hell is that thing?" Regan asks no one in particular.

As the thing fell to the ground, Chole was perched on a tree limb, panting as she tried to catch her breath. Wat is that thing? And that other thing?"

"Poor bird," Regan says, looking down at the specter, "What is wrong with you, you stupid....ghost....thing?"

The thing responded by screeching and charging at Regan quickly. With a swing of the thing's arm, its claws sank into Regan and threw her spinning across the gardens wildly.

Chloe pressed against the tree, watching the fight, not sure how she could help.

Regan managed to stabilize herself just as the thing charged again. Wildly, Regan flung one of her arms in a panic. A flash of light lit up the area for a moment and the specter screeched again. Something Regan had done had left a large, gaping slash in its torso. Black fog seeped out of the wound, being absorbed back into Regan as the thing disappeared.

Regan looked pretty freaked out about the whole thing.

"...The fuck has happened to my life!" Regan yells after a moment of just staring at where the specter had been.

Chloe landed on the ground next to Regan, and shifted into human form "what happened?" she asked "Are you ok?"

"Of course the bird is actually a person!" Regan says, having completely lost any sense of composure at this point, "That makes complete sense!"

Regan tries to take a few deep breaths before remembering she can't actually breathe.

"I'm a shapeshifter." Chloe said "What is going on? Did you have a power accident?"

"Yes. No. Maybe," Regan says, "I don't know? I mean, I don't think that's a normal ghost thing."

"...For relative values of normal," Regan says, "Did it hurt you?"

"No, it just scared me." Chloe said "One minute I was sleeping, the next...well, you saw it. Wait, what? You're a ghost? How does that even work?"

"Apparently not as well as I thought it did," Regan says, rubbing the bridge of her nose, "...I can feel those things. They're still on the campus somewhere."

"The campus is haunted!" Chloe said "Oh my God! What do we do? Should we have an exorcism?"

Regan stares at Chloe for a moment.

"...Seriously? Okay," Regan says, shaking her head, "We should probably find Ms. Valentine. She could probably help once I figure out where they're...."

"Fuck."

Regan suddenly takes off into the air, heading for the Manor.

Chloe shifted and took to the air, flying after her.