Diary of a Ghost

[Date Unknown]

Rose had realized early on into their stay at K-9 that a walk through Saint Juana's forest was a good thing to do. Today, she had let Molly and Edd come along, on the promise that they would be quiet and not argue. So now the three of them, sans their metallic bodies, were walking through the woods.

It was a nice fall day, and it made Rose wonder exactly when it was. There were no computers, clocks, or calendars in K-9, and, therefore, there was no way of knowing what the date was. Not that it mattered. The ghosts had no place to be.

"Mommy?" Molly pulled on the edge of her mother's sweater, "I'm ready to go back now."

"Alright, pumpkin," Rosemary smiled. They had been walking for a while, "Let's go back."

The three of them turned on their heels and walked back to K-9, through the storage areas and to the Backdoors, where Molly returned to playing with Rocket, like she usually did. Rosemary went to one of the rooms to get Sha (she had forgotten where exactly she'd put the animatronic, as she hadn't used it in a while) so she could oil her joints.

"Rosie, darling," Bon's head popped in through the doorway of the room where Rosemary now was with Sha. Jack's voice moved out of his open maw like silk, "Where's Edd?"

"He should be in room 3 with Molly. She went to go play with-" she paused, "No, no. He didn't go in there. Did you check in 7 or 9? He goes in there when he wants to be alone."

"Already did. Do you think...?"

"No, Jack. He came back to K-9 with us after the walk." Rosemary didn't believe a word coming out of her mouth. She now realized that the entire walk, Edward had been quiet as a mouse, just like she'd asked. And he was good, so good, at slipping away without anyone noticing.

Now they'd enlisted the help of Susan and Charles and the new girl, Ashley, to look around the facility, but they couldn't find Eddie anywhere. So it then came down to which parent, exactly, would go out to look for him.

"I should," Rosemary said, "I let him out of my sight, and it's my fault he's out doing God knows what. He could get hurt, or trapped."

"No, Rosie, it's not your fault," Jack assured her with a smile, "I can look for him. I think I know where he is."

"Jack, don't yell at him like you did last time. You know how upset he was afterwards."

"I won't. I promise."

--

Jack was going to yell at Edd, despite his promise to his wife. As he walked down the edge of the road that cut through Saint Juana's forest, his anger and terror mounted. Of course, ghosts couldn't get hurt, if no one knew they were there.

But Sophie knew they were there, and Edd was going to find her.

He stopped at their old house. Felix had kept the place, for whatever reason, pretending to hope that maybe one day the missing Waltens would return there, lost and confused, but safe. Jack was hoping his son would have gone there, thinking that Sophie would be there.

Edd was not in their old house.

Jack sighed, looking around the house for him, before heading back to the yard. The sun was going down, and he knew Rosie would be mad if they stayed out too late. So Jack went a couple blocks over to where Felix still lived.

There was the sound of screaming.

He broke into a sprint, through the door, up the stairs. Edd was standing in the doorway of Sophie's bedroom, staring as his older sister sat on the floor and sobbed. Felix was hugging around her shoulders, trying to soothe her.

"Dad, I-" Edd looked at Jack when he stood behind him, lost and confused, "Why isn't she happy to see me?"

"She doesn't know it's you. Now let's get home. I..." Jack took a deep breath, looked at Sophie on the ground, her face red and blotchy and swollen from her terrified crying. Felix looked worried, terrified as he looked around for what had scared her. Jack pushed down the anger and bile in his throat and grabbed Edd a little too harshly, pulling him back down the stairs and to K-9.