Ghost's Stories, part two

Chris paced across his room, then back to the door, then back to the window. He'd seen Elyssa back to her room, waited until she was safely inside, and then come back here. She'd hesitated for a moment, as if she might have invited him in, but he'd spoken up to tell her to get some rest and think about ways to figure out what had actually happened, and after that she'd just nodded and closed the door behind her. 

Did he regret that? He wasn't sure. Whatever the case, it was done. 

But for all Grundus' disdain, Elyssa had been genuinely scared... and wolves, as a general thing, didn't scare easily. 

All right. If it wasn't one of the magi, then it was a ghost. If there were any Registered Outsiders who could create those sort of effects, none of the wolves had heard about them -- and the gossip trails through the ROs were established enough that even Chris managed to hear things. 

He paused then, looking out of the window of his small studio room. If ghosts could exist here in the Mundus, they'd need to be near some kind of portal to the Grey, or someplace where there was a lot of magic. So it was, he thought, just barely possible that one of them had managed to persist here. Between the occasional workings of the magi and the sheer number of Registered Outsiders on the campus, there might be enough of the Grey here to sustain a particularly stubborn and troubled spirit.

The plan still stands, he decided at last. He'd go in late, alone, and see if anything in the basement pool troubled him. If that didn't work, Elyssa could try it again and he could come in a few minutes later and try to surprise whoever might be causing this. 

There were words and phrases for dealing with ghosts and particular kinds of spirits, but Chris was a wolf in the Mundus, and wolves couldn't do magic the way the magi did. Antoinette might be willing to help him out, but he didn't want to involve her until he had a better idea of what was going on and whether it was safe. No, if anyone was going to be in danger, it should be him. 

Someone knocked on his door. 

Chris stopped, turned, and went to open it. Whoever was outside had come up without him hearing them, so...

Elyssa said, "I'm sorry. I didn't feel safe. Could I... could I sleep here tonight?"

"All right," said Chris, and stepped aside. She came into his room, looked around at the blank walls and standard furniture, and then asked: "Can I sleep in your bed?"

Chris nodded. "Go ahead. Settle in. I'll keep an eye on things."

When she was settled in he came and sat on the edge of the bed, putting a hand on her shoulder and waiting until she relaxed. Eventually her muscles unclenched and her breathing slowed, and when he was sure she was asleep he went to pull the sleeping bag out of his closet and lay it out on the floor beside the bed. This would have been a fine time to turn into a wolf again, but he was in the Mundus. It wasn't impossible here, not after he'd been out into the Grey, but it was highly frowned upon and would definitely attract attention. Instead, he slid into the sleeping bag, listened again to make certain Elyssa was sleeping, and finally let himself drift off. 

He was still thinking about ghosts, so it was no surprise that he dreamed of them.