Fiction: Frightened by gnocchi & ghosts (A)

This month's Words for Wednesday prompts are provided by Wisewebwoman and are posted at Elephant's Child's blog over here. This week's prompts are: gnocchi, dynamite, chariot, bucket, periwinkle and/or noticeboard, blunt, bockety, fifty, shortbread. I used the first half of the words only.

~ Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 ~

Fiction: Frightened by Gnocchi & Ghosts (Part 4 A)

By the door, Black picked up the broom and held it out to Seventeen. "Take this and hit anything that moves."
    "Does that include you?" She grinned. The broom's handle was in good shape but the bristles had mostly fallen out.
    Black lifted the corner of his mouth. "I would appreciate it if you don't hit me, Miss Seventeen. Let's go."
    Through the door, the footprints led Black and Seventeen toward what might had been the living room. Large bins with bonfires lit most of the place aside from the darkest corners. Their steps crunched under the newspapers scattered on the floor.  Rotten gnocchi were scattered in various areas. Most of the walls had been half torn down.
     Seventeen sniffled. The scent of something putrid was in the air. She was certain it wasn't the gnocchi. Black wrinkled his nose. Not the nicest scent in the world but at least the wind from the paneless windows swept in now and then to ease some of the smell. "Miss Seventeen, I'll tell you why you're here. My brother wants you as my partner and I am willing to try it out. If you agree, you'll get a monthly salary and you get to live in a very nice house. Shared with me and of course, a few ghosts and maybe a dragon.You will pretty much be doing what you're doing now which is dealing with ghosts which I believe is the exact thing you're trying to avoid but cannot."
    "You're telling me this now because..."
    "You need to know. I don't like to waste time on pleasantry. Unlike my brother, I prefer the direct approach. Either you want to do this sort of thing or not."
    "Why would you need me to help you with ghosts?" She had some inklings.
    "I don't but my brother thought your special ability would help make the job easier and safer. Or so he said but the real reason is, he wanted me to be around the living more. He said I spent way too much time with ghosts. Not that he's wrong. Plus, he already knows how we'll get along."
    "So he's psychic?" Even she had trouble thinking about the future.
    "He and my mother. I don't recommend making any bets with Sawyer. He knows a lot of the future, things that will happen 20 or 30, even 50 years from now and he has a great memory. It's why I still have my fortune. So, do you believe in anything I just told you?"
    She shrugged. "Not really."
    "Well, don't worry. You will." He smiled. "But you don't dislike the idea of being my partner, am I right?" He glanced at her.
    "It's not the worst offer I ever gotten. I'll see what happens next and then decide." It would be nice to have a steady job even one that involves things she didn't especially like but did she have other options?
    "I would prefer if you decide as quickly as possible so I may get on with my life." Or what was left of it. A sliver of cold ran through Black's body. The paneless windows offered no protection from the cold wind. He grabbed Seventeen's arm. "Stop," he said. Seventeen glanced at Black and then at what was in front of them.
    They was a group of ghosts gathered around a large bin with a bonfire. The ghosts didn't look up. They seemed to be concentrating on the fire. A little farther on their right was a fallen apart stairwell and in front of it was an indigo armchair.
    "Why would they stand around a fire when they couldn't feel it? I thought ghosts couldn't feel such things," said Seventeen.
    Black shrugged. "Sometimes the illusion makes them feel what they wish to feel."
    Seventeen nodded. "Do we attack?"
    "No. Most ghosts are self-absorbed and won't attack you unless you provoke them. But then again, they can turn on you any time without any reason." Black had experienced the latter more often than he wished to recall.
    "Kill them!" The voice sounded close and yet, Black couldn't see where it came from. Seventeen wasn't even curious who spoke, not when the ghosts lifted their heads and turned to look at them. She resisted the urge to scream. They weren't the pleasant looking ghosts she was used to. They had wounds and blood soaked over their faces and bodies.
    The ghosts surrounded them. Black's grip on Seventeen's arm tightened. "We should keep in contact, Miss Seventeen." She nodded and lifted up the broom.
     "Which one of you grabbed the pendant from me?" said Black.
    "I did!" The ghost with a blood stain on half of his face offered Black a cocky grin.
    Black punched the ghost in the face. The ghost screamed and backed up but Black grabbed his shirt collar before he could disappear. "Where is my pendant?"
    "I don't have it." The ghost blinked and stared down at Black's hand holding his shirt.
    "Then who does?" Black was already growing impatient.
    "The boy. He lives here. Never leaves this place but always keeps hidden. Him and his fat dog." Black let the ghost go to throw a punch at him but the ghost disappeared.
    Seventeen shifted and Black had to release his hold on her arm as a ghost came between them. "I said, stay in contact, Princess!"
    "I heard you! And don't call me Princess, Mocha!" Seventeen shrieked as a ghost with bloody cuts all over his face came toward her. She hit his head with the broom. He screamed and disappeared.
    "Mocha? I love some!" Black sent a few needles at the ghosts around him. Seventeen was moving farther and farther from him. He cursed under his breath.
    A ghost with sunken cheeks and budging eyes and bald head came toward Seventeen. She lifted up the broom and froze.
    "What are you waiting for? Hit the fellow!" She heard Black's voice but her body refused to obey. The ghost grabbed her and flew upward, holding her in the air.
    Black looked up at Seventeen. This was new. If he was the one being held up there, he would have stabbed the fellow with a needle and then tried to land on his feet but this? Sawyer would have words with him if Black let the girl drop to her death.
    Seventeen stared down at Black as he fought with the ghosts. She opened her mouth to cry for help but nothing came out.
    "Let her go!" Black shouted. The other ghosts paused and surrounded him.
    "I will if you stab yourself," said the ghost holding Seventeen.
    A knife dropped at Black's feet. He picked up the knife and looked up at the ghost and Seventeen. The ghost was thin as a pole but his sneer was thick and ugly. "That is a bold move but nevertheless, a very dumb thing to do." Black threw the knife toward the ghost.
    Seventeen screamed. The ghost dropped her. The knife struck through the ghost and onto the wall behind him. The ghost yelped and disappeared. Black caught Seventeen and put her onto her feet. "I just realized something—" He kicked a ghost. The ghost disappeared.
    "What's that?" Seventeen struck a ghost with her broom. He screeched and disappeared.
    "Having a partner makes a sticky situation more sticky!" Black stabbed a ghost with a needle. The ghost exploded into lights and dissipated.
    One of the ghosts grabbed her cap. "Give it back!" She remembered she had some mints from Tony's in her coat pocket. She dug them out and threw them at the ghost. He shrieked and dropped the cap to the floor and was gone before Black had a chance to stick him with a needle. Black picked up the cap and thew it toward her.
    She caught it but then dropped it. "I don't want it. It's...dirty."
    "Aren't you too poor to be picky?" Black almost laughed.
    She was poor but no way would she want the cap when it had landed on the unidentified smelly things. Black pulled Seventeen out of the way as a ghost came toward her with a mallet. Black threw a needle at the ghost. The ghost exploded and vanished. The mallet fell to the floor. Black grabbed Seventeen's free hand. She hit him with the broom. He grunted but kept a grip on her hand.
    "Sorry. I thought you were one of them." She giggled. Something slammed against her. She looked down at the ghost. He looked up at her with wide eyes. "What was he trying to do?"
    "What do you think he was trying to do?" said Black.
    "Don't answer a question with a question!" She glared briefly at Black. "Was he trying to possess my body?"
    Black started to answer but a ghost wrapped a hand around his neck and choked him, pulling him to the floor. Black kicked him in the head, got up and stuck a needle into the ghost. The ghost burst into lights and dissipated. Seventeen grabbed Black's hand and pulled him up. "Are you okay?"
    Black swallowed hard, rubbed his neck and nodded. Seventeen kept her hold of his hand. "Better to stay together." Now she knew why Sawyer wanted them to stay in contact. Together, no ghosts could possessed them.
    Something slammed against Black's back. He turned around. The ghost got up and disappeared. Black pulled out a set of needles from his shirt sleeves and threw them at all the ghosts. Most of the needles hit their target. A series of explosion occurred causing the place to light up like dynamites.
    The sparkling lights was a beautiful sight and yet, Seventeen couldn't help but wondered, did ghosts die?
    The last ghost disappeared before Black had a chance to put out a needle.
    "You didn't just threw a knife toward me, did you?"
    "You're worrying about that now? Trust me, you were never in any harm. I was aiming for the guy's head. He's at least a two feet taller than you. And I have good aim." Did Black sounded like he was bragging?
    "You can't always have good aim!"
    "Can't I?" Black had never missed anything he had aimed at unless it was with one of his needles which was mostly due ghosts' ability to disappear quickly.
    Seventeen was more annoyed that she was frightened by the ghosts, especially the one who had looked just like her jackass father. The sound of a dog whining made her jumped. She realized someone was sitting in the armchair by the fallen stairs.
    Black pulled out a needle and strolled toward the kid. He had on a white baseball cap that mostly covered his head. In his left hand, he was spinning a piece of semicircle green jade and in his right hand, he held a knife. The kid smiled at Black.
    "Stop! He's just a boy!" Seventeen grabbed Black's arm.
    Black didn't withdraw the needle. "Miss Seventeen, he's not a boy. He's probably older than you and I. The more alive they appeared, the older they are."
    Seventeen studied the boy. He was solid looking. Wide, dark face, large eyes and some bits of black hair sticking out of his white cap. His black and white baseball jacket with a large X on the left front side was two size too large. "Are you sure he's a ghost?"
    Black picked up a piece of newspaper by his feet, rolled it up and handed it to Seventeen. "Throw this at him."
    She took the paper and threw it at the boy. It went right through him but it hid behind the boy's frame. The boy screamed and jumped up out of the chair. "What the hell was that?" he said.
    Definitely a ghost and yet, he looked so alive, thought Seventeen. "He's still a boy though." She had not encountered many of his kind, not one that appeared so much like the living.
    "Look, kid. If you don't want to feel that same pain over and over again, just give me my pendant and we'll leave you alone," said Black. He withdrew the needle back into his sleeve and glared at the boy.
    The kid glared at Black. "No," he said.
    Black nodded. "No?" He turned to Seventeen. "He said no. What do you think I should do?"
    "Ou!" Black pressed at the wound on his forearm. "You dared to stab me?" It ached a bit but nothing he couldn't handle.
    The kid was already a few feet away. He laughed. "What are you going to do about it?" He shook the knife in his hand. The pendant wasn't in his other hand anymore.
    Black grabbed Seventeen's hand, ran toward the kid and threw a punch at him but he dodged it and ran off. "Catch me if you can!" He laughed and disappeared.
Black's arm. The blood had soaked through the sleeve. The guy barely flinched.
    "Think I like going through hell to get back a piece of meaningless object?" Black glared at her.
    "What does it do? This pendant." Seventeen had seen it in the boy's hand. It looked like any ordinary jade to her.
    "It keeps..." Black paused. Was the kid ghost listening? He couldn't see the kid. "I'll tell you when we are somewhere more private." Will this day ever end? He took a seat by the window sill. The cold wind from the paneless windows swept over him. He looked around the place and his eyes landed on the stairs. The kid could be upstairs. But Black remembered the roof had collapsed and it wasn't safe to go up there.
    Seventeen joined him on the window sill. It was colder than her apartment. Not much in the way of a proper home but at least there's a roof. She was tired, aching, and hungry for a hamburger from Tony's. "Are we just going to wait?"
    "You want to run around and chase the boy?" Black looked sideways at the girl.
    "No. Definitely not." She sniffled. Her face was rosy. Black was cold but Seventeen was probably not doing any better. He suspected she was running a fever. Her hand had been much too warm. He should finish this business before the girl get sicker. She sniffled again. He glanced at one of the bonfires. He stood up and grabbed her arm and made his way toward the bin. He held out his hands toward the flame. The heat met his palms and he was a little warmer. "Held your hands out if you don't want to freeze." Seventeen threw the broom to the floor and held out her hands to the fire. The sudden warmth did make her feel better but it was much too warm. Her leg still ached but not as much as her head. She wished she was home and getting ready for a long sleep perhaps maybe drink a bucket of hot chocolate first. It was far too quiet. In the distance thunder sounded. From the paneless windows, light rain began to splatter in and left tiny spots on the window sills.
    Black looked up and around and back at the bonfire. "Kid, if you don't come out, I will turn this place into a burial ground. There's a lot of fires here and oh, look, newspapers! Do you think they will ignite if I tilt one of those bins?" He picked up some newspaper, rolled it up and struck lit with the bonfire.
    The kid appeared about two foot from them. "You dare to burn my home down?"
    Black threw the burning newspaper into the bin, grabbed Seventeen's hand, raced toward the kid and punched him in the face. The kid fell on the floor and the knife slipped from his hand. Black pressed his sneaker foot on the kid's chest. "I ask once again, very politely, give me my pendant or else join your buddies."
    "Dream on!" The boy laughed.   
    "Don't think my needles only gets rid of ghosts." Black pulled out one of the red needles from his inner pockets and dipped it to the boy's chest. "Since you like laughing so much, I'll let you continue on. What did they say about laugher? It's the best way to get rid of pain-in-the-ass children?" He released his foot from the kid's chest.
    "What did you do?" asked Seventeen. The boy was laughing and yet he didn't seem like he was enjoying it.
    "Just one of my little tricks." Black smiled.
    "Make— it— stop—!" The boy said between laughters.
    "Give me my pendant and I'll make it stop." The corner of Black's lips turned up in a small grin.
    The kid bit his lower lip but giggles escaped anyway. "Make—it—stop—and—I'll—give you— your pen—dant."
    "Deal!" Black bended down and pulled out the needle from the kid and put it back into his pockets. "My pendant, now!"
    The kid stopped laughing and stood up. He dug into his pants pocket and pulled out something and threw it at Black. Black caught it but it was a piece of green stone. He threw the stone to the floor. "Dammit!" He looked around. The boy had disappeared again. Black listened to the booming sounds from outside. The rain started pounding down through the paneless windows and soaking up the newspapers on the floor.