The Rufus Horror Picture Show, Chapter Four

[lonewolfprincess]

Baxter couldn’t help hunching his usually perfect posture at the sight of all those glares. The girl, her friends, the dog, and all his test subjects, faces no longer hollow but… their eyes glowed in featureless faces, cold and sharp as scalpels…

“Ah, right. Surely you don’t realize how big a responsibility running a hospital is, though, right? And you have your own life to live still, right? Couldn’t I just be…. Chief of Medicine Pro Tem—ACK!”

Baxter’s sniveling cut off as Rufus gave his ghostly buttocks a thorough chomp, pulling away lab coat tails and slacks to reveal smiley-face boxers.

Everyone laughed at that. Even his patients… former patients, he realized with slowly growing dread.

Tori smiled coldly at him. “You’re so small…” She pointed the Chopsticks at him like a sword at a defeated opponent. “Changing Chopsticks!”

The doctor cried out as he felt his form shrink down, down, down, until he was as small as a pill at everyone’s feet. Rufus growled again, oh lord, was the dog going to eat him alive?

“Rufus, wait.” Tori spoke firmly, evenly, as she kept the Chopsticks leveled at the tiny doctor, the Shen Gong Wu still glowing.

“You absolutely need to be punished… but destroying you quickly would be too merciful.” Tori’s hair and clothes billowed as she spoke, the Chopsticks and the spectral calling card flaring gold. “Instead, you’re going to stay this way for as long as this building remains standing. No one living, dead, or otherwise will see, hear, or feel you ever again. This is your justice: to be as powerless and invisible as your victims were, until this building falls to the ground and you cease to exist.” She finished on a cold grin as the former doctor gasped in horror. “Which should be a good long while once the renovations are done. Addio, Doc!”

“What, no, wait! Please, have mercy, no—!”

Baxter’s cry vanished with the rest of him as Tori’s geas sealed, rendering even his tiny form invisible to everyone.

Tori shook her head, as if snapping out of a daydream. She took in the stunned expressions of Mia, her friends, Jack, Wuya, and all the other ghosts… then bashfully rubbed the back of her neck, trapping some of her baby curls.

“Yyyeah, just came to me, I guess.” She cleared her throat to turn to the rest of the ghostly audience. “As for you guys…” She softened her voice as they flinched out of reflex, gently holding out her hand. “Follow me. I think the sun’s about to rise.”



Very thankfully, the building had survived the brunt of the storm, and Raimundo breathed a little easier at the bright dawn sky, the few fluffy clouds above the horizon glowing pink and purple and gold. Everyone else relaxed too, Shen Gong Wu safely secured and finally out of that death trap of a house.

Tori stood in front of the group, facing her audience of ghosts gathered on the front lawn.

“Okay so… full disclosure, I don’t really know what’s going to happen next for you guys, but… I know I want you to have the choice to find it.” She held out her arms as if offering an embrace as the card glowed behind her. “Afterlife, reincarnation, staying here, wandering the world, or just going to rest… whatever awaits you? I want you to have the freedom to find it. Go in peace!”

The ghosts’ featureless faces relaxed… and slowly, they looked less like shadows and more like humans, the sun peeking over the horizon through their glass-like forms. Men and women and children of all ages and states of health slowly dissolved in the morning light, or floated up, or walked away, but all with serene expressions on their faces.

The Xiaolin Warriors all smiled, waving and bowing to the departing spirits, ignoring Jack and Wuya’s eye rolls, but… Rufus scanned the crowd, growing more and more frantic as the ghosts disappeared.

“I don’t understand… he’s not here. Where is he?”

Mia’s face fell too, not caring as her ankle protested her kneeling on the still-damp grass to pet him.

“Maybe… he already moved on?”

“No, he has to be here, I know it, I…” Rufus trailed off in desperate whines…

Mia just wrapped her arms around his neck.

“You did a really good job, boy. I’m sorry…”

“… Rufus?”

The dog’s head yanked up as one last ghost stood there. A heavyset middle-aged man with a fair crew-cut and a leg that seemed shorter than the other gave his dog a soft smile.

Rufus gasped. “HUMAAAAN!” The dog nearly barreled his human over in excitement, but remembered his training and rubbed against his leg instead, tail blurred as it wagged as hard as possible. “Human Human Human Human Human I missed you soooo much!”

The man laughed heartily as he patted his dog.

“I missed you too, bud.” He smiled warmly at the kids. “Thanks for looking out for him.”

“I-I…” Mia swallowed past the lump in her throat, forced the words out. “Any time…”

Tori smiled back warmly, brimming with tears. “Thanks for letting us borrow him for a bit.”

The two ghosts grinned back… and then the man leaned against Rufus, the service dog walking his human towards the sunrise before they vanished. Tori’s card evaporated too, but nobody cared.

The Xiaolin Dragons all stood there, not willing to break the silence that seemed… right, sacred… until Raimundo softly spoke up.

“You okay, girls?”

Mia nodded silently from her place on the ground, hastily wiping away her tears. Tori turned to him with a smile, not bothering to hide weeping.

“Yeah, we’re fine… just tired.” Tori sighed in relief. “I don’t know about y’all, but I could use breakfast, a hot shower, and a nap, in that order.”

Everyone gave watery chuckles as they nodded. Mia shifted to stand up, only to find herself scooped up in a princess carry by a tomato-faced cowboy.

“What—Clay no, I’m covered in wet grass stains and dog hair!” Wait or… did Rufus shed at all—not important! “We have a giant dragon to carry me!”

Clay merely held firm, ducking his face a bit deeper behind his bangs and the brim of his hat to avoid any smirks.

“It’s alright, I-I don’t mind none… Least until we get back to the temple.”

Mia just… turned scarlet and fixed her gaze straight ahead too.

“O-okay, thanks…”

Omi smiled peacefully. “Yes, let us all head back to the temple!”

Tori turned to the others. “Aw, come on, guys, I don’t think we can last that long, and we barely got to see any of this place.” She clasped her hands and gave them all puppy eyes. “Daisy tasting, right…?”

Raimundo sighed as the others chuckled. “Oh no, the bad slang is contagious…”

Mia chuckled from her perch in Clay’s arms. “Tori just won her first solo Showdown and exorcised a whole hospital. I think she gets to pick breakfast.”

Raimundo sighed, smiling as he shook his head. “Okay, okay. Maybe there’s a Danny’s nearby or something?”

Tori laughed as she grabbed whatever hands she could and led her friends off the property.

“No way, we can get Danny’s anywhere! Gotta try something local, maybe with seafood! Hey, Jerk Spice, wanna— …. come…?”

Oh. Tori finished looking over her shoulder to find Jack and Wuya had vanished. … The Sun Dragon shrugged.

“Ah, well, maybe next time?”

Kimiko shook her head with a bemused grin. “He does still owe us ice cream.”

“Wait, really?”

As the Xiaolin Warriors all walked towards the nearest hole-in-the-wall diner, Jack and Wuya emerged from their lurking spot around the corner.

“Well, that was a bust…” Jack sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Seriously, scammed by a dog? I think that’s a new low even for me…”

“Agreed,” Wuya drawled. “Not to mention the new Dragons’ powers are more formidable than I thought. We’ll have to proceed quickly and carefully.”

“Right, yeah, your great plan that you won’t tell me about.” Jack rolled his eyes. “Do you even know your plan?”

“Patience, my boy,” the ghost hag crooned. “’Know yourself, and know your enemy, and you’ll know the outcome of a thousand battles.’”

Jack shook his head. “So, that’s a no?” And Sun Tzu, really?

Wuya groaned as their opponents disappeared down the road, none the wiser.