Echo pushed Elizabeth and Wax in front of him. Their supervisor, Eriz, had already booked it, leaving the three children to fend for themselves. The specter was wailing behind them, the house was shaking.

"RUN!" Echo gasped. He was starting to stagger slightly. He had a sharp pain in his side from running.

Elizabeth glanced up at the ceiling as it groaned. Wax was the only one of them who wasn't completely breathless. He noticed Echo lagging slightly behind and slowed. He glanced back. "Are you alright, Reich?"

The ceiling made another loud crack. Echo shouted a warning. He gave Wax a hard shove, sending him into Elizabeth. Echo's shoe caught something, and he tumbled to the floor.

Elizabeth rolled over. "ECHO!" she cried.

The ceiling collapsed, drowning out whatever Wax shouted. One of them threw a salt bomb. It somehow managed to land next to the specter, blowing it into chunks of ectoplasm.

Echo knew that wouldnt last long. The dust settled and he could hear his team on the other side. Particularly Elizabeth.

"Echo! Are you okay?" Elizabeth called.

Echo coughed as he got up. "I'm fine. Run." He shoved the new blockade, it didn't move.

He could hear Wax trying to pull apart the debris. Elizabeth sounded like she was trying hard to not cry. "Echo... I won't leave you."

"Eliza, save yourself. Please," Echo rested his head on a large beam. He could hear the wailing of the specter again as it reformed.

"No! I won't leave one of the team!"

Echo squeezed his eyes shut. "Wax..."

The quiet cursing and scraping stopped. Echo could picture Wax standing up slowly on the other side with a resigned expression. Wax was unofficially their leader and he always hated needing to leave for any reason when a ghost was still loose.

"I'm sorry, Reich," Wax said, sadness resounding in his voice. "Try to live."

"What?! WAX NO!" Elizabeth screamed. "WE CAN'T LEAVE HIM!"

Echo took a deep, shaking breath. He was terrified. Hearing Wax dragging Elizabeth away tore at his heart. It was physically painful for him to listen to anything at all, but he couldn't block it out.

The wailing was getting dangerously close. Echo pulled himself away from the pile blocking his path. He drew his rapier and started back the way he had come. If he was going to die, he might as well make an attempt at getting the ghost under control.

The entirity of the night was a blur of fear and pain for Echo. Some time not long after he was left for dead, the ghost touched his right foot. The entire rest of the night, it crept up his leg.

His leg gave out around three in the morning... before he had the ghost under control. He had to pull himself forward with his arms as the ghost taunted him. He lost his rapier around four thirty.

He finally got the source contained around five. The moment the silver fell over the source, his head dropped. His hand curled around a chunk of black stone as he fell unconscious.

-

Wax was the only one of the team who led the recovery crew down into the basement. He was somber and quiet the entire time. He felt sick as they got further down the halls of the museum basement.

They reached a large, open room that was mostly empty. Magnesium burns covered one wall. A rapier lay in one corner and in the middle of the room, lay Echo. His chest rose and fell in shallow breaths. His right pant leg was burned up to his knee. The leg underneath was blue and purple from ghost touch.

"REICH!" Wax ran to Echo and knelt next to him. He uncurled Echo's hand from the chunk of shale. "Reich... I'm so sorry."

One of the recovery crew knelt down as well. She quickly injected a couple adrenaline shots into Echo's hip. She rolled him onto his back. "Don't try to move him any more. Just in case."

Wax nodded. He put a hand on Echo's shoulder. Echo shuddered and took in a harsh gasp. His unnaturally blue eyes snapped open, panic flashing for a second. Wax jumped in surprise.

"Wax..." Echo whispered. His voice was weak and shaky. His eyes shifted suspiciously around. Something was different about him. "You... need to run..."

Wax shook his head. "No. No, you contained the specter somehow. It's morning. You're safe." He pressed the chunk of shale into Echo's hand. "You were holding this."

Echo raised his hand to see what was there. "Shale?" He looked up at Wax. "Wax... I cant feel my leg..."

Wax smiled sadly. "You had some pretty bad ghost touch on your leg. It's a miracle you're alive."

Echo laughed weakly, squeezing the shale tightly in his hand. "You have no idea what I've just been through." His tone was cold, the laugh humorless, and the look in his eyes faintly mocking.

Wax was about to say more, but one of the recovery people had brought in a stretcher. He was pushed back, away from Echo's slim, weak form. Watching the organized chaos gave him time to think.

Something more than the physical damage had been caused. Wax could tell. He knew Echo as well as any brother, he could sense some shift. It was to be expected, but it made Wax uneasy. He trailed behind the stretcher on the way out.

Whatever had happened, had shaken Echo's hold on himself and pushed him into the dark.