"Found you Eddie!"

'Eddie' giggled. "Can we play again?" he asked, his voice sounding more like he was six than twenty-eight. Cardboard Friend nodded. "Yay!"

"Hmph. Why did Eddie win?"

"Because I'm better at Hide and Seek than you Willie!"

"Are not!"

"Are too!"

"Let's play again now! Please?"

"Of course Jamie! Mikey seeks!"

"Yay!" 'Mikey' cheered. He covered his eyes and started counting. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, uh..."

"Eight!"

"Right! Thanks Box Fwiend! Eight, nine, ten! Ready or not, here I come!"

Just as 'Mikey' was about to go looking for his friends there was a knock at the door. "Hello? Is anyone home?" a voice asked. Cardboard Friend made a sound like it was clearing it's throat and replied in a normal, non-childish voice, "Just the cleaner."

"I wasn't aware they hired a cleaner," the voice behind the door said suspiciously.

"I was hired just yesterday. The residents are out at the moment."

"Well, could you open up? We're here on an investigation."

"I'm sorry, but the told me to not let anyone in," Cardboard Friend said. Dan, Mark, and Jack crawled out of their hiding spots to see what was happening. Cardboard Friend motioned for them to stay back. There was some whispering on the other side of the door. Suddenly the door shook and there was a loud thud! They heard someone yelp in pain. Another voice, this one british, spoke.

"I demand that you open this door immediately. I am the rightful owner of this house. The deed is in my name. The people staying here are my guests, not the owners. Open up now."

"How do I know you're not lying?"

"Okay, that's it. Johnny, get the rocket launcher."

"We left it at home, Sir. I have a crowbar."

"That'll have to do. Pry the door open!"

Cardboard Friend raised its arm at the door. It was surrounded by a brown-beige glow for a moment. It lowered it's arm and tuned to it's 'friends'. "We have to leave. Let's go to my house! It's much more fun!" it said. It lead the men to the backdoor. "When I open the door you start running. Okay?" The four nodded. Cardboard Friend opened the door and they took off. They ran as quick as they could, Jack in the lead.

"Guys! They're running! And there's a box person chasing them!" they heard someone shout.

"Crap! Good eye Spooker!" they heard.

"Faster! It's a race, okay?"

"Get back here! Let them go, apparition!"

Just then Phil tripped. Dan stopped running to help him up. They both got shot with the knock-out gun device. Mark and Jack kept running towards Creaky Manor, Cardboard friend in close behind. Ghost tried to hit them and knock them out with the gun but they were out of range. Cardboard Friend grabbed them by the shoulders and they all disappeared. "Darn it!" Ghost shouted. He stomped his foot angrily and scowled. Toast examined Dan and Phil for any injuries. He lifted their eyelids to examine their eyes and gasped. "What is it Johnny?"

"Look sir. Their eyes are gray!" Sure enough, Phil's normally bright blue eyes and Dan's brown ones were a dark shade of gray.

"We should get them back to HQ. Who knows what that ghost did to them," Ghost said. Once again poor Spooker and Colon had to drag and load them into the back of the van. Toast tried to get in the driver's seat but Ghost literally tackled him and hopped in himself. "Johnny, no. You're no better at driving than I am at reading." They drove back to HQ, listening to whatever was on the radio.

"What is this?"

"I believe it's Billy's album Sir."

"It's on the radio?"

"I think Acachalla threatened the guy who runs the station."

"Oh."

They pulled in to HQ and got out. This time Ghost and Toast got Dan and Phil out of the back and inside. They put them in one of the spare rooms that hey had converted into what was essentially a jail cell. They had their reasons, don't question it. "Why are we putting them in a cell?" Spooker asked.

"In case they're dangerous. We have no clue what that ghost did to them," Toast said. He closed and locked the door. "Colon, stay here. Let us know when they wake up. Spooker, go back to the house and inspect the damage. If that ghost touched my macaroni..."

"You got, Toaster!"

"Please don't call me that."

"Okay, Toaster!" With that Spooker ran off. Toast went to his office and took out his book. "Let's see...cardboard figure..." he mumbled. Ghost walked in. Toast looked up. "Yes sir?"

"That ghost seemed really familiar. Do you remember the story about Creaky Manor?"

"I believe so sir. You think it could be the same entity?"

"I think so. A child-like cardboard figure? Plus they were running towards that manor. But there's something else. I swear I've met that thing before."

"You called me once from New Jersey about a cardboard ghost. I just assumed this was a different one because of the distance."

"I don't remember having a case in Jersey."

"It was while I was at Rake's wedding, sir."

"Nope, not ringing any bells."

"Well it can't have been that important than sir."

"I guess not. I'm going to do some more research on the story of the manor."

"Won't that be a bit hard?"

"Nah. I have a thing on my computer that reads out loud to me."

"Oh."

Ghost walked out of the room and Toast resumed his reading. He knew he had an entry on a cardboard ghost somewhere. Ah ha! Here we go, he thought. He started reading.

Concerning Cardboard

He cringed a bit at the section title. What had he been thinking?

Only one case reported. Many rumors that have yet to be proven. What has been reported provides very little information. Basic summary: Kid goes missing, kid is found, kid goes crazy and claims that a ghost made of cardboard boxes kidnapped him. Child is taken out of town by his parents. End of file.

Toast sighed. Not much to go on. Then again, the book was quite old. He had written it about four years before. He took out another book and started reading.

~~~~~

"Where did Mikey and Jamie go?" 'Eddie' asked. He looked around him. "Where are we?"

"We're at my house Eddie! Don't worry, I'll get Mikey and Jamie back soon. Until then let's play! Tag! Willie's it!" Cardboard Friend said. It tapped ''Willie' on the shoulder and floated away. 'Eddie' ran away too, laughing and screaming as his friend chased him.

Finally done! I hope you enjoyed! I changed the spelling from Willy to Willie. Just because I think it looks nicer. Just in case anyone got confused, Eddie is Mark, Willie is Jack, Mikey is Phil, and Jamie is Dan. Also, holy crad! Five hundred reads?! Thank you all so much! Just thank you for taking time to read my silly story! See you, Fanfares!

Whoops, published it before I edited. Let me fix that real quick. Alright, there we go!