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Russel nearly rubbed his eyes in disbelief, still amazed to see his oldest friend before him. "Del," he said again, his voice unsteady with emotion. "Hey man." It was all he could think of to say. He smiled at the ghost.

Thankfully, awkward silences were made to be broken by someone like Del. "Hey Russel!" he bellowed. "Thought you weren't going to answer me for a while there! It took you forever to make contact…thought I was going to have to roll out a red carpet or something. What the hell took you so long?"

"I…I…there were…demons…" Russel managed to stammer. He was still having trouble believing all this. "Del…it's…it's good to see you again."

"'Course it is," said the ghost, mugging at him. "I can tell how excited you are to see me. So full of news…I'm gonna have to stick tape over your mouth just to be able to get a word in edgewise!"

Russel chuckled in spite of himself. Del had always been good at breaking the ice and putting people at ease. "I am happy to see you again, Del," he finally said. "It's just….I wasn't sure this whole thing with the Ouija board was going to work and…I'm a little…startled…is all."

"Startled?" the Del asked. "I'd call that an understatement." He suddenly zipped out of sight and reappeared behind Russel, leaning over to whisper in his ear. "Why, you look like you've seen a ghost!"

Russel groaned. He turned to look at his friend, but the ghost had already zipped back in front of him, leaving him addressing empty air. "Del, that sucked," he said anyway.

"Hey, at least I'm trying," said Del. "Maybe I should just sit there like you and go 'uh…uh…duh….hi Del! Huh huh!'" Del let his tongue hand out in his best impression of a half-wit.

"Well, I've never contacted the spirit realm before!" Russel shot back. "Cut me some slack, man."

"Yeah, I noticed," said the ghost. He lowered his voice to a whine. "What, you couldn't get up off your fat a**, pick up the Ouija board, and give your best friend a call once in a while? "

"Sorry Del," said Russel. "The long distance bills are killer." It was the best "witty banter" he could come up with, and it wasn't much.

But the one thing about Del…you didn't actually have to speak his language. You just needed to try. "Ah, now that's more like it!" His friend's eyes gleamed approvingly. "I knew you still had it in you, Russ! Now," he leaned sideways in mid-air and rested his chin on his palm, "what can I do for you? I assume you aren't here to ask me how my weekend was."

"Well I…no…that is…" Russel shook himself, trying to get his mind back on track. "Del, I'm trying to find out what happened to Noodle. You remember her, right? She's missing. I…I don't even know if she's alive."

"Yeah, I remember her," Del said. "Cute kid. Played a mean guitar too, if I remember."

"She did," Russel agreed. "But she's not really a kid any more. She's twenty now. All grown up."

"Really?" Del seemed startled. "It's been that long? Man, when you're stuck in the afterlife, you start to loose track of time. Doesn't have much meaning here, you know?"

"I suppose it wouldn't," Russel agreed, although he felt a sudden prickle of curiosity as to what the afterlife was actually like. Was there any concept of time at all? What did they do all day? Did they even have "days?" Did it get boring? Was Del in heaven or somewhere else?

"Earth to Russel!" Del suddenly shouted, waving a huge blue hand in his face. "Don't go spacing out on me man! You never used to do that unless spooks were bothering you." He paused, pretending to look put out. "I'm not that annoying, am I?"

Russel laughed. "No Del, even at your most animated, you were never annoying. No one could make me laugh like you could." He grinned at his old friend.

Del's face lit up. He had always been a joker and had loved being the center of attention, and being dead had not changed that aspect of his personality one iota. He was never so happy as when he was making people crack up. "Of course they couldn't," the ghost agreed. "You've always been too serious. It takes someone of fine caliber to even get you to crack a smile." Del winked at him. "Lucky for you I was around for most of your life, huh?"

"Lucky me," Russel laughed. "In fact with you gone, I'm surprised I didn't keel over of terminal dullness."

"I shudder to think about it," said Del, making a face. "Now, tell me what's up with Noodle. If you want me to try and help you find her, I'm going to need as much information as I can get before I start probing the ether. It'll help me focus my search."

"Sure, I…probing the ether?" The phrase made Del sound like some New Age nutjob.

"Looking into the Mystical Beyond?" Del offered instead. "Poking around in the fabric of reality? Sticking my nose where it doesn't belong? I dunno, what do you want me to call it?"

Russel shook his head. "Never mind," he told Del. "I don't care what you call it as long as it works. Call it a cab for all I care." He quickly gave Del a summary of what had happened on Plastic Beach. "Noodle and I were helping Murdoc fight some pirates on his new island." He motioned for Del to hold his thoughts when it looked like the ghost was going to interrupt with incredulous questions about how Murdoc acquired his own island. They didn't need to get sidetracked again. "Noodle and a robot got sent out there to kill the captain of the pirates." He had to stop Del again when it looked like he was going to start asking about this robot. "Later Del. It's along story. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that Noodle and the robot did managed to kill the captain because I saw them knock someone over the side of the ship, but then the robot turned on Noodle and knocked her over the side of the ship too. I tried to go help her, but I got knocked out by someone, and when I woke up, Murdoc's crew had already rescued me and were heading for land. None of them knew what happened to Noodle or Murdoc and 2D. All of them are missing, and I don't know where to start looking for them."

"That's why you need an expert like me," Del told him smugly. "Just give me a minute and I'll have them all found for you. Paging them will cost extra though." He placed his fingers on his temples and shut his eyes. "Ooooommmmmmmmm….."

Russel sighed. "C'mon Del, be serious."

Del didn't reply, but his vocalization gradually died out and he became quite still. He remained that way for several minutes, and then Russel saw his face scrunch up a bit as though he were concentrating. "I think…no, wait…no…wait, is that…hmm….uh….ah ha…I think that's…" he muttered softly to himself as he "poked the ether" or whatever it was he was doing. Then, suddenly, he reached out a hand and placed it on Russel's forehead. Russel didn't even have time to open his mouth to protest before he was bombarded with images.

Water…endless water…the sea…Noodle on a boat out at sea, with Plastic Beach slowly dwindling away into the background…eyes on her from all directions…eyes in the sea…in the air….on the horizon… Murdoc and 2D, bound and chained together, being dragged by the cyborg toward a destination that sometimes looked like a charming little house, sometimes like a graveyard filled with grinning ghouls. The cyborg cried black tears as she dragged her unwilling charges toward this changing landscape, where a raven perched over the gate, welcoming them.

There was a strange buzzing sound and then suddenly, the images seemed to go blurry. They blurred, melted, and seemed to merge together, and as they did so, Russel could hear Del's voice faintly in the background, arguing with someone.

"I said get lost," Russel heard the ghost say. "This line's busy. I'm trying to talk to Russel here. You can't just come barging in and-HEY!"

Suddenly, the harsh whispering of the demon voices was closer, and they were far more numerous than they had ever been before. Russel tried to ignore them again, but their noise was deafening. It was like trying to ignore a hurricane.

Del finally reappeared before him, also looking blurry and harder to make out than before, and when he spoke, Russel had a hard time making out what he was saying over the hissing whispers.

"….coming, Russel! The bastards are coming!" Del was shouting at him. "An open portal's like an invitation to them. I don't know how much longer we can talk!"

"I know, I can hear them!" Russel shouted back. "Del, is there anything else you can show me before I have to go?"

"I'm trying," said the ghost. "There's something else, something nasty…hang on…oh s**t…Russel, listen!" He tried to reach out to put his hand on Russel's forehead again, but seemed to have difficulty moving. Russel leaned forward instead, and this put the ghost's fingertips barely touching him. As the barest connection was made between them, Russel saw…no felt…danger…

There was something out there that wanted Noodle. Something that would try and take her. Something that would bring her somewhere where all she would know was suffering. Something that would savor her screams.

The jumble of images before him seemed to try and steady, to focus, but the demons were causing too much interference. Knowing that time was running out, Russel squinted into the chaotic mess, grasping, hoping, for some clue, some information, something to help him figure out what the danger was. And for a brief moment, he saw an image.

It was whisked away before his eyes had time to properly focus on it. Shape, size, form…all were lost as it was swallowed up by the swirling chaos once again. The only thing he'd been able to register about it had been its color.

It was black…black as night…black as death…black as the depths of the earth .

The chaotic storm of information disappeared suddenly, and Russel could see Del again, fainter still this time, with his back to Russel. His hands were back on his temples, and he looked to be concentrating with all his might.

"Del!" Russel shouted over the hissing of the demons, louder still now. "Del, I have to end the session!" End it before something came though. Something he was unprepared to deal with.

"No wait!" he heard the ghost call to him faintly.

"Del, I have to close this thing now!" He couldn't try and hold off all those demons. There were too many. It wasn't like back at the hotel. There were so many more and they had a portal between the physical and spiritual realms through which to manifest. There was no way he could hold off something like that. Not yet. He wasn't strong enough.

His doubts seemed to encourage them, and they rose from whispers to screaming instantly. A deafening chorus of wails, screeches and moans soon enveloped him.

"Del!" He called out, hoping his friend could still hear him. "Del, I've gotta go!"

"Wait!" he heard the ghost yell again. "Wait Russel, not yet! Russel, I SEE HER!"

The demon voices reached an earsplitting crescendo and Russel felt the planchette lurch in his hands, as though someone else was controlling it. He fought back, pulling against the force with all his might, but it was a losing battle. Del was growing fainter and more transparent by the moment, his presence drowned out under a multitude of others, all vying for his attention. He saw the ghost yell to him once more, but the noise from the demons was too loud and Russel couldn't make it out. Then he felt the planchette begin to heat up underneath his fingers, and as it did, the demon voices became clear once more.

Russel..oh Russel…give in…let us come through….Russel, she's waiting…Noodle…our Noodle…our Noodle…OUR Noodle...

"NO!" He screamed. He tried to let go of the planchette, but his fingers seemed to be glued to the thing, and its temperature rapidly approaching scalding. He had a horrific vision of managing to wrest his hands free of the planchette and leaving charred and melted flesh stuck to the thing. He screamed again, no words this time, and he saw Del reappear in his field of vision once again, this time coming closer and closer, a look of determination on his face.

The ghost hit him with a rush of cold air and suddenly Russel found himself looking at Noodle. Not some vague symbolic image this time, but the real thing. He was sure of it. He almost felt like he could have reached out and touched her. She stood in a small, garbage lined inlet on the ruined Plastic Beach, working on what looked like a makeshift boat, all scrapwood and old PVC pipe and pontoons made of plastic bottles held together with tangled fishing nets.

Then Russel felt a presence over them, and he looked up, to the top of a steep garbage slope behind Noodle. At the crest of the hill stood a…thing. Tall and dark, with wide, staring white eyes, it looked down at Noodle as the sun went down behind it and its long shadow slowly crept down the slope toward her. The thing's inky black cloak billowed behind it in the wind, and its clawed hands were red with blood.

"Noodle!" Russel tried to shout to her, but no sound came out of his mouth. "Noodle, look out!"

Then he felt the planchette lurch in his hands, as though a third party had joined in the tug-of-war, and the image of Noodle was gone. Russel heard the demon voices screech in dismay for a second before they were cut off completely. Then he was falling, falling through darkness, through light, through gray mist. Falling through time and space.

"Noodle!" he still tried to shout. "Noodle, behind y-OOF!"

He sat up and spat out a mouthful of sand. His vision cleared to reveal that he was back on the beach. If he had ever actually left it, anyway. The Ouija board was beside him, battered and face-down in the sand. He reached out to touch it and recoiled in horror when he saw oozing blisters on his fingertips.

The sight of them must have reminded his fingers to send belated pain signals to his brain, because they soon started smartling like mad. The little bits of sand stuck to them didn't really help, either. Gritting his teeth against the pain, Russel gingerly turned the Ouija board by using just the very tips of his fingers as pinchers.

As soon as he flipped it right side up, he was hit with a faint charred smell, and one look at the thing revealed a huge, scorched mark made by the planchette, moving in an arc around the upper edge of the board, cutting across the picture of the sun at the top left corner, then the crescent moon in the top right corner, and then the pentagram at the bottom right, before coming to a stop at the word "GOODBYE."

Russel sighed in relief and tossed the board back down onto the sand. He must have managed to close the session somehow. Thankfully. One look at his blistered fingers told him what could have happened if he'd let that portal stay open much longer.

Still, he had gotten the information he needed. He knew Noodle was alive, he knew she was still on Plastic Beach and that she was planning to escape by building a boat, and he knew…

He knew he needed to get his a** out there as fast as he could. Because she was in danger. She was being stalked by a black monster, and he didn't know if she could protect herself from it. For all he knew, it could have already attacked and killed her since the vision ended.

No…he couldn't make himself think like that. He'd already given her up for dead once, and he wouldn't make that mistake again. She was tough. If that thing attacked her, she could fight it off. He knew she could hold out until he got there. If he could face demons (and Russel had seen enough of them in his lifetime to know that that was indeed what that thing was), then so could she.

"Hang on, Baby Girl," he said, getting to his feet. "I'm coming."

He paused to give the ruined Ouija board one last glance before he departed. It had been a risky idea, but it had paid off, and he was grateful to the person who had helped him succeed. He was truly lucky to have a best friend who stuck by him and helped him, even despite an obstacle as insurmountable as the grave.

"Thanks Del," he said.

You're welcome, Russ, came a voice from the back of his mind.

Russel froze, and the world seemed to stop with him.

And that little eulogy was beautiful, man. I'm blushing here.

Russel's mouth fell open. "Del?" he finally managed to say.

Hey man, came the voice from the back of his mind. He swore it was hiding a smile.

"Oh God no…" Russel whispered. This couldn't be happening again. "Del!" he finally shouted. "Get out here!"

I don't wanna, said Del. It's comfy in here. Nice and roomy. I swear, there's even more empty space than last time!

Russel was decidedly not in the mood for jokes. "Get out here!" he snapped again.

Wouldn't do much good, Dell told him. Every time I'd come out before, you'd space out and be about as responsive as a coma patient. Don't see much point in it. It's much easier to talk this way.

Del's calm, matter of fact tone was beginning to piss him off. He acted like this whole mess was nothing at all. "Del," you weren't supposed to possess me again!" Russel told him.

Hey, you never said anything like that, Del replied. You should lay down the rules more clearly next time you try and contact a spirit. Russel could have sown he felt Del sticking his tongue out at him.

"Del, this isn't funny!" he told the ghost. "You're not supposed to leave the afterlife. The Reaper will come for you again!"

Yeah, probably, his friend replied. But it'll take him a while to notice I'm gone. There'll be plenty of time to find Noodle before he comes after me again.

"You want to help find Noodle?" Russel asked him.

Of course, replied Del. She was my friend too, you know. Besides, she owes me money.

Russel snorted. "Del, what the hell are you going to do with money when you're dead?"

It's the principle of the thing! Del protested. I won that bet fair and square.

Russel rolled his eyes. "Del, is this about that time 2D tried to jump over my gut while I was sleeping?"

Del seemed to hesitate. Maybe… he somehow managed to say in a small voice, despite not having an actual voice at all. Hey, speaking of him, it looks like you might need to rescue him too.

"Don't try changing the-oh, forget it!" Russel threw his hands up in the air in frustration. "I don't have time to fight with you." He sighed, remembering the images he had seen of 2D and Murdoc being held captive by that cyborg "Noodle." It looked like they were in as much trouble as the real Noodle was, but…

He couldn't be in two places at once. And he knew where Noodle was, while he didn't have the foggiest idea where the cyborg was taking the other two. "Graveyard House" didn't exactly ring any bells in his memory. And besides….it served the two of them right, trying to replace their beloved Noodle with a robot. Their little replacement had turned around and bit them in the a**, and Russel didn't have much sympathy. They could sit there and sweat for a while. He would rescue Noodle first and then try to find them after that. It was the best he could do.

"I'll have to look for 2D and Muds later," he told Del. "Right now, I've gotta go find Noodle. Keep quiet and don't make trouble," he told the ghost sternly. "I'll deal with you when this is all over."

Deal with me? asked Del hesitantly. What, you want to get rid of me? So soon?

Russel sighed. "Del…." How could he explain this to his friend without hurting his feelings? "Del, you shouldn't have possessed me without my permission."

Hey, you needed my help to close that portal, Del protested. You'd be demon food right now if I hadn't intervened. Besides, this way I was able to show you where Noodle was. Hell, I even tried to tell you what that creepy thing watching her was, though the demons were so damn loud I had to use the board to do it. Must have ******** up though, because I missed all the letters.

"You…it still wasn't…" He hated the fact that Del had a point. He didn't want the ghost to be right. "Del…this wasn't what-"

Spare me, he heard the ghost snap at him. I can hear what you're thinking, you know. You don't want me here. I thought you'd be happy to have me back, but apparently, I'm nothing but a bother, right?

"No Del, it's not like that!" he told his friend. "It's just…you don't know what this did to me last time! I can't-"

******** you.

"Huh?" Russel was taken aback. "Del, c'mon man. Don't be that way."

No answer.

"Del?" he asked again.

Nothing.

Russel stood there awkwardly on the beach, feeling guilty. Del had helped him find Noodle and helped save him from the demons, and Russel had repaid him by insulting him. He still thought Del had been wrong to possess him, but perhaps he could have chosen his words a bit more carefully.

Russel snorted. It was hard to "choose your words carefully" when the person you were talking to had access to your uncensored thoughts. Technically, this was Del's fault for listening in on things he shouldn't.

Still, he had hurt his friend's feelings, and he did want to make things right. But at this moment, he didn't have time to deal with the ghost's pouting. He still had a job to do.

"Del?" he said again, knowing he wouldn't get an answer. "I'm really sorry I pissed you off. I wasn't trying to. If you want to try and work it out, I promise I'll be listening."

And with that, he headed off to refuel and restock one of the subs before heading back to Point Nemo.