[h2]Jeremy[/h2]

In one wing of the abandoned apartment, the dusty silence that hung around the once occupied rooms was broken by desperate footsteps. A young boy sprinted down the hall, panting heavily. From fear, or exhertion, or both, it was difficult to tell. He skidded to a stop in front of a wall, rounding the corner and sprinting off again. Ignoring the boundaries of humanity, 3 pale-faced spirits appeared from the wall, chasing him relentlessly. That boy was Jeremy, and as he ran away from the phantoms that hunted him, he wondered what had led him here.

Truth be told, he didn't want to be here. While it was embarassing to admit for a boy his age, he was afraid of ghosts. A rational fear, he often argued, though those he argued with often disagreed. In any case, he was here. Why? Because of money. When he had arrived in Rhea, his parents had said they would take care of his expenses. And they did, and they wouldn't tell him how much it all cost. But it was obvious, to him, to all the others. He didn't complain when they gave him a secondhand uniform, not when he put it on and found that it was a size too large, and that it was patchy, and had holes in the blazer. He took it and wore it, like they wanted him to. Like a good boy.

But then it had occurred to him, would a good boy simply take what is given to him? In his opinion (he had a good many of these but did not often think to put words to them), a truly good boy ought to fix his own issues. If he saw a wrong, surely he should... Well, putting it right would be an overestimation of his abilities. But he should do something about it, surely? It was then that one of his new friends, Ken, came to him with a suggestion to tackle a bounty together...

"Woah!" Jeremy exclaimed, suddenly stumbling on a protruding floorboard - [i]Floorboards? Where did the carpet go?[/i]
It had seemed that, in his musings, he had left the area he had hallways he had previously been in. 
"SHI-" The boy caught himself. "Shoot." 
Good boys don't swear. In his mind, he cursed that damnable wizard hat that sat unmoveably on his head, mockingly cutting his peripheral vision in half, causing him to stumble. His mind retorted, saying that the half that was cut off was not where the issue lay. Still, the change in flooring wasn't necessarily a bad thing. He and Ken had entered together, early in the morning. But after watching Ken cut ghosts with his sword he had been strangely excited, and had quietly separated from him to try his luck at ghost catching. His adventure had made him terribly lost, but he hadn't gone out too far, and he was starting to recognise the walls around him -

His vision brightened all of a sudden and he found himself running into a familiar area. It seemed to have been an old lounge room, and Ken had been fighting ghosts here just a minute ago. Jeremy skidded to a stop and turned to face the ghosts as they emerged from the walls. There was plenty of space here to make a stand, and his impromptu flashback had rekindled his motivation. He was no longer a boy, Jeremy was a teenager. A [i]man[/i]. It was time to stand up for himself, to unleash his talents. Pointing dramatically at the closest ghost.
"Fork the Tender!" He yelled.
He could feel an unknown force building in his finger, quickly shooting out towards the apparition and grabbing hold. With a smirk, Jeremy shoved his finger forward, willing the phantom to go away. The ghost... ignored his gesture and continued towards him.
"Argh, come on!" Jeremy screamed as he began running again.

As he ran down the hall, he began thinking of his options. He couldn't keep running forever, but he knew he wasn't going to able to kill these ghosts by himself. That meant finding Ken, and fortunately for him, he could see telltale slash marks from the hall he was going down. Ken had probably been down this way. Unfortunately, however, his stamina was flagging, and he had no idea if he would even make it to Ken in time.

Jeremy came to a straight stretch of the hallway. Now was as good a place as any to try his other powers - just because one didn't work, that didn't mean the rest wouldn't, right? Still running forward, the boy turned his head to look behind him. He saw a single ghost hot on his heels. He could only hope the other 2 had given up, or were otherwise indisposed. He pointed to one and yelled the magic words.
"Put on the Tuxedo!"
A Tuxedo fixed itself onto one of the floating apparitions, garbing it in a rather large and uncomfortable looking dresh shirt and blazer. 
"All right!"
The boy couldn't help whooping with delight at one of his spells actually working, but the self-satisfied grin on his face quickly turned into a horrified expression as the dapper ghost continued its flight, unimpeded by the ill-fitting suit. Of course, ghosts didn't need their legs or arms to move.

The boy sprinted up a flight of stairs, 2 at a time, and stopped at the top to catch his breath, looking back as he did. He pointed at the first ghost he saw, the one he had put the tuxedo onto, and yelled.
"Pause the DVD!"
To his surprise, it worked, and the ghost froze in place. Jeremy pumped his fist excitedly.
"Yes!" He shouted, revelling in victory, just before the other 2 ghosts appeared from the walls, floating over the steps towards him.
Ah yes, there were 3 ghosts after all.

Jeremy ran, pausing occassionally to pause the ghosts behind him. But he was running out of breath, and running low on stamina. Fortunately, he soon saw a familiar silhouette in front of him. Using the last of his energy, the boy yelled one more time.
"KEEEEN! HELP ME!" He shouted, before tripping on the carpet. "Ah!"
He fell face first onto the floor, kicking up a cloud of dust on impact.

[@Letter Bee]