Or, rather, every library should have one.

An incredibly huge library like the NYPL should have an incredible ghost.
Krisz felt like it was his sacred mission to become that ghost.

Also, he still did not have anywhere to live in his physical form, and if you have to float and hover, you might as well float and hover in a place of interest. For a writer, that was definitely the library.

No card, no entrance, no closing hours.

The only thing that ruined the fun was him being intangible; he could only read what people were reading, or what was left open on a desk.
One would not believe the kind of crap people come to the library to read...

But, every once in a while, something interesting turns up.

The low humming that was Krisztián going about his business around the reading roon, browsing for an open page, suddently truned into a faint whisper.

"You. Are the girl from the calendars."

The Library was the perfect place to go for a little escape. Isabel hadn't been for a long time and figured it was as good a time as any to fix that. She was normally content with the library that the Sanctuary housed, but she didn't exactly feel like hanging around her home for the time being. Especially with a certain bald jackass having made himself at home there again.

She didn't pay any attention to the librarians or the quiet individuals milling through the stacks or settled in to read. Shed never caused any issues for the Library, so she didn't see any reason for them to go out of their way to hoist her back out onto the street. They could call the cops if they so desired, but why ruin the peace and quiet such establishments were known for?

There wasn't anything in particular she was looking for in the stacks, so she simply grabbed one of the first books in the first aisle she happened to duck down on her way to the reading area. Flopping into one of the more comfortable looking vacant seats, she flipped the book open to a random page and scanned the words of what appeared to be information on Ancient Greece.

She was flipping listlessly through the large number of pages, occasionally pausing to read about this or that god or some battle or other when someone apparently decided it was a good idea to bother her.

She'd noticed a few people in the roomy reading area giving her strange looks as she passed and often giving her a wide berth. A few even got up and left entirely, presumably to find another nook to settle down in. There was always some bold individual here and there that decided to comment to her in passing. Not many dared to reference her appearance in the horrible pictures that were floating around all over the place with renewed vigor thanks to a certain news station.

"You obviously have some kind of death wish if-" she began, glancing up from her book only to be left looking around in confusion. No one seemed to have moved close enough to have issued the close whisper she'd heard. But if the few people left in the area hadn't moved, then who could have spoken to her?

>>"You obviously have some kind of death wish if-"

Oh-ho. Feisty. She really was the girl from the calendars, and she had just the voice Krisz imagined she would. She was also reading about ancient Greece, which usually makes a girl worth a conversation. The world is so sadly low on well educated criminals...

"Nah, not specifically." he whispered, shifting around her "Sorry if I sounded rude. You are just... very interesting. In a non-creepy, purely intellectual way."

Nerd ghosts. No body, still not good with women.

Well, at least Isabel knew she wasn't hearing things. Or at least, she really hoped she wasn't because having a conversation with yourself generally wasn't a good sign. Especially when the voice replying seemed to have a mind of its own. Or moved. There was definitely something odd going on.

She crossed her arms and slumped back in her chair as the whispering voice addressed her again. Damn right she was interesting, but she hardly thought he really meant intellectually. If the voice was a he. There seemed to be a masculine hint to the hushed tones. In any case, it wasn't so likely that this disembodied voice was very interested in her brains if the first thing that had been brought up was those damn calendars.

"Uh-huh. Sure. 'Non-creepy' says the voice sneaking up on people in the library," she said, rolling her eyes. She wondered if this guy picked on all the people trying to sit and read a book. "Nice try, Casper."

>y"Uh-huh. Sure. 'Non-creepy' says the voice sneaking up on people in the library. Nice try, Casper."

She was not impressed. Krisz was never one who tired to impress people in person; he had his writing to do that. Still, ever since he had been a mutant, he kind of found himself expecting some appreciation from people at the hearing of a voice without a body.

"Yeah, by all means, please go ahead and pick on the disabled" he snorted "Just because I don't have a body I must be a cartoon ghost, right? Because we all look alike?"

Americans. Had that one coming. Krisz found himself chuckling at his own wit.

"I was just admiring your intellect" he admitted "Most people would just use that book to weigh something down. Even though it is full of interesting stuff, you see?..."

Especially from his point of view. Over her shoulders.

Disabled. Isabel gave a dismissive sound in response to that one. How could a voice possibly be disabled? Aside from the whole not-having-a-body thing that he mentioned. That cartoon character seemed to do just fine without one, as did his three prankster relatives. Like she was going to feel sorry for some whisper interrupting her quiet time. Pft.

"Well, seeing as you haven't done anything but talk at me from here or there, then I'd say I'm perfectly in the right to imagine you however I want," she countered, uncrossing her arms long enough to flip to another random page and scan the words printed on the paper.

And there he went again insisting that he was admiring her from her smarts, rather than the pictures he recognized her from. She remained skeptical. The majority of the attention she'd been getting outside of her well-known killing sprees was crude and less than flattering in her mind. No one was going to talk to her just because she picked up a book.

"Random chance," she stated, referring to her choice in reading material. It was interesting and all, but she hadn't made the trip just to look up Ancient Greece. "I mean, I like mythology, and the battles are interesting enough, but I'm not gonna go out of my way to research this stuff.

She ducked instinctively as the voice hovered a bit too close to her ear for comfort. Even if he didn't have a body, he didn't need to be getting that close to her. Irritably she swatted at the air in the area she assumed the voice was centered. It might not do anything, but she figured it couldn't hurt. "I don't like people with bodies reading over my shoulder, nevermind weird voices."

>>"Well, seeing as you haven't done anything but talk at me from here or there, then I'd say I'm perfectly in the right to imagine you however I want,"

"I am afraid I will not be able to live up to those expectations" muttered the voice above her "In my experience women always picture me taller than I am. And more masculine. And much more socially adept. Charming, is the word."
Which he was not.

>>"Random chance. I mean, I like mythology, and the battles are interesting enough, but I'm not gonna go out of my way to research this stuff."

"Well, you should. Common cultural heritage and all that. Our civilization... well, ours too, and yours as well, is based on these pages. That is where is all began..."

>> "I don't like people with bodies reading over my shoulder, nevermind weird voices."

"My voice is not weird" Krisz protested "It is perfectly normal for a guy my age. It just seems weird because it hasno body attached. And since when women are not afraid of ghosts? Why should a decent writer bust his butt trying to write horror if people don't even have the decency to be afraid of anything anymore?" he sighed "Take you, for example. What are you afraid of?"

Isabel gave a shrug. She didn't particularly care what other women thought of voices buzzing around their heads. She was more interested in the hinting that he actually did have a body, at least sometimes. "So short, less-than-masculine, not so good socially. Sounds enough like Casper to me. Though I don't remember him making a habit out of harassing young women." At the rate they were going maybe she'd be able to goad him into a more physical form.

She shrugged again. Civilization, culture, blah,blah, blah. She was more interested in learning about what the ancient people called Gods. Unless they really were just inventions, it was very likely that they could have been mutants way back when that were revered as higher beings at a time where mutant genetics weren't understood. She could live in a world like that easy.

"Voice with no body. Yeah. That's weird enough," she replied. If he was going to bother her, she could throw it right back at him.

"Casper, I've probably created more horrors than you have. I just don't use a pen. It's hard to be afraid of something like a voice when I'm a thing of nightmares myself." She shuddered to think of what other kinds of dreams she was a part of now as well. She'd be working to fix that.

"I'm not afraid of anything," she replied confidently. She was, of course, lying. Everyone was afraid of something, herself included. She wasn't about to tell him that, though.

>>"So short, less-than-masculine, not so good socially. Sounds enough like Casper to me. Though I don't remember him making a habit out of harassing young women."

"Ouch. You wound me." Krisz sighed dramatically, backing away from her for the sake of limited theatrics "Oh wait. You can't."

Mina could. Bless her heart.

>>"Voice with no body. Yeah. That's weird enough,"

Try being one, Krisz thought, and hummed to himself.

>>"Casper, I've probably created more horrors than you have. I just don't use a pen. It's hard to be afraid of something like a voice when I'm a thing of nightmares myself. I'm not afraid of anything,"

"Oh-ho, now, there we go." Krisz found himself more and more cheeky every day he spent as a ghost. Being untouchable does that to a person. "See, that's the thing about good characters. If you do use a pen, you know that the main hero and villain cannot be completely fearless. Sure there is always one great fear, like losing a loved one, or, water for that witch, but if you really, really want to create a good character, it's all about the small deatails. Untouchable heroes are never as fun as the ones with the small quirks, you know? Like, spiders. You can be afraid of spiders. Or rats. Or, you know, snakes. Indiana Jones, see?... Some people are afraid of clowns, did you know that?..."

"Slip into a body and you'll see much damage I can do," she mumbled, flipping the book back to the Index page to see if anything in particular caught her eye. Ignoring him wasn't likely to do any good, particularly when the book was starting to bore her, but she could try. At least the annoying little buzzer seemed to have backed off a bit.

She gave a sigh and an irritated look to the room in general. It was hard to glare at someone you couldn't see. The guy just wouldn't shut up. A library was supposed to be a quiet place. Unfortunately you couldn't really throw a voice out, so she was likely the one that'd be tossed if too many people complained. For the time being she was counting on her reputation to keep people from bothering her.

"Well I don't use a pen, like I've said, so I don't really care if I make an fun character," she replied, giving another sigh and flipping the book closed. None of the words on the pages were really sinking in anymore with that buzzing in her ear. "Not a whole lot that can scare me after I've seen so many peoples' insides."

>>"Slip into a body and you'll see much damage I can do,"

Oh. He heard that. His hearing was generally very good. Especially when he was a ghost, which he was, right now, and very grateful for it too. Krisz whistled.

"Thanks, but no thanks. As they say."

>>"Well I don't use a pen, like I've said, so I don't really care if I make an fun character. Not a whole lot that can scare me after I've seen so many peoples' insides."

"Ew." Krisz commented from the bottom of his invisible heart "Yes, I can see why that would be a problem. So insides obviously do not gross you out. Oh well. Even though a killer who is afraid of blood, that would be quite unique... nah, they've already done that in some anime... Japanese, huh? Anyways. You really are an interesting person, you know that? Quite the strong female character. Shouldn't you be hiding from the cops or something?...."

Isabel arched a brow and drummer her fingers against the book's hard cover as a whistle issued from the disembodied person that continued to pester her. He was starting to get annoying. The only thing he had managed to do in her favor was chase off whoever else had been sitting in the reading area. Not only was New York's Most Wanted lounging about, but she was also talking to thin air, and the air kept answering back. Not exactly something other people wanted to get involved in. It worked in her favor because it meant there were just that many fewer people she might have had to deal with.

"That's what I thought," she replied, giving a small semi-amused huff before getting up from her seat. Dropping her book on one of the small tables set up next to the various chairs, she then proceeded to stroll off in no particular direction. Maybe she could lose the buzz somewhere in the stacks. "All talk."

She couldn't help but smirk as the voice uttered a sound of distress over her little mention of innards. Perhaps if she kept on that track she could sufficiently gross him out enough to cause him to buzz off and pester someone else.

Of course those hopes were quickly dashed as he launched back into his chatter about characters again, as if she they were subjects of some book. Her ego wasn't above the slight fluffing that came with his comment about her being interesting, but she wasn't about to let something like that go to her head. If she gave him an inch, she was sure he'd talk her ear off.

"I don't hide from the cops," she stated, very matter-of-fact, almost as if she was telling him the time. "If the cops were smarter, they'd spend more time hiding from me instead of trying to fit me with a pair of handcuffs. I am the resident cop killer, after all."

>>"That's what I thought. All talk."

"Guilty as charged." Krisz agreed cheerfully. How often do you get to say phrases like that? They sound badass on TV, but you don't get many opportunities to use them in real life. As a man of words (literally), he appreciated life's small pleasures. Such as, having a civil(ish) conversation with a known serial killer. A pretty one, too.

>>"I don't hide from the cops. If the cops were smarter, they'd spend more time hiding from me instead of trying to fit me with a pair of handcuffs. I am the resident cop killer, after all."

"Ooh. Badass." Krisz remarked in his own cheerful way. He was not a fan of cop killers or anything. He just appreciated a good character when he saw one. And he was not about to give up his chance to study one so uniqe as her, in real life. She was clearly not bothered by saying stuff like that, even in a public place.

"Aren't you afraid that I would tell the cops where you are? Or, you know. I could be a cop too. You might kill some, but I am sure there is a way to bring you down. There is always a way. Should you be so careless as to say things like that to a person you cannot even see?"

All questions, of course, vere purely hypothetical.

Badass was an understatement, clearly. A serial cop killer known and feared throughout New York City, and perhaps even further, was the top dog in the badass pile. At least, in Isabel's humble opinion it was. Her reputation had only taken a few short years to reach its current levels, and she was quite proud of that fact, as well as of the reputation itself. For as long as she could remember, she'd always preferred to be feared than loved, at least in most situations, and she was achieving it spectacularly.

This opinion nearly caused her to laugh when the voice in her ear chimed in again asking about her lack of caution concerning certain conversational points. She repressed the urge, instead opting for an amused grin in its stead, despite the irritation that still simmered beneath the momentary amusement with her uninvited guest.

"You think the cops don't already have some idea of where I live, and have for years? They're dumb, but not quite that dumb," she replied, turning down another aisle and dragging a nail across the bindings of the books on one of the shelves as she went. "As I said, they don't scare me. Neither do you. I'm sure they get calls from whistle-blowers all the time. Sometimes it's just not worth it to lose half a department over some stolen goods or some decapitated bum. I don't care who sees me or who I talk to. No one can keep me in a pair of cuffs for very long, if they manage it at all. Certainly not someone that doesn't even have a body to back up his threats."

>>"You think the cops don't already have some idea of where I live, and have for years? They're dumb, but not quite that dumb. As I said, they don't scare me. Neither do you. I'm sure they get calls from whistle-blowers all the time. Sometimes it's just not worth it to lose half a department over some stolen goods or some decapitated bum. I don't care who sees me or who I talk to. No one can keep me in a pair of cuffs for very long, if they manage it at all. Certainly not someone that doesn't even have a body to back up his threats."

"Maybe" Krisz was having the time of his life with this conversation "Or maybe I am dangerous because I don't have a body. Because you can't hurt me, you see? I can follow you around without you even knowing it and you can't do anything about that. I mean, there are people who can, but you are not one of them. Even though you are a mutant. Because you clearly are a mutant. That is why the police cannot contain you, right? I wonder if they have some special team in the making for that. Obviously whatever they have cannot match your powers. That is what makes you a supervillain."

Well, that, and the hotness. But he was not going to say that out loud.