The three stare at the woman in confusion for a few seconds. Belle didn't know what to expect, but a ghost approaching them like this was certainly a new experience. The ghost woman was staring at them patiently, with a small smile.
"Er, are we supposed to help her?" Leslie leans over and whispers in Belle's ear.
"I think so, something about helping them remember their regrets?" Belle whispers back.
"Ugh, this is so annoying I wish I could just exorcise this whole damn bus," Avery mutters darkly. Both Belle and Leslie turn to her and give her a deadpan stare. She turns to them and startles, her face going red.
"W-what, it would make it easier!" She hastily explains.
"Why can't you exorcise them?" Belle asks.
"Ahem…because not every spirit is evil the higher-ups forbid us from going all-out till we can figure out what's going on." She answers.
"Right, then do we have any ideas on how to figure out what to do?" Leslie cuts in. Belle goes silent, trying to think of an answer. Avery and Leslie seem to be equally stuck, and that's when an idea hits Belle. He recently acquired a new ability from the system for completing the Charlie Charlie side mission.
[Empathy]
[Are spirits not deserving of empathy? With this ability, you can relive the ghost's memories directly before dying, with this you may find out a clue on how to defeat them. You can use it as many times as you wish…but beware of your mental state. Choose two targets to use this ability.]
"I think I have a way, " He says out loud, reading through the ability again. It doesn't sound too pleasant; a ghost's last memories couldn't be anything other than when they died.
"What is it?" Leslie questions. Avery doesn't say a word but she turns to watch them with interest.
"No idea, let's see." Belle smiles mysteriously before using the ability. Choosing himself and the ghost woman in front of him. Before he knew it, the world was tilting in place. When he opened his eyes again, his body felt weird. It wasn't his, and he couldn't control his actions, like watching through a screen.
He was standing in an apartment, using a knife to cut up some vegetables and placing them in a pot of boiling water. The doorbell rang, and a feeling like happiness…. or apprehension—welled up in him, without control. These must have been the feelings of the woman at that moment. She turned down the heat on the pot and set down her knife, walking over to the door and opening it.
The man standing there is older, with a beard and greased-back black hair. There's a new feeling in his chest, something akin to disappointment. The man doesn't wait for an answer before stepping into the apartment.
"W-what are doing here? I want you to leave!" The woman shouts. Feelings of anger and grief swirl around and Belle is almost overwhelmed by it all.
"Not until you tell me where you're hiding him, you bitch!" The man curses.
"No! He's not your son!" She yells out. The argument continues as the man strides into the kitchen, furiously looking about for something. The woman follows him in, grabbing at his arm and trying to make him leave.
"We already talked about this in court, he's not your son, you can't take him! He's not here anyway!" She tries to get the man to leave.
"I don't believe you…you're always hiding things from me." The man mutters.
"I'm telling the truth, if you don't leave I'll be forced to call the police!" She cries out. She turns around to look for the phone, and at that moment her shoulder is grabbed and she's turned around, Belle feels a sharp pain in his stomach. They look down to see a knife sticking out, the blood pooling through her shirt. As she falls to the floor the man starts panicking and Belle can see him leave the room. The last thought in her mind before she slips into darkness is 'I wish I could see my son one last time…'
When Belle opens his eyes again, Leslie is right in front of his face shaking him, as he blankly glances around he notices his friend reaching his hand back.
"What are you doing?" He quickly asks.
"Oh, thank goodness, you just passed out for a minute. I didn't know what to do!" He explains.
"You were about to slap me, weren't you…" Belle narrows his eyes as he stares at Leslie.
"Uhh…uhm…it was her idea." Leslie hurriedly points to Avery, sweat running down his face.
"What!?" She squawks in outrage.
"Whatever, I just found out our client's last regret," Belle smirks, interrupting the two before they start fighting.
"Wha!? Really!?" They both exclaim.
"Ma'am, I can help you, your question is about something you forgot, correct?" He ignores the two and approaches the woman.
"Why, yes, how did you know?" She blinks back in confusion.
"I have my sources, I believe that your last regret was that you didn't get to see your son before you died." He tells her.
"That…yes, that sounds correct, thank you very much." She eagerly grabs his hands and shakes them up and down. Tears are pricking the edges of her eyes and Belle can't help the soft smile that comes to his face as he watches her.
"Now reaching the stop, all passengers for this stop please get off the bus!" The bus driver shouts. The woman turns and glances at the stop, her face scrunching up in surprise.
"Ah, this is my stop, thank you very much, young man, I appreciate your help." She thanks him as she leaves. Belle watches outside to see if she made it off the bus, only to see her disappear as soon as she steps foot outside.
"How did you do that?" When Belle turns back Avery is up in his face.
"Do what?" He asks innocently.
"You know what I'm talking about." She replies as the bus starts up again. Before Belle can answer another passenger approaches them. This one is a man with dyed yellow hair and tattoos up his arms, there are no visible injuries and he seems to be fidgeting.
"You…I was told you would help me." He tells them.
"So, what did you do?" Avery promptly ignores him, turning back to Belle.
"If you want to know that bad, here you go." He smiles cryptically, choosing the two targets as Avery and the young man. He watches curiously as she's glaring at him one moment, and unconscious against the seat in the next.
"Ah, what did you do?" Leslie questions, glancing at her worriedly.
"Nothing much…" Belle answers.