▌Chapter 8 ─ George Is Possessed By Tiffany ▌
▌Part 1 ─ Season 1 ─ Episode 5 ─ The Case of the Wayward Spirit ▌

━━━━━ ALORA SAT IN her room looking at the picture of Karen and Lucy Sable. Nancy had sent it to her after they had gotten back home. Her book was out, a pen rested in her hand as she wrote down what she was thinking.

"Lucy Sable and Karen Hart. Friends. The girl who became the ghosts haunting me and Nancy, and the detective who lied about ever knowing her. Dead Lucy wanted us to find this photo. Which means we have to talk to the one person we'd rather avoid to find out why."

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Alora and Nancy climbed out of the blue car, the two then walked towards the police station heading into the building. They turned the corner, hoping to find Karen.

"Morning, Nancy, Alora. How can I help you two?" Officer Rawley asked them.

"We're just here to see Karen." Nancy answered.

"She's not in right now."

"Okay, we'll just leave a note on her desk." Alora told him.

"You can't go in." Alora and Nancy turned their heads slightly. "New policy. Chief wants to keep our new investigation free of civilian interference. Sorry."

"New investigation." The twins said.

"Is McGinnis considering it a homicide because of what our father said at the press conference? About Tiffany's autopsy report being compromised? Because we would be happy to convey any details about the investigation to him while he's away in Boston on business." Nancy said.

"You know I can't talk about an ongoing investigation."

"Officer Rawley. Do you remember how Nancy and I found your grandma's lost jewelry collection? You owe us."

"You've been playing that card with me since you both were in eighth grade." Both Alora and Nancy's phone started to buzz. Alora pulled hers out to look at the text messages that popped up on the screen.

"No..."

"It's-it's nothing personal." The two turned around and walked out of the police station. Alora walked towards the passenger side of the car and climbed in. Nancy turned the car in and drove to the Claw.

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When the two arrived at their place of work they both got out and headed towards the front door. Nancy was the first to walk in followed by Alora who watched Ace walk into the main area.

"Coming in." Ace said he adjusted the mop.

"Where's George?" Nancy asked, the two looked back towards the office causing the twins to look towards the office for a brief moment. Then they placed their eyes back on Bess and Ace.

"She was chopping celery for potato salad. She cut her hand pretty bad." Ace explained.

"Yeah." Bess exhaled.

"I went and offered her the first aid kit, and then she kind of just sat there, staring, for a long time."

"Yeah."

"Bleeding. Then she went to her office and locked herself inside." Both Nancy and Alora walked away from the two heading towards George's office. Nancy knocked on the door when they got closer to it.

"Hey, George?" Nancy called out. From the other side George started to grunt loudly. The twins exchanged a serious sibling look with each other. Nancy went to turn the door knob. "George?" The two then pushed themselves into the door.

"George, open the door!" Alora shouted. The two continued to hit the door until they finally got it up. When they made it into the room they looked to see George on the floor. Bess and Ace came in behind them shortly after.

"Oh." Bess said, with shock on her face. Nancy proceeded to walk closer to her. "What is she doing?" Bess asked the twins. Nancy picked up the picture and pulled it back towards the three so they could look at it as well.

"Yeah, it might be time to worry." Ace said.

George continued to scratch at the pictures while grunting. Concern fell onto Alora's face as she looked at the women. Eventually they were able to get George to stop what she was doing. They had gotten her out of the office and she was sitting at the booth while Ace, Bess, Nancy and Alora tried to figure out what was going on.

"Could be stress. Last-minute catering this big, fancy event." Ace mentioned.

"What? No, this isn't stress." Bess told him.

"What else could it be?"

"I don't know. Maybe something supernatural?"

"Right, because that's the go-to explanation." Nancy said, briefly taking her eyes of George to look at Bess.

"Yeah. Around here, it can be."

"Let's just consider the possibility. What kind of supernatural thing could make her act like that?"

"Ooh! She put the ring on Tiffany's body."

"Did something go wrong with the ritual?" Ace asked. Nancy and Alora looked at him. "Bess filled me in on what you guys did at the funeral. We're platanchors now, so she tells me things." Bess nodded her head in agreement. "When you're not around."

"What could've gone wrong?" Alora asked, looking at Bess. "She returned the ring, Tiffany's coffin went into the ground..."

"And she was supposed to leave the mirror on her heart so the spirit would know where to stay."

"But we would verify that that did or did not happen how?"

"Ooh! Let's check George's locker. We know you're good at that." Bess pointed at the twins, neither of them could deny that she was wrong about it. "Come on."

The two followed Bess towards the lockers and Nancy went to unlock George's locker. Nancy proceeded to pick through the bag until she had found what she was looking for. Bess proceeded to gasp when Nancy pulled the mirror out.

"I knew it." She said, taking the mirror from Nancy's hand and looking at Nancy and Alora.

"Let's think this through logically." Nancy told her.

"Hello? I am being logical. Mirror equals botched ritual. Therefore, George is possessed." The three walked out of the locker room, Alora placed her eyes on George who stood up from the booth. George walked over to the table not far from the booth, it had a newspaper on it. She slammed her hand onto the newspaper and proceeded to try and crumble it.

"What's she doing?" Nancy asked, as her and Alora walked forward.

"She's moving. It gets freaky when she starts moving." Ace explained.

"Everything okay, George?" Nick asked, looking at her.

"No, no, no, no, no, no." Bess moved in between everyone coming to a stop behind the table and next to George, she then held the mirror up. "She's possessed by Tiffany."

"No, that's not possible." Nick said.

George snatched the mirror from Bess. "Ooh." Nancy lifted her phone up and proceeded to take a picture. "What are you doing?" Bess questioned.

"Okay, let's just go with the idea for a second that this is Tiffany. So she kept scratching out George's face in all those photos." Nancy said.

"So you want to show her she is George." Ace said.

"You know how crazy this sounds, right?" Nick proceeded to ask her. Nancy proceeded to turn her phone towards George, who looked at the picture. Not long after that George started to come back.

"Oh." She breathed out, soon falling backwards.

"Whoa, whoa, be careful, be careful." Bess called out, as Nancy and Bess reached for her.

"Ooh, she didn't like that." Ace said, while Alora looked at him. "That's a good call, Nancy." George lifted her hand too her head, soon she looked around at everyone.

"Why is nobody working?" She questioned. "We have a party to cater. Go hug a fryer, now!" George ordered, looking at Ace, and then Bess. No one moved, they just stared at her. George then looked down at her hand. "What is going on?"

"You're possessed. By Tiffany."

"A subtle way to put it." Alora said, looking away.

"Okay. I think we all need to calm down." Nick said.

"No, it's for real." Ace walked away and grabbed the picture from the table, he then took it over to George and held it out to her. "When she was you, this is what she did."

"Bitch."

"Bad news: Tiffany doesn't like you. The good news is Tiffany's dead, so..." Nick leaned back slightly, raising his eyebrows and crossing his hands over his chest. Ace, Alora, and Nancy looked at him. "I'm sorry, Nick." He then looked back at George. "The other bad news is that Tiffany's spirit has been hitching a ride in your body. Intermittently."

George proceeded to throw the picture onto the table. "I think we should take you home." Nancy said.

"Good news: we can ask your mom all about it." Bess said George did not seem to be happy about it.

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"The house of Fan, where George is the breadwinner and the real adult. Her sisters all have different dads, none of whom stuck around." Nancy sat next to George who sat in the couch. Alora stood next to Bess. Victoria walked into the room and sat down in the chair across from them.

"Turn that down." She said, "your sister's fighting off a ghost."

"Can I see?" Ted asked, peaking around from the curtain.

"No, Ted." George spoke, turning to look at her little sister. "Help Jesse braid her hair." She sighed and walked away from them.

"So, you had contact with Tiffany's spirit when you returned her ring to her. What happened? Did you mess up the ritual?" Victoria asked her daughter.

"Yeah. She forgot the mirror." Bess answered.

"You forgot the m... It's a two-step ritual. How do you forget step two?"

"I was under a lot of pressure, okay?" George told her mother.

"You were dealing with a brand-new ghost. They are the most dangerous because they're looking for a body to inhabit."

"So I'm possessed. Of course. Why can't this stuff happen to Bess? At least she'd actually enjoy it."

"Hey! Possession is not a joke."

"Ted."

"Ted! Come on." George then turned to look at Nancy.

"We don't have time for this." She said.

"George." The twins called out. Nancy grabbed her shoulder stopping her from getting up.

"Can you answer your mom's questions?" Nancy proceeded to ask her. "You're blacking out, you're hurting yourself."

"You could end up hurting your little sisters." Victoria proceeded to inhale. "Okay. In order for me to help you, I need to have the full picture."

"Oh, the picture. Yeah. I have it." Bess said, as she pulled the picture out of her bag and walked around Alora to hand it over to Victoria. She then sat down next to George while Alora sat on the edge next to Bess.

"Thank you. Whoa. This spirit hates you, like, really hates you. She can't stand your face. Why does she hate you so much?" George looked down.

"Hey, Bess, Can we have a second?" Alora asked, looking at the women.

"No, I-it's fine." George placed her eyes on Bess, then looked at her mother. Alora could tell that she didn't want to say the next set of words but she had to. "I had an affair with Tiffany's husband." "It's over..."

"You had an affair with a married man? Ooh, and so much older than you? How could you make such a mistake?"

"I don't know. Genetics?" George remarked.

"Hey."

"And I don't want to talk about it, okay?"

"No. Totally, totally. And BTDubs, no judgment."

Alora watched Victoria stand up from the chair. "This is worse than I thought because this spirit has a reason to hate you. And soon, she's gonna be strong enough to devour your qi, your life force. And then what happens?"

"And then what happens?" Nancy asked her.

"Then, Tiffany is gonna take up permanent residence in George's body and George will be gone, forever." Everyone seemed to exchange a look with each other. Victoria walked to another portion of the house and began mixing things together for George. Bess was right behind the mother watching her mix the herbs.

"So, what are these herbs for?" Bess questioned the clairvoyance.

"Tea. To build up George's yang. It'll keep Tiffany's spirit down for now." Victoria explained to the three.

"How long does 'for now' last?" Nancy asked, as she paced back and forth.

"I don't know. Days? Hours? It's tough to say. I've never dealt with a possession before. But the longer Tiffany's spirit is in George's body, the stronger she'll become. She'll regain her memories..."

"Wait. Including memories form the night she died?" Victoria shrugged her shoulders. "Because if that's the case, I can ask her what happened."

"No. That's pretty insensitive, don't you think?" Bess asked, placing her eyes on Nancy.

"We're trying to solve her murder. How is that insensitive?" Alora questioned her in return.

"Talking to Tiffany will take up time we don't have."

"You can barely manage a trip to the grocery store." George said, walking into the room and the conversation. "What makes you think you know anything about possession?"

"I have aunties in China who've told me stories. I can ask them what to do." Bess hovered over Victoria watching her closely as she poured steaming water into the cup. "In the meantime, drink. Here." She walked over to her and handed her the cup. George then sniffed it.

"What the hell's in this? Dried poop?"

"No, drink, drink. Come on. Let's think of your yang." Bess said, as George drank the tea.

"I hate the way that sounds when you say it."

"Okay, what do we do next?" Nancy asked, looking towards Victoria.

"Ooh, we could tie her to a chair. I've seen that."

"No. Stress allows the spirit to come out. George needs to be relaxed."

"You know what relaxes me? Money. We have a huge catering gig today."

"Charlie hides money under her bed."

"Don't you dare touch that. She's saving up for BTS. I'll meet you at the country club."

"I asked Nick to fill in for me. I thought I could stay with Victoria to work on our plan." Bess told the three.

Victoria turned to look at her. "You are a nice girl."

"Thank you."

"In the meantime, keep George calm and call me the second Tiffany's spirit tries to come out."

"Yeah, we can work with that." Nancy replied.

"You can trust us with your life."