Sal Fisher

Sal was an adventurous teenage boy. He seemed to be resourceful and had the ability to keep his cool during stressful situations, as seen through his interactions with ghosts. He came off as friendly and polite regardless of rude or frightened responses he may get from people who are reacting to his prosthetic and was openly affectionate of his friends. Sal frequently offered a listening ear or kind word to others, even to those who have been unfriendly to him, as evidenced in "The Bologna Incident" when he comforted a crying Travis in the boy's bathroom. His compassion and willingness to help people regardless of their appearance or standoffish behavior was demonstrated time and again. Though he was a kind person, Sal was capable of snapping back at those who try to hurt him through the use of sarcasm.

In "The Bologna Incident", his quick wit was demonstrated in response to bullying from Travis. He did not report the resulting punch in the face from Travis, however, and he did not correct comments made towards him out of ignorance rather than malice (such as when Miss Rosenberg misgenders him), suggesting that he didn't like confrontation. He also didn't seem to approve of violence, as he protested when his friends even jokingly threatened to kill Travis for bullying Sal.

Whilst Sal is male, he doesn't seem to care how people perceive him, or about traditional gender roles, as evidenced by his traditionally feminine hairstyle, and how he didn't bother to correct Miss Rosenberg when she referred to Sal as a girl upon meeting him. In addition, upon meeting Megan for the first time, she tells him, "Pigtails are for girls, silly!" to which he responds that nobody ever said only girls could wear their hair in pigtails and that he likes the style, too.

As an adult, Sal appeared to be significantly more jaded and less trusting of others and opened himself to others with great hesitation. On August 16th 1984, the Fisher family went on a picnic to a scenic and sunny location, where a young Sal finds a dog and is eager to pet it. After some prodding, his mother allows Sal to visit the animal. However, it's revealed that the "dog" was, in fact, a man wearing a dog mask (presumably Kenneth Phelps) and wielding a shotgun. His intent was to end the boy's life due to the prophecy foretelling that a young boy would foil the Devourers Of God's plans. The boy survived the encounter but at the cost of his mother's life. For the years to come, Sal would maintain that his mother was killed by a man, not a wild animal, even if his psychiatrist and father didn't believe him.

After a fateful visit to the hospital, Sal had to adapt to a new life with his prosthetic face and internalized the nickname bullies would later give him: Sally Face. Unknown circumstances ripped the two remaining members of the Fisher family from New Jersey and into the mysterious abode of Addison Apartments Room 402.

Halfway through unpacking, Sal decided to take a break, and, after sharing his feelings about the move to his father, left to explore the complex. After meeting the lovely Lisa Johnson, Sal is introduced to Lisa's heavy metal loving son Larry Johnson, who quickly became friends with the newcomer.

After Larry confided within Sal the details of Mrs. Sanderson's murder at the hands of Charley Mansfield, the boy is quick to offer his assistance. After devising a plan of action and receiving a walkie-talkie from Larry, Sal returns to his room to await his friend's signal.

After the officers are pulled away by a fake report of a robbery, Sal enters Room 403 and witnesses the carnage committed by Mansfield, the body outline of Sanderson, and an empty space between two Glitter Ponies.

Upon returning to Larry, they decided that they had to retrieve the stolen Glitter Pony from Charley and turn it into the authorities. A quick visit to Charley's room made it clear to Sal that the collector wouldn't let him anywhere near his toys, so he had to find another way.

When visiting the fifth floor, Sal finds old laxatives in the bathroom of Room 504 and the ghost of the young Megan Holmes, but the supernatural being is too scared to speak to Sal for long. Regardless, Sal continued with his plan.

After adding the laxatives to a cup of Addison Tea, Sal managed to get Charley to abandon his watch over his beloved collection to attend to more pressing concerns in the restroom. Sal snags the toy and turns it into the Detective on the first floor. Mansfield is arrested and hauled away.

When Sal leaves the apartment to see Charley off, curiosity pulls him towards a coroner's van, where Mrs. Sanderson's decaying corpse lay, bagged, and awaiting processing. A few months into Sal's stay at Addison Apartments, he began to become plagued by nightmares. One particular dream places him at the picnic where his mother was murdered, and later shifted into Larry's shoes when he was fixing the toilet for Sandy Sanderson on the day of her demise.

After being devoured by the toilet, Sal meets the Glitter Pony he used to incriminate Charley, begging for water. When the plumbing is restored, the Glitter Pony becomes bloated, serving as a bridge for Sal to return to the "surface" to witness Mansfield murder Sanderson. A trail of bloodied footprints leads to a seated Charley Mansfield, admonishing Sal for his actions. Sal is jolted from sleep when Charley's skin peels off to reveal a coal-black demon with red eyes.

Sal confides the details of his most recent vision in Larry, who is skeptical of the whole thing. Despite this, Larry takes Sal to his tree house to tell him the story of his past. Sal immediately recognizes the Red-Eyed Demon from Larry's story (having seen it in the apartment's kitchen on his first day) and offers to help lift his "curse". After retrieving an enigmatic Puzzle Box from a trunk containing the possessions of Larry's father Jim Johnson, the two return indoors.

After a failed attempt to summon Megan Holmes from the bathroom of room 504, Larry refers Sal to Todd Morrison, the resident brainiac, and believer in the unknown. Sal, eager to show Larry that spirits do exist, doesn't hesitate to pay Todd a visit.

Upon entering Todd's apartment Room 202, Sal meets Ashley Campbell. Todd agrees to help Sal by modifying his Gear Boy to better detect supernatural activity. After cannibalizing Larry's radio antennae and Walkie Talkie, the device was ready for testing in Todd's restroom. It was here that they drew out the weeping ghost of Greg Montague who is quickly scared away by the Red-Eyed Demon.

Todd recovers from the initial shock of the supernatural occurrences and advises Sal to test it further while he does some digging into the history of the murders in Addison Apartments. Sal's tests lead to the discovery of various levels of a mysterious game throughout the apartment complex and the Phantom of Jim Johnson. Sal doesn't share any of his discoveries with his friends.

When Megan remained hidden, even with the improved tracking device, Sal returned to Todd and learned that the officers that arrested Charley were not registered in the police database and the Charley Mansfield that was arrested looked nothing like the one they knew. Additionally, old reports of Megan's corpse being found by Lake Wendigo shows pictures of the girl when she was still alive.

Sal retrieves Megan's necklace from the same lost found that held the Super Gear Boy Cartridge, brings Larry back to Room 504, and uses the Super Gear Boy and cross necklace to successfully draw out Megan Holmes.

After yet another brief interaction that revealed a friendship between Jim Johnson and Megan's father Luke Holmes, she is scared away by the demon, leaving an awestruck Larry and Sal behind. They both agreed that the apartment room warranted further investigation. Larry left Sal to retrieve a crowbar from David, a former drug addict, while he returned to care for his sick mother.

A visit inside of David's Room 302 led Sal to the discovery of the missing piece to Jim Johnson's Puzzle Box. Before returning the crowbar to Larry, Sal solved the box to discover an odd Computer Chip inside. When the chip merges with Todd's computer, the Phantom gives Sal a garbled message about a "red ball". When the vision ends, Sal finds the chip has somehow been replaced by a Rubix cube, with neither Todd nor Larry having any memory of the item.

Using the crowbar to break into Room 403, Sal conversed briefly with the spirit of the recently deceased Mrs. Sanderson, before she too was frightened away by the demon.

Returning to Room 504, Sal was finally able to enter the bedroom and summon the ghost of Stacy Holmes, who says nothing before disappearing. Further in the bedroom, Sal found a hole in the wall leading to another room. Upon entering the hole, Sal summoned the hanging ghost of Luke Holmes. When Sal attempted to speak to him, the ghost shed its skin to reveal an agitated Red-Eyed Demon. Before the demon could do anything it was removed with a special device created by Todd and used by an intervening Larry.

When the threat had clearly passed, Sal comforted a grief-stricken Larry for the "abandonment" of his father. Most of the events following the disappearance of the Red-Eyed Demon proved mostly normal for Sal, (sans the disappearance of multiple students) who had become good friends with Todd, Ashley, Chug, and Maple. Events returned to the paranormal the day Sal had a math test.

Sal, having completed his math examination well ahead of the rest of his class, distracted himself with doodles before dozing off. He is abruptly awoken by Mrs. Packerton who assures him that he did well on his test, earning ire from the bully: Travis Phelps. When the class reaches its conclusion, Travis confronts Sal and Ashley in the halls and punches the former in the face, and draws blood in the process. Sal declines all offers from his companions to get even with Travis, insisting that it would only worsen the situation with him.

The following day during lunch, Sal notes that the bologna being served tasted funnier than it usually did, causing his friends to spew their speculation over the meat's origin. Instead of leaving the matter a mystery, Sal opted to investigate and his group (excluding Chug and Maple) agreed to help.

After being harshly turned away by the lunch lady Kim Yazzie, Sal turns to alternate solutions. Suspecting that Kim was responsible for the bologna's condition, Sal teamed up with Larry and took a picture of the woman's file. As Kim Yazzie was a former Amateur Nature Photographer, Sal took a picture of a bird and presented it to Kim who was then willing to give the boy a sample of the bologna and the identity of the school's supplier: Mrs. Packerton.

On his way back to the labs to test the bologna samples, Sal meets a weeping Travis in the restroom. Although Travis threatens Sal, the boy stays and comforts him, assuring him that if he ever needed a friend all he had to do was ask.

After the bologna was examined, Sal's group concluded that they needed more information on where Packerton got the bologna. Before the lunch period was over, Sal and Larry broke into Packerton's classroom and opened her desk drawer to find many cult-like objects, including an item similar to Jim Johnson's puzzle box. Not long after Sal is plagued with another vision of The Phantom who delivers an indecipherable message before fading away. That evening while Packerton was away, Sal and Larry broke into her apartment to find the severed head of a goat in the refrigerator and two locked doors. Behind one of the doors was Mr. Packerton, hooked up to a life support machine and stuck in a vegetative state. Sal uses the Super Gear Boy to summon Mr. Packerton as a ghost. The spirit denies knowledge of the bologna's origins and instead begs to be euthanized. Sal complies and pulls the plug.

After being forced into hiding by Ashley, whom they had mistaken for Packerton, Larry found a key to the next room: a butcher shop stained with blood, decorated with newspaper clippings of missing children, and a pentagram-decorated footlocker fridge. Sal opens the freezer to find the deboned flesh of his missing classmates.

Disgusted, but satisfied that the origin of the lunchmeat had been uncovered they decided to leave and devise a way to deal with Packerton. Before they could complete their escape, Ashley discovers a hidden trash chute behind a picture of a farm and accidentally falls down into the bowels of the apartment building. Stricken with panic, the two boys act fast to save their friend. Sal and Larry retrieve Todd and enter a room in the basement concealed by the Lost and Found shelves. Although the room is vacant, for the most part, Sal discovers a cellar door leading deeper below ground. They enter the temple of the Devourers of God and station Todd at the entrance to keep the entrance gate open. After navigating through the temple's maze and pressure plate puzzle gates, Sal and Larry come across a pedestal before another gate.

Sal placed the piece he stole from Packerton into the pedestal which opened the gate, leading to a room filled with piles of bones from the Cult's victims. Miraculously, Ashley was unharmed and was discovered merely unconscious atop one of the piles.

After safely extracting Ashley from the temple, the group wanted to know what they should do to ensure Packerton can't harm anyone else. Much to Sal's horror, his friends suggest killing her. Sal convinced them to sleep on it, but the next morning they learned that there was no need to take action as Packerton was killed by a drunk driver on her way home.

Five years later

After Packerton's death, life returned to normalcy for Sal and his gang. Following Henry and Lisa's wedding, Sal became Larry's stepbrother, Ashley left for art school, and Todd and Neil set up a home for the friends to share during their years in college.

But it was not to last. Sal's nightmares returned and the ghosts of Addison Apartments vanished. These events prompted Sal and his step-brother to investigate the cursed building one last time before Larry officially moved in with the rest of the “Ghostnabbers”.