"That's just ridiculous," Andrew stated firmly after hearing the story that came out of the two brats' mouths. A ghost capable of manipulating the physical world to such an extent? Didn't that put it on the same level as the Greek gods from children's books? This was a ghost of a human that died, right?
12 hours earlier… 5:47 AM
I had woken up early, preparing for their mission — to investigate Bluestone, one of the many places that had gotten increasingly weird after the rather nasty death that occurred there.
It was important to note that this wasn't usually normal, I mean the weirdness of course. At least, records from before the Collapse said so. On the day of the Collapse, things went from straight to crooked faster than a Porsche 911 GT3's RPM rise. Six to seven years later, the dead began partying among the living.
Records before the Collapse showed ghost and spirit sightings, but no concrete evidence… or maybe the evidence existed and was hidden. Now, the government still tried to hide it, but failed spectacularly — even the old folks noticed, and they didn't use social media.
This year alone, there had been more than fifteen investigated cases. Obviously this where the illegally investigated ones; they all had horrific ends. One even earned the name Highway Psycho.
From the name alone you could get the gist. Some sheep insisted it was just a serial killer using the supernatural incidents as cover. But really, needing a shepherd to tell you grass is edible is truly worrying. If a "person" drove a car into a bus so hard the bus flew off a cliff, then where were the shredded car parts? What about the survivors who swore they saw no vehicle until the last second?
But stories aside, those incidents couldn't compare to what they were dealing with now. After all, you could still blame the others on drunk driving or some lunatic in an armoured vehicle going on a collision spree.
Was he drunk? Sleepy?, Maybe
Maybe all three of them were drunk?, Hmm as if
No fucking way Isabella was drunk. You could only laugh at such an idea. She looked like the caring older sister… right until you counted the many men she had left in a drunken stupor.
"There must be a perfectly reasonable explanation for this," Andrew said, turning to the others.
Isabella didn't look too good.
Mike… well, Mike was giving the kids very suspicious looks — and honestly, Andrew couldn't blame him.
Why were the kids so calm?
Well, the girl was calm. The boy looked more resigned than anything else.
The boy — Sebastian, I believe he called himself — shook his head dejectedly, then laughed mockingly.
Whether it was at them or at the situation was unknown.
Either way, he shouldn't have done that.
Mike strode over to Sebastian, grabbing his collar in one swift motion and lifting him like he weighed nothing.
"What the f*** are you doing?" he grunted
His face twisting with confusion which morphed quickly into anger.
"Why the f*** are you touching me, you nincompoop—"His face turned bright red, partly from anger and mostly from the fact that his air supply was being cut off by the tightening cloth.
Immediately, Chloe sprang up, dashing forward with her left hand outstretched.
Whff—Thump!
"Uhhh…!"
Her fist buried itself in Mike's stomach, dropping him instantly.
He released Sebastian, and both men fell gasping for air — though one of them had a sharp, focused look aimed squarely at the other, while the other could only groan.
"No one touches him while we're here. Not him, and definitely not me. Or else—"
Her foot came crashing down on the guy's head, eyes shifting from a blank stare to an icy glare.
Thump!
"Uhh…!"
"You deal with me. I hate fools who resort to violence the minute things go out of their control. You have a head. Think like a human, not a wild beast."
She glared sharply at the other two, who wisely recoiled.
"Sorry— we wouldn't dare, even if you knew martial arts or were a girl—Sorry. F***, what am I saying. Umm… Bella, mind helping?" Andrew stammered.
"There's no need to resort to violence" she intoned. You can't really blame him, though — you two were acting very suspicious," Isabella added.
Chloe's eyebrow shot up in mock inquiry. Seb's Higher, who the deranged Mike or the Deranged queen
"And how are we to blame? Did we force you here? And let's not talk about how two normal kids could be behind this. Or are you saying we're not normal? Lets assume where ghosts, yet—"
Her foot pressed harder on Mike's head, twisting.
"—this fool managed to grab him what kind of ghost would we be." Her shoulder turning gesturing toward Sebastian who unfortunately was reaching out to inform her of the bug no human she had under her feet
Grab—Thud!
"Fuck, Chloe!" he turned to rub his back,
"You save me then flip me like a pizza— uhh…!Ow! I won't be able to run if something shows up, you gorilla!"
He tried standing but fell back down, giving up, on seeing how much additional pain it incurred.
"Take your legs off his head! How's the man supposed to breathe?"
Chloe stepped back, surprised by her own behaviour, before her expression cooled again as she turned her glare to Sebastian.
"Was there a need to touch my chest to get my attention?"
"My— your chest? What chest? Who lied to you, your mum?" He looked up, to see her face turning beet red, and immediately tried to retreat.
Thud…!
"Wait— ow, ow, ow—!"
"Wait, wait, I was joking— uhhh— its a joke!
Thump..!
"oof..!"
Who touched your chest? Huh? Does your chest include your shoulder— uhh— f***— it was because you turned, I didn't notice!"
"uhh...! am sorry okay I didn't notice"
Chloe turned away, walking to the twisted tree trunk which she promptly sat on.
"Bro, you okay?" Andrew hurried to Sebastian, then spun back when he remembered his boss was in worse shape.
"Mike! You okay!?" Isabella and Andrew chorused.
A few moments later…
All five of them sat awkwardly, staring up at the stars.
An abyss-like silence hung over them.
"We have equipment to combat this thing," Andrew finally said, breaking the tension."Whether it'll be effective… is well unknown."
They all looked at him.
He swallowed.
"Uh… Mike, you okay now? Mind if we use that thing?"
Mike stood abruptly, walked over to Sebastian menacingly — then bowed slightly, embarrassed.
"Sorry, kid. I let the situation cloud my judgement and, uh…"He turned toward Chloe.
"Sorry, miss, for forcing your intervention."
He straightened and walked back to Andrew."Take it out am assuming you mean the torch."
Andrew nodded.
"Your apology is accepted" seb interrupted. "I think Chloe sees that too," Sebastian said — though he shivered when Chloe's cold eyes briefly landed on him.
"Well… I suppose it's okay. Though I'd like to hear it from her too."
He paused, glanced at her, then turned back to the group.
"I'm a divination-type geomancer. I can usually sense spiritual disturbances. Not sensing anything usually means no spirits in the area. Today…"
He laughed at himself.
"…today I learned there's another reason well the hard way it seems."
He rubbed his forehead, eyebrows wrinkling.
"My normal techniques won't work, so I'll have to use the last trump card. But… there's a chance of backlash. That's what my teacher said."
"Backlash?" Sebastian asked.
Chloe was still fuming silently.
"How bad is the backlash?"
"It depends on the level of hate the ghost holds. People think there's a max value. Either way, the worst recorded case is just mental disturbance… as far as everyone knows."
"Everyone?" Chloe asked confused.
All three nodded. Andrew explaining:
"Evidence recorded on the forum that all investigators usually have to access at some point"
Seb frowned.
"Mental disturbance? That doesn't sound good. If it was physical, I'd accept, but…"He shook his head indicating how high the price was.
Andrew raised a hand to clarify.
"Normally you'd fear that if you were alone, but since you're not the one doing the destroying — and because we're in a group — the backlash spreads across us, merit-based. Reduces the impact on each person I believe."
"Oh." Sebastian nodded, relieved. "Okay."
He turned to Chloe."What do you think?"
He asked because the group seemed willing to take the risk. That, or accept death, starvation, or the one that creeped him out go through the back of the clearing: which weirdly none of the four had tried. When he tried to do so Chloe had stopped him.
He asked why she did not respond staring blankly at him before shaking her head then ignoring him
He noticed it earlier when she tried.
She had tested the exits: finding north, east, west worked normally.
But south — the direction opposite where they entered — Chloe didn't even glance at it. Neither did the rest. Some sort of subconscious avoidance he couldn't understand he didn't ask them though best they and the thing causing it think he didn't notice.
Chloe nodded, and all three adults nodded in relief. Andrew then took out a strange ancient-looking lamp.
The three stood, scanning the surroundings.
Mike then looked back at the two kids still on the ground clearing his throat.
"I'd like to… ask you something."
He paused, watching Chloe's expression. She didn't seem offended as much so he continued.
"When you entered… did either of you curse the ghost?"
Chloe gave Sebastian a hard look it seemed suspiciously like 'I saved you once wont again, you fucked up this time all on your own', then answered truthfully:
"He almost did. I stopped him."
When In Hells Tarnation did I curse anyone Seb thought truly befuddled