"They exist, and they always have.
Questioning their existence, denying them,
is nothing but an attempt to distance ourselves from the truth.
Keeping ourselves unfamiliar with an unchanging truth
only makes us weaker."
---
The tall buildings of the odd city stood beside the tower of energy. From the past few weeks, cops reported missing complaints in the city. Seven youths disappeared mysteriously in front of the tower. Whoever visited the tower disappeared. One common fact in all those missing complaints was that they were last seen in front of the tower.
The rumours said an old creature, a spirit, was sealed in the tower. Black shadows wrapped the tower all over. Ansh crossed his arms, staring straight. "What's this thing?" He was curious more than suspicious. Ansh worked under a government organization one kind of spirit or ghost hunters.
Ansh was not alone. Ahead of him stood Irthavan. His eyes were closed. He had the power to sniff the smell of spirits. His hands tightened their grip on the handle of the gate; it was the way of connecting himself to spirits. The black shadow started moving around the tower in a circle.
Sweat emerged on Irthavan forehead. His head and whole body began trembling. Ansh ran toward him to hold him.
Irthavan went unconscious in Ansh arms.
The whole area inside the building was dark. Irthavan stepped slowly. He was inside the building not by physical presence, but through the mind. It was a tactic that emerged from years of practice and hard work. Irthavan watched everything clearly.
He saw a red light from an upstairs room door. He walked on the red-carpeted concrete stairs. Dust particles were glued to the surface. Irthavan felt high negative energy. It was too dark.
Irthavan reached the door with the red light. From inside came shouted and screaming voices loudly. It was so painful. They wanted to go inside Irthavan in his mind. Irthavan held the handle of the door and tried to open it, but failed.
A laughter sound came from behind him. His brain couldn't take this much load. His head started spinning. Irthavan felt a headache.
Outside the tower, Ansh still held Irthavan, his eyes on him.
Irthavan started shaking again, as if he was trying to run for his life.
Inside the dark, Irthavan was trapped by the dark energy. They were not allowing him to go outside. They were trying to enter his head… into him. Irthavan closed his eyes, took a deep breath again, and concentrated to connect himself to his body. He passed back into his body again.
When he opened his eyes, his breath was shaking. His voice was broken.
"He… the spirit isn't in the tower. It's in the building. He is the one who disappeared people whoever passed by the building."
"What? That building?" Ansh's eyes widened. "What more did you see?"
"I saw a room… his source of energy, where he gets energy. I felt the negative energy."
"Which level?"
"Level 7," Irthavan said, huffing.
Level Seven was considered the highest and most dangerous rank among ghost spirits. These spirits were cursed beings, trapped in one place for centuries. With time, their hatred grew stronger, making them extremely aggressive. They never agreed to any deal with hunters. Though there were rumors that some hunters had once negotiated instead of destroying such spirits, those deals were kept strictly confidential. If anyone spoke about them, their life would be in danger.
Irthavan and Ansh gripped their enchanted sticks tightly. One stab to a spirit's chest was enough to destroy it within minutes. Just as they were about to enter the building, the loud sound of bike engines echoed behind them. Two bikes stopped nearby, and four men stepped down. One of them had long hair, tattoos, and a ring pierced through his eyebrow, shining under the sunlight.
"Greetings," the man said. "The organization sent us to kill the spirit. Let us finish the work."
Ansh stepped forward angrily, saying they had been assigned first. The man laughed and told them a Level Seven was beyond their strength and fell under his team's control. Ansh lost his temper, but Irthavan held him back and admitted the truth. He thanked them for coming and requested to join, as they had never faced a Level Seven before. With a smirk, the man told them to stay behind.
As they moved inside, Irthavan noticed something strange none of the four men were holding spirit-killing sticks. This confused him, as he believed the sticks were the only way to destroy spirits. Inside the hall, the man suddenly said the spirit was not hiding but trapped somewhere. Without seeing anything, he claimed he could smell the spirit's dark energy and sense its fear.
The man then corrected himself, saying the spirit was not Only Level Seven but Level Two or three and that there were more spirits present possibly four. Ansh looked at Irthavan in confusion, but he lacked the ability to sense spirits. Calmly, the man formed a plan and led them toward the basement, explaining that they were heading to the source of the Level Seven's power. Irthavan called out to Ansh, his voice heavy with unease.
Irthavan stopped suddenly and turned to the boys. He pointed toward the upper floor.
"We have to go upstairs," he said firmly. "There's something wrong. A red light is coming out from one of the rooms. I want to know what's inside."
The boy leading them turned back sharply. His voice was harsh and commanding.
"I gave you permission to come with us," he said coldly, "not to choose your own path. You are here to obey. Do you think catching a spirit is easy? One wrong move from you can threaten all our lives. So don't even think about going anywhere. Do exactly as I say."
Ansh stepped forward angrily.
"Hey, what is this behavior?" he snapped. "Stop talking to us like that. You're not our leader."
The another boy's expression darkened instantly who stood beside the leader of their group.
"Hey, mother fucker stop this nonsense," he growled. "If that spirit opens his eyes, we'll all be dead. No exceptions."
In the next second, The boys leader moved forward and grabbed Ansh by the chin, forcing him to look up.
"You a low-level spirit catcher are telling us to shut our mouths?" he sneered. "Do you really think you're superior to us? The organization sent us because they knew one thing clearly if you came here alone, you would already be dead."