LSS: Dungeons and Detectives

Sunlight filtered in through the dusty motel window. It wasn't the most charming of places, the paint was chipping from the walls and there was barely any hot water, but that didn't matter to Raine as at the moment she was fast asleep.

The excitement from the previous night had exhausted her entirely, leading her to end up sleeping through her alarm. Visions of the events continued to dance through her mind. Images of Ben in the shadows, of V with her salt and bone dust and holy water, determination in her eyes, of Noah's soft voice drifting through the house, speaking to Ben, and of the understanding she had seen from the Lopez siblings.

The vision changed once more, darkening, until she was back in the room. The room Ben had passed in. In the middle of the room was the single candle but this time, Raine was alone, and not even Ben appeared to provide any sort of company. Her journal laid open on the ground, pages still before rapidly flipping as if blown by a strong breeze until it landed on Ben's writing.

And then there were the eyes.

On the other side of the room, in the flickering shadows from the candle light, were a pair of eyes. They weren't the questioning white eyes that had been seen in the house before. No, these glowed a terrifying red and sent shivers down her spine.

Slowly, a hunched shape started to materialize out of the shadows. It was certainly not humanoid, dark fur hanging lank on the frame of the giant hound as it slowly, ever so slowly, approached.

Raine tried to move backward, tried to look for a door but found she couldn't move, paralyzed and forced to helplessly watch as the beast got closer and closer. She squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the beast to be upon her.

However, the moment never came and when she opened her eyes again, she was awake and back in the musty motel room. The faint scent of mold invaded her nose and the AC by the window rattled quietly as she rubbed her eyes, glad the dream was over.

That cursed hound never left her alone. She saw it almost every night one way or another, whether in her dreams or not. She was lucky it hadn't decided to come for her while she was in the house with the others. Who knows if they would have been able to see it too or not. They might've just called her crazy like everyone else. Although, they'd just gotten rid of a ghost together and even got attacked a couple times so maybe not.

Her eyes flicked to the nightstand where the small rectangle of cardstock sat, V's name and contact information a bold black against the stark white background. It was simple but it did the trick and proved that what had happened in that house hadn't all just been a dream.

She rolled onto her side, the rickety bed creaking and the springs of the worn out mattress digging into her ribs slightly, and picked up the business card, turning it over and over in her hands.

The ghostly dog hadn't attacked yet, just gotten really close. But if it ever did chose to try and go after her, V was a good contact to have. She would understand. She would probably even know what to do.

Until that happened though, it was useless to bug her with something silly. Sure, the thing absolutely terrified her but it hadnt tried to harm her. Yet anyway.

"Maybe I'll text her later anyway..." Raine mumbled tiredly as she set the card back down on the nightstand. "Maybe..."

She fumbled for her phone before her eyes went wide as she saw the time.

"But that'll come later!"

No matter how much she wanted to stay within the warm blankets she hurried out of bed and bustled around the room in an effort to ready herself for the day. She had a lot to do and not much time to get it all done as a report was due this evening and so she had to get as much information about the town as she could.

At least they were giving her another day to get in depth information. Hopefully anyway. But she still needed to get that report in.

How else would she replenish her ghost supplies?

After finishing with her brush and making her hair look somewhat managed, she tugged on a jacket and headed to the door.

The motel room wasn't much but it saved her money for equipment and it was a place to sleep, so it was her home for right now.

Back in her personal apartment, tucked away in a small town out of northeast Kentucky, V still couldn't find her full focus.

As the afternoon sunlight poured in through her kitchen window, onto the one square table that acted as a sort of island for the kitchen area, she could only squint and glower. She didn't have the will to move from her spot, watching her laptop and the urban explorer channel she usually scoped out for signs of a haunting.

V watched this first-person perspective; one man beaming a flashlight down the hallway of an old abandoned high school, as his dated camera refused to stream above 480p. The longer she stared into the depths of the darkened halls and rooms, scanning each corner, the more she started to see silhouettes and inky blurs that just weren't there, constantly tricking herself into believing this place was her next target. The odds of that were only two-in-ten, judging by how this method of searching usually went.

Even so, she shunned herself for repeatedly falling for the ages-old paranormal trick, mistaking a camera or pixel anomaly for something paranormal, she couldn't bring herself to look away. The longer her eyes remained fixed, the more her mind drifted. The more her mind drifted, the more shadows she started to see.

It took a while for her to realize that they were all small shadows. All standing there, alone in the dark. Not attacking, just waiting there for something to happen.

Could it be someone they were waiting for? A victim ready to have their energy drained, sanity broken, or spirit stolen and trapped just like them? It wouldn't be the first time V had heard of it, or seen the attempts. Just because Noah and Raine so stubbornly proved that not all ghosts had to be violent, it didn't change the fact that more malicious entities existed. That much had to be true.

But perhaps, those stubborn shadows, ones she had the instinct to destroy, were actually waiting for someone to help...

With a glare on the screen to tip her already-irate mind over the edge, V finally groaned and slammed her laptop closed.

"Classy."

V shot a glare toward the open bathroom door, just to her right. The lights were off, but a special candle was lit and placed on the sink. Liz was leaning out of the mirror, in her younger white-haired, red-eyed form. She seemed bored more than anything.

"Shut up," V muttered.

While she got up to make herself another cup of coffee, Liz spoke louder, taunting her with an intentional ghostly echo.

"Viselliaaaaa...Don't leave me alone in this crummy little tiolet cornerrrr! I want to taaaalk!"

V slammed the coffee pot down with an annoyed grunt, then stormed back to the bathroom door. She crossed her arms and leaned against the frame, with an expression demanding the obnoxious ghost to 'spit it out already.'

Instead, Liz was lying dramatically half-out of the frame, splayed against the sink like she was a fresh corpse.

V sneered, "You know the main reason I put up mirrors almost everywhere in the house is so you wouldn't have to haunt just the bathroom?"

Liz didn't move or respond. Understandably, ghosts were very good at playing dead.

Keen to the stupid game, V sighed heavily and asked, "What do you want to talk about, Countess Bathory?"

"Finally," Liz suddenly blurted. "Is it so much to ask for a little recognition from time-to-time?"

"You're believed to have tortured and killed hundreds of women in life alone," V retorted. "You're not exactly someone worth-"

"Oh, hush, not this again," Liz shot back. She then chuckled tauntingly, "I want to talk about the latest case. You know, I sensed something strange from that house. A sharp, sudden release of holy energy. But not something like an exorcism. Something...light, pure, divine..." She sneered, "Made me sick. And it didn't feel like something you'd be responsible for."

"Just another way of getting rid of a ghost," V muttered. "I was under pressure; this time, there were other hunters in the house. Four. Chummy types with the dead..."

She paused to think back to the encounter. Raine's knowledge, Noah's communications, and how the Lopezes seemed to relate so deeply to the child ghost that it struck a nerve. Then Ben himself, of course. V hadn't encountered a myling before, but she had read up on them. They were meant to be scary beings that could viciously lash out, startling even the seasoned hunters. Yet even he was something so pure at his core, and it took the most passive use of her abilities to reveal it.

But just as much as Ben interfered with her usual train of thought in the house, she couldn't dwell in these thoughts too long without her old habits resurfacing. Right alongside those same memories of a blood-soaked bathroom and grieving parents.

V looked down, biting her lip as she continued thinking. "Liz, I need a question answered."

"Eh?" Liz said carelessly.

"You know we're not in 1590 anymore," V said with a dark tone. "You know how things work, including that virgin blood won't make you any younger, and it's wrong to kill anybody even if they hail from a 'lesser caste.' For god's sake, you're always boasting about the '90s and how it was the 'most fun since your death.'"

"Yeah," Liz said nostalgically. "That's when my game was most popular. Most of them failed it, of course, it took only the really dedicated researchers to get it right. But it was enough to bring me back. Good times..."

"No," V spat. "Before I made your contract, you killed them; you killed the children who summoned you. Even a dweeb like Rudy, who was just curious and showed you nothing but respect."

Liz smirked. "Bringing up your little friend? Bold move, V, you haven't done that in a looong time. I bet-"

"Shut up!" V snapped. "Tell me why you're like this! Why do you still feel like you have to kill people, even in death?!"

"Why does a lion kill the impala?" Liz said flatly.

"You're not trying to survive, you're already dead," V spat.

"But why does he do it? What tells him that he has to hunt to live? Nature's instinct? Communal training? Either way, you can't stop it. Even if you try to raise him vegan, he'll only wither, and soon enough, he'll resort to his wild urges and snap."

Liz leaned closer, meeting V's angry glare with a sinister grin, showing off her red-stained teeth and lips.

"You can't change nature, Visellia. Not even the nature of spirits. No matter how much of your modern day I take on, I am still what I was in life. Just as a lion, no matter how much you whip or nurture him, is still a predator."

V turned away, an annoyed sneer escaping her throat.

She eventually asked, "You're evil in death because you were evil in life. But does that mean the spirits who were innocent in life, who only got trapped in this plane because of some wild circumstance or a cultural curse, aren't really dangerous at their core? An evil spirit can use an innocent guise to lure its victims in, or to communicate just as you do to me. So then an innocent spirit can use an aggressive guise to protect itself from..." She felt her stomach ache as she connected the dots. "People...like me."

"I see where this is going..." Liz chuckled, "You got shown up by some other 'hunters,' the ghost gave you puppy-eyes, and now you're second-guessing everything! Ah! How stupidly amusing!" She cackled like an old witch, "The hard-headed bull that is Visellia Angelus, finally duped by some ghost-sympathizers and a boderline-basic entity!"

"Shut up before I banish you next!" V snapped.

Barely settling down, Liz gave a dismissive wave. "Oh calm down, you big baby. You'll get over it. Find another case and start hunting; you won't be second-guessing after you get roughed up by a demon."

V's eyes narrowed. "For the record, Bathory, they weren't hunters."

"Then what?" Liz spat with an unamused tone.

V smirked and reached for the light switch. "They were investigators."

Noah liked walking Alfie the best just around dawn. While their neighborhood was far from idyllic, a collection of strip malls, multi-lane roads, and telephone wires just outside the quainter historic area, under the light of the sunrise, it looked almost pretty. They especially loved the dark silhouettes of the trees just starting to lose their leaves against the pinky-orange sky. Normally, their fingers would be itching to take a photo, but today, the stark limbs reminded them a little too much of another dark shadow.

They hadn't truly stopped thinking about the whole experience with Ben since it'd happened a few days ago. While the others seemed to have had prior experience with the paranormal, Noah hadn't. They hadn't even truly believed in it until then. But now that they knew it was real, they couldn't help but question everything they had experienced in their life. How much of it was something supernatural and they hadn't even realized, just chalking it up to the wind, or the spottiness of human memories and vision? What troubled them the most, though, was thinking about just how many spirits were like Ben--- frightened, alone, and just needed a simple blessing to finally be at peace.

Their phone buzzed. Looping Alfie's leash around their other hand, they fished their phone out of their jeans pocket. Unsurprisingly, it was their mother.

Hi Noah! Thinking of you <3 Your bedroom is always free, remember!

Noah smiled, thumbing back a reply. Thanks mom. Love you lots. Alfie sends kisses :)
They snapped a quick photo of Alfie, his big, doleful eyes staring straight at the camera. They looked at him over the lens, playfully frowning. "You don't want to smile for Grandma?"

Alfie sneezed in response. Noah gave a small chuckle and shrugged, getting ready to send the photo. Right before pressing the button, however, something right over Alfie's head caught their eye. Their heart sped. Could it be another spirit?

It was blurry and lighter than the surrounding environment. They zoomed in and squinted, trying to make heads or tails of what kind of paranormal thing it was.

The more they looked at it, though, the more they were convinced it was just dust or a stray Alfie hair in front of the lens. While the photos they'd grabbed of Ben had been vague, they were certainly more defined than this. They couldn't even find anything remotely like a face. Feeling slightly stupid for overreacting, they sent the message and quickly stowed their phone back in their pocket.

Letting a deep breath out and in to steady their racing heart, they shook their head to clear it, put Alfie's leash back in their right hand, and continued walking.

Noah gave a low whistle. "Yikes."

They were standing across the street, glancing up and down warily at a dilapidated building. It had broken windows here and there, though most were boarded up to prevent break-ins. Scraggly pines decorated the front lawn, looking eerily like hands. Grime-smeared bricks, lewd graffiti, and a rusting playground behind a chain link fence completed the nightmarish eyesore. Double checking the address Helene had sent them in the email was correct (it was), they shrugged and walked closer.

Lake Elementary's final class had graduated in '99, right after the district had opened up the brand new Prairie Primary School further in town. After a lack of construction funds meant they couldn't build the retail spaces they wanted to in Lake Elementary's stead, the building sat vacant for nearly two decades, crumbling away. Some attempts to install offices for various esoteric county positions had been made, but nothing had really stuck.

At last, though, the district was ushering in the progress they had hoped to make about twenty years ago, and so the local paper was called to do a piece about it. Something hopeful, about fostering the growth the town desperately needed. To grab the unglamorous before photos, Helene had sent Noah. They weren't sure if they were supposed to make it look extra terrible, or try and capture some of its good sides (if they could find them). They supposed they could always modify whatever they ended up getting in editing software and just worry about taking the photos.

After getting a good number from various angles, some more flattering than others, their curiosity got the better of them. Walking past the gnarled, sentinel-like trees, they approached the front door. They tentatively tried the doorknob, which was unsurprisingly locked. Sighing and letting their camera dangle, they cupped both hands to block out the light and pressed their forehead to the window.

Because of the boarded-up windows, the inside was dark, and they couldn't make out much of anything over five feet from the door. The most they could see was the edge of a doorframe to the right and the checked linoleum floor fading into the shadows. Faded posters they couldn't exactly make out were tacked up on the opposite wall.

Slightly put out by the fact they couldn't see more, they went to pull away from the window, but found they couldn't move. That was odd. They frowned, trying harder, but their feet remained planted, their hands remained stuck.

"Um..." They had just started trying to remember if their phone had voice activation so they could call somebody to help when something shot out from the dark, vague and smoky. They didn't even have enough time to yell before they were hurtled into shadows themself.

They were five again. Their father was there, but their father was dying. They held his hand.

They were seven. The tree had relinquished them to pain on the forest floor. No one could hear them.

They were eighteen, away from home for the first time. Alfie was sick. All they could do was hold him.

They were nine. Hanna was laughing. Kade was crying. They were helpless.

They were helpless.

They were---

With a thrust, they wrenched themself away from the door. Heart pounding, they stumbled away from the building, tripping over their feet and slamming palms first to the sidewalk. Heaving air through their lungs as they forced their way back up onto two feet, they moved haltingly as fast as they could away from the building. Finally reaching what they deemed a safe distance away from the building, they sank to the ground, trying to muster a deep breath. They could feel their blood rushing through their limbs. Sniffing, they swiped at their eyes behind their glasses, not remembering when they had even started crying.

What had happened? Noah winced just thinking about it. They flexed their hands, testing that they could still move. Being stuck there, against the door, remembering all those terrible things... it was so familiar, so similar to the nightmares they used to have. They felt like a kid again in the worst possible way. Somewhere in the panic, though, were hints of exhilaration they thought that they had left in the forest with Hanna, among the ponds and birds and trees. They gulped.

Still reeling, they couldn't quite make sense of what had happened. One thing was for sure, though; they were going to need backup.

They fished around their tote bag, a wave of relief washing over them as they found V's card, where they'd had Raine pencil in her number on the back as well. They dialed V first, figuring her more aggressive tactics would be welcome in this case. While Noah was generally all for the diplomatic approach, whatever had lunged out at them felt bad. They still held on to the hope that there was some underlying reason, hopefully one that Raine could shed some light on, but for now, they wanted safety. They wanted protection.

Tapping the ground anxiously as their phone rang, they let out a breath as V finally picked up on the other end.

"Hey. It's Noah. I think I need your help."

The downtown area of the Ohio town was about as exciting as Raine expected it to be. It had a couple exciting looking locations, older buildings that had been around for a while, presumably since when the town was founded, mixed in with a couple newer businesses, but otherwise was rather rundown and didn't look like it had much business besides the few people coming in and out of the local grocer.

Most of the morning Raine had spent visiting many of the businesses down Main street, no matter how boring or rundown they seemed. Often the interesting parts of history laid below the surface.

After popping into about a dozen businesses and speaking to the owners' about the history and anything interesting, Raine realized she had entirely forgotten about eating breakfast. Luckily, her next stop was a small corner store cafe which looked cozy enough.

A small bell rang sweetly as she walked in the door, announcing her presence to the employee behind the counter. She walked over to the counter with a smile and after a quick conversation managed to talk to the owner about the history of the store.

As soon as that was set and done, Raine happily sat down at a table near the windows with a large danish and a steaming cappuccino on the house, a gift from the owner for agreeing to put up a few posters around town promoting the cafe since she would be stopping by more places anyway.

She smiled as she lifted the ceramic cup to her lips and sipped the warm drink. Everything about the cafe was warm. From the soft buttercup yellow of the walls to the warm morning sunlight coming in through the numerous windows and the heat coming from the ovens in the kitchen. She loved everything about it.

After finishing her danish she happily sipped on the remainder of her cappuccino and gazed out the window, watching the world go about it's daily business. It felt almost timeless and wonderful to relax in such a way.

However, her moment of relaxation did not last long as after a few minutes the sound of Antonio Vivaldi's "Four Seasons: Spring" snapped her from her peaceful reverie.

She set her coffee down then pulled her phone out of her pocket and tapped the green accept button before putting it to her ear. "Hello?"

"Hey. This is Noah. Um. Are you doing anything right now?"

"Not at the moment, no. What's up?"

"Um." The phone crackled as they took a deep breath. "I think I found another ghost."

Raine paused for a moment, feeling a bit of excitement build at the words of another ghost before she responded again. "Where at? I can be there if you need help."

"Oh. Oh! Thank you," Noah said. "I... I just want to let you know that this one is a lot different than Ben. It feels... bad. Malicious. I wouldn't blame you if you don't want to come. I just wanted to make sure you know what you're getting into."

"It's okay, I've dealt with a malicious ghost before," Raine replied. "I can probably head your way in a couple minutes."

"Thanks," Noah said. "I think I could really use the support. I called V, too, and she's on her way. I'll text you the address."

"Sounds good, I'm sure she'll know how to handle this easily."

"Yeah. Me too. Thanks so much again, Raine. See you soon."

"Anytime. I'll see you there." With a click, Noah hung up and Raine tucked her phone back in her pocket.

Another ghost in the same town... She was getting lucky on this trip. Typically there was only ever one truly haunted location she managed to find, if that.

Excitement flowed through her as she finished her cappuccino and got up to leave the cafe. Her car was parked only a little way down the road in a more recently built parking garage near the newer buildings. She quickly made her way up to the second level before finding her car and getting in. She started the engine and pulled up navigation from the address Noah sent her then pulled out of the parking garage and pressed the green "go" button to start her route.

Head West on Main street for two miles, then turn right on Thirteenth Avenue...

"Hey. It's Noah. I think I need your help."

The words echoed through V's mind as she pushed harder on the Trans-Am's pedal, making its engine cry out with a throaty roar -probably begging for mercy as it threatened to quit working. She drowned out by playing Orbit Culture's "Carvings" through a portable speaker in the cupholder. The hour was getting late, with an incoming sunset casting hues of amber into the soft blue sky and its vale of clouds.

At first, V was a little frustrated that she would be summoned back into this group -provided Raine would also be joining them- when she was still trying to process everything that happened on their first run. But when listening to that call, she detected a sense of deep-seated unease in their voice that made her think it wasn't any ordinary job that they found. Not a typical spirit, or even another myling.

She couldn't pass up a promising job, even if it didn't pay. Anything to rid this plane of the dangerous entities hiding among it, she would do, even if it meant having to try an alternative approach.

Besides, she figured it would be interesting to see how Noah would handle this situation. The way they seamlessly talked Ben out of his cruse-induced rage and hysteria was enough of a feat for her to want to witness again. If they were lucky enough to get Raine to join in, she was bound to learn some new lore and facts as well.

Following the map displayed on her phone, V saw the blue line growing shorter and shorter as she wove through an old neighborhood. Some buildings were still standing and seemed inhabited. Some were almost in ruins, and some were nothing but frames and concrete as the city presumably struggled to keep up construction. An area like this, where it was common for old landmarks to be disturbed, was well in line with haunted hotspots.

When she was right on top of the map's dot, she found herself in the long-faded parking lot of an old schoolground. It was in absolutely terrible condition, with rust, graffiti, and grime everywhere. She could already tell the inside would be prime territory for mold and vermin.

Standing near one of the gnarled trees, V noticed a familiar head of wavy blond hair. She whipped the Trans-Am into a makeshift parking space, put it in park, and hopped out.

As she approached, she casually called out, "Didn't expect to see you again so soon. Seems you have an affinity for the paranormal, huh? I'm kinda jealous..."

Noah stared at her grimly. "Don't be. This... I don't know what it is, but it feels dangerous. Bad." They shot a wary look back at the building, taking a few further steps away from it. "I was just... I was here taking photos for the paper and out of curiosity I went to just look in the window, you know? Then there was this... something..." Their eyes fluttered shut, remembering the horrific visions that followed. When they started speaking again, their voice was hollow. "I couldn't move. I was trapped in some of the worst memories of my life. It was terrible." Taking a deep, shuddering breath, they shook their head to clear the thoughts. "I also called Raine. She should be here soon, I think."

V nodded. "I figured you would. And yes, those ghosts that play the mental games are some of the most annoying."

As if upon hearing her name, the silver rental car from before pulled up in front of the school and parked neatly in between the faded lines of a parking space. Raine stepped out of the car once she turned it off and went to the trunk to quickly grab her things before noticing Noah and V already near the front. She quickened her pace as she headed towards them. "Sorry if I'm late, I had to purchase more batteries and I forgot to do so earlier."

Noah gave her the best smile they could muster. "It's alright. Sorry for the somewhat cryptic phone call. I was just telling V what had happened."

They caught Raine up, from taking photos to their nightmarish experience being stuck in their own mind. They managed to get through the last part with relatively even breaths, though their it did hitch a few times.

Concern was etched across Raine's face by the time they finished recounting their experience. "I don't think I've ever seen anything like this before..."

Noah frowned, chewing on their lip. "I was afraid you were going to say that." They looked between V and Raine. "So... what now?"

"Well..." V turned toward the building, crossing her arms. "If it's going to be so hostile just from a peek, we should probably do a bit more preparing. Raine, if you happen to keep track of which entities can affect mind and memory, I'd like to hear the list. I also have my own tool I can use to get a general idea and strategy..." She turned back to Noah. "I'm guessing you didn't look long enough to notice anything signs or evidence?"

Noah shook their head. "Sorry. It was a sort of all-at-once thing. I can check my camera to see, though. I mostly focused on the outside, but maybe it picked something up?"

V nodded. "Sure."

Noah reached for their camera where it hung around their neck. Turning it on, they navigated to their recently took photos. Cringing at some of the not so good ones, they turned the camera so that V and Raine could see it as well, flipping through the images one by one. "I'm not seeing anything so far..."

They scrolled past side views, close ups, finally landing on an overall shot of the school from the front. "Wait, what's that?"

V leaned in for a closer look. Sure enough, in one of the few ruined windows they could still see through, there was an odd wispy little ball. Like faint mist in a concentrated form. She wanted to blame it on a camera error, but considering it hadn't manifested in any of the other photos, that was unlikely.

"Good question," V muttered.

Raine leaned a little closer to the camera as well to get a closer look, her curiousity piqued. She examined the picture for a moment before her eyes landed on the small wispy ball seemingly floating in midair inside the building. The room past what was visible from the window seemed to be completely dark so to Raine it seemed highly unlikely to be the camera's fault however she did momentarily glance over at the building itself just to make sure.

"If I'm not mistaken," Raine began with a little more confidence in her voice now, "that is a ghost orb you managed to capture."

"Oh, so you did catch something," V remarked. "That's one piece of evidence, and we may be able to use it to track this sucker around the building."

"Nice," Noah said. "...how do we do that exactly?"

Raine scribbled a quick note down on the ghost orb Noah had caught in the picture down in her notebook before answering. "With ghost orbs, they often appear in the ghost's room of passing or where the ghost is at the time so if we look through the camera and follow them around then we should be able to find one of the two."

"Though so," V muttered. "But there is still the issue of its mind games. We won't be able to explore unless we know how to get around it..."

She hesitated for a long moment, reviewing her mental checklist of the gear available. With everyone's combined caches, it was decent, but only one would be able to answer such a question.

She sighed, "Alright. So, I have something we can use, that may tell us how to navigate safely. But I need a certain tool -a very unpleasant one."

Noah frowned. "I'm not sure I like the sound of that."

"Yeah, you're probably not going to like the process, but it should bring results..." V started walking. "Follow me."

V grabbed something from her car -a dark square board about three by two feet, as well as a candle. She then led the two of them away from the schoolhouse and just a bit further down the road, toward one of the local buildings still under construction. She stopped in front of the last thing they would've expected -and confirmed, it was very unpleasant.

V stopped and turned to them. "Please don't laugh -and when the ritual is finish, don't freak out either. Everything is under control and there is absolutely no danger behind this."

"Don't laugh, don't freak out, got it. But..." Noah's eyebrows raised dubiosly. "No danger? My nose begs to differ."

Raine meanwhile looked utterly complexed by V's methods at the moment. "I- you know what? You helped quite a bit with Ben and knew what you were doing so I'm just going to trust you know what you're doing now too."

"Thank you..."

With that, V opened the door of the portable toilet in front of them, cringing as she tried to linger outside. She set the board up in the stall, revealing that it was a mirror, then lit the candle and set it nearby.

"And with the promise that no one will laugh, let's begin..." V cleared her throat. "Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary."

Raine blinked, tilting her head as she watched. She didn't know too much about what most considered to be simply a parlour game but wasn't entirely sure this would do much to help their case.

Then, the vision in the mirror began to warp and shift, until their very reflections started to disappear.

'CLANG!'

Suddenly, a figure charged against the mirror, slamming into it from the other side like it was a mere window. A hideous old hag with wiry white hair, almost glowing red eyes, and red-stained lips and teeth. Her ancient, tattered gown was splattered with blood.

Noah launched themself into a round of box breathing as soon as she appeared. Normally, they were unfazed by grisly sights, but given all that had happened earlier and the unexpectedness of it all, they could feel themself teetering on the edge of an anxiety attack. Breathing and holding every four counts helped, though, so they did it quietly while sharply switching their gaze from V to the woman in the mirror.

Raine gave a sharp quiet gasp and jumped a little when she appeared. The sight wasn't the thing that scared her though. She had seen plenty of images equally terrible to match the woman's appearance. No, what scared her most was the fact that this entity could visibly affect the mirror, having slammed into it like it was a window and therefor putting barely anything between them and her but a pane of glass. What would happen if the woman managed to break it from the other side...

V stepped forward, unamused. "Nope, no, everybody calm down. And Liz, for the love of god, can you stop doing that? You know it's me who summoned you."

The woman's eyes narrowed into an annoyed glare. The mirror rippled like water and she leaned out of it, instantly shifting her figure to look younger, with her white hair now in loose waves and a more '90s style of clothing including a red flannel. With red eyes, red-stained lips, and still some blood splatter, she still seemed far from an average human.

Liz immediately recoiled. "Gah! I thought we agreed no more summoning me from these nasty little buckets of sh-"

"Shut up," V said flatly. "Noah, Raine, this is Elizabeth Bathory, the real 'Bloody Mary.'"

Raine realed back slightly when Liz leaned out of the mirror, alarmed now. It wasn't every day one experienced the ghost of a terrifying English noblewoman lean out of a mirror and suddenly look like they're from the 90's. Unless you just so happened to be V anyway.

Noah blinked, processing. Now that Liz was acting slightly more normal and their breathing had steadied, the horror nerd in them won over. "That's neat," they said, grinning. "I like your flannel."

Liz immediately perked up. "Ooo, why thank you. It's about time I find a human that respects me. And V, you made some friends! How intruiging..." She smirked. "Finally deciding to show off that secret soft spot. How sweet."

"Liz..." V glowered back at her. "I will banish you so fast."

Liz stretched her arms a bit and sighed, "Alright. I'm assuming you all want some paranormal intel of some sort, so what are we dealing with?"

V nodded back the way they came. "There's an entity in a schoolhouse, just down the block. Noah found it, and from just one look, it's starting to get aggressive. What do you know about this, and what can you detect?"

"Hm..." Liz went silent for a long moment, relaxing into the frame of the mirror. She almost looked like a fresh corpse for a moment, before very suddenly speaking, "Dark. It likes to stalk in the dark. Maybe it got ticked off by the camera flash."

Noah gulped. "No more camera. Got it."

Raine pulled out her journal again and flipped through a couple pages to see what was still on the list. "Hmm... there's still a lot it could be..."

Liz smirked. "Sounds like you still have some investigating to do. And if you plan to get rid of it, you'll have to be wary. It's already mad, there's no getting around that. But if you manage to get enough light in that building, and keep a calm and steady mind no matter what you see, it should be less able to mess with you. Get in, find what you need, then corner it and attack. Or, since I know some of you are the more pacifist type, announce your presence and try to talk it down. Be firm but respectful. If that doesn't work and you're still against real hunting, well..." She shrugged her shoulders. "Pray. Maybe you'll get lucky."

V turned away from the old ghost. "Well, you heard her. Let's stock up on some light sources, then meet this ghost."

After a moment of decision as where to go for supplies, Raine had pulled out her navigation once more and located a store not terribly far from their location that should have the supplies they needed. She showed the potential candidate to V and Noah and with that, they make their way to the store.

As expected and like most things around the town, the store was a little rundown but had good enough business. The sliding glass doors shuddered suspiciously, slowly opening to admit people in and out. They clearly needed maintenance but looked like it had been long neglected and that they could very well quit working at any given moment.

Raine had just finished writing down a list of supplies she needed to get when they parked outside the store, causing her to glance up from the list before tucking it into her pocket. She unbuckled and carefully got out of the Trans-Am, having trusted V enough to drive her there. In her opinion from her recent experience, V was a rather good driver, not the most cautious per se but a good driver nonetheless.

Raine let Noah out from the backseat before shutting the door. As she did so, a small chip of the car's black paint came off in her hand. For a fleeting moment, it crossed her mind that V might be a little upset by that however, the moment was gone just as fast as it came seeing the slightly poor state of the rest of the car.

She brushed both the worry and the small chip of paint on her hands away before following V and Noah into the store, through the sliding glass doors that luckily didn't quit as they entered. Pulling out the list once more, Raine surveyed the store, trying to locate where what they needed was so they wouldn't have to be aimlessly wandering around the store looking for things for too terribly long.

Quickly, she spotted the very first thing on her list- a ball of twine. She picked it up off the stand and tossed it in a hand basket before wandering a short distance away to look for other things on the list.

D Batteries, a lighter, snacks (no one hunted ghosts well when they were hungry), and a new, this time electric thermometer (an impulse buy) got tossed in the basket before Raine made her way over to the area that held what they were really here for- light sources. She spotted V in that area as well and made her way over to her.

"Find anything you fancy?" Raine asked, glancing at the array of flashlights, headlamps, and lanterns. "There's quite a selection."

V tapped one of the bigger lanterns. "Heavy-duty, long-lasting, tons of lumens. These are probably our best option..." Her eye twitched as it drifted down to the price tag. "So, I'm thinking four of them? One for each of us to have on hand, plus one to set up in a room if needed?"

Raine nodded. "That's a good plan. Maybe we should pick up a torch as well? It'll help us see down hallways and such since it has a farther reach then lanterns do."

"A torch?" V muttered. "Oh -are you talking about a flashlight?"

"No, I mean a torch-" Raine paused for a minute before realizing. "Oh, wait- this is one of the things you call differently here, isn't it?"

"How is there a language barrier here if we're both speaking English?" V said jokingly. "We are both talking about the long silver stick with the clicky button and a small lightbulb on one end, right?"

Raine laughed, quite amused by the first comment accompanied by the description. "Yes, yes we are."

"Alright then..." V paused to think. "I have one in the car, but it's pretty dated. That, or it just needs new batteries, so I'm buying one or the other. Let's pick one up for Noah though, and you if you think you need one."

"I do think one will be beneficial. I had one but it was pretty cheap and the bulb on it ended up dying although these look like much better quality... although for a heftier price." Raine replied, picking one up and momentarily turning it on. "yes, these along with the lantern to keep a pool of light around us will do well."

"Sounds good," V responded. "And considering this random convenience store is unlikely to have smudge sticks, bone dust, or top-quality salt, let's call it quits here -find Noah and check out. Unless you can think of something else."

"I found a new thermometer a minute ago and some twine. I have dried sage and some red dye for the twine in my bag so I can make a few smudge sticks before we head in now that I know they work. I think we're good to go." Raine hummed slightly. "Still feels like I'm missing something though."

"Yeah, if there's one thing I've learned, it's that you never feel equipped enough when staring down a more intense hunt." V picked up a couple of the lanterns. "I'm at least going to pay for these now and get the worst of it out of the way."

Raine nodded and picked up a couple of the industrial strength flashlights. "Alright, I'll pay for the torches- or- what did you call them before?"

"Flashlights..." V checked the price tag again and hid a cringe. "And yeah, I'll just get batteries for the one I have..."

"Right, flashlights." Raine hummed. "Don't worry about it, I have some batteries here you can use and if they aren't the right size I have others in the car I bought earlier."

"Oh, cool," V murmured. "Alright then, let's check out."

"Excellent, and then we can head out." Raine smiled and began to head towards the counter with V to purchase the flashlights and the rest of the things in her basket.

After she did so, the total ended up being... much more then she would have liked to put it kindly. However, she had been able to buy the snacks, batteries, and one of the flashlights with her work card so that helped significantly and didn't hurt her low bank account too terribly much.

She felt a little bad for V though and how much all of the lanterns had costed. Maybe she could find some way to make it up to her later.

As they arrived at the store to stock up on more lights, Noah wandered off to find the bathroom, partly because they actually had to go, but mostly to find a quiet, isolated place where they could take a break. They were endlessly appreciative of V and Raine coming (though how much of the reason for that was loyalty between friends as opposed to a desire for more paranormal experiences, they weren't sure--- they liked to think it had to at least be a little bit of the former) but now they needed a break, just to recenter themself. Their hands still shook, their breathing (while steadier) still felt labored, and attempting to remain a half-decent person to be around wasn't doing anything to help with that.

Murmuring their excuse to Raine and V, they wandered through flickering fluorescents until they got to the back of the store, where (thankfully) two single-stalled restrooms were.

The lights flickered on as they swung the door open. It was about as grimy as they had expected, everything appearing even more so by the harsh white lights. They wandered in, locking the door behind them, and perched on the edge of the toilet, balancing their head between the heels of their hands.

Noah closed their eyes, thinking back to the visions they had had outside the door. They were all things they had tried to forget, tried to bury deep in their memory, and had nearly succeeded at doing that too. If only the spirit (or demon, or otherwise malevolent presence; even though their chat with Liz had been helpful, it hadn't done all they had hoped to narrow down Raine's list of the possible entities it could be) hadn't been there to rake them all to the surface.

While they did eventually want to know more about whatever had caused that horrible experience, Noah was at least a little bit glad that Liz hadn't returned with any conclusive answers. The less they knew about this thing, the less likely they were going to storm in there and try to deal with it. Even when standing outside the school, they swore they could still feel residual energy from being... possessed? Attacked? (They made a mental note to ask V if there was any official ghost hunting term for what had happened to them).

What hurt so much about the things they had seen was that they had been completely and totally true. Though it had felt so much like the nightmares they had had when they were younger, those had at least been fake, with gruesome made-up monsters and unrealistic plots they could wake up from and take comfort in the fact they weren't real. That was what they had clung to for reassurance after waking up sweating and breathing hard, heartbeat in their throat and blood pounding in their face.

Their favorite grounding exercise relied on those real things, taking an inventory of their surroundings to help keep them present and take their mind off of the nightmarish images that still lingered even after waking up. Since they still felt cold and shaky, they figured it couldn't hurt to try it here and now, in the dingy bathroom at the back of the store. Taking a deep breath in and out, they let their eyes drag over the blue and white floor tiles, the darkly stained grout between them, the stuccoed ceiling, the scooped sconces on either side of the watermarked mirror, listing them one by one in their head. When they'd taken stock of the major features, they lingered on details more and more--- the faucet's chipped C and H, the sole bit of Sharpie graffiti on the doorframe, the jagged edge of the paper towels that looked like a fir branch---

"Why're you so sensitive, Noah?"

Immediately they were back nearly a decade, in the woods behind their house.

"You're such an open book. You scream. You cry. You're easy, Noah. Too easy and too sensitive."

Noah whimpered, remembering. Hanna was laughing. Kade was crying.

"Him, though? He's a challenge. He sticks it out. He's not a coward."

They took a deep and ragged breath, forcing their eyes away from the paper towel. Look at anything else. The mistake in the tile, the fly carcass in the corner, the shiny plastic of the soap dispenser---

"So sensitive! Stop crying. How long do you think he'll last?" Hanna was laughing. Kade was crying. They were helpless.

With a strangled scream, Noah forced themself up. That was supposed to ground them. It was the first time it hadn't worked. In fact, they felt worse than they had before coming to the bathroom. This time, reality hadn't done anything to protect them.

And that was the issue, they realized. It was real. Too real, all of it. When their demons were imaginary, their terrors were fake, reality helped keep them sane and safe, helped steady their breathing and loosen their clenched fists and teeth. But when the nightmares became real---or rather, when the real became nightmares---truth did nothing. Because it was the exact thing they were trying to avoid.

Wiping their hands on their jeans, Noah gave a stifled sob. Walking over to the sink, they splashed cold water on their face before wiping it off with the sleeve of their flannel shirt. Blinking back tears, they straightened their glasses, gave a decisive nod, and marched out the door, eager to rejoin V and Raine.

Carrying the lanterns out of the store, V noticed Noah hurrying to get in the backseat, wrestling the passenger seat forward to climb in. They seemed a bit uneasy, caught up in their own thoughts or perhaps trying to wrap their head around whatever the ghost had shown them.

Though her numbed core didn't experience much sympathy, it crossed her mind that she could try saying something. However, unlike them, she wouldn't have the faintest idea what to say or what her approach should be. Heck, knowing herself, she'd probably just make the problem worse.

Letting it be, V popped the trunk of the Trans-Am and loaded the lanterns in. The price tag had her wincing and feeling some irritation about her thankless, unpaying job. However, she tried to brush it off by focusing on the thrill of the hunt, while convincing herself that these heavy-duty lights would be a good investment.

V let out a heavy sigh, then started double-checking her gear. Now that she had been exposed to such a successful spirit cleansing, her stash seemed much less hefty, lacking in resources with only the most basic tracking gear and everything else being used to attack.

Soon enough, Raine returned, having gone back into the store for something she had indeed forgotten. "This will be everything we need, correct?"

"Should be," V replied. "Anyway...Before we head back into that place, I wanted to ask you. Do you have any notes in there about ghost types that manipulate peoples' minds, or memories, or whatever it was doing to Noah?"

Raine glanced briefly at Noah before pulling out her journal and flipping through the pages. "It's hard to say since I've not encountered too many of these types of ghosts yet and any can really mess with your head if they're strong enough, especially in the dark. I know the Yurei often gives terrible visions, and often urges of violence usually directed toward oneself since they exist for revenge and anger. A Mare meanwhile is said to be responsible for nightmares, hence the name. A Banshee is not much better either but like Mylings they like to sing a lot."

"Huh..." V sighed, "I hope to God it's not another damn Myling, but given it's in a schoolhouse and they tend to be children, it's hard not to connect the dots there. Of course, Yurei sounds like it could fit the level of aggression we saw, and I've heard rumors about Mares taking kindly to dark spaces..." She groaned, "I would drive myself nuts trying to keep all that information in my head at once during a hunt."

Raine chuckled a little. "That's why I have my journal. So I can look back at things and write stuff down then make the connections later and don't have to worry about it."

"Oh, that works too I guess," V murmured. Her brow furrowed. "These concepts are all new, but an entity like this does sound familiar..."

She paused to think. There had been some hunts where she wound up stuck investigating during the late hours, in old houses where electricity was unavailable and street lights were too distant to leak through the windows. Only faint silvery moonlight, if she was lucky, would drift in to help. Even then, there was at least once where she found herself in crypts and underground passages, where turning off the flashlight would result in an unpiercable black veil shrouding her vision.

It didn't always go hand-in-hand, but likewise, she would find her vision warping as she walked through places that seemed empty despite their thick air, slowly forming shapes and figures that weren't really there -ghosts in and of themselves, yet trapped in her vision alone. Whether a result of her stubborness or one of her tools, she was able to pull through by focusing solely on her prey like a beast, not letting anything else draw her astray.

"You two make me feel inexperienced," V muttered. "But I've encountered things like this before, that much I know. I couldn't tell you what they were specifically, or if was a redeemable ghost like with Ben, but I still managed to get rid of them."

Raine smiled a tiny bit. "If anything, I feel like the inexperienced one here." Her smile faded a little as she continued. "I've only seen a couple things relatively similar in ways and as much as I don't want to admit it, at least one of those cases was too dangerous for me to solve, at least alone. I really don't like how agressive it's getting already but I'm glad you're here. You at least know what you're doing with something like this."

"As long as we're focused on really getting rid of the ghost this time..." V sighed, "Which as we now know, could be subject to change. But seriously, when you find aggressive ghosts and can't find a way to reason with them like we did Ben, do you just ward them and get out?"

"Pretty much... It's not terribly effective though." Raine replied. "It really depends on if someone lives there or if it's abandoned. If it's abandoned then I just do that and get out before it can get its hands on me. If the place is occupied and I've been asked in investigate then I try everything I can and once it gets aggressive try to do as much as I can from the outside. If I can't get rid of it then I tell whoever owns the place that they'll have to call in a priest or someone more capable of getting rid of it."

"Yeah, that's a more common thing than you probably think among investigators -at least from the ones I keep track of. So..." V smirked and crossed her arms, feeling a spark of her typical confidence. "Maybe this time I can be the teacher."

Raine smiled a bit once more as she replied. "With something this aggressive I would love nothing more."

Getting back into her typical hunting headspace, V started to pick apart her method as she looked through her tools in their designated part of the trunk.

The UV light -it worked incredibly when the ghost actually left such traces, but not all of them did, so it wasn't the most reliable. Salt and bone dust were handy when she needed a quick escape, but they did nothing for finding or solving the problem. The revolver was self-explanatory and better suited to cryptids.

V picked up a rough wooden box with charming carvings and some words in Latin; 'lux divina umbram illuminet.' Opening it revealed nine candles lined up inside. One ivory-white, five bloody red, one pale blue with shiny flecks, and one black with gold-tinted runes carved out. They'd all been used before, leaving drippings down the side and craters around the wicks, but had more than a few uses left in them.

"These are the best tools I have for something like this," V explained. "The blue one and black one specifically. The black one tends to lure ghosts out -the less intelligent ones anyway, and the blue exposes them in its light. Light them both in a certain radius, and it should give you a clear shot. There are other ways to perform cleansings, exorcisms, and other forms of spirit expulsion and-or destruction, but..." She held up the vial of water she wore as a pendant. "I stick to what I know."

Raine nodded. "That's understandable. I didn't know you could do that with candles though. I know other investigators and hunters use them but I've always steered clear of using them myself. I prefer to stick with the tools I know will work."

"It all depends on how they're made and what you carve in them," V explained, setting the box down. "Honestly, the raw ingredients are what have all the power, but turning them into candles gives them more uses and lets them last longer. Wax burns longer than leaves and dust, and I don't even think you can light crystals."

"I highly doubt so. Maybe shining light through them though?"

"Oh yeah..." V muttered, "I wish I thought of that before I spent twenty minutes in an old asylum trying to light a rock on fire."

Raine blinked, not really able to tell if she were being sarcastic or serious.

"Well, anyway..." V closed the trunk. As it bounced back up, squeaking on its rusty hinges, she grunted with irritation and slammed it down, forcing it shut this time. "Anyway, we're not going to make any sort of progress from here. Think you're ready to head out?"

"There's nothing else I can think of that we need so yes." Raine answered.

V nodded and took out her keys, all too ready to face that cursed schoolground.

Raine couldn't say she was entirely ready to face it mentally but couldn't ignore the excitement she felt as she got in the passenger's seat of the black and gold Trans-Am.

A collab with @RangerofIthilien and @RavenAkuma

Noah watched out the back window of V's Trans-Am as they pulled back in front of the school. Being back so soon didn't have the reaction they'd expected; something about being there with two other capable individuals who they were starting to really like softened the anxiety they had anticipated. The drive, too, with the low rattle of the car, had been a welcome repose for their stomach to stop churning and their heartbeat to slow.

Raine glanced back at Noah from the front seat. "Hey, how are you doing?" She asked gently.

Noah gave her a small smile. "Thanks for asking. I'm okay."

Raine gave them a small smile back. "That's good. Are you feeling any better then earlier?"

"Definitely. Thank you, by the way. For just being here."

"Of course! I'm happy to be here. Well, a little on edge with how powerful this ghost feels but happy nonetheless."

"Yeah." Noah glanced out the window. "I'm hoping it'll be better going in together. Something about safety in numbers."

Raine nodded. "I would hope so. And the light should keep it away from right next to us for the most part."

Noah nodded as the car pulled to a stop across the street from the school. They shifted forward, ready to get out. Hugging their camera close and grasping the passenger seat, they slid out of the back as Raine let them out.

"Sorry I kind of disappeared back there," Noah said to both of them once they were standing. "It was just a lot all at once. I used to have these terrible night terrors as a kid, so whatever that spirit did, it all kind of came flooding back."

"Uh, sorry about that," V responded, pulling the best sympathetic voice she could as she went around to the trunk. "These kinds of ghost really suck for that reason."

"You can say that again," Noah said. "Thanks for all your help."

"Of course. Like I said, we're happy to help." Raine said with a small smile, trying to lighten the mood at least a little.

"So..." they said, looking between Raine and V. "What's the plan?"

"Right now, get in as much light as possible," V explained. "We got some high-powered lanterns here, some new flashlights, batteries, etcetera to help with that. Now, something else that I noticed that could be important is our focus. Liz said we need to keep a clear head, and remembering when I encountered ghosts that liked causing hallucinations, I always powered through just by focusing on the hunt. So that's going to be something important; stay as focused as possible, ignore its tricks, and that should at least minimize its impact on our minds."

Noah chewed on their lip, nodding along to V though their stomach was dropping again. They had always been one to wear their heart on their sleeve, and spent so much time in their head and naming their emotions that being told to not do that felt foreign. It was strange, they realized, how their emotions had been such an asset in their last case and now were the main weapon being used against them.

After noticing their subtle signs of nervousness, V awkwardly scratched her head and tried to think of something. "I know you already had some bad experiences here, so if it helps, maybe just keep talking to one of us? That could help your focus. I think. Raine?"

Raine smiled a bit and nodded. "That should work. I know it sort of helps me sometimes."

Noah mustered a small grin. "I'd like that, I think. I can try."

The two nodded in support and resumed unloading the trunk. Noah watched as V removed all the laterns she had picked up with Raine. They felt a pang of guilt at having been shut in the bathroom for the entirety of the shopping trip. They would have offered to foot at least part of the bill; they searched their wallet and found a crumpled ten. It didn't feel like enough, particularly after all V had done by coming out and helping them, but at least it was something. They offered it to her wordlessly, clasped in between their index and middle finger.

V blinked hard, surprised. "What's this for?"

They nodded at the lanterns. "Since I'm at least a part of the reason for the impromptu shopping trip, I figured..." They trailed off. "I would've gotten them if I hadn't been in the bathroom."

V hesitated, eying the bill. Though she was tempted to accept some form of payment, given the hard job that awaited her and the shopping trip, it felt sleazy to take money from a friend (if that was okay to classify them as) she came here to help. She may have been known as one of the coldest hunters in the amateur league, but she still had a moral compass for fellow humans.

She pushed the bill back. "It's fine, Noah, we got it. Really. The bill wasn't even that bad, and it's not like I'm doing this job for profit."

Noah sighed. "Fine. But I'm taking you out to lunch sometime. Both of you. And that is a threat."

V managed a light laugh. "Deal." She grabbed a wooden box, Bible, and some other tools before shoving them into her backpack. "So, are we ready to head in?"

Noah clutched the flashlight they had been given tightly. "As ready as I can be, I think."

"Alright then..." V took a deep breath. "Straight back, stiff lip, eyes ahead. If your mind starts to wander, just imagine a strict Italian grandmother smacking you with a wooden spoon. Works for me."

Noah laughed, picturing V's strategy all too well. "Sounds like a plan."

The three approached the building. For an elementary school, it had quite a knack for looking imposing, but Noah supposed any building left abandoned long enough would develop the same skills. As soon as they passed the tree line, Noah gave an involuntary shudder, but after reminding themself they weren't alone this time, shook it off and steeled themself.

At the ominous doors, V flicked on one of the lanters, which immediately assaulted their eyes with intense stark-white light.

"Okay, anything that doesn't like light won't like that," she muttered.

Noah squinted too. "Are we sure these lights won't just antagonize it more?"

"Liz said it was already angry," V remarked. "At this point, I think our best bet is to ward off its influence as much as possible, and darkness is at least a part of that. I mean, even on a practical level..." She shined her flashlight through the window. "You can barely see in there, and it'll get worse if we have to head to lower floors or interior rooms."

Noah nodded, switching on their flashlight as well. "Makes sense. Let's get this thing."

After V forced the door open, the three tentatively crossed the threshold. Noah was struck with a wave of musty air, coughing at the dust particles suspended. They swung their flashlight around the surroundings. Cheesy motivational posters were tacked up on the walls, along with a faded "Congrats class of 1999" banner, sad streamers hanging on either side.

"Eerie," they muttered to themself. Walking deeper into the hallways, they felt oddly calm; they didn't feel the same trepidation and sense of foreboding from before. The dim sound of the others' footsteps behind them was a comfort, and though their flashlight beam wasn't as large as they would like, it still was a welcome asset against whatever was beyond its cone of light.

As the beam fell on the floor once more, something in the corner hissed and scurried away. Noah jumped, startled, before chastising themself for being scared. Of course there were bound to be rats here. It's an abandoned building.

"I wish we had brought some cheese now," Noah joked. After being met with silence, they swung around, only to be met with an empty hallway.

"Guys...?" They frantically moved their flashlight around in all directions. "V? Raine?"

Somewhere in the chaos and darkness they had lost them.

Noah gulped, fear returning now that they were alone. No. Stay focused, Noah. Remember what V said. Don't get in your head.

Taking a deep breath, they steadied themself and started back the way they came, determined to find their friends.

They hadn't been in the schoolhouse long when things started going wrong. It had started off okay with whatever occupied the building keeping its distance from them but as they got deeper into the building, following the ghost orbs in Noah's camera, things started to feel off.

Raine could feel the edges of her vision starting to become blurry and dark as she kept walking with Noah and V down the long hallways. She tried her best to keep up the conversation as she walked, more for Noah's sake then her own but found it getting harder and harder. The feeling of danger was starting to set into her heart and her responses to the conversation at hand began to get a bit dull and sound distant due to her growing hyperawareness of the environment around her.

Little bits of movement here and there caught her attention. Maybe it was just mice, a building left alone this long was sure to have them, but it still felt sinister. Her distraction eventually led to her silence which caused her to begin to slip into her own thoughts, a very bad place to be.

After a moment, she could hear voices but couldn't make out what they were saying. Was it V? Noah? Or something else entirely? She had no way of knowing. She glanced around but somehow found herself alone even though the whispers continued.

Raine's heart hammered in her chest like a trapped bird, but not like a dove or any sort of songbird. No, it was like a goose was trying to escape her ribcage. She clutched the flashlight tightly in her hand, alone now. She didn't know where the others had gone, she didn't mean to leave them but she had no clue where they were now.

"V! Noah!" She tried to call through the dark halls but there was no response. "V..?"

She thought she saw a glimpse of light in one of the rooms and darted towards it, thinking she had found the others but something stopped her before she could reach the door. It was already cold in the building but now it felt even colder.

Then suddenly, it was winter, Christmas to be exact. Raine stared out the window of the old english home, moonlight barely shining off the dusting of snow on the ground, accentuating the crumbling wall around the churchyard in the distance. The church itself was hidden by the bare trees.

Raine then felt a cold hand on her shoulder and a quiet voice. It was her Grandmother's.

Don't go in there, Birdy. Trust me, it's dangerous there.

"But why?" Raine asked. "What's over there?"

Something you won't like. Promise me you'll never go there.

"But... Okay, I promise..."

Raine shuddered and the vision was gone, leaving her in the dark. Somehow either she or something else had turned her flashlight off in the time she relieved the memory. Quickly she turned it back on and kept walking, shining the flashlight at dark corners where she thought she saw movement but nothing was ever there.

Don't go in there...

Don't go there...

Don't go...

The whispers echoed in Raine's mind, distracting, dangerous. She pulled out her journal and stopped, leaning against the wall. Writing always cleared her mind, she just hoped it would do so now as well.

My name is Raine Jameson. I am a historian and hobbist ghost investigator. I love tea, and writing, and warm blankets. My favorite tea is earl grey. She wrote then started another line. My name is Raine James-

She stopped writing and her gaze snapped up as she thought she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. "Hello..?" She wiped around when she thought she saw it again and shone the light from her flashlight in that direction.

Two glowing red orbs blinked at her from the darkness of a doorway. They looked nothing like the ghost orbs she had seen in Noah's picture before. If anything they looked like eyes... But not the eyes of something animal or even human, however they looked familiar...

Raine's eyes widened and she dropped the journal before taking off down the hall, away from the creature. Her flashlight flickered as she ran even though it was brand new and she could hear the padding of footsteps. Skirting a corner, her eyes landed on a row of lockers near the side of the hall and she sped over to them, yanking on them until one, luckily empty, finally opened.

Just barely managing to squeeze herself inside, she slammed the metal door closed, wincing at how loud it was. Surely it had heard that. She swiftly turned the flashlight off along with the EMF detector she had clipped to her belt and waited silently, one hand clamped over her mouth to muffle the sound of her breathing which was ragged and shallow from fear.

She had experienced this before, experienced a ghost trying to find her, hunting. But never had she been this scared. She had seen the hound again and this time it was the one after her, she was sure of it.

Her heart raced as she heard the pad of footsteps outside in the hall, getting closer. She hated this feeling, the feeling of being trapped, cornered. The feeling of being hunted.

There was nothing she could do but stay silent, still, and hope it didn't find her. So that's what she did, hoping it would go away.

Being at the head of the group, V soon fell into her typical hunting habits. She focused solely on the hallways and kept her goal at the forefront of her mind. No shadows, no echoes, no dust particles or pages fluttering in a draft; nothing was going to distract her or warp her vision.

Unfortunately, between said habits and the ambition to find this lurking ghost, she forgot that she was supposed to be talking to others.

"Right, it feels weird having other people with me," V muttered. "You guys okay?"

To her surprise, there was no response. She whipped around, but neither the lantern or the flashlight revealed a trace of her companions -or the ghost for that matter.

"Goddammit!" V ranted. "This thing either works fast, or it was onto our plan..." She mumbled, "Now that I think about it, is it a team-hunting rule that you discuss your plans in private? No, that can't be right, ghosts aren't that smart...I think..."

She shook her head and continued down the hallway. When she made it to an intersection, splitting into two more branches directly left and right, she thought she saw something from the corner of her eye -a silhouette, blacker than the shadows around them, slinking out of view.

V stopped and set the lantern down.

At the edge of its light, V slipped the wooden candle box out of her pack and popped it open. She pulled out the blue-tinted candle with shimmering bits of crystal woven in. As she lit the wick with one of matches in the box, the light was faint but normal, and the candle gave off no scent other than faint earthiness and burning cotton.

V stretched the faint light source out into the dark hallway. Still nothing to see but the ruined old building. There was infinitely more dust, but much less vandalism this deep into the building. Perhaps because the delinquents responsible kept getting scared off by something.

Not her, though. She buried her fear under a dense layer of stubbornness and her nearly decade-old grudge. Plus, though it may have been hard to see, it didn't change what she was seeing. Just a plain old hallway, nothing more.

"If there is a spirit here," she spoke out into the dark, "Make yourself known."

The hallway was silent.

After a moment, she began to hear something. A very faint, familiar voice that seemed to echo from deep into the building.

"Visellia, come on! We can meet Bloody Mary herself, can you believe it? I already got everything for the real ritual!"

Before that train of thought could even leave the station, V smirked. All she could picture was not the child she recognized, but a vile entity trying so hard to scare her. No better than some obnoxious younger sibling or mischievous schoolmate. Weak, infantile, pathetic even.

"Too easy," she muttered.

With her free hand, she raised the crucifix. It didn't ward many spirits but it did tick them off; something to draw them out of hiding.

"I demand you step forward!" V snapped. "Face me!"

"So you can hurt one of us again?"

V noticed her vision shifting and looked down.

To her shock, Ben was standing there, with his familiar darkened appearance and glazed eyes. Behind him, more dead children stepped forward, and even a lady who looked like a teacher from the '50s.

All spirits, all something she had the urge to kill.

Yet...they didn't feel as wicked as she knew they were...

V shook her head. "You're not real. Back off!"

She reached for her jar of bone dust, only for the children to all back away and cower. The woman stepped forward, keeping her arms raised in a defensive yet nervous demeanor.

A pang of unexpected guilt almost made V want to vomit. Why weren't they attacking? Even the hallucinations from ghosts weren't this passive. These were monsters, bound to the darkness and hungry for human blood. They all were!

"I never did anything to you!" Ben cried. "You're the one who came into my own home and tried to kill me!"

"Don't hurt them," the woman pleaded. "They're just children!"

"We're stuck here," a little ghost girl whimpered. "We can't help it. There's no way out."

V swiped the candle at them, but they only briefly disappeared. Feeling her heart rate increase, she recognized her uneasiness and immediately focused on steeling her nerves. However, as she tried to see past the tricks and picture the truth of this entity -a pathetic yet nonetheless evil monster lurking in the shadow- it suddenly seemed hazy.

She didn't know what was lurking in the dark anymore.

V ran back, picked up the lantern, and charged down the hall. She kept her head down to avoid facing the spirits again. She ducked into the first room she saw, then slammed the door behind her and locked it.

Panting heavily, she slowly turned around and set down the lantern, while dropping the now-extinguished candle and crucifix. V could see that the room in front of her was an abandoned bathroom, with its broken stalls, grungy tiles, and mold growing in patches along the walls and floor.

Acting on instinct, V took out the salt jar and spread a thin line in front of the door. As everything caught up to her, she started hitting the sides of her head in frustration.

"You stupid-" She groaned, "How could you let that trick you?! You're an idiot!"

She cursed repeatedly under her breath before finally calming down and slumping to the ground. Running through everything in her head, she tried to figure out what went wrong in the first place. How could that idiotic spirit have gotten to her?

V sighed heavily and glanced up, only to see an extremely pale hand straining to reach the lantern.

V yelped with fear and kicked the hand away.

"Hey!"

Her initial shock turned to pure irritation as she realized that Liz was leaning far out of the closest mirror above the old sinks, stuck inside by just her ankles. After getting her hand kicked, she went slack against the sink, dangling from the mirror's edge.

"Ugh, what do you want?!" V snapped. "I didn't summon you!"

Liz crawled back into her mirror, until only her head and hands poked through. "Sheesh, one minute you're begging for my help, and the next you're getting pissy when I show up."

"As if you ever come around willingly," V spat. "Now tell me why you're here before you get a fistful of bone dust to the face."

"First, I'd appreciate it if you turn that monstrosity of a light off," Liz grumbled. "Second, what do you expect? You finally decide to join a team, after they convinced you to spare a myling of all creatures. I want to see how this goes."

"Where are they?" V interrogated. "And wait, how did you know Ben was a myling? Can you actually tell what these things are?!"

"Not really," Liz said flatly. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm kinda stuck in the mirror network? Not a lot I can pick up from here." She smirked mischievously as she held up a tiny pocket-size book, making V immediately blush with embarrassment. "I just found the little ghost diary you were trying to start!"

"Give me that, you old hag!" V snapped, snatching the booklet. "It was a good idea from Raine -so what?"

Liz burst out laughing. "They are turning you into such a little wussy! From the look and sound of things, you can't even keep your head straight against a mind-warper anymore. I mean, come on! You've killed like a dozen of these things before!"

V turned away, crossing her arms. "Good question. Dammit, I've never had trouble until now."

"'Until now,'" Liz repeated. "The same time you used a blessing to cleanse a house, picked up two partners, and think it's cute to keep a diary. Yes, Visellia, something here is not like the others, don't you think?"

V stopped to think -as annoying as she was about it, the ghost had a point.

Even if she tried to focus solely on killing the ghost now, because of her experiences with Ben, there would be a constant part of her that disagreed. A seed of doubt that forced her to wonder if the spirit was a monster after all, or someone redeemable. And if they were redeemable, what if she killed them anyway? Did that make her the bad guy for not getting through to them, or would it be justified? Not just in the eyes of her associates (friends, teammates, coworkers -whatever the hell they were), but in the eyes of objective right and wrong, and even God. Not that she was particularly close to him, but it'd be awkward to use his devices for work and not even give him a nod, right?

V sighed, "You're right."

"Duh, no sh-"

"It's not Raine or Noah's fault," V spat. "It's my own. I was all too ready to destroy Ben when all it took was someone talking to him and a basic blessing to stop his negative influence, cleanse the house, and save him. So unless I'm up against something inhuman, how do I know these spirits can't be saved? Somehow..."

Liz groaned, "You're making this too complicated! Visellia, who cares what they were in life?"

"You use your past life as a bragging point all the time!" V snapped. "And to justify your evil nature, you goddamn hypocrite!"

"So? You're not gonna find another beautiful, powerful Hungarian countess lurking around a random Ohio schoolhouse. Just a bunch of disgruntled commoners."

"You're horrible," V muttered. "Go away."

"Whatever," Liz muttered. She smirked as she slid back into the mirror. "Don't get killed!"

V faced the door and took a deep breath. Whether this spirit was another Ben, another Liz, or something much worse, she had to keep her head clear and get rid of it.

Noah and Raine were counting on her now.

A collab with @RangerofIthilien

As Noah wandered the abandoned school, they felt themselves getting more and more lost. Like most mass produced schools in the midwest, the halls had the uncanny ability to look exactly alike. Particularly when you factored in the darkness, lit only by a white flashlight beam, every corner blended together and every wall felt endless. Eventually, they decided to pick a classroom with the door slightly ajar, thinking it might be better to pick a place, stay there, and listen for V and Raine instead of wandering aimlessly, where they all could keep dodging each other for eternity.

They coughed when they entered, the dust getting in their throat. Swinging their flashlight around revealed several small desks arranged into little tables. Most of the chairs were gone, though there was still a dusty swivel behind the teacher's desk at one end of the room. The walls were mostly bare, adorned with remnants of Scotch tape and poster putty, but the few remaining posters (a cheesily drawn alphabet and children's book characters) suggested that it was probably a kindergarten classroom.

Taking a moment to catch their breath, they walked further in and took a seat at the teacher's desk. The chair released a cloud of dust as they sank into it, sending them into more coughs. They wished they had some water to clear their throat, but the utilities for the building hadn't been paid for over two decades. They wished they had had enough foresight to pick some up at the supply store, even despite being otherwise occupied.

They kept their flashlight trained on the door as they waited in the hopes that V or Raine could see it from the hallway. While waiting, they found that of all the eerie things littering the room, it was the silence that truly scared them. Their imagination scattered sounds throughout the shadows, little clatters and clinks they told themself were just normal, settling building noises, but their somersaulting stomach remained unconvinced by logic.

This silence wasn't tranquil and soothing, it was dangerous, spawning ugly anticipation. This silence also meant that---and they shuddered to think so---they were well and truly alone against whatever was still prowling the halls.

They tried scuffing their feet to make some kinds of sounds, before realizing that while it was a comfort for them, it muffled any possible noise from V and Raine in the rest of the building. Eventually they couldn't take it, the lack of noise oppressive. They'd waited for what had felt like ages with no sign of any kind of V or Raine. At this point, they were nearly sure that they'd either left them to fend for themself (which would never happen; they considered themself to be an excellent judge of character, and neither V nor Raine was the backstabbing type) or (more likely) that whatever spirit was lurking in the school had claimed them as its victims. Steeling their nerves once again, they rose from their chair, brandishing their flashlight like a weapon. While they had even less of a chance of besting the entity than V or Raine, they could at least try. For them.

The door swung open as Noah pushed it, newly confident in their mission. Pushing down the fears of what they might find waiting for them, they marched down the hallway and vowed to keep looking until both V and Raine were accounted for.

They mustered a couple soft "V?"s and "Raine?"s as they wandered, but nothing too loud; they were scared to attract the attention of more than just their friends. Given the silence, though, it wasn't entirely unlikely that whenever they found their friends, they'd find the spirit they'd been fighting too.

They turned the corner, shoes sliding on the dusty linoleum. Panning their flashlight from one side to the other, they kept walking down the hallway, lockers blurring together. It became a routine after a while. Point. Look. Point. Look. In a way, they were almost scared of what they would find.

Point. Look. Point. Look. Point---

In their haste, they tripped over something in their path. They heard something slide across the floor and stop just a bit further down. Keeping the beam trained on whatever it was, they approached it cautiously, their heart speeding. It didn't seem to be living, so that was good.

A notebook with a leather cover, lay on the ground before them, a journal specifically. Raine's journal. Her neat handwriting could just barely be seen on the left page except it was smeared with ink. Her pen lay broken, snapped in half and tossed a little farther up the hall, the ink from it appearing to have been dumped posefully on the pages and and left to soak in after it was smeared into two barely readable words:



Noah gulped. Had Raine written this? Or had it been... something else? Either way, if Raine's notebook was here, there was a chance that Raine too could be in the vicinity. Biting their lip, they swallowed before raising their voice and calling out.

"Raine?"

Raine could hear the sound of footsteps. It still hadn't left, still hunting, still searching. Minutes passed but they felt like hours to her as she felt the panic coursing through her.

She was always calm when things like this happened, she never let the panic win. But somehow it won over this time.

Had she not been so scared, she would have been frustrated. Part of her wanted to step out of the locker now and prove the silly, paranoid part of her wrong. There was really no reason for her to be this scared. Even when she saw the dog out somewhere she was never panicked like this. Although something told her that stepping out of the locker now would be a very very bad idea.

Her thoughts were distracted though as she began to hear something beside the footsteps. She could hear her name being called in the voices of those she loved.

"Raine."

"Raine..."

"Birdy..."

She covered her ears, trying to tone it out. She knew it wasn't them. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't tone out the horrible sound of the footsteps or the panting of the hound she so feared, the feeling of its breath on the back of her neck more and more noticeable with the more paranoid and panicked she got. Closing her eyes didn't help much either as the glowing red eyes were always there, lingering in the back of her mind. It was torture.

When she finally dared to uncover her ears again, she found that the footsteps and sound of doglike panting were gone, but not the voices. They seemed to echo in her mind still, threatening to awake more memories to be twisted into something terrible.

That is, until one broke through the tormenting whispers.

"Raine?"

It was clear, not sounding muffled like the others and a wave of hope washed over her. She knew that voice! And there was no doubt that it was one of the living.

"Noah..?" She called quietly, carefully setting her shaking hand on the door of the locker.

"Raine?" they called again, closer this time. "Where are you?"

"I'm over here..." She called back, managing to calm the panic that was still in her voice at least a little. She tried to push the locker door open to get out but it wouldn't budge. She tried to push it again but it still wouldn't give and she could feel the panic begin to rise inside of her again.

"Hang on, are you... inside a locker?"

She banged on the door a little, hoping she could get their attention to the right one. "Yes! I can't get out!"

"Which one? Are you... here. Is it this one?" They tapped the outside gently.

"To your left!" She knocked on the inside of the door again, trying to at least rattle it enough to visibly signify which one she was in.

"Okay, I think... yeah! Hold on a second." There were some rattles as Noah pulled the lock up and the door swung open.

Raine half stumbled, half fell out of the locker as soon as the door opened, managing not to fall entirely. She took a moment to calm her panic and leaned against the wall for a moment. "Thank you..."

Noah reached their arms out slightly as if to steady her. "Yeah, no problem. I'm just glad to see you. More importantly, see you safe."

Raine didn't protest or move away, instead simply letting them partially steady her. She nodded a little. "I'm really glad you're alright too. I don't know how or when I left you guys... I didn't mean to..."

Noah nodded. "Don't worry about it. Me neither. Maybe it has something to do with whatever is here... speaking of, I found this." They offered her her journal. "Is there a chance that you wrote this?"

She gasped softly and smiled a bit, happily accepting her journal back. "You found it!" Her eyes then widened in horror when she saw the ink smeared all over, soaked into many of the pages. "No... No I didn't..."

Noah grimaced. "I figured. You probably know more about this than me... does this writing narrow it down any?"

She carefully flipped through a couple of the ink soaked pages in sorrow for her poor journal until she reached the list. "It does... give me one moment."

"Of course! No rush."

Raine's spare pencil, much to her dismay as she had loved her pen, scratched off ghost after ghost until there were only three left on the new page. Her eyes widened a bit again as she looked at the three left. "Yes.. It narrows it down quite a bit actually... Not in a good way though..."

Gulping, Noah stared at her worriedly. "Uh oh."

She nodded a little, looking nervous. "Only one could be considered relatively safe... And it's only safe after we've stayed in here a while. The longer we're in here, the safer it is. So right now it would still be dangerous. The other two... aren't so nice."

"Given our luck so far, I'd bet it's probably one of those other two." They chewed on their lip. "What should we do?"

"We... We need to find V... She'll know how to combat these. The best I can do is get it off out tail if it decides to... you know what? that part is better left unsaid."

Noah took a deep breath in and out. "I get it. Let's go find V."

Raine nodded and tucked the ink sodden journal back in its holster at her side. "Mhm."

They started down the rest of the hallway, two flashlights lighting the way much better than one. Keeping their eyes and ears open for V, they wandered past lockers and posters, perking at each slight noise and humanoid shape.

After around five minutes of walking, Noah turned to Raine. "If V is looking for us, maybe it'd make sense to stop and wait. We could just be going around each other in circles."

Raine frowned a little. There was a very good chance of that happening, especially in here. "Maybe... although if it makes it easier for her to find us it also makes it easier for--"

She was cut off as all of a sudden, the dark shadow that had attacked Noah earlier, at the way beginning of the whole debacle, materialized, prowling menacingly at the end of the hallway.

Noah's stomach twisted. "Um, Raine?" Their voice climbed higher in fear. "What should we do?"

Raine fumbled for a smudge stick and her lighter, her heart hammering in her chest just like before. She could feel the panic inside her rising but much less then before now that she had someone else with her. This time, she could actually think straight and even though her hands were shaking, her voice wasn't.

"Hold onto me, we don't want to get separated again, and as soon as I light this, we run."

Noah placed a hand on her shoulder. "Got it."

Raine carefully lit up the lighter, glancing up at the dark figure as it caught sight of them, then quickly lit the smudge stick as it started quickly approaching. "Okay, now we run!"

They took off down the dark halls, Raine making sure she wouldn't lose Noah this time and that they were following. She glanced back every now and then, eyes wide as the dark figure got closer and closer.

Skirting down the halls at top speed, Raine caught the sight of the doorway to a classroom and ran towards it with Noah, hoping to get out of the ghost's immediate sight.

As soon as they were in, Raine instantly began looking for a place for them to hide and to her luck found the perfect spot. The teacher's desk at the front of the classroom was large and wooden, perfect to hide underneath where they wouldn't be seen.

She quickly ran over to it and ducked underneath, pulling Noah down with her before holding a finger to her lips and turning off the flashlights. The only light left now was the faint orange glow of the still smoldering smudge stick which she waved around their decent sized hiding place.

Now all they had to do was wait and hope it went away...

After stepping back into the halls, V kept the lantern up. She could just barely see the intersection she had come from on her right, and the end of the hallway on her left. They were empty, for now.

V took a deep breath. The visions, Liz's obnoxious taunts, her own nerve-wracking self-analysis; she blocked it out and focused solely on the mission.

She only took a couple of steps before a voice echoed eerily through the hallways. It wasn't familiar at all, but it wasn't menacing in any way. Either a couple of kids, or perhaps a young woman.

"Do you even know what you're doing anymore?"

V felt her heart rate spike for a moment, as her grip tightened around the lantern's handle.

Indeed, even she would have to ask herself that question. What was the best course to take? Was this ghost lashing out in misunderstanding? Were they in control, or being influenced by an unseen, darker force? Were they acting in pure spite and malice, just as she would have assumed? Was this person wicked even in their life, deserving of a miserable fate, much like Liz? Were they ever human to begin with?

"Heh..."

She managed a half-hearted smirk.

"What do you know? A point for the ghosts."

She sneered and slowly set down the lantern. For her, having to admit defeat would be even harder than confronting a powerful entity -even now, she could feel it boiling her blood in a pit of rage that she could only hope this entity wouldn't pick up on and exploit. Even so, now was not the time to be proving Liz's point. Even if she failed in this regard, she had at least one clear objective.

Perhaps focusing on that, for now, would get her through this.

V stepped further from the light. "Sure, you have a point. I don't really know what to do with you. But I do know that there are two other people in here that you've managed to trap, and that's about to change."

She whipped out her crucifix and held it up.

"So cut your pathetic tricks and face me, you cowardly brain-rotted maggot!" She snapped.

Just like that, there was an inhuman screech as a figure shot forward; a figure made of pure shadows, darker than anything natural. Like a black hole, consuming even the fiantest traces of light or life around it.

With her free hand, V took out a heaping handful of bone dust and cast it forward, the particles dispersing in a horizontal wave.

As soon as the ghost came into contact with it, it vanished, dispersing itself into wisps of shadows that trailed off into nothingness. Its influence; the dense air, the voices, the eerie feeling of a lurking presence; it was all gone.

But it wouldn't last long.

V immedately picked up the lantern and charged back down the hallway, toward the intersection. Her footsteps echoed with her hasty, panicked strides; a sound she now realized was absent until now.

Was it that the spirit had a grip on them from the moment they entered, or even before? Or were they just that vulnerable

"Noah!" She called out. "Raine!"

She stopped to listen. The building was less quiet than before, the natural whistles of the drafts and such coming back to break the dead silence, but she could already feel it creeping back the longer she waited.

"Guys!" She snapped -it came out as rage, but was really an unexpected shot of anxiety. "Where are you? Quick, respond now!"

A voice, clearly one of the living but distant, echoed down the halls. It was Raine's voice but sounded nervous and the fear clear in it as she called back. "V..?"

Without a second thought, V charged toward her voice.

Eventually, she could see a commotion in the distance, and her eyes adjusted as the lantern brought it into the light.