Young Writers Society

Carter straightened his gun belt, leaned further against the door jamb, and with a dead pan look said, "We're closed for cleaning today because of fumigators."

Behind him, Bear kept the door open while bent over in laughter at Carter's excuse. There was no way such a story was going to work, but at least his partner had been creative in trying to keep them away. And maybe they could pretend to be Ghostbusters for one day.

Kirux's grip on Griffith tightened to the point where Griffith gave a startled squeak - he had a surprising amount of strength hidden underneath his dark and mysterious coat.

"Fume gators sound terrifying," Kirux signed, briefly pulling away before hugging him again. If it wasn't for the fact that Kirux probably could topple him over, something told him that Kirux would be comically wrapping his legs around him, too.

"No, they're-"

Griffith paused, putting two and two together as he heard the excuse given. Fumigators and ghosts made it almost sound like an allusion to Ghostbusters. For a moment, he was sure it was secretly Dante underneath it all, seeing that the hunter had a love of supernatural-themed aliases.

But Dante would have said it was him by now, and he had never been one for disguises.

He looked back at the ghost behind them, then back at the building.

He could walk away. That was an option. Kirux would have agreed with it; he was skittish. And these two probably-hunters were very, very good at their job, or at least good enough to get through a harrowing experience without getting killed.

...But ghosts were unpredictable.

He let out a sigh, ran his fingers through his hair, and started towards the house. Kirux tried to dig his feet into the dirt to keep him from moving, but it was to no avail - Griffith was already at the door with Kirux in tow.

"You can let go," he said to Kirux.

Kirux shook his head. He was incredibly pale, his eyes were wide and his hands were trembling. But he still signed, "Have to protect."

"Protect?" he asked, already trying to find a way past the person in the door. He could try pushing him out of the way, but that would involve revealing that he was stronger than his appearance suggested.

Kirux gave a surprisingly confident nod. "Protect you!"

Nich's gaze narrowed in suspicion of the two men blocking the door. He didn't buy what they were trying to sell for a second. He gave them a quick once over and noticed that they appeared to be armed. And potentially dangerous. He frowned.

"This building is too run down to be anything other than an abandoned ruin," he said pointedly, then glanced towards where Elizabeth was lingering. She was staring up at the two men with a frown as well but every now and then, her gaze would flicker to the man called Griffith. Interesting... Nich exchanged a look with Ethan, who shrugged. "May we come in? It's rather cold out here."

Bear kept the door open, studying the people out on the porch. Surely Carter could have come up with a better story to keep the crowd occupied, but now he was set to selling this one. And the two folks who had just stepped forward wanted nothing to do with Carter's horse hockey.

"I can assure you gentlemen that you don't want to be stepping inside this house."

As he spoke, Carter lowered the crow bar from the sling on his shoulder and tapped it against the door jamb.

"Wouldn't want any of y'all getting hurt by something in the walls."

He needed an excuse.

The truth wouldn't do. He didn't look the part, and they would likely take offense if he said that he needed to protect them. Besides, he had established that he didn't believe in ghosts - he couldn't go back on that now.

"I know this building is haunted," he said, looking back at the two. "Supposedly haunted, anyways. That's why you're here, isn't it?"

He crossed his arms.

"But ghosts don't exist," he added, "so I want to go in there and prove you wrong. I've seen places like this before - 'ghosts' are just tricks of the wind and creaky floorboards. The only thing dangerous here is how old this place is."

He caught Kirux signing, "And I have to protect him," out of the corner of his eye, though the sign language was probably lost on the two.

Carter watched the two other men on the porch talking - one speaking and one signing. He felt Bear's hand tap on his shoulder and the knowing glance of, "See, I told you we should have brought Flynn."

To the porch crowd, he said, "Yes, we are here investigating ghosts and ghosts are indeed real. Maybe y'all found yourself at some roadside tourist trap but judging from how many bones I've burned this year, I would say ghosts are in fact real."

Bear leaned in beside Carter, adding a dramatic huff to the statement, and tempted with closing the door. Even if it was their only source of escape.

...Bones he had burned?

Griffith stared.

If he hadn't been determined to help them earlier, he certainly was now. The two either weren't from here or were taking their knowledge solely from Supernatural. He didn't know which one was more worrisome. But each implied they sorely needed some sort of protection, assuming that the ghosts here were anything like the ones he had dealt with before.

Griffith adopted a look that clearly said he didn't believe the two.

"I'm going in whether you want me to or not," he said. "You can't stop me. And if you try to close that door, I'll find another way in."

Kirux tilted his head. "How?" he signed.

Griffith faltered.

He had a specific method in mind, but he couldn't do that method with Kirux present. Kirux would ask too many questions, and he couldn't begin to answer them without revealing the truth.

"I'll..." He paused. Then, more confidentially, he said, "I'll break a window."

Both of Nichs eyebrows rose up. Something in the walls? Bones he'd burned? Nich shifted his stance slightly and cast the ghost woman a glance. Ethan was scowling at the two men, but Nich was more focused on the subtle changes. The both of them smelt slightly...off...almost like the magic he'd seen a witch use once, but not quite the same. He couldn't quite put a finger on it. Griffith smelt vaguely of dirt--but he couldn't be sure why that was, if it was just because they were outside and surrounded by dirt or not. And the mute one, he smelt like darkness. How darkness had a scent, Nich couldn't figure out, but there it was.

"I think you're bluffing," Nich said and released Ethan, subtly moving his boyfriend behind him with a sharp look. He stepped up beside Griffith and scowled. "Let us in."

Bear glanced between Carter and the people on the porch. He had never known Carter to take any sort of insult in such a peaceful manner, but watched as his partner let the accusation roll off his back. The comment about the bluff rolled off Carter like a droplet of water down the tail of a finely slicked duck.

When his partner finally spoke, Carter nearly growled out, "Whether I'm bluffing or not, y'all shouldn't be coming in here."

"It's not up to you to decide that-" Griffith started to say, only to come to a sudden stop when he realized that Kirux was no longer clinging to him. He had wandered a short distance away to a spot where no one was, and had his eyes screwed shut like he was thinking hard.

Kirux opened them.

As he did, darkness burst out of the ground in front of him. It was the size of a person, but didn't fit the shape - it was more like a portal than anything else. Kirux looked back at Griffith and eagerly gestured for him to come over to him.

Griffith glanced one last time at the two in the doorway before joining Kirux by the darkness.

Kirux abruptly grabbed onto his wrist. Griffith didn't even get a chance to react before Kirux was dragging him through the darkness, heading back out onto-

They weren't outside the house anymore.

They were inside.

His eyes widened.

When he glanced back, he could see a similar column of darkness coming out from the ground. Kirux gave him what he guessed was a proud look underneath the half mask, signing, "Now we're inside!" before jumping at a creak coming from the floor above. The darkness disappeared, and Griffith found that Kirux was once again clinging to him.

There was a slight problem, though - they were only a few feet away from the two in the doorway.

Bear heard the creak in the floorboards a second after noticing the lack of people on the porch. He kept his foot to the door, holding it back and leaving their only chance of escape open. It took a second more for his position to change so that the gun was facing the two intruders in the living room.

He thought about it for a second and decided that they were all intruders. But since these two had blatantly passed by the roadblock, Bear decided to address the issue.

"Now just what the hell do you think y'all are doing inside?"

Carter slid his foot against the door as well to counteract the shifting from Bear. He kept his gun on the people remaining on the porch and tried to figure out what they would be attempting next.

"I'm proving that ghosts really aren't here," Griffith said, with a confidence he didn't feel as he wiggled out of Kirux's grip.

Kirux quickly latched onto him again, but he managed to get into the position he had been aiming for before he did - he was in front, with Kirux behind. He couldn't tell if the hunter would shoot the gun at them, but it was a risk he wasn't willing to take. Despite his promise to do the protecting, it was Kirux who needed the most protection. He could handle a bullet or two.

Kirux couldn't.

There was another creak on the floor above them. A nervous feeling was already beginning to settle in Griffith's gut - it was going to be a partial. What other kind of ghost would settle in a building like this? It might have been far away from other people, but it was far from pleasant.

Kirux's grip tightened.

"...That's not a ghost," he said, in a pitiful, hesitant attempt to keep up his supposed reason for entering the building.

A glance back, and he could see Kirux giving him a look that clearly said he wasn't convinced.

"It's just the building settling," Griffith said.

...Even though the building settling couldn't explain the cold air coming through the floorboards.

Griffith resisted the urge to groan.

There was no denying it now.

...It was a partial.

Nich blurred forward and grabbed the gun, tilting it towards the ground and away from Ethan--or anyone else, for that matter. He snarled at the guy, getting up close and personal even as Elizabeth chided him for such aggressive actions.

"Why shouldn't we enter the building?" he asked, grabbing the guy by the front of his shirt. "And I don't appreciate you pointing a gun at me or my boyfriend, by the way."

"Nich!" Ethan shouted, but Nich shot him a warning look. "Nich, seriously, you need to stop! They're not hurting anyone! They just don't want us going inside and I'm sure it's for a very good reason!"

"Ethan, no--"

But it was too late, Ethan had already moved to join Nich in the doorway.

Carter was really not in the mood to shoot anyone.

That was the way that the situation was starting to turn, but that was just something he didn’t want to face. It was one thing to shoot at a ghost long enough to piss the thing off, but an entirely different matter to shoot a living thing. Or a semi-living thing judging from the energy readings coming off of the beings identified as Nich and Ethan.

He looked them dead in the eye in the doorway to say, “Now loon here you ruffians, I really do not want to shoot you.”

Bear stood by Carter in the doorway, lightly tapping his shoulder to get his attention about the current matter. Carter was preoccupied by the people in the doorway and hadn’t noticed the ones who had beamed into the living room.

While lowering his own weapon, Bear suggested, “Carter, they’re on either side of us. Maybe you should put your gun down.”