Seafaring Problem

Note: This takes place before First Visit!

It was quite possibly, the most average day for the ghost hunters. They were all sitting in the same room, doing whatever they could to distract themselves. Vixen was staring out the window closest to the door, Elliott was sitting on the couch, scrolling on their phone, Jesse was playing with a mini ping pong paddle, but Laysha was staring intently at the phone, waiting for it to ring.

“Do you actually think someone's gonna call us?” Vixen asked, still staring outside.

“Have a little faith, man,” She responded, but paused for a few seconds and continued on with a sadder demeanor, “I don't know, honestly. I’ve been staring at this old thing for how long now…” She slumped over slightly and rested her head on her hand.

Her voice got softer, “Hey, Vix. You ever think this was-” But she was cut off. The phone finally rang! In a flash, she picked it up and responded. Everyone was paying attention now, “Hello! What’cha calling for? Banshees, poltergeists, orbs, or whisps?”

Vixen gave her a quizzical look about the intro, but she returned the look and shrugged.

The caller answered, “More so a, uh… Seafaring problem, actually.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, uh… Pretty sure it would be easier to explain in person!”

“Alright, just tell us where to head!”

The location was promptly given, they grabbed their gear, and all headed out to the car.

***

     As they got closer to their location, the sun set quicker and quicker. All that could be seen beyond the horizon now was a small sliver of sunlight before the moon and stars took over for the night. The windows were rolled halfway down on all sides, letting the cool night breeze enter the car. Laysha felt good about herself. She finally felt sure of something in her life. She has a job! Her friends have a job! But all based on something as flimsy as ghosts? Eh, it’ll be worth it.

After a few minutes of driving, they finally arrived on scene (well, as close as they could get), and… No one was there.

Laysha closed the car door, “Where… Are they?”

“Looks like they up and left.” Jesse piped up.

“Maybe they had a reason or…” As Laysha faltered off, she felt her phone buzz in her pocket. She fished it out and checked to see who texted her.

Reading aloud, she spoke, “‘Sorry that i left, apparently my brother neglected to tell me we had company tonight and so i had to go, dunno if the ship is still there but good luck either way kid,’” She stopped and looked over at Jesse with a bit of a smug look, “Told you it was a good idea to make people able to text us.” All he did was roll his eyes in response.

Elliott spoke up, “Anyways, better to give us a reason then to not.”

“True, true. Welp, enough standing folks, start searching!” Laysha enthusiastically threw her hands in the air and ran off in another direction.

The river they were on stretched far and wide as the moonlight shimmered off of the cold water. Everyone decided to split into groups of two: Laysha and Vixen and Jesse and Elliott.

“So, what do you think we’ll find?” Vixen queried.

“They said it was a ‘seafaring’ problem so what if it's… A ghost that got lost out at the river some ages ago? Someone that went on a search for… Something! I guess.”

“Yeah, that would be interesting.” Vixen got quiet and started swiveling his head around in different directions.

“I always wonder how people acted way-back-when. I know you can read newspapers and books and stuff from those times, but really, what would a conversation be like with them?” Laysha shrugged and continued searching along with her friend.

***

     Elliott and Jesse headed westward, both of them getting distracted on occasion.

Elliott turned to Jesse, “Which one of us do you think is going to find the ghost first?”

“With our luck? Laysha. You see how determined she always is? It's gotta be her.”

“True,” The air felt like it got colder with every minute that passed and a thin layer of fog glazed the river. Looking at it now, Elliott realized how long the river seemed to stretch. She had driven above it many times over the years but never really noticed until now.

They both continued walking together, trying to avoid muddied and waterboarded patches of grass and ground.

Jesse looked over at Elliott, “Do we even know what to do when we spot something?”

Elliott stopped in their tracks and paused, “No, actually. We didn't discuss… Any of that.” They put their hands in their pockets.

“Well, I guess we shout then?”

“What about our flashlights?”

“Since when did we have flashlights?” Jesse sounded deeply confused.

“Our phones, I mean.”

Jesse chuckled, “Do we just wave them around?”

Elliott looked at Jesse with a bit of a sarcastically rude face, “Yeah, sure. That totally won't draw attention to us, nope.”

They both started laughing afterwards, and continued on with their job.

***

     Laysha ended up somewhere on the edge of some woodlands and grasslands, grabbing the trees and spinning around in circles for a few seconds in slight boredom.

“Shouldn't we be looking for ghosts? Or a ghost?” Vixen questioned.

She stopped twirling, leaned on a tree and looked at her friend, “Yes, but, we still have our own time to screw around!”

“I guess. But it's starting to get foggy and I prefer to see in the dark.”

She hopped off the edge of the woodlands and made her way to Vixen, “You’re acting like you can see in the dark in the first place, dude.”

He sighed, “Right, right.”

They started walking along the grasslands once more, straining their eyes slightly to see in the foggy night.

Laysha asked Vixen, “You know what would be funny?”

“What?”

“This river is, like, huge, right? Spans all the way to the Atlantic, so I think it would be silly if it was-”

“Pirates? Okay, even that's a little far-fetched for you, Laysha.”

“You’re right, you’re right.”

***

     What felt like hours of searching that went by (which in reality was one), they came up with nothing. All of them met back near a path to the car, and they were all pretty defeated.

Laysha sighed, distraught, “Welp, we tried our best.”

Jesse whispered to Elliott, “Our best was just walking around, shouldn't we have brought some ghost hunting gadgets with us or something?”

Elliott promptly responded to Jesse by punching him in the shoulder. He recoiled back and gave Elliott a nasty look.

Vixen piped up, trying to ignore those two, “How about we give it one more walk around?”

Laysha turned to Vixen and gave him a small smile, “Yeah, let's do it.”

And so they all headed off again to do a rerun around.