Hello everyone, and Happy Holidays. So I've been really busy for the past semester. I was so busy, in fact, that I barely had any time to write outside of school work. And while creative writing was fun, I'm glad to be back here. If I'm in your favorites, you may remember that I announced this fic was coming up in July (I think). Well I've been planning this thing sense then. And now I've finally finished the first chapter. This is kind of a preview of it, so I may edit it a bit (I'm not entirely convinced on the title either). But I figured I should probably get it out for the Holiday Season. I hope you guys enjoy.

Graveyard Shift

Chapter 1: A Breath of Fresh Air

John Egbert always seemed to get the shit jobs. Not that loading the team's van was all bad. He got to see all the gear, which never ceased to amaze him. In fact, basically everything about this job was incredible. Who else besides them could say that they got paid to investigate paranormal activity, while still in high school? He had thought that ectobiology was just a hobby. Hell, he didn't even believe it was real. Yet here he was, and it was "pure awesomeness." Still, he was young and restless and stupid, so loading a van full of expensive equipment, by himself, seemed not only tedious, but overwhelmingly dull.

As John packed the van, stopping every so often to observe the pure stupidity of the equipment's names, Rose Lalonde planned out the night's expedition. Rose had insisted on doing this every time, "or else someone else'll mess it up." She stared at the board in front of her, absorbing the history of the place. She had found detailed notes on the sight's supposed "hauntings," and was comparing it to her (mostly) memorized copy of the Grimoire. She would often make theories like this on the expeditions. Her theories had an eighty percent accuracy rating. Try as she might, nothing matched. It might have seemed like an open and shut ghost case, but the Grimoire held no creature like this. Eventually, she decided to take a break and knit a little.

As Rose did her thing, Dave Strider sat around doing absolutely nothing. "It's ironic," as he explained to John when asked why he couldn't do anything (maybe for instance, say, pack the van), "I do care about this job, so you'd expect that I'd put effort into it. For exactly that reason, I won't. See? Irony." Nobody else got it. The only thing they knew was that Dave idolized his bro, and his bro was a "master" of irony. Even though, as Rose had pointed out, this "irony" wasn't even technically ironic. Which was ironic.

Our last stop on this tour of teenaged tacticians leads us to a garden, where a young girl was sleeping. Jade Harley seemed to spend all her free time in said garden. It let her have time alone to think. The girl needed her space. But in the end, nobody bothered her for two reasons. One: She was a heavy sleeper, so even if they tried they couldn't wake her up. And two: it seemed to work. Her focus, which usually was a bit lacking, was incredible when in the field. She was, according to Rose, the most efficient member on the team. But that was only the case when she spent time earlier in the day in her garden.

The kids had been working here for about a year. They had their positions down. John and Jade, who were adoptive brother and sister, worked the field, recording any evidence and odd activities. Rose oversaw the team's progress and (more often than not) confirmed her theories. Dave was a bit of a wild card during the primary exploration, either helping Rose oversee or John and Jade collect data (depending on the size of the venue). After a Rose-led discussion about what they actually saw, Dave would lead them in getting rid of it (granted it had malicious intent). It was kind of like (and I'm quoting John directly here) Ghost Hunters meets Ghostbusters.

Except it wasn't like that at all. Ghosts are harmless. It was poltergeists you really had to look out for. And demons can and will kill you. Nasty little fuckers. They even, on occasion, had to deal with humans: mostly necromancers, but occasionally a witch or warlock. Had they had to kill anybody? Yes, one time they were forced into it (though the fact that he was attempting to kill everyone in the city helped them get over it pretty fast). God, there are so many (granted fictional) TV shows that could have explained that better.

After an hour of trying to cram shit into a (relatively) small van, John returned to Rose. "So," he said, sliding next to her, "when are we gonna head out?"

She looked up from her knitting needles as if she hadn't noticed his rather boisterous approach. "Well hello to you too." They exchanged a shared eye roll and she looked to her phone. "It's only six o'clock. We usually wait for nightfall, which if my memory serves me right is in an hour and twenty minutes. Accounting for traffic, we should leave around seven."

"Well what do we do for an hour?"

"It's more like half an hour. We are gonna need a pretty long briefing tonight."

John tossed his head back in a groan. "God, that's gonna be worse than the wait. Can't we just go in there without a briefing?"

Rose's eyes squinted closed. "Don't you remember what happened the last time we tried a blind approach?" she asked, exasperated.

"Well yeah," he said, "but that was one of our first missions. We actually know what we're doing now."

"So you say." Her needles started going again. "But this time is going to be strange. I don't know what we are going against and would like the rest of the team's input." She paused. "I hope Jade will be awake by then. She has a good intuition."

"I know." John said. "Try living with her. I'll make sure at least her body is there."

"Well that's super helpful, John. An unconscious Jade is exactly what we'll need."

"Glad you feel that way, Rose." He said as he rose from the table. "Good luck with whatever that is."

"Good luck finding something to do." She responded, barely looking up from the rather complicated pattern.

Half an hour went by pretty fast. John and Jade (who woke up a few minutes after John and Rose's conversation) decided to shit around on the computer. Rose continued knitting. Dave continued doing absolutely nothing. When the half hour expired, Rose rounded them all up.

"Here's the deal" she said, "I have no idea what we are heading up against. There are reports of things moving by themselves, strange shadows, and loud noises coming from what seems to be nowhere."

"That just sounds like a ghost or poltergeist." Said Dave, "Nothing we haven't faced before."

"I was thinking that, but the shadows have horns." She explained. "The Grimoire clearly states that those two are apparitions in the shape of humans. No horns."

"Okay," John said, "so what exactly do we have to go on? The thing is relatively harmless, casts a shadow, and has horns. Is that it?"

"There might be more than one." Rose said. "The accounts aren't clear, or even consistent. But other than that, that's all."

"Why are we even investigating something like that?" Dave asked.

"Don't ask me. It was in the envelope when I got here." Rose said, throwing up her hands.

"Well even with that little information, it sounds like something we've never seen before," said John after a small pause. "Maybe we'll get to add something to the Grimoire."

"Maybe this isn't the time for jokes John," said Jade. "If we don't know what it is, we don't know how dangerous it could be."

"I think we can handle ourselves," said John, throwing his arm around Dave. "If things get too hot to handle, this guy will protect me, right?"

"Yeah," said Dave, throwing John's hand off of him. "Just don't get mushy with me."

"Alright guys," said Rose. "We're going to have to wrap this up. One thing before we head out, though." She turned to Jade. "Do you have any feelings about this?"

"Well, I know this isn't something that we've ever seen." Jade explained. "But maybe we won't need to worry. Maybe they'll be friendly."

"I can only hope so." Rose said, rising from her seat. "But let's get moving, guys. We don't want to miss sundown."

"Wait," Dave said. "I don't even know where we're going."

"It's just an old factory on the edge of town."

"Wait," John said, "not the place where we fought off the necromancer, right?"

"No, that was at the warehouse. This is the factory next door."

"Great," said Dave, "How much you guys want to bet that something's going to go horribly wrong?"

"I'll put ten dollars on nothing." John said.

"Be prepared to lose that bet." Dave replied.

"You are so on"

And with that, the group headed out, hoping that John was right.

To be continued…

So as I said in the first AN, this might be edited later. For anyone wondering, I am working on the next chapter for Broken. If you haven't seen any of my other stuff, and you like Percy Jackson, you can head on over to my profile. If you liked, disliked, or had any feeling about this one whatsoever, leave a review for me. Make good decisions. Peace!