Welcome back to another chapter of PIE. This chapter contains a completely original villain to it. If you've watched Venturian Tale and know about Prince Fang well you're about to meet an entity like him.
Johnny Ghost and Johnny Toast are characters originally belonging to Venturian Tale.
The building was said to be abandoned but according to the reading of the device Johnny Ghost held in his hands there was way too much activity. Not even during the case in Guatemala was there this much activity between both its living and spectral entities.
"Johnny, tell me again why we're here." Ghost put the device down and went about polishing his handgun. Had it not been for the carving on the side of it the weapon would be useless against the paranormal beings that he and Toast faced every day.
"According to local lore," Toast said as he flipped through notes on the building, "nearly a hundred murders took place in this building, an exact number was never found due to the mutilation of the bodies. Recently the locals from the village nearby have been encountering cases of hallucinations, delusions, lethal nightmares, and sleep walking drawing them to the building."
"These readings are too high for something simple like that."
"Sir, it could be an Abyss Mound. Perhaps something not spirit like in existence has been causing these events." Toast had taken up this case regardless of the fact that there was no pay for them in the end. He always thought the unrewarded cases would be the ones to reward him with a far better encounter for his book. "I suppose we should go in sir." With a nod in response Ghost returned his weapon to its holster and strode ahead of Toast toward the building.
Blood was stained against the walls and floors. Lights hung and flickered from an unknown power source supporting them. There was an immense chill that crawled across the duo's bare skin as they proceeded through the halls.
"Johnny, I don't like the looks of this." Ghost had stopped in his tracks in front of a pair of black foot prints burned into the ground. "These would be at least a size eleven in men's boots."
"Sir, look there," Toast said pointing to the ground further ahead with his flashlight. A camcorder sat abandoned with light emanating from its small screen.
The two approached the device and Ghost crouched to view it. The screen showed a shaky walk through the halls with a heavy breathing heard in the background. Suddenly a sphere of light was in the center of the screen and a scream was heard as it shot forward and the camera dropped and stopped recording seconds later.
Toast was peering over Ghost's shoulder at the screen. "That is an abnormality."
"It was a level three jump scare. Having approached this exact location we will have set it off." Sure enough a bright light shot over the ghost hunters' heads and vanished about twelve feet away. "Only the easily frightened would be deterred by such a thing." Ghost looked up and forward into the hall where a fog started to creep across the floor. "Johnny, I think we have enough information gathered for today. We'll get some rest and launch head first into this investigation first thing tomorrow."
"It isn't like you to retreat, sir."
"Johnny, just do as I say. We need our rest before we face whatever is waiting." The look on Ghost's face made Toast believe that his companion knew what was waiting for them, but he also knew best not to argue.
The light shot through Ghost whipping his hazel hair in a slight current. The ghost hunter was now equipped with more than just his usual flashlight and handgun. Three clear water bottles were filled with a slightly blue liquid that splashed around in their containers with each step he took, a second gun was on the opposite side of his body than his primary one, and the last thing he had with him was a can of sardines.
"Sir, why did you bring a can of sardines?" Toast inquired.
"Just trust me, Johnny, when I say we'll need it," Ghost responded as he stopped.
The sound of light sobbing echoed down through the hall and the door less rooms of the building. The duo continued forward the sobbing growing louder with each step until to the side of the hall they saw the source. A boy was crouched facing the wall with a puddle of blood surrounding him.
"Just keep walking, Johnny." But it was too late and Toast was already reaching toward the boy who turned to reveal a face void of feature except one; a mouth that split his face into an upper and lower position that was filled with needle like teeth. A scream roared from the spirit as it launched itself forward at Toast who was cringing away. A single bang rang out through the building as the spirit fell to ground with a small billow of smoke rose from Ghost's gun. The boy sank into the ground turning into a bloody puddle with a skull remaining and amongst the blood were needles spread about.
"Next time I suggest you listen, Johnny." Ghost turned away returning his weapon to its holster and proceeding forward leaving Toast still in shock of what had happened. Since when did a jump scare affect him this much? It was clearly just that, nothing more than a jump scare. The fear he felt now he hadn't felt in years since he was a child living in a haunted house in London. Ghost's response to the situation didn't help the twenty-one year old mentally. He had never been so distant to his companion. Toast had to shake himself out of it to catch up to his mentor who was already beginning to disappear into a fog rising from the floor tiles. Behind him he left the puddle of blood and needles surrounding a skull at its center as it sank into the ground.
"I apologize, sir," Toast said as he followed behind Ghost who was gripping the can of sardines ready to pull off the lid. "I should have realized what that spirit was."
"Never mind it, Johnny. Stay suspicious of everything around you from this point forward." The fog furled like the ocean tide at their knees.
Twelve jump scares and thirteen destroyed spirits later, the duo stood in front a stairwell leading to the basement floor. An unintelligible sound resonated up the stairs and reverberated through their bodies.
"Follow close behind, Johnny," Ghost said to his apprentice as he walked down the stairs returning his guns to their holsters after using them to dispatch creepy twins moments before. The can of sardines returned to his hand with him being ready to rip off the top.
"Yes, sir," Toast replied holding his flashlight in his left hand pointing it ahead of them with his handgun in his right pointed slightly down so if he slipped he wouldn't accidentally shoot Ghost.
The second they stepped off the stairs and onto the floor of the basement a rumbling filled the room shaking it with the sound of a hundred legs scuttling forward. "I am Johnny Ghost Paranormal Investigator Extraordinaire and I am now addressing the entity controlling this place! Reveal yourself to me," Ghost shouted into the darkness that seemed never ending even with their lights. The scuttling stopped as did the rumbling but not until a giant crustacean stopped with just its head with beady black orbs for eyes peering at them. Insolent human, what reason do you enter my palace? You dare to intrude upon my home and announce yourself so bluntly after murdering my subjects. "Those were not subjects for you to restrain here. They were innocent victims of murder." They too had at one point been trespassers but I had remedied that far too quickly. Their fleshy bodies had no power to defend against me. Nor will you, foolish mortal.
A giant claw snapped three times before it came out of the shadows and struck the ground in front of the stairs. Toast began firing into the shelled creature not even making it wince as it prepared to strike with its claw again. "I'm not just some mortal," Ghost said as he rushed forward tearing off the lid to the sardines, "my name is Johnny Ghost and you Lord Claw of the sixth dimension are deathly allergic to sardines, which is why you eradicated them from your realm." Fear filled the black orbs of the creature as the sardines that were flung from the can struck his open claw flying down the opening at its center and some flew into its eyes. Lord Claw thrashed about the basement as it roared in agony. "Run, Johnny, run!" Ghost ran past Toast who followed close behind as a torrential wave crashed against the steps on which the two had been standing.
"Sir?" Toast said.
Looking up from the now empty sardine can he had been holding onto for the past few hours Ghost replied, "Yes, Johnny."
"How did you know what was waiting for us?"
"In all honesty Johnny, it was just a guess. The fog reminded me of waves yesterday so I could only think of the sixth dimension since there are no bodies of water anywhere nearby the village. With the sixth dimension being one of mainly all water except the few islands that dot it, I could only think of the most notorious entity that exists there; Lord Claw," Ghost explained.
"So we were going off just a hunch, sir?" Toast inquired hardly being able to believe that.
"That's right. We were actually fortunate that it wasn't an Abyss Mound, otherwise we might be dead," Ghost said laughing.
Case File: Unknown Occurrence
Activity: Lord Claw
Removal: Unknown
This case unlike many of the ones we take up was one in which we were not hired. The village upon our arrival did not approve our presences as they slammed their doors and hid their children from our vehicle. The building residing on the outside of the village was condemned due to the murders supposedly done by one of the workers there. The building's purpose remains unknown to us still and I doubt it will become clear anytime soon. Upon entering there was camcorder that showed to us that there was a jump scare in the location. Upon the scare's passing Sir Ghost required us to retreat till the next after seeing fog emanating from the ground. We return the day after (armed with sardines) and do not retreat even after a creature attempts to kill me and is dispatched by Sir Ghost. Arriving at the basement we face an entity from the sixth dimension named Lord Claw. It reveals it is the murderer of the spirits that had resided in the building. Sir Ghost uses the Sixth Dimensional creature's single weakness, sardines, to cause it extreme pain. The building collapsed behind us as we fled and we are now uncertain whether the entity died or if it retreated to its own dimension. The latter is our belief. There have been no further reports from the village about the prior occurrences taking place.
