I hated myself as soon as the words left my mouth.
This was it.
I was cutting it close, I was 90% sure that "slip of the tongue" Dirk had been talking about, had occurred. This was it.
And if it wasn't, I was a centimeter away from it.
Asking her to help me, was the dumbest, and yet smartest move I could have made.
Smart, because, well, who the fuck else was going to help me? Who the fuck else could help me? She was the only one who I knew personally, who had encountered these spirits, therefore she was the only one out there available.
Dumb, because, having her tag along was basically condemning her to hunting, and that was the last thing that I wanted.
"What sort of favor are we talkin' here?" Jade inquired, breaking me out of my thoughts, and bringing me back to reality.
The reality was, she could just turn around and say "hell no, I'm not helping you with that shit" and it would all be over, which would pretty much make my job a living hell, but at least she'd be safe.
"I need to you come with me tonight, after hours." I informed her.
"Well, obviously I'm coming with you, dumbass!" She retorted, sounding agitated.
"Did you honest-to-god believe that I was going to let you go in there on your own?"
I'd forgotten that she didn't know I was a professional, she assumed I was just an amateur, just jumping in like her, not knowing what the fuck I was doing.
"Yeah, right, sorry." I chuckled a little.
"I guess my heroic side took-over, obviously you were planning on coming all along."
I played it off as if I was just some dorky low-life idiot who had just as much of an idea of what he was doing as she did.
"Damn right." She nodded.
There was a silence between us for a moment, as she seemed as if she was rethinking something.
"Wait… how are we going to get into the school?" She asked.
"It'll be locked for sure."
"Oh, I have my ways." I informed her.
And oh, how I did have my ways.
. . . .
The sun was going down, and it was dawning on me more and more as time went by that I was bringing a damn civilian on this mission. And not as a tag along, but as goddamn bait, I mean, how sick was that? We'd be heading out of the motel and towards the school sooner rather than later. I eyed my bag, which contained my gun cases, and my salt, and I continued to eye it, knowing that I would need to snap in half her cookie-cutter image of me at some point, and that point, well, it was getting there.
I prayed to fucking god she wouldn't be a terrible shot, on the side of, hoping she wouldn't be too feisty. To be completely blunt, I wanted to get her inside a salt circle, and keep her there, I couldn't be thinking about her out there in the open with these three rogue spirits on the loose. I knew for a fact that she would be unhappy upon knowing my plans for her.
But, seeing as my plan was to try and corner one of the ghosts and get him into a salt circle to interrogate him as to what, and where the cursed objects were.
See, that's where I'd screwed up before.
I'd made the assumption that burning the bodies would settle it all, which in some cases, it would have. But in others, (i.e. this situation) not so much.
Burning the bodies would usually put the spirits to rest, but sometimes, the ghosts would be attached to something else, that once belonged to them during their time of life.
For example, I remembered clearly Dirk and I had this case, in which this chick's sister was appearing randomly, upon being dead for three years, and we burned the body, but that hadn't stopped her from finding her way back to her younger sister.
As it all turned out, the older sister had attached herself to a locket she'd given her little sister while she was still living, which the younger girl never took off, and she was using that to haunt her.
Things like that never started off with bad intentions, the spirit of the dead one wouldn't be ready to let go, therefore, wouldn't pass on, in that case, she had wanted to stay with her sister, which sounded innocent enough, but as time goes by, spirits can, and most of the time will become twisted, therefore, what started off as innocent interactions with her sister took a turn and suddenly the younger sibling was in all sorts of danger.
This, I assumed, was the case with the jocks.
Only, said jocks had been dipshits in the first place. So I didn't want to imagine an already twisted spirit becoming more twisted over time. It was a horrifying thought, which was why I wanted Jade in her little circle of protection, so that I could quickly get the location of said objects so that I could be rid of the spirits for good.
Hopefully the argument that I needed her to watch my back whilst I interrogate the ghost would be good enough, hopefully, because not only would her standing in a salt circle with a shotgun make her 100% safe, but I sure as hell was going to have a tough enough time trapping one ghost. She'd have to stay behind me salt-rounds ready, to take down the other two upon their appearances.
"Dave? Why the hell do you keep looking at your bag like that?" She asked, sounding amused.
I turned to look at her, she had her long raggedy hair pulled back in a messy bun, and her arms were crossed as she looked at me curiously.
"I don't suppose you know how to shoot a gun, do you?" I asked, bluntly.
"I—" She cut herself off to give me an odd look, then shook her head.
"I do, but I thought you said common weapons wouldn't do anything against ghosts, anyway."
"Under normal circumstances, that'd be absolutely right." I told her.
"Regular bullets won't do a damn thing, but I'm not talkin' regular bullets."
She tilted her head, as if to question me without voicing her confusion.
Without anyway warnings, I opened my bag, getting out the case that held one of my guns, and typed in the combination quickly.
I loaded it with my precious salt rounds, and turned the safety on.
"Salt rounds," I told her.
She stared at me, looking in awe for a moment before her expression turned normal again.
"Not that I'm not impressed, Dave, but I'm forced to question your motives, seeing as you're a teenager, carrying a goddamn shotgun."
At this point, any other person would be more than fucking serious, voicing their concerns about a teenage boy with a gun, but Jade, at this point, still had a tint of amusement hidden in the back of her tone.
"I get around," I said, dodging the question in a subtle way, before handing Jade the shotgun.
"Can you shoot?"
"Yeah," She nodded, taking hold of the gun, and adjusting it against her shoulder, as if she were actually planning to shoot.
"My Grandpa taught me how to shoot way back when, it was just for fun, strange to think it's actually going to be worth something."
"Okay, listen." I started, ready to rant off my plans to her before we left the motel.
"When we get there, I want you to wander around, as if it's all fine and fucking dandy, pretend you forgot something in your locker or some shit, I don't care, just be natural. Upon the appearance of one, or multiple spirits, I want you to take the salt, which I'm going to give you shortly, and make a circle around yourself, and you stay in that fucking circle, you got that?" I started.
"Great, so you're basically just using me for bait, and then you plan to make me watch you fuck up from the sidelines? I don't think so." She retorted.
I left out an aggravated sound, before continuing.
"No, Jade, you don't get it, do you? I don't just want you in the shitty circle so that you'll be safe I need you safe, so that you can cover my back. I'm gonna toss you the shotgun, that'll be full with the rounds, and you'll have a couple of spare rounds on you, for when you run out."
She furrowed her brows, looking more confused about the plan than ever.
"But I don't understand, why would you need me to cover your back?"
I sighed.
"All right, it's a lot to explain, but I need to interrogate one of the ghosts, I need him to fess up about the damn objects they're all attached to so I can burn them once and for all, I'm nearly 1000% sure that I won't be able to corner all three of them, hell, it's gonna be tough cornering just one of them. So therefore, I need you to shoot down the others, keep them away from me so that I can get the inside information."
She thought about it for a moment, taking it all in, despite her annoyance.
"Yeah," She nodded.
"Yeah, I think I can do that."
A trace of a smile touched my lips as I nodded as well.
"Then let the games begin."
. . .
The look of shock she gave me when I so effortlessly picked the lock and easily walked through the front door of the school, was priceless.
She looked like she wanted to question me more than anything, but she zipped her lips as the two of us entered the dark school.
"This is so weird," She commented, whispering under her breath.
"School is almost…creepy this late at night."
"Well, the damn place is haunted." I said.
She giggled a little, feeling around for a light switch, she quickly found it, switching it on, and then she put an arm in front of me to stop me in my tracks before the two of us could go around the corner.
"Let me go, okay? They're more likely to approach if they think I'm alone."
I nodded, backing down, and letting her go around the corner by herself.
As soon as she crossed that line (that line being around the corner) she was out of my sight, and I just had to hope nothing too drastic occurred during my time in the dark.
Everything was silent for awhile.
I heard Jade open her locker, and quietly she was humming something, though I couldn't quite make out what the tune was, seeing as I was too far off, and she was too quiet.
"Boo."
An unknown voice came out of nowhere, instantly making my heart pound, as I couldn't see what was going on at the moment, and anything could happen.
"Really? Are you seriously that fucking cliché?" Jade demanded, seeming more annoyed, and I jumped out from behind the corner to see Jade going for the salt I'd given her, and within another glance, I caught sight of the tall spirit, who looked no more intimidating than an everyday jock, well, I mean, other than the fact that he was a fucking ghost.
Jade, like had said, had sprung for the salt, but instead putting the circle around herself, like I'd instructed, she lunged right forward, quickly, surprising the ghost, and trapping him.
"Jade!" I voiced my concern, as I was startled that she'd done that, if the spirit had caught it two seconds earlier, she could have gotten herself hurt , or worse. But just her luck, there he was, trapped in her little circle looking stunned.
"Dammit Jade, get in your circle, now." Venom thick in my voice, as I was quite petrified by how quickly everything was going down, one slip up, and someone, whether it would be Jade, or me, would be done for.
"Gosh!" She retorted, taking paces back before forming her own circle, and climbing in it.
"A simple "thanks for catching the damn thing, Jade, I owe you one" would have sufficed."
I was too preoccupied to argue with her, so I wordlessly tossed the shotgun her way, holding my own in my hand, pointing it directly at the trapped ghost.
"Who are you?" The ghost demanded loudly.
"I take it you've not come across many hunters, have you?" I asked, knowing the answer.
This was a pretty basic hunt. If anyone else had caught glance of this in the past, the spirits of these boys would already been gone.
He ignored what I'd said, and smirked.
"That fucking gun isn't gonna do a thing, you know?"
As one of his buddies appeared to his aid, Jade quickly retorted to that statement.
"I wouldn't be so sure," She smirked, before shooting her gun, directly hitting the ever approaching ghost.
Damn, she was spot on. Direct hit.
The spirit's eyes filled with horror as his buddy screamed and faded away (temporarily).
"What the hell did you do?" He demanded.
"How about we skip the goddamn game of 20 questions, and just cut to the real chase, huh?" I said.
The other jock must have appeared and attempted to sneak up behind me, as, Jade fired her gun again, followed by another scream.
"What's keeping you all here?" I asked.
"Heh!" He laughed.
"To hell with that shit, like I'd tell you."
You know, I think I preferred the usual roaring, hissing, and screaming of the typical ghosts I fought, coming across one with a big mouth on him, wore my patience quickly.
"Why don't you just save us the trouble and cough up the location of the objects?" I asked, patience thinning.
"You really would rather stay here and torment dweebs forever?"
"What's it to you, big-shot?" He hissed.
"You used a dweeb as bait for us, didn't you? You're no different from us. You're using her, right?"
I was about to retort, but before I could, Jade did it for me.
"You shut the fuck up!" She screamed, snapping in the moment, as she raised her gun, and shot it in the snarky ghost's direction.
I realized in the moment, that she fucked up. Right before the shot was about to hit him, I knew, that he'd disappear and then reappear outside the salt circle.
He screamed, and disappeared.
I whirled around.
"Jade, what the hell?" I shouted.
"Do you even know what the fuck you just did?"
She looked horrified, as she realized too late what she had done.
"Oh god…" She muttered.
"Do you want to watch me get trampled by a pack of rogue jocks? Is that why you tagged along?" I went on, mostly just ranting my thoughts, as I my emotions were everywhere, mixed with the overall rush, and then anger, as she hadn't been thinking.
She looked so ashamed of herself for a moment, but then her face lit up out of nowhere.
"Dave, that's it! Jocks!" Jade said, suddenly, as if she'd just realized they were jocks.
"Yes, Jade." I said, dully.
"We've established the fact that they're jocks."
"No, you moron, there's this little memorial on display for the dead students from the incident, I'm almost 100% sure that their football uniforms are on display, that's gotta be it! That's gotta be the objects you're looking for!"
All at once before I could respond, the, now incredibly angry spirits appeared all around me.
Before I could tell her no, Jade stepped carelessly outside of her circle. And snatched up my bag that had all my supplies in it, lighter, and light fluid included, and took off down the hall.
"Jade, wait!" I called after her, dismayed by the fact that she'd left the safety of the circle.
Upon seeing her run in that direction, one ghost disappeared, no doubt following Jade, and as I was caught off guard as it was, I found myself being knocked to the ground by the other two ghosts that were in front of me, shotgun knocked out of my hands and all.
Fuck.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I struggled, and tried to retaliate, but they had me cornered.
As idiotic as it was, I wasn't worrying about my own life at the moment. Only the fact that Jade was a ways down the hall, totally unprepared to fight with a ghost, and on her own.
The two of the surrounded me, chanting taunting words that I half ignored, as my thoughts were running wild.
In that moment, I thought I was done for, but, as if on cue, the ghosts began to scream.
They both screamed in pain, and one chanting about how he was sorry, and the other's screams in pain were mixed with a last minute plea of "please no I don't want to go to hell", which was disturbing to say the least.
I blinked, and the both of them were on fire, simmering away to almost nothing.
I watched in awe as the two of them disappeared before my eyes, their screams and pleads for mercy disappearing along with their remains. I knew right then, that Jade had done it. She'd cracked the case, and even made her way down the hall with a goddamn killer ghost on her tail, and still managed to burn the objects, therefore, putting the ghosts to rest.
Damn.
I mostly owed the credit of this hunt to a civilian.
Realizing I was still sitting on the floor, I rose, slightly shaken from the close call, and then took off down the hallway towards Jade.
"Jade!" I shouted.
"Jade, oh my god, you—"
I cut myself off, stopping dead in my tracks.
The first thing I noticed was the broken glass which had been from the now broken display case, second thing I noticed was the missing uniforms which had been stolen and burned, and third, and most important thing I noticed in that small instant, was Jade.
Laying on the floor, eyes closed, and still.
A/N: Hello friends, guess who is still here and not on hiatus after all. Sorry about that scare... ;o; I really /did/ want to take a break, but, I figured I at least owe you the ending to this story. (The story ends in two chapters by the way) sorry, I knew from the start that this story would be short.
Anyway, this sequence didn't go down exactly the way I wanted, but I hope you guys still found it intriguing enough. Sorry this chapter came so late. Thank you for all the follows/positive reviews! They have really helped me to continue, and now I'm back in the swing of it. See you all next Thursday! Review and/or follow if you have the time, because it really helps. (also I'd like to get 50 followers before the ending).