Chapter 1

Just Your Average Night

The walls of the aged but otherwise fully functional van were instantly illuminated by a faint, white light not long after Darby Allin had opened the lid of his laptop, which was decorated by a variety of black stickers, ranging from logos of well-known or obscure punk bands to skulls and thunderbolts, and pressed the power button. No other source of light could be spotted anywhere around him, but sitting here in near-complete darkness with only his laptop that had been a valuable tool he had to use countless times for his job, didn't bother him in the slightest; hell, it hadn't bothered him once during all of the ten years he had been doing this. He wasn't planning on browsing the web for hours on end tonight, since there was no need for this. Darby only needed a few minutes to make sure he hadn't driven all the way to this location for absolutely nothing, a mistake that would surely cause him to cuss up a massive storm and blame himself for it. Because hell… who else can you possibly blame for your own fuck-ups if you have been all by yourself for what has now been a decade? It was a responsibility he had taken up a long time ago and lived it by it.

Despite the dim light created by the laptop's screen and the fact that he had pulled the hood of his black jacket over his head in an attempt to shield himself from the cold surrounding his van, it was still just bright enough to clearly reveal some of the features of the young man behind the laptop, having placed the device on his lap. Late in his 20's, he was only one year shy from reaching his 30's, though unlike many people who were around the same age he was, this thought came nowhere close to being a bothersome one. Having adopted a fondness for tattoos at some point in his life, several simple but rather aesthetically pleasing pieces of ink decorated some spots on his body; the word 'relentless' had been tattooed on the back of his neck some time after he had decided to fully dedicate his life to his work, the knuckles of his left hand had the letters that spelled out 'drug' while the ones on his right hand spelled out 'free' (something else besides his job that he would live by to the end of his days, for good reason), a rarely-seen piece of ink that was the word 'champ', inked on his bottom inner lip, the line 'Nothing's over 'till you're underground' on his chest and perhaps the most prominent piece of them all, at the moment covered by the fabric of his sleeve, a full sleeve-style tattoo on his right arm that depicted a large, realistic, anatomically correct structure of the bones of this very arm, inked all the way to his hand; there, the bones of his hand had been inked just as realistically as the piece on his arm. A thin, silver ring pierced his right nostril. Black nail polish, severely chipped and some of them being only two or three chips away from being entirely scraped off, covered his finger nails. Darby's blue eyes darted from left to right every once in a while, as he tapped on the logo of the Internet browser and if he'd were to take off his hood later on, short, platinum blonde hair would be revealed.

Now that he had gained access to the Internet (which honestly did kind of surprise him, given the location he had parked his van at the moment), Darby quickly typed in the name of a forum that had been his most important source, the one source that had made this line of work possible for him and pressed the 'enter' button as soon as he was done typing it, bringing an abrupt end to the soft sound of rapidly clacking buttons that was the only noise to be heard inside this van. In less than five seconds, a webpage that consisted of a long list of titles appeared on the screen. One glance at this screen would make most people raise an eyebrow in skepticism and dismiss it as a load of bullshit, finding things like these laughable at most, just one of those beliefs that didn't make sense at all, because nowadays, science has the most logical explanation to everything, right? Well yes, that much is true… but if you'd ask Darby, there were things out there that could not ever be explained by something like science, nobody how hard anybody would try. He would never try to explain anybody who could not ever understand this, finding this a waste of time, but to him, it was real. Very, very real. Because after all, he had been seeing them for as long as he could remember.

Possible ghost sighting at abandoned apartment complex in Richmond, Virginia. Unseen presence flips over tables at night at derelict shopping mall in Portland, Maine. Wailing heard in the early hours in the woods near Des Moines, Iowa; as anyone who would lay an eye on titles like these could guess, this entire website was dedicate to the interest that was ghost sighting. And Darby was more than grateful for these people to exist, for they made it easier to make him do his job as a ghost hunter.

People from all over the nation with a curiosity for the supernatural would flock towards certain locations in the country just to catch a glimpse of what could possibly be haunting the halls, corridors, rooms or surrounding area of whatever cemetery, asylum, hospital, house or school when a rumor that something unexplainable taking place there during the early hours of the night would arise. Scrolling through the pages of this forum would indicate that these rumors, most of the time, were a hundred percent true. In order to confirm that these supposed hauntings were indeed happening, cameras, EMF meters, infrared temperature sensors and all sorts of equipment needed to detect these sightings, were brought along and used throughout the whole night if needed (or if the explorers found the hauntings a little too intense for their liking and chickened out, half a night), and most of the times, it was the footage of the cameras that ended up on Internet forums like these, be it videos or photographs. Some of the sightings seemed fairly harmless; just some furniture moving around, doors slamming shut, a sudden chill in a certain room that would disappear only after a few seconds. Those were the cases Darby did not find worth it to explore, knowing that the ghosts were in a harmless state at the moment, likely still capable of somehow finding peace on their own and moving onto the afterlife if they'd accomplish this. This was the phase that Darby would call the Wanderer phase; the most harmless phase a ghost could be in and usually the phase they are in after their death and whatever unresolved issues they had in life caused them to emerge, where they were still capable of thought and logic, which they would desperately need in order to do whatever they needed to move on. But the reports that indicated that some more violent events were taking place on that specific night… now those were the ones worth getting Darby's attention.

And tonight's case was absolutely worth checking out.

The most recently added post to this forum, which was aptly titled 'Shoved to the ground by an aggressive presence at parking lot of Wave Sight Beach, Massachusetts' was the one that had lead Darby Allin all the way to this parking lot located close near on the beaches this state had to offer. Remembering the sign of the beach he had passed earlier when entering this parking lot, featuring a cartoon rendition of Wave Sight Beach with its shore, lapping waves and a single orange starfish and worn down by being exposed to the elements for possibly decades but still inviting enough to lure people to this beach to have a good time and cool down from the sweltering temperatures this year's summer brought along, Darby knew that he was indeed at the right location after all. The tone of this post had already been enough to catch Darby's interest, because when a Wanderer is starting to show signs of aggression or frustration… that's when they were starting to get dangerous. It was this second phase that Darby labeled the Restless phase, and it was more than likely the ghost he was looking for tonight had entered this worrying state. When a Wanderer is unable to look for the peace they so desperately need within a long period of time, they were bound to soon hit this phase. Their once-sound minds clouded with frustration and hardly able to think straight, they would soon become angry enough to unleash said frustration upon innocent bystanders, which in all cases would be humans just happening to be 'trespassing' their grounds. Evidence of this was added into the post, being that of a video of a young man with curly brown hair and wearing a pair of glasses aimlessly walking around the parking lot with a digital audio recorder, filmed by a friend who had joined along for this little exploring adventure. In the first half of the clip, not much was there to be particularly excited about, as it just featured the man slowly walking to random spots on the completely empty parking lot, asking the supposed ghost haunting this area if they are indeed around, to show any sort of sign of their presence. Perhaps the ghost must have gotten sick of these two strangers wandering around their haunting ground for minutes on end asking the same question over and over again, or maybe they were not even bothered by this but the frustration that had plagued them for some time suddenly took the overhand, because during the second half of the seemingly uneventful clip, the young man holding the audio recorder was about to ask what had to be the twelfth time for the ghost to show any sign of life before he was promptly shoved from behind to the concrete with so much force and aggression that he was practically knocked instantly off his feet, landing face first onto the hard ground. The panic must have clearly kicked in at the moment his friend helped him to get back up, since the final seconds of the recording showed him and his cameraman rapidly scurrying away from the parking lot while loudly questioning with genuinely frightened voices about what the hell just happened. The second piece of evidence that was added along with the video was a picture taken of the same glasses the man had been wearing, placed down on a surface of what could have possibly been the hood of a car, both lenses visibly cracked by the impact of hitting the ground; and if you'd look very close, the smallest splatter of blood could be spotted in the upper left corner of the left lens.

When ghosts are starting to get violent towards humans… that's where Darby Allin had to step in.

Finally, just as he closed the lid of his laptop and therefore darkening the back of the van in an instant, he was rewarded for patiently sitting at this spot for what had to be an hour or so by the sudden sense of a chill crashing down on the entire area, so cold that it could come close to turn someone's blood into ice, seemingly able to pierce through the walls of the van and turning the air all around Darby freezing cold. Despite the goosebumps that appeared underneath the fabric of his hoodie, the chill didn't strike any fright into Darby. It was the kind of chill he had felt hundreds of times before during his career as a ghost hunter, it was something he had been used to for a very long time. He knew damn well that this wasn't the kind of cold you'd expect to be around when you're close to a beach or that one pleasant breeze that would brush past your limbs on a summer evening like this after enduring a whole day of nothing but natural warmth. No, this was its own special kind of cold… The kind of cold one would feel if there was a ghost nearby.

'Rock and roll.' was all that Darby had to mutter to himself before getting up, carefully laying his laptop next to the mattress next to him that served as his bed and crawled towards the back doors of the van; despite the darkness, he quickly found the handles and pulled them, opening the doors.

Once the doors of his van, which had not only served as his vehicle but also as his home from the moment he had purchased it from a middle-aged man in Michigan who wished to get rid of it, were opened and the ghost hunter's feet touched the concrete, he knew for certain that he was everything but alone on this parking lot despite the fact that his van was the only vehicle that was parked over here. Far in the distance, past the sandy hill this big slab of concrete was located on, the splashing, lapping waves of the nearby ocean could be heard, crashing onto the sand every now and then and bringing along that familiar smell of salt, though it was too dark to see them from this spot thanks to the fact that it was only a few minutes away from midnight; the dim lights of the only two lampposts, which also served as the hangout spot for the local moths for tonight, near the stairs on the hill barely did anything to shine a proper light on the darkened sea, only the very top of the stairs near the upper right corner of the parking lot.

That's when Darby heard it. The wheezing. The footsteps with a pace that matched those of someone who was pacing back and forth in deep unrest, the sound of them hollow and more audible than the distant crashing waves. He only needed to peek from behind his van to see what was the source of these noises that would definitely be unsettling to anyone who didn't have experience with the supernatural. As he did so, he was absolutely certain that he didn't need no light to see who was wandering not too far from the stairs. Sure, the self-professed ghost hunters on the forums may have been capable of sensing sudden cold air, hear strange sounds, seeing furniture being tossed across a room or feel a hard shove, slap or tug on their hair that would send almost all of them fleeing for their damn life, but as far as Darby knew, not one of them at the ability to see the ghosts for how they truly looked like. No invisible force, no vocal sounds without a body. Clearly, not one of these paranormal enthusiasts had been at that one point in their life that could grand them the gift (or curse, as some may prefer to call it) of actually seeing the restless spirits in their true, haunting forms.

Darby was absolutely convinced that none of them had a brush with a death closer than they possibly would've liked.

Just like he had expected, it was right over there. Pacing back and forth near the parking lot's exit, almost like a caged animal, emitting a raspy wheeze every few seconds. The humanoid figure of what appeared to be a young man with a rather pudgy waistline and a height slightly shorter compared to Darby's. Its whole body was entirely clad in darkness, making it unable to spot any distinct piece of clothing that it could possibly be wearing and taking away nearly all other features you'd usually see on a human body, with the exception of what appeared to be short hair on the top of his head, which of course had been blackened as well. The only facial feature that had been left intact to some degree after he had left his Restless phase behind were his eyes, having turned into two white glowing dots, so tiny that they would be nearly impossible to spot upon first glance. And to make the appearance of this specter even more unsettling was the fact that its whole body seemed the 'glitch' every now and then, tweaking out into a distorted shape before returning back into its original form in the blink of an eye, only to act out like this again after a few seconds.

Yeah, this ghost was neck-deep into the Restless phase alright… Darby knew he had to do something now before it would reach a phase that would be far worse than this; dangerous, even. Without saying a word, he calmly walked over towards the pacing apparition, hands tucked in the pockets of his black jeans, and due to the parking lot being nearly empty, it would be easy for anybody to hear him approaching. Despite having been deeply lost in thoughts moments earlier, the sound of Darby's footsteps getting closer and closer to it, the ghost suddenly stopped dead in its tracks and looked up, and for a split second, Darby could swear that the tiny lights that were his eyes slightly grew in size, almost resembling the size of the eyes of a human being. The ghost then turned his head to see who was approaching him, and even though there was still some distance between them, Darby could catch a small glimpse of what seemed to be… excitement?

'Oh… Oh my God, finally!' the ghost exclaimed, its voice instantly confirming that this was indeed the specter of a young man who couldn't be older than his early twenties; these words could be perfectly uttered despite the specter having no mouth. 'You did show up! I knew you hadn't forgotten about our da-'

The short but genuine bout of excitement was abruptly cut short when he could clearly see who was actually approaching him, and it only took one look at Darby's face to make the white lights that were his eyes shrink back into their original size and make his head hang in sheer disappointment; it almost had something saddening, though this thought didn't exactly cross Darby's mind right now.

'You're not her, aren't you…?' the ghost asked, voice soft with disappointment, though with a tinge of rising frustration. 'Damn it, not again… why? Why does this have to happen to me?!' It was right after exclaiming that last word that his 'glitching' trait displayed itself as sharp, dark spikes briefly growing out of his head before quickly retreating back into the skin.

'What are you talking about?' Darby asked, keeping his cool despite witnessing this brief outburst; after all, a Restless tweaking out was the less frightening thing he has ever seen. 'Who are you waiting for?'

Taking a deep, wheezing breath, it looked like the restless ghost had collected enough calmness to tell his sob story to the complete stranger who was Darby Allin. 'I, uh… I have never been popular during my high school years, you know? Kids would always tease me for how my body looked and… my asthma was also something for them to poke fun at. I thought everything would get better when I got into college. But as it turned out, my peers were just as mean as the ones from high school. Needless to say, it did kill my self-esteem, big time. But there was this one girl… this one girl who would always hang out with the popular clique, and she was so beautiful. She was the first girl I had ever gotten a crush on, but I was convinced that she would never be into me. It took me a few months, but I had finally gathered enough courage to ask her out on a date. So I did. I gave her my number and everything. And she promised me that she'd go out with me… she promised me! I asked her if we could meet here, near the beach. The night finally came and I waited… and waited… and waited. I waited for hours and she never appeared, she wouldn't pick up the phone, I just got so frustrated, and… that's must have triggered my asthma attack. It was only then when I found out my inhaler was empty. That's when everything went black.' A sad little sigh escaped through his non-existent mouth. 'And here I am, still waiting…'

Perhaps a little bit of harsh truth could make this poor sap of a ghost let go of the unresolved issue that was this cruel joke that was this date and make his way into the afterlife, Darby figured. It was a bit of a risk, sure, but it was the truth nonetheless and he wasn't going to sugarcoat it, and it was something he needed to hear in order to move on, not only for his own sake, but for that of the innocent, unsuspecting folks who just so happened to go out for a nightly stroll at this beach as well.

'Look buddy, I'm just going to break it to you.' the ghost hunter said. 'I think you may have noticed this by now, but some people are just assholes who aren't worth thinking about or clinging onto. That chick is no exception, she's just as much of an asshole like the others for doing this to you. That's how it is. What's the best thing for you right now is to let go of all of this and move on. Staying here is not going to do you any good, trust me. You need to let go.'

It was so quiet on the parking lot at that moment that you could hear a pin drop; it was like the ocean itself was holding its breath too.

'No!' This sudden outburst of rage was enough to make the ghost's voice distort into an unnaturally deep, unsettling pitch, along with his body violently tweaking to the point where he barely resembled a human being anymore, and that's when Darby realized that things may have gotten very, very dangerous now. The frustrated specter inhaled deeply, its breath raspy and just as unnervingly distorted as his voice, before he continued venting his anger. 'I have taken so long to ask her out! She has got to show up! I deserve to be loved! You must think I am a loser too! You! You are just like everyone else, aren't you? You don't think I deserve love! But I do! Go away… Go… away!'

As spontaneous as this explosion of anger came from this enraged soul, so was the transformation of the third and final phase an astray ghost could reach. An already unstable mind, clouded by the frustration due to the inability of finding the peace a resolved issue had to offer, just needed that one last push in order to corrupt beyond saving, and is it appeared now, Darby's words had unintentionally done this. The ghost hunter's hands still remained in his pockets, though he did take one step back as he watched a transformation that would make anyone who had happened received the same 'gift' he had once received, yet lacked the same courage and stoic nature he had, run for their dear life and only stop screaming until they had reached safety. The distorted wheezing was now mixed with occasional enraged bellowing as the Restless underwent the worst possible outcome for any desperate ghost. Sickening crunching emerged from the shifting bones in his arms and legs as they twisted themselves in unnatural angles as soon as its twitching body hit the concrete, rendering the joints in all of them completely useless and forcing his body to be on all fours. His hands and feet were still able to support the contorted limbs, and when the shape-shifting apparition managed to stand up, Darby could swear that his arms and legs resembled the limbs of a dog than those of a human being. That's when the blackened skin on his back began to tear with a nauseating ripping noise, giving way to what appeared to be two fleshly, reddened, oval-shaped globes that grew bigger and bigger as this grotesque metamorphosis went on until they grew their sizes resembled that of a watermelon, their shape resembled those of a pair of human lungs, pulsating and shining with a bright red light from within. The ghost's belly had now grown so bloated that it would still the touch the ground, even when he had managed to fully stretch out its limbs. The body too grew in size as well, having grown taller than it had been earlier. When he raised his head to let out one last enraged scream mixed with a deep wheeze directed at Darby, it became clear that his face hadn't been spared from the horrific transformation either, having received his mouth back in the form of an elongated, black hole; even the tiny, white orbs that were his eyes seemed to be filled with rage.

This form, this grotesque, horrifying form that would differ to every single ghost who would reach this stage, it was Darby would link to the third and final phase; the Mindless phase, where the sheer anger would send a ghost into an uncontrollable, enraged, mindless rampage directed to anyone who would get close to them… until they were laid to rest.

'Can't say I didn't expect this…' Darby mumbled.

Time to get to work.

Just like he had done what had to be hundreds of times before, Darby used the one ability that was brought along with the gift of seeing ghosts in their true forms, which would allow him to use his power to the fullest. He closed his eyes and focused. All focus that he had gathered in those three seconds was directed straight to his heart, which he allowed to stop beating. As soon as it rested motionlessly in his chest after producing one last beat, Darby Allin died. But instead of dropping dead to the ground like anyone whose heart had suddenly ceased to function, he remained standing on his two feet, even still breathing perfectly fine. It was then when his power fully revealed itself, causing the skin on the right side of his face to grow so transparent that his skull was partially revealed, his eye resting in the black hole that was his eye socket, right behind his eyelid that was just as transparent. If he had to describe this version of himself in his own words, he would have described it as his 'own' ghost form. Because after all… in this form, he was just as dead as the ghosts he would encounter. Darby opened his eyes, looking right at the Mindless in front of him… and he could immediately notice that he was ready to strike.

The heartbroken, frustrated ghost that had now left his last bit of physical humanity far behind him, let out a wet snarl before it scrambled like a wound-up animal to launch right at the ghost hunter, its arms stretched right towards him, ready to pounce him. That was just what Darby had expected his first move to be. His fist began to glow with a bright, purple energy, striking the Mindless mid-air in his bloated gut with all the strength he had, creating a trail of purple light behind his fist as he did so. A choked-off wheeze escaped from the rampaging creature's maw before it was sent flying back to the concrete, but one blow wasn't going to be enough to soothe its rage. Its contorted limbs flailed around as he struggled to roll back onto its stomach, thanks to the gut that was practically holding him down, making his struggle almost a pathetic sight. And it was the weight that was pressed down onto its disfigured lungs that had grown out of its back like two oversized tumors that created even more suffering for this poor being of a Mindless, which became clear when it let out another wheeze mixed with a high-pitched, loud wail. Just then, it somehow managed to roll onto its side and then back onto its belly. Darby watched as the Mindless then scurried towards him as fast as his limbs would allow it, dragging its belly over the ground with so much speed that it could have easily torn the skin open and turn it into a bloody, shredded mess if things had been different. But the ghost hunter already had his next attack in mind. As soon as it got close enough to him, the Mindless launched its whole body at Darby in yet another attempt to pounce him, this time able to surprisingly jump higher as a possible result of its rage being fueled, only to be suddenly caught in the air by both of Darby's hand; the sudden weight caused one of the ghost hunter's legs to bend, but he managed to stand straight back up as his knee was a mere two centimeters away from touching the ground, letting out a strained grunt as he did so. He knew he had to act fast, before his arms would give up on him. With no time to waste whatsoever, Darby's hands were once again illuminated by purple energy as he pumped it into the grotesque spirit's body, letting it flow into every single vein to the point where all of them were glowing with lavender, traveling all the way up the head. The screaming of the Mindless during all of this was only once interrupted by a raspy wheeze, flailing its doglike limbs wildly in an attempt to get away, but in a matter of seconds, it was not only his veins that were glowing purple. Soon his body, that had been entirely black moments earlier, began to brighten up with purple as more energy was pumped into him, soon enough filling up his lungs as well.

One last, distorted scream was emitted before a bright flash bathed the whole parking lot and a small part of the beach below the hill; right after it had faded away, Darby noticed that a massive amount of weight had disappeared from his arms.

He let out a tired sigh as he lowered his arms, only now feeling the slight soreness that was plaguing his muscles. Looking around, it looked like this attack had indeed put an end to the ghost who had haunted this parking lot some time before Darby's arrival. It was just him again. No wheezing, no sounds of someone pacing back and forth, no insanely cold air... only the sound of the crashing waves in the distance, almost like the ocean had let out a sigh of relief. His work was done. Immediately after he confirmed this, a single heartbeat resonated through his chest, followed by many more, all of them following suit in a calm pace. The right side of his skull was once again covered by the increasing natural thickness of his skin. Just like he had died hundreds of times before, he had come back to life hundreds of times as well.

Another ghost that had formed a threat to humans had been laid to rest… that's how an average night in the life of Darby Allin would end.

When he closed the doors behind him after getting into his van, he reached out to grab his laptop, wondering if there was any other supernatural phenomenon just happening to be in the area that was worth checking out.