Chapter 5

Target Practice

Waking up in the morning with the sound of a gentle drizzle landing on a window would be the most blissful, peaceful way of waking up in the eyes of many people, Cora Jade included; unfortunately for her, she was unable to enjoy any of this because of the sharp cramps that were particularly plaguing the muscles in her neck and back, which were the reason why she woke up to begin with.

She did not instantly open her eyes when she was pulled out of her sleep, instead tightly clenching her closed eyelids two times in a row before softly groaning. Barely fully awake, she guided her hand to her lower back and pressed on it in an attempt to ease the pain a little while the other rested on her neck, which didn't do too much to quell the mild discomfort. Her body didn't feel cold at all, given the fact that she had used the khaki-green jacket she had worn the night before as a blanket by unzipping it and spreading it over her body before drifting off to sleep at some point during the night.

It was odd, really… she had expected to stay awake for hours on end if she had to, not only because of all the frightening, surreal events that had transpired, but also due to the fact that she had chosen to travel with a near-complete stranger. Sure, he may possess strange powers, just like she does, and you could argue that should somehow give her some degree of trust towards him, since she could relate to him in that sense. Plus, he did give her his name… But still, she barely knew him, and she wanted to make sure he wasn't planning on doing anything to her during the start of what she could easily describe as a road trip, like resting his hand on her thigh a little too nonchalantly, steer the van into the direction of a dark, abandoned location or ask her the kind of questions that were a little too intimate for her liking. Thankfully, none of this happened; she remembered Darby just staring straight ahead of him, his sight focused on the road ahead of them, not speaking a word to her. Cora didn't quite remember saying or asking him anything, but she must have drifted off some time after he had agreed to give her a ride.

She opened her eyes and breathed out through her nose. The constant, soft tapping noise she heard over and over again was indeed that of drizzle falling on the van's windshield. Not one ray of sunshine could be found in the sky to lighten up this morning; all she could see up there were light grey clouds, tightly packed together above the thick row of tall pine trees in front of the van. She shifted her body as carefully as she could, but even then, it made her neck and back briefly ache. She quickly figured out why she was feeling all of this, and it didn't surprise her in the slightest; she had been sleeping on the passenger's seat throughout the whole night. Somewhere in the back of her mind, there was this one memory of Darby cleaning off the blood that had been spilled onto the seat before he allowed Cora to hop in; the reddened tissues were tossed in a trashcan near the convenience store, along with his ruined T-shirt. The sore muscles in her neck couldn't catch a break when she turned her head to see if Darby also happened to have picked his seat as a make-shift bed for the night.

The driver's seat was completely empty and who knows for how long it had been. No new blood stains could be spotted on the seat, thus confirming that although the manner his wound had been closed up had been crude, it had still been effective. Cora couldn't help but wonder if this guy also happened to be a ninja, since he must have been capable of being insanely quiet while leaving the van as she slept. Unless he was sleeping in the back… Cora softly hissed between her teeth as she slowly turned her upper body to take a peek, but it appeared that Darby wasn't there either. Despite the grey weather outside, it was still bright enough to see how the back of Darby Allin's van looked like, and she could easily tell that this vehicle also acted like his home. And she wasn't going to lie about it; it looked pretty cozy, actually. A mattress that was big enough for one person took up most of the space on the floor with a single pillow and sheet with a black and white checkered pattern to keep him through the night. A closed laptop decorated with a wide variation of stickers, ranging from logos of punk bands to cartoon skulls, had been placed on top of said sheets. Cora found it easy to assume that Darby would cook his meals on an electric cooker with two plates, right behind the driver's seat. The lid of the laptop hadn't been the only thing around covered with decorations that could easily fit into the goth/punk aesthetic Darby seemed to be into; some of the posters on the walls of the van included those of punk rock legends like The Offspring, Bad Religion and Rise Against, but there were some that Cora unfortunately couldn't recognize, because who knows, maybe these bands could be worth listening to.

But there was one item back there in the van that managed to make her feel a heavy rush of nostalgia like nothing else… and that was the black skateboard resting against the left wall. Clearly it must have been used a lot, judging by the scratches on its wheels and grip tape, but for some reason it made that brief burst of nostalgia even stronger. So Darby must be into skateboarding as well… that would at least one more interesting topic to talk about on the road asides from, well… everything else that ties in with the concept of seeing ghosts.

The nostalgia was quickly replaced with the need to know where in the world they were, so Cora quickly hopped out of the van, something she would soon regret when she felt the soreness in her muscles kicking in.

A cool breeze that could be expected with weather like this made her skin go cold, though not in a negative way; after all the summer heat that had been present these past days like a hot, thick blanket, and combined with the drizzle that touched her arms and the patches of skin on her legs, it just felt so darn good. Cora looked around her and realized that Darby had parked the van on the parking lot of what appeared to be a diner at some point during the early morning hours. On the other side of the road was a building that she assumed to be a garage, judging by the five cars on the driveway, some of them with opened hoods, others with missing wheels. The road came straight out of the entrance of a vast woodland area, of which the pine trees near the diner's parking lot turned out to be a part of. Darby's van wasn't the only vehicle parked on this spot; this diner must have been having some good business going on this morning, because other cars could be spotted here as well.

That's when Cora saw one single pay phone booth not too far away from the van, close to the tree line. Funny, she thought; she had always assumed phone booths like these could be considered a relic from the past by now, since cellphones had become a part of regular life. Her hand slid into the pocket of her pants and found her wallet, something she was pretty grateful for. Her phone may have been rendered useless from the moment it had been broken in half during the attack and she hadn't had any chance to retrieve the clothing she had packed, but at the very least she still had her wallet with her. While she walked towards the phone booth, she managed to retrieve just enough coins to make one call; a call she didn't feel like making, but was necessary. After she pushed the coins into the slot, she dialed that one phone number she absolutely hated dialing.

It didn't take too long for her to pick up.

'Hello, who is this?'

'Hey mom, it's Cora…' Geraldine's daughter said, figuring that she must have woken her up. 'Look, I'm going to keep it short since I'm calling you from a pay phone, but I got something to tell you. I… couldn't get a bus ride to Autumnfield. But I did manage to get a ride from someone who will bring me there, though. I'm not sure how long it's going to take, but I will let you know when I get there, okay? But we will be there soon enough, it should be fine, I think… It's going to be fi-'

'My God, Cora…' her mother groaned, the sleepiness having instantly vanished upon hearing this. 'How in God's name can you screw up something as simple as this? All you had to do was to get on a bus, and you can't even do that, so now you've gotta leech off of a stranger to get over here! But then again, I shouldn't be surprised by that, should I?'

Cora didn't respond say anything to this, only letting out a little sigh.

'Well, just let me know when you get near Autumnfield. And for Christ's sake, Cora, don't call me this early anymore.'

'Yeah… sorry. Bye, mom.'

Dejected, but at the same time, not feeling surprised by her mother's reaction at all, Cora put the phone back into the holder. Looks like she had tossed in the right number of coins for these few seconds alone, because none of them came rolling out. She looked up at the grey sky, feeling the drizzle on her face, closed her eyes and slowly breathed out through her noise. All of a sudden, footsteps approaching her from behind made her open her eyes and turn around to see who it was. No, it wasn't somebody who wanted to use the pay phone after her; it was Darby holding a carton tray with two big cups of coffee in one hand and a small, brown, paper bag containing two bagels with egg, bacon and two thick slices of cheese. His ripped, black T-shirt had been replaced with a new one, though with a slightly lighter shade.

'Morning, sunshine.' he said. 'While you were still snoozing, I fetched us some breakfast. Hope you like bacon on your bagel.'

'Let me guess… you take me for a 'bacon on bagel' kind of girl as well?' the young woman replied, twitching the corner of her mouth into a small smirk. 'Very funny.' But trying not to sound too short or ungrateful towards him, because, well, he was nice enough to her to actually bring her some food, she added: 'Thanks, anyway. I could seriously use some coffee…'

At that moment, the drizzle began to increase and resemble more of an actual shower, so it sounded like the right idea to eat their breakfast in the back of the van. Darby opened the back, sat down inside and dug in, with Cora following him suit, sitting next to him. One of Darby's legs dangled over the edge as he chomped away on his bagel and his companion had to admit: the bagels at this diner didn't taste half bad. And yes, she also admitted that just like when they had been sipping their soda near that convenience store that night, the atmosphere was pretty peaceful. Pleasant, even. The gentle rain outside, the fresh summer morning air, the rather tasty bagel and the warm coffee… it almost gave her the feeling that she was on a holiday.

The blonde ghost hunter had been pretty quiet while he was eating his breakfast, but it was when there were was only a small bite of his bagel left when he suddenly began speaking.

'There will be plenty of work cut out for us until we get to Autumnfield.' he said. 'Lots of haunted spots for us to check out. Here, check it out.' He quickly shoved the last piece of bagel into his mouth and leaned over to grab his laptop. He opened the lid, let his fingers dance over the keys for a few seconds and then turned the device around so that Cora could have a good look at the screen; up until last night, Cora would have deemed forums dedicated to such things as ghost activity as freaking ridiculous, but now she couldn't help but be surprised about how many places in the United States could possibly be haunted.

'Green Pines, Wattson, they're both on our route.' Darby explained while pointing at the long row of post titles. 'And who knows what else we could encounter. This forum is what I use for my job. I don't know if you have noticed, but we're actually in Green Pines right now. Believe it or not, but if there's one thing that's special about this sleepy little town, it's the local park. Looks like some shit has been going down there as of late. People around the area who have access to this forum have been claiming that place has been haunted. Cold spots, a disembodied voice, and that was only in the beginning. I'm pretty damn sure this ghost has gone into the Restless phase by now, because some girl on the forum has claimed that something that was invisible to her eye had dragged her across the ground by her hair for a few meters before she could get away.'

'So it's starting to get angry…' Cora said; for some reason, she could perfectly imagine the fear that poor girl must have felt while struggling to get away from the unseen entity that had a grip on her hair.

'Yep.' Then, having somehow seen some humor in this, Darby let out a brief chuckle. 'The perfect job for a newbie like you.' That's when he noticed the mildly confused look on the young woman's face. 'Don't tell me you have already forgotten about our deal… If I were you, I'd get off my ass and start training, princess.'

Green Pines was indeed the textbook definition of a sleepy town in the middle of nowhere in Michigan, with apparently the only thing that came close to being somewhat worth visiting the local park, despite it being relatively smaller than those you'd encounter in the bigger cities (and let's not forget, as of recent, being haunted recently by a ghost that was getting more restless by the minute). Well, Cora wouldn't say that was the only location worth visiting in this town that most likely housed less than a thousand people, because it turned out that it did, in fact, had the perfect training ground for a rookie ghost hunter like her. And that would be the junkyard that could be found not too far away from the diner's parking lot. Darby didn't have to look for long while they drove around the small town surrounded by a vast forest with mostly pines (guess whoever founded this town hundreds of years ago didn't have to think long about what kind of name to bestow it with, they both figured), he only had to drive a couple of blocks before his eye fell on the main entrance of the local junkyard, and to make this spot even more perfect for a ghost hunter training session, it looked like nobody was around to keep an eye on any intruders entering this property to scavenge for whatever treasures may be hidden in these tall piles of discarded junk. The weather had remarkably changed by the time Darby had parked the goth/punk version of the Mystery Machine near the entrance of Green Pines' local junkyard, having switched from a dreary shower to your typical sunny summer day, accompanied with the temperature that was actually pretty bearable; not too frisky and not too insanely hot either, much to Cora's delight. Darby didn't have to think long about how exactly he was going to mentor his traveling companion. With relatively much ease, he had pulled out a white, plastic, folding table with a large tear in the middle from the bottom of one of the massive piles of garbage and placed in on a spot where they had just enough space for themselves, having a safe distance between them and the piles of junk that could possibly crash onto them if they were somehow struck during the training. Then he retrieved an armless, heavily chipped torso of a female mannequin with heavily blushed cheeks and delicately closed eyes, a khaki green, empty jerrycan with a fist-sized dent on the metal and a dark brown crate that had once contained several bottles of soda, placing all of these abandoned items on the table while Cora watched on, wondering what in the world Darby was planning on helping her out.

'Alright then, that should do it.' the blonde ghost hunter said as he cleaned some dirt from his hands by brushing them onto his pants. 'This is about as basic as it gets, but it's essential nonetheless. As a ghost hunter, you should know how to properly aim at your target. Slip up and miss it only once, and you could be done for. It's a wrap. So, you'd better work on aiming your fire powers on these targets I put here for you. Let's go, show me what you got.'

He walked towards the rookie ghost hunter and stood right next to her, clearly not wishing to become an accidental target during this session. He was right, Cora knew. How was she going to be a decent ghost hunter for the time being (since she would abandon that temporary career anyway as soon as they would get to Autumnfield) if she couldn't even properly hit a pissed off ghost that was coming right at her? She hoped that she would hit the first target without too much trouble… So she took a deep breath, slowly breathed out through her nose and focused her sight on the pieces of garbage that acted as the training targets in front of her. She reached out with her arm, aiming the palm of her fully opened hand at them. Remembering the method she had used the night before to summon her powers, she repeated one single thought over and over in her head, which was that of creating fire. No other thought than brightly burning, scorching hot flames… And as it turned out, this was exactly what she needed to create the fire that was needed for this training session… though not exactly the right amount of it that she had in mind. Sure, a ball-shaped fiery projectile did painlessly emerge from her palm, though it was roughly the size of a golf ball and pathetically fell to the ground when it was not even halfway the distance between her and the table, vanishing on the dry sand. (Not one patch of grass to be accidently set ablaze here, thankfully)

'Wow… that was just…' Darby mumbled, and yeah, Cora knew that this was pathetic as hell, especially considering the fact that she had been able to manipulate her flames into a tiny blowtorch last night. So she decided not to react to him and try again. And sure enough, another ball of fire was created, slightly bigger than the one before and while it did travel much further, this one too dropped to the earth before it was even close to hitting the bisected mannequin. Cora didn't let this discourage her and managed to create the third fireball, also bigger compared to the previous one, and for a split second, it did actually reach far enough to hit one of the targets… but unfortunately, it missed the jerrycan completely and instead struck a rusted-over washing machine somewhere behind the table.

'Come on Cora, you've gotta aim better than that.' Darby said, and though he did sound fairly calm, Cora could sense the smallest hint of frustration in his voice, which in turn made a spark of frustration light up inside her as well.

'What do you think I'm doing?!'

More fireballs were fired off in the span of a minute, all of them about the same size as the one who had hit the washing machine but none of them hitting either one of the targets in front of her. Most of them hit the piles of junk behind the table, others would drop to the earth like dying little birds and at least one of the fireballs managed to strike one of the table's metal legs. With each fireball missing one of the targets, Cora could feel her frustration grow more and more, wanting nothing more but at the very least strike one of the targets, be it that stupid jerry can or that fucking creepy mannequin, as long as she could either knock them off the table or engulf them into flames, either outcome would have been fine with her. But as of right now, she didn't come even close to succeeding at simply knocking one item over, as all of the fiery projectiles continued to miss the targets, over and over again. And it wasn't only Cora's frustration getting fueled by the second.

'Damn, you were so close there!' 'What's the matter with you? Come on!' 'For fuck's sake, you've gotta do better than that!' These were the three annoyed comments Darby had hurled at the rookie ghost hunter throughout this training session and the same comments she had blatantly ignored, barely able to suppress her frustration and concentrate on her training. But as the last fireball merely hit the edge of the plastic table, Darby was unable to push back the frustration that had been building up inside of him.

'How the hell do you think you're going to be able to help me out if you can't even hit a fucking crate?' he said, clearly getting fed up by the astonishing amount of times she had missed already.

That's when Cora Jade turned her head and glared at the blonde ghost hunter with a look in her eyes as fiery as the fire she wielded, unaware that she was still reaching out with her hand. 'If you could just shut the fuck up for one second and let me focu-'

Then, with a suddenness that even stunned Darby for a bit, a massive ball of fire of which the size was even bigger than the rusted washing machine shot out of the palm of her hand and flew right at the table, instantly ingulfing it with brightly burning flames. As quickly as it had appeared, it had vanished just as quick; after the immense heat that it had produced faded away, there was nothing left of the table but the lower parts of the metal legs and a trail of black smoke trickling into the air like a thick, dark, cloudy snake before disappearing as well.

Both Cora and Darby stared at the spot where the table had been just a few seconds ago with wide eyes, not saying anything. It was Darby however, who broke that astonished silence with a small smirk on his face.

'You should be pissed off more often.'