A/N: It's me ya girl. the next few weeks are going to be busy but I'm in a much better place mentally so I'm hoping I'll be able to keep up with updates on my stories.
The songs Victoria is listening to towards the end are Ghostbusters (I'm Not Afraid) by Fallout Boy and Missy Elliott and Last Motherfucker (mix cut) by DJ Maddog.
Victoria studied the tank top for several minutes with a serious look of consternation. It was a women's shirt, but if she bought it large enough…
She snagged three. Just in case. It was too hard to pass up. A shirt with the words 'Local Cryptid' surrounded by bright flowers on a dark background just belonged in her house. If Hiei and Kurama, who had both actually haunted a house, couldn't pull off that look no one could.
The third shirt was for her. In fact, she just may change into in the truck. Her phone rang again, the third time in forty-five minutes. This time she finally answered it in a clipped tone.
"You were supposed to be here half an hour ago." The voice snapped at her, full of annoyance. "You better have been in an accident. You're holding up the whole production."
"I had to stop by the dollar store for some supplies." Victoria explained, and it was partially true. This had started because she needed to pick up more powdered sage from the dollar store. Then she'd seen the cute outfit in the window of another shop in the strip mall and she'd decided she deserved to treat herself, especially given what she was about to have to put up with.
"How far away are you?"
"Not too far." Another lie. Honestly, she didn't care much for the person on the other end of the line.
"When will you get here?"
"When I arrive." She shouldered the phone against her ear so she could examine a pair of distressed jeans.
"Goddammit Victoria, this is real fucking immature of you." He griped. "Get your ass here before I come hunt you down."
"We both know you couldn't hunt fish in a barrel, Brandon." She took the phone back in her hand. "Gotta go. Be there soon. Twenty-minutes tops."
She hung up.
When she pulled into the driveway of the old house thirty minutes later, Brandon was seething by a large white eco-line vine waiting for her. Victoria hopped out of the cab of her truck wearing her new shirt and a pair of professionally destroyed jeans. Her dirty converse shone red from under the medium wash denim. Offering the man a smartelic grin she shouldered her bag.
"What's up?" Victoria asked cheerily, watching as Brandon's jaw locked.
This had to be a big deal for him to call her, she knew that. They didn't speak much since the breakup two years before. But every now and then he needed her.
She had yet to find a reason to return the favor.
Victoria turned her attention to the camera crew loitering on the lawn. God. She hated this so much. Last time Vanessa had come with her to keep her in line. No such luck this time.
Brandon was the lead "paranormal investigator" on an international ghost-hunting show. He had been all over Europe and North America harassing spirits and stirring up trouble. Most of it was grade-A bullshit. He knew it. Victoria knew it. The production crew knew it. But it still drew in viewers like nobody's business. Once upon a time, back when they were dating, Victoria had acted as a 'specialist' a few times. Digging up info, explaining some things in the background. But she hadn't been too keen on being filmed.
Not during this and not during sex.
People break up for all sorts of reasons.
"We finished setting up the cameras and the sensory equipment." Brandon started in with a glare. "I've never seen anything like this, Vick."
"Please, Vick is for my friends. You can call me Victoria." She corrected with her best smile.
"Did I hear Victoria?" A tall, curvaceous girl appeared from behind one of the crew vans. Victoria stared at her deep purple hair and immediately decided she needed to change up her own hair color. Maybe teal? "Oh my god. I've heard so much about you. I've been dying to meet you!"
"Hopefully not literally." Victoria hesitantly assessed the young woman. "What are you, like, twenty?"
"Nineteen."
"Jesus fuck Brandon, you're fucking a freshman?" Victoria whipped around to gape at the man who had drug her out here. "Even for you this is gross. You're basically thirty you cradle robber."
"We're the same age." Brandon deadpanned.
Victoria ignored him to grab the girl by the arms. "Are you in danger? Blink if he's holding you here against your will. I will kick his ass."
The girl laughed nervously and slowly shook Victoria's hold off her.
"I'm Mekenzi. With two e's and an i." She stuck her hand out and Victoria shook it with a raised eyebrow.
"Where?"
"Huh?" Mekenzi with two e's and an i tilted her head like a piqued puppy.
"Bless your heart, you're about the cutest thing Brandon has ever roped into his bad choices." Victoria patted the girl's arm and turned back to Brandon who looked about ready to throttle her. She decided to avoid engaging with him for a few more minutes until he calmed that vein pulsing in his temple. "So, why did you want to meet me?"
"I read all your notes from the early seasons." Mekenzi bounced on her toes. Being close to six feet and a healthy looking woman, that meant certain parts of her noticeably bounced with her. "You're like a real life witch. I think that's so cool. I haven't met any other Wiccans-"
"I'm not Wiccan." Victoria shook herself and raised her gaze to Mekenzi's brown eyes.
"But you're a witch."
"I practice magick, yeah." Victoria nodded. "Still not Wiccan. I'm more of a free-spirit pagan, if anything."
"You can do that?" Mekenzi looked like her entire world view had shifted abruptly.
"I mean, if you want. But if you're good with Wicca then stick with Wicca. No need to fix what isn't broke, y'know?"
"Are you two done?" Brandon finally interrupted them. "Vick…toria. You need to speak with the family who lives here."
"You want me to interview them?" Victoria stopped and stared at him. This must be serious. Then with a nod she put on her best professional face and marched toward the house. There was no denying it. The minute she crossed the threshold a wash of energy cascaded over her.
And it wasn't happy to see her.
...
"Well, we always knew the place was haunted but it's never been like this. We've lived here ten years. In all that time I've never felt unsafe." The woman glanced at her husband who nodded to her words. "It used to be small things knocked over. The cat staring. You know, small things."
"And that's recently changed. How?" Victoria had her phone on the counter between her and the couple, recording the conversation so she could listen back to it later.
"The lights started to flicker a few weeks ago. That was new. We called an electrician. He said there was nothing wrong." The husband explained. "That's about when the cat started acting weird. And when doors started to open randomly."
A few weeks ago? Victoria frowned, but nodded to keep him talking. Brandon would have a more comprehensive timeline for her to study but she already had her suspicions of when this started. And she may even already know what set off the change.
"Where is the cat?" Victoria pried.
"In the car. He won't come into the house anymore. Hasn't for days." The wife looked ready to faint. "This is going to sound crazy-"
"I specialize in sounding crazy." Victoria assured her with a wan smile. "Nothing is too small to help. Nothing is too outlandish."
"I heard a voice." The wife looked at her husband who pressed his lips into a grim line. "It said it wanted to hurt me."
"It said she would like nice in pieces." The husband interjected. "That's when I called your team."
"Did you hear it?" Victoria turned to him.
He balked. "I believe my wife."
"That's not what I asked."
He stared at her. Then he swallowed.
"Yeah, I've heard it." He nodded. "When I'm in the kitchen it'll say things. It'll try to convince me to do things."
Now that was interesting.
"Have either of you seen the apparition?" Victoria looked between them. They both shook their heads. "Alright. Y'all are set up in a hotel right?"
She ushered them off then stared at her phone on the counter for a few seconds, lost in thought. Her gaze grew unfocused as she stared, her mind buzzing without thought.
"Pretty girl."
Victoria jumped and spun around, wild-eyed as she rubbed at the raised hairs on the back of her neck. Brandon stared at her with one of the camera men, who had his rig pointed at the floor.
"What did you just say?" She demanded of Brandon, jerking her phone from the counter and turning off the voice recorder.
"I said pretty weird." Brandon told her. "I've never heard of a jump in activity like this, have you?"
"Maybe." Victoria blinked and settled herself. "You have the background on the property, right?"
"Yeah, but nothing in it involves a dude cutting up women." Even as he spoke Mekenzi rushed forward to offer the thick manila folder to Victoria.
"I'll study this tonight at the hotel." She assured him. "You have cameras in every room?"
"Yeah. As well as remote-read thermometers, EMF detectors, motion sensor lights." He nodded. "Why?"
"The husband said he heard the voice in the kitchen. I got the impression it happened more than once." Victoria looked around the space. "Can we set up an additional camera in here?"
Brandon nodded, watching her closely. "Sure."
Victoria sat in her motel room on the bed, the curtains closed, and listened to her conversation with the couple who owned the house. Her eyes closed, she focused only on their voices.
"Pretty girl."
Her eyes clenched closed. It was there. It was a little muddled because it happened right when Brandon had spoken, but it was there.
This was a problem.
Whatever was in that house was getting stronger. Strong enough to open closed doors and gain a voice. Pulling the headphones from her ears she turned back to the paperwork she'd spread over the dingy comforter. Brandon was right, there was nothing in the history of the house to indicate the presence of a sadistic male personality.
Which meant one of two things to her. Either whatever happened in that house had gone undiscovered or undisclosed, or they weren't dealing with a ghost.
Glancing at her phone, she checked the time. With a sigh she realized it was too late in the night to check on the boys. She hoped they were okay with being looked after by grams. Hopefully they didn't get into too much trouble. It was just a few days, she reminded herself. And they were capable men. Even if Hiei did eat lizards and tide pods and even if Kurama was the worst at making sweet tea.
Piling the papers back into the folder, she moved the file to the small table by the closed window. Then she hoisted her bag onto the bed and pulled out her tools. If they were dealing with something malicious she wanted to be prepared. So she pulled out her travel jewelry box. In it sat her protective necklace: amethyst, obsidian, and fire agate set in silver. She slipped the necklace on then pushed the rose-quartz, moonstone, citrine rings onto her fingers, each of them set in silver as well.
She'd proud more citrine, good for transforming negative energy, to place in the house once that time came. She loved the stone. It never needed to be cleansed and that meant it was perfect for jobs like this one.
Moving on, Victoria pulled out her travel packs of herbs and set about making cleansing salt, a spray, and a few pomanders. She had a feeling taking chances with this house would only get her in trouble so she came ready for anything.
"A few lights turned on. The temperature dropped but nothing major. I didn't even see any doors opening. And the kitchen was empty all night." Mark, one of the cameramen who had been with the show since the beginning, explained to Victoria. "What's your take, Vick?"
"Oh, he gets to call you Vick?" Brandon huffed.
"I like him." Victoria retorted absently. "Okay. Seems weird that whatever this would ramp up only to die out."
"What are you thinking?" Mark tilted back in his chair to look at her. Then he smiled and she thought, distinctly, that his five o-clock shadow suited him.
"I'm thinking we send in Brandon to do what he does best." Victoria smiled back, then turned to the host of the show who frowned at her. "Stir up some activity."
"Are you sure you don't want one of these?" Victoria gestured to the small pomanders beside her on the table. She had set up a circle around herself and sat safely inside it. Mekenzi sat at the table too, watching on the screens for any sign of activity. She wore one of Victoria's protection pomanders around her neck. They'd decided midnight would be the perfect time to try to agitate the malevolent presence in the house.
"She's the expert, Bray. You might want to wear one." Mekenzi didn't even look at Brandon.
"Yeah, Bray, I'm the expert." Victoria though it appropriate that Brandon's nickname was the same sound a jackass makes.
"No. I'm the expert. You're the hired help. So stuff it up your-"
"We're rolling." Mark interrupted, camera alive on his shoulder.
Victoria stifled a laugh and the camera swiveled toward her. "Bray is going to attempt to lure the spirit into some form of activity by speaking to it. While he does that Mekenzi will be watching over the live feeds."
"And what are you going to be doing?" Brandon asked her.
"I'll be waiting to intervene in case something actually happens." Victoria shrugged. "You're the face, I'm the muscle. That's the deal."
Brandon rolled his eyes and started walking through the house asking questions in every room and waiting for a reaction. After a few hours of pacing and waiting Victoria reclaimed her chair. It was nearly two in the morning. Mekenzi was glued to her computer screens so Victoria pulled out her phone and pushed her headphones into her ears. With a smile she saw that she had a series of snaps from Kurama and she opened them to watch Hiei dance with Ashland. Chuckling she shot him back a text thanking him for the video and wishing them well.
He asked her how the job was going.
Victoria tapped back that it was somewhat interesting but nothing too exciting yet, not noticing that Mekenzi had gotten up from the screens. If she had, she'd have at least taken out one of her earbuds to keep and ear on the situation. But she didn't.
Instead she turned on her playlist and sipped from her RedBull blissfully unaware that Mekenzi was screaming in terror in the downstairs bathroom as the lights flickered off and on or that the EMF sensors were flipping out. She didn't even noticed when the taller woman came barreling back into the dining room, panting, and assessing the chaos on the screens.
It wasn't until her RedBull got whipped out of her hand that Victoria even bothered to look up from her phone. When she did, it was with consternation.
Then she noticed.
The chairs outside of her circle had been thrown across the room. The lights in every other room were doing their best to audition for strobe light of the year. Mekenzi was standing in the circle with her hand over her mouth and Mark came running back to them, swiping a protective necklace pomander from the table and clutching it in his white knuckled fist. Brandon came down the stairs but right before he made it to the circle Victoria had cast, he got bulldozered by an invisible form that sent him shoulder first into the wall.
Only then did Victoria pull out one of her headphones.
"Shouldn't you help him?" Mekenzi asked her, shaking.
"Nah, he's the expert." Victoria pointed her phone at the scene to catch Brandon being drug across the floor by his ankle. "You're doing amazing, sweetie."
"Shut up!" Brandon yelled. He struggled to get his feet under him. "Get your sage and smudge this bastard Vick!"
"Natives smudge, Brandon, white people cleanse." Victoria fished a second RedBull from her bag and popped the tab. "You musty bag of marshmallows."
"Victoria!" He pulled salt from his pocket and cast it around him loosely. The aggressive presence dissolved. "Huh. See? We didn't even need you. I can send this poor soul back without-"
A knife came flying out of the kitchen and only missed Brandon because Victoria shoved him out of the way.
"I can do a lot of things, but I cannot exorcise stupid." She scolded him and then pointed to her circle. "Get in there and think about how much better I am at your job than you are."
Brandon didn't need to be told twice. He crossed the threshold of the circle and Victoria sipped her RedBull while standing in the middle of the room. One earbud still in place, she listened to her music at a volume sure to give her tinnitus someday. And she waited.
Nothing moved. Not her, not the crew, and not the spirit.
"Did you really get rid of it?" Mekenzi asked quietly to Brandon, who shrugged.
"No, he didn't. Because you can't banish a demon with a handful of table salt." Victoria chugged her energy drink and crushed the can in her fist before tossing it at Brandon's feet.
"Did you just say demon?" Brandon paled.
"Pretty girl." Unseen fingers twined through Victoria's purple hair, pushing the long top strands back from her face. A ghost of a breath tickled her face. "You'd look prettier at my mercy."
"Worse creatures than you have tried." She stated back easily. "Show yourself."
"It's better this way." That touch slid behind her ear and then down the side of her neck. Victoria shivered and spun around, eyes searching for the apparition. "You don't smell of fear yet."
"I won't." She assured the voice. "It would take a lot more than you to scare me."
Maybe she'd hit the energy drinks too hard. A headache started to form in the center of her forehead.
"Breaking the stubborn ones if the most delicious. You'll scream. They all do."
"Vick." Brandon's previous annoyance had faded into concern. "Cast him out."
"I will." She pivoted again, eyes scouring the room. "Let me concentrate."
"Oh my god." Mekenzi's eyes went wide, the blood draining from her face as a shadow came into form behind Victoria.
It stood two heads taller than her with the unmistakable shape of thick horns gracing the top of its head. Large hands that tapered into clawed fingers rose and brushed over Victoria's cheeks. The hands were so large the fingers overlapped along the back of her head, the thumbs coming to rest along the sides of her nose. The body seemed made of smoke, but the sensation was corporeal. And the eyes.
Those pits of darker-than-the-void black were nothing less than present. They locked against Victoria's blue eyed stare and her mouth fell open.
"That's it, scream." It encouraged her. "Let me hear your voice."
The headache flared up worse than before, a searing pain that made it impossible to feel much more than a strong desire for aspirin.
"What did you do to the spirit of the house?" Victoria asked with a wince at the blooming pain in her head.
The demon stilled. The crew balked. She was pretty sure she heard Brandon utter what the fuck.
"Did you devour it? Or push it out?" Victoria blinked, the headache moving down behind her eyes. The demon's face took on more features. She wished it hadn't.
No nose. Not an evolutionary trait but because it was missing. She could tell because she could see the bone and cavities were the nose was meant to be. And the lips did nothing to hide the sharp, glinting pink-stained teeth. Was the skin covered in feathers? Black like an oil slick, swirling with a dark rainbow that may have been beautiful on a bird but was hideous on a creature that wanted to kill her.
Well. It should have been hideous.
But it was still sort of beautiful, in its own way.
"It is too weak to fight. I have no interest in weak things." The demon answered finally. "Now scream."
"You're weak."
The room grew cold, quiet.
"You are strong for a human but weak for your kind."
Colder still.
"That's why you tried to appeal to him. You don't have the power to possess. Their wills are too strong. You're forced to act on your own or convince someone else to do it for you." Victoria stared into the voids that tried to scare her. "You're getting stronger. You got overly confident."
"SCREAM."
"You forgot that if you're getting stronger, she would too."
The lights burned bright in their bulbs, buzzing loudly. The demon roared and Victoria's headache grew more intense. Those large hands came down to wrap around her throat and she smiled. Her hand fished into her pocket even as she choked, being lifted off the ground by her throat.
"You scream." Victoria demanded and punched the demon across the face with her knuckled wrapped in her custom-made brass knuckles. Crafted from iron and inlaid with hematite, smoky quartz, and obsidian, the combined affect made the demon drop her. Victoria landed an upper cut on it. "Salts!"
Mekenzi threw the mason jar of cleansing salt to her. Victoria caught it one handed, unscrewed the lid and ran a quick circle around the entity trapped in the dining room.
"What is this? You think salt will be enough to hold me?" It demanded moving to stalk forward.
"This salt will." She promised and walked away to get her spray bottle from her bag. "It's a special blend I cooked up just for you. Just like this."
She turned with the squirt bottle and marched over. Then she stared the demon in the eye and began to spray.
That headache only continued to grow, lighting her skull on fire and traveling down her shoulders as the lights grew even brighter.
"I cast you out. This is not your home. You are not invited." Victoria focused on only the demon and the rest of the world began to fall away.
"I won't leave until I get blood." The demon hissed.
Victoria paused then she offered her hand to the demon. "Deal. I will get you blood then you be cast out."
"Don't make deals with demons!" Brandon yelled. "That's like, occult 101 Vick!"
The demon shook her hand. Victoria used the jagged edge of one of the stones on her knuckles to cut her thumb, watched as a drop of blood well to the surface then allowed it fall onto the demon's hand. She stuck the finger in her mouth after.
"Wait, no! That's not what-"
"Begone, thot." Victoria sprayed the water right in its face and the apparition roared as it disappeared. The lights all shattered as a wind over took the room and then it grew quiet again. Nothing remained in her salt circle.
The headache disappeared with such a vehement force that Victoria staggered.
"Hey Vick, you okay?" Brandon walked over to her, grabbing her shoulder. "Vick? You're bleeding."
"I know. I cut myself." Why did it sound like they were talking underwater. She could smell the sea. The lights from the other rooms seem to grow dimmer.
"No, your nose. You've got a nosebleed."
She reached up and touched the blood running like a faucet down the front of her face. "Huh. That's weird."
Then her eyes rolled up into her head and everything went black.
...
"Are you sure you're okay to drive?" Mekenzi watched with some worry on her face as Victoria threw her bags into her truck. "After last night, you might still need rest."
"It's fine." She hoped. They'd left Brandon to tie up ends with the family. She made sure he told the couple that their actual, friendly house spirit was still around. It was a quiet old woman. A soft presence. Nothing to worry about. And Brandon'd already paid Victoria her hefty fee so she had no reason to stick around. It was a long drive home and she wanted to try to get there by that night.
"You were amazing."
"Thanks. Don't ever do what I did."
Victoria raced down the backroads towards her house, less than an hour away. All she wanted was to get home. And of course the forces of the universe would conspire against her. She came up to a crossroads and watched as a figure manifested in the center.
"Oh, fuck you." She floored it. The image disappeared just before the front of her truck impacted it.
"That wasn't very nice, Victoria."
Her brakes smoked and her backend fishtailed a bit as she slammed on the brakes, knuckles white where she gripped the steering wheel like a lifeline. She wasn't going to look at him.
"Dorian."
"You played a dangerous game in your little haunted house." He reached over and traced the same line over her skin that the demon had the night before. "You could have died."
"You were watching." She tensed further.
"You felt me, didn't you? Giving you more power to do what needed to be done." His fingers crept upwards, until they brushed her forehead. "You're getting stronger. But even then, making deals with demons is a problem."
"Don't touch me." She shirked away from his hand.
"I told you. I need you alive." He warned her. "Don't make me make myself known next time. You won't enjoy the consequences."
Then he was gone. Victoria caught her breath, touched her forehead and then screamed her anger, beating at the steering wheel with all her strength.
