After trying, unsuccessfully, to scrape up the bloody goo that was what was left of the possessed cereal box, Hunk, Lance and Shiro all returned to work, acting as though nothing happened. However, Pidge was doubtful. She'd come in as the three of them were "on break" and observed that all three of them emerged from the back, looking rather suspicious.

Maybe it was due to her nosiness… or her paranoia. She couldn't help it! She'd always been nosy, growing up. She'd gotten into trouble for trespassing on school grounds multiple times when she's snuck into her brother's old campus, looking for any information that might explain where he'd disappeared to, along with her father. She'd taken a bit of therapy, being told to "Find a job to keep her mind busy", which she'd done. Only trouble was, her mind had a hard time concentrating on something as tedious as working in a department store. But something told her that it was about to get a whole lot less tedious…

"And where have you boys been?" she called over, all three of them jumping as if they'd seen a spider appear right in front of them.

"Er… on break!" Lance said quickly.

"Right! Just grabbed something in the breakroom!" Hunk added as Shiro stood behind them, nervously scratching at the back of his neck. Pidge raised an eyebrow.

"Oh really?" she asked, "All three of you?"

"Oh, undoubtedly!" Lance told her, nodding.

"Yeah! Cause we had to save Shiro from the- oof!" said Hunk as he felt Lance's sharp elbow in his gut.

"Pardon me, boys? From the what?" Pidge asked teasingly.

"From the… sheer sweetness of my chocolate chip cookies!" Hunk said suddenly, "I… brought some from home that I made! Right guys?"

"Oh, yeah! Chocolate chip! My facvorite!" Lance agreed.

"Mm-hmm." chimed in Shiro with an innocent smile. Pidge smirked at them then before Lance looked out of the transparent automatic doors and frowned a little.

"Oh boy, look whose back. Little 80s angry child himself." He mused as a boy about his age walked inside, his face buried deep in his phone, his black hair spilling down around his shoulders. "Find another ghost, Keith?"

The boy didn't respond. All he did was hold up a finger, his hands covered by fingerless gloves. Lance chuckled.

"I'm guessing that's a yes."

"According to this, there's a bunch of weird, supernatural activity here." Keith said, following a sort of trail his phone as he made his way up to Shiro, sort of scanning him with his phone. He then looked up at the man, looking a bit embarrassed.

"Oh. Um… sorry." He told Shiro, "It's just that… it says that you're the source of activity around here."

Lance and Hunk looked nervously at each other, then at Shiro, who was red in the face.

"Um… me? No… no that can't be!" he laughed, "I'm just the stock boy here."

"Yeah! He's just the stock boy, Keef!" Lance agreed, turning his attention to Shiro, "You'll have to forgive Keith, Shiro. He's got a thing for ghosts, myths and the occult."

"Hey, I don't need you talking for me, cashier."

"Um, employed cashier! Unlike some people!" Lance argued.

"Don't worry, they're always like this." Hunk whispered to Shiro, "Best frenemies."

"Yeah, sure." Keith said, crossing over to Pidge. "Pidge sides with me on these things. Don't you, Pidge?"

"Gotta say, he's right." Pidge agreed, peering out from above her glasses, you guys are acting pretty mondo weird."

"We are not acting weird!" all three of them said at once.

As Lance, Shiro and Hunk spoke, suddenly, there was a tremor beneath their feet, the store's lights blinking.

"Whoa, shit!" Lance cried, "You guys feel that?!"

"Forget feeling it! Look!" shouted Hunk. Just like that, all five of them crowded over to the door, looking outside. The sky had gone from blue to a dark purple, the wind now gushing, sending trash and debris flying through the parking lot.

"Keith, what did you do?!" Lance asked.

"Shut it, Lance! I didn't do this!"

As the storm raged outside, the group was then interrupted by a panicked shout from Coran, who came running out of the office, holding a briefcase.

"Nobody panic! NOBODY PANIC! Initiate emergency protocol twelve! Everyone remain calm!" he shouted, "We're going to stay in the store, keep the customers here until this whole thing blows over!"

Shiro then thought for a moment… hearing the growling off in the distance again… and he then knew what he had to do.

He split off from the group, running out the back, much to the dismay of the people around him.

"Shiro! Come back!" Coran shouted after him, but Shiro kept running. He ran until he was out of the store, thankful that the trailer park in which his mobile home was parked at was right behind his place of work. He knew what was causing this… he knew damn well…

And he wasn't about to let it hurt anyone else. Not now… not ever.

He'd let it kill him if he had to.

As he pressed on, he ignored the shouts of Mr. Campbell from next door, bursting into his mobile home and looking over, seeing the book on the table, not where he'd put it, a flash of lightning lighting up the book's eerie, face-like cover.

"Hey, you. Been a while."

"I'm going after him!"

"No way, Lance! As your manager, I forbid it! Who knows?! You could die in this weather!"

"I'm going with him!"

At Big Deals, everyone was in disarray. The customers were on the verge of panicking, as was Coran, as Lance and Hunk insisted on going after Shiro.

"Coran! If he can make it, so can we!" Lance argued, "I mean, do you really think that-"

And, suddenly, the tremors stopped. The clouds lifted, the growling stopping as the sun began to come out again, everyone exchanged the same, confused look with one another.

"Well, weather's good. Off I go." Lance said, hurrying off towards the door, Hunk chugging along after him.

"Me, too! I'll make up the hours, Coran!"

Coran was left in a stunned silence, turning to Pidge, "Well, Katie, looks like you-"

But Pidge was gone, as was Keith.

"Are we sure about this, Lance?"

"Of course not! But come on! We promised to help!"

Lance then got into his old, battered (or well-loved) Corolla, igniting the engine and riding over to the trailer park.

"How do you know where he lives?" Hunk asked, impressed.

"Easy. Snooped in on his work info. Sometimes ya gotta know these things." Lance said, pulling up at Shiro's large mobile home and looking over at Hunk, grabbing a tire iron from the back.

"Okay, big guy. You ready?"

"No!"

"Great, let's get in there!"

As Shiro stood in his kitchenette, looking down at the Necronomicon, he then heard a knock at his door, making him gasp.

"Shit… they've come for me already?!"

As he heard the knock, he quickly went into the bedroom and fished out something he hadn't used in a while from under the bed.

A double-barrel shotgun.

Shiro then took out the weapon, loading the rounds in the barrel before going to the door, throwing it open an aiming at whatever was out there.

"WHOA! WHOA, WHOA, WHOA!"

"SHIT! HE'S GONNA SHOOT US, MAN!"

Shiro then looked down, seeing Lance and Hunk outside, both holding onto each other, cowering in fear under the barrel of his gun.

"Lance! Hunk!" he cried, putting the weapon on the counter. "What're you doing here?! I could've shot you!"

"Yeah, no shit!" Lance told him, making his way inside, Hunk following behind him, "Why do you even have that thing anyway?!"

"For… emergencies." Shiro said, "A-and who said you could come in?! I don't remember inviting you."

"Yeah, sorry about that but you're gonna have to deal with it, man!" Lance said, "Cause we're here to help you stop the evil! Which I'm guessing is what made that weirdo storm outside a few minutes ago?"

"…you'd be right." Shiro grumbled.

"Thought so." Said Lance, his eyes finding the Necronomicon, causing him to grimace, "Ew, gross! Is this the book?!" he asked, lifting it up.

"Agh! Put that down!" commanded Shiro, snatching the book away from him and placing it on the counter beside the gun, "That's very dangerous stuff!"

"Well yeah, but I didn't read it!" Lance protested, "What harm could it do just looking inside?"

"Er, Lance… you sure you really wanna look inside?" Hunk asked nervously, "I mean… it's written in blood so… that's probably really unsanitary."

"A book that can release spirits of the netherworld and beyond and you're worried about how sanitary it is?"

"Well it could have some weirdo pathogen in it!"

Just then, another knock.

Before anyone could answer, Pidge opened the door and stepped inside, followed by Keith.

"Can we come in? Whoops, already here." She mused.

"Oh what the fuck?! Come on, get out of here!" Lance whined, "this happens to be a private matter, Katherine."

"It's Katie, noodle boy. Either Katie, Pidge, or ma'am to you."

"All right, time out!" Shiro called over the group, looking at Keith and Pidge. "How'd you two even know where I lived?!"

"Oh, easy. Just followed Lance is all." Keith said, "He's not the best sleuth in the world."

"I'll show you a sleuth, mullet boy!"

Shiro rolled his eyes, groaning, "Why are you even here?!"

"You three boys are up to something, and this proves it." Pidge pointed out, "And Keith and I want in."

"No. Absolutely not! Out of the question!" Shiro said, "Get out, now! The both of you! Or no… all of you! Out! Out, out, out!"

He then tried to corral them out, which resulted in quite a bit of arguing and pushing when, suddenly, another knock was heard at the door.

All five of them stopped dead in their tracks.

"Oh for Christ's sake…" Shiro sighed, pushing past the kids and going to the door and opening it. "Look, I'm in the middle of something and I really don't need-"

Suddenly, his sentence was cut off as the hand of Mr. Campbell closed tightly around his throat, the man's eyes completely white, and his skin more leathery and dry now as he grinned at Shiro. In the back, Hunk yelped, running off and taking cover in Shiro's bedroom.

"Holy shit!" yelled Lance.

"What the fucking quiznak?!" Keith threw in.

"Shiro!" cried Pidge as Mr. Campbell brought Shiro in closer.

"We found you, Shiro!"