AN: I'm on a mini roll here so I figured I'd post this one up. Enjoy.
Chapter 3:
The drive back to Quinn's house was relatively quiet. Tina kept looking back at Rachel who was fighting not to fall asleep and yet was too tired to stay awake so she kept nodding off.
"Cute," Tina said.
"Yeah, she sure is," Quinn said as she looked around and started turning into her driveway.
"So how exactly can I help? And how did this happen?"
"We'll explain more inside, Brittany has the paper she found, so yeah,"
"Paper?"
"Yes, just a minute, Rachel, Sweetie, time to get up," Quinn said as she slowly nudge the child awake.
Rachel just cried as she was slowly waking up but was still too exhausted.
"Please don't cry," Quinn said as she heard Santana's car coming up her driveway.
But Rachel kept crying and whining as she tried to rub her eyes but didn't have enough energy to move.
"Oh Sweetie, big boring day at school today," Brittany said as she walked up to Quinn's car, unbuckled Rachel and carried her, swaying her slowly to let her relax and fall asleep.
"Wow, she's going to be a great Mom," Tina commented.
"Yeah, she will be," Santana said as she looked at Brittany who was holding Rachel gently in her arms.
Quinn just smiled before asking, "Did you bring the paper?"
"Yeah, we did,"
"Good, let's go inside," Quinn said as the group entered her house.
-page break-
As everyone was inside, and Brittany was creating a floor bed out of a large pillow and a throw blanket for Rachel. Tina was looking over the paper that Brittany gave her.
"This is old," Tina said before asking, "How exactly did you come across this piece of paper?"
"Well, I found it, it just appeared in my bag," Brittany said.
"Okay, so you four,"
"Three, Berry didn't want to read it," Santana said.
"Okay, three, you three decided to read off a piece of paper that magically found its way into Brittany's bag without researching what it might be about?" Tina said in shock.
"Yeah,"
"That's really bad of you,"
"You can say stupid stutters, we know it was stupid,"
"Okay, it was very stupid of you, reading things that even have instructions that tell you it's a spell, that's really bad, god, it's like toying with a Ouija Board, it's dangerous,"
"Wait, hold up, I thought Ouija Boards were just a gimmick to sell toys?"
"That's what they want you to think, that it's just a toy when it really isn't, Ouija Boards can do a lot of damage, they open doors that shouldn't be opened and let things that should remain on the other side in; hell, a lot of psychics, even pagans, and witches will tell you not to mess with the dead, like I said it opens doors to things that shouldn't be allowed here,"
"Who exactly do you mean by they?" Quinn asked.
"Is she asleep still?" Tina asked as she glanced at Rachel who was sleeping on a large pillow and wrapped in a throw blanket on the floor.
Brittany went over to look, "Yes," she answered and then walked back.
"Okay look, the supernatural have many names, right, names that humans gave so we could try to understand the things that we see but can't explain," Tina started.
"Okay," Santana said.
"There are good things out there, and there are things that choose to ignore you and just exist, but then there are also bad things, things that want to hurt us,"
"What for?"
"Power? What else is there? It's always about power and control,"
"Why?"
"Because it's in their nature, that's how they are, in the Christian World, both East and West, they are known as Angels and Demons, there is no major in between, no neutral, but with any type of supernatural world there is always a hierarchy of some sort and there is always a balance of some nature, let's see what else? Oh, in Islamic culture they have the djinn, in Japanese culture they are generally known as Yokai and Yurei, there are also the Oni in Japanese culture, who are large ogre like creatures that sometimes have horns, Chinese cultures have dragons and monsters, every culture of every nation in every world has creatures that are either exactly the same or incredibly similar, but all have the same purpose, to live, to survive by whatever means necessary to their nature,"
"What are you trying to get at?"
"That whatever wanted you to read that, it knew who it would affect, the question is why?"
Quinn looked over at Rachel who was still sleeping on the floor, "This thing, it wants to hurt Rachel?"
"Or worse, it wants to kill her," Tina answered.
Quinn looked stunned, "Kill?" she squeaked out.
"To gain a person's body, a spirit, or supernatural being, would have to get rid of the entity inside the host body, or what we would call the soul, destroy the soul, kill it, send it to jigoku, or hell, or the nether, whatever you want to call it, get rid of the soul and the body is yours for the taking, Rachel would cease to exists as who she is and become something else, the trick is get into the body before it realises that the spirit and soul are dead,"
"But why?"
"Like I said, power and control, we are just vessels and pawns to them, insignificant, whatever made that spell appear to you wanted you to read it because it knew who it was going to go after,"
"Oh my god,"
The four remained quiet as they listened to Rachel breathing.
"Can you find out the why Tina? Why a child form? Why now?" Quinn asked, in fact it sounded like she was almost begging.
"The why of a child I can tell you, because children are more susceptible to the supernatural than we are because they aren't conditioned to forget it just yet, a child's soul, mind, body, it is pure and innocent and the supernatural love that because it gives them more space to work with, the why now, that depends, could be something about Rachel gaining the power it needs to survive, it could be almost anything," Tina answered.
"But that line, 'take the soul that has the most misery'," Quinn started, "Why her?"
"I'll tell you when I find out more, but I can tell you something,"
"What?"
"Rachel holds a lot of misery in her soul, a lot of it, but we don't see it because we choose not to,"
"But you see it?"
"Yes,"
"Why didn't you do anything about it?"
"Because I couldn't, it is not a good answer but that is mine,"
Quinn looked flustered for a moment before she asked Tina, "Tina, what does all this mean? Rachel has stated many times that she's seen this monster, why is it following her?"
"If what she's seeing is real, and I'm sorry to say this to whoever she's living with, but shit is going to hit the fan," Tina said simply.
Santana just stared at her, "The hell do you mean stutters?"
"There have been cases where a spirit latches itself to a host, it follows it, no matter where you go, that spirit will follow, you will start being haunted, but that could also be speculation because there are trickster spirits or supernatural beings out there, like the Japanese Kitsune,"
"Wait, so a girl like Arden Cho is going to follow us around?"
"Gross misrepresentation of Kitsune on Teen Wolf, as much as I like that show, true Kitsune are foxes, the one thing that the show got right is that there are different types, about thirteen if I remember correctly, more if you include natural foxes, anyway, Kitsune have been known to trick people, when they reach the age of about one hundred, they go through a ritual where they can turn into a human form by using a leaf and dancing or doing something, anyway they usually take the form of a woman because it's easier to perform tricks on people,"
"That's bad,"
"Good, bad, what does that mean to the spirit world? For them that is not a concept, not really,"
"I'm confused,"
"The world is a confusing place, anyway, I don't think that what's following Rachel is a Kitsune so we can cross that off the list,"
"How do you know?" Santana asked.
"Because while they like tricking people, one, they go for adults only, usually male, and two, Kitsune don't scare and harm children because they are children,"
"But Berry's really sixteen years old,"
"True, but think about it, if this is a spirit that has latched onto her, a Kitsune is not a likely candidate, it's not in their modus operandi, what we're looking for is a dark spirit, a shadow figure, or worse case scenario, a shadow demon,"
All anyone could do was just nod their heads to that information.
After Tina had left; after she had promised not to tell anyone else about what had happened; Quinn just looked at Rachel.
"We'll sort this out Q," Santana said.
"And if we don't, S, what if what she's seeing is real? What if we can't save her, we're signed her death warrant," Quinn said.
"Then we make sure that nothing gets her, I'll look into people we could possible contact about this," Brittany said with certainty.
"God this just, this doesn't seem real, I mean demons, really?"
"Actually there are a wealth of supernatural beings that we can't explain, we only call them that because we can't explain them," Brittany said.
"True, so how do we figure out what's planning on getting Rachel?"
Brittany just looked at her.
"No, Brittany, we can't," Quinn started.
"I know you care about her Q, I do, and this is before she was turned into a child, why else would you have been holding Santana back?" Brittany started, "But you have to remember that that little four year old down there, she's not four, she's really sixteen years old and she's trapped in a four year old body, drifting and yet stuck between who she was and who she is,"
"We can't ask her to describe that thing,"
"But we should, the only way we can help her is by figuring out what she sees that we can't,"
Santana starting making a face that Quinn and Brittany knew well. They could almost see the cogs in her brain spinning that literally happened every time pieced something important together.
"What is it S?" Quinn asked.
"I was just thinking, something my Mom said when I was a kid, shadow creatures, demons, whatever, they usually can make themselves known to us if they wanted to, but some, some need the strength to do so and the only way they can do that is if they gain a vessel, right?" Santana started.
"Yes?"
"Okay, so I gathered as well, what if whatever is chasing Berry, they aren't strong enough yet to literally make their presence known to anyone but her? Kids can see things we can't because we give up the ability to right? Because we're conditioned to, it's like what stutters was saying before,"
"That is a good point, but what is the point?"
"Whatever this thing is, it's trying to get stronger to kill Berry, so far it's following her, why now? We don't know, but I agree with B on this Q, we have to ask her, because I know of a source we can look at,"
"Source?"
"We Latinos have a long history with the supernatural, my Mom actually has a book somewhere, but I never cared because I thought it was bogus now I can see why my mother was so worried about me doing shit with the supernatural, if we can get Berry to tell us what that creature looks like, we can try and look it up in a source book,"
"Where'd you conveniently get that book?"
"It was my abulea's, she passed it on to my mother,"
"Okay, so, do we know someone who can sketch really well?"
"Well, there is Mike?"
"Wow, we're going for the Asian Power Couple today huh? Glee can sure be coincidentally useful sometimes,"
Quinn had called Tina to bring Mike over. The guy was surprised to even be called over by the Unholy Trinity.
After they explained the situation he just looked at them.
"You're joking right? Spells, demons, supernatural, those aren't real things," he said to them.
"Mike, you saw them with a kid, who do you think that kid is?" Tina asked.
"I don't know, some kid,"
"Brittany, I'm hungry, and I can't find Mr Tibbs," Rachel said as she ran into the room.
"Who's Mr Tibbs?" Brittany asked.
"My bunny,"
"Okay, you had her for how long and you forgot to get her her toy?" Tina asked as the three looked bashful.
"Holy shit," Mike said, "No, no, no, you're joking, no,"
"You said a bad word, naughty," Rachel said as she tried to slap Mike's leg but was pulled away by Brittany.
"Hey, no slapping other people," Brittany said sternly.
"But people always push me, I thought it's because I'm bad,"
"No, you're not bad, but some people are just mean,"
"Okay, please tell me that that is not who I think it is," Mike said as he pointed at Rachel.
"Sweetie, tell Mike who you are," Quinn said as she looked at Rachel.
But Rachel started to feel a bit too shy as she clung onto Brittany's leg as she looked up at Mike.
"Just tell him your name Hobbit," Santana said a bit too strongly as Quinn glared at her.
"I, I'm Rachel, and I'm four, and I like to sing, and I'm hungry, and I want Mr Tibbs," Rachel said as she went back to cuddling Brittany's leg.
"Who's Mr Tibbs?" Brittany asked.
"My bunny, my Mommy gave it to me, that's what my Daddies said, I miss Mr Tibbs,"
"Okay, how about Quinn and Santana go get Mr Tibbs for you?"
"Okay, can I come?"
"No, you and I will have to talk with Mike and Tina,"
"Why?"
"You remember the monster you keep talking about?"
"I don't want to talk about the monster,"
Brittany knelt down so she was at eye level with Rachel and said, "I know you don't because he's scary and you don't like him but the five of us can help you Rachel,"
"No one can help me, that's what the monster said,"
"The monster is lying, trust me,"
"Okay,"
Brittany pulled Rachel into a close hug, "Okay now, Santana and Quinn will go find Mr Tibbs for you, where will he be?" Brittany asked.
"On my bed,"
"Okay, Q, S, go get Mr Tibbs while Rachel and I talk to Mike and Tina," Brittany instructed.
Santana and Quinn just obliged.
Quinn was staring out the window quietly as Santana drove towards Rachel's house.
"How do you know where she lives?" Quinn finally asked.
"My Mom and her Dads were once helping each other prep for some event when I was a kid, and I have a photographic memory, I only need to take a route once to know where something is, how else did you think I knew where her house was on Halloween?" Santana answered as she pulled into the drive way.
"Hmm," was all Quinn said as she got out of the car, "God S, can you feel that?"
"Yeah, damn, has Berry been living with this?" Santana asked without needing an answer.
The air was heavy and there was a feeling of uneasiness despite the house looking the complete opposite. Something wasn't right and they could feel it.
Suddenly the door creaked open in front of them.
"Oh that's ominous," Santana commented before she and Quinn let out a scream as the door swung wide open for them to see a shadow figure before it slammed the door shut with a bang, causing the house to shake.
"Oh my god, the hell was that?" Quinn asked as the adrenaline raced through her veins.
She wanted to run, to fly, but a part of her was stuck in stone. Now begins the mission of going through that house to find Rachel's soft toy, and she really didn't want to.
"We have to get that toy for Berry, maybe she'll sleep better with it, we can't go back empty handed," Santana said.
"Aren't you scared?" Quinn asked.
"Shitless,"
Quinn just stared up at the house and noticed that there was a figure staring right back at them.