There was something about this case that certainly brought thoughts into Bryce's mind in regards to his partner. Amanda was taking this case a lot more seriously than their previous cases.
She seemed angry and paranoid, even obsessive when it came to finding this Ash Williams guy. But whenever he pressed about it, she never gave an answer that was satisfying. It was mostly just deflections and open ended answers that just led to more questions.
He just wanted to know what was going on with his partner, but every attempt just seemed to cause her to go deeper into this hole that she's stuck herself into. She had said that he would understand soon enough, but something told him that was far from the truth.
"I've got something."
"What?"
"I've got something. In Indiana. Suspect matches the description of Williams. Ugh. What is with these people and saying he's good looking? He's a monster."
"Well, you do have to admit he is a bit easy on the eyes."
A glare was all Bryce received from Amanda before he cleared his throat.
"Right, sorry. Monster."
That was the final thing said before the two head off to Indiana in search of Williams. It was times like this where Amanda would think about what would happen when they finally caught up to the man. It definitely wouldn't be clean and she wasn't turning him in without roughing him a bit…or a lot.
Her eyes gazed on the passing trees of the forest they habited before something caught her eye. A man staring directly at her with bright white eyes. She backed up for a bit before it hit her once more. The pressure. The feeling that if she let the breath she was holding it, it would be all over.
The hairs on her neck stood straight up as that pressure only seemed to increase in power next to her. Directly where Bryce was sitting.
"Hey Amanda…did I ever tell you how much I FUCKING HATE YOU?!"
The woman was snapped out of her frightened daze as she turned to see a zombified Bryce smiling sinisterly directly next to her. His pure white eyes similar to that of that girl in the storm stared directly into her soul as it spun the wheel and flipped the vehicle over, crashing into a tree.
She coughed as her seatbelt kept her hung upside down in the flipped, totaled car. What. The. Fuck? Her eyes drifted to her partner that was hanging upside down next to her, only he was looking a lot less alive than he did a few moments ago.
She looked at his lifeless corpse disillusioned as she reached for him slowly before his eyes snapped open and stared directly at her.
"Amanda us…All of this bloodshed…His fault…Ash's fault…"
She stared in horror as he struggled in his seatbelt to try and swipe at her before she pulled out her gun and shot him directly in the head. The blood splattered all over the insides of the car and onto her face, causing her gun to tremble in her hands.
Not a word was said as she released her seatbelt, kicking the door open and stepping outside. Her gaze stared down the road with their destination still fresh in her wiped the blood off her shocked face as her grip on her gun tightened.
One more fucking person she cared about dead. One man was responsible for it. Whatever the fuck he was doing, she was going to find him and she was going to kill him. She was going to kill Ash Williams.
Said man himself was currently napping away in his trailer's bed like a baby. It wasn't often he could find moments where he could rest up so he was getting it done now.
The trailer and car were currently parked in dense woods so as to not try and draw anymore attention to himself in Indiana. He already risked a lot by going into a store to buy the bed and tv for the trailer.
In any other case, he would've already been down the road by now and out of this state, making sure to be extra careful not to drive into Ohio. However, his radar was going off continuously in this area, but there was something off about it. It wasn't like when a deadite was in the area, this was a different feeling.
He continued to prosper in dream land before several images suddenly flashed in his head all of which included that stupid book and cabin again before jolting awake in a cold sweat. The Chosen One gasped before rubbing his head and glaring.
'I'm not going back to that stupid cabin. I'll stop Evil on my own terms.'
This has been happening for quite a bit now actually. These stupid flashing images bombarding his head during different points of the day at any random time. Perhaps it was the universe trying to tell him something, but when has he ever been good with listening?
He looked across the trailer before letting out a sigh. Whatever was causing his radar to go off in such a way had to be something important. After taking a quick shower and putting on some different clothing along with a beanie and a mask, he exited the woods towards the nearest town.
This was really his life now. Having to hide away who he was just in order to walk around. Not to mention the fact that he wasn't walking around for something normal, he was purposefully looking for something supernatural that was going to try and kill him. Him of all people. The guy who used to run away from every single problem he ever had.
'That's what we call irony son.'
The words of his father rang through his head as he shook his head.
'Suck a fat one, Pop.'
"Well, something in this town is causing my senses to go off like crazy. No more running so I'm going to have to figure out what it is by facing my greatest enemy."
Ash stared directly at the library in front of him with his hands on his sides.
"Books."
His fingers typed on the computer of the library as he looked for anything in this town that could give off sinister vibes.
"Books. Yeah right. If life has taught me anything, it's that books are evil."
He continued to look up multiple different crimes that happened in this town before coming up against something. An old abandoned mansion in town that held a family. The Casper Family. For whatever reason, the father snapped and murdered his wife and daughter in a murder-suicide. Bodies were never recovered and are apparently still in the mansion. Apparently, no one has entered this mansion and lived to tell the tale. A haunted mansion.
Ash stared at the computer screen before nodding. Haunted house type stuff huh? The only time he had ever been to a "haunted house" was once when his dad took him and his sister. They were banned shortly after for assaulting one of the ghosts.
"Sorry Casper. You're facing off against the King."
Ash didn't waste a second as he exited the library before bumping into a woman on the street.
"Watch where you're going, dickwad."
"Hey, you kiss your mother with that mouth?"
"I don't have a mother."
"I mean, you kiss your father with your mouth?"
"I don't have a father either."
"I-I mean-"
"I think it's best if you just stop."
"...Yeah."
Ash's eyes looked at the girl before getting a really good look with her. She was a really good looking lady with a strong jawline with a punk goth get up. His eyebrow raised a bit as he looked her over.
"Well, I mean my mouth is a lot better at other tasks besides talking."
The lady's eyes rolled back in annoyance before walking past him.
"I'm sure that works on everyone else, pal."
Ash chuckled a bit at that before turning around to look at her.
"It was nice chatting with you, Ms.?"
"Kelly. Maxwell. Keep at it man. You might get somewhere."
"'Trust me, it'll cross your mind!"
"Guarantee you it won't!"
Ash stared at her as she walked away with a small smirk before he rubbed the back of his head.
"Huh. Not bad."
The Chosen One shook his head before making his way to the abandoned mansion and gazed upon the old, barren building. His sense was going crazy. This was definitely it. He stepped closer to the fence and placed his hand on the lock.
"HEY! What do you think you're doing?!"
Ash was caught off guard from the yell before looking back to see a police officer staring harshly at him.
'Shit.'
"Oh, I was just checking out this old mansion. I've heard a lot of stories about it."
"Oh really? Then you'll do good to stay away from it. If you heard so many stories about it, boy."
The cop said as he made his way to Ash and stared at him for a moment, confusion written all over his face.
"Have I seen you before? You look familiar."
'Crap. Gotta think of something quick. Anything works! Say something!'
"I'm…a pornstar."
The two men stared at one another awkwardly before the cop relaxed his jaw and quickly tilted his head towards the town.
"Get out of here."
"Yeah."
The door of Ash's trailer shut as he grabbed his duffel bag and placed it near the door.
"Holy crap, that was close."
Truthfully speaking, he was not that great when it came to keeping a low profile. His entire life was a testament to that. But getting face to face with a cop. He's going to have to kill whatever was in that mansion quickly.
His duffel bag of tools was slung across his shoulder and he was halfway out the door before a thought hit him.
'Wait…how do you kill ghosts?'
And that was what led him to calling a certain wizard.
"Hello?"
"It's me."
"Oh hey. You haven't died yet. That's good to know."
"Ha ha. How do you kill ghosts?"
"Ghosts? What happened to deadites?"
"Keep up with the program Merlin. I'm meant to 'Destroy All Evils.' So that means I can't just stop at deadites. What have you got for me?"
Ash heard the sorcerer groan on the other end before speaking once more.
"Alright, in order to kill a ghost, you're going to have to find the corpse whoever you're looking for, douse it in oil and salt and burn it. So you're going to have to go grave digging. Salt also repels ghosts so make sure to remember that."
"...If the cops ever catch me, I'm so going to Death Row."
"I'll be sure to be there with the popcorn. Good luck."
Ash sighed as his grip tightened across the straps of his duffel bag and exited his cabin.
'It's time to do my job. No one's getting in my way this time.'
"Pablo! Are you coming or not?"
The familiar voice of Kelly yelled as she looked over at her friend who was staring at the paintings pointing to a gigantic painting in the living room of the large mansion. It was a strange painting of the family with the father staring solemnly at the daughter.
Pablo's eyes squinted at this before the painting seemed to shift and look directly at him causing him to flinch in fear, before bumping into Kelly, causing him to let out a girly yelp.
"Dude. Seriously?"
"What? You just caught me off guard, that's all Kels."
"Sure, tough guy. Let's keep looking."
"Why are we here again?"
"Uh because this is the one interesting part of our town. Not to mention, we're about to be the first people to sneak into this place and stay alive. You want bragging rights don't you?"
"...I guess so."
"That's what I like to hear! Let's keep exploring!"
Pablo stared the painting once more and placed his hand on it, it almost felt hollow. Like there wasn't a solid wall behind it. He would've kept feeling if it wasn't for Kelly pulling him back. Kelly looked over at the still opened door before nodding to herself with a smile. The two made their way upstairs unbeknownst to them, the door slowly closed shut. They walked down the seemingly endless hallways before Kelly spoke.
"I met a dude I haven't seen before."
Pablo, shocked at the idea of Kelly with a dude, spoke out with a bit more care than he intended.
"Really?! Ahem, I mean, really?"
"Yeah, he was kind of a dork. Sort of like you, but you only fell for one part of the trick."
Pablo winced at that.
"He brought up both parents?"
"Oh yeah. I will admit though, he was kind of hot."
Pablo stopped short at that as they looked at one another before Kelly burst into a chuckle.
"Come on, let's go check out the room where he killed the mother!"
"You are way too excited for this."
"I don't know. I guess I got a knack for creepy shit."
That was the final thing said between the two as they made it to the room where the first murder was committed. It was…surreal. This was the room where a violent murder took place. There was so much blood and yet none of the bodies were found.
Pablo looked at the bed that was seemingly left untouched for decades as the red stains of dried blood coated the white sheets. He took a deep breath to calm himself down.
'Come on Pablo. It's just a house where a vicious murder took place. It's no big deal. If Kelly can walk in here with no fear, so can you.'
That would've been the end of that if it weren't for the fact that Pablo stepped in something wet. His gaze descended to the floor as he lifted his foot to see sticky crimson blood on his shoe and on the floor. That…couldn't be right. How could there be fresh blood here?
His gaze lifted from the floor to see Kelly who was about to exit the room when the door suddenly slammed shut. Pablo immediately ran to the door and began gripping the handle, but it was as if the door was welded shut. Kelly tried to pry the door open as well but to no avail.
"Pablo! Are you ok?!"
"Oh yeah! Just stuck in a creepy room where a murder happened! Peachy!"
"I'm going to try and find something to pry the door open! You sit tight!"
Kelly immediately ran down the hallway looking for something to open the door before taking a right and slamming directly into someone. Her head spun as her vision became clear only to see the same man she bumped into onto the street.
"What the hell are you doing here?!"
"At first, I was trying to look for ghosts to kill, but finding a pretty lady is a pretty great substitute."
Kelly rolled her eyes as she helped Ash to his feet and spoke.
"Ghosts? Seriously? Come on, man. You don't actually believe that you're going to find any do you?"
"Well, when you've dealt with the bullshit I have, you're willing to believe anything."
The black haired girl's eyes jumped to the axe in Ash's duffel bag and the cogs started to turn.
"Hey, my friend is stuck in a room! Do you think you could use that axe to break the door down?"
"If I do that, will you promise to leave?"
Kelly stared at him incredulously before relenting.
"Yeah, we'll leave you to your ghost hunting old man."
Ash snorted at that as he followed Kelly to the supposed room and it didn't take long for Ash to break the door down and step inside only to find…nothing. There was not a single soul in the room where her best friend was supposedly trapped in. Kelly looked around in concern before Ash turned to her.
"Are you sure this is the same room?"
"Of course I am! I only ran around one corner! He's here, let's just keep looking for him!"
Ash wanting these two innocent people out of the house so he could get to work only nodded and exited the room. They both looked down the hallway which seemed to stretch endlessly with multiple rooms on each side. Both of their eyes widened at the impossible sight before turning to one another.
"Are you?"
"Yeah."
They both looked down the hallway once more before seeing something that caused Kelly to freeze and Ash to put his game face on. There was a man standing at the end of the hallway. A man dressed in a suit with an axe going through his head. The same man that was in the painting in the living room. The man that brutally butchered his wife and daughter.
His hand gripped Kelly's and they began to run the other way with the man seemingly teleporting directly in front of them reaching out to them almost…desperately. Ash in quick response shot salt out of the Double Barrel in the man's direction which caused him to disappear. Salt Rounds.
"What the fuck?!"
"Like I said, ghost hunting. I don't know how long that will keep him at bay. I'm no fireman, but I'll have to make due."
Ash began cutting down the multiple different doors to try and look for this mission friend that Kelly was looking for. Kelly tried to keep her cool as she yelled out for Pablo. Said man was still stuck in the room where the blood on the floor had only grown in size. Only now, there were three outlines of bodies from the blood. One male and two females. Pablo's eyes squinted at that. That couldn't be right.
He would've continued to ponder on it before hearing knocks on wood that caused him to jolt and freeze in fear. He looked up to see the same man in the painting looking at him spooked as he began to reach out to him.
"Holy shit!"
The man continued to walk towards the frightened man before the sound of wood being chopped and an axe came flying directly at him, causing the ghost to disappear once more as the weapon indented itself into the wall. Pablo turned around to see Kelly and Ash staring at the kid as Kelly ran to him.
"Holy shit, are you ok?"
"Y-Yeah. No harm done. Who's this?"
"Oh that new guy that I saw. Turns out, he's hunting ghosts."
Pablo's eyes widened at that before turning to the man in shock who was currently pulling the axe out of the wall.
"Only ghosts?"
"As much as I wish I could say yes, I'm unfortunately a jack of all trades."
"What do we do now?"
"Now, you and your friend leave so I can stop this ghost."
"...No can do."
"What?"
"Yeah what?"
"We can't just leave you here to fight this monster on your own."
"Uh, you can and you will!"
"No we won't!"
"Why can't we?"
"Because bragging rights and my poor conscience just won't allow it."
"Kelly…"
"Look, you can't deny that this has been far more interesting than anything we've ever done."
"...I guess so."
"You promised that if I helped you find your friend that you'd leave?"
"Actually I didn't. I just said that I would. No promises involved."
The Chosen One went to rebuttal that before realizing that she was technically correct. Thinking it over he sighed and spoke.
"Fine. But you speak nothing of this if you manage to survive. Now let's go kill this papa ghost."
"Wait."
Ash stopped in his tracks before turning to Pablo.
"I don't think it's the father we need to worry about."
"What are you talking about, amigo? He's the one with an axe in his head."
"Which doesn't make any sense. He killed his family and decided to use the axe on himself? And based on the way the axe was indented in his head, it was clearly done by something else. The father didn't seem to want to actually hurt me, in fact, he looked like he was scared. When I was in there, the blood was forming outlines of bodies. Which included one male and two adult female bodies."
"Two female bodies? That doesn't make any se-Oh. Oh. This dog."
"Wow, this guy's luck sucks. He can't keep it in his pants and he gets killed for it. I guess I can't say I blame whoever did it. Wait, Pablo wasn't the father staring at the daughter in the painting?"
"Yeah, he was. Maybe he was trying to warn us. When I was looking at the painting, he did turn to look at me. How do we stop her?"
"Well apparently, you're supposed to find the body, place salt and oil all over it, then burn it. But I don't know where the corpses are."
Pablo placed a hand to his chin in thought before it came to him.
"The painting. I felt the painting. It felt like it was hollow. Like there was something behind it."
The pieces were slowly coming together and a smile began to form on Ash's face. It sombered for a second before turning back to the two people in question.
"It's still not too late to leave. This is your last chance."
"Dude, we're not going anywhere."
"I preferably would, but I will admit surviving this house and killing the ghost that's started the haunting is too good to pass up. Looks like you're stuck with us."
Ash chuckled at that.
"Groovy. Let's go kill a ghost."
The group began to make their way to the stairs before the lights of the house began to flicker wildly. They all turned behind them to see a younger girl covered in blood with a slit throat holding an axe. She screamed bloody murder as she launched the axe directly at them causing all three of them to scream in response.
Ash stomped harshly on the floorboard causing one of them to fly up and taking the damage from the axe instead of them. The axe disappeared and was in her hands again as she began to make her way to them at inhuman speeds.
"RUN!"
The trio bolted down the stairs and began to make their way to the painting. Multiple things in the room where trying to kill them including kitchen knives that went flying in their direction which they barely dodged. Kelly grabbed a chair and held it in front of Pablo and her shielding them at the last second.
Ash for a quick second checked the front doors only to see where they were sealed shut. So it looked like he couldn't have made them leave even if he wanted to.
It wasn't long before they were in the living room and Ash ripped into the painting revealing the secret room where they all stepped inside. They all gazed to the floorboards which were clearly tampered with. Ash swung his axe down into the floorboards and ripped them up to see the decaying skeleton of the girl.
He pulled out the salt and oil and began to douse the skeleton in it before pulling out his lighter. Before he could ignite it, he was sent flying back as the axe indented right in front of Kelly's neck where Pablo ducked out of the way. The girl reappeared and forced Ash into the air, sending him crashing into multiple sides of the room much to his pain and annoyance.
"Stupid crazy bitch! Let me down!"
Pablo stared at this before noticing the lighter on the floor and going to grab it before being sent back into the wall by the girl and being held there as well. Ash was currently trying to land a hit on the girl, but was still being flung around. The girl giggled sinisterly as the axe Ash was using came into her view and she held Ash still to swing onto him.
Despite the powerful bindings that the ghost was using on him, Ash held his hand on and gripped the axe and was in a tense struggle to not have the axe indented into his skull. Kelly looked on in horror before the father soon reappeared in front of her. His gaze was solemn as he removed the ghostly axe from between the wall and her neck.
Wasting no time, Kelly reached for the lighter and ignited it. She looked over at the ghostly girl and whistled, gaining her attention.
"Next time, try family counseling."
The lighter fell from her hand and onto the skeleton which quickly was set ablaze. The effects came instantly as Ash and Pablo were let down and the spirit began to twitch as her non corporeal form started burning up. It wasn't long before a loud scream was let out and the girl was gone. Finally over.
Kelly looked over at the two as they got onto their feet and regrouped. They all had smiles on their faces at what they were just able to do. Kelly having the biggest smirk out of them all pointed at herself.
"Who just saved your asses?"
"You did."
Ash and Pablo said with a scoff and smirk before realizing there were three other ghosts right in front of them. It was the father, the mother, and the mistress. The looks on their faces were ones of contempt and freedom and they soon faded out of view. The group stared at where they had been for a moment before Ash cleared his throat.
"As nice as that was, I think we can all agree he's going to Hell."
"Oh definitely."
"I don't think there was ever a thought that he had a chance."
The man chuckled as he placed a hand on each of their shoulders.
"As much as I could've handled it myself, I got to admit, you kids got spunk."
Ash admitted to which Kelly snorted in response.
"Oh please, you were being thrown around like a ragdoll."
"Hey and who's the one who found your friend?"
"Who's the one who killed the ghost and saved all of our asses?"
"She's got a point there, man."
Ash grumbled in annoyance as he began to make his way to the front doors.
"So, wait. What are you going to do now?"
"Well, the problem has been averted and I'm going to go back on the road and continue this little monster hunting journey."
Ash said as he began to open the doors to which Pablo stumbled for a moment before speaking.
"Hey! Maybe…we could…join you."
Ash halted before turning back to look at them.
"Why in God's name would you do that?"
"I mean, this was single handedly the greatest thing we've ever done or been a part of."
"Plus, you seem to be doing good work and you could use a team."
Ash looked at the two of them incredulously. These two knew what he had to be dealing with and still wanted to join him? They were insane. Had to be. Yet, normalcy was not a part of his vocabulary anymore. Plus, it'd be…nice to have company.
"...Fine. We go out on the road and we have a few test runs. See how it goes."
Kelly pumped her fist while Pablo smiled.
"You can count on us El Jefe!"
"El Jefe?"
"Well for the time being until Kelly fights for your title, you're the boss."
"Yeah…Yeah I am the boss! But we should probably get going, this is an abandoned mansion we just broke into."
There was no argument there and Ash soon explained to them his situation of being The Chosen One. The two stared in awe and shock before Pablo spoke as Kelly fiddled with the salt loaded double barrel.
"My uncle told me stories about this. How Evil was always waiting in the shadows and only one man would rise to stand against it. Holy shit, that's you Ash!"
"Yeah and I'm kind of a national criminal so if you stay with me, you guys are as well."
"If that was meant to scare us away, we literally fought a ghost. We're not going anywhere. Besides, having human companionship would probably do you some good. I can only imagine how crazy you've been going by yourself."
"Oh I've been working on a name for us! Let me know what you think! Ghostbeaters!"
The two simply stared at the man as Ash sighed in annoyance.
"Started to regret this already. Le-"
"EVERYBODY FREEZE!"
Ash was interrupted by Amanda kicking the door open and pointing a gun towards Ash's head.
"State NYPD! Keep your hands above your head! I know who you are, you son of a bitch! Get on the damn ground!"
Ash thought for a second before seeing the double barrel in Kelly's hand and winking at her who simply nodded. He was currently blocking Kelly from sight.
"Sure thing ma'am. Just hope you enjoy your daily intake of sodium."
He quickly dropped to the ground before Kelly pulled the trigger shooting the salt round directly into Amanda's stomach, shooting her back out of the trailer. Ash rose to his feet to see the unconscious cop on the floor.
"Holy shit Kelly! Did you kill her?"
"What? No! I wasn't trying to! Ash just winked at me and I did what he was asking!"
"Alright everyone calm down! She's not dead! They're salt rounds! Worst case scenario, she'll wake up tomorrow feeling like absolute shit with horrible stomach pain. But considering she's a cop and she just broke in, it's fine time we hit the road."
They all nodded before Ash started the car and they drove away leaving Amanda on the ground unconscious. As she laid there, a female figure gazed upon her body where a chuckle escaped the woman's mouth. Ruby.
"Interesting."
(Kelly and Pablo are here! I'm obviously going to be changing things up from the original! I feel like Kelly would be spunky enough to want to fight Evil and Pablo's just sort of stuck with her to make sure she doesn't get herself killed. I definitely tried adding humor to this story through this chapter! Let me know how I did! I'll admit I was rather tired writing thing so it might not be my best work, but I hope you guys enjoy this! The Harem probably won't be for awhile because I'm working to getting those characters here, but tell me what female horror characters you want Ash to end up with! But that's enough about that! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Nothing really else to say here but I hope you guys enjoy this! Enjoy! I really enjoyed your guys' requests and comments! Send requests, kudos, comments, love, suggestions, ladies, fanart if you're imposed, and keep being awesome! Till next time!)