It's a Haunted House!
A tall man stood in front of the pulpit, preaching the word of God. The bright sun illuminated his short blonde hair, his rectangular glasses and black clothes of a priest. His rosary shined in the morning sun. His eyes were closed as he recited the bible, waving his arms around in the air. He orated in such a gracious expression that somebody may believe God himself was speaking through his lips. The benches below them were filled with people, awed by his words. They took in every word the man said.
Suddenly the doors of the church slammed open, and two figures stood at the entrance, long shadows being cast against the carpet floor.
"Hey!" Massachusetts called out, interrupting the reverend in the middle of his sermon, "Hey Tennessee!"
Tennessee looked up at him. "What the hell, Mass? You know this is wrong, right?" He shouted from his pulpit, "You can't just interrupt a man's sermon!"
"But-" Louisiana piped up from next to Massachusetts, her long black hair swaying in the wind, "Pennsylvania needs an exorcism for her new home!"
Tennessee soared over the pulpit and landed right next to the pair of states. "Don't worry-" He gave them a smirk as he adjusted his glasses, "-The Priest of America is on the job."
Nearly an hour later, Tennessee, Louisiana and Massachusetts were in front of Pennsylvania's house, a large, gloomy mansion that had an air of depression and sadness emitting from it.
"So-" Tennessee looked on with a certain grimness, "-This is what I have to deal with."
"Um sorry," Louisiana lowered her head, "I might have accidentally conjured up a spirit in Pennsylvania's house." She admitted.
Tennessee glanced over at Massachusetts, who gave a little tisk in Louisiana's' direction. He sighed. "Okay, let's just get this over with," He said, "I can't miss my daily hunting trip with Texas."
"Hey guys!" The states looked to see Pennsylvania prancing towards them, an aura of happiness and joy around her, a complete opposite of her own house. She stumbled over herself and rolled down the hill, making little noises every time her body hit the ground.
She stopped at the feet of Tennessee, Louisiana and Massachusetts. She stood up, giggling to herself and dusting herself off. "Hey guys. Thanks for getting Tennessee for me." She said, extending a hand towards him. Tennessee took her hand and shook it eagerly. "It's my pleasure, Pen," He replied. Pennsylvania grinned. "So, can you help me out?"
"I hope what you request for is within my expertise…" Tennessee said, "But I will try my best."
"Thank you! You see, Louisiana and I were playing around," Pennsylvania started her explanation, but was interrupted by Massachusetts. "And I tried to stop them," He interjected, but was glared at by Louisiana, who picked up the story. "We were messing around with the Ouija board at first, like normal people-" Massachusetts rolled his eyes at that, "-but I suggested that we should talk to spirits with my voodoo abilities," Louisiana sighed, "But things went wrong, and now Penn's house is haunted."
"I thought her house was always haunted," Tennessee said. He grabbed his bag and took a step forward. "Anyways, let's get rid of this thing."
"So, is there a particular room where this spirit haunts?" Tennessee asked Pennsylvania as they walked up the creaking stairs. Pennsylvania shook her head. "No, it took over the entire house?" She answered somewhat meekly.
"This is why you should not interact with the other world," Tennessee almost barked at her, and she shrunk down, "You might not know this, but by doing these sorts of things allows the Devil to enter into our world!" He marched into the hallway, looking into each room. "What does the spirit look like?" He demanded.
"He's big, white and spooky," Louisiana explained. Tennessee stopped. "Can you be any more vague?" He shouted. Louisiana shrugged. "We only saw him for a brief moment," She said, " But he was pretty big, and had an air of evil around him."
"That's a bit better, but still-" Tennessee said, but froze when he saw a sliver of white dart across the room at the end of the hall. "Something's in the library!" Massachusetts exclaimed. Tennessee grabbed his bible. "Come on, let's get him!" Tennessee and Massachusetts took off, while Louisiana and Pennsylvania trudged on from behind.
Tennessee and Massachusetts charged into the library, a large, dark room comprising of large bookshelves. Cobwebs and dust coated the centuries' old books. Their footsteps echoed through the empty room, their eyes peeled for the spectral anomaly.
"Be careful, Demonic spirits are dangerous." Tennessee warned, and Massachusetts nodded. "I would know that."
"Guys, wait up!" Pennsylvania and Louisiana ran up from behind, bumping into Massachusetts.
"Watch it!" Massachusetts shouted.
"I'm sorry!" Pennsylvania frantically lowered her head.
"Ugh, it's fine. Why aren't there any lights in here?"
"I haven't been in this library in decades, honestly."
"Jesus…"
Then a streak of silver darted past them. "It's the spirit!" Tennessee exclaimed. Pennsylvania gasped. "No, that's not-"
"Let's get'em!" Massachusetts grinned, and him and Tennessee raced after the faint glow that tailed the entity. Pennsylvania extended her hand and tried to grab Tennessee, but they quickly disappeared into the darkness. "He's not it." She muttered, and trotted after them. Louisiana shrugged and followed behind.
Tennessee and Massachusetts ran through the maze of bookshelves, chasing the thing. With grim determination, they slowly but surely gained on the ghost.
They turned a sharp corner, and to their surprise, there in front of them was the ghost, a short, portly ghost with spectacles, wearing clothes from the 18th century and having a receding hairline and long hair that twisted down to his shoulders.
"Ha, this is the end for you, specter!" Tennessee shouted, excited that he had caught his prey. Massachusetts grinned. "Go back to hell!" He added.
"No no, this is all a misunderstanding!" The ghost shouted, waving his arms in the air, "I'm not a demon!"
"Silence, servant of Lucifer! I will hereby banish you from this world!" Tennessee thrusted his bible out in front of him. If ghosts could sweat profusely, this ghost surely certainly would be. "P-please, reconsider!" He begged, and Massachusetts laughed. "You think we're going to let you go? Ha!" He took a step forward.
"Stop!" Pennsylvania jumped in front of Tennessee and Massachusetts, her arms out wide, seeming to protect the ghost, "Don't hurt him! He's not the spirit!"
"What? But he's definitely-" Massachusetts sputtered, but Pennsylvania shushed him. "No, he's not. Do you not know who he is?" She turned to the ghost, who was quivering behind her back. "Please, Miss Penny, please protect me," He whispered.
"Wait a second. Isn't that-" Louisiana pointed her finger at the ghost, "-Benjamin Franklin?"
"What?" Tennessee and Massachusetts both felt their jaws drop, "Benjamin Franklin?"
Pennsylvania nodded. "Yes, Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of our country. And you were trying to banish him to Hell."
Tennessee shrugged his shoulders. "Should have told us," He said, "Wait, why is he here?" Pennsylvania gave out a little puff. "Not just Frankie, but many other people from the past live with me here."
"Wait, so you already live with ghosts?" Massachusetts asked. Pennsylvania nodded. "Yes, and none of them are a danger to us. On the contrary, they're all friendly spirits. Well, except for-" She was interrupted when Louisiana cried in pain, her long black hair being tugged from an unseen force, "Alphonse, stop it!" She ordered, and an apparition of a man in his thirties, dressed up in a 1930s suit and wearing a white fedora emerged, and Louisiana jumped forward in shock.
"Hey, can't a man have his fun? The ruckus that you idiots caused woke me up!" Al Capone exclaimed in a ghostly fury. Pennsylvania furrowed her eyebrows, and Al gulped. "Okay, okay, fine. You know this Demon-thing is a problem for me too, right? He's chasing off business, you know?" He floated back a bit, putting his arms up in defense.
"Okay, so this makes things much harder!" Tennessee threw his hands up in the air, "What the hell!"
"Aw, come on minister-man. This should be easier for you." Al floated next to Tennessee, "Can't you tell the differences between the energies of the spirits or something?"
Tennessee grunted as he shoved his hand into his bag, but felt his body go cold.
"Hey, minister-man. What's wrong?" Al leaned in closer, and Tennessee shuddered. "My...my Holy Water's gone," He answered, starting to shake, "Wha-what am I-I supposed to do?"
He twitched when he heard the sounds of somebody drinking water. He whipped his head around to see Louisiana gulping down a small container. "Man, I needed that drink!" She exclaimed as she let out a breath of air.
"You drank the Holy Water!" Tennessee grabbed Louisiana by the shoulders and shook her violently, "How could you!"
"Gyaah!" Louisiana screamed and stumbled back. She began to tremble uncontrollably, and her eyes grew wide. "I-I could see everything!" She exclaimed, "I can see it!"
"See what, Louise? See what?" Tennessee demanded. Massachusetts rolled his eyes. "Okay, nice prank." He said, patting Louisiana on the back.
"I know where the spirit is!" Louisiana shouted, "I can see it!"
"What?" Pennsylvania said.
"Go on then, lead the way." Ben Franklin said. Louisiana nodded and began to walk out of the library. The others looked at each other and followed her out.
Louisiana led the group down the long hallway and up the stairwell. Louisiana stopped and put her fingers up to her temple.
"What is she doing?" Massachusetts hissed at Pennsylvania.
"She is sorting out the different energy sources within the house." Ben Franklin whispered back.
"If I knew Holy Water had that kind of ability, I'd have drunk an entire water bottle." Tennessee grumbled.
Louisiana pointed towards the room on the right. "He's in there!" She said.
"Finally, the read target!" Tennessee stomped towards the room, "Come on!" He waved at the others, who followed him.
Tennessee stopped in his tracks when he saw the demonic spirit; it was big, white and very spooky. It was also wearing Pennsylvania's clothes. It froze when it saw Tennessee.
"You, you're the spirit!" Tennessee exclaimed. The spirit let out a booming laugh. "And you can't do anything about me! I will never go back to the other world!"
"We'll see about that!" Tennessee dug into his jacket and pulled out several rosaries with pointed tips, "Feel my rosary daggers!" With several in between his fingers, he threw the daggers towards the spirit. The spirit dodged them, and the rosary daggers dug themselves into the wall.
"What are you doing to my room?" Pennsylvania came rushing in, her face turning red when she saw her clothes strewn across the room, "Stop it now!"
"Take my Bible Boomerang! It's designed to hone in on the person or thing with the least faith in Christ!" Tennessee slung his bible towards the spirit. The spirit lowered his head, and the bible twisted as it sailed back towards Tennessee. It missed him by an inch, and the corner of the bible struck Massachusetts in the head.
"Hahaha! You will never get me!" The spirit roared, laughing at Tennessee's futile attempts. "Now my turn!" He lunged towards Tennessee, who only dodged in time.
Massachusetts rubbed his head while the battle raged before him. He turned to Louisiana, who was holding a box of Popeyes fried chicken. "What the hell are you doing?" He shouted, and Louisiana glanced at him. "I want to enjoy this." She muttered, before shoving a piece of chicken into her mouth. Massachusetts groaned. "You're the cause of all of this." He grumbled.
Tennessee stood, his chest slowly moving up and down as his breathing became more laboured, while the spirit floated in front of him, victorious.
"Damn it…" Tennessee mumbled, "What is going on?"
"Hehe, you cannot win against me," The spirit gloated. Tennessee glared at him. "I will," He muttered, "I will."
"Hey, can I interrupt for a minute?" Al Capone floated up from the floor.
"What is it?" Pennsylvania eyed the ghost, who shuddered. Al gulped. "I know a way to beat the spirit," He declared.
"What? And you didn't tell us?" Massachusetts roared. Ben Franklin glided through him, causing him to shiver. "You make things much more harder," He said.
Al threw something at Pennsylvania, who caught it. She looked at it, which was a ghostly Thompson submachine gun. "This?" She raised her eyebrows. Al nodded. "Regular weapons that can be used on the living can't be used on the dead, that much is obvious. But the opposite is also true, weapons that ghosts can use can't harm a living being."
Pennsylvania cocked the smg. "Why didn't you tell us before?" Al gave a smug look. "Because I like watching you idiots flounder for a bit, before I save your asses." He threw a ghost M1911 pistol to Massachusetts and a BAR to Louisiana.
Tennessee lit up when he saw the three with guns. "Of course, why didn't I think of this before?" He dug into his bag and pulled out an AR-15. "This baby was specifically made to accommodate bullets laced with Holy Water-I've only used regular guns for so long I forgot about this wonder!"
Ben Franklin pulled out a flintlock pistol. "A gentleman always keeps a gun handy!" He announced, "Ooh, I can add that to my almanack!" He whispered excitedly to himself.
The four states and two ghosts, locked and loaded turned to the spirit, whose expression turned into one of horror. "Hey, just wait a second-"
"Dust that bitch!" Tennessee hollered, and everybody simultaneously pulled the triggers of their guns. The room was lit up as hundreds of phantom bullets cut their way through the spirit, who screamed in agony. The floor was littered with thousands of empty spectral bullet cases.
The spirit's body fizzled, being riddled with thousands of bullet holes. "What the hell…" He grunted. Tennessee jumped forward, wielding his rosary necklace. The spirit gasped. "What are you-"
"In the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost I hereby banish thee from our world; Return to thy realm and bother not anybody else for the rest of eternity!" His rosary shimmered as a bright light began to emit from it. The spirit began to moan as the beams of light penetrated it; it sizzled in every place the light particles touched it. Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Louisiana and the two ghosts watched the final moments of the spirit, it dissipating in the overpowering light.
And it was gone. The rosary turned back to its dark wood. Tennessee sighed as he slumped down, tired and worn out.
"Thank you so much!" Pennsylvania jumped on Tennessee, whose glasses clattered onto the floor. He bent down to pick it up while Pennsylvania continued to hug him.
"That's our Holy man." Massachusetts smiled.
"Now if you could use your powers on me…" Louisiana mumbled under her breath.
"Hey, let me get some oatmeal in return!" Pennsylvania jumped off of Tennessee and ran to her pantry. Al groaned. "Hey, minister-man, you better get ready for a month's supply of Quaker Oats." He warned Tennessee.
"So, Penny really went overboard with this, huh?" Louisiana said as she, Tennessee and Massachusetts walked back to their car, their arms filled with bags of oatmeal.
"Is she trying to kill us?" Massachusetts asked. Tennessee shrugged with a smile. "I think it's fine," He replied, opening the trunk of his car and dumping the the oatmeal in, "It isn't such a bad thing."
"Sure, whatever," Massachusetts muttered as he dropped his own amount into the trunk.
"Maybe we should do this again," Louisiana suggested as she got into the backseat of the car.
"No way, you're not going to cause any more trouble," Tennessee scolded her before climbing into the wheel. Massachusetts jumped into shotgun, grumbling about ghosts and spirits. Tennessee chuckled as he pressed the gas pedal, and the car peeled away from the mansion.
Pennsylvania watched the car drive off with a smile, Al and Benjamin Franklin behind her.
Whatsup, it's ya boi, the author here! I hope you enjoyed the second chapter to this story! As I'm just writing this on a whim, any feedback and criticism is heavily appreciated. As always, adios until next time!