Eustass had been wondering why the hell Law was taking so long to find clothing when the scream rang out. The red head startled out of the couch and onto the ground at the sound of, though he was partway to the door before Killer reached out and grabbed him by the arm. Eustass shot his friend a look for stopping him like that, and the promptly remembered exactly who he would be seeing in his bedroom that had screamed.
Law.
Why had Eustass even reacted like that in the first place? If the doctor wanted to scream like he was being tormented by something, Eustass wasn't so sure that he wanted to interfere. The red haired man wouldn't want anyone to see him scream, and Eustass figured that Law wouldn't want to be seen either. Especially not by Eustass himself.
"I'll check on him." Killer said simply as he let go of the red head's arm. "You going might make things worse."
Eustass knew Killer was right; it wouldn't do any good for Law to see someone that looked so much like a person that had tormented him before. Not that Eustass could be sure that was the reason for the scream, but really, there wasn't much else he could think of that would scare the doctor like that. Law just didn't seem like the kind of person who would scream so easily, if at all. Eustass leaned against the wall leading into the hall to wait as Killer entered his bedroom. The red haired man couldn't hear much of what was going on in the room, but he could make out the tone of the voices due to the mostly open door.
Law's somewhat hysterical mood, the red head noted, was countered by Killer's calm and collected one.
There was no more screaming, which was a relief, because it had been a sound that the red head had not head in a good long while. The sound of someone terrified out of their mind by something indescribable. Eustass recognized the feelings behind the scream, because he himself had had the same raw terror when he had realized, through Trafalgar's cold presence, that ghosts were real after all, and not just a figment of someone's imagination. And the fact that Eustass had lost the will to make any sound at all the longer Trafalgar had lingered almost on top of him was a memory that he could do without.
Could do without the reminder that he couldn't call for help, even if he'd wanted to.
Could only make tiny sounds of discomfort as Trafalgar whispered to him.
Touched him.
Could only...could only...
A memory of Traflagar's smooth voice as the spirit had whispered in his ear in the basement of Law's rented home drifted unbidden in his mind, the words more clear than the red haired man would have liked.
It's too bad that you aren't the Eustass-ya that I know. If you were, I would fuck you senseless until you begged me to stop. Or to keep going, depending on his mood.
The reminder of just how much Trafalgar had touched him as a spirit he couldn't see made Eustass shudder. He could still feel it, when he couldn't help himself. Feel the way that Trafalgar had ran his unseen fingers through his hair, and then lower, making lewd remarks despite Eustass trying his damnedest to get the spirit to leave him be.
It hadn't helped in the least bit, nor was it easy for the red head to dismiss those thoughts now, as the whisper of a voice came back, muted more than before.
I would have, could I have touched you more. So much like my Eustass-ya-
"Fuck off." Eustass growled under his breath, and to his relief, there were no more voices after that. It should have been a relief, but it really wasn't, because the red head had no idea when it would happen again. He hadn't even told Killer about it, because he wasn't sure he wanted his friend to think he was insane for hearing things other people didn't. Knowing his roommate, though, Killer might try to be helpful and would accept Eustass' words without much question.
Eustass closed his eyes briefly before he opened them and his amber gaze drift to the bedroom. The red haired man had a feeling that Law would deny screaming at all and would keep quiet over what had caused him to let loose such a sound in the first place. Eustass knew this because he knew that had it been him, he'd deny things as well, as the red head wouldn't have wanted to be seen as weak or scared over something that wasn't there.
A few minutes passed, and from what Eustass could tell, Law had calmed down marginally, and it likely helped that Killer had turned the bedroom lights on as soon as he'd stepped foot inside. There was a stretch of silence that had Eustass almost, almost step toward the room, when Killer emerged, his mouth set in a grim line, as if he had seen something that hadn't agreed with him. Law followed along after him, and Eustass could see that Law's eyes were wide and staring as if he had just seen a ghost.
Eustass hoped that wasn't the case; he could do without ever seeing spirits like Kid or Trafalgar again. Eustass' jaw set at the mere thought, and while he was trying to put that out of mind, as well as the faint wisp of words in his head that threatened to drive him mad, the red haired man could tell, quite plainly, that Law was still struggling to calm himself down. Killer watched Law enter the living room, and without looking in Eustass' direction, spoke. "What did you see?"
"I saw nothing." Law's voice had a sarcastic bite to it. But unlike the dark hared doctor's words, his body language said otherwise as he curled up on one side of the couch to stare unseeingly in the direction of Eustass' room. From Law's expression, it appeared as if the man thought that the gates of hell had been opened up inside the red head's bedroom.
Talk about being overly dramatic.
It was purgatory, at best.
"So, Trafalgar." Eustass sensed an opportunity and spoke casually as he remained against the wall. "Do you really want to stay here on your own while Killer and I leave?"
"I'll go." Law broke his gaze from the room to briefly look at Eustass, before his eyes settled back on the open bedroom door, "I will not set foot in that hospital though."
Eustass took that for what it was, and decided to go in his room to see what the fuss was all about. The red head shrugged his shoulders in a stretch as he pushed away from the wall. "Gonna go get my wallet." Eustass spoke casually, though he sure as hell didn't miss the way Law took in a sharp breath, as if the red head were insane to go into the bedroom. Eustass even half closed the door once he was inside, before he turned to sweep his gaze around the entire room. He saw nothing that should have caused that kind of reaction from Law. Not a thing in that room should have caused the dark haired man to scream in such a terrified way.
Nothing.
There was nothing at all.
No cold spots.
No whispering voices.
No sense of impending doom.
Eustass' eyes lingered on the mirror on his dresser, and then on the floor length one. Eustass stepped before the mirror to study his reflection, before he sneered at his own reflection, scarred up as it was. "The fuck are you staring at?" Eustass's sneer morphed into a lazy grin as he began to leer at the mirror instead. He liked this mirror quite a lot. It was stationed perfectly to reflect the bed behind him so that he would be able to watch the face of the person he would fuck. Not that Eustass had had any partners as of late. Not after the whole ghost fiasco.
What a pity and waste of such a great set up.
Eustass stared at his reflection some more and wondered if maybe, just maybe, Law had been startled by his own reflection. Eustass gave his reflection the middle finger and then walked up so close to it his nose almost touched the glass. Eustass grinned at himself and lifted a finger to tap the mirror. "Knock knock motherfucker, anyone home in there?"
Naturally, his reflection did nothing in response but grin as Eustass grinned.
With another few taps of the mirror, Eustass rolled his eyes at what he was doing and turned away from the mirror. As the red head snagged the wallet off the dresser, Eustass flicked the light switch off, and closed the door.
Had Eustass looked over his shoulder at the mirror as he left, he would have seen his reflection remaining where it had been before.
In the now dim lighting of the room, the shadows seemed to leap out from all corners that weren't touched by the light. Eustass' reflection had remained in place, but as the light went out, the figure turned to watch the door shut.
A dark grin stretched Eustass' reflection, and a hand lifted toward the glass to mimic the red head tapping the mirror. And more disturbingly, though the figure said nothing, the taps to the glass sounded exactly like Eustass' earlier ones had been. The hand was lowered, and Eustass' reflection slowly walked out of the frame, as if it hadn't been there at all.
A laugh sounded from out of nowhere, and a voice, unable to be pinpointed as to who exactly it belonged to, echoed within the room.
There is someone home in here. It's a home for shadows.
No one in the apartment heard anything, despite the resounding crack that split the floor length mirror from top to bottom.
'Someone is home' echoed in a mocking way throughout the room.
Then it was abruptly silent, as if nothing had happened, and the shadows, which had appeared menacing as they stretched out all around the room, retreated to something more akin to what a room would display with such little lighting.
-x
Eustass had to admit now and again that his roommate was an evil genius. Because as soon as Law had calmed down marginally, Killer had offered food after he'd asked Law if he had eaten and the doctor had said that he had not. Eustass had grinned appreciatively of his friend's sly actions, because as soon as Law had finished eating, the doctor had grown tired, and, despite clearly fighting that sudden exhaustion, gave in and fell asleep on the couch.
"Why did he scream?" Eustass question his roommate once he saw that Law wouldn't be waking up any time soon.
"I'm not sure." The long haired blond shook his head. "As you probably noticed, he won't say what he saw. Only that it was nothing."
That was convenient. Law had clearly seen something, but even Eustass knew that it would be no use prying into things if Law had no intention of speaking about it. After all, there were things that Eustass didn't want to talk to other people about either.
-x
Eustass and Killer could both tell that Law had calmed down by mid-afternoon, though that could have just been because of the couple hours of a drugged nap he'd been forced to take. That little rest, however, had appeared to do wonders, because there was no trace of fear in Law that had been there before when he'd woken up, and that pointed to no nightmares.
Law did, however, appear suspicious of Killer when he ate food that was offered, although he wolfed it down once he saw that Killer and Eustass were eating it from the same pan that the long haired man had gotten a plate of it for the doctor. That relatively good mood, however, was ruined as soon as Eustass opened his mouth to remind the doctor of the evening's plans.
"We might as well get to the hospital before Sabo and the others. Get the perimeter check over with." Eustass grumbled something and then sighed. "I don't wanna waste time trying' to find teenagers or squatters in the dark."
Law's expression became one of apprehension, as if he were opposed to the idea. All calm vanished as soon as the dark haired man saw Eustass and Killer head for the front door. "Wait. You mean now? Not in another hour or so?"
Eustass offered a playful grin over his shoulder, and even though he and Law were avoiding one another's eyes, the red head had little doubt that Law could see that he was amused by his reactions. Law puffed up a little, looking pissed off at Eustass.
"I don't want to leave right now." Law tensed defensively on the couch at the way Eustass turned around to face him, and just appeared to realize then and there that Eustass probably could and would carry him out the door if he felt so inclined to do so.
"We gotta walk to the hospital, and that's about two miles. I don't have a car, and neither does Killer." Eustass didn't make a move toward Law, and merely stared at the other man as if the doctor were trying his patience.
Law still looked like he didn't want to leave, though whether it was the idea of walking or going to the hospital, Eustass couldn't tell.
"The cops don't patrol the area, so you don't have to worry about that." Eustass wondered if that might be part of the problem, because the doctor looked a little bit reassured over that particular bit of news, though Law opened his mouth then and annoyed Eustass a bit.
"Is leaving at four in the afternoon really necessary when you do not have to be somewhere until…was it six or seven?"
"Do I need to carry you or something?" Eustass tried another approach. "You still tired or something? 'Cause if you are, I'll do it." That earned the red head a glare. Eustass continued on, entertained that he was getting a rise out of the other man. "I haven't had my workout today, so I could get some weight training done by hauling your skinny ass around."
"You will do no such thing." Law sounded as if he couldn't tell if Eustass were teasing him or not, and had crossed his arms to further show how opposed to the idea he was.
Eustass opened the apartment door. "Well, we're goin' then. Try not to scream again or you might make one of the neighbors come over."
Law shot a look in the direction of Eustass' closed bedroom door, shuddered ever so slightly, and then, with obvious reluctance, toed on his dirty shoes and followed Eustass and Killer out of the apartment without another word of protest.
Once outside, however, Law appeared to come to the realization that he was out in the open and exposed, despite Eustass' earlier reassurance that the cops would likely not come out this far from the city. And when he saw another mirror, he seemed to loose all reasoning.
-x
Law saw the mirror, and everything around him seemed to no longer matter.
The mirror was broken, the glass surface cracked into splinters that no longer reflected as well as it had while whole. It was propped against a garbage dump, and as the bin was full, the person discarding the mirror decided to leave it outside anyway, and Law found that his eyes were unwillingly drawn to it. Panic welled within him at the sight, but Law fought it down as best he could, and took several deep breaths.
It was just a mirror.
A broken mirror.
That was all. There was nothing for it to reflect, not from this distance, and Law couldn't see his refection from where he stood-
Something seemed to move across the many splintered, spider web-like cracks of the mirror, and that caused Law to tense up. The dark haired doctor felt humiliated that a mirror could make him react so badly, and could barely hear Killer' speaking to him.
"The garbage only gets picked up once a month. A lot of people are nervous to come out here to this area, even if it is just to collect the garbage and recycling."
Law didn't register the words very well, as he was still standing rigid. His gaze was unwillingly locked onto the broken mirror as if another shadowy form was about to try and crawl its way out of the glass to get him and drag him in.
As if that hadn't already happened in Eustass' apartment.
As if Law hadn't already cried out in sheer terror at the sight before.
As if he didn't have enough things to keep him awake at night already.
The longer Law stared at the mirror, the more it seemed as if the damn inanimate object had become his worst nightmare on solid form.
Eustass clearly did not see the dark haired doctor's expression, and had only noticed that Law had stopped walking. Clearly, the red head had been trying to get Law's attention, which, considering the doctor's full focus on the mirror, was harder than the other man likely thought it should be. Eustass must have attempted to speak to him one too many times because Law suddenly found the red head all but breathing down his neck.
"What the hell are you doing?"
It wasn't so much Eustass' words but his presence that startled Law from staring at the mirror, and as he whipped around, about to hiss at Eustass to stay away from him, the red head had already begun to act. Law had not expected Eustass to introduce a clenched fist to his abdomen in a painful but not punishing strike, and before Law could get his breath back, the doctor found himself hoisted over and onto Eustass' left shoulder.
"You're acting weird again. You not seeing somethin' again?"
Law didn't dignify that with an answer as he scrabbled his hands against the red head's broad back at the sudden shift in perception. Soon enough, Law realized that it was useless to claw at Eustass' back as the red head merely pressed his left arm over his thighs to hold him in place, and started to walk as if he did this sort of thing all the time. The difference in strength made Law uneasy, and he didn't like it one bit.
"Put me down." Law demanded, alarmed at being carried in such a manner, mainly because Law recalled that it was similar to how Eustass had carried Trafalgar once they'd gotten out of the tunnel Kid had dug over a hundred years previous. The doctor promptly tried to not think about it, but found it hard with Eustass' hand pressed tight against his thighs. At the very least, the red head's hands did not wander, and Eustass was merely carrying through on his suggestion to carry Law to the hospital.
"Told you I would carry you. You weigh nothing, anyway, so giving you a lift to the hospital is no problem." Eustass' hand rested a tad bit heavier. "So stop squirming around so much."
"It's a problem to me." Law hissed icily.
"That's too bad." Eustass responded unconcernedly as he continued to walk along down a shittily made sidewalk, Killer trailing along after them with an expression a peculiar combination of amused and perplexed. It appeared as if Killer was going to do nothing about Eustass' actions unless the red haired man ended up intimidating or harassing Law.
Law quieted after about ten minutes, and just went limp over Eustass' shoulder, like he just didn't care anymore.
Eustass seemed to sense this and loosened his grip, but of course, that was exactly what Law had been waiting for. About halfway to their destination, Law jabbed Eustass lightly in the side, and the reaction was immediate. Eustass jerked, and Law realized belatedly that that was close to where the red head had been shot by Doflamingo around six months ago. Law braced himself against the other man's back because he could tell Eustass was not pleased at all.
"Shit, what the fuck?" Eustass cursed, but didn't let go of Law until he'd come to a halt. Then he set Law down, and loomed over him.
Law avoided eye contact, and for now, Eustass didn't seem to care.
"What the hell was that for?" Eustass grit out irritably.
Law leveled his gaze on Eustass briefly as he jabbed a thumb to his shirt with the 'fuck off' print, before he hurried after Killer, who had continued to walk without stopping.
-x
Eustass wasn't sure whether to be amused or annoyed by Law's lack of response, before he grumbled under his breath and followed to catch up to his roommate and Law, who looked decidedly displeased when the red head chose to walk alongside him. Eustass flashed the doctor a laid back grin, and at the very least, Law did not flinch, and merely shot Eustass a dour look in response to such a childish act.
"We're almost there. See? It's up ahead."
Killer's voice broke Eustass and Law out of glowering at one another as the two of them caught sight of the hospital they approached. Law's expression was apprehensive once more, while Eustass snorted and gave the building a very unimpressed look.
What a dump.
The hospital wasn't big by modern standards, and it looked to only have four floors, and possibly a basement level. But what it lacked in levels it made up in just how big of a building in was for the lot that it was on. Grass was overgrown across the lawn, the cement of the ground for walkways cracked and letting nature take over there as well. The hospital had its front door intact, though just barely, as the wood was splinted down the center. One good kick and it would likely break under the pressure.
The windows weren't in much better shape, many of them on the side of the building that could be seen cracked, and even gone in some places, exposing those parts of the building to the elements.
The hospital itself was made from brick, it appeared, and creeping ivy had begun a steady assent to the top of the building. There was another, smaller building nearby; likely a caretaker's home, though clearly by the state of the grounds and the hospital itself, no one had lived there in decades.
Law gave the decrepit hospital one good long look before he stayed true to his word and sat down on a bench near the caretaker building. From the doctor's expression, he was not going to be moving from where he was seated anytime soon.
Eustass looked at the hospital again, and could see that, along with a potential ghost haunting, the building looked like pieces of it could fall apart in an instant. The red head's eyes lingered on a large chimney in the center of the hospital, before Eustass noted that it was more off to the left of the entire building. It seemed excessively large for the building itself, but Eustass wasn't going to argue building designs from over 100 years ago.
"Do you want to go do a perimeter check or do you want to stay here with Law?" Killer broke into Eustass' thoughts about the hospital's poor construction planning.
Eustass glanced at Law, whose eyes were closed, before the red head shook his head. It was clear that the other man didn't care for his company, though whether that was Kid's spirit's fault, Eustass wasn't sure. "I'll go do it. I have my cell if there's a problem." The red head saw his roommate's nod before setting off toward the large hospital looming before him. Eustass highly doubted that there was going to be a problem, from the general shitty state the place was in, especially those broken windows.
"Be careful, Kid." Killer called after him.
"I know, I know, don't worry about it." Eustass said, offering a lazy hand wave without turning around. While Eustass may not have thought there'd be a problem, he did have the thought in a few minutes' time he may have wished he'd remembered to bring some of those walkie-talkies.
-x
Eustass circled the entire building looking for ways in, and unless someone was going to crawl up the side of a brick building bare handed, it wouldn't be easy. The back door of the hospital was stuck fast, and the windows on the ground level of the building were intact, and showed no signs of having been tampered with recently. The bars across some of them helped drive home that fact. Satisfied that the only way in was the front door, Eustass went back to it and shoved the surprisingly heavy door open, and ignored the fact that it was warped and slowly closed again.
The red haired man allowed his eyes to adjust to the gloom of the interior, and saw that he'd walked into what appeared to be a lobby, complete with small service desk several paces ahead of him, and a few broken chairs and a table in two halves off to his left. To his right, there was a small set of stairs that led up to an open doorway, that led, Eustass presumed, to a hall of hospital rooms or something. It was a big space, but not as big as most modern lobbies in hospitals.
A few steps in and Eustass came to a dead halt. His eyes drawn to something near the small set of stairs that led to the open doorway of the hall.
Someone was crumpled on the ground.
Eustass hadn't seen them because of how dark it was in the hospital, sepite some of the afternoon sun still making its way inside. Eustass quickly looked around, saw nothing that might leap out at him from the shadows, and approached the figure on the ground. And the closer he got, the more weirded out Eustass became.
For one thing, there were what appeared to be scorch marks on the ground, around where the figure, whom Eustass could now make out was a man with blond hair, had collapsed. This was not something that Eustass had expected to come across as he'd expected, at most, to have to terrify a group of teens out of there. And the red haired man most certainly hadn't expected for a 2x4 of splintered wood in the far right corner of the room to suddenly launch itself at him.
Eustass jerked back out of sheer surprise as the board of wood whipped past his face, and watched, stunned, as the 2x4 piece of wood landed on the desk with a loud clatter.
What the hell?
Eustass pointedly ignored the whole occurrence in favor of looking down at the blond, whom had started to stir. Anything to distract him from paranormal activity, which looked like it was here in the hospital after all.
So many games. And they're all so much fun.
Fuck, the voices had started again.
Do you want to play some games now, Eustass-ya?
Eustass mentally told the echo of Trafalgar's voice to fuck off and stared hard at the blond on the ground, wondering briefly if the man was Sabo, until he realized how snappily dressed the blond was. A suit. The fucker was wearing a suit in a dusty, abandoned hospital.
What the fuck?
Do you know what I see in the dark when I'm with you?
Eustass made a vain attempt to focus on the man on the ground and not the taunting tease the whispered echo of Trafalgar's voice had in his head.
I see someone who is exactly like me.
Eustass might have started heckling the half-awake blond had the man not lifted his head to stare at him in return. And that was when Eustass saw it. A curly eyebrow over the blond haired man's left eye. Eustass couldn't tell if the man's other eye was curly, as the blond hair hung down in front of the right side of his face, obscuring it. It was for the best. Eustass really didn't want to see more curl then he already had because really, what in the world was that? Had then man drawn it on?
That, more than anything, helped tune out Trafalgar's whispers, even as Eustass ignored the fact that he himself had no eyebrows to speak of.
The man in the suit got to his feet and Eustass finally realized that the blond had been speaking to him, and Eustass had been so distracted by an eyebrow that defied logic, and Trafalgar's unwanted voice, that he hadn't heard the question.
"I said, did you see a guy with green hair come in here?"
"No." Eustass replied, as he hadn't been in the hospital long enough to see if anyone else was skulking about.
"Damn moss head, wandering off like that when he heard what kind of place this was." The blond said in exasperation as he dug a pack of cigarettes out of a pocket and lit one and took an irritable pull of nicotine.
Before Eustass could demand to know who the fuck curly brow here was and why he was there, a familiar voice spoke as the front door creaked open and shut again.
"Kid, you're early." Footsteps echoed in the small room as Sabo crossed the lobby to stand alongside Eustass, before he nodded and greeted the other blond. "I didn't expect you here so soon either, Sanji." Sabo looked around. "Where's Zoro?"
"Got himself lost, as usual." Sanji replied, sounding put upon. "He'll turn up eventually."
Eustass glanced between the two blond haired men, bristled at being ignored, and chose to growl at Sabo. "What the fuck is going on here?"
"Sanji's going to be a part of the investigation. Zoro too, once we find where he got to." Sabo returned, clearly immune and unconcerned with the way Eustass was glowering at him.
Eustass turned his eyes on curly eyebrow. "This guy? How useful is he gonna be if he was unconscious?"
Neither blond cared to grace that with an answer.
Sanji, in fact, ignored Eustass completely as he smoked his cigarette and spoke to Sabo.
"There's poltergeist activity here, at the very least. There was something else that used the poltergeist as cover to take a hit at me, but I managed to drive whatever it was away with fire-"
"What the hell do you mean you drove it away with fire?" Eustass was confused, and he didn't like being out of the loop and looking like a fool. That Sanji looked at him like he was didn't help, until Sabo stepped in and explained, or tried to.
"Sanji is a-"
"I try to keep that quiet, Sabo," Sanji cut in.
"Fine." Sabo agreed. "Later, then, when you want to talk about it, because I have a feeling it will come up." To Eustass, Sabo continued, "Kid, Sanji can used magic, like Hawkins, but whereas Hawkins relies on his talismans for his spells, Sanji is more affiliated with fire."
"Like Ace?" Eustass ventured. He was pretty sure he remembered hearing about the black haired teen's antics when he realized he could use pyrokinesis and set things on fire with his mind.
"Something like that." Sabo agreed, as if pleased Eustass was following along. "But where Ace sets thing around him on fire, Sanji can create it and set parts of himself on fire."
"Usually my legs." Sanji commented, as if this were normal as he casually flicked ash off the end of his cigarette. "Makes it easier to strike things if I can focus the magic on a small part of my body. It also makes the spell more effective."
Eustass looked between the two, and decided they were fucking with him. And said as much. "This is you trying to trick me again, isn't it? Like when you said I didn't have to worry about being possessed and all that." The red head glared accusingly at Sabo, but the wavy haired blond didn't get a chance to speak, because suddenly, the fucking 2x4 was mysteriously flung from the service desk, and made a beeline straight for the red head's face.
Heat passed before Eustass, and the red head saw, in a state of disbelief, that Sanji's legs were on fire as he struck the board midair and shattered it in two. Sanji then seemed to float through the air as he leaded and lashed out with a leg. The blond seemed to hit something, based on the give of the foot and whatever it had come into contact with.
Neither Sabo not Eustass moved, though in the red head's case it was because he couldn't believe what he was seeing right before his eyes.
The flames licking around Sanji's legs dissipated as he landed with an irritated tsk, stomping his cigarette out beneath his nearest foot as he turned to speak to Sabo. "Make that poltergeist activity, something that has not so nice intentions, and at least one spirit that doesn't want us to be here."
"Did you get it?" Sabo asked, looking around.
"No, it was more like I startled it." Sanji returned, his attention on the doorway to the right. "I think it went in that direction."
"Well, let's go back out and get everyone caught up on the history of this place and what we might find. The owner of the property can tell us what she can, as well, so we know more about what we're getting into here. We'll need to go through the whole place and set up cameras anyway." Sabo suggested.
Eustass allowed himself to be led out of the hospital, still shocked into silence because holy shit, someone's legs had been on fire and they hadn't burned. The state left Eustass a little bit as Sanji crossed the overgrown lawn to have a was sudden shouting match with a green haired man outside of the caretaker's house. The man's left eye was closed with a cut through it, though this didn't stop the man's sole eye from reflecting ire at Sanji. The two men bitched one another out regarding the green haired man, Zoro's, sense of direction, or lack thereof.
But when a pretty, long haired woman who had been the one to put the call in for them all to come investigate the hospital, Sanji immediately abandoned his argument with Zoro to go wriggle and fawn over and generally make an ass of himself in front of the woman.
Eustass was very confused, but overall, Sanji's reaction to the woman, as well as Koala, and the fact that ghostly activity and magical abilities were a thing…
It seemed to put into perspective the overall weirdness that the upcoming investigation was going to bring.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
A/N: I think I may have too much fun with this fic because ghosts. I'm glad this is going all right so far, based off the reviews (thank you!) and the amount of hits this fic has already (and the fact it hasn't been up for a week yet) And I'm relieved/happy that I can describe things a bit better than before, as it was something someone mentioned a few years back regarding describing atmosphere better-still working on it though). The fic is kind of slow to start off with, but it should be moving along by the end of the next chapter. I'm trying to get the groundwork done and over with so I can get back to traumatizing Law and Eustass.
Also, an FYI. The chimney was mentioned for a reason, as it will be one of the hot spots in the hospital, so to speak, in terms of paranormal activity. And if anyone has seen Ghost Hunters/Ghost Adventures, think of this fics' hospital as a combination of all the hospitals those teams had visited (and a little dash of the gigantic mansion in the Ghost Hunt anime, with people disappearing at random). I'm considering drawing a clearer floor plan/map of the hospital and its grounds, and posting it on Tumblr, if anyone would be interested. I have a rough doodle of it because it helps me when I write.