Chapter 19: To Paint Her Canvas Skin
To say the least, the playfulness of Vivi's X-Files ringtone didn't exactly fit the scene very well.
It was a splash of neon paint on a somber medieval masterpiece, a patch of rough and worn sandpaper resting among the richest of velvet, and it was something distracting that pulled their attention away from the exhausting, diverted glances and crackling tension surrounding the team. It came to be with the whispering of their arguments paused and their love of each other wavering, forcing Lewis to flare in surprise and Arthur to jump. The soft buzzing of a vibrating phone and the loud and eerie whistling from the old TV show broke their focus and turned them all towards Vivi's overnight bag in shocked curiosity, ripping them from their personal sorrows momentarily to stand transfixed. For some reason, all three of the team members were relieved for the excuse to look away from each other.
Vivi began to rummage through her bag, somewhat embarrassed, throwing cords and games and notepads aside as she searched for the little flip phone inside the abyss of her bag. Arthur glanced up at Lewis, for a moment terrified without Vivi's protection, but found the ghost too lost in thought to even acknowledge the ginger anymore, too focused on the recent outcome of his unfair pressure to glance his way. Clearly, the phantom wasn't feeling so great after the girl he loved had chosen his confirmed murderer over him when given the choice, and Lewis couldn't seem to figure it out in his head. Was it simply a question of if she loved him or not, or did he truly deserve it? Was he being irrational, belligerent, selfish...should he try and listen to the two of them despite him being the victim?
But then, if he had been wrong about Arthur, that meant...
"Hello, Vivi of the Mystery Skulls. How can I help?"
She had found the phone, clearly, nestled and hidden in one of the many side pockets and away from the grabbing of her hands. Flipped open, Lewis could see now that the device she held was their old work phone, the phone number they used for clients and clients only, not the personal phone as he had originally assumed by the ringtone; Vivi must have changed the song when he had been away from the Ghostbuster's theme to what she had now. He wondered what else had changed in the two years that he'd been gone, what other little parts of her life were no longer relatable to his living memories.
"Of course, can you give me any information on the situation whatsoever? Yes, anything helps, even the tiniest details."
She had pulled out her old notepad, pens organized by color to denote which entries within her book were client detail, later research, or hunt summaries. Her hand moved furiously down the page, sloppy handwriting quick to record the information gifted to her, and her little voice muttering in focused confirmation of every little fact. By how much she was writing and how pale she was looking, Arthur and Lewis could only guess that it was quite a gargantuan case that she was taking on. As she continued, Lewis looked away.
What should he do now? Vivi had made her stance clear, showing who she supported blindly and who she didn't trust enough to, who she had to question in order to accept and who she believed to always be honest. He could just go back to the mansion, he supposed, live out what little life he had left before the pull of the void became too much and he was forced to fall into a restless sleep, a tossing slumber for the rest of eternity. Without his final duty fulfilled, he would never find true peace, but was that what was best for the girl he had partially come back for in the first place, the girl he loved so much, was that what would make her happy in the end? An eternity is a long time to spend alone, and he knew Vivi wouldn't be caught in hell with him.
"Alright, we'll be down in a couple hours. Take care and keep safe until then."
Vivi flipped the phone shut, the snapping of the metal like the breaking of a neck as she turned back towards the two boys waiting patiently for her. She proceeded to cross her arms and lean heavily on one leg, still somewhat lost in thought and trying to maintain her air of authority as she turned back to the unruly boys with a proposition of grave subject. Notepad set down on the beside table and face somewhat upset by the recent chatter, this clearly wasn't going to be your everyday hunt.
"Two bits of information, you two. Do you guys remember those investigators we met when we were just starting out, the sisters who gave us all their spare equipment and who taught us how to read it and stuff?"
"Yeah, the Sydney sisters, right?" Arthur answered back, the picture of the two teens clear in his head after more than a few encounters with the friendly couple. They had been hunting with their father since before they had entered junior high and had been quite talented by the time the Mystery Skulls had met them. Every miniscule piece of information gathered from the two had been put to good use and had saved the team in quite a few instances, Arthur could vouch for that.
"Well, they're dead."
Lewis perked up with this, looking back at Vivi for the first time since she had made her choice, spooked by the prospect of the young and talented womans' deaths. He lifted a hand to cover the back of his head, his flame long out and his skull bare as he shook it lightly back and forth in quick mourning, "What happened?"
Vivi inhaled quickly, "They were called out to take out an angry poltergeist who very promptly set them on fire, along with two other investigation teams. Not a great way to go. And so that brings us to my next bit of information, something neither of you are going to like very much."
Arthur could feel what was coming long before she said anything, standing up shakily like a fawn on newborn legs. He knew that look on the face of the girl he had chosen to grow up with, and how could she possible turn down an opportunity when many others had failed? He could feel himself shiver as he imagined every path this day could take, "Dear god, Vivi, what did you get us into?"
"Not what I got us into. What I got myself into."
Arthur was flushed, his eyes closed and his teeth clenched as Lewis began to catch onto what she was trying to say, what she was implying to the two. He looked back at her with his thoughts towards the dead banished, hoping he could convince her not to join them anytime soon, "Vivi, you couldn't possibly mean..."
"Yes, I do mean. Our client has called upon us last of many to dismiss an ages old poltergeist. Apparently, all the other teams they have called have tried and failed to calm down the spirit, but it has the nasty habit of fatally wounding them, usually in the form of fire. I'm going, no matter what you two say." She was still practicing her control over the two boys, taking control and holding on tight without any room to wiggle out, her voice a brick wall while Arthur and Lewis lacked a cannon, "You gave me a choice, Lewis, and now I give you two a fork in the path. Either both of you can come with me, or neither. I will only let you in the van with me if if both of you are in agreement to tolerate each other, and only then. Otherwise, I'm doing this all by myself."
Arthur shook his head, eyes wide as he turned back towards her frantically, "More than one team-as in multiple people-have died trying to calm down this poltergeist. You'll get yourself killed on the spot, Vivi! Is that what you want, a good old suicide mission to bring the team back together again?"
"No." She was still stern, still terrifying, "Do you know what I want? My two best friends back, not these wimps who replaced them. But the two of you are too wrapped up in yourselves to even try and attempt that, so I'm turning drastic, dangerous. If that's the only way to get you both to agree on something, then so be it."
She was tossing things into her bag now, leaving only her notepad and a few pens out as she began shuffling through the belongings she had left out in the motel. Lewis watched her very closely, feeling his own heart tremble just as Arthur was against the door, "Vivi, this is not in anyway a good idea. The Sydney sisters were raised on ghost hunting, and I'm sure the other teams were just as experienced as well-we're babies compared to them! Even with Arthur and I, this might be a little outside of our skill level. You'll just end up getting both of you killed."
Her hands still moved in and out of the bag, her head down as she continued to pick up around the motel, "I'm going, and that's final." Vivi's feet found their way to Lewis, her toes just barely outside of the ward as she looked up at him expectantedly, "Now, I'll let you both out. I want you to remember that if you hurt Arthur in any way, you will never see me again, Lewis. I will break the tether on my palms and let you go back to the mansion and never show my face again if you even think about putting him in a situation that will endanger him." Her foot ran across the chalk of the ward, and it began to fade in the carpet until it was eventually gone, "And then all three of us will be alone and miserable. Are you coming or not?"
Lewis, not surprised, took a tender step out of his ward, testing the air outside gently with a swipe of his hands before he let himself truly be free, "Vivi, I have to go. So long as we're far far from the mansion and you have that sharpie on your palms, I have to be nearby you. Otherwise, I think I'll fade away for good."
She had her back turned to him in order to keep their eyes from meeting, knowing that her stubborness would falter the moment she let him gaze upon her head on. Her eyes instead met Arthur's, observing him closely, "Well, then, you better hope our friend Arthur here wants to go, too, or else we'll be making a quick stop at the mansion, now won't we?"
Nobody spoke, nobody moved, it was still within the room as Arthur looked at the two like a deer in the headlights choosing between the car barreling towards them and an endless pit. This was an angry poltergeist they were talking about right now, not some confused spirit who took a wrong turn on his way to the light; poltergeists killed,and Arthur had just about enough fear of death to last him for more than a lifetime. He looked at Lewis, his eyes pleading him in a sort of begrudging way, knowing he would be separated from Vivi otherwise. Speaking of Vivi, the way she was glaring at him wasn't exactly inviting: she looked just about ready to shoot both of them and whatever other poor souls that got in her way, something he wasn't exactly looking forward to. Once again, Arthur's choices weren't exactly orthodox or easy.
She opened the door then, walking over briskly as she no longer waited for an answer from her best friend as she fished the keys out of her bag and began to leave towards the parking lot and the van. It took Arthur a moment to notice that she was preparing to leave him behind, and by the time he reached out to stop her she already had a foot out the door, "Vivi, wait!"
"Arthur, you can't convince me otherwise. I'm going, with or without you-"
"With." He finally groaned, loud and low and slow, his grip on her arm tightening with the words before he began to straighten himself out, the wrinkles in his favorite vest worrying, "Just give me a moment to pack my stuff, I kind of made a mess last night, what with me not sleeping."
Now, she had that big smile again, her face turning soft and mushy as she was given what she wanted, the entirety of what she had asked for slowly and surely coming together. The corners of her eyes softened, and her body began to relax underneath the grip of her best friend. She gave him a slight nod of approval and acceptance, and the three began to head towards Arthur's room.
Upon opening the door to Arthur's motel room, Mystery came bursting through like a bat fresh out of hell. There was a flurry of fur as he tried to jump up and onto both Arthur and Vivi simultaneously, whining the entire time as a balloon allowed only a small and steady stream of air to escape from its mouth with both excitement and frustration as his owners came back. They were quite a few hours late in his opinion, and he never really liked being alone in the first place despite the regular necessity of it. Vivi could tell he felt left out whenever they had to leave him in the motel room to grab breakfast or in the van to meet or treat clients who were allergic or scared, and she hated leaving him almost as much as the dog hated being left. The little nips he gave the two were a sure sign to Vivi that he wasn't all that happy about it, but every bit of his peeved emotions rolled off once he spotted the skeleton, hidden from his view at first by Vivi.
What began as a whirlwind of angry and thrilled dog quickly turned south, his whines growing silent with only a thin and long growl to fill the air between him and the one he was confronting. His eyes were flashing, bright and red as the dying embers of a campfire, as he took a step towards the dead man. He was clearly shielding Arthur like a guard dog, his body turned side ways and his attention never leaving the pale skull before him in clear memory of the night before. Vivi could swear that she saw some sort of crimson light wrapping tendrils around the dog, darkening the air as she felt him grow slowly bigger and bigger with each feral breath escaping his bared teeth and that killing intuition that her simple pet was becoming so much more. She suddenly realized, breaking free from her transfixed state, that her dog was threatening Lewis, and so she ran towards Mystery with arms raised and waving above her head in an attempt to divert the animal's attention away from the phantom he so clearly distrusted.
"No, Mystery, it's alright! He's not going to try and kill Arthur anymore, buddy, we'll all be fine! You don't have to growl all low and scary like that, not anymore."
The dog took quite some time to tear his eyes away from the spirit in front of him, only glancing briefly back up at the girl before allowing his bristled fur to lie flat and his burning eyes to dull their luster. It wasn't that he couldn't recall or make the connection between this ghost and his third companion years ago, Vivi could see that; he just wanted to protect Arthur, and after the happenings of the night before he certainly wasn't at ease around Lewis. Even with the hackles of the dog lowered, Lewis could feel the eyes of the canine like bullets into the back of his neck, piercing through his bones and into the marrow beneath. In no way or in any instance was he trusted, and he could feel the hostility flashing from the dog like a bright, neon red sign. He doubted the hell he'd have to pay to Vivi's dog and the last member of the Mystery Skulls was worth his revenge in the end.
"Nuh-uh, only Mystery gets to ride in the front with me. You two, in the back."
Arthur was stopped in his tracks by a pale hand to his good shoulder, five digits wrapping around the puffed up collar of his vest as his forward motion was halted suddenly. After packing up the van in the near empty parking lot surrounding them, the ginger had naturally made his way to the driver's seat with the assumption that he would drive as he almost always did, but that clearly wasn't on the girl's agenda as Vivi continued to micromanage the gang. She gestured with a hand towards the back and Lewis, standing a little ways off and looking at the van longingly before she opened the door to the front and allowed Mystery VIP access. Even if their haunt was only an hour away tops, Arthur could sense that it was going to be a long ride.
Lewis, not even attempting the front seat with the knowledge that Vivi was still more than a little peeved at him, was stunned not by her treatment of Arthur but by what he found in the back of the van. He wasn't so much staring at the vehicle itself as the others assumed, but the interior moreso, his eyes scanning the ruin and wreckage that had become of his old home. Lewis knew that Arthur had always left a mess wherever he went, throwing empty energy drink cans on the floor of their beloved van and claiming to have intentions of picking them up later, but with no real actions on those simple and easy words. With this, Lewis could expect at least a little bit of clutter. But Vivi...she had always been alright with keeping her living spaces tidy and neat, if not as painstakingly so as Lewis. The explosion that was the back of the Mystery Skulls van left Lewis breathless, a pebble damming his throat, and his voice was nearly so high that only Mystery could hear it.
"What...what happened?"
Arthur had already climbed in, stepping over the towering piles of books that dared him to tip them over after somehow, miracuously, not toppling over during the many roadtrips the three had taken in the past, "Oh, this?" Vivi looked back in the rearview mirror, adjusting her glasses and the mirrors to fit her short stature as opposed to Arthur's slightly taller torso, "We kinda let it get out of hand, I know. I was always reading, and Arthur was always driving, and it got cluttereed real fast I guess. Sorry, we can always clean it up."
The skeleton had to look away it disgusted him so much, his old home turned into nothing more than a pigpen, "Jesus, guys, I lived with five siblings who were all younger than me and our house was never as bad as the back of this van. How did you even manage this by yourselves?"
Arthur waved it off, still somewhat rigid as he spoke to the man who wanted his hed on a stake, "It's been two years. 'Lots happened." He kicked his feet up onto a stack of duffel bags, all filled with clothes spilling out. Lewis couldn't tell if they were dirty or clean, but he couldn't imagine they did their laundry very often, either.
Vivi nodded in agreement with Arthur, patting Mystery lazily as she waited for Lewis to get in, "When I started really reading your grandma's books and all the other information we had from before the cave, I put them away and kept everything organized really nicely and consistently. But then, when I'd reread a book and find a passage that connected to something from another book, I'd just have to go back and search through the journals and chapters and notes and find the things I was looking for...before I knew what was happening, I was surrounded by a circle of journals! And that was before I started truly translating your grandma's diaries, let me tell you..."
After swallowing that pebble and considering the situation slightly, Lewis braced himself and climbed into the back of the van and onto what little floor he could find peaking out from beneath the second-hand books and granola bar wrappers. If he had a lip, he would have no doubt curled it in disgust, "All of her diaries are in Spanish I thought. Did you take some lessons while I was away?"
She shook her head, starting the car as Lewis finally sat down on a clearing he made on the seat, his wide stature not fitting in so well with the cluttered space surrounding him, "Not exactly. I took it in high school for two years, so I know some conversational, but I was never really good. But what I did have was a Spanish-English dictionary and a lot of determination, not to mention a killing amount of time on my hands."
Her fingers reached down, popping on the radio as she finished her little explanation in the hopes that she'd find something to calm down her still jumping nerves, her fearless soul turning to mush as she continued to ponder the hunt ahead. Lewis watched as a genuine smile crept up onto her face, bobbing her head back and forth as she drove forward steadily onto the freeway beneath them and cleared her mind of the arguments earlier today. Honestly, the most soothing and relaxing thing in the world was driving for Vivi, and she could let go of just about anything so long as she had control of the radio. Arthur, who had been watching Lewis carefully since entering the van, responded to her cue by letting his guard down to grab his 3DS with the intention of shutting out the world around him, and with it, the chance of confrontation with the murderous ghost who was sitting only a seat away from him. Each had found their little voids with which to fill their time with even Mystery curling up to take a nap beside Vivi, and so with nothing else to do, the ghost found his own way to be useful. It may not be the chatter he so fondly remembered, but there was something soothing in tidying up around the van and transforming it back into the home he had once remembered, too.
He was more than a little relieved to find that nothing within the van was toxic or dangerous save Arthur's startling knife collection. It seemed Vivi had kept that up at least, preventing week-old pizza slices from smelling up the whole car or aging breakfast sandwiches from reaching anywhere close to a moldy state with most consumables stored safely in a mini-fridge that was new to the phantom, held steady in the back. Most of the clutter was, as he expected, cans and books with a few articles of clothing scattered around. It was easy enough to organize neatly, and the small space meant there wasn't nearly as much on the floor as he had assumed in the first place-by thirty minutes into their ride, it was nearly spotless with only the remnants of chip crumbs and a couple garbage bags filled to the brim to mark it dirty.
As he stood over his handiwork, relieved and a little bit proud, Vivi began to turn down the radio with the intention of merging off the highway and entering a more urban area, "Hey, could you two maybe search for some info in the books back there on poltergeists? I know about the universal stuff-sage and salt, etcetera-but maybe your grandma had something more specific to help us out?" Vivi asked, beginning to think forward to the hunt, "This one sounded pretty nasty, any upper hand we have will be well needed."
It was reluctantly that Arthur began to power down his game, only just coming to forget of the hunt and the chattering of his teeth that came with it as she brought his nightmares back to light. Lewis, on the other hand, switched from one task to the next flawlessly, only glancing momentarily at Arthur as he set his game to rest on the cushion beside him. The ginger's voice was a groan, but at least he wasn't downright refusing this time.
"You know I'm not a very good researcher, Viv. Any leads for me on choosing the perfect match, book-wise, so I don't waste anymore of our time?"
"Well," Vivi knitted her eyebrows, thinking long and hard as she switched lanes with a flash towards her blind spot, "I think one of the really late journals of Lewis' grandma's had something on a nasty one, number tweny or twenty-one I think? It was a lot later on, in April of...1987, I wanna say? That sounds about right, somewhere around there. Very bad, just like this if I remember. Think you can find it?"
Lewis looked back up at Vivi, wide-eyed,"Geez, V, did you get photographic memory while I was gone? I don't even remember that much detail about her diaries, and I'm her grandson." Lewis butted in playfully, rummaging through one of the boxes filled with journals. To his relief, Vivi had taken very good care of his grandmother's books, and all of them were still in one piece and well organized.
"What can I say, it was the only thing that felt really right to me." She answered back with attention back towards the road and a little grin skirting her cheeks, "Once I lost my memory, those books were like...little peaks into the past, but they weren't forcefed to me by someone else. I was remembering stories and hunts, not having them remembered for me. I must have read each book a hundred times each by now, Isabel-I mean, your grandma-was such an amazing and brave woman. It doesn't even feel like research anymore, it feels like a sotrybook."
Lewis smiled at this, handing Arthur the journal Vivi translated reluctantly while keeping the original for himself. He read Spanish fluently having been raised in a household where it was spoken often; English was technically his second language, anyway. The pages were heavy with text and the cursive was hard to decipher as it was fading and blue upon the yellowing and brittle pages, but he was still able to scan the pages with ease once his eyes adjusted. Just as he always had, Lewis felt that his grandmother's writing was the most beautiful script in the world, and just absorbing her words felt like a peak into the gates of heaven.
"I think I have something here, Vivi. Her twenty-thrid journal, just about the time you said," Lewis, caught by surprise as he found the date he was looking for, began to summarize the text as quickly as he could read and think, "a stage five poltergeist, the worst you can get. Prone to set things on fire, throw knives, and inflict other forms of bodily harm without any objects present."
Vivi could hear Arthur gulp, setting his book down as her grip tightened on the wheel with a rush of pre-adrenaline. That sounded exactly like what they were facing, a copy of the poltergeist explained to her over the phone. She hoped against all hope that there was something there that would help them out if even only a little, "What else? Any hints on how to bring this sucker down?"
Lewis shook his head a little, "The hunt went on for three days, but she was unable to dismiss it and dubbed it too dangerous. This thing made rocks fall out of nowhere, set ten people on fire, and tore a few others to smithereens without any trouble, without even acknowledging her attempts to undermine it. In the end, she covered the house in salt, sage, and gasoline before angering the ghost to the point of setting his own house on fire." He looked back up, his voice a little slower than before as he tried to absorb it himself, "It must have worked, because she put in a sidenote that the new building on the lot afterwards was average enough. I guess the poltergeist learned its lesson, so we have that as a last resort."
Vivi was biting her lip, preoccupied with driving but stil actively worried about the possible outcomes of the hunt ahead. Even Lewis' hatred of Arthur and bits of self-pity had died away with all his attention focused on keeping the job from getting out of hand for fear that he might lose Vivi for good this time, and if he was willing to put that aside, she began to wonder if maybe she should put this crazy flight aside. She was usually so confident in her abilities...would they let her down now?
"V, I understand ghosts a little better now that I am one. Let me tell you, when I tried to cook with salt for the first time and a little bit spilled onto my foot after I died, the pain was so excruciating. It took days for that to wear off, and just a little bit of it was enough to leave a pretty sore spot afterwards. With that being said, after continued exposure to it I could tolerate the pain more and more. It's safe to assume that this poltergeist is older than me, and they've definitely seen more ghost investigation squads than I have; all of which, I assume, have been hostile. And with power, which we know they have, comes a greater resistance to weaknesses such as sage or prayer. The best route for a poltergeist is just to ignore them. Let their attempts at gaining attention go unnoticed. It will drive them crazy, but they'll leave after a decade or so without any real excitement." He was trying his best to lead her away from the hunt, his fears only fueled by his grandmother's recounting of the tale from the guise of a paper journal. In her instanes, two of her brothers-also ghost hunters, also very talented-had been killed in the process of banishing the poltergeist, "This might be something we can do nothing about, and I'd rather not risk you dying over a chance."
She was looking slightly angered again, but it wan't so much at Lewis but at the thought that she was truly second guessing herself. In a war of rationale and curiosity, she felt logic and reason winning, and she honestly didn't like it one bit. Where was the fun in that? She stared at the ghost through the mirror again with Mystery's and Arthur's eyes boring holes into the back of her head, "I've said it before and I'll say it again, Lewis: retreat isn't an option in this case." Eyes back on the road, she tried to convince herself more than anyone else that this was true as she took a deep breath to calm her nerves, "If worse comes to worse, Arthur and I have insurance and the client has agreed to pay for any other damages. If you stop trying to convince me to turn around and start looking for some more useful information yourself, I'll have a lot better chance at living through this, too."
What Lewis didn't see was the turmoil within rolling her around on a tumultous ocean. There were parts of Vivi that wanted to be stubborn and unbending, parts of her that were obstinant and unwavering in their steadfast hold of her, but then the rest was screaming that Lewis was right. More than anything, she was no longer frustrated at her team mates, but at herself for growing so cowardly in the face of danger. Vivi didn't like the feeling of fear that was pushing through her, and she tried her best to straighten herself up as her voice bit back at them.
Lewis, taking Vivi's obstinance for cockiness, could feel himself grow warm with flustered heat. He looked away from her and began reading over the text again, but to no avail save a poltergeist-specific prayer in Latin that he was very unsure of. Nothing made sense, and nothing that he read was in the slightest bit helpful or reassuring, all having been proved by his grandma to be no more than bogus. Even Arthur, tasked with tying the sage and managing the salt with Lewis unable to handle either comfortably, was growing frantic with his quick and sloppy movements leading to quite a bit of salt-covered area that Lewis could not traverse. The poor ginger could feel the tension of Lewis' worry as well as a bloodhound on the trail of an arrogant fox, and he wasn't looking forward to the night ahead one bit. Lewis may have been a stranger to him now, but he remembered from the year they spent together that if Lewis was scared, then he sure as hell should be, too.
That's when they came upon it, a well used house built upon quite a few acres of land and well away from any neighborhood or city yet cautioned off sloppily with yellow tape and warning signs. It couldn't have been very old by its lack of disrepair and overall newer appearance, no older than Vivi or Lewis or Arthur themselves, but they didn't outage it by much. Only when Vivi stopped beside the broken and open gate did the boys in the back register it as their new haunt, so ordinary and simple as it rose from the slightly untrimmed and abandoned grass surrounding it, and with this came the racing of their hearts as they readied to bolt into a full on sprint. Even Vivi had to gulp down that dull beating in the back of her throat. This was it, possibly their resting place, some mini-mansion in the middle of nowhere and so far from anything they held dear save each other.
"So...here we are."
Vivi looked back at Arthur as he squeaked a little, his voice high-pitched and terrified as he absentmindedly crushed the dried sage in his tremoring hands. Lewis, too, was not exactly ecstatic about the adventure ahead, and it was with great slowness and steadiness that he closed and placed the journal in his hands back into the box. From the outside and despite the yellow tape, there was nothing wrong with the house, but everyone was put at least a little bit on edge with the fear that engulfed each individually. Even Mystery's tail had stopped wagging by the time Vivi found the nerve to open the door and step out, leading her boys like old times if under different circumstances.
"You got the supplies ready?" She questioned from the back of the van, opening it up to find the two still looking out at the house across the lawn without moving a muscle or even breathing. It was eerily silent, and Vivi continued to ponder whether she should truly continue on with this. She was shaking, but without her team behind her, she felt utterly powerless, "Reading devices are up and running, right?"
"You won't need them. I'm a ghost, Vivi, it'll be more than easy for me to sense another presences. Just...give me a moment to...prepare myself."
He was opening and closing his hands tightly, eyes no longer glowing as they dulled and and absorbed her appearance in the doorway gravely. In the time they had traveled, he had been just as curious as she was with every hunt, a solid foundation for her wonder to build upon, and yet with this...there were so many layers to this haunt, so many possibilities, and she had to admit that most of them ended in death no matter how many times she walked those paths. Vivi was determined to prove her point, yes, but she had to wonder if she was suicidal also. This was quite the undertaking, something she probably wouldn't walk away from unscathed if at all. Even Lewis' protection might not be enough to keep her safe. And then she looked at Arthur, his eyes so wide and trembling in the face of destruction that she had to pause even further to absorb him, remember every aspect of her best friend. Lewis would no doubt try and protect her from harm, but, in the face of danger, would he protect Arthur or watch him burn? Should she even bring the ginger along now that he had proved himself willing and open to tolerating Lewis?
"Let's just get this over with." Arthur muttered, his voice cold as his face turned to stone. Now he was determined, his hands wrapped tightly around the supplies with a backpack gripping his shoulders, "Let's head in there and get this done as quickly as we can. I want to get my pay and leave."
And so she lead her three boys across the yellow tape and along the edge of the yard and into the house, unlocked and waiting for them like a death sentence and just as hated and feared as one. Lewis and Arthur were filled with so much dread, even Vivi felt in her heart the doubt of her and their abilities, but something inside her masked that with a familiar curiosity that kept her head forward. There was a mystery ahead, something she could solve and pick apart, and is that not what she lived for in the first place? What was life if she denied her simplest wishes in order to survive?
Arthur was holding his breath, hiding slightly behind Vivi as they entered the darkened room before them with the flaring of Lewis' hair in response to the lighting. The house had to be three stories at least, large and well-made with an entry hall encompassing quite a few square feet. The floor was wood, the walls a warm orange with highlights of red and brown, and yet everywhere she looked Vivi could see only the remainder of flame. Scorch marks on the walls and scratched across the portraits painted a fine scene in front of her, and the screaming of her intuition didn't help calm her nerves much. In this situation, maybe it was better to run.
Despite her fears, Lewis had his head held high, searching with his eyes closed as though scanning with a monitor built into the back of his eyelids. One perk of being a ghost was the ability to sense other spirits without much trouble if any, and as he held a hand out to Vivi with the intention of leading her further into the haunt before them, he was surprised that he felt no more presence than a stage three poltergeist at max. He relaxed a little bit, feeling his worry rush away upon the slight breeze running through the near empty house as he let out a little sigh, "Come on, this way. I feel them strongest at the end of the hall. You sure we have all the stuff, right?"
Vivi nodded, taking his hand without a word and allowing him to lead her along as he began to float forward cautiously. Only the creaking of Vivi, Arthur, and Mystery's feet on the wooden floors beneath gave away any life in the house, and all was silent to the team as they entered the room across from them, a large and sweeping living area with a kitchen joined by a bar area. It was quiant, and it was nearly empty.
Upon entrance, it was clear that there was a draft as the place was many degrees colder than anywhere else in the house, not to mention drastically darker. Vivi searched around for a reason, finding that all the windows were black with an ash that condemned the space to a constant state of dusk without any natural light to seep in. The gashes in the walls were much deeper and more numerous in this room with splashes of copper and red outlining them, dry and chipping off. Some form of cutlery must have gouged deeply past the wallpaper, leaving the house with permanent scars. Vivi could see her foggy breath as it left her lungs. Mystery was growling, long and low again, his eyes red and blazing. It was eerie, and Vivi had a sneaking suspicion that this was the room where many other teams had met their ends.
"The family must have moved as much furniture and belongings as they could, but it doesn't look like they finished." Lewis entered the silence reluctantly, gesturing to the still set-up dining room and the near empty living room, "I'll have to step out of the room when you start smudging the sage, so tell me whenever you're ready so I can...you know, not get banished too."
Vivi nodded to acknowledge Lewis, her answer so small and quiet as she turned Arthur around with trembling hands and began to rummage through the backpack he carried, "We shoulder get started immediately. Will you be too far away, or can you stay in the general area?"
"I'll try and stay as close as I can, but that stuff really messes with my head, V. Just keep the door open, and if you need me, yell as loud as you can and I'll phase through. I'll hear you no matter how loud it gets in here, I promise."
Lewis seemed very worried, but with no further comment he stepped backwards and out of the room, watching very carefully as Vivi pulled out the salt and a pair of earmuffs along with the book Lewis had given her for reciting the Latin prayer. Very generously, she spread the salt over as much ground as possible, trying her best to weaken whatever was in the room with her as she began to whisper in that little voice of hers. Part of Vivi was hoping this was all just a misunderstanding, that the spirits would listen to the tiny pleas she voiced under her breath, but as the room continued to grow cold and dark she felt her first impressions on their little friend had been correct after all.
With a gulp and a slow blinking of the eyes, Vivi grabbed the sage from Arthur's pale knuckles and lit the bundle, allowing its smoke to fill the room. Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see Lewis back off a little, no doubt feeling the purifying effects of the thickness that filled the room like a fog. Her throat was dry and young as she opened the book, but with as much confidence as she could muster Vivi recited the Latin prayer word for word in the hopes that it would at least weaken the angry spirit within the house. She knew she wouldn't be able to see them, knew she was blind in the house of a poltergeist, and yet her eyes were peeled and her senses alert for any change that would meet them.
It was sudden, a flash of heavy weight upon his head that pushed him down, so much more powerful than his young and faded soul, so much older and wiser. At first he thought it to be the sage playing tricks on his mind, but as Vivi danced around the room with the flaming bundle leaving trails of grey to follow her dutifully, he could feel the weight grow angry. He could feel whatever ghost was there growing more and more frustrated, their original disinterest turning to full on hatred. What Lewis had thought was no more than a stage three poltergeist was truly just as deadly as his grandma's stage five, only in another room and without thought towards Vivi.
Now, the entirety of this poltergeist's rage was focused on her.
"Vivi, the poltergeist is-"
His voice was raised frantically from the entrance of the doorway, but to no avail. Just as his words began to leave his mouth, the housewide speaker system was raised to a shattering volume, screaming eighties music at an earshattering frequency. Everyone jumped, Arthur scrambling to place earmuffs on Mystery's head after adjusting his own and making sure Vivi was taken care of, and although the loudness and surprise of the sudden contact was inconvenient Vivi and Arthur thought nothing more of it. They were scared, oh yes, but as Lewis felt with growing power the danger they were in he could tell that they were not nearly scared enough.
Vivi continued smudging and reciting the prayer dutifully, screaming at the top of her lungs and taking the sudden noise and turmoil to mean that her banishing methods were working, that the ghost was fighting to fend her off. Lewis could feel that the opposite was true with every second passing-now the ghost was just pissed off and growing even moreso with every minute. This was not good, and with all the noise leaving his contact with Vivi suffering, he had no way of telling her of the very real danger she was in. He gulped, looking down at the salt covered floor in front of him and cursing the world for giving ghosts such a bad lot in life.
Lewis tried to take a floating step into the room, hoping he could bypass the spikes beneath him with the strength of his flying powers only to find that the sage had weakened his abilities considerably. He fell to the the ground, feet smashing into the burning salt below as he howled out in pain. With frantic and quick movements, he threw himself back out and into the hallway where even the sage was still scarce, taking a couple of deep breaths to will away the unbearable needles shooting up from his feet and gripping his limbs in an unbreakable lock.
Was there really nothing he could do with Vivi in so much danger, right in front of him?
So committed to the job, she continued to keep her voice loud and clear with the dancing Latin rolling off of her tongue so delicately, but as the din surrounding her and the team was accompanied by the banging of pots and pans in the nearby kitchen and the opening and slamming of every door in the house, it was clear that her words weren't getting her anywhere. Bracing himself for the definite pain ahead, Lewis jumped into the room and pushed away all of the feeling in his feet as the door slammed hard just moments behind him. It was with his arrival into the room that Vivi's smudging sage was thrown for her hand, and by some stroke of unlucky chance it landed smack dab in the middle of Lewis' face. No more able than a bird with a bag over his head, Lewis was stunned and paralyzed as the sage fell to his feet, the smoke rising into his face continuously.
Arthur, hand reaching out to Vivi in an attempt to race out of the room, was thrown back hard against the wall with a short scream and a groan of pure terror and pain, feeling his jaw crack as he hit the house by some inhuman force. With every ounce of his strength and stars climbing into the range of his vision, he stood back up and tried his best to continue his trek back towards the girl, but he was weak with fear and bodily injury, no more than a crippled fly to the poltergeist as its presence spread. Even as Lewis came to, the spirit within the house was pushing hard against his consciousness and using the numbing sage to its advantage rather. Whatever beef this poltergeist had was with Vivi alone, and it was with a sense of pleasure that it held Lewis and Arthur back, tinges of warmth readily available to Lewis as the intentions of death were made clear by the poltergeist.
They wanted nothing to get between them and Vivi, and with an inhale of breath, Lewis could feel the house truly come to life. In the air around her, all the items in the immediate vicinity began to levitate. The terror was so real in her eyes, she couldn't even scream.
The doors were opening and closing at such a rate now that they bore holes into the walls. Drawers and cabinets in the room and kitchen, joined together, were pulled from their tables and stands and thrown across the room in a flurry of frustration and rage, and back by the kitchen Arthur could see silverware rising from their homes in the cupboards to point menacingly at the girl in the middle of the room. A cheap TV, plugged in and sitting on the floor rather than the TV stand and almost definitely temporary, turned on to loud static over the household sound system while rocks began falling out of nowhere, presumably from the ceiling. The three untrapped companions looked on at Vivi with their determination wavering, because all was utter chaos, and no one could reach her.
"Arthur, hide underneath the table over there, shield yourself!" Lewis cried out, forgetting any past anger for a few moments as he spotted the stones above their heads. With each new wave, the downpour of pebbles grew more and more into boulders, and Lewis could see the situation turning deadly quickly if the ginger didn't get out of the way soon enough. Despite acknowledging that he had heard Lewis over the deafening din surrounding them, Arthur continued to fight towards Vivi, his eyes forward and unwavering as his robotic hand reached forward, growing dented with every rock against the shining surface. Arthur knew that he was getting pelted by stones and that the last drawer to come flying by had been awfully close to his head, but he wasn't going to let a few bruises get in the way of saving Vivi. In any case, he thought sullenly to himself, she would do the same. Each and every time, Vivi would come for him. This was the least he could do for her. This was his only chance.
"Arthur, please! Go back!" She pleaded with tears clear in her voice, spotting her best friend as he fought with a grimace distorting his face, but that request only made his struggles more real. Even Mystery was now fighting against him rather than with him, trying to push the boy back and away towards safety, but that wasn't going to stop Arthur. To see her so wide-eyed and helpless, the drill sergeant turned to a child by the isolation of a poltergeist, made him fight even harder to reach her against wind and stone and pleading eyes, even. With every rock to his temple she could feel herself growing desperate, and she turned to Arthur with a vortex of flying rocks and wind swirling around her only to watch him struggle, fight, and fail. She was unable to do anything as the ghost within the house grew angry, and it was with that determination in his eyes that she watched him thrown hard against the back wall once more with her dog close behind, the force dizzying to even her. Like a ragdoll, Arthur and Mystery fell to rest, unconscious, on the ground across the room from her.
Her cry was the only thing heard then over the clashing noises of the living room, her arms reaching out towards him only to pull back quickly as the force of the wind whipped her elbow the wrong way, broken. As she was shouting out to Arthur, nursing her elbow with a cradling hand and tears in her eyes, she could feel something like a gaze on the back of her neck, the watchfulness of an angry shadow following her moves and growing angry as she paid such close attention to Arthur but not the watcher. Something wasn't right with this room, and as she pulled her head to the side and swung around, it was only by inches that the racing knife missed her.
Using only her intuition as a guide, she was saved only to have that knife go through Lewis' head instead. He phased quickly, feeling it pass by him like a cramp before sticking in the wall with only the handle to show, thrown so quickly and with such speed that it completely passed through save the black and grey grip. He turned around, staring at the knife but not quite absorbing what had happened, feeling blank and empty as his eyes grew wider and wider. Vivi was in more danger than he had ever imagined, dancing on the thin line of death and losing her balance as her toes failed to keep her upright. If that knife had been just a little faster, or ever so slightly more to the right...
No, he couldn't think of what could have happened. All of his energy, no matter how minimal, had to be centered around saving Vivi now. He looked back towards her, dismissing the knife and hoping it would stay in the wall as it was now, still and unmoving. But still his heart began to race, and still he feared this would be her end as the vortex had quickened and the stones that twirled around her were joined by the silverware from the kitchen in their deadly dance. He could see her eyes, wide and crying and helpless as she screamed without reaching his ears, and how they glowed so faintly of that same pink he had seen when she remembered him. Her feet were off the floor now as she was lifted, the silverware and knives grazing her skin and leaving faint reminders on her canvas skin with red blood paint to jump forward eagerly, and she was floating in the air with arms thrown back and head tipped. He felt her fall unconsious, his tether blinking and flickering within his beating heart. He had to do something fast, before that flickering went out completely.
And so he kicked the sage out from next to his feet, ignored the burn as best he could from the salt against his shoes, and began the treacherous journey to Vivi. His head was swimming, mind racing alongside his heart as he ran and shouted a war cry through the vortex of noise. Each blade went through him, every stone passed along as though he were no more than the air surrounding him, but the poltergeist was fighting his advances with every ounce of their very strong being, pushing against him as he fought valiantly against them. With every step he fell into the deepest pits of hell, with every inhale of breath he could feel the sage burning his soul and eating away at his consciousness, but still he walked forward and still he made progress. This was for Vivi, and every breath he took from this moment on would be in her memory and by her life.
He broke through to her suddenly, falling forward and taking only a moment to gather his scattered conscious with his eyes on Vivi. With every round, the knives cut deeper into her skin, the rocks left bigger bruises and dents, and it was clear a larger stone had left her with a nasty bash on the temple, likely a concussion. It was getting worse progressively, and so it was with all of his power that Lewis solidified himself and enveloped Vivi best he could. His arms covering her sleeping body and his hands pulling her even closer to him, her small vessel pressed against his giant chest, the closeness to his tether gave him strength. A quick burst of energy sparked the air around him, the flames usually reserved to his head sending a small rush of fire to fight against the vortex and finding the heat effective as the knives fell momentarily and the whirlwind itself faltered for a few seconds.
This gave Lewis an idea.
Bracing himself, Lewis shot him and Vivi out of the vortex and towards Arthur and Mystery, ramming into the wall with a jarring slam and falling much like the ginger had back to the floor below. With the target gone, the tornado began to slow to a gradual and confused crawl, lazily twirling out of habit moreso than the original and ordered anger. It was with this confusion that Lewis grabbed Arthur, Mystery, and Vivi as close to him as possible, curling around them with arms a fire blanket to allow himself to explode. In a flash of pink light, the house was engulfed in flames and purged of darkness.
When the light died away, the silverware fell to the ground in a clatter of metal, the sound was abruptly cut off, the doors and cupboards silenced and steadied with the calming of a poltergeist. Lewis could feel it, the screaming and dying breath of a spirit, but as the presence fell away into the abyss it was so destined for from the get go he felt himself relax. This was it, the poltergeist had been banished by his superior flame because, when Lewis was with Vivi, he was stronger than any petty and vengeful spirit.
And then he remembered Vivi, and he felt the blood against his chest, and he knew before he opened his arms that she was bleeding out against him.