Okay, this time I'll pay attention to page breaks. Here we go!
"You look stupid," Balthazar muttered under his breath as they began approaching a house from where they parked the car by the curb.
Catherine looked down at her business suit with a frown and back over to him. "I didn't realize you were the Holy Fashion Diva," she muttered back.
"Everyone in Heaven wears those stupid monkey suits," he began to grumble. "I don't care what people say, they look stupid on everyone."
"Oh yeah, Mr. Slacks and a Suit Jacket," Cat whispered once they were under the porch and she rang the doorbell. "I can definitely see your stance on this formal business."
He just waved down at himself. "This is tasteful. This says I like to party. Your suit jacket says I like to do paper work."
"Bite me, Choir Boy."
"You're going to have to start coming up with better nicknames, too."
The door opened to reveal a middle aged man in glasses. He looked between the two of them curiously and asked, "Can I help you?"
"Yes, sir." Catherine pulled out her fake ID, flipping hers open... After a glance towards Balthazar, he remembered to show off his, too, so she continued while putting her badge away. "I'm Agent Kent; this is Agent Connor. We're here to investigate your case."
The man gave them both an odd look. "Federal agents are interested in my," he paused for a moment to find the right word before deciding to use the same one the woman had used, "case?"
Balthazar spoke up with a happy smile before Cat could get a word in. "We specialize in your sort of... cases."
He looked between the two of them again and shrugged. "Okay, uh. Come in. Come in." Moving aside, he waved them in. "Living room's on the first right. Can I get you anything?"
Catherine answered him before Balthazar could start again. "No, sir. Thank you."
Suddenly, there was a whisper in her ear. "Connor and Kent. You couldn't think of something better?"
With a smile, she looked back to the angel before sitting on the sofa. "You caught that reference. Congratulations."
The man entered the room behind and waved for Balthazar to sit, who took the seat beside the hunter with almost a huff. Once they were all seated, Catherine began. "So, Mr. Hendricks, can you tell us when exactly you noticed things moving around in your home?"
"Ah well," Hendricks gave a relieved sigh, very willing to talk about his story, "I actually wasn't the first one to notice anything. It was my son, Daniel. He kept talking about the curtains closing on their own a few weeks ago, but I thought he was just acting out or something, until I started seeing, uh... strange things, too."
"Can you define strange?" Catherine inquired while Balthazar, the most bored angel she believed existed, began poking at something on the end table.
The man being questioned shrugged, trying to think back and not seem insane. "Things were just... moving with no one there. I never really saw anything, but me and my son are the only ones here and, well, rats aren't big enough to move plates or chairs away after you look in a different direction for... a... moment..."
Hendricks' attention was brought to Balthazar, who had found a little ceramic figure of an angel with a wire halo. He was currently trying to jam the halo around the angel's neck when he realized he was being watched and stopped with a grin. "Sorry, I just get a kick out of these things," he explained, earning a confused nod from Mr. Hendricks. "That's supposed to be Gabriel, right?"
"Um," the man blinked quickly to the ceramic and back again, shifting. "Yes. My wife collected angels before she passed. She revered Gabriel the most, so I kept that one after."
Despite the heavy subject, Balthazar chuckled and flicked the halo again. "That's adorable."
Catherine elbowed him in the ribs – earning an oomf as he quickly straightened up – and tried to take back the conversation. "Is there any way that we can speak to your son, Mr. Hendricks?"
Happy to get back to the earlier topic, Hendricks nodded. "I'd love to, but he's at school right now. It'll be another hour until he gets home."
She nodded. "Well, have you noticed any other strange things around the home? Cold spots in the air? Odd smells?"
"It's been a little colder in the house than usual, but the heater's working fine," he shrugged. "It's been bugging me, but that's all I know about cold... Is that important?"
"Just going through the list," she smiled. "One last thing. Do you mind if my partner and I take a look around?"
"Not at all," he answered again, quite compliant, "The first floor is the basics, the second is the bedrooms. Do you need me to show you around or anything?"
"No, no. We can handle it." Cat stood as Balthazar watched, realizing belatedly that it was time for him to stand, too. "Thank you. We'll let you know if we need anything."
Hendricks stood with a smile. "I'll just be in the kitchen then."
"Shouldn't the angel go first?" Balthazar asked, following closely behind the hunter wielding her pistol in front of her.
Catherine hardly looked at him, pacing slowly down the upstairs hallway. "As much as I would enjoy tying you to a stick and dangling you out in front of me, we're all better off if you have my back."
He peeked inside of a room, frowning. "I'm beginning to rethink my life decisions," he began and Catherine knew it was going to be another whiny monologue. "I only followed you for information on why I'm alive and injured. Now I'm in the middle of some sort of pissing contest with demons who want my grace for God knows what, but who cares? Because I'm out with a human hunting a ghost." Cat rolled her eyes while he kept grumbling. "How the mighty have fallen."
She bit the inside of her cheek as they slowly began to approach the last door in the hallway. Had to be the kid's room. "Don't you think that hunting a ghost is better than being dead?"
"I don't know," he sneered, "I didn't have to listen to you and ride shotgun in your car all day."
"I am so close to shooting you right now."
He firmly grabbed her shoulder to stop her and Catherine was reminded that she wasn't telling off just any old asshole. This one had incredible power and she wondered if that comment actually pissed him off. Upon quickly turning to face him – or try to run away – she noticed that he wasn't angry but looking up at the ceiling.
"What?" she asked, looking up and seeing nothing but white tiles.
"Sigils." Balthazar reached up and touched the ceiling tile with the tips of his fingers, with an expression of confusion and thought on his face that Catherine didn't think an angel should wear.
"What kind?" she asked, looking between him and the ceiling. "Wards? Against what? You're already here."
He shook his head. "No, it's summonings... I can't tell for what, though," Bal thought aloud and lowered his arm. "They're old, but they're part Enochian. Must be for the ghost."
"Whoa, whoa. Wait." Catherine closed her eyes for a second and shook her head. "Enochian? An angel summoned a ghost here?" He just shrugged, still studying the ceiling, so she tried again. "Why?"
"Bored?" he guessed, then looked down to her again. His eyes quickly landed on what was behind Catherine and he noticed that she sensed it the same time he saw it.
She began to turn quickly, but Balthazar was faster and pushed her hard against the wall while his other hand shot out to smite the spirit. The ghost, a gray and withered woman, wrapped her boney hand around his wrist and pushed back with enough strength to actually stand against him. For a moment, he was too shocked to do anything until a shot rang out and the ghost vanished.
"The sigils!" Catherine barked, before two hands grabbed her from behind and pulled her through the wall before the angel could reach out.
He hesitated for a second, nearly in a panic, but moved his hand towards the ceiling and set it on fire.
Catherine's back, taking a rather nice beating today, hit the floor hard. The glow-in-the-dark stars and planets stuck to the ceiling was enough indication to tell her that she was in the boy's room, which was a terrible place to be in this case.
She began to sit up, but the ghost quickly knocked her back down just in time for her to fire another shot at it. The ghost vanished for a brief second right before reappearing on top of her, its leather fingers around her throat.
The ghost yelped, like she was in pain, and quickly drew back from Catherine. It was another force that finally pulled and rolled the thing off of the hunter. Balthazar kneeled over the spirit and pressed his hand to its forehead. In a blast of light and a terrible scream, the ghost was reduced to ash and then nothing.
He panted there, hand still pressed against the floor, before turning to look at Catherine. She looked back to him, breathing hard and a bit shaken, but okay more or less. However, she nearly jumped at a sudden, very loud beeping noise right before she began to smell smoke.
Balthazar looked back to the hallway, then to her and gave a flashy smile. "The sigils are gone."
It's rather short, but I think we all deserve a chapter after tonight's episode. I'm going to try to make them longer from here on out, plus they shouldn't take as much time to update anymore. The next chapter may be a week or so away, at least, but after that we should be good and steady with up keep. We'll see, but that's the game plan.
Thank you all for reading! And I'm happy to see a lot more new readers/followers/reviewers. Thank you guys so much. I'm happy to see people are enjoying this as much as I am.
(I read through it again and noticed so so many errors, so this is the re-uploaded version. I'm going to have to proofread better next time and not at 2 in the morning. Thanks for reading, again!)