Chapter 8
The Scare Witch Project
The next night, Charles stepped through the portal, arriving in Josette's Ghoul Room, more specifically, the map room. Shortly after he arrived, he was met by the Fire Elemental, Firecracker.
"Hey, Charles. Need something?" the salamander asked.
"Hello, Firecracker. Yes, I'm looking for miss Josette."
"Figured as much. She's in the old café, on the ground floor."
"Thank you."
A short while later, Charles reached the café, where Josette was playing a card game together with Desperado, Gravedigger and Jabu, though she wasn't having the best of luck.
"Miss Josette? I hope that I am not intruding?" Charles said, announcing his presence.
"Not at all, Charles. I believe that my luck for this game has run dry at the moment." Josette said, looking up from her cards, and excused herself from the game. "Thank you for this time, but it seems that work calls."
"Sure thing, boss." Desperado said with a quick tip of his hat.
Moving outside, Josette and Charles walked through the dark, rainy night, finding Skelesaurus patrolling its territory of the yard.
"So, this is the newly discovered spirit." Charles said, studying the ancient spirit from a decently safe distance.
"Yes, we accidentally ruined an old skeleton, and Skelesaurus rose from the remains."
"Fascinating. You should know that the very existence of your new recruit has caused an uproar with the Haunter Committee, overthrowing literal ages of research about spectral history. I have never seen so many members of the Committee so upset and confused. That Caius Talius would react that way was not a surprise, but when even Aqupam gets upset, you know that it is something significant."
"And what does that mean for us?"
"No need for worry, miss Josette. Skelesaurus will remain on your team, but once your campaign is over, I would not be surprised if scholars would like to examine it. However, now that my curiosity has been sated, I have a mission for you."
With the team gathered in the map room, Charles began his briefing.
"Tonight, your target is this building, a dormitory, a home for students." he started, and a small building unfolded itself from the map. "Since your forces have grown strong enough, we have deemed you ready for a larger challenge. You see, this dormitory is home to a pair of sisters, who practice what mortals refer to as witchcraft, they are your targets. Scare them away, and the mission will be complete. But be careful, even though they may be somewhat inexperienced with dealing with ghosts, they are still a threat. Other than that, you are free to terrorize the rest of the inhabitants of the dormitory. Your squad may consist of six members this time."
"Six haunters you say. Well that should be more than enough. I pick Jack, Swarm, Voltic, Clarence, Gravedigger and… Nereid."
"Me?" the Mermaid asked confused. "Are you sure about that?"
"Yes, I would like you on this mission. But, if you do not want to, I understand, and can pick someone else instead."
"If you think that I can be helpful, then I will do my best."
"Then it seems that you are all ready." said Charles as he opened the portal to the dormitory. "Good luck, and have fun."
Emerging from the portal above the dormitory, the seven spirits gazed upon their field of haunting for the night. The dormitory was a squarish house with three floors, a basement and a sun-deck on the rooftop, a rather sizeable building, for a living area. Josette's handbook spoke of no less than thirteen mortals being present in the dormitory, including the two young witches, Blair and Scarlet Belisle.
Other than the two sisters, there were seven young women living in the dormitory, with four young men visiting. Apparently, the mortals were having some form of festivity, and the males were socializing and flirting with the females, though it was ignored for the most part.
As Josette moved through the building, looking for both her targets and any restless spirits, she felt an odd sensation, like she was being watched. She was currently in one of the bedrooms, and it wasn't as big of a mess as the others she had been through, it was actually rather neat aside from a doll that was tossed aside in a corner. And it was from that doll that Josette got the strange feeling.
Examining it closer, she saw that it was of a young woman, about a foot tall with a pretty, blue dress with pink lace and a blue hat with a yellow flower and blond shoulder-long hair that curled upward at the end. It also wore a bow in the same colour as the lace, as well as a pair of blue shoes of clothe. The eyes were big and purple. The lips red and the skin pale, all in all, not to unalike to the porcelain dolls that Josette's father used to give her.
Then a voice spoke from the doll, the voice of a little girl, but with the authority of an adult, and the doll shimmered in a ghostly pale green light.
"Once loved, then abandoned, forgotten and left behind for days beyond counting. Then found again, but not loved, put on shelf like some trophy. Next, tossed aside like garbage by grown-up boy with no hair. Enough. No more. He must pay. Make him feel true horror."
With her handbook barely having stopped vibrating, Josette quickly checked to see what kind of entity she was dealing with, for there were some that were best to avoid. According to the information, the entity referred to itself as Bonnie, and was a poltergeist, a rather uncommon but respectably powerful spirit that usually uses mortal children as fetters, though this one also used Emotional fetters, and most often possesses telekinetic abilities.
She would without a doubt be a good addition to the team, and if they had to scare away this mortal to free Bonnie, then that wouldn't be too difficult, since they needed to get the plasm flowing either way. Checking the pages on the mortals, Josette quickly found the only bald male among them, one Brad Durrly.
'He must have made fun of the doll at an earlier point this night. Well, he will learn soon enough that that was a mistake.'
"Boss, you might wanna come outside, we've found someone in the backyard you'll wanna meet." Jack said through a telepathic message, and he sounded quite exited.
"I am on my way, Jack, thank you."
Moving through the house, Josette passed through the kitchen on the bottom floor, and there were the two witches. Blair had short brown hair and Scarlet had long black that reached almost to her waist, both wore dark, Goth-like clothes with Blair having a skirt while Scarlet had pants. They also had various small talismans around their necks and sewn into their clothes. And as Josette passed them, both of them stopped what they were doing and looked around for a short moment before focusing their eyes on Josette, as if they could see her, before the Ghost Master phased through the wall.
"You felt that too, Blair?"
"That I did, sister. It seems we have a visitor from the other side tonight."
"It better not try anything, or I will show no mercy."
"My thoughts exactly. We'd better be ready."
Outside, Josette saw who Jack spoke of, and she liked what she saw. The ghost of a snake, easily three meters long and seven inches thick, it had green scales with thick black stripes and a sand coloured underside, and the eyes were jet-black. It flicked its forked tongue in the air, looking at Josette.
"I am Sssnakepit, and I have been bound here by the two witchesss, but not by maliciousss or ssselfish intent. During their casssting of a protective ssspell, I wasss trapped here, and only by breaking the ssspell, will I be free. The charm mussst be dessstroyed."
"I will see what I can do, I promise."
Taking her team to a point high above the dormitory, they began to plan for the night.
"Am I the only one that finds it strange that them lasses haven't found that Snakepit fella?" Gravedigger asked.
"I agree, it does seem strange." said Nereid.
"They do seem to have the ability to sense us, or at least sense me." said Josette.
"Well, you are the boss." said Jack, and Swarm took the shape of a skull to nod in agreement. "And by being that, you're our nexus on these missions. The witches and mortals of faith that I've run into over the centuries haven't noticed me unless I start using my powers."
"So if they can detect that, then we will have to employ a hit and run tactic." said Josette. "Tap into the plasm when you need it, use the power you wanted, and retreat. Also, keep moving from fetter to fetter if possible."
"You can count on us." said Clarence, as he and the other spirits spread out across the dormitory.
In the main living room, five of the mortals were talking over a movie, when suddenly the TV died and crackled as it began giving of sparks.
"What the hell?! What's up with the TV?!" a man with short blond hair exclaimed.
But before anyone got to answer, a huge swarm of bees filled to room, causing a panic among the mortals. And as suddenly as it all started, everything stopped after a few moments. Shortly after, the witch Blair came into the room, having felt the disturbance, but now it was gone, or at least for the time being.
Voltic, still fettered to the TV, saw the witch and smirked. After the assault from him and Swarm, the plasm level was already high enough for him to use his Surge power, which would strike all five of his original targets and the witch as well. Powering up, he unleashed a destructive electric wave through the room, shocking all mortals.
Except for Blair.
As soon as the Surge went off, a barrier appeared around Blair, leaving the witch completely unaffected by the ghostly power, not even feeling the slightest amount of fear of it. And while the five other mortals collapsed on the floor, Blair set her eyes on the TV, glaring hard straight at Voltic as if she could see him, and the eel Gremlin felt that it was high time to withdraw.
"Run if you want, spirit, for you can't harm me or my sister." Blair said under her breath as she felt how the presence quickly faded.
Voltic reported his discovery to Josette, and the news were both interesting and discouraging. As it seemed, their powers wouldn't affect the two witches as long as they had the barriers, but from Voltic's report everything pointed to the protection coming from another source rather than the witches themselves, at least indirectly.
"Must be the charm that Snakepit spoke of, which we must destroy either way. Everyone must search for it, but keep hitting the mortals with your powers when you get the chance, and stay clear of the witches for the time being."
And the ghosts did just that.
Jack had a blast lighting a female on fire right as she and a male was about to kiss, scaring the living daylight out of them. And as they both screamed, Jack laughed so hard that he wasn't sure which way was up once he stopped spinning.
Another of the young women had gone outdoors for a quick smoke, but she soon found that Gravedigger lived up to his name, when the ground underneath her opened up and swallowed her up to her chest. Suffice to say that she would never smoke again after that.
In one of the two bathrooms, Clarence had occupied the mirror and waited for his prey to come to him. With being limited to only using mirrors as fetters, there was little else he could do, but luckily, he didn't have to wait very long. One of the young women entered and walked over to the mirror to freshen up.
"Snotty cows…" she muttered as she cleaned her glasses. "Just because I want to spend the evening studying for the exams, they throw a party and ridicule me for complaining."
Wiping her glasses clean, she put them back on and looked at her reflection, not seeing that Clarence merged with it in the mirror, using his Thing In The Mirror power to take over its place. It twitched and was twisted into a monstrous version of the woman, and its clawed hands reached out from the mirror towards her.
The woman fell to the floor, unmoving and unresponsive, the shock having been too much for her to bare.
"Maybe I overdid it a bit." Clarence said as he left the premise.
The two sisters had a hard time tracking down the ghostly invaders, but they had confirmed that there were far more than just one spirit, and while most of the people in the building had started to get very scared, the witches were not worried, not as long as their protective charm was working.
Josette also knew this, and while her team kept the witches searching, she herself also searched, for the charm in question, a difficult task but she had a hunch of where to look. Moving to the room that belonged to the witches, she carefully looked around, wary about any potential wards or protective spells that they might have prepared.
Luckily, it didn't take long for Josette to locate the charm that granted the witches' barriers. It was a small clay figurine, looking like a small troll or goblin, with many symbols painted onto it. It didn't look too sturdy and would probably break easily. The only question was how, none of her team had the powers needed to do that task.
After checking her handbook for a while, she found the solution, namely Bonnie, she possessed a telekinetic power called TK Storm, and that would be more than enough to break the charm. But that required that they freed Bonnie, something that Josette still had planned to do, but now it was more of a priority.
"Listen up, team." she said through the telepathic link. "Be on the look out for a bald male by the name of Brad Durrly, we need to scare him away from here."
Standing on the sun-deck, was Brad, trying to woo one of the young women. But his attempts were interrupted when Swarm found them, and surrounded them, after that, it didn't take long until the two mortals ran back indoors, little did they know that they wouldn't be any safer there.
Using the earth in big flowerpot as a fetter, Gravedigger used his Swallow power on the woman, and the floor underneath her turned into dirt and swallowed her up to her chest. Terrified, Brad ran like a coward, leaving his friend screaming in fear. Locking himself inside one of the bathrooms, he tried to catch his breath, unaware that Jack, Nereid and Voltic were waiting for him there.
A Shattered Nerves from Jack made Brad even more nervous and more susceptible to the coming attack from the remaining two spirits. Voltic opened with his power of Leak, causing numerous leaks of water to appear all over the room, even where there were no water. As the water poured out of the walls, Nereid finished the combo with Gore, a power that made blood ooze from every crack and corner of the room, and turned all water into blood as well. In no time at all, the room became drenched in blood.
Brad couldn't unlock the door fast enough, and once it was open, he wasted no time running for his life, basically jumping down each stairway and shoving aside anyone in the way. His fear-filled screams could be heard for a long time even as he had disappeared into the night.
A message reached Josette telepathically, originating from the doll that held the essence of Bonnie.
"An eye for an eye, now he know terror. But I am not content, more grown-ups need to know the same horror, to pay for all they do."
Shortly after, a spectral mass was released from the doll and moved to where Josette were at the time. Once there, it coalesced into a ghostly copy of the doll.
"I will follow you, to where you may go. More will pay for their errors."
Josette felt a bit uncomfortable, but she welcomed the addition all the same, especially since she now had what she needed to start the next phase, she just hoped that Bonnie wouldn't have something against destroying the charm, with it vaguely resembling a doll-like object.
With the rest of the team keeping the witches occupied, Josette and Bonnie made their way to the protective charm.
"There it is. Bonnie, if you would be so kind."
There were a lot of Emotional fetters in the room, so Bonnie had no problem finding one to use. For a short time, the rest of the team gave up all the plasm that they had occupied, TK Storm was a rather expensive power, but mostly they wanted to be clear in case of some form of feedback.
With the entire reservoir of plasm at her disposal, Bonnie let loose her telekinetic force and everything smaller than a chair in the room were thrown into the air and hurled around. But this one activity didn't go unnoticed by the two sisters, as all other activity had seized, and they hurried to their room.
As soon as they opened the door, they were met by the sight of their protective charm being tossed against the floor, shattering upon impact, and the spell bound to it dissipated. They could feel how the ghostly presences quickly vanished from the room before the witches could do anything, but the damage was already done.
The sisters looked at each other in worry, their best defence was gone, and they didn't have the time to create a new one, especially not with all the hostile spirits around. But they were still far from defenceless, and any spirit engaging them was still at risk.
But breaking the clay charm did more than just strip the witches of their barriers, one particular ghost was also freed from the spell.
The serpentine spirit Snakepit, slithered through the air to Josette.
"My shacklesss have been broken, thanksss to you. If you don't mind, I would like to accompany you on your quessst, ssstarting with the witchesss."
"Your help is appreciated, Snakepit. And we will make the process short with the two witches."
Blair and Scarlet moved through the dormitory carefully and vary of any fluctuations from the spirits. Over half of the inhabitants had already fled the field, and the rest were unsure of where it was safe from the ghosts.
Both witches were on their way to investigate the kitchen, and Scarlet was the first one to enter it. Waiting bound to the oven, Jack saw an opportunity to dish out some terror and immediately struck Scarlet with his Human Torch. She cried out in shock as she burst into flames, and instantly dropped to the floor and began rolling around to put out the flames.
But as Jack laughed heartily over his work, he failed to notice that Blair had been right behind her sister. Having detected the Wisp, she quickly unleashed her arcane powers at him, white light blasting out from her hands and enveloping Jack, revealing him to the sisters.
"Hey! Quit it!" he objected as he felt a painful tingling through out his ectoplasmic body. He tried to use his powers, but nothing happened, nor could he move. "Boss! Help me!"
"There is no escape for you, spirit. Begone!" Blair said with a strong voice, and with a cry of pain, Jack faded away, right in front of Josette as she came to his aid, but too late.
"Jack! No!"
Blair quickly turned around and looked at Josette, feeling her presence. The Ghost Master had no other choice but to retreat. With the presence out of reach, Blair tended to her sister instead.
Hovering above the dormitory, Josette was shaken to the core, her moral was dropping and she didn't know what to do. Then suddenly, she felt a familiar presence nearby. Looking around, she saw how Jack reformed, looking just as shocked as her.
"Whoa! What just happened!?" he exclaimed confused.
"Jack?! I thought you were gone!"
"Well, I'm still here it seems, and I think I'm fine. But now this is personal! I'll give them a scare they won't forget!"
"Wait!"
Not even listening to her, Jack sped down towards the dormitory, but came to an abrupt stop when a huge barrier blocked him.
"Hey! What gives!?"
"One of your Haunters have been banished from the haunting." they heard Charles' voice say. "He will not be able to aid you any more in this mission. Should too many of your Haunters be banished, the mission must be aborted."
"That is not good, but it is not as bad as I thought it was."
"Guess you'll have to do this without me, boss. Sorry."
"It was not your fault, and we will avenge you. I promise. You just sit back and enjoy the show."
It was now clear for the ghosts that they couldn't underestimate the witches again, and as long as the two kept together, engaging them would be tricky. So Josette decided to take a page from their book, and make sure that no-one of her team engaged them alone.
Nereid moved outdoors, using the water in a birdbath as her fetter, then she began singing a most alluring song without words. Her Siren Song reached the ears of three of the mortals, and the became enchanted by it, feeling drawn to it.
The trio walked closer to the birdbath, not knowing why, or what awaited them. Stopping her song, Nereid allowed their newest member to show what he could do, and no-one was more pleased than Snakepit.
Using his power of Scattered Swarm, the giant snake became visible to the mortals for a short moment as he spewed out dozens of smaller snakes, all of which quickly slithered all over the ground. The already scared mortals didn't last long against that show, and jumped over the fence to get away as quickly as possible.
The tactic was a success, even if they weren't able to draw in any of the witches. But now, it was time to swarm them with all they had.
With the witches entering the common-room, most of the ghosts had fetters to use and the plasm supply was more than high enough.
A huge swarm of stinging insects materialized out of thin air, and the two sisters instinctively tried to avoid the swarm by ducking, only to fall to the floor when a powerful Quake shook the entire house, knocking down a plethora of things all over.
Swarm and Gravedigger quickly withdrew after their offensive, letting more of the team have some fun.
"Are you two alright?" the woman that Clarence had scared in the bathroom asked as she found the two sisters shortly after the quake.
"I believe so." said Scarlet, getting back on her feet together with her sister.
"That's good to hear. I've actually got a little gift for you." she said, and a gift-box with a ribbon appeared in her hands. Then she grinned as her form changed into that of Clarence before disappearing, leaving the gift-box behind. He had used his Clone power to take the form of the young woman and walk around freely.
Before the witches could do anything, Nereid used the Ethereal Gift as a fetter and used Haunted Hail, causing hundreds of live fish to fall from above their heads. And while they covered themselves from the falling fish, Voltic attacked from the still intact TV, unleashing his Surge again, and this time there was no barrier to block it.
Blair, who had been the more strong-willed couldn't take any more, and as soon as she had recovered enough from the shock, she lead her sister out into the garden, only to be caught in a Twister by Bonnie. But her momentum caused her to be thrown out through the door as she was flipped upside down. Trying to help her sister, Scarlet was unaware that Snakepit awaited them there. The witches path was blocked as Snakepit's Creepers power caused numerous claw-like vines to rise from the grass. Then, both Snakepit and Swarm struck again, using Brief Scare and Spooky Surprise respectively, and appearing in front of the two sisters.
On the edge of terror, the sisters couldn't think clearly, they were completely at the ghosts' mercy, or lack thereof. And Josette decided it was time to end it, appearing in front of the terrified mortals, and through her, the rest of the spirits as well, aside from Jack, who watched from afar.
"Perhaps now you will know not to meddle with powers you do not understand." Josette said with a dark voice. "Leave, while you still can."
Blair and Scarlet didn't need any more convincing, they were beaten and they knew it. They ran as quick as their feet could carry them, never to return to the dormitory.
With the witches on the run, the mission objective had been completed, and the portal back to the Ghoul Room opened above the dormitory. But as the ghosts returned with their new recruits, one thing passed them by. The mortal whose guise Clarence had used, still lay on the floor in the bathroom, still unmoving.
After a short introduction to the rest of the team, Snakepit and Bonnie both looked for a place that they could call their own.
At a corner of the outside of the building, Snakepit settled down, feeling at ease where he could survey the backyard.
Bonnie found what had once been a child's room, and it still had an aura of children about it, if weak, but it made the Poltergeist feel a lot more calm.
It had been a hectic night, but they had managed to come out on top. And Josette was very relieved to know that Jack was unharmed and would be able to go on missions without any problems. But that would have to wait, for they had earned not only the Gold Plasm, but also their rest.
That was some mission, and they nearly had a loss among the team. But the ghosts didn't let up and succeeded in their mission thanks to it.
Okay, I know it has been almost six months since I updated this story, but they do take a long time to plan and work out, not to mention that I work on other projects as well. Hoping that it won't be as long until the next chapter.
Also, special thanks to fellow fanfic writer and dear friend Bloodrayne666, who gave me the idea for Snakepit way back. Thanks for that! :)