A/N: Sorry this is late guys. It wasn't intentional and I wasn't trying to prioritize SG:LIV over this story, it just so happened that this one wasn't complete and I had a near mental breakdown about owing taxes to the government (revolution is imminent, bury your gold). Anyway!
For the record, peach red bulls are my favorite and I love them (Monster Ultra is also very good). I'm considering posting updates about my writings on my twitter if any of you want to follow me. You'll see a lot of content about Queer Eye, Buzzfeed Unsolved (I'm hoping if I tweet enough they'll hire me to co-host, which is the dream), weird work/life stories, and my husband on there. Heads up. The world up here in the Northeast is defrosting and I am living for Spring vibes. My brain works better when it's not grey and cold out so here's hoping.
This chapter is a little shorter than I would have liked but to get it up to word count it would have taken me the rest of the week due to my work schedule. This will work for now. Thank you for reading!
Let's see what our trio of idiots is up to.
Wind whipped through the cab of Victoria's old pickup as the trio rumbled down the highway toward a dangerously haunted house. Hiei, forced to sit in the middle because of his diminutive size, did his best to not touch either of the other occupants of the bench seat before he eventually gave up and allowed his knees widen as he relaxed into his situation. Kurama rested his elbow on the window, his hair pulled into a ponytail to avoid tangling in the wind.
There had been some hesitation from the group who had come to retrieve Victoria when the two men decided to join them on this case. Mark, in particular, seemed resistant to their presence. He'd offered to drive Victoria to the site but had made a point of telling her he didn't have room for her roommates and his equipment. That's when she told him she'd just follow in her truck so that it wouldn't be a problem.
"What do you think will happen?" Hiei asked Kurama about forty minutes in their drive.
"I'm not sure. It doesn't seem demons operate the same way here. I'm actually quite intrigued by her method of dealing with these situations. Other than the kappa incident and what followed we haven't seen Victoria work her magic." Kurama responded, vaguely distracted. Then he turned to face the others. "Do you think the homeowners will mind me cooking in their kitchen?"
"I imagine as long as you clean up, no. Why?" Victoria made a face, eyes on the road.
"I have a score to settle. I need to perfect a recipe before Sunday."
"A score to settle?" She snorted. "Who the hell are you in a cooking standoff against?"
"Grams." He narrowed his eyes as he uttered the name.
Both Hiei and Victoria turned to look at him with disbelief.
"You think you can win against that woman?" Hiei stared. "You've lost your mind."
"I don't think I'm going to win. I know I will."
"Bold words from a man who took three weeks to master making sweet tea." Victoria pointed out with a grin. "What are you going to make? Don't do mac n' cheese, ham delights, cornbread-"
"It needs to be Japanese. I'm going to try to recreate a recipe of my mother's." Kurama explained. "Though I would love to also beat Grams on her own turf, so to speak."
"You are a petty, dangerous bitch K-drama. I like that about you." She laughed. "We'll stop by a store or something to get you ingredients. I need red bulls anyway. I've been meaning to try the peach one, it sounds amazing."
"She's in a better mood. She's brighter than she was before I left." Hiei commented, turning his attention to study the woman on his left. His eyes pinched as he really looked her over. "Her aura is feels right again."
"Do you think so?" Kurama looked too but he couldn't feel a difference. Hiei seemed to have a deeper understanding in this arena, a tighter connection.
"Do you think that Mark man has something to do with it? She let him touch her. Maybe he has healing powers." Hiei suggested, frowning.
He still couldn't grasp why Victoria had let the man get in so close when she'd spent the last week building up barriers around her. Did he have some sort of preternatural power? It was a curious thing. He only cared because if there was yet another manipulative personality in their narrow circle he wanted to protect himself. Victoria had, mostly, earned his trust. Even Grams only attacked when provoked. This Mark was an outlier and he did not like that.
"No, I think she just finds him attractive."
Hiei rolled his eyes, huffing. Then he noted Kurama's careless expression and it made him frown.
"That's it?"
Kurama nodded.
"Something must have happened before Brandon and his girlfriend arrived. Even dealing with them she seemed better than before. More stable. I think we should keep an eye on her, just in case. It was a good idea to come along so we can protect her and support her."
"I just don't want her to get herself killed. She's our ticket home."
Kurama hid his smile by turning his face into the sun and wind. Hiei could posture all he wanted but the fox knew better. His friend had fallen into someone else's influence, and again they had recklessly earned his care and respect. Emotionally stilted as Hiei was, he wasn't immune to friendship. He just liked to pretend it was other things.
"By the way." Victoria started with unbridled humor. "Loving the undercut Kurama. Looks good on you. Hiei, you look very punk rock. I'm delighted."
Victoria parked the truck alongside a white windowless van and a small sedan in the yard of a lovely looking Victorian house, the trim painted white as well as the railing of the wrap around porch and the upper balconies outside the large second-story windows. The wood had been colored a gentle slate gray, the roof the usual black shingles but adorned with two large solar panels. The yard, as was common with these upper middle class living situations, was lush and green. The garden out front with it's ivy climbing the siding and wrapping around the porch's pillars was full of flowers in blood. The air smelled of honeysuckle and roses. A babbling fountain peacefully announced itself, the man-made water feature lazily cutting through the flowerbeds down to a little pond that was almost too perfect ovular.
All in all it was a perfectly inviting home on a well tended parcel of land.
"Listen to me." Victoria turned toward the two men in the truck after cutting the engine. "If there really is a malicious entity in there you two need to be prepared. This is my job, do you understand? I have done this a thousand times. That makes me the expert here, not you. I don't care what you've dealt with in your world. There will be no showboating, no going rogue. You listen to me or I take you to a hotel and leave you there until I finish this."
Hiei and Kurama exchanged a look.
"This could be dangerous." She pressed earnestly, gravely serious. "I don't want either of you getting hurt, especially not because you're doing something stupid. You have to promise you'll listen to me. That includes going if I tell you to go."
They both begrudgingly nodded feeling as though they were being scolded. Seeing Victoria behaving so sternly, speaking so strictly was unusual. It worked to remind them of intensity of what they might face. Victoria nodded back to them and exited the truck moving around to the bed to pull out her black duffel. With a smile she produced two shirts to match her own and tossed them to the boys.
"Put these on."
With confusion, not sure if this was a ritual for their protection, they complied by stripping off their tops and replacing them with the clothing she'd offered.
Beaming Victoria pulled out her phone and snapped a picture of them, then turned and held away from her for a selfie with them in the background. "Perfect. We're ready to get in there. By the way, the cameras are probably rolling so you might end up on TV."
"Wait, what?" Kurama fretted following after her brisk pace with his own long strides. "But this is where you were on your last trip."
"Yeah, I was apart of the filming of an episode. When Brandon realizes he's in real shit he calls me in to save his ass. He's pretty fucking useless." Victoria turned with a smile to look at Brandon, who glared at her from the porch. "Oh hey, didn't see you there."
"You're the world's biggest bitch and I wish I knew someone else who could do this for me." He told her.
"But you don't." She shrugged.
"Are you serious with those shirts?" He demanded, gesturing to the three of them in their matching Local Cryptid tank tops. "Really?"
"Nice shirts." Mark came out from the house with his camera rig on his shoulder. He offered her a warm smile. "Did you wear that when you showed up last time?"
"I'm hoping to convince the audience I exist in a pocket of space-time." Victoria laughed.
Kurama climbed the three front steps leading to the porch. Victoria and Hiei made to follow at a matched pace when Hiei's hand shot out and gripped her by the upper arm so tightly she was sure he would leave bruises. His movements stalled, eyes wide as he stared up at the house with wide eyes. Even though he did his best to hide it, for a scalding flash Hiei had been viscerally afraid. She felt it too. The energy rolling out of the house this close was ominous at best. It was darkness, the sensation of it, despite the shining sun and all the lights inside burning brightly. Hiei swallowed, his fingers flexing. Victoria reached up and pried his hand off her arm, squeezing his fingers in solidarity before releasing him. Her duffel hit the ground.
They weren't joking about something being very, very wrong here.
Strange that Hiei was reacting so strongly suddenly though. Maybe their run-in with Dorian and the rift between worlds cracking open briefly had awakened his third eye, so to speak. He'd been a psychic before, hadn't he? It would make sense he would be sensitive here as well. Victoria pulled a necklace over her head, all her jewelry still in place from her shielding herself from the world. Hiei watched her warily as she draped the protective pendant over his head.
"This will help." She assured him. "I'll make you something stronger when we get to the hotel. If this gets to be too much you can leave anytime."
This is dangerous.
"Yeah buddy, it is. But it's my job." She patted his shoulder and started peeling her rings off her fingers. If she wanted to be the most effective at feeling this out she had to open herself up.
What good timing for her to shake off her haze.
Brandon owed her a princely sum for this.
Hiei followed her up the steps slowly, his eyes scanning the door and the area. He glared at Brandon because the man glared at him first. The urge to flip him off was barely held off. Victoria looked behind her at him and laughed and he suspected she had felt his annoyance.
"You look very intense with your mohawk and your tank top and sparkly nails, Hiei. But try not to piss off the host, okay?"
He shoved his hands into his pocket and stomped into the house with his eyes closed, sneering. Kurama was already in the kitchen with Mekenzi, listening as she described where everything was located. Mark came in behind Hiei and Victoria standing far too close for Hiei's comfort.
"I've been meaning to ask. Is that pomander you made still going to work?" Mark asked her, eyes roving the downstairs. "This place gives me the creeps."
"It'll be good enough for now. I'll make a new batch tonight." Victoria started to walk around the rooms, absorbing the dark energy of the place. Her skin crawled. "Do you have the history of this place?"
"I think Brandon does."
"I'm going to need that. Interviews with the home owners?"
"I'll give you the flash drive with a copy of the videos and recordings. We had to go back and do a second round after the activity started. This has been insane. I thought the demon house was wild but this is even worse." Mark swallowed.
"Yeah." Victoria pulled her brows together until a crease formed between, distracted. The energy of the place was oppressive, cold, dark. But there was an undercurrent of something else that pulled at her yet she couldn't place it. She knew she didn't want to stay here for very long.
In measured steps, Mark's camera rolling, she wandered around the first floor her fingers gliding along the claw marks dug into the drywall then made her way up to the second where she frowned as she paced room to room. Shaking her head so made her way back down the stairs and stood at the base of the staircase for a moment, eyes closed. When she opened her eyes she fixated on a fern that sat in the living room to the left of where she stood. Large ferns sat in the windows along with flower arrangements which were still vibrant. The fern too, when she touched it, had fronds that were healthy and strong. She dipped her fingers down to prod the soil and it was damp.
"Strange." She offered quietly, mostly to herself. "When did you say the homeowners left?"
"We arrived about a week ago. They were gone for a week or so before that." Mekenzi entered the room, watching Victoria.
"Okay." The teal haired woman nodded, rubbing her fingers together to test the feeling of the wet soil. She brought her fingertips to her nose and inhaled. Fresh. No mildew or anything. It was like the plants were just watered. "Have you guys changed anything about the house? Thrown out food? Vacuumed? Any maintenance?"
"You know we don't change the environment." Brandon told her. "It ruins the integrity. We come in, survey, add our equipment, collect evidence and then act if necessary."
"That's what I thought." She wiped her hand on her jeans. "I want to read the history you took on the place and listen to the testimonies before I do anything. I can't cleanse the space until I know what I'm dealing with. Plus I need time to set up precautions. Something about this is off but I can't quite place it yet."
"Take your time." Brandon crossed his arms, his tone sincere. "This needs to be done the right way."
Kurama tipped his head to the side, eying Hiei who stood back from the group to watch Brandon. The short man fix his attention on Brandon's back, then looked Kurama's way with a knowing look. He nodded once then turned back to watch the room. They'd have to discuss this later.
"We're going to go get setup in a room." Victoria told the others. "Meet me there with the files when you get them together."
"Yeah, I can swing by after I set up the static cams again." Mark nodded.
"Thanks."
Hiei and Kurama looked around their hotel room with keen interest, studying the mini toiletries, the folded towels, the room service menu and the television channel list. Victoria hadn't been able to convince Brandon to pay for her to get a larger suite so she sprung for it herself. This way they had a pullout couch and two beds allowing for Hiei and Kurama to sleep apart for the first time since they'd arrived in this unfamiliar world. It was a worthwhile sacrifice she learned immediately as they both lit up at the idea of sleeping alone. Hiei fiddled with the locks, testing them repeatedly before moving on to the windows to see if they could open.
"Hotels don't have windows that open like that anymore." Victoria announced from her bed, head bent over her papers. "It's a safety and economics thing. Saves energy and keeps people from leaping to their deaths."
"Interesting." Kurama noted, sitting on the other bed to test it's firmness. "This feels extravagant. Are you sure it's worth the splurge?"
"You two obviously think so. That means it's worth it to me." She frowned at a piece of paper and then shuffled the loose pages into an uneven stack, shoving it back into the manila folder. "Nothing. There's nothing in the history that would explain this."
"That means demon, yes?" Kurama laid back and smiled up to the ceiling. How wonderful it was to not have to share the mattress with someone else. He splayed himself out.
"It means something." Victoria chewed at the skin around her thumb as she fell into thought. "These things don't happen for no reason. Why this house? Why these people? Why now? There are so many questions."
A knock at the door made Hiei jump back, as he'd been standing just in front of it. He put his hand on the handle and rose to his toes to look through the peephole with a glare. Rolling his eyes he opened the door so Mark could stroll in. The cameraman raised an eyebrow at him, then noticed Kurama before finally settling his attention on Victoria.
"I brought the flash drive. Sorry it took so long. I had to copy everything over and there's a lot of video." He glanced at Hiei once again before coming to sit on the bed beside Victoria. "Find anything in the papers?"
"Nothing." She accepted the flash drive and pulled out her laptop. "I'll have to watch the interviews to get a better idea of what might have triggered this."
"You don't think it was just random?" He leaned closer to her.
"I don't. Demons don't work that way. They're drawn to things. I can't figure out what this entity might've seen in this house. There is something I know it. Once I can answer that question it'll be easier to get rid of it."
"Why the house?" Kurama sat up on his elbow to regard her. "Why not the occupants?"
"Because they've reported nothing since they left. All the activity is still at the house. That means the entity is there. If it wanted them, it would follow them, but it didn't. It showed up out of nowhere to attack them, scare them out, then ramp up it's activity when the crew arrived." Victoria wrinkled her nose. "Oh! That's right. Hey, K-drama-" Mark mouthed the nickname to himself with some humor- "Can you reach into my bag and pull out the ziplock of black salt? I need you to put some of that into one of the muslin bags along with some of the activated charcoal. Then you can hand it to Mark. Maybe one for you and Hiei too, please."
"A protective sachet?" He guessed.
"That's why you're the brains of the operation." She gestured to him without looking, her eyes glued to her screen. She pulled out her earbuds and plugged them in. "Hiei can you please calm down, you're being too loud."
Mark and Kurama both glanced at the third man, who bristled and remained as quiet as he'd been for the last two hours. Hiei walked over the small end table by the couch and swiped the necklace Victoria had lent to him from the surface, pulling it on with a glower. She gave him a thumbs up, again without looking. He threw himself onto the couch, narrowed eyes focused on her and Mark, his arms crossed. Kurama did as he'd been told and started making the sachet. After a few minutes Hiei got up and crawled onto Victoria's bed behind her, also watching the screen.
Mark actively tried to avoid looking at him. Quietly, he leaned toward Victoria to whisper, "His eyes don't freak you out?"
"Why would they?" She blinked, turning to him.
"They're fucking red, Vick. That's not weird to you?"
"Oh, no. That's a rare genetic mutation is all. It makes him look mean though doesn't it?" She laughed it off. "You're the first person to say something about it. I'm surprised."
He nodded. Everyone in the room noticed that he didn't pull back. Hiei audibly huffed then pointed to the screen where a kitchen cabinet opened behind one of the women that owned the home as she spoke to Brandon. Victoria bobbed her head. Then she signed to him to keep his eyes open in case she missed something. Mark took the other earbud to listen with her so he could point out anomalies he had already noted.
"Right here you can hear it threaten Brandon."
"Sounds like a whisper."
"It was quiet but it was definitely there." Brandon jumped on the screen, slapping at his neck and ear as though a bug had landed on him and he needed to bat it away. "He said he felt like something breathed on him."
"He's such a wuss. Call me when something licks him. That shit changes you." Victoria shuddered. "Okay, so this is Mekenzi building her circle. Looks good, looks good-" she jabbed at the space bar to pause the video right when the salt line broke, "Did you see that?"
"See what?" Mark shook his head.
"Hiei?"
She received a nod. He motioned for her to rewind then leaned over her to pause the video a second earlier. The break in the circle drew outward. Mark inhaled sharply, eyes wide.
"Holy shit."
"It broke the circle from the inside. It was in there with her." Victoria swallowed. "This thing is fucking with you guys. It could have done anything to her but it settled for breaking the circle then nothing. It tried to drown a woman but didn't do anything else menacing to her. It ruined the walls but only breathed on Brandon. This thing has tremendous malevolent power but it's acting like a-"
Her eyes closed and she pressed her lips together as she shook her head.
"Acting like what?"
She hit play on the video and fast forwarded to their footage from the time the crew would have left the equipment unattended to come see her. She waited and watched without answering Mark's question because she wanted to make sure. And there it was.
A man with short brown curly hair dressed in cuffed blue jeans, green adidas and a graphic tee walking around the camera with a watering can in hand. Mark swore.
"What the hell? The alarms didn't go off." He waved to the screen.
"Shh." Hiei and Victoria hushed him.
The man whistled while he watered the ferns and the cut flowers. Then he turned and looked at the camera with a smile that widened to reveal sharp teeth, his eyes glinting unnaturally.
And then he was gone.
"What the fuck." Mark pulled back. "What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck. Was that the demon?"
"Worse." Victoria grumbled, put out already with this case. "It's a trickster."