Enjoying myself some more library of Ruina this weekend. I completed it once before but by using mostly Gebura, Yesod and Malkuth (which might as well be cheating) so this time I forced myself to use other floors, mainly Netzach, Binah and Chesed who I saw as weak before. Man, I was wrong. Netzach is annihilating his way through star of the city, and I've fallen in love with Binah's music. I'd love to use Tiphereth but every single one of her abnormality battles makes me froth at the mouth with rage. Currently on King of Greed and it's just so god-damned aggravating. Queen of Hatred was bad enough. I hate the "if fail this mechanic; die" fights.
On the other hand, I beat Love Town and Red Mist first tries, which both held me up for literal days the first playthrough.
Oh, and we have some updated cover art now, building on Curbizzle's background art, with Jaune and Blake on it and looking very swagger indeed. Jaune rocks that suit.
Cover Art: Kirire
Chapter 3
"Raise your arm, madam."
The tailor stretched out a roll of tape under Blake's arm, hummed and read out the measurement, then jotted it down on a small notepad. He then took the tape to her side, measuring between her armpit and her waist before taking down some more numbers. He then moved to her other arm and requested she do the same.
"Wouldn't my arms be the same length?" Blake asked impatiently.
"You would be surprised how often they are not, madam," the old gentleman replied. He was everything she imagined a private tailor would be – white of hair, dressed in a cravat, wearing a monocle. He couldn't have been more stereotypical if he'd tried. That and calling her `madam` and Jaune `sir` every time he addressed them, and she was starting to feel like she'd stepped back into some period drama. "Hmm. And I presume you will want your assistant robed similarly to yourself, sir?"
"The same colours," Jaune said. He was sat on a couch in the window cranny of the small store. The whole place reeked of old money, from the narrow storefront to the lack of customers to the décor several decades out of date. This was the kind of shop you saw on documentaries into old industries that were dying out, and the kind of place she would never have the money to visit regularly. "It's our company uniform."
"Of course, sir. And quite the sophisticated uniform it is. Would you like to try a fitting?"
The man picked out some pieces from shelves and offered them to her, then nudged her toward the single changing room at the back. It had a door rather than curtain to Blake's relief, and she slid inside and closed it, quickly climbing out her borrowed clothing – despite four spins in Jaune's washing machine, the blood just wouldn't come out and her outfit was now black and pink; she would die before she was seen wearing it – and into the new outfit.
The skirt was a little tight on her and she wasn't used to wearing one that hugged her legs so much. The white blouse was, on the contrary, slightly baggier, while the jacket fit almost perfectly over the top. Blake hesitated with the black tie, biting her lip and wishing she'd paid attention to those lessons from her mother. Learning how to wear a tie hadn't been a big concern when she planned to join the White Fang. She quickly navigated her scroll to a help article and fumbled it on as best she could, but it looked crooked and a little too tight. She then pulled on the black tights and stepped into the flat black shoes, polished to a shine, and inspected herself in the mirror.
I look good, she thought. She ought to given it was a suit and such were designed to make anyone look professional. Heck, Jaune looked downright competent in his, which only went to show how much a good outfit could disguise. The woman in the mirror looked like she wouldn't be caught dead with uncouth sorts, and certainly not with the White Fang, so it served a good use there.
"Are you done?" Jaune called.
"Sir, one should never rush a lady."
Blake rolled her eyes, unsure which opinion irritated her more, and stepped out the door. She felt as confident as she looked, walking forward in a dark grey suit with a navy-blue jacket to match the colour of the coat Jaune wore over his own suit. He stood, eyes lighting up, and clapped his hands. "You look great."
"Thank you."
"The colour and style pleases you, then?" the tailor asked. "In that case I shall make to formalising the cut and stitching. Do you wish for an additional set?"
"We'd best go with five at least, but can you prioritise one to complete early? She's without a proper uniform until then."
"Of course, sir." If it wasn't Blake's imagination the man looked positively thrilled. It couldn't be every day he got customers, let alone one willing to buy five tailored outfits in one go. Jaune must have been bankrolling this place. "Would the madam like some trousers to go with the skirts? The weather is not always so warm."
"Blake?"
"Yes." The skirt wasn't bad and her stockings were warm, but if she was going to go against something with acid blood like Jaune said, she'd like the option of a little more coverage. "I'd like that, please, but can't I just take this suit? It fits close enough."
"Madam. One does not visit a tailor to settle for `close enough`. When I am done, your suit shall feel like a second skin."
"He's right." Jaune said. "Theodore here is a wizard when it comes to stitching. You'll not be able to handle store-bought suits after experiencing his work."
"The sir is too kind. I am but a humble craftsman."
"We'll take the suit anyway," he said. "As an extra. Blake literally has nothing else to wear, and I doubt we'll find better than this on the high street. Is that alright, Theodore?"
"Of course, sir. I shall add it to the bill. Speaking of which…"
"Payment. Of course." Jaune slid a hand into his jacket and pulled out a black, leather wallet. He slid out a golden card and handed it over. Blake didn't recognise it. "How much does it come to?"
"Considering the express job you wish performed, five suits and five additional pairs of trousers, I believe…" The man tapped away on a calculator. Blake had a feeling it wouldn't be cheap, and she wasn't disappointed. "That comes to one hundred and forty thousand lien."
Blake almost choked. She coughed, slammed her hand to her chest and turned away to avoid hacking out a lung. It was said the average wage in Vale was around sixty thousand, but minimum wage – and what most people had – was closer to twenty-five. You could rent a one-bedroom apartment for seven hundred a month. She'd checked. To hear that a couple of suits was going to cost more than what most people earned in five years? No wonder this place didn't have any bloody customers.
Jaune, however, merely smiled and tapped his pin in. "That's fine. Thank you."
"No. Thank you, sir. I shall call as soon as I have the first outfit ready for you. The rest shall follow. A pleasure doing business with you as always, Mr Arc. If you have need of me, you know where to find me. I always look after my loyal customers."
"I can't believe you paid that much for a set of suits." Blake said not fifteen minutes later when they sat at a diner for a late lunch.
"Hmmm?" Jaune looked up from his milkshake, meeting her eyes across the table. He looked ridiculous, not least of all because of the clash between the expensive and posh suit and the childish drink he had. Blake had a black tea before her, and she sipped at it slowly. "I didn't think it was that much."
"Spoken like someone who's never had to worry about money in their life."
"Ahah. I guess that's true. Our company has a lot of history and resources. We need it given what we do and how many outfits we burn through. Sometimes literally."
"You're loaded, then."
"ARC Corp is loaded. I'm not. The suits are a business expense."
As, apparently, was lunch, given that he paid on the same card. Blake didn't argue since her own finances were in the tank and she'd been hungry as well. The tuna melt made all that go away and more. Given that it was the lunch hour of a weekday, a man and a woman out in suits at a diner didn't look all that out the ordinary. They weren't the only ones wearing such, but she would hazard theirs cost more than everyone else's combined.
"So…" she said. "What do we do now? I mean, we've had breakfast, lunch, bought me a uniform." They'd finished all the preparatory work. "What happens now? Do I go through training? Is there an induction ceremony?"
Jaune blinked. "I don't know. It's not like I've ever hired anyone before."
And it wasn't like ARC Corp was a normal business either. Her `training` may as well have been her escaping from a murderous house. There was a part of her that wasn't keen to see that happen again, but another part, that obnoxiously curious part of her, desperately wanted to find out more. What other anomalies existed? How many were there? What were they like? The annoying part about the curiosity killing the cat proverb was that even knowing she was falling for it face first, she still wanted to know more.
"I guess we just continue as normal," he said. "You can learn on the job and I'll do my best to teach you."
"You, who have only been on the job for two weeks?"
"Hey, I've only been running my office for two weeks. I've plenty of experience in dealing with our kinds of business." He managed to avoid saying anomalies easily, likely used to dodging the topic in conversation in public places. "I did a lot of work experience with my family. It's not like I sat at home twiddling my thumbs."
"Oh? The last job didn't go so well."
"I had that fully under control before you arrived."
"Really? Hadn't you been stuck in there for eight hours?"
"The circumstances weren't ideal, I admit."
"You were completely out your depth."
"Says the girl who was having a panic attack and unloading on a window, and who nearly shot me for talking to her."
It was her turn to scowl and fight down a blush. It hadn't been her best moment. Blake sipped her tea and changed the subject. "How do we find our next… uh… client, then?" Unlike him, she had to think up things to say that didn't sound too suspicious. "It's not like they'll come to us."
"Our main sources of information are the newspapers and online." That explained the newspapers he'd bought from a newsagent along the way. "Sometimes we get a news story and realise something is unusual about what's going on it, like I did with the missing people in Vale. We can track down a problem and try to solve it, finding out little friends along the way."
"And sometimes people post creepy stories or unexplainable images on social media," Blake finished. "I get it. And we investigate and make sure those aren't real. That's… I mean, I guess it makes sense and all, but it all sounds a bit reactive. Don't we ever go out and hunt for ourselves?"
"It's hard to know where to look. In mygrandfather's time it was as easy as being an agency with a direct line to the various governments. If someone saw aliens or thought they'd seen a monster, they would call the police and the case would be flagged up and sent to us. We'd then go interview the person, find out what was wrong and deal with it. The world is a lot more connected than it used to be, so now when someone sees something they can't explain, the first thing they do is post it online." He sighed. "It's that much harder to find them now, and there's more risk than ever that our work gets exposed."
The power of the internet she supposed, ruining things for everyone. Ruining things for her now as well since she was a part of this. "Right. So, just read the newspaper and hope something pops out?"
"Sometimes one of the other offices notices something in our territory and will call to give us a case. That happens too. But for the most part, yeah, we're just looking and hoping for something to pop up."
"Sounds boring."
"Boring is good." Jaune pointed out. "Boring means the world is in a safe place."
"I guess that's true. I'm just worried I won't look good to your father if I can't complete any jobs."
"That's a fair point. Don't worry, the peace never lasts. Our office doesn't just cover the city of Vale, but a whole bunch of the surrounding villages and outposts as well. There's always something going on somewhere."
"Does that mean we have to cover the wilderness as well?"
"Not really. If there is any business out there then it's probably far enough away from people to be a problem. We need to pick what we focus on. The reason our last job was so important was because of how many people it could impact. If it was in the middle of Forever Fall, it wouldn't have been much of an issue."
People who passed by it might still have died, but they would have been much less in number and no one would find out about it. It didn't feel good by any means, but it made sense, and ARC Corp apparently wasn't what it used to be. "Will I be meeting your dad anytime soon?"
"I hope not!" Jaune winced at realising his panicked response to that question. "Uh. I mean, ahah, probably not anytime soon. I might not have actually, fully, completely told him about you yet. Or mentioned you at all." He laughed nervously. "But he'll notice that I bought a bunch of female suits and put two and two together. He's good at noticing things like that."
"You don't think that'll make it worse for me when he finds out?"
"Oh, I doubt it can get any- I mean, you don't have to worry about that. Hah. Just, you know, focus on doing a good job. That way there won't be any good arguments for why you shouldn't be a part of the company when he does find out. So, yeah, maybe we do need to find a case to close quickly."
Blake sighed and picked up a newspaper. Her life might just depend on it.
/-/
It was back in the Containments Office with Blake poring through her seventh newspaper in search of clues when the scroll on his desk went off. Her own search had been mostly useless. There were reports of police still looking for the missing people, whom sadly would never be found, but the rest of it was the usual nonsense you expected to see – politics, celebrity news and mention of the new year at Beacon and some excited chatter on its celebrity guests, Pyrrha Nikos and Weiss Schnee. The latter name burned an ugly hole in Blake's stomach, but she couldn't see any way to frame the girl as a destructive anomaly, so it wasn't something she could bring up to Jaune.
He had been at his desk on his laptop, tap-tapping away online to try and locate any anomalous reports of his own. That was much harder than the newspapers, he'd said, on account of the number of websites and the stories, fiction and exaggerated tales people liked to tell. Blake didn't doubt him on that. Picking fact from fiction was hard enough in the newspaper. Online forums must have been a minefield.
"ARC Corp." Jaune answered the scroll in a polite voice. "Jaune Arc speaking. How may I-? Yes. Yes, that's right, we are a paranormal investigation agency. Ghost hunters, yes. That's basically it in a nutshell."
`What the fuck…` Blake mouthed from her sofa. Jaune saw and smiled her way while still listening to the person on the other end. Weren't they meant to keep that secret? Wasn't it supposed to be a big deal?
"No, ma'am, I assure you we're not fraudsters. Hmhm. Our job is to investigate, ma'am. No, in all truth we haven't found any ghosts yet – most of the time the problem is just leaky pipes, animals in the loft or something else, but we get to the bottom of the issue either way. I'm happy to come down in person and talk with you, ma'am. Yes, a free consultation. No pressure and no fees involved. If you'll provide the address? Yes, yes." He scribbled down on a pad. "Thank you. I'll be with you shortly."
Jaune put the scroll down.
Blake didn't wait for him to say a word. "What the hell was that?"
"We have a case."
"No." She shook her head. "You cannot be serious. In what world do people call us about anomalies? I thought we were meant to keep this secret. And what was that about us being ghost hunters?"
"That, Blake, is our cover story." Jaune was already pulling on his blue coat. "And I happen to have us advertised in numerous address books and online as paranormal investigators and ghost hunters. We've been contacted by a woman who doesn't herself believe in ghosts but is unable to explain some rather strange things that have been happening in her home as of late."
It clicked in Blake's mind. "Strange as in anomalous?"
"Maybe. Most people don't believe in ghosts, and for good reason, but it makes for a convenient excuse for what we do. Maybe it is nothing; maybe it's just some animals causing noise…"
"But it might be an anomaly. Do you think it is?"
"With us only getting that `strange things are happening` from her I can't really say." Jaune buttoned his jacket up and moved around the desk, shutting his laptop down and closing it. Blake sighed and stood, putting her own shoes on again. "People like to find rational excuses for anomalous events," he explained. "That works to our advantage most of the time, keeps people from believing what's really going on. Ghosts aren't real, but idiots who believe in them are, so we pose as those idiots and put ourselves out as genuine ghost hunters."
"And that works?"
"Sometimes. Maybe one in ten? One in twenty?" He shrugged. "Honestly, it's nonsense a lot of the time but if it even works once then it's worth it. It hasn't worked for me yet, but I know it has for my sisters and my dad. It's one of the standard methods. Pretty much all our offices are registered as paranormal investigators."
Which, ironically, they absolutely were. Refuge in audacity. By flat-out telling the truth about what they were, they made it seem so unrealistic that no one believed them. Blake wondered if the same would hold if they just released their files on the Welcoming House online. Most people who read those would just think it a clever little horror story with accompanying voice logs designed to make it look more interesting.
No one would think it real – and that was the whole point.
/-/
Mrs Scarlatina was a rabbit faunus with long brown ears and hair, a fierce scowl and an embarrassed flush. She had her arms crossed as she stood at the garden gate to her suburban home, and she looked downright unhappy to see them. She breathed a sigh of relief that they'd come in suits and not looking like they were straight out a ghost movie, but even that seemed strained.
"Are you the… uh…" Her shoulders hunched up defensively and she continued in a hushed whisper, as if afraid her neighbours might overhear. "Are you the paranormal investigators?"
Jaune seemed immune to the deep embarrassment dripping off the woman. "We are. I'm Jaune Arc and this is my assistant, Blake. You must be Mrs Scarlatina." He offered his gloved hand, which the faunus looked at suspiciously. "A pleasure to meet you."
"I'd say the same…" The woman sighed, took his hand and relaxed a little. "Sorry, it's not you – this is just… this is embarrassing. I don't believe in nonsense like ghosts and spirits, you realise." It was said almost apologetically, like she was trying not to offend someone's religious beliefs. "I'm a huntress, or I used to be. I fought Grimm every day for twenty years, and now I'm hiring a pair of ghost hunters to come check out my home. I'll never hear the end of this if my teammates find out. You don't…" The woman's lips twisted as she asked, "You don't actually believe in this nonsense, do you?"
Blake made to shake her head.
"We wouldn't be here otherwise, ma'am." Jaune interrupted with a huge, idiotic smile. "Blake and I have always believed in ghosts – that's why we set up our agency. We've been hunting ghosts all our life and we intend to continue. Ghosts, spirits, poltergeists and wraiths are right up our alley. Right, Blake?"
Blake squirmed on the spot and wished a ghost would appear to eat her up then and there. Mrs Scarlatina was looking at her with something between disbelief, disappointment and unbelievable pity – as if Blake were a gullible young woman wasting her life away.
"R-Right," Blake stammered. "Ghosts are real and spooky…"
Kill me. Kill me now.
"Right…" Mrs Scarlatina shook her head sadly, as if Blake was already too far down the rabbit hole to be saved. "I… well, I can't complain if I'm the one who called you out, can I? You can call me Meg. Look, I'll be honest with you, I don't know what is happening, but something odd is. Ghost or no. I thought it was an animal trapped in the attic at first, then I thought maybe there were insects in the walls or rats and other vermin around the bins outside. I've had plumbers over, insulation specialists, surveyors, pest control and more, and no one can find what's happening."
"What is happening?" Blake asked as professionally as she could. She was as desperate to get this on the road as Meh was, and as embarrassed to be out in public talking about ghosts as she was, too. "What is it you've found odd about the house?"
"I've heard… movement." Meg crossed her arms again as if to ward off the cold. "Sometimes in the attic, sometimes in the house itself late at night. Scraping noises, like something being dragged, or floorboards creaking. I thought it might be a thief the first time and came charging out ready to fight."
"Nothing?"
"Nothing. After that I assumed it was my imagination even if it's been happening for three weeks now, but I had my daughter back last weekend – she's at Beacon right now but visited for my birthday," she explained. "And Velvet heard it too. Worse, she said she heard breathing. I tell you now, I went up into the attic with a knife ready to stab whoever had snuck into our house, but no matter how hard I looked, even with Velvet helping, we couldn't find a thing. The doors and windows were all locked, too."
Ugh. Blake shuddered. Meg might be prepared to write it off as her imagination but knowing that anomalies did exist suddenly made it all sound a lot more worrying to Blake. Hell, that could well be some monster living in her attic. The thought would have been enough to have Blake selling the house and moving away.
When I do rent an apartment, the first thing I'm going to do is have Jaune go over it with a fine comb. I don't think I could sleep if I wasn't sure what was there.
"I was going to ignore it but Velvet made me promise to call someone to find out what it was," Meg continued. "I think she's worried about me being on my own with all this going on, and I have to admit if our positions were reversed and this was happening at Beacon, I'd be worried about her as well."
"Of course." Jaune said. "Even if it's just an animal or termites, that still means the house might be in bad shape. There's no reason to take any risks with your safety or the safety of your loved ones."
"Exactly." Meg cheered up a little at the realistic, normal explanation. "I'm sure it's nothing but I'd rather be sure and, well, the plumbers and everyone else have said it's nothing. I'm running out of ideas or I'd have never called people like– I mean, I wouldn't have called your office."
People like us, Blake thought. Frauds.
Meg must have thought them either idiots who believed in things they shouldn't, or a pair of scammers preying on the minds and bank accounts of gullible folk. Nether was good, though from ARC Corp's goal of keeping the anomalous hidden, both were great excuses.
No wonder Jaune looked so happy.
"You've called the right people, Mrs Scarlatina. I assure you our job isn't to make up reasons for why something is happening. We're here to prove or disprove the existence of any ghosts – and ninety-nine per cent of the time it's disprove. Now, we're going to need to move some equipment inside your house. EMF readers, thermal imaging cameras, temperature sensors and the like." He rattled them off as if they were normal things, with Mrs Scarlatina becoming increasingly uncomfortable as the list went on. Blake was fairly sure Jaune was bullshitting half the terms he used, especially when he called something an ectoplasmic resonator. "I'm sure all of that will be a pain to try and navigate around, and the readings can get interrupted by people in the house giving off heat signatures and tripping movement sensors left, right and centre. Do you have somewhere you can stay for the night while we work?"
"I have friends in the city, yes. How long would this take?"
"One night should be sufficient." Jaune said. "If the activity is as regular as you say, we can look for evidence during the night and see if we can catch any readings."
"And if you can't?"
"I'm almost certain there will be something, but if it doesn't show up as a ghost then we'll investigate what is causing the sounds. As you say, it might be an animal or instability in the house. If nothing else, we'll be able to tell you what it isn't, and we'll have cameras everywhere so if it is an animal or, heavens forbid, a person sneaking in somehow, we'll know."
"That would be great. I just want to put this nonsense to bed once and for all."
Jaune and Meg dickered and talked for a few more minutes, her asking questions and Jaune showing a remarkable amount of skill in coming up with answers. It was obvious this wasn't the first time he'd pulled this trick because he answered everything from insurance to theft protection, to how and when they would be paid and more.
It eventually ending with Jaune bringing out a contract that Mrs Scarlatina read through and signed. She then handed over a spare key to the house to them and opened the gate. "I know everything I own in there," she warned them. "So don't get any ideas."
"We won't, ma'am, and we shall replace anything if we do happen to break it. Have a good evening." Jaune waved until Mrs Scarlatina was well out of sight, then dropped his hand and turned to Blake with a pleased smile. "Well? Impressed?"
"That you made us look like idiots?"
"Ah." He rubbed his head and laughed. "I guess I did, but any cover is a good cover and I've got us access to the house for the night, and whatever we do find in there, you can guarantee she'll not believe. All we need to do is say we found a ghost and she'll assume we're having her on. You have to admit that's a job well done."
Reluctantly, she did. Jaune had potentially found them an anomaly and talked the homeowner away, giving them a chance to get inside and track it down, and all without raising any suspicions. Or suspicions of the truth anyway, she was sure Mrs Scarlatina had plenty of suspicions about the two of them and their trustworthiness. Somehow, Jaune had made Blake feel even stupider than when she was a terrorist. No small feat.
"Let's just get in there and get started. Even I'm starting to feel embarrassed about being called a ghost hunter."
"Don't forget the equipment."
Blake's ears flattened to her head. "You're joking…"
He was not, in fact, joking. Blake almost wanted to weep as she carried a tripod camera over one shoulder and a small box that kept making beeping and wheeeing noises every few seconds. Jaune called them EMF readers and scanners.
They were just sound boxes. The scanner would flash a red light randomly every now and then, and the same for the other. The point was to look like they were genuinely trying to scan the house for ghosts. If they looked the part, no one would ask questions. They'd just tut, roll their eyes and joke about them behind their backs.
Much better.
"I saw that neighbour looking at me like I was an idiot," she complained. "I feel like an idiot."
"Then our cover is perfect."
"Can't we have a cover story I can be at least marginally proud of? I'd honestly feel better if we came as bug exterminators at this point. At least that's a respectable career."
"You and I know what's really going on here. Isn't that enough?"
No. Not at all. Blake mewled unhappily at the huge pile of prop instruments they were going to be using to fake a paranormal investigation. The cameras worked, but they wouldn't see anything, not with how Jaune was setting them up near windows. It was all a show so that any curious neighbours looking in, or if Meg came back to check, would see evidence that the two idiots inside really were trying to look for ghosts.
"What are we actually going to do?" she asked. "Do we have an anomaly scanner?"
"Oh man, I wish." Jaune said with a whimsical sigh. "That'd make life easier. Mrs Scarlatina says the sounds happen at night and that the anomaly – if it is one – hides whenever someone tries to find it. It might really be a rat of insects. We're going to have to find out."
"Which means we're sleeping here?"
"We sure are."
Well, at least that would mean she got to sleep on a bed and not a couch. That would have sounded a lot better if she wasn't also aware she was going to be sleeping in a house literally haunted by some creepy monster that was going to come out at night when her guard was down. Oh great, and now she was the one hyperventilating. Nice.
Blake scanned the corners nervously. It was a nice house, well decorated and lived in with pastel colours and plenty of photos of Meg at various ages, sometimes with a younger version of herself smiling at the camera. It would have been cute if not for Blake's paranoia and the feeling that she was being watched. Like any sane person living in a horror movie, she had a sinking suspicion that `splitting up and searching for clues` was not the right call.
"Are we sleeping together?"
Jaune blinked. "Wouldn't that be a little inappropriate? I'm your boss."
"Not like that! I mean in the same room!"
"Mrs Scarlatina said her daughter heard it as well. I figure we'll have double the chance if we sleep in different rooms." He smiled as if proud of thinking about it. Blake made an unhappy noise. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing."
"You're not… scared. Are you?"
"… no…"
"Okay then." Jaune was all smiles, believing her implicitly. "Do you want the master bedroom or the daughter's one?"
Which was less likely to have a monster crawling onto her bed in the middle of the night? The master bedroom was where the person who lived here usually slept, but she'd said her daughter heard actual breathing, which sounded like it was a little too close to the monster for her comfort. "I'll take the master. So, uh, assuming we do hear something. What are we going to do?"
"Well, the cameras are meant to fake what we're doing but they will be on and recording, so they might capture something. I think we should try and hunt down whatever it is, though. If it's moving and breathing then it's likely a creature and not an object. That makes it a lot easier – you wouldn't believe how hard it was for mom to find an anomalous lamp in a furniture warehouse, especially when she didn't know it was a lamp. This thing is mobile, it has needs and it knows when and where people sleep."
Blake felt the sweat trickling down her forehead. Was any of that supposed to be comforting? She rather liked the idea of an inanimate, non-thinking object that stayed politely where it was and didn't hunt people down. That sounded lovely.
"We won't need to find it," Jaune said happily. "It'll find us."
Blake shivered. "I… um… Is this really a good idea? What if things get dangerous?"
"Didn't you say you had huntress training?"
"Yes…?"
"Then you'll be fine."
Blake tried to laugh along with Jaune. Yes, sure, she was strong and capable. No reason to worry. None at all. Maybe it's nothing. Maybe it's just insects like Meg said. There's probably a perfectly reasonable explanation for this.
She really wished she believed that.
/-/
"Hey mom. You're not at home, are you?"
"Hey sweetie." Meg smiled as she laid back on the bed of her old friend's guest room with her scroll held to her ear. Velvet sounded so worried for her that she couldn't help but feel warm and fluffy. "And no, I'm at Marge's house."
"Good. Did you get someone to take a look at the house like you promised?"
"I did. I did. I've never felt so embarrassed in my life."
Velvet giggled. "Was it that bad?"
"Honestly, it wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. They looked very smart and professional." Which was probably to make people trust them more and fall for their silly nonsense, she suspected, but it was better than the alternative. "I was afraid they'd show up in baggy overalls and a van with `Ghost exterminators` written on the side. Can you imagine the look on everyone's faces if that happened?"
"It'd be funny!"
"For you, maybe. I'd be the one unable to show my face in public. They're staying over tonight to get some readings – whatever that means. I hope that satisfies my overly worried daughter."
"It's not overly worrying if we both heard something in the house." Velvet sounded defensive, but then she was still young enough to believe in silly things like ghosts.
"I know. I know." Meg rolled her eyes. "We'll see what these so-called ghost hunters think. I bet they'll try and convince us it's a poltergeist."
"What if it is?"
"Velvet Scarlatina, I did not raise you to have such silly ideas." She heard giggling on the other end of the scroll and realised she'd been had. "Very funny, young girl. I bet those two are watching TV, eating pizza and planning out how to convince me they saw a ghost."
"You don't think they'll take it seriously?"
"Take ghosts seriously?" Meg huffed. "Really, they're probably having the time of their lives at my expense."
/-/
Blake lay on her back, staring at the ceiling with sweat running down her face and into the bedsheets. The digital alarm clock on the bedside table blinked in the night, a stark red light against the dark that her eyes easily pierced through. It was ten minutes to midnight, the house was still, but Blake's heart was anything but.
Be nothing. Please be nothing. Let this be faulty gas pipes or something. Hell, let it be a home intruder or a Grimm! I'd pay money to be ambushed by a Beowolf right about now.
No such luck of course. The occasional car whooshed quietly by outside and an owl hooted from a tree out past the window. The sound of her own throat gulping as she swallowed was all too loud in her ears, as was every little creak the bed made when she shifted even a single inch.
Just go to sleep, Jaune said; let's let the thing come out, he said; no need to worry, he said. Yeah, sure, except that they were offering themselves up as prey, and the last anomaly involving a house hadn't exactly left a good taste in her mouth. Why had she signed up for this again? Oh yeah, because she hadn't had a choice. Good times.
A low, wooden creak echoed through the home.
Blake's eyes snapped open.
Her body tensed up, rigid in her bed as she listened, ears twitching atop her head. Had she imagined it-? Probably. The mind could be crazy like that, putting together images and sounds in your head that you thought were real. Homes creaked all the time, a curse of wooden construction and cheap materials. There was nothing unusual about a sound like that.
Blake curled up on her side, tugging the blankets over her head.
"Hahhh… hahhh…"
Blake stiffened.
A long breath rattled out. "Hahhhhh…."
"Oh, hell no!" Blake hissed, sitting up ramrod straight. The sheets fell to reveal her full suit on beneath, and Gambol Shroud clutched to her chest like a teddy bear. A loaded teddy bear. That had been the sound of breathing. Loud, rasping, breathing. "Nope. Nope, nope, nope."
Off went the sheets, out came her legs, touching down so that she'd be in the perfect position to pounce. Preferably away from anything that appeared. No way that was gas or water pipes. That was something breathing – I know it was. The question was whether Jaune had heard it. She checked her scroll in the hopes there might be a text from him. Nothing, but then he might be preparing to investigate. He didn't seem half as terrified about this as she was.
This is normal to him. He's lived a whole life knowing about anomalies and monsters and stuff. I'm only just learning that the monster under the bed might be real. That thought had her quickly jerking away from said bed, suddenly frightened that a hand might grab her ankle. Paranoia seeping in, she knelt and peeked under.
Nothing. Of course there was nothing. No reason to panic.
"Hahhh… Hahhh… Hahhh…"
Except for that.
Mrs Scarlatina had mentioned the attic. Blake looked up to the ceiling, a scream building in her throat. She'd seen enough movies of what happened when people looked up – but thankfully there was just a ceiling up there, along with a light that was turned off. No monster hanging upside down and ready to pounce on her.
Stop freaking out. You have training, damn it. You've fought literal Grimm. Whatever this is, if it's anything, you can fight it as well. You killed a living, evil house. You can do this.
Taking a deep breath, Blake crept toward the door. Imagination made things worse and finding out what this was would make it a whole lot less terrifying. The door opened with a quiet click and Blake padded out as silently as she could, scanning the left and right of the corridor. It was empty and still, all the doors closed as they had been when she and Jaune went to bed. The camera they'd set up at the far end of the corridor was still there, its little red light shining to show it was on and recording.
Did she check the camera or look for what was making the noise? The question was answered when the floor creaked again. Whatever it was, it was inside the house. Could it be a burglar? Meg had been seen leaving the house, so this was the kind of night someone would try and break in if they didn't see her and Jaune moving in.
Yeah, like I believe that for even a second.
There was no way in hell she was investigating on her own. No way. That was the horror scenario biggest mistake – one person would go off on their own, find evidence, make to report it and then be taken and killed by the monster. If it thought she was going to be the first victim, it had another thing coming. And unlike Jaune walking into a dangerous house to nearly get eaten alive, she wasn't stupid. The first thing Blake did was move across the corridor to the room Jaune had taken, turn the handle and push inside. Jaune could help either with advice or as a human shield, but he sure as hell wasn't hiding away and making her handle this.
"Jaune," she hissed as she opened the door. "The anomaly is-"
Jaune was laid out on the bed beneath the sheets, sheets that were pressed down under the weight of eight large legs connected to a furry body perched over him. Something clicked, a sound like creaking wood, and a slow breath came out as the thing skittered atop Jaune's prone body.
A scream, a gasp, a sob, a shout and a whimper all had wild sex in Blake's mouth and resulted in a sound not unlike a cat driving a burning lorry into a knife factory, then detonating a nuclear bomb. It was a complicated sound full of grief, panic, shock and raw, undiluted terror.
It was also a sound loud enough for the thing to hear.
It didn't turn, but it swung down, its head looking under its own body upside down – and oh for the love of any god out there, why did it have a face!? Sort of a face, anyway. It was runny, wet and slick like oil, with several empty eye sockets that somehow still glowed with unnatural light, but otherwise flat like a mannequin with its features removed. The smooth expanse opened halfway down to reveal rows upon rows of human molars grinding in a circular fashion toward a small mouth with another pair of snapping mandibles inside. Every raspy breath it released was the same as what she'd heard before, but now louder and, to her dismay, wetter.
"Hahhh… Hahhh… Hahhh…"
Blake gurgled helplessly in response.
It managed what Blake could not, screeching loudly. The monster pushed down on Jaune's bed, propelled itself up and stuck to the ceiling upside down. Still screeching, it rushed her on gangly, skittering legs.
Blake had training; Blake had aura; Blake had a weapon and a Semblance to boot - Blake also had a brain, and dove for the floor and covered her head with her hands, letting the nightmarish spider creature scuttle above her and out into the corridor.
Heart racing, skin clammy, mind whirling at the thought of being the last one alive in this house, Blake scampered to her feet and threw herself on the bed. No blood, no webbing, but who even knew how anomalies killed people? It might have sucked his soul out through his face.
"Jaune! Oh shit, Jaune, don't you dare be dead!"
His eyes opened. "Why would I be dead?"
"ARGHHH!" Blake screamed as she hadn't been able to a moment before and toppled off the bed, crashing onto the carpet as Jaune sat up in the bed. She landed hard, grunted and rolled to her knees staring back at him. Her eyes took in his chest as the sheets slid down his body. "A-Are those pyjamas?"
Jaune blinked at her. "Is that really the question you ask after what just happened?"
No, but at the same time...
"Why are you in-? Did… Did you go to sleep!?" she hissed.
"Well… yeah…" He cocked his head. "Why wouldn't I?"
A sound of grinding teeth and swallowed expletives burst from Blake's mouth as a gurgle. She couldn't believe she was looking at someone who was so stupid, so brainless, and yet somehow still alive in this line of work. It was simply not possible that he was still alive after all this time. Blake seethed with rage.
"There is a monster in the house!" she snapped. "A monster that we knew comes out at night, and you went to sleep!?"
"Yes." He looked her up and down. "Didn't you?"
"No, actually. No, I didn't. I didn't go to sleep on account of the fact I knew there was a freaking monster in the house!" The latter part came out a hysterical shriek. Was there a part of this she wasn't being clear on? Were her words not making sense? Blake felt they were, and that most people who woke up to nearly being eaten alive would have a little more urgency in them. "What were you thinking?"
"Mrs Scarlatina said it came out when she was asleep. I figured the best way to lure it would be to do the same."
Leaving aside how he managed to fall asleep and not stay awake in absolute terror like she had, Blake still couldn't comprehend his lack of sense. "I-If my legs weren't shaking so hard I thought I'd collapse, I would be choking the life out of you right now."
"It worked, didn't it?" Jaune took the threat in stride, pushing the sheets down. He was in stripey pyjamas but was still wearing socks and, of all things, his black gloves. He stood up and pulled on his coat over the top of it all, looking far too relaxed for someone who was nearly eaten alive in their sleep. "The anomaly came out. It's probably a good job Mrs Scarlatina didn't see it because it looked a bit creepy."
"A bit!? It looked- wait, you saw it?"
Jaune looked at her askance. "Well yeah, I mean the thing was literally on top of me."
"Weren't you asleep?"
"I was before but I woke up when I felt something crawl up my bedsheets." He smiled as if proud of himself, even as Blake blanched at the thought of laying there motionless as you felt something crawl up your body. Worse, her temper was mounting at the fact he let it do that in the first place. "What's with you anyway? You look like you've seen a ghost." He grinned. "Hah. Get it? Because we're posing as ghost hunt-"
"I will strangle you if you don't start taking this seriously!"
"You think I'm not?"
"You almost died!"
Jaune laughed. He laughed. "It wasn't going to kill me."
"It was on top of you!"
"It was looking at me," he explained with a shrug. "Probably trying to figure out who I was to be sleeping in Mrs Scarlatina's bed. I must have spooked it." He smiled. "Poor thing looked terrified."
It looked terrified - what about her!?
"Poor thing- what- but- thing- spider- monster- teeth. So many teeth! The melting face, the teeth, the eyes, the breathing, it being on top of you!"
Jaune cocked his head as if unable to keep up with her train of thought. His eyes widened along with his mouth. Realisation clicked. "Wait, were you afraid of the thing, Blake?"
"HOW WERE YOU NOT!?"
"Because it's not aggressive."
Blake sat there on her knees, watching Jaune as he fumbled on his pants. She should have looked away, but the last thing on her mind was seeing him in his boxers. Her mind was firmly in spider territory, and now suffering a blue screen of death as what Jaune had just said tried to compile and crashed.
"What…?"
"It's not aggressive," he said calmly. He looked surprised that he had to explain at all. "I mean, Mrs Scarlatina said the thing has been around for a while, three weeks even, and it's never tried anything with her or her daughter even when it moves around the house. Don't you think it would have killed them by now if it was aggressive or ate people?" He blinked, taking in her poleaxed expression. "Wait, you didn't realise?"
Gambol Shroud flew through the air and hit Jaune square in the chest, knocking him back onto the bed with an "oof." No, she had not realised, thank you very much, and would have liked to have known this monster wasn't a threat before she spent the whole night shaking like a leaf. The horrible, growling sound Blake made must have conveyed that sentiment, because Jaune was quick to apologise.
"My bad? Sorry."
"I hate you! I hate you so damn much!"
"I-I thought it was obvious…" Jaune croaked by way of excuse. "I'm not used to having an employee to worry about. I should have noticed and told you it was probably a harmless anomaly."
"You are so lucky I can't stand up and strangle you right now."
"My bad." He sat up again and wisely chose not to offer her weapon back or come within range of her hands. "So, now that we've established it's definitely an anomaly, it's time we deal with it."
"Kill it?" Blake asked hopefully. "Kill it with fire?"
"We're the Containments Office, Blake, not the Blades Office, nor the Burn Office despite our recent record. It's not actively hurting anyone but it is at risk of exposing itself and other anomalies if Mrs Scarlatina finds it. We need to capture it and bring it back to the office for containment."
"Dead, right?"
Jaune shot her a firm look. "Alive."
"I was afraid you were going to say that…"
And now we get to see a little of the other side of the dynamic, where Jaune actually is more experienced than Blake when it comes to dealing with and being around anomalies. Sure, he's inexperienced in dealing with them and came across helpless in the Welcoming House, but he is the professional and can pick up little things, and he's much more experienced at the "investigations" part of the job than Blake is.
After all, he's grown up in a family where this is normal. Jaune is very much the expert when it comes to finding, identifying and working around anomalies, but he's a little less good on fighting and being a good boss. Mostly because he assumes Blake would have figured the same things he did out as well and didn't think to tell her.
Also, important to show is that not every anomaly is instantly of the "murders everyone" variety. Those tend to be more popular among SCP for example (even if some funny non-evil ones do exist; the keter get more focus), but in this world it's much more a balance, and even the non-killer variety are still a big risk for exposing the existence of anomalies in the first place and beginning a mad hunt to find and have them, causing another disaster like what happened at ARC Corp in the past.
Which, of course, you'll learn more about in the future.
Next Chapter: 2nd May
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