Weather here is finally starting to be less dry and swelteringly hot.

Warnings of storms and blackouts but I'll take those! I can sleep during a storm. I can't sleep when I'm sweating in bed.

Cover Art: Kirire

Chapter 113

Blake's shift on the cameras was as uneventful as Jaune's, and she took a leaf from his book to plug in some headphones and watch the old ghost hunting videos. As the manager had said, a lot of people had come here in the day – the name of the resort bringing up plenty of videos. They almost all had the same thumbnails of a person's shocked and horrified face zoomed in on one side and some grainy, night-vision footage on the other side. Sometimes there was a clickbait like "MOST HAUNTED PLACE ON REMNANT" or "OH MY GOD!" to draw people in.

As was typical, the content was far less substantial.

In terms of paranormal activity, little to none had been found, and Blake was confident the brief instances caught were faked. One was so pathetic that it was just an item on the edge of a shot being dragged off-screen, played back in slow motion with the narrator's shocked voice, even when it was stupidly obvious that it was one of their cast with fishing line. People tended to forget that the human eye had a wider periphery than a camera, and that people were very good at detecting and reacting to movement, so if there had been a ghost there moving something, the human would have seen it. The fact the cameraperson apparently didn't see it until they looked back at the footage was incredibly suspect, as was the idea the ghost was "just off-screen" when "off-screen" would have actually been right in the person's line of sight.

How convenient.

People had to make their videos pop, though. Blake understood that. They were running businesses and their business was entertainment more than it was actually finding ghosts, so fudging the content to make for a more exciting video was to be expected. Still, as she flicked through them one by one she couldn't help but realise that none had come across a sighting or provided footage of the actual anomaly.

If they had, ARC Corp would have come found it already, so it made sense in a certain way that the videos weren't showing any. On the other, it wasn't hard to see why attention had fell off at the resort, because rumours and stories couldn't keep people interested forever.

Rather than assume the anomaly was shy, she started to wonder if it existed in a medium not perceivably but for under very unusual circumstances. Obviously, cameras had never caught a shot, but it stood to reason these ghost hunters hadn't seen it either or they would have mentioned it. It had been seen through a window earlier.

Could that be it? Maybe the creature could only be perceived through a lens of glass? Or maybe it existed in the glass...? A creature that could travel from window to window, and which existed in a plane of existence in between panes of glass.

No. That didn't make sense with the damage on the lodge and the clear signs of a physical creature being there. Blake sighed and pushed back from the laptop, rubbing her eyelids. The constant bright lights of the videos combined with the gloom of pre-dawn was making her eyes hurt, and the stupidity of the ghost hunters and their theories was giving her a headache. Entertainment or not, they were obnoxious to listen to. Worse yet, people believed the tripe.

"Nothing on the cameras," she mumbled, as she checked them over. Her eyes flicked to the windows of the lodge as well. "Nothing in the windows. Be too convenient for it to come show itself to us, I guess. No screams or shouts from outside. It might have gotten spooked at the close call and given up for the night."

Nothing happened for the rest of the night and Jaune woke up around eight, with the two of them heading to breakfast a little sleepy and a little frustrated. It was worse for her, since she had to maintain her bitchy influencer cover. It had seemed like a funny thing to subject Jaune to at first, but now he was the one who got to relax and eat breakfast normally when she had to deal with the manager.

"So," said the manager. "I checked your channel last night. I almost expected to see a video."

"I don't post anything before it's properly edited and processed." It was the first excuse she could come up with. "I have people who handle that for me."

"Are they as well paid as your cameraman?"

"Of course." Blake flicked some hair back over her shoulder. "They'll want all the footage before they make a video, though. Not enough for now."

"Not enough? Really? I'd have thought there'd be plenty after last night's sighting."

Talk about persistent. This was what she got for forcing a discount under the guise of exposure. A good cover story, but an annoying busybody manager hovering around making sure she and Jaune weren't trying to cheat her.

"No one will believe us if it's some guy saying his kid saw something. They'll say we faked it for the views."

"I guess they would. Well, I'm sure you'll capture something if you keep your eyes open. The ghosts around here are very active."

"Ghosts?" asked Jaune. "It's plural now?"

"Maybe." The manager shrugged. "I don't know. It could be one or multiple. I rarely ever see them, but I always have to run around cleaning up after other campers say they have. But I sleep in the main building and it feels like the paranormal activity is centred around the lake and the guest lodges."

"It rarely comes your way, then?"

"I've never even seen it." The woman shrugged. "I wouldn't believe it real if not for all the people who have – and for the death before," she added, in a whisper.

"That could have been a guest killing a guest, though." Blake pointed out. "Wouldn't that make more sense?"

"More sense, maybe, but then the police would have solved the case by now." She seemed determined to believe it a ghost. Maybe she'd lived and worked here so long she'd bought into it. "There haven't been any arrests, though."

"That you know of."

"True, but, I mean, I'm the manager here. If the police had a suspect, I think they'd come talk to me if only to check our records and find out if the suspect was here at the time of the murder. I have records of every guest who stays."

"True." Blake tapped her fingers on the table. Jaune looked interested, too. "And they haven't checked?"

"Not once."

"But they asked you questions, right?"

"Oh, of course. They asked questions of everyone here at the time. Again, I was asleep in the main building so I didn't see it happen, so they asked a lot more of the poor soul who stumbled upon the body, and the other guests who were sleeping in the area. I'm not sure where the investigation has gone since. Maybe they found a lead in his family or personal life."

They hadn't, according to the reports Jaune had lifted and showed her. The case had really just been pushed aside as a non-priority given all the stuff that had gone down in Vale. They hadn't forgotten per se, but it was considered a case that wasn't going to go old if they focused on other stuff. They would probably be coming back to it in the coming weeks now that the festival was over.

"You should go out with your cameras and wander around tonight," said the manager. "I hear people have had good results searching for it between the lake and the forest."

Had they? Blake couldn't help but think no one had good results given all the shitty videos she'd watched through the night. Still, she played her part. "Yeah, we'll do that later. Thanks for the advice, Katie."

"It's— oh, never mind."

The woman rolled her eyes and walked away.

"We might as well take her advice," Jaune said, once she was gone. Blake hummed, already knowing that would be the decision. "I'd call the police's investigation of this suspicious if not for the issues we've had in Vale."

"It sounds like they did a half-hearted job to be honest."

"They're Vale police. They only really care about crimes happening in the city. Places like this, they're close enough to count but far away enough to not dominate headlines. They get a lot more good PR for dealing with local issues."

"Aren't police meant to be non-political?"

"They are, but that doesn't mean they're immune to the court of public opinion making their lives difficult. That's why police responses are so disproportionate in some cases. An elderly person being murdered won't generate the same intensity of investigation as a pretty young woman, because the newspapers will run more stories on the young woman, and the police will be under more pressure to solve that one."

"Doesn't sound fair."

"It isn't, but it's not all their fault. It's the public who both want to pay less taxes and have more competent police – but also want them to solve what crimes the public thinks are important. In an ideal world, they would be able to do everything independently and anyone who tried to criticise them would be ignored, but then you start toeing around suppression of free speech." He shrugged. "There's no winning, sadly. Everything is a series of compromises."

"Aren't we moving a little off subject here?"

"I don't know that we are honestly. I think this could be very relevant..."

"How?"

"I shouldn't say just yet. It's part of the keeping an open mind thing I mentioned last night. I've a hypothesis, but there's no point me sharing it and contaminating the evidence. Something was seen last night. Whether that was an anomaly or a pervert is yet to be determined, but even if it's the latter it might not mean there isn't an anomaly. It might just not have been active last night."

Blake hummed and poked at her breakfast. This was reminding her of the trip to San Valeo, though thankfully without instances of them losing their minds and going on drunken binges despite not being drunk. Plus, they hadn't made out or ended up in the sane bed like back then.

The tome on her hip felt cold to the touch all of a sudden. Blake hissed.

"What is it?" asked Jaune.

"The book." Blake didn't need to say which. "It's trying to catch my attention. Shall I communicate?"

He nodded.

Blake touched her hand to the cover and slipped a finger under it. The voice, rich and deep, echoed in her mind.

"If thou wish to secure thine quarry, a deal with mine self might be bartered."

Blake relayed the offer, and Jaune shook his head.

"A shame. If thou need answers, thou know where to find me. Thine quarry is known to me. Tis an amusing tale."

The voice, and the chill temperature, receded.

"It implied it knew the anomaly in question," Blake said. Jaune's brow creased.

"Strange. Does that mean my idea is wrong?" Jaune mumbled to himself. "Or it could be toying with us. Either way, you're already locked into a deal to give it free reign, and I don't want to risk another deal with it. That should be for life or death circumstances only."

"I'm still not sure how it controls me if I have aura. I should be immune to other anomalies."

"Aura is in your soul and it takes your body...?" Jaune posed it as a question. "I'm not sure myself. Nothing about all this is understood, so when we say it's a rule that two anomalies can't interact in the same body, what we really mean is that it's a rule as far as we know and based on assumption of evidence. Our policy of never trying to understand anomalies may mean less chances of containment breaches, but it also comes with the downside of not having much real information on them."

"Right... so..." Blake shrugged. "We sleep through the day and stay up all night?"

"Sounds like a plan to me."

/-/

By the time it was dark again, they were both well rested – and Ruby had arrived at their office back in Vale to look after Timothy. She was earning quite a lot being their go-to spider-sitter, and probably making a mess with repeated takeout meals again. Though, of course, Ruby would have loved to be with them at the resort, and the only way Blake could escape the call was to promise to tell her about it later and then hang up.

No one should enjoy working for ARC Corp. That felt like it should be some kind of rule.

"We should split up and look for clues," said Jaune.

"Seriously...? Really...?"

He smiled. "I'm only saying that because I don't think we'll find any. Either way, the resort isn't that large and we'll probably end up being within sight of one another. If I check the lake and you check the forest, we'll be close enough to see if the other needs help."

That and the resort wasn't asleep despite the late hour. This was a holiday resort and there were people having barbecues and swimming, and a family all outside eating and drinking under the moonlight at a nearby lodge. It was hard to feel alone and isolated with all that going on, so Blake agreed and made her way toward the forest with one of the cameras.

It was still sparse enough that she didn't think a Grimm could sneak up on the resort and not all that dark even so late. Though she had night vision, the moon was also high in the sky – full, with its cracks and damage abundantly visible. Jaune had told her that was an anomaly as well, which she really didn't get.

What was unusual about a cracked and shattered moon?

Either way, it was light out and the perfect atmosphere for a ghost hunting video – which was quite annoying because she wasn't the only one out. The manager of the resort had decided, for once, to come out and wander around nearby, and it was obvious she was watching Blake. Probably making sure she actually was recording a video and wasn't trying to cheat them. Frustratingly, that forced Blake to act.

"Hey guys and gals!" she said, in an obnoxious voice. "It's your girl, Blake – here with the ghost hunting again!"

The voice was horrible, just like she'd heard last night. The manager looked pleased, however.

Ugh.

"—and we're out here late at night looking for activity!" Blake stage whispered. If her mom ever saw this, she'd probably show it to Blake's children one day. Coda would have to destroy all evidence. "It's dark, the moon is out, and last night one of the guests reported a ghostly figure at their lodge window. Ooooh..."

How did people do this legitimately? How did they not die of embarrassment?

The manager strolled on over, apparently keen to be in the video.

Great...

This is what I get for playing a prank on Jaune. This is my fault. Damn it.

"Hello Blake— Oh!" The woman feigned surprise. "Are you filming?"

Blake resisted the urge to roll her eyes and instead acted like the professional streamer she was pretending to be. "Ah, and this is Catherine—" Again, she got the name wrong, making the woman grimace. "The manager of the resort, and the one who gets to clean up after all the paranormal activity."

"That's me," said the woman, looking a little uncomfortable to have the camera focused on her, and yet also strangely determined to go through with it at the same time. It must have been a job expectation, something she had to do to please her bosses. "And we've had all kinds of unexplained phenomena here. Why, just last night, one of our guests woke up to an unknown intruder at the window who vanished before anyone could catch them! Stranger yet, the window was over eight feet off the ground, so the figure would have been a giant – or floating!"

Or balancing on the wall where the damage from a pair of shoes had been found, but that wouldn't attract more ghost hunters and amateur detectives in the future, so it made sense this woman would hype it up.

And it also made sense for Blake to do the same.

"It's all very mysterious," Blake oozed. "Which is why we're out here tonight searching for signs! My assistant is also out with his own camera, and we've split up to—"

"Ah!" The manager gasped. "There! Look!"

Blake whirled on the spot, her persona dropped in an instant as the hardened agent came to the fore. Her hand fell to her hip, reaching for Gambol Shroud.

But there was nothing there.

"What am I looking at?" Blake asked, tensely.

"The trees!" hissed the manager. "Didn't you see the figure? They were wispy and wavy, standing there with a cloak on their shoulders!"

"A person...? Humanoid?"

"Yes!"

That made sense with the damage caused by a pair of human shoes, and yet what didn't make sense was how they could have vanished between the manager seeing them and Blake turning. The treeline was sparse, with very few places to actually hide in.

"Where are they?"

"They vanished!" the manager said. "But I saw them! Made my heart almost explode!"

An anomaly that could only be seen by one person at a time...? There might be some perception limit on it, or maybe it chose one person to act as prey and could only be seen by them until such a time as it had struck. Or it could be bad luck on her part. There were too many possibilities. A quick glance Jaune's way showed him looking into the lake and slowly walking around it.

"I definitely saw it!" the manager insisted. "We should go look at where it was!"

"Yes... I suppose we should."

It would have been easier without this person with her, but there was no convenient excuse with which to get rid of her. Blake kept the camera rolling and held out ahead, recounting what had just happened in a cutesy voice. When they arrived, the manager was quick to find the exact location, and gasped as she pointed at the grass.

"Look!"

There was a wet patch on the grass. Wet and sticky. It was easily a foot wide in diameter, and quite the drenching, like something had melted into a puddle. Blake knelt and made to poke at it before realising her disguise lacked gloves. Instead, she picked up a stick and used that, eyebrows raising as the sticky substance clung to it and glooped upwards.

It definitely wasn't a bucket of water.

"Evidence!" the manager said, urgently. "It's real evidence of a ghost!"

That was a cue to her, and Blake fixed the camera on it and began talking, even as her mind disconnected and whirled. Jaune would need to see this, and they'd need to collect some of it to look over. While she threw words around like "ectoplasm" on the fake stream, a physically tangible substance like this should really come from a physically tangible anomaly, not a ghost that could disappear into thin air in the time between this woman shouting and Blake looking.

"I'll call my assistant over to take a sample and do some readings," said Blake.

"Readings?"

"EMF, temperature, that kind of thing." The words meant nothing to Blake but had been thrown out in the videos last night. She suspected they meant nothing to the manager as well, but that was fine. As long as she sounded confident. "There's been paranormal activity here and our viewers will want to see this!"

The resort manager clapped her hands excitedly.

By the time Jaune arrived, Blake had managed to convince the woman to leave, mostly by pointing out how they needed to record and not be interrupted with the delicate equipment – and also by implying the video would feel more real if she wasn't there. Not a moment too soon as well, because Blake's face was beginning to ache from smiling so much.

"What have you found?" asked Jaune.

"The manager said she saw a figure here and then we found this wet patch. Consistency is sticky and the substance is tough. I haven't touched it with bare skin."

Blake trailed off, and Jaune took the invitation to kneel and poke at it with his gloves. He picked some up and rubbed it between his finger and thumb, humming as he drew them apart and a thick, sticky thread connected the two digits. "It's rubbery," he said. "And it's cold. You'd expect secretions from a creature to be warm, though I admit with anomalies you can't rely on expectation for anything. Did you see it?"

"No. Apparently, it vanished between her seeing it and me looking."

"Inconvenient."

"The treeline was much too sparse for it to have departed," Blake said. "So, it can either teleport or turn incorporeal, or there's a limit on how many people can see it."

"Strange no one else saw it. There were plenty of other people around."

"Most of them are looking at their own family or friends, or looking at food, the lake and other stuff," she pointed out. "No one comes to a holiday resort to stare at a stretch of forest. I'm more confused about this stuff."

"Hmmm?"

"There was no discharge like this last night. Does that mean we're dealing with two different anomalies? Or one anomaly here and last night was a human creep?"

"Something like that." Jaune took out a small plastic bottle and collected some of the material into it, then pocketed it. "I've an idea or two on this, but I'll need to gather some supplies to check it out. Luckily, I think they might have them here at the resort's main building."

"Oh?"

"Just some DIY materials. I want to test this with some solvents."

"Should I look deeper into the forest here?"

"It's not a bad idea." Jaune was already moving away. "Just keep your guard up and be careful. We don't know how aggressive this thing is. Assume the worst and you can only be pleasantly surprised. Don't cross the fence, though. Don't leave the camp."

"I won't."

/-/

There was little of anything to be found in the wooded area. It was too small and she could see all the way back. Blake spent an hour in it, searching among the grass for any more signs or instances of the sticky substance, but there was nothing at all. The chain fence was still up as well, undamaged and not breached as far as she could tell. Beyond it, the thicker forest lay, but she stuck to her word and didn't approach it.

Even if she would be fine come any Grimm, that didn't mean she should startle them and lead them back to this camp. In fact, she thought she could see the glint of red eyes in the distance, tiny specks that hinted at small Grimm roaming the woods. Even small Grimm could be dangerous to children. Best to leave them out there.

Her scroll buzzed.

"Blake here. I've found nothing."

"Is the resort manager still with you?"

"No. I convinced her to leave just before you arrived. Why?"

"I was looking for her so I could borrow some solvents to test this material but I haven't been able to find her anywhere. I've asked a few other guests and even called the emergency number that is supposed to connect to her scroll. It calls on through without being answered."

Oh no.

"She saw the anomaly," Blake hissed. "Could it have hunted her?"

"Unsure. Make your way back here immediately. We're going to have to search for her."

Damn it, damn it, damn it. That woman had been nosey and intrusive, but she hadn't been a bad person. Blake ran from the Grimm roaming on the other side of the fence and back to the camp, then ran through it to the main building where Jaune was waiting for her.

"I've checked her quarters," he said. "She isn't there, but you might want to give it a look over while I do a jog around the resort. It's possible she's just out dealing with someone's complaints, though the fact it's this late and she isn't answering her scroll..."

It didn't look good and Jaune knew it. Pushing into the woman's quarters, Blake quickly found some old newspaper articles on her table – articles about the camp – and also some binders nearby that just looked to be camp reports. Work stuff. There was some boxes of coffee and a mug half full, along with what looked to be a toolbox with some repair supplies inside. Hammers, screws, screwdrivers, electrical stuff, tape and superglue. Evidently, the manager had to do more than just crunch numbers around the resort.

The computer on the desk was turned off and password locked, and the woman wasn't the type to leave a post-it note of her password on the monitor. There was a small notepad with "BLAKE BELLADONNA" written on it in black ink. The manager must have been looking her up, probably to make sure she was a real influencer. Coda's fake page should have been enough to win her over if she checked, and the fact she hadn't kicked Jaune and Blake out suggested that she hadn't found anything too suspicious.

All in all, everything looked normal. It painted the picture of a woman whose work was her life, and who spent her free time checking financial reports and looking up information on her influencer guest. There were no signs of a forced entry or blood, and the woman's shoes were missing, implying she'd not been attacked in the room. By all accounts, it looked like she was just out working.

But Jaune came back two hours later with a grim expression.

"I've knocked on the doors of and checked with every single guest in the park," he said. "She's nowhere to be seen."

Next Chapter: 26th August

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