Chapter Text
Kaboodle frowned to herself, pacing around her bedroom. She remembered the strange happenings of Squiddo’s new apartment, and while she trusted her friend enough to believe that she knew how to keep herself from the paranormal, Squiddo hadn’t replied to any of her messages for the past week. Sure, she could be a bit distracted at times, but a whole week without contact? That wasn’t normal.
She sighed frustratedly. If something had gone wrong, she wouldn’t even know! That’s it, she decided, I’m going to check up on her.
The blue-haired girl slid off her table countertop, grabbing her phone.
blue bunny creature: hey clown
jesterpenetrate: What
blue bunny creature: imma go check up on squiddo
jesterpenetrate: I’m coming with
jesterpenetrate: Grabbing my scythe
blue bunny creature: clown why do you have a scythe
blue bunny creature: clown
blue bunny creature: CLOWN
Clown rapped his fist on the mouldy apartment door, wrinkling his nose at the condition. “I thought you said Squiddo cleaned up?”
Kaboodle shrugged. “That doesn’t matter. What if the ghost got her? It was pushing stuff around and all, and she hasn’t responded to anything!” With an exasperated sigh, Clown rolled his eyes. “Come on, Kab, there probably isn’t even a ghost. Even if there is, Squiddo’s been doing this for what, a year now? She knows what she’s doing. We can trust her to handle herself.”
Kab sighed. “I hope so.”
They stared at the door for a moment more.
“She’s not answering.”
“Yeah, I kinda figured. SQUIDDOOO!”
No response.
Clown paused. “Does it matter if we knock down the door?” Kab turned and stared him in the eyes. “Yes. Very.”
A crackle of static.
“What was that?”
With a loud slam, the door was thrown open by a dishevelled Squiddo, the orange-haired girl nearly falling over in her haste. “Uh, hi guys! What brings you here?”
Kab blinked at her. She opened her mouth to speak, but was promptly cut off by a dry Clownpierce. “Just one question. Are you currently suffering from spectral struggles?”
Squiddo blinked back, casting a nervous glance backward into the apartment. “Uh, nope, not one bit! Why do you ask?”
Just as Kab opened her mouth, she was interrupted once more - not by her idiot friend, but by something far more supernatural.
With a crack of lightning through the cloudless sky, a smoky purple miasma wreathed around their feet, wisps of magenta haze drifting toward their bodies. Shimmering violet irises blinked into existence, flickering away in moments, yet their glittering gaze weighed heavy. Static buzzed in the still air, crackling, cracking. Faint screeching laughter echoed in their ears, their eyes darting about in a frantic, futile effort to locate the source.
Clown’s scythe buried itself into the ground, a grinning figure dissipating moments before. Kab yelped, panicked glances cast around the eerily still hallway.
Squiddo sighed.
“Ash, stop scaring my friends.”
“Squiddo, what?!”
Clown stared across the room at Ash. The ghost maintained eye contact.
Kaboodle sighed. “Okay, Squiddo, so you found a really powerful ghost haunting your apartment, who half-traumatised you, and decided to befriend him instead of running away.”
“Yep!”
“How are you still alive?”
Squiddo shrugged. “Hey, it turned out okay in the end! He’s a nice guy anyway.”
“That is not how life should work.”
Across the room, Ash snapped his fingers in Clown’s face, violet sparks flying. Clown didn’t blink. He sighed.
“Life is a social construct.”
“Wha-”
“So is logic.”
Both Squiddo and Kab turned to the spectre, now floating and performing increasingly dangerous feats of matter manipulation in an effort to startle Clown. None worked.
“I mean, look at me,” he continued, “I’m dead, aren’t I? But I’m here! Philosophy 101 with Ashswag, the price of that first course will be your soul.”
Without hesitation, Kab stood up and whacked him upside the head - somehow evading several flaming wheels spiralling through the air, but ultimately thwarted by Ash dissipating into smoke. Clown grinned triumphantly. “You looked away, I won.”
The ghost rematerialised, grumbling that the blue-haired girl had interfered with the game. Said girl was now laughing exaggeratedly at his expense.
Squiddo smiled as she looked across at their antics. Her friends were having fun together, paranormal and human alike. The journey had been… interesting, certainly, but it was worth it for this final destinatIon.
She raised her phone and snapped a picture. Even if they wouldn’t be able to see Ash, it would definitely stay as a reminder of this time.
“Alright, alright, no fighting! Clown, we all know you’ll win, but I don’t need more of a mess to clean up!”
Five hours later, Squiddo yawned, finally putting aside her computer. Her newest video was sure to boost her popularity, she thought with a grin.
She flopped backward onto her bed, tucking herself in.
As she drifted off to sleep, she felt a spectral hand brush through her hair.
“Good night, Squiddo.”