Chapter Text
Sally and Paul walked up to the tall modern-style building with their hands held tightly together. As they approached the front desk, the receptionist gave them a look of acknowledgment before she finished her conversation on the phone. "Hi, welcome in, my name is Alicia, how can I help you guys today?" She gave them a warm smile and neatly folded her hands in her lap.
"Yes, we are here for an appointment about a possible inheritance from a recent death in the family," Paul explained to the woman.
"I am so sorry to hear that, but I am assuming you guys are the Jackson- Blofis family, correct?" Her tone of voice conveyed a wealth of emotions in a simple sentence. "Yes, that is correct," Sally answered with a polite nod. "You guys can head on back. Mr. Fallico can assist you." She pointed towards a door to her left. As they made their way towards it, they were greeted by a man in a formal-looking suit.
"You guys must be here to discuss the will of Samantha and Jay Arondekar, yes?" The businessman looked at them with a questioning gaze, tilting his head slightly. Paul assumed that he was the person sent to discuss the details with them. "I believe so." Paul simply stated.
"Then do come in; this can be a short meeting if we allow it to be." He ushered them inside and closed the door behind them, taking a seat on an elegant chair. "I am Mr. Fallico, and we are here today to discuss the inheritance opportunities and reading of the will of Paul Blofis's late cousin, Samantha Arondekar."
He carefully unfolded an envelope and put on his glasses. Sally thought it made him look a bit like a librarian. The man cleared his throat and began his statement. "The closest possible relative of Samantha Arondekar is to receive their most recent state of residence and all possessions inside said residence. This relative will also receive any money that is not in a current account shared with her spouse, for that is to go to the spouse's relative family." Mr. Fallico swiftly read the document once again and then neatly placed it onto the table in front of him.
"It seems like Samantha was the owner of Woodstone Mansion, inherited from her great aunt who passed 2 years before. You will now be in charge of this property after you sign these papers to legally change the ownership." He slid over a paper with a jumble of words on it and gestured to a pen near the couple.
"M-mansion, you said?" Paul stuttered out. "Yes, that is indeed correct." Paul looked at Sally with a face full of surprise; she shared a similar expression to his when they locked eyes. "You may visit the property as soon as these papers are signed."
----
Once they finished signing the papers, they left the building and headed home to take care of Estelle.
"Thank you, Ms. Anderson, for watching her while we took care of this!" Sally waved goodbye to the young woman and shut the door behind her. Paul stretched his arms above his head with a groan, popping his shoulder.
Sally smiled fondly at him when they suddenly heard a noise from her coat pocket. It was Percy calling. "Hey, Mom! I'll be home in uhm- about 10 minutes? Blackjack wants to make a stop for a snack first."
"Happy to hear that- oh! Is Annabeth tagging along?" Percy laughs on his side of the call, and Sally is reminded of how young her little boy sounded in that moment. She snapped back from her daydreaming when Percy started speaking again.
"No. She actually had to go on a search for her cousin. Apparently, her dad heard something about him being spotted in a town since he's been missing for a while. She told me to send her greetings to you guys! Now I'm about 8 minutes away, and I really don't want to drop my phone into a river. I should hang up, so I'll see you soo-"
"One moment! Before you hang up, would you like to come with us today to tour a house? We just found out we inherited a property from Paul's side of the family, and we are going today to see it," she was excited for the opportunity to have an experience with her son, like they used to.
"Yea I'll come with you guys. Are we bringing Estelle with us for the whole family trip?" Sally smiles fondly as she looks over to where Paul is holding Estelle, softly singing to her one of her favorite lullabies.
"Why not? That sounds wonderful. I love you, Percy. See you when you get here." "Love you too mom" Sally hears the phone beep as Percy hangs up with the final words resting deeply in her heart. Ever since the demigod safe phones had been designed, she had called her son nearly every other day just to check in on him and Annabeth.
"Hey, hun, what did Percy say about tagging along with us to that house tour?" Paul spoke while simultaneously feeding a bottle to Estelle, who was sitting peacefully in his arms. "He agreed to come with us, and he also suggested we take Estelle with us for a little family outing." "Sounds like a plan then, I'll grab the diaper bag so we can leave as soon as he gets here." Paul handed Stella over to her as he went off to grab the diaper bag and presumably a few snacks to keep on hand for when Estelle (or Percy) got the munchies.
The two went about their usual routine before getting ready to leave the house. A few minutes had passed, and a knock was heard from the door along with the sound of hooves clicking against the roof of their building. As soon as Sally opened the door, she gave her son the biggest hug she could, nearly making him fall over with the sheer force of her motherly love. Of course, Percy hugged back, though. What kind of man wouldn't accept the best hugs from their favorite parent ever?
"Hi mom, it's good to see you!" Giving her one more squeeze, he turned over to the highchair that Stella was placed in and leaned down to her eye level as he smiled widely. "Hi Stella, you've gotten so big since I last saw you, haven't you?" The little girl giggled as Percy played with a little toy that was clipped to the side of her chair. The duo continued to mess around for a few minutes before Paul came back out holding the diaper bag in his hand. "Are we ready to head out?" Paul stood in the doorway as Percy looked up upon his arrival, hand twitching towards his pocket for the briefest of moments. Sally couldn't help the guilt she felt whenever she saw Percy acting like a soldier, instead of the little boy who used to giggle when she swiped frosting off his face on their special baking days.
She quelled her spiraling thoughts with a subtle clearing of her throat so she could speak. "Yes, I believe we are ready." Percy picked up Estelle, and the trio walked out of the apartment.
----- At the manor-----
As the three pulled up to the house they were touring, the first few things they noticed were: 1- the house was no mere house, it was clearly a wealthy person's mansion, unlike Percy had expected, and 2- there was a dangerous, gaping hole in the dirt to what looked to be the remnants of a fountain.
"Well, this place looks massive. I wonder how the people here before my cousin could afford it! Must have cost them a fortune." Paul blurted out. "It looks very old-fashioned, similar to some 19th-century homes I've seen in my gardening magazines." Sally shifted Estelle, who was quietly sleeping in the fabric carrier attached to her, careful not to jostle the sleeping infant. She easily transported her to the stroller they had brought along so she could sleep and be easier to maneuver.
Percy was exploring the main foyer behind his family when he suddenly stiffened as he caught a bad smell; it vaguely reminded him of the horrible stench from the magic stables. He was starting to get a bad feeling about this place, which was soon backed up with soft, eerie humming, followed by flickering lights.
Percy walked cautiously towards his mother and stepfather's direction to keep them safe in case of any attacks. As soon as he rejoined them, the humming and flickering had stopped suddenly. This was starting to feel suspicious to him, so he kept close to his family. Estelle had woken up sometime during their exploration of the large house and started crying loudly. Percy scooped her up and lifted her high in the air as she stopped wailing and laughed at him. He pulled her back in and rested her against his hip securely.
Surely the weird moment from earlier was a coincidence, right? Many houses have electrical problems and drafting winds, and he would have noticed if it were a monster. He decided to leave the odd encounter in the past, still slightly on guard.
"Hey, Mom, I'm gonna take Stella to explore a bit." He hugged his mother and gently ruffled Estelle's hair. "Have fun, just make sure you guys get back in time for lunch, we were going to try out this place not far from here. I've heard it's really good!" Percy led the way up the stairs and into the first room he saw that looked interesting. Walking in, he was awestruck at the details in all of the furniture. A luxurious canopy bed sat in the center of the room against the wall, drapes tied neatly to the side posts. An armchair was in front of the bed that looked to be a magnificent green shade and had swirling armrests. The walls were adorned with intricate paintings that he didn't recognize from any of Annabeth's rantings.
Stella giggled happily when she saw a little dog figurine sitting on a dresser, reaching to grab for it. Percy didn't want it to be damaged, so he gently pulled her away from the table. She let out a little huff of frustration and tried to reach it again. He laughed at her actions and shifted her so she was faced away from it instead. He took one more curious glance around the bedroom and closed the door behind him. Looking around again, he noticed an entrance to the attic right above him. Percy set Estelle down very carefully and pulled open the hatch. He picked her back up and made his way towards the opening.
The room smelled lightly of mildew and wood. It was a generic-looking attic with stacks of boxes, until he noticed the strange posters put up. He stepped closer to where the posters were and saw a strangely placed bed. Maybe someone used to sleep up here? It looked very similar to a room a teenager would have, so it wasn't the strangest thing to see in a house.
He rifled through some of the boxes, hoping to find something interesting, but mostly found dust bunnies. Sighing, he plopped down on the bed, holding Estelle closer so she wouldn't get squished when he moved. Dust that had collected on the blanket flew around him in a cloud, making the little toddler sneeze. Percy took out his phone so he could check the time, realizing that not much had passed since he had gone to explore.
The building was large, and there was much to explore. He wanted to find the most interesting rooms, hopefully ones with books, so Annabeth could have a reason to come over. She would probably love the design of this place; the intricate details in the wood and outside of the house seemed right up her alley. Not to mention it was one of her favorite historical eras, she would truly have a field day exploring. Now, architecture isn't really his thing, but he loves hearing her ramble on about supporting structures and how historians never paid enough attention to the system that many architects had back in the day. He smiled fondly, thinking of all the possibilities that came to mind when Annabeth visiting this place was brought up.
It was easy to picture his family living happily in a place like this, large enough for them to be more comfortable than the tiny apartment now. His mom would be able to have more free time, not having to pay such high rent anymore. Smelly Gabe would have ruined somewhere like this with the trail of trash and rotting food he left behind. Percy was glad that he was gone. Life was much better without that horrible man being alive; his heart was filled with pride knowing that his mom was the reason he was officially gone.
Estelle shrieked as a little spider descended onto the bed next to them, slowly making its way towards the little girl, probably curious of the human. Percy hated spiders. Because of what she did to Annabeth, he started killing spiders whenever he saw them. Stella' shimmied away from the bug, clinging to him like a lifeline. Picking the arachnid up, he pulverized it with his fingers, ridding the world of one of her minions.
Letting out a sigh, he stood up with Estelle and carefully descended from the attic, not knowing he had left his phone behind. The lights of the hallway were much brighter than the measly bulb in the attic. His eyes adjusted to the sudden onslaught of UV light beams attacking him and his little sister. Estella had stopped crying, but she was still holding onto his hoodie with little fists of an iron grip.
Continuing their journey of exploring the mansion, he went one by one into all of the rooms on the top floor until he found the master bedroom. There was a closet full of what looked to be pop culture merch and niche DnD props. He remembered a lot of older campers playing that game in their free time because it didn't involve technology. Continuing, he went through the boxes curiously until he found the deck of mythomagic cards lying under a strange-looking goblin head. Instantly, he was thinking of the memories with little Nico showing him his favorite fighters, small hands holding them proudly, while he didn't care enough to listen.
Back then, he was much too worried about Annabeth going missing to pay any mind to some childish card game. If only he paid more attention. Maybe he could have gotten to know the kid better before his sister died, before he closed in on himself and shut everyone out. He still thinks about that day with Bianca very often, how he could have saved her if he had just gone instead- thoughts flood into him in a dizzying spiral of guilt. Eyes starting to water, he pockets the deck and stands back up with Estelle.
There's nothing else interesting about the room other than the huge bathroom it comes with, so he decides to go back downstairs and meet up with his Mom and Paul.
--- Ghosts pov---
Sam wasn't surprised when she and her husband became one of many ghosts inside their house postmortem. After the accident, she and Jay had started to adjust to their new ghostly life fairly well. He had gotten to meet all of the figures he had previously only heard stories about, and got along well with Pete and Trevor. Sassapis and Thorfinn were wary of him, but he was fairly liked by everyone in general. They all still adored Sam and liked to have daily 'complaining sessions' with her. Within the 4 months before they had been dead, Stephanie woke up only once when a loud siren came by the Farnsby's.
There was a quiet funeral held for the two of them in which Jay's parents and their friends came to. All of the ghosts treated it like a bachelor party more than a funeral to mourn the two previous house owners. Sam and Jay sat awkwardly in the corner while they watched their loved ones cry for them. Eventually, they moved on and accepted that they would be stuck for a long time, not likely to get sucked off very soon.
Everything was as usual, but they were still preparing for the next person to get the house. There was a bet going around that it would be Bela or Creepy Todd to get it (which wouldn't be unlikely because of his weird interest in the place and his famous podcast, making him rich).
As far as Sam and Jay knew, there was no one else, no family they knew that could have inherited it. This was until a black car pulled up. An agent stepped out of the vehicle and strolled up to the house. He pulled the key out of his sleek black trousers and unlocked the door. The balding man took off his expensive-looking sunglasses and grabbed a clipboard from his briefcase. The curious group of spirits followed him along out of pure boredom.
"He looks like a real estate agent, maybe? It's hard to tell nowadays because they make way more money than they used to!" Pete speculated.
"Puny man makes the rest of the house look big." Thor squints at the guy with a suspicious look.
"Oh, that is 100% a real estate guy; they must be selling the house, bet they could make a lot of money on this thing." Sam sighed and followed the man as he went into the kitchen to seemingly take notes.
They didn't know what they were for. The man stopped writing and looked at his watch with a bored look on his face. Suddenly, his phone begins to buzz, and he answers the incoming call.
"Hey Dan, did the Blofis's sign the form yet? I took those notes to give them on what may need to be repaired before they can fully move in. " The murmurs on the other side of the call were unintelligible to the group of nosy ghosts.That, of course, did not stop them from trying to listen in.
"Oh, he must be talking about the next owners, so maybe not selling? But if it isn't Bela, who could it be? He's the only one to come here since the funeral.." Trevor ranted.
"I'll make sure it gets done. Why don't we stop for coffee after this? I heard that one place, Daisy's, was good, eh?"
"All right then, see ya' later, Dan." The man hung up and pocketed his phone once again before Trevor could try to do anything with it.
"I was not expecting someone that rich looking to talk that casually!" Jay exclaimed.
It seems that the strange man had no reason to stay after the phone call and quickly left the premises. The spirits were all a bit confused, but the day went on as usual after that. It was now Thor's weekly "light show" duet with Alberta, so they were all gathered in the sitting room, minus Isaac. Even Crash had shown up from wherever he was usually hiding to watch the performance. Sam decided to sit this one out with Isaac while Jay talked about his DnD campaign with Pete.
The performance went on until Sam looked out of the window and saw it. Another car, a blue Prius, is approaching the manor. The beat-up car looked out of place compared to the posh exterior of the property. Scratch marks and (were those claw marks? ) littered the vehicle from head to toe. Dents formed around the bumper and doors. Strange. "Car alert!" Flower noticed and yelled in the direction of the other ghosts.
The show stopped, and heads turned towards the window. Once they all spotted the car, they clambered outside to watch the strangers coming in. "Ooo, fresh meat! Move outta' my way, I need ta' see if these are people worth lookin' at if you know what I mean." Alberta pushed to the front of the group to inspect the newcomers. The door shot open suddenly, and out stepped a middle-aged woman and a man.
The back door also opened to reveal a generic-looking teenager unbuckling a little girl from a car seat. "Wow, look at that delightful little girl! She looks just adorable." Pete awwed at the toddler and quickly stepped out of the way so as not to get walked through. He wasn't quick enough, and they walked right through him anyways.
"I wasn't expecting a family with that kind of car to show up. Wonder how they even got the house in the first place.. Sam, I thought you didn't have any more family, right?" Trevor questioned.
"No, I don't have anymore that I know of or have met before. It's good to see a nice family owning the place, though."
Thor looked scrutinizingly at the boy as he assisted, presumably his mother, in assembling a stroller. "The boy carries himself like many of warriors Thor has met. He holds the marks of battle on his arms, same as lot of men I knew."
"Oh, I bet that kid gets so many admirers. When I was that age, I used to be a monster at getting girls. Although I will say he looks like the type to be troublesome, but no way he's some Viking warrior mumbo jumbo." Trevor stepped closer to the kid to get a better look.He quickly stepped back when he stood up sharply and almost fell through him.
As the three livings stepped inside, they looked awestruck. The little one snoozed happily, being pushed by her mother. Sassapis made a gross face at the baby when she burped in her slumber. "Glad I never had one of those, they are terrifying."
The family moved about the foyer and looked around. The teen stepped forward and through the door. Isaac decided that was the perfect time to come walking out. "What did I miss? I hear there was a car, why did no one inform me there was a car!" Isaac exclaimed when he was suddenly stepped right through. The stench of his ghost power flooded the room, and the boy stiffened as he caught a whiff. Alberta strolled in, humming a tune while she strutted.
"See! This is exactly what Thor means when he say that boy has the stance of a soldier! I had moved just like that when battling Danes." The teen seemed to shake off the weird feeling and continued forward towards his family.
"So we all agree that whatever Thor is saying makes no sense?" Alberta says with her hands on her hips.
"Yeah, gotta say there Thor, he looks like an average teenager," Jay adds in.
"Soon you will be proven wrong." Thor makes it sound ominous for a greater effect. The lights dim at his displeasure.
---
The ghosts continue to watch the new family explore the house, the adults looking around the downstairs, while the boy took the toddler with him upstairs. Thorfinn continues to keep a wary eye on him but follows closely nonetheless. Sam sticks with the mother (and maybe father? ) while they go about the kitchen and sitting room.
They begin chatting, and she tunes most of it out until one thing sticks out to her. "-ea I feel terrible about my cousin. Wish I could have met her, but I wasn't aware of any more family. It's really unfortunate what happened to her and her husband." The man said to his partner.
It all made sense now. Looks like her aunt Julie did have a kid after all! She rushed over to find Jay so she could tell him the news. It took a minute, but she spotted him talking with Sass about something and burst into the office.
"Jay! Jay! Guess what I found out?" she exclaimed.
"Whoa, you startled me there, hun. What did you figure out?"
"Ok, so I was eavesdropping on the guy and his wife when he mentioned something about his mother. He also brought up how I was apparently his cousin, and I never even knew?!"
"Thats big news! He looks like a decent guy, wish we had gotten to know him before our accident." He looked surprised but still smiled at her.
She looked at him with a sad expression and smiled back.
---Stephanie---
Stephanie was doing great since Sam had agreed to decorate the attic for her. She only woke up once throughout the entire year and a half since, but she got to see all of the things that made her happy when she opened her eyes, so she wasn't terribly upset about it. Her dreams were just as entertaining as usual, and she was ultimately as happy with her situation as she could be.
No one bothered her or really thought about her, other than the occasional mention in conversation that she didn't even know about. She was content with her situation of being stuck in the world of the living as a phantom.
This was all until she woke up to the feeling of vertigo usually associated with being sat on or stepped through.
"-Eeeugh! What the hell- Get off!" She exclaimed uselessly to the strange person who decided the attic was a nice place to sit.
"Sam!" she yelled out. No one responded to her as she repeated the action a little bit louder this time.
Clambering off the bed, she got a good look at who it was that plopped on her. The last thing she expected was the cutest boy ever to be sitting right there, just out of reach. Her jaw was open at the sight of him. Messy black hair, tan skin, and defined muscles were clear with the somewhat tight hoodie he had on. She was utterly shocked.
"Well, now that is unexpected.. When did she decide to have a kid?" She spoke out loud as if someone could hear her in the first place. As if Sam's genes could produce something that cute. Her attention was pulled to a little kid who was also on the bed, next to the boy. Her little hair had the cutest bows, and the jumper she had on was decorated with yellow frills and fun patterns that were somehow still stylish. She would never admit it, but she adored kids. In her time, one of the main jobs available for girls her age was babysitting.
The boy stood up and picked the little girl up carefully. He gave her a little spin and settled the toddler on his hip securely as he made his way out of the attic. Stephanie watched the encounter curiously and noticed that he had left his phone behind. There was no way of alerting him as he descended from the ladder unknowing of his device left behind.
"Ugh, guess I'll go tell Sam to get this back to him. He's probably a guest of hers or something anyway." She tended to speak outloud, after being alone so long, it was sort of a therapeutic habit.
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