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Of everything that A-ya had ever asked of him, this was perhaps the most demanding.
It had started the day before last when their idle conversation had drifted to some old warehouse that B-ko passed by every day on her way to school. All it had taken was one comment about the creepy vibe it gave off to make A-ya lean forward in his seat, his eyes alight with interest, a grin slowly creeping across his face as he said: “Let’s go check it out.”
By all accounts, it was a terrible idea. Not that C-ta was worried about ghosts or anything of the sort; he’d never believed, just feigned interest for A-ya’s sake. It was just that this “club activity” would mean staying up until midnight, bundling up against the cold, and trudging through some dilapidated building until they got bored and left. It was a waste of time, and not only that, he had an exam tomorrow morning.
Still. Logic never held much weight once A-ya was involved, and so C-ta had slipped on his coat and gloves and waited just outside of his front gate for A-ya like they’d discussed earlier.
A-ya didn’t bother with greetings when he walked up to him. He simply paused in his stride, saying, “You brought a flashlight, didn’t you?”
“Yep.” A little pocket flashlight was the only thing he could find in the kitchen drawer, but he was sure it would work just fine.
“And your phone?”
C-ta smiled. “Of course.” Those had been the only two things that A-ya had requested for everyone to bring. Internally, C-ta thought they were woefully unprepared for any kind of actual ghost hunting, but then again, what else could they have brought? The “professionals” in the shows that A-ya liked always had such complicated devices: infrared cameras, motion detectors, special thermometers… nothing that any of them would ever have on hand.
A-ya gave a little hum of acknowledgment, seemingly satisfied, and continued walking. C-ta fell into step beside him, his hands buried deep in his pockets, watching their breath fog up in the night air as they walked in silence. There was no point in chatting. Everything from A-ya’s expression to the fast pace breaking their usual rhythm told C-ta that he was focused purely on their mission and nothing else.
He did, however, quietly inquire if he was going to be warm enough in his thin-looking hoodie. A-ya simply rolled his eyes in response, and C-ta reluctantly let the matter drop.
The two of them turned a corner and almost bumped right into B-ko, whose back was towards them as she talked to D-ne. Hearing their approach, she turned sharply on her heel to face them. “God, what took you so long?” She made no attempt to mask her irritation, letting it seep into her voice and twist her expression into a scowl. “We’ve been waiting for—hang on, let me check—twenty minutes! Twenty!" She shoved her phone in their faces, the dangling charms swinging dangerously close to A-ya’s nose.
12:37, read the display, and to be fair, that was far past the scheduled meeting time. The cause of their tardiness was simple: the two of them were late because A-ya had been late leaving his house. C-ta knew the reason why, of course. He’d watched with fond amusement while A-ya got lost in researching about the warehouse, browsing forums and articles and even pulling up the floor plans. He’d only broken out of his trance once C-ta had taken pity on him and called his phone.
Still, that wasn’t something that he was supposed to know about. Regardless, he should have been covering for A-ya anyways. So he apologized on A-ya’s behalf, acting abashed. “That was my fault. I had to make sure my parents were asleep before I left,” he explained.
“Hmph.” B-ko looked a little less annoyed, but she wasn’t about to let them off the hook just yet. “D-ne and I could have died, you know, freezing our asses off outside of a creepy place like this.”
D-ne, standing by B-ko’s side, giggled. “B-ko, I did say that I would hug you if you got too cold. I’m sure that would have warmed you up, right?” D-ne moved as if she were going to twirl a strand of hair around her finger, but with her hair pulled back into a tight ponytail, she simply brushed her fingers against her ear, slightly flushed from the cold.
B-ko’s ears tinged pink too, though her blush quickly spread across her entire face. “Hey, don’t—” Knowing that there was no point in complaining, she looked away and changed the subject with a slight cough. “T… this place is looking sketchier and sketchier the more I’ve been staring at it.” The four of them turned to take in the run-down building, the shattered windows, the flimsy police tape covering the entrance. B-ko shivered and crossed her arms. “Is… anyone else getting a bad feeling about this…?”
“If you want to leave, then leave.” A-ya’s voice was firm as he took a step forward, unwavering. “I’m going to explore it, though, with or without you. Is anyone coming with me?”
C-ta’s response was instantaneous. “I’m going,” he blurted out. He thought he heard D-ne faintly snicker behind his back, but the tiny nod that A-ya gave him was more than worth it.
B-ko glanced up at the building with trepidation written all over her face before she looked over to D-ne. D-ne simply tilted her head, offering nothing but the unspoken message of I’ll go wherever you go. B-ko sighed. “Fine. This is such a bad idea and we're probably—no. We’re almost definitely going to get killed, but—" She threw her hands up into the air, relenting. "Fine! I'm going."
"Don't worry, B-ko." D-ne slipped an arm through hers, linking them together. "I'll protect you," she said, her smile as sugary sweet as her voice. "If we get into trouble, we'll just leave these two behind as bait."
Which, of course, made B-ko throw her head back and laugh. “Good idea! Offer them up as a human sacrifice, and I’m sure we’ll be just fine!”
C-ta let out a rueful sigh. “These two are just as cruel as ever, huh, A-ya…?” He turned towards A-ya, but blinked when he noticed that A-ya was buried in his cell phone. Not typing like usual, but instead frantically scanning the screen, like he was searching for something. Judging by the little furrow of his brows, he wasn’t having much success. “What’s up?”
A-ya glanced up quickly, went back to searching for just a moment, and then snapped his phone shut with a grumble of frustration. “C-ta, your phone can record audio, right?”
“Ah… yeah…?”
“Let me see it,” he said, holding out his hand expectantly. No explanation, no room for protests.
Everything inside of him instantly blanched at the request. Forget ghost hunting, that was the worst idea he’d heard all night. If A-ya were to look through his phone, find some of the screenshots he’d taken from the cameras… Well. It went without saying that was not a conversation he wanted to be having today, or anytime in the near future, for that matter.
But, still… he couldn’t just let A-ya down, right…?
With his stomach twisted into anxious knots, he carefully opened the voice memo app and passed the phone over. For a few moments, he was breathless as he waited for A-ya to start searching through his phone, just like he’d be doing if their situations were reversed.
Clearly, though, A-ya had no interest in anything like that. “I want to have a record of this, in case anything happens. Not only that, but ghosts sometimes leave messages behind on audio devices, things that we can’t perceive in the moment. So, we might be able to hear something once we listen to it later.”
"Assuming the ghost doesn't just kill us first," B-ko muttered under her breath.
A-ya lifted a finger to his lips, and once all was quiet, he cleared his throat and pressed the button.
"This is A-ya, of the Occult Research Club." As he spoke, he stood a little straighter, his mouth upturned in a hint of glee, and his voice took on an almost grandiose tone. He'd been resistant to the idea at first, but lately, he'd embraced his role as the unofficial president of their after-school activities. "The four of us—myself, B-ko, C-ta, and D-ne—are standing outside the abandoned warehouse, a place rumored to have been the site of a horrific cult massacre—"
"Wait, cult?!" B-ko interjected. "You didn't say anything about—"
"If you knew, you wouldn’t have come at all. Now, shh!" He turned away from B-ko, looking up at the building with shameless delight. "As I was saying, this alleged killing ground may be a place of extreme paranormal activity. To investigate the rumors further, we will be thoroughly combing the area for anything unusual. This audio will document the entire search, beginning… now.”
"Oh my God," B-ko moaned, dragging her hands down her face. "We are absolutely going to die."
D-ne gave her a half-hearted pat on the back, but when she and C-ta met eyes, her face was notably paler than usual.
A-ya, waiting just outside the door, turned and frantically motioned for them to come along.
C-ta had always told himself that he would follow A-ya to the depths of Hell if need be, but he wondered if that time had come sooner than he'd anticipated.
In the end, though, the majority of their search was uneventful. They had each taken a flashlight and, determined to defy the most cliches of tropes, stuck close together as they searched. It was tense at first, heart-pounding, but gradually, the dusty rooms all started to blend together as they failed to find any signs of an accident or murder.
In fact, it was turning out to be downright boring, to borrow A-ya’s favorite phrase. He’d discouraged talking, saying that their voices could interfere with any kind of spiritual communication. So the majority of the conversations were terse, the replies monosyllabic:
"Find anything?"
"No."
Or: "Should we move on?"
"Yeah."
...And so on. Frankly, by the time it took for them to make it to the upper floor, C-ta was desperately trying to fight back yawns. He didn’t want to show how tired he felt. It was only going to make A-ya upset.
B-ko and D-ne, on the other hand, weren’t so concerned about A-ya’s feelings. As the night wore on, their suggestions that maybe they should call it quits morphed into exasperated sighs and complaints about the cold and the late hour and the dullness of their task.
"Come on, just one more room," A-ya would say, unflappable. "There's something here. I'm certain of it."
And, after hearing that reply for the umpteenth time, B-ko finally snapped. "A-ya, there's nothing here!" She shined her flashlight all around the hallway as if trying to prove her point. "We're just wasting our time! There's no ghosts, or cultists, or whatever the hell you were expecting! This is just some old building that never got repaired—A-ya, are you listening to me?!"
He wasn’t. He wasn’t even facing her. A-ya had stopped short in front of a door, examining it closely. "If there's nothing here..." he said, a smile slowly creeping across his face. "Then, tell me. Why is this room—and only this room—boarded up?"
They all stopped short, three pairs of flashlights shifting to illuminate the door. Two pieces of wood had been crudely nailed across its surface. A-ya, with smug satisfaction dancing in his eyes, turned to face them with a grin.
"Well..." B-ko, at a loss for words, eyed the door cautiously. "Well, okay, yeah, that is suspicious. But even so," she said, shaking her head. "We should still leave. We'd need a crowbar to get that door open anyways."
But A-ya wasn't deterred; he walked closer, bending down to examine the boards as he absentmindedly shoved C-ta’s phone into his pocket. "No, look. The nails are all rusted away, and the wood looks like it'll just fall apart. In fact, if I do this..." With a slight grunt, A-ya wrapped his hands around the top of the board and pulled, falling back on his heels as he strained to pull it loose. When it gave, he tossed the board aside and looked at them over his shoulder. “See?”
B-ko rolled up her sleeves and demanded to do the next one. A-ya shrugged and stepped aside, making way for B-ko and for D-ne, who was anxiously hovering at her side. C-ta watched as A-ya picked out a splinter and admonished himself for not bringing any band-aids. With little else to offer, he slipped off his gloves and held them out towards A-ya with a smile. “Here. In case you’re going to be doing any more carpentry.”
But A-ya just shoved his hand away. “I’m not planning on it,” he said shortly.
Before C-ta had the chance to protest, the sound of breaking wood forced his attention back towards the door, no longer barricaded. B-ko tried the doorknob but hovered on the threshold once it swung open, uncertain. A-ya, with no such reservations, slipped beside her, C-ta’s phone in one hand, the other shining his flashlight all around the room.
Nothing about it stood out right away. It was small, packed with shelves that were packed in turn with dusty old boxes. There was no blood, no sigils, and certainly no decaying corpses hiding in the corners. Still, when A-ya took a few steps forward, he moved slowly, cautiously.
He, B-ko, and D-ne hung back, watching as A-ya lifted the phone up towards to his mouth, speaking in a hushed tone. “Something terrible happened here, didn’t it?” The three of them glanced at each other in confusion, uncertain if A-ya was addressing them or not. “Whether it was an accident, or something more malicious… If someone’s presence is here…” He trailed off, before breathing out: “If you’re in this room, then give us some kind of sign.”
For a long, long moment, no one dared to so much as breathe. C-ta stood, on hand resting on the doorframe, watching as A-ya held himself perfectly still, waiting for a voice, for a knock, for even the smallest of sounds...
But everything was still and quiet. With his shoulders slumping in obvious disappointment, A-ya exhaled loudly and turned back to face them. The floorboards let out a horrible creak, and that was the only warning before a piece of rotten wood fell out underneath A-ya’s foot.
“Ah—!”
The phone and flashlight went flying into the air as A-ya scrambled to grab a hold onto one of the shelves. His fingers slipped and strained to keep him upright as he tried to pull his leg out from the jagged hole in the floor—
—And C-ta moved without thinking, shoving past B-ko and D-ne to rush to A-ya’s side and wrap his arms tightly around his torso, pulling up with every ounce of strength he could find. A-ya lost his grip on the shelf and instead took desperate fistfuls of C-ta’s jacket—and C-ta staggered with the force of A-ya’s weight, but squared his stance and held on.
“I’m–” The eyes right in front of his own were wide with panic. “I’m stuck, I can’t—”
C-ta rushed to soothe him, to assure him, even as his own heart was beating against his ribcage. “It’s—it’s okay, I’ve got you, I won’t let go.” His words tripped over themselves in their desperate rush to be free. “Let me just… okay, here we go—!” C-ta tried to lift him out, and the small hiss of pain A-ya let out made his heart sink into the pit of his stomach. He squeezed his eyes shut, murmured a quick apology, and pulled as hard as he could, hoisting A-ya back to not-so-solid ground even as he leg scraped against the wood.
He didn’t waste a single second; with his arm tight around his waist, he half-dragged A-ya towards the door, back towards safety, using his shoulder to shove past a stunned B-ko and D-ne. C-ta didn’t stop once they had crossed the doorway. Blind adrenaline pushed him forward, halfway down the hallway, before A-ya’s demands to stop brought him back to reality. Shit, shit —A-ya had gotten hurt, hadn’t he? How serious was it?
Quickly, he urged A-ya to take a seat on the floor and frantically rolled up A-ya’s pant leg. He fished out his flashlight and turned it on, shining it on A-ya’s ankle. Through all of his panic, some distant, detached part of his mind was relieved. It looked nasty, but it was really just a surface scrape. A-ya was fine. It wasn’t a big deal.
Even so, the hand holding the flashlight began to tremble.
“Are you okay?!” B-ko’s voice drifted over to them, accompanied by two sets of hurried footsteps. “Do you need a hospital or anything?”
“I’m fine.” C-ta’s head snapped up at the sound of A-ya’s composed voice. He stood up carefully, wincing a little as he shifted his weight onto his bad ankle. “It’s not that bad. It’ll heal in a few days.”
C-ta stood too, far more shakily. The tremor had worked its way into his entire body and he clenched his fists at his sides, his nails digging so sharply into his skin that it stung.
B-ko smiled. “That’s a relief,” she said, clapping A-ya on the shoulder. “Seriously, for a second there, it looked like the whole floor was gonna collapse.”
C-ta’s head spun. Collapse, he repeated to himself, dazed. Collapse and swallow A-ya whole.
D-ne piped up, and her calm voice grated against his ears. “You know, I was wondering… Maybe the reason this room was boarded up was because it was unsafe, and that’s all.”
Something snapped in the back of C-ta’s brain, and he whirled around to face her. “So why the hell didn’t you mention that earlier?!” He knew it was a terrible idea to lose his cool like this, but he just couldn’t stop. The pressure building in his chest was exploding, cold fury pushing him forward until he was standing right in front of D-ne, shouting: “A-ya could’ve gotten seriously hurt in there! Do you even care about that?!”
A bemused expression crossed her face. “Well, it turned out fine, didn’t it? Since his white knight was there to sweep him off his feet.” And she had the nerve to laugh like this was all some kind of funny joke, and C-ta moved to grab her by the collar, his mouth twisting into a snarl and he just wanted her to shut up–
“Hey! Back off!” B-ko shoved her way between them, hands on her hips as she glared up at him fiercely. “D-ne didn’t do anything wrong. None of us could’ve known what would happen in there. And I didn’t exactly hear you mention how dangerous it might’ve been, did I?”
C-ta staggered back, stunned, desperately trying to find the words to retaliate and justify his anger.
“I-I…”
But there was no justification, was there? She was right. He should’ve been the one to point out the risk. Looking after A-ya was his responsibility, and no one else’s. He’d been so caught up in going along with whatever A-ya wanted that he’d completely glossed over the very real possibility of something going wrong. How could he have let A-ya get into so much trouble? He should’ve been more careful, should’ve warned him, should’ve insisted—
“C-ta.” A-ya’s voice made him jump, and when he whipped his head around to look at him, his expression was strangely serious. “It’s fine. Let it go.”
He didn’t know whether it was supposed to be an empty assurance that he wasn’t at fault or a request to just let the matter drop. Either way, with three pairs of eyes boring into him, he quickly crumbled. “Sorry,” he mumbled, scratching the back of his neck. “I, uh, lost myself for a second there.”
“You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so angry.” D-ne’s tone was light, conversational, but her grin was just a bit too wide to hide her obvious taunting. “I suppose the only thing that gets you riled up is A-ya, isn’t it? He must be very important to you.”
"Maybe too important," B-ko said as she shook her head. "You need a hobby, C-ta."
C-ta clenched his jaw, but after a moment, he forced a smile to return to his face. They were teasing, and he knew how to dish it out in kind. "Hey, cut me some slack! I bet if it was B-ko who'd gotten hurt, you'd be just as worried as I was, right, D-ne?"
"Oh, more so." D-ne clasped her hands behind her back. "If I thought you were responsible for hurting her, you wouldn't be leaving this building alive, C-ta."
B-ko laughed, her tone a little strained, almost awkward. "D... D-ne, come on, don’t sound so serious when you say something like that..."
"Hey." A-ya's voice broke through their argument, and they all watched as he patted his pockets furiously. "What happened to C-ta’s phone?"
C-ta had only a half-second to feel panicked before B-ko piped up. "I, uh, ducked in and grabbed it. It kinda flew out of your hands, but... it didn't really hit the landing." She handed the phone out towards C-ta sheepishly, turning it over to reveal a hairline fracture running down the dark screen.
"Oh, no," he breathed out as he slowly took it from her. A-ya’s going to be so disappointed,he thought.
But when he tried the home button, the screen miraculously returned to life, showing the time, the date, and, most importantly—
“Is it still recording?!” A-ya’s hand clutched his arm tightly as he leaned over to carefully scrutinize his phone.
“I… I think so!” he exclaimed. “Look, it’s still moving, and the time’s still going up, and—” He watched the sound waves spike in response to his excited babbling. When he looked over at A-ya, beaming, he was delighted to find a wicked smile on A-ya’s face, too.
B-ko reached over to tap A-ya on the shoulder, breaking them out of their trances. “I hate to ruin your little moment, but… we should get going. We don’t want the entire building to fall down on us.”
“...Yes, I suppose that’s true,” A-ya murmured rather listlessly, before reaching out to end the recording.
"So, what do you think?" C-ta whispered, trying to avoid making even the smallest noise as he grabbed the first aid kit from under the bathroom counter. "Could the floor have collapsed because of a ghost?"
A-ya hummed thoughtfully, absentmindedly swinging his legs back and forth as he sat on the counter. The heels of his feet lightly bumped against the drawers, and the sound, though muted, still made C-ta wince. They had to be quiet as they could unless C-ta wanted to explain to his parents why he was patching up A-ya's scraped ankle at two in the morning.
Though, C-ta mused to himself as he grabbed disinfectant and one of largest band-aids he could find, it was his own fault if they got caught. A-ya had wanted to limp home on his own, but there was no way that C-ta was going to let that happen. Knowing A-ya, he’d probably just crawl into bed without bothering to properly clean up.
"I'm not sure," A-ya finally admitted. "The timing is suspicious, but I didn't feel any kind of... grip pulling me down, or anything like that. So it's hard to tell." He placed a hand against his chin and closed his eyes, deep in thought. "...Hm. Well, maybe once we listen to the audio, we'll be able to—ow."
"Sorry," C-ta said automatically. "We have to get this disinfected, though. Don’t worry, I’m almost done.”
A-ya was silent for while, curling his hands around the countertop as C-ta, slowly, oh so carefully, tore away the band-aid’s adhesive. When he spoke again, his voice was soft, almost apologetic: “Sorry about your phone.”
C-ta looked up, startled, before he gave A-ya the most reassuring smile he could. “It’s alright. I’m just glad we didn’t lose the recording.” He wrapped the band-aid around A-ya’s ankle before he stood, washed his hands, and turned towards A-ya. “Do you wanna listen to it?”
A-ya grinned back. “Obviously.” And with that, he had hopped off the counter and was tip-toeing towards C-ta’s bedroom. Taking a moment to put the first aid kit back, he thanked every god he could think of that he’d had the foresight to turn his computer off before he’d left.
When C-ta slipped into his room and softly shut the door behind him, A-ya was already sitting on his bed and working on untangling the earbuds that C-ta had left on his computer desk. He took a cautious seat beside him, plugged the headphones in, and slipped one into his ear. C-ta had made sure to leave several inches of space between them, but as he accepted the earbud that C-ta held out for him, A-ya shifted close enough that their shoulders brushed.
C-ta’s heart was in his throat as he shakily started the recording, barely listening to the sound of A-ya’s introduction. He fought to keep his face from burning with every ounce of willpower that he possessed. This wasn’t a big deal. They had to sit close together to make sure that the cord could reach. A-ya had to lean in closer to whisper requests to rewind to certain sections. How else was he supposed to hear him? Simple semantics. That was all it was.
Even so, his heart soared when A-ya, who’d been struggling to keep his eyes open, dropped his head onto his shoulder. C-ta’s breath hitched, and he quietly murmured A-ya’s name, disbelieving and hoping all in the same breath—
But A-ya didn’t respond. With a careful crane of his neck, he could see that A-ya had fallen fast asleep. C-ta chuckled warmly and slowly reached up to pull his earbud out. There was no point in letting the sound wake him up. If there were any ghosts, C-ta decided that they could wait until the morning.