Chapter Text
Cold winter wind blew in from the open window - Sigurd shut it, quickly, and resumed reading his book. He shivered a little from the bite in the air, but it was only typical of the season, and from hanging around his friend, Magnus. Sigurd’s long, slender fingers were cold, and if it weren’t for his socks, he wouldn’t have been able to move his toes. By now, it was mid-December, and all Sigurd wanted to do was cozy up and read. His novel was a Scandinavian true crime story, one of the many volumes that occupied his to-read list recently. This author, in particular, was absolutely skilled in controlling the amount of detail she lavished the reader with-
The phone rang, loud and obnoxious. Sigurd groaned and shut his book.
“Sig!” Magnus yelled. It must’ve been Sigurd’s phone, then, because Magnus usually took calls.
“Hm? What’s the call for?” Sigurd poked his head from the living room as Magnus stood in the kitchen, tapping his foot awkwardly. Someone’s stomach growled - Sigurd wasn’t sure if it was his or not. Magnus gestured at the phone - an unknown number, of course, but it belonged to the region. “Just the usual. Probably a new customer.”
Ah, yes. With the urgency of how inhumanly fast Magnus was bouncing about, Sigurd answered the phone quickly. Magnus seemed to know which calls were business calls like it was a sixth sense.
“Hallo?” An old habit, it was, to answer like he was living in Norway: but no, this was America, and things tended to be too similar than different. What he didn’t expect was the voice answering speaking at a million miles per hour.
“This...number? Ghost busting or something? Things have gotten really, really, out of control, and I kinda need your help - the two of you, right? What are your names? Mine’s Vasile-”
“Sir, you’re going to need to slow down and describe the situation,” Sigurd huffed. He’d begun to make himself a sandwich, putting the phone on speaker as Magnus listened along. As big as his presence was, Sigurd felt the man could almost make himself invisible.
“Ham?” Magnus whispered, gesturing to the giant leftover hock in the fridge. Sigurd gave him a nod, but Vasile (was that his name?) had already launched into another part of his conversation. “So, I’m no good at this, uh, ghost stuff, but my bathtub’s been clogged while I was trying to take a nice, hot bath, and now there’s water everywhere. Kinda need help on a spell to clean this up, too...Yeah. And there’s screaming - like really, really loud screaming in the kitchen near the sink.” Vasile paused for a second to take a breath, and in the distance, Sigurd could faintly hear demented screeching.
Vasile let out a lofty exhale. “I think this thing’s out to kill my entire plumbing system, oh God, my brother’s gonna come home soon and he’ll never believe this-”
Magnus stifled a giggle - Sigurd had only managed to toast the bread, and his friend was acting like he was watching a comedy show. But maybe it was.
“Tell me your address. We’ll be there as soon as we can.” Maybe Sigurd shouldn’t have said that: there was still their afternoon snack, after all, but a pesky poltergeist was a trouble to be dealt with. The sooner, the better, was what they’d learned after a couple years of experience. Vasile gave him his information, and without further hesitation, Magnus finished making the sandwiches and prepared to bring them into the car. Hastily, the tall Dane grabbed the dusty spellbook from the bottom cabinet, and their go-to kit containing a flashlight, an impromptu kit for making a potion, a blanket (for lonely ghosts and stopping fires), and a bottle of water. They quickly hit the road, with Sigurd driving down the freeway ten miles per hour above the speed limit in his Toyota, which was kindly lent to him by his mom.
Through a bite of his sandwich, Magnus spoke - “You know it’s a poltergeist, and therefore, you know I can be a little bit more of use. Yeah, I know I’m typically useful, but hey. For real.”
There was a silence as Sigurd quickly switched lanes, let Magnus feed him a bit more of the sandwich, and refocused on the road.
“Yes, you part-ghost-human thing. You make lots and lots of noise and ruckus, it’s kinda like you’re a poltergeist yourself,” Sigurd scoffed.
Magnus laughed his hearty laugh and rolled down the window. Sigurd snapped at him to close it, as he could get affected by the cold much more easily as a complete, normal human being.
The parts of his brain not focused on talking to Magnus were calculating what types of banishment spells he’d need to use, but it would depend on how strong the ghost was. Magnus could also tell him more about the ghost’s nature through intuition, which proved very useful in a tizzy.
Vasile’s house was a fairly large one, in a new, modern style with two hybrid cars sitting outside on the parking lot. Sigurd felt a little dusty in his old sweater, but at least they’d finished eating before they came to knock on the door. Always rap thrice, and never ring the doorbell, as ghosts tended to irritate further with the dinging sound. The customer answered immediately, with panicked, reddish-brown eyes and- Well.
If he was Magnus, Sigurd would’ve let out a low, appreciative whistle. But he was no Magnus, and thank God for that. Vasile was lean, like him, with beautiful, shiny hair thrown up in a messy ponytail. His derrière was also very generous given his build, and those skinny jeans framing his hips weren’t helping. Sigurd hoped Magnus was listening to what Vasile was saying, as he showed them around the house to demonstrate what type of havoc the poltergeist had caused. Upturned couches, spilled water, leaks… None of that mattered, right? Magnus and him both understood it was going to be a simple case to go about.
“So, what happens here?” Vasile was pointing at the massive amount of vines sprouting from the drain. Magnus was also looking at Sigurd expectantly in that smug way of his (Sigurd hated when he did it), as if to say, What do we do now, boss?
“We’re gonna go to the screaming.” Part of Sigurd wanted to ask more questions, maybe linger a little longer than necessary to hear Vasile speak some more, but Magnus was already heading up the winding staircase. They had their answers anyway. It wasn’t like Vasile liked him back, too...Wait, what?
Sigurd sucked in a breath. “Come with me?”
Vasile nodded, and without further ado, they made it to the bathroom.