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‘I hear the tippy-tappys! ’ Robin screamed.
‘Where? ’ Nyck was already glancing around the living room for a hiding spot. He was too far from the door to make a run for the van, but there had to be a cupboard around somewhere.
‘Nyck, to your right there’s a closet. I can’t see the ghost on any of your headcams so if it’s going into a hunt, you might wanna hide.’ Mitch’s voice crackled over the radio.
Nyck dove into the closet just as his flashlight started flickering. He turned it and his radio off, trying to be as quiet as possible.
He heard screaming, and, as quickly as it had started, the flickering stopped. Nyck switched his light on, relieved to find the beam strong and undisturbed.
‘I think it’s a Banshee. ’ Stoffel’s voice came over the comms. ‘I was stood right in front of it and it went after Robin.’
‘What’s the evidence for a banshee? ’ Nyck asked, pushing the closet doors open and glancing around the room.
‘EMF, fingerprints and freezing temperatures.’ Mitch supplied.
‘I can’t see my breath fogging up, but this probably isn’t the ghost room if Robin was killed upstairs.’ Nyck said.
‘Nyck, can you grab the EMF from the van? I’ll grab what Robin had on him and meet you there.’ Stoffel asked.
Nyck headed towards the door just as the lights began flickering again. He bolted out of the door towards the van, internally screaming. He rested against the side of the van, panting.
“That was close,” Mitch commented. He took a look at the sanity levels displayed on the side of the van. “You’re pretty low. We can switch out once this hunt’s finished, if you want.”
The radio crackled to life once again, making Nyck jump into the air.
‘There’s writing in the book, so it’s not a Banshee.’ Stoffel said. ‘It didn’t seem very fast when hunting, so that rules out Revenant.’
“What else uses ghost writing?” Nyck queried, opening his journal and inserting the evidence.
‘Let me get back to the van, I grabbed the most important stuff Robin had. We might be down a few smudge sticks but they’re not that expensive to replace.’
“Okay, so; Demon, Shade, Oni, Revenant, Yokai, Hantu, Spirit and Yurei all have ghost writing as evidence. Even if we rule out Revenant, that’s still seven types to try.” Nyck sighed, thumbing through the pages.
“Have we found any other kinds of evidence?” Mitch asked, flicking through the cameras. “Wait, is that a ghost orb?”
Nyck peered over his shoulder. “Looks like it.”
“Robin was throwing plates at me while I was leaving. He’s probably in the van now.”
As if on cue, a book was flung at Stoffel’s head.
“Hi, Robin.” The three said in unison.
“So we have writing and orbs, that would give us a Shade, Hantu, Yurei or a Yokai.” Mitch tapped the page that detailed the Shade. “Shade is EMF 5; Hantu is fingerprints; Yurei is freezing temps and Yokai is spirit box.”
“The EMF didn’t do anything when I last took it out,” Nyck picked the EMF up from the shelf. “But maybe I was in the wrong room.”
Mitch took the EMF from him. “You stay here and track cams, I’ll EMF and UV. Stoff, you got the spirit box?”
Stoffel waved the little black radio. “Let’s go.”
“Stoff’s sanity is lower than mine.” Nyck pointed to the sanity metres. “Shouldn’t he stay in the van?”
“Sanity is overrated.” Stoffel clipped his torch to his belt. “We’re not gonna be too long.”
“The headcams are 4 and 5,” Mitch nodded to the computer. “The house only has a porch camera and we only took two video cams.”
The two headed back into the house, Nyck keeping the footage from Stoffel’s headcam on the screen. He opened his journal and flicked to the ghost pages.
‘A Shade is known to be a ‘Shy Ghost’. There is evidence that a Shade will stop all paranormal activity if there are multiple people nearby.’ He read aloud. ‘Shades won’t do anything if you’re together.’
‘Yokais hate people talking anyway,’ Stoffel’s voice came over the radio. ‘Mitch you stay down here, I’ll do temp upstairs. I’ll leave spirit box till last, if it is a Yokai it might attack.’
‘Hantus are a rare ghost that can be found in hot climates. They are known to attack more often in cold weather.’ Nyck frowned at his page. ‘They attack faster in colder areas.’
‘Fun.’ Stoffel mumbled. ‘I’m not getting anything upstairs.’
‘Nothing down here either. Switch floors.’ Mitch said.
‘A Yurei is a ghost that has returned to the physical world, usually for the purpose of revenge or hatred. Yureis have been known to have a stronger effect on people’s sanity.’ Nyck read. He took a glance at Mitch’s sanity metre. ‘Sanity seems somewhat level, have you experienced any paranormal activities yet? ’
A cross was thrown at him. “Stop it, Robin.”
Another cross was thrown at the timer above the computer. Nyck glanced at the timer and stilled. ‘Uh, what level was this? ’
‘Intermediate, why? ’ Mitch replied.
‘Cuz you have three seconds before the ghost starts hunting. Intermediate hunts are 35 seconds.’
‘Fuck.’
The radio turned to static.
‘Negative on fingerprints and EMF,’ Mitch said after a few minutes.
‘No freezing temps downstairs, I’ll check the basement.’ Stoffel added.
‘Give me the spirit box while you’re doing that, then. I’ll do upstairs.’ Mitch came over the radio.
‘The timer’s reset, you’ve got 2 minutes to the next haunting, if you don’t aggravate it.’ Nyck told them.
‘There’s an ouija board in the basement but no freezing temps. Lowest I got was 10 celsius.’ Stoffel said.
‘Stoff, you’re at 8% sanity. Timer at 1.25.’ Nyck relayed.
‘Okay Stoff, you head back to the van. I’ll do the spirit box.’ Mitch conveyed.
“Welcome back,” Nyck smirked as his teammate entered the van. “Your sanity is rock bottom.”
“When isn’t it?” Stoffel laughed, throwing his equipment onto the shelves. “It’s got to be a Yokai, nothing else came back. We went over the house twice.”
“Yokai, right.” Nyck opened his journal to the Yokai page. “A common type of ghost that is attracted to human voices. They can usually be found haunting family homes.” He looked up. “Edgefield is a family home, and it did start getting more active when we were speaking.”
“Just need Mitch to confirm the spirit box.” Stoffel shrugged, glancing at the computer, flicking the cameras to follow Mitch’s headcam.
‘Spirit box confirmed! Spirit box confirmed! ’ Mitch’s voice came over the radio.
‘Confirmed.’ Stoffel and Nyck entered the last bit of evidence into their journals. ‘Get back to the van, Mitch. We’ll head back.’
‘NO NO NO NO NO-’ Mitch’s screaming got cut off as static filled the radio.
“D’ya think the ghost got him?” Nyck asked.
Stoffel turned round to look at the sanity metres. “Not yet.”
“I hope we actually get paid for this one,” Nyck mumbled. “I need to get one of those strong flashlights you and Mitch have.”
“Level up first mate.” Stoff grinned. “Though I did unlock the high school if you wanna do that next?”
“Is it creepy?”
“More than this.”
“I'm in.”
Robin threw a plate at them.
“Okay, Yokai identified. Let’s get out of here.” Mitch entered the van and closed the door.
The van trundled off and the screen faded to white.
“€20 for objective 1? I HAVE TRAUMA FROM THAT GHOST, THAT’S WORTH MORE THAN €20!” Nyck exclaimed.
“The high school’ll cause you more trauma, still wanna go?” Stoffel’s mouse hovered over the map point.
“Hell yes.”
The screen began to load.