Chapter Text
“Why am I here, again?” Stoffel asked, watching Mitch and Antonio kit up, grabbing various items and stashing them in their backpacks.
“It’s a bigger place so we needed a bigger team.” Mitch shrugged. “Robin’s ill and Sam’s in America, so you were pretty much the only other person who would come.”
“And you have the good torches.” Antonio waved said torch.
“Is that all you want me for?” Stoff snorted good-naturedly. “My ability to give you good torches?”
“Pretty much, yeah. Now kit up, take the UV and a photo cam. Grab some salt as well.” Mitch threw the salt shaker at him.
“Shouldn’t I stay here on cams? You guys know what you’re doing.” Stoffel nodded towards the monitor.
“Exactly why you should come out, get some experience.” Mitch threw a headcam at him, grabbed his arm and hauled him out of the van.
“Ghost’s name is Nyck de Vries, it responds to everyone. We need a picture of the ghost, someone needs to witness a Ghost Event and we need to detect it with a motion sensor.” Alex’s voice came over the radio.
“What’s a Ghost Event?” Stoffel asked.
“Usually something you can’t explain, such as a phone ringing for no reason, or a car alarm going off.” Antonio shrugged.
“A phone… in a school?”
“Like I said, unexplainable things.” Antonio shrugged.
“Thing to note; saying the ghost’s name will anger it, so unless you wanna initiate a Hunt, refrain from calling it out.” Mitch gave Antonio a look.
Antonio shrugged and pushed open the door to the school.
“Okay, so turn the UV light on and start checking for prints.” Antonio flipped a switch on the EMF reader. “Fingerprints or handprints, both count.”
“Do you want to split up? This place is pretty big.” Mitch pulled out a small, black radio-esque thing.
“Probably a good idea, cover more ground. Do you want to go right or left?” Antonio ignored Stoffel’s protests, pointing the EMF reader down a hall.
“Shouldn’t we stick together? It’s a big place and we don’t know how aggressive the ghost is, it might be better to stick together, at least at first?” Stoffel asked, turning his flashlight on.
“Why did you bring the reasonable one?” Antonio turned to Mitch, who shrugged.
“Let’s start off together, then we can split up if we need to.” Mitch suggested.
“Circuit breaker’s under the stairs.” Stoffel hit a button and the lights in the hallway turned on.
Mitch turned to Antonio with a triumphant grin. “That’s why we bring Stoff. He sees things we don’t.”
“Turn the spirit box on and shut up.” Antonio grumbled.
The trio headed down one of the hallways, side-stepping broken tiles and shattered glass.
Mitch stepped into one of the classrooms to use the spirit box while Antonio and Stoffel moved further down the hall, Antonio holding the EMF reader out and frowning at the low reading while Stoffel shone the UV light at the walls and doors, checking for prints.
“I hear water running,” Stoffel commented, stopping outside a door.
“Temperature’s definitely dropped, this may be the ghost room.” Antonio opened the door, EMF reader out in front of him.
“Yay,” Stoffel mumbled sarcastically, following his friend into the room.
The room looked like a science lab, the walls lined with countertops that also jutted out into floorspace with work areas split up by the occasional sink. Gas taps were set at intervals, and chemical cabinets, which luckily sat empty, lined the back of the classroom.
One of the taps had been turned on, dirty water filling the sink below.
“We got dirty water!” Antonio cheered into the radio, pulling out a photo and taking a photo of the sink. “Mitch, it’s the lab behind the science classroom at the back next to the gym. Get the spirit box in here.” He turned to Stoffel. “Put some salt down by the door, we may get footprints.”
“Wraiths have a toxic reaction to salt, it’ll increase ghost activity and show up on the EMF.” Alex supplied.
Mitch entered the room a few moments later, stepping over the salt line Stoffel had created by the door and turning off the lab’s light.
“Are you here?” Mitch asked, staring at the spirit box in his hand.
“Behind.” Came the reply.
***
Nyck was awoken from his nap by the thump of the front doors opening. He stretched out on the shelf he’d been resting on and stood up.
Confused, he poked his head out from around the door he’d been behind, watching three boys around his age enter the building.
He rolled his eyes. Great, amateur ghost hunters. Rolling his shoulders, he grinned. Time to have some fun.
The ghost hovered behind one of them, the pretty one with gorgeous blue eyes and sandy blond hair- stop it, Nyck - as they debated over splitting up. Secretly, he hoped they would, so he would be able to shadow the pretty one some more. Unlike the others, he seemed nervous, as if he hadn’t planned to be there.
New blood. Nyck rubbed his hands. This would be fun.
Surprisingly, the trio decided to stick together. Huh, smart amateurs, Nyck thought, watching as the pretty one- Stoffel, one of them called him. Pretty name, it suited him- damnit not now, Nyck - found one of the generators and managed to turn the lights on.
The black-haired hunter broke off into a separate room, turning on a weird radio-looking thing- a spirit box, the brunette had called it. Maybe he could communicate with Stoffel- stop getting distracted, you’re a scary ghost.
He followed Stoffel and the brunette, watching as they headed further down the corridor, pointing weird things around.
Nyck paused for a moment, wondering how he could draw Stoffel’s attention to him. He hadn’t had much fun in ages, and these amateur hunters seemed relatively harmless. Their equipment looked more for detecting rather than actual hunting.
An idea popped into his head and he phased through the brunette hunter, smirking at the shiver the boy gave. The ghost floated down the hall and pushed open the door to the science lab. He didn’t often enter the room, but it seemed… fitting, in a way. Something he couldn’t describe.
He shivered, remembering the events that lead up to his death. The explosion, the ringing in his ears, the panicked voices of his classmates and the teacher, someone yelling for an ambulance-
Skipping the desk that had been blown out, he turned one of the adjacent taps on.
Exiting the room, he headed back to where Stoffel and his friend were, once again floating through the brown-haired hunter.
“I hear water running,” Stoffel said, and Nyck almost tripped over his incorporeal feet. By Joe, his voice was lovely.
The two started down the corridor, following the sound of the running water.
“Temperature’s definitely dropped, this may be the ghost room.” The brunette opened the door.
Nyck followed the two into the lab, watching as the brunette cheered over the dirty water- honestly, the school had shitty water pumps to begin with, dirty water could mean nothing when ghost hunting- and take a photo of the sink.
Rolling his eyes, he turned to watch Stoffel laying down a line of salt by the door. Well, that wasn’t going to do anything seeing as Nyck was already in the room.
Not like they knew that, though.
The black-haired hunter- Mitch, the other hunter had called him- entered the room a few minutes later, spirit box thingy in hand. Nyck watched him as he carefully stepped over the salt line and turned off the lights.
“Are you here?” The hunter asked, the spirit box making strange radio noises in his hand.
Nyck smirked. Another way to mess with the hunters? He hadn’t had this much fun since he was alive!
The ghost stood behind Stoffel, floating a little to reach the blonde’s ear.
“Behind.” He whispered.
***
“Spirit box confirmed, Alex!” Antonio spoke down the radio, opening his journal.
“At least that rules out revenant,” Mitch laughed. “That would’ve been worst-case scenario; you cannot outrun a revenant.”
The door closed suddenly, making the three jump.
“Activity just spiked to a 5. You guys okay?” Alex asked.
“Yeah, the door just shut, but it’s not hunting.” Antonio flipped open his journal. “So not a revenant, but demon and oni are still possible. It hasn’t started hunting yet, so I would question that.” He turned to Stoffel and pulled out the thermometer. “Check the sink and door for fingerprints, Stoff.”
“Any ghost orbs, Alex?” Mitch asked, leaving an open notebook on one of the workstations.
“Negative on the orbs. I can see your breath, though.” Alex told them.
“Freezing temps confirmed,” Antonio held up the thermometer.
“Well, it’s not a mare, so it’s either demon or wraith. So ghost writing or prints.” Mitch looked up from his journal. “Anywhere on those prints, Stoff?”
“There might be something on the door,” Stoffel mumbled, staring at the door handle. “Does that look like something you’ve seen?”
Antonio looked over his shoulder. “Yep, that’s a handprint.”
“He’s a wraith then. Right, let’s get out of here. James owes us big-time.” Mitch shoved his stuff back into his backpack and headed out of the door, Antonio following him.
Stoffel stopped suddenly, hands scrabbling at his throat. The air around him turned heavy, his breath coming out in pants and he struggled to remove the weight from his throat.
“Stoffel?” Antonio asked.
Vision turning fuzzy, Stoffel dropped to the floor. The last thing he saw before everything went black was a pair of brown-grey eyes staring worryingly at him.
***
“Spirit box confirmed, Alex!” The brunette hunter spoke into what looked like a walkie talkie, just without the flimsy antenna and... smaller, more durable, perhaps.
Technology had really advanced, huh?
Mitch had left the door open, and the light from the hallway spilt into the lab. Deciding to mess with them a bit, he slammed the door shut and smirked as the three hunters jumped in fear.
“Activity just spiked to a 5. You guys okay?” Radio-guy asked.
Yes, they were fine. Nyck rolled his eyes. Hunters really thought worst-case scenarios, didn’t they?
“Check the sink and door for fingerprints, Stoff.” When had the brunette started speaking?
Oh well, doesn’t matter, Nyck thought as he once again shadowed Stoffel, who had been looking around with the UV light.
Wait, was he shivering? Nyck frowned, approaching Stoffel to get a better look.
“Freezing temps confirmed,” someone said behind him.
Oh, that would explain it, then.
“Well, it’s not a mare, so it’s either demon or wraith. So ghost writing or prints.” Another voice interjected. “Anywhere on those prints, Stoff?”
“There might be something on the door,” the ghost peered over Stoffel’s shoulder, eyebrows raising at the handprint right where he’d closed the door. “Does that look like something you’ve seen?”
Nyck stepped back as the brunette moved closer to Stoffel. “Yep, that’s a handprint.”
“He’s a wraith then. Right, let’s get out of here. James owes us big-time.” Nyck turned around and saw the hunters packing their stuff up.
Wait, what was going to happen next? Who was James? Was that a proper hunter? Were they going to send someone in to remove him?
“NO!” He reached out for Stoffel, grasping his jacket.
He froze when Stoffel stopped, the human’s hands grasping his own throat, as if someone was restricting the airflow-
Stoffel fell to his knees, hands still desperately scratching at his throat, face growing paler with every passing second.
Nyck started to panic, what was happening, did he do something? He hadn’t meant to kill anyone, he just wanted them to stop!
Stoffel’s eyes locked with his, what was a gorgeous mix of blue and green now a dull grey. His now-white face contorted with pain, throat red and slightly bleeding from Stoffel’s nails.
Eyes rolled into the back of his head, and Stoffel plummeted face-forward on the ground.
Even through the ringing in his ears, he could hear the cries of Stoffel’s friends.