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"Do you have the EMF reader?" Bad questioned, hand shaking slightly as he grabbed the book and spirit box.
Why had he agreed to continue hunting ghosts with Skeppy? The last time had resulted in losing one of their team members, a6d, as he had preferred to be called.
Their job was to investigate, find out what kind of ghost was haunting the house so that the exorcist could come in, knowing how to get rid of the ghost.
"Why can't the exorcists do this?" Skeppy asked for the thousandth time as they ran for the van.
"Because there aren't nearly enough exorcists in the world now. Nobody believes in this anymore," a6d says, panting, hoping to make it back to the van.
Bad was cradling his hand to his chest as they sprinted, the ghost right behind him, literally breathing down his neck.
They had 2 of three of their clues. They had confirmation from the book and freezing temperatures.
Then the hunt began and they were being chased, quickly realizing that, due to the speed of the ghost that it was a Revenant.
Skeppy lunged for the door, cursing up a storm and Bad didn't even have it in him to reprimand him. He took a sharp turn, tumbling into the laundry room, crouching between the washer and dryer, the door slammed shut.
He could hear the stumbling footsteps of the Revenant, having significantly slowed down since it couldn't see where he went.
He tried to keep his breathing quiet, desperately hoping the other two had found a hiding spot.
There was a shout of fear from Skeppy and Bad's heartbeat picked up.
Skeppy had to be okay. There was no other option.
Bad fumbled for his flashlight, the footsteps having ceased. He stood, shaking slightly as he grabbed his comms. "Sk-skeppy?"
"Bad... it got him. It got a6d!" he shouted, on the brink of tears.
Bad darted into the hallway, terror and sorrow battling for dominance. "Where are you?"
"The foyer. It had stopped hunting and the door unlocked and I ran out. He was right behind me and then the fucker started hunting again and... and..." Skeppy trailed off, a sob escaping him.
Bad quickly found them and they dragged the body outside, into the van.
"Let's just inform them it was a revenant and go," Bad said, taking the wheel.
He knew he could barely drive and Skeppy wouldn't be able to, but they needed to go, to get away from this house and all the horrors that had occurred inside it.
"Why did we agree to do this again?" Bad asked Skeppy as they stepped inside, agreeing that they would stay together.
"Money. We are good at this," Skeppy mumbled, ignoring how bad their last investigation had gone.
"Right," Bad muttered, uneasily approaching the door, hand shaking nervously. He doesn't know what he would do if he lost Skeppy.
"It's going to be okay. We will be okay," Skeppy said, as though he read Bad's thoughts, but it didn't seem to placate either of them.
Bad nodded, swallowing thickly as he opened the door, a shiver ran through him as he stepped through the door.
Skeppy rubbed his arm comfortingly and they stepped in, hoping to find the ghost and get out of this house quick, hopefully unharmed and alive.
It seems like luck was on their side, or against it depending on your point of view, but the living room was below 10, usually indicating the ghost room, however it stayed closer to 10.
Bad placed the spirit book on the ground, asking it to write in it as Skeppy placed his DOTS projector and moved along the walls, inspecting the pictures.
"Look at how ugly this person is? Why do all of these houses have creepy paintings?"
Bad chuckled, glad for the distraction until, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted something in the DOTS.
"Skeppy," he started.
"Hmm."
"We have DOTS."
"So no ghost writing then," he murmured.
Their flashlights flickered and the two looked at each other, bolting for the nearest closet and crouching silently, flashlights turned off.
Their breathing was ragged and they huddled together, unsure of who was being hunted. The closet doors jostled and Bad flinched, seriously regretting his decision to come back to investigating ghosts.
The noises stopped and they sat silently, waiting a few seconds before Skeppy risked turning on his flashlight.
The flickering was gone.
They breathed a sigh of relief.
"Okay, so we need to gather a few different items," Skeppy suggested, the two of them heading back out to the truck.
"Let's grab a camera and a spirit box. Do you still have the UV light?"
"Yeah."
"Alright. It's not freezing temps, so we can rule out Yurei and Oni." Bad stated.
Skeppy nodded, gripping the flashlight like it would protect him from the ghost, which if it was a Mare, a weak one anyways, it could.
With a shaky breath, they go back into the house, deciding to do a couple things at once because their flashlights would have to be off and it would make more sense.
Skeppy had the UV light while Bad handled the camera. As soon as he raised the camera he saw the orbs.
"We got orbs!" Bad shouted, turning the camera towards Skeppy. "Skeppy!" Bad yelled, pushing him away as the ghost made a swipe for him.
He grabbed Skeppy's hand and they ran for the foyer, disappearing into separate rooms. "Fingerprints!" Skeppy shouted as they separated.
"It's a Banshee!" Bad yelled, heart sinking as he realized what that meant.
It meant that he was focused on Skeppy alone and wouldn't leave Skeppy alone until he was done, until he'd killed him.
"Shit," Skeppy yelled, seeming to have come to the same realization.
The banshee turned towards him, a hunger in its eyes as it lunged.
Bad tried to get its attention as Skeppy ran. The ghost merely swept him aside and kept going. Bad's heart sank as he waited for the hunt to stop as he continued to try to distract the ghost, receiving claw marks on his arms.
He was swept aside particularly harsh, slamming his head into the wall.
When he came to the house was completely silent. He chances a look at his watch, seeing that it had been 20 minutes since he'd been shoved into the wall.
"Skeppy?" he questioned into the walkie-talkie, fear freezing his blood when Skeppy doesn't answer.
There are pounding footsteps and Bad has a second to worry that the Banshee was after him now, before he closed his eyes, accepting his fate.
If Skeppy was gone, there was no reason to continue. He'd lost a6d, and now he lost Skeppy. He had no one anymore.
Then there is a hand tugging on his arm, heavy breathing as it drags him. Bad's eyes snap open because why would the ghost drag him instead of just tearing him open?
"Bad! We need to go now!" Skeppy yelled, chucking a pot at the window, watching as it shattered and Skeppy pushed him through.
"We aren't supposed to break the windows," Bad dumbly as he crawled through the window.
"We are about to die. We'll pay for it through our savings or something, but we are getting the hell out of here."
"Language," Bad muttered, Skeppy chuckling as he started his climb out the window, before something latched onto his leg, a startled yell leaving him.
"Bad!"
Bad grabbed him, desperately dragging him out the window, a tug of war with a ghost who wanted nothing more than to kill Skeppy.
Bad couldn't allow that to happen.
He chucked the pot at the ghost, obviously it passed through him and didn't do anything, but it seemed to phase it for a second, just long enough for Bad to drag Skeppy through the window.
They bolted for the truck, locking the door behind them, panting.
"Can we please never do that again?" Bad asked, desperate.
"Never," Skeppy said, just as shakily, pulling Bad into a hug, neither of them caring for their cuts.
"Thank fucking god," Bad whispered, shaking in Skeppy's hold.
"Language," Skeppy laughed, hugging him tighter.
They were okay. They were alive and they would never do anything like this again. Losing one person was hard as it was, neither could imagine losing the other too.
Bad laughed too.
They would be okay.