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Chapter Text

Now when Ryan and Shane got back into the ghost hunting business with their new series; ghost files. Ryan didn't really think all too much about it. After all, why should he? They have done this for years and it's always been the same. But Ryan was suddenly starting to reconsider and questions everything he ever remembered about buzzfeed unsolved supernatural. 

Either way, he was here now at the Hull-House museum. He was waiting for Shane while thinking of funny remarks to say to the camera and chatting with Mark who was behind said camera. He was still laughing about Shane thinking he actually fought a ghost. He was pretty sure the viewers would be loving it when the episode would come out in a good light. No scratch that, Ryan was confident.  No way they would be leaving that out. Ryan just knew it was gonna be good, even if he didn't see or hear what happened himself. At Least not at the moment. He's gonna he it when he's editing this vi-

Ryan snapped his mind away from that worry, he always thought about the videos and less of the actual ongoing things. His mind drifted toward the moment he thought of. When what he believed was a ghost at St. Ignatius called Shane a demon and then devil. They laughed about who it was talking about before saying "tall" and then man a few seconds after. The fans loved it and the old joke of Shane being a demon came back.

Shane alway got a kick out of it. Just like at a panel he, Shane and Steven were at where somebody said that Shane looked like a demon.

Welp, even if Ryan wanted to have more time to just talk with a camera but Shane came out again. Ryan went out and toward the tall man that people thought was a 'real demon'. "How was it? '' he called out to his friend, Shane smiled a grin as if he had something to show for it- well, Ryan soon did find out. "It was really good, look at the most recent word on there." Shane laughed a little, showing the Ovilus while pointing toward the top word and Ryan nearly snatched the Ovilus from the man himself.

It wrote fucking devil. out of all things it could say, it said devil. "Devil?!" Ryan laughed, " That's amazing!" He continued but even if Ryan thought that was amazing, they had to continue. Soon Ryan and Shane switched helmets and Ryan threw his orange beanie to Shane while he was getting the helmet on. "I will say" Shane started, taking a short pause as if he didn't know what to say. "It did also say 'you' but it was followed by L so I thought it was calling me a loser." Shane continued but Ryan couldn't stop himself from laughing. "But hey! Maybe it called me the devil" Shane joked, jumping on the train of him being a demon himself. And Ryan laughed again, shaking his head and giving a quick "fuck off, Shane" before getting the helmet on and being sent into the house, alone this time.

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"This one is from '@ghost_town on twitter; Shane, what do you think of people calling you a demon? Do you find it annoying or funny? Also how do you know the Ovilus isn't just saying random words that just happened to connect? #Shaniac" Ryan read out the question out loud for them, it was quite an interesting one. One that's both for Ryan and Shane. Ryan looked toward Shane with a smile as he took a sip of his coffee, Shane looked back toward the camera and took it as a sigh to start off. "I find fun" "it is funny" "it is, it is." Shane had to admit, but the Joke was getting old. People kept saying he was just pretending for Ryan's sake or that he forgot he was a demon. Which sounds stupid.

"But I'm not a demon, I have never been and I'm not possessed either. It a stupid idea" Shane finsihed, leaning back into the chair and Ryan cracked up. His laughter died down as he added onto the joke. "I would know if you were a demon, I did shoot you with Holy water that one time" Ryan chuckled, placing the mug down and leaning the arm of the chair. God, that was so long ago. All the back in buzzfeed when Ryan had a water gun filled with holy water. 

"Oh yeah, my eye was burning for- something like 2 days afterward- do they put salt in those things?"  Shane asked, generally, this time. Not in the way where he would joke and ask Ryan something even though he didn't mean it. But no, Ryan could tell he was serious. It made him laugh out a no in response, it turned into an argument of Shane who was convinced that there must be something in it and Ryan telling him it's water that's blessed to "fight off demons" Ryan argument and they sat back at the desk again. The video was over but the argument was far from over. 

"Okay okay- let's say that 'real'" Shane turned around in the chair and looked toward the short guy across from him. He was doing air quotes to point out the ridiculous idea of that. "Why would my- a perfectly normal human- eye burn?" Shane questioned him, and Ryan was stuck. He didn't really have a good answer for the sceptic. "And this is why I'm alway right" Shane continued when Ryan didn't speak up with an answer. Making Ryan barked up with laugher, just barely getting through a "fuck you" in-between. And Shane just shrugged jokingly and laughed as well.

The conversation moved and then Ryan had to get home, Shane still had some things to do so he said a quick goodbye to Shane and waved to Steven and others on the way.  When Ryan got to his car- he had made up his mind. He was gonna figure out why he had so many weird memories of Shane Shane ghost haunting. There were too many to count and Ryan decided to tackle it like a supernatural episode from so long ago. He had to physically stop himself from drawing a notebook and pen he kept in his bag. He had to get home, then he could do this.

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As soon as Ryan got to his apartment, he pulled out his notebook and placed his laptop on his lap  before he had even hit the sofa completely. He started to look on YouTube and search for 'buzzfeed unsolved: supernatural'. If he wanted to get evidence about this, this was the best place to go as his memories of all of these episodes were a little fuzzy by now. It had been years. Video by video, he watched them and looked at Shane and reaction to catch a glimpse of Shane possibly being something other than a human. A ghost? A supernatural being? Demon?? He didn't have an answer yet and nothing big ever showed up.

Letting out a sigh, Ryan let his head hit the back of the sofa. He was getting annoyed and watching younger them fool around was not helping that. He was thinking back to their argument and suddenly something snapped.

The Holy water gun!

Ryan practically threw the notebook as he was quick to  search for the video, it took skimming through a few to actually find the one. And sure enough, Shane did back up as if it hurt. But just a while later, Shane also shot Ryan but that didn't hurt. He was more surprised and scared but it didn't burn in any form or way. Ryan could stop going back to rematch the scene over and over, as if rewatching it would make it make sense. It didn't. It actually made less and less sense as he saw what looked like smoke coming off of the patch where Shane had been shot with the Holy water. It was barely there, but Ryan could shake the feeling that it was smoke of Shane skin actually burning. Something salt could definitely not do.

"Jesus.." Ryan muttered, grabbing the pen and writing down that as well. He only had two things that he didn't already know. One being the Holy water now, of course, He could leave it out. The other was Shane having what he had called a 'connection' with the ghost. Something Ryan just started to recall that Shane actually mentioned in their first episode of ghost files after the honeycomb had said something he apparently had been thinking about. At the time he laughed it off and followed along either Shane thinking it was a some stupid bit. But seeing the amount of times and how often he mentioned the spirit books saying the same thing he thought, was amazing- this whole thing was amazing!

Well it was bad- considering his best friend might just be a demon and Ryan was quite scared of that. But if Shane is a demon, that means- he's right! That he's right about ghosts, demons and angels being real! God he can't wait to rub this in Shane's fa-

Oh fuck, Shane is a demon.

Chapter Text

Ryan had had a video started within a week. Already writing down things but he had to put it on pause for the newest episode of ghost files and before he even knew, they were in a car on their way to the next location. Something that was a few hours away. If it wasn't too far away, they preferred to drive as it minimised the chance of any camera or gear breaking on the way there.

Lucky for Ryan, he was in the passenger seat while Shane was driving the car. Which gave him some free time to write on his little… project. He will say, it surprisingly didn't feel weird writing about his friend when he was literally right beside him. Well- it might be because Ryan thought it more as a video and less of a weird way of proving his friend a demon. Now that he's thinking about it, it is quite a weird thing. But Ryan has never known to be 'normal'. And suddenly he pulled out his thoughts again when Shane asked him a question.  He alway got into a little personal word when doing something like this, it was the reason he was so efficient and hard working.

Ryan hummed back like he was half listening to the other. Technically he was, but Shane didn't need to know that. He just continued to write away on the keyboard as Shane asked what he was writing for. The keyboard he just realised was quite loud in the male care. "I thought we finished the script for the voice over" Shane asked, his eyes kept on the dark road ahead. Okay great, Shane couldn't actually see what he was writing or he would have a lot of questions to answer. Ryan was guessing the screen was too bright and in an awkward position that made it hard for Shane to look over and focus while he had to drive the car too. He paused and looked toward Shane before looking back to the computer "Yeah it is, just finishing something" Ryan explained, the type continues as yawned.

"Isn't like you to keep quiet about these things" Shane chuckled, and so did Ryan. He knew what the other meant by 'these things'. He would excitedly brainstorming with Shane about ghost files and could never keep an idea to himself.  To be fair, neither could Shane at this point. It just happens that Ryan alway talks on and on and keeps getting more and more ideas. "Well- you also don't think hitting my head and getting vision is normal either." Ryan pointed out, gaining a low laugh from him as he muttered "it's not'' back at him.

"Look, it doesn't make sense. I hit My head really badly once and I'm still just me, old Shane madej!" Shane continued and it seemed to be something that Ryan hadn't heard about before Because suddenly his attention was off of the computer and on the man. He never heard about this. "Wait really? You hit your head badly?" Ryan grinned, pulling his eyebrows together and giving him a confused glare. 

"Yeah! Apparently it was this big deal about a major concussion and memory loss" Shane laughed while Ryan decided to teasingly punch his arm in a friendly way.  "How the fuck come i never heard about this?!" Ryan barked at the taller one, his grin growing bigger as their laughter died down. It didn't last long, it never did. Shane alway had some stupid or funny comment to get the last word in or some shit that Ryan honestly didn't care about. "Did you even listen? I lost my memories! Can't remember shit past waking up" he finished and suddenly it was a little more serious. "Oh fuck! That sucks man" Ryan exclaimed. He didn't even know what he would do if he had lost his memory. Ryan would love to hear what actually cause the accident but he doubts that Shane neither remembers or wanne talking about it

"Guess it makes sense, you are quite forgetful."  Ryan admitted. he was joking of course but this back and forth 'argument' they were having was keeping his mind off the demon Shane theory. The demon theory was becoming a bit old while he sat here laughing and wheezing with Shane as he muttered back some useless defence like "I'm not" to him. Shanes eyebrows pushing together like they alway did when ryan said something stupid. He felt bad for thinking that Shane was a demon, but he did still have other theories like ghosts- even if he didn't even know how that would work himself. Zombie and then Angel. Or just generally anything supernatural. Either way, one thing was clear and that was that Shane was not human. Ryan slowly got back to writing again, he wrote down the thing about memory loss as a joke Because he thought he would be funny if that was the cover for Shane's secret. But that was just that, a joke.

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When the team got to the city, they crashed at a hotel. It was some shut Time in the night like 1 am before they got to sleep and they did quite quickly. And the next day was spent preparing and getting ready before actually heading out to location around sundown, only getting there when it was already dark. They alway did it at night, it was Ryan believed ghost was most active and Shane believed gave a more scary feeling to the show. Though the scariness of the show was never there, they alway joked and laughed at stupid things. Or Shane would decide to taunt the ghost or piss it off, even if he said this was the series of "respecting" the ghost. Something that lasted him less than two episodes. 

But they were there in the building now and Ryan was getting a little annoyed that they were getting literally nothing. "How are we getting nothing?" Ryan asked, they had stopped recording to try and figure out if the spirit box and nearly all of their ghost haunting gear was broken. "There's nothing wrong Ryan, ghost just doesn't exist" Shane tried to reason. But Ryan didn't really listen, it was so unusually quiet.  When the spirit box wasn't making any noise. It flicked through the radio station for a few seconds and created the white noise before completely stopping. Ryan originally thought that Shane had turned it off as a joke but when Shane was confused. When they tried to turn it one again, it just lit for a second before turning itself off again. Trying the other devices was no help. The Ovilus showed an error that Ryan didn't even know it could. The honeycomb couldn't work with the spirit box so that was a lost cause from the start. 

"We just have run with what we have, we still need this episode to get out at some point." Mark explained, getting the camera ready again and Ryan let out an annoyed sigh again. Shane held out a hand and Ryan took it to stand back up and Ryan could swear he saw something different about Shane's eyes for a short second. Like they were darker and more- yellow? Ryan wasn't sure but he also wasn't sure if he actually saw right. He very easily mistook things, so he decided to just brush it off. Especially since the other didn't really say anything about it, maybe they just didn't see it?

They did need to finish the recording and packed all the gear up into the car before getting into the heading back to the hotel again. Ryan was driving this time with Shane beside him and the others in the back. They maybe made it two blocks away before the sound of something switching back and forth made everybody jump- well everybody beside Shane. " Is that the spirit box??" Shane asked pretty quickly, turning around toward the back where Mark was already looking for it but he could find it in his backpack. "Why the fuck is the spirit box even on?!" Ryan might have yelled a little, it scared the living shit out of him. He was already scared but with the spirit box on top of it just made it so much worse. He looked in the back mirror to try to see what was happening but only saw Lizzy and Mark frantically trying to find the spirit box. Looking to his side he saw Shane looking through his backpack but he had no luck either. "Why is the spirit box so loud?" Shane asked, he was quickly getting quotes by the sound and suddenly the spirit spoke up with the single clear word of "annoy-ing de-m" 

"Holy shit!" Ryan could stop himself from saying and Shane actually laughed with the situation. "I think it's in the back," Mark explained as Ryan pulled over on the side of the road so they could get out and get it turned off. He still wasn't over the spirit box saying annoying, it was so clear- Ryan had never heard anything as clear as that. He will admit that the next word was less remarkable, it sounded like them or a cut off word. " Why does it work now and not in the house?" Lizzy asked from the back as Mark Mark Ryan got out of the car. Shane and Lizzy stayed seated in the car, Lizzy was looking back at them to see what was happening. "Something was probably laying on it." Shane muttered, he was way too tired for this.

"You know damn well that not how it works shane" Ryan explained and Shane just muttered back a "sure, buddy.'' He finally got got back open and nothing could have even turned it on, it was laying on top of everything there and- "I could swore I put it in my backpack" Mark muttered like it was nothing, he picked it up and turned it off, stopping the loud White-noise that it was creating. Ryan focused himself to move after he heard what Mark had said and he was pretty sure his face could get any paler."wai wait-" Ryan started, letting out an awkward and scared chuckle as he and back got into the car. " What do you mean you thought??"" He continued asking others who were now in the backseat instead beside him. 

"Yeah, I just remembere putting it in my backpack. I guess not" Mark explained, give up on it and instead admitting to the fact tha he probably didn't. But Lizzy also said she remembered that as well, Ryan felt like dying." It probably nothing, you just remember wrong" Shane shrugged and Mark just agreed. none of them really believes in ghosts- it was only really Ryan that believed in ghosts and demons and all that jazz. Lizzy kind of but nowhere as much as Ryan did. Ryan pretty much knew he wasn't gonna sleep tonight.

Chapter Text

It had been over 1 weeks since the thing with the spirit box happened and Ryan still hadn't shut up about it. He still brings it up and talks about it and Shane was getting tired. He some had managed to convince Ryan and the crew to go for a night of drink and it was the first time Shane didn't have to hear atleast a little about that stupid ghost box. Either way, it was now much and Shane remembers why he doesn't drink this much anybody. Not to mention he has to go into work today with a hangover now. 

It was until he got out into the living room he remembered that Ryan had crashed at his place after getting too drunk and lazy to go home. He took the couch and look to be deep asleep. Shane nevermind Ryan crashing at his place for a night, he had done it to many times to Ryan so it was only fair. Shane shrugged and went toward the bathroom quietly, he didn't want to be annoying and wake up Ryan. Either way, something felt off about himself. Maybe he was experiencing a new side effect of being hung over or just him feeling weird from having a hangover in the first place. Nomatter what it was, he just brushed it off and got to the bathroom.

Or at least he tried to.

As he got to the bath and look up into the mirror, Shane- not so maturely- screamed and fell backward.  Well-the scream was more of a surprised and scared yelp. But The scream wasn't important because Shane was 75 procent sure he just saw himself with horns and black and yellow eyes. Either way when he fell backward into the shower and he hit his head he did admitted yell out a loud 'fuck' that could wake up anybody. Shane had close his eyes on impact because of the pain but he had heard a crack and thought it was his skull. Moving a hand to the back of his neck and skull he couldn't feel any blood but definitely felt what he imagined was the horns he saw.

His eyes shot open and he looked at his hands, they were black with long sharp nails. That wasn't even the weirdest part Becuase in-between his legs was a long black and fin tail that resampled something a little to close to a demon's

"No no nono-" Shane repeated under his breath he pulled himself up and onto his feet again. He had to see in the mirror if this was true, and sure enough, there it all still was. He had such a strong grip against the counter that his thumbs made imprints and he could see cracks forming. He drew his attention back to the mirror together better look. 

The white of his eyes were now black and instead of his normal eye color he got a bright yellow one, it looked like it was nearly glowing. And out his forehead was long horn growing, they bent backward and turn a black color by the tip. Just like with the tail swing behind him.

"What the-" "Shane? You okay in there big guy? Sounded like you fell" Ryan asked- fuck Ryan was here. Shane looked between the door and his own reflection trying to figur out what to even say. How the fuck was he gonna explain this to Ryan?? Ryan was terrified of anything ghost related- not even to mention demons!

Arguably, Shane didn't know if he was a demon- or if he got possessed  or even cursed. But he did know that this wasn't normal. Shane had gone around his entire life hunting ghost and suddenly this?! This couldn't be happening. Not now.

Not here.

The knocking came again and Shane snapped his head toward the door, it was still just Ryan of course. But for the first time about anything like this- Shane was scared. "Shane?" Ryan sounded a little more worried- and again he was surprised he could that he was worried. "I'm fine! Just- slipped" he cringed at how scared he sounded, but apparently just enough to worried Ryan anymore. Ryan let out a laugh from the other side of the door.

"As long as you're okay" Ryan replied and Shane could hear the footsteps going again. He needed to find a way out of here- thank god he already had clothes or else it would have been way more annoying. He waited a second to try and hear where Ryan could be in the apartment but it wasn't that easy. He decided to finally just opened the door and look out. Even he didn't see any sign of his friend around, he ran to the door. Grabbing his shoes and car keys in the process before being out of the door within a few seconds. He didn't know where he was going- but definitely not to the office like this.

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Ryan had only gone to the kitchen to grab a thing for a second but when he came back, the bathroom door was wide open. The same with the front door and suddenly Ryan was scared again. Did Shane just run out of his own apartment? He was pretty sure the other did have to work back the office today but Shane would never just leave like this. 

It really didn't help to think about all this when he had a headache that was killing him.

Ryan brushed the off and grabbed one of Shane's spare keys to lock his apartment for him, deciding that he can jsut give it back next time he sees him. 

It didn't last that long though because Ryan remembered Shane's cat obi and with how Shane had left the door open. He wanted to make sure obi was still there. after walking back in after unlocking the door, the first thing he realised was that everything was exactly like it had been left. That meant Shane hadn't been back…

He was brought back to his senses as a loud meow sounds and purring by his leg. It was obi, at least he's here. But Obi was being really loud, maybe he didn't have any food? It would be possible. Closing the door and checking in the kitchen, he was right, obi didn't have any food and only a little water left. Ryan filled the little cat's bowls up before heading to Shane's bedroom. Trying to see if he could find out where he had gone, he didn't find much. He did find Shane's phone that was still in the charger. When he turned it on, the first thing he saw was multiple missed calls and unread  texts from Steven and the crew.

Okay, now this is getting more. If anything, Ryan thought Shane would have gone to the office or something. He was supposed to be the first one there. And if Steven has been calling Shane, he's probably not there.

"Shit" Ryan whispered as he left the apartment again, and of course locked it behind him. He went to the watcher office and started looking for Shane, he wasn't actually supposed to come in today. That means if Shane is really gone, he has plenty of time to look for him.

Before Ryan even knew it he was at the door to the watcher officer. Shane never just disappeared like this- it was scaring Ryan more than any haunted house they have been to before. Walking through the door to the office he was nearly instantly stopped by Steven, who waved him over. "Hey Ryan! Have you seen Shane? He was supposed to come in this morning." He asked, Mark had come over briefly as Ryan felt his heart stop. "Didn't you crash at his place last night? Is he sick or something? Mark asked, a concerned look started to grow on both of their face when noticed how Ryan stiffened up. mark knew that response, that classic freeze thing Ryan did when he got scared of something.

"I thought he was here," Ryan finally explained. Mark and Steven both shared a look before looking back at Ryan who was trying to find a logical reason in his head. Ryan instantly started walking backward toward the excite, toward his car actually- but like Steven is, he ran after him. "Ry-! Ry you can't jsut leave after saying that?! What do you mean you thought Shane was here??" Steven question the other, a hint a worrie and anger mixed in with the confusion. 

"I was with Shane was I went to grab something while he was in the bathroom. When I came back, the bathroom was unlocked and the front door wide open! I didn't even hear him leave, steven" he sounded way less worried and more panicked. For all he know Shane could be missing, and he was very close to calling the police.

He had alway thought of the rule of needing to wait 24 hours to report somebody missing bullshit. Alot could happen within 24 hours and he wasn't about to los-

"Have you been back to his apartment?? Maybe he came back after you left?" Steven questioned again, grabbing onto Ryan's arms when they got his car. Ryan already guess that Steven would be coming along. Fuck whatever work he had to do at this point. "Yes of course! I also waited to see if he would come back but he didn't. He didn't feed obi when he left, didn't take his phone." Ryan started as he got into and turned on the car, Steven followed along and got in the passenger seat. "Just grab his car key and dipped out of there!" Ryan accidentally yelled back, he's never been good with stress. And this might be as stressed as he ever has been.

"We should call the police- where are you even going?!" Steven dug for his phone before shooting Ryan a confused glance again. Shane was supposed to get to the HQ at 8 in the morning and it's 12 at this moment. That means Shane has been gone for at least 4 hours, if not more. "His place, there must be something I'm missing- a note, anything!"

And not so surprisingly, within a little more than 15 minutes Steven and Ryan were at the empty apartment if Shane's and at this point Ryan was looking anywhere. Steven- being more calm, walked around before going toward the bathroom. He didn't fully know why he gravitated toward there specifically but he did.

"Hey uh Ry?" Steven hear himself say before he even processed what he was seeing, and of course Ryan came over right way to only to see the same as Steven.

The bathroom was a mess, things was knocked over. The counter looked like it had cracks and imprints of finger on it. the tiles in the shower had to perfectly leveled cracks in it, something that definitely couldn't be made by knocking ones head into it. But it was definitely the counter that confused them the most.

Shane was not strong enough to do that.

So what the fuck happened?

Chapter Text

It had been 8 hours since Shane left the apartment and he has not calmed down yet.

How could he? He ran from his best friend after horns came out of his head and he grew a tail. He had realised long ago he left practically everything back home, but he was far too afraid to even think about going back. He was trying to work out some fucking reason to what was happening but nothing made sense. How the fuck is this even possible.

Shane doesn't think he's has ever been this scared and confused in his entire life- well- logically probably some time far back when he was a kid, a fucking kid! Kids are scared of everything! "Well shit! Now I now how Ryan feels when we're out at fuck-knows-where haunting ghosts!" Shane laughed, everything was so impossibly ridiculous that Shane couldn't think of anything else to then laugh at it. Even if they laugh filled with anxiety and was all scared. He could stop laughing at the idea it. It made him sound like a maniac.

After he was parted in fucking nowhere, trying to work out how this is even possible. And if it was, how could Shane not remember that he's a demon? It feels pretty fucking important to know. How could he forget-

"Oh fuck me"

Shane leaned forward, his head resting against the wheel. Of course, of-fucking-course he just had to remember the fact he has had memory problem now! Right when he's already thinking he's lost his mind! If all this demon shit and not remembering is happening all because of him falling off of that stupid cliff and hitting his head- Shane was pretty sure he was gonna go insane.

It didn't help that he left his two friends and co-founders - one who's always anxious and the other less than logical- to deal with him just disappearing like this. If he didn't know all too well, Ryan would have called the cops by now and be out searching for him. So either he gets found by a group of cops like this and shot on the spot. He tries to revert- whatever the fuck this is- and get back to them before a full-blown search party is after.

He doesn't want people out searching for him like he's some young lost boy in a small town movie. He just wants to go back home and get to work, then blame his disappearance on some suddenly emergency with his family and he had to fuck off.

Either way, even if he wanted to go, he had to at least lose the horns and definitely look less- demony. If he walked back into the studio like this? He's fifty-fifty that Ryan would either pass out on the spot of a panic attack or straight up punch him. And as much as he loves Ryan like a brother. He would rather have him pass out then get punched by him.

"Okay I need some air" Shane muttered to himself as he got up and out of the car, it was on the edge of a forest with a pretty good small hill right by his car that went- a good bit down. So he was careful to not lose his footing. With a defeated sigh he leaned his head against the car and let his arms fall by his sides. "Okay let's-" Shane started but never got that far, he tried to step back until to step until that god forsaken tail. Sending a spike of pain through his body- enough that his first response was losing his footing and falling. Too bad he started to fall down the hill.

Shane tried to stop himself but when you're tumbling down a hill, it is arguably really hard to do. Thank god there weren't any big rocks or did he hit a tree. So by the end as he finally came to a stop, he just lay on his back for a few good minutes processing what just happened.

He got to sit up and look up at the hill again, it wasn't gonna be too hard to get up again. A little strained walking and he would be there, but holy fuck was Shane exhausted. He flopped back into the ground and let out an annoyed groan of this having happened to him. All these years of taunting ghost and Ryan finally fucking bit him the ass.

Apparently karma is a bitch.

Shane decided to instead just to get up and walk around in the forest instead, he needed some calm as well. To bring his mind away from- well everything.

9 hours. Shane had been missing for close to 9 hours now. Steven had taken off work at the office to help out with the Amount of calls Ryan was making already. Steven called the police first thing after they had gone to Shane's apartment and reported him missing. They gave the police most of the information over the phone before they requested at least one of them come down to the nearby police station for the report. So while Steven was gone doing that Ryan has been calling every single person he knows that might know where Shane is. He continued to try and try, staying on the phone for a long period of time as he and friends tried to figure out how Shane possibly could be gone. It took so long that before Ryan was finish calling everybody, Steven was already back- despite being gone at the police station for hours.

Even after all the hours of contemplating and calling, he never once got somebody that knew where he was or could have gone. All either suggested that maybe there had been an emergency with his family and to try and call them. Which got Steven and Ryan wondering. "Do you know his parents phone number?" Steven asked. And of course Ryan didn't. He never even heard Shane mention them ever. Ry shook his head before dashing for Shane's phone.

He doesn't exactly know his phone's password but he does know Shane enough to at least try. And sure enough his password was the same as his birthday, because of course Shane would put his password as that. Looking through his contacts, he couldn't couldn't find anything that looked like it could be his parents phone number. "They aren't one" Ryan finally said, his brows furrowed together in a confused expression. "What?" Steven asked before getting up and over.

He took the phone from Ryan's hand despite his complaints. "Surely they're somewhere here, Let me look." Steven argues, but even with him overlooking everything again there was anything that ĺooked like messages from his parents.

"Could.." Steven started out. "Parents have died long before we met and we just didn't know?" Steven questioned, putting the phone back down on the table and taking a seat across from Ryan. It didn't last long as instead now Ryan shot up from the chair he was sitting in. His feet constantly tabbing the ground anxiously. "I don't know- probably?? I never even heard him talking about his parents before!" Ryan exclaimed, his hand waving around like an insane person. Maybe he was going insane because of this whole situation, who knows.

Ryan Crossed his arms as he got lost in his thoughts. Clearly ingor what Steven was currently talking about "Oh god if this is because of that…" Ryan muttered under his breath, rubbing and- possibly- hiding his face. "Because of what- Ryan what are you talking about!" Steven shot back and clearly they were both frustrated and most of all- scared for their mutual friend.

He was actively debating inside of his head. Rather this is actually a good idea to talk about, but better now that never- or after they find out Shane is dead or something- "Okay! I might" Ryan started, he wanted to make sure that what he was saying came out in a way that didn't make him sound absolutely crazy. "have started gathering 'evidence' against Shane" he continued. And he could tell by the look on stren face that he didn't look happy but was mostly just confused. "That points toward Shane being a demon" Ryan finished but did quickly add on "as a joke at first!" When he noticed the anger followed by disbelief rising in Steven.

"You gotta be kidding me right, Ry?" Steven sat in disbelief before a little out of confusion laughed when Ryan didn't say a word and just took a deep breath instead. "You can not be serious right now-" "it started out as a joke okay!" They started to argue. "Started out as a joke?! Ryan!" Steven laughed- a laugh mixed with a lot of different emotions and none that was really that good.

He ran a hand through his hair as he tried to make sense of what this situation had turned into but Ryan wasn't making it any easier for either of them. "What the hell have you been doing!?" Steven questions again. And Ryan waved his arms out to his sides again as he tried to form a sentence and made sense. As currently this didn't look that good from Steven's perspective. Ryan could understand that. If he found that Steven was suspecting one of their mutual friends of being an actual, real life demon. He wouldn't be super happy either.

"I did it as a joke! But the more I looked into it the more it seemed believable and like something he could be hiding from us!" Ryan tried to explain himself. Everything was a mess right now, the table was a mess with all different types of papers and their computers and phones and everything… they were a mess because they have no way of contacting Shane to know if he's actually okay. This whole situation was messed up and it wasn't helping either of them to calm down.

Steven took a deep breath and rubbed the bright between his eyes as he took a second to compose himself again. "As much as you seem like an asshole right now and the insane urge I have to punch you-" Steven started, he sounded calm again- which was good. Ryan wasn't sure how much yelling he could take. "That's a normal urge of yourself Steven" Ryan joked with a short chuckle in a desperate attempt to lighten the mood a little. And with the short chuckle he got out of Steven, it seemed to work.

"Arguing and yelling isn't gonna help us find Shane nor fix any of our problems." He reasoned, leaning his hands against the table before taking a seat again. "Other the find Shane, we still have the problem of figuring out what to do with the channel." He continued and Ryan must have looked at him with a confused expression, as he let out a laugh and shook his head. "Ghost files, the next episode supposed to be up tomorrow?" Steven reminded him and he completely forgot everything about ghost files and the shows.

He checked his phone and sure enough, tomorrow was Friday and the day they upload the next episode. The question comes if they should just post it tomorrow and make a note saying the debrief is gonna be delayed- should they even tell their fans Shane is missing? Ryan feels like they particularly deserve to know but this is also something extremely important and should be handled with the cops- "are when gonna tell our fans? Ryan asked this time, Steven was about to jump in with his- possibly- answer but before he could Ryan continued his train of thought.

"If we don't upload they'll know somethings wrong, and if we do and we record the debrief without shame they'll also know somethings wrong" he half mumbled- half ramble on. He hadn't even noticed that Steven had just given up for now in trying to say anything, he knew Ry could ramble on like this for a good few minutes. "Not even to mention patreon! They're supposed to get the episode today and the monthly stream soon. I can't do the stream without Shane there, Shane is always there!" Ryan was in a panic again.

He felt more ashamed for thinking more about the channel than Shane right after. He's missing and the only other thing Ryan can think about is work? "I'll call Mark and get back to the office to work out some with him and Lizzy. It's still your day off so…"Steven started but quickly trailed off. "Call whoever you haven't tried yet?" He suggest, he knew that it would help Ryan get a piece of mind if he could figure out where Shane was.

"I have already tried everybody that I could think of, his parents was my last idea." Ryan sighed, ran a hand through his hair again.

Steven didn't say anything for a few moments. "Alright, try and relax then, I'll call you if I hear anything from the cops."

Shane learned a hard way that just because you manically get a demonic tail out of nowhere, doesn't mean you actually know how it works. First of all- if he wanted to control he had to think about it, it wasn't like how he could walk without thinking. But he also realised that when he isn't thinking about it and keeping it out of mind, it will act like- or how he imagined- a normal tail would. It was kinda like when you thought too hard about walking as a joke and you end up falling, but only kinda.

He quickly grew annoyed by the feeling of having that tail drag against the forest floor as he wandered around, so he instead theated it through his belt and let it hang from that. It wasn't comfortable either but until he can figure out how it works properly, it's gonna stay like that.

It wasn't the only thing he had to get used to. The horns and black hands were definitely something to adapt to as well. Though it turns out that the newly found claws on his hands were surprisingly good at stretching itchy spots. Who would have guessed?

Well… probably nobody, Shane definitely didn't. But then again until a good few hours ago, Shane was a full-blown atheist. And never he doesn't really know what to think. Just like with everything else, Shane just decided to not think about it and continue his walk through the forest. He alway does this, it is how he doesn't overthink about simple things. He just chooses to not question or think about something he didn't quite understand.

So when he came across an old overgrown house in shit knows where, he didn't think anything odd of it and moved close. He chuckled to himself imagining how Ryan would be freaking out about a random house out in the forest, and how Shane would probably explain it with logic. The only real reason he moved close is that it was clearly abandoned ages- if not years ago. There was ivy and street art covering the brick walls.

Getting close and touching the wall, he could see the old pale peachy colour of the wall that had been slowly falling off over the years. It naturally happens over time, though he ivy probably helped it happen fast. He moved on, toward one of the windows covered by a large plank on the inside.

The window was already slightly open so it didn't take much effort to push it open further and move the plank aside- well more like to the floor but still. It gave him a good few of the inside of the house as he leaned against the window stool. Shane wasn't exactly sure what he expected but it did look exactly the same as outside. Plants had taken over the place and he guessed there must have been a lot of moisture in there over the years. As moss has started to grow from the entrance throughout the floor and wall. Aswell as plants and grass actually just growing out of the rotten wooden floor.

He back away from the window and moved toward the entrance where the moss and been growing and as soon he got into the doorway, he got a clear look at just how rotten the floorboards were. Thank god he didn't have to worry about wall through them, after all, he could already see grass growing out if them-

"Aw man!" He jumped back with so much focus he was out of the house before he knew it. He moved back to the doorway where he saw a short young-ish black man by the stairs. "Oh shit- I didn't think anybody would be out here-" Shane tried to explain, a hand grasping at his shirt just over his fast beating heart with the other supporting him up by the doorframe. He took a guess that the young man was just out exploring by how his clothes were. Old and dirty but that could easily be explained by him possibly being a little ruff when out exploring.

"Are you here to take me to hell or some shit?" The kid asked and Shane had completely forgotten about his whole thing recently. His mind was going at thousands of miles an hour to try and come up with a good explanation. But before he even got the chance to open his mouth, the kid was talking again. "Cuz everything here has been really nice" he held up his hand and Shane finally got a good look at him. His neck was all swollen and red… maybe even bruised.

"You need to go to the hospital-! Your throat is-" "no i don't?" They both paused for a second, others looked just as confused as he did. "I don't Need to go to the hospital, I'm dead" he stated like he didn't just tell Shane that he was dead, if it was a completely normal thing.

They couldn't possibly be that. "You can't be dead, ghosts don't exist" Shane argued, his voice maybe a little more meana and judging then he wanted it to be.

"Yes they do."

"No they didn't" he continued.

"Yeah they do. Man! How can it be that you can be a demon and not know about ghosts?" The kid shot back and Shane gave in, finding out that ghosts really excites aren't the weirdest thing that has happened today.

Shane still doest believe him but he doesn't say anything back either and just gives up. "I'm not a demon" he just said instead and the other didn't look convinced.

"yeah? And that's why you got that tail and horns? My bad, I forgot humans have those" the kid sarcastically asked as he titled his head and crossed his arms. "I have never been a demon, this isn't real because ghosts and whatever this is? doesn't exist" Shane started to get frustrated, just like how he used to with Ryan and his stupid theory's back on buzzfeed. And the frustration could clearly be heard in his voice. Not a lot of things can so easily make him angry or frustrated but pointless conversations about the supernatural always got him to that point.

Nothing was backing sense and who ever the fuck this- person? Actor? Fuck it, guy wasn't helping. "Hey! Don't get angry at me, I haven't done shit! You were the one to randomly show up" the guy spat back.

"I'm not- okay listen, I'm not angry, and I'm not a demon." Shane threw out his hands to his sides before sitting down on the steps of the front Door.

"His car was WHAT?!" Ryan yelled into the phone as he shot up from his seat on the couch. "They found what they believe is his car by the side of the road a little out from the city, please calm down-" Mark said on the line as he started to wander around in his apartment.

He thought next time they would get an update on where Shane was it would be them finding him but this was just making him even more anxious! Now they've found his car abandoned by the road. "They said they have a team out looking in the forest and at the car incase be might come back for it" Mark continued but all Ryan could mutter was 'holy shit' over and over again.

"Ryan…" "I know, I know I need to come down-" he started and Mark agreed on the other end. "But it's hard when my Shane could be in serious danger!" He shouted.

He sat back down on the couch with one of his hands supporting his head up. "We shouldn't let this stop us from doing everyday stuff-" Mark tried but was quickly cut off by Ryan. "Are you saying we should just stop caring about Shane being missing?" He shot back, a little aggressive then he meant it to be and winced when he realised. Not that he meant it to be aggressive in the first place, he was just- stressed really.

Mark was quiet for a few moments. "You know that wasn't what I meant." His voice was lower then before and Ry knew it fuck it up. He let a sigh "Yeah fuck I know I'm sorry mark" he started. His hands ran down his hand before going to the back of his neck. "I'm just stressed."

"We know, Ryan. That is why Steven suggests you try to relax." Mark sounded worried on the other end, and Ryan was starting to feel quilts for taking up so much of his time when he's supposed to be working. On second thought, he probably doesn't mind.

Ryan was the one to be quite for a few moments before finally finding the right words. "I don't know how to, everytime I sit down and watch something all I can think about is how I could be out there trying to find him" he tried to explain. He knew the chance of him actually being about to find Shane was near impossible but it didn't stop him from feeling guilty for not at least trying.

"We all want to find Shane but we already did what we could. You and Steven called the police and told them everything you know." Mark comforted him. Not that it worked but Ryan was happy that he at least tried to ease his anxiety about the whole thing. "But we need to know you're okay as well. Steven can tell how much it affects you and we're all worried Ryan." Mark continued. He could hear a few faint voices in the background that agreed with him.

He soon heard the phone being passed around. "We decided to record a clip we'll put in the start of tomorrow's episode and told the patrons that due to an announcement that will be made in this week's episode they're getting it the same day as everybody else." Steven explained. Guess Mark saw Steven coming and decided to just give him the phone. All Ryan could really say was a simple "oh"

To be fair his brain hadn't even fully processed everything Steven just said. "Yeah. It gonna be short and just explaining basics of what's happening currently and how the next episodes or two might be delayed" he finished, Ryan could tell by the sound of his voice that Steven was anxious about the whole thing as well. If not a little uncomfortable actually.

"We'll find Shane, Ryan." Steven again insisted. And all Ryan could say back was jsut "Yeah I hope" as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. He felt so tired, everything that happened today just made him so tired. He should probably take a nap, probably be good for him aswell.

"I will see you later, '' Steven finished.

"Yeah, goodbye…"

Chapter Text

“So let me get this right, you and you friend-”

“Best friend”

“Were out drinking, and then went back to your place to crash?”

“Yep” Shane sighed, running his hands down his face. “I didn't even grab my phone or anything.” He groaned abone realising that. He can't even reassure Ryan if he wanted to. He had been trying to explain what was happening to him to this random ghost.

“And you just woke up like this? How does that happen?” He asked. Shane whined “I don't know, ghost! I'm losing my mind over this.” he sighed as he dropped his head into his hands. 

The two had been sitting on the step to the garden, and looking up he could see the ghost had started wandering around and taking care of the garden. “You can call me by my name, you know that right? It's jacky” the ghost- jacky said. Continuing to water more of the plants.

Jacky started to pick off some of the fruits that grew as he started back up where he left. “Anyway, you woke up like this and your first was to run?” He asked, moving back toward Shane and sitting down besides him. “I'm scared! He's weirdly afraid of these things” Shane explained.

'just how afraid are we talking?” asked Jacky, offering the wild barriers one of the plants had grown. “He put holy water in a water gun.” this time Shane couldn't stop the chuckle that came out, jacky laughed too and how stupid it sounded.

But Shane suddenly stopped. “there's no way-” he muttered. “Oh my god…” he groaned again and Jacky only got more confused. 

They waited for the other to say something but when it became clear that he wasn't gonna, Jacky started up first. “What? What wrong dude?” He questioned. 

Shane just laughed for a second. “He shot me with holy water once in the eye and it hurt for days on end- maybe it burnt me because I am a demon..” he explained, Jacky could only really look at him before laughing too.

“Dude, how can you get hit by HOLY water, got burnt by it and wasn't even concerned that something might be a little off?” He laughed and Shane chuckled too, the situation was just starting to get stupid at this point.

Shane shook his head with a laugh. “Just wait, it gets better. I hit My head really badly many years ago and I have no memories from before there-” he started but Jacky quickly cut. “I swear to god if you have always been a demon, only to lose your memory in a human form and then got stuck believing you're a human, i'll laugh.'' They jokes.

But Shane was pretty sure that is what happened, even if he still didn't wanna believe it- this whole situation is just stupid. “I'm pretty sure it is…” he muttered and Jacky laughed.

The two of them continued to talk and Shane actually started to feel better about this whole- demon situation. But it was getting still dark and cold quickly, and surprisingly, Shane didn't wanna get stuck in the woods at night. “I need to get back my car.” He suddenly said, he watched as jacky looked up toward the sky and nod. “It is getting pretty late, huh? He agreed.

Shane had already gotten up and toward the door when Jacky called out. “Come visit at some point, okay?” He smiled and Shane grinned back and shouted back an agreement as he left the house. But it was only a few minutes later that Shane suddenly realised.

He has no idea where he is.

Turning around he at least realised that the old house still had a visible dirt road. The possibility that it leads to the road he parked his car by could be good enough. He decided to take the chance and follow it. Even if it doesn't, it really just means he'll be spending more time finding his car again. And if it did, he'll just have to follow in the hope of seeing his car. 

It did eventually lead to a main road and then later to his car but not before it had completely turned dark and he found himself wandering around in the dark. Probably for the best in a way. If anybody happened to drive down it, they wouldn't be able to see Shane long enough to realise he has horns and a swaying tail behind him. And if they could, best case scenario they thought he was a furry or that it was a trick of the eye.

Shane in a way regretted letting the tail swing loosely again, cause he couldn't help to notice that it was very much connected to his emotion. As the longer Shane walked, the more worried he had gotten. and in turn, the more the tail started to swing back and forth. He would have been large and joked about how it was like a cat's tail if it didn't happen to be attached to him of all people.

One of the things that worried me was that he had to get back to his apartment. He had left out of nowhere and hadn't even closed the door or fed his cat. He just grabbed his keys and ran for it. He was getting far too worried. What if somebody saw him? What if obi ran away or got hurt? What if- he was immediately ripped out of his thought as he noticed there were a few camera stationed on his car

one was pointing exactly at him. 

He hadn't noticed until getting closer but now that he had, he picked up speed and immediately picked up the first camera he could see and threw it off into the grass off the road in a panic. He checked around the car and thankfully there was only one other camera. It picked this one up more carefully and without letting it see his face, placed it down into the grass beside the road.

He would place it by the other one if he hadn't been in such a hurry to get it off and now had no clue where it could be. It was only after he got them off and got into the car that he started to wonder why they were even there.

Oh shit, Ryan thinks he's missing.

By the time he got back to his apartment, it was past midnight and he didn't have to worry about people possibly seeing him this late in the night. 

Shane couldn't explain how incredibly happy he was to see that not only was Obi alright and his apartment was not robbed while he was gone. But also that obi didn't seem to be bothered by Shane's new appearance, instead he simply screamed for Shane to pick him up.

Shane did with a chuckle but as he looked up he suddenly realised there was light coming for the living room. and peering in, he felt his heart drop.

Ryan was laying on the couch with a laptop on the coffee table in front of him. Shane slowly let Obi jump out of his arms as he made his way over to the younger man. But as he got closer it was clear that Ryan was asleep.

He let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. It meant that Shane couldn't stay here for too long, he could risk Ryan waking up and seeing him like this. He moved quickly around the apartment getting his things. He nearly thought he lost his phone until he found it by Ryan's laptop. He grabbed it before quickly hurrying off as fast as he had come. 

He tried to leave the apartment as quietly as possible but as soon as Obi said he was leaving again he started to get loud. The cat kept claws up his legs as he started to get his jacket on and wouldn't stop meowing as Shane started to go out the door. Shane would have stayed if Ryan wasn't there but there wasn't anything Shane could do about him being there. 

He really had to figure out how this whole shape-shifting thing works.

When Ryan woke up the next day, his back Hurt like hell and when he touched his laptop which he had left to charge overnight. He felt like was going to get a first degree burn from how warm it was. He unblocked it from the charger almost immediately, worrying that he would be damaged if not start to open to see what had happened. He's assuming that accidentally leaving it open as he slept had crashed it somehow. 

He remembered that he was in the middle of recording a video of himself for something watcher related before falling asleep he can remember if he had stopped it or not. When he got the laptop open, surprisingly without burning himself he could yesterday's record and say he was quite long. It seems he didn't stop yesterday. It probably caused the crash, he clicked on it to make sure the part of the recording he needed did get corrupted.

And Ryan… isn't sure why or what complied him to, but he decided to skim through the recording. He watched as it slowly got more and more corrupted. Audio and visual disturbances became increasingly more common, but it was mostly fine. Not usable as nothing was happening in it in the first place, But wasn't the worst he's ever experienced from a crash- 

Ryan nearly jumped as the sound of a door opening and closing sounded from the recording, so clear even through the slight audio issues. He watched the disturbances suddenly jump in frequency and continued to get worse.

He heard a quiet pur beside him as he felt Obi rub up against him, but placing himself in Ryan lab. Obi acted almost anxious too, he… didn't really know why but he quickly found out when he heard the sound of a cat meowing loudly in the video too. It went on for a bit, a little difficult to hear as it kept glitching and cutting out but that was definitely obi.

The glitch continued to get worse before it got so bad that the video felt like it was running at 1 frame per second. Suddenly Ryan felt terror wash over as the video started to datamosh together as this… this thing walked into frame. The background and what looked to be obi in the things arms kept running the same way, glitching at basically 1 fps. Everything except what the fuck that is.

The thing was a deep say of pure black despite the laptop lighting up the surround a good bit. Hell it looked more dark then his screen should be able to show and to mention it moved smoothly and without problem, making it stand even more out from the background. Ryan's heart dropped as it looked directly into the camera with these small, pure wait eyes, unblinking and unnerving. Ryan paused the video and slammed the laptop closed. he head falling into his hands as he practically fell forward, his breathing immediately picking up in speed as well-

That fucking thing had horns.