Chapter Text
The sound of shuffling boxes filled Jack Kennedy’s workshop. It was long overdue for a cleaning, so Jack decided to finally do something and try and get rid of excess stuff.
It was mainly filled with old cameras that had no more film, old toys Dee long forgot about, and—
Oh… Well, would you look at that.
Jack reached deeper into the box, digging out something that put a small smile on his lips. It was a small black case. Over the years, it earned its fair share of scratches and dents, but it was overall still in good shape.
Like a child on Christmas Day, he opened the case rather quickly, and it revealed items he hadn’t seen in years. An EMF reader, thermometer, spirit box, and a flashlight. Damn, these things desperately needed new batteries…
He let out a sigh as he got up from his spot on the floor, speed walking to the kitchen.
After digging his way through countless cabinets, Jack returned to his workshop with new batteries and a renewed dream.
Much to Jack's relief, the EMF reader and spirit box still worked. And the thermometer did function… Technically.
But, there was a small issue; It was saying the current temperature was 432°F. Whatever…
Slightly disappointed, Jack put it back in the case. It wasn’t needed, anyway. And, he didn’t want to waste his time with the flashlight. He could always use his phone.
And, with that, he had everything he needed to go ghost hunting. Jack felt like a teen again! Going out to ‘haunted’ houses and running away at even the slightest noise were fond memories of his. Sucks he couldn’t actually put his tools to work, though. (Cause he always ran away and whatnot…) But maybe today would be different.
Jack stared at the now-closed case with a thoughtful expression. He remembered hearing of this old, run-down house a few miles away; maybe he could try his stuff out there.
He nodded to nobody except himself and got up from the rather cold floor with the case in hand.
He walked towards the door to his workshop and opened it, the door making a soft click as it closed behind him.
“Peter!”
Like an echo, a voice immediately responded from what seemed to be the kitchen.
“Yeah?”
“I’m heading out for a bit!”
“Alright, be safe!”
Was going to an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere… ‘Safe’? To Peter, definitely not; but he didn’t have to know about this whole thing. Jack entered his room. He walked in front of his closet and opened it, grabbing a random coat and putting it on. His eyes glanced at a nearby clock, its LED lights illuminating the time 5:31 PM. He made a mental note of that, not exactly wanting to miss dinner, before leaving his room.
~
Jack’s run-down car was parked right in front of the woods. For some reason, this house was in the center wilderness and countless trees. A shiver ran down his spine, and the thought of nobody being able to find him entered his mind.
But he quickly shut it down. He went to countless old homes, and he turned out completely fine. (Physically, that is.)
Anyway, he opened the driver’s door and exited his car. He brought his phone out and turned on the flashlight. Due to his poor judgment of the situation, he completely forgot the sun could, y’know… Set? That fact wasn’t exactly fun when you were hunting for ghosts.
The sound of leaves under his shoe was the only thing he could hear as he made his way down the trail. This place was rather calming; small animals would occasionally go into Jack’s field of vision, and they would scurry away as quickly as they came.
Chirping noises came from nearby crickets, making the silence more bearable. He should actually take walks down here more often…
Oh.
That thought quickly left his mind as he stared at what was in front of him; it was a house. But this did not look like any ordinary house – It was straight out of a horror movie. The windows were shattered, the paint was peeling, and with the sun setting, it was getting more eerie by the second.
Jack has seen many abandoned homes, but this one just felt… Off. Unnerving, even.
Jack’s eyebrow furrowed. Come on, he was a grown man! He could handle a few broken windows and the feeling of impending doom.
So, with that, he walked towards the front door.
~
Being so close to the house made his mouth dry. Okay, he had to admit – he was a bit scared. Anyone would be if they were spitting distance away from what seemed to be a pretty haunted house.
He looked behind him, and nothing but trees could be seen as he stared at them. He could always turn back, do what Peter would most likely say and get his ass home.
Nah, screw that.
Jack swallowed down his fears and reminded himself: Ghosts aren’t real.
His hand moved towards the door handle, turning it.
~
To say the place was ‘dimly lit’ was an understatement. If he didn’t have a flashlight, he could not see even a few feet in front of him. Thankfully, he wasn’t scared of the dark… Scratch that, hopefully he wasn’t.
He looked inside the case he brought, bringing out his EMF reader and turning it on. One of the lights blinked green, which made Jack let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding in.
With his anxiety out of the way, he could finally examine the home.
Even with his limited knowledge of homes, Jack could tell the house looked like it was built around the 20s. It was honestly fascinating. He’d never been in a house this old before.
Turning around, his flashlight shone on what seemed to be the kitchen. It was a rather large room; much bigger than the one at his house, anyway. It’s a shame this place is abandoned; it’s actually quite nice.
Walking inside, Jack let his flashlight illuminate different parts of the kitchen. The whole place had a weird vibe to it, but that was probably due to the hazardous amount of mold that was seen around the place.
He glanced elsewhere, noticing something; a dining table was positioned in the middle of the room. Even with the amount of dust, cobwebs, and the parts of the ceiling positioned right on top of it, it held up perfectly fine. Jack wondered how it would look if it were cleaned up and painted once again. It would make a pretty decent–
A sound of something falling came from upstairs.
Jack, embarrassingly so, let out a small, high-pitched yelp, and he turned around.
Nothing was there.
Obviously, there wasn’t.
The place was literally decomposing right in front of Jack’s eyes; things were bound to fall.
Still scared shitless, he decided to ignore the sound and continue observing the kitchen.
He walked towards the refrigerator. It looked just as old as the house was. Even with the rust coating against it, there were still some traces of blue paint on it. It was quite rare to see a blue fridge, and that piqued his interest.
Hesitantly, he brushed his fingers against the handle, wondering if there was anything in there. He opened it and observed what was inside. There was a shitton of mold caked on top of surfaces of the fridge. It wasn’t much different from the refrigerator at Fazbenders…
There was an (obviously rotten) piece of food on the bottom. Along with unidentified juice, jelly, milk…
Ew…
He wasn’t going to be thinking about his job and stare at decomposing food.
Jack closed the refrigerator – this was getting nasty, at least to him.
Seeing how there wasn’t anything left to look at, he decided to leave for the living room.
Once he entered, he was a bit disappointed. There wasn’t much that was special about it. There wasn’t any cool table to gawk at, nor any rotten fruit (which was a win). But there was a couch and a rug.
Wow, so interesting…
He didn’t understand how it was fun to search for ghosts and enter abandoned places. Maybe he just matured, but he found no reason to enter such a dingy place except for nostalgic purposes. This idea was just stupid. He started walking towards the front door until he paused suddenly.
He heard the sound of footsteps from upstairs.
Okay, that was not ignorable. The chill down his spine wasn’t ignorable, either.
This definitely wasn’t pleasant.
He positioned his flashlight towards the stairs, contemplating whether he should go up them or not. No – That idea was absolutely insane to him. Why would he go upstairs when he heard footsteps!?
He let out a deep breath. He was trying to use his equipment, maybe he could finally use it.
Jack internally cursed at himself for what he was about to do. His hands shook an intense amount as he slowly made his way up the flight of stairs. He tried to control his rapid breathing, but he just couldn’t stop it.
His EMF reader was still glowing a comforting green, though. He remembered what he told himself before he even entered this place:
Ghosts aren’t real.
He let out a sigh. Right, what was he so scared of? The ‘footsteps’ were probably an animal or something. There were a ton around here, anyway.
The upstairs area was quite a sad sight. At least downstairs, there was some furniture, but now there was only peeling paint and a broken ceiling to greet him. His mind wandered a bit, thinking of the people who could have lived here. Was there a reason for abandoning this house? Why couldn’t they just sell it to someone else? He dropped the thought.
He wasn’t here to ponder and question everything in this house; he was here to use his equipment.
At the mention of his gear, his eyes looked down at the EMF reader. It was still green, but it went up a singular level. Hm, weird… Jack just shrugged it off. The thing is practically as old as Dee; it was bound to do weird stuff occasionally.
With that, he continued down the hallway on the second floor. He reached a random room and decided to open it. When he turned the door handle and slid the door open, it let out a rather annoying creak. His eyes looked across the room, and he noticed it was just as plain as the hallway.
A few boxes were sitting beside the wall, and a bed was positioned in the corner. Most importantly, there was a gaping hole in the wall. Gradually, he made his way towards the gap, looking through it. It seemed to lead into the room right next to it, but how did this hole magically appear? Yes, the walls were damaged, but the hole seemed too perfect just to be simple decay.
He observed the room, looking for anything that could hint at why there was this mysterious hole in the wall. But, the only thing he saw was that disgusting-looking thing of a bed and boxes.
His eyes glanced back at the hole for a moment, his heart dropping to his ass at what he saw.
A singular eye was looking at Jack, unblinking. It’s like someone was pressing their face against the wall to stare at him.
His EMF reader glowed with a sickening orange light.
“Holy shit!”
Jack let out a scream he didn’t even know he could produce, falling back on his ass as he tried to turn around and run off. When he hit the floor, it took a moment for him to pick his head up again.
The eye was gone.
Most importantly… The hole was gone. It just… Disappeared.
His breathing was heavy once again, and he was staring wide-eyed at the wall. Was he going insane?
No, his EMF reader went off; that shit was real.
Jack's heart continued to pound ruthlessly at his chest. What was that?! Was something watching him? He didn’t want to find out any more. He got up from his spot on the floor, his backside hurting from such a sudden fall.
But his head whipped around when he heard a very familiar creaking sound.
A person was there.
Jack stepped back, letting out a gasp as his back pressed against the bed.
The person – No, definitely not a person. Whatever it was, it was staring at Jack with bright, white eyes. Its body was transparent like a ghost, but he could still see some details.
Its whole body was purple (definitely not a human trait…), and it was freakishly tall. Jack looked it up and down in complete shock, noticing that its feet weren’t even pressed against the floor. A purple, tall, levitating creature with weirdly long hair was staring at Jack. What could he possibly do in this situation?
It was blocking the door, so he couldn’t run. If the situation got any worse, the window would suffice.
He tried to use his phone as a flashlight, but it suddenly died.
He was in the dark with a fucking ghost and he didn’t even–
His EMF reader, which was now on the floor, lit up with an absolutely horrifying color: red.
Well, this is probably how he dies – in a dingy old home with no one to call.
The two sat there for a bit until a voice that wasn’t his spoke up,
“Why hello there, o–”
Jack let out another scream he didn’t even know he could create. This time, it was louder and much more fearful than the last one.
Unless Jack was hallucinating, the monster right in front of him spoke. It spoke real, coherent, English words. And on top of that, it seemed a bit surprised by his shout.
But, he didn’t care for that, his fight or flight response was kicking in, and he cared more about his well-being than the expression of some ghost.
His feet started moving before his mind even told them to. He sprinted right past – or if Jack paid attention, he ran through the being, making his way through the hallway and down the stairs, almost falling as he did so. His heart pounded so loudly he could hear it with his own ears. No footsteps followed behind him, but he sure did run like there were. He ran through the front door and down the excruciatingly long path before he reached his car. Slamming the front door shut, he was finally able to catch his breath.
That was the scariest experience of his damn life.