Chapter Text
That was a good day for gathering witchcraft ingredients, luck for Esther, the forest has everything she needs. Right now, she is running through the woods, searching for a specific ingredient, that until she hears a voice coming from behind.
”Wait!” that’s her uncle, Nathan, even in death, running is not his best skill.
When he was in front of he, first thing he did is sit up, she thought he might have died from exhaustion, well, at if he wasn’t already dead, and say “ Your mother said to watch over you.”
That didn’t set right for the girl. “ I’m not a baby, I can take care of myself.”
“ I’m aware, but pretty sure your mother is more concerned of what you’re going to do without her to monitor.” The older man said.
“ Just gathering ingredients.” She said it, before seeing an abandoned church.“ Oh, that’s what I’m looking for!”
The girl ran to a abandoned church, and stopped at the entrance, collecting something that Nathan couldn’t identify.
“ what is it?” He asked out of pure curiosity.
The red headed girl showed a couple of flowers, they looked as if they were rooted, at least in color, because the shape is similar from a common healthy rose.
“They are mourning roses, they grow in places where people lost their loved ones, cemeteries, hospitals, churches.” The youngest Freeling explained, the older man
“Then why not gather those in the city cemetery, or hospital?” Her uncle asked.
“I mean, I could, but 1. Mom would ground me for years because of that, and 2. Where would be the fun in it, when we literally have an old abandoned church in the middle of the forest?” She answered, Nathan couldn’t argue back.
“Who is invading the house of god?” An unknown voice said, an harsh, rough, judgmental voice.
Both were surprised, Nathan screamed and Esther got pissed, who that person thinks they are to question her ingredient gathering?
“We came in peace, just gathering things, sir.” Nathan said it.
“Show yourself, you coward!” She screamed at the forest.
“What did you just call me?” The voice questioned the girl.
“Don’t bother, she is a child.” Nathan said it, the girl looked offended by that statement.“ Esther, dear, I love you to pieces, but I don’t want to come back with you been a ghost and explain that to your mother, she would kill me, well, figuratively speaking, but you know what I mean.”
“I can deal with that.” She argued back, the she looked at something behind him.“ So you decided to show yourself after all.” With that comment, Nathan turned around and was face to face with that man.
The mysterious man looked like a tall priest, one with a gaping hole in their chest and a broken leg? Yes. A puritan one? Definitely, his clothes don’t lie. But Nathan couldn’t stop admiring his eyes, blue eyes that makes up for his lack of color, he couldn’t help but think he is pretty handsome.
To be honest, the more he looked at this man, the more he reminded of his ward, Abaddon.
“ Is there any problem, kind gentleman?” He asked in his harsh voice, maybe Nathan wasn’t paying attention of how long he was staring at that priest.
“Oh, sorry, it’s just… I don’t think we met before, I thought that I met at least, most of the ghosts here at the property, clearly mistaken.” Nathan said.
“ I see, well in that case.” The priest said, taking off his hat and bowing to Nathan.“ My name is Joseph William Preston, but may call me Father Joseph, and you must be?” He looks at the green eyed man in front of him.
“ I am Nathan Freeling, the undervalley hotel owner, well, co owner, and that is my niece, Esther.” Nathan presented himself and Esther, who is pretty skeptical.“ It’s a pleasure meeting you.”
“ Pleasure is all mine, gentleman.”
“ So you always come here?” Nathan asked, and Esther facepalmed herself.
“ Out of all the things you could question, THIS IS WHAT YOU ASK?” Nathan asks himself, if he could die out of embarrassment, he would.
The priest didn’t notice the embarrassment, so he answered casually.
“ Well, considering that I started to explore more of the forest recently, not really.” Which made the brunette man feel a bit less embarrassed.
“ I believe that’s why we never see each other.” Nathan stated, the priest just nodded.
They talked for a couple of minutes, until an sound took their focus.
“ Nathan, Esther, we are going back to the hotel!” A woman’s voice could be heard in the forest
“ Coming mom!” Esther shouted, running ahead.
“ Well, that was nice while it lasted, we have to go.” Nathan said goodbye, the priest, however, didn’t want to say it, he didn’t want to be alone, not again.
“ Wait!” Joseph elevated his voice, and softened when he looked at the brunette.“ Please, don’t leave me alone.”
Nathan couldn’t leave a person alone when they needed help so badly, so he had an idea.
“ Hey, it’s okay.” He said, hugging the priest “ If you would like, you can join us.”
“ That would be nice, thank you.”
“ You two talk to much, hurry up!” Esther screamed, already taking the lead.
“ I would love to, but I literally can’t.” The priest pointed at his leg.
“ Does it hurt?” Nathan looked worried.
“ Well, not much, believe me, when I was dying it hurted a lot, but now it’s more of an uncomfortable feeling than pain itself.”
“ You can go ahead, Esther.” As soon as he said it, Esther sprinted ahead.
At this point, Esther was too ahead from them, but it’s nothing that they cared, they wanted to keep the conversation flowing.
“ What is that hotel that your sister talked about?”
“ It’s a place where people stay for the night, but there are ghosts living in there.”
“ Really?”
“ Yeah, tons of them, just like us.” When Nathan looked at the other man, he saw confusion in their eyes, he didn’t knew why.“ What?”
“ I beg your pardon, ‘ ghosts just like us’? ” The priest repeated Nathan’s last sentence, which confused the man.
“ Yes, why?” Nathan answered, more confused than ever, the priest kept looking at Nathan, then the older man questioned the other, surprised.
“ You are a ghost?!” He was shocked, not without a reason, Nathan didn’t looked dead, people would find that out if they saw him passing trough the walls.
“ Yes, I’ve been a ghost since last year.” Nathan answered, he had a smile on his face, which confused more his fellow ghost friend, who is he so happy that he is dead?
“ I’m so so sorry for my ignorance, it’s just, you don’t have any fatal injuries that I thought you were a living person with a weird interest in paranormal things.”
“ It’s alright, really, I’m quite used to it.”
The walk was kind of awkward, they didn’t really knew what to talk about after that, that until Nathan started the conversation.
“ So, priest, I couldn’t help but notice that you look pretty handsome you know?” Nathan said with his usual big smile on his face.
“ I appreciate you compliment, mister Freeling.” Joseph couldn’t help but blush.
“ You don’t need to call me that, just refer to me as Nathan.”
“ Alright, Nathan.”
“ So, did you had many lovers back in your days?”
“ Well, not really, I was actually married when I was alive, but unfortunately, she wasn’t to my taste and she perished on the night of my son’s birth.” The priest looked melancholy talking about this subject.
“ I’m sorry to hear that.” Nathan tried to hold Joseph’s hand, however the priest got his hands together.
“ It’s alright, I already made peace with it.” He said it.
“ So… what exactly are you into?”
“ I can’t, it’s sinful.”
“ Come on, it can’t be bad.”
“ When I was alive, I used to have thoughts about being in a relationship with…” He sounded like he was confessing an unforgivable sin, in his own mind, he was.
“ With what?” Nathan sounded genuinely curious, contrasting the disgust and fear in Joseph, when the brunette was about to press, Joseph said.
“ Oh look, I believe we are almost there.” Joseph suddenly shouts and starts to floating a bit quicker, anything to stop this conversation.
“ You still haven’t answered my question.”
“ I will, when we enter.”
In the entrance, Esther was waiting, eating a snack.
“ There you two are, took you long enough.” Esther said, crossing her arms.
“ Sorry, I couldn’t help but wanted to meet more of the nem guy.” “ Anyway, Joseph, that’s the hotel.”
The hotel is huge, kind of old fashioned, but he has a admirable atmosphere, and a intimidating one, the one where you only find in a haunted house.
Joseph couldn’t stop looking at the property, he never seen a building that big and fancy in his lifetime, much less after that.
“ That’s incredible.”
“ It’s nothing much.” Esther said.
“ I know, right?” Nathan said “ come on, you must see the inside, and you have to tell me about that subject.”
When both of them were about to pass the door, father Joseph was aggressively pushed away by the barrier. Which caused Nathan to panic for his friend’s safety.
Esther couldn’t help but remember when her uncle couldn’t pass beyond the property limit.
“ Joseph, are you ok…?” Nathan was worried about his new friend, but the image in front of him was shocking.
The priest had all red eyes, not white, nor blue like an common inside ghost, red like an outside ghost. Then, his eyes became his normal and beautiful blue eyes, and got himself floating again.
“ Although the shove was aggressive, there is nothing worse than death that could hurt me, thanks for asking anyway.” He said, floating because of his broken leg, when he looked at his friend, he saw fear in him.“ Is there something wrong, Nathan?”
There was a moment of silence, until Nathan said.
“ You are an outside ghost.”