Chapter Text
“No, right here– here! John!” Phillip yelled loudly, pointing out the window of the passenger side of the truck.
“John– holy shit!” The vehicle turned sharply, Phillip gripped his phone in his hand harsher, right hand reaching up to latch onto the ‘oh-shit-handle’ above the open window.
Gabriel yelped in the backseat, own phone flying out of his hand and he shifted wildly from the truck jolting to the side so violently.
“John!” The tourist shouted.
The sinner quickly turned the wheel, straightening the car back out once the truck was turned onto the new road.
The truck basically jumped when they hit a pothole.
“Stop, stop the car!” Gabriel was practically being thrown around in the back seat.
“Wait! Do not stop this car, John! We’re almost there.” Phillip yelled.
Gabriel shifted harsher in the backseat against his will, shouting again, “I’ll walk! John! Stop this car!”
Eventually John rolled the car to a halt, putting the vehicle into park before turning slowly to look at the tourist in the back. “You should wear a seatbelt next time.” He deadpanned. Gabriel dramatically clutched his heart, “Dude I think you almost killed us actually.”
It was the expendables turn to shift until he was looking at the tourist. “I told you he drives like shit.” Phillip snickered.
“You told me to turn not even seconds away from the turn! What was I supposed to do?” The sinner pointed.
Gabriel wasted no time in grabbing at the door handle, pushing it open and flying out of the backseat.
He looked up, pausing as he got a good look at the house.
“Uhm, guys this is the place right?” He looked back at the vehicle, waiting for the other two to follow him out of the truck. Phillips window finished rolling all the way up before the door clicked open and he climbed out of the passenger seat, closing the door behind him and looking down at his phone.
“Yeah this is uh, Juniper road? Says we’re here.” He moved his phone in front of Gabriels face.
John nodded, “Help me set up.” He motioned for the two to follow to the back of the truck.
“Holy shit how much” –Gabriel elbowed him, motioning to John, a quick ‘sorry’ exited the expendables mouth.
“Well I mean, like, how much is there?!” He exclaimed when the cover on the bed of the trunk was moved by the sinner.
“You would know if you came with me to pick it all up.” Gabriel rolled his eyes, John nodded in agreement. Phillip glared at the sinner, “Why you nodding along like you went!?” he accused.
Gabriel rolled his eyes, putting his hands on his hips and turning towards the expendable, “He was on call while I drove there.” He backed up, John nodded again.
Phillip starred. “Whatever.” he mocked.
“Oh, wait– you guys go set those things up on the patio.” Gabriel snapped his fingers, quickly moving back over to the passenger side of the car, opening the front door and reaching to open and dig through the glove compartment.
“That doesn’t even make any sense.” John rolled his eyes, smiling while Phillip was laughing his ass off, setting the video camera down gently onto the patio. Gabriel turned, closing the compartment, then the car door once he had what he needed.
“What?” Gabriel asked in reference to the expendable laughing, finding himself smiling too. He chuckled through his next question, “What’s so funny?” he asked again.
Phillip shook his head, “Nothing, nothing.” He breathed, waving off the tourist and moving back towards the truck.
“Wait.” Gabriel pressed his hand against the expendables chest, holding out his other hand that was holding onto three journals. Phillip raised a brow, taking the one Gabriel was holding towards him.
“What’s this for?” He asked, earning a scoff and eye roll from the tourist. “Do you really just not listen or something?”
Phillip gasped, “What?!” he looked around, “John!” He called in fake disbelief. “No but seriously.” He looked back at Gabriel.
“It’s so we can keep track of our evidence? It has important information about some ghosts? You know… the shit I had to go get from the company we work for now?”
Phillip thought for a second, looking down at his journal and flipping through it, “Why do we all need one?” he looked back up at Gabriel who then rolled his eyes.
“John!” He moved towards the sinner who was actually being useful and moving equipment onto the patio still, currently holding a collection of loose objects. The man in question raised a brow, humming at the tourist, waiting for him to continue.
“I got the journals– I see your arms are full though, let me help.” Gabriel quickly changed his task, moving towards the back of the truck to help get the rest of the items out of the bed.
“Are ya’ll almost done?” Phillip asked, sitting on the steps of the porch. John turned his head, the laser projector kept under his arm while he held the three cameras. “If you lended some assistance it would be quicker.” The sinner grumbled.
Phillip huffed, “I’m sure you guys got it all out by now anyways. Who has the keys?” He stood up, stretching dramatically and holding his hands out, expecting the keys to be tossed to him.
He stood there like that for a moment, frozen like a fool.
“Move.” Gabriel pushed by the expendable, digging the keys to the house out of his jacket pocket, jamming them into the keyhole and rattling the door knob.
The front door creaked creepily, revealing the darkness within the house. Phillip held his phone up, turning the flashlight on the device on so he could have even a chance at seeing inside the home. Gabriel and Phillip stood there on the porch, Phillips flashlight illuminating the first two feet beyond the door. The expendable took a step forward, reaching into the darkness and patting around the wall for a light switch, flicking it on when he felt it.
No light came on however. Phillip took a step back, slowly turning towards Gabriel who was on the bottom step of the porch now, looking up at the expendable. “Go ahead.” He squeaked. Phillip rolled his eyes, pushing into the house completely, using his shit phone flashlight to try and navigate through the house.
He squinted, shivering slightly at the low temperature the house had to offer, opening up each door he came into.
“Is there not a fuse box or like… a garage or something? Who doesn’t have a fucking garage?” He mumbled to himself. Fumbling through the house some more, Phillip stumbles into the pantry after having realized there was a box on the wall. “Thank god.” He mumbled again when he opened it up and realized it was, in fact, the breaker box.
He snapped the box back close after turning the power on, turning around to turn the light on for the pantry and then making his way outside.
“Okay you guys can stop quivering in fear and come in.” Phillip called once he was walking through the front door. Glancing over, the expendable noticed Gabriel and John standing in front of a monitor, John had his chin resting on the tourists head while Gabriel was talking.
“Hey! Quit making out and get ya’lls asses in the house!” He yelled louder, watching John detatch from Gabriel and they both turned around. The tourist grabbed some things off the table, motioning for John to grab something else.
Cameras. Gabriel was telling John to get some cameras.
Phillip crossed his arms as he watched the two make their way over, slowly making their way up the porch steps. Gabriel hopped up the last one, elbowing Phillip and kissing him on the cheek before taking his and Phillips camera from Johns arms, pressing the expendables into his hands as the sinner made his way inside to “check out the interior”.
Phillip sighed in fake anger, adjusting his hold on his camera and journal to cross his arms. Gabriel paused before persisting with his attack of affection on the expendables face.
The sound of John walking back to where the other two men were was quiet enough that Phillip didn’t notice, still focused on trying to stay mad and unmoved by Gabriels persistence and words. The tourist motioned subtly towards the sinner.
Phillip huffed again, “I guess–” he tried to joke before he felt an arm wrap around his shoulders and a hand press onto the top of his head, knocking his hat off before rubbing his knuckles harshly into his scalp.
“Wait, wait– dude!” The expendable yelped, pulling his arms up to try and stop the taller man.
Gabriel was no help. Instead he was watching from the sidelines as Phillip was quite brutally– if you ask him– assaulted via noogie.
Which, stupid term by the way. Stupid action too, who even came up with this shit.
“Okay, okay!” He surrendered. “Gabriel!” He laughed, still trying to get John off him. Everyone was laughing.
Phillip pushed Johns hand off his scalp, rubbing his hands through his short hair, glaring at the sinner before glancing over at Gabriel.
“You suck– are you fucking recording us!?” He jumped at the man, reaching to grab the tourists phone. Gabriel jumped backwards, holding his arm over the edge of the railing on the porch, barely holding it out of reach from the expendable when John grabbed the back of Phillips shirt and pulled him back.
“Wait, wait!” Gabriel laughed loudly, hanging over the railing trying to send the video off to John.
Phillip pressed forward, trying to get out of the hold keeping him from grabbing Gabriels phone, he was leaning forward greatly.
Johns own phone buzzed in his pocket, going to grab it he realized both his hands were full. Between dropping his boyfriend from his hold or his work equipment, the sinner quickly released the back of Phillips shirt. He fell forward harshly, not expecting to be let go without a word.
Phillip reached for something to grab onto, latching onto the end of the tourists jacket as he smacked onto the hard wood flooring of the porch.
John and Gabriel paused their giggling, looking down at their partner when he let out a pained groan and then a huff.
Gabriel reached for the expendables hand that was still clutching the edge of his jacket, shaking Phillips arm side to side slightly.
John checked his phone when it buzzed again in his hand.
“Hey, you good?” Gabriel slowly moved from the railing to lean down by the expendable.
John pocketed his phone, making his own way to crouch by Phillips head, poking his extended arm and then nudging the expendables shoulder. “You’re not too hurt, are you?” He asked.
Phillip huffed again, moving his head to the side to face the sinner, sticking his tongue out at him. “If I say yes, will you kiss it to make it feel better?” He teased.
John rolled his eyes, trying to suppress his smile as he pushed the expendables head back playfully before standing back up and making his way inside.
“What about you–”
“Phillip get off the ground.” Gabriel laughed, removing the expendables grasp on his jacket to replace the fabric with his own hand, helping to pull Phillip off the porch floor.
“So ya’ll both just hate me?” He gasped as Gabriel followed the sinner inside slowly. Phillip smirked at the tourists small advances into the building.
“C’mon scaredy cat.” He joked, moving past the tourist, holding his hand out for the other to take a hold of.
“Weren’t you the one who brought this job up to us, Gabs?” Phillip jabbed. Gabriel rolled his eyes, “It’ll bring in good money, especially if we’re all doing it together.” He explained.
Phillip hummed in response, moving around the house with the tourist to turn on the lights John missed.
Well, not that the sinner missed them, he just didn’t care to turn them on. “Damnit, John. Yo! Not all of us having fucking night vision!” Phillip called out from the master bedroom. Turning his head to the side, the expendable glanced at Gabriel before taking one more glance around the now lit room. “Okay, house isn’t dark anymore, you good?” He asked.
Gabriel nodded, slowly letting go of Phillips' hand to go back outside. Which… honestly defeated the whole purpose of bringing the tourist into the house while turning the lights on but whatever.
Phillip sighed, at least now one of his hands were free. Having to turn light switches on with a huge ass camera and journal in that same hand was quite uncomfortable and not at all amusing, so why Gabriel snickered at him while he struggled for a few seconds to turn the bathroom light on is beyond him.
“You got anything with that?” Phillip asked the sinner currently waving a thermometer around in the kitchen, the expendable stood in the frame of the laundry rooms entrance. John shook his head, “Most of the rooms are around the same temperature.” He noted.
Phillip nodded.
Then he just stood there, watching John move around the kitchen with the item, waving it around some more in that room before walking out of the room and making his way into the office next to where Phillip was standing, speaking as he walked by the expendable; “Ask Gabriel what you can do right now, I don’t know what most of those goods outside do.”
Phillip sighed dramatically.
“Hey, Gabs?” Phillip called as he walked outside the house, closing the front door behind him. Gabriel turned around from the selection of goods John helped take out of the truck, “Yeah?” the tourist asked, not allowing the other to respond before speaking again.
“Is John still checking for temperatures?” The tourist asked as Phillip made his way down the porch steps and closer to him.
“Yeah.” The expendable answered.
“Here,” Gabriel handed off an object to the expendable, “this is the EMF reader– since I know you probably don’t know what it–”
Phillip rolled his eyes, “What does it do?”
Cutting to the chase, Gabriel exhaled, adjusting his glasses and opening his small journal back up. “It–”
“Dude you look like such a fucking nerd doing that.” The expendable snickered. Gabriel glared at his boyfriend for a second, exhaling before continuing. “It kinda tracks the ghosts' activities. It’ll get higher in pitch when you’re closer to the interactions, AKA the ghost.”
Phillip nodded, flippin his own book open, “So we just need it for more evidence?”
“Yeah,” Gabriel stepped into Phillips' space, pointing into the expendables journal in the evidence section, “If all five of the dots on it go off, tell us; that’s EMF 5 evidence.”
“So what, just want me to go run around the house waving this around?” He raised a brow, the tourist hummed in agreement but shook his head. “Yes, but it needs to stay on the whole time. Not just after going around the house once.” He adds, sending Phillip off with a nudge as he reached for the video camera and followed behind from a slight distance.
“Oh– John!” Phillip called out once he made his way out of the foyer of the house, turning slightly when the door creaked and Gabriel pressed it against the wall, grabbing a book to place in the corner of the door to keep it open.
“Close the door?” Phillip motioned in confusion, Gabriel shook his head. “No we’ll need it open to bring everything in.”
“Yes?” John asked once he joined the duo, therm in hand. “Oh– hey John. Did you find anything?”
John nodded, “Its in the living room.” He points, “At least I believe, the temperature dropped down to sixteen.”
“Damn man it’s that cold over there?” Gabriel joked sarcastically, looking through the video camera’s lense as he moved into the living room.
“Oh hey, theres– what the heck?” Gabriel mumbled once he got into the room, moving the camera around a bit while squinting through it into a corner. “I think that’s a ghost orb?” He suggested, setting the video camera down gently onto the ground, moving away for the other two to check through the device.
“Phillip make sure that EMF reader is on.” Gabriel reminded.
“Oh yeah.” Phillip stood straight, fidgeting with the device for a second before clicking it on. Immediately two of the lights on the reader started to glow, a low noise echoing from it. Phillip slowly turned to Gabriel, “I have to keep this annoying ass shit on the whole time?” He muttered. Gabriel rolled his eyes.
“Here, since you need to go wave that around the house, go light some of the candles.” The tourist handed the expendable a lighter, Phillip flicked it on and off a few times, moving to leave before stopping. “But this is the ghost room?” He waved his hands to point all around the living room.
Gabriel hummed. “See that closet over there?” He pointed into the kitchen. Phillip turned, nodding. “Any candles on the way into there need to be lit, just go do it.”
Groaning dramatically, Phillip quickly lit the candles on the dresser in the living room before moving into the pantry.
Gabriel hummed, “Help me bring more things in?” He asked over his shoulder, directed at the sinner. John nodded, happily following behind the tourist out the open front door and down the steps of the porch towards the goods they brought out of the truck.
Reaching for the flower pot that sat gently on the cement below, the tourist motioned for John to grab an empty booklet and a large stand that was originally next to the video camera before Gabriel brought it into the house earlier. John quickly obliged, holding the book confusingly.
Gabriel hummed, “It’s for ghost writing,” he stated with no further explanation. John nodded, not asking further questions– wasn’t really a reason to.
“Okay, set the book on the ground. The– uh, the laser projector…” Gabriel looked around the room. “Where’s it coldest in here?” He turned around, walking over to the sinner and setting the pot of flowers down beside the ghost book on the ground. John set the projector down, turning the thermometer back on and making a lap around the living room, pointing to behind the couch.
“Okay just set that there–”
“Holy fucking shit!” Phillip yelled, causing both other men to jump. “What?!” Gabriel turned to the expendable, John looked around the room, eyes locking onto the floating book, scribbles slowly etching into its pages.
The sound of the EMF reader hitting the ground, the sound on it having increased in volume and pitch greatly.
Gabriel turned when Phillip pointed behind him, “Dude the fucking book is floating!”
John motioned slightly as the book slammed to the ground, slowly turning back to look at the tourist beside him. “I ain’t coming in this damn room, that gave me a fucking heart attack.” Gabriel rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, now who’s the scaredy cat–” with an eerie noise accompanying it, the lights in the house went out. Gabriel froze.
“Yeah, what was that now?” Phillip mocked. “John, c’mere.” Gabriel waved his hands around, moving in the dark to latch onto the closest person. John shifted, moving closer to the tourist to allow him to grab on his arm before walking out of the living room. “No, I got it.” Phillip sighed.
The lights throughout the house clicked back on once the expendable entered the pantry room and messed with the power box, stepping into the pantry doorway and looking down into the laundry room. “The power box is in here for future reference.” He announced, gaining a thumbs up from John.
Phillip fully stepped out of the pantry, closing the door behind him, “Phillip, do you mind retrieving the rest of the things from outside, I believe there’s only two or three things left.” John asked, picking the laser projector back up to turn it on and move it behind the couch. The expendable nodded.
“Check the thermometer one more time, it’s getting cold as fuck in here.” Gabriel shivered slightly, looking down at where the back, glass door met the floor where the air was visible. John moved the therm into the tourists point of vision, the number reading a cold, crisp two degrees. Gabriel hummed, pulling his journal out of his jacket pocket, flipping it to where he’d kept his writing utensil inside. That page being the evidence page.
“Okay, so that’s probably no freezing temperature then, and ghost writing evidence. What about the EMF–” Gabriel whipped around, the device having been almost completely forgotten on the ground from where the expendable had dropped it in a panic. The noise had stopped once the book fell back to the ground, but upon Phillips' announcement that he wasn’t taking a single step into the living room, he must have left the reader there to rot.
Gabriel sighed, closing his journal and walking forward to pick the reader off the ground. “C’mon I think we can definitely mark off most the ghosts now that we have some evidence. Gabriel motioned for the sinner to stop waving the thermomotor around, “You can put that down now, John.” He laughed.
“Okay– wait where did ya’ll…” Phillip walked inside, kicking the book on the ground away from the door but not closing the front door on his own, when he noticed the absence of characters inside the living room. He looked around as he ventured further into the house, “Oh,” they were in the kitchen now.
“Why are we in the kitchen?” He asked, setting a salt can, blacklight, and another ghost device down on the counter. “Trying to see if we can tell what the ghost is.” Gabriel answered, John nodded in agreement, both their journals were open on the kitchen counter, Johns was open to the section with information about each individual ghost type, while Gabriel was flipping back and forth between that and the two pieces of evidence they’d marked down in their books.
Phillip moved between the two men, nudging Gabriel to make room for the expendable who turned his back to John, grabbing the sinners' arms around his shoulders. John moved against the expendables back, placing his chin on the top of his head as he’d done with Gabriel outside earlier.
The tourist in question huffed, reaching over to grab Johns open notebook, pulling it closer to his own book as to avoid flipping back and forth between pages in just his own journal.
“Okay well what new evidence do we have?” Phillip asked after a moment of silence. Gabriel just hummed, frustration slowly growing on the tourists face. The expendable tilted his head upwards, feeling John's face lift off so he could stare down at the man, after another second of silence the sinner spoke. “Just the ghost writing for right now. Wait, Gabriel also stated there’s most likely no freezing temperatures in the living room.” He answered. Phillip hummed, looking back at the tourist who was getting more and more frustrated as he looked between journals. Slowly John rested his chin back onto the expendables head.
“Okay, so its not a– wait that doesn’t make any fucking sense.” Gabriel mumbled, looking between the two open journals. John hummed in confusion, Phillip pulled out his own notebook, marking down the two pieces of evidence and crossing out freezing temperatures. He glanced back up at the tourist, “Huh?”
Gabriel shook his head, “Never mind, I figured it out.” He stood up, pushing his glasses back as they’d started slipping off his face from shaking his head and looking down. Phillip snickered, he could feel John shaking his head from where it was still laying on top of his own.
“Okay!” Gabriel clapped his hands, holding up his journal, “So it’s either a Wendigo or a Leviathan.” He pointed towards the laser projector and the handprint symbols on the left page, “We need to place the salt down by the living room entrance and keep watch on the laser projector.”
Both the others nodded, John peeled himself off the expendable, making haste towards the ghost room, Gabriel looked back at Phillip, motioning towards the salt canister he’d just brought inside, “You place the salt down.”
Phillip groaned dramatically, earning an eye roll from the tourist, but he snatched the salt from off the counter anyways pausing before leaving the kitchen. Gabriel turned and left the room while Phillip stared at the other ghost device he’d brought in, before glancing at the blacklight. Opening his mouth, he called, “Hey what does–”
“It’s in your book!” Gabriel called back, annoyance in his voice.
Damn, who pissed in his cereal?
Phillip rolled his eyes, opening his journal up and flipping to the second tab, glancing at each picture related to each of the ghost devices until he found the blacklight and what he figured out to be called the “spirit box”.
The explanations were fairly simple.
He grabbed them both off the counter, moving quickly to meet the other two in the living room.
“Just put it by the entrance.” Gabriel pointed, sitting on the couch’s arm, staring at the laser projector. Phillip was more than happy to do so, anything to not walk into that fucking room. He opened up the salt container, pouring out thick lines where the hall– if you could even call it that– met the living room, tossing the canister onto the ground once there was no salt left inside.
The expendable stood up, “John,” he called, tossing the blacklight at the sinner once the man in question turned around. He hadn’t even gotten to ask any questions before the light hit him in the chest, quickly he fumbled as to not let it fall to the ground.
Phillip snickered, John glared at him for a second before the expendable quickly coughed.
Holding the spirit box up, the expendable turned it on, mashing a few of the buttons on it; the static, however, was the only noise that emanated from the device. He turned it back off after a few moments, swapping it out for his journal to mark down the absence of the spirit box evidence. Gabriel questioned from the couch, “We already know there’s no spirit box evidence, it can only be one of two things.” He reminded. Phillip rolled his eyes, looking down at his journal to see the two ghost types the tourist had previously stated it could have been.
“Well how fucking long is it going to take?” Phillip groaned after a long moment of jack-shit nothing happening. John was walking around the living room with the thermometer, Gabriel took his glasses off his face to pinch the bridge of his nose. “I don’t know everything, Phillip. Ya’ll can stop checking for other evidence we need to be focusing on–”
A loud scream echoed from behind the couch, Gabriel jumped, bolting out of the living room before turning around. Phillip hadn’t turned around, however, he was long gone out of the house, yelling “fuck this” as he jumped down the porch steps. John quickly moved over to where the tourist was.
The EMF reader buzzed and hummed, Gabriel checked it before reminding himself there was no more need for it to even be on. He turned the reader off, placing it into his jacket pocket. He backed up more, watching as the ghost started shifting from the ground, rocking back and forth.
The lights within the living room started to flicker, he brought John backwards with him by the arm, moving them further away from the ghost– just in case. The ghost wasn’t moving around too much, and certainly not towards the two still in the house, and just as quick as it started, it ended.
Gabriel and John paused, looking at one another as the ghost disappeared from their vision. “It’s over!” John called towards the front door. Phillip shook his head in the doorway, “That scared the fuck out of me.”
“Get your ass in here.” Gabriel stomped, flicking the light switch for the living room on and off to get them back on.
John patted the tourists shoulder, Gabruel hummed, eyebrow raised as he glanced to where the sinner was pointing.
“Stop moving!” He yelled at the expendable who was moving towards the disturbed salt. Phillip looked down, eyes darting back up towards the tourist who pulled his camera out, “I’m not even coming into the living room?” He reminded. Gabriel just rolled his eyes, crouching by the salt, waving at Phillip to move out of his shot.
“Do we all need a picture of this or?” Gabriel shook his head, “I think it’ll be fine.” Phillip nodded.
“John, come over here with that blacklight.” Gabriel turned his head, still crouching by the disturbed lines. John clicked the light on, shining it down on the disturbed part of the lines. Nothing.
“Okay,” Gabriel nodded, “That means it’s a Leviathan.” He marked it down in his journal, “Go ahead and jot that down– oh and someone get a picture of that ghost writing.” He stood up. John turned, taking Gabriels camera that was being handed to him– even though he has his own. Phillip cut in, “Can’t we just bring the actual book to them though?”
Gabriel shook his head, “I mean, probably, but they want photo evidence.”
Just as the flash on the camera hit the open pages on the haunted book, a horrid shattering noise followed by a cold gush of wind as the glass doors to the backyard shattered. Everyone turned in horror at the damage of the sliding doors.
“...We don’t have to pay for that… Right?” Phillip breathed.
Gabriel held his breath, slowly turning to John. The sinner slowly mimicked the tourists movements, both turning to look away from the damage, ignoring what the expendable asked. Phillip tried again, “Guy!?” He panicked.
Nothing.
“I ain’t got money for all that–”
“The room is freezing.” John showed the thermometer to the tourist. “The air from outside is coming in, it’s going to be– oh.” He backtracked when he noticed his breath was visible, as well as the thermometer reading negative six degrees. “Okay, no yeah, but that could be from outside.”
“What, what’s the therm say?” Phillip asked from the living room entrance, still refusing to come into the room. “Negative six degrees.” John answered.
“Oh, yeah, no it’s not that cold outside, Gabs.” Phillip laughed. Gabriel rolled his eyes, moving out of the living room to venture back into the kitchen to go back over what the ghost could be, setting his book back on the counter.
“Okay well that doesn’t make any sense.” He huffed. Phillip and John quickly scrambled to look over the tourists shoulders. “Nothing matches those three pieces of evidence.” He explained, moving his book back against Johns.
Phillip pulled his own journal back out, flipping through each ghost type, skimming their descriptions. “Well, what evidence do we have?”
“Did you not mark it down?” John asked, verbalizing what the tourist would have yelled, Phillip nodded, “Yeah, the ghost writing and the orbs. And then now we have freezing.” John nodded, “That’s all we have, but it doesn’t fucking match anything.” Gabriel slammed his hands on the open books.
Phillip and John glanced at each other. “Gabriel, calm down, it’s okay. We’ll figure this out.” John assured, Gabriel looked over his shoulder, Phillip sighed. “You’re just stressed this is our first job for these guys, huh? We’re not just going to lose it if we mess up one time.”
Gabriel thanked John before he snapped his head towards the expendable, “Okay, yes. But, messing up on our first assigned job is going to make us look like a joke. These people aren’t going to want to send us out to another place again.” He argued. Phillip just nodded, “Okay, well then… I dunno man.” He admitted. “We’ll figure it out.” He sighed. Gabriel just nodded.
“There are plenty more jobs out there to pick from if we–”
“John.”
“Yes?”
“Shut up right now.”
“Okay.”
Gabriel flipped through both the notebooks while the two other men walked back towards the living room at the tourists command, having told them to take pictures of the damage– which neither he nor the sinner wanted to give a straight answer about the price for said damages– and to continue watching the laser projector. He was almost certain that one of the pieces of evidence they’d gotten was fake.
Wait a minute.
Gabriel picked his journal completely off the counter, flipping to a page with a certain ghost type.
Skinwalker.
‘Elusive ghosts with the unique ability to mimic the abilities of other ghost types… Skinwalkers can fake ghost orb evidence. They can mimic other ghosts’ abilities.’
Gabriel marked it down, slamming his book close and grabbing Johns from off the counter, running into the foyer frantically. “Skinwalker! Guys its a Skinwalker!” He declared, waving his booklet in the air as Phillip and John tried not to step on any broken glass in the living room.
Phillip perked up, taking that as an excuse to exit the ghost room, leaving John behind to roll his eyes, snapping a quick picture of the glass door before cautiously stepping around it to exit the room as well. Gabriel rocked on his feet, handing John his book once he stood next to the tourist. He motioned for the sinner to hand over his camera, they both exchanged items. Gabriel opened his book, placing the photos inside neatly. “Phillip did you mark it down–”
“Uh, wait, no, because there's no spirit box evidence.” He pointed out.
Gabriels mood, as well as smile, dropped. “What.”
“Yeah I was messing with it earlier, remember?”
“Okay but you hadn’t even entered the damn room after the book started floating.” Gabriel groaned. “I don’t need to be–”
“Yes you do!?” Gabriel yelled.
“Okay, well then, we probably have Spirit box evidence? Let's just leave.” Phillip declared, turning on his heel and swiftly leaving the house. Gabriel muttered under his breath, John awkwardly pulled the tourist, guiding him out of the house.
Or, well, tried to get them out of the house.
As Phillip took his last step down the porch stairs, turning to look over his shoulder, his eyes went wide as the front door slammed close, John and Gabriel still inside.
“What the fuck– guys?!” He yelled, running back up the steps quickly, rattling the doorknob. The door wouldn’t open.
Gabriel completely froze as the door closed in their faces, he turned around, a loud wailing noise echoed throughout the house. John whipped his head around, seeing the silhouette of the ghost appear from the living room.
Quickly, the sinner turned from the front door, prying the tourist off the door handle as he’d started banging on the door “Phillip! Open the door!” He shouted before he was dragged away. John looked around as the ghost was approaching them both, “Kitchen! Kitchen!” Gabriel yelled, moving in the sinner's grasp to push towards the large cabnite.
John pulled open the doors, the tourist shoving himself inside quickly, pulling John in before closing the doors.
The darkness within the hiding spot was annoying, but the feeling of his arms wrapped around the sinner next to him was enough to calm Gabriel down.
The lights could be seen flickering through the crack of the cabinet, this all too familiar feeling reminded him far too much of the hotel.
The screaming, wailing noise of the ghost followed by what was basically the tourist's instinct to jump into something that looked like the lockers back at that horrible place. He could only imagine how John felt dealing with ghosts.
If it was anything negative for the sinner, he surely didn’t let it show. Out of the three he’s been the most collected this whole time.
Johns eyes were completely locked onto the crack between the two cabinet doors, barely but still able to see the ghost moving throughout the house, both men could hear a few things falling and being thrown around the house.
Phillip was still banging on the door, even harder now that Gabriel wasn’t hitting the door from the other side anymore.
His heartbeat was hammering in his chest. This whole thing was bullshit.
He could deal with the dark, and running from things, hell he was used to that from the Blacksite.
It was just jump scares that got him, he was so used to knowing everything and this was so unpredictable, too many things that can happen at any time. He felt on edge.
And now he’s not even in the house to see what’s going on, he’s practically left in the dark here, continuously rattling the doorknob to the front door.
When the door finally swung open, Phillip tumbled into the house, “Guys!?” He shouted, running further into the darkened house– the ghost must’ve fucked with the breaker again. The creaking noise from the kitchen made the expendable whip around, fumbling for his phone from his pocket while he tried to navigate into the room based on only his memory of the layout of the house.
“Here,” Gabriel called, pushing the other door to the cabinet open.
John stepped out first, Gabriel barely moving behind until he felt Phillip's hand grab his, the flashlight on his phone finally turning on. “We’re leaving right the fuck now.” He told John, pulling Gabriel out of the dark until the light from the doorway held a visible path to the truck. Gabriel nodded, leaving the house while the expendable went back in, grabbing the sinner by his shoulder.
“Dude turn that off! We know it’s a Skinwalker!” He slapped the spirit box out of the sinner's hand, but not before a button on it had been clicked.
A simple reply came from the device: “Attack”
“Oh hell nah.” Phillip jumped slightly, dragging John out of the house, leaving the device to radiate a static noise inside the living room.
—
“Okay!” Gabriel announced once he climbed into the passenger seat of the truck, Phillip pulled his head off the steering wheel to glance over at the tourist.
Gabriel turned in his seat as to face the expendable as well as John who was sitting in the backseat. “Ta-da!” He announced, pulling out three white envelopes, handing Phillip and John their respective checks.
“Those photos brought us in some extra money, and we got a bonus for our first job.” He pulled his own money out, waving it around slightly.
Phillip glared at the tourist, reaching over to open the glovebox, shoving his check inside before closing it up. Gabriel smiled, “See I told you this would bring in hell cash.” He sang, Phillip just started the truck up, looking through each of the rearview mirrors before backing out of their parking space. “I’m not doing this again.” He mumbled.
“Sure you will! John had fun didn’t you John?” Gabriel asked– somewhat sarcastically if you asked the expendable.
John looked up, giving a thumbs up when he looked at the amount of money he was paid just from one job.
Gabriel smiled back at the sinner in the back seat, “We have another job down Lincoln Street?” The tourist offered.
Phillip stared out the front of the truck, watching the road as he drove, gripping the wheel tighter.
“Great! I’ll let them know we’re down for that!” He shifted in his seat, pulling his phone out after a long moment of silence.
“Hey now I didn’t agree–”
“Annndd, done!”
Phillip hit his head on the top of the steering wheel.