Chapter Text
The residents of Button House where still reeling from the night's events. Fanny was still infuriated that some random strangers had been given access to her house, Kitty was still thoroughly convinced that the 'Ghost-Ghost' existed, and Alison was still trying to come to terms with the fact that Julian had just spent one-hundred and eighty pounds of her hard-earned money.
No matter how busy they all were, it was almost impossible to ignore the faint crash that came from outside.
Okay... they could ignore the very faint sound of the crash, but the blaring car alarm that followed, that was impossible to ignore.
The room went completely silent...
For about half a second.
Alison rushed to the window, the ghosts all following to get a glimpse at what the source of the offensive noise was, most of them already making guesses about what it could be.
Alison made it to the window and managed to spot a purple car about six-hundred feet down the lawn in front of the house. It had crashed through the hedge, the branches bent and mangled by the car, rolled and was now upside-down in the field. She couldn't quite see how badly the car was damaged but she knew that the people in the car were probably hurt.
"MIKE! CALL AN AMBULANCE! SOMEONE JUST CRASHED THROUGH THE HEDGE!"
Alison could hear Mike shouting back to her, sounding very concerned as she ran out of the house. She quickly grabbed her coat, the ghosts following her getting progressively more agitated as they all got closer to the car.
Alison tries to get a closer look into the car. There's two people in the front, both look a bit beaten up.
She's surprised they aren't more injured the cars a wreck, they must've been going fast if they managed to drive straight through the hedge, it's not exactly a small hedge-
"This one's breathing. Not sure about the other one."
Alison stands upright to see Julian crouching by the driver's side of the car, head through the side of the car clearly looking at the driver.
Alison looks over to the rest of the ghosts, "Can you check if anyone else is in the car, I can't see into the back!" The Captain jogs over to the car and sticks his head through the car, "Nobody in the back of the car!" The Captain's voice sounding muffled by the cars exterior.
"Back door's gone though." Pat had wondered over to the back of the car and was searching for any other passengers.
The rest of the ghosts stood in a group watching on with worried expressions.
After checking if the passenger was breathing, Alison turned back to the house as Mike ran out towards the accident.
Mike was talking to the 999 operator trying to explain what had happened, "Yeah, I think they crashed through the hedge... Yeah, not sure, hold on-" Mike's voice lowered as he put his hand to the receiver on the phone, "Are they breathing, do you know?" Alison just nods and breathes out a small "Yeah." as Mike continues talking to the operator.
A few minutes later Mike takes the phone away from his ear, "So they're sending police and paramedics, said they should be here soon." Mike makes a strange face and gestures towards the car, "Shouldn't we move them? What if the car like..." Mike waves his hands around erratically "explodes or something?"
Alison turns back to the car a bit concerned. "I thought that only happened when you could smell petrol?" She turns back to Mike, the two sharing a worried glance.
Not too long later (having decided to leave the driver and passenger where they were) they could hear sirens in the distance getting closer.
As the paramedics arrived Alison told them everything that she knew, they quickly got to work helping the injured two in the car.
Alison and Mike stood off to the side with not much to do until the police got there, the ghosts stood around the car keeping an eye on what the paramedics were doing.
Everything was going well from what Alison could see and she wasn't too worried, and Mike seemed more concerned about the condition of the hedge rather than anything else.
The relatively calm atmosphere was broken by Kitty shrieking and pointing at something further away on the lawn. Of course, Alison was the only living person to notice the outburst, but it took her a moment before realising what Kitty was pointing at.
There was a body.
A few hundred feet away from the wreck, there is a body almost nestled into the hedge, laid out on the lawn right next to it.
To be completely honest she's not surprised they didn't see the person, the morning fog and darkness paired with how the persons clothes blended into the hedge, made them almost invisible. Alison and Mike were too preoccupied with the actual car to be looking for anyone else, she could only see the person now because the sun had risen just enough to shine off their dark ginger hair.
Alison sprints over to the person while shouting back to the paramedics and Mike, "THERE'S SOMEONE ELSE OVER HERE!" Alison hears one of the paramedics asking for a third ambulance over their radio as she runs over to the hedgerow.
A couple of the paramedics asks her to step back as they start checking the persons vitals.
Now that she's closer, she can see that the person is very pale, almost like a ghost. Their face is covered in scrapes and bruises, and their arm is bent at a concerning angle, they have a large cut on their head that seems to have stopped bleeding but still looks painful.
Alison and Mike (he had ran up to the hedge shortly after Alison) watch as the paramedic looks to the other and shakes their head 'no' with a solemn look on their face.
Alison and Mike stand there in shock, if they had noticed the person sooner, they might've been able to save them...
After the paramedics had taken the driver and the surviving passenger to the hospital, the police took Mike and Alison's statements.
The entire time Mike was giving his statement Alison struggled to pull her eyes away from the body as it was moved.
She also can't get rid of this nagging feeling, she feels like she's missing something. Maybe she should ask the ghosts if they saw anything else, maybe she missed something they picked up on-
Wait.
That's it. If the passenger died and ascended to wherever the hell ghosts go when they pass on, then the ghosts would've almost definitely seen it.
But they didn't. So maybe they just missed it, I mean the ghosts aren't perfect. But that still doesn't make sense, whenever the ghosts talk about passing on or whatever, they always talk about a bright light, so there's no way they all missed it.
She needs to ask the ghosts a few questions.
Back in the house the ghosts have almost gone back to normal. Julian and Robin are playing their usual game of chess, Pat is leading a talk about God knows what, and Thomas is off somewhere staring out of a window dramatically.
So everything is fairly normal when Alison finally walks back in through the front door, and she's on a mission.
"What happens when you guys move on?"
All the ghosts stop what they're doing and look over to Alison, she seems almost angry.
Robin takes the lead on this one. "Well. There big light, from sky. Then we go 'whoof'. Very quick." The 'whoof' is punctuated by him throwing his hands up in the air, but apart from that it's pretty easy to understand.
And it's all stuff she's heard before, she knows all that. So why didn't the ghosts see it happen to the poor guy who died right in front of them!?
"So why didn't you guys see that happen to the person who died right in front of all of you?"
The room stills for a bit as the ghosts all look to each other, silently asking if any of the other ghosts had seen anything. They all come to a similar realisation.
Humphrey speaks up from his place on the table, "Well the only times we haven't noticed is when the person sticks around and becomes a ghost like us..." Humphrey trails off as he finishes his sentence as he seems to come to the same realisation as the rest of the ghosts.
There's a new ghost.