Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"You're late," Toast said as soon as Luca stepped out of his car.

"I know... You don't fucking have to rag me on it," Luca lowered his voice, "like you always do."

"You guys are all supposed to meet me at my garage and we get here together in the truck..."

"It's not like everyone else is here yet. Where's Corpse?" Luca cut in.

"He's not yet... You and your twin are the same," Toast said, rolling his eyes.

Luca chuckled, "I'm more like the Wish version of him. Like if you ordered Corpse on Wish, you'd get me instead."

Valkyrae's laugh made him turn around.

"Hi there, hello..." he greeted.

She was holding an EMF reader in her hand.

"Hi..." she returned with a smile, "just checking our equipment is working properly. I got you new smudge sticks by the way."

"Oh, do we need to smudge this ghost?" Luca asked.

"Yeah. And you're good at it so..."

"You're picking me for the suicide mission... Cool," Luca cut in.

Rae laughed again, "well you're still alive, aren't you? Mr level 85."

"It's just great luck... Toast is great at leading. And Wade is like the best crew member ever so yeah. Mark is usually always there to distract the ghost," Luca explained with an amused smile on his face.

"I'm here... Sorry my car wouldn't start this evening," Corpse said, startling them.

"Corpse! Where did you even come from?" Valkyrae asked, her hand on her chest.

"I swear he's scarier than some of these ghosts," Sykkuno commented, his hand over his mouth... Laughing silently.

"You look nice. I like your hoodie," Corpse commented.

Sykkuno blushed.

Toast rolled his eyes.

"Get a room!" Luca groaned.

Corpse chuckled.

Toast headed to the truck and the other four followed suit.

"The ghost's name is Crystal Davis. She was involved in a murder-suicide thing and is pretty vengeful so we have to be really careful here," Toast informed, "the case is still open."

"That means no touching cursed artifacts," he added, turning to a smug Luca.

"We need to smudge the ghost, witness an event off course so her daughter can know she's not crazy. Get her footprints on salt and capture her movement on the motion sensor..." Sykkuno said, reading off the white board.

"Does everyone have the app open on their phones? Incase we need to hightail it out of there," Corpse added.

"Yeah," the group chorused.

"Okay then. Rae check for temperatures, Sykkuno EMF reader... If you get a level five, come back to the truck. Luca take a spirit box. Corpse camera duty, the ghosts seem to like you, take a standing camera as well. We don't have a camera for the basement," Toast briefed.

"That's odd. Think she was cooking meth down there?" Luca asked, there was a amusing lilt to his voice. But there was also a seriousness to the question.

"That's for the crime unit to worry about. We're just here to run recon. I think the keys to the basement are upstairs in the master bedroom drawer," Toast replied, "our job is to get in and get out, understand?"

They all nodded simultaneously

"Shall we?" Corpse inquired when they had picked up their equipment.

Toast took his seat in front of the control monitor in the truck, "this should be quick let's go."

"Alrighty then," Luca quipped and stepped out first.

Toast tossed the front door keys to Rae who caught it.

"Be careful in there," he said finally as they left.

Luca looked up at the clear, cloudless sky. It was somewhat soothing, they were used to heavy rainfall or at least showers on mission days.

Although the weather could change at any moment.

They waited patiently as Rae opened the door.

"The circuit breaker is in the kitchen," Toast said through their transmitters.

They stepped in and Rae quickly found her way to the kitchen to turn on the power. The lights came on shortly after and they begun to look around.

"I'm going upstairs to find the key," Luca announced and proceeded to do so, ignoring Toast's protests to not split up.

He turned on the spirit box when he got upstairs and begun walking along the hallway, trying the keys.

He most likely didn't have to. It seemed most likely that the door at the far end was the one.

He paused and went straight to it, it unlocked.

"Hello. Are you here? Are you French? How old are you? Are you near, are you far?"

Nothing, static.

He turned off the spirit box before turning on the lights.

The room looked quite tidy, it seemed like it was recently cleaned. He saw something peaking out from under the bed.

He knew he shouldn't look but curiosity got the better of him.

He pulled up the sheets and found what looked like a lid to an opening in the floor.

He lifted it and gasped.

Luca took out the audio transmitter, "um. Has anyone heard of 'Khoa học về satan và ma quỷ giống nhau '?"

"Can you repeat that?" Toast requested.

"Khoa học về satan và ma quỷ giống nhau?" Luca repeated.

"What? That's Vietnamese!" Sykkuno's voice came loudly through the speaker.

"What does it mean?" Luca asked.

"It's something to do with the devil and demons," Sykkuno replied.

Toast typed away in his laptop. Looking at their site's database for cursed literature.

"Is the book dark purple by any chance? With silver writing?" Toast inquired.

"Yeah," Luca returned.

"Do not touch it. Corpse, go upstairs and take a picture of it," Toast ordered.

"I thought you said the lady who owns this house is Caucasian?" Rae asked, moving around checking the temperature.

Luca was busy fiddling with the basement door. Whatever was in there, the owner didn't want anyone to find out about it.

"Yeah. I have a picture of her pulled up here. But her owning a Vietnamese book is none of our business," Toast replied.

Luca huffed, "not just any ol' book but one on demonology."

Rae and Luca turned simultaneously as the EMF reader spiked up.

"It's only at a 3 here in the bathroom..." Sykkuno called back, "... Tarot cards!"

"Already ahead of you."

Sykkuno jumped. He saw the flash first before hearing Corpse's voice.

Corpse chuckled, "really?"

Sykkuno was flustered but said nothing.

"I'm pretty sure when Luca said get a room, he didn't mean the bathroom of a client's house," Valkyrae stated jokingly when she entered with the thermometer.

"Eh... It's debatable," Luca's voice came through causing Sykkuno to turn even more red.

"Still not getting freezing temperatures," Rae reported, "should I get the equipment for DOTS?"

"I don't think it's necessary. It's most likely a wraith," Toast said, "but let's just be certain."

After a couple of minutes of fiddling with the basement door, Luca kicked it in out of frustration.

The loud thump resonated around the house and a blast of cold air hit him in the face.

"Come in, Luca. What was that noise?" Toast inquired.

"We-we got fre-zing temps," was all he could say.

"Any-anybody got a coat or a blanket?" he added.

"I'm coming downstairs now. I'll get you one," Sykkuno stated.

"Yep definitely freezing. Negative 10... Quit everything up there and come down, Sykkuno get more blankets," Valkyrae relayed.

She turned on her flashlight, it was pitch black in there.

"That doesn't look very inviting," Valkyrae quipped, her voice shaky.

"Looks like a portal to another dimension," Luca added.

"We're here," Sykkuno announced before passing around the blankets.

Luca went in first and fiddled around till he found a light switch and turned it on.

Rae gagged first before the sight in front of them registered fully in Luca's mind.

There were dead, rotting animals hung everywhere with a weird symbol on the wall.

Corpse set the camera down before proceeding to take pictures, "Toast, you getting this?"

"Yes and I am horrified," Toast returned honestly, "just get the evidence and get out... Screw getting a picture of the ghost."

A flash of light caught Toast's attention.

"Summoning circle," Luca called from the other side of the room, "cursed mirror."

"Coming," Corpse stated.

"We got a print in salt!" Sykkuno called.

"That was fast," Toast said.

Sykkuno froze, "I just felt breathing on my neck."

"Check for prints... We need to get out of here fast, activity is at a level 4," Toast ordered, urgency was apparent in his voice.

"Who is the book with?" Luca asked.

"Me. I just put it down next to the salt," Rae replied.

"Finger prints on this carcass..."

"Ghost writing obtained!" Rae informed.

"It's a demon. Mark it on the app and get out of there..."

As if on cue, the single, solitary florescent light in the basement exploded.

Rae screamed.

"Guys? Guys?"

Toast had lost signal to them as well as sight of the basement.

And the entire house.

He clicked through the cameras and tried reaching them to no avail.

Toast stood up and paced the truck.

Should he wait assuming they'd come back?

Or go into the house and get them? It had been so long since he actually went into a hunted home.

He unconsciously grabbed his left arm. It was still very numb from the last time he went into a house and had a run in with a Revenant.

He could've easily died but for some reason it didn't kill him. Just fucked his arm up and laughed at him to his face.

That was the last time he bothered getting out of the truck. He did not know how his friends did it... They were way braver than him in that regard.

Ghost activity had been at at 10 for over 8 minutes at this point. Sykkuno's sanity was near gone.

Toast bit his lip hard enough to draw blood. He grabbed a crucifix and some sage and stepped into the sudden heavy downpour then ran to the house.

He pushed the door open and heard scraping sounds as it opened. There was a table pushed in front of it to lock it.

The house was a mess and it looked like it had been broken into. It was very dark and his flash light only illuminated a specific spot in whatever direction he shone it at.

He trudged his way through the debris into the kitchen and turned on the power.

"Toast! You saved us," Rae quipped.

Toast felt the strange yet familiar whooshing behind him and threw the crucifix into the dining room.

He tossed the sage and lighter at Luca.

"You'll make up the rear. We'll all run out and you sage behind us. Do you understand?" Toast inquired.

Luca nodded.

The demon was speeding back and forth on the living room.

"On my signal..."

"1..."

"2..."

"Now! Now!"

Luca lit the sage and dashed after them, trying his hardest to ignore the blood curdling growls in his ears.

Sykkuno's heart was pounding. The short distance to the exit seemed longer than normal like the hallway just seemed to continue forever.

It wasn't his first time having to run away from a house during a mission and it damn sure wouldn't be the last.

But there was something particularly scuffed up about this whole endeavour.

Even when drenched in the backseat of Luca's car with Corpse's arms around him after Toast had made him chug down a couple of sanity pills... He still felt very uneasy.

Chapter Text

"Markimoo!" Wade called excitedly as soon as Mark stepped into Bob's garage.

"Hey Wade," the exhaustion prevalent in his voice.

"You guys know you're not supposed to record videos on recon days," Wade said, looking from Luca who was passed out snoring on a tiny old mattress on the floor to a disheveled Mark who was standing, slouched over.

Mark rubbed his eyes, "I just need a cup of coffee is all."

He dragged himself through the connecting door into Bob's house.

"Make it two!" Wade called after Mark before turning worriedly back to Luca. The latter looked like he was struggling in his sleep.

He had come in with bags under his eyes murmuring something about a figure in his dreams the night before not letting him sleep. So he had been staying up streaming till he all but passed out.

Wade had considered sending Luca home but he had decided not to... Against his better judgement.

Luca had an underrated talent. Being able to accurately repel ghosts by smudging. He was very much needed in tonight's mission.

Toast had informed them of the wild mission the week before. The ghost hunting unit had bailed on it as well, they said exorcists needed to be called. This was way beyond what they could handle.

So much for what was supposed to be an open and shut case. Paranormal investigators had been called in but they were states away working on an abandoned prison case and would take a while to get back.

Luca felt like he was running 100 miles per hour. He could not exactly see what he was running from. It just looked like a very thick black fog chasing him.

He tried yelling for help.

But who would he call?

It did seem like he was in the middle of nowhere. No buildings, just a concrete road that eeriely reminded him of the basement at Crystal's house.

It was freezing and he was certain the only thing keeping him alive was the fact that he was still moving.

Then came those creepy, gurgling sounds. But this time they actually formed words.

"I will follow you wherever you go. Whether it is in this existence plane or the other. Oh it is merely pure folly to try to escape me... I will always find you..."

Luca felt claws digging into his shoulders.

He tried to scream but he couldn't.

Then he heard it, "Luca, Luca... Wake up!"

Luca was startled awake. He tried to speak but had a coughing fit instead.

Familiar hands thumped his back.

"Get him some water!" he heard another familiar voice say.

His vision cleared after he gulped down the class of water.

He looked up to see Mark, Bob, Wade and Jack looking worriedly at him.

"Are you okay, Buddy?" Jack inquired.

"I don't... I don't know..." Luca managed to say.

"Have you had anything to eat today?" Mark asked.

"I had a cheeseburger for lunch," he answered.

"Lunch when?"

"I don't know... Maybe around 1pm?"

"It is 7pm. Come eat something, Mark made some sandwiches... Questionable things if you ask me," Bob stated with a smirk.

"Ha ha ha. Very funny," Mark replied, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah I know. Mark can't cook for shit," Luca quipped, joining in the joke.

Mark gasped dramatically, "have you SEEN my "Markiplier makes" series? I am a man..."

"WHO OWNS FIVE OVENS!" the rest chorused and they all burst into laughter.

"We know."

"Still doesn't mean you can cook," Luca added.

Mark wiped his eyes, "actually I no longer have five ovens..."

Bob helped Luca stand up, "let's get out of here before he goes on a rant about himself."

"Hey, I heard that!"

"It's not a secret," Bob returned as they filed back into the house.

At 9pm the five of pulled up at the school. They were very late and Mark was currently questioning the logic in doing a job at a school so late at night.

Not to mention it was still drizzling outside.

"When is this job ever safe?" Jack asked sarcastically.

Luca grimaced as flashbacks from last week played in his mind, "tell me about it."

"Whoa whoa whoa... Deep breaths Luca. Your sanity's already down by 5%," Wade said with concern.

"You sure you don't want to sit this one out? You can be on camera duty in the truck," Mark offered.

"No, I'll be fine. I just need to gather my bearings first... Tell us what we need to know, Bob," Luca stated dismissively.

Bob looked at the report on his computer, "well the ghost's name is Terry Frederick. Huh... Apparently he was stuffed in a locker in the boy's bathroom sometime in the 90s. He wasn't found till the next morning and by then he was already dead."

The truck went silent for a moment.

"You're joking, right?" Jack queried.

"That's such a meme way to die," Mark added.

"It says so right here," Bob gestured at his computer.

Jack bit his lip to stop his laughter. It would be disrespectful and they were about to meet said ghost... Wouldn't want to upset it.

"What a loser..."

"Do not... Tease the ghost!" Luca warned.

"You of all people asking people not to tease a ghost?" Wade smirked..

"Well I've learnt my lesson," Luca teased.

"I think it's a..."

"Don't do it..."

"It has to be a Banshee," Bob finished.

"Now you've jinxed us, Bob," Luca groaned dramatically.

"Who are you and what have you done with Luca?" Mark asked with an amused smile on his face.

"We just need to find out what ghost it is, witness a ghost event and we're good. The circuit breaker is behind the main door," Bob informed.

"How convenient," Jack quipped.

"I guess I'll stay in the truck for a bit..." Mark stated, nobody countered him.

Even after all these years, the juxtaposition between Toast's very strict, set roles and duties style with the Amigops and the Boner Cast's more laid-back style was still incredibly jarring to Luca.

Everything was as random as calling dibs with this current crew. They had often joked that the only thing constant here was that Luca was always on sage duty.

"Let's get it over with then. I'll take spirit box and smudge sticks," Luca said before stepping out with of the truck.

The rest followed suit.

Bob cautiously opened the main doors and turned on power before the rest entered.

"I suggest we go straight to the boy's bathroom... Save our time? It's getting really late. The school isn't particularly paying that much," Mark's voice came through their walkie talkies.

"Seriously? How much are they giving?" Luca inquired.

"200 bucks... No extra for photos of stuff," Bob answered.

Luca frowned, "there's five of us."

"Cheap bastards," Jack and Wade chorused.

"Off to the bathroom then," Wade stated.

"Anyone with a crucifix?"

Silence.

"So we're going up towards a most likely vengeful spirit and no one thought to bring a crucifix?"

Luca could not see Bob but he could tell that the man was facepalming right now.

"Um... This door just opened over here," Jack said.

They heard him through the walkie talkie. He sounded further back from the rest of the group.

"Where exactly are you?" Mark asked.

"I saw something out the corner of my eye and decided to check it out. I thought it might be like a cursed scrying mirror or something..."

"That's not what I asked and they're not paying enough for us to waste our time with frivolities..."

"I'm in a weird room off the left hallway once you enter," Jack cut in.

"You separated from us early. How come we didn't notice?" Wade asked rhetorically.

"Yeah that's kinda creepy," Bob added.

"Where are you again?" Mark asked again.

"Check my personal cam, Mark," Jack returned.

"I'll come back for you. Luca and Wade can go ahead to the bathroom," Bob stated.

"What the fuck?!"

It was Jack's voice, not through the walkie talkie but resounding throughout the halls.

"Come in Jack, are you okay? I'm having difficulty reaching your camera," Mark said.

"I heard footsteps," Jack reported.

"I'm close to you now," Bob stated.

Luca and Wade had not moved for some reason.

"Quick, short footsteps or heavy ass footsteps?" Luca asked.

"Oh they're heavy, very heavy. You guys should come take a look at this," Bob requested.

"No, no need for that. Do we have freezing temps in that room?" Mark asked.

"No. It's 10°C," Bob stated.

'Run.'

Bob and Jack froze.

"Um Mark, you might need to come in with the DOTS projector," Jack requested.

Mark groaned, "alright fine. I'll bring in a crucifix as well."

"Wade, Luca meet us there," Mark instructed.

"Hello? How old are you? Are you French? Are you..." Luca was distracted by the sound of the other men laughing.

"I'm waiting on the day the ghost actually responds to the 'Are you French?' question," Bob quipped.

"I'm pretty sure that has already happened," Jack said with a smirk and made eye contact with Luca.

Luca paled, "we don't talk about that."

"Spill it, what happened?" Mark asked mischievously.

"No..."

"One time Toast asked me to step in for Rae when she was on vacation and we went to some old prison," the laughter puffed out his cheeks, "and Luca got accosted by a ghost in the bathroom when he asked the question. Apparently it was french."

Mark was bent over with laughter.

Luca was forced to join in the laughter after a moment.

It felt good, eased him for a bit.

Mark finally turned on the DOTS projector and the green grid lit up the room.

"Bob. Wanna go next to the truck to check the cams?" Mark offered.

Bob shrugged, "sure, I guess."

"I'll put down the book," Wade stated, "hey if you're here, write in this book."

"Still nothing on the spirit box, Luca?" Bob asked after awhile.

"No but we have ghost writing and an EMF of two," Luca returned, "can you see anything with the DOTS?"

"Turn off the lights for a moment..."

A beat passed.

"No, nothing," Bob replied and the lights swiftly came back on.

"I'm beginning to think it's a shade," Wade mused.

"A shade would've shown up on DOTS."

"Come on Wade, let's go off to the bathroom. Let them follow whatever sounds they're hearing," Luca stated, dragging Wade along with him.

"I swear I heard something," Bob muttered.

"I did too," Jack informed.

"Mark and Wade, you need to come back to the truck. You're both down to 40%. I'm coming back in," Bob stated.

"Well shit," Mark let out.

"We've got prints on the door!" Bob announced on entry.

Luca grimaced, looking at his phone.

"I don't like that one of this says demon," Jack said, his voice almost a whisper.

Bob picked up the DOTS projector and turned it off, "I'm assuming we're cancelling out DOTS."

"Yeah," Mark affirmed, he sounded tired.

"Let's get to that bathroom then, so we can get out of here," Jack stated.

They finally got upstairs and entered the bathroom.

It seemed like a fog was in the place.

"It's definitely freezing in here," Luca reported with a shiver.

Mark was about to state demon but the EMF reader started beeping loudly.

"EMF 5! EMF 5!" Bob informed frantically.

"That doesn't make any sense," Mark's baffled voice came through.

Mark drew up a graph in the database outlining all the possible outcomes. One being a demon and the other possibly being The Twins.

Mark was yet to understand the latter cause they had recently been discovered.

"Can the twins give off completely different sets of evidence?" he inquired.

"You do know the twins is just one ghost, right?" Luca's voice came back.

Mark furrowed his brows, "I thought twins equals two?"

"No to your first question and no, not in this case to the second," Luca replied.

"The twins is one ghost that either had a split personality before death or got possessed before death," Luca explained.

"That's a real twofer," Wade tried to slip in a joke.

"Not right now, Wade..."

"Look at this shit," Mark said gesturing towards the computer screen, Wade looked at it.

He took a screenshot and sent to their general group chat.

"Off course you drew a graph," Jack quipped, rolling his eyes.

"Just look at it."

The photo had two graphs, a wave with a major and minor cycle, one overlaying the other. Clearly it matched nothing in Tobin's Spirit Guide which their database used nor Spate's Catalog which the exorcists used. Yet just as clearly it couldn't possibly be some new ghost.

At least not with the properties that it displayed. Could they truly have stumbled into some paradigm shaking discovery? Ghost evolution, maybe?

"What in the Pokemon shite is this?" Jack spoke up first.

Luca turned on the spirit box, "hello. Where are you?"

"I'm here."

The voice came through, it sounded like a growl but familiar.

The three men looked around in fear. Bob and Luca faced the door, with Bob slightly ahead holding a crucifix.

Luca was prepared to light the sage.

"Where are you?"

"Right behind you."

Mark looked up from his graph studying. They stood still as they heard very familiar, painful yet horrifying choking.

Bob and Luca spun around.

Jack looked like he was having a seizure.

Wade grimaced, "his sanity is at 6%."

"You were supposed to be watching that!" Mark snapped furiously, worried for his friend.

Bob tried to step forward to help carry Jack back to the safety of the truck.

"Don't Touch him!"

They all watched in horrified silence for a few seconds.

Then the pained look turned into a grin and Jack's eyes rolled back into the back of his head.

"Hi Luca. Did you miss me?"

"No," Luca was petrified.

"Um Luca... Care to explain, you know this ghost?" Mark's surprised voice came through.

"Oh he knows," 'Jack' paused to let out a guttural laugh.

"I don't know anything..."

"You dare try to lie in the presence of Azrael the magnificent?!"

Mark let out a yelp of shock and nearly fell off his chair when lightning struck the ground in front of the truck.

"We've witnessed a ghost event. We can get out of here now," Bob said feigning calmness.

"Not without Jack!"

"Oh yeah... Sean. He won't last if I take possession of him for much longer," 'Jack' stated.

Luca swiftly lit the sage and saved it in front of him, "let him go. Now."

The demon grinned wider, "you just wasted your sage. They're coming."

The fog in the room cleared.

Jack came to himself and fell on the ground in a nasty manner.

Bob rushed to his side to take his pulse. It was weak but still there.

"Get out of there now! Carry Jack!" Mark ordered breathlessly.

Luca slung Jack over his shoulder and made a mad dash for the exit.

Bob following shortly behind.

It was pure and utter chaos as they tried to dodge the things being flung at their heads.

It felt like they'd been running for hours and when they finally arrived at the truck, Bob and Luca nearly passed out.

"We have to take him to a healer," Luca panted.

"No, YOU have to take him to a healer," Mark said as he shut the back of the truck and they prepared to head out, "I don't know how you know that demon but you're going to figure it out."

Mark started the truck and drove it out of the school's parking lot in a rush.

The silence was deafening. Usually they'd be making jokes about nearly dying and Mark would've made his usual quip of being an immortal god.

"So... That was a real twofer huh?" Wade said awkwardly as they pulled into Bob's garage.