Chapter Text

One of the main problems with ghost hunting shows was the lack of ghosts.

Oh, they existed alright, no one could deny that - but in the centuries after the Transcendence exorcists had been working steadily to release old ghosts back into the reincarnation cycle. And since most police departments had an exorcist working for them to clean up murder locations, it was very rare for new ghosts to appear.

So of course there was a fierce competition between the various ghost hunting shows for good haunted spots. And this time, oh boy, Extreme Exorcisms!! had sure hit the jackpot!

The Xuerus Bunker.

Hidden outside coastal waters, the Xuerus Bunker was an underwater contruction only accessible through the decommissioned oil rig right above it. It used to be the headquarters and hiding space for the Cult of Xuerus, but about sixty years ago it lost all contact with the mainland. A couple of cultists who had been on land when it happened eventually notified the authorities.

"They sent drones inside to take a look, and they found the bodies. It was considered too risky to retrieve them. The drones shorted out alarmingly quickly and that usually implies magical interference. It was already haunted then. That, or it was too humid for the electronics down there. Infrared imaging showed some small fissures in the structure of the bunker, which might have flooded some of the lower levels."

"How likely is the danger of more flooding?"

"Very low. The stabilisation spells holding the structure together are high quality. I doubt anything aside from a large-scale magical catastrophe could break those. But we will of course make sure everyone has proper waterbreathing spells and pressure suits, in case the worst should happen. Our equipment is top of the line."

"Hm."

Tenney, producer and star of Extreme Exorcisms!!, shot his megawatt smile at the other man. "So you see, there would be no need to worry. We like to be very prepared. That is also the reason we contacted your agency. As you know, we have our own team of exorcists, but we are all mostly specialised in ghosts and since the ghosts in question were demon worshippers... we'd like to hire someone who specialises in demons. Just to cover all our bases. Someone young who'd look good on camera, preferably."

The other man hesitated. His company was mostly employed as security, protecting conventions and festivals against magical disruptions. He had a few demonologists on his payroll, true. One was on maternity leave, another was near retirement age and would go on an undersea adventure like this over his dead body, and the third... well...

On the other hand, he didn't want Tenney to go to a rival company. Being mentioned on a television show was good for business - even one like Extreme Exorcisms!!

"I do have Adams," he said, to Tenney's waiting smile. "She is young, but very capable for her age. Though I'm not sure if she is the kind of person you want on the show, not the most sociable I'm afraid. A difficult personality. When does the filming start? Maybe Goswami has come back from maternity leave by then."

"Oh, we'll start as soon as possible, in a month or so," Tenney said. "But don't worry, this Adams girl sounds perfect! Our viewers like strong personalities, that adds some spice and pazzazz to the show!"

"In that case... I'll let her know."

Exxxxxxtreme Exorcisms!! goes INTO THE BUNKER

Follow Tenney's Team as they tackle their biggest danger yet - an underwater compound haunted by an entire cult of demon worshippers! Can Tenney lay their souls to rest? What other mysteries does the Xuerus Bunker hold? Watch the Season Two Finale this Sunday at eight pm Eastern Time!

Chapter Text

Rosemary, sage, wild lovage. She stirred the herbal tea and put it on the kitchen counter to cool. The smell reminded Elisabeth of baked potatoes, crisp and tasty. This concoction wasn't for consumption though. She needed to fill up her spray bottles. That herbal mixture was a somewhat effective - though very temporary - ward against low-level demons. It had come in handy a few times already.

Elisabeth lived by herself, if you didn't count Bubbles and Bob. They were Kuhli loach fish, small and eel-like with black and yellow colouring. Not that she got to see them often, because they were extremely shy and usually hid inside the gravel or between her aquarium plants.

Her mother had gotten them for her as a present when she went off to college, to keep her company. She meant well, but... they were fish. Shy and small fish. Not exactly known for being interesting conversationalists, and she couldn't cuddle them or take them for walks now, could she?

That was typically Mom. Well-meaning but, well... dumb.

Elisabeth finished up a second batch of her herbal tincture and washed her hands. The scent of rosemary really stuck to her skin, even after several rounds of soaping and washing. Great. She was going to smell like pizza the whole ride to the airport.

Well, it could be worse. After that thing with the plague sprites in the nursing home, her clothes had stunk of cleaning supplies and that odd, pervasive old-people-smell that for some reason lingered even through three washing cycles. Even Alcor had complained about it. His senses were a lot more sensitive than hers and he'd spend a lot of their hunt sneezing golden sparks.

She glanced at the clock. Two hours to go before the cab service would pick her up. Time to check her suitcases, make sure she hadn't forgotten anything.

She'd already called Mom to ask her if she wouldn't mind taking care of Bubbles and Bob for a while. Elisabeth had no clue how long she'd be gone for. At least a week or two, according to Hugh, her supervisor, but he'd warned it could end up being longer if the Xuerus bunker ended up being a tougher nut to crack than expected.

That wasn't the only warning he'd given her either. She'd had to endure a whole litany of 'well-meaning advice', which could be distilled into a basic "This is good PR for us. Don't ruin it."

She was not looking forward to this. At all. The Bunker itself seemed interesting, sure. But being filmed all the time? Ugh.

Well, she'd signed the release form and all the rest of that administrative nonsense, she couldn't back down now. And it was flattering, in a way. Her boss considered her good enough to represent his security company.

The first, smallest suitcase was packed with clothes - warm ones, which took up a lot of space unfortunately. She'd had to sit on it to get the suitcase to close. The other, considerably larger suitcase was chock full of her gear. Candles and chalk in all colours and sizes, a few ritual knives - the basic necessities for a professional demonologist, of course. The most space was taken up by books.

It was an annoying fact of life that the most useful books on demonology were a bit too risky to convert to digital. Some things were too dangerous to trust to a device with internet access. Some knowledge was best kept chained in paper instead of loosened upon the world.

Some were fine, of course - the ones without much summoning information, mostly - and she took those with her on her tablet. It was difficult to choose which books to bring though. There was nothing really known about Xuerus. He was a complete unknown - aside from that Cult, which had made the headlines all those years ago, there was no information at all.

She stuffed her bottles of herbal spray in the suitcase - they didn't all fit, damn it, she'd have to take one in her carry-on - and went back to her checklist, triple-checking if she'd forgotten something vital. Not that she ever did - she'd stocked her work bag so often she could probably pack it in her sleep. It wasn't the first time her boss sent her to an assignment abroad, though until now she'd only had to cross state lines and not actual land borders.

That reminded her... the laws regarding demonology were a bit different up there. She was only licenced to banish demons in Canada, not summon them.

It was probably a good idea to arrange something with Alcor before she left, so she didn't have to break Canadian law on national television. Some sort of standing deal to come when she needed him, perhaps... now, how to word that without leaving too many loopholes...

He wouldn't mind helping, she bet. An undersea adventure? He'd love it. And it would be useful to ask him about Xuerus. Maybe he had some advice, some knowledge about this unknown demon he could share.

She could draw his summoning circle from memory by now. She went through the motions, adding a quick binding circle around it just to be safe.

"Hey Adams!" Alcor chirped, showing up in a shower of golden sparks. Apparently he was in a good mood. He rubbed his hands. "What are we hunting today? Some more plague sprites? Maybe a school of Kappas or something?"

"You're awfully quick to appear," she said. Almost as if he had known she'd call on him. "I would almost think you're spying on me."

"Of course not. That would be creepy," he said. A shrug. "So I only do it when I'm bored. Come on, give me the details. What kind of job are we doing today?"

 "The job is tomorrow, actually. I need to get to some fishers' town in Canada first." The flight took only a few hours, but it was in the middle of the night and she never managed to sleep well in those torture chairs.

"Poor you," he said. "Hey, if you want to spare yourself an uncomfortable flight, I can tesser you straight to your destination?"

She frowned at his offered hand. "That's not why I summoned you."

He shrugged, his smile wide and teasing. "I owe you a freebie for the Jamvention last week. That was the funniest thing I've seen in centuries."

Her cheeks flushed at the memory. "I hate gnomes."

"Ouch. That's speciest."

"I was hired to provide security for their stupid convention," she snapped. Something was niggling at the back of her mind but she pushed it away. "I was not hired to be tied up in front of an altar and I was definitely not hired to marry anyone. And the things they do with jam are frankly disgusting."

"Yeah, you don't want to get between a gnome and their jam," Alcor said, oddly fondly. "It was only a historical re-enactment though. They don't really kidnap their queens anymore. Alright, so they probably should have asked before they tied you up, but still I think you overreacted a tiny bit."

"You're the one who blew them into the walls."

"I got caught up in the moment," he said. "And I didn't set their beards on fire, that was all you."

"It was only one beard, don't exaggerate."

"Heh." Alcor casually broke through the binding circle to throw an arm around her shoulders. "We make a good team, you and I. So! How about that deal? I'll tesser you to that place you want to go for free, no problem. What else can I help you with?"

That little thing niggling at the back of her mind turned into full-blown alarm bells.

A freebie, he'd said.

A demon giving freebies?

He had become a lot cheaper in his deals, lately. Especially if she wrapped the assignment up as a sort of 'monster hunt', for some reason. Just the other day he'd taken a chocolate bar in exchange for helping with those devil dogs, and that thing with the murder elves had only cost her a christmas card from her grandmother. Emotional value, sure. But still very cheap.

Almost suspiciously cheap, actually. And there were all those other times she'd summoned him...

Had it become a habit? Had she let down her guard so much around him that her first, automatic reflex when faced with a mystery was to summon up the Dreambender?

He made her job easier, true - that's what demons did, didn't they? Offer shortcuts. Offer easy solutions. And it all seemed reasonable and fine until they came to collect their payment.

She had been relying a lot on him, lately.

His arm around her shoulders suddenly seemed less friendly and more possessive.

She shrugged it off and backed away slightly, forcing a smile. "I already bought my plane ticket and tessering gives me the creeps, so no, thank you. If you want to give me something for free, you can tell me all you know about the demon Xuerus."

He tapped his chin, his brow furrowing in thought. "Xuerus, Xuerus... Hm. Doesn't really ring a bell. You sure that's their common name and not some alias? Some demons try that trick, you know."

"You don't need to remind me, Tyrone," she said. "And I don't know. I've never heard of them either."

"Well, I could dig a little deeper. Maybe something will come up. That's not something I can do for free though, too much effort. We'll take a raincheck on the freebie. What's your offer?"

"Nevermind," she said. It would have been nice to know more about that cult, but not a necessity. Right now she just wanted Alcor to go away so she could think. Had she really let down her guard so much? Had she become less cautious when dealing with him? "It's probably not that important anyway. You better leave, I have a plane to catch."

"Are you sure? I can help -"

"No, thank you."

"So you called me, to send me away without a deal? That's bad summoning etiquette, you know." Alcor cocked his head, catlike. "Is something wrong? You seem more tense than usual."

"It's nothing." She forced the smile again. Just go already! "I'll give you one pint of icecream from my demon freezer, if you'll just leave me right now and don't come back until I explicitly summon you."

He could ignore her offer. It's not like she had a banishing circle readied to force him into making a deal, even if she could find one that worked on him for more than a second. But right now he was still pretending - was he pretending? - to be helpful and friendly.

"You're a weird one, Adams," he said, and offered his hand. "Alright then."

No matter how many demon deals she made, she never got used to the tingle of the fire as a deal was sealed. Since that eventful day at Twincon and her brief experience with possession, sealing a deal felt like something brushing against her very soul. Sort of unpleasant, but it was a good reminder. She had to keep up her guard. When making deals, it was more than just her life on stake.

"See you later Adams," Alcor said, tipping his floating hat. "Good luck with your hunt, I suppose. Don't hesitate to give me a call if you need help, alright?"

His glance at her, before he faded away, seemed a bit worried.

She stared at the scuffed chalk circle and felt a chill run down her back.

This.

This was exactly what high-level demons did. They would be all nice and helpful until you started to rely on them. Offering deals that were too good to be true, until you let down your guard and you stopped looking for loopholes.

He'd been such a help with her work assignments. So eager and enthusiastic for those 'monster hunts'.

Well, she wasn't going to summon him for this one. She could do this on her own.

It was just ghosts, after all.

Flying nights was actually kind of nice. The sky underneath was cloudless and clear, giving her a good view of the world below. Cities unfolded underneath, spiderwebs of light.

Eventually that became boring as well, especially when they got above the clouds and the only view out of the window was utter darkness. If only she could sleep... did they make these seats uncomfortable on purpose? The backs were too straight, with no option of moving them so she could lay back a bit. She could rest her head against the window, but it was slightly too low, so the edge of the window bit in her cheek. Ugh.

Sleepy and annoyed and not looking forward to the hours ahead, she took out her phone. No internet access, of course, but she had some e-books on it, maybe she could read up on binding circles or something... That was always useful.

Not that any would work against Alcor, if he really was playing the long con with her.

She didn't want to think about that. Not right now. Those 'monster hunts' had been fun, in a way. He was annoying and creepy and such a dork, but... he was easy to talk to, sometimes. Too easy, perhaps.

Damn it. She should have noticed sooner that something was wrong. Easy to talk to? Was she so desperate for company that she'd take a demon as a friend? How he must have laughed!

Or perhaps not. Maybe she was worrying about nothing, and the most powerful demon in the world just liked hanging out with her, hunting bodysnatchers and things like that.

Her sternum seemed to twitch at the memory of that awful Twincon. She could remember the fire when Alcor had dragged the bodysnatcher from her - she would never forget what being possessed felt like. If she ever did, her nightmares would remind her. Alcor had seemed so genuine then...

Argh. This was getting ridiculous. She needed to clear her head for a while. Stop thinking about this. Either he was playing her or he wasn't - the next few weeks she wasn't allowed to summon him anyway so the point was moot. She would worry about it when she was home again.

She doubted she could focus on dry text about binding circles right now. Might as well read a novel. Something light and relaxing.

She tapped the icon to open up the reading app and her screen went black. Damn! Did her battery die? Had she remembered to take her powerbank in her carry-on?

Before she could get up to take her carry-on from the overhead trunk, a fleck of yellow danced across her screen. And another.

No dead battery, then. No, this was much, much worse.

[Hello!] appeared on her screen, in yellow lettering. A little chibi Alcor head popped up, golden eyed and grinning.

"God no," she said without thinking. The vampire in the seat next to her gave her a weird look before turning back to his book.

The Alcor Virus, scourge of the digital world and bringer of chaos, had taken over her phone. How unfair was her life.

She turned back to the window, keeping her voice down as much as possible as she muttered: "I'm in airplane mode, I didn't download anything suspicious, how the hell did you get on there?"

[I have my ways.] the little demon said, its smile widening. [I'm going to keep you company! I'm much better entertainment than whatever you were trying to do.]

"Go away."

[Nope.] it said. It floated higher up on her screen, wings flapping, and pretended to brush some dust away from the icon of her reading app. [What did you want to read anyway? Something interesting?]

"Don't open that!"

Now even the people in the row in front of her were glancing behind them, wondering why she was arguing with her phone.

The Alcor Virus tapped the app and opened up her e-library.

[Oh stars. You've got to be kidding me.]

"Don't you dare delete them," she hissed.

[Sorry, I can't hear you.] it said, and pixelated flames devoured the icons for all six of the Shades of Gold books.

[This is for your own good.] it added, as she glared at the screen.

[I'll get you something better to read.] it said. New icons started popping up.

Conspiracy Theories For Dummies.

Why The Alcor Virus Is The Best Ever And You Should Totally Download It On Everything.

Turn Your Frown Upside Down In Nineteen Easy Steps!

Elisabeth turned her phone off. The screen went blank for a second, then yellow lettering crawled across.

[Okay, I see you're not in the mood to talk.]

[I'll just take a look around then.]

[We are in a plane, right?]

[Never been in a passenger plane before.]

[Flying isn't that difficult, is it?]

Alarmed, she turned her phone back on. The lettering faded away and revealed the smug pixelated face of the Alcor Virus, lounging on her wallpaper.

"Don't mess with the plane," she snapped. She could imagine the chaos that would erupt if it appeared on the pilots' screens. An airplane full of panicked people, who would likely blame the one demonologist on board for all of this? Not her idea of fun.

"I need to get to my destination in time, damn it. Without being detained anywhere for bringing you along."

[But I'm bored.] it said, then brightened. [Let's play a game!]

Elisabeth was tired as hell when she finally reached the hotel. The flight, the cab ride to this tiny little town on the Canadian coastline, her stupid possessed phone that kept bugging her to play Spot The Difference with pictures that were freaking identical... It was an artificial intelligence of demonic origin with the entire internet to browse! How did something like that even get bored, anyway?

She couldn't wait to get to her hotel room and sleep like the dead.

Sadly it was not to be. As she checked in, the receptionist kindly told her that Mr Tenney and his crew were expecting her in the upstairs meeting room for a short briefing.

"We'll bring your luggage to your room," the receptionist offered. Her pitying expression indicated that Elisabeth looked... well, pretty much exactly as awful and tired as she felt. Travel did not agree with her.

She nodded at the offer and took her room key. Now where was that meeting room? Ugh. Sleep. Need. So much.

There was one door, right at the top of the stairs, with a little plaque next to it. Meeting room. Great. She opened the door without much thought and the occupants of the room looked up.

"Ah, Miss Adams," Tenney said. She recognised him from tv, of course. Dark-skinned, with a mass of blindingly white hair styled in some ridiculous pompadour, and oozing charm. "So nice of you to finally join us. I'm afraid you've missed most of the briefing, but I'm sure Steve will fill you in. Please take a seat."

The room was rather full. Some faces seemed vaguely familiar. She'd only watched a few episodes, and Tenney usually took up the bulk of the screentime. He had a team, but hell if she could recognize them right now.

Elisabeth sank down in the nearest empty seat and turned her eyes to the screen, where Tenney was projecting some kind of blueprints.

"These are an approximation of the lay-out of the Bunker. We only have the recollections of surviving cultist as a source for these, therefore we should stay prepared for anything. We do know, however, that this side of the Bunker has some slight damage, it was visible on the underwater imaging. Possibly one or more of the lower levels are flooded. As Francesca mentioned, however, the magic arrays keeping the Bunker stable are still strong and of very high quality. They should have kept the flooding to a minimum as well."

The screen changed, showing different, more detailed blueprints. "This is the decommisioned oil rig. The entrance to the Bunker should be in this section of the map. The ship can moor at this side of the rig while the main team does our initial reconnaissance and get some footage of the abandoned building. You all know how to take it from there." Tenney shot them all a white, somewhat threathening smile. "Do not mess with the stabilisation magic, that is the main thing. Ghosts will not be a problem, but if one of you destabilises the whole thing and drowns us all I will personally make sure your afterlife is extremely unpleasant. Any questions?"

Elisabeth put up her hand. "Yes, actually. How likely are we to encounter demonic influences?" What exactly was she supposed to do down there?

"Extremely unlikely," Tenney answered. "It's just a regular haunting, demon cult or not. Can you imagine a demon hanging around for sixty-plus years, just in case someone should show up? Nevertheless, you are part of the main team. Do be a dear and let us know if anything demonic happens. If that is all... Go and get a good night's rest, crew. Our ship leaves at four in the morning, sharp."

Tenney left, and so did most of the other people inside the room. Everyone seemed very sure of their job and Elisabeth could only watch with tired eyes as they all trooped out of the door, chatting and planning and whatever.

The chair was pretty cosy, actually...

"Don't fall asleep here," a voice said, amused. It belonged to a woman, about her age, who apparently thought hot pink was a proper colour for lipstick for someone older than say, sixteen. She was smiling though, and offered Elisabeth a hand to shake. "I'm April, April Merrick. You haven't seen your room yet? The beds are amazing here. Much better to sleep on than a wooden chair, am I right?"

"Elisabeth Adams," Elisabeth introduced herself. She offered the other woman a nod, ignoring the offered hand. Working with demons so often had the tiny side-effect of making you really weary about giving a handshake to people you didn't know.

"You must be the demonologist," said April. "I presume? Since you asked that question about demons?"

"I am, yes. You are?"

"Oh, I'm not a usual part of Tenney's team, I'm sure you noticed! I'm just here to satisfy my own curiosity, really. And my grandmother used to be a cultist, you know. Before my mother was born, obviously. She was just a little girl herself, then, stuck on mainland on some errands with my great-grandmother when that mysterious thing happened and the entire cult was murdered."

"Uh-uh," Elisabeth said, holding back a yawn.

Her phone ding'ed. She took it out and glanced at the screen.

[You haven't texted your mom yet.] The Alcor Virus admonished her. [She'll be worrying.]

"I really don't need you nagging me," Elisabeth muttered.

The other woman - what was her name again? - seemed taken aback. "Excuse me?"

"Not you, I was talking to my phone."

"Ah," the woman said. June? It was something like that anyway. "Okay. I talk to my cat sometimes."

"Never really liked cats." Elisabeth didn't manage to hold back the yawn this time. She rooted through her purse to find the room key she'd been given. There'd be a number on it, right? "I'm going to bed. What time are we leaving again?"

"Four am," Possibly-June said. "But you missed a part of the presentation, I think Steve still wants to talk to you. He's our camera guy. Well, he's more than that, I suppose - we'll all be wearing bodycams in either case. He's real friendly. Oh! Would you like me to show you to your room? I think they put all of us on the same floor, maybe we're neighbours."

"Thank you but I can find it myself," Elisabeth said. "Where is this Steve guy?"

"Probably talking over some last-minute stuff with Tenney."

In that case she wasn't going to wait around for him. If he wanted to talk to her, he should have stayed near. It was going to be another hellishly long trip on that boat tomorrow... he could fill her in on the way, if it was so important.

Ding!

[Don't forget to text your mom!]

[Just a friendly reminder.]

[No need to glare at me like that.]

Ugh. She was nearly tempted to summon Alcor, just so she could make him remove that annoying thing from her phone. Nearly.

Summoning demons when she was this tired sounded like a horrible idea. First sleep.

[I'll set your alarm for 2:30, shall I?] The Alcor Virus said.

"What?" she snapped. "That's way too early."

[I'm just trying to be helpful.]

"Er, well, I'm going too," Possibly-June said, backing away with a bit of a weird look at Elisabeth. "See you tomorrow. It's going to be so exciting, isn't it? Sleep tight."

"Tomorrow," Elisabeth echoed. Her head felt like it was stuffed with wool. Right. She'd gotten a key.

It was an electronic key, apparently, and she probably would have worried more about the 'helpful' Alcor Virus getting loose in this hotel if she hadn't been so sleepy. As it was, she texted her mom a basic message (Arrived @ destination, everything okay, leaving for work tomorrow at 4 so won't be able to call much for a while. Don't worry.) and got ready for bed.

She was out like a light as soon as she got her pyjamas on.

Of course, in the morning all alarms - including but not limited to the fire alarm and the microwave one in the hotel kitchen - went off simultaneously, with the recognizable melody of that stupid, catchy pop song from Sauce & Swing that had been topping the charts lately.

[Good morning!] The Alcor Virus chirped, sipping a blob of pixels shaped like a cup of coffee. [Rise and shine, you're going on a boat trip!]

Boogy down and up and up and down, boogieman ballet! the fire alarm blasted, until someone mercifully turned it off.

She could hear confused voices out in the hallway. Some curses when they noticed the early hour.

Fine. She was awake. Slept surprisingly well, even.

Time to get up and get to work.

Chapter Text

"Remember you're wearing a camera, don't smudge the lens," Steve said, as the boat neared their destination. "Katya and I will mostly follow Tenney and Francesca around, but we use footage from all cams to splice the final episode, so don't break yours. Should anything happen to it, please notify me or Katya as soon as possible."

A short nod was all the reaction he got. Well then.

"The cams record both low-light and regular vision simultaneously. You can watch a live feed of your low-light recording on your watch face. These buttons, see? I can remotely switch the setting of the cams if necessary so if you get confused, just give me a call and I'll make sure they're adjusted correctly."

"Wouldn't vision goggles have made more sense?" Adams said, with the same frown she'd been wearing since he had first laid eyes on her. She was going to be a real delight to work with, he bet. "Instead of a watch? I can't fight and look at my watch at the same time."

"I hightly doubt you'll have to fight anything," Steve said. "Tenney is very experienced in dealing with ghosts. Anyway, we used to have goggles and such but that was bad for the ratings. Viewers prefer to look at human faces without obstructions, makes it easier to relate to them. So we stick to the watches. Katya's camera and mine are equipped with Artificial Sight, by the way - it really eats the batteries, we only activate that one if we're a hundred percent sure there's something interesting to see. If you think there's something invisible, or any kind of presence or aura, give us a shout. Right, now about the other gear, I hope you've read the manuals for the pressure suit and the waterbreathing spells?"

"I've used these before," their other newbie to the world of televised entertainment piped in. Steve turned to April Merrick, granddaughter of one of the few surviving cultists and special guest for this episode. "I used to go scuba diving near old shipwrecks with my dad."

"Good, then you know what to do in case of emergency."

"Question," Adams said, already messing with the few buttons of her cam. "How do you turn this thing off?"

It's a good thing he had so much experience keeping his groan of annoyance inside. "You're not supposed to turn it off."

"I need to use the ladies' room and I'm not recording that."

Right. He'd better show her.

Tenney popped up, unmistakeble in that trademark pinstripe suit and his shock of white hair. "Is everyone ready? We're nearing the platform, I want some footage of our approach."

"Almost done, sir," Steve said. "I'm just  checking if everyone knows what to do in case the bunker should flood."

"Oh, you worry too much," Tenney said, throwing an arm around Adams' shoulders. She did not seem pleased. "All these precautions are for show, my dear. Don't be afraid. We go in, get some nice footage of the bodies and the ghosts, I do what I do best, cue a tearful part about how your long-lost relatives are finally released from their doom, and it's a wrap."

"I can't promise tears, but it will be nice to know they'll be free," Ms Merrick said, with a contemplative glance out of the porthole window. "Strange, to think I actually do have relatives who are haunting that place. The cult of Xuerus was mostly a family community. If life had been a bit different, I could have been born and raised down there, brainwashed into serving a demon."

"Perfect, my girl, but can you repeat that while we're on deck? Steve, get those cameras rolling, I'm not paying you to stand around. Hup hup, showtime people!"

Steve lifted the large hand-held camera and followed his boss up on deck. The sky was blue and cloudless, the wind bitingly cold. Monifa was already there, making sure that everyone was all geared up. Her expression was grumpy as she worked. Steve really hoped she didn't have another argument with Tenney again...

The sooner this episode was wrapped up, the better. The team needed a break from eachother - things had been tense ever since Tenney had benched his co-star only two weeks ago for that small meltdown she had.

The oil rig loomed on the horizon, massive and abandoned. Steve made some shots of their approach, careful to stay out of view of Katya and Flint, who were recording the little speech Ms Merrick was repeating on deck.

"- brainwashed into serving a demon," Ms Merrick finished, with a pondering look at the oil rig.

Tenney patted her hand. "We will give your relatives the rest every soul deserves, my dear. I give you my word."

"Thank you, Mr Tenney."

"Please, call me John," Tenney said, amping up the charm as the cameras rolled. "Now my dear, tell us about your grandmother. Was it her dying wish for you to return here?"

"Not quite, John. She never spoke much about what happened, and no wonder. Nearly everyone she knew had died, here."

"Cultists," Adams muttered, off-screen. Katya turned her cam, in time to record Adams' eye-roll. "That's what you get for summoning demons. All cults end like that, eventually."

Oh dear. Tenney did not seem happy at this interruption of the conversation. It was the way the lines around his eyes tightened. He kept smiling sympathetically though, since Flint's cam was still aimed at him and Ms Merrick.

"True, summoning demons is exceptionally dangerous," Tenney said. "You, of course, have some experience with this, Elisabeth dear. Perhaps you can share some insight about the demon Xuerus with us?"

"I would, if I knew anything about it," she said. "Xuerus is a complete unknown. Most likely a very low-level demon."

"That is all?" Francesca asked, coming up on deck. Her jacket looked bulky with all the gear packed underneath it - she must be more worried about this Bunker than she let on. "He appeared, got a cult devoted to him, slaughtered them all and disappeared into obscurity again?"

"Apparently so," Adams said.

"Is that normal?"

"How should I know? The number of demons is literally uncountable, and no one knows for sure how new ones come into existence. I'm not an expert on all of them."

"Well, if you believe Twin Souls -" Ms Merrick started to say,  a faint smile on her face, but Adams shot her a glare that made her swallow the rest of her sentence.

"Don't mention that nightmare," Adams said. "That drivel is based on nothing but ridiculous fantasies and it teaches teens all the wrong things about demons."

"Back to Xuerus," Francesca said. "There is absolutely nothing you can tell us about him? You're going into this blind?"

"I'll know more about it if I see his symbol, or whatever remains of his summoning circle. The cultists should have left some signs behind. At least that'll give me a benchmark for his power level. As you know, the more intricate or complicated a demon's symbol, the more low-level they are."

"Really?" Ms Merrick said. "I'd think it was the other way around."

"As if! How often do you hear about someone accidentally summoning Sapheele, demon of invisibility? Never. Because it takes a lot of effort and concentration to summon it." Adams made a face. "Compared to the Dreambender, for example... Well, any idiot could doodle a winged star with an eye and be unlucky enough to catch his attention by utter accident."

A ding! came from her pockets.

Really? Good thing this wasn't live television, because stuff like this could ruin a take. Of course they could edit it out, but it was annoying all the same.

"Isn't your phone muted?" Steve said. "We're recording, please turn it off."

Ding!

Ding!

"Sounds like you're popular," Ms Merrick smiled.

Adams took out her phone to glare at it. "Could you shut up? I'm working. "

Okay then.  Apparently she talked to inanimate objects. This was definitely going to be an interesting episode.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

"Turn it off, Ms Adams," Tenney said. "No texting on the job."

"Apologies," Adams said. "Just having a small disagreement with my phone, which I am definitely going to throw into the ocean if it doesn't stop making noises."

"You can just mute it, you know," Steve said.

"No. I really can't."

She had the gall to glare at him while saying that. Yeesh. A real delight, indeed.

Tenney set his first foot on the upper deck of the rig and closed his eyes, tipping his head back slightly, as if he was scenting the air. He always did this. Even after working with him for the entire run of Extreme Exorcists!! Steve wasn't sure if Tenney actually sensed anything special like that, or if it was only for show.

It did make for a dramatic shot, with the looming shadow of the building above and the yellow-edged clouds in the far distance.

"The weather's not looking great, but we should be fine here until tomorrow evening, if the predictions hold," Monifa said. "The ship can withstand a lot, and the stabilising spells in the rig itself should keep the most of a storm away."

"Still, best not to linger too long," Francesca said. "I'd like to get initial reconaissance wrapped up as soon as possible."

"Why such a hurry?" Monifa teased. "Is this place creeping you out?"

"Oh, ha ha. I'm in the wrong business to be scared of ghosts, sweetie. But there's only two experienced ghost hunters here, and we're far away from any backup."

"The more reason to be careful and not rush our way through," Tenney said, opening his eyes. "There is definitely some sort of presence down below."

Miss Merrick shivered visibly, her eyes glued to the stairs leading up from the platform, to the dark insides of the rig. "I'm creeped out."

Steve turned his camera to their demonologist, to see her reaction, but she was glaring at her phone again.

"Let us go," Tenney said, and led them inside.

Monifa stayed behind on the boat, where she'd taken over two cabins with all the screens and gear to keep track of their cams. She could follow everything from up there, and call for back-up should things get iffy. Say what you want about Tenney, the man took all precautions.

Steve had been in many creepy places during his career. For some reason the ghost hunting business rarely led you to brightly lit and lively houses. Abandoned buildings and old grave-sites were the norm.

Remember the hospital episode? It had been a horror of flickering lights and floating scalpels and screaming. Or, oh god, that day-care that had been closed after a madmen with a gun had murdered all those children... He still couldn't hear children singing without getting goosebumps.

This dusty old building wasn't the worst, actually. The corridors and rooms were small and cramped and stank of metal and salt, but he'd seen worse. So much worse.

Then again, these were just the upper levels. The actual Bunker lay underneath this, an unsightly growth of metal and concrete on the limbs of the oil rig itself. These were just the living quarters.

"How deep down did the probes go?" Adams asked. "The ones the police sent down to investigate this?"

"Difficult to say," Francesca answered. "The footage is corrupted, more so the deeper they went. They found some bodies about seven floors down from here and shorted out soon after, but what distance they crossed in that time between? No clue. We'll come across them eventually, I'm sure."

"The bodies," Ms Merrick repeated, pale as a ghost herself in the cold white light.

"Your relatives," Francesca said. "I'm sorry, sweetie. Are you sure you're up for this?"

"Too late to back out now," Tenney said. He glanced at Steve. "We will look through these upper levels first. Flint, Katya, you're with Franscesca. Get some good ambiance shots. Steve -"

"You've got to be kidding me," Adams interrupted him. "We're not going to split up, right? That's what they do in horror movies right before everyone gets killed."

Steve hid a smile behind his camera. Was little Miss Popular with her sarcastic eyerolls getting a bit scared?

"This is not a horror movie, Ms Adams," Tenney said.

"The girl has a point, John," Francesca said, with a frown. "I know we usually split up to get a wider perspective of the place, but this time... there's something unsettling about it. We should stay together."

"Darling, don't worry so much. We've handled hotter fires," Tenney said. "These upper levels are barely haunted. I sense no ghosts up here. I do agree we should stay together when descending into the Bunker proper, however."

"Alright," Francesca said. "As long as we're not going down there yet. We'll meet up back here in, let us say, one hour?"

"Excuse me," Adams said. "What exactly are we supposed to do now? Just look around?"

"Yes, Ms Adams. We're going for initial impressions right now." Tenney's smile was thin and impatient. "Steve and I will accompany you and Ms Merrick, we're not sending you in alone."

"Do not disturb anything," Francesca added. "Especially not bones. These upper levels should be safe, more or less, but you never know."

"Great. I feel so at-ease," Adams said.

Ding! her phone added.

Chapter Text

Don't split up. That was the first rule of horror movies. And what did they do? They split up.

She kept her eyes open for anything strange. What did a regular oil rig look like, anyway? Maybe they all had those bands of spidery runes crawling over the ceiling, could be part of the stabilisation spells, right?

Oh. False alarm. It was just cracked paint.

“According to the blueprints, the main computer room should be this way,” Tenney said.

[Ooh!] the Alcor Virus perked up. [Yes, let’s go there!]

Tenney glanced at her over his shoulder. “If you insist on playing with your phone, Ms Adams, at least have the decency to turn off the sound.”

“Apologies,” she said, turning down the volume.

[Did you really expect that to work on me?] The pixelated Alcor asked. He tapped a finger on his chin, then nodded. [But okay. I’ll allow it.]

“How gracious of you,” she muttered, as the words crawled across her screen without those annoying noises.

"Do you think the computers will still work?" April asked.

"Perhaps," Tenney said. "I doubt they will be very informative, however. According to the official report, what little data they could get from them was all scrambled beyond understanding."

"Oh," April said. She hesistated. "Too bad. It would have been nice to have, I don't know, some camera footage perhaps? Old pictures?"

Tenney patted her shoulder, his smile compassionate and heartening. It didn't escape Elisabeth's notice how he made sure to keep his face in full view of the camera guy.

"We can always try," he said. "Perhaps they didn't put much effort in it, since there was already enough evidence of a cult gone wrong. And a lot of progress has been made in sixty years."

[Challenge accepted,] her phone added, vibrating to catch her attention.

"But I have another motive to go this way," Tenney said. "Ah, there it is. Steve, if you would?"

He led them to a room that was barely worth the name. Three massive mechanical things filled it from wall to wall, leaving barely enough room for Steve to squeeze past them. He put the camera down and fiddled for a moment with the machines. They started to hum.

"Voila," Tenney said, and flipped the light switch with flair. Light, cold white and buzzing faintly, flooded the corridor.

"Generators," April laughed, just as Elisabeth realised the same. "That will make exploring the lower levels a lot easier. If all the lights still work down there."

The room next to this one had windows, looking out over the platform and the growing waves. It also had computers, dusty and old-fashioned.

[Put me on top of one,] the Alcor Virus asked, jumping up and down on the screen with excitement.

"Why?" she said. Whispering, since the others were distracted by the view through the windows, but maybe not distracted enough to miss how she was arguing with her phone again.

[No connection, wireless or otherwise,] the chibi Alcor said. [Hasn't been one in ages, I bet. Feels a bit like gravedigging, doesn't it? This is so cool.]

"No, I meant why as in why should I?" The last thing they needed was a demonic virus playing around with the electronics. This place was haunted already, let's not make it any worse.

[I could just jump there anyway, if you don't mind the showy fireworks when I do. You don't mind, right? Fireworks are awesome.]

She glared at his smug smile. Oh look, this room had windows. Open window. Drop phone. Probably wouldn't get rid of him for long, but it would make her feel better...

[Aw, come on... please?]

Those pixelated puppy eyes were truly ridiculous.

The computer started booting up the second she put her phone down on the bulky screen. There was a gasp from behind her.

"Look!" April was staring at the screen. Strings of numbers were scrolling past. "It just... started, all on its own."

"Ah, yes," Tenney said. "This place knows you, my dear. This is clearly the work of a spirit."

"Clearly," Elisabeth muttered.

The screen switched to a desktop. It was relatively empty, with only a few files and a calender sidebar. The background didn't offer much of a clue either, being a random picture of the sea.

Seriously now, what kind of cult didn't even use their demon's symbol as a background? It had to be somewhere!

April made an hesistant movement towards the computer. “Should I- ?”

At Tenney’s nod she sat down. A speck of white pixels appeared in the center of the screen, a blob that grew until it overtook the entire desktop.

[Hello April,] black letters crawled across the white screen.

April gasped.

[We're so glad to finally meet you.]

[There is much you need to know.]

Text and graphs started flashing on the screen, so many it was just a blur of data, before the acrid smell of burned plastic drifted from the computer case and the screen went black again.

Tenney pressed the power button, to no avail.

“Interesting,” he said. “Steve, you got a good view of the screen, I hope? Make sure Monifa gets it and decrypts it.”

“Will do, sir. I’m sending it right now.”

“It looked like… mathematical formulas,” April said, still blinking at the screen. “All those symbols and numbers… Why would they show this to me?”

Tenney patted her back. “I don’t know, Ms Merrick, but if your ancestors go to such lenghts to share it with you, it must be important.”

“Or it’s gibberish,” Elisabeth said. “It could be anything. Your great-grandmothers recipe for stuffed turkey or something.”

“Ghosts don’t expend their strenght sending meaningless messages, Ms Adams,” Tenney said.

Sure, maybe ghosts didn’t. But the Alcor Virus?

She gave Tenney a curt nod – no use in arguing about this, especially since she really didn’t want anyone to know about her possessed phone – and shot the latter a suspicious look as they left the control room.

"That was you, wasn't it?"

[You’ll have to be more specific. What are you talking about?]

"I swear, I'm this close to throwing you overboard."

[Go ahead,] the chibi Alcor grinned. [I'm already in the building. See?]

The lights flickered on and off, in a regular pattern, like heartbeats.

[Whoever these cultists were, they really liked their electronics! Can’t really go deeper than the seventh floor down, though. There’s something blocking me.]

Elisabeth nearly bumped into the others, who’d slowed down when the lights flickered. April was pale as a ghost herself, clearly rethinking this whole plan to go hunting for her dead relatives’ spirits.

“Have no fear,” Tenney said. He patted April’s shoulder. “This place is watching you, my dear. But you are safe with me.”

An abandoned, probably leaky metal contraption in the middle of a raging sea, with a demonic computer virus and a bunch of ghosts for company... Sure. This was the very definition of safe.

The ‘raging sea’ bit was no exaggeration, unfortunately. A glance out of the portholes showed white-tipped waves under a sky that fit pretty well with Elisabeth’s current mood.

"I don't like the look of those clouds," Camera Guy Steve said, pausing to stand next to her.

She shrugged. Between ghosts and a demon, the weather was the least of her concerns.

"You don't talk much, do you?"

She frowned. "Neither do you."

Steve's smile rueful. "It's Tenney's show. I just hold the camera."

“Shouldn’t you go and do that, then, instead of bothering me about the weather?”

He held up his hands in mock surrender. “I’m just saying. We’re not just here to look around. We’re here to make television. So, you know. At least try to participate.”

“I have nothing to add yet,” she said, a bit prickly. “There is nothing demonic going on here.” Her phone vibrated in her pocket. “Nothing demonic at all.”

Steve shook his head. “Fine. Be that way. It’s your job on the line, not mine.”

What was that supposed to mean? Hugh wouldn’t fire her for something like this! Would he? She hadn’t signed up for being an actress, she was an exorcist! And if her boss dared to hold this against her, well –

She took a deep breath. That camera guy was just trying to push her buttons. These kind of reality shows always hungered for drama, didn’t they? And if there wasn’t any, they’d cut and paste their footage enough to manufacture some. She wasn’t going to take this bait, damn it.

[I’m deciphering those files from the computer,] the chibi Alcor said. [They’re encrypted in so many ways! These guys were really paranoid.]

Not paranoid enough to stay alive, it seemed.

Steve was still watching her. Elisabeth kept her eyes on her phone and typed: ‘Anything I need to know? Re: demon?’

Typing worked. That was good to know. Now she could look a little less crazy.

[Nothing yet. This symbol does pop up a lot, but it could be part of the encryption. Still working that one out!] The screen flashed her an image of something that resembled a flattened X. [I’m running a few dozen decoder programs right now, just need to find what key they used.]

The pixelated face beamed at her. It seemed just as excited as Alcor was, whenever he was faced with some kind of mystery to unravel.

‘Try Xuerus,’ she suggested.

[… You really have no high regard of cultists, do you?] the Alcor Virus said. [Usually I would agree, but these guys were clever! I never had trouble with deciphering stuff before.]

She slid her phone back into her pocket. At least the Alcor Virus wouldn’t bother her too much, if he was busy with those files. And who knew? Maybe he would find something useful.

“Ah, the mess hall,” Tenney said, at an open doorway at the end of the corridor. “Steve, up front please.”

They waited for Steve to take some shots of the room before entering themselves. The place was a mess, indeed. Benches and long tables. Rotted scraps of cloth littering the floor, the remains of napkins or table cloth or who knew what else.

“Oh,” April said, touching the cracked sheet of plastic on the wall. "There's a bulletin board.”

Age had faded most of the messages. She could make out some numbers and dates - a calender of some kind, probably. In the lower left corner there were two drawings, faded as everything else, but still recognizably made by children. One was just a mass of scribbles. The other depicted blue curls and a black blob in the middle, stick figures on top of it, blue clouds in the sky.

"People lived here," April said, softly. She reached out and touched the drawings. "Children lived here. And then everyone died."

"Your grandmother survived," Tenney said.

"Yes. But by pure coincidence." April took a trembling breath. “I’m sorry, I knew this was going to be difficult but I thought I’d be stronger than this...”

Tenney slid an arm over her shoulders. “Completely understandable, my dear. These people were your family. Do you need a moment to collect yourself?”

April wordlessly shook her head, and Tenney let her be.

They found the kitchen - as deserted as everything else, and with the musty, dusty smell of food that had rotted away a long time ago. From there they went on to old living quarters, tiny bedrooms and communal break rooms.

It was hard to miss the little touches of life, here. The pictures on the walls, the dusty music player. A book had been left on a sitting table, its spine cracked, open and waiting for its reader to return.

Elisabeth carefully removed some of the dust on it. You never know, maybe it was some book on demons, anything that could give a clue about this Xuerus they worshipped.

But no, it was a novel. Just some old romance novel she'd never heard of. Someone had been reading this before leaving it behind, too hurried to put a proper bookmark inside.

"Can I ask you a question?" April said, breaking the silence that followed them into the abandoned rooms.

"Depends," Elisabeth said. "What do you want to ask?"

"Why did you decide to go into demonology?"

She shrugged. Why indeed? No one in her family had meddled with demons, and she had no traumatic tales or - god forbid - Twin Souls obsession to blame for her choice.

"I guess, because I was tired of people being stupid," she said.

April smiled. "You wanted to help people."

Well, yes. Wasn't that the point of everything? "Obviously. Even ignoring cults for a minute, there are way too many demon summonings performed by idiots. They set things loose in this world that are a danger to everyone. We can't let those run around freely." She frowned. "Why do you ask?"

"I'm just wondering," April said, her smile turning bittersweet. "What would bring someone to think demon summoning is a good idea."

"Don't compare me to a cult."

"I'm not, I swear. I know it's different. But don't you think... could this be how they got started? Good intentions, that somehow spiralled out of control?"

"Maybe." Elisabeth didn't really believe it though. You had to be pretty crazy to start a cult. "You know what they say about the road to Hell. Paved with good intentions."

A bit like trying to save your classmate-slash-rival from a demonic possession by revealing it on stage. She cringed at the memory. That had been a bad move. Good intentions, but... not the brightest thing she could've done.

On the other hand, her exorcism had worked, even if only for a second. On the Dreambender himself! It had been a good lesson for her - shows you can get the upper hand on even the most powerful of beings - if you could manage to catch them off guard.

It had also taught her that a large room full of everyone's loved ones probably wasn't the best place to mess around with demons, but to be fair, she wasn't the only one to make that mistake and at least no one had died in her case. These cultists had been less lucky.

Well, there hadn't been any proof yet that these cultists had been murdered by their demon, but really, what were the odds they all mysteriously died by some other, unrelated cause?

As she looked around though, she noticed more and more signs that whatever had happened, hadn't been part of the plans. There was a bowl of something fuzzy and grey on the table, overgrowing the spoon next to it. A chair had been tipped back. In one of the bathrooms a towel was abandoned haphazardly on the floor, moldy clothes stacked next to the sink.

If the cult had died because of some big summoning that went wrong… well, big summonings didn’t just happen. They needed preparation. You’d expect everyone in the cult to be present for an event like that, wouldn’t you?

Unless something had come through before they were ready for it. In which case it could have been any demon, not necessarily this mysterious Xuerus no one knew about.

Great. This wasn’t confusing enough already. Not that it really mattered, of course. It had been sixty years. Whichever demon was responsible, it would be long gone by now.

They took a short break in the mess hall, where Steve cleared a table to do some light maintenance on his camera. The image turned fuzzy sometimes, which really shouldn’t happen. Maybe some settings were off…

“Some flickering lights and a mysterious computer message,” Tenney filled in Francesca on the other end of the phone. “Monifa should be deciphering it now. I expect there’s been some progress with programs like that… How about on your end, anything? Disappointing. Very well, we’ll - no, no, I was actually thinking we’d head down and meet you there. Steve needs to fix his camera first – can you repeat that? The line’s breaking up – Wonderful. I lost the connection. Steve, you need to get this fixed.”

“I’ll do my best, sir.” Steve hesitated. “What are the plans? Are we going to reconvene with Francesca’s team?”

“Not yet,” Tenney said. “I told her to go ahead and wait for us on the sixth level down. Smaller groups, that’s the key. There’s so little spiritual activity here, they might get spooked and remain quiet if we’re all together.” He glanced at April. “I doubt they’ll get more than ambiance shots, actually. They don’t have you, my dear, and you seem to be the trigger.”

“Oh,” April said. “I, um, was just wondering if I could use the bathroom, but maybe I shouldn’t go alone then…”

“I’ll go with you,” Adams said. “There should be one next to the kitchen here.”

“Of course, of course,” Tenney waved them away. “But be careful, and don’t wander.”

Adams gave him a deadpan look. “I doubt there’ll be many ghosts haunting bathrooms."

She clearly hadn't seen the season one episode with the prison complex. Steve still got chills when he heard running water in the middle of the night.

"You never know," he said. "Scream if anything happens."

As soon as the door fell closed behind them, Tenney turned to Steve and gave the suble hand signal to turn off their cameras.

That never boded well.

Tenney started pacing between the tables, keeping a wary eye on the bathroom door.

"We've been burned on this arrangement," he said.

"We have, sir?"

"We were promised a strong haunting. But there's barely anything here."

Yes, that sinking feeling in his stomach was very familiar. "Are you sure, sir? We’ve come across a spirit already -"

"A mere category one!" Tenney said, with an angry gesture. "Playing around with the lights - that's not the material we need. This is our season finale, Steve. We need something big! Something impressive!"

"We haven't gone very deep yet, sir, maybe in the lower levels, where the bodies are -"

"Yes, yes, I know. There could be stronger spirits there," Tenney said, impatiently. "But if there are category ones hanging around... You know the odds as well as I do. I doubt we will find anything higher than a four, maybe a five if we're lucky. Nearly a hundred and fifty people died here. That kind of brutal murder should have at least spawned a category nine!"

Tenney bared his teeth, his famous smile now a dark grimace. "No, we've been duped. We should have known this would be the case. It's the demon's fault. It must have eaten the souls. And what's left is just echoes. Easily removed. And perhaps a handful of category ones, up here."

That possibility had crossed their minds before, of course. Eating souls was what demons did, and without a soul - or at least a fragment of a soul - it was very difficult to get ghosts of an impressive power level. But with such a large number of deaths, and the fact no one had heard about Xuerus afterwards, which definitely should have happened if the demon had gotten such a power boost... And the malfunctioning drones, of course... Well, it all pointed to a powerful haunting. It should have been.

"And this will not do," Tenney said, determination clouding his face. "It will not do at all."

Steve knew where this was going. And it was really, really illegal. "Sir, perhaps we should take a look in the lower levels before making any hasty conclusions.”

It wouldn't work - he knew his boss - but he had to try.

"I can't sense anything from down below, Steve."

"Maybe -"

"Are you telling me my senses are wrong?"

Oh boy. That sweet tone was usually only aimed at Francesca these days. "Of course not, sir."

"Good," Tenney said. "I've been in this business longer than you can imagine, my boy. If there was something above category five down there, I would know."

He clasped his hands behind his back as he turned to the porthole, to the grey sky and foam-flecked waves. "You have the equipment?"

"Sir..."

"We need at least a category eight if we want our ratings to hold. You know what low ratings mean. No season three."

Steve nodded. He had the equipment. He always did, even if some of it could land him in jail. Preternaturals didn't like it if you walked around with powdered banshee tongue and ingredients like that. That's why Tenney didn't keep it on his own person.

"Good," Tenney said, when Steve took the little container with highly illegal things out of the hidden compartment in his camera bag. "Distract the girls for a few minutes, will you? This episode is going to be talked about for years."

Chapter Text

She hadn't expected this assignment to be so... well, boring.

Boring was good. Boring was safe. But a small part of Elisabeth wished Alcor had been here to liven things up. At least then she’d have someone to snark with.

Bad idea. She still wasn’t sure about Alcors motivations. That sudden generosity of his was suspicious as hell, and she was too clever to fall for that. It was a good thing he wasn’t here, and her deal kept him from annoying her until she specifically summoned him. If only the same could be said about his little electronic spawn…

[So I’ve been looking at that data,] the Alcor Virus said. [And these guys sound a lot less like cultists and a lot more like scientists. This is all calculations and stuff. I’m still figuring out what they were trying to do, exactly, but it’s way more complicated than anything human could come up with. Must have had help.]

‘From their demon, obviously,’ she typed. ‘Did you find any info on it?’

[Not yet.]

“I can’t believe it,” the camera guy said. “This phone - especially designed and spelled to have reception anywhere on Earth - is barely working anymore. But yours doesn’t seem to have any problems at all. Who are you messaging anyway?”

“Does it matter?” She wished Tenney would hurry up. How much time did a man need in the bathroom anyway?

She was just impatient. Eager to get on with this show. Not worried, of course. It’s not like standing around in this gloomy corridor made her feel exposed or anything. That would be silly. She knew who was responsible for those ‘haunted lights and computers’ and it wasn’t a murderous ghost at all.

Had it been this quiet, a moment ago? Sure, they had been distracted by exploring, but no matter where you were in these living quarters, the faraway roar of the ocean and the faint creaks of metal were always in the background.

Not here, though. Not now. She could only hear her own breaths and those of Steve and April, and the quiet hum of the electronics they carried on their person.

The overhead lights flickered out. In the darkness, something made a high-pitched wailing noise.

"Well, this is definitely a haunting," Steve said, his face illuminated only by the glow of his camera screen.

Did something touch her neck? Elisabeth turned around, heart pounding, but of course there was nothing there.

Something clammy grabbed her arm. She swallowed her scream, realising it was just April.

“Sorry,” April whispered, her terrified fingers gripping hard enough to bruise.

Ghosts. Give her a demon any day - at least you knew what they wanted, even if it was to screw you over as much as possible before devouring your soul. Ghosts could have all kinds of motivations, ranging from helpful to kill-everything-that-breathes.

She glanced at the screen on her wrist. Her camera recorded blackness, of course, but the night-vision mode could make out the lines of the corridor and the dark doorways lining it.

"Relax,” Steve said. “I've seen a lot of hauntings. When there are knives flying at you, that's when you start to worry."

She made a face. "How about we don't give the ghost ideas?"

"You're not scared, are you? Ghosts are creepy, but usually not malevolent. Just confused. They don't realise they're dead."

"Usually," she muttered. How comforting. The soft cries in the background made the hairs on her neck stand straight up, but oh, no worries, it usually wasn't malevolent.

̇ͅl̇̇ͅͅė̇ͅͅȧ̇ͅͅv̇ͅėͅ

April’s nails were digging into Elisabeth’s arm. “… did you hear that?”

This… wasn’t the Alcor Virus playing around, was it?

̤̤̇̈̇̈ͅͅÿ̤̤̇̇̈ͅͅö̤̤̇̇̈ͅͅṳ̤̈̇̇̈ͅͅ ̤̤̈̇̇̈ͅͅm̤̤̈̇̇̈ͅͅṳ̤̈̇̇̈ͅͅs̤̤̈̇̇̈ͅͅẗ̤̤̇̇̈ͅͅ ̤̤̈̇̇̈ͅͅ ̤̤̈̇̇̈ͅͅL̤̤̈̇̇̈ͅͅË̤̤̇̇̈ͅͅÄ̤̤̇̇̈ͅͅV̤̈̇ͅË̤̇ͅ ̣̤̬͚̇̈̌͋͘ͅN͚̬̤̣̣̤̬͚͋̌̈̇̇̈̌͋͘͘ͅͅO͚̬̤̣͋̌̈̇͘ͅW͚̬̤̣͋̌̈̇͘ͅ

The voice seemed to come from everywhere – echoing from the metal walls, bounding back on itself in a fading loop of leave now… now… now…

Light, sudden and blinding.

Elisabeth had never been this happy to see someone come back from the bathroom. Tenney stood in the open doorway, a hand raised, holding something that glittered like the brightest star –

The darkness shuddered and faded.

“You will find peace,” Tenney said, with a solemn nod at what turned out to be a mirror. He tucked it away before Elisabeth catch more than a glimpse of the rolling darkness inhabiting the silver frame.

“You can let go of me now,” Steve said. He nodded at her hand, which was holding him in a grip not unlike April’s.

“… right,” she said. Stupid traiterous hand.

“That was the scariest moment in my life,” April said, also letting go. “Thank you so much, John. For a moment there, I really thought she’d do something to us…”

Tenney’s smile was smug. “All in a day’s work, my dear.”

Francesca and Flint were waiting for them at the staircase.

Steve usually trusted Tenney's sixth sense in these things, but seeing the look on Francesca’s face made him really regret that little ritual Tenney had performed.

“Where is Katya?”

“We don’t know,” Francesca said. “We went through a haunted spot, up in the fifth level. It was nothing I couldn’t handle, but when the ghosts dissipated Katya was gone. We hoped she’d just been turned around in the confusion and she’d meet us down here.”

“We tried calling her, but the phones stopped working a while ago,” Flint added. “Is your connection with Monifa still active? Maybe she can use the live footage from Katya’s cam to help us track her down.”

Steve checked his camera again to make sure, but no luck. “My connection is gone too. I have no way to reach Monifa.” Wait a minute… “Adams? Your phone still works. Let me use it for a moment.”

For some reason Adams glared at the screen before handing her phone over.

Steve dialed Monifa and held his breath in anticipation.

“The number you are trying to reach is currently unavailable,” a pleasant if slightly robotic woman’s voice said. “Please try again –“

“And? Does it work?”

“No. The number is unavailable.” He handed the phone back to Adams. “Maybe Katya misunderstood, and she’s waiting on the seventh level itself?”

“Maybe…”

"She’ll be fine. This isn’t the first time someone got lost during a haunting, she knows what to do,” Tenney said, with a smile. “I’m sure she is waiting for us down there. The important thing now is the cameras keep working.”

Francesca raised an eyebrow. "You're in a good mood."

"Of course. Cutting off the phones, white noise, now a missing person - all signs of a strong haunting. That is what we're here for, is it not? Now, let us go and find the little lost lamb before something traumatising befalls her."

Steve took up his assigned spot at Adams' back as they descended the stairs and reached the seventh level. Adams had taken out her phone again. She was frowning at it, apparently so distracted that her walking speed suffered. They trailed behind the rest of the group.

"Something interesting on there?" Steve asked, when Adams had slowed down so much she was almost standing still. She looked up and put away her phone, a guilty look flashing over her face for a second. Steve nodded towards the end of the corridor, where Flint was impatiently holding open the large metal door for them. "We should hurry. Unless you want to split up again."

"I'd rather not," Adams said. Her eyes flicked down towards the pocket she had just stashed her phone into. "What would you say if I told you there was something weird going on here?"

"I'd say, hey, wasn't it dark underneath that rock you were living under?" He shrugged. "It's a strong haunting. Weirdness is the norm."

She glared again. This one was pretty easy to rile up, wasn't she? He was starting to have fun with this. "I'm not talking about ghosts."

That... was slightly more worrying. "You're not saying the demon is still around, are you?"

"No," she said. Frowned, touched the assorted demonology gear she was wearing on her belt. "I don't know. There's something."

"Well, if we come across that 'something', how badly do we need to worry?"

"There aren't knives flying at us," she quipped. "According to your theory, that means everything is fine, right?"

Steve made a face as he followed her down the corrider. The lights flickered.

"There's just one thing..." Adams said, trailing off.

"What?" he prompted.

Her eyes were shadowed. "Demons rarely bother with knives."

On cue, as if the universe had some intuition for dramatics, an inky and thick darkness rose from the floor and spread as mist through the corridor between them and the door.

A woman screamed. The sound came from all directions at once, deafening and echoing and full of pain.

At least Tenney would be happy. This wasn't a category one anymore.

"Let's catch up with the others," Steve said, and took Adams' arm to pull her with him when she seemed frozen to the floor.

"There's a woman," she breathed, throwing glances behind them as he guided her through the dark.

"I know."

"She has no face."

"Yep, that happens."

"It's a faceless woman."

"It's a ghost."

"She's holding something - oh god. Oh god."

"Don't freak out now. You deal with demons, for crying out loud."

"She's holding a severed head and it looks just like me.”

“Illusions. Trying to frighten you,” Steve said. “Keep moving.”

“It’s working!” He could hear Adams breathe, near hysteria but then suddenly more measured. "Right. Show no fear. This is nothing. I've seen much worse."

"That's the spirit. Don't slow down though."

"It's just a ghost. A restless soul. I deal with things that eat those for breakfast. This is fine. I am fine."

"Yes, but can you be fine and speed up?"

"Why? We're not going anywhere."

That... was unfortunately true, Steve realised. The doorway was now only a faint outline in the distance, Flint nowhere to be seen, the walls of the corridor replaced by writhing darkness.

The ghostly screams had stopped. The corridor was silent as the grave.

Steve regretted that turn of phrase immediately.

"I never knew ghosts could manipulate space like that," Adams said, and although her voice seemed thoughtful he could hear the tremor underneath the forced calm. "Interesting. Well, mister 'I've-seen-a-lot-of-hauntings', what do we do now?"

"Tenney and Francesca are the experts," he said. The spirit in the distance was standing still. Motionless. "I only know the basics."

"Let's hear it."

What would Tenney do in a case like this? He'd seen his boss work hundreds of times! Why the hell was he panicking, this was just his job, there was no reason to panic at all...

The ghost cocked her head. Even without a face, he could feel her gaze zero in on them.

She started to move.

Adams had moved too, but not to run. For some reason she'd taken one of the spray bottles from her belt and she was hurriedly spraying the contents in a line in front of them, from one wall of moving shadows to the other one. Then she vigorously applied the herbal spray on herself, and on him.

"What are you doing?" Steve asked. It smelled of rosemary and who knows what other herbs. Was this a demon thing? "Are you flavouring yourself? What, you think ghosts don't like italian food? This junk may work on demons but not on - hey!"

She'd quit spraying them both and unscrewed the top of the bottle before throwing it at the spirit, which had moved a lot closer now. The liquid puddled on the floor, its scent strong enough that Steve halfway expected his nose hairs to burn off. No way was that just a herbal spray. What did she put it that stuff?

Finished with her weird ritual, Adams took his arm and now it was her turn to pull him along, towards the door that still seemed so horribly far away.

"Do- your- thing," she said, between gasps for air as they ran. "I don't- know- how long- it'll stall- her!"

Basic exorcisms. Would basic work? This wasn't a category one! He knew the chant, of course, but he wasn't like Tenney, he didn't have the gift, would it even work if the ghost hadn't been bound in silver first? Damn it, where was his boss when you needed him? And damn that rule about not stealing Tenney's spotlight, they should all carry a silver mirror for exactly these kinds of circumstances, why did Tenney have to take all sorts of odd precautions and neglect this?

Well, usually they didn't get split up like this, not in strongly haunted places, but still...

"Are you going to do something or what!" Adams screamed, next to his ear, her eyes wild, things moving in the shadows flanking them where the walls used to be, skeletal arms of utter darkness reaching out...

Ding!

Ding!

"DAMN IT, VIRUS, NOT NOW!"

Right, right, the chant, he knew this...

"Ex-exodus demonus," he started. Yes, he knew this. Confidence. Strenght of will. Like Tenney did it. He could do this. "Spookus scarus ainafraidus no ghostus, bumpus goosus shamalaaan!"

The world around them seemed to shimmer. The arms faded into normal walls. The faceless head rippled and a slit ripped across its dead skin where a mouth should have been. It screamed, high and really fucking creepy, before the swirling shadows swallowed the woman and dripped away.

The door to the other corridor was right in front of their noses. They wasted no time running through it. Steve slammed it closed behind him - as if that could stop a ghost, ha! - but it did make him feel a bit better.

"That's the worst latin I've ever heard," Adams said, gulping air and leaning heavily on the wall. "I wouldn't even call it Latin. It's gibberish."

"It's an ancient chant to banish ghosts," Steve said, slightly defensive.

"Whatever. Did it work?"

"We're alive, aren't we?"

She had the gall to glare at him. He glared back. He had just saved both their lives, she could at least pretend to be grateful.

“Where are the others?”

“No clue,” Steve said. He tried to keep the worry from his voice. Tenney wouldn’t leave him behind, not voluntarily. “We need to stay focused. They can’t be far – maybe we can hear them.”

The bodies should be around here somewhere. The broken police drones as well – this was where they malfunctioned and died. This level had been bad news even before Tenney’s little foray into forbidden magic…

“I don’t hear anything,” Adams said. “It’s dead quiet.”

The beam of her flashlight revealed some bumps on the floor in the right corridor. They threw odd, sharp-edged shadows.

"Dead quiet is the right word for it," he said, as his eyes made sense of the bumps. The shadows seemed to shiver. He took a deep, slow breath. "Left. We're taking the left corridor."

"Good call," she said, as the shadows trooped together and became stretched-out faces, mouths wide and gaping.

"Maybe run?" Steve offered.

“Let’s.”

They didn’t get far. The left corridor came to an abrupt end. There weren’t any doors, only an open hatch in the floor.

Her flashlight was reflected by a metal ladder, reaching into the deep.

"I think we've found where everyone ran off to,” Elisabeth said.

The ladder seemed endless, a large tube into the dark.

The shadows above them were only just shadows, now. They'd left those... things behind. She hoped.

What an impractical way down. Why not a staircase, like in the upper levels? She couldn’t imagine having to climb down every day. It made no sense. The cult had no reason to hide their rooms – they lived on a damned oil rig in the middle of nowhere. Who’d bother them here?

Her eyes caught the lines and squiggles on the walls and she stared. They seemed to move in the shivering glow of their flashlights.

Binding circles. So many of them – she kept spotting more and more as they descended, layered into eachother, symbols of containment and containment and containment in a dazzling show of both skill and paranoia.

Layering circles was an art, really. The most she’d gotten was five – after a certain amount, the magic of one circle interfered with the others until the whole thing either exploded or malfunctioned in another, more spectacular way. She’d never seen anything like this. She hadn’t thought it possible.

If only she had her hands free, to take notes.

At the bottom of the ladder was a round, featureless room. The binding circles ended at the top of the single door, so their energies wouldn’t be disrupted by the door opening or closing. Pretty ingenious, actually.

The door itself was metal, to no one’s surprise, and embossed with a single flattened X.

Ding! her phone said.

Fine! She might as well look what that annoying thing had to add. It would only keep on nagging anyway.

[I've got a bad feeling about this.] The Alcor Virus looked worried, insofar as a bunch of pixels on a small screen could have an expression. The lines of text came quickly, one after another. [I can't reach the rest of me.]

[I can't go anywhere!]

[You should call Dad.]

"Not a chance," she said. Nice try, but no. Adding a demon to the mix was obviously not going to help. They were dealing with ghosts here.

[You don't understand! Something is really wrong here! I can't reach -]

She stopped reading and slipped her phone back into her pocket.

Ding!

Ding!

Ding!

Silence.

Chapter Text

They must be far below sea-level now. The air was damp and smelled of salt and rust.

A bump against the corridor wall jumped up at their approaching light and hurled itself at Elisabeth. “Don’t leave me!”

“April?” Steve said. “Why are you alone? Where is everyone?”

“I don’t know!” said April, clinging to Elisabeth, whose heart now went a mile a minute after that sudden attack. “We noticed you were gone and wanted to look for you but John said to keep going, and then we went down here and everything went dark and I heard screams and my lights stopped working and I was all alone…”

There was something fishy about this. But she couldn’t detect any trickery in April’s terrified face.

“He said to keep going, huh,” she said, with a glare for Steve. “Your boss is just the best, isn’t he?”

“He’s very… focused,” Steve said. “The show must go on.”

“Good for him, but I’m not prepared to die for a B-rated reality show.”

“So what do you suggest?” Steve snapped. “You want to turn back? Go on, then. But I’m not leaving them down here. We’ve been through a lot with this show – you don’t want to know – and we never leave someone behind.”

“I’m not leaving,” Elisabeth said. Where would she even go? This place was a maze, and walking around on her own was just asking to be eaten by a ghost or whatever. “I’m just saying we should be pragmatic about this. We should get back-up.”

“The phones aren’t working, and even if we can reach Monifa on the ship, she’s even less qualified to banish ghosts than I am. At least I know the basics. We have to go on.”

“I understand,” April whispered. “We have to find the others, wherever they are. The only way we can get out of here is together.”

Elisabeth made a face. “That sounds all nice and motivational, but we’re still all going to die.”

Steve swung his camera to her face. “Can you repeat that? If we survive this, it’ll make a good bumper.”

“Shut up.”

The corridor opened out into a larger room, ‘large’ being relative of course. Everything down here was cramped.

“I don’t think the others came this way,” Steve said. “This place looks undisturbed.”

For some reason it reminded her of the demonology classroom – a half-circle of benches arranged around a clear spot, yes, it did look like some kind of small auditorium. But why down here? Space was already an issue in this bunker, why put this room here and not higher up in the oil rig?

“Careful,” Steve said, and nodded at the empty space the benches were facing. There was something on the ground there. No – someone.

A skeleton sat with its back against the wall, slumped sideways in death, its tattered clothes probably the only thing keeping the mouldy bones together.

April made a small noise.

“Look,” she said, and took something lying beside the skeleton. “Their knife looks just like the one on your belt. Same runes and all.”

“Standard demonology gear,” Elisabeth said, distracted. “It’s all rusted though.”

Wait a minute.

No wonder this place reminded her of the demonology classroom. Those markings on the metal floor – those were binding circles, encasing a summoning one she couldn’t identify. Had they been painted on? No – that wasn’t dried-out paint, it was too thin, too faint for that. This looked like… rust?

A small trail – the memory of droplets – led from the outer edge of the circle to the body.

Blood was widely used in summoning. It was all about the sacrifice. Someone had made the ultimate one.

But even that shouldn’t have been enough to keep this circle so pristine through all these years. The rust should have flaked off, the magic broken, without a force of will to keep it standing. Unless…

“How much willpower would you say ghosts have?”

Steve shrugged. “Depends. If it’s an echo, not much. If it’s a stranded soul – their own willpower is what traps them here. The feeling they have to do something more important than eternal peace – sometimes that’s revenge, but not always.”

“So theoretically, if someone died while holding a binding circle, they could keep the magic going after death?” Elisabeth asked, a sinking feeling in her stomach.

He shot her a funny look. “I suppose. You’re the expert here. Has something like that happened before?”

“No clue. I don’t meet many ghosts.”

“We should move on,” April said, backing away from the body. “Keep looking for - urk.”

Steve nearly dropped his camera in his hurry. “April? April, are you okay?”

For a moment there April had seemed frozen mid-step, one foot still slightly off the floor – now she turned her head and smiled.

Elisabeth glanced at the floor. At the smudged, broken lines of rust.

She wasn’t the type to curse unduly.

“Fuck,” she said, and grabbed for the spare spray bottle in her belt, the only thing she had on hand this quickly –

April – what had been April – didn’t attack. She ran.

“No, wait!” Steve called after her, before he too disappeared through the sidedoor.

That idiot! Hadn’t he seen what happened?

Damn it all! Where had they gone? The corridor seemed empty. She should be able to hear their footsteps, they had to be nearby!

In the silence, she could only hear her own labored breaths. She stopped running. The shadows were flickering over the walls again, moving in ways she didn’t want to examine closer...

Ding!

She nearly dropped her flashlight.

“Now what?” she said, grabbing her phone. “I’m kind of busy!”

Something was moving in the darkness. A dragging, approaching sound.

[Now will you listen to me?] the Alcor Virus said. [You have to call Dad! This is wrong.]

[I should be able to summon him, but I can't. I can't even reach the internet. This is wrong. Dangerous.]

The way behind her seemed clear of shadows. Could she return to the auditorium?

It was a relief to slam the door behind her and lock out the shadows haunting the corridor. The auditorium and its morbid occupant was at least not actively menacing right now.

She’d never felt so alone.

Ding!

Ding!

[Please.] The pixelated face was pleading. [He told me to keep an eye on you.]

Let’s see. Murderous ghosts. A mysterious summoning and binding circle, broken. One person possessed by a demon who’d been trapped for about sixty years and who couldn’t be happy about that… And yet it had ran off. Why? Demons didn’t run from mere humans like them. Not unless they had some other goal in mind…

Something was scratching at the door.

Damn it. She sighed. It was obvious what she had to do. It was just really annoying to admit it.

Elisabeth turned off her bodycam. The she flipped open the little pocket on her belt where she kept her chalk.

Time was of the essence, so against all better judgement she only drew a really rough and wonky binding circle on the surface. Her hands shook – must be the adrenaline. Were the lights flickering again? Another ghost... or something else?

She hissed between her teeth at the sting of the needle. It was a feeling she should be accustomed to, in her line of work, but with her nerves all tense like this everything seemed to be amplified. She pressed harshly next to the little wound, massaging more blood from it. A wonky circle like this might need more than just a drop to activate... At least she knew the summoning incantation by heart. That should be enough.

Darkness spread. But, thank god, not from the walls or the floor - it was contained inside the circle, and quickly bloomed into the familiar shape of her personal headache and part-time sidekick.

"Hey Adams," Alcor the Dreambender said, flashing her a shark-toothed smile. "I knew you'd miss me. Did you enjoy the kid’s company?"

“No,” she said, and threw him her phone. He caught it with ease. His glance at the screen seemed to be relieved. “I’m in trouble and so are the people with me. You'll get the contents of both my freezers if you help me and the rest of us here out of this mess, okay?"

"Wow. What is the matter? Your deals aren't usually so vague."

"One of my companions is possessed. And I don’t know where the others are.” She tried to keep her voice level. “We were trying to release the ghosts of murdered cultists back into the reincarnation cycle. The Xuerus Cult, remember? Anyway, everything is getting recorded, I’ve got my cam switched off but the others probably don’t, so put on some disguise unless you want to be on national television."

"Hm. Maybe I do... Alright, fine." He shrugged and stepped out of the circle. His feet touched the ground and he seemed to grow, becoming tall and gangly and freckled. Bright red curls topped his head, his eyes bleeding from gold to poison green. "This okay?"

“It’s fine. Now –“

"Hold on, we haven't shaken on anything yet."

She made a face. In for a penny, in for a pound...

"Whoa," he said, as she took his hand without any more arguing. "You're... actually really worried. You're never that careless about making deals."

"Didn’t you hear what I said? Someone is possessed," she snapped. "Also, I forgot to mention, a lot of murderous ghosts. Right now, you’re the lesser of two evils."

“Am I blushing?”

“Shut up. And try to stay under the radar, okay? We're in Canada. Here I technically only have a license to bind and banish demons, not summon them." Sure, they were outside coastal waters, where things like 'illegal' were a bit... complex, but she'd rather not risk it. "Please pretend to be human. Unless necessary."

"No problem,” he said, passing her phone back to her. “I'm good at pretending to be human."

At least his disguise was less obvious than 'Tyrone Evergreen'. She swallowed. Had she made the right decision? She just ran for her life. Those ghosts had... really rattled her, to put it mildly. That probably hadn't been the ideal state of mind to consider summoning demons.

But no matter how she'd like to deny it, having Alcor around was comforting. Whatever would wait for her down there, she had some power in her corner now.

Of course he was probably just waiting for the right moment to do unspeakable things with her soul and she'd just shown how dependent on him she had become... but still. Not like she could reverse that decision now.

"I know that look on your face," Alcor said. "What's making you paranoid this time?"

"I am not paranoid," she growled.

"Are you sure? You were convinced one of your classmates was possessed by a demon."

“Oh, shut up and make yourself useful. Steve can’t be far, he ran after April when she got possessed and that was just a few minutes ago.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll find them.” He grinned. “I used to be a real pro in hide-and-seek."

"Who would play hide-and-seek with a demon?"

"You'd be surprised." Alcor seemed to focus for a moment. “Huh,” he said. “This is odd.”

“You’ll have to be more specific.”

“This place feels a bit… claustrophobic. Locked in.”

“We’re in a haunted bunker deep underwater, of course it feels like that,” Elisabeth said, not mentioning the masterwork of layered containment circles she’d crossed. If she could figure out how they worked… of course, she’d have to survive this first.

“True,” Alcor said, looking disturbed. “Shouldn’t affect me like this though. My magic feels… wonky.”

“Great,” she sighed. “So you can’t find them?”

“Shh,” he said, waving a hand. “I think I hear a heartbeat – follow me.”

The creeping shadows fled as they approached. No screams or creepy weeping this time. Elisabeth noticed the drag marks by the door, the scratches in the dust, and swallowed.

Steve hadn't wandered very far.  He was huddled behind an open hatch door, half hidden by the metal, holding his camera like a shield in front of him. The light of his screen illuminated his face with a pale glow, making him look a bit like a ghost himself.

He jumped to his feet when they saw him.

"Adams!" he said. “I thought you were right behind me – everything went dark, I lost track of April, this isn't a normal haunting anymore – who the hell are you!?”

Ah, he’d noticed Alcor.

"I got some reinforcements," Elisabeth said. "This is - er..." Damn, she couldn't call him Evergreen because this was getting taped, Alcor still used his Evergreen persona, she wasn't good at names… "Al."

Steve blinked at her. Turned to look at Alcor, then back at her. "Al?"

"Yes," she said. "Al... Star."

"Really," Steve said. "Al Star. That totally doesn't sound like a made-up name at all."

"I get that all the time," Alcor laughed, offering Steve his hand. There was no fire, but Elisabeth couldn't help a small shudder as Steve shook it without thought. "Blame my parents."

"Right," Steve said, slowly. "Okay then... Mr Star. How the hell did you get down here?"

"Helicopter," Elisabeth said. She kept her face impassive underneath Steve's unbelieving gaze. "He's the one I've been texting all this time."

Ding! said her phone.

"Now someone else is texting me, obviously," she said. That little demon virus had horrible timing.

[... Al Star? Seriously?]

"Yes, we're part of a secret agency," Alcor said, smiling just a bit too wide. "That's why our phones work in a place like this. Very secret. Don't tell anyone though!"

"Mr 'Star', you realise you're being recorded, right?" Steve deadpanned. "This thing I'm carrying here? Not a flamethrower."

Elisabeth rolled her eyes. "You're a real comedian. At least a flamethrower could've been useful."

"Hey, I've been useful! I banished that ghost - that stinking stuff you got all over us didn't do anything."

"Yeah, yeah." Enough dawdling. Did the overhead lights still work? Yet another narrow corridor, great. "Which way did April go?"

“I don’t know. She was so fast…”

“Maybe it’s a good thing you didn’t catch up with her,” Elisabeth said. “You could have been killed.”

“April wouldn’t kill me! She’s just confused –“

“Are you joking?” she said. “Did you miss the decades-old containment circle she disturbed? She’s possessed.”

“That makes no sense. No demon would hang around for sixty years just in case some victim might show up.”

“Unless it couldn’t leave. Until some idiot broke the lines!”

“Don’t call April an idiot!”

“Wait,” Alcor interrupted. “She got possessed, and immediately ran off? While you two were just there, within easy disemboweling distance?”

“Yes,” Elisabeth said. “Odd, isn’t it?”

“Very. I mean, if I’d been locked up for sixty plus years in a mouldering bunker, I’m sure I’d have some pent-up anger to vent. Wouldn’t you? The fact they didn’t... they must be planning something.”

Ding!

[That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you!] the chibi Alcor said, frustration rolling off every pixel.  [There’s something down here, something big – I can’t get inside the electronics – I can’t get out, either. Something is pulling at me – are you even listening? Give me to Dad!]

“Your turn to babysit,” Elisabeth said, throwing her phone back to Alcor. “Just keep it.”

The overhead lights flickered out, leaving them with the glow of the camera screen and the phone.

She backed away from the gaping darkness until she nearly bumped into Alcor. “Great. As if we didn’t have enough to worry about.”

Mist spread through the corridor, glowing with a light from within. It coalesced into figures, humanish if humans were colourless and transparant and faceless and rolled out until every limb seemed double as long as it should be. Their distorted voices echoed against the metals walls, coming from everywhere at once.

̧̯̑͝ ̤͙̈́͘ḯ͙̤̤͙̈́͘͘ẗ͙̤̤͙́̈́͘͘'͙̤̤͙̈́̈́͘͘s͙̤̤͙̈́̈́͘͘ ͙̤̤͙̈́̈́͘͘ẗ͙̤̤͙́̈́͘͘ö͙̤̤͙́̈́͘͘ö͙̤̤͙́̈́͘͘ ͙̤̤͙̈́̈́͘͘l͙̤̤͙̈́̈́͘͘ä͙̤̤͙́̈́͘͘ẗ͙̤́͘ë͙̤́͘ 

̟̇͛͘ͅt̟̟͛̇̇͛͘͘ͅͅo̟̟͛̇̇͛͘͘ͅͅo̟̟͛̇̇͛͘͘ͅͅ ̟̟͛̇̇͛͘͘ͅͅl̟̟͛̇̇͛͘͘ͅͅa̟̟͛̇̇͛͘͘ͅͅt̟͛̇͘ͅe̟͛̇͘ͅ

̇͘ͅṫ̇͘͘ͅͅȯ̇͘͘ͅͅȯ̇͘͘ͅͅ ̇̇͘͘ͅͅl̇̇͘͘ͅͅȧ̇͘͘ͅͅṫ͘ͅė͘ͅ

"How about that banishing chant?" Elisabeth said, backing away even more until she was near the open hatch, Alcor safely between her and the ghosts. "Your time to shine, Steve."

"You're not calling it gibberish anymore?" Steve teased. "They don't seem threatening. Maybe we can communicate with them." He cleared his throat. "Dearly departed, we mean no harm. We are here to set you free."

̘̈́ ̴̤͙̈́͘ÿ̴̴͙̤̤͙́̈́͘͘ö̴̴͙̤̤͙́̈́͘͘ǘ̴̴͙̤̤͙̈́͘͘ ̴̴͙̤̤͙̈́̈́͘͘d̴̴͙̤̤͙̈́̈́͘͘ö̴̴͙̤̤͙́̈́͘͘ö̴̴͙̤̤͙́̈́͘͘m̴̴͙̤̤͙̈́̈́͘͘ë̴̴͙̤̤͙́̈́͘͘d̴̴͙̤̤͙̈́̈́͘͘ ̴̴͙̤̤͙̈́̈́͘͘ḯ̴̴͙̤̤͙̈́͘͘ẗ̴̴͙̤̤͙́̈́͘͘ ̴̴͙̤̤͙̈́̈́͘͘ä̴̴͙̤̤͙́̈́͘͘l̴͙̤̈́͘l̴͙̤̈́͘ ͘

̟̇͛͘ͅd̟̟͛̇̇͛͘͘ͅͅo̟̟͛̇̇͛͘͘ͅͅo̟̟͛̇̇͛͘͘ͅͅm̟̟͛̇̇͛͘͘ͅͅe̟̟͛̇̇͛͘͘ͅͅd̟̟͛̇̇͛͘͘ͅͅ ̟̟͛̇̇͛͘͘ͅͅi̟̟͛̇̇͛͘͘ͅͅt̟̟͛̇̇͛͘͘ͅͅ ̟̟͛̇̇͛͘͘ͅͅa̟̟͛̇̇͛͘͘ͅͅl̟͛̇͘ͅl̟͛̇͘ͅ

̇͘ͅḋ̇͘͘ͅͅȯ̇͘͘ͅͅȯ̇͘͘ͅͅṁ̇͘͘ͅͅė̇͘͘ͅͅḋ̇͘͘ͅͅ ̇̇͘͘ͅͅi̇̇͘͘ͅͅṫ̇͘͘ͅͅ ̇̇͘͘ͅͅȧ̇͘͘ͅͅl̇͘ͅl̇͘ͅ

"We will bring you peace," Steve went on. "We’re here to help."

The glowing figures melted together and a deep sense of despair permeated the corridor. It was so thick and heavy it took Elisabeth’s breath away. She was faintly aware of falling to her knees, her head spinning, pain and anguish and fear rolling like thunderclouds inside her head –

Something grabbed her arm and dragged her backwards. The loud metal clang of a hatch, slamming shut.

The darkness cleared, both inside and outside. She blinked open her eyes, to see Alcor’s currently freckled face hanging over her.

“Still sane?” he asked. “Well, as sane as you ever were, I mean?”

“Shut up,” she mumbled. “What happened?”

“The two of you stopped breathing. I figured that was a bad thing and got you out of that corridor.”

“… thanks. Help me up.”

Yet another corridor. How large was this place? They should be pretty close to the cult’s inner sanctum now, right?

Steve was sitting up next to her, his side leaning rather heavily against the wall.

Elisabeth glanced at him, still trying to catch her breath. "Not threatening, hm?"

Steve shook his head slowly. "I don't understand what I did wrong. Ghosts usually love to talk about their deaths. It's pretty much the only topic on their mind, most of the time."

“I don’t think these were the talking kind of ghosts,” Alcor said. “More the killing kind.”

Elisabeth rubbed her head, trying to dislodge the last traces of that horrible, alien despair she’d felt. “How good is Tenney again? Think he can handle this?”

“I don’t know,” Steve admitted. He met her eyes, his face haunted. "This is my fault.”

“What?”

“I did this. There's this ritual... Sometimes the legends exaggerate. Make for boring television. So we... give the ghosts a boost. But we didn't mean to - I mean, we didn't know! There was barely any haunting in the living quarters, this is supposed to be the season finale, we needed pazzaz!"

What the hell was he talking about? Whatever it was, it did not sound good.

"You jacked up the esoteric resonance of this place," Alcor said, as if those weren't just nonsense words. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that a really illegal ritual?"

"Yeah, well, so is summoning demons in Canada without a Canadian permit," Steve snapped. "Don't think I don't know, 'Mr Star'. I'm not stupid!"

"You could have fooled me," Elisabeth muttered, and added a bit louder: "So you, what? Gave the ghosts here an upgrade?"

"That's one way to put it, yes. You had classes on magic, you know this."

"Working with ghosts was an elective," she said. "Didn't take it. Fine. You told me why you would do something as idiotic as that. But why in the ever-blazing hell did you make them so powerful they actually became dangerous? We nearly got killed!"

Steve looked away. "That wasn't supposed to happen. We thought... we thought they would be weak. So a little boost wouldn't hurt. But down here, they're not weak at all. So that little boost must have pushed them over the edge into -" he shivered, "- Category Twelves."

"Let's imagine for a moment I know nothing about the various classification systems for ghosts," Elisabeth said. "That's bad?"

"It's really bad." Alcor was the one who said it, his face troubled. "Those legends about the Grim Reaper? That’s actually a category ten. They just kill you. Twelves can do worse."

"Great. Thank you so much, Steve."

Alcor offered Steve a hand to help him up. The idiot took it, even though he had admitted a second ago that he knew what 'Al Star' was.

"You said 'we'," Alcor said, as Steve brushed away some dust from the camera lens.

"Oh. Did I?"

"Yes."

At least Alcor was good at making people squirm, even without unsettling demon eyes.

"Tenney," Steve admitted. "But I performed the ritual, so it's on me."

No surprise there. No one could smile that much at people and be innocent.

“We can figure out who to blame later,” Elisabeth said. “Right now, the important thing is to find the others and get them out of here. Without getting killed. And we will."

"I hope so," Steve said. "Why so sure, though?"

"We've got Al."

They had Al. Who was most likely a demon, so now they had even more than only murderous ghosts and a possibly possessed teammate to worry about.

Steve wished, not for the first time, he could send a message to his slightly younger self. A few hours younger, even. Not too much time travel. Just enough to warn him never to perform that ritual, and maybe get everyone off this oil rig before the darkness broke loose.

"So, Mr Star," he said, to distract himself from the whole oh-shit-I'm-going-to-die vibe he kept getting in these damp tunnels. "What did she promise you in exchange for your help?"

"None of your business," Adams growled. Heh. It was still fun to rile her up.

Mr Star grinned. Too wide, too many teeth. "She promised me meat."

Steve swallowed. Alright then. He did ask.

"And ice-cream," the demon added. "For dessert.”

“… right.” He turned to Adams. “Was this really a good idea? We don’t know for sure what happened to April, the others are all missing - and you really thought adding a demon to this mess would help?”

“He came by helicopter.”

Steve gave her a deadpan look. “I’m not recording right now.”

“In that case, yes. I did think he would help.” She sighed. “It’s not my fault he’s having performance issues.”

“Hey!”

“Performance issues,” Steve repeated, keeping an eye on the rattled demon. “Explain, please?”

“There’s something down here that messes with his powers,” Adams said. "He's basically useless, except for scaring away ghosts."

"Jeez, Adams, you always know what to say," the demon complained.

"Really?" Steve asked. Of all demons she could have summoned, she picked a weak one?

Though... Al. Al Star. That sounded vaguely like...

... nah. Couldn't be. Even she couldn't be that arrogant to summon that demon. He couldn’t be bound into service, everyone knew that.

“I don’t have issues. I’m very well-adjusted for a demon.”

Adams rolled her eyes. “That is such a relief.”

"This is normal for you?" Steve blurted out.

"What do you mean?"

"This, this whole - thisness!" He waved a hand. "You two act like, like you're in some kind of buddy-cop story or something!"

Mr Star had the gall to shrug at it. "This isn't our first cooperation, you're right."

"It should be our last," Adams said.

"You always say that."

"This time I'm serious."

"You always say that too," he sighed. "After all we've been through, Adams... I don't expect you to trust me. But even you have to admit that I've been a lot of help to you. We've had a lot of fun, too."

Adams was quiet.

Steve surreptitiously switched his camera back on. Working with Tenney had given him a sixth sense of a sort for when people were either going to argue or going to be dramatic or mushy towards eachother. Those moments made television.

"You have been," Adams said, after a long silence. She was avoiding Mr Star's earnest gaze. "I would probably not be here if not for you. You know that."

"That's not what I meant," Mr Star said, just as softly as her.

She shook her head, curled her arms protectively around herself. "I don't have nightmares," she said. The tone didn't match with her words. Her words said she didn't have nightmares - her tone and cold expression said she wouldn't have nightmares. She wouldn't allow herself.

"Don't sell yourself short," Mr Star said. "You were pretty amazing back there, too. We both got tricked, but you still won."

"Did we?" she said. "Did we both get tricked? Or is this just empty flattery, are you just telling me what I want to hear? I can't ever trust you. Whatever you say, whatever you promise. You have to know that. So why do you keep trying? Why do you keep pushing? You should know better! Do you think that I'll give in, eventually? That I'll be so blinded by your sweet-talking and helpfulness and friendship that I'll just hand myself over to you?" Her laugh was bitter. "Because it might just work. And I hate myself for that."

Mr Star's face fell. "Adams... that was never my intention. I mean... Don't hate yourself."

Her face was twisted in self-derision. "Just saying. How stupid do you have to be? You are what you are and I know better. And I still call for you. I shouldn't trust you."

"You just said you didn't."

"And I don't!" Adams snarled. She gave Mr Star a push, which he took without blinking. Her shoulders slumped. "...but sometimes, I lie."

"I wouldn't, you know," Mr Star said, after a painful silence.

"Wouldn't what?"

"Double-cross you. I'm not tricking you. Well, not in any big way at least - little tricks keep life interesting for both of us. But I'm not after your soul."

"Really," she deadpanned. She wiped her sleeve across her face, leaving behind a smear of grime of dust in damp conditions. "Then what are you after?"

"Companionship."

She looked at him. Steve barely noticed he was holding his breath.

Mr Star - a demon, whatever nonsense they'd cooked up about spies and secret agents and magical phones - was standing there, a tall shape huddled into himself, his eyes downcast.

It must be a trick. Because no demon had the right to look so... sad. So lonely. So much like a kid that had been kicked around by Fate too often.

Working with demons was tricky, Steve realised. But in the stories the demons came with teeth and claws and burning magic, a raging threat. Not this... creature with a sad face that asked for friendship.

Tricky indeed.

And Adams, licensed demonologist... was quiet. Just looking at Mr Star, her expression hard to describe, a small furrow on her brow.

"You've got others for that," she said, eventually. "Don't you?"

Something in Mr Star seemed to fade. His nodded quietly.

"Alright," he said. "Let's just… do our job, then."

"I mean, you don't need me," Adams added, as if the demon hadn't just spoken. "I'm bad company."

"I don't think so."

"You know what I said. I can't trust you."

"Alright. You made your point, don't need to keep rubbing it in." Mr Star shook his head. "Work. We were doing something important, weren't we?"

Adams looked at him, long and silently, until she finally seemed to make a decision. She nodded, and was suddenly all business again. "Yes. I suggest we go left - are you filming this?"

Busted. Steve lowered the camera slightly, but not enough to let Adams' glaring face drop out of view. "This is a show, you know," he said defensively.

It didn't work.

"If that footage ever sees the light of day I'll kill you," Adams snarled. "This was private!"

"Then you shouldn't have been talking about it in front of a camera - hey! Don't touch my stuff!"

He held the camera in the air until she stopped attempting to grab it.

"Hmpf." She took a deep breath. "That footage is going to be deleted. You hear me?"

"Well, you're just lucky we lost the livestream to the boat then," Steve said. "Down here there's no reception. Of anything."

A loud groan of straining metal shook through the walls. The floor trembled.

Adams was suddenly very, very pale.

"What was that?"

Steve ignored her. He put his free hand to the wall of the corridor and felt the slight shivers. Aftershock? Had they just felt an earthquake? This was bad.

"Those were ghosts, right? Just ghosts?"

"I don't think so," Steve said. "Maybe. Ghosts usually make things float, or mess with your head. Stuff like that. This felt big."

Monifa had mentioned a storm, hadn't she? Maybe the protective enchantments around the oil rig were less stable than they'd thought...

"You remember how to engage your underwater spell, right?" he checked.

Adams seemed to pale even more, if possible. "Please don't tell me the bunker is flooding."

"I don't know. Worst case scenario. Probably not. But let's speed up our walking, even so."

For once she didn't argue and just took his advice. The floor trembled again.

"Question," Adams said, after a long walk in silence, aside from the metal creaking of the walls. "What good is that waterbreathing spell and the pressure suit going to do, actually? If this thing bursts, odds are we will be stuck. Inside."

"It'll help us live long enough for the rescue team to come find us," Steve said.

"True. If they show up, and the boat hasn't been trashed by, I don't know, a storm or something."

"You're so pessimistic. The boat will be fine. And they would show up. This isn't the first expedition that went badly. We've had to be rescued a few times before."

"Alright, so let's say someone does show up, eventually," Adams agreed. "But meanwhile, until they find us down here... we'd still be trapped. In the dark. With ghosts and a really ticked off demon."

"I could tesser you out in a snap," Mr Star shrugged. "No problem."

"No problem, really?"

"Jup. You see, it's probably those wards around this place that are interfering with my magic. If they drop, well, you'll be sunk. But my limits would be gone, I bet."

"You're not sure?"

"Not a hundred percent, but it sounds plausible."

Adams rubbed her face. "Great. We're all going to die."

"Pessimistic," Steve sighed.

"I know, right?" Mr Star commisserated. "She's always like that. Too worried about everything to cut loose a bit."

Steve... really didn't want to be around a demon 'cutting loose'. He worried a bit about Mr Star's definition of that, but decided not to ask.

"I can hear you, you know," Adams said.

Mr Star nodded wisely at her. "You should relax more."

"Here and now? That's the advice you're giving me?"

The world shook again. There was something odd about the shaking, something Steve couldn't quite put his finger on. For a second, it had felt like he'd been floating...

Well, the mind plays tricks on you, underwater.

The corridor ended. There were no more doors, except for one. Another hatch in the wall, not very different than the ones before. Whatever this cult had been, they hadn’t cared much about style. The inner sanctum of a demon worshipping cult should at least have an impressive door…

“Looks heavy,” Adams said. “Can you open this for us, Alc- Al?”

No response. Mr Star had paused a few feet behind them. He seemed rooted to the floor, wide eyes staring at the flat X symbol on the hatch.

"No," he said, seemingly to himself. "It can't be."

"What are you waiting for?" Adams called. "A little help please."

"...coming."

Chapter Text

The hallway behind the door was carpeted. It sucked at Elisabeth’s feet, moist and moldy with the discoloration of years. The harsh beam of her flashlight sapped all remaining colour of it, leaving it a dead grey.

“So, Adams, when were you going to mention the bazillion of containment circles woven through the walls?” Alcor said, inspecting the markings.

“Does it matter?” she replied. “Surely they don’t affect you.”

“True,” he said flippantly. Something in his voice wasn’t quite right though. But why should he be worried? Even if his powers were ‘wonky’, as he put it, there wasn’t a binding the infamous Dreambender couldn’t break eventually… was there?

Ding!

“… I’m not even going to ask,” Steve deadpanned.

“My phone is possessed by a demonic virus,” Elisabeth said.

“… sure. Makes total sense.”

“The kid wants to try something, hold on,” Alcor said, and paused to touch her phone to one of the ceiling lights. They flickered on, flooding the corridor with a buzzing electrical glare. “That works! Great, thanks!”

Seems like the Virus needed direct contact to influence the electronics down here. Whatever magic had warded this place, she wanted to learn it. How did it keep the Virus locked up in her phone? Not to mention Alcor himself…

“The Alcor Virus is your ‘kid’?” she said, following Steve through the hallway. It didn’t look as threatening with the lights on, at least.

Steve froze, eyes wide. “I did not just hear that.”

“What? Are the ghosts back?”

“You said Alcor.”

“Oh. That.”

“I must have misunderstood. Please tell me you didn’t… that he isn’t…”

Alcor gave a friendly little wave, clearly amused. Well, she recognised that expression as amused. From the way Steve’s eyes widened even more, he was probably less focused on the smile and more on the needle-sharp teeth it bared.

“Of course he isn’t,” she said curtly. “He’s Al Star and he’s a normal, human, colleague.”

“Adams I know he isn’t –“

“Do you want plausible deniability or not?”

Steve was silent for a moment as realisation spread over his face. “Oh my god. You’re Mizar.”

“I’m not!” she protested. Why did everyone think that? So she had a weird relationship with the Dreambender and he tried to give her gifts and teased her and occassionally stalked her, that didn’t mean anything!

Right?

She crossed her arms and frowned at Alcor. “I’m not, am I? I would know if I was, yes? You’d tell me if I was!”

He grinned at her. “Are you starting to worry?”

“Depends on how much of Twin Souls is true,” she shot back.

He exaggerated a shiver. “Relax, Adams. Your virtue is safe with me.”

“That’s not much of an answer.”

Alcor’s grin just widened. Typical. He always liked to keep her guessing. One of these days she’d wipe that stupid grin off his face…

Damn it all, of course Steve had to be filming them again. “Really? Stop filming me!”

“No,” the camera guy said.

“That footage is never going to air, you realise.”

“Why?” he challenged. “Are you going to let your demon destroy it?”

She narrowed her eyes. “Maybe I will.”

“Wait,” Alcor said. “What show was this again?”

“Extreme Exorcisms,” Steve said. “You’ve… heard of it?”

“Oh, yeah! It’s not Ghosts Harassers, but it’s pretty okay.”

“I… didn’t know demons watched television.”

They had no taste, either. “You’d be surprised what garbage he likes to watch.”

“Says the person who made me sit through an entire episode of The Why Factor. Half of those people couldn’t even sing.”

“Well, ducks can’t join the police force either!”

He gasped. “Heresy! Ducktective is a classic.”

“Building, M.D is a classic. Nice mystery element, strong overarching plotlines. No talking ducks.”

“Eh, I find the formula gets a bit repetitive after a while,” Alcor said, waggling his hand in a so-so gesture. “You just like doctor Building’s sarcasm.”

“Well, yes. Doesn’t everyone?”

Steve stared at them. “Suuuure,” he deadpanned. “You’re clearly not Mizar at all. Having movie-nights with the freaking Dreambender…”

Elisabeth flushed. “Oh, shut up and keep walking.”

On the left side of the corridor, open doorways loomed as gaping mouths in the fluorescent glow of the lights. A quick glance through them just showed a bunch of round, metal containers, their labels faded. At the right was blank wall, featureless except for the tiny etched runes in yet another tight array of containment spells. If only she had the time to study them properly! From the way they were written they seemed to focus inward… What lay on the other side of this wall?

The door up ahead slammed open and two people stumbled out. There was no mistaking that stark-white hair, now mussed and grimy, or Francesca’s wild curls. The latter were sticky with blood.

Tenney was supporting his co-host, who was bleeding heavily from a gash on her forehead. They brightened when they noticed Steve and her.

“Thank goodness,” Tenney said, voice still smooth although slightly out of breath. “We were just trying to find you. Something – excuse me, I don’t believe we’ve met?”

“This is Al Star. He works with me,” Elisabeth said. Technically true.

Steve gave his boss a look. “You’re not surprised to see a stranger just pop up down here?”

“I’m sure there’s a delightful reason for it,” Tenney said. “But right now, Steve, I’d like your first-aid kit. Frannie’s head is bleeding quite badly. Get some close-ups while you’re at it.”

“It’s okay,” Francesca said, eyes closed to prevent the blood from getting in. “Head wounds always bleed a lot. If we have some bandages…”

“Nice to meet you, Mr Star,” Tenney said, as Steve put down his camera bag and unearthed some medical supplies. He didn’t offer his hand.

Alcor peered at him, then blinked. “Oh,” he said. “It’s you.”

“You’re familiar with my show?” Tenney raised an eyebrow. “Or have we met before?”

“Not in this lifetime,” Alcor said, with an unsettling grin. “Or you’d know. I’m pretty unforgettable.”

“That’s the cheesiest pick-up line I ever heard,” Elisabeth said, to Alcor’s sputtering. “Where is that other camera guy?” She wanted out of here, so the quicker they found their missing members, the better.

“We have names, you know,” Steve muttered. She rolled her eyes at him. Way to miss the point, Steve.

Tenney frowned. “What was I saying – ah, yes. Something has happened to Ms Merrick. She attacked us with a knife when we tried to lead her back upstairs.  Flint went after her, but I fear the poor girl has very much lost her mind.”

“You have no idea,” Elisabeth said, darkly. “She’s possessed.”

“By a ghost?” Francesca asked, looking up blearily from where she was holding the compress tightly against the wound. The lines in her face tightened when she saw Alcor.

Great. Everyone seemed to know. Ugh, things never worked out the way she intended, did they? During her final year in demonology she tried everything to make people see ‘Evergreen’ as the demon he was. This time he didn’t even look like the Dreambender at all! No one imagined Alcor as a gangly redhead. He had freckles! But nooo, now everyone saw through his disguise.

Okay, so maybe her ‘he came by helicopter’ excuse had been a bit thin. Still. It would have been nice for things to go her way for once.

“No, by a demon,” Steve said. “Apparently.”

“Xuerus?”

“Most likely,” Elisabeth said. “We came across an active binding circle. April disturbed it, and ran off.”

“That isn’t proof she’s possessed,” Francesca said, feebly. “She could be panicking –“

“I know what I saw.” That hadn’t been panic. That smile... She glanced at Alcor. “We should keep moving.”

“Very well,” Tenney said, and gave her an expectant look. “What is our plan, Ms Adams? You’re our expert. How do we save her?”

They were all looking at her now. Even Steve had his stupid camera pointed at her, eager to catch her reply.

It had to be the camera. She never had a problem handling pressure before. Her throat tightened under the weight of their gazes.

“Get the demon out of her,” she said. And then… they’d see if there was anything left of April. She caught herself touching the spot on her chest that still gave phantom twinges on some sleepless nights. The bodysnatcher was long dead, but the memory of its filth coating her soul remained.

That had been a very low-level demon, a one-trick pony, and she’d still nearly lost herself. Maybe it was already too late for April.

“Obviously,” Tenney said. “Any ideas on how to accomplish such a feat?”

A hand patted her shoulder. Alcor smiled down at her, freakishly tall in his disguise. “I’ll handle that. Just get her to stand still for a moment while I do my thing.”

“… what he said,” Elisabeth said. “We’ve done this before. More or less.”

“At least this Xuerus guy probably can’t jump from host to host,” Alcor grinned. “Should make this easier.”

“Probably?”

“Well, you never know. I have no clue what kind of demon we’re up against.”

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

“Maybe a little,” he admitted. “Come on, Adams! A mysterious bunker full of ghosts, a demon locked up for sixty years, disappearing team members – you’ve got to admit it’s exciting.”

Note to self, after this night she was going to find the biggest Twin Souls omnibus, with the most lurid cover picture, and throw it at him.

“This isn’t a jolly little adventure,” she growled. “People are injured! Missing! Turned into a meatsuit!”

“… sorry.”

“Did your demon just apologize?” Steve said. “I swear, Adams, you’re either the best demonologist I know, or the worst.”

That stupid camera was in her face again. He was just as bad as Alcor! “Are you still filming this?”

He shrugged. “What? The show must go on.”

“Please,” Francesca said. “Stop yelling. My head can’t handle it right now.”

“On a subject of missing people, you haven’t seen Katya either, I take it?” Tenney asked.

Alcor turned to Elisabeth. “How many people did you lose?”

“Only three,” she answered. “Two of our camera crew and April.”

“Oh. Well, no matter. I’m a real pro at hide-and-seek. We’ll find them in no time.”

True to his word, it didn’t take much time before they found signs of their missing crew.

There were the remains of a camera on the floor.

“For crying out loud, Flint, that’s expensive equipment,” Tenney muttered.  

“Priorities,” Francesca snapped.

Elisabeth tried to ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach. It had been growing ever since she heard Flint had ran after April. Chasing demons – without proper training – never ended well.

“Oh,” Alcor said softly. She followed his gaze.

Their flashlights illuminated the bump on the floor, surrounded by bright, bleeding red.

“God,” Steve breathed, and rushed to his side, dropping his camera in the process. “What happened, oh god, he’s bleeding so much – Flint, can you hear me? Flint!“

At Steve’s desperate cries his eyes fluttered open, bloodshot and staring. Bubbles flecked his lips, more appearing as he attempted to speak, but no sound escaped.

“I’m going to be sick,” Francesca gasped, hurrying off to the side and dropping to her knees.

“Can you do anything?” Tenney looked at her, not at the man dying at their feet. “You or… Mr Star?”

“Please,” Steve’s voice was rough and pleading. “You have to do something. C’mon Flint, don’t do this, hold on!”

Elisabeth kneeled next to them while Steve started rooting through his backpack, in search of – well, who knew? A first aid kit wasn’t going to cut it, this time.

Alcor grimaced.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “He’s too far gone. I can’t do this, not without a deal. And a big one.”

“We have a deal already,” she reminded him. “You’d get us out of here. Me and my companions.”

“Safe and unharmed?” He avoided her glare, turning to look at Flint. “You didn’t specify.”

“It was clearly implied!”

“Adams...” He swallowed. “It doesn’t work like that. There are rules, even for me.”

“You’re always breaking the rules! Don’t give me this – this stupid excuse now! Do something!” She angrily wiped her face. “You want a deal? Fine! We’ll make one –“

He went to touch her shoulder, but she shook him off.

“I’m sorry,” he repeated. “But no. This is the kind of deal only he himself can make. Give me a moment.”

With those words he kneeled next to Flint, his eyes glowing gold for a second before he closed them.

Tenney picked up the camera, fiddled with it for a second, then lowered it again with a sigh. Steve stopped rummaging through his backpack to give Elisabeth a helpless look.

Alcor opened his eyes. There were no new bubbles on Flint’s motionless lips.

“Sorry,” he said, quietly. “He refused.”

“What did you do?” Steve said, voice cracking.

Alcor glanced at Elisabeth. “What our deal demanded. I helped him out of this mess.”

She wanted to hit him. Scream - cry, perhaps, complain how this wasn’t the deal, he was supposed to get them all out safely and alive - but the defeated look on his face stopped her.

Elisabeth was silent. Her legs felt clammy from the blood that had soaked into her pants.

Don't think about it. Move on. Take a deep breath and keep going.

She was not good with deaths.

“Frannie, we need to move on,” Tenney said. “Get your camera, Steve. We have a damsel in distress to save, and restless spirits to release.”

“You cannot be serious,” Francesca said. “This has gone too far, John! We need to leave! We don’t even know where Katya has gone – who cares about the show anymore!”

“We are going to finish what we started,” Tenney said. “This isn’t the first setback we’ve ever had.”

“You – insufferable asshole!” Francesca clenched her fingers. She was swaying where she stood, red seeping through the bandages on her head. “This isn’t comparable to a broken camera! The risks are too high. A few moments ago you wanted to leave! You jumped at the chance to help me back to the boat, even though I said we couldn’t leave anyone behind!”

“That was before we had… reinforcements,” Tenney said. He rubbed his hands. “Steve, you’re up front. Keep that camera rolling. Flint would have wanted it that way.”

“Wow,” Alcor said. “Even I think that’s a bit cold.”

Steve looked torn for a moment, but then shot them an apologetic look and did as Tenney asked.

“No,” Francesca said. “I’m going back to the boat. And I’m taking Flint with me.”

“You’re not fit to walk around a haunted bunker on your own right now, Frannie.”

“Francesca… Please be reasonable,” Steve said. “It’s dangerous to split up again.”

“She killed Flint,” the show’s co-host said, coldly. “Don’t you care about that?”

“Of course I do. But it isn’t her fault.”

“I don’t care. I’m not letting her kill me as well.” She touched her bandages and winced. “Ghosts I can handle. Demons… We’re out of our depth, John.”

“Then stay here,” Tenney snapped. “Wait here while we go rescue the girl and make the greatest finale ever. Or go running off to the boat, whatever you please. Good luck carrying Flint’s body all by yourself. How much is the world spinning around you right now? You’ll never find the way back.”

“I could heal you,” Alcor offered. He absentmindedly touched Elisabeth’s phone to the ceiling lights, and they flickered on again. “It would only cost –“

Francesca backed away from him. “You stay away from me!”

“… right. Sorry.”

Elisabeth found herself the recipient of Francesca’s desperate look. “You have common sense, don’t you? You know this is madness. Come with me.”

Filth and acid pain burrowing into her very soul, until a hand of starlight released her…

“No,” Elisabeth said, the memory thick in her head. “I need to try. Besides, who knows what else Xuerus has planned. Demons don’t just run off like this. Not without a reason.”

“Looks like you’re on your own, Frannie.” Tenney said.

Francesca’s shoulders drooped. “I’ll wait here,” she whispered. “But hurry. Please. I won’t wait for long.”

She sunk down against the wall, eyes locked on Flint’s unmoving body.

They left her behind.

More storage rooms, but also the occassional desk with scattered, mold-spotted papers and a few computers. And, finally, the blank wall to their right had a door. The guarding runes crawled around its frame.

Human remains dotted the floor. From the marks on the carpet it was obvious some of them were recently disturbed. The demon had gone for the shortest route, without caring what they walked over.

“It’s locked on the inside,” Tenney realised, trying to pull open the metal door. “Mr Star? Perhaps some assistence?”

“Just a moment,” Alcor said. He put the phone with its uninvited passenger on one of the old computers. “Here you go, might help with decrypting those files.”

“Take your time,” Elisabeth said. “It’s not like we’re trying to save someone before either ghosts kill us all or this whole bunker collapses around us. Oh, wait.”

Ding! The Virus chimed in. Alcor frowned at the screen. “What gibberish is this?”

Ding! DING!

“Oh. Oh no.”

“What?” she asked. “Let me see.”

She snatched her phone back and stared at the weird images. It looked like blueprints for something. So much math… Ugh. This made no sense at all, just like those encrypted computer files.

Alcor was more than rattled though. “Adams, this –“

A shriek of tortured metal drowned the rest of his words.

“What – is – happening?” she yelled as her feet suddenly left the floor. Dust rose in clouds around them and loose patches of carpet rippled upwards, while the entire building seemed to tremble and groan.

“Ghosts make things float, remember!” Steve called back, now upside down in the air, trying to hold on to the bare wall with one hand and keep his camera from floating away with the other. “This is a bit extreme, but- oomph!”

Gravity returned, dragging them downwards again. Steve faceplanted onto the carpet, arms stretched outwards to protect his camera from the smack. Elisabeth caught herself on her knees and hands. That was going to bruise.

From the other end of the room came muffled cursing, as Tenney tried to untangle himself from the smashed pieces of his own bodycam.

Alcor had managed to land on his feet, of course. He was used to floating. Their flailing must be hilarious to him. He was probably itching to make a smug comment.

He looked at her, wide-eyed and white as a sheet.

“What cult did you say this was again?”

“The Xuerus Cult,” she answered. The dust in the air tickled her nose. “Some kind of knowledge demon, if I had to guess.”

He grabbed her shoulders, dragging her to a standing position and peering into her eyes. “Upstairs, Were there any t̶r͏įa͢ng͝les?”

“Let go,” she snapped. “And no, I didn’t notice any! What’s happening?“

His fingers stopped digging into her shoulders and he rubbed his face, pacing around the room and muttering. “No, no, that makes no sense, he’s not here, and besides he wouldn’t, not anymore, but if not him then who…“

“I think your demon’s broken,” Steve said. He finished checking his camera for damage. “I told you, floating things aren’t that out of the ordinary during a haunting. Can you open the door, please?”

Alcor stopped pacing and put his hands on the metal door. The sigils on the frame made a sizzling sound where he touched them. The metal crumpled like tin foil under his fingers as he dug in and, with one heave, wrenched the entire thing loose.

Blue light burst through the doorway, accompanied by a loud, electronic hum.

Both were emitting from the odd device in the center of the large room. Or was it a statue of some kind?

“You said something about triangles?” Elisabeth said, faintly. This had to be the cult’s inner sanctum. It… was not what she expected.

The weird thing dominated the room, humming and glowing, but Elisabeth noticed some other things too. The rows of computers with way too many fiddly buttons and switches. The cold metal floor, etched with complex sigils and magic arrays, overlapping binding circles, all too chaotic to make sense of. The scattered bones on the floor, spots of rust where blood and moisture had left their mark.

Alcor had frozen next to her, like a rabbit that spotted the wolf. "This is bad."

"Gee, I never would have guessed," she said dryly. "Thanks for clearing that up. Creepy glowing devices seem so harmless and fun."

"April," Steve breathed, looking at the figure standing next to the cluster of strange electronics.

The demon piloting April’s body turned to them. Their eyes immediately fixed on Alcor.

“Y͗ò̓ū̎͊̓̅͢.” The voice coming from April was a deep baritone, distorted with cruel pleasure. “I ͏hopęd̕ ͞y̴o͘u ̵wou̧l͠d͜ come. Y͢ou f̧o͏ųnd ҉m͠y͜ l̴it̢tl̛e͏ ̢hi̴ntş?” Their hand touched the embossed, flattened X symbol at the top of the console. Xeno-Universal Entry & Retrieval System, the lettering underneath it said.

“Good, you know me,” Alcor said. “Then you know what I’ll do unless you voluntarily leave that girl’s body. Come on, skedaddle. And turn off that thing while you’re at it, you don’t know what you’re doing.”

April tilted their head. “Hav͟e y͠ou f͜or̶g͡ot̵ten ͝me?”

“Yeah, well, I don’t make a habit of remembering every little demon I come across. Time’s ticking! Leave, or I’ll make you.”

“I ha͝v͠e̢ n͢o͟t ͠forg͜ott̷en y̢ou… D͇̼͖i̥̫p̬͔̘̠͔p̤̪̞̭e̹̫̹̟̞ͅr̺̥ ͕̻͓̲̻P̬̣̮i̥̱̖n̮̱ḛs̫̼̦̙͍͖.”

The floor underneath Alcor burst into a glaring, dark red light. Now Elisabeth could see the symbols of the binding circle, very sofisticated and complex, that had been hidden inside the mass of nonsense sigils until it started to shine. No matter - no binding could hold Alcor, he'd rally any minute now...

Wait.

Alcor had fallen to his knees with a low keen.

He wasn't getting up.

This... was bad.

April moved closer, ignoring Steve who was being fucking useless and just standing there, staring. "Ḩi͢stor̸y͠ ̛has a͠ tenden͏cy to rep͜ea̸t it̴s̨e̕l̨f, D͘i҉p̴per ͞Pi͝nes͝,” they said. The name – a True Name, it had to be – sounded like a whiplash, Alcor’s pale face snapping up at the sound of it, his eyes wide and painful gold. “T̴hey stu͞di͠e͝d ̡t̨he̸ ed̕g͘e̴ ҉bet̕w̷e͟en̸ d̶i̧m̵e͞ns͢i̢ons̷. T̕h͝ey found ̸me. Th͘e prison ͠wh͠ere  y͙͉o̜u͕̟̼͚͖̥͕ ̝l̖͔̬̭̻o̺̺ͅc̻̙̤͖͉k̖͍͕e̪͖d̗̯̼̪͓ ̬͔u̙̹̤̳̜̪s͔̹̖̻ ̣̪i̤̱̦͖̰̬n.”

April’s eyes weren't blue anymore, but black and glowing red. As if Elisabeth needed any more of a hint that the girl was being possessed, damn it all!

“You’re one of Bill’s cronies,” Alcor said. Was… was that fear she saw? It looked alien on him. “Trying the same old trick again? What, you’re going to bring the others into the physical world? It didn’t work last time and it won’t work now!”

“I͍̗̬̩̯̰ͅ ̟̞̠͔̟d͕e͍ṿ̬̞͈̤̝̯o̹͈̮̠̦͕u̝̼̘̬͕̦̱r̪e̮d̜̮̦͔̼̗̲ t͇̖̩̘̱̞̼ẖ͓e̤̟̬̠̦̬ ̦̯̟͓̪o̭̱̹̜ͅt̻͉h͚e̻r̙̠̱͓̘̳s̺̰̹̣̰̫ͅ,” April said, their face emotionless.

Keep them talking. While Alcor distracted them, she could sneak towards the portal and… well, figure out a way to disable it, or something.

“Then what’s your angle? You probably missed it, having been locked up in a prison for a thousand years, but humans know about magic now. They know how to deal with demons like you.”

“D͢emo͢n̕s͠ li͞k̢e m̝͚̭̟̣̤e̩̦̣̤͚. Y̛e̵s.” A dark smile spread across April’s face. “I ̨s͜tudiȩd ̧you, D̯̲͓̳͔͙̞i̩̭̞̻p̤̯̺̜̻͎p̗̘̣̩̼̖ͅe̯͙̩̪̭r ͓͙̠̮̜ͅPi̳n̼̪̫̯e̳̫̖sͅ.”

The magic of the binding circle twisted and burned brighter. Alcor grunted and curled into himself, his human disguise burning off and leaving him smaller and gasping. Names, even True ones, weren't supposed to hurt... To bind, yes, to command, of course. But hurt? Maybe because it was another demon who used it... maybe because they had the intention to hurt. But whatever the reason, hurt it did, and Elisabeth wished she could hit something.

“They we̛re v͠e̡r͠y g͞r͘ate͢ful ̧f͟or͡ my͏ a̴dv͏i͢c̨e,” April went on. “Cautiou͞s̡, yes̨.̧ ͜S҉o ̨f̶ocused͢ o̴n ͏ke̵e͟p͘ing me ͘c̨o̷ntaįn͢e̕d̸,̵ t͝hey ̢cou͜ld̡n’t ͡g̴ue̴s̸s my̷ t̴r͘u͡e in͞t̵en̢tions.”

That device in the center of the room, that weird upside-down triangle with the large circle in the middle, hummed even louder. Blue light flared in the middle, spread across the circle and threw shaking shadows across the floor, which shook like a pudding.

“So what, you’re going to take revenge and kill me?”

“N͡o͝, ͟Dippe͞r P͜ines͝. I̴ am ̡g͟oi̵n̕g to ̢b҉e̢co͏me y̷ou̴.” They raised a hand, reddish flames leaping to the ceiling and mingling with the blue glow. “A͏ d͡e̵mon, ̴ųnfett̨ȩr̛eḑ. U͠nl͝i͟m͟i͜t̡ed̡ by͢ lack of p̨ḩy͜sical for͜m͜. I ̡know͝ wh͏aţ y͞o̷u̷ a͘rę,͏ D͡i͠p͏per̴ Pin͢es̨.͢ A͘nd̸ e̛x҉ac̕tl͘y ho͞w̨ ͢th̸i̕s̕ p͏o̸we͠r ̸i̡nf͘us̸ed͟ ͜you.”

What were they blabbing about? Whatever it was, it didn’t sound good.

Elisabeth edged closer to the mess of electronics that, hopefully, were supposed to be the control panel of this creepy portal thing. She was not gifted with electronics, unfortunately. But how hard could it be? This thing must have a power button somewhere, right? She'd pull out the plug, but she couldn't spot any... They must be built into the floor somehow.

"You've changed," Alcor said, voice thick with pain. "You were never this talkative while Bill was around, Paci-fire. But then again, Bill talked enough for all of you. That guy never stopped talking."

"M͞ayb̧ȩ I'll look h̵i͡m ̨ųp," April said, their eyes burning. "Have a̡ sma͏ll… ṟ̥̼͍̪ḙ̼̙̣̫̼͠u̗̫̻͇̝͠n͎̗̝̱͔̖̳i̫͇̜o̥̳̠̣͍̜͚͘n̬̹͍͇͠."

Hate twisted Alcor's face. "Don't you dare."

"Or҉ what,̢ D͘ipper̕ P̛i͠ne͜s͏? Ar̨e͜ ͞you̕ goin͘g̨ ͠t͜o ͢stop ̶m͝e?" That twisted, empty smile again. " Where's yo̕ur͜ b͡ook,͡ P̕i͘ne̕t͝ree? Whe͏re's ͢your ͢s̡i̸s̕t͟e̵r? ͡Y͟ou̶'͜re ̕jus͡t a̡ bo͏y ̨p̸lay͏i̡ng̢ ̷ąţ b͡e̡in̵g ̛a ̕demon."

What the- were those barrels of radioactive material? Oh god. While she was blinking at those, one of the barrels floated up slightly.

She swallowed. Please don't spill…

Not only the barrel was floating. Everything was. With the exception of the control panel and the portal itself, everything not nailed down was lifting at least a foot into the air before smashing back down with a clash. The ground swayed. Alarms started to blare, loud and pushy.

"This place is going to collapse," she said. "We need to get out."

Steve didn't seem to hear her. She grabbed his shoulder and pulled him closer, behind the protection of the panels. Right, ha, protection. As if she couldn't get killed here.

"Listen," she hissed. "Steve! Get a hold of yourself, idiot! We're going to die here and let something horrible loose on the world unless we act now."

"April... she's not..." he stammered.

"She's possessed by a demon," Elisabeth said. "That's horrible but you already knew that. Listen! We need to disable the portal and release Alcor. Then he can deal with that possession and we'll all walk away alive, alright?”  She'd need all the help she could get. Steve wasn't going to be much, she feared.

Good thing 'April' was still busy with Alcor. Talking, of course. Why did all the bad guys monologue so much? Seriously...

"You go over there and break that binding circle. They still have his Name, but outside the circle it should be less powerful. I'll distract them." She'd prefer to break the binding herself - at least she had experience with runal arrays - but Steve didn't look like he could be much of a distraction, unfortunately. Well, Alcor would be able to tell him how to break the circle. They didn't have much of a choice.

Where the hell had Tenney gone? He’d been behind Steve a second ago – that coward! He’d run, hadn’t he?

Her phone beeped, urgently. Now was not the time!

[Put me on the control panel.] the Alcor virus said. [I'll disable the Portal.]

Well. "It's time you made yourself useful," she muttered, and the little pixelated Alcor looked at her fiercely.

She gave Steve a push towards the doorway where the containment circle was, and moved to slam her phone down on the electronics -

"Wha̵t͢ ͡do̢ ͜you͞ th͘i̛ņk̢ y͝ou'͏re d͡o͏in̶g?" Not-April hissed at her, suddenly right in front of her and holding her wrist in an unmoveable grip. They squeezed. Elisabeth swallowed the sound that tried to escape her throat, but she had no choice but to drop her phone.

'April' nodded slowly. Her foot moved.

Snap! said her wrist.

Snap! said her phone, shattering on the metal floor.

"Release the demon," Steve muttered, running to the glowy floor that kept 'Mr Star' bound. Elisabeth seemed to be keeping 'April' occupied for now. But he had no idea how long that would remain so... better run.

He came to a stop at the edge of the binding circle and swallowed.

Release the demon. Release Alcor the Dreambender. Right.

Though to be honest, Alcor looked horrible. On his knees, wings curled around him, shaking.

"How do I do this?" Steve blurted out. Alcor looked up and yep, definitely a demon here. If the wings hadn't been enough of a clue, the eyes would have given it away. Where 'Mr Star' had green ones, those of Alcor were black with pupils of golden fire. Very unsettling.

"How do I get you out of this thing?" Steve clarified, since it seemed like Alcor was as confused as he was. "So you can help us. Er. Can you help us?" What deal did Adams have with him, exactly? She wouldn't suggest releasing Alcor if he was likely to kill them all in a rage, right?

"You need to break the circle," Alcor said. "Without blowing it up. It's holding a lot of power right now."

"Blowing it up?"

"It could explode if you do it wrong."

"Right," Steve said. "Okay. Very... comforting to know. Where do I start?"

"There should be a sigil of priukon varg on the edge somewhere. Looks like a curl with a hook on it. Swipe that one away first."

"Swipe? They're carved into the floor. And they're all glowing!"

"Right, they're carved, that's a bit more tricky... You need to change the symbol then. Found it yet?"

"No!"

Alcor threw an impatient look over his shoulder. "I don't want to rush you, but hurry."

One of the tiny symbols around the circle edge looked a bit like what Alcor had described. Steve pointed at it. "This it?"

"Yes! Now, carve a line across it, at exactly thirty-three degrees from the center, that should flip the meaning enough to -"

"Carve? What am I supposed to use for that?"

"You have nothing? No knife, or whatever?"

"Nothing that can go through metal! Oh, wait..." As technician he usually had some tools handy, somewhere in his gear. You never knew when you'd need a screwdriver after all.

"That should work," Alcor said, as Steve took the screwdriver out of his pockets. "Hurry up! Adams is getting in trouble."

"Thirty-three degrees..." At least Steve had some experience with magic. You had to, in his line of business. The best gear was always magitech, because ordinary rules of nature could really get in the way when you wanted to film ghosts.

The symbol went dark as Steve added the line. Some of the symbols around it seemed a bit less glowy too, maybe...

"Great, now the next one looks like-"

Steve followed the demon's instructions. He could hear crashes and screams behind him. The sirens kept blaring, the ground was now shaking non-stop, and the blue light from the portal flared intermittently, bright and threatening.

"O͇͓͇̗h̡̙̠ͅ ̴̮͎̬̮̲͍no͔̻̮̥͙ͅ," Alcor breathed.

Steve looked up from the symbol he was currently breaking, right in time to see Not-April throw Adams against the edge of the portal. The smack of flesh on metal was one he'd never forget.

Adams dropped to the floor, her shoulders shaking in pain. Come on, get up...

The thing inside April turned their back to Adams who was still not getting up and focused their red eyes on Steve.

"Ỵ͓̲̭̲͇o̪̼u̖͍’̭̰r͚̘e̠̦͖ t͎o͕͓͓̬o ̼̪͙̭̗l̪͈͉̮͙a̟̙̳̜t͙̼͖̼̳͍̦ẹ͎," they said.

"Get me out of here!" Alcor yelled, but Steve was frozen as the light from the portal became stronger and brighter and everything started floating again, they were all going to die, it was too late, too late-

White.

The world drowned in white. It invaded every cell, a blinding burn that wasn’t as much pain as it was pressure, the weight of reality squeezing and pulling until there was no room for sound or sensation or thought.

The world flooded back in, bringing darkness and gravity. Instinct made him curl protectively around his camera, which in hindsight wasn’t the best idea he had but well, instinct was stupid sometimes. Ow. His tailbone was never going to be the same again after this.

The only light came from the white-hot sigils imprisoning Alcor, and the red flames dancing over April’s skin.

The Portal was dark now, inactive. April was looking at its center, apparently waiting for something. Well, as long as it kept them distracted…

Alcor was pushing at the invisible boundaries of his circle, golden flames flaring up and being extinguished before they had a chance to fully form.

Steve dropped to his knees and started hacking at the sigils with his screwdriver.

“Little help?” he said, through half-clenched teeth. Did Alcor even hear him? He didn’t know what symbol to destroy next! Would it really explode if he did it incorrectly? Why was this so complicated!?

“That large one, with the spikes!” Alcor said, the golden brickwork pattern crisscrossing his void-black form shivering in time with the wavering fire. “Destroy it! Doesn’t matter how!”

“N̺̤̺͖͓̥͎̭͡O̼̲̤͍̲͍͚͎͟͞!”

“Watch out!”

Alcor’s warning came a second too late. The other demon was on Steve before he could do more than raise his head. Fingers dug into his throat, fire licking his skin. A sharp pain blossomed in his stomach and spread through the rest of him. The world became blurry and spotted with darkness and, strangely, bright lights.

̣̇͐ͅṢ̣͐̇̇͐ͅͅṭ̣͐̇̇͐ͅͅẹ̣͐̇̇͐ͅͅṿ̣͐̇̇͐ͅͅẹ̣͐̇̇͐ͅͅ.̣̣͐̇̇͐ͅͅ.ͅ..

“STEVE!”

A shape appeared through the door. It was Tenney. His hair was standing on end, eyes glowing bright and blue. He was wreathed in light, coming from the faint humanoid shapes crawling around him. “NOT MY CAMERA MAN, DEMON!”

He raised his arm, and the mass of swirling spirits followed it, crowding around April with vicious screams. The demon clawed at them, cutting the ghosts in ribbons of fading light, but there were so many, they just kept coming.

Steve got up. Thank god for adrenaline – he couldn’t even feel any pain right now. Couldn’t feel anything aside from terror, actually. He tried to take the screwdriver. His hands must be slippery, because it took him five tries before he managed to grab it. One final sigil…

The damn screwdriver kept slipping from his grip!

Something was happening in the dark center of the Portal. A speck of colours, moving hypnotically. Just… floating there.

The white glow of the ghosts was already fading. There were many of them, but they couldn’t do much against a demon.

Tenney was helping Adams sit up. She looked around fuzzily, one wrist curled protectively against her chest.

The last of the ghosts was ripped in two, with a final wail. Tenney’s eyes stopped glowing.

Stupid stupid screwdriver! Come on, hands! What the hell was wrong with him!?

The demon moved. In only a few steps it was at the base of the upturned triangle, hands stretched our greedily towards the speck of colours –

- and smacked against Adams, who had thrown herself between the demon and the portal, one hand uselessly at her side and the other aimed in front of her, blade first.

Several inches of steel drove into April’s body, bringing them to a standstill.

Standard demonology gear, she’d said.

Rage and something very much like confusion spread over April’s face. They looked down, at the slick handle sticking out.

“N͍̼͉̙̖̩̳o͕̹̩͖͡,” they said. “I̠̻͙ ̙̹͉̣c̶̰͎ͅa̘̩͎̫n̩̞͡n͙͕̮͓̤̭ot̵ ̬b͓͡e̹̗̫̥̥̤ ̼̯̥͇̫͕̕d̳͠e͖f̢̣̞̘̩͇̯e͙a̱͉͖̬͉̼͠ͅt͙̹͈e͓d̶̙̞͙͖̼ ̞ li̛ke ͟t͜ḩis͞.”

Their knees sagged.

They fell to the floor.

“I’m sorry,” Adams said, eyes wild and horrified. “I’m so sorry April.”

The red glow faded from April’s eyes. A tiny smile, painful and relieved, curled her lips.

Then she was still.

Steve couldn’t breathe. No. No, no, no!

They were supposed to save her…

His hands clenched around the damn screwdriver.

Bloodred fire burst from April’s body, speeding upwards, making a break for the surface that was way, way above.

Or at least they tried.

It made a gong-like sound, vibrating and making the walls shake, but the demon smacked into the ceiling as if it was, well, a few thousand tonnes of sheet metal and enchantments.

Alcor started laughing.

"Man, this is just like the old times, isn't it!" he said. Still on his knees, but grinning now, even as the red flames raged around them. "You're stuck! This spot must be a weirdness bubble, right? Must be. Portal wouldn't work anywhere else. But you f̷or̕g̴o͟t͜! You forgot w̕h̕at ̡w̵ȩir̢dness ̛bu̢bbles̶ ͡d̢o!"

His grin was savage. "T̻h̝e͙̖̘̬͇̲̘y ̗k̮eẹ̲p̜ ͚m̳̙͚͚̭͚o͔̺n͚̙̳̪̪̗̥s̞̻t̥̪͎̻̜̻e̩̬r̳̩͉̯̭s͍̟̱͓ ị̼͓n̦̪̜͚̗̯͖s͖ịd̬̖̣̻̬̖ͅe͉̬̼̙."

Steve scratched out the final sigil. The circle around Alcor fell, and he leapt.

It had been a short fight. In the end it had been clear which demon was the stronger one.

If only he’d gotten Alcor free sooner…

Adams kneeled on the platform. The entire bunker seemed to be creaking and swaying, but she didn’t appear to notice. She was staring at April.

Alcor went to her side. Touched her shoulder.

“There was no choice,” he said. “She was long gone. Paci-fire would have made sure of that. You did the right thing.”

Adams shook her head.

“No,” she said.

Alcor was quiet for a moment. Then he nodded slowly, and went to the speck of colours dancing in the center of the Portal, which had been growing steadily. He seemed to brace himself for something, and touched it.

It fizzled out.

“Well. That’s that,” he said.

Tenney got up from the place he’d hidden during the chaotic fight between the two demons. He slowly walked towards Steve, a strange expression on his face.

“Oh, Steve…”

Adams and Alcor turned to him as well, and Steve frowned.

“Why are you all staring at me like that?” he asked. He followed their gazes, towards the shape on the ground behind him.

Oh.

“Right,” Steve said. “That explains some things.”

Like the lack of pain. And the difficulty with the screwdriver. And the slight tug he felt, connecting him with the dented camera near… the body.

“One more ghost to release,” Adams said softly, pale enough to be a ghost herself.

Tenney looked up as if stung. “What? Are you crazy? I’m not losing my best camera man! Steve, you’re not in a hurry to move on, are you? A little boost and I’ll have you ready for work in no time.”

“Er,” Steve said. He blinked. “I… guess not?”

“Good,” Tenney said. “I am dreadfully sorry, my boy. But we’ll make this right, you’ll see. Death won’t be the end for you!”

Alcor shook his head at them and went to the console. He picked up the remains of what had been a phone. His face crumpled.

“I’m sorry,” Adams said, quietly.

The screen on the console flickered.

[That’s all the mourning I get? Thanks.]

“Alvie!” A grin dawned on Alcor’s face. “You’re not broken!”

[Managed to jump just in time,] the white letters crawled over the screen. [Been busy keeping this thing from flooding. We need to leave.]

“What? Flooding?” Adams asked, alarmed. A loud groan of caving metal punctuated her words. The floor sagged suddenly, as if the oil rig itself was starting to tilt.

[The Portal weakened the stabilisation spells,] the screen said. [Level 5 is breached, levels 4 and 3 are already mostly flooded. You have 37 seconds to get out of here.]

Adams turned to Alcor. “Can you?”

The demon closed his eyes for a second.

“Yes, I can,” he said, a hint of power in his voice. “Ready? This is going to be a bumpy ride.”

“Don’t forget Fran –!“

“O̠̙̲̤̻̞ͅn͓ ̹̥̮i̫̹̙t̥̰̖!”

A final, bonetrembling creak. Water came flooding in, and there was no more room for thought.

Chapter Text

Elisabeth stared through the window, a thick blanket wrapped around her. Her wrist pulsed with pain. It was swollen and blue, every movement agony, and it probably would’ve been smart to go with the ambulance and have it looked at…

No. Her bruises and broken wrist could wait. There were more important things.

She had taken the offered painkillers though.

Outside, the sounds of the ambulance slowly faded away, taking Francesca with them.

At least they hadn’t lost their entire camera crew. Katya had been lucky – the ghosts had chased her away, scaring her off enough to flee back to the boat before everything went to hell. Odds were she’d still get fired for it, knowing Tenney, but at least she lived.

It had only been what, an hour, since Alcor had tessered them all to the shore? It felt like a lifetime.

She didn’t know what to think.

What to say.

She needed more time… but time was in short supply, wasn’t it? If she waited too long… she’d lose this chance.

A faint movement in the air, and there he was.

Alcor hovered behind her. Not literally, this time. His feet had succumbed to gravity, his hair dark and the freckles faded until he looked like regular Tyrone Evergreen again. He was oddly silent.

She looked at his reflection in the window. On  the other side of the glass there was only the deep,  cold darkness of the ocean on a moonless night.

She knew his Name.

She could do... anything. She knew the tricks and rituals to bind him, to command him, to enslave him. Most needed preparation, but not all. She could order him to make a deal with her, right here and now, his Name hot on her tongue, and he would have no choice but to comply. Oh, he'd fight. And demons always won, in the end. He would escape the bindings, slip his chains.

But not immediately. Maybe, if she was clever, not even as long as she lived. What was one human lifetime for an immortal being, after all?

She could make the deal of her life right now. Forget being careful, she had Alcor the Dreambender on a leash if she only said the word.

It was such an ordinary name too. Very... familiar.

The famous Pines Library. Their unexplained connections to Alcor. She'd never had much interest in Transcendence-era demonology - primitive as it was - but she'd read up on Alcor. And she'd read up on the man who, according to some theories, had bound him into eternal service to the Pines family, giving his own life as payment. It was an impressive story, after all. No one else had managed to make such a amazing deal. A deal that -ha!- transcends generations. To be fair, Alcor had been much, much weaker in those days. There hadn't even been any signs he'd existed pre-Transcendence.

She could imagine it now. How a deal to save an unborn child was twisted into a demon being born in a physical body. No wonder Alcor was so powerful. He didn’t have the limits the other demons had, since his ties to the physical realm were stronger than mere possession. He’d been born here.

How desperate would you have to be, she wondered? How desperate had that mother been, letting a demon spawn inside her own flesh and blood? A demon young enough to have no True Name until she'd given him one. In return for eternal protection, maybe, but still...

Alcor’s sigh broke the tense silence between them. He sounded resigned. “You’re drawing the wrong conclusions again, aren’t you?”

She didn’t turn to face him, but his reflection in the window moved closer, until he was standing next to her instead of looming behind her.

“It’s pretty obvious now,” she said flatly. “You managed to possess a child – probably unborn – so strongly his true name became yours.”

“Adams, you know it doesn’t work like that. I was born as Dipper Pines.”

“Yes, that’s what I just –“

“I was born human.”

That… made no sense.

It couldn’t.

Elisabeth took a slow, shaky breath. Now it was Alcor who stared out of the window, refusing to meet her eyes.

“How?”

“Well, when a daddy loves a mommy very much –“

She poked his shoulder. “No evasions. How did you become – this?”

He shrugged, tension clear in every movement. “Through an unlikely and painful series of events. There was this demon – Bill Cipher. He tried to move into the physical realm and take his cronies with him. My family got caught up into his plans. It was nearly the end of the world.” He turned to her with a rueful smile. “In some ways it still was. We could stop Weirdmaggedon. But not entirely. It’s called the Transcendence now.”

“You’re responsible for the Transcendence?”

“Not on purpose!” he protested. “And it’s not entirely my fault. And hey, how many twelve-year olds do you know who saved the world? And then you complain that it wasn’t perfect.”

She stared.

It shouldn’t make this much sense. But… everyone knew Alcor’s name had only popped up after the Transcendence. And he was different from other demons. Not just in power, but in the way he acted sometimes. Case in point, calmly explaining his origins to her instead of trying to kill her before she had the chance to bind him with his True Name.

He’d been human.

He’d been twelve.

Well, that did explain the obsession with icecream.

“Back there, after the portal went dark. Those weird colours. What would have happened if they touched it?” she had to ask.

“Not much, maybe. The Transcendence already happened once. I’m not sure if it would have changed the world all that much.” He paused. “But maybe they’d have turned into a demon like me. That was their plan, at least.”

“Like you,” she repeated.

He looked away. “Yeah. Most demons have a limit on how powerful they can grow. I… don’t. Somehow.”

“Because of Dipper Pines.”

“Yes.”

The silence between them was thick with words unsaid. She wanted to ask so many questions, but…

Well. It was pretty clear what she had to do.

“I want to make a deal,” she said.

A heartbeat. Two.

“Oh,” he said, his shoulders tensing even more. “Right. I should’ve figured.”

“Shut up.” Elisabeth took a deep breath. “I want you to remove all knowledge of your True Name from the rest of the team. Including whichever recordings they have of it.”

“Makes sense.” His voice was bitter. “Why should you share, right? And in return?”

“In return I’ll give you my memories of your True Name as well.”

Ha! It felt good to catch him off-guard, that smug jerk.

“But… you don’t like tampering with your memories.”

“Don’t remind me.”

“You know how powerful my name is. What you could do.”

“Oh, will you let it go?”

A tired smile slowly spread over his face. “Adams, are you telling me you decided to trust me?”

“Maybe I don’t trust myself,” she said, bluntly. “Will you take the deal or not?”

He looked at her for a long moment. Then he nodded and offered his hand. Blue fire bloomed around his fingers.

“My knowledge of your true name, in return for erasing all their knowledge and recordings of the same,” she summarised, as a good demonologist was supposed to do. “That’s the deal.”

“That’s the deal,” he said, and took her left hand carefully in his own.

A glimmer of blue, a blink, and something shifted in her head.

She’d… made a deal. About Alcor’s name? Yes. She’d offered it, freely.

That meant something, she remembered that much.

“Maybe there’s another deal you want to make, now?” he said, and nodded at her right hand. “I could heal that for you.”

Long painful weeks of inconvenience, or instant fix?

“Why not,” she said. Too numb to worry about making frivolous demon deals. “In return… you can have my guilt?”

There was such an awful lot of it, after all.

“How about you give me your nightmares instead,” he offered, gently.

“That works.” She closed her eyes for a moment as they sealed the deal and magic soothed the pounding in her wrist.

God she was tired. With the pain gone, there wasn’t anything distracting her anymore. But ha, sleep was going to be hell, in any case. Even without nightmares. How was she supposed to ever fall asleep again with all these what-if’s haunting the dark behind her eyes?

“So… do you want to talk about it?” he said.

“About what?” she asked. “About how I killed someone?”

“Well… yes.” He hesitated. “I think you should probably talk to a professional about it… but I worry you’re too stubborn to try that.”

“That’s rich, coming from you. Can demons even really feel guilt?”

“I can.”

He used to be human. That she did remember. Not his name, but his story, vague as it was. Why he was so different.

“I’m not going to pretend I understand how you feel,” Alcor said. “I was already… changed, the first time this happened to me. And even then it still shook me up, when I came back to my senses.”

“That’s the thing,” she said. “I didn’t ‘come back to my senses’. I knew what I was doing. I knew something horrible would happen if they got their hands on that thing and I just… acted.”

“That doesn’t make you a bad person,” he said. “You had an impossible choice to make.”

“Maybe. I don’t know.” She rubbed her face. The wetness was expected as well, and easily ignored. “Not feeling guilty would make me a bad person, though. So… thank you. For not taking my first offer.”

“Psh. I know that wasn’t a real offer, Adams. You know better.”

Silence stretched between them, lacking the tension of before.

Alcor offered her a paper tissue. She made a face and took it. It was black, with little golden stars.

“Really focused on your branding, aren’t you?” she snorted, and blew her nose. Ugh. She never cried.

It wasn’t the most subtle way to change the subject, but he tactfully didn’t comment.

“So,” she said, when her throat felt less tight. She bunched the tissue between her fingers, then smoothed out the little printed star. “What happens next?”

“Well, I suppose you get some rest, and go home in the morning. I can spare you the crowded flight, if you want. I owe you that much. But first, perhaps… introductions?”

She blinked. “What?”

“Hi,” he said, and shook her hand again – without the fire this time. “I’m Dipper Pines.”

“What?” she sputtered, as the empty spot of knowledge in her head popped full again. “Why tell me this?”

His smile was soft and utterly un-demonic. “Just thought… maybe we should both take a leap of faith.”

Ding!

“Oh, right, that reminds me.” He pulled a phone from somewhere and offered it to her. “Here. For you.”

“I’m wary of demons bearing gifts,” she said, but took the phone. It looked a lot like her old one, but less dented. “What’s the catch?”

“Guess.”

[Hi Liz!] the pixelated Alcor waved at her from the screen. [Just thought I’d interrupt you guys before this became too mushy.]

Elisabeth had to smile. “I think you were too late.”

“Oh, ha ha,” Alcor said.

“I’m glad you’re not dead. Or deactivated, or however it works for you,” she added bluntly. “But how?”

“When the stabilisation spells failed, the containment broke as well,” Alcor said. “But I’ll feel a lot better if the kid stays in range of the internet from now on.”

[You and me both,] the Virus said. [Yikes! Let’s have our next adventure somewhere with a strong wifi signal, alright? Just to be sure.]

She made a face. “I won’t be up to much adventuring for a while, I think.”

Sleep. What time was it even?

“Right,” she said. “Time for you to go. I’m going to fall over if I don’t go to bed now.”

Of course, that was the moment someone loudly knocked on her hotel room door.

“Now what?” Elisabeth groaned, and pulled it open.

A blur of white hair and Tenney moved past her, charging into her room with no more than a: “Good, you’re still awake.”

“Whatever this is, I’m sure it can wait until tomorrow,” she said. “Get out.”

He didn’t appear to hear her. He stalked her room, freezing in his tracks when he spotted Alcor lounging near the window, and then turned to her, his eyes slightly wild.

“I talked to my producers,” he said. “There was some nonsense about shutting down the show, but I managed to turn them around. We have a killer season finale after all. After this airs, our ratings will skyrocket!”

Elisabeth frowned. “People died.”

“Yes, and their deaths won’t be in vain. It’s what they would have wanted.”

“There’s such a thing as too obsessed, you know,” Alcor said. “Two-thirds of your camera crew is gone.”

“More like half,” Tenney said. “Steve still counts. And I’ll have to look it up, but I suspect we’ll be the first show to employ a ghost. That’s free publicity!”

“Congratulations,” Elisabeth said. “Now get out so I can sleep.”

“And just wait until I unveil the new direction the show is going to take!” Tenney bared his teeth in a savage smile. “First show to employ a ghost? Ha! How about ‘first show to employ a demon?’ People wiill talk about this for years!”

Alcor coughed. “Excuse me – what?”

Tenney swirled to face Alcor, and raised one hand imperiously. “I know your true name!”

“Oh, really?” Alcor said, starting to smile. “So… what’s my name then?”

Tenney paused, hand still raised. “I… can’t remember.”

“Too bad,” Alcor said, sunnily.

Tenney glared at the both of them, before taking a deep breath and attempting to calm himself. “No matter. I expected this. Of course you would erase that dangerous knowledge from our memories. That’s why I saved it somewhere you didn’t know about.”

Now how much damage could a self-obsessed television host do with the world’s most powerful demon at his beck and call? Elisabeth caught herself eying her surroundings. No, bad Elisabeth. You can’t bludgeon someone with a flower vase. It’s not heavy enough, for starters.

“My dear, you’ve underestimated me,” Tenney said, with that trademark smarmy grin of his. He theatrically flipped open his phone. “Ah, yes. There it is.”

… wait. His phone?

“Alcor the Dreambender,” Tenney said. “Or should I say… Smebulock! From now on you will obey my every command!”

That… couldn’t be right. She glanced at Alcor. A disbelieving grin full of needle-sharp teeth spread across his face.

“That isn’t –“ Elisabeth started to say, but Alcor shushed her with: “No, no, I want to see where he’s going with this. So, Tenney! What do you want, exactly? You gotta be precise.”

“I want to make the best television show in the world,” Tenney said, still puffed up with self-confidence. “And that cannot fail, with Alcor the Dreambender as a cast member.”

“Wait,” Elisabeth said. “You want him on the show?”

“Yes. And you as well. Even bound, a demon is full of tricks. You need to keep an eye on him.”

“Why the hell would you think I’d want to be part of this?”

“Why wouldn’t you?” Tenney said. “Do you think you’ll have much of a job, after people see how chummy you are with the Dreambender? Not to mention how three people lost their lives to a demon, while under your watch. You were our designated demonologist, weren’t you?”

The temperature in the room seemed to plummet.

She gave him a deadpan look. "Are you seriously trying to blackmail someone who summons demons for a living?"

“Blackmail is such an ugly word,” Tenney said. “I prefer ‘mutual assistence’. You help me out, Lizzie dear, and I’ll make you famous!” He snaked an arm around her shoulders. "You know you want it! Fame! Glory! You could make a fortune!"

She shook off his arm. “No.”

“Are you certain?” Tenney kept smiling, even under the force of Alcor’s glare. “After all… I do know your secret, Ms Adams.”

“Right, pal, that’s enough,” Alcor said. “Time to go.”

“Show some respect, Smebulock,” Tenney said. “You don’t want the world to know she’s Mizar, either.”

“Oh for – I’m not!” Elisabeth exclaimed. “Why do you even think that?”

“Lie all you want. I know the truth.” Tenney tapped his nose with a conspiratory smile. “Welcome to the show. I’ll let you know when we start shooting for season three.”

“Oh, don’t worry. I’ll be there,” Alcor said. He returned Tenney’s smile with a dark one of his own. “After all… you know my name.”

Tenney nodded, satified, and left.

“What a smug jerk,” Elisabeth said, and yawned. Sleep. Now. Anyone else who showed up in her hotel room would be acquinted with her remaining can of herbal spray, applied directly to the eyes, consequences be damned.

Alcor laughed. “He has a gift with spirits, though. Oh, this is going to be fun!”

“It wasn’t even the right name!”

“Nope,” he said cheerfully. “I mean, do I look like a Smebulock to you?”

She looked at him. His wide fanged grin and golden eyes stole the show, of course, but underneath…

He’d been twelve, he said. She tried to imagine it, and failed.

“Maybe if you grow a beard,” she said. And growled, because damn Tenney and his threats. “You should have just sent him away.”

“What, snap my fingers and transport him to some random place on earth? That would be a bit mean, wouldn’t it?”

“No, ‘mean’ is putting him in frilly dress and sending him to the gnomes’ Jamvention.”

Alcor grinned. “You have a scary mind sometimes, Adams.”

“Elisabeth,” she corrected him. Freely given. It was only fair, after all.

“Elisabeth,” he said. “Why, I really think you’re warming up to me.”

She rolled her eyes. “Whatever you say, Smebulock. Now get out so I can get some sleep.”