Ghost Hunt Fanfiction: THAT ASSISTANT

Chapter 21

“Yes, and some of them are being possessed and will hide until the spirit leave his human vessel. I have tried exorcising them but the spirit will just leave the bosy and possess another.” John added with a serious face.

“The possessed child will not hurt the others but it is quite disturbing. The child will act strange after being possessed and will go into hiding.”

“John had mentioned this a second ago. What do you mean ‘hide’?” Naru asked while taking down notes in his black notebook.

“They literally hide themselves like they’re playing hide and seek. Once they show up themselves, they will go back to normal. Those who have been possessed usually don’t remember what happened.”

“Hide-and-seek? You mean –” Masako was about to asked when they heard a bunch noises outside. It sounds like a wood hitting a hard object. It rang continuously and loud than before until it stop a few moments later.

"Father Toujo, what is that?”

“It seems someone had hidden again. The noise you just heard means ‘I am ready!’.”

“They are asking to be found?” Naru asked while looking outside.

“It was thirty years ago when I have looked after Kenji-kun.” Father Toujo sighed sadly and sipped his tea.

“Kenji-kun?”

“Yes. Among the children I took in, there was a boy name Kenji Nagano. Most of the children here at that time have no families or their families is having problems. Kenji-kun was brought by his father. When I first met the kid, he already couldn’t speak. I heard it was due to psychological trauma he had experienced but I never heard the exact cause of it.” Father Toujo explained.

“I think it was about this time of the year. It was right before we relocate our church to this state. The construction was nearing completion and we are planning on having Christmas at our new church.”

“Although it was still under construction, the children were so happy about our new home that they started using this area as their playground. The children love to play hide-and-seek but they like to call the game ‘Stick’.”

“Stick?”

“Kenji-kin couldn’t speak but despite being handicapped, he was still so cheerful and active and soon got along with other children. Seeing that Kenji-kun couldn’t play hide-and-seek with them, his playmates gave him a stick to use. He would hit objects with a stick while playing with others. This served as his sound while playing hide-and-seek.”

“Kenji-kun is an expert when it comes to hiding. He seem to have an exceptional hiding skills that even if I join the game, I couldn’t find him. He was fun to play with. Everyone loves him. But then, one day Kenji-kun disappeared.”

“It suddenly start raining and the children came running to the orphanage. Kenji-kun was not with them so I asked the children. They said that they were playing Stick but they couldn’t find him. They then hurried home while calling him when it started raining. He didn’t return so I gathered some volunteers to search for him.”

“The rain is pouring down hard so I was worried for him. We saw that the scaffolding collapsed and were piled in front of the church. We thought he was buried there but when we searched, Kenji was nowhere to be found.”

“The next day when it is bright and not raining, we have searched for him again but we only found his whistle. I had given him that whistle for his birthday, thinking that it might be useful for him in communicating. He always wore it around his neck but when we found it, the chain was broken.”