GHOSTBUSTERS!ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤspecial chapter.
( after act iii )
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▬▬▬▬▬ㅤ 𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐈𝐑𝐃𝐎𝐔𝐗, Nari and Solamon walked around Arcadia in a comfortable silence, Hisirdoux would say something from time to time to explain small details from the Halloween tradition; Sol and Nari were very lost as the kids around them ran from door to door to have some candy from strangers.
ㅤㅤㅤNari was wearing their usual human clothes, since their antlers were enough to appear as a costume. In contrast to her lack of flashy features on her clothes, Hisirdoux and Solamon were wearing, respectively, a zombie and fairy - of course - costume.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Oh, look! There's a horror house there! Those are nuclear, wanna go together?" Hisirdoux pointed to a big house with a long line of people waiting at the door; the fake spiderwebs and mannequins all over the windows, as if they were trying to escape the house, were very good at calling attention, many colorful lights came from inside the house as high pitched screams got mixed up with the loud music. As much as they put a bunch of decoration around the house, it looked terribly bad, their budged probably wasn't high enough to build something that truly looked spooky.
ㅤㅤㅤ"It looks cheap... let's go!" the ginger smiled, running to get in line as Hisirdoux laughed at her excitement.
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ㅤㅤㅤ"Uh... it's taking a little longer than I expected, huh?" they had been in the line for almost an hour, Hisirdoux didn't seem any less excited for the horror house, but he knew Solamon hated to wait.
ㅤㅤㅤ"............ጌሁርቿፕል." she really hated it.
ㅤㅤㅤ"I heard the house is actually haunted by a man!" a teen in front of them said to their friend, who wasn't very amused with their words. "He died in a fire because he was in love with a witch and his soul got stuck inside the house! It's kind of a sad story, actually, he gets separated from his loved one because the people burn her after she was accused of witchcraft and he begged them to do the same to him, but when they didn't he put his own house on fire and died inside it."
ㅤㅤㅤ"You know, with all the crazy things that have been happening in this town, I don't even doubt that story is true." their friend shrugged, gaining a soft giggle in response to what they had said.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Did you hear that, Eli?! The place is haunted! This is perfect!" Sol heard a voice she recognized as one of Jim's friend's not so far from her and quickly got on her tiptoes to see ahead on the line; as she suspected, Toby and the "Eli" boy were there, talking excitedly to each other. The both of them were wearing a strange costume, almost like an astronaut uniform, but with no helmet and a vacuum cleaner on each of their backs.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Oh, nice, the place is haunted. Ooooo!" Hisirdoux wiggled his fingers in front of Sol's face, giggling after she slapped his hands away.
ㅤㅤㅤ"If it's really haunted, than all the people in this line are fu-"
ㅤㅤㅤ"Sol." Hisirdoux pointed to a kid in line not so far behind them before she could swear.
ㅤㅤㅤ".........The people in this line are ቻሁዕጎዕዐነ." he sighed at her insistence of saying the word, even in another language.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Sol is right, ghosts usually drain a person's aura so they can continue existing, if the ghost really is stuck in here than it's probably draining the auras of the people that get in the house and killing them slowly." Nari smiled, proud of their good explanation.
ㅤㅤㅤThe people around them in line started staring in shock at their lack of care for their words, even with a bunch of kids waiting for their turn to get inside the haunted house.
ㅤㅤㅤ"....I bet they saw that in a movie, such an expert!" Sol tried to sound dumb so it wouldn't seem as Nari was actually telling the truth. She copied Hisirdoux, wiggling her fingers in front of his face as he struggled to contain a laugh at her poor excuse. "Oooo!"
ㅤㅤㅤ"Oh, Sol, is that you?! And Douxie and Nari too, hey guys!" finally, Toby and his friend noticed the three of them on the line and waved for them to come closer. They shared a look before shrugging and cutting the line by staying with the two boys. "You guys wanna get inside with us? You were kind of far behind in line."
ㅤㅤㅤ"That-"
ㅤㅤㅤ"Yes, please." Sol interrupted her partner, who frowned slightly before sighing.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Oh, yeah! You guys haven't met Eli yet, right? He's visiting his family this weekend and so we decided to come to this horror house." the chubby boy pointed at his friend, who only waved shyly at the two of them.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Why are you dressed like that?" Sol was direct on her question, way too curious to try and find the best words to ask about it.
ㅤㅤㅤ"We're Ghostbusters! Y-You know? Those guys who hunt... ghosts." Eli made a heroic pose, feeling awesome with his hand made costume.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Oh, nuclear!" Hisirdoux showed them a thumbs up with both hands, to which Nari copied him; neither them nor Sol had any idea who the "Ghostbusters" were, but didn't want to make any of them disappointed by admitting out loud they both didn't know who those characters were.
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ㅤㅤㅤ"Bleemy balroths..." Hisirdoux sighed, not expecting to see a bunch of teens walking around like zombies when they entered the house; most of them were pale and groaned as if they were exhausted. As expected, their auras were almost entirely gone.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Oh, that's not good, is it?" Toby frowned, staying behind Sol and Douxie in fear of being touched by any of those "undead" teens.
ㅤㅤㅤ"No, it's not." Sol sighed, crossing her arms. "We'll have to get rid of that ghost as soon as possible. Can you help me, Nari?"
ㅤㅤㅤ"Yes! I am sure I'll be able to feel the lost soul here." they smiled, pulling Solamon's arm to hold her hand again.
ㅤㅤㅤ"I'll help you, just teach me how to send him to the other side." Hisirdoux placed his arm around her shoulders, sending the fairy a confident smile.
ㅤㅤㅤ"WAIT," Eli's voice cracked when he spoke, making Hisirdoux and Toby chuckle discreetly. "can we help?! I really want to see a ghost!"
ㅤㅤㅤ"Yeah! We can help you guys attract the ghost so it will be easier for you to catch him! Like real life Ghostbusters!" Toby started to giggle in excitement.
ㅤㅤㅤ"For sure! The more the merrier." Hisirdoux winked to the younger boys and patted Izzet's shoulder after she huffed in disappointment, not wishing to babysit anyone that day.
ㅤㅤㅤ"I will search for the spirit now," Nari sat on the floor, taking a deep breath before they closed their eyes. "I will be your map."
ㅤㅤㅤThey all waited. And waited. And waited some more.
ㅤㅤㅤ"...Did you find it yet?" Toby spoke in a tone not much louder than a whisper.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Oh." Nari opened their eyes. "You distracted me. I'll have to search for it all over again."
ㅤㅤㅤThe group sighed in despair, most of them glared at Toby for making Nari distracted.
ㅤㅤㅤ"It didn't take this long to search for Jim..." the boy mumbles in embarrassment, starting to play with the small decorations on his costume.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Jim was not a lost soul, was he?" that shut the boy up. Nari sighed before they went back to their meditation state.
ㅤㅤㅤThey all waited patiently, Toby did his best not to interrupt them again, and right as one of the teenagers dressed up as a zombie - their costume was very similar to Hisirdoux's - started to push Eli, who was too scared to touch them, Nari suddenly stood up with a gasp and turned to run through one of the long corridors, turning a dark corner just in time to see the light of the ghost pass through a door.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Found you!" they giggled, running in all fours to get to the ghost; they didn't bother to wait for the others, Nari knew the teens would only slow them down.
ㅤㅤㅤThey tried opening the door the way they saw Douxie and Sol do many times before, but it was too hard, the doorhandle was slippery and too round for them to catch it correctly. Instead, Nari put their hands on both sides of the door and removed it with the help of some vines.
ㅤㅤㅤPutting the door by the side, they entered the room and caught the ghost shedding big tears as he kneeled in front of a framed painting of a human.
ㅤㅤㅤ"My fault... my... fault..." it mumbled over and over again.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Oh, there you are, poor thing." Nari sighed, approaching them.
ㅤㅤㅤAs they approached the ghost, they could feel more and more heavy. Already expecting that, Nari continued walking towards the mourning dead man, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder after they were near enough.
ㅤㅤㅤ"It's time to go home-" they were rudely interrupted by the ghost, who stood up by the sudden touch and turned to the forest creature, raising a hand at them so he could suck their aura to himself.
ㅤㅤㅤFor a moment, Nari's vision became blurry and dark. That selfish soul!, they thought.
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ㅤㅤㅤ"Wait, where did Nari go?!" Toby shouted, looking around for the forest creature. Only then did Sol stop for a moment, as she was trying to calm Eli down until then - the boy wouldn't stop screaming in fear after the zombie teen who was all over him drooled on his left cheek -.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Oh, no..." she mumbled, looking over at Hisirdoux as he also searched for Nari around the main room.
ㅤㅤㅤ"They're probably going after the spirit, let's split so we can search for them!" he explained quickly and Sol was fast to take Eli's hand before she ran of to one of the corridors. Toby sighed and looked over at Douxie, who seemed disappointed that he wasn't Izzet's choice when they split the group in two.
ㅤㅤㅤ"So... where should we go next?"
ㅤㅤㅤ"To the opposite side those two just went, of course." he smiled sweetly to the ginger, turning to rush over to the second corridor where the light of the moon was coming from; it was, for sure, way less scary than the dark hall Solamon and Eli just went through.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Ugh, I have a bad feeling about this..." Toby ran to Hisirdoux's side, avoiding most of the almost lifeless zombie teens as they dragged themselves around the haunted house.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Don't worry, Toby, we'll be fine." that was what he said before he was attacked by a zombie teenager. The teen was trying to pass through Hisirdoux, but mostly ended up stepping on his shoes and making him fall back.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Douxie! Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! What do I do?!" he started to run around Hisirdoux, trying to find a way to get the drooling teen away from him, and he was getting more desperate than the young wizard.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Toby, calm down! Just- oh, fuzz buckets, they're heavy!- help me get them to stand up!" the boy shouted, doing his best to push the teen away from himself while also avoiding the drops of drool that were almost falling on his face.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Okay! Okay, okay, okay, I can do that." the ginger frowned, pulling the zombie teen by the shoulders so Hisirdoux could get out from under them.
ㅤㅤㅤThe master wizard smiled at the younger boy to calm him down, but soon his smile was wiped off of his face after he saw something behind the ginger.
ㅤㅤㅤ"What? What is it?!" Toby frowned, slowly turning around to see the wall of teens walking in their direction.
ㅤㅤㅤThey had to turn to the other way to run from the zombified people, but the other side was blocked by more of their kind.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Oh no..."
ㅤㅤㅤ"If only I had my warhammer!" Toby cried, trying to distance himself from a girl not much younger than him that was unintentionally cornering him along with another zombie boy dressed as a sailor.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Wha- Toby, are you crazy?! They're real people, we can't hurt them!" Hisirdoux dodged a teen as they stumbled in his direction.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Oh, yeah, I forgot about that." the boy chuckled, forgeting about the two teens that were cornering him for a moment.
ㅤㅤㅤThe wizard moved to the side so he could be closer to Toby, doing his best to push the zombified teens that were around the boy without actually hurting them.
ㅤㅤㅤHisirdoux pushed through while pulling Toby's hand as the boy trembled in fear of the teens around them; all of them had completely black eyes, which added to the creepiness of the situation.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Oh, bleemy balroths, this is gonna take a while..." he sighed, already begging to get tired from the amount of work he had to do to push the teens with enough care to not hurt them.
ㅤㅤㅤToby didn't have time to feel guilty about using Hisirdoux to protect himself, as he was too scared of the mumbling teens around him to pay any attention to the older boy.
ㅤㅤㅤHisirdoux sighed, already bored of doing all the work, but frowned after he felt something weird coming from down the hall they had just gotten out of.
ㅤㅤㅤToby found the way his friend froze a little odd - and not so assuring, considering the position they were in -.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Doux-" before he could ask anything, Hisirdoux silenced him by putting his hand over the boy's mouth, to which made Toby frown.
ㅤㅤㅤ"There's something wrong..." that phrase was enough to worry Toby even more.
ㅤㅤㅤ"What do you mean?" he whispered through the older teen's hand. Before he was even able to respond, Toby felt a shiver down his spine; that didn't seem like a good sign.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Oh no. Toby, watch out-" he pushed the boy out of the way right before a strong wind passed by and made Hisirdoux fall back.
ㅤㅤㅤToby was too in shock to pay attention to the ghost and the forest creature that came along with the wind, his eyes were stuck on the fallen Hisirdoux, whose eyes slowly became jet black.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Douxie...?" Toby murmured, although he was pretty sure he wouldn't get an answer. He helped his friend stand up with some effort and tried slapping the zombified boy across his face to get some kind of reaction; as he expected, Hisirdoux's face remained neutral.
ㅤㅤㅤLooking ahead, his path was getting more and more full of people, which scared Toby; without Hisirdoux's help, how would he get through all that zombies?
ㅤㅤㅤ"No, Nari!" even from far Toby could hear Solamon's scream and he became worried for his forest friend.
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ㅤㅤㅤSol turned a corner and frowned after she saw a hall similar to the one she had just gotten out of. Even the five doors of each side were the same to her.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Um... are we lost...?" Eli risked to ask, his voice cracking- as always.
ㅤㅤㅤ"No. Of course not." she mumbled, too embarrased to admit that she had no idea where they were.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Okay... Are you su-"
ㅤㅤㅤ"If you want me to like you, you should stay quiet, square glasses." she spoke the last part as if it was an insult; Eli took it that way, at least.
ㅤㅤㅤAnother turn... oh, by ክልዪጎ, it's the same hall from before.
ㅤㅤㅤEli remained silent, to which the ginger was more than happy about, but they both had to admit that it was a little awkward; they had only met that same night, it was only normal that the both of them had nothing to start a conversation with.
ㅤㅤㅤ"So..." the boy tried anyway. "You're a fairy, right? I would've never thought that Arcadia had those too!"
ㅤㅤㅤ"It doesn't, I'm not from here and neither was my family." was her only response.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Oh..." Eli took the hint by "was", he did his best to avoid talking about that. "Where are you from, then?"
ㅤㅤㅤ"Eryinx."
ㅤㅤㅤ"Sounds cool. What is it like?" he scratched the back of his own head as Izzet huffed after they turned into a dead end, she turned back and tried going the other way.
ㅤㅤㅤ"It was beautiful. With trees growing even inside our houses and the constant sweet smell of flowers and honey." it was nice to get a little distracted from the imminent danger, after all. Talking about her home was always nice. "We used to sing and dance around our fireplace at night and cook to each other to celebrate when a new sibling was born."
ㅤㅤㅤ"That sounds awesome!" the boy, too, became a little more relaxed with the small talk.
ㅤㅤㅤAlthought the conversation was starting to get interesting, Solamon frowned again after she turned a corner to find a hall exatcly the same as the other ten that they passed by.
ㅤㅤㅤMaybe going inside the rooms was the best idea.
ㅤㅤㅤEli had no option but to follow the fairy as she entered the first room in that corridor, facing nothing but old furniture and a strong smell of dust and smoke, mixed together.
ㅤㅤㅤBy the corner of the room, there were three small candles, all completely melted, but still with a hint of smoke coming out of it's dark wick. It seemed that inexperienced witches came in the place to try and get rid of the ghost.
ㅤㅤㅤThe proof was the lifeless duo that sat by the window, both dressed as vampires while their eyes were painted pitch black.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Oh, my! What if the ghost catches us, too?" Eli moaned in fear, looking around as if the lost soul would attack him at any moment.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Calm down. This witches were unprepared, that is all. I have a certain experience with souls, you'll be fine as long as you stay clo-" as Sol turned around, she found a lifeless Eli Pepperjack standing there, moaning as his eyes became black. "Aw, damn it, I was starting to like the boy."
ㅤㅤㅤShe ran outside the room and quickly grabbed Eli to put him in her back, running after the ghost just in time to see him go inside a room with Nari trailing behind him.
ㅤㅤㅤIt was a little hard to run with a boy on her back slowing her down, but Sol managed to get in the room before she saw Nari standing in front of the ghost, who cried uncontrollably as he sucked the forest creature's aura.
ㅤㅤㅤ"No, Nari!" the fairy put Eli down carefully, preparing a small spell to get the ghost away from her friend before they started giggling softly.
ㅤㅤㅤ"It tickles!" that was not something that the ginger was expecting, but she became relieved anyway. The soul was as surprised as she was, but he kept trying to suck their aura out until he was exhausted himself.
ㅤㅤㅤSolamon waited until he was kneeling on the ground before she came close to him, confident that he couldn't try to take her aura for himself as he did to many others; he was too tired to do so.
ㅤㅤㅤShe looked behind him at the big framed painting of "Aurora Spring" - as the small letters on the bottom of the artwork said -, a beautiful woman dressed in a blue gown and smiling with only her brown eyes, and sighed. All those humors about the ghost only missing his loved one were true, after all.
ㅤㅤㅤ"She was beautiful." Sol said without thinking, though she didn't regret it at all. The man stood up and looked at the painting with a pained smile.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Yes." he stopped smiling. "I lost her, by my own mistake."
ㅤㅤㅤ"What happened?"
ㅤㅤㅤ"I was selfish. Too delighted with what my magic could give me, someone- by the Gods above, may that person be haunted by the devil for the rest of their life- they incriminated my dear Aurora. She was accused of being a witch and burned to death outside my house. Right there, where all of those disgusting rats are standing." he pointed shakingly at the people waiting in line outside. "All by a simple spell I did to enchant her as much as she enchanted me."
ㅤㅤㅤ"I know it must be hard. But you cannot stay here." the fairy explained, moving to stand in front of the window so the ghost would look at her instead of outside. "She must be waiting for you in the afterlife, why won't you move on?"
ㅤㅤㅤ"No, no, no, I don't deserve her love. I was the one who killed her, I'm the one to blame. It is my fault and my fault only..." he started crying again.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Of course you are deserving of her love. Do not blame yourself for someone else's deed, that can only be considered pure cowardice." she frowned, crossing her arms as she spoke. "When you get to the other side, your loved ones will welcome you with open arms, I am sure of it."
ㅤㅤㅤ"You speak with such confidence... why?" finally, he had stopped crying.
ㅤㅤㅤThe young fairy smiled.
ㅤㅤㅤ"I have loved ones in the afterlife, too. They're all waiting for me there, just like Aurora is waiting for you."
ㅤㅤㅤSilence. It was enough for Solamon to know that he was considering his options.
ㅤㅤㅤ"How can I leave to where my love is waiting for me?" his voice was small, barely audible, but Sol still managed to catch what he had said.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Just take my hand, I'll do the rest for you." she offered her hand, to which he took immediately. Her hand was very warm, that was a nice feeling.
ㅤㅤㅤHe felt himself slipping, as if he was starting to sleep, and he closed his eyes, embracing the softness of being sent away.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Sol! We're here! We're-" Toby ran through the door with a confused Hisirdoux trailling behind him. The boy seemed exhausted; he had to push a lot of people to get there, and he felt pretty damn good for managing to do that, too.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Wow! Look!" Eli pointed after he blinked repeatedly to make his eyesight less blurry, watching with amusement as the ghost became nothing but a small light in Izzet's palm.
ㅤㅤㅤ"There, he'll be at peace soon." Nari smiled, taking the lost soul in their hands and closing her eyes to concentrate before sending the soul away.
ㅤㅤㅤAll of them sighed in relief, glad that it was finally over, but the teens became a little sad that they had nothing to do after that; nothing would be as fun as avoiding zombified people and trying to catch a ghost.
ㅤㅤㅤSolamon noticed everyone's exhaustion and pressed her hands together.
ㅤㅤㅤ"Would you guys like a pumpkin pie to end this Halloween event?" that cheered them all up.
ㅤㅤㅤHalloween ended up being a much more fun tradition that they had expected.