A/N: As usual, I would recommend putting the video on loop.
Ice mingled with the dirt around the edges of the crumbling paved road, and various weeds and other flora grew up and through the muddy concoction. More of the plants popped up through the cracks in the pavement, and they all had a coating of winter on them. Some still thrived, and others looked as if they were on their last legs. Fingers extended out towards one of the weeds as the individual crouched down beside it. She plucked it from the earth and twirled the stem between her cold fingertips. "Looks like another three-leaf," a voice mentioned from above her. She nodded her head and brushed back some loose strands of light brown hair. Her light blue eyes glanced up to him, and she grinned a bit.
"But," she plucked another one from the ground and held it slightly under the other one until only one leaf was showing on it, "it's now a four-leaf." Ren smiled and shook his head before he stared over to Nick and Deidre who were inspecting the road up ahead of them. Chris stood up too and placed the plants in one of her coat pockets.
All of them were searching for any signs that the ghost actually was something else. In particular, they were examining the area for possible tracks. It had been a couple of days since the disappearance of Daisy Calfisher, but tracks might still be left behind since it hadn't snowed in the area for a few weeks according to locals. "Anything yet?" Chris questioned as Ren and she caught up to the other two.
"No, we could go off of the road, but the thickness of the trees is concerning. We could get lost in those woods without a map, and the other side of the road is just dead grass, ice, mud and the backs of buildings. We've already checked that side for anything." Nick placed his hands in his grey coat pockets and glanced over the nearby scenery. "And with the trees' density, I doubt that the writer would've seen a ghost and the people through them."
"And, he saw them with the ghost right before they actually were reported missing, right?" Deidre questioned, crouching beside the left side of the road and looking for any prints in the mud.
"Yeah, and he didn't report them because he didn't want to seem crazy or become the suspect himself," Nick mentioned, turning towards the direction of where the subway entrance was.
"I think that the town already considers him crazy," Ren remarked, walking up beside Nick and glancing over to him briefly. "Otherwise, the police would've pulled him in with that blog post." Nick nodded and averted his eyes down to the paved road. He kicked some of the pieces of asphalt before he stared ahead once more. "Should we check out the entrance now? We're not finding anything of use out here. We might once we have our gear set up, but right now, it just looks abandoned."
"I think so. We've already spent a few hours out here, and we want to have some time for dinner before we get everything ready. It's going to be a long watch." Nick began to walk forwards, and the others followed after him. "We'll take turns, though, if anyone needs to rest their eyes, and we'll have snacks too. I just don't want anyone to be by themselves at any point in time."
"We won't be," Chris answered, smiling reassuringly. "Even though this place is covered in sunlight now and seems empty of anyone else, it still has a ... kind of unnerving vibe." Her smile fell, and her optics focused on the trees ahead of them where the subway entrance was. "And, it's only getting worse." She placed her hands in her coat pockets. "Maybe, it's the stories of the suicides and that murderer, but those two stories do give weight to why they let the entrance be covered by trees. The townspeople back then might've been more superstitious and might've not wanted to let anything out."
Nodding, Deidre walked beside Nick as her eyes searched the surrounding environment for anything out of the ordinary. "It might be, and there might be other ghosts down there too since so many people used to travel on the subway around here. That past energy combined with the more negative aspects might make this site extremely active at points."
"Even so," Nick started, "it remains odd. The trances and the distance the ghost is traveling are throwing me off. And, this thing that we're tracking might be too intelligent for our equipment if it's putting people into trances." He moved his gaze about his three teammates. "That's why I also don't want us staying too close to the road or entrance tonight. It might avoid the equipment and come straight for us."
"Do you want Ren and me to sit by the buildings, then?" Chris asked, noting that they were drawing nearer to the subway entrance. A chill snaked up her back, and she shoved her hands into her pockets more. It was almost like sunlight wasn't hitting the trees up ahead, and it made her stomach knot.
"Yes, and in a place where you two can run if need be, but," Nick gave everyone a warning glance, "if we find that this entrance is too dangerous now, we're not performing the evening watch."
"We may be paranormal investigators, but we're not here for suicide missions," Deidre commented as her attention drifted back to her boss, who nodded in response.
"Right. These people may be missing, but we may not be equipped to handle what took them. If we see a lot of blood when we get to this entrance, we're not continuing. That's something that requires more than a digital voice recorder or an electromagnetic field detector or any of our other tools to catch." Nick stared to each of his teammates, and all of them nodded in agreement. "Good, I also want us to be extremely careful when investigating the entrance. The area around it might be sensitive, and we could fall in if we're not careful."
Such a thought brought a strong chill up Deidre's spine, and she tried not to imagine something horrid happening from that. To ease her mind, however, she commented, "But even with the entrance covered, there are a set of stairs that lead down into the subway. It shouldn't be a straight drop down unless the stairs collapsed over the years."
"We hope that's the case, but with old places like this, we might find its condition to be worse than imaginable," Nick pointed out, and none of them could argue with that. After all, he had been in Cankerfell, and those tunnels had been modified greatly. Then again, they also had the creature's help for that, but Nick's warning still made sense to all of them.
When they reached the subway entrance, there were indeed trees covering it. They wouldn't have known that it even was there if the writer hadn't mentioned it to them since just barely they could spot the entrance under a series of tree roots. The roots twisted together at bizarre angles, and pitch blackness stared back at them from under the mass of the gnarled contraption.
"Can someone even get through all of that?" Chris questioned, staying a good distance away from the entrance. "It seems like you would need to be pretty flexible."
"No, there's a way in." Nick moved around the roots a little bit, but he didn't get too close. "Over here." The other three walked over, and all of them now looked upon a path between the many roots; however, the way in wasn't natural. "Something cut its way into there, and you still can tell that the cuts are precise even with part of the roots being dead."
"And when the one end of the roots grew back, they were cut again," Ren pointed out, noting how their seemed to be too many dead roots on the one side for the number of alive ones.
"With the cuts being recent, I don't think that we're dealing with a ghost," Nick mentioned, a heavy frown appearing on his lips. "Unless it's wielding a freshly sharpened blade, this seems like the work of something else."
"What if the missing people cut at the roots? They could have a knife, and if they're already in a trance, the ghost could've made them do that," Deidre suggested as her brown optics just pinpointed the stairs leading down into the ominous maw.
"True, but it looks like there are more dead roots than that. Three times of cutting for that amount just seems too little. And, I doubt that the missing people have been coming and going from here unless the ghost is a person pretending to be a kidnapper, and there are four individuals involved in a huge scam." Nick combed back some of his pitch black hair. "But, I don't know what their motive would be for that unless they were going to get some large amount of money in return or some other reward. Or, maybe, they're just really starved for attention."
"But, you don't think either of those things," Ren remarked, peering over to his older friend. Nick nodded. "Do you think that we should continue the watch tonight, though, with this discovery?"
"I do." Nick stood up fully, and his eyes averted over to Deidre. "Will you be alright watching the entrance with me?" She seemed hesitant, but she nodded in the end. "Okay, but you can change positions if you want."
Chris smiled and walked over to Deidre to pat her right shoulder. "Yep, we got your back if you need us." Deidre smiled gratefully, and Ren signaled that he'd be willing to take her place too, which caused another smile to form on her lips.
"With that being said, whoever watches the subway entrance with me needs to be prepared to run. There can be no hesitation if an emergency arrives. This," Nick switched his attention back to the entrance, "is peculiar, but not enough to call off tonight. Still, it warrants quite a bit of caution." All three of them nodded back to him before the whole team carefully explored the spot around the entrance more until they decided it time to head back to the hotel.