Chapter Text
Chapter 2 - Skepticism
“...Are you sure you’ll need that?” Ghost spoke up softly, her tone matching the quietness of the night. She pointed to the watergun she had carried since they both left. Alex met her gaze, giving her a look as if Ghost said the stupidest thing ever, which wasn’t far off from what she believed.
“Duh, why in hell would I not bring a weapon? It’s like going to World War 2 without camo and a weapon, it’s like you’re just asking for it,” Alex shrugged. Ghost shied away from her gaze, vaguely pouting her lip.
“Ghosts are different from people, all you need is a calm demeanor and the slightest bit of salt if things get bad,”
“Let me guess, we need to use the power of friendship too?” Alex snarked, raising a contemplative eyebrow.
“...That’s not totally out of the question…” Ghost muttered, tugging lightly at the strap of her bag. Alex paused momentarily, slowly turning her head, her face full of disbelief…There was no way this girl was real…She sighed loudly, pinching her fingers between the bridge of her nose.
“...Oh my fucking…Okay, I’ll leave that to you because that’s gay as hell, but I know for certain I’ll be using Francis tonight,”
“...Francis?” Ghost turned her head to look at her, tilting it slowly, her face resembling an owl in a way. Alex quickly pointed her watergun to her face, her lips vaguely twisting into a smirk.
“Francis.” She echoed, her tone flat. Ghost paused, staring at the nozzle, pursing her lips together nervously.
“Ah…I believe we’ve met before…” She chuckled lightly, inching away from it slowly. Alex lowered her watergun, continuing to walk normally.
“I believe you’ll have the chance to meet her up and close tonight, I’m sure!”
“Why do you think that? You…Came to help, didn’t you?”
“Look kid, the only reason why I’m tagging along with you is because I need an excuse to use Francis, so don’t get your hopes up. I’m tired of all these ghost stories we’ve been getting, and I think the only way to solve that problem is to kill the problem from the source, you,”
“Wait…Me?” Ghost perked up, meeting Alex’s gaze.
“Who else? The ghost girl herself, the girl that talks nonstop about crystals and moons…Just because you exist, it gives people the reason to start all these rumors and ghost stories to spread through the school and suddenly it’s our problem, I’d like to laugh in their faces about how wrong they were,”
“Oh…” Ghost frowned, staring down at the ground silently as they walked on. Alex, for one, enjoyed the silence that came afterward. She suspected Ghost had just gotten caught in her own lies, as she became more hesitant the longer they walked into the forest.
The two reached what Alex could only assume to be a demon-worshipping center, with a ring of salt outlining what she thought was a pentagram, with melted, burnt-out candles on the outside.
“Jesus Christ, what were you doing here, space cadet? Trying to summon the Icon of Sin or something?”
“...Icon of Sin…?” Ghost asked slowly, pronouncing each syllable slowly as if she was missing something important.
Alex ignored her.
“Well, firstly, you gotta have like, WAY more dead bodies here. Also, having the head of John Romero on a spike is essential-”
“Wh…John Romero? Who’s he?”
Alex looked at her briefly as if she had said the most blasphemous thing since declaring god was dead. Ghost looked side to side, hoping she would elaborate, but it never came. Ghost blinked, seeming like a thought just occurred in her head, as her face twisted into a confused grimace.
“…Dead bodies…? What on Earth…? I assure you, movies are very inaccurate about their Seances…You don’t need dead bodies or demons or whatnot-”
“It’s from a video game, dumbshit.” Alex cut in, crossing her arms.
“Oh… Sorry, I don’t get out much…” Ghost blinked, setting her bag down gently near the circle.
“Clearly.” Alex rolled her eyes, shaking her head with a loud sigh.
Ghost pretended- or maybe didn’t hear her with all things considered not to hear her, and instead focused on the circle. She squinted her eyes, tracing along the salt circle gently. She seemed troubled about something, but Alex didn’t know what it was, it looked like any normal ritual to her. Ghost suddenly perked up, pointing to a bit of the ground, urging Alex to look.
“See that?” She looked over her shoulder to stare at Alex, who was leaning over her shoulder.
“...It’s a hole in the ground…What am I looking for exactly?” Alex squinted her eyes, trying to see what was so important about it, but couldn’t. Ghost shook her head softly, before pointing again.
“No, no, that’s where the root came out of, it was there I swear!” Ghost frowned, shooting a pleading gaze her way, like a puppy begging for scraps of food. It would have worked on say, her friend, but to her, it almost made her laugh.
“That could have been an animal den for all I know, that ‘root’ of yours could have been just a wild snake,” She shrugged. Ghost sighed lightly, furrowing her brow softly. She began to set up the ritual circle thingy without another word, it still looked like a demon-worshipping center to her, but to each their own.
Ghost opened her mouth to say something, but she quickly snapped her jaw shut, looking around her suspiciously.
“...What?” Alex raised an eyebrow. Ghost looked at her, concern apparent on her face, but shook her head softly.
“Mm…Nothing,” She chuckled nervously. After a deep breath, she closed her eyes, pressing her palms to the ground, sitting silently before speaking up.
“...Mysterious spirit of the woods, rise from the netherworld and make your presence known. I channel the spiritual energies in me to summon you…” She paused briefly, furrowing her brow vaguely.
…You know, the thought never occurred to her, but damn was it cold out tonight…
“...To this earth to speak your plights…I-in the name of Hecate, come. Make your presence known or be cast into darkness.” Ghost continued, her wavering with each word recited. Alex couldn’t tell if she was nervous or felt as cold as she was, but the feeling kept getting harder to ignore the longer she stood there.
“...F-fucking hell it’s cold-”
“Shhh,” Ghost cut in, giving her a look. Alex quickly responded with a heavy sigh, lolling her head forward as she tapped her foot impatiently. She scanned along the trees, and to nobody's surprise, saw nothing…Though…
Alex looked up, noticing the sound of tree branches starting to shudder, like wind blowing through at a gradual pace…But the thing was, there was no wind. She tilted her head, trying to discern what the source was, but the only logical explanation was the trees shaking themselves.
…That’s crazy though, right? They couldn’t-
“...Over there!” Ghost spoke up, pointing towards a specific section of trees. Alex looked over, but couldn’t see anything either in front or behind the trees.
She slowly turned her head back to her, giving her the most intense death glare she could manage. Her previous irritation was currently snowballing into red-hot anger the more nothing happened. She knew this trip was pointless, but did she really have to pull a ‘made you look’ card? Seriously?
“Are you-”
The sound of heavy boots trudging through the forest quickly caught her attention. Alex snapped her head forward, the sound came from the same place Ghost pointed to. She instinctively gripped her water gun, pulling it closer defensively, waiting. The more steps she heard, the more her eyes slowly widened from what the source was.
It looked exactly how Ghost described it looked like, its pale eye was visible, staring right through her. Alex couldn’t tear her eyes away from the tree branch that protruded from her chest.
She didn't know what to think, Ghost was terrible with jokes, and this was too far to be a simple prank, but ghosts weren’t real…Were they?
“Dear spirit of the overworld…” Ghost started. Her voice made Alex unintentionally jump in place based on how sudden it came. “You have been cast into the mortal plane, but your presence is no longer needed, I thank you for joining us, and I hope for your safety for your return to the afterlife,” Ghost finished, her voice unusually calm about the living human popsicle standing in front of them.
She heard Ghost starting to blow out the candles, mumbling some other nonsense Alex couldn’t properly hear, but her attention wasn't focused on her. She kept her eyes solely on the thing in front of her, her grip on her water gun so tight her knuckles were white with anticipation. One wrong move and that thing would be dead.
It however didn’t seem to care. It slowly, methodically tilted its head, its visible eye looking elsewhere.
“...What the-” Ghost looked up, quickly standing up from the circle. Alex finally looked away from the thing for just a moment, seeing Ghost's unease as she stepped back. Alex looked back, noticing the thing staring directly at Ghost instead of her, its visible eye squinting slowly.
She heard the trees rattle more.
Alex didn’t hesitate, she stepped forward, getting in front of Ghost. She raised her water gun, aiming for its eye.
“Wait-!” Ghost called out albeit softly, but it was too late. The thing reeled back silently, covering its eye, almost falling over despite its slow footing. Ghost slowly inhaled through her teeth with an audible wince.
“Oh stars…” She muttered.
Alex readied up her water gun again when it turned to look back at them. Before she could pull the trigger, roots around her came to life. She tensed up as she dodged sharp spiny roots that swung themselves out of the ground.
Alex stumbled back, her grip on her water gun becoming tighter in anticipation. Though, she definitely wasn’t expecting Ghost to run in front of her, tossing something. Whatever it was, she could hear an audible wail coming from the ghost along with a thud. Alex looked over Ghost’s shoulder and noticed a bag of salt spilled all over the forest floor, with the thing lying on the forest ground flailing in pain.
For the first time whenever interacting with Ghost, this was the first time she felt a twinge of pride she felt towards her. Ghost, however, seemed to become more regretful, putting a slight hand to her mouth.
“...Sorry,” She squeaked. Alex immediately frowned, regretting the feeling she had already. She took her arm, yanking it back to head back to campus, which got a vocal exclamation from Ghost. Eventually, Ghost caught her footing, running at the same pace as her, hearing the things cries sink back into the forest the further they got away.
“Why in the hell did you apologize? Are you trying to get killed?” She shot a glare toward her. Ghost threw up her hands, already exhausted from the running.
“You have to…Be respectful-”
“Like hell I’m going to do that bullshit! That thing was trying to kill us! It doesn’t need any of my respect!” She snapped back.
The presence, however, didn’t like the blatant disrespect, it intensified the attack tenfold.
Alex heard a soft yelp beside her, causing her to whip her head back. Ghost had fallen over, clawing at the ground as she realized she was being pulled back. Alex slid to a halt, and in a swift movement, turned around, steadying her aim at the tree root. Ghost perked up, defensively putting her hands over her hands as she ducked.
Alex pulled the trigger, the water impacting with a sharp hiss, making the thing let go. Ghost desperately pushed herself back up, kicking up a good amount of dirt as she did so. The two continued on their path, Alex’s anxiousness spiking up with each new sound she heard no matter how small.
She didn’t see the thing behind her, but the air was ice cold, and tree branches shook angrily like she was still near the circle, but she could see the school vaguely poking out of the trees the more they ran, so it wouldn’t be too far now until they reached school grounds.
Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt a sharp stab at the back of her heel, making her crumple to the ground. She scrambled to back away once she hit the ground, defensively raising her now empty hands, her mind not adjusting to the changes. She then realized her water gun had slipped out of her hands the moment a sharp root was set to attack. She closed her eyes, bracing for impact…But found nothing had happened.
She slowly opened her eyes, meeting the sight of the root just inches away from her face, straining to reach out to her. Alex quickly stood up, keeping her eyes on the root as she backed away. The root, which seemed frustrated it couldn't hit its target, buried itself back in the ground in defeat.
Ghost stepped to her side, observing the behavior, then looked back to Alex, worry deep in her pale blue eyes.
“...Are you okay?” She spoke up after a moment had passed. Alex slowly shook her head, balling her hands into fists the more she stood there, an unknown emotion boiling over in her veins.
“What do you think?! This…Whatever the hell it was, nearly killed both of us! How do you think I’d be feeling right now?!” She snapped, throwing her hands out to where the root once was. Ghost withdrew her hand, having it hold her arm instead to comfort herself.
“...I’m sorry,” Ghost spoke up, her voice barely above a whisper. Alex stared at her, her eyebrows furrowed, but she didn’t have the energy. Her shoulders slumped as she let out a heavy sigh.
The two took this moment to finally process what had just happened. Everything since the last thirty minutes bounced around her head, unable to grasp the idea of ghosts being real despite the obvious evidence in front of her.
She started to remember other students who essentially told the same story about a spirit in the forest. She remembered how scared they were, and she simply dismissed them away…
She shook her head, pushing the thought as far back as she could, a new question arising out of the blue.
“...Where did you hear about the urban legend?” She turned to Ghost, who seemed completely lost in thought. She snapped her head forward, putting a hand to her chin.
“It was this one website, I don’t recall the name, but I like to look for legends that are from around here,”
“Right, right, but what was its name?”
“Oh, uhhh, The Whispering Hollows dot net,” Ghost perked up. Alex stared at her blankly before pinching the bridge of her nose with a sigh.
“...No dipshit, the name of the urban legend, ” She said slowly, taking forever to pronounce each syllable. Ghost blinked before realization snapped to her.
“Oh! The…Legend of the vanished five,” She snapped her fingers with a light smile. Alex furrowed her brow, the name seeming vaguely familiar to her.
“...The vanished five…” She repeated to herself. Seemed easy enough to remember…Five?
She took a moment to wonder, then nodded her head.
“...Okay, we’ll talk about this tomorrow, try to see what we’re dealing with, I’ll do some research, but I need you to do something for me,” She met her gaze, gaining a stone-cold serious look on her face. Ghost nodded with a hum, her eyes expectant.
“Promise me that you won’t tell anyone about tonight, I don’t need any more publicity regarding any ghosts,” She stared at Ghost expectantly, waiting for her answer. Ghost’s once expectant gaze crumbled into uncertainty, as she stepped back.
“Ah…Uh, I’m not the best with secrets…” She tilted her head, slowly meeting her gaze. Alex shook her head, before looking back at her.
“At least try your damnest not to say anything, especially to your weird friend of yours,” She warned, slowly squinting her eyes with each word. Ghost blinked, setting her jaw as hesitation crept into her mind, but slowly nodded.
“I’ll…try,” She attempted to give a soft smile, but even Alex could tell she wasn’t certain about herself.
“Good enough…” Alex simply sighed, beginning to make her way to campus.
***
Isabelle started to stir the moment she started to hear the soft clacking of a keyboard from across the room. She opened her eyes, Seeing the typical sight of Alex hyper-focused on her laptop, her fist near her lips in thought. The sight made her internally relieved, like in some way she was expecting not to see her when she woke up.
Isabelle blinked, noticing the warm glow of the sun leaking through the curtains, contradicted by Alex’s darkened circles under her eyes.
“...Alex?” She pushed herself up into a sitting position, her blanket draped around her shoulders. Alex perked up immediately at the sound of her voice, like she wasn’t expecting her to be there despite sharing the same room. She relaxed, giving her a soft smile before focusing on her computer.
“Morning Izzy,” She responded quickly, furiously typing on her keyboard before leaning back. Isabelle sat there for a moment, before looking back at Alex.
“So…What happened last night?” Isabelle subtly leaned forward, her interest peaking. Alex looked up again, before rolling her eyes.
“Ahh, just another waste of my time. Another person trying to make Kadic news into a big joke,” She waved a hand, her eyes focused on her laptop. Isabelle’s form slumped over in disappointment. Sure, she didn’t believe in ghosts herself, but some part of her wishes they would, maybe it would make for a good story one day.
Though, Alex had this look about her that she typically didn’t see often. She didn’t know what exactly, but she sensed something being off about her.
“Really? Nothing bad happened?” She tilted her head. Alex shook her head softly.
“No…Other than spraying the hell out of ghost girl when she realized her story was baloney, that was funny,” She smiled, keeping her eyes on her computer. Isabelle blinked, feeling bad for the recipient.
Isabelle had heard from other students it packed quite a punch unlike a typical water gun, which made her wonder where on earth she had gotten it from, but Alex refused to tell her. It’s not like she pressed for that info either, she felt like she wouldn’t want to know either way.
“... So, what are you doing on your laptop?” She tilted her head, raising an eyebrow. Alex seemed to pause her typing for a long string of silence before she continued.
“...Right…So apparently Issac decided to try his hand at editing, but fucked everything over…Not only that, but he did this week's paper without telling me, so now I’m stuck fixing that mess…” Alex stared back down, eyebrows focused and irritated. Isabelle simply sighed, shaking her head.
“...I told him not to do that…” She murmured. Alex humed, a smirk playing at the edge of her lips.
“Did you now? So now I got two things to tell him about,” She remarked. Isabelle chucked, rising out of bed with a stretch. Isabelle walked over to where Alex was, bending over to get a better look at her laptop. Now she saw what she meant, definitely not any of Alex’s work, it was too unorganized to be that.
“Oh my, that’s…Terrible,” Isabelle smirked, standing upright as she made her way over to the door.
“So I’m guessing no breakfast then?” She teased. Alex rolled her eyes playfully.
“No thanks, I’ve got food here thank you very much,” She returned to her laptop with a smile.
“Alright, just don’t starve to death!” She teased, closing the door behind her.
***
Alex watched as Isabelle closed the door, and waited a moment before she let out the breath she was holding. For once in her life, she was glad she kept her older drafts from long ago when she first started working for the Kadic News.
Still, that was closer than she liked it to be. Her body slumped over, clicking back into the tab she was previously in.
A tab she hid was stuff she was searching about the thing that attacked her and Ghost that night. The tale of the Vanished Five. However, the article was stock-full of nonsense the more she had delved deeper.
Alex snapped out of thought when she heard a soft knock outside her door. She looked up, before idly staring back at her computer.
“Come in,” She muttered, poised to change tabs again if she had to. The appearance of Ghost wasn’t at all surprising, she did tell her to come in once Isabelle left. She rested her hand, focusing more on the article.
“This article you read makes no sense,” Alex immediately got to the point, turning her laptop so Ghost could see the page. Ghost walked closer to her bed, kneeling so she could get a closer look. After a moment, furrowing her brow, she hummed with a soft sigh.
“Sorry… Urban legend sites aren’t the best source of information out there, after all, legends are based on rumors and-”
“Yeah yeah, I know that, but this ‘forest spirit’ junk in here is completely wrong, look-” She gestured at the screen. “This ‘Aelita Stones’ person should be who we saw last night, but when I pulled up a site from an actual news site,” She clicked on one of the various open tabs on her computer.
Instead of meeting the image of a girl that looked like a human interpretation of the ghost from the forest, they were met with a head of short, pink hair. Ghost faintly straightened in her position, becoming just as confused as she was.
“Are you sure that's her?” She looked at Alex. Alex nodded, scrolling to where they could both see the description under the photo. In bold, it said “Aelita Stones.”
“...So would that mean the other descriptions are wrong too?”
“Must be, because-” Alex scrolled up until they could see the second case that was listed,
“Yumi Ishyama,” Ghost read aloud.
“It would seem we have our so-called ‘forest spirit’ then,” She announced, leaning back and gesturing towards the screen. Ghost, however, seemed to be troubled about something.
“What?” Alex squinted her eyes. Ghost met her gaze, setting her jaw.
“It’s just… I closed off the spirit, but she was still there after the fact, that’s what’s bothering me…She should have disappeared,”
“Maybe it wasn’t a ghost we saw,” She shrugged. Ghost shook her head, straightening in her position.
“Whatever we saw doesn’t apply to anything I know about…Demons can take the form of humans, but not like the spirit we saw…She looked more like a typical ghost to me, cause of death and all,” She pursed her lips together in thought.
“Yeah, right…Typical,” Alex let out a huff of a laugh, rolling her eyes as she stared back at her laptop. Ghost blinked, staring down in thought before raising her head.
“What if…It’s a result of some sort of curse?” She met her gaze. Alex slowly squinted her eyes, unsure of what to think. It’s not out of the question regarding the thing in the forest, but some part of her still thought all of this to be ridiculous.
“...Go on,” She tilted her head. Ghost nodded, putting her two index fingers together as she went on.
“Curses are typically bound by a thing, person, or even location in some places. The simpler answer can’t be done since we tried to do so already…So we need to find the source,”
“How the hell are we going to find that exactly?” Alex raised a suspicious eyebrow. Ghost slumped as soon as she said that, her enthusiasm gradually simmering to hesitance.
“I don’t…Know…” She fiddled with her fingers nervously. Alex took a moment to seriously consider her options.
“...Did you ever notice the roots have this barrier? Or…Border to them? Last night it could have totally reached me, but something was holding it back,”
“...Perhaps the source might be around there then,” Ghost offered, Alex immediately shook her head, waving her arms around as extra emphasis.
“Oh no no, no. We aren’t going back until we have a solid answer. I personally don’t want another rooted encounter any time soon,”
“...Rooted encounter?” Ghost gradually tilted her head. Alex nodded.
“Yeah, it’s my nickname for it right now,”
“Why though?”
“Calling whatever that was by an actual name feels weird to me,” She gradually turned to look at her, feeling Ghost’s gaze linger on her. Ghost progressively raised an eyebrow, setting her jaw. Alex rolled her eyes, throwing up her hands in the air. “Oh what fucking ever, it’s cool…”
Ghost awkwardly shifted in her position, staring at the floor to keep herself entertained, which didn’t seem to be working. Alex turned to Ghost after a long moment of silence.
“Hey, the cafeteria is open, you could go get breakfast if you want…Though don’t expect me to come along, I’m staying here,” She offered, the sentence a nicer version than what she intended. She could have told her to go away, but she seemed just as exhausted as she was, so she had to give her at least a bit of credit. Ghost, however, seemed visibly nervous about going.
Alex thought about last night, remembering what they said here and there, but to what she said right before they returned to the dorms.
“...Is this about that friend of yours?” She asked, tilting her head.
“Uhm…Yeah…I’ve never had to lie to her before,” She frowned, slowly meeting her gaze.
“Just say that nothing happened, that’s all there is to it,”
“It’s not that easy for me to do…I’ve never lied to anyone, and Cer knows I only tell the truth…What if she finds out? Oh…She would hate me wouldn't she…?” Ghost mumbled the last bit under her breath, her frown seeping into a worried pout. Alex raised her hand, in an attempt to make her stop worrying.
“Listen kid, that’s going to be her fault if she tries to pry into anything. Even if she does find out, you need to tell her not to tell anyone. It’s bad enough that you and I are roped into this mess.” She swatted a hand, attempting to get back to her research. However, Ghost kept standing there, all the more hesitant to leave. Alex sighed, placing her laptop on her bed.
“Okay seriously, please; get out of my dorm,”
***
The bell of the morning class started to ring. Isabelle made her way to class, propping her chin up with one of her hands.
Despite Alex telling her everything was fine, Isabelle still felt worried for her. Sure, there wasn’t anything that girl couldn’t handle, especially whenever she was tired or angry at whatever student happened to cross her path that day, but something felt…Different today.
Before Alex noticed she was awake this morning, she had this look about her that she didn’t see often, but she couldn’t pinpoint what exactly she felt. She was determined, yes; determined to fix all the mistakes Issac supposedly did to the format, but there was more to it than Alex showed.
…She wouldn’t lie to her…Would she?
“Delacroix, is everything okay?”
The voice snaps Isabelle out of her daze. She snapped her head towards the source of the sound and was immediately met with a head of amber-brown hair along with a look of concern on his face.
“Ah… DeRobert…” Isabelle sighed, giving off a light smile his way as her body relaxed. “I’m alright… just- Worried…”
The amber brown-haired kid’s gaze softened, sinking more in his already oversized light grey hoodie.
“How so?” He tilted his head.
“You see, Alex went off to the woods last night with Peppers because of some ghost sighting” Isabelle responded. “She told me everything was fine, but I’m worried she was hiding something.”
“Huh? Mbak Alex agreed to go with her?”
Isabelle and DeRobert turn around to face the source of the voice, a large imposing giant of a kid with raven black hair.
“Oh! Nugraha!” Isabelle smiled warmly despite the unintentional air of intimidation he posed to the average eye. Isabelle straightened herself out, remembering where she last left off.
“Long story short; yes. Peppers was absolutely certain that whatever this ghost presence was real, she even showed up with an injury on her face claiming it was from a ghost, but Alex was certain that everything was fine…”
The raven-haired kid nodded, raising a curious eyebrow.
“Did they find anything?”
“None…Well- At least that’s what I heard from her,” Isabelle set her jaw, reaching out briefly about the idea that Alex could be lying to her, but snapped her attention forward when Nugraha spoke up.
“Aww…Oh well, at least she came back just fine,” He shrugged, his expression shifting from curiosity to general disappointment.
“I didn’t know you were deeply interested in the ghost rumor, Widi.” DeRobert perked up, meeting his gaze. Nugraha sighed, staring off to the side with a lidded expression.
“It’s not that I am interested in it, Emmanuel, but so I can get my cousin to shut up,” He sighed, his voice mimicking that of a mumble. Isabelle opened her mouth to say something, but the sharp sound of Mrs. Meyer entering the classroom brought everyone's hushed conversations to a complete halt.
Isabelle hesitantly shifted toward the board, the teacher’s droning fizzling out as her own doubts pried into her mind.
She wouldn’t lie to her…Right?