[Content Warning: Mentions of graphic murder and slight horror aspects]
Leo sighed, looking at Ryu's face through the viewfinder of the camera. Everything was green due to the infrared and night vision. He still had horrible feelings about the school. He'd heard down the grapevine about the horrible murders that happened within it. He could smell the sour scent of old blood mixed in with the musty odor of mothballs and mildew.
"Why are we here?" Leo groaned, cursing his hypersensitive smell. Ryu looked over his shoulder with a pout, shushing him.
"You have to promise not to make fun of me." Ryu raised a skeptical cropped brow, staring back at Leo in suspicion. He just waved for him to continue.
"I'm a paranormal investigator. Professionally. And there's this group called Phantom Guild, in English, that I want to join but in order to do so I have to prove I'm good enough."
"Can we address how corny Phantom Guild is?"
Ryu shrugged.
"It sounds better in Japanese, I guess."
Leo sighed, stepping over a wooden beam he guessed had fallen from the ceiling.
"So... What? You drag me out here to be your cameraman for...Your ghost busters audition?" Ryu pouted.
"It's a lot more serious than that! This is what I wanna be! I want this to be my job!"
Leo scoffed.
"You want to risk your life for no one to take you seriously?"
"People will take me seriously!"
"Who?"
Ryu stopped in his tracks, shuffling his feet. Clearly, he was just as worried about this.
"People."
Leo sighed, but followed Ryu through hallways lined in cabinets to a door that was covered by wallpaper. Next to the door was a stack of old desks blocking off a hallway where wires and all kinds of stuff was hanging from the ceiling.
"What the…?" Leo looked around, the smell of blood and rotten eggs was worse near this door.
"Ugh, Ryuki, did you just fart?"
"No. That's sulfur, a sign of an inhuman presence." Leo scrunched up his face.
"Why over here is it because we're cornered."
Ryu smiled, turning to the camera.
"Nope. 1865 a man by the name of Colin E. Wilde, with the help of three other men, built this house as a gift to his wife. She had been reluctant to marry him since he was...A weirdo, to put it nicely, but after he displayed how committed he was to her and their future she agreed. They had two children. Adelaide and Brahms Wilde, the girl was 7 and the boy was 4. One night while his wife and children were asleep he tied them up and dragged them here." He pointed to the door.
"To the basement where he murdered them brutally and hid their bodies."
Leo grimaced.
"What caused Colin to go...Coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs?"
Ryu shrugged, pulling a pocket knife from his sweats and cutting the wallpaper.
"All I know is, afterwards he kept being tormented by his family's ghosts so he moved and funded the house to be repurposed into a school. After 15 years of its establishment, Colin was found hung in the basement directly over his family's bodies. With the same ropes used to restrain them."
Leo stared blankly as Ryu picked the lock.
"And you want me to go in there?" Ryu nodded.
"Well, just to film. You still have the pentacle right? And the crystals?"
Leo rolled his eyes.
"Yes, but I don't want your weird rocks and your tentacle necklace, I want to not go into the haunted basement."
Ryu grunted, pushing the door open. The smell of blood and eggs was even stronger once the door had opened.
"If it makes you feel better," Ryu tossed him a mask, slipping his own over his face. "I'll cleanse you before we get back in the car."
Leo frowned, still holding the camera as he followed Ryu into the basement.
He pulled a small box that looked like a radio out of his pocket, turning it on. It beeped every few seconds but it didn't make much noise. Actually, no one did. Both of them just shut up. Ryu in concentration and Leo in fear.
Ryu nodded, before turning to the camera.
"I've got EMF five, cold temperatures, I'm about to check for a spirit box. Leo do you see any orbs?"
"No but I see a very sad boy who watched his first Bill Murray movie and internalized it." Ryu huffed.
"Look at the viewfinder. Do you see any balls floating around on the camera?"
Leo focused, zooming in on the darkness of the basement. A few white orbs floated across the screen and he nodded.
"Yeah, I see floating things." Ryu nodded.
"Okay, EMF 5, Cold temps, spirit orbs, and I'm going to try to communicate with the box."
Leo jumped.
"You're going to what?"
Ryu pulled another box out of his pocket, this one filled the room with static.
"Is Adelaide, Brahm, Margret, or Colin Wilde there?"
Leo started back up the stairs.
"Listen, I didn't know you were going to talk to it."
"What? Leo, come back!"
"Nope, have fun!" Leo stomped up the stairs, nearly hyperventilating. He turned the knob.
"Why did you lock the door?" He huffed, pushing on it to see if it would budge.
"I didn't."
Leo stopped, turning to face Ryuki. He was standing on the stairs, still holding the little radio.
"Haha, very funny, now unlock the door."
"I didn't lock it, Leo, I promise!"
The static grew louder on his radio.
"...leave...You…Can't…"
Ryu smiled but Leo just looked horrified.
Great. He sighed. Just when my night couldn't get worse, now I'm trapped in a basement with four ghosts and a preteen.
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