//------------------------------// // We Have A Guest (Part 2) // Story: Equestria Girls: The Haunted // by Israel Yabuki //------------------------------// The investigation for the hostile entity inside still went on strong. Crimson held Fluffy in his arms and had her head buried in his chest. He wasn't going to let whatever was in the house take away his fiance, even if he has to fight the hostile entity all by himself. Anon was still watching over the monitors for any suspicious movements while Twilight left to talk to the local Canterlot City Historian. Sunset stayed with everyone else and watched over Spike until Twilight would come back. As the investigation went on, Crimson noticed something was sticking out of Anon's right pocket. "Hey, whatcha got in there?" Crimson asks. Anon turned to Crimson and pulled out a bottle of holy water and what appears to be a cross. "You sure that'll work?" "The chances of warding off a hostile spirit or a demon is close to maybe 30%. No, actually it's a lot closer to 20% at the most, I believe. But sometimes when you do end up successfully driving them out, you have to pay the price mentally and sometimes physically. Don't believe me? Well, these'll probably come as a complete shock to you once you've seen them." Anon lifted up the right hand side of his shirt and revealed nasty claw mark scars near his right rib cage. Crimson became shocked from the sight. "Damn, so you're telling me that in the process of excercising a demon, the damn thing scratched you so deep that it ended up leaving you with 3 nasty scars?" Crimson asks. "Yup. You'd be surprised to know that I ended up exercising a demon and prevent it from taking this family's beloved 6 year old son. The kid kept talking about playing with his imaginary friends." "Okay, so what was your reason for starting this paranormal society if you're just gonna end up putting your life in danger and end up getting hurt? You've still got a whole life ahead of you and plenty of possibility's and maybe a less riskier career to pursue." "Because there's only a few people who understand what's going on and I'm one of them. Also, skeptics are a real pain in the ass when they can't open their damn eyes and ears. As far as careers go, this is the only one that actually makes sense to me. Not a lot of people chose to become paranormal investigators mostly because they don't believe in ghosts while others who do believe are scared for their lives." "It might sound crazy, but he's not kidding. When we first started out as paranormal investigation group, we didn't get that many clients. We had to find some decent side jobs in order to keep a roof over our heads and put bread on the table, so it was a bit of a struggle. But later, with time, we managed to have our name spread across the city and now we're all doing perfectly fine." Sunset explains. Crimson was surprised by how much effort the gang put into this unusual career, but at the same time, he's glad they did form the group. The conversation seemed to calm Agent Fluffy down a little bit, but she still felt a little bit scared and held onto her fiance tightly. Just then, Sunset's cell phone rang, making Spike jump and turn to face Sunset. She looks at her phone, but the phone says Unknown Number. She decides not to answer it an hangs up. But it rang again with the same unknown number and she hangs up again. It kept ringing and she got agitated so she decided to answer it and give the caller a good scolding or two. "Listen, whoever the hell you are, stop calling me and find someone else to prank!" she says. On the other end of the phone, she didn't hear anything. She checked to see if she was still on the line. She was, but then her phone just went to speaker phone all by itself. Just then, a voice spoke from the other end. "...geeeet....ooouuuut....noooow...." said the voice. Her phone then hangs up automatically and she got a really scared look on her face. The phone rings again and she let out a scream. She pants and reads the ID, this time, it was Twilight trying to get in touch with her. Sunset answers. "Twilight? What is it?" "I finished my research on the former owner of the house and how he died. I want you to listen very carefully and don't let Crimson and Fluffy out of your sight!" Twilight says on the other end. "They're here with us right now, but please hurry! That ghost that pushed Anon out of the bedroom used my phone to try to scare us out!" "Okay, just hang on and I'll be back soon!" Twilight hangs up on the other line just before Sunset. Spike climbs onto Sunset's lap with concern in his eyes. "Sunset? We're all gonna be okay, right?" Spike asks. "I... I'm not sure, Spike. I'm just not sure." Sunset answers truthfully. Spike begins to whimper and buries his face into his paws in fear. Sunset places him on her lap and gave him a few gentle pets on his head, which seemed to calm him down a little bit. "What did we ever do to deserve this? I'm so scared!" Fluffy says. She begins to shake, but Crimson rocks her back and forth to comfort her. "Shhhh, it's alright. I'm here for you, babe." Crimson says. Anon still wasn't sure if they were all going to be okay. But then, he got an idea on what might have caused all of this to happen in the first place. He turns his head to the scared couple. "Crimson, let me ask you something." Anon says. "What is it?" Crimson asks, looking at Anon. "Was there ever a time when the ghost tried to hurt you or somthing?" "No, it's only been attacking Fluffy. I just don't know why." "What did I ever do to deserve this?" Fluffy whimpers into her fiance's shoulder. "Okay then, was there any chance the two of you might have done something to let the spirit into your house, like a seance or using ouija board?" Anon asks again. "No, I never mess with stuff like that. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't!" Crimson replies. "Alright, good. I just wanted to know. I only asked because practicing stuff like that'll open a doorway to the other side and usually, it brings out dark entities like demons. And if it is a demon, than it would make sense that it attaches itself to the people who summoned it. However, since you say you didn't do it, my guess is the past resident of this home might have attached itself to Fluffy." "Oh, god!" Fluffy says, shivering. "Calm down. Just don't panic too much and let us handle the situation. You two just stick together and do whatever you guys do on a regular day." Fluffy couldn't do anything, other than bury herelf into Crimson's shoulder. Crimson just stroked her hair, rocking her left and right, shushing her gently. That was the only thing they could do right not and Anon just let them be while he watched over the monitors. A few moments at around 8 later on in the evening there was a knock on the door. Everyone turned to the front door, as well as Fluffy. Anon got out of his seat and opened it, revealing Twilight. "Hi, Anon." Twilight says. "Hi, Twilight. Come on in and let us know what you found." Anon says. Twilight nods and walks inside before Anon closes the door and locks it. Everyone all sat down on the couch, waiting for the news on what Twilight found out. She lets out a sigh and says "Okay, I had to do a lot of researching, but I finally found out something horrific about this house. It was once owned by a man who goes by the name of Pitched Black, who apparently died in this house." Hearing the name made Crimson's eyes shrink and grit his teeth at the same time. "That bastard still hasn't learned a thing, even in death!" he says. "What do you mean, Crimson?" Sunset asks. "Pitched Black... is my father!" he replies. "Your father? Tell us, what was he like?" Anon asks. "Well, he was certainly one of a kind, I'll give him that. But when I told him about this girl I fell in love with, he just flipped out and said stuff like "women are trouble," and "she's using you!" I had heard of a dad being overprotective of their kids, but it's rare for a dad to be overprotective of his own full-grown son. It's like he didn't even want me anywhere near Fluffy. It got to the point where he threatened to get rid of her himself if I didn't break things off with her, but I didn't listen and flipped out on him." "You lashed out at him?" "Hell yeah I did. No one threatens my babe like that and gets away with it! I cut all connections with him and made sure that all of my friends and family watch out for him. I guess he got the message for a while, but I never thought he'd attach himself to this house." "There are some cases when spirits with grudges refuse to cross over and move on until they've settled the score with whatever it is they want." Anon explains, "In this case, Pitched Black might be coming for Fluffy and he's not going to stop until she's out of here." "What are we suppose to do, bless the house?" Spike asks. "That's like poking a bear with a stick." Sunset says. "We'll have to try a different approach. First of all, Spike, you and I will walk around the house and spread this holy water on every square inch to keep the ghost from taking cover from us. If he tries to sneak up and attack us, then I want you, Anon to counter him with that thing you keep in your pocket." Twilight says. "Wait, what thing?" Crimson asks Anon. Anon reaches into his pocket and pulls out this weird object. "She means this." Anon shows Crimson some sort of hand-held object and he was confused. "I'll keep it short and brief, it's called a vajra. I use it to make spirits back off by chanting a language not known to a lot of people here in Canterlot City." "Umm.....okay? I have no idea how it's gonna help, but I'll leave it up to you guys." Crimson says. "As for you, Sunset. I need you to stay here and watch over the monitors to see if the activity in the rooms are changing, and if they are, let us know which room!" Twilight orders. "Got it. Just be careful. There's no telling what this Pitched Black guy might do." Sunset implies. The group nods and get off the couch, minus Sunset. Twilight follows Spike around the house as he sniffs up any kind of trace of the spirit lurking in the house. He stops dead in his tracks, growling at the bathroom over on the left hand side. It was enough for Twilight and Anon to know that it was where Pitched Black's spirit was hidng, so she went in and spread holy water everywhere inside it. "Let no evil linger on in this house! Let no harm come to the people who live here!" Twilight says. She kept repeating her lines until the bathroom was now cleansed. She felt a heavy feeling leave the bathroom and run into a different hiding place in the house. Spike growled and followed it into the kitchen. Spike kept barking and growling, wanting the hostile spirit to get out of the house. The lights in the house began to flicker on and off. Fluffy and Crimson looked up at the lights and held each other in their arms, waiting for the hauntings to end. Twilight and Anon went into the kitchen where Twilight once again sprayed holy water on every squar inch of the kitchen. But then all of a sudden, Anon felt a jolt of pain rushing to his head and he kneels down gripping his forehead, grunting. "Damn it! Not again!" Anon says to himself. "Don't get in my way! Do so and I'll kill you!" said a gargled voice. Anon could tell that it was Pitched Black warning him not to mess with him. Anon ignores the warning and talks back at Pitched. 'You call yourself a father? You're pathetic! Only a bastard like you would threaten your own son's happiness and if you can't accept that your son is moving on, then I'll send you straight to hell!' Anon says with his mind, sounding more threatening than Pitched. His headache goes away, but not before he hears a faint growl. He stands back up and sees that Twilight was staring at him, worried about him. "Are you alright? What happened?!" she asks, worried. "Just a friendly chat with the so-called "father of the hour." There's no time to worry about me right now. Sunset, where is the activity occuring at right now?" Anon asks. "It's... It's over in the master bedroom! I've got some readings from the thermal cameras, too! The temperature seems to have dropped and it's getting colder and colder!" Sunset sounds alarmed. "What?!" Anon asks. Before he got a reply, he made a dash over to the master bedroom. But at the entrance, he could clearly see a man in a dark gray jacket and white shirt. His shoulders were dropped down and his arms were hanging loose. His eyes were like two black bottomless pits and had this nasty scowl on his face and had the lower part of his legs covered in a black mass. Spike ran up to Anon and saw the spirit and whimpered. He backed up and ran back to Twilight, hiding behind her legs with his ears drooped down. "Twilight... I'm going in." Anon says. Twilight could see the spirit herself and got a really bad feeling about it. "Anon, I don't think you should do this alone, but just promise me you won't get hurt. You keep him distracted and I'll spray the living with the holy water. Spike, you'll be safe with me." "Oh thank god!" Spike says in relief. Twilight leans down and holds Spike in her arms while she starts spraying holy water around the living room. Anon takes this time to approach the spirit at the entrance to the master bedroom, but the closer he got, the denser the air got. It felt like he was being weighed down by the spirit and felt a sickening feeling inside him. He brushed off the feeling and got took his vajra and showed it to the angry spirit. It didn't like it an snarled at Anon, trying to push him away. Anon resisted and started chanting... "On kirikiri bazara bajiri horamanda manda un hatta! On amiritodo hanba un hatta! On biso hora dara kisha bazara hanjyara un hatta! On asanmagiri un hatta! On shau gya rei makasan maen sowaka!" The hostile spirit seemed to have gotten pushed back and ended up disappearing into the master bedroom, but at the same time, Anon got winded and leaned against the wall, panting. That was a big mistake and soon felt something grab his throat and pinned him up against the wall. He started choking and tried to do another chant, but the ghost's grip was just way too strong. Anon felt like he was going to pass out and in an instant, he saw the face of the ghost smiling deviously at him, enjoying his pain. Fluffy screamed out loud at the horrifying scene she saw. Twilight rushed over to help Anon, but was forced against the wall like Anon was. She lost her grip on the holy water and struggled to break free. She could hear the ghost laughing at the two of them, knowing he's won. Or so he thought. When all seemed lost, Crimson ran up and grabbed the bottle of holy water and aimed it at his father's evil ghost. He glared at him and sprinkled him with holy water. His father's dead ghost let out a screech of pain and loosened his grip on Anon and Twilight. They both gasped for air, grasping their throats and watched as Crimson told off his dead dad. "This is the last time you're going to bug us, dad! First you targeted my beautiful fiance by scratching and scaring her and now you harm these good people here in my home? We'll I'm fed up and sick of all of this bullcrap you put my friends and family through." Crimson shouted. His father's spirit growled at him, but it didn't do anything to him, other than cause Crimson to move towards him. He then reached into Anon's other pocket and pulled out a cross and the holy water Twilight dropped. "I didn't want this to happen, dad, but you left me no choice! Purgatory is over, and YOU go to hell!" Crimson sprinkled the holy water at his father's spirit and pointed the cross at him simultaneously. The pain was too much for the spirit and let out an ear-splitting screech and became a huge black mass before a small like emerged from the center of the black mass and disappeared bit by bit. The lights in the house stopped flickering and the house was fully lit. Anon and the girls were surprised at how Crimson stepped in and saved them all. "I can't believe it! He did it!" Twilight says. "Anon, can you feel it? The air doesn't feel thick anymore!" Sunset calls out. "Yeah, I feel it. You did it, Crimson. The ghost is gone now. You're safe now." Anon confirms. He and Twilight help each other back up on each other's feet. Fluffy jumped from the couch and ran towards Crimson and wrapped her arms around him. She wasn't scared anymore and felt so happy to the point where she cried tears of joy now that the nightmare was finally over for them. "What do we do now?" Twilight asks. "We wait until the shock wears off and then we pack up our stuff and head home." Anon implies. "Got it. This really shook me up." "That makes all 3 of us." Sunset says. "Make that four." Spike says, walking next to Twilight. The group just gave out a slight chuckle and sat themselves on the couch to recover from the whole experience. Minutes later, Twilight, Sunset and Anon all packed their things into the van while the young couple, Crimson and Fluffy just watched as they were getting ready to go. It just didn't feel right for both of them to let them leave with those bruises, but Twilight and Sunset would keep on insisting that it was all part of their job to do as much as they could to help them out. Nevertheless, Crimson insisted on giving them some cash just so they could at least put bread on their table and heal some of their wounds. Anon was against this sort of thing, but because Crimson kept insisting, he offered the couple his thanks before the gang hopped in the van and drove back to their house. Meanwhile, Fluffy and Crimson had a little catching up to do and smiled at each other, walking back into their house and closing the door.