//------------------------------// // Downtown // Story: Supernatural | Burning Ghost // by DerpymuffinAuthor //------------------------------// Downtown was not a very big space, which made finding Lily taping missing posters on the brick exterior of the only theater in Hollow Shades easy. The one specific wall already had posters in various stages of neglect. Pages printed in only one specific color with grainy images and choppy words worn away by time or pages held onto the wall only by stubborn pieces of tape. The view of all the faded, darkened posters was rather depressing. The entire town seemed that kind of way. A few passing cars, some scattered passersby, but it was still incredibly vacant. It wasn’t like Canterlor on a Sunday morning, sure, but it made the town seem even smaller than it actually was. There weren’t even very many Hearth's Warming Eve decorations set up, which was odd, as that was always something to be expected no matter where Sunset was in Equestria during the months leading up to Hearth’s Warming. The guy who lived in the apartment across from Sunset and Moondancer already decorated his entire front door. Meanwhile, the most festive thing Sunset could see was a currently inactive electronic snowman in a shop window framed in festive lights. Lily was pinning up posters while accompanied by a gothic-dressed friend, or maybe she followed the tradition of wearing black during periods of grief, which was about as uncommon as a unicorn (read: it exists somewhere, Sunset just hasn’t seen it). “Excuse me. You’re Lily, right?” Rainbow asked, Sunset lingering behind her. “Yes?” Lily’s pale hands lowered from a poster, her gothic friend holding onto the tape dispenser. It wouldn’t be much effort for the wind to whip off the posters with simple office tape (as if to tease the concept, a breeze whipped by, making the posters quiver) and Sunset would say as much if she couldn’t see the eyes of the two. Lily’s eyes were red-rimmed and glassy. Her friend’s expression looked on the verge of a sad frown. “We’re Troy Polis’ aunts. I’m Dash, this is-” “Sunset.” She supplied before Rainbow could use some other alias “We heard about what happened, figured we’d drop by. Troy loved to talk about you.” A faint blush came to Lily’s face, but Sunset suspected it was because of another chilly breeze. “He’s never mentioned you.” “Sounds like him. We’re up in Cloudsdale, so we’re only around on occasions.” “You’re putting up missing posters?” “Yeah, I mean, he’s still missing.” “Well, we were hoping to try and help. We were asking around, someone said to ask you.” Lily was quiet, mouth pressed into a line. “Ask me about what?” “Just some stuff. If you don’t mind.” “No, not at all. Anything to help find Troy.” Lily and her friend (Azure, as Rainbow and Sunset quickly learned) brought Sunset and Rainbow into a nearby cafe. It was relatively vacant, just like the streets outside. It had an orange color scheme. Peach walls, orange surfaces, and yellow and orange checkerboard tile. It was quiet with some festively colored streamers stretched from corner to corner. Lily and Azure slid into the available chairs (bright orange plastic) on one side of a table by the big windows. “So, when was the last time you saw him?” Rainbow asked, hands resting on the table. “Last time I saw him was at school... I was the last person to talk to him before he… disappeared.” “Really?” “Yeah, I was asking if he could come hang out. He said no because he had work in the morning and then the signal cut out… They found his phone in the car.” Lily spoke like someone gossiping at a funeral. “I just wish I knew what happened.” She huffed, resting her chin in the palm of her hand. “So do I.” Sunset answered, gaze shifting briefly before returning to Lily. “Was Troy acting weird at all, the last time you saw him?” Lily pursed her lips in thought briefly before she shook her head. Azure copied her, eyes going glassy for a brief moment. “Nope. He was acting the same as he always did.” Azure nodded. “He didn’t say anything weird or mention something unusual? At all?” “No,” Lily said slowly, Azure squinting somewhat at Rainbow. “Why do you ask?” Rainbow took in a deep breath -- which Sunset had a strong suspicion was only theatrical-- and cast a brief look to Sunset before looking back at the girls. “Look, the way that Troy vanished… Something’s not right. I know you know that, so if you do know anything…” “Anything, right?” “Yeah,” Rainbow added, noting the way Lily’s eyes shifted to Azure. Lily took in a breath, flattening her hands on the edge of the table. Whatever she planned to say, Azure seemed to understand and speak first. She leaned forward. “There’s this… There’s a local legend about Centennial Road. Story goes, this one girl got murdered out on Centennial while she was hitchhiking out there and she’s supposedly still out there. Anyone who pick her up, vanishes.” Azure suddenly leaned back, hands folding on the edge of the table. “That’s the story, anyway.” Rainbow and Sunset briefly shared a look. “Are there any other local tales around Centennial?” There were multiple stories surrounding Centennial. One had something to do with the founding witches and another was about the fire that took out most of the homes along that road. None of them really fit the disappearances like the hitchhiker tale. Due to Rainbow’s lack of a laptop, the two decided to go to the Hollow Shades library (which surprised Rainbow merely with its existence) which was only around the corner from the cafe. It didn’t have very many people in it, either. There was a single woman at the front desk, staring blankly past Sunset and Rainbow as they passed. The exterior of the building looked slightly like a lodge, but the inside had glass walls divvying up the rooms and shiny wood floors. There was a small, empty room decorated with brightly colored cushions and display cases for children’s books surrounding an old navy blue recliner in the same large room with walls covered in children’s artwork. Rainbow’s eyes caught on a relatively poor drawing of a man with angel wings. In scrawling blue crayon, it read ‘Goodbye Daddy.’ The more Sunset stared, the more she realized that seemed to be a sort of theme. Somehow, sketchy outlines made by kids with poor motor control and poor art supplies tugged painfully at her heart. Sunset’s shoulder brushing Rainbow’s as she walked past in the direction of the book room was what reminded Sunset of what they were here for. Rainbow’s right arm swung back and forth with each step, but her left remained relatively stuck to her side. The only people in the room was a handful of high school students milling around, scattered among the shelves, and the librarian lingering behind a tiny desk near the doorway. Rainbow and Sunset only received a few passing glances as they headed to the computers on the other side of the room. Sunset dropped into the swivel chair, leaning forward as she started typing with a familiarity Rainbow had forgotten about. Sunset pulled up the swivel chair for the neighboring computer, watching Rainbow look through a local news archive over her shoulder, typing in keywords in hope of finding something. Female murder hitchhiking didn’t bring up any results. Neither did Female murder Centennial. Then Female death hitchhiking. Rainbow huffed, slumping back in her chair. “Hey, try… Try ‘missing.’” Rainbow replaced murder with missing. One result popped up, titled Search for Missing Girl Continues. “Good job, Sunset.” Rainbow murmured, opening up the article. She read it aloud, but quietly, considering the subject. “Jade Welsh, just turned twenty-three the week before she went missing… Last seen hitchhiking at Centennial Bridge… Looks like this happened about ten to eleven years back.” Rainbow looked over at Sunset to ensure she was still tracking before looking back to the computer screen. She typed in Jade Welsh, which brought up several new results. One was about a candle-lit vigil, another about the mother hoping for her daughter to come home, and then- Multiple Remains Found. Sunset picked that one, of course, and automatically grimaced at what she found. “They found parts of her body in some guy’s trailer.” There was a grainy image of the trailer (from behind police tape), plus a photo of the killer. Sunny Charge, 30 was listed under the photo. There was a third photo, showing several officers digging holes. “And six bodies buried in the backyard.” Sunset scowled as Rainbow scrolled down the article. “It doesn’t mention where she’s buried.” “What happened to all the other bodies?” “Returned to their families and buried in proper graveyards or cremated.”   “Look for that Sunny Charge guy.” Searching for Sunny Charge, they found an article explaining that the man had committed suicide before he could be delivered to prison. “Godammit.” Sunset huffed, dropping back in her chair. She had forgotten how depressing researching could get with ghosts, watching as Rainbow’s fingers drew along her own face and briefly exposing the pink of her eyelids. “Guess we go ask her mom.” “If she’s still alive.” “I’m sure she is. We just have to get her address.” “Right…” Rainbow muttered, glaring at the computer screen. Sunset patted Rainbow on the shoulder before she got to her feet. “I just gotta print out some of these articles.” “So, we have Shining’s dog tags, four missing persons, the most recent being last night, and what might be the local ghost.” “And we don’t know where she’s buried.” Sunset added, apparently feeling more masochistic than usual. “Or where the hell Shining and Twilight wound up.” “Camping.” Sunset offered, earning a sharp look from Rainbow. Sunset’s hands attempted a placating gesture that did absolutely nothing for Sunset, which made sense; it was less a ‘woah, calm down’ gesture and more like she was just patting her thighs. “Gameplan is we figure out where that girl got buried, burn her remains to dust, and find Twilight and Shining so I can beat the shit out of them.” “Yeah,” Sunset hummed in distant agreement, gaze drifting to the dark world outside the car. “When should we check out the burned buildings?” “This ghost seems to like snatching boys in the dark of the night like a creep. So, maybe we should look at it in the morning.” “Hey, Rainbow?” “Yeah?” “How have Shining and Twilight been, exactly?” “About as good as hunters can get. The cops haven’t been after us in a while, there’ve been no debilitating injuries in the past few weeks, and Twilight managed to score this damn good bottle of whiskey. We all got completely shitfaced.” “Off one bottle? All three of you?” Rainbow glanced over at Sunset. “Eh, some drank more than others. It was really strong whiskey. Say, when was the last time you had a drink?” “Me and Moondancer went out for celebratory drinks.” “Celebrating what?” “Nightmare Night.” “Just then?” “Yeah, alcohol isn’t the only coping method.” Sunset flinched a little at her own words and the accompanying sight of Rainbow pausing. “You’re right. But it is the easiest. Speaking of coping, how the hell have you been dealing?” “When you’re not constantly throwing yourself at monsters, it’s not that hard.” Sunset wanted to bite her tongue. “Bullshit,” she said quietly. Sunset’s lungs decided air was something they needed again. “If all you needed to deal was take a break every once in a while, we’d all be perfectly fine.” “Well, Moondancer kinda helped.” “How’d you two meet?” “... At a bar… Several times.” “Now who sounds like an alcoholic? “I wasn’t the one drinking all the beer at Sandal Woodson’s party when I was sixteen.” Rainbow waved dismissively. “Tasted like crap, anyway. I was doing you poor guys a favor. Wasn’t too bad of a party, though.” “Yeah, right; you were complaining about it the whole time until someone pulled out spin-the-bottle.”   Sunset smiled. For a moment, she could forget why she was here, why they were out in some small town in the woods, and pretend this was just them hanging out and catching up like friends are supposed to. “Alright, well, let’s go check up on the notes Twilight and Shining left.” Rainbow hummed as she they pulled up in front of the motel.