Chapter Text
A yawn escaped Stelle’s mouth as she materialized at the space anchor. It was almost six in the morning, yet she was up and running already, a deadly combo… She barely even got any breakfast, but… Herta was as ruthless as always.
Another new Simulated Universe feature to test, just the usual. What was unusual is that Herta insisted she took other crew members along with her. She tapped her fingers lightly against her hip as she shifted her weight to the opposite leg, waiting for March’s form to materialize.
March—as per usual—had brightly volunteered to go along with her. She proclaimed to be the best person in the express for this kind of job, even though neither of them had any idea what the Simulated Universe-thing was about this time. She said she added a new feature, but that was all she gave them.
Dan Heng, who had been in the room, got promptly dragged into it as well, along with the companion he was just chatting with. Sunday was—also as usual—way too diligent to decline March’s pleading request. She’d almost reduced herself to pleading on the floor like a street beggar to get both of them to come along.
So Stelle wasn’t surprised when Dan Heng’s form flickered into existence at the space anchor with a slight whoosh. Before he could say anything—even though he did give Stelle a small nod—he looked backwards as two other whooshes followed. The poor bird who had appeared now almost collapsed against March after losing his balance.
“It seems I still need to get used to this…” he said with a huff as he held his hand against his head while regaining his balance promptly.
“You’ll get the hang of it,” March said proudly with a thumbs up.
Sunday nodded. “Let’s not keep Madam Herta waiting, shall we?”
Stelle exchanged a glance with him and nodded in response, before turning around. “Just follow me. I can walk this in my sleep,” she added with a grin.
“Right,” March said with a tone that suggested she wasn’t convinced at all. Stelle ignored it.
Eventually, they reached Herta’s office and a puppet greeted them as the doors slid open.
“Morning,” Stelle said with another yawn. “So what are we testing?”
“What a ray of sunshine you are,” Herta’s voice rang out from the puppet as she turned her head robotically towards Stelle, tilting it slightly. “Just a small new feature allowing more people to enter one run simultaneously. It’s still in beta though. I’m not sure if it’ll work as expected, but that’s up to you—” she looked around the four present people in the room, “—four to find out.”
March nodded proudly as she rested her hands on her hips. “You can leave it up to us! You got the perfect people for the job~!”
“Yeah yeah, I’ll be the judge of that,” Herta said as she walked over to Stelle and started pulling Stelle’s arm before pushing her forward towards the usual entrance of the Simulated Universe. “I should mention that your body is required to enter the stream of data instead of remaining in my office for this version. Apart from that, you know the drill.”
“Let’s let them enter first—”
“No can do,” Herta fully pushed Stelle onto the circle that emanated a dim glow, before her entire form dissolved into glitches with a similar sound to the space anchor. March blinked.
“Is it that easy?” she pointed at the circle.
“Well, of course it is! What else do you expect from a genius like me?” Herta huffed before she waddled back over to the three remaining people. “Alright, off you go~!” She grabbed Dan Heng’s arm and his entire body went rigid as she pulled him towards the circle and launched him forward, making him stumble forward and then disappear.
She then did the same thing with Sunday as March watched sheepishly, before she turned to March as the last person in the room.
“Do you still need me to show you how to?” Herta asked.
“N–No need!” March walked over to the circle and took a tentative step towards it, hovering right before it.
“Well what are you waiting for?” Herta said as she walked closer and then pushed March without further warning. She squealed as she tumbled forward, her foot onto the circle as she barely kept her balance. Well, she didn’t. She fell forward as her body felt like it fell through the wall and the world contorted around her as she fell downwards. This is how Stelle must’ve felt when she fell through the sky of Penacony, she figured.
Then, the world seemed to materialize in front of her again, and she fell harshly onto something warm. She groaned as she wiped the hair from her face and opened her eyes to see she had landed on a pile of people.
“Woah, how comfortable of a landing this is,” she said with a grin on her face.
Stelle, meanwhile, groaned under the weight of the others. “I can’t—” she managed to utter before a sad wheeze left her. March giggled gleefully as she laid on top of the others’ bodies.
“March,” Dan Heng’s stern yet muffled voice sounded from under her.
“Ugh! You’re no fun,” March whined as she rolled off the pile, landing on metal flooring. She looked directly up at a weird wall to the side. She rubbed her head on the spot that landed onto the floor as she sat up, looking up at the wall. There were several electronics on the wall. “Umm… Guys?”
“Hmm?” Dan Heng perked up as Sunday had picked himself up from the ground, putting his halo back on the back of his head (it had probably fallen off during the fall and rolled to the side of the van). Dan Heng, on the other hand, was still spread out over Stelle’s body on the ground. He pushed himself up with his hands past her body as he looked up to the wall. He remained silent as confusion flickered briefly on his face.
“My body, it hurts!” Stelle exclaimed with a whiny tone. “You’ve all flattened me, ahhh!”
“This is not even real, dummy.” March shoved her foot towards Stelle, who immediately rolled over and started throwing a temper-tantrum, kicking and screaming.
Dan Heng sighed sharply as he grabbed her by the sleeve of her jacket and pulled her upright. She immediately stopped and gave him a grin.
“You’re insufferable,” Dan Heng stated as he looked back at the wall of equipment March stood up in front of now
“Hey, when’d you get that?” March pointed at a belt Dan Heng was wearing around his waist. There was a small book attached to it, including spots that seemed to be made for carrying other stuff on it. Three of them, it seemed. March noticed all three of them had it, so she checked her own waste. Sure enough, around where her camera used to be, there was also a belt— Hey, wait… Used to be? “Who took my camera?!” March exclaimed immediately, checking to see if her camera was anywhere else against her body.
“Behind you,” Stelle said flatly.
March immediately spun around and took her camera that was planted on the wall of equipment. “Who dares take my camera? Hmph, rude!”
“Uhm. I don’t mean to interrupt but…” Sunday spoke up, “…this book reads Ghost Huntin’, A Survivor’s Guide.”
“What?” Dan Heng turned towards him slowly and glanced at the small book. Sunday nudged it closer towards him so he could read it. He had been right. The small book did read exactly that.
“Ghost what now?!” March exclaimed. “Hey, wait— how is this supposed to be the Simulated Universe?! It sounds nothing like what you told me about!”
Stelle shrugged. “It definitely isn’t.”
“Might be important enough to share with us,” Dan Heng said while crossing his arms disappointedly. Stelle smiled.
“You wouldn’t know the difference anyways,” Stelle retorted as her gaze fell onto the whiteboard.
‘Case #1: Anthony Barber’, ‘Responds to: People who are alone.’
Stelle tried to make sense of what the second part on the white paper-ish looking thing attached to the whiteboard was, to no avail. It didn’t make sense.
Sunday, meanwhile, opened the small journal. However—just then—the radio started to crackle softly before a static voice rang out, catching everyone’s attention in an instant.
“Welcome, new investigators to your first paranormal investigation. This first investigation will take place at the designated map, of which you can see the layout on the top left monitor next to the pinboard. The previous owners of this house left in a hurry. The ghost was likely summoned with a cursed object. It is your task to use the equipment in this van to correctly identify the ghost’s type so the exorcists can use the correct methods of exorcism to get rid of the ghost. You’ll have to find its favorite room, where it roams around to find its evidence,” the voice explained. Then, it started to crackle out again: “It is… impor— to… remind— do not… anger— ghost.”
As if on cue, the voice died. Ceased to exist. Stopped sounding, or whatever other synonyms could be used. Stelle didn’t really care. “So we’re ghost hunters now, huh?” Stelle’s eyes gleamed with excitement.
“No, no no… Please! Anything but ghosts!” March whinged, practically pleading. “Just take me to the Simulated Universe, please! I beg you, Stelle— I don’t want to go ghost hunting!”
“I don’t even know how we ended up here myself,” Stelle shrugged. “No can do. Besides, this sounds fun.” Stelle moved past March to the board of equipment.
“It seems like we need to find three pieces of evidence for the ghost. Then we can cross them in the journal and find out which type it is,” Sunday explained, lightly tapping his finger against the aged paper.
Stelle grabbed a TV-remote looking thing and fiddled with the buttons. It beeped on and off, showing only one green dot on the left when she turned it on. She continued turning it on and off, but when it eventually didn’t do anything anymore, she put it back on the wall.
“What are the possible pieces of evidence?” Dan Heng inquired as he joined Stelle at the wall.
Sunday hummed. “Let me read them up for you… EMF 5, Spirit Box, Freezing Temperatures, D.O.T.S. Projector, Ultraviolet, Ghost Orbs, Ghost writing.”
“So you’re telling me we’re going into an actual haunted house with an actual haunting ghost? Oh, Aeons, save me! I’m too young and beautiful to die!” March continued whining. Dan Heng plainly ignored her pleas.
“Okay,” he responded to Sunday as he grabbed something from the wall and flicked it on. A small static sound originated from it. “I’m assuming this must be the spirit box, which we can communicate with the ghost with.”
“Cool,” Stelle said as she attached the small remote to her belt.
“We should all take two important things for evidence and a flashlight,” Dan Heng stated.
“I’m taking my camera… For— for mental support!” March exclaimed.
“It says here we can get extra money for videos, photos and sound recordings,” Sunday said.
“Even more reason to take my camera!” March hummed as she grabbed one of the four flashlights.
“We’ll need to find the ghost’s favorite room, like the radio had told us,” Dan Heng stated as he grabbed a device that looked like an electric thermometer from the wall. He switched it on briefly before turning it off again. “I’m assuming that means we should find the coldest room, given that freezing temperatures is one piece of possible evidence.”
“Cold Dragon Young is going to carry us all in this investigation,” Stelle declared proudly.
Dan Heng gave her an unimpressed glare instead, then turned back to the wall.
“Hey, guys, look!” March chimed in, who had moved towards the monitors opposite from the equipment wall, the one the radio guy had talked about. “What do they mean with… ‘sanity monitor’?”
Dan Heng immediately moved around and joined her at the wall of monitors. After a moment more of pondering and expectant looks from all three others, he spoke up again: “It’s monitoring our sanity. Literally.”
“Wait— wait, what? So you’re saying we’re going to go insane!?” March exclaimed, gesturing at the screen with disbelief.
“I’m not saying that.”
“Well then what does it mean?! Hey, and what is this? ‘Activity monitor’?”
“Well if it’s a ghost we’re dealing with, that likely means it’s monitoring paranormal activity in the house,” Sunday added calmly, making Dan Heng nod in agreement. He still had a slight suspicious look on his face though.
“And you’re both cool with this?” March continued with disbelief.
“This most likely isn’t real. We stepped into the Simulated Universe, didn’t we? It might just be… Herta playing a trick on us. Trying to test our methods of problem-solving sounds in character for her,” Dan Heng said as he attached something else to his belt, something he had been holding as he walked over to the board.
“I believe Mr. Dan Heng is right,” Sunday chimed in. “Besides, I can’t feel the power of the Harmony I can usually manifest quite easily. Madam Herta must’ve known what she was doing.”
“That’s supposed to reassure me?!”
“Chill out, ice queen. We’ll be alright,” Stelle lightly tapped March’s shoulder a few times before walking past her to the wall of equipment. She grabbed something that looked like a flashlight and turned it on, purple light streaming out. She hummed in amusement as she shone it around, then aiming it at Sunday who immediately shut his eyes, his wings instinctively hiding his eyes.
“Stelle!” March interrupted her. “You’re going to blind the poor man!”
She shrugged as she turned the light off and turned back to the wall.
Sunday opened his eyes and rubbed them. “It would be preferable if I could keep my eyesight, Miss Stelle.”
“Let’s not shine ultraviolet light into each others’ eyes, Stelle,” Dan Heng said with a sigh.
“Awh,” Stelle said with a sad sigh as she attached the flashlight to her belt.
“Guys, guys! What are we doing? We’re not going inside, right?” March’s panicking voice started again.
“That’s exactly what we’re going to do,” Stelle said as she turned to March with a smirk.
“What!? NO!?” March’s eyes practically pooled out of their sockets as she hastily looked between the three others in the room.
Stelle quickly grabbed something that looked like a video camera from the wall of equipment and a flashlight before she moved past March towards the keypad next to what seemed like doors of a van. She pressed it while March protested in the background and she grabbed the keys, ignoring the girl’s pleas. “Let’s go.”
“Let’s NOT GO?! Heck— I’m not going in!” March stomped her foot onto the metal foot, pouting as she crossed her arms. The door opened with a screech, expanding towards the outside.
“Stelle, wait up— No, don’t go yet, we don’t know—“ Dan Heng said hastily as he walked over towards her, but she was already making her way outside onto the pavement that led up to a door.
“She’s crazy, I’m telling you! Insane!” March exclaimed as a shiver went down her spine at the thought of the house.
“The sanity monitor says she’s at 100%,” Sunday said as he blinked cluelessly over at March.
“She’s still insane,” March sneered back.
Sunday sighed, his wings twitching on his side slightly. “Miss March, I think it might be preferable if we join them. Splitting up in these types of situations is… less advisable.”
Meanwhile, Stelle had already made her way over to the door.
She inserted the key into the lock and opened the door with a wide swing, before a silent dark void met her.
“Well, that’s rather anticlimactic,” she clicked her tongue as she grabbed her flashlight. “I expected something to jump me, actually.”
Dan Heng, who had made his way to her side, huffed a breath of exhaustion. “Stelle— Wait up—”
But she was already walking into the house. Dan Heng pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a sharp breath, but followed her nonetheless.
As Stelle entered the house, an old smell immediately met her. She shone the flashlight into the hallway, seeing a cupboard tucked to the side of the hallway, shoes underneath it. A small key was in a bowl. She walked past it, following along the hallway into a living room with footsteps beside her.
“We should wait for the others,” Dan Heng’s voice sounded from her side, sounding more shallow than outside.
“They’ll find their way,” Stelle said flatly as she aimed her flashlight into the room, at the small, low and rectangular coffee table between the couch and the window. On the left, against the wall, there was a TV. Bookshelves were positioned around it, books stacked inside them. “This place looks like grandparents lived in it,” Stelle noted.
“Maybe because it was,” Dan Heng said with an exasperated tone. “Look, Stelle—” he pulled the sleeve of her jacket and spun her around to face him, her golden eyes looking over innocently, “—we don’t know what we’re exactly dealing with yet, so going headfirst into it might not be our best shot at this.”
“Do you have any better ideas?” Stelle crossed her arms defiantly. “I’d love to hear ‘em.”
When Dan Heng fell silent—opening his mouth to say something and then closing it again—Stelle huffed.
“That’s what I thought.”
“Fine, let’s just… find the ghost room, I suppose. But if something’s remotely off we’re leaving,” Dan Heng proclaimed.
Meeting his teal gaze, Stelle smirked. “Dan Heng— are you… scared?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Dan Heng huffed defensively, “I’m just cautious.”
“Ah, no— you’re scared! Hah, I can see it in your eyes,” she teased him, before smirking even more.
Dan Heng simply glared at her. “Let’s go.”
He walked past her to the left into another small pathway to a room in the back, grabbing his flashlight from his belt.
Stelle chuckled under her breath before she looked at her own belt, noticing a small radio attached next to the book. An idea popped up in Stelle’s mind. An amazing one that made her grin. She grabbed the radio from her belt and tested a few buttons. One of them emitted a static sound, which she presumed meant that her microphone would be on.
“Ah— March, help! I’m being attacked by a ghost~” she screamed into the mic before releasing the button and giggling mischievously. She then looked in the hallway and saw Dan Heng standing there with a disbelieving glare.
“Stelle, seriously?” he said with a dull expression in his eyes. He then grabbed his walkie-talkie and turned it on. “Dan Heng here, Stelle was not being serious,” he said all the while glaring at Stelle.
“Hehe—” Stelle chuckled as she put the walkie-talkie back on her belt.
Just when she wanted to go inside, a sound could be heard from the front door that made her turn. Her gaze then met with March being dragged inside by Sunday.
“Stop, no— NO PLEASE I DON’T WANT TO DIE YET—” she exclaimed as Sunday dragged her through the front door. Stelle held a hand over her mouth to suppress a chuckle at the sight.
“I’m sorry Miss March but… We must follow Mr. Dan Heng’s wishes to stay together. I sincerely apologize…” Sunday kept muttering politely as March’s body got dragged over the floor while throwing a tantrum, her body writhing futilely.
“I’M TOO YOUNG TO DIE—” March continued. Dan Heng joined Stelle’s side and looked down at March with visible disappointment. Sunday met Stelle’s gaze with a sheepish smile.
“Special delivery?” Stelle barely managed to utter without bursting into laughter.
“As special as it can be,” Sunday said while pulling March’s body forward by her leg and carefully putting it on the floor along with the rest of her body.
She immediately pushed herself up. “YOU,” she glared at Sunday, “DO YOU WANT ME TO DIE?”
“I’ve already recounted my reasoning with you. I bear no ill intent, I assure you—”
“I DON’T CARE—”
Sunday blinked at her raise of voice, his wings twitching awkwardly beside him.
“March, let’s not—” Dan Heng tried to stop her from jumping Sunday, but instead got just that. March jumped onto Dan Heng as he stumbled backwards with a groan, barely keeping upright and clearly caught off guard.
“Dan Heng, I’m so scared—” March yelped as she held onto him like he was her only chance at survival.
“You’re such a scaredy cat," Stelle scoffed as she spun the flashlight in her hand, aiming it at Dan Heng and March so she could actually see them in the dark.
March gasped and immediately jumped off of Dan Heng, squinting her eyes at the amount of light directed at her face. “Am not!”
“Prove it,” Stelle said with a grin.
“Bet,” March said as she strode past Stelle, towards the side Dan Heng had gone off to before. She opened a door on the left, before her gaze quickly fell downward. “Oh, hell no! I’m not going in here—” she immediately shut the door. “Basements are a no-go in horror films!”
“This is not a film, March,” Dan Heng said with an exasperated sigh.
“Well what is it then?” March exclaimed. “It’s certainly not the Simulated Universe!”
“Like Mr. Dan Heng said before, it is most likely a test from Madam Herta,” Sunday said calmly.
“I’ll go check it out then,” Stelle said as she walked past March, opening the door to the basement and going down the stairs without hesitation. At the end of the staircase, there was a small box against the wall with a triangle on the small door. She opened it and was met with cables and a small switch on top of it, a dim red light burning next to it.
She switched it. Nothing happened, but the light was green now. Stelle shrugged and closed the small door before she aimed her flashlight around. There was a huge table with a train track on it. Stelle blinked, making sure she was seeing it right.
“—I’m telling you, she’s going to get herself killed!” March’s muffled voice sounded from above the basement, but Stelle’s attention wasn’t on that anymore. She made her way around the table slowly as she traced the track by aiming her flashlight at it and following it. Eventually, she found a small train standing still. It awfully reminded her of the Astral Express she was used to, so she hummed with amusement. It also reminded her of the miniature Express Aventurine had given her. At the end of the table, there were a few more buttons. She turned one of them and the track started emitting light from the small houses on the side. She turned another one, and the train started choo-ing and driving over the track.
Footsteps sounded from the stairs and Stelle looked over, aiming her flashlight there. Sunday—now standing near the box—squinted his eyes at the light. Stelle quickly moved the flashlight downwards.
He walked over to the table. “What’s this?”
“A train track, apparently. Maybe grandpa loved collecting trains or something,” Stelle hummed as she put her flashlight down onto the table. The warm, golden glow from the houses reflected onto their faces, making them able to see each other well enough.
Sunday loosely traced the table with his glove as he walked along it, the train whistling as it moved over the track with a consistent ‘da-dum, da-dum’.
“It’s… oddly reminiscent of the Astral Express,” Sunday noted as he reached Stelle’s side.
She nodded. “I thought that too,” she added as her eyes traced the small train with lights. “Hey, maybe Welt would like this—”
“—we’re not taking an entire table upstairs with us,” he shook his head immediately, his wings following suit.
“Awh… Worth a try,” Stelle clicked her tongue disappointedly.
“Though, I must agree. Mr. Yang does seem like he would be fond of trinkets like these,” Sunday said after a moment of silence.
Stelle made her way to the other side of the train track and placed her finger onto the miniature train, tracing it as it went along the track.
“Miss Stelle, I don’t mean to intrude, but I’ve been meaning to—” Sunday started.
He didn’t finish, because a loud scream immediately caught both of them off guard. Stelle’s eyes widened as her gaze met Sunday’s.
“March—” Stelle said before she made a run for it, skipping over 2 stairs at a time. When she reached the top of the stairs, she immediately stared into an open room where March was standing with wide eyes, a small room with the light on. Dan Heng was standing behind her, looking at the same spot where she was staring. She turned to Stelle and pointed in that direction, but no words left her mouth.
Stelle strode into the room and turned to the direction she was pointing at. The soft hum of a… washing machine. She blinked twice as she made her way over to the washing machine, before clicking it off.
“I— I didn’t— THAT WASN’T ME, I SWEAR!” March squeaked with a high pitch as her pointed finger shook. Sunday entered the room now too.
“Well… I believe March has found the ghost room,” Dan Heng chimed in. Stelle looked at him over her shoulder and he was checking the thermometer. “Temperature has significantly dropped in this room compared to the garage. It went from around 15 degrees to around… 7 degrees.”
“W–Wait, you’re saying— THE GHOST IS IN THE SAME ROOM AS ME NOW?” March said frantically, her eyes wide with fear. However, when she wanted to hurry out of the room, Sunday was in her way. “Come on, move it!”
“At least drop the evidence items here if you’re going back to the van,” Dan Heng said absently as he scribbled something down in his journal, not even looking up.
“F–Fine!” March grabbed the small projector and the photo camera she had attached to her belt and mindlessly dropped them onto the ground, before hurrying past Sunday, who had made place for her to walk past.
“Jeez,” Stelle scoffed and crossed her arms.
“Don’t be too hard on her,” Dan Heng said as he clicked the pen closed and attached the journal back to his belt. “Set up the video camera you took so March can actually view from the van. We can still keep contact with her through the walkie-talkie.”
“Alright, bet,” Stelle said, determined to be helpful. She grabbed the video camera from her belt and looked at it. It appeared to be off… or rather, she had no way of telling if it was actually on or off. Then, she found a small flap on the side of the video camera and opened it. With a small beep, video feed appeared onto the flap. Stelle grinned victoriously.
“I grabbed these with me in the van. Could they be of any use to you, Mr. Dan Heng?” Sunday held out a small book and the TV-remote Stelle had been toying with before.
“Yes, could you read in the journal what they do?” Dan Heng asked as he pressed the thermometer’s button once more.
“Mmm, count on it,” Sunday said as he carefully put the stuff down on the floor and grabbed his journal.
Stelle aimed the hand camera at herself and waved. “Hello, hello? Test, test… March, can you hear me?”
“I’m not sure if it projects sound,” Dan Heng chimed in with a slight smile on his face. Stelle rolled her eyes as she fumbled through the buttons and found the one to turn on live feed towards the van. She then put the small video camera on top of the counter next to the washing machine and dryer. She then grabbed her walkie-talkie and pushed the button, static emerging once more.
“March, can you hear me?” Stelle said into the small radio transmitter. She awaited response for a moment, before she opened her mouth to speak once more—
“Loud and clear! Hey, this is pretty cool, I can see you three from the camera. Woah, I can even turn on night vision! Fancy tech if you ask me,” March’s voice yapped through the walkie-talkie. Stelle positioned herself in front of the video camera and waved. “Hi Stelle,” she giggled into the microphone. A small pause, before she spoke up again. “Guys, why is it snowing there?”
Dan Heng’s face distorted into confusion. “Snowing? What is she on about?”
Stelle pressed the walkie-talkie again. “Dan Heng’s asking what you’re on about.”
“Hey, I’m serious!” she said with a not-so-serious tone. “There’s like… Small white flakes floating about. Not much, but at least one at a time,” March said incredulously.
Stelle exchanged a look with both Dan Heng and Sunday, then shrugged. “Did you take your meds?” she asked after pressing the button.
“H–Hey! What do you mean, meds? I don’t need meds, I’m perfectly healthy!” March exclaimed, her voice booming through the radio. “Are you insinuating that I’m schizophrenic?”
“I mean, not the first time you’re seeing things,” Stelle said under her breath without activating the microphone. She heard a chuckle from her side that quickly waned away again, her gaze falling towards the Halovian on her side who looked like he was actively suppressing laughter. Quite unusual for him, she figured.
“So?” March persisted.
“Yes,” Stelle said flatly into the microphone before she stashed it back on her belt.
March flew into an entire speech on reasons why she wasn’t schizophrenic while Stelle fumbled with the UV flashlight.
“I think I found what Miss March meant,” Sunday suddenly spoke up a while later.
“Oh?” Stelle tilted her head, waiting for his explanation.
“There's one piece of evidence in the guide that’s called Ghost Orbs. It says here that they are ‘small floating orbs of light, only visible through a camera’. It might be what Miss March was hinting at,” Sunday explained as Stelle looked at the journal he was holding and back at his eyes.
She then grabbed the walkie-talkie. “Good news, you might not be schizophrenic after all. Congrats.”
“You’ll have to elaborate further on that,” Dan Heng huffed.
Stelle sighed and rolled her eyes. “March, are the things you’re seeing looking like orbs?”
“Yeah! Small floating orbs, there isn’t a better way to put it,” March’s voice sounded through the static. Dan Heng and Sunday exchanged a nod.
“That means we have successfully identified the first piece of evidence,” Sunday said with a small smile on his face.
“Good job March, you’re not utterly useless,” Stelle added into the microphone and then stashed it away, her lips pressed in a thin line as she awaited a hundred more curses to be thrown at her.
Sure enough, the curses came not even a second delayed, while Dan Heng gave Stelle another glare. Stelle tried her absolute best not to burst out in laughter when all of the sudden, the warm light that once illuminated the room went out with a flick. Even March fell silent on the walkie-talkie.
“Uhm… Is it just me or did the light just go out?” March’s voice sounded hesitantly a few seconds after.
“Duh,” Stelle said. “State the obvious.”
“Did either of you do that?” Dan Heng asked through the darkness.
“No,” both Stelle and Sunday said in choir.
Then, Sunday spoke up again. “Wait, I had just read something about this… I could test it…” Sunday said as a rustling sounded in the dark room. Then, a small dot— No, wait… Two small dots and continuous beeping sound. “EMF 2, it appears.”
“Elaborate,” Dan Heng said simply.
“The guide stated that ‘Some Ghosts leave Electro Magnetic Fields when they interact with things’. This small remote appears to be a reader for that, so an EMF reader. It means the ghost interacted with something in the range of this EMF reader, therefore it turned the light off,” Sunday stated calmly.
“Quick thinking,” Dan Heng said, his voice sounding strangely proud. “Could you turn on the light?”
“Ah— Yes, of course,” Sunday said before the light switched on after a few seconds of grasping to find the switch, a warm glow on their faces again before they all squinted at the same time, their eyes adjusting once more.
“What’s going on?” March’s voice sounded from the walkie-talkie again.
“Ghost decided to keep us in the dark,” Stelle said mysteriously into the static with a huge grin plastered on her face.
“Ah! The ghost turned off the light?!” March squealed.
“You don’t get to be scared when you’re outside,” Stelle declared.
“Hey! It was ME who found out about the orbs thingy! Cut me some slack!” March said with disbelief laced into her voice.
“Right,” Stelle said unimpressed as she attached the walkie-talkie back to her belt once again and glanced over at Dan Heng, who was looking at his journal with a frown. “What’s up?”
“I crossed Ghost Orbs in the evidence section of the journal… and it automatically crossed off some of the ghost types…?” Dan Heng said as he slowly looked back up to Stelle and Sunday, who were both looking with confusion now. Stelle moved over towards him and glanced over into the journal. He had been right. There had been some names… which she assumed were ghost types that were crossed out, or at least they were less visible than before. Like someone had tried erasing them with an eraser but didn’t manage to fully erase it.
“Woah, cool. Hey, what’s this,” she pointed at the old paper, “o–bake? Who’s baking a cake?”
Dan Heng clicked his tongue and sighed. “No, Stelle. It’s pronounced as oh–bah–key. You emphasize the ‘ba’ syllable instead of the ‘ke’. It’s a Japanese word.”
“Woah, you know about ghost types?” Stelle looked at him with an impressed look. He met her gaze and shook his head.
“No, I just happen to have something called common sense.” He shut the journal with a small thud that echoed through the utility closet.
Stelle rolled her eyes and walked back to her spot next to the washing machine, to observe the room.
“This other book I took with me appears to be a writing book. It is to be put open inside the ghost room, and the ghost might write in it. That’s one possible piece of evidence too,” Sunday explained as he crouched down onto the ground with one knee on the floor. He put the journal aside and grabbed the book, opening it and swishing through the pages. Then, he put it open on the floor. Literally.
“Cool. So he might draw me a portrait?”
“...that’s out of the question,” Dan Heng replied with a deadpan expression.
“Awh… Shucks, I really thought I might get a free portrait done…” Stelle pouted.
Dan Heng sighed as he shook his head and crouched down to the floor, picking up the small device March had dropped. His face distorted into a frown of confusion, Stelle noticed. He then proceeded to press a button in the middle and all of the sudden, the device opened and overlaid a projection of green dots onto the entire surroundings.
“Woah,” Stelle said in awe.
“This must be the D.O.T.S. Projector, then?” Dan Heng said as he looked up to Sunday, who just nodded without a thought.
“That seems to be the case, I presume,” Sunday said as his gaze was still fixated on the journal. He was back to standing up near the doorway.
“So how does it work?” Stelle questioned.
“I have no clue. Read it in the journal or something,” Dan Heng said as he placed the projector on the wall. It actually stuck against the wall, to his surprise and projected green dots onto the entire room. On the side Stelle was standing, though, the dots were a bit weaker, because it was the exact opposite of the projector. Both Sunday and Dan Heng were fully covered by the projected dots.
Stelle took the journal from her belt when suddenly the light turned off again, leaving her with not enough light to read. “Oh come on!” Stelle exclaimed, waving her hands into the air in frustration. She could still see the others now, but only their outlines by the green dots on them. It looked a bit strange, Stelle supposed.
“Miss Stelle, you have the UV light, right?” Sunday inquired. Stelle frowned but nodded. “Could I borrow it for a moment?”
“Uh yeah,” Stelle said as she took it from her belt and threw it over at him. He barely caught it, almost losing his balance in the process. He turned on the UV light after and shone it onto the light switch.
“Hey, isn’t that—” Dan Heng spoke up as he walked closer towards the small purple circle. There was green fluorescent light reflected on the light switch. “Fingerprints…” he said as he took a closer look.
“It appears we found another piece of evidence,” Sunday said with an undeniable hint of pride in his voice.
“Great job Sunny,” Stelle teased him with a smile. Sunday seemed to intentionally ignore the mention of the nickname once again, given his tendency to tell her he preferred not to be called that. Stelle kept calling him by that anyway, though.
“Ultraviolet,” Dan Heng muttered under his breath before he switched the light and took out his journal, crossing it in the evidence section. “It can be either a… Banshee, Hantu or an Obake,” Dan Heng said as he looked back up at the other two in the room. He then grabbed his walkie-talkie. “Dan Heng here, March, what’s our sanity? Over.”
A static filled the room again. “Uhm… Let me see— Ah, yes. Dan Heng, you have 75%, Sunday has 78% and Stelle has… 71%.”
“Thank you. Out.”
“Out where?” March continued.
Dan Heng sighed. “It means the conversation is done,” he said exasperatedly before stashing the walkie-talkie back on his belt, clearly disappointed with the lack of knowledge March had.
Stelle raised her eyebrows with a sigh and turned back to her journal. She sifted through the pages until she found one with ‘Gathering Evidence’ on top of it. Her gaze then fell on the D.O.T.S. Projector on the right bottom.
‘A laser of grid light that can reveal the silhouette of the ghost.’
That was all there was on the page. Stelle sighed and closed the book. It told her zero to nothing about how it actually worked. Was she supposed to see the ghost walking past or something? Because it clearly wasn’t there.
Then, another static filled the room. It phased between loud and quiet for a single moment, as if it were glitching. Stelle raised an eyebrow, noticing Dan Heng was holding a small radio with an orange screen on it. That’s where the noise came from.
“Is that the Spirit Box?” Sunday inquired, pointing loosely at the small box.
“I assume so,” Dan Heng said. “I think the lights need to be off when I try it out, if I read that correctly.”
“Mmm. Alright,” Sunday said, then turned to Stelle. “I assume we’ll need to leave the room so Mr. Dan Heng can try it out.”
“Really? I can ask it—”
“Not happening,” Dan Heng intercepted her.
“But—”
“Not happening,” he repeated plainly. Stelle pouted and sighed, but walked out of the room anyway.
“You’re no fun,” she shouted behind her. “Have fun with your friend… What was his name again? Anthony Barber? Have fun with Anthony!”
Sunday sighed softly on her side, but didn’t say anything as he shone in front of them so they could find the exit door. Stelle heard Dan Heng’s voice as she left, presuming that he was actually talking to the ghost.
They were immediately met with the sight of March leaning on the metal table with CCTV cameras and radios next to it, a huge timer above it that caught Stelle’s eye. ‘00:00’, it read in blocky red.
March—who perked up at the sound of the two on the metal flooring of the van—turned on her heel with a surprised look. “What is he doing? Why is he talking if you’re not there?”
“He’s communicating with Anthony,” Stelle said with a grin.
“Anthony? Who the hell is Anthony?” March asked incredulously.
Stelle then slowly turned her head towards the whiteboard and nudged her head towards it. March turned around by 90 degrees to look at the board. A soft ‘oh’ escaped her mouth. Then another that sounded more… distraught, before she slowly turned to look at Stelle.
“He’s COMMUNICATING WITH THE GHOST!??” March exclaimed, her jaw dropping. “ALONE?!”
“That’s supposed to be, yeah.” Stelle huffed as she crossed her arms, enjoying March’s surprise.
“I sure hope everything is going smoothly on his side,” Sunday added.
“YEAH I HOPE SO TOO?!” March exclaimed.
“Okay, can you like… stop screaming in our ears? I’d prefer not to go deaf today and I’m sure the same goes for Sunny over here,” Stelle said, waving at March to tone it down.
March cleared her throat. “Right, sorry.”
She turned back to the huge screen with CCTV. Stelle joined her side and looked onto the screen. The night vision reflected on Dan Heng’s eyes as he paced around the room talking, the box in his hand. Then a small ball of white light floating around caught Stelle’s eyes. That must be the ghost orbs March had seen before.
Dan Heng on the screen stopped pacing and grabbed his walkie-talkie from the belt. A static filled the van. Stelle silently wondered how she didn’t hear all three of the walkie-talkie’s at the same time, but then she noticed that she mysteriously had an earpiece in her ear that filtered out the sound of the walkie-talkie for her. It kinda baffled her, given that it had sounded like it was in the room before, not projected directly into her ear.
“No spirit box response so far, over.”
“So it’s probably not that evidence then?” March questioned the walkie-talkie she held.
“Likely not, but it’s not totally out of the question.”
“We’re only one piece of evidence away from finding the ghost type, right?” March continued.
A moment of silence before Dan Heng spoke up again through the radio. “Correct.”
“Alright. Cool. Uh— Out, I guess?” March said awkwardly before she put the walkie-talkie down on the metal table. “Phew… I clearly hadn’t expected we’d go actual ghost hunting on a trip to the Simulated Universe. Can you believe it?”
“Hard to believe, but yes. It’s what happened, I guess,” Stelle said with a grin, clearly happy about getting to hunt literal ghosts.
“It was… an unexpected occurrence," Sunday said flatly, an awkward attempt to join the conversation. Stelle glanced over at him and noticed the slight flush on his cheeks, noticing his embarrassment. She didn’t pry on it this time, simply turning around before she’d shown the grin on her face at seeing the Halovians red cheeks.
“I wonder if Herta is smiling at seeing our asses being beaten by this stupid ghost,” March said with a pout.
“The only one’s ass Anthony is beating is yours because you keep being scared shitless,” Stelle hummed amusedly.
“Hey, that has nothing to do with it!” March gasped dramatically. “I’m not scared, I’m just— cautious!”
“That’s funny,” Stelle said. “Because Dan Heng used the exact same excuse around 15 minutes ago.”
March looked at her with confusion.
“Yeah, seems like you’re not that different from him after all.”
Sunday grabbed his walkie-talkie, Stelle noticed in her peripheral vision.
“Mr. Dan Heng, your sanity is reaching 65%. Might I inquire you to be careful? Over,” Sunday said into the walkie-talkie.
“I’ll… be careful. There has been no ghost writing so far, nor has there been any sign of the ghost on the D.O.T.S. projector. Spirit box hasn’t had any advancements either. I’m going to check the temperature again in a few minutes. Over.”
“Roger that,” Sunday said.
“I’ll go back in,” Stelle said as she grabbed a cross from the wall. “Hey, might this compel the ghost in any way?”
“I think I read about that one. It is supposed to be a crucifix that prevents the ghost from attacking in a certain radius,” Sunday explained.
“Woah, alright,” Stelle took it from the wall, along with a lantern and lighter. With her new stash, she took off despite March’s protests for her ‘safety’. She made her way through the hallway again, then twice to the right into the utility room where Dan Heng was.
“Hi,” he greeted her.
She returned him with the exact same as she put the crucifix on the ground in the middle of the room.
“Could you check around with the EMF reader? For EMF 5,” Dan Heng asked.
Stelle nodded and hummed as she crouched down to the ground to pick up the EMF reader after turning on the lantern, a warm glow among the projected green dots.
She then picked up the small remote and turned it on with a soft beep.
“The temperature's hovering around 1,” Dan Heng noted.
“Mm,” Stelle hummed as she held the remote and moved it around slightly. Then, she heard something fall and the EMF spiked to three dots. “Woah, did it just…?”
“Yeah. The ghost threw something,” Dan Heng finished her sentence.
“Cool. Though maybe Anthony wants me dead,” Stelle added.
“I wouldn’t recommend throwing the ghost’s name around near its presence—“
“Oh yeah? Well guess what, I’m not scared of you, Anthony Barber. You don’t faze me,” Stelle threatened with a grin. Then, the EMF went up to four dots, a higher beep. She blinked.
A loud exhale sounded behind her and she let out a small scream as she turned around in an instant, almost falling over the lantern.
“What the fuck?” Stelle exclaimed.
“You probably angered it,” Dan Heng said flatly, though a hint of amusement was laced to his voice even if he tried hiding it. “But seriously, be careful. We don’t know what this ghost can do.”
Stelle’s heart rate slowly lowered back into its usual steady pace as the EMF stopped its continuous beep back into the silence except for their breathing.
The walkie-talkie sounded again. “Miss Stelle, I must take notice… your sanity dropped by 10% in a single second. The activity meter also spiked. Did something happen?” Sunday’s voice crackled from the radio. Stelle sighed and grabbed her own radio, pushing the button.
“Anthony had it out for me. Breathed in my back,” Stelle said, huffing with laughter afterwards.
“Ah— I… see?” Sunday said with obvious confusion.
A moment more passed. Dan Heng was still monitoring the temperature while Stelle walked around the room, checking for possible EMF-readings.
Then, Stelle spoke up. “Say, don’t you feel like it feels… colder? I know we have the power of the Trailblaze, but it feels a bit like in Jarilo VI when the cold seeped through our powers, ya know,” she said, turning to Dan Heng who tilted his head slightly at her words. He let out a breath that puffed into a small cloud of air.
“I agree,” said Dan Heng with a frown. “Wait— It’s going below 1 now… 0.7… 0.8… 0.5…” he said, monitoring it out loud now.
“Oh?” Stelle stopped in her tracks.
“Ah— It appears we have found our final piece of evidence. Freezing temperatures. It just hit -0.1,” he explained, then pulled out the journal as he walked towards Stelle to flip the light on in the room.
“Cool.”
Another breath formed a small white cloud as he crossed another evidence, before circling the only remaining ghost type. “It’s a Hantu, it appears.”
Then, the light flipped off again. Stelle noticed a huge ball of white air coming from the garage, but before she could tell him anything about it— another loud exhale sounded in the room. Even Dan Heng flinched this time.
“Oh come on!” he muttered, clearly annoyed. “Let’s get out of—“
A spiking hot warmth filled the room in an instant, a huge warm glow coming from the ground. Both Stelle and Dan Heng’s eyes widened at the sudden source of light. It was none other than the crucifix that had somehow caught fire, then dimmed again into a steady orange glow, slowly dying out into a red glow and into no glow at all.
“What the fuck just happened?” Stelle exclaimed, her jaw dropped as she pointed at the crucifix.
“Let’s go, we’ll look for answers once we’re outside this house. Best not to stick here long,” Dan Heng said as he pulled Stelle with him by tugging her arm, making his way to the hallway and then to the front door. They entered the van, gaining two frowns from March and Sunday.
“What in the silver rails just happened?!” March exclaimed. “Did something burn or something? I swear we saw flames on the ground, embers coming from it!”
Sunday nodded as March explained. Dan Heng pondered for a moment.
Stelle then spoke up again. “Wait, Sunday. What did you say about the crucifix again?”
“Umm… It can prevent an attack from the ghost. I don’t know how, though.”
“That must be it!” Stelle exclaimed, looking at Dan Heng as if she just cracked an impossible formula.
He simply nodded. “So the ghost tried attacking,” he said as his gaze fell to the sanity board. “My sanity is fluctuating around 47%. The attacks must have something to do with it, right?”
“Oh, by the way. We got the ghost type, it’s a Hantu,” Stelle added. “Dan Heng found freezing temperatures.”
March gasped. “Really?! What does that one do?”
Sunday pulled out his journal and skimmed the page. “It says here that… ‘a Hantu is a rare ghost that thrives in the cold climates. The cold seems to make them more aggressive and empowered,’” Sunday read from the page. “It seems this links the freezing temperatures you mentioned earlier. It might also be the reason it attacked, given its enhanced aggression.”
Stelle nodded.
“Alright, let’s finally finish this stupid test from Herta,” March proclaimed as she strode over to the keypad of the van. A voice emanated from a small screen under the keypad.
“Insert ghost type,” it said.
March carefully started typing, the small pad beeping five times as March stuck her tongue out unconsciously. “H… a… n… t… u!” she read out as she typed it. Then, another beep as she clicked on the confirm button.
“Press the keypad above to close the van and complete the investigation.”
March pressed it without hesitation and the doors started screeching as they closed.
“Hey wait, we didn’t pick up our stuff inside—” Stelle said before an overwhelming sensation took over, as if she were thrust into a void. It felt like she stumbled forward, before she blinked and suddenly stood in another room with a screen in front of her. It started counting up money, or somthing… But at least they had the ghost type correct, it seemed. She blinked, regaining her balance and breath.
“Woah—“ March exclaimed, her voice cracking as she caught herself. “Did we just…?”
“Teleport?” Dan Heng finished from her side. “It appears so.”
“It feels nothing like the space anchors,” Stelle noted. “Much more… floaty,” she added with a stupid grin.
“We’re not back in Herta’s office?” Dan Heng frowned as he looked around. It looked like a huge lobby, a shop to the right side of the projected board they were just at with items sprawled out in the displays. Then, in the back behind the shop, more empty display cases, waiting to be filled. In the back, diagonally opposite from the shop, there was a staircase up to a higher part of the lobby. A stack of bricks and a basketball hoop were the only things Stelle could tell were there from where she was standing.
“We’re not in Simulated Universe either,” Stelle added, turning her gaze toward Dan Heng.
March walked past them towards the board with the payout and clicked continue. It landed on a screen with their 4 avatars and levels next to them.
“Are we really investigators now? Did we change to a whole other universe or something?” March asked with a concerned look on her face.
“I have a theory… But without any proof, it’s a baseless one,” Dan Heng said simply.
March then turned back to the board and moved to a pinboard on the side. Various blurred pictures with question marks were pinned on it, except for one icon in the top left. Stelle moved next to her.
“Maybe this is where we can choose a place of investigation?” Stelle proposed. She grabbed the golden pin that was similar to the strip of color next to her icon on the main board and pinned it onto the most upper-left icon, named Tanglewood Drive 6. It reminded her of something, the name. She didn’t know what. On the main board, above their names, Tanglewood Drive 6 appeared as she inserted her pin. Once she took it out, it changed back to ‘choose an investigation’.
“We’re not going back to another haunted house… right?” March asked with a trembling voice, her gaze switching between the three of them quickly.
However, all three of them had already decided simultaneously, that would be exactly what they were going to do.
A while ago…
Herta wiped her hands against each other as the last one of the four disappeared into the entrance of the Simulated Universe, letting out a victorious ‘hmph’. She then walked back to her puppets usual spot on the right side of the entrance, where she would be able to tune into the console. Positioning herself, she closed the puppets eyes and tuned into the Simulated Universe. The familiar console met her as she swooped it in one go, going to the place she’d sent them to.
Only to notice… they weren’t there. None of either four’s signals were in the multiplayer beta. A gasp escaped even the unmatchable Madam Herta at the sight. No, she’d double checked and assigned the entrance to the beta multiplayer mode.
Hastily, she returned to the main menu and went through every. single. possibility.
They weren’t there. Their signals had completely gone off the charts. That was new, even to Herta.
Then, she spent even more time checking every forgotten corner of the console. Aeons, she even spent an entire system hour on it. There was absolutely nothing she found except for a few curios she’d lost ages ago.
She even contacted Screwllum about it, for good measure.
“Hey, Screwy… I have a question for you. Hypothetically speaking, what could be the case when four people you sent into the Simulated Universe completely disappear off the chart?” she asked as he took up on her call.
“Good morning, Madam Herta. Hypothesis. They could have been wiped by IX’s influence, though I sincerely doubt it. They could also have fallen through a gap left in the firewall.”
“I leave no gaps in my firewalls. Heck, who do you think I am?” Herta scoffed indignantly, like her pride had been sincerely hurt by his accusation. “Ugh, nevermind,” she whined as she ended the call immediately. Closing her puppet’s eyes again, she told herself: “I’ll investigate it myself, then.”