Lucas applied an ice pack on Aiden’s stomach as they sat on one of the sofas. The other one was occupied by Scottus, Alastair and Cordelia while the rest sat on various stools and tables in the living room.

“What fucking happened?”

Hellen asked as soon as they sat in a circle in silence. A groan escaped Aiden’s mouth as Lucas pressed the ice a bit too much. Her brows furrowed as she glanced at the Bureau’s team. Scottus had an ice pack for both of his eyes and was sitting quietly. Alastair opened his mouth to speak but Cordelia was faster.

“Why the fuck did Lucas attack Scottus for some mortal?”

Lucas heard her sentence while his gaze was on Aiden. It made him pause momentarily as veins throbbed in his temples. Hellen glanced at him, then replied to Cordelia.

“Who attacked first?”

She knew about these guys. It was very likely that they were from the academy that trained supers. She knew about it since several times in the past, the Bureau used to send youngsters in their group for training and experience going against ghosts. It was part of the contract which the groups who were in a collaborative relationship with the Bureau signed.

Since she knew about the academy, she was also well aware of their general disposition, which oftentimes tended to lean towards arrogance. From the large number of students which had temporarily stayed under her group in the past, she figured there were three types of students in the academy.

The first type, which were the children of supers. Children of supers being supers too? It was this thing in the past which made her doubt if there was a way to acquire abilities.

The second type, ones which had been found by the Bureau from among the countless people all over the world. These two consisted of the majority of what existed in the academy.

The third type, which were extremely few, were a bit similar to the second type as in they were the among the common populace who were found to have ability. But the difference was that these were the survivors of a ghost incident.

The first two tended to be extremely arrogant, thinking of themselves as the chosen ones despite being repeatedly taught and warned about the ghosts. The third ones, having experienced going against ghosts tended to be more down to earth, but even some of those turn arrogant as they believe themselves to be extremely powerful after surviving against a ghost.

“Aiden.” Alastair replied. He was pretty sure Cordelia hadn’t even bothered remembering his name, else she would have immediately replied in anger.

Hellen’s nose scrunched up in annoyance. She didn’t want to deepen her relationship with the Bureau, be it positive or negative. Hearing it was someone on her side which initiated the things made it worse.

Just in time, she heard Lucas speak though. “It was you who insulted us. Made fun of us, falsely claiming Evander was dead.”

Scottus, who had an ice pack on his eye, immediately retorted. “I am speaking the truth. That trash put together a team at unexpected speed and immediately rushed here when he heard the news that there might be a powerful ghost here, which had managed to kill off an entire team of field agents.

“Rushing head first without any sense of cautiousness. Idiot. Only one person from the team, who was also the strongest, managed to come back alive. It isn’t Evander. You tell me, could he have survived?”

Hellen, Lucas and Aiden all knew something was wrong when they heard Scottus recount what had happened. Hellen didn’t miss that there was one more team which had been killed off. Neither the call agent which contacted her or Lucas had spoken about it, the latter’s agent had only told him about the team led by Evander which were killed.

The Bureau just sees us as discardable pawns.

It reminded her of why she ended the collaboration with Bureau. Look, they didn’t even consider telling anyone that there was a team of field agents which had been killed off. Or that maybe they were so beneath the Bureau that they forgot about them entirely.

That aside, the three of them were once again reminded of the letter which Evander had sent to Aiden. He knew of one of the ghost’s conditions. It was highly unlikely he was dead, even more so if he felt it was appropriate to write with his blood.

Aiden made a mental note to ask when the bureau’s team met its demise. And when did Lucas get the letter. He might be able to glean information about Evander from that.

He had received his own letter on the night of 28th feb, which was well into 1st march. That was when the blood moon was first spotted, and the next day the first murder took place. On the night of 1st march.

Lucas snarled as Scottus once again spoke of their big brother who was only trying hard to rescue Aiden. “You little shit. Aiden’s chest has been badly damaged by your ability. One more word from your crappy mouth and I wouldn’t just let you off with a flash in your eyes. I’ll cripple your eyes, make you really blind this time. Understand?”

“You think I’ll let you?” Cordelia snapped back. She had enough of this guy siding with mere ants. She couldn’t let him talk back to them, they were the top rankers of a prestigious academy. The only one which trained supers in the whole world. What would remain of their pride if every random super talked down to them?

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Hellen had a headache as she looked at the mess. The cooperation was destroyed before it even began.

Just in time though, her gaze traveled to the kitchen, where the freezer had opened by itself and an ice pack was flying over to the living room. She knew whose work it was.

Perfect timing.

Hellen silently watched the group quarrel as an ice pack flew over from the corner of her eyes.

Suddenly the whole room quietened down as they witnessed a flying ice pack about to land on Aiden’s chest. Just before it did though, Lucas was quick to smack it away. He knew from Aiden about how to not accept the ghost’s help. And in this case, what he did was the only option.

Cordelia screamed and jumped away from the couch.

“A ghost in this fucking house?! Damnit!”

Scottus panicked when he heard her scream, upon realizing Cordelia wasn't beside him. His hands wandered off to hold Alastair, who now had a stiff expression on his face. With no longer getting support from his hands, the ice pack on his eyes dropped, revealing slightly red but otherwise alright eyes.

“Where? Where is the ghost?”

Luna had already jumped off to stand beside Cordelia, while Cedric was looking around with narrowed eyes, already having arrived behind Alastair at some point, his back drenched with cold sweat.

Alastair did his best to remain calm, although his expression and body posture betrayed him. With a stiff smile, he asked Hellen, “We weren’t notified about this?”

This was after all everyone’s first time dealing with a ghost. Even if the three of them were top students of the main branch of the academy, Luna and Cedric being one of the best from support classes. It was still their first time dealing with a ghost. They were, in the end, simply freshmen.

Alastair tried his best to be polite. He realized how inexperienced they were after all in the face of rumored ghosts. When Alastair didn’t get a response, Scottus spoke up again.

“Is there another super in the house agent Hellen? If there is, please stop playing a joke on us. We can still forgive you if you stop now.”

“Idiot.” Lucas couldn’t resist butting in watching how Scottus persisted clinging to his measly pride even in the face of danger.

Hellen intervened before they began arguing again and explained to them about the Helping ghost.

All of them had settled down over the course of Hellen’s narration of the ghost and its possible powers, conditions and side effects.

Cedric’s expression was that of extreme concentration as he tried to remember something. Likewise, Alastair also sensed something wrong when Hellen spoke about how the ghost didn’t exhibit phaseless ability but suddenly started doing so. And that time period of inability happened to be when the murders took place in the town.

Cedric took out his phone and hastily began scrolling and typing on it. It seemed like he was searching for something. Alastair saw his actions from the corner of his eye and spoke to everyone in a serious voice.

“Something is wrong. I can’t quite recall the information. In the meantime that Cedric searches for information, can you all confirm that the ghost really suddenly began using its phaseless ability when it couldn’t before? And also it was in the same time period as that of when murders took place?”

It was Aiden who replied to him instead of Hellen. With a pack of ice still on his chest, he narrated the incident of when they fought the ghost, followed by how it continuously used its phaseless ability.

He notified them about the strangeness of the ghost’s continuous use of ability, pointing to Hellen, where the source of information came from.

Cedric’s face turned even more serious as he heard his explanation, which further turned grim as Aiden told them about their next fight, in the morning, with Lucas involved. The ghost had used its phaseless ability continuously without care, refusing to engage for even a moment.

As soon as he finished recounting his tale. Alastair took a glance at Cedric who had an extremely grim expression on his face. Before he could say anything, the latter spoke, “I am almost sure it was exactly what we are thinking of but let me just find the exact information so we can be completely sure. I don’t want to believe it either.”

There was a heavy silence in the air, broken by Scottus. No matter how hot headed or hated at the moment, he was still a top student from the only academy of mankind which taught about dealing with ghosts.

“Couldn’t you have left Aiden behind and searched for the ghost yourself? It is a considerably terrible match up against Aiden, maybe that’s why it was fleeing. If you left him behind and went after it yourself, you might’ve been able to confront the ghost without it running away.”

Hellen smirked. “And? Ghosts can’t think but they still have basic instincts of preserving themselves. It would still immediately try to run away once it senses danger.”

It was Cordelia who chipped in with a sarcastic tone. “Are you telling me, you, a former field agent and Lucas, a super, can’t handle a ghost before it runs away?”

Hellen simply turned up her chin as she answered, “Say that after you’ve faced a ghost who has phaseless ability. You’re obviously first years aren’t you? Have you gone against ghosts even once?”

Alastair answered with a proud tone in his voice. “Yes, we have never faced one. But agent Hellen, we are the top rankers among all the first years of the academy, you can’t keep underestimating us.”

Hellen chose not to reply to him, but skillfully laid a trap. “On the other hand, what if the ghost didn’t engage with us but ran towards Aiden? He is a normal human, not even a field agent or a super.”

Scottus sniggered, “Is that so? Didn’t he already battle the ghost once? Can’t he do it again? Scared, is he?”

Gotcha.

Hellen smiled. “That was his first time against the ghost, with me standing by his side. Although he was impressive, I don’t want to leave him alone to deal with it. Talking about the first time, your reactions were far worse than Aiden's. Screaming, panicking, latching onto people, jumping and running away. Top rankers, aren’t you?”

Heavy sarcasm dripped from her voice as she ruthlessly attacked their fragile egos.

Cordelia finally snapped as she snarled with her fists clenched.

Simultaneously, all the supers in the room sensed energy gathering within her.