“…now, it’s not so impossible, right?”
This time, Mir couldn’t answer outrightly. Besides her taciturn nature, she didn’t have any reason to refuse this offer. Or so she thought. However, the ghost was able to think clearly than Mir.
“If she works for you as a part-timer, what do you expect her to do? Do you want her to work for you for free? You don’t even have money for your own food!” The ghost was the one who snarked at Raleigh.
“No, no, of course not! You see, my plan is to make a video of us hunting ghosts together, upload it to the internet, and well, not only it will popularize us, the ghost hunters, but I'm sure that people will hire us to do an exorcism and it will give us some money so that I can pay you. What do you think?” Raleigh smiled at Mir, ignoring the ghost that yapped right beside him.
“…” Mir glanced at the ghost questioningly.
The ghost gave her a sigh. “Well, it’s your choice. Whatever it is that you choose, I will follow you.”
It added. “Besides, I’m worried if I left you alone with a suspicious guy like him.”
“Oh, which part of me looks suspicious? Are you blind? If you are not blind, you can see the purity and innocence within my eyes… oh, I am sorry, ghosts don’t have eyes! I’m sorry for my ruden—”
Raleigh stopped talking as there was an attack from the ghost. It was a supernatural attack, so normal people couldn’t see it. However, Mir could see it clearly. It was as if there was a spark of lightning between them. Although they looked weak, Mir knew that it was not as weak as they looked. After all, Raleigh was sweating as he repelled the attack.
“…stop.” Mir stopped the two of them. The two of them stopped simultaneously.
“Hey, Mir, let’s ignore this idiot. I’m sure he won’t be able to help you. Someone who doesn’t know how to repay for a favor and only wants to use you is not worth to befriend with.” The ghost floated to her shoulder.
“What are you talking about? I’m repaying the favor in my own way. Someone whose heart is narrow like you naturally can’t accept it. Mir… that’s your name, right? Just ignore this narrow-minded ghost and together with me, we will conquer the world!” Raleigh touched her other shoulder intimately.
Mir took a step back before she looked at the two of them. “…thanks.”
““…”” The ghost and Raleigh looked at each other.
“…” Mir didn’t say anything as well.
“Wait, let me ask you this question. You are saying ‘thanks’ because you want to work as a part-timer?” The ghost broke the silence with the question.
Mir nodded.
Seeing her nodding, Raleigh couldn’t help but grin. “Great! Alright, let’s do this!”
“…what?” Mir asked.
“Let’s go to the most haunted spot in this city and record everything! If there’s really a ghost haunting that place, we will do a free exorcism for advertising purposes! Fortunately, I bring this camera I borrow from my friend with me! Alright, let’s go!” Raleigh said excitedly.
"You bring a camera? You are so prepared! You must have thought of this method from long ago, right?" The ghost retorted when Raleigh showed his small camera.
"No, I always bring it with me because I thought of recording myself. See, I have three cameras with me. I only have to attach this one camera on my shoulder, this one is facing forward and the other one is facing backward, and the last one... Mir, will you hold the camera for me?" Raleigh was excited as he set up the cameras even though they were not needed at the moment. They were still in the city and there was no need to set the camera now, though no one pointed it out...
Mir was watching Raleigh setting up the cameras. She thought that he looked weird after he set up the cameras on his body. As for her, when Raleigh gave a camera to her, she thought of setting it up as he did, but she changed her mind. It would be better to hold it rather than setting it up on her body. And then, suddenly, Raleigh grabbed her wrist and pulled her as they went to the most haunted building in the city.
…
The most haunted building in the city. No, saying that it was the most haunted building was not correct. It should be the most haunted location in the city as there were many buildings in that location.
In the past, there was only one building that was haunted, or so they said. However, people were brave. They were courageous. Or maybe, they were just plain stupid.
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For some reason, there was a plan to build the entire area into an amusement park. That was right. The lonely haunted house in an abandoned village that was located far in the mountain, was transformed into an amusement park. And the haunted house… became one of the amusements there.
After that, incidents happened every day. One time, the roller coaster couldn’t be stopped until some of the carts fell and killed some people. The other time, someone suddenly broke a mirror in the mirror world and he tried to kill himself. And another time, a mascot was starting a killing spree in the amusement park.
The one who tried to kill himself and the mascot guy said the exact same statement when they were interrogated. They said, ‘The devil made me do it.’
“Hey, that’s like a title of a movie!” The ghost commented after it heard about the backstory of the haunted amusement park.
“Well, fortunately, after they left this place, they became normal again. However, after that, the amusement park was closed because of many incidents that happened in less than a month. And now, it becomes the most haunted location in this city.” Raleigh ended his explanation with that line.
“Hey, Mir, do you know about it?” The ghost asked her. Mir shook her head. Even though she had been living in this city all her life, she didn’t know a story like that. After all, for someone who could really see ghosts, the urban legend didn’t interest her. Well, and she also didn’t have someone to share the story with. Or heard from. So, it was normal for her not to know about this location.
“By the way, you said that you want to record everything, right?” The ghost asked.
Raleigh nodded without saying anything. He just finished explaining the whole backstory of the location they were going to, so he was tired. Though that was not the only reason.
“So… why are we going here now? Why not wait for the night? Wouldn’t that be more interesting?” It asked. It was a popular opinion that ghosts would appear in the night. For someone like Mir and Raleigh who could see them all day, that was definitely not true. It was not that ghosts only appeared at night. It was that ghosts could be seen easier at night than day. That was why the ghost suggested going at night because not only ghosts were seen easily at night, they were also could be captured in a camera easily as well.
“…” Raleigh became similar to Mir, which he didn’t answer that question.
“…don’t tell me… you are scared of night and dark?” The ghost smirked at Raleigh whose expression told it about his fear.
“Argh! Shut up! What’s wrong with being scared of the dark!? I can’t see ghosts when it’s dark, alright? It will be dangerous!” Raleigh yelled at the ghost with vigor. That was not wrong. Ghosts could be seen easily at night. However, if it were pitch dark, it would be impossible to see ghosts. After all, ghosts were not shining in the dark. Dim lighting would be the best to see ghosts.
The ghost smirked as it guessed right again. “Ahaha, the ghost hunter is scared of the dark! Mir, did you hear that? He is scared of the dark!”
“Sh-shut up!” Raleigh shouted. He looked away to hide his pale face. It was truly embarrassing. For a ghost hunter like him to be scared of the dark, it was embarrassing. But he couldn't help it. He couldn't hate what he hated.
But the ghost became happier to see such a reaction. They started bickering again, leaving Mir sighing as she watched them acted like little kids one more time.
Mir looked at the winding road. The amusement park was not far now. She could see the silhouette of the amusement park now. It should be another hour or so before they arrived. Considering they had walked for more than two hours, another hour was really close.
But she couldn’t imagine walking back again. It would be extremely tiring. Especially when there were no rest areas on the road to the abandoned amusement park. After all, there was only the amusement park at the end of the road. And since it was abandoned, the stores on the way to the amusement park were also closed down.
When it was only a hundred meters or so, the three of them stopped walking. The ghost and Raleigh turned serious. Mir’s face also turned grim. No, actually, her face was grim ever since she could see the amusement park earlier, but she didn’t say anything.
It was because she saw the black miasma that surrounded the whole amusement park. As for the ghost and Raleigh, none of them could see the black miasma. However, they could feel something bad from the direction of the amusement park.
“…let’s return, shall we?” The ghost suggested. Even it was not confident to return unscathed if it entered the amusement park.
“…yes, let’s return.” Raleigh gulped before he could reply. The ghost and Raleigh turned around as they were sure this place was extremely dangerous. Yes, it was an extremely dangerous place, even for the two of them.
“…late.” Mir suddenly spoke. Unlike the two of them who had turned around, Mir was watching closely. As they turned around the miasma suddenly moved. It was as if a gust of wind blew the miasma and suddenly, they were covered in the black miasma. Unfortunately, it was only Mir who noticed it. As for the ghost and Raleigh, they didn’t notice a single thing…
“…!”
…or not. They didn’t notice the black miasma that covered their surrounding like fog covered the mountain. However, they noticed that ghosts… an infinite number of them, had surrounded the three of them. No, they were not surrounding the three of them. They were blocking the three of them so the three of them couldn’t go anywhere but the amusement park.
Moreover, the ghosts that surrounded them were not normal ghosts that usually attacked Mir when her emotion turned negative. No. They shaped like people. Even though they didn’t have a distinguished face, only three or four holes or even more on their faces, but they still resembled people. Moreover, the negative energy that they emitted… Mir never felt something like that before.
“…oi, ghost hunter. You can do something about them?” The ghost whispered.
“…one, or two, or even ten, I can handle. Barely. But this number is…”
“…huh, you sure you are not a phony ghost hunter?”
“…I’m not phony. I’m just an apprentice…” Raleigh could only reply with a bitter smile.
“Tsk, you never mentioned that you are just an apprentice before! We can’t force our way back, can we?” The ghost clicked its tongue. Not that it had tongue though...
“…impossible.” Mir replied. She knew they wouldn’t be able to go back. No without dealing with the source. After all, she could see the miasma giving power to the ghosts surrounding them. That meant, if the miasma was not dealt with, the ghosts would be harder to beat, even for a ghost hunter like Raleigh. In fact, dealing with one ghost would make him risk his life in this situation, but Mir didn’t know that yet.
“…let’s enter.” Raleigh gulped again. His face was pale and his hands were trembling. His voice was so small that it was barely audible. Even when he tried to move his feet, he felt like there were shackles on his feet, and he could barely move them.
The ghost felt the same. It knew by instinct that it had stepped on a landmine. A landmine where it wouldn’t be able to escape from. And in addition to that, it started hearing whispers. Whispers for it to attack the two humans who dared to trespass this location.
“…” As for Mir, she silently took out the camera recorder. It was impossible to escape from this place. And there was a possibility where she might die. That was why she didn’t want to think about such a bad end. Rather than thinking of such a bad end, she would rather think about a happy end where they returned to their home. And if they managed to return to their home, the recording of their ghost hunting activity should be uploaded…
“…” Raleigh and the ghost looked at Mir as she started the recording. On the screen, only Raleigh's dumbfounded face could be seen. There was nothing behind him, even though there should be a countless number of ghosts behind him.
“…she sure has the nerve of steel.” Raleigh whispered. Surprisingly, the ghost agreed. It was the first time they agreed on the same thing.
“…” Mir tilted her head as she looked at Raleigh. It was as if she urged him on doing what he must do.
Raleigh couldn’t help but gulp. “…we might not survive, you know?”
To that question, Mir nodded. Raleigh asked again.
“…and yet, you are recording it?”
Mir nodded once again.
“…forget about it. More importantly, do you have any plans? Ultimate weapon? Trump cards? Last measure?” The ghost decided to stop Raleigh from asking such an obvious question. Even though it was surprised by Mir’s action as well, it was still thinking about how to survive.
And so, while walking slowly into the amusement park, the ghost and Raleigh was communicating their plan carefully with Mir followed behind them with a camera in her hand…