“You couldn't possibly have fucked up more!” Jasper barked in his raspy voice as he ran around the corner, dragging Mitch by the back of his shirt. The shoddy wooden floor trembling as a shadowy form turned the corner after them, crashing into the wall at first before turning to follow.
It was hard to see any defining features, other than the fact it was huge, with glowing red eyes that pierced the darkness at the other end of the hall.
“It’s my first time, give me a break!” Mitch shouted back, laughing as he turned the next corner to a hall identical to the last with faded paintings strewn across the floor, mixed with broken glass from the windows that now allowed moonlight to seep in and light up the otherwise pitch black halls.
“This is no time for jokes!” Jasper shouted, looking over his shoulder to see the creature was gaining ground... When illuminated by the moon's light he saw glimpses of the creature's shadowy form, causing him to quickly grab a hold of Mitches shirt. “Hold on tight!” he shouted once more, lifting the boy with ease and slumping him over his shoulder.
“H...Hey!” Mitch stammered as he desperately grasped at the back of Jasper's jacket, taking a tight grip.
He watched from the shoulder as the creature clawed its way towards them, those blazing eyes piercing the dark fixated on him as it dug deeper into the floor and picked up speed.
“It's coming faster!” he shouted in desperation, reaching down to grab a pouch off his grandfather's belt. Fumbling with the rope keeping the pouch tightly sealed, it took all of Mitch's strength for the knot to give way. “Loosen your knots, you gorilla!” Mitch barked annoyed, finally managing to pull it open as the creature had almost covered the ground between them. “Time for my secret technique!” he exclaimed, placing his hand into the pouch to throw a fist full of salt into the creature's face and eyes.
It bellowed in pain as the salt began to burn into its form, releasing a thick cloud of steam.
The spirit stopped dead in its tracks, covering its face with several sets of hands that grew from its long, shadowy, ooze-like form. Jasper soon came across the staircase overlooking the main hall, needing some time to catch his breath. “You thought well, in the moment,” he praised, panting lightly as he placed one hand on the ageing bannisters that looked ready to snap at any moment.
“Resting here probably isn't the best idea, Jasp,” Mitch said, getting down off his shoulder with a bit of help. The creature was now clawing at its own face, desperately trying to remove any trace of the salt that was still eating away at its spiritual essence. Exchanging a brief glance, the pair quickly moved down the stairs to stand in the main hall close to the front door. It wasn't long before the creature managed to pull itself back together, and once it did, it let out a screech that was loud enough to cause the very foundation of the manor to quiver under them.
Waiting in the main hall they heard the screech slowly quieten and die down, soon followed by the sound of claws scraping against the wooden floorboards. Turning to look back at a sudden loud crash, they saw the creature colliding with the bannisters with break neck force, causing the aged wood to snap like twigs spraying splinters across the main hall.
“This thing is far more aggressive than the usual ones, Jasp.”
“Jasper,” he corrected, relaxing as the creature weakly staggered away from the bannisters and into the halls behind it, its narrowed eyes fixated on them until it was out of view. “and it's aggressive because you defiled its final resting place.”
“It is my first time taking charge!” Mitch protested once more.
“First time or not, you have prior experience and messed up. So how do we fix this?” Jasper asked, scraping pointedly at the stubble on his chin.
“Too easy, old man,” Mitch thought aloud, reaching into the large pocket of his baggy hoodie he pulled out a black leatherbound notebook. The cover had sigils engraved into a large alchemical circle, and his name etched into the middle.
As he began flipping through the pages, Jasper scolded “You should get a bag, It'll fall out of those pockets eventually.”
No response came as Mitch was entirely fixated on his notes he continued to skim through the pages until he finally said “a lesser fiend,” he hurriedly mumbled to himself “caused by strong bonds to the physical world... a lesser fiend is in its early stages...”
After a while he found exactly what he was looking for “if it's in a frenzy it's suggested the party of two should split up. One distracts and the other finds the final resting point.”
Jasper simply nodded, motioning for him to continue with a wave of his hand.
Mitch took the que and peered back to the book “Once the final resting place is found, we create the runic trap with holy water and then we perform the passing ritual.”
“Almost there,” Jasper said, patting him on the back. “Make sure to note that the rune is by the resting place, and that you have very little time once you find it to prepare as the spirit will make a frenzied rush towards you.”
“Good thing we already know where it is then,” Mitch replied. Once done he snapped the book closed and placed it back into his pocket. Taking out his phone and swiping away the notification from long dormant apps at lightning speeds “It's only 2AM” he said, swiping the notifications away “We got plenty of time before people start waking up”
“Someone’s popular.” Jasper jeered, prodding Mitch’s shoulder before stomping to the bottom of the staircase.
Mitch closed his phone and dumped it into his pocket again. “As if, no one wants to hang out with the guy who never has any free time to go do anything.”
“Well, just know I am happy to have you here.” Jasper assured, a sly grin creeping across his cheeks before adding “when you aren't fucking things up that is.”
“Oh ha, ha,” Mitch spat. There was rarely any time to relax like this on their nights of work so it was always appreciated when the opportunity for some banter arose. Through the calm he felt a light breeze travelling through the main hall, most likely due to the broken windows everywhere in the building. The sound of the fiend broke the silence; it could be heard digging its claws into the wooden floorboards to drag itself along, patrolling the upper halls.
“Take some time to review your notes,” Jasper stated as he began to ascend the staircase “after a few moments, make a break for the master bedroom and try not to anger it again until absolutely necessary.”
Mitch didn't get any time to respond before Jasper quickly ascended the stairs and into the darkness. Mitch sighed audibly, rubbing his temple as he was used to him being like this. Once a plan was in place he would sprint into action, often not leaving any room for preparation. It's not like this was the first time Mitch was left alone in a verifiably haunted house, but this has to be one of the worst spirits in recent memory
In the dark halls above, Jasper slowly turned the corner on the hall he took. Just like the rest of the house, all the paintings were strewn in droves all over the floor. He had to wonder if the spirit would do such things on purpose to block out any painful memories of a past life, even if it didn’t have the conscious thought process to do so. Most of them were destroyed, most likely due to the fiend’s frantic clawing along the ground.
He slowly reached down to his belt, which held a ceremonial dagger in its holster tied to his waist. Taking a hold of the hilt he slipped it out of its holster, resting his grip on the handle which housed a ruby on either side, and silver trimmings coming from them to the top of the handle in an intricate form of runic writing that spanned the rest of the hilt.
The blade itself was in pristine condition, one could be fooled into thinking it was brand new with how clean the blade was and the edge had not showed a single imperfection.
Once he had it out, he began to carve chunks out of the wood of the wall in front of him. Each stab of the blade into the wood pulled out splinters that eventually gave shape to a circle about the size of a football. Within it he smoothly carved out smaller arrows curving into the centre where they merged into even smaller circles , ultimately forming a completed rune. It was crude, but it's one of many standard edition runes he could draw with his eyes closed. Placing a finger at the top of the formation a thick smoke flushed and pooled down into the circle, filling it with a fog that used the carved arrows as canals, allowing all adjacent circles to fill up. Each runic function flickered into a dim, blue light as it activated. The glow brightened with time, letting out a wave of energy that pulsed with waves of barely perceptible wind rippling through the entire manor. The construction was designed to allow him to feel the presence of both Mitch downstairs, and the fiend that he could now confirm was in the neighbouring hall. The downside of this rune was that anything nearby also felt his presence once he cast it.
Once it realised it was being watched the fiend screeched once again, which got louder as it made its way to Jasper to investigate a presence it was unable to tolerate.
“You better work fast Mitchell…” he muttered.
Mitch took the signs of spiritual power as his cue to act, sprinting up the stairs and taking the right hall which led into a hall that was in the same state as all the others, the floor littered with broken glass and the occasional vase shattered, dirt having piled up from years of neglect “Why can't we ever exorcise somewhere… cleaner?” he asked himself with a huff.
He felt happy knowing he wore boots thick enough to ignore any glass he was running over, at least his standard issue gear was proving to be up to snuff. Suddenly there came a loud crash in the distance, causing Mitch to almost fall over as he got startled.
Jasper stepped to the side, expertly avoiding the strike that was directed to his left, causing the fiend to loudly crash into a wall. Before it could recover Jasper stepped in and thrusted his dagger into the shade’s shoulder, causing the shadowy exterior to begin to peel away at the wound revealing parts of a human form.
Mitch made his way towards the master bedroom, having taken out his notebook he slowed his running to a jog to read over what he needed to do.
“Three sigil rune,” he mumbled, tracing the shapes in the air with a finger, then closing over the book to safely put it away. “You got this Mitch” he reassured himself.
Coming into the last hall of this wing he finally found the door to the master bedroom, where most other doors had been clawed down at one point or another, this one stood unscathed... except when Mitch kicked in the lock and began this whole chase.
“‘Kay... Rush in, draw runes, and wait for the perfect time” he mentally confirmed, repeating the three steps to himself and tracing the runes in the air again. Using his free hand to take out his dagger which was similar to Jasper’s; ceremonial in design, it had a single gem in the base of the handle with golden writing along the handle to the hilt. The blade itself was long and thin, more akin to a letter opener that was made for piercing more so than slashing.
Slamming his shoulder into the door he forced it open and stepped into the spirits final resting place once more. The first thing to catch Mitch’s attention was how clean the room itself seemed despite a thick layer of dust, the second was the large, neatly kept bed with large pillows resting against the wooden headboard which had a proud knight on his horse engraved onto it. The dust that stirred from slamming open the door caused Mitch to cover his mouth with a sleeve as the air felt hard to breathe without entering a coughing fit. Other than the unholy amounts of dust, the room was in perfect condition. One of the few places where the room's single window was still in one piece, and a large wardrobe with a chest of drawers beside it across from the bed that had several browned papers with children's drawings scribbled across, most having partially faded with time. The bookshelf by the door was filled with all forms of books on animals and plants of the world.
Mitch stared at the bookshelf intensely, as if daring it to try something.
A loud bang echoed through the halls, the creature was fast approaching and the sound of wailing from chunks of wood being ripped from the floor woke him from this trance and let him know he had to work fast. He moved far from the bookshelf on the other side of the room and dropped to his knees in front of the small rug at the foot of the bed, tossing it aside he then pulled his dagger from its holster and jammed it into the wooden flooring below, dragging it along to chip pieces off the wood out in the form a large circle to hold the rest of the rune, it was a clumsy attempt, but keeping a steady hand was hard in a situation like this. Next he carved a large indentation in the centre which was easy enough, “Just chip a bigger hole than the rest,” he thought. The last part of the rune would be far more difficult, it required him to be able to make the shape of two arrows pointing to the north.
From the sounds of outside the creature was already getting close so he had no time to hesitate and in a quick motion pulled towards him to carve the straight line for the first arrow.
Back in the hallway, Jasper heard the door crash echo through the hallway and saw the creature suddenly jolt to attention, glaring with furious indecision in his red eyes, before turning its head in the direction of the master bedroom. It jammed its claws into the wall to drag itself towards the master bedroom.
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He knew the boy should have finished by now but he couldn't help but worry “Be careful Mitchell...” He thought as he ran after it.
Putting the finishing touches on the runes he felt the shaking of the floorboards now, “Just one more second!” he shouted out as he scrambled to grab the vial of holy water from his belt.
“I can't spare you any time, hurry it up!” Jasper roared as the fiend pulled itself close, digging its claws into the door frame, turning to stare as Mitch finished pouring the holy water onto the rune, and turning to stare at the cloudy spirit piercing him with a gaze of pure hatred
Sharing a gaze with the fiend had “Stay calm and it will all be okay,” echoed a firm but soothing voice through his head, one of the first lessons that Jasper had taught him. The door frame buckled and cracked under the creature's strength as it threw itself at him.
Mitch placed his hands onto the wet runes that covered the floor. Time itself felt like it slowed to a crawl as he stared at this mass of shadows flying towards him, the goop below its eyes parting and revealing a set of sharp fangs that inched closer to his face.
The runes below began to shimmer with small orbs of light rising, until the moment the fiend was right above it, that's when the rune burst into a blinding pillar of light engulfing the fiend’s form, causing it to fall limp mid-assault. Mitch quickly moved to the side when it nearly fell atop him.
Jasper confidently moved to stand in the doorway, silently watching Mitch getting back to his feet. Wiping his hands against his shirt, he stood in front of the cowering creature to watch as the subtle reflections from the light beam hitting the ceiling caused small wisps of smoke to ooze away from the tar-like exterior, revealing the form of an older man beneath who had lay many years ago in this very room on his deathbed.
He was never used to this part, watching the shadows peel away always revealed a frail and pitiful form of a person who had at some stage of their passing lost their mind. His fear faded and was replaced with pity for this old man who was only a husk of a person, with any sentience replaced with an obsession for his final resting place.
After his moment of reflection he felt he was ready. He had seen Jasper do this before and studied the theory in depth for the last few years; now came the hardest part, distancing himself from the person to be passed.
Jasper remained quiet with his arms crossed over his chest. “No words of encouragement?” Mitch silently thought to himself, but he had more pressing matters at hand.
He inhaled deeply and placed his hands together in a motion of prayer, exhaling slowly before inhaling deep once more, though this time as he inhaled it felt like he pulled a cold gust of air into his lungs that began to spread throughout his body. Channelling this inner energy he unclasped his hands and steadily held them above the ground, allowing the cold feeling to travel through his arms. The sensation was heating up the further down his arm it went, until it reached his fingertips and began to seep out as a rapidly dissipating mist.
The feeling of warmth soon began to reverberate throughout his body as he continued to channel and distribute it until his entire body felt the same unnatural heat. The world around him began to become an afterthought as the sound of the creaky old manor became distant and his vision began to slowly fate.
“To the other side,” he mumbled, although the words were unneeded for the spell to take effect, it was the only thing that came to mind as all his thoughts dulled to a quiet murmur Moments passed before a pulse similar to that of Jasper’s rune washed through the room, and Mitch felt his point of view change. Suddenly the heat vanished and he was left with the feeling of nothingness.
The world had become far darker now and the colours of the world had faded away. The only thing keeping the room luminated was the light from the rune that showered the room. Jasper stood motionless, though he looked different now, transparent with far less items hanging off his belt, and missing his normal outfit, he stood in a pair of thin robes that were far more detailed than those Mitch had on now, created solely for the purpose of preventing themselves from being indecent.
Turning his attention to the older man shivering in front of him, Mitch placed his hands on his shoulders “Don't worry, I'm here to help.”
He knew his words fell on deaf ears, part of him hoped that he would reply. “Another quiet one, eh?” he asked, a trace of disappointment in his tone “that's okay, might make this easier on you.”
The old spirit and former master of this manor, known as Kevin Reed, moved his hand up, placing it on Mitch’s before weakly giving it a squeeze, dropping limp once more.
Mitch waited a moment, hoping that that was a sign it understood him or that it could communicate but ultimately it seemed to be nothing.
“Don't dawdle,” Jasper scolded “Wasting time is dangerous.” His voice whispy and echoing through the void around them.
Mitch was nervous though, usually Jasper handled this aspect of the job but tonight he was told he would be doing it alone as part of his training.
“Keep calm,” Jasper explained “There is a lot of natural energy here, it shouldn't be too difficult as long as you stay focused.”
“I got it, don’t worry.” Mitch replied, knowing Jasper would be listening in. Moving his right hand up he placed it against the man's forehead.
“Doubt causes hesitation. Be confident.”
“Doubt causes hesitation...” Mitch repeated to himself a few times. When he felt as ready as he could be, he began to breathe in and circulate that cold feeling through him again, the only thing he could feel in this form. This time he allowed it to flow down his arm and into the man's forehead. He felt the same energy from him flow back into his hand, as if fighting against his own in an attempt to dominate his mind.
This feeling was oppressive, a tidal wave of the man's raw emotion began to flood into Mitch. Images of a past life flickered through his mind, though jumbled and impossible to interpret as they came and went so fast. Though most were impossible to focus on, one was not. He found himself lying in the bed next to them with no one around and the sound of a heart beat monitor faded into his mind.
He was assaulted by an immense feeling of loneliness, and in that loneliness he could sense a thruming bout of fear as he turned to look at the machine he was connected to. There was a picture of his family beside the bed, but he was left here to rot away by himself. It felt like he was a prisoner, stranded on an island the size of a single bed and shackled to a machine that only existed to extend his suffering.
It was a horrifying feeling to see the condition in which someone else had died, along with feeling the emotional state they were in at the time. Unable to even turn off the machine and take control of his own fate.
In turn Mitch wanted to show him his joyous memories in an attempt to calm the anger that had welled up inside him over these years. Moments he spent with his family on vacations to the beach and training with his grandfather in his spacious home. It was hard to tell if anything was sticking at first but those feelings of loneliness and betrayal he had been feeling slowly began to fade.
He felt this was a good enough change and removed his hand from his forehead. Reaching for his knife he let the circulating energy pour into it through the handle, giving the edge a glowing sheen and summoning more of the unnatural fog.
He pulled the dagger into the air once he had fully calmed down, bringing it back down to place the tip of the blade against Kevin’s chest. He placed the palm of his other hand onto the base of the handle and took a brief pause. “I'm glad I could help,” he said somberly, pressing down on the dagger to pierce Kevin’s spirit.
Mitch knew the depth was right when the handle reached the chest, he then allowed the energy to freely flow into the blade causing the rapid influx of magic to flood and rupture the cohesion of his spirit form
“You can rest easy now.” Mitch tried to comfort, though, as expected, he received no reply forcefully pulling his blade out of the man's chest causing the spirits form to quiver, before the light that it trapped engulfed the room. He knew he had done it right as the light soon burst into small orbs of contained spiritual essence that gently drifted down towards the ground, passing through the floorboards as if they weren't there.
“Good job,” Jasper said, sounding genuinely impressed for the first time since entering this manor “Now, teather yourself again.”
Mitch nodded in response, taking a moment to say a silent prayer for the departed before turning back to stare at his own, physical form. It was a surreal feeling to see himself on standby, the lights were on but nobody was home. He couldn't help but chuckle as he was reminded of one of the first times he learned how to do this, he had tried to get away from watching a particularly dreary movie with his parents, but ultimately wound up having to reassure an annoyed ambulance crew that he was perfectly fine after being found dazed and unresponsive.
He reached up to feel at his scruffy blonde hair that had over time grown down to his shoulders, shaking his head a bit, “I could really use a haircut” , then feeling the light stubble on his chin he concluded a shave was in order too.
“Admire yourself later, Mitchell!” Jasper barked at him from across the room “They will be here soon!”
“Oh, I almost forgot!” Mitch exclaimed, having finished examining himself he grabbed his physical body and channelled his energy through deep breaths
A wave of warmth washed over him, or more accurately, he was suddenly able to feel again.
“You did very well for your first time,” Jasper said, “except the major fuck up.” He turned before Mitch had a chance to retort to look into the hall where scurrying could be heard in the distance, similar to the light tapping of a group of children running down the hallway “But it isn't over just yet.”
Jasper reached down to take out his dagger, holding it upside down. “Aim for the chest, it's where the most concentration of magic is. Always move towards the exit.”
After his brief instructions, he exited the room and took off in a sprint. By now Mitch knew he had to immediately follow.
Shaking off the numbness he entered the hall. A small creature turned the corner running on all fours, it looked like a black blur with a set of sharpened claws in a vaguely humanoid shape. Seeing Jasper it snarled and leapt into the air, readying its claws to clamp down on any exposed flesh.
Jasper reacted by promptly punching it in the gut mid-air, slamming it into a nearby wall.
It fell to the ground once Jasper removed his fist, and in one motion he thrust the dagger down through its back. “As long as it gets to the centre!” he shouted to Mitch, twisting the blade roughly, causing the imp to screech before bursting into the same orbs of spiritual essence that Kevin had moments before.
Individually, any single imp couldn’t do much damage, but they roamed in packs as lost souls searching for power which they would only gain through the consumption of other spirits
They were a very feral creature, often lacking any form of critical thinking and reasoning they would attack whatever they could when they sensed a surge of power nearby. More of them found their way into the hall and Jasper ran towards the first one popping its head out from an adjacent corridor,
“Room on the right, Mitchell!” he barked.
“Got it!” Mitch shouted back, grabbing a vial of holy water from his belt he ripped the cork off with his teeth and threw the contents into the room Jasper pointed out. This soaked the imp inside, its screech of pain giving Mitch enough time to his blade into its chest. Like Jasper, he twisted the blade, causing another burst of glowing particles .
Rushing back out into the hall he saw Jasper finish another one in a quick motion. Glancing over his shoulder to make sure Mitch was there he said “Next hall is clear.”
“It's just two more halls then the main stairs.” Mitch replied as he moved up to press his back against Jasper’s, making sure both sides were covered “Clear back here too.”
“There shouldn’t be many left, let’s clear them all out.”
“They are drawn to magical power, right?” Mitch asked as they broke apart and moved down through the next hallway “so why not cast a passing rune in the lobby, they'll flock to us and we can take them all out.”
“You want to fight them by our means of escape?” Jasper mocked but continued “I understand your reasoning, but we can’t give them any opportunity to realise they are in danger or we’ll be chasing them throughout the area half the night.”
“So we sweep the house to find any remaining groups?” Mitch asked, with a pant as he began feeling the midnight exercise take its toll through the sweat running down his brow.
“It's much easier to check how many there are.” He said as they came to the stairs.
Jasper ran past them and shouted “Wait by the door and kill anything that tries to leave, I'll be right back!” continuing off to the left hall he had taken in the beginning.
Once Mitch realised whatJasper was planning to do he shouted out to him “You plan to take them all yourself!?”
His shouting fell on deaf ears, Jasper was already gone “And you said my idea was bad,” Mitch grumbled annoyed, kicking the bannister which caused the wood to chip and trickle across the floor below
When Jasper was out of view, Mitch ran down the steps into the main hall. When they decided to wipe out the imps it caused a lot of stress. He could feel eyes from the shadows pierce through him as if he was on display, the main course to the demon's meal. He had no idea where they were, and worst case they knew exactly where he was, waiting for a chance to pounce. A familiar pulse travelled through the manor, and once again he felt the barely perceptible winds of power shower over him.
Moving back and placing his rear against the door with one hand on his chest, he knew this was the moment that made him most anxious, standing and waiting to leave, still trapped with the creatures that were ready to kill at any moment.
“Quit shaking boy!” He heard from atop the stairs, Jasper coming back into view a whole floor above “There's only one left!”
Just hearing his voice alone, even if it was mocking him, was more than enough to bring a wave of relief “Oh thank god...” Mitch mumbled, nervously wiping his grimy hands on his shirt.
It would take a moment of calm before he shouted “I thought you had gotten lost again grandpa!”
A faint sound of small foot steps grew louder before Jasper continued with his lecture,
“You'll never learn to be able to do this alone if I am here every step.” Walking down the stairs he was rather casual while the sound got louder. “Fear leads to panic, and panic leads to mistakes.” Jasper pulled up his dagger and turned, throwing it to hit the creature's arm as it came into the room “,a calm mind leads to being prepared.”
“Show off...” Mitch grumbled childishly, crossing his arms.
If the insult annoyed Jasper he didn't show it walking over to the small creature writhing in pain. He knew they weren't human anymore, that they were more or less animals but he couldn't help but feel pity when he saw one like this. Jasper made quick work of it with a few ancient words of power that Mitch had yet to understand. His shirt hidden behind his jacket began to release light strands. In an instant he pulled the blade from the imp's arm and thrusted it into its chest. It let out one last dying screech with tiny arms desperately reaching out towards Jasper before it faded into orbs, floating carelessly back towards the earth.
“Don't feel pity for these poor souls, Mitchell,” Jasper said as he took a piece of cloth from his pocket, beginning to clean his blade “they are no longer able to be saved.”
"We could have done something, anything, to pass them peacefully. This is barbaric!" Mitch tried to plead, taking a step towards Jasper. A common argument from the point of view of a naive child.
He came to a halt as Jasper stood and swiftly sheathed his dagger while turning to face him, placing a hand onto his shoulder. "We cannot help everyone Mitchell. We do not have the time, resources, or energy to peacefully pass every imp that comes our way."
“I know...” Mitch sighed, brushing the hand off of his shoulder, “But it feels like we aren't doing enough.”
“For thousands of years, it's been our sacred duty to pass spiritual dangers. These lower class demons," Jasper said, pointing around the room, "Would hinder our work and endanger our lives."
“I know!” Mitch shouted, turning away while rubbing his forehead in frustration “I mean, we could help them before they reach the point of no return.”
“And what then?” Jasper retorted. “We can't spend all our time doing this, Mitchell.”
He placed a hand on Mitch’s shoulder once more. “I would have no time for my wife, you would have no time for your studies, and we would ultimately die because we overexerted ourselves trying to save everyone. It is nothing but a futile pipe dream.”
His lecture left a long and awkward silence hanging in the air.
Eventually Mitch pushed past Jasper and walked towards the main door. Jasper continued “You will un-”
“I'll understand when I'm older, I know.” Mitch cut him off, swinging the front door open.