It had been some time since Mitch had taken the train to Dublin. Though it was as empty as always, it felt nice to just relax into the soft seat and stare out the window. With his family having given him the go ahead for these ‘private grinds’ in Dublin after some convincing from Jasper he didn’t have to worry about his regular classes for a while.
He had tried to say goodbye to Emma and Shaun but once again there wasn’t a single reply, only read receipts. By this point he knew they probably weren’t going to talk to him for some time but it didn’t make it feel any better.
He silently cursed himself for even spending time getting to know anyone outside of the family as he leaned on the table, resting his head atop his crossed arms as the train began to move.
It was time he in the end decided to use to think about all that had happened the last few months, to feel everything he had pent up and pretended to stoically take on the challenges that blocked his path.
It hurt, everything that came back hurt. The fear of working on his skills with Jasper in a job that could lead to death at the slightest lapse of judgement, the fear of accidentally killing someone by just saying something wrong, the frustration of this job that came about from the singular mistake he had committed.
It was Agony.
As the train approached the next station he pulled himself from his thoughts and sat upright once more, wiping his eyes clean of any residual tears that had begun to well up. He couldn’t have Saoirse see him like this, now could he?
He slapped his cheeks a few times to perk himself up and waited for Saoirse to arrive, which wasn’t that long since this was her stop. “Hey you!” he heard her say as she came in through the opposite end of the cart. “It’s been a while.” She teased, putting her larger than usual suitcase up above the seats.
“It’s been a busy few weeks.” He replied with a nervous smile.
“I heard. Seems like it's pretty rough over in Carlow.” She responded, getting into the seat on the opposite side of the flimsy plastic table.
“It has been.” Was all he could muster in a reply.
The rest of the train ride consisted of catching up with each other, talking about anything from what Saoirse had been watching on television and what schoolwork the two had been doing over the last few weeks.
They exited the train at Heuston station in Dublin and walked out towards the Luas line together to go deeper into town. “At least we got this whole week to practise and hang out.”
“Yeah, we’ll have to maybe even practise outside of classes. We can’t have our hand picked champion lose to the likes of Aoife.” Saoirse jeered, punching his arm gently as she moved past him.
“With all that’s going on, I almost forgot entirely about that.” He chuckled half heartedly, rubbing at where she had punched.
His laughter didn’t last long before he was grabbed by the arm and pulled aside which caused him to almost trip over his own suitcase. “About time you showed up.” a familiar voice blurted
When he regained his balance he looked over and nearly shouted “What's the big dea-'' He began but found his words cut short as he realised it was Joel.
“What are you doing here?” He asked quickly, though he couldn’t help the large grin that was sneaking onto his face as he was reunited with the two for the first time in a while.
Joel wrapped an arm around his side and gave him a tight one armed hug “I haven’t seen you in three weeks. Least I can do is come down and meet you.”
It was certainly a small gesture that went a long way, especially after the debacle with Emma and Shaun. “Well it's nice to see you both again.” He added, holding back how happy he was.
“You got the message last night?” Joel asked as he flashed his phone for a moment.
“Yeah, it was rather last minute.” He replied, having gotten a message from Jasper at close to midnight letting him know that they were to meet at the school and from there they would take a bus to where they were planning to study.
“Makes it feel all mysterious. Maybe we’ll die out there.” Saoirse mocked, walking ahead to lead the two to the Luas station.
“How has your dad been coping with all the attention?” Mitch asked Joel, tapping on his travel card against the machine that let out a loud ding to signal that it deducted the fare.
The two followed suit and they waited for the tram to arrive in five minutes according to the L.E.D screen on the side though they were often wrong. “He’s doing alright.” Joel responded after a moment, seemingly struggling to come up with an answer “There isn’t a whole lot different for us. At least not that I’ve noticed. We work the exact same way and jobs.”
“I guess that makes sense. Last time we compared what we did, we even had the same amount of work.” Saoirse pondered.
“I Imagine that being a recognised sect is something that comes in during an emergency.” Mitch reasoned, leaning back against the railings at the edge of the platform. “You’ll be called on when something big happens.”
“Ah no one calls us.” He responded rather matter of fact. “No one likes that we are mixing technology with our hunting. They say it is unnatural.”
“As if our family is ‘natural’” Saoirse spat at the accusation.
While they were on the Luas the three would communicate via text message as it was easier to go unnoticed this way.
Joel was the first to message with “I heard that you and Jasper are in charge of a cult investigation.”
That was a rather shocking revelation, Mitch thought that the work was private. “Who told you that?” He typed quickly.
“The school did.” Saoirse added as if it was some form of common knowledge that this was going on.
Joel stepped in to give a more in detail explanation and typed “We all saw the news, it caused a bit of panic in the school. Everyone was getting scared about what this meant for us so they had to hold an emergency meeting and explain what was going to happen.”
“Jesus christ…” Mitch muttered as he realised what this meant for him, everyone was going to have their eyes on him for this entire week. “This is going to suck…”
“Ah, just ignore ‘em.” Joel said, slapping his back as the Luas pulled up to the next stop where it began to get crowded “Like you should give a shit what they think.”
“If only it was that easy.” Mitch thought while they were crammed into the tightly packed tram and began to make their way to the centre of town.
When they got to the school everyone had been waiting with suitcases and bags in tow, and as Mitch thought everyone turned to look at him as they came into the back alley school building.
The chatter and gossip began immediately and he could feel the glaring eyes piercing holes through him. If looks could kill, he would have been dead the instant they walked in.
“Ignore ‘em.” Joel said while he stood to the side and beckoned the two to join him. “If they wanna talk shit, let ‘em. Not like It’s actually gonna affect us.”
Though the stares continued to burn a hole in the back of his head he did agree, he had no time to deal with what the other members thought.
“Not like it's going to affect us.” They heard in a familiarly condescending tone. Aoife approached though for once she had come alone, without her posse of giggling hyenas. “It is going to affect all of us.”
“Back off.” Joel responded, stepping between her and Mitch in one swift movement “It’ll be sorted out, you don’t have to worry that prissy little head of yours.”
Aoife looked almost shocked that the often quiet and relaxed Joel was the one to chastise her but it was only a moment before she was back to her smug and condescending self “Protecting your boyfriend?” She asked, clearly trying to make a joke, though without her gal pals behind her no one was laughing at such a joke.
Mitch put his hand on Joel's shoulder and shook his head, pulling him back. “Don’t bother with her. She wants a reaction.”
“There's much more going on here than ‘wanting a reaction.’ This whole family could fall apart because of this cult. What are you doing while this is going on? Going to school?” She began to rant.
Though Mitch usually ignored her, she was stepping on every last nerve that he had in his body. As she continued trying to demean him in front of the others who all watched on in a morbid sort of curiosity of what would happen next.
Mitch finally responded, interrupting her with “Do you ever stop talking?”
She looked at him rather satisfied for a moment, the only respite from her barrage of dribble. It was around now that everyone else began to turn away and begin their own chatter while they occasionally glanced back to see her response.
He decided to continue before she gained enough satisfaction from getting what she wanted to respond. “Yes, it is a dangerous job.” He began, pointing at her close to her face “We are on it, and if you have a problem with me coming to mandatory classes go take it up with Rin. I’m sure he would love to hear your input.”
While he came across as confident in his response, his heart was racing. He had never gotten into a confrontation with anything other than a spirit. He often just sat back and took any abuse that came his way in his stride since there was no need to get upset over someone else being a douche, but Aoife had been getting on his nerves for far too long and he had a far larger amount of stress on his shoulders than usual.
Her shock was apparent now as he got more aggressive in his assault and she remained quiet, crossing her arms while trying to look intimidating.
“If you have nothing left to say, then leave.” He did not ask, but demanded of her. “No one wants you over here. I would be surprised if anyone here wants you around”
When she walked away without so much as a passing comment she had a large satisfied grin plastered on her mug.
Saoirse pushed Mitch slightly. “Did you see the look on her face?” She jeered “Total shock, no response.”
“I was shocked.” Joel laughed.
Mitch sighed and let the tension out of his body “I don’t think I really won that. She seemed rather satisfied with herself”
As he de-stressed from the situation the bus pulled up. Nick was the first person out of it, and seemed like the only one at the moment “Come on, line up!” He shouted out to them, which they all obliged.
Once luggage was loaded they were ushered onto the bus and took their seats. With the size of the weekend classes there was a lot of empty space.
Nick came in and stood at the front to address everyone “This week is going to be taking place somewhere we can all train together. There are going to be some ground rules, such as you cannot leave the rooms at night. If you aren’t attending a class you are expected to be studying or out on the track training. This is going to be an intense week and there is little room for wasting time.”
“Are we going to a private lesson, or an army boot camp?” Mitch thought, leaning against the window once he had buckled in.
Nick carried a rather serious aura about him and when he passed the seats his glare could put fear into anyones soul. This was far different from the calm and collected goofball he met at the party who was offering him snacks on the elevator ride.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“So it'll be an hour and a half before we get there, given if traffic is good to us.” He explained lastly before walking back to the front of the bus. The doors soon closed over and the bus began to move.
Through the general chatter of the ride with Saoirse and Joel they had eventually come to talk about the event itself after they caught up on family affairs. “So, we gotta put in extra hard work” Saoirse began as she pushed Mitch’s arm. “Can’t let you let Rin down.”
Part of him wanted to let him down though, part of him wanted to make him look like an utter fool for placing his trust in someone who opposed how he ruled this family. In the end he knew that would mean nothing, all it would do was make both himself and Jasper look even worse in the eyes of the family as a whole.
“I just do my best, all that has to be done.” He said, trying to sound stoic but it didn’t seem to hit its mark as Joel chuckled from the seat in front of them.
“It’s a sports event, not a war my dude.” He teased, leaning over the seat to look back at the two “Just gotta stick to training.”
It wasn’t long before they heard “Sit down Joel!” from the front of the bus, which caused him to promptly retake his seat.
The bus filled with some laughter from the outburst but Joel didn’t seem to mind. “I say we find out what we do worst in, and practise that extra after classes.”
“Sounds like a plan to me.” Saoirse replied.
When things fell silent again Mitch took out his phone and found a message from Lara. She had sent an email to both him and Jasper that stated “I have made it to the house again after you dropped me off Jasper. So far there are very few people here and Joseph had personally come out to welcome me. He was rather creepy at first but when I got to talk with him one on one he seemed quite different to the mental image I had of him.”
The email itself was quite long, continuing with the next paragraph “He took me into the room with the rune again and he asked me “How do you think you did that?” But I had no real reply to that. How do I politely tell him that I work for the world's largest secret organisation that would kill him if I did?” Mitch could relate to that feeling, still able to recall how he felt when he found out the choice he had given Lara was near fatal.
“I just told him that I don’t know and it was a natural feeling. Then he asked me if I would like to become a “disciple” as he calls it and I would be lying if I said it didn’t make me feel uneasy, the look he gave me at that moment. This was when I started getting an uneasy feeling, a chill down my spine like whenever a ghost is around. He touched the rune and activated it again. “I can show you this!” He exclaimed like some TV host offering up a prize I could win. With this whole situation I decided to accept and he assured me “It’s going to be nice here. I’m going to get this place done up. We can stay at the hotel nearby and I’ll drive you there.” He seemed far less creepy at this moment, he wasn't touching me, he wasn’t suggesting anything creepy outside of the obvious, he seemed happy. After that he took me to the hotel a short drive away and I just got into my room before typing this up.”
Once he had finished reading and settled in for the ride and just thought about all that had happened and what this could possibly mean for the future of this investigation.
Outside of some small banter and the odd reminiscing of events since the last met the ride felt rather quick. They had travelled up north and eventually past the border that led into Northern Ireland with a simple show of something on Nick’s end.
On reflection Mitch had come to realise that this was the first time he had ever been past the border since they rarely ever had reason to travel this far out for work along with most of the family shunning them gave them no reason to visit family up there.
After about a half hour of driving through remote Irish countryside later they turned off onto a trail that read “Private property.” that was surrounded by gigantic trees that almost blocked the light as they came through. Single strands of the strong sunlight broke through the formations of the leaves above to paint the road in splotches of warmth.
The trail continued and led into a much less dense forest path. This trail continued for what felt like the better part of 20 minutes of strange twists and turns. Mitch could swear he saw something in the distance the further they went, a figure within the trees, a pair of eyes piercing from distant shadows though he could never pinpoint where it was from.
“Do you get this uneasy feeling?” Mitch asked as they eventually saw two cabins approach in the distance. They were rather small and looked hand made, with what seemed to be a group waiting outside.
“Seems rather spooky, like something out of one of your horror movies.” Joel responded, though he didn’t share a glance as he was curiously staring out into the forest rather than at the cabins.
“Whatever is waiting out there for us we don't need to worry about it” Saoirse explained while the bus slowly came to a halt by the cabins. “Rin would hardly let us be at any risk, especially with him around.”
With that revelation Mitch turned his attention to the cabin once more where he saw that Rin was one of the hosts in waiting, along with four others; Kim, Heather, Erin, and Justin.
“Welcome, welcome!” Rin said as they began to leave the bus and claim their baggage from the undercarriage. “It is a pleasure to see you all well.” As usual he was dressed in long robes that covered his whole body and a hood with a mask underneath to hide his face.
“As mysterious as ever, jackass.” Mitch thought, crossing his arms while he waited with the crowd. Most stood in awe seeing Rin in person all the way out here but Mitch still held a high level of resentment for him.
“Welcome all.” He said in a calm and collected tone, having his arms crossed with his hands resting within the sleeves of his robes like some form of cartoon monk “It’s a pleasure to have you all out here for training.”
Despite wearing a mask Mitch could feel his gaze occasionally focusing on him while he scanned the crowd. He had no basis for thinking this, but he felt the gaze fall upon him.
“I’m here to train.” He thought as he put on a large fake smile to meet what he assumed was also on the other side of the mask.
“We have lodging ready for everyone.” Nick would have walked to his side and motioned to the buildings behind them. Rin nodded at him and continued his address “Classes are not mandatory, but you are required to train. We have facilities within the surrounding forest set up for practising a myriad of subjects. All of which will be moderated by our staff here.”
Nick nodded along with his words and added “Breakfast will be served at 8AM, lunch at 1PM and dinner at 7PM within the boarding areas.”
The crowd of what could only be a maximum of 25 students listened intently to the explanation of the rules that followed, casual statements such as “No leaving without permission” and “any funny business will be punished”
An odd rule Nick added to the list was obviously to scare people off of exploring at night “While we do our best to keep any form of spirit out of here, past 6PM we ask you all to refrain from using projection and that you fit in all of your training before that time.”
It got some whispers in the group but they were quickly silenced by the look Nick gave the group. “Come along, put your stuff away and we will be starting soon.” He briefly said, turning to walk towards the buildings as the other teachers and Rin split off to go to their own work.
“Girls on the right, boys on the left” He said as they got closer.
“Well, I’ll see you guys in a while.” Saoirse said as she waved and dragged her suitcase off to the right building. They were rather small despite being two stories tall, shrouded in the middle of this forest by thickets of trees and leaves.
On the bottom floor there was a general lounge with a small TV hanging off of the wall in the right back corner and some chairs scattered about with a table in the middle. Next to that was the bathroom which also had showers lined up along the walls and then a set of stairs which led up to the two sleeping areas which had multiple beds lined up along the walls.
Mitch and Joel took their beds next to each other and left their suitcase underneath.
They took a few moments to relax and sit on the beds facing each other as the others set their bags down and got settled. “This seems like it's gonna be a tough week.” Mitch said, leaning over with his elbows resting atop his knees.
“Can’t be as tough as working on cases.” Joel responded with a casual shrug, laying back on the bed with his hands behind his head.
“Not everyone here has experience with that.” Mitch teased before hopping down from his bunk. “You haven’t even done it yet.”
“No, but for mister star pupil over here.” Joel smirked.
“Oh shut up.” Mitch chuckled, doing the usual check of his messages where he found he had none. Once he checked he put his phone inside his suitcase and closed it up with a little lock keeping the dual zips together. “Lets see what class is on today”
“I think it's my sisters. I heard her mentioning something about it before we left.” Joel said, though he seemed rather complacent in his comfort, far too much to move now. “They’ll call us when it's time.”
Gathering within the rest area below they were greeted with Joel’s sister who dressed like some form of stereotypical TV scientist with a long lab coat that had stains about it from various substances and a pair of goggles that had been lifted to rest atop her head. “A pleasure to see you all again.” She began as sheets were handed out “So we will be going over the written exam portion, and of course how one prepares for a haunt.”
There was an audible groan within the room as she mentioned a written exam though she just ignored it and began her lecture.
Mitch found he had already known most of this from his time spent with Jasper though he was one of very few in the room who actually had any practical haunt experience as far as he could tell.
Though they were given a mock exam he felt that most of this was common sense outside of the stock takes they were asked such as “What do we bring on accounts of a suspected fiend” which was just a bunch of boxes they had to tick off of what supplies and how many.
“Probably not the best class to start on.” Joel laughed as they stood around when class ended, waving down his sister as everyone left.
“Hey you two.” Kim replied as she came over once she collected all the sheets. “I know right? I suggested leaving the written stuff till later in the week.” She replied in a similarly joking tone. “But Rin insisted it's the first thing.”
“Can’t go against the boss man.” Mitch said with a casual shrug, trying his best to not show off any personal bias in his movements which then made him increasingly more worried that he was being suspicious in his actions.
“Well either way, get on to the next lesson.” She replied, pointing to the door with the sheets she had “Spirit walking is being held, shouldn’t be hard to find it close by.”
“We don’t have to go to it.” Joel mocked, a cocky grin creeping across his face that Mitch could only assume was because she was his sister.
“You don’t, would you rather sit here and go over the material with me?” She asked, taking a seat and offering the ones across from her.
“To spirit walking it is!” Joel promptly replied, grabbing Mitch’s arm and dragging him outside where Saoirse was waiting for them.
“Took your time.” She said before walking ahead towards the forest to the north of the girls dorm “this class is always the worst.”
“Gotta practice it some time.” Mitch responded, though he agreed. It was possibly what he considered to be his worst subject in both sets of school but he had been steadily improving with his practice.
Justin was waiting for everyone to settle down when they walked out about two to three minutes down the northern path where they saw an obstacle course was set up with a large number of seats by the beginning area. “Now, you surely must know what the plan here is.” He said with a toothy grin, crossing his arms and leaning back on the pole.
He took a tiny book out from his pocket and flipped it open to begin reading. “You have to make it through this course without leaving your seat.” As he read he flipped the page as he stepped out of his own body in his projection. “This will be the task for the week, I expect you all to reach the first milestone today.”
He took off into the course by taking a quick leap over the tiny pit in front of them. While his control over his projection was more than admirable Mitch was mostly amazed by the fact his body was still idly reading the book that he had taken out, and even flipping the page from time to time.
It was a technique he heard of before from Jasper, that the body could essentially be “imprinted” with a menial and repetitive task to repeat like an animation loop.
“Makes sense he was the three time champion of the festival.” Joel whispered, watching as he got smaller in the distance as the obstacle course itself was rather long.
Though they didn’t see him return to his body Justin began to move once more and said “Now, today I expect you to get to the first marker I have placed.” Pointing across to a red flag which had been placed on the other side of the third obstacle, the rope climb. Before that was a stepping stone-like series of platforms slightly off the ground which came just after a pit with some water in it they were required to jump over.
Mitch couldn’t help but feel this was a bit excessive for what they were supposed to be doing while they were projecting this form, but who was he to question the word of the school at this point.
The rest of the class began to fill up the seats and Mitch soon did the same. It was at least a somewhat comfy chair compared to the hard plastic they had them sit on in his weekday classes.
He stepped out of his body finally and walked forward where he was greeted with everyone else doing the same. “Let’s see what we can get done.” Saoirse said as she quickly moved forward, not even taking the time to think of waiting for them as she leapt across the gap.
“As gung-ho as usual.” Joel said with a shrug before he followed closely behind, waiting his turn at the leap with the other students.
Mitch was already feeling a strain despite all of his training back home, but he couldn’t fall behind now. He came up to the beginning and once it was his turn, despite sluggish movement he got a running start at the jump.
It felt like a dream, where his legs struggled to keep up with his movements. It felt like he was running through water which was a common problem for those who were learning to control a sheer being of pure energy they created.
When he finally made it to the edge he made a leap, he would have liked to feel the ground beneath his feet though in this form he could only ever feel the strain of using it.
It took a few moments for him to even realise what had happened, even though he had his eyes open the entire time he just didn’t process the fact that he had just barely made it to the other side of the gap.
Though it was a short lived victory as he felt a hand on his chest as Aoife stood in front of him “Standing way too close, Mitch.” she said before pushing him back.
Though her attempts to be clever and knock him off were short lived as he quickly grabbed her hand out of instinct on the way down and pulled her back over the ledge with him. “Hey!” she shouted out shocked as she stumbled forward and fell over the ledge with him where they both fell back into the pit below.
The sudden shock was enough to force the two to lose control and suddenly gasp as they returned to their own consciousness. “Nice going!” Aoife shouted at him from a few seats away.
“Mitch, Aoife! Stop horsing around!” Justin shouted at the two from the side of the entrance “Back in, and don’t try any more funny business!”
The two shared a glare for a moment, Mitch silently cursing the family that could produce such a prude. He struggled to even understand at times how and why she was like this.