|| EMERY AND EDEN VS. THE WORLD ||

SEVEN

selected [EMERY].

exorcisms never turned out well. but for once, luck seemed to be on their side (sort of).

eden hesitantly kicked open the crooked door, flinching at the sound of it knocking against the other side of the wall.

the place was decorated with children's books and toys. clown dolls, clown books, clown paintings.

and a clown.

fluffy, dirty blonde hair covered the tips of his eyes, clearly in need of a haircut. he had baby blue eyes that have painted diamonds over them, like most clowns, the end of his nose was painted red. the clown had a neck ruffle with small black puff balls at the end of them, along with a red and white striped onesie with red puff balls at the buttons.

"you guys don't look very promising."

from a clown, you'd expect some enthusiasm.

emery rolled her eyes before scanning the scene around her.

"why are there so many clowns?" she questioned warily as she took a few steps towards the clown. he was sat in a pale green chair in the middle of the room, holding a toy with similar attire to him.

"clowns are cool innit."

"what's your name, mr clown?" eden asked, playing with the dust that had been collected amongst the clown dolls. they looked like they hadn't been touched in years.
the clown sighed.

"cecil. cecil the clown." cecil gave his best jazz hands as he said clown before returning to his stoic state. eden swiped the clown doll from him.

"what does this thing d-"

"don't touch that!" before eden could process cecil's words, the doll flew upwards and towards the roof.

it stayed there for a second before the room began rumbling and the clowns were torn off of shelves and the paintings of clowns began to bleed from the walls.

"it was emery!" eden accused quickly, throwing their arms in the air as if they were innocent. emery jumped up in protest.

"what?! that was you! i don't even like clowns!" emery pushed eden lightly as they both began arguing.

cecil, on the other hand, began panicking and dropped to his knees to pray.

cadell stared at cecil, getting a strange sense of nostalgia for something he didn't even remember.

"do you want me to eliminate the clown... doll?" cadell added. eden and emery both looked at him in disbelief, his unchanging smile not even twitch at the sight.

"obviously!"

"what kind of question is that?!"

cadell locked the doll in a prism, a diamond shape similar to a spear encased the doll was it struggled against it.

"that's kind of cool." emery commented, checking out the prism. cadell laughed.

"it's something i can do because i'm a government assigned ghost."

"government?! i didn't know the ghost was spying on us!" eden tried to latch onto cadell but failed miserably, forgetting he was a ghost.

"my job is to watch over espers to make sure they do not get into any trouble, not to spy."

"we've been on the esper job for quite a while, how come you've only just began watching over us?" emery joined in.

"answer the question, bozo." cecil was also joining in at this point.

"says the literal bozo! you're an actual bozo like you're a fucking clown what-"

"afanc was unaware of your presence up until the green sky incident." cadell interrupted emery, his tone different from his usual upbeat one.

the room went radio silent.

"afanc knows us?! we're in deep shit now!" eden grabbed cecil and emery, rushing them out of the room.

"don't let the spy follow us!"

of course cadell followed anyway.

it was his job.

as the crew congregated outside on the front door steps, emery stared into the dirtied cobblestone pathway.

"cecil, was that doll the only ghost?"

"yeah, i was expecting more of a fight to be honest. that was the doll that had been previously owned by-" cecil was interrupted by cadell, who flew into view.

"we should get going!" his usual cheery voice was back. emery couldn't tell if that was a good or bad thing at this point.

eden threw themselves into their car and turned on the ignition as emery opened the passenger door. she stopped.

"cecil, are you... staying here?"

cecil played with a stray twig.

"i've been here for a few years to take care of the owner's sick child. after he died, i've had nothing to do but sit in that room since i still get paid to make sure that the child's ghost who possessed that doll doesn't act out. he's safe around clowns. but he started acting up lately since his father stopped visiting his son's room to try and get over the grief. i guess he didn't like that." cecil sighed before looking up at the now darkening sky. he threw the twig to the side.

"now that the doll is taken care of, i don't know what to do."

emery lay a hand on his shoulder and have a tight squeeze.

"you'll be alright with us, probably. stay with us for a while until you get back up on your oversized clown feet."

a smile was brought to cecil's face as he grabbed emery's hand to pull himself up. he thanked her before getting into the back of the car.

"so now i have to take care of you and a clown? this isn't charity work, you know." eden grumbled, pulling out of the mansion's driveway and towards the nearest hotel.

"it's only for a few days."

"whatever."