•.. The Captain and The Detective

4.

CHAPTER FOUR
Who Do You Think You Are?

"ARE YOU FUCKING JOKING? Ghost haunting? What, are the ghost busters gonna show up too?" James crossed his arms, looking at everybody. When James had left to his room the night before, they all talked about haunting. Seriously. It's cliché, ghost haunting, blah blah blah. The group looked at him with hopeful eyes. He sighed as his eyes met the Captains. "All right, fine. Let's go with the cliché ghost haunting."

A, now happy, Captain turned to everybody while Thomas and James sat on the couch behind him. "Now, then. Let's have a look at some of the skills at our disposal, shall we? We all know Robin can do that thing with the lights." He pointed at Robin, who smiled and turned towards a lamp.

Robin groaned in frustration, trying to focus his mind on the lamp then it started to flicker. Like always. He let out a breath before turning around, and pointing at it. Everybody chuckled while James nodded at Robin with a smile. "Yes, Mary."

"When I pass through the livings, they smells burnings." Mary explained. James tilted his head while listening.

"Excellent. None of those are plural, but-" "Tis' a most noxious stink." Mary smiled.

"When I was alive..." oh, here we go. James rolled his eyes before facing Thomas who sat beside him. James crossed his arms, his back pressed against the couch arm. "It was rumored a little plague girl could often be heard singing in the pantry." James nodded his head in approval of the Knowledge they had been told.

"Oh, shit, she's terrifying." James whispered with wide eyes. In front of them stood said little girl. Singing a nursery rhyme, ring a round o' roses. She clutched her toy as she stared into their... well, souls. James clutched his jacket as she sang.

"People find it scary apparently." The little girl told them. 'Can she blink? Please, it's scary.' James thought while gulping a nervous laugh.

"What? No, I can't think why that would be.." the girl looked at him as he gulped. "Scary.." everybody else awkwardly laughed as they all turned to face the captain. James moved his hand in a way saying to 'continue speaking'. He glanced at the girl with wide eyes before doing the signal again. 'Hurry'.

"Finally, we're all aware of Julian's extraordinary powers." Captain smiled before everybody talked over one another, telling Julian to do his little trick. Julian smiled while saying no before agreeing with a big smile. He rolled up his sleeve slightly, he shushed everybody while holding his pointer finger at the cup.

He grunted, pushing his finger forward which went through the cup. He tried again, the same thing happened.. then again.. until he grunted while moving the cup making it fall to the ground and making everyone cheer and clap. James smiled as he clapped while looking around at everyone. "Uh, uh, I've only tried it on cups but you know." Julien smiled before Captain began to speak.

"Excellent. Well, with my leadership and your skills..." the Captain began before noticing the plague girl staring right at him from beside him. "Ah... I believe we have everything we need to scare them out of their wits." The group all nodded making James smile at their hope.

-

A loud shriek echoed throughout Button house. It made James jump and smile as he thought his friends had scared the woman or man making that noise. But, alas, it was merely the freezing cold water that had made the woman scream. "The water's gone cold! It's so cold! Mike!" The Detective walked towards the bathroom where he found the shoulders-down part of Thomas, his head was through a door.

"Tom?" James called. Thomas quickly pulled away and stood up straight like a boy who got called out for being naughty in class. "The fuck are you doing?"

"I wasn't looking, and anyway, I couldn't see anything," Thomas told the man who was looking at him with a look that he couldn't pinpoint if it was disgust or confusion.

"Okay..." James paused. "Is she coming out or...?

"Yes, I think she is." James sighed before turning around to face the whole group who stood behind him.

"She's coming out," James told them before walking over to stand next to the Captain.

"Stand to, everybody. Prepare for action." The Captain said to everyone as they all stood in their positions. Kitty was telling everyone words of encouragement but she stopped making everyone stop. "Finished?"

Kitty nodded with a large smile. "Yes."

The door to the bathroom opened making them all watch her. "Hot water's stopped." She called out to her husband to probably couldn't hear her.

"Go for Robin." Captain commanded.

Robin grunted as he used his power to make the lights flicker. The woman paused, turning around and walking toward the light switch. She turned it off and on again, each time making Robin cry out until he fell to the floor with a thud. James shook his head. "Man down. Right, cue Jemima." AKA, the scary little girl.

"Ring a ring o' roses-" Her singing was interrupted by very loud music.

"Yes! Got the speakers hooked up." Mike shouted.

"Well, that's the main thing." Allison shouted back.

"Yes, please, Mary." They all looked to Mary who stood waiting for Allison to walk through her. The woman just sniffed while looking around.

"I think your toast is burning." James watched with his arms crossed while standing against the wall. He stifled a laugh before coughing to cover it up.

"Dammit!" Captain shouted. He pointed at Julien with his stick. "All on you now, Julian." James rolled his eyes as the others all cheered on Julian only for the vase to move 1 centimeter as soon as Allison was out of the room. Everybody groaned. "Dammit!"

"It's much bigger than a cup, so..." Julian explained. "Ah!"

"Haunting's hard, isn't it?" Pat looked around at them all when James noticed Humphrey's head just laying there. He shook his head and walked over to it.

"So, how did it go?" Humphrey asked. No one responded. "Guys?" Everyone began walking off while James picked up Humphrey. "Oh, James! How'd it go?"

"Well... in the simplest way to explain it," James chuckled. "We're fucked."

_

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