Venturiantale Stuff

Part 37

(graphic description of gore in here)
Toast's pov
You watch the shape go into Charlie, causing him to shiver, and you don't see it come out. "Charlie, come here for a second."
You tilt your canteen into your hand and flick the water onto his face where it evaporates into white steam off of his skin. "Now would be an excellent time to demonstrate paranormal influence. You just shivered, right?"
He nods, staring worriedly at his hands.
"Do you feel weird at all? Any different?"
He purses his lips for a moment, and then he nods. "I feel upset about something, but I don't know what."
You smile approvingly. "I just watched a small white shape pass into you, and you saw the steam. The ghost is influencing how you feel, but it has to do it directly and using your energy. If it were a more powerful ghost, it might have just had to be in your general vicinity, and it might have messed with us too. You need to commit this feeling to memory so you can sense it in the future. We'll do something about it in a minute."
Charlie is still worried, but he seems to concentrate on the feeling. You watch as his worried expression shifts to something else before it goes back to normal.
You dip your fingers back into the water and sling it on him in the universal symbol of a cross and mutter a quiet blessing.
He un-tenses his shoulders, something you didn't notice he had been doing since the beginning, and exhales the small spirit.
"Speak out if you feel anything else influencing you. There are bound to be more influential spirits around in a place like this."
"Okay." He glances around for a second like he's forgotten what your surroundings looks like before noticing the same thing you do. "Where's Ghost?"

Ghost's pov
You felt the lingering trying to push their emotional baggage onto you since the beginning, but, like always, they don't get anywhere and you continue your investigation unhindered. Toast had stopped Charlie a minute ago to do some more teaching, and you, feeling like you had nothing to contribute with your natural resistance in that area, decided to scout ahead.
You walk around some of the rusted machinery and inspect a dark crusted spot on the floor that is decidedly not rust. This place has been abandoned for at least five years, and if the shattered glass and graffiti said anything about it's state of wear and tear, there shouldn't be a dried pool of blood on the floor.
The ghost detector in your hand confirms as much, lighting up for something quite a ways above the barely visible wisp you saw earlier. You quickly check the clip of the gun on your hip. Sometimes gunpowder was a lot more useful when replaced by salt, the universal purifier. Even if it did turn out to be something non-paranormal, a bullet is still a bullet no matter what's in it.
You creep around the section of machinery; something that seems like it was used to grind up meat and bones. You grimace at the implications. In front of you, you hear quiet noises; something grunting in frustration and pain, and you see exactly what you expected.
There is the ghost of half of a body, sticking crookedly out of the jaws of the machine. Below its skewed hips is completely crushed into a painful, gooey mess of blood and bones. Its pelvis is broken in half, and one arm is elbow-deep into the mess of teeth and gears. It pushes with all of its might at the machine, its one good arm straining as it tries to wrench itself from the mechanism.
You walk a little normally, letting your footsteps announce your approach to what you hope is a harmless entity. The thing jerks around to try to look at you normally, but it only succeeds in pulling another mangled groan from it. It lets itself hang limply from the jaws of its prison and you notice its back is probably broken too.
"My name is Johnny Ghost, paranormal investigator extraordinaire." You say, your voice less confident than you would like. "I banish you from this realm."
You expected it, but the spirit merely sizzles around the edges. You know you didn't have enough conviction in your words.
Along with sizzling slightly, like butter on a hot pan, the specter writhes and screeches, no doubt causing it more pain to itself.
The screech strikes some nerve within you, and you clap your hands over your ears to muffle the sound.
It doesn't muffle it, and you are very nearly driven to your knees by the piercing nature of it.
You fire five rounds into it before the screeching subsides to a tolerable whine. You're panting, your heart is pounding and your ears are ringing, and you're barely able hear your partner and Charlie run up to check on you.
"Sir! Sir, are you okay?" it sounds like you're underwater, but there's no denying who it is.
You dimly reach an arm out to him, and he pulls you up and steadies you. Through your ragged breathing you reassure him that you're fine while he worries over you.

Toast's pov
You pull up your partner and steady him, checking over him as well. He mutters that he's fine in protest to your mothering, but his voice is raw. You glance at the creature trapped in the maw of the grinder, taking note of the five bullet holes in its torso and its sizzling, liquid-like skin.
He calms down enough to breathe normally, enough that you can turn your attention to the rookie. Charlie has crept closer to the machine and the ghost, entering the danger zone. Though its eyes are glazed, it keeps its focus in his direction, and you call him away before it can make a move.
He eyes Ghost warily, something you have seen him do more than once and almost always when he's panicky. You tuck realization away for later.
You make sure Ghost can stand on his own before stepping up to the plate yourself. It is banished easily, most likely from the previous damage done by your partner. Despite how much you would rather go home than continue, you have to get paid.
You make sure you don't leave Ghost's side for the rest of the case.
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(possibly to be cont.d)
(worked on today, the 16th of may)