Scenarios

Who Wants a Hug?

Me and my partner are walking down a sidewalk on our way to our next client's place. We got a call about a very aggressive ghost. "We gotta get in and out quickly this time." My partner, Aurora, says. She's a beautiful young woman. She's short, with red hair and a bubbly disposition. She wears a black blouse that opens near the top to show a white shirt and a red tie underneath, and medium black skirt with long, black stockings that disappear up under it. She wears black heels that clack against the sidewalk as we walk. "Lets not have a repeat of our last one. They almost got us that time." "I won't let that happen. I'll protect you." I say. I'm wearing a similar suit tailored more to males. Just simple black jacket over a white shirt and a black tie, and black slacks. My shoes are black dress shoes. "C'mon. We're wasting precious daylight." We quicken our pace. "There it is." I point out a run down motel. We walk in. The walls are falling apart. The wallpaper is peeling and there are holes in the wood behind it. The carpet is ragged and dirty. There is a grungy old man sitting at the desk. He's reading a newspaper and doesn't look up when we walk in. I look at Aurora and she make a face. I shrug and walk up to the desk. "Sir?" I ask. "What do you want?" He gripes, annoyedly. "Um.. you called us. We're the ghost hunters." I say. "You're it? You're a couple of kids!" He grumbles. "Sir, we know what we're doing. We're professionals." Aurora says. "Whatever you say. Come on. I'll lead you to it." He folds up his paper and lies it on the desk. He gets up and walks deeper into the dirty motel. We follow him down the rotting hall. Bugs are flying around and water drips from the ceiling in some places. "So, what's the behavior of this ghost?" Aurora asks. "I've never seen it myself. Only gotten reported sightings and happenings from guests and faculty. They report things moving around on their own. Particularly very quickly in their direction. Doors swinging open or closed right into people's faces, or on their fingers. Cuts and bruises after waking up." He explains. "Hmm. We've seen this before. We'll handle it." I say. We follow him silently I hear a watery squish and look over to Aurora. She has a horrified look on her face as she lifts her foot out of a green puddle of ick on the carpet, a green sheet of it still connected to her. I grimace. I keep a closer eye on the floor as I walk. Finally we reach the end of the hallway. There's a red door here. It reads: 203. "This is the epicenter of the sightings." He says. I wouldn't expect him to know how to use that word. "We'll handle it." Aurora says. I pull a device out of my pocket and hand it to the man. It's a square remote with one button. "If anyone comes in looking for us, or even someone who looks like they don't belong in some way, press that button." I explain. He nods and walks off. Once he's gone I approach the door and right as I'm about to open it, it swings open, slamming right into my face. I'm thrown back. Aurora catches me. "Oh man, that hurt." I say. "Thanks." "No problem." She smiles. She helps me up and we cautiously enter the darkened room. She walks passed me. "For starters, lets get these curtains open." She says. She grabs them and flings them aside. Sunlight floods the room. Immediately they're closed up again. "Uh... excuse me?" She says, offended. She opens them again, but they're quickly shut again. "Stop that!" She says. She rips them off the wall entirely, and the ghost picks them up and sharply sticks them back up. Aurora growls. "Aurora! Stop." I say. I pull out a potion and take a swig. The ghost materializes in front of me. "What the-" It doesn't look human. It hardly even looks like a ghost. It's grotesque, with green skin and a long grey tongue that hangs out of its mouth, almost as big as it's body. It wears no discernible clothes, and it's covered in blemishes of all kinds. It stands only about three feet tall next to Aurora, but it's bulging with muscle. It growls back at Aurora and stretches to be almost as tall as the room. It snatches her leg and hoists her up into the air, upside down. "AH!" She screams. She pushes her hands up to keep her skirt from falling up. "Ian! Help!" She shouts. The beast takes its disgusting tongue and slaps it against Aurora's face, sliding it all the way up her body. "EeeeEEEEEWWW! What the hell was that! Ew ew ew! It left me dripping!" She cries out. I pull out a knife and press a button on the end and it elongates into a broadsword. I rush forward and slice the monster's tongue off in one clean swipe. The stump flails around, drenching Aurora in purple blood. She just sighs, her face showing that she's absolutely done. The beast screams and lets her go. I jump forward and catch her. "Thanks..." She grumbles. I hand her the potion and she drinks it. She pulls out a similar knife to mine and presses the button. It elongates into a shortsword. We rush forward together in sync and make swift strikes against the beast. It backpedals, trying to block us with its arms. It looses one as a result. Finally I drop my sword as Aurora backs off then rushes towards the beast again. She steps up and I catch her foot and lift her into the air. She jumps away from me and slices the beast's head clean off in mid air. She lands with a roll and jumps back to her feet, all before the severed head hits the ground. The beast lifts his arm up to his neck and pats at it for a moment before falling to the ground, dead. The room is completely coated in the beast's purple blood. I manage to avoid getting touched by a single drop, Aurora wasn't so lucky. She's just as coated as the room. "Ugh! I can't believe this." She says. She sheaths her sword, after turning it back into a knife. I pick up mine and do the same. "Oh, you'll be fine." I say. She looks at me with a evil grin on her face. "Who wants a hug?" She asks, walking toward me. "No. NO!" *Squelch!* I sigh. She has her arms wrapped around my torso. She lifts up onto her toes and kisses my cheek, leaving a purple kiss mark. "Oh, you'll be fine." She mocks. "Yeah, yeah. Let's get out of here." I say. We walk back to the front counter and the man gives us a strange look. "What the hell happened in there?" He asks. "It wasn't a ghost. It was a demon." I say. "We left the corpse, but it should disintegrate by tomorrow." Aurora says. "There's also a lot of blood. That.. won't disintegrate." I say. "Sorry." He makes a face, and then hands us our payment and our device back. "Thanks, I guess." He mumbles as we walk out. "Let's go home and get cleaned up." I say. "Yeah. We can share the shower. You know. To save water." She says slyly. "Yeah. 'Save water.'" I chuckle. We walk home together, no sign of anything out of the ordinary.