The Alternate Universes

CHAPTER 12 - Toby Hamilton

"Commencing phase 3!"
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POTATO'S POV ---
I was sitting down on the couch, waiting for the others to come back so I can explain to them what mission we have next.
"Hiiii" Dirt said as he opened the door and entered. I waved at him as he joined me.
"Where are the others?" I asked him. "Lychee and Minko are coming here right now, Koko might be a bit late." Dirt replied, going to put batteries into the electrical tools we'll be bringing. "She's always late.." I sighed, smiling a bit.

"Koko! We can't always be late because of you!"
"Sorry! My mom woke me up late!"
"Your supposed to be waking up on your own, what are you talking about??"
"okAY-"

I looked around, Where did that voice come from, and why did it sound like me and Koko..?
I shook my head. It was probably just me. The door suddenly opened. "Hallo." Lychee said as he entered with Minko who nodded in greeting. "Now all we need is Koko." I stretched as I stood up and went to help Dirt with preparing what we were going to bring.

As we were bringing everything to the van, Koko appeared and was panting violently, trying to catch her breath. "You good?" I asked, walking up to her with water, waiting as she was catching her breath. She thanked me and drank the water I offered her.

We all headed into the van and went our way.
We were going to a house, our first phantom awaits us there.

I looked down at the papers which we were given as Dirt was with Minko in the front of the van, driving.
"Who are we looking for?" Lychee asked as he opened a marker with his mouth, about to write general info about the place on a whiteboard which laid on the wall of the van.
"Toby Hamilton."
"Background info?"
"Not much info, basically after he died his parents moved away from the place his school was and into another country after. Communication with guardians, and parents were lost. He was 16 years old."
"Cause of death?"
"School shootout."

Lychee closed the marker. "We're close, prepare everything!" Dirt yelled from the front of the van. "Okay!" Me and Lychee replied.

---

We entered the house, it was rather clean, despite the fact that it hasn't been cared for about a month.
"This is a pretty house." Koko said as she jumped around. "Be careful, there might be uneven grou-" Koko suddenly yelped and fell down. "I was trying to warn you.." Dirt sighed. Koko looked down and saw she tripped on nothing. "Did you seriously just trip on air?" Lychee snrked, trying his best not to laugh. "Shut it!" Koko whisper-yelled. "It could've been the ghost." Minko pointed out.
"Good hunch." I blinked.

Minko turned on her flashlight to see better, she let out a yelp and turned off the flashlight immediately. "What happened?" Lychee asked, alarmed. "Did you guys not see him?" Minko asked in a shaky voice.

I shook my head in reply. "W-wh.." She trailed off. "Lets just continue and try not to die before then." Dirt sighed.

We decided to split up in two groups. One group had 2 and the other had 3.
Koko and Lychee, and Minko, Dirt and me.

We assigned rooms to check to each group.
And it just so happened that we three had to check the basement.
"I don't understand why there a basement.." Minko sniffed sadly. Dirt chuckled a bit. "In the words of Dirt," I turned to the blue-haired boy. "Lets try not to die." I smiled. They looked at me and laughed a bit. We opened the door and headed down. "Minko, your such a scaredy cat." Dirt laughed as Minko held her flashlight shakingly, as she stayed close to me. "Potato knows self-defense so I'm staying near her." She huffed, "You do remember that we're dealing with ghosts, phantoms at that, right?" Dirt pushed the topic further. "Shut up!" Minko jokingly punched him. "This basement's rather big.. Lets split up, it'll help us get the ghost faster in case it doesn't hunt in groups." I suggested. Minko nodded and headed off, with Dirt heading in the opposite direction. I entered the last empty place and explored, checking for EMF levels and temperature levels.

I shivered at the sudden coldness of the place. "What the heck..?" I breathed out and saw mist come out of my mouth. I checked the temperature and saw that it was lower than average. I pulled out my walkie-talkie and spoke. "Guys, below average temperature in one of the rooms in the basement, Lychee, if you could bring the journal with you that could help." I said to Lychee and Koko, who responded with a "'Kay, we'll get there as soon as possible.

I went to Dirt and informed him, he said he'd go get Minko. I pulled out the thermometer and kept it exposed for a bit, waiting to see if the temperature would change.

I breathed and closed my eyes for a bit, then opening it.
I saw a boy with blue eyes, brown hair, a green polo, he was about as tall as me, looking at me. "Wha!?" I yelled, jerking backwards. I looked around in shock, the boy was gone. "What happened?" Dirt asked, Minko, Lychee and Koko behind him. "Ah.. I saw him.." I sighed. I exhaled and inhaled as I watched Lychee put the pencil and journal down on the floor after writing "Ghost Appearances" on a separate page. He walked backward and pulled out a camera.

The pencil suddenly started floating.

We all inhaled, not letting out a breath.
The pencil began to write.
Lychee took a picture without the flash, to avoid getting the boy angered.

Lychee put the camera down as the pencil fell.

I let out a breath I forgot I was holding in. Koko approached the journal and kneeled down as she picked it up.
"Tommy is my bestfriend, Pharis is, too." Koko read out aloud.
"Oh.." Minko murmured
"Tommy is younger than Toby, I think he's the youngest compared to the three." Dirt pointed out.
"But Tommy died when he was 17..?" Koko raised her eyebrow.
"The poor boy lost his bestfriend and died a year later." Lychee itched his hair. "Pharis is the oldest..?" I half-stated, half-asked. "So we got some info, those three are best friends." Koko said as she wrote down a few info.

I asked for the journal and read the info she wrote down. I pulled out a notebook filled with info about the phantom-types. "I'm guessing he's a Yurei.." I said as I looked up from the notebook. "Freezing temperatures, Writing, and Ghost appearances." I read the info we collected aloud. "He didn't attack or appear when we were in groups, either" Dirt stood up from sitting on a box and said "I say we go? Or will we search further for more info?" Dirt asked. "Did you all check the other rooms?" Minko asked. "I checked around for fingerprints, or whatever, there was nothing upstairs" Lychee shook his head. "I checked around for EMF and temperature levels upstairs, nothing as well. There wasn't any papers or clues that seemed intriguing or would help us." Koko replied.

I nodded "Let's leave then?"
"Wait! I found this." Minko showed a picture of three boys. One boy had blonde hair blue-grey eyes, and a red bandana another one had a weak tone of pink for hair, the same color as his eyes, he wore a brown shirt with two white lines. The shortest one had brown hair, blue eyes, and a green polo. "Wait, I saw that last one!" I pointed at the shortest one. "That's Toby, then." Koko smiled. We started walking outside. "I'm guessing this is Pharis," Dirt pointed at the pink haired boy "Pharis sounds like a pretty elegant name, y'sure this isn't him?" Minko asked as she pointed to the boy with blonde hair. "Eh.. He has a bandana though?" Dirt raised his eyebrow. They continued arguing who is who until we went to the van to leave.

"Wake up."