Paranormals

“You did what?!” Spirit’s ears rang from the volume in Pensive’s voice. Pensive was always like this when she was angry or worried, but now she was both angry and worried; meaning it would be double painful for Spirit if he said the wrong thing. Spirit could see the stress starting to take it’s toll on her; her usual well groomed black mane and peek-a-bangs were in disarray, and her gray coat was matted. The one thing not affected was her red bowtie that she always wore.

“We were following up on your hunch about Slendermane, and Dr. Stevens suggested that we try using Omen’s clairvoyance,” Spirit explained, “Like I said a moment ago; we found Daemon, but Omen was attacked somehow, and he’s being looked after now by Stevens.”

“Why did you think that using a visual method of finding him would be a good idea?” she argued, “We know from all known encounters with him, that prolonged visual contact causes serious mental injury! So why in equestria would you think that clairvoyance would be a good idea?!” She was fuming from every angle, the anger held in her one hazel eye and one red eye was chipped away at Spirit’s nerve. Her red eye was even more intimidating due to the pentagram shape the iris held. At the same time though, it always intrigued him how it became that way, but scary none the less.

“I was personally against the idea,” Spirit pointed out, “I was just doing a favor for some pegasus mare down in the archives when Stevens came up with the idea.”

“A pegasus mare? What did she have you do?” Pensive asked.

“Well you would know, you were the one who sent her there,” Spirit snapped back.

“I never sent anypony to the archives,” Pensive stated, “Who was this mare? Did you get her name or ID number?”

“Well her name was Book Butterfly, as for her ID…” Spirit didn’t recall asking for her ID. Every official employee of Paranormals carries an ID card that certifies their place in the foundation. Since security to enter the facilities was always so tight, he figured that she must’ve had hers in order to get in. “I didn’t get it.”

“Book Butterfly, Book Butterfly…” Pensive pondered for a moment. A dark red aura emanated from her left eye- the pentagram eye- and a pencil began levitating in front of her. Like a child twiddling their hair in times of high stress, Pensive liked to levitate pencils and twirl them, it was her way of dealing with anxiety. Being one of the directors of Paranormals, was a very strenuous job, so it made sense that she developed little habits like pencil twirling. However, the most important thing that Spirit learnt while dealing with Pensive, is that you never push her to the point where she starts snapping pencils. Ponies tended to leave her office by window when that happened, and Pensive’s office was on the second story.
She snapped her head back up, “That’s right, Book Butterfly! She’s one of the trainees in the research department. Today was a job shadow for all the advanced trainees. The instruction department said that one of their pupils had not returned from job shadowing, and had filed a missing pony report. Book Butterfly was the name of the student.”

“That’s probably why she acted so shy around me, it was like a fan meeting their idol for the first time,” Spirit recalled.

“It was mentioned that she had a particular interest in the field work of Paranormals and it’s employees,” Pensive added, “You and Daemon are some of the best we have, it makes sense that she would see you like an idol.” She set the pencil in the pencil jar and continued, “It’s probably why she didn’t go back with her mentors either.”

“Why would that be?” Spirit asked.

Pensive shot him an annoyed look, “Think about it; you come here on a job shadow with the secret intention of meeting your idols. You hear that one of them has gone missing, and being a smart individual, make an educated guess that Slendermane is involved. Wouldn’t you want to prove that you’re right? And help that missing idol?” She theorized, “Smart mare, if she wasn’t a student I would commend her, but this won’t go unpunished.” She began to walk towards the door, “Come on Spirit, let’s go get her, at the very least we can get her back to the instructors, at best…” She hesitated at the doorway and turned her head to Spirit, “Let’s hurry, we don’t want to find that she left in the time that we’ve been talking.”

“Right,” Spirit started to follow her out.

“Oh, and Spirit,” Pensive levitated another pencil next to her head, “I haven’t forgotten about what happened to Omen,” She snapped the pencil in two. “You, Stevens, and I are going to have a long conversation after all of this; am I clear?”

“Yes ma’am!” Spirit choked out.

“Good, now let’s get going.”

………………………………

The clitter whistling of crickets rested in the night as the wind rustled the foliage of the forest, sending chills into the air. Daemon wearily opened his eyes, his head still pounded with remnants of static humming. He slowly tried to raise his head, but the drumming made it difficult. With all the strength he could muster, he stumbled to his hooves. Still a little dizzy, he fumbled into a chain link fence that was a few hoof lengths away.

“Oh, this is worse than that rollercoaster in Whinnyland, bleh…” he groaned, “My head is spinning so fast, not good.” He stood there leaning against the fence while his head finally cleared the rest of the static. Under the pale moonlight, he could see a dirt trail to the side of him, and the chain link fence running perpendicular to it. As his vision cleared, he could make out the silhouette of a large tree, it didn’t appear to have any leaves on it.

“Is this-?” He cringed in pain as the injuries from before started to throb. Daemon recalled the last time he encountered Slendy, it had been in a forest as well, he had memorized every square inch of the place in order to make his last attempt as successful as possible. He would have to explore this place a little if he was to be sure if it was the same forest.

Daemon regained his balance and started down the dirt trail, albeit very slowly. His side ached and pained, and his throat still felt as though it were being choked.

As he came upon the first split in the road, a cloud eclipsed the moon, sending the forest into darkness. In the dark Daemon could make out a beam of light that pointed towards the barren tree. The source was a small flashlight attached to a neck strap, his flashlight. He picked it off the ground and examined it.

“Hey! My camera is gone!” He cried. Immediately his throat punished him for his volume; Daemon coughed in agony. “Camera shy much, Slendy?” He then whispered.

Even in the midst of all this terror, Daemon still felt the need for making wise cracks, even if Spirit wasn’t there. It was funny, how a simple habit of making Spirit laugh could become a part of him. He remembered when he and Spirit were kids and had made that Ghost hunting club. Though he had the power to see a ghost’s last moments, he had always been jealous of Spirit and his gift to help those ghosts. It made a great combination though, he would see how they died, and then Spirit could use that knowledge to help them to the other side. It worked so well most of the time, but he could remember the first few times that they tried to be ghost hunters, how cowardly they were, especially Spirit.
Years of practice had steeled his nerves into the stallion he was today, but Daemon remembered the scared little colt that he once was. Often times they would be exploring an abandoned building when Spirit would just break down sobbing from all the fear he felt, and he had been there to help him to calm down. He would crack a joke, or try to make the fear seem funny, or even pull silly faces in order to make Spirit feel brave. In return, Spirit always protected him from the living; all the bullies that would pick on them for being different, Spirit could drive away with a tough stallion attitude.

So while Spirit became a brave soul that could find the courage to face anything, Daemon became a clown that tried to cover his own fears with jokes. Through the years, even when he worked a case alone, his fun loving attitude stayed with him.
He started down the trail again, a smile had grown on his face from the nostalgia trip; he would have to thank Spirit when he got back to Paranormals for all the times he protected him. He would have to thank all his friends back at Paranormals for everything they did for him. Dr.Stevens was very kind to him when he first got there, he showed him the ropes and explained how Paranormals worked. Omen was the first true friend he made there, always being a helpful insight into what he was going against when preparing for a mission, and fun to beat at in card games. Then there was Pensive, though she could be scary and cold sometimes, Daemon felt that she really cared for all of them deep down, and maybe could be really sweet if she wanted to. Over the years, those three became family to him like Spirit did when he was a colt; it was hard to believe that five years had already gone by.

“I wonder if they remembered that today was that anniversary?” Daemon pondered.

Before long, Daemon came upon the decrepit tree; it’s long branches hung high into the sky as a reminder of what it once was. One thing was clear, he was definitely in the same place as when he found the eight pages. He examined the trunk, sure enough, a single white page hung from the bark.

“Very peculiar,” Daemon said half-mockingly, “This note isn’t a normal note.” He looked at it closer with his flashlight; the note said one thing: give it back. He grasped the page in his hoof. “I don’t know what it is I’m supposed to give back, but if it’s a rematch you want, it’s a rematch you’ll get!” He croaked. Daemon ripped the page from the tree, and the thundering echo his arrival began.

………………………………

Spirit and Pensive approached the archives silently. As they peered inside, they could see BB working frivolously away at her notes. The once slightly littered desk was now piled high with books of all sizes. BB gently hovered in the air, examining the books from the higher shelves.

“Is this the Ruger Brother’s book to the Supernatural?! Only ten copies of this were ever made, including the original manuscript! I wonder which it...” She seemed to flutter in the air from excitement, “I don’t believe it! This is their original copy! You can still see the line marks from the erasing and usage!” She excitedly landed and cracked open the book, it looked extremely worn from age. “I swear, when I become a full time member of Paranormals, you’ll be the first one I fix,” she affectionately said to the book.

Pensive made a motion to go retrieve her, but Spirit held up a hoof to signal to wait.

“You talk to the books you read?” Spirit stepped in from the doorway. BB jumped in fright.

“Gah!” she screamed, “Mr. Charity! I didn’t see you there!” She gave a sigh of relief, “Sorry I freaked out on you, I didn’t expect you to come back after creeping you out before. Did you give Dr. Stevens the papers I gave you?”

“I did, but those papers ended up getting my friend Omen seriously hurt,” Spirit explained, “I can’t really blame you since you were working under Pensive’s orders, but it’s a shame that it ended up like this.”

“Omen Skies got hurt…” Book muttered, “Did they say if he would be okay?”

“You don’t have to worry about it; it wasn’t your fault that he tried to use clairvoyance to find Slendermane,” Spirit answered. He knew it was cruel to be torturing the young mare like this, but he was curious if she would tell the truth.

“Why in the world would he use clairvoyance?” BB questioned, “All encounters with Slendermane report that visual contact is very detrimental to one’s health. Scrying would’ve been the better option.”

Spirit could feel the hot gaze of Pensive from the shadows outside of the room; it was as clear as if she had said ‘I told you so’.

“The point is, Omen got hurt because of information that you gave. Are you sure that Pensive was the one who authorized it? Or was it another pony perhaps?”

BB’s face flushed with an obvious guilt, she wasn’t to smart when it came to hiding her emotions. She couldn’t meet Spirit’s dark blue eyes.

“I, uh…” she started to say, “I’m sorry Mr. Charity…”

“Huh, what for?” he said innocently.

“I may not have been as truthful as you thought,” BB continued, “I’m not here under Director Pensive’s orders.”

“Then who are you here for?”

“No one sir, I’m not even supposed to be here right now…”

“That makes sense,” Pensive summerized as she revealed herself, “This is the damaged archives after all. Every book, manuscript, and scroll that is damaged is sent here to be repaired, though progress is often slow due to situations like these; so it makes perfect sense that you would come here. It’s the perfect place to hide and research at the same time.”

“Ms. Pentra! I’m so sorry for being here ma’am!” BB apologised. She bowed her head in respect.

Pensive only stood there in silence; she had a serious look on her face.

“Ms. Book Butterfly was it?” Pensive inquired, “Your mentors filed a missing student report to me just a couple of hours ago, saying that one of their top honors trainees had gone missing. I think this goes without saying, but they were referring to you”

“Oh…” BB lowered herself in shame, “I didn’t mean to make them worry, I just…” she lowered her voice to a nearly inaudible level.

“Ms. Butterfly, there is going to be some serious consequences for your reckless actions today. You disobeyed your instructors, pretended to be under orders from myself, and indirectly caused our resident psychic to be in critical condition; these are grounds for expulsion from our program, and there would be no second chances for getting back in,” Pensive stated, “Before we take you into a holding cell until your superiors arrive, do you have anything to say for yourself?”

BB stood shaking there for a moment, tears had started forming in her eyes, and her lips were quivering in guilt and fear.

“I know there’s no excuse for what I’ve done,” BB squeaked, “but will you at least use what I have to help find Daemon?!” she pleaded.

“And why should we do that? Your ‘research’ nearly got Omen killed!” Spirit blurted.

“My papers never said anything about clairvoyance or trying to find him! Just that objects that Slendermane has touched have strong energy that could be traced!” BB rebuttled, “I never thought you would try doing something like that! I just wanted to help Daemon since he saved me!” she covered her mouth in shock. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to shout…”

“Wait wait wait,” Spirit stuttered, “You know Daemon? How?”

“He… he saved my life once,” BB started, “I didn’t always want to be a paranormal investigator, but after that night when Daemon saved me. I wanted to dedicate my life to supernatural studies, so I could help him…” Spirit could see tears start to streak down the younger pony’s face. She started sniffling in sadness, “I-I need to make it up to him, he got hurt because of me. I need to repay him, so please, take what I’ve got and go save him. I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to him before I could repay that debt.” She was sobbing by this point, it was clear that Daemon was her true hero, even more than Pensive or even Spirit.

“Hey, there’s no need for tears. I think me and Pensive can both agree that anything you’ve uncovered will be helpful,” Spirit consuled, “Isn’t that right Pensive?”

“Um, right…” Pensive cleared her throat, “The research you’ve put together will no doubt be of help. It did confirm that the monster involved was Slendermane, that’s more than most of our scientists have put together.” She walked to the table and began to levitate all of the books and papers BB had gathered. “In light of this, I’m prepared to postpone your punishment until this is all sorted out, and…” She pulled out a pencil and began to write on a blank sheet of paper, “This will get you into the official archives a couple of floors up, I’m sure that the bigger array of information will be better than a bunch of beat up old books.”

Book looked at her astonished, a smile came to her face as she wiped away her tears.

“Thank you miss Pentra! I promise I won’t let you down!” BB sniffled in happiness.

“Good, now go get to work! I want all countermeasure possibilities in two hours. We’re going after him,” Pensive turned her back and left the room, leaving both Spirit and BB in awe.

“Right ma’am! I can assure you the results will be stellar!” BB called after her.

“I have no doubt they won’t be,” Pensive whispered to herself. She started in the direction of the medical wing.