ExcitingGhost
★★☆☆☆
The sun was just beginning to set on what had been a rather drizzly day. Valentine pulled up in front of an abandoned house. Normally, he would've just left places like this alone. Of course it was haunted! However, the neighbors around the house had hired him, and they had offered to pay him considerably for the job. He had rent to pay, and he wasn't going to say no to a well-paying job.
As he approached the house, he noticed that something felt incredibly off. Not just that it was haunted, which he had expected, but there was something more. Something felt... Dangerous. Hesitating a moment, the pink-haired detective looked up at the building with unease. The lime green color of the vinyl siding was faded, dirty, and probably not originally lime green. All the windows were boarded up, and the door most likely was at one point too. Now though, only a single board blocked off the top part of the door. Perhaps it would've been a problem for a tall person, but Valentine stood barely taller than 5'2", so that wasn't really a problem for him.
Conveniently- or oddly, depending on your tastes- the door was already open. Actually, he was pretty sure the door was closed when he got there, so that should've been a warning, but his job was to make stupid decisions like the one he was about to. Valentine ducked into the house, not because he had to, but out of habit and partially because it made him feel a bit taller. As he entered, he noticed that the door was not only open, but the door itself had been torn off its hinges, thrown at the wall in a manner that got it stuck. He got closer to inspect the door, and realized it was not as dusty or covered in cobwebs as everything else was, suggesting that this had been done recently. The door also did not match the exterior of the house in the slightest, but that could be attributed to the original house owner's bad taste- who paints their house lime green?
Upon further inspection, it appeared that this was not a house, but it was a bakery. At least, the bottom floor was. A scattering of mismatched chairs and tables cluttered the floor, and long counters and showcases took up the better part of the back quarter of the room. There was a door in the back, most likely leading to the kitchen, but the tables, chairs, and door lodged in the wall made it nearly impossible to get back there. The only place he could go was up the stairs, which there happened to be a clear, straight forward path to. Again, this was a sign that it was most likely a trap and he should leave, but he really wanted to be able to buy groceries this week.
At this point, as he made his way up the metal spiral staircase to the upstairs, Valentine realized his job wasn't that far from something teenagers dared each other to do. The only notable difference was that he had knowledge of supernatural entities, and he was at least getting more for this than twenty dollars. He had considered getting a normal job before, and this was another one of those times. In fact, the only real reason he hadn't gone for something safer was because he'd probably still be a magnet for supernatural entities, anyway, and that was why he took up this occupation in the first place.
Little did he know, Maxwell was waiting for him on the second floor, lurking in the shadows. The young demon had overheard that this was where Valentine's next investigation was taking place, and he decided he'd have a bit of fun. Max had never meant any real harm to the investigator, he just wanted to have fun, and he happened to get his enjoyment from scaring the poor pink-haired man. If he did want to hurt him, he'd probably be dead already, that's for sure.
As he approached the house, he noticed that something felt incredibly off. Not just that it was haunted, which he had expected, but there was something more. Something felt... Dangerous. Hesitating a moment, the pink-haired detective looked up at the building with unease. The lime green color of the vinyl siding was faded, dirty, and probably not originally lime green. All the windows were boarded up, and the door most likely was at one point too. Now though, only a single board blocked off the top part of the door. Perhaps it would've been a problem for a tall person, but Valentine stood barely taller than 5'2", so that wasn't really a problem for him.
Conveniently- or oddly, depending on your tastes- the door was already open. Actually, he was pretty sure the door was closed when he got there, so that should've been a warning, but his job was to make stupid decisions like the one he was about to. Valentine ducked into the house, not because he had to, but out of habit and partially because it made him feel a bit taller. As he entered, he noticed that the door was not only open, but the door itself had been torn off its hinges, thrown at the wall in a manner that got it stuck. He got closer to inspect the door, and realized it was not as dusty or covered in cobwebs as everything else was, suggesting that this had been done recently. The door also did not match the exterior of the house in the slightest, but that could be attributed to the original house owner's bad taste- who paints their house lime green?
Upon further inspection, it appeared that this was not a house, but it was a bakery. At least, the bottom floor was. A scattering of mismatched chairs and tables cluttered the floor, and long counters and showcases took up the better part of the back quarter of the room. There was a door in the back, most likely leading to the kitchen, but the tables, chairs, and door lodged in the wall made it nearly impossible to get back there. The only place he could go was up the stairs, which there happened to be a clear, straight forward path to. Again, this was a sign that it was most likely a trap and he should leave, but he really wanted to be able to buy groceries this week.
At this point, as he made his way up the metal spiral staircase to the upstairs, Valentine realized his job wasn't that far from something teenagers dared each other to do. The only notable difference was that he had knowledge of supernatural entities, and he was at least getting more for this than twenty dollars. He had considered getting a normal job before, and this was another one of those times. In fact, the only real reason he hadn't gone for something safer was because he'd probably still be a magnet for supernatural entities, anyway, and that was why he took up this occupation in the first place.
Little did he know, Maxwell was waiting for him on the second floor, lurking in the shadows. The young demon had overheard that this was where Valentine's next investigation was taking place, and he decided he'd have a bit of fun. Max had never meant any real harm to the investigator, he just wanted to have fun, and he happened to get his enjoyment from scaring the poor pink-haired man. If he did want to hurt him, he'd probably be dead already, that's for sure.
