Forums » General Roleplay » Ripley and the Ghost Club (1x1)

"How should I know? You're the ones who've known her the longest! And why are we the only ones who can help? We're just kids!" Ripley's teeth were still chattering as she tried to wrap up Visia's arms with shaking hands. This run-in with a real demon, a real creature of violence that could be both physical and phantasmic, had seriously rattled her and shaken her normally indominable spirit. The ghost hadn't been nearly as scary because the ghost couldn't really do much. It could just hang there and be spooky most of the time. That wasn't really scary after a while. This? This was a whole other ballpark! This was a creature that could kill! The only question was, Why didn't it kill? And she wasn't sure she cared about the answer!

Francis instinctively flinched from the sudden yell. Not that he could blame her for yelling. Visia was...well, it was always hard to parse her thousand-yard stare. She didn't react much as her arms were wrapped up. The boy sighed, hanging his head.

"Perhaps I should have warned you how dangerous this could be..." he said. "I... I understand if you want to abdicate from the club..." Although he didn't want to influence her decision, he couldn't stop his lower lip from quivering. Clearly, he didn't want to loose another member.

"I think you're all idiots," Ripley snapped as she finished wrapping Visia's arm. "Hold that," she told Visia. She looked at Francis' fingers, but they didn't seem too bad. "This job doesn't need kids that can see stuff. It needs like a priest or an exorcist or something. You're just going to get everybody killed going after actual, factual demons." She sat down and turned her back on Francis and Visia. She tried to hide it, but a soft sniffling came from her general area.

Francis flinched again, this time hurt by what she said. But again, he couldn't blame her. Maybe he was going to get them killed. This wasn't the first time they had come close. But there was a reason he continued doing what he did. He took a deep breath, and spoke in a low, but certain voice.

"Priests and exorcists won't be able to do anything without the sight. They won't know if their prayers are working, they won't know if the demon is charging them down, they won't even know if the demon is present. If you know a priest that has the sight, then we can absolutely bring them into the case. Otherwise, good luck even convincing them that a demon is involved. You know how adults are."

By that point, the ambulance had shown up. As the medics were tending to Dayer, Francis continued. "Don't get me wrong, I'm petrified. But I'm going to keep trying to stop this demon. Do you know why?" He pointed to Edrie, who was sobbing as she watched her husband getting carried into the ambulance. "Because she's next on the list. The same thing will happen to her if someone doesn't do something. You can follow me or not. It's up to you."

The medics wanted to take Francis and Visia to the hospital as well. Their cuts weren't as bad, but they would still need stitches. Ripley could ride with them if she wanted.

Ripley didn't answer Francis' heartfelt speech. She stayed back, refusing to get in the ambulance. Other than getting shaken up and having a demon walk through her, she was fine. It hadn't hurt her at all, for some reason. It just didn't make sense. How could a demon walk through people like it was a ghost? Was it a ghost? Demons were supposed to be visible to people! Werent' they? Otherwise, what was the point of being a demon? Everything she thought she knew about the world, even the supernatural world, was unraveling. She wanted something sane to cling to. Something that made sense. She wanted the adults to take care of this. Yes, adults were dumb and never listened to kids, but usually they seemed pretty decent at dealing with things that were literally trying to kill people! For once, she wanted an adult to step in and say, "Don't worry, kid. Run along and play. The adults will handle this."

She watched the ambulance drive off. Maybe she wasn't cut out for this club. She'd thought it was going to be fun. A good time solving problems and ferreting out mysteries. Francis had said that it was dangerous, but she hadn't really believed him. It was kind of hard to take someone like him seriously, mostly because of how seriously he took himself, but maybe he'd actually been right. The demon trying to shred people seemed to indicate that.

Joneey stirred in her pocket, and she looked inside. The hermit crab had coiled up tighter than she'd seen him since she'd first gotten him. The demon had scared him, too. Now he was just barely stirring, peeking his eyestocks out and looking at the world around him. She bit her lip guiltily. She'd put Jonsey in harm's way, too! That could never happen again. Not to Jonsey.

Suddenly, Jonsey drew back in, his claws creating a protective door over the entrance to his shell. What had happened? She'd been sitting still this whole time. Actually, she'd been sitting still for so long her butt hurt. She started to move, shifting to sit up. Then she felt it. Something or someone was there. She froze, shrinking down among the tall weeds, her heart pounding. Was the demon back? Cautiously, she peered around. There was movement not far away.

Fortunately, it was no demon. At least not on the surface. An elderly man was making his way up the sidewalk. The wrinkles on his face seemed to form a permanent scowl. He stopped at the gate to the house. At that moment, he took on an almost cartoonishly evil appearance. His face grew into a devious smirk as he snickered and wrung his hands together.

"You just watch, Father Prudence." he said in a raspy voice. "Watch how your flock suffers for your sinful teachings." He pulled out a piece of paper that appeared to be some sort of list. With a pen, he crossed off one of the items on said list.

Ripley stared after the man in confusion. She could not have seen what she thought she saw, right? That made no sense! Adults couldn't be that dumb, could they? Right? No, no, they could be. It was just still so baffling. And mean. Adults were absolute jerks, but kids were the ones who were the problem. This world was so stupid. She studied the man's face, resolutely memorizing it.

After he left, she moved to grab her bike and set out to tell Francis, but then she hesitated. Maybe she shouldn't talk to him tonight. They were at the hospital, and their parents had probably come, and... It was a mess. Maybe tomorrow would be better. Yeah. It was getting late, anyway. She should probably go home. She hopped on her bike and headed home, resolving to talk to Francis tomorrow at school. She did hope he and V were okay.

Frances and Visia got their wounds stitched up at the hospital. He had to tell his parents that he was helping Mr. Christiansen with his yard when a wild animal attacked them. But after that, they were sent home.

The next day was rough for Francis. Livia was clearly keeping her distance, and he wasn't sure if he should try and talk to Ripley or not. If she decided it was too dangerous, that was... probably the smart decision to make. He really couldn't fault her for that. If she didn't try to talk to him, he would still have the club meeting as usual, even though it would just be him and Visia. But he couldn't even bring himself to have his usual boring presentation.

Ripley didn't need to really try to avoid Francis and the others at school. Their paths barely crossed outside of the club. She spent the day going back and forth in her head about whether she should or should not say anything. She saw Livia at a distance once and almost went to tell her what she'd seen, but then she drew back when she saw that it seemed Livia was avoiding the others. Maybe she wasn't the best place to start, although she could have said whether the guy Ripley had seen was a member of her church or not.

Finally, the school day ended, and she marched to the room where the club meetings were usually held. Francis had better be in there. He was. Ripley stormed inside before she could change her mind and turned to glare at him. "I still think you're an idiot," she said, pointing at Francis, "and you're prematurely teen-emo," she added, pointing to Visia, "but I have information, and I want to see this case laid to bed." She had gotten "laid to rest" and "put to bed" mixed up. "There was an old dude outside of Dayer's house, and he had a list he was checking off, and it didn't look like it was one for gifts. At least, not the kind of gifts that people actually want to get. He said something about seeing how the Father Somebody would like seeing what happened after his sinning preaching. Or something like that. He was creepy."

Francis' eyes lit up. Ripley was back! He stood up to greet her before she called him an idiot. Maybe she still didn't want to be a club member. Visia blinked, not reacting any more than that. It wasn't the first time she'd been called emo, and it wouldn't be the last. Hearing that Ripley had information, Francis got out his notebook. He wrote down everything she said, eyes growing wider as he did.

"Father Prudence?" he guessed, knowing that Livia's father was the pastor. "That is highly suspicious! I suppose there's a possibility that he is merely reveling in their fate, but it seems far more likely that he is responsible!" He chewed on his pencil in thought. "If we could figure out how he summoned this demon, we could attempt to stop him in the act. But depending on the methodology, there may not even be a way to terminate the summoning. An exorcism of the demon itself would be the most effective solution."

Decidedly, he started packing up his things. "I'm going to locate Livia. We need her for this. I'll have to make an attempt to convince her to rejoin."

Ripley nodded. "Prudence. That was it. He was definitely not just reveling. He scratched something off on a piece of paper, like he was marking off a name. I mean, I couldn't see his paper, so maybe he was just doodling, but it doesn't make sense." She hesitated, watching Francis pack. "You know, if you go to her house, her mom's just going to lay into you again. You should maybe try to find her somewhere else. Or maybe find someone else who can exercise a demon. Surely she can't be the only one in an entire church, right? Hasn't she mentioned anyone else in the church as being able to see stuff?"

Francis paused, considering what she said. "Salient point." he said. "No, she hasn't mentioned anyone else at the church having the sight. As I mentioned, it only occurs in 0.3% of the population. The probability of four people in one town having it is astronomically low already." His face fell. "Also, I believe she was afraid to talk about it amongst the congregation. She worried they would think she was insane, or possessed, or both."

He slung his backpack over his shoulder. "I'll try to find her at the church. Perhaps I can catch her away from her mom." Not expecting Ripley to follow him, he dashed out of the room towards his bicycle. Visia followed as best she could, but couldn't run as fast as him. Or couldn't be bothered to.

Ripley followed, staying right behind Visia. She kept telling herself that after this, she'd leave the club. She liked excitement and adventure, but facing a demon that could shred them? That was just dumb. Why should she stick around? It was silly. Just asking for trouble. She really should quit this club. Right after this case was solved. She couldn't leave right in the middle.

When they reached their bikes, Ripley paused long enough to ensure Jonesy was secure in his pocket and that the set of rosary beads she'd found forgotten in the back of the last maid's dresser was still in her other pocket. She had no idea how rosary beads worked, but she'd spied on the maid praying over them a couple of times. Surely that had imbued them with... something, right?

Ripley followed them. Francis couldn't help wondering if she'd end up staying in the club. But at face value, she'd told him she was only going to see this case to the end. What if they couldn't get Livia back? Then Ghost Club would be back down to only two members. Would they be able to stop this demon, or any other demonic presences? All he could do was try and get Livia to return.

For this bike ride, he didn't even need his GPS. He knew the path to Hawthorne Baptist well. When they arrived, he leapt off his bike, not even bothering to lock it. He had no idea when the next attack would occur. They had to hurry. Trying the door, he found it locked.

"Fricking heck!" Despite his underwhelming curses, he was genuinely frustrated. "Where are we gonna find her now?"

"Hello, are you looking for someone?" The voice caused him to spin around. Standing behind them was a man in a suit, which gave him an air of importance. But he wore no tie and his top button was open, giving him a casual appearance. He had glasses and a smile that exuded kindness, nothing like the patronizing smile of Livia's mother. Under one arm, he carried a bible.

"Father Prudence!" Francis seemed to recognize him. "Yes, we're um... actually looking for Livia."

"Oh, are you friends of hers?" the man asked. Francis hesitated, rubbing the back of his head, unsure of how much to get into their current disagreement.

"We'd like to be," Ripley said honestly. She studied the pastor with some suspicion, as she did with most adults, but she didn't immediately dislike him, unlike how she felt about certain other adults. "We were working on a project together, but her mom said we were evil, disgusting people and that she should have anything to do with us, but we miss her!" She pitched her voice to hit the perfect tone of annoyed sadness.

The pastor sighed, as though this wasn't the first time he'd heard that story. "I'm very sorry that happened to you." he said honestly. The fact that he said that without even knowing what made them "evil, disgusting people" was another stark contrast from his wife. For all he knew, they were literal devil worshipers. But it seemed as though he didn't think they deserved that treatment even if that were the case. He crouched down so he could meet their eye level. "Why did she say that?"

"Um..." Francis hesitated. Normally, he would come up with some kind of cover story, (or let Ripley since she was much better at it,) but this man seemed trustworthy. Maybe the boy just needed to vent to a sympathetic ear. Regardless, Livia likely wouldn't be able to lie to him about this. "We...have a school club where we investigate hauntings. She was helping us, but her mom said that communing with spirits is sinful, or something like that." No need to get into the sight or how they were fighting a literal demon. That would be a lot harder to explain.

Father Prudence raised his eyebrows, more from surprise than anything. "That's very interesting. Let me ask you this: how are you communing with them? Do you have a Ouija board?"

"No, no, we just...talk. I have a radio that I modified to pick up their words."

The man pinched the bridge of his nose, exasperated with his wife. "That's not what that verse means... those people the bible describes were communing by seances, occult magic. That was the part that made it sinful. If there are souls of the deceased wandering the Earth, I'm sure they could use a kind ear."

"We don't go looking for them or asking them over for tea," Ripley said quickly. "They show up, and we try to shoo them away. Sometimes. Most of the time, we just sit around and talk." Or listen to Francis talk. "L is very good at being kind to everyone, even dead ones. She just wants to help people. And she's cool to be around."

Father Prudence smiled. "She is, isn't she?" he agreed. "I'm very proud of her." With a dad grunt, he stood to his feet. "I'll talk to her, and her mother. Hopefully we can come to an agreement. Thank you for bringing this to my attention." After that, he turned to leave. Francis grinned, turning to Ripley.

"That sounds promising!" he exclaimed. "But... I don't know if we have time to wait. It's getting close to the time that Mr. Christiansen was attacked yesterday. The demon might target his wife next."

"Yeah, I think it'll work," Ripley agreed, impressed that Francis talked to the guy, and that the guy had listened. Apparently, Livia's parents were not exactly on the same page. Not that Ripley could think of any parents she'd ever seen who actually were on the same page. She looked at Francis with no small amount of trepidation. "Nothing we did helped the first time around. What makes you think anything will change the second time? Maybe we should just be glad she'll be in a hospital, probably, if she's with her guy, and then she'll have fast access to help."

"We can't just stand by and do nothing!" Francis protested. Did what Ripley was saying make sense? Yes. But Francis was sometimes too nice for his own good. "Okay, it is true that she would have access to medical care, but she may not necessarily be at the hospital this precise moment. Perhaps she has business to attend to at her home. I'm going to go see if she's there. You don't have to follow me, neither of you do. But I can't sit idly knowing a brutal demon attack is about to take place."

He went over and got back on his bike. As one might expect, Visia did end up climbing on the back with him. Once they both had their helmets on, he took off towards the Christiansen home, again not expecting Ripley to follow them.