ULTRAMagic Interval - Chapter 2
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“Alright, I’m back with…” Randalph looked around. “Where is everyone?”
Master Post - Patreon
“Alright, I’m back with…” Randalph looked around. “Where is everyone?”
“They went to go get ready for the day,” Antonio replied as he started cleaning some of the smaller dishes.
Randalph gave a light shrug. “Fair enough. Anyways, here is Mayhem Highland and Faustus Ashman, two devils I work with regularly. I think they’ll be of great help to all of us.”
The devil with light indigo skin dressed in the jester-esque attire gave a dignified bow. He also had dark blue hair, and black eyes with yellow irises. “A pleasure to meet all of you.”
“Mayhem and I have been working together ever since the end of the great dispute between the Arbiters of Droom and The Discordant Gods” Randalph pointed out.
“Hey, Will!” the red devil said as went up to him. He had purple, glowing stripes curling up his arms and his eyes were black and purple. “Good to see you again, buddy.” He then gave him a hug.
“Hey, Faustus. Good to see you too…”
“Let me guess; you still don’t fully remember me?”
“It’s all still super hazy, sorry.”
Faustus sat down next to him. “Don’t worry about it, champ. It’ll come back in due time. Either way, I’m hanging around here so we can get this mess sorted out.”
Kyu nodded. “Excellent. Faustus, since you’re here, can you stick around Will while I go do a little research?”
“Fine with me, Mr. N°9.”
That made Kyu chuckle, as it was always a little surreal to hear people use his designation. “Thanks. I’ll keep you all posted on whatever I find.” He passed Sam and said hello as he went upstairs.
“Alright, I’m going to head out and grab some light groceries,” Sam announced. “Hey, Randalph. Who’s this?”
“Sam, this is Mayhem Highland, a devil I’ve worked with for a long time. Mayhem, this is Samantha Devilfay.”
Mayhem shook her hand. “Devilfay you say? How fascinating. A pleasure to meet you, Sam.”
“You too, Mayhem.” The way he recognized her surname surprised Sam…
“And I trust I don’t need to introduce Faustus?” Randalph asked.
“Hey, Sam!” Faustus cut in. “Good to see you again!”
“Heya, Faustus. Wait, you didn’t bring Mira along?”
He chuckled. “The missus is busy holding down the fort, but she’s on speed dial just in case things get too hairy.”
“Got’cha. Alright, I’ll be back soon. And Boyo, I’ll pick you up something to ease your nerves.”
“Thanks, Sam. See you later.” Will turned to Mayhem as she left. “So, Mayhem, what kind of devil are you? Faustus is obviously a fire devil, but I’m not sure about you.”
“Well that’s because I am a chaos devil, a fairly uncommon affinity for devils. And I must say, Faustus has been singing your praises for some time, Will. I’m considering working with you, but first I need to see what you can do before I cast my decision.”
“Does it have to be right now?” Will inquired, a little nervous.
“Oh no no no, it can be whenever you’re ready. If this issue of yours escalates, we’ll obviously have a lot of time on our hands.”
Faustus patted Will on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, Champ. Mayhem has got an eye for talent. Also hey, have you gotten outside yet today? Let’s go get some fresh air and catch up a bit.”
Both Will and Antonio went to go get dressed, with Antonio staying over at his house as he needed to tend to personal business. Will hung out with Faustus, walking around the yard and talking. The two had been partners for a long time, but a somewhat traumatic event from Will’s past separated the two. Even if he did not properly remember him, Faustus was happy to be back with Will regardless. He came to view Will as his son after all. It was quite the change from when they were younger, where they viewed each other as best friends.
The two were looking towards the valleys below the hill when Sam returned home. “Hey, Boyo! I got you some chocolate milk,” she announced as she got out of her car. “And it’s an extra big bottle too.”
“The good stuff?” Will asked as he walked up and took the drink.
“As always.” She then handed Faustus a chocolate bar. “Here you go, Faustus. I wasn’t sure what to grab given that I don’t know what they have in Inferno, so I got you one of our favorites.”
“Thanks, Sam. Chocolate with almonds, right up my alley.”
Will was halfway through his drink when he had an idea. “I think I’m going to go for a walk, clear my head a little and get some exercise.”
Sam gave him a slightly confused look. “You sure you want to do that after everything that’s happened?”
“I can go with him,” Faustus stated as he helped carry some groceries inside.”
“Alright then, I suppose.”
“Will? You’re still a dullahan, right?” Faustus inquired.
He tossed his bottle into the recycling bin. “Why wouldn’t I be?” Will lifted his head off, causing a ghostly plume of smoke to emanate from his neck.”
“See, a ghost won’t attack a dullahan and his devil, so we should have nothing to fear. You guys call it a curse, I call it a blessing in disguise.”
While still concerned, that was a fair enough assessment that alleviated some of Sam’s worries. The two headed off towards a path through the woods that went all the way to a stream at the edge of the property. Midway through the walk was a large tree stump that served as a resting spot. Faustus really liked it as it created a nice place to observe the forest. It was the beginning of September, so the weather was still nice and the leaves had yet to turn. Things were great up until something at three quarters of the way down the path caused Will to freeze in place.
“Whoa, hey, what’s the matter?” Faustus asked. “Did you see something?”
Faustus looked where Will was looking and saw it. There was a shadowy, black and purple entity standing there. Appearing to be dressed in some kind formal wear, it approached Will, causing Will’s neck to start venting light smoke from the seam where it split. Both Will and Faustus were unsure what to do.
“Run,” the entity instructed.
“Run? Run from what?” Faustus questioned.
Will then saw something terrifying in the distance. His blood ran ice cold as the memory of his nightmare began playing out in his head. There was another ghost, but this one had an aura of malevolence lingering around it. It was gray and ghastly, just standing there… until it started running towards them. Will’s panic kicked into overdrive as he screamed as loud as he could and ran the other way.
“WHAT IN THE SAM HILL?” Faustus exclaimed as he tried to figure out what to do. Did he go with Will or try to confront the ghost?
Getting a better look at the frightening specter, Faustus felt a similar fear creep into him. He then used his pyromancy to create a cloud of smoke in the hopes of slowing it down. Upon seeing the other ghost jump into the smokescreen, Faustus raced as fast as he could towards Will. Laughter was all around Will as he nearly tripped several times while making his way back to the house. Upon getting inside, he slammed the front door shut, bolted up to his room, and also slammed that door shut too. This spectacle caught the attention of everyone.
Sam was startled out of her mind as Faustus came through the front door. “Faustus, what’s going on!? Is Will alright?”
“Hopefully…” he took a second to catch his breath. “...and we’ve got a ghost. A nasty one at that…”
The ghost of a concerned boy emerged from a cloud of mist in the right wall. He looked to be from the 1800s and had blonde hair. “Sam, what’s going on? That woke me from my nap.”
“Trevor, where’s your parents? We got trouble on our hands.”
“One second. Mom!? Dad!?”
Two ghosts emerged from the floor. One was purple and resembled a man from the 1700s. The other was pink and resembled a refined lady from the same era. While overall cheerful, they looked equally concerned.
“Well I say! Those door slams were louder than the first shot of the revolution…” the purple ghost proclaimed.
“Goodness, I hope everyone’s okay…” the pink ghost added. “Did something dreadful happen?”
“Nathaniel, Adelaide-there’s a new ghost,” Sam warned. “Tell them what happened, Faustus…”
After Faustus' retelling of what happened, Trevor could be seen getting visibly angry. “The nerve of some ghosts, thinking they come on to my land and haunt my friends and family!? Dad, let’s go find this intruder. Mom, look after the house.”
“Will do, sweetie,” Adelaide agreed.
“Alright, son-let’s go show this rapscallion one for!” Nathaniel declared with a triumphant laugh as they left.
“Sam?” Kyu called out. “Can you come up here? Will’s freaking out.”
“Coming!” She looked at Faustus. “Can you let everyone…?”
“Already on it.” Faustus then went for the door.
Everybody was on high alert after all of that. Will needed time to settle down, with Sam and Adelaide doing their best to console him. While they watched a movie and played some video games, Faustus and Mayhem guarded the two houses while the others tried to make sense of what happened.
Will finally worked up the nerve to leave his room at around dinner time. Everybody was there in the living room, which made him feel better. “Guys? It was… that was the ghost from my dream…”
Olivia had his communicator ready and was dialing the emergency number. “Don’t worry, I’m already calling Antares.” The call was immediately received and answered.
“Well that was fast,” Antares’ voice said as Will took the device. “What’s the situation, Private?”
“It’s-It’s the ghost. I saw it. I don’t know if it’s Bethany, but I saw it!” Will took a breath. “It ran after me after Umuka told me to run.”
“That’s not good at all…” It sounded like Antares stepped away for a second. “...alright, Will, this is getting escalated to a full case as we definitely have a type 3 ghost on our hands.”
“Hey, Captain Briggs?” Faustus cut in. “Who’s this Umuka person? I’m not familiar with him.”
“Faustus? Ahem, Umuka is a specter that seems to be connected to Will. He popped up recently and it’s hard to study him given how elusive he is. We’re not worried as he seems to genuinely care about Will, however.”
Randalph spoke up next. “Captain Briggs? I brought Mayhem and Faustus along for assistance.”
“Good call, Randalph…”
Adelaide noticed Nathaniel and Trevor returning. “Oh good, perfect timing.”
“Argh, hold on a second…” Antares requested. “Alright, the ecto-filters are on now.”
Nathaniel heard that as he entered the house and waited a second. “My apologies, Antares. We didn’t mean to mess with your modern science dohickeys. It looks like we got a little punk running around, uncouth and uninvited.”
“Lovely…” Will complained with a sigh.
“That’s all I needed to hear,” Antares replied. “Will, I’m sending Adrien your way to scope out the problem. Once we know what we’re dealing with, we’ll send in a professional. You should be fine given all the protection you currently have. The way I see it is that there are two possible outcomes: Either this is just a random ghost and we can send ANTIMagic Mania in to deal with it, or it's Bethany and we’ll have to move you to M.A.I.G. for protection.”
Anotnio thought about it, as there was something off to him. “Hold up, this Mania person seems like they could take care of it either way. Why would Will need to be moved to M.A.I.G.?”
“If this is Bethany, then someone set her free. That means that there are other people involved and all that that implies.”
“Oh… oh dear, that’s not good…”
“I know how you feel, Antonio,” Will assured him. “Ahem, roger that, Captain… the other stuff.”
“Haha, very good, Private. Keep your fingers on the emergency line just in case anything else happens and do not hesitate to call. Captain Briggs, over and out.”
There was a moment of contemplative silence that was broken by an exasperated sigh from Antonio. “Oh boy, ain’t this a fine kettle of fish? You know what? It’s Friday and it's near dinner time. I’m going to make some food, who’s hungry?”
Everybody was up for a good meal after everything that had transpired. Sam and Randalph lent their help while Kyu and Buster went to pick out a movie for everyone to enjoy. Will, rightfully nervous, went around closing the curtains. It was to be expected, especially considering he was a bit skittish over the unknown. As for dinner, Antonio went with the tried and true hamburgers and hot dogs.
Sam, Kyu, and Faustus stuck by Will’s side, allowing him to relax as the night wore on. Will was still on edge when bedtime rolled around, so Sam insisted he sleep with her that night. Despite being a couple, the two preferred a little personal space every now and then. Plus they had a good deal of belongings between their rooms. Will was more casual with how he organized his belongings while Sam had everything neatly tucked away in specific spots.
Being wrapped up in Sam’s fluffy, fragrant blankets with her made Will feel safe and allowed him to fall asleep. The two talked until they were too tired to do so. Things were going to be bumpy going forward, no two ways about it. Whoever this ghost was not playing around. Being that brazen was unheard of and spelled nothing but trouble. Thankfully being with Sam kept Will’s dreams safe, but there was a lingering feeling that danger was just around the corner, waiting for the two to let their guards down.
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