~ ⚝ SAY GOODBYE!! ⚝ ~

Instructions

!! tw - lore, upsetting topics, oofing, typical mandela catalogueisms, mild mild ketchup, mildly disturbing lyrics !! (- refresher/pt. 1: bex's pov (old, slightly outdated) https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/951444243 -) bex had taken a call from a teenage girl, her name was not revealed on the call. the girl claimed she needed help, that she was hiding in her house, and that there were 'ghosts' "in the walls", and "in the ground". bex had no goals for money. she wanted to help this girl, and she wanted to make jonah, eve, and sarah proud. she told the girl on the line to stay quiet, and try not to make any noise, saying she'd be there as soon as possible, after the girl had given the location. there were two vans, with "bythorne paranormal society" painted along the side. one was gone. jonah and adam had already taken that one. (see vol. 2 of the mandela catalogue) they must be on a job, why else would they be gone for so long? that's all bex thought of it before finding herself on the freeway in the only remaining van. she'd known full well that sarah had told her never, ever, ever to go on a job without a partner. she'd always been keen on the buddy system. sarah, eve, and lucas had asleep when bex had recieved the call. she'd be back before sarah would be up and working, right? that's what bex told herself. once she had found herself at the location, a house up a long, gravelly driveway, in the woods, not too far from the street, she locked the van and stowed the keys in the pocket of her jeans, before heading toward the house. the front door was unlocked, strangely enough, and bex found herself inside the house, a chill bleeding through the air, as if the life of the house had left in a freezing breath. she spent twenty minutes searching, the battery on her phone decreasing, the clock ticking. she called out for the girl. there was no answer. until she found the bedroom. the closet door in the bedroom was open. very slightly so, but open. she saw a hand, frail and curled, covered in...something. she felt her stomach drop like a rock. there was a reciever in the hand, grasped desperately, in the stretch of the arm, but the fingers curled open as if....finally giving up. bex's gut lurched, and she opened the door, biting back a mix between a sob and a gag. she was gone. the life in her eyes, pale, empty, unresponsive, unmoving. bex could not look away from the eyes. disgust, anger, fear, terror, upset, guilt... it all tore her apart from the inside. all the boldness and determination inside her felt as if it were crumbling. she choked out a yelp, the scent of iron twinging the air. the scent of life. she turned on the heel of her sneaker, smudged with a warm liquid from the seeping, dark carpet, and ran. ran, ran, ran, the creaks and tapping from the house feeling no longer ambient. she felt twisted, empty, horrified. the rain poured, thundering onto the cement like a thousand whispered screams. thunk. thunk. thunk. her footfalls, her heart rate, the rain drops, the screaming... it all felt as if it fell in unison. before long, she heard more than one set of footfalls, untimed with hers. she whipped around, and blanched, feeling cold. "WHO'S THERE?!" There was no answer. A single streetlamp coughed itself to life, the sickly yellow light dripping its glow into a voidlike silhouette, looking unreal in that it took in none of the lonely luminescence of the lamp. it was 5:00AM. sarah woke, knowing immidiately something was wrong. she rolled over and grabbed her phone, opening it and dialing the contact, "bexie", as quickly as possible, slamming her finger into "enter", and listening to the trill of the line, waiting. there was no answer. she texts lucas, panicked. '/Lucas, you need to go find Bex, I can't. I have to go to work, but you need to find her. /' A minute passes, before a ping rings through the air like something calling for hope. '/where is she. what happened./" '/I'm not sure. She won't answer her phone and she would have texted me a hello by now. She does almost every day./' '/ok. ill take the van./' Sarah looks out the window, and jumps, the driveway empty. '/They're both gone. Do you think Bex tried to go on her own???/' A moment passes. '/yea because jo bragged about a big job he and adam had today while they were on the road just now./' Sarah blanches, texting back in a panic. '/Jonah and Adam have each other. Bex is alone and she is...small. I don't think she even took anything to protect herself./' ... '/dammit bex. i dont have a car. i'll have to bike./' '/Do whatever it takes. Bring her home./' '/sure as hell i will./' When Sarah had tried to call Bex, she'd fumbled for her pocket, breaking into a sprint. Whatever was behind her followed, maliciously and silently, waiting, waiting, waiting. She dropped her phone behind her, and it hit the soaking, hard, pavement with a sickening CRACK!! The ringtone crunched to a stop abruptly. It's gone. She screamed a curse into the night,