Belief In The Occult

Eight

A couple hours later, the other three occupants of the house along with the chaperones were all in the dining room, Maci being gone until Friday at the latest as she was still carrying out the process of her summoning, which usually took two weeks at a time. Elita and Faust left to go retrieve Kodiak.

When they reached the hallway, Elita was already frowning in confusion. The hall light wasn't on, which was normal, the manor was large so the lights in low traffic areas usually stayed dim or off completely, but this revealed the fact that there also was no light coming from the crack under the door to Kodiak's new room.

She opened the door quietly, figuring he might have laid down to sleep, but the bed was still perfectly untouched. A few unfamiliar objects that must have been his were placed around the room, and his Mirror hung on the wall. She heard whispering.

Elita turned to Faust, giving him a silent confused look, but the huge dragon-man merely smiled and walked right over to the bathroom door, opening it. He let out a low chuckle. "There 'e is."

"What, in the bathtub?" She asked curiously, quickly walking over. Indeed, Kodiak was laying in the bathtub, no water, fully clothed, completely asleep. The whispering was coming from his aura.

Faust looked over at Elita, "Poltergeists. Th' poor creatures are usually agoraphobic." The five-syllable word sounded odd coming out of his mouth. He then reached one giant arm over and grabbed Kodiak by the shoulder, shaking him, "C'mon my boy, you'll get a crick in yer scrawny little neck if ye lie there much longer, and supper's a waitin' for you downstairs."

Kodiak murmured uneasily before fully waking up, regarding the both of them for a split second, then quickly getting up and out of the bathtub. From the way his shoulders slid up to his ears and his hands tucked into his pockets, he was embarrassed, but Faust quickly distracted him by chortling good-naturedly and roughly mussing his hair, his big arm knocking the little poltergeist halfway off balance and making him let out a dry chuckle, the first noise Elita had actually heard him make.

The walk downstairs was fine, Faust continued to talk as normal, gesturing widely and succeeding in making the kid look at least like he didn't want to sink into the shadows and hide anymore.

It was fine, until they reached the doorway of the kitchen and the air turned downright chilled. Elita had already taken her seat at the table with everyone else, leaving Faust standing halfway between the entrance and his own seat, and Kodiak in the doorway.

The huge yellow-orange dragon man gave Kodiak a questioning look, and he returned it with an equally lost face. Faust nodded subtly at the realization. He's only nervous.

"Here, my boy, this is where the free chair is." It had been arranged so that the Chaperones sat on one side of the table, and the wards on the other. There were two free chairs on the ward's side, one belonging to the absent Maci and the other unoccupied.

He skipped the chair closest to Zophie, instead choosing to sit at the very end of the table with some space between him and everyone else. Kallik and Cobalt, one of the other Chaperones, quickly served everyone, placing plates in the empty spots between silverware and filling drinks.

Kodiak's hands twitched nervously under the table. Was this a bad time to mention he'd never eaten before? Some supernatural entities needed to eat to survive, like witches and dragon-men, and sure, demons and ghosts didn't need the food, but could eat if they wanted. However, Kodiak hadn't been tempted so far, and Varick hadn't pushed him as of yet. It really didn't help that he didn't even recognize what kinds of food were on the table. Momentarily, Kodiak settled for sipping at the cup of ice water he'd been provided with to think about how he wanted to approach this. Did he even want to eat? The thought of eating wasn't exactly appetizing. But would it be rude not to? Everyone else was already eating. His leg was bouncing without him realizing.

Noticing the twitching, Zophie subtly nudged Fable beside her and drew her attention to Where the new entity was sitting, holding his fork and staring at his plate but making no move to eat.

Without thinking, Fable opened her mouth, "Hey man are you alri-"

The poltergeist jumped, and with a sound like an inverted gasp or aborted sob, literally burst into a puff of black smoke that quickly dissolved. Fable stared at the space where he had been and where his fork had clattered onto the table. She'd never seen a ghost discorporate so quickly.

With a somewhat resigned sigh, they watched Faust set his own utensils down, muttering to himself as he stood and pushed his chair in, "Lords and Ladies, I knew he was nervous, didn't figure the lad'd be that nervous." he directed his attention to the table, "I'll go check in on the boy, the rest of ye continue." and left the room.