What Lurks Beneath (RPDR AU)

2

Bosco's POV:
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Ever since I could remember I've been told I have a wild imagination.

I know it's more than that though. Just because other people can't feel the same things I feel, it doesn't mean they're just my imagination playing tricks on me. It's a gift, one that's both a blessing and a curse depending on how you look at it.

The first encounter happened when I was very young, but I remember it as clear as day. I was on the swingset, swinging by myself until I looked beside me to see another girl on the other swing. She smiled at me, waving before she introduced herself to me. Her name was Jan, and it had been so long since she was able to play with someone.

So I played with her. We played tag, and hide and seek, and any game we could think of that she was able to play. We got some weird looks from the other kids, but those weren't compared to the looks from the teachers. I didn't understand why. Jan seemed perfectly normal to me.

But Jan had died years before I met her.

My parents weren't very amused. They were convinced Jan was either my imaginary friend who happened to share a name with the girl who had passed away, or I was playing a joke. To avoid getting in trouble, I lied and said Jan was my imaginary friend.

But Jan was very much real. She was just lonely and needed someone to talk to. I was the only one who could see and hear her. We talked about everything. Including a girl she really missed. Her name was Jackie, and when I tried telling her about Jan I was told I was being rude and disrespectful. Nobody understood where I was coming from.

So I kept my little gift a secret throughout the rest of elementary school and all through middle school. I saw so many things I forced myself to keep quiet about. I didn't want to be seen as the weird kid. The weird kid who talks to ghosts.

But then things changed when I got to high school. I was sick and tired of hiding away something I was passionate about, and that's when I went on my first "ghost hunt." I booked myself a room in a hotel that was known for having odd and unexplainable things happen, and set up the equipment I had gotten. I had learned that not all spirits liked showing themselves to me. They weren't all like that Jan girl had been. So I found other ways to communicate with them.

The dowsing rods were my favorites back then. I would sit on the end of the bed in the room, asking yes or no questions and watching as some strange force would use them to answer me. They would make them point away from me for yes, and towards me for no. When I put them away, I invited whoever I had communicated with to explore the hotel grounds with me.

And that's when I got the first picture.

I had felt like someone was following me down the hall, so I turned and snapped a quick picture with my phone. After exploring around, I finally looked at it, met by the shadowy figure of a woman watching me from a corner in the hall. Records show her name was Pandora, and she had died there way before I was even born.

It was in the local news, even being spread around on social media. It was one of the only times I truly felt like my gift was being appreciated.

"You say you've communicated with spirits in the past, correct?" The interviewer had asked me.

I had nodded my head quickly, a smile on my face. "I have. I've been able to talk with a lot of them and listen to their stories."

"And how do you know if these are good or bad spirits?"

I didn't really know how to answer that one.

Most people I went to high school with still seemed scared and uneasy around me. Except Jasmine Kennedie. She moved here during her sophomore year, and had nervously approached me one day.

"You're that one girl, right? That one on the news?" She had asked. I had been asked that many times before, I was used to it.

I nodded, closing my locker and adjusting my bag on my shoulders. "That's me. Why, you have a question about some scary ghost that's bothering you?" I asked her, a hint of sarcasm in my voice.

Jasmine hesitated, shaking her head. "No just...can you help me find my class?" She showed me her schedule.

From that moment on, we were inseparable. We made a perfect pair. She was terrified of the paranormal, and I would tell any spirit that tried bothering her to leave her be. I was infatuated with this fast talking and not super smart blonde who for some reason insisted on joining me on my explorations to haunted places. Even though she was terrified. But that's why she had me. I was there to protect her and keep her safe.

Now, years later, we were girlfriends. We had our own home together and were hopelessly devoted to each other. By day, I worked as a barista alongside her, but by night, I was the best ghost hunter in town. In the state. In the country. Hell, maybe even the world. That's what I liked to tell myself anyways. The people who followed my social media for this sort of stuff seemed to agree.

"Coco, the dolls were making noise last night." Jasmine said from the kitchen, where she was trying to prepare dinner. "It was kinda...scary. Can you tell them to calm down a little?"

"Of course, baby." I said, pulling myself up from the living room and going upstairs. I hadn't bought these dolls myself, they had been sent to me by other people. They all had different personalities, and they liked scaring Jasmine.

I opened the door to the room they were kept in, finding things thrown around. "I know you guys like being more active at night, but let's try to keep it a little calmer, okay?" I said, feeling their little eyes staring into my soul. "You guys know Jasmine needs her beauty sleep."

As I cleaned up the room, I heard the front door open from downstairs. I placed a couple dolls back in their places on the shelf, Jasmine calling for me soon after. "Uh...Bosco? Could you come down here?"

I went back downstairs, freezing when I saw Sergeant Velour standing in the doorway. "Oh...hey Sasha! Been a while, I haven't trespassed on private property for a bit so you must've been missing me right?"

Sergeant Velour just sighed, shaking her head. "We've been over this. Please don't call me that. Now, I really need you to come down to the station with me."

Jasmine looked worried. "Is she in trouble?"

Sergeant Velour shook her head once more, turning to go back to her car. "No, she's not in trouble. We just need some assistance from her."

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Aahhh I can't wait to info dump all my paranormal investigation knowledge- Hope you enjoyed!