"Are they here to hunt ghosts or move in?" Mifa asked under her breath to Ayana, who chuckled softly in reply.
"You know you don't have to whisper until they start recording. They can't see or hear us right now."
"What about when they get those cameras and audio recorders out and going?"
"Unless you attempt to materialize, which you do not know how to do yet, they will not see you at all. And with the audio, as long as you are not too close to the recorder or talk too loud, they will not pick you up. Why don't you go up and introduce yourself to Miss Jones? See if she can be reasonably spoken with."
"Alright. What about you?"
"I will follow them. I am sure I will be meeting up with you soon. Especially if Mr. Suarez is right and Miss Jones is the reason they are here. Otherwise, keep her as calm as you can until I come for you. Do you think you can manage?"
"I am on it," she said. Since she could not teleport herself around yet, she was forced to go the mundane route and took the stairs up to the second floor.
When Mifa was out of sight, Ramon again appeared beside Ayana.
"Is there anything else that I need to be concerned about? Mr. Suarez", Ayana asks, her eyes narrowing.
"Several people have gone missing in this area, and a curse present has been found in the West end of this establishment."
"Do not worry I will take care of it"
☯︎
Running through the Waverly Hills Sanatorium asylum, Ayana tried her best to discern where the curse spirit was, trying to pick up a sensation. Walking into another room, she heard the strumming of a drum, before the room changed.
'𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚋𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙲𝚞𝚛𝚜𝚎𝚍 𝚃𝚎𝚌𝚑𝚗𝚒𝚚𝚞𝚎𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚞𝚛𝚜𝚎..'
Moving through different rooms, Ayana heard the same drum, the room changing again, the curse's aura getting stronger.
Running into the room in front of her, Ayana pulls open the door to see the curse feasting on a corpse in front of it.
The curse spirit turned around at the sound of the door opening, its eyes narrowed, as it grumbled something.
"Stupid Reapers..." It leaped towards Ayana quickly, its long claws swiping at her.
She quickly moved to the side, steadying herself behind it. She pulled out the needle from a ring on her finger on her left hand, getting a small cut from it. Soon blood flows down the hand creating a blood sword.
The curse looked back in surprise, as the room changed into a vast sea of crimson petals.
Its eyes darted across the supposed room, trying to find her figure, which seemed to disappear.
Appearing behind the cursed spirit, Ayana did not even hesitate to slash its head off, the curse not even having enough time to react.
'𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚊𝚗 𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚢 𝚘𝚙𝚙𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚗𝚝'
Turning around, Ayana pulls the door behind her open, going back to the main hall.
☯︎
As she reached the second floor, she began to feel like her vision was swimming. The decrepit, abandoned hospital kept disappearing to be replaced by images of a cleaner, brighter, and more functioning hospital. Mifa wished Ayana was there so she could ask her about it. It was disorienting at the very least and a glimpse into the past at best. It did not take her long to figure out which room was Ruby's. She could hear the yelling from the top of the stairs. She followed the sound of the voice to room 219, where Ramon was waiting outside the door.
"I know you are out there, you little piss-ant," an old woman's voice yelled from within the room. "What is the matter, Ramon? Do not feel like getting beat up by a woman today? Do not want to hit back today?" she asked.
Ramon looked almost stricken. "I never ..." he began to say to Mifa and she shook her head.
"Did not think you had," she said in order to reassure him. "I have got this. Go meet up with Ayana downstairs in the lobby. She is looking after the team." Ramon nodded and disappeared.
"Jealous." Mifa sighed at the ease with which Ramon moved around the hospital.
"Where did you go, you coward?" The old woman shouted from her room. The door was shimmering in and out of existence and Mifa braced herself. She was not sure that the woman was going to behave any better for her than for a man. She took a deep breath, reminding herself to not show fear or inexperience. Confidence and a commanding presence were what she needed to convey to get through just about every situation.
She breezed through the doorway with her head held high. "Miss Jones," she said as she greeted the woman with a smile. The room swam viciously in her vision until she made the conscious decision to stick with one view. She chose to give in and see it the way Miss Jones would see the room. As it had been when she lived. The walls and floors were whiter and brighter, and there were lights. The bed was made and there was a chair against the wall that seemed like a kind of high chair for adults. The tray was locked in place with a padlock and in the chair sat the diminutive form of Miss Jones. Her wrists were strapped down to the arms of the chair.
The woman, had she been alive, looked to have been in her eighties. She had a wrinkled face and deep-set blue eyes that glittered with malice. She had lost her teeth and so her mouth was crabbed and clenched in a grimace. Her eyes narrowed as she regarded Mifa.
"I do not know you, girly," she stated. Mifa was relieved that the volume had at least lowered a bit with her presence.
"No, you don't. I'm Ria Roro, an administrator here," she said, using a fake name, instead of her real one. She did not know why but instinct told her to hide her real name, a more unusual name. If her gut bothered to tell her something, she usually went with it.
"What do you want with me?" she asked, a dangerous edge to her voice.
"I just want to talk, Miss Jones."
"Are you going to untie me?"
"Maybe, but from what I have heard you have not been very nice to some of the employees here. People who just want to help you."
"They are useless. They never do anything right. I have got more anything in my pinky finger than the whole bunch of those stupid assholes does."
"A woman does not get to your age without having a whole ocean of knowledge and talent and drive to draw from." Mifa complimented her in the hopes of getting her to be calm and reasonable. She had a plan of attack for this particular job. She just hoped that she would be allowed to carry it out without much complication. "Where were you born?"
"Wisconsin," she said, sitting up a little bit more in the chair. Mifa grabbed a chair that was in the corner of the room for visitors and dragged it over. For a moment, she wondered if she would be able to sit in it or not, whether or not it actually existed in the real world. At that moment, the room wavered back and forth from the room that Miss Jones occupied to the abandoned room in the derelict building. She closed her eyes a moment and reminded herself to be where Miss Jones was, and when she opened her eyes, the room was back in full view, white and clean.
"You okay girly? You looks a bit green."
"I am alright, thank you," she said as she sat down in the chair. "What did you do in Wisconsin?" Mifa was relieved that her plan was working so far. She got the old woman talking about her past, picking up stories of old friends, family, and sweethearts. She encouraged the woman to talk and tell all the stories she wanted. If there was a lull in the conversation Mifa made sure to ask more questions. They spent about an hour and a half there with Mifa asking her to tell the story of her life. When she heard the team come up to the second floor, she let Ruby finish the story she was telling, and then she changed direction.
"Miss Jones, do you know what is going on here today?"
"No, what?" she asked.
"The hospital is being inspected."