It has been two days since Belle accepted the mission and the system hasn't said a word. He was starting to get bored, during this time he unpacked all of his things and even messed around with the system a bit. He found he could summon the home screen by thinking 'Open System'. On the third day after he accepted the mission, he received a call.
"Hello?" He answers the phone.
"Is this Ryan?" A voice speaks on the other end.
"No, do you need something?" He questions.
"Oh, I'm sorry for calling you, but do you know a Ryan Pharley?" The voice on the other end sounds asks, they sound scared.
"Nope, is there something I can help with?" Belle asks the voice.
"Shit! Uhm, could I perhaps ask you a favor, do you know the Harrington House?" The voice questions.
"I do," Belle answers, he had researched the house after accepting the mission. The description wasn't much different from what the system said, but it did provide more information on the family that died and the house's location.
"Good, my boyfriend, Ryan, went to that house with some friends to investigate, it's been a week now and I'm worried. I called this number thinking it was the one Ryan uses for work." The voice explains.
"What do you want me to do?" Belle asks the voice.
"I've tried calling the police, but they didn't do anything, can you check out the house for me, I'm too scared to go." The voice begs.
"I'm just a random stranger, how do you know I'll be able to help? Also, if he's been missing for a week, the police would definitely be looking for your boyfriend." He says suspiciously. The voice on the other end is silent for a bit.
"Look, I'm at the end of my rope here, how about you meet up with me in front of the house and I'll explain everything, when can you get here?" The voice asks.
"I can be there in two hours," Belle replies.
"Okay then, I'll see you there." The person on the other side ends the call.
"I guess this is what the system meant," Belle mumbled, sticking his phone in his pocket. He grabs the old camera and strides into the living room.
"I'm going to take the car for a bit, Liz!" He calls out.
"Okay, just don't crash it!" She calls back. Belle chuckles as he grabs the keys and gets in the car, traveling to the Harrington House. It takes him two hours and thirty minutes to get there, it's now late afternoon and the sun is setting. When he pulls up to the abandoned house, a woman is standing in front of it. She has short brown hair and is wearing a white dress and black dress shoes. She is tapping her foot impatiently on the ground when Belle approaches her, the camera in his hand.
"Took you long enough." She grumbles.
"Wow, I'm sorry that this stranger who drove two and a half hours to meet you at a creepy house in the middle of nowhere couldn't get here fast enough." He responds sarcastically. Her face changes rapidly, from shock to anger, to resignation.
"Sorry, I'm just worried." She says.
"Why don't you tell me what's going on then," Belle questions her.
"I didn't lie on the phone, my boyfriend did go missing in this house a week ago, but I lied about the police. My boyfriend has a sensitive identity, you see, and as a result, I couldn't go to the police." She reveals.
"Hm, so he's a murderer then," Belle says, full of confidence.
"What!? No! His dad is like the head of a gang or whatever, Ryan is a nice person he wouldn't kill someone." The girl responds, "Anyway, I called you because, for some reason, Ryan had your number on his fridge. So I thought you could help." She explains.
'Strange, I don't know anybody called Ryan, could it have been the system?' Belle thinks.
"I don't mind helping you, but I'm not doing this for free." He replies, rubbing his thumb over his index and middle finger.
"Urgh, fine, I'll pay you if you find my boyfriend. I'll be waiting out here." She says, opening the door to her car and slamming it after sitting down.
"Aiya, so rude, but I'm finally making a quick buck." He mutters, walking up to the house. It's an old two-story farmhouse. The white paint is chipping and the windows are all boarded up. To most people, it would look like an ordinary abandoned house, but because Belle had the Yin-Yang Eyes, he could perceive the dark aura clinging to the house, a telling sign of spirits.
"Let's see how this goes." He mumbles, opening the door and walking into the house. 'Open System' The red screen pops up in his vision, he clicks on the weapons box and selects the Common Axe. It appears in his right hand as he investigates the front room. There's dirt and cobwebs everywhere and the furniture is strewn about. It looks as if the house never got cleared out after the murder, everything is still there just old and rotting.
"Okay, time to see how this works!" Belle says, clicking on the [Start Streaming] button. The camera flies out of his hand, floating in front of him as it slides open and a red dot appears.
[Now Streaming! 2 Viewers.]
Is what the red box says, Belle clears his throat, preparing to address the only viewers he has.
"Hello and welcome to my very first stream! I don't really know how any of this works but today I'm at the Harrington House. This is a well-known abandoned house that has a reputation for being haunted. I'm going to investigate this place to see if it's really haunted." He states.
[Congratulations on starting your first mission! Mission details: Find three pieces of evidence, defeat the evil spirit in the house, and find the missing person.]
[Evidence Collected: 0/3]
[Spirits Defeated: [0/1]
[Missing Person(s) Found: 0/1]
[Viewers increased to 5]
{whats this???}
{new horror stream dont see too many of these anymore}
The stream comments start rolling in, appearing on the system panel in front of Belle.
"Hmm, this house is pretty creepy, ah but don't worry, if any ghosts appear I can just beat them up." He says, holding up his axe.
{who is this guy!}
{crazy axe murderer is streaming}
"Hehe, well then, I'm off!" Belle says. The house layout has the bedrooms upstairs while the kitchen and living room are downstairs. The murders all happened upstairs in the bedroom. Belle starts talking to the floating camera as it follows him through the old house.
"To anyone that doesn't know about the Harrington House, it was the site of a grisly murder. There used to be a family of three living here, but that all changed when one night the police received a call from the house. The person on the other end begged for help, but the line went dead before the police could get more information. They went to investigate and found the dead bodies of the family. The dad, the mom, and the little girl were all brutally murdered. The police started an investigation, but they never found out who did it. Since then this house has passed through many hands, but people sold it directly after receiving it and the house got a reputation for being haunted. Now, it sits abandoned." Belle explains.
{spooky}
{its just a cheap ghost story}
{is anyone actually scared by this?}
The comments roll by as the viewership increases to ten people.
[You have earned your first Ghost Point, it will be awarded to you after the stream]
Belle enters the living room, using the flashlight the camera provided to search through some cabinets. There's a depressing atmosphere all through the house, it's thick enough to choke on.
"There doesn't seem to be much stuff down here, I think the upstairs should yield more results," Belle mumbles. Turning around to head upstairs, a faint breeze passes through his hair.
"Hm? I don't recall opening a window." He shrugs his shoulders and turns the corner to head upstairs. While walking up, a noise catches his attention.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
A rhythmic banging noise comes from upstairs. Belle runs up the last few steps and turns the corner, but when he reaches the second story, the noise stops.
"You guys think it's the wind?" He turns to face the camera.
{no way! it could be a ghost!}
{commenter above why so eager?}
{its probably fake}
"Hehe, if you say so, let's continue investigating, maybe we could find clues relating to what happened here." Belle heads into the master bedroom first, it's where the mother's body was found, searching through any cabinet and shelf he can find. He doesn't find anything and is about to give up hope when he catches something out of the corner of his eye, a piece of glass on the floor from a broken mirror in the corner shows writing from underneath the bed.
"This is going to be a tight fit," Belle mumbles as he drops to his hands and knees and crawls under the bed. The camera skillfully follows him as he finds a message carved into the bottom of the bed frame.
HE DID IT!
The message was scrawled haphazardly, clearly whoever did it was in a rush.
[Clue found!]
[Evidence Collected: 1/3]
{wow he actually found something}
{how did the police miss this?}
"He did it, does that mean the dad murdered them all? But why, what reason would he have to murder his family?" Belle crawls out from under the bed, double-checking the master bedroom again before leaving the room. As he steps out into the hallway, the temperature drops, and Belle can see his breath in the air. He freezes when he spots a lady wearing a white nightgown at the other end of the hall, in front of the little girl's room.
"Wait!" He calls out as the woman opens the door and walks into the room.
{did you all just see that!}
{that had to be an actress}
{it couldve been a squatter}
Belle follows after her, but when he steps into the room, nobody is there. He gets ready to search the room when the door slams shut behind him and the temperature drops even further. Belle glances about the room but doesn't spot anything, it's only instinct that causes him to dodge when an object goes flying at him from the ceiling. It shatters into shards of glass on the ground, revealing the object to be a vase. On the ceiling, the woman in the nightgown is clinging on with her hands and feet, her long brown hair spilling over her shoulders, her face is pale and her eyes are bloodshot.
"Looks like my first victim appears!" Belle says cheerily.
[Viewers increased to 30]