East Summons Manor. The home of the Summons family. Anna and Clarence Summons were vital members in the founding of Hiapul in the 1830s. The house, a large, beautiful building, was made to be the centerpiece of the city. In the years since its creation, it was a symbol of hope for the small village. A gift made for the people who had done so much for others. A place for them to belong.

Anna kept a beautiful garden. Growing vegetables and fruits on the side for everyone. Clarence became the Mayor by request of the people and opened his home to all of those who had made it for him. A sign of friendship, of love. You could even say it doubled as a community center for a time.

But all was not perfect in the home. The couple's struggle with infertility was not unknown. While they hid their sadness, it was ever present beneath their eyes.

Then, came a miracle. Anna was pregnant with a baby boy. The village was elated! In the months before his birth, villagers gathered around and supported the family. Bringing gifts, and treasures, that the Summons would safely store in their attic.

In late June, the baby was born healthy and happy.

The joy would only last for a day.

The family maid, a once timid young woman, hid something behind her eyes too. An insatiable greed.

It was not known what treasure was given to the Summons. Despite their open nature, it remained the only part hidden. Locked ever so carelessly inside their attic to go unused. Hoarded away.

The maid could not stand it. The day after the birth of the Summons' son, she slaughtered the entire household.

Staff, friend, foe, none were spared. Some say their screams could be heard from across the village.

She had blocked the door with chairs. By the time it was finally busted down, everyone was already dead.

Servant's bodies were found littering the once lively rooms. Clarence and Anna were left by the attic doorway, right next to the blood-stained ladder.

They found the maid last. Hanging in the attic.

No note. No proof of her misdeed except for the bloody knife left alone by the doorway.

Where the treasure should have been, there was instead a single teddy bear.

They say it was covered in blood.

They found 14 of the 15 members of the home that night.

The only one unaccounted for was the precious baby boy.

At least, that was the legend that kept an active interest in the old manor these days. What was true and what wasn't had been lost in the haze. A need to make the story darker, more imposing overshadowed any inkling of truth that may have caused the tale to originate.

But people found comfort in their stories. Especially of the ghostly kind. So the manor became an attraction of sorts. A hazing ritual for college frat parties. An easy spot to take a camera and film eerie footage in the night to label "I WENT TO THE HAUNTED MANOR OF HIAPUL AND SURVIVED???" A story to tell around the campfire because it was tucked away into the forest of the Red Leaf camping grounds and advertised as an attraction to come look at but not enter. But who listened to that?

N found that it wasn't more than a safety hazard. Crumbling stonework, a partially caved, dull red roof. Holes littered the wooden flooring that could give away at any minute. Graffiti both inside and out that they'd only barely bother to paint over every 6 months. Perhaps that's why it was so beloved by Hiapul's ever-growing community of urban explorers.

Frankly, they thought it would be better to tear down the abandoned building at this point. It would certainly save them the headache.

But unfortunately, it was still considered valuable to the history of Hiapul (And to the monetary value of the park), and so it remained. And N remained having to keep coming back to the damned place to clear out any actual threats so that stupid kids could play up their horror fantasies.

It wasn't the first time they had to come to East Summons Manor. It would probably not be the last.

The moment the two had arrived (after a thankfully quiet bus ride), Xiao had launched towards the park store. They hadn't even gotten a chance to say a word to him before he entered the doors.

N sighed, accepting that this normally very quick job was going to be a little longer than usual, and followed him inside.

Surprisingly, they didn't find him browsing snacks, but talking to the cashier.

"Hello! Can I get a map please?"

"Of course!" She pointed to a laminated sheet on the desk. "The QR code is right here!"

Xiao frowned. "No real map?"

"Oh no no! We've gone paperless!"

"Oh, okay..."

As Xiao reached into his pants pocket, his disappointed look shifted into a panicked expression. N furrowed their brow as he desperately patted around his body.

"T- The ph-phone...It- it's g-gone..."

Right, they had forgotten about that. "No, it's in my apartment."

"R-Really?"

"You left it in your clothes. You can get it when we head back."

Xiao let out a huge sigh of relief, leaning his head against the desk dramatically. The cashier smiled at N politely, but her eyes read "Please take your child. I am not paid enough for this."

Nudging him with their foot, they ushered him towards the door. "Sorry." They offered as they successfully avoided all further small talk.

"Wait!" Xiao said as they exited. "Don't you need to capture the map?"

"What?"

"The- paper thing! You need a phone to...to..."

"Scan it, I believe." It was admittedly technology they weren't as familiar with.

"And that makes the map appear? From your phone?"

"...Probably." They shrugged.

"Woah..."

Somehow, N got the feeling that what Xiao was imagining was far more interesting than reality.

"I don't need the map anyway." They turned towards the gravel pathway. "I know where to go already."

"Oh. Well, why didn't you say so?"

"Because you-" They sighed. "Just follow me please."

"Okay!" Xiao cheered with renewed vigor.

N was ready to just go home.

***

Even in September, it wasn't hard to find campers around. Red Leaf was beautiful in Fall. It really lived up to its name. With its canopy of changing leaves that fluttered ever so gently into the stream that ran around the park, it felt like it popped right off of a postcard. Luckily, while the park certainly leaned into its most famous building's reputation, there were also signs up to warn off camping near it. It didn't ward off people trying to get a quick nighttime scare of course, but N had chosen to come in the afternoon for that very reason.

Hopefully, no one would be wandering around the abandoned building on this nice sunny fall day. N had enough problems to worry about with their sudden baggage trailing behind them with wide, excited eyes and a non-stop stream of words. They mostly tuned him out. Paying enough attention to make sure they didn't lose him.

As the trail became more hidden behind the trees, the more the campers thankfully dwindled out. Their destination finally loomed over them. With how dense the woods had grown out here, it almost seemed like night had already fallen.

"Creepy!"

"Mmhm."

East Summons Manor stood out in a small clearing. The dull red roof and washed-out stonework barely caught the scant few sun rays. The plot of the garden that once surrounded it had been overtaken by weeds and left unkempt. Vines climbed up the front and sides of the manor. It looked like a stereotypical haunted house.

"It's very...square. Aren't these places supposed to be...taller?"

N looked up at the manor. It was very square. Even the roof (where it hadn't collapsed) rounded out into a trapezoid instead of a point.

"It's only three stories. A first floor, second, and then the attic."

"Oh." Xiao nodded. "Interesting! I thought it'd be really big."

N walked up the broken stone pathway to the front door. A blue park sign was staked right beside the garden.

"Anyone caught camping near East Summons Manor will be fined up to $5000." Xiao read aloud. "Gosh. Are we going to get in trouble for being here?"

"No." N said as they walked into the doorframe that was missing a door.

Xiao made a sound of surprise before plodding in after them.

"It's...empty." Xiao said, bewildered. "Where's all the furniture?"

"Gone. Looted and sold off."

"But...wouldn't the ghosts get upset their stuff is being stolen?"

"There are no ghosts here Xiao."

"Huh? But the legend says there should be fourteen ghosts! Thirteen friendly, and the evil killer maid!"

"You're familiar with it?"

"It was on the signs up to the Manor!"

Oh, that's what the boy was talking about on the walk. N chose not to dwell on how morbid the idea of reading about a grisly murder on the pathway to its location was. Nor that it was park-sanctioned, apparently.

"Doesn't matter." They said after a moment. "There's no ghosts. Never have been."

"How do you know?" Xiao asked disappointedly.

"I've been here before. There's never once been any ghosts." Plenty of other problems popped up, but it never was the rumoured haunts of East Summons.

Xiao crossed his arms with a pout. "Why are we even here then?"

"There's still something here. It's just not a ghost."

"Mm, but this would be a cool atmosphere for a ghostly battle...except for the lack of furniture...if there was some the ghost could float it around and you could like...use your super detective powers to float it back at it!"

"I don't float things."

"But you cooould?" Xiao asked inquisitively.

N sighed. "Be quiet while we wait for my contact, please. Then we can handle this Oddity and go home."

"Okay..."

N leaned against one of the less-beaten walls. Xiao joined them. He was steady for a few minutes before he began fidgeting. Eyes darting around, and feet bouncing slightly.

N watched him, wondering how the Hell people normally dealt with teenagers. They resigned themself to their fate and settled for more of the dreaded small talk to fill the silence.

"What is it."

"Huh? Oh um...nothing."

"Xiao."

"...It's just..." He looked around anxiously. "Are we really the only ones here?"

"I can check."

"Huh?"

"One moment." They closed their eyes and allowed all other sounds to fade out. A steady human heartbeat next to them, Xiao, and there was some sort of presence upstairs in the attic. It pulsed similar to a heart, but it was erratic, uneven, and more akin to the shaky, slimy breath of a Hellspawn.

"Just a Hellspawn then." They mumbled, reopening their eyes.

"Sorry?"

"Nothing. It's only you, me, and whatever's upstairs."

"How did- how do you know that?"

"I-" N paused. How could you describe what they had just done to a human? Explain it as "zoning out?" "Focusing?" Eventually, they landed on; "Sensed it." Hoping that would suffice.

"You can sense things??? Like- just randomly?"

"In a way, yes."

"That's so cool! How does it work? Can I learn how to do that? I wanna do that!"

"No."

"Why not? Is it like...an exclusive power of yours or something?"

N cringed. "Well, no but-"

"Then why can't I learn how to do it too?" He whined. "That could be super useful!"

Honestly, it wasn't a hard skill to learn. Especially not for someone who had learned to do magic. But it wasn't N's job to explain this to the boy, nor was it their job to worry about how safe it might be for him to even attempt to learn it. That was whoever Xiao's guardian would be's problem. And N was coming close to bribing the boy into being quiet until their stupid contact came and confirmed that it was a Hellspawn (which they already knew if you recall) so they could destroy it and be on their way-

Their train of thought was halted as they suddenly felt a third presence. They pushed off of the wall and stood in front of Xiao as they took it in. No heartbeat. And no distinct human smell, meaning it wasn't a camper who had wandered in by accident, or even a foolish explorer hoping for a quick scare. Instead, they first smelt something metallic mixed with a certain kind of rot only found in one thing.

A ghost.

It rose from the floor and hovered a few inches above it. A bright blue shine illuminated its transparent body. A man, somewhere in his mid-20s. Light facial hair, and the standard empty eye sockets. Short cropped hair, underneath a crushed tophat. Clean clothing, a tailcoat, and dress pants. Reminiscent of the 1800s. Dapper, all except for the knife lodged in his stomach. The wound gave the only splash of colour besides blue upon the man, the dark red of blood.

A spirit to be exact. The lingering soul of someone long dead who could just not pass on.

"Stay behind me." They warned Xiao.

N expected Xiao to jump, and shriek. That they'd have to chase him and get him out of an old, moldy, closet he hid in before it collapsed. They were certain of that going in.

Instead, the mysterious boy continued his confusing streak. He looked the ghost up and down, pointing at him and turning his surprisingly calm face back to N. "Is this your contact?"

"...No."

"I," The spirit started, voice whispery. "Am Bernard."

"Hello, Bernard!" Xiao waved.

"Don't talk to the spirit-"

"Hello." Said Bernard.

Okay. That probably meant he was friendly. Next question then;

"Why are you here? There have never been spirits before, and you died too long ago to be a recent haunt. So where did you come from?"

"We have always been here. The manor was our home, their home. The Summons were kind to us...gave us a place...we were never treated as servants, but as family....until that wicked woman decided we all deserved to-"

N held up a hand. "Not what I asked."

"Aw, but it was just getting interesting..." Xiao grumbled.

"I'm only going to ask this once more. Where did you come from? If you're really from the murder, then where have you been all this time? I've never once seen you, any of you."

"Oh no...We never came out...Too many people...too loud. We used to all hide underneath...until..." The ghost shuddered. "It is only me now."

Under the floorboards. That would be why N had never encountered any of them, much less sensed them. How frustrating.

"Yet you're here now." N said, crossing their arms. "So what do you want."

"A beast dwells. No heart, no mind of its own. So it seeks, it steals, and grows in hopes of becoming what it cannot. Instead, it becomes a cancer on the land. An environmental hazard. If left to its devices it will continue to harm. It knows nothing else...to eat is to survive after all, and what joy can it learn by having to survive?"

"Uh-huh. That has nothing to do with what you want."

"You. The one who protects. Will it devour you too? Or shall you be the one to eat it? Follow."

Bernard floated up the stairway, and N sighed.

"...Do all ghosts talk like that?"

"This is just a particularly dramatic one." They shoved their hands in their pockets and began their way up the creaky steps.

Xiao followed, still oddly calm. "He called you the "one who protects." What does that mean?"

"I don't know. I've cleared out things from here before. I guess I was being watched."

"You really are a superhero!" Xiao's eyes sparkled.

There was the energy they were expecting. They were almost worried for a second there.

Well, not actually. They couldn't feel worried. Or amused at the boy's antics.

Still, they found themself turning their head back to him. "Just a detective."

They left Xiao on the steps as they climbed up the final one. Bernard waited at the end of the hallway, close to a hidden door on the roof that had a string hanging from it.

"The attic. It hides there for now. But not much longer...I will go first."

With that, the spirit floated up into the door. N tugged on the string, releasing the latch that held the door in place. A ladder fell down in response.

Xiao arrived just in time to see it fall. "Neat!" He mused.

Right, they should lay down some ground rules.

"Don't go near the Hellspawn. I'll be done with it quick, so stay behind me."

"Okay!"

N rested a hand on the ladder, before pausing. They did have one more question they needed answered before they fought.

"...How come you were so calm to see the spirit?"

Xiao frowned, looking downwards, looking guilty. Had they finally caught the boy on something he was hiding? Maybe this would be a clue, if not the whole truth on why they couldn't wipe his memory.

"...I was..." Xiao shuffled his feet. "Hoping we'd see one of the named characters. Like Clarence or Anna, or the Maid! But...none of those signs mentioned a Bernard...We met a background character..."

No, the mysterious boy remained baffling and confusing, it seemed.

"You wanted to meet the maid." They deadpanned.

"It could've been cool to see her!"

"..." N took the opportunity to climb up the ladder.

They didn't know what they were expecting once they reached the attic. A small glob of flesh, maybe. Nothing concerning, especially with the casual way their co-worker had reported it. But when they emerged, they were greeted with a different sight.

A damp attic. Holes in the roof allowed the sun to add tiny bits of light to the darkness. It was as empty as the rest of the house had become, except for one thing.

On the corner of the wall, where the roof was still mostly intact, sat the Hellspawn. A pink, fleshy mass, with a single large green eyeball. It was circular in shape and was literally attached to the wall. Like a lump, its only other features were long pieces of flesh that spread like roots along the walls. It looked like a parasite.

And it was nearly the size of half the room. It just barely missed the light by an inch.

This should have been classified as a more active threat than it was. If this had gotten out if it had somehow detached and made its way toward the campsite before they even knew it existed...

Xiao chose that moment to poke his head up through the doorway from the ladder. He made a startled sound, and N whipped their head back towards him.

"Stay on the ladder." They hissed.

"It has eaten the rest of us..." Bernard started, "But we will not sustain it...it needs live flesh."

He floated towards the Hellspawn. Its single eye watched him steadily.

"Please, oh great one! Accept this offering, and free my family! We are not enough to feed you, but we can continue to provide!"

"What is with this week and sacrifices..." They muttered.

The Hellspawn leaned down towards the spirit and gobbled it up as it had clearly done for the rest of the Summons Manor ghosts. Exactly what N suspected. It wasn't like these things had the capability to understand much besides "eat food." As long as it was in its path, a Hellspawn would target it, dead, alive, and in-between.

"Bernard!" Xiao cried out.

N sighed. "Stay put, please."

The Hellspawn didn't grow any bigger thankfully. Likely because of the confined space. N decided that while it was misreported, it wouldn't be much of an issue after all. They walked up to it, and the Hellspawn simply looked down at them.

"Goodbye." They said, aiming a sharp chop to its eye.

With a wssh noise, N found their hand met with nothing but the air. They blinked, as the Hellspawn was gone.

The awful squelching noise was made as they turned and saw the Hellspawn now behind them.

Swiftly, they swiveled around to punch it-

Only to watch the massive thing use its strange tentacles to shift away.

"What the-"

It glided around the room like gelatin, always just out of N's reach. Every grab missed, every kick or punch, avoided.

"What's wrong???"

"It's too-" Another avoided punch. "Fast. If I miss I could leave a big enough hole for it to escape."

It was a blessing that it was a little too big to fit into what had already fallen off the roof.

"So you need it to stay still?"

"Basically!" They shouted, avoiding one of the Hellspawn's tentacles as it attempted to wrap around them. "Damn thing shouldn't be this fast."

They needed to distract it somehow before it got the better of them and slipped out into the campgrounds.

They needed to do something-

"Hey!!! Over here!"

Suddenly, Xiao was physically in the attic. Having climbed up while they weren't paying attention.

The Hellspawn reacted faster than them.

The last thing they saw was Xiao's wide eyes looking up at the beast, and him inhaling sharply.

There was a pounding in their ears. The world around them seemed to fade out, except for them, and the Hellspawn that had just eaten Xiao.

They rushed forward and raised an open palm to the creature, and struck. It made a gurgling noise and exploded. Sending its eyeball flying around the room like a bouncy ball, and a blood-covered Xiao falling to his knees.

"GUH!" He cried out, taking deep breaths.

Eventually, he regained enough composure to sit up. N's vision faded back to normal as he blinked up at them.

"Yuck..." He whined.

"You- why on- why did you do that?"

"You needed...a distraction...?"

"You could have died. This isn't a game." N hissed out.

Xiao lowered his head. "I dunno I guess...I just figured...If I got in danger you'd protect me."

N swallowed. "That's...a lot of trust to put in a stranger."

"Maybe. But- you did." He smiled up at them. "So I think my trust was valid!"

N took a step backward, taking in the bright smile that felt like it was adding light to the empty room.

"...Never do that again."

"Not planning on it...That smelt so bad! I'm glad I held my breath. It was so warm too, is that normal?"

"I don't know. I've never been eaten by a Hellspawn. Usually, they don't eat humans." And the humans they would eat wouldn't make it.

"I don't recommend it! I need another shower. Um- if that's okay with you I mean- hey, it's dead right?"

N looked down as the eyeball rolled up to their leg. It was roughly the size of a soccer ball. It glared at them. They glared back and raised their foot. With a firm stomp, it exploded too.

"Now it is."

"Woah..."

N tapped the remaining gore off of their foot and watched as it began to dissipate off of Xiao and the room.

"Good." They huffed.

"Hey, where's all the spirits?"

"Gone. They were eaten."

"WHAT? But I was eaten and I'm here!"

"They were in there longer."

"But not that spirit we met! He was only in there a few minutes longer! Is he okay?"

"He's gone too."

"Oh." Xiao frowned. "Poor guy..."

"He was going to feed us to it."

"Yeah but...he lost everyone around him...could you blame him for acting a bit dumbly?"

Yes. They very much could.

"Bernard...I hope you passed on peacefully with your family..." Xiao said, touching the ground sadly.

N watched the fading splattered remains of the Hellspawn. Unfortunately, he had exploded alongside the beast, phased out of existence. His afterlife had ended for good.

If the house was haunted before, it certainly wasn't now.

But their human companion did not need to know that part, they decided.

Xiao stood up and brushed himself off. The blood had nearly faded now, so it was probably safe to leave. This was going to be a pain to report.

"Hey, your contact never showed up."

"That's normal. Cherubs get distracted very easily."

"The who now???"

"...Nevermind. We're going home."

"Okay!" Xiao sprung back to life, showing no visible injuries, or even fatigue. It was like he hadn't been almost devoured just five minutes prior. It was a little uncanny how quickly he shuffled back down the ladder, then the stairs, and out the door.

For a quick moment, N once again debated if this boy truly was human. But a quick lookover showed no faults. No visible seams, no hidden magic, no odd smell. Somehow, this boy was still just a human.

"Why are you squinting at me???" Xiao questioned.

"I'm not." They lied. "Let's go get on the bus."

It made no sense.

***

N didn't know why they were delaying the inevitable.

Once they arrived home, they told Xiao to go take a shower while they called their co-worker back to finally talk about finding arrangements for Xiao. But for the fifteen minutes it took him, they remained seated at the table, phone face down.

His shower had ended, and he had made his way to the couch silently. They still hadn't called.

It wasn't fair to Xiao to keep him waiting. They weren't sure why they were waiting. They pulled up their phone and swiped to their contacts, hovering over the call button. They just needed to press it. Press it, and report the Oddity situation. Warn that the Cherubs failed to properly assess the danger and to look into that. Then, tell their co-worker about Xiao. Find him a place to live. Maybe mention his interest in magic, maybe find if there was someone he could talk to about that.

...Maybe it was the expression on the boy's face. From his spot on the couch, he looked miserable. Not comically, not like a child who had been told no to a new toy, nor like one who knew he was in trouble. Instead, it was a solemn expression, a lonely expression. A far too mature look for someone his age.

N took a moment to seriously assess the small human. The one whose boundless curiosity had led him into non-stop tangents. The one who had somehow gotten eaten not once but twice by Hellspawns in two days and survived. The one who had jumped by himself into that second Hellspawn on some unfounded belief that N would save him-

"I think my trust was valid!"

N swallowed. Why were mortals like this? So fragile, yet so willing to throw caution to the wind like they were unstoppable. This boy would surely end up dead in no time, just like thousands of the supernaturally inclined did every day. Not that it was any of their business but...

Xiao was just a kid. Barely a teenager. Would it be okay to just let him explore that world on his own without any sort of guidance?

A voice in their head told them that this was sort of their job too. Sure, it could be someone else's but...

They set down their phone and turned back to the mysterious boy.

"You can stay."

"Huh-?"

"For now." They continued quickly. "Until I find better, safer arrangements. But it's not like I don't have room to house you so..."

Xiao's eyes shone with unfallen tears. He blinked them helplessly away as he hoarsely said;

"Thank you."

"...Don't mention it." They grabbed the box of tissues from their kitchen and handed it off to him. "Here."

"I don't-" He sniffled. "Need them."

"You're crying."

"I'm not crying...that's for kids." He mumbled.

"You are a kid."

"Am not." Xiao wiped at his eyes, attempting to regain composure. "I'm sorry for scamming you into letting me stay last night."

"I wasn't scammed."

"Tricking you?"

"No-"

"Guilting you?"

N sighed. "I'm going to make you dinner now. Please actually pull out the couch tonight."

"You've got it, Detective!!!" Xiao saluted, eagerly standing to complete his new task.

Just a little longer, they tried to reassure themself. A temporary roommate situation. At least for a few weeks, or at worst, a few months. It would pass by in a flash. A newish experience that would soon be behind them. They watched Xiao pull at the cushions in an attempt to open the couch. Eventually, he found the lever at the side, and pulled it to release the mechanism. One of the cushions popped off of the couch and launched towards their TV. Xiao fumbled and caught it midair, laughing awkwardly as he lowered it to the loveseat. "Haha...um. Oops...?"

...It would pass fast. It had to.