It was just like any other day, a young man was sitting in his classroom as the teacher spoke, words simply going through him as he ignored it all. He was staring at the cellphone he was holding under his desk, swiping through a news article about a building being closed down, a building he recognised all too well. Charlie had decided on his plans for when he was finally out of this classroom, directing his attention to the teacher he had been ignoring the whole time.
The teacher was a fairly young woman who had her back turned to the class, holding a pen in his her hand which she used to write on the whiteboard. She turned around to the class once she was done and tapped on the scentence she had written on the board with the back of her pen 'The institute has three rules, those are:'
"Who wants to answer? Would anyone like to guess maybe?"
There were a few moments of silence and awkward glances around the class before Charlie let out a sigh and raised a hand, waving it to grab the attention of the teacher and then speaking.
"Rule one, civillians always take priority. Rule two, all sightings must be reported before action is taken. Rule three, all investigators must travel in pairs"
The teacher rolled her eyes and nodded, turning back to write on the board and filling out the three rules that Charlie had just said.
"Yes Charlie, you are correct. I know you want to be an investigator but at least give the others a chance to guess before you give them the answers."
Charlie's response to that was a simple huff before he crossed his arms. He turned his attention away from the teacher and to the clock, staring at it as the time went past. He listened to each click as the seconds passed and ignored the teacher until the class was finally over and he heard the bell.
He grabbed his bag and threw it over his shoulder, walking to the door and pushing it open without waiting to be dismissed. He walked through the hallways of the school before he eventually reached the front gate, he crossed over the street and made his way to the destination he'd been planning from earlier.
The walk wasn't long, it took him about an hour before he got to the place he was hoping, he stood in front of an old building, it used to have a swimming pool but that had been drained now. He made his way to the door and dropped his bag off of his shoulder. He attempted to open the door and then shook his head, it was unsurprisingly locked.
He took a few steps back from the door before running towards it and shifting his weight, charging and leading with his shoulder. He crashed into the door and with that it forced open and he grit his teeth a little, bringing his hand up and rubbing his shoulder as he made his way into the building and started to walk through.
It only took him around a minute to finally get to where he wanted to, he walked to the old swimming pool deep end and sat down, hanging his legs over the edge and looking down. He took a deep breath and looked down.
He had been here before, only once. He was young and his father was teaching him how to swim. He got thrown into the pool and right when he did another person was swimming up, their heads clashed and Charlie got scared, he didn't swim like he was supposed to, instead he flailed, and then sunk, he started drowning and just before he passed out his father managed to get him out of the water.
He stopped remembering after a short while, interrupted by a cold feeling, it felt as if the temperature around him had dropped and he was freezing. He brought his arms up and hugged himself, looking down, he was wearing fairly thick clothes so there was no reason to be cold.
He started to look around with a concerned expression, there was only one thing that explained this. There was a mist slowly seeping into the room he was in, coming from the door he had entered through, then what seemed like a person walked through the door.
It only seemed like a person in structure, in reality this person was able to be seen through, it was a faint blue instead of a fleshy colour and there was no hair. The clothes covering the body were torn and would likely be filthy if they could have any dirt on them.
"Crap!"
Charlie yelled out, quickly standing and starting to run to the back of the room. The ghost slowly approached him, each step seeming more and more difficult. The ghost was trembling as it approached.
There was only a few seconds of this before another person came walking through the door. It was a tall man wearing a trenchcoat, he had a symetrical face and black eyes, he also had black hair that was styled well. The man had a dangerous aura surrounding him, and the ghost noticed.
The ghost turned and looked at the new man, just staring for a moment before it lunged towards him.
The man reacted fast, inhumanly fast, he took a step towards the creature and moved his hands, bringing both up, he moved his feet and landed with his left foot slightly ahead of his right foot, spreading his legs about shoulder width apart before quickly extending his left arm and snapping it back. Boxings most known move, the jab. He took a few steps backwards and reached into the pocket of his coat, taking out a camera and quickly pointing it at the ghost before taking a picture.
The ghost was sent stumbling back from the punch and before it could try anything else it had the picture taken. It let out a loud screech and started to shrink down, it got turned into what seemed like a thick mist and got pulled into the camera before a polaroid started to print. The picture dropped down to the ground, and the man looked at Charlie.
Charlie walked towards the new man and brought his own hand up to his mouth, biting on the nail of his middle finger gently. He felt like he was going to be in lots of trouble.
"I was just… Passing through.. Yeah"
The man scoffed and reached down, picking up the polaroid and waving it a little. He looked Charlie up and down a few times and then nodded his head. He put the polaroid and camera into his pockets and then moved his left hand, putting it onto Charlie's shoulder and patting it a few times
"You're a moron.. Unfortunately for me, you're a lucky moron. You need to come with me"