Chapter 14: Chapter 13- Haunting Tone, Uncapped

I was wide-eyed. I was rendered silent by sheer surprise. I couldn't believe it.

"See?" Haunting stammered from behind me while peeking over my shoulder. "We were going to be safe," said the trembling girl.

"I... I don't understand. It's just a cave."

Haunting and I were on one side of the cave's mouth, and the eldritch deer was on the other side, completely still with even its human legs pressed together. It was just standing there. It was almost comical how still it was.

I just stared at it for what must have been ten minutes.

"After all of that, this is how it ends? With you just sitting there?"

The deer said nothing. Of course it couldn't say anything. I shook my head and looked at Haunting. 

"Eep!"

"How did you know that we wouldn't get hurt?" I asked, ignoring that embarrassing squeal. "What did you do?"

Haunting twiddled her fingers. "Well... Susy..."

"Susy? The screamer? Speak up."

"Umm, well, actually..."

"Come to think of it, where is she?"

Haunting responded by pointing over to the side. I followed her finger and was left dumbstruck as well. "Seriously."

I just felt tired all of a sudden. I sighed and shook my head.

"Please don't be mad at her, Mari."

"I... I think I'm too tired to be mad." I smiled at Haunting. "I'm... Yes, I'm just glad you two will be safe. Thank goodness for small blessings? Even if they don't make sense, right?"

Haunting giggled and hugged me tightly.

I, embarrassingly, started stammering. I wasn't expecting the physical contact.

 "Thank you for coming after us and helping us again, Mari!" She looked up at me. "You're a real hero, aren't you?"

I could feel my cheeks heating up. "Hey, could you let go of me?"

"Oh! I'm sorry." She released me and shot me an apologetic look. "Personal space, right?"

"No, I'm just sweaty from all that running. It's okay." I cleared my throat and walked past her, sitting down in the center of this hovel. Then, I stared right at the person that caused all of this--the person sleeping without a care in the world right there against the cave wall. I glanced over at the cave's mouth and sighed at the deer that decided that it was going to mimic me and kneel in front of the opening.

"I'm not going out there," I told it.

It opened its legs once, showing its slit, before slamming them shut.

"I don't want that," I replied. 

The legs tilted to the left, as if it was turning its head away from me in response. 

"This is so unsettling. Seriously? We're going to be watched all night?"

"Yeah... It's pretty scary," Haunting said as she pulled a round light from her belt. She placed it in front of me, and it lit up, illuminating the cave a little. 

"Thank you. I was dreading losing the little light that was still coming down."

"It's no problem." She looked over at the deer and then sat on the other side of me, away from the deer. "It's creepier when it's lit up."

The deer opened its legs and flashed us before slamming them shut.

I rolled my eyes at the deer and laughed inwardly. Every second I had to rest was every second I had to recover... Wait.

"Huh?" I said, looking at my fingers in surprise. They weren't trembling. "I'm not scared." I looked at the deer again and didn't feel any of that strange fear welling up inside of me. I looked at Haunting. "Are you scared?"

"I mean, yeah..." Her trepidation turned to excitement quickly as her nostrils flared and she shook. "But this is so amazing, isn't it!? We're actually seeing paranormal stuff!"

"Uhh. Your face is too close," I said, already having pulled back when she came too close.

"Oh, oops. Sorry," Haunting said, looking a little embarrassed. 

She was clearly excited about the strange and inexplicable events they were witnessing, even if they were a little unsettling. I couldn't help but feel a sense of curiosity as well, but that was being suppressed by the sheer magnitude of the strangeness we were encountering. Speaking of strangeness--

"Haunting, what actually happened here? How did we get in a situation where Susy ran and then fell asleep in a cave?"

"Well," Haunting started. "Susy was running and crying, but she never once slowed down. I don't think she ever even changed directions. She just picked a direction and ran."

"Uhuh," I said, tapping my finger.

"And then the cave came into view. She just ran into the cave and fell asleep."

"What? Just like that?"

"Yeah! I was right behind her, but she was already putting her head on the floor when I got here."

"So she went to sleep within..."

Haunting nodded. "Within a minute of entering the cave."

I stared at Susy, half-impressed, half-annoyed. "It must be nice to be so unstable." I looked over at the deer that was looking at us. "Oh, so nice."

"It's not Susy's fault. Mental illness claims lives every year--"

"And unmanaged illness endangers others."

Haunting gulped.

"I didn't get to ask you this. Does Susy have her medication with her?"

"No... She said she didn't need it... She was happy to be free of it! She talked about how much brighter the world seemed. She was really excited, Mari--"

"And she got rid of it before knowing if she would be stable," I said, shutting that down.

Haunting's expression fell as I spoke, and I felt a twinge of guilt. But it had to be said.

I had been fighting maniacs in another world before this place, and I had put down many omnicidal villains with personality disorders. I'd reckon thirty percent of my villains were shaped by their disorders. I knew that some of them could have been saved if their worst traits had been handled properly... That goddess herself was essentially a more competent and ruthless version of Narcissus too. If only she was stupid enough to drown herself... Then again, she allowed a pretty dangerous weapon (me) to turn itself against her. Maybe she was that stupid. What did that make me--the one who got countered by such a stupid woman, though?

"Ugh. I just pissed myself off."

"M-Mari? I'm sorry."

I glanced at Haunting and she jumped, startled. "It's fine. I was just thinking about my former boss." 

"A boss? Someone like you worked for someone else?"

I raised a brow. "Yes?"

Haunting giggled. "Sorry, you just looked like you were the self-employed, leader of a company type of person."

I smiled. "I appreciate the compliment. Anyway, with regard to Susy--"

"She's not a bad girl, Mari."

I looked at Susy and confirmed there was not a single shred of Vengeance stuck to her.

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"I know. But she's a liability--"

"One that found this place that's keeping that gross thing out!" Haunting said, pointing at the deer.

I looked at the deer and sneered. "Hear that? You're gross."

It flashed us again and did nothing more.

"Alright, this is becoming a little humorous," I said, laughing to myself. "Anyway, I'm not disregarding the strangeness at play here, Haunting... but we need stability. Not whatever Susy, in her current state, brings. There is a village beyond this forest. We need to be able to reach that village without Susy running off."

"I understand that," she said, nodding multiple times."Maybe she'll be better after a good night's sleep."

"Maybe... Let's lay out what we know. So, you've been with her the most. As it stands, she was involved in the bus crash, and then, she found the one place that thing couldn't cross. Do we agree something strange is going on here?"

"Fully agreed!" she said, her eyes shimmering. "My 'supernaturo' radar is going off like crazy."

I stayed straight-faced. "Okay. Did she say anything that can give us any context?"

"It seems like she was hearing voices, but she was saying stuff like how 'she didn't want to," or to 'leave her alone.'"

"Then, big question. Are the voices real?"

Haunting gave a strong nod, arcing her brows, wrinkling her nose, and mouthing a variety of expletives before finally saying, "Absolutely! They are 100 % real."

"I think we can tone down the excitement--"

"Sorry."

"--but I agree."

"You do?" she said, sincerely surprised.

"There's a vagina deer mere feet from us while the girl looks like she's having the most pleasant dreams she's ever had in the corner over there. I don't see the problem with believing the voices to be real at this stage. Hmm? Haunting?"

Haunting was looking at Susy, dumbfounded. "You're right. She does look like she's having nice dreams."

I cocked my head. "Oh yeah. She is smiling, isn't she? Lucky."

"Mhm... Mfgh..."

I let out a laugh, and when I did, Haunting followed, letting out her laugh. We laughed a little, the humor of the situation finally reaching its peak. 

"Of course, she's having the best sleep of her life," I said.

"I'm so jealous," Haunting followed. "It takes me an hour to fall asleep on a comfy bed!"

"Really? That sounds miserable."

"It's because I can't turn off my brain! There are too many things to think about!"

"Please don't tell me you're going to be thinking about that thing over there all night?"

Haunting glanced at it and then grimaced. "Honestly, I'd rather not even look at it."

I looked over at it again. "Hear that? The paranormal investigator is done with you."

Its toes, very visibly, curled.

"Gross." I shook my head and looked over to the duffel bag. "Ahh. Right. Haunting--" 

My eyes went wide, and my words got stuck in my throat.

"Ahh, that's better. It was getting a little hot in there," Haunting said, her hat in her hands.

"C-Cat ears."

Haunting looked over at me, and her ears--those cat-like ears sitting on top of her head twitched. She looked at me innocently. "Mari?"

"You're a cat girl?"

Her smile turned into a frown pretty quickly. "I mean. Yeah, I guess. Have cat-like ears."

Well, now my mind was racing. Were we in a fantasy-horror hybrid world?

I stroked my chin. "Well, an eldritchy world could have cat people..."

"Mari?" she asked again.

"Haunting... forgive me for asking, but... you're human, right?"

Her eyes went wide, and her jaw dropped. "Wow... I didn't take you for the type--"

Okay, she reacted along the lines of the first scenario I imagined. That was fine--I had the save.

"I mean, that I was still doubting you."

"Huh?"

"Are you really human? I mean--this hovel is so effective at keeping this thing out, and you happened to find it... I can trust you, right? I can trust your story, right?"

"Oh..." she said, calming down. She twisted her lips and started nodding slowly. "You can trust me. I know they're just words, but you can trust me." She smiled at me. "I am a tired and true human. A proud Bast girl."

"Bast... excellent."

I really wanted to ask what that was, but if I did, it would expose me a little too much. I dropped the race inquiry and instead picked out another element.

"Are you going to let your tail out?"

Her eyes went wide again--damn it. I underestimated how hard asking questions could be. At this rate, she would start thinking that I wasn't human.

Haunting frowned. "Well... in the spirit of transparency, I don't have a tail. It's not because I'm like some kind of shoddy imitation by a monster or anything. I have Vestigial Syndrome, so I don't have a tail."

I nodded slowly. "I see..."

I looked at the monster and then back at her. "So... after a night like tonight, what's your opinion on magic?"

Haunting giggled and became excited again as she rocked back and forth. "Obviously! It must be real! It'd be kind of weird if it wasn't! This cave must be magic too!"

I chuckled at her excitement. "Yeah, really makes a girl question her worldview, huh?"

"Not mine! It just confirms mine."

I rested my chin on my hand and shook my head at the girl with a smile on my face. 

"You sure are getting excited despite the situation. Are you absolutely sure you're a human?"

Haunting's smile grew wider. "I might be a little more offbeat than the typical girl, but Haunting Tone is a proud human through and through! You can count on that. Haunting Tone coming at you live and in the flesh--in the human flesh." She capped off her little thing with a cute wink.

I looked over at the eldritch deer. "Bet you wish you were as cute as her, huh?"

Hundreds of little hands slipped out from its slit and went behind the shins. It wrapped its hands around and ended up hugging its human legs. Looks like I finally made it feel a little shitty. Served it right.

"You should try insulting it too, Haunting--hmm? What's wrong? Are you feeling ill? Your face is red."