Warm red blood clung to Oliver's hands and face as he stared at the scene in front of him, his mother's body, crushed by the force of a speeding car, brown hair soaked by blood.
Was it a car? The eight year old couldn't exactly remember, all he knew was the icky texture of the red fluid and the lifelessness of his mother's eyes, staring out into the sky.
Those lifeless eyes suddenly rolled back, locking right onto him.
"Why didn't you tell me?", his mother asked in a calm, gentle voice. Somehow making it more terrifying to the young boy than if she were yelling.
"You could see it, couldn't you? You could have saved me."
"So why didn't you? Do you hate me Oliver?"
The boy didn't respond, his breathing already heavy, any attempt could have rendered him out of breath.
"Oliver, answer me Oliver, oliver, oliver"
"Oliver! Bro you good? Wake up!"
Oliver jolted awake, jostling the Ouija board on the table and causing several cards to fall off it onto the ground below.
The amber light of the sunset pierced through the classroom's windows, illuminating the meeting place of the occult club.
"Hello? Brother? You alright?"Oliver turned to look at the blonde girl who was calling out his name. His sister Rachel was dressed in her school uniform just like he was, people often doubted the two of them were related, it was understandable, she had blonde hair and he had black hair.
"Yeah, sorry, what are we doing again?", he rubbed his eyes, god the things he would do for some coffee right now, but the cafeteria somehow ran out so, tough luck.
"We were conducting the ritual to summon ancient spirits to communicate with us and help us with our history homework," next to him, opposite of Rachel, sat another girl, a friend of his called Amelia, her brown hair neatly tucked behind her ears.
He wasn't exactly sure what a law student was doing asking ghosts for answers to homework but at least her presence made up the requirement for an official club formation.
"Oh right," he cleared his throat as all three of them placed a finger on the Ouija Triangle.
"OH ANCIENT SPIRITS OF JAPAN I SUMMON THEE!", Oliver deepened his own voice, "OH WISE AN BENEVOLENT GHOSTS, GREAT ONES FROM THE BEYOND, SCHOLARS WHO HAVE LEARNT A THOUSAND HISTORIES, THIS HUMBLE ONE ASKS, THROUGHOUT ALL HISTORY OF JAPAN, OF HEROES NAMED AND UNNAMED, WHO THE HELL IS LAZARUS THE DESPICABLE, AND WHY DOES EVERYONE HATE HER SO MUCH."
After that declaration, an awkward silence filled the room as, quite plainly, nothing happened.
"Well that was underwhelming- holy shit," Oliver jumped back as the door behind him suddenly opened.
"Occult Club, with this notice you're getting kicked out of the room due to no longer being a legitimate club," what Oliver perceived as a pencil walked in and slammed a piece of paper down on the desk.
Now, of course the student council president wasn't a pencil, he more... resembled one, "Due to you not meeting the requirement of having three members in your club, it has been summarily dismantled and all venues will be relegated to other clubs!"
"Wait, we have three people," last time he checked, Oliver himself, plus Amelia, plus Rachel, that made three right?
"Since Rachel is part of the Athletics society and not the occult club, the extracurricular does not meet the required amount of people to operate," the pencil-looking guy said with a smug smile, "Also, due to the lack of contributions to the school as a whole."
Oliver blinked, looking at the guy.
He... didn't have many friends did he?
"Wait," his sister protested, "But I did sign up! I wrote 'Occult Club' on that little piece of paper they gave us, not 'Athletic's-"
"I rewrote it."
A teacher with less friends than the student has arrived.
"You are on top of this country, Rachel! We need you!"
"For the last time, I'm not joining, how many times do I have to say no?!"
"Doesn't count!"
"The fuck you mean it doesn't count?!"
"Hey," Oliver's head snapped back to look at his sister, "Language."
His sister frowned at him as the teacher just kept talking.
"But I am no demon, If you win I shall stop asking, let us compete, WITH TRACK AND FIELD PROJECTS!"
Rachel just stared at the guy weirdly, "Ooooookay?" She responded hesitantly.
Oliver leaned closer to Amelia, whispering, "Is that even allowed?"
"Legally no," she glanced at the two, "But I want to see how this plays out..."
Oliver nodded along, standing up to leave, but suddenly stopping, "Something wrong?" Amelia asked, he sighed, "We're going to have to go to the field aren't we."
He generally avoided that part of the school, for starters, it was hot, like uncomfortably hot even in the evenings.
It was also because he always saw that thing creeping around, the same hallucination every day... but he needed to keep an eye on Rachel.
Well, at least this day can't get any worse.
________________________________________
Last night
Somewhere outside the school sat a small shed, like one a protective shrine would be made within.
A young man with black hair walked up to this shrine, he was dressed in a fully black uniform, seemingly a school uniform but not one of any recognizable high school within the area.
He looked at the worn down edges of the storage cabinet, secured shut only by a single latch.
"Weird place to put a Special Grade but then again this is the higher ups that decided this...", he muttered under his breath flipping open the latch and opening the shed.
There was nothing inside.
He blinked, staring at the rotting wooden base of the storage shed, clear indent where the box once sat.
He proceeded to look around the shed, beneath it, behind it, beside it, nothing, it was as if the item he was looking for had completely disappeared.
"Shit," he muttered, scrambling to pull out his phone and calling the top number on speed dial.
"Yooooooo?"The voice that came from the other end was relaxed, as if either constantly taking a bath, or constantly high as a kite.
"The finger's gone," the young man paced around as he spoke.
"Hmm? Are you sure?", "Well I looked and it's not there, pretty sure that means it's gone!"
"Huh," the voice speaking from the other side went silent, "Maybe it went for a walk...."
"I am going to punch you.", "Ok, ok geez chill out, look, it's probably with some students at the school near you, you know them, all these occult clubs, just find it there and you'll be fine! If that's all, see ya."
"Hey wait-, aghh," he sighed as the person on the other end hung up the, "I swear to god I'm gonna kill that guy...." he muttered.
________________________________________
Present time
Back at the school, Oliver was currently watching his sister absolutely dominate all of the physical challenges, if things kept going like this they would be done in less than an hour.
Shame, he should've brought popcorn.
"So it's true she got in through SASUKE?", Amelia asked, "Yep," Oliver responded with a whisper, "Aka Savage Mirko Phillip reborn as others say."
"Hm," Amelia nodded as Rachel chucked a steel shotput, denting one of the football goals.
"By the way, did you get the finger?", "What, this creepy thing?", Oliver took a steel flask from his bag and shook it slightly, causing it to rattle, "We're unwrapping it tonight right?"
She nodded, stretching her hand out to take it from him, unfortunately he needed to go visit his grandfather in the hospital before he could do this.
"Pretty impressive," Oliver turned around to see a boy around his age standing next to him, wearing a formal white shirt and black pants, Oliver was pretty sure he only got her after Amelia tucked the canister away.
"Yep, that's my sister," he said, beaming. Despite how they acted with each other, he was proud of her.
"Really..... you must be a very good brother then", "Of course I am, I'm the best brother in all the world having to deal with her." He shook his head, remembering all the times she had nearly killed him by accident.
"By the way, who are you? Do you like, go here?" Oliver asked the man, he turned to look at him, then coughed, "I-uh, no I'm uh... with the IRS."
"Damn, guess our school hasn't been paying taxes huh?", "Not...exactly?"
"Ah," Oliver sighed, "Well it's fun meeting you Mr-", before he could finish, he saw it again, that same hallucination of a many limbed fish-like creature with pasty green skin and human teeth perched upon a pole.
'I really need to go see a doctor about this....', Oliver thought, turning back to the man who was-
Wait, what was he looking at? He seemed to be looking at the.... pole, Oliver frowned, was- was he looking at that thing, no way, that was his hallucination! Couldn't this guy get his own?!
But in all seriousness though, what was he looking at?
"Anyways, I should be going now, have some, uhhhhh- audits, to be doing. Nice meeting you," the man sighed, turning around and walking away just as Rachel ran up.
"Who's he?", she asked, staring at the guy as he walked away, "IRS agent, didn't get his name," Oliver sighed, "C'mon, we shouldn't keep grandpa waiting.
________________________________________
"THE HELL ARE YOU TWO DOING HERE? DON'T YOU HAVE A CLUB TO GO TO?"
"The club ended at five gramps," Rachel smiled patiently as she put a bouquet of flowers in a vase next to the old man's bed.
Their grandfather was looking worse for wear, sunken eyes and an ever growing bald spot were only some of the signs of his rapidly declining condition, the yelling didn't help at all.
"I TOLD YOU BOTH NOT TO COME, OR BUY FLOWERS," he yelled in exasperation.
"They're not for you, they're for the nurse," Oliver explained as he adjusted the photos at the side of the old man's bed.
"THEN THAT'S EVEN MORE REDUNDANT," the old man sighed, "Well, since you two have so much free time I suppose you have no choice but to listen to me-"
"Not thanks", "Not interested".
Both siblings immediately expressed their unwillingness to listen to one of their grandfather's long-winded lectures.
The old man sighed yet again, shaking his head, he turned to lay on his side.
"Listen you two, at least promise me this."
The both of them turned toward their grandfather, the sudden softness in his voice catching their attention.
"Both of you are strong, protect each other, and try to protect others if you can, don't end up dying alone like this pathetic old man...."
The old man went silent for a second, then a minute, then two minutes, then five minutes.
"Grandpa?"Rachel walked to his side, resting her hand on the old man's lifeless palm, while Oliver went directly to the phone.
"Hello? Yes, My grandfather has... passed away," he said it with a serious tone, much unlike the one he normally took.
Meanwhile, tears were streaming down his face.
________________________________________
Later, in the main area of the hospital, Oliver handed the last of the documents over to a nurse, thanking her, before walking over to Rachel who sat on a seat nearby.
"It's..... weird," she said, tapping the chair, "I know grandpa died and all but... I don't feel sad for some reason."
"Well, it was a long time coming wasn't it?", Oliver replied, stretching, they had a bit more time before they could leave, he still needed to confirm all the documents.
"Well, guess it's just you and me now sis," he put his arm around his sister's shoulder, "Like it always has been," she replied with a smile.
This caused him to smile as well, his sister's general happiness could be infectious.
"Excuse me?"
Oliver immediately stood up as from the shadows behind them, the same young man he had met at the field emerged from the hallway.
Instead of the shirt he wore when he met him, the black-haired boy wore a sort of school jacket with golden buttons on them.
"Oliver and Rachel, correct? My name is-"
"Holy shit it's the IRS guy."
"I- yeah sure, I suppose," the man hesitated before responding, he pulled out his phone and started scrolling.
"My name is Nathan, and... I suppose you could say I work for the IRS," he showed them the picture on his phone... It was one of the strange object Oliver had taken from the instrument shed outside of school.
"Specifically I'm here to ask if either of you have seen this or found it? It's a rather important artifact, so I do hope you'll answer me honestly."