TW for talks of hanging and death overall///

" Do you want to hear a ghost story?"

Y/N's voice was soft compared to the storm outside, roaring against the forest of cement and concrete decorating the streets of Brooklyn. They huddled underneath a blanket with their closest friends in the world, trying to ignore how their hands wouldn't stop shaking. Lily kept tapping her fingers on surfaces they knew she knew were there and making them jump, Noor was focused on the bedroom door as if the thing owed her money, staring through a hole in the blanket. It was an old blanket, and Y/N didn't have the time nor patience to fix the growing amount of holes in it. Sue them. 

The door didn't owe Noor anything, by the way.

" We're not kids, Y/N." Noor mumbled, her dark hair pooling over her shoulders.

" And ghosts aren't real." Lily added, tapping the bed frame. She knew it was there, Y/N knew because she wouldn't leave it alone and she was staring dead at them while she did it too. Lily, likely both the kindest and most irritating person on the East Coast. Lovingly said, of course. Being blind didn't give her a free pass for being a dick. 

" That's why its a story." 

" What story are we going for?" Noor finally looked away from the bleeding door— she was practically burning a hole through the wood— and turned her attention to Y/N. 

" What about... the San Pedro haunting?" Y/N folded their hands in their lap, a list of stories they had memorized racing through their head. Ghost stories, their most peculiar obsession, and one of their favorite pastimes. Noor had true crime- the girl was worryingly fascinated with murder- and Lily had her dead poets, Y/N had ghosts. Poltergeists, wraiths, wandering spirits, you name it! They probably had a couple cases involving any of them memorized. 

" Alright." Noor leaned against the bed frame ( Lily flicked her with a shit eating grin on her face) and crossed her arms over her chest. " Shoot, ghost boy."

" Not a dude," Y/N sidetracked, then exhaled. " Okay. So.

" 1989, Los Angeles. California. A woman named Jackie- I think her full name was Jacqueline- Hernandez and her two children claimed that she and her two kids, Jamie and Samantha if memory serves, were being like... borderline abused by an entity that inhabited their home. Y'know, the disembodied head, the strange smells, ghost orbs, shadow people, all the standard spooky scary ghost things. This thing was basically predatory with the way it harassed Jackie and her kids- pretty sure she said something in the LA times about how it seemed to get stronger as she got more and more scared- and at one point it seemed to like... follow them."

" Ghosts are bitches," Lily interrupted.

" Don't swear or your dead poets will get you." Noor said.

" Shush, the both of you, or I'm eating the flashlight batteries. As I was saying, the stupid thing followed Jackie and her kids to a remote like.. trailer at one point, I dunno. But before all that, Jackie's neighbor advised her to get a whole ass paranormal investigation crew, and you can probably still find footage from them too. This is where good old Dr Barry Taff comes in, with his whole army of a crew and a whole lotta balls."

" You're a terrible story teller." added Noor.

Y/N kicked her and kept talking. " This dude put a lot of priority on Jackies claims. Like, all of it. Probably because of the kids in the house, but hey, whadda I know. So when this crew arrived, they showed up to this stink throughout the entire house and even after airing it out, they couldn't identify a source. Eventually they ended up hearing this banging from somewhere in the house, and the track it to the ceiling in the kitchen. Pretty sure it was the kitchen, at least. Jackie said she had seen a severed head right under the banging before, so y'know... makes sense that it would be in a kitchen."

" How does that make sense?" Lily scoffed.

" Human heads for dinner! Tastes like pork,"

" You're disgusting, Y/N."

" I am brilliant. More importantly, the story. So these guys all split up and take pictures of the house, since Jackie said she had literally seen a SEVERED HEAD in her kitchen and also like... other stuff. I dunno, blood or whatever, I don't remember specifics, and these two separate guys decide in a moment of testosterone fueled idiocy to go up to the attic. Wheat-dude and Conrad, pretty sure Wheat-dude was like... Wheatcraft? Something along those lines, anyways, while the two of them are up there, Wheatcraft gets his camera knocked out of his hands and shoved. Like a bean bag."

" Half the things you said made zero sense." Noor groaned.

" I can and will kick you off the bed if you interrupt me again. Anyways, these two dudes leave after Wheatcraft gets attacked and decide, hmm, you know whats a great idea? Lets go back up into the attic! And so, the next day, thats exactly what they do! Like fools! When they went back up the next day, Wheatcraft was the victim of an attempted strangulation- you can probably find photos, I've seen them, they are not fun- and was rescued by a photographer than was with him. Like any sane person, he left and didn't come back. Good on him!

But it doesn't end there, oh. Why would it ever! I think I said that the persistent little bugger followed Jackie and her kids to a trailer, right? Yeah, so at this bit, there was banging in a shed instead of an attic. So the guys from before- Taff and Wheatcraft and some other guy- went up to meet Jackie and throw this annoying little ghost in the past where it belonged. And then held a séance! They claim to have maid some kind of contact with something, something saying it was a man murdered in the harbor at San Pedro. It also said it attacked Wheatcraft because he looked like it's murderer- and then it proceed to attack him AGAIN, leaving the poor dude with paranoia like a total dick. Eventually Jackie lost the ghost dude, by moving around as much as she could, and I'm not sure if they ever figured out who exactly the ghost was. Taff thought it might have been the dude who built the house, or a man who had died in the harbor in 1930. Think that dudes death was ruled as accidental and not homicide, though." 

Lily stared at them. She wasn't completely blind, though she was basically that way in the dark. Then she sighed, and said, " Reiterating my point of ghosts are bitches."  

" So, like, Wheatcrafts good, right?" Noor asked, leaning forward. 

" Probably. He's not dead because of this case, at least."

" And this was Los Angeles."

" The 80's were weird, dude." Y/N said with a smile. 

" I'm gonna send you to the 80's. The ghost wasn't the harbor dude, it'll be you." Noor was smiling, showing off the dimples on her cheeks. 

" I'll wait for you, you're stuck with me anyways. You too, Lily."

" I don't want to be a ghost." Lily pouted.

" Sucks! Ghost buddies!"

" No, NOT Ghost buddies, we are very much so alive." She said, with a mocking tone.

Noor and Y/N met each others eyes, and then collapsed onto Lily. The blind girl whaked the both of them with pillows.

Ghost buddies. 

Not the worst thing a man could be.