Ghost hunter story final part

Okay, last part to this thing. It’s probably way too long but I didn’t have a good place to cut it in half again, so…. It’s just a big chunk. Dabs

⚠️CW for heavy emeto, body horror, panic attack mentions, exorcism!⚠️

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As soon as Leo read the name, the poltergeist tossed and turned violent in Val’s stomach, and he immediately clutched it in an attempt to calm the movement.

“Leo, for god's sake, tell me there’s another death certificate in there. Death certificate, prison records, murder records, something other than a child. Don’t you sit there and fucking tell me our poltergeist is a toddler,” Val forced out, his throat tight. Leo bit his lower lip, leafing through the remaining pages, then spreading his hand out, palm up, to gesture no more.

“There’s… there’s nothing else. It shows that the Whittier’s were the last people to live there before Miss Albreight, having moved out in 1973. Miss Albreight told me that the house was abandoned for about 15 years before she had it highly remodeled and made livable again back in the 80’s. She says it’s been haunted ever since.”

“It took her 40 years to do something about the haunting?” Rico asked, and Leo shook his head.

“No, that’s the thing; she’s been trying to cleanse the place since it started to get bad in ‘98. She’s been desperate not to give the property up, since she owns it and put so much money into remodeling it. We were just-… well… Val was just the first person successful in removing her- it. …It.”

Val’s head started to swirl. That was the last thing he wanted. To learn that the poltergeist that had been haunting that house for decades, and now him, might be the ghost of a 15 month old baby. He didn’t want to succumb to feeling sympathy. He truly didn’t. But regardless of what he wanted, he still promptly started to sob.

“Fuck… Fuck!” He yelled, leaning against the arm of the chair to hide his eyes in his hand. “I can’t- we can’t… we can’t just fucking banish a child to fucking god knows where,” he moaned, then cut himself off. “No- I mean- I do not allow her to stay. It. We can’t confirm that the ghost is Hadley- ow, fuck!”

He yelped at a single sharp movement towards his spine as the name Hadley was spoken again. Rico moved to reassure him, but Val got to his feet instead, pacing anxiously into the kitchen as he tried to power through the severe panic attack that had finally won him over. He leaned over the bar counter, pushing his face into his folded arms to stifle himself.

Val didn’t think he would be so aggressively devastated learning that the ghost might actually be a child. He had only brought it up mainly for posterity’s sake. He didn’t think he would actually be so upset if it ended up being the truth. Maybe it was because he’d spent so much time with kids that day. Opened his heart to baby fever. He barely even noticed that Rico and Leo had both joined him at the counter, standing quietly shoulder to shoulder on either side of him. He couldn’t help pulling away from the counter towards Rico, who offered him a chest to sob against for a moment with open arms. Leo rested his hand gently on Val’s upper back, patting him soothingly. They all were great at pushing each other’s buttons, but Rico and Leo truly were there whenever Val’s anxiety got the best of him. They were his best friends for a reason in the end.

It was the sudden spike in nausea that truly brought him back to his senses; he hesitantly pulled away from his friends to step around the counter and hover over the sink. After wiping the excess tears from his cheeks, he pressed the back of his hand to his mouth briefly, then just decided to let what would happen happen.

“I can’t tell if the nausea is from the breakdown or from the ghost,” he mumbled, pushing his hair off of his face and waiting another moment before he, again, threw up that weird invisible bile. Rico and Leo both watched, looking an even mixture of worried, perturbed, and confused.

“That just doesn’t seem right,” Rico said. “None of this does, but I’ve never seen or heard of anything like that.”

Val shrugged quietly, rinsing his mouth and removing his glasses so he could wipe his face down. His eyes felt swollen, his chest felt heavy, and a bubble of persistent nausea had now set itself right at the top of his stomach.

“I don’t understand why I’m throwing up all of a sudden,” he grumbled, moving back to the couch. “I was fine after the first time until today…”

“Well, you are getting pretty big,” Leo said quietly, leaning over the back of the couch to look at him. “Maybe it’s par for the course.”

Val groaned. Leo might have been right. Along with not having experienced nausea, he also hadn’t felt heavy. It was a ghost inside of him, of course he didn’t feel heavy. But now, he realized, it felt like he was full of water. Or, no. Not water. His chest felt thick and syrupy and burn-y, like he’d engorged himself on a couple full bottles of wine. And he was no wine-o, so it wasn’t even the good type of burn-y. And now, despite still not having eaten anything past that morning cup of coffee, he would’ve rather died then put food in his mouth at that moment.

That night, Rico forced him to bed with at least a packet of crackers, which Val did manage to eat successfully. Thank god. But his sleep afterwards was so restless, that he hauled himself up out of bed at nearly four in the morning to go all the way downstairs and out onto the porch for a bit of humid, yet cool, air. He sat down on the steps, leaning against the railing tiredly.

“If you’re just some fucked up demon, I hate you and I want you gone,” Val muttered. “I did not offer my body to you to use like some kind of fucking holding cell. I didn’t offer my body at all.”

He sat in silence for a moment. It was well past the witching hour that night, but everything seemed still and calm. Oddly. He sighed.

“And if you really are Hadley-“ the name elicited a spasm again; “then I’m sorry, but you just can’t stay. Whoever you are, you need to either be released into hell, or directed to the light. I’m just… I’m just not the one to do it.”

He couldn’t entirely stifle the few tears that got the best of him. It was too much. He’d never been so terrified in his life. And, to make matters worse, the only people he could rely on currently about his condition were Leo, Rico, and the upcoming Father Knightly. He couldn’t call his brother about it, couldn’t call his grandfather- hell, the only person he should have been calling soon was the professor of his class to let her know he’d be absent until the following week.

Just when he’d finally started to feel like his wallowing was slowing, Val stopped cold at the sound of crying behind him. It echoed, like it’d sounded right behind his head, but when he twisted around… he saw nothing. Neither of his friends sat behind him trying to mess with him, no one else was out walking the sidewalks nearby. There was nothing but the sound of bugs trilling and the streetlights buzzing.

Okay, so… he was going crazy, right? He was just upset and overcoming one and a half panic attacks and he was hearing things. Until he heard it again. It was a low cry, like it was muffled. It wasn’t high pitched or low pitched, while being almost both at the same time, so it was unclear if the cry was young or old. And like the nasty maraschino cherry on top, as it sounded, he felt a dull ache near his hips. He sighed, getting to his feet.

“Just a couple more nights until you are forced out of me. Now is your time to leave peacefully while I’m giving you the chance,” he said, pushing a hand to the side of his stomach. Not even a movement in reply. His stomach just stayed uneasily still, just giving Val time to really realize that his stomach was entirely firm. Like a severely over inflated basketball, with almost zero give to the surface and threatening to pop at any second. All he could do was roll his eyes and head back inside.

When he woke up the following morning, he was on the couch downstairs. He didn’t remember not going upstairs, but he didn’t argue with the fact that he really had to have been way too tired to go up two flights of stairs to his bedroom.

To his relief, whatever sleep he’d gotten in that night was entirely dreamless- which is how he usually preferred his sleep. So while he was more rested than usual, he did wake up with a nice kink in his neck from laying against the armrest. Rico was beside him like some sort of Jetson’s assist robot with a warm heat pack the second he sat up with a grimace.

“Thank you, Rosey,” Val joked hoarsely, taking the heat pack gratefully and wrapping it around the back of his neck. Leo was also up already, curled up on the loveseat, tiredly looking over the top of his phone.

“I’m surprised we didn’t wake you,” he said once Val noticed him. “Must have really been out cold. Why did you end up on the couch? Thought you went up last night.”

“I did go up, I just came down to go outside in the middle of the night. I guess I went back to sleep on the couch. I don’t really remember, I was too tired.”

“You don’t remember laying down on the couch?” Rico asked, a slight look of worry crossing his features.

“Not… really,” Val said awkwardly. He wasn’t surprised to wake up on the couch. He wasn’t a sleepwalker, but he also was good at clocking out mentally while standing if he was tired enough. So while it wasn’t too far fetched for Val, apparently it bothered Rico quite a bit.

“These days couldn’t go by any slower,” he said, rubbing the worry out of his face and finally taking a seat at the other end of the couch. “I’ve never been so ready for it to be a Sunday.”

Val grumbled in agreement and Leo hummed quietly, distractedly watching them. He seemed to snap out of it when Rico stood, leaving to retrieve their little metaphysical briefcase once again. Val gestured him over to the couch by patting the space next to him.

“You gonna give me my food measurement today?” He asked, and Leo’s cheekbones turned red as he crawled up next to him.

“You’re not annoyed by that shit yet?” He asked, and Val shook his head.

“Nah- it’s the only thing that can lighten this stupid situation up,” he admitted. “What was I yesterday- a medium watermelon? Does that make me a full size watermelon today?”

Leo fought with his gaze, looking towards the wall, then at the ceiling briefly, before looking down at Val. His face reddened even more, and he turned to hide his face against the couch.

“Sorrryy…” he muffled awkwardly. Val reached up with his closest hand to tap his knuckles against Leo’s arm.

“You don’t have to be embarrassed about it. Actually, you better enjoy it for me while you can, because soon enough I’ll be back to single pizza size, and that’s not nearly as exciting,” he said, eliciting a laugh out of his friend. There was still a pause before Leo finally re-emerged from the cushions, wiping his hair off of his forehead.

“Alright, alright, fine,” he grumbled jokingly, sitting perpendicular to Val, reaching out cautiously to poke the side of Val’s stomach. “It’s solid; probably a pumpkin today.”

Rico chuckled at the two of them, neither of them noticing that he had reappeared with a smoldering chunk of palo santo.

“Pumpkins have thick skin,” he said, passing the smoking wood over both of them. “That’s pretty on brand for Val, yeah?”

“Not recently,” Val said with a burst of laughter. “I’ve only had more anxiety in the past three days then I have in the past three years. I feel more like a peach right now.”

Rico half frowned down at him sympathetically, and Val almost didn’t want to worry their older friend with more weird news. He decided to anyway, of course.

“But, uhh…” he started, and Rico slowed, listening. “Last night, I went outside around four AM. I… I heard crying.”

Rico’s slow officially stopped, and he looked at Val with a taught face.

“Crying? What kind of crying?”

“I don’t know. It didn’t seem human. There was no one around me, and it sounded like a baby and an adult mixed into one sound.”

Rico stayed still for another moment, before moving the palo santo down over Val’s stomach. His insides churned a bit, possibly some kind of reaction to the cleansing, and he held his sides in an attempt to stop it.

“Sunday really can’t come quick enough,” Rico reiterated slowly, dragging the smoke over Leo and himself before tamping the wood down onto his plate to stoke the burn. “How do you feel? Or, rather, what do you feel? As of late.”

“Nauseous. Sore. I didn’t feel heavy at first, but I do now. My stomach feels so tight that it’s hard to breathe in. It barely moves.”

With Val’s permission, Rico felt Val’s stomach along the top, where it had started to press his ribs against his lungs. In actuality, Val didn’t look much bigger than someone pregnant at eight months. He wasn’t stupidly massive, by normal pregnancy standards, but within three days, it was more than what his body had been prepared for. Not to mention, bigger than he was used to. He’d never really pushed himself past food baby size, so of course he felt massive.

“We’ll pick you up some lotion, oil, and bigger heat packs. Anything to relax the skin. You’re not planning to go to class today, are you?” Rico asked, and Val shook his head.

“Not a chance. Probably couldn’t fit into my scrubs even if I wanted to. I’ll call in absent until next Tuesday or something.”

“Good. Me and Leo both called out for today, that way we don’t leave you alone for the entire day,” Rico said. “I’ll take Leo’s car and pick up some stuff and be back quick.”

While he was gone, Val called in to relinquish himself of a few days of classes, telling his professor when she started to question what some of his classmates had spoken about that everything they said was untrue, he just had family visiting. Leo didn’t leave his side that day, even after Rico had returned and surrounded Val with heat packs and lotions and balms and probably everything he could possibly find in the Walmart maternity section.

The feeling was akin to when he’d been sick in the past. Out of school, home, achy and exhausted while his mother cared for him. He missed that. Missed her. At the same time, he was glad she wasn’t around to see him like that. Or- shit, maybe she was. She’d have beat his ass for getting involved with paranormal shit.

By Saturday night, Val had basically deemed the living room his temporary bedroom. He felt so uncomfortably full and stretched that the most his body could force him to do was cry. He wasn’t hormonal, god forbid. Everything just hurt, he was miserable, and he was terrified. Every time he forgot that he was scared, he re-remembered that he was scared and got worked up all over again. A circle of emotions.

Leo had been Val’s savior throughout early Sunday just by helping him sit up and massaging the aches and cramps from his entire back, shoulders, and neck. The only time that Val felt at ease on the (hopefully) final day was when Leo cared for him. After all was said and done, Val, and Leo for the record, knew that he would definitely push Leo’s buttons with the new found knowledge of his interest, but for now, Val just appreciated the relief. Leo could be really kind and helpful when he wanted to be.

“Two hours until we get to cram you back into the car,” Leo said, humorously measuring the width of Val’s stomach with his hands. “I think I’m all out of food to pair you with- if we let you go any longer I’d just have to liken you to octo-mom.”

“Ohh, god… anything but that…” Val whined, his voice hoarse now from nothing but the sheer pressure against his lungs. “That’s almost not even funny. Does Father Knightly take early walk-ins?”

Rico hummed beside them, folding his arms over his chest.

“I mean, he does, but it won’t do you any good until it’s dark. Father Knightly can take you in at any time; it’s the ghosts that have a schedule.”

“Fuck their schedule. It's night time in… Germany. I need this thing to run on central european time.”

“He also wants to make sure it's late so that we have privacy. He says you’re going to want it,” Rico said, and Val pursed his lips.

“That’s reassuring,” he muttered.

It really wasn’t, actually. He knew it was going to be a shit show. The longer they waited and the more uncomfortable Val got, the more he knew it was going to royally suck. Not to mention, he thought he’d been entirely ready for Rico to announce that it was time to leave, but the second he did, the real panic set in.

“What if it fails?” He could barely choke out the words. “What if he can’t get it out, and I explode and die? Wha-“

“Valerie. It’s going to be okay,” Rico snapped, only doing so to halt Val’s outward thoughts before they could go on.

“How can you be sure?”

“Because I just am. I know it’s going to work, and you’re going to be fine afterwards. Okay?”

Val pursed his lips as he stood beside the car, his elbow propped in Leo’s hands as Leo attempted to urge him into the car. He finally crawled in, with a good amount of struggle, and squeezed his eyes shut to try to level his breathing.

It was the first time in the last week that time seemed to pass in the blink of an eye. Val felt like he’d just closed his eyes when he opened them and found they had already parked sideways against the front of the Basilica.

This was good. Wasn’t it? Everything was going to be taken care of. It was just the fear of impending pain and, above all else, being the focus of an actual exorcism. In all their years getting involved in ghost shit, none of them had to have an exorcism performed on them. Thank god. But now Val was the odd one out.

Another blink, and Leo was hovering in the open doorway of the car, holding his hand out patiently to help Val out of the car at his ready. How long had he been standing there? Val heaved a sigh that was a bit more like a whimper, then grabbed Leo’s hand.

Before he could register it, Leo pulled Val in from the side to hug him, Rico joining on the other side. Val looked between them in confusion, but ultimately wrapped his arms around them both gratefully.

“I know it’s freaking you out, Val. But it’s going to go smoothly. I trust Father Knightly will get the job done right. Right, Rico?” Leo said, and Rico laughed.

“Of course. I’ve known Father Knightly for a long time, he knows what he’s doing.”

“Wait, you know him?” Val mumbled, using the two of them as leverage to push himself to stand straight. “Personally?”

“Used to work with my dad here at the Basilica. He babysat me a lot when I was little,” Rico said. Val rolled his eyes.

“You know everyone. I should have guessed Rico’s old babysitter would be the one to rip a poltergeist out of me,” Val joked, but his words were tired and half hearted. It was all of his leftover energy to start off towards the building when the main door slowly swept open by the hand of Father Knightly.

“Hello, you three,” he greeted kindly, waiting for them to enter the church before he closed and locked the doors up behind them. Val practically gulped out loud. Despite the Basilica’s ornate decorations- beautiful stained glass windows, the striking blue and gold mural at the end of the impressive nave, flowers everywhere- he felt like he was being locked in a dungeon.

“I wish we were meeting on more positive terms,” the Father murmured, gesturing sympathetically towards Val. “You look to be in quite a deal of pain. Val, I presume?”

“Yes- Sir,” Val said, simply to both. Father Knightly nodded, leading them down the aisle of pews and directly to the front of the stage. A vintage looking cushion had been placed on the end of one of the front row pews, and Val was guided to sit down on it.

“I would have brought you upstairs to one of the vestries, but I assumed a full flight of stairs would be quite uncomfortable at this time,” Father Knightly said, and Val nodded his gratitude.

“What if I… uh… hypothetically, what if I happen to yell…?” Val asked awkwardly, still unsure of what would happen or how.

“Not to worry. This nave has high ceilings, so it may sound loud in here, but I assure you that the walls are sturdy and thick. No sound will penetrate to the outside. Plus, we are the only four people in the building, so you have relative privacy.”

Val sighed through his nose, his hand resting over his mouth as he leaned on the armrest of the pew. “Great…” he mumbled.

“So, have you ever had to deal with a possession like this before, Father Knightly?” Leo asked, sitting down next to Val.

“Er, well, no,” Father Knightly said sheepishly. He waved his hand. “But I’m no stranger to possessions. I can promise you I’m no novice. I will do anything in my power to help.”

Val suppressed a groan, suddenly feeling even more incredibly embarrassed. What an awkward looking possession. He almost would have preferred it had taken over his brain. Then at least Father Knightly would have had the practice.

“Well, I think we shouldn’t waste any more time, yeah?” The man proposed. He directed Leo and Rico to sit with Val and excused himself briefly to retrieve some things. Val sighed, relaxing for the moment they had privacy.

“This shit better work,” he groaned, rubbing his hands over his stomach. Something deep down made him wonder if he was going to miss the feeling. He had found some type of appreciation for it- or perhaps he’d found an appreciation for how Leo liked it. If it wasn’t some fucked up posession, he could probably find himself being into it, like for real. And hell, maybe he was. He had already considered the idea of torturing Leo after a big meal, or on the days he was just bloated. Maybe it was more for Val after all.

After running his hand over his belly button, he wondered if it would go back to normal after everything was done. It didn’t seem to go back to normal the first time the face had stretched it to oblivion, but Val could hope. It’s not like the change ruined his life, but the possibility of having to explain why he suddenly had an outie to anyone else who might see it was not an exciting sounding task.

He jumped briefly when Leo’s hand timidly wormed its way up onto his stomach too, and Val grabbed it and pulled it up further.

“Last chance, man,” he said, and Leo didn’t make any sound next to him. He just carefully felt the expanse one last time, moving slow in a way that Val couldn’t tell if he was trying to be careful or if he was savoring it. Leo whipped his hand back onto his own lap when Father Knightly returned, carrying a bowl of water, a few rosaries, a crucifix, and a Bible.

“Holy water,” he said, setting the bowl down onto the edge of the stage behind him. He passed the rosaries out between them.

“Religious or not, it doesn’t hurt to load you three up with things to keep you safer then you would be without them,” he explained. The second Val took the rosary in his hand, his stomach gripped. Just a slight grip, but it held on and didn’t let go.

Father Knightly turned back to the bowl of water, warning them briefly before sprinkling some of the water over their heads. It was cold and the grip tightened, causing Val to seethe briefly through his teeth.

“Rico warned me of your worry that this poltergeist was a child,” Father Knightly said gently. “I am not opposed to believing you three are somewhat correct; the holy water would have caused a much worse reaction than a slight contraction if it were just a demon.”

Val bit down hard on his lip, letting his head fall back as he tried to fight himself from crying.

“Just… be careful, then,” he mumbled, his throat tight. Father Knightly placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

“I will be, I promise. If the simplest of prayers and compellings of Christ don’t do much, then we’ll take it a bit further. Alright?”

“…alright.”

Val tried to force himself to calm down. Un-tense his muscles, take a deep breath out. Father Knightly was a tall man, and even upon kneeling down on one knee diagonally in front of him, they were still face to face. Perhaps Val was just shorter than he thought.

The Father started a prayer, something Val couldn’t find himself focusing enough on to make out the words, only hearing him gently finish it with a “the power of Christ compels you to leave this body.” The second those words left the man’s mouth, Val felt a scorching white hot pain shoot straight through him. He doubled over, feeling Leo and Rico’s hands holding tightly to his arms.

“That seems to be doing the trick,” Father Knightly said. “It’ll take some work, but it will come out.”

Val wanted to reply, wanted to curse, but his throat was closed up as he clenched his body at the ripping pain in his stomach. He felt like a grape that someone was attempting to pop; the sides of his stomach contracting inwards like he was being squeezed.

Father Knightly repeated the prayer, and Val suddenly felt a stronger pressure in both his hips and his chest. The contraction in his stomach hadn’t released since it started, and he lurched forward with a gag, slapping both hands over his mouth. The last thing he wanted to do was spill his guts all over the beautiful floor of the beautiful Basilica. Though, to his surprise, Father Knightly carefully pulled Val’s hands away from his face.

“If you feel the need to be sick, don’t hold it back. That could be how the poltergeist leaves you,” he said, and Val groaned, letting his hands drop to prop himself upright against his knees. “The floor can be cleaned if necessary. Don’t worry.”

Val opened his mouth to respond, but was distracted by the twisting and turning feeling of something tumbling around inside of him. If he honestly didn’t know any better, he would have assumed there was a real baby in there, littering his stomach with kicks and punches. It wasn’t violent at first, until he was hit with a searing strike of electricity, sending pain up his spine and down to his knees. Just as he hoped he wouldn’t do, he yelled at the pain, then found himself sobbing at it. Honestly, he hadn’t realized that he’d pushed himself off of the pew and onto the floor until Leo and Rico joined him.

Father Knightly murmured his compelling amen once again, and Val grimaced as he felt his stomach (the organ) shift upwards. Again, like he wanted to puke. But he didn’t gag. Well. Not yet, not at that moment he didn’t. But a moment later, the same unidentifiable face that had been visible through his stretched skin back at Miss Albreight’s house pushed painfully up against the top of his stomach, eliciting an exhausted moan from him as it shifted. It moved slowly, but with a strong pressure, up towards his chest before getting lodged near his lungs and disappearing.

That visual was what made Val lean forward and puke. He couldn’t fight the habit of reaching a hand up to try to control the mess- but like the past few days, said mess was invisible. He felt it in his hand, just for a split second, before it seemed to evaporate.

“That’s ectoplasm,” Father Knightly said knowingly, drawing all their attention towards him. “That’s part of the ghost coming out of you.”

“Really?” Rico asked, genuinely interested. “This has happened multiple times.”

“If it’s happened even before the exorcism, then that probably means that Val’s spirit was doing its hardest work to purge the ghost from his body. This is a good thing, I promise.”

Val wanted to thank god- sorry, God, for some fucking good news for once, but the lump that the face had built up near his chest had been working it's way upwards, now feeling lodged in his throat. He could only breathe if he concentrated on breathing through his nose, but his body still convulsed and he bore his palms against the floor as his body tried to push more out of his mouth.

He was suffocating. Definitely suffocating. Shadows swam behind his eyes as he choked, and whatever the hell Father Knightly did to help went completely unobserved by Val as he tried to keep himself conscious. But the second the Father had done… whatever it was he was doing, Val felt his throat relax just enough for him to suck in a life saving gasp of air, and then puke so violently he thought he’d die anyways.

It felt like his stomach had turned itself inside out and was currently being vacuumed up through his throat. Like whatever he was throwing up was too big to throw up. But he still threw it up. It had been all of thirty seconds before it finished, and the stars in Val’s vision took over long enough that his arms went numb and his friends had to hold him upright.

The second the convulsing stopped, a loud warbled screech echoed for a split second around the nave, almost like an alarm, and a blinding light filled the room. So bright, in fact, that even through his closed eyes, Val still saw the white flash.

Val’s eyes were closed so tightly that when he had relaxed enough to pull his glasses off, his face almost felt stuck in a scrunched up position. He rubbed the tension away, then reached down to palm at his sore stomach, only to find that the swelling had gone down significantly.

It wasn’t as tightly expanded like it had been; the pressure had been released from his ribs, and there was a slight give to the surface when he pressed against it. In all honesty, he could have leapt to his feet and jumped for joy if he wasn’t more tired than he had ever been in his entire life. He could barely even manage to lift his head to look up at Father Knightly, and thanking him came out no louder than an exhausted whisper.

“If you three have the ability… I suggest you sleep with him tonight,” Father Knightly said, and Rico and Leo looked up at him.

“Of course. Why?” Leo said, sounding genuinely interested, though his voice sounded smaller and more weary than usual.

“He’s going to sleep well, but he’ll probably dream badly. What had possessed him was a mixture of a young ghost and a demon. He’ll dream about the ghost; nightmares most likely. It would just be much easier on him if you two are there with him so he doesn't go through it alone.”

Val felt dread in his chest at his words, but he couldn’t find the energy to react to it. Rico and Leo both helped him to his feet, and Rico lifted Val entirely up into his arms, bridal style, as opposed to helping him walk out. Because it wasn't going to happen. Val just leaned his head against Rico’s shoulder gratefully.

Once back at home, Val was still exhausted, but he managed to ease his way out of the car and into the living room.

“Let’s stay in my room tonight,” Leo offered. “My bed’s a King. We can all fit on it. Plus, it's more comfortable then either of your beds.”

Val nodded his agreement, moving slowly into the kitchen to retrieve a bottle of water from the fridge. He finished the entire thing before going up- the first time he’d been truly hydrated without feeling overly-full in the past week, and unintentionally let Rico help him once again up the first flight of stairs.

Once they all had gotten themselves comfortable into pajamas (except for Val- he was already in sweats and an oversized shirt and was way too tired to change) they all settled onto Leo’s bed. Just like Father Knightly warned, Val’s dreams were absolutely plagued.

He dreamt the experience over again. He dreamt about his mother’s death. He dreamt being split down the center, all his guts spilling out in front of him while he bled out. And worst of all, he dreamt about Hadley. Or who he assumed was supposed to be Hadley. Her death. Her parents’ reactions to her dying. He shared their pain, but was aware that he could never truly share the pain of losing a child. Only a parent.

In multiple of his dreams, her body lay motionless and dead in front of him, filling him with an overwhelming guilt. Her parents’ eyes had bore through him so hard at some point that he could have been convinced that he had been the reason she died.

Between each dream, he woke with a start, tears streaming down his face and his body either extremely cold or extremely hot. Every time his eyes shot open in the dark, Leo or Rico was immediately awake by his side, drawing him back to the present. It wasn’t until he fell back asleep around 6 am that he stayed soundly asleep until nearly 11, finally dreamless.

To his surprise, when he woke up, despite how late it was, Leo and Rico were still in the room with him. Rico was sitting upright against the headboard of the bed, looking over paperwork regarding his students while Leo was still laying down, snoring gently with one arm slung lazily over Val.

Val felt better. So much better. The pain was dulled, and when Val twisted- careful as not to disturb Leo next to him- to lay flat on his back to inspect his stomach, it was nearly halfway back to his normal size. He leaned his head back into the pillow, sighing in relief as he closed his eyes again. When he fell back asleep, he finally felt the relief of a pleasant dream.