9951/The House on Crested Hill: Its Haunted

The House on Crested Hill: Its Haunted
Date of Scene:	07 November 2019
Location:	Crest Hill, Bristol Township
Synopsis:	Its a haunted house of mystery and mayhem... and a Sorcerer and a Vampire are there to solve it all!
Cast of Characters:	Selene (Underworld), Constantine

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Selene (Underworld) has posed:
They'd arranged this outing just before Halloween after they'd parted ways at the club. Now, tonight was the night. Selene had arrived at John's place via her motorcycle, she'd sat outside on it with the engine on and the lights shining brightly in the darkness until he'd emerged and joined her on the bike. "Hold on." She'd warned him there-after before she throttled the motorcycle and took off into the weaving streets of Gotham City.

Selene obeyed the traffic laws, to some degree. She was a bit of a speedsters, and used her enhanced senses to make weaving between other vehicles somewhat dangerous but also skillfully thrilling.

Off of the main islands, they took a bridge, and ended up in Crest Hill where there are many well-to-do mansions and homes of wealthy elites in the Gotham area. Where she drove her bike though took them away from most of those and into the darker shady areas of the region, down a winding road that eventually ended in a cul-de-sac. A small iron gate leads up a pathway flanked by trees and in the distance beyond that creepy stretch of path, the stairs leading up to an old victorian style home can be seen.

Its your classic haunted looking home.

Selene kills the bike and then looks back to John, then to the house. "It yet remains..." She says with a gentle exhale.

Constantine has posed:
Constantine abide. What's he going to do, not hold on? Throw caution to the wind and see how it plays out? No, he's terminally addicted to living... So he held on and he held on tight. Arms around Selene's waist as she weaves in and out of traffic, "Holy fuck..." When the engine dies at the iron gates, he looks slightly unnerved but it has absolutely nothing to do with the haunted mansion.

Hand held up to catch his breath and stall any further progression until he's done as much. He'd brought along some things, an old canvas bag full of implimentations of war against dark forces, but that's the furthest thing from his mind. "Christ on a cracker, love.. I know you're immortal and all that bollocks, but could you do the rest of us a favor and slow the bloody hell down?"

It's as good natured as he can muster, looking up at the cliche spooky residence with a critical eye.. "This must be the spot because I doubt anyone is house hunting for old victorian fixer uppers in this part of town, innit?"

Selene (Underworld) has posed:
Selene just gives a sinister smile to the man's plea for her to slow down. "You can be as slow as you want once you're in the grave." She mockingly teases back at him in her sultry and ever-smoldering voice. She dismounts the bike a moment later and looks to the home. The gate is open but its gently blowing in the window and clanking it's latch against it's frame.

"I believe it holds historic value and is thusly owned by a local society that preserves these sorts of things." She states to him then. "Related to the American Civil War..."

Selene's eyes now go to the man beside her, she gives him a look over and then starts toward the gate. "Your hair is all wind swept, its amusing me." She taunts him before she goes though. Once she reaches the gate she pulls it open and strides on into the shadow darkened pathway.

The house looms fifty or so yards ahead.

Constantine has posed:
John grumbles quietly at Selene, rolling his blue eyes at her for the smoldering down dressing of his collective interest in remaining living through his fourties! "Bloody hell right I will, also while I'm above it and when I'm soft shoe dancing atop the graves of the same people who said I wouldn't ever amount to anything."

A cigarette is fished from his inner pocket and a lighter scared up from another, gazing up at the rot iron gates looming ahead of them while lighting the end. A soft click signals the closing of the zippo that probably isn't too many years the junior to this very same mansion. "Yeah, it's part of my charm, though." Tossling his hair in a vain attempt to make heads or tails of it, but it is without rebuke!

So he dumps the attempt in favor of clutching his cigarette. "I suppose, if you're done with your one woman comedy act anyways..." Smoldering stare, half hearted grin on his stubbled jaw, "... We should see what we're dealing with inside, eh? History being what it is, these tossers probably got deep roots.."

Selene (Underworld) has posed:
Selene just gives the British man a snicker and a light shake of her head while her hands go into the pockets of her flowing black leather trench coat. "Yes, well..." She starts as they walk up the pathway toward the home that has absolutely no lights on within its many many windows. "While you're dancing on graves, I hope to retired and peacefully enjoying a glass of red wine in a private study somewhere, far from all of this." She states.

The Vampire reaches the stair case that lead up to the front doors of the home and she pauses, she puts one booted foot up onto the first step and then looks to John. "I'll admit here again that I've no experience in ghost hunting, or ghost elimination, however you wish to parse it. I've dealt with many strange things in this world, but all of those things I could kill with some form of a bulelt, or a knife... or a spike."

Her eyes go back to the home then and she exhales softly. "I'm not even sure where to begin with something like I saw inside of this place." He might wonder if the big bad black clad vampire is scared, but... that seems a bit out of character for her, could be fun to tease her for it though.

Selene starts up the stairs now and crests their apex, then proceeds toward the front door.

... and on-cue the damn thing opens itself, just casually and near silently swings open into the darkness inside. Selene pauses, and looks back to John.

Constantine has posed:
John bellows out a long stream of smoke with a rough snort at Selene's commentary about retirement, "Wouldn't that be the cats meow... a spot of bourbon in the morning, settle in around four for boiled goose, and brandy for dinner... retirement should be about enjoying yourself, but I'll end up in a old codger home chasing nurses to get a glimps up their skirts.." NO shame.

He is completely shameless.

Standing at the base of the steps, he kneels down with the bag and flips open the lid to dig around inside. There's a crusifice on rosery beads which looks like it might be made out of pure silver, there's vials which could be holy water if anyone actually believes that garbage, and there's a flask.

The first is coiled around his fist so the cross rests between his middle and ring fingers like brass-knuckles, the second is shoved in his pocket, and the last is drank. Several long gulps of whatever's inside.

"First thing, don't believe anything you hear or see once we get through these doors, yeah? They'll play tricks with you, if you let them.. show you things aren't really there and pretend to be people long dead. Especially once we get proper started and piss them off."

The doort then opens on its own.

"And there it is."

Oh yeah, ribbing, "Unless you need to change your knickers before we get going?" A smirk, but he's not looking towards her, he's looking up at the open door.

Selene (Underworld) has posed:
With the changing of the nickers question, Selene exhales lightly at the shameless man and then looks forward toward the open doorway. "I'm not wearing any." Selene quietly says with her own self confidence making those words as casual and calm as if she'd talked about the temperature outside.

The Vampire in black moves on inside, taking the lead because she's rather used to doing that over the six centuries she's been fighting monsters and other creatures of the night. Once inside they're in a foyer of a grand house, a lot of dark wood and old classically styled furniture.

"Its been repaired, since I was here." Selene says to him then as he joins her inside. Her eyes raise up and she looks to the second floor up the winding grand staircase. "There." She states, nodding up there. "I came in up there first... snuck about some before I heard my targets down here in the main entryway, they were scared and arguing with one another. We fought here..."

Selene motions to the table in the center of the foyer. "I stabbed one of them in the throat right there, he bled out while I fought his companion. We rolled beneath the table..." She starts to walk around said table. "I put my thumb into his eye socket here while he tried to bash me against the underside of the table..."

"They both died in here." Selene's hand reaches out to stroke the petals of a flower arrangement on the table. "It was moments there-after that the spirits showed up. Though I'd thought I'd seen one upstairs when I'd first come inside... watching me..."

The house seems calm right now, though that feeling of being 'watched' is thick in the atmosphere.

Constantine has posed:
"That's good information." John is every bit as calm about responding to Selene's calm delivery of not wearing any knickers, "You struck me as the type, but when we're all settled here, you feel free to prove it." He is unbashful as he is shameless, following the vampire up into the house without a care in the world.

This is sort of his deal, right? Dealing with the strange and unusual.

He turns slowly on oxford clad feet to take in the foyer, a full three sixty twist, and coils/uncoils the roseries around his fingers with a little jerk of his wrist. They are definitely made of some form of metal and probably would make a good fist pack in a fight, but he's still listening despite the sound of constantly rattling beads clicking together in his fist.

"There, yeah.." Where she stabbed one.

"Oh, nice.." Thumb in the eye sockets, head bobbing ernestly.

"Bled out did they? That's convenient." All very nonchallant.

"You absolutely certain you weren't the horror in the house, love?" Scratching at his stubble, jaw turned up and out just slightly. "I'm not saying I don't believe you, but you know what they say about high stress situations causing release of increased amounts of endorphines that exacerbate the minds inclinations to wander.. and wonder.. and make shit up... that... isn't.. there, did you see that?"

He points up near the banister and steps a little closer to Selene, leaning in towards her slowly, "Just taking the piss.. Let's check up stairs, eh?"

Selene (Underworld) has posed:
"I don't believe my mind deals with endorphins, if I'm being entirely honest with you." Selene says in a bit of a deadpan voice before she glances back over to him and places her hands back within the pockets of her coat. She does afford him a small smirk though at his responses to her, the knickers thing she'd let slide... call it something she knows most people around her have wanted her to prove for a long time in her life.

She does 'fall for' his little ruse in suggesting he'd seen something upstairs, in that she looks up there with a snapped-to stare that finds nothing and its followed with a smirk back to the man. "I got the sense when I was here originally that the little girl stayed up there while the... other entity occupied the basement primarily."

She steps to the staircase and places her left hand onto its smooth wooden banister. "But, I imagine the foul one choses where to go, whenever it truly wishes." This is said then as she walks up the stairs with near-silent steps and her black long coat just gently trailing behind her. She looks back to him then. "How many cases like this have you dealt with?" She asks him then, quite curious now about this field of work.

Constantine has posed:
"I wondered about that." John flicks ashes off the end of his cigarette and then deposites it back into his lips where it bobs a little when he speaks, "About endorphins and all that I mean." His interest seems diversionary, keeping her mind occupied on tangible things. His attention is divided anyways, whatever he might say... he's paying a great deal of attention to their surroundings.

Which hints that he believes her more than his jokes might indicate.

"Maybe, probably responded to your violent display down here and decided to have a little fun of its very own." The rosary clicks around his fingers again, tossed out of his palm to wrap around hid digits and settle back in it. Then repeat it in the other direction. A habitual tactic, keep his own mind focused with repetative motion.

"A couple." He undersales. "I deal mostly in demons.. a lot more overt entities than polterguists, but I've done my fare share of busting ghosts too.." Another long drag and the cigarette is tossed down on the step above to crush beneath the toe of his shoe as they continue to climb to the first landing where it branches out in either direction.

"Most things can be negociated.. once you've the right leverage, everything is negociable."

Selene (Underworld) has posed:
Selene's eyes catch the sparks of his discarded cigarette splash down against the carpeted step where he snuffs it out with a boot tip, it'll definitely leave a burnt mark on the step though which amuses her for a moment about just how much the Sorcerer doesn't seem to give a damn about this place, yet is here to clean it of evil spirits... its an interesting dance of helpful and harmful.

Her attention is on his spoken word though and she's about to speak back to him when she reaches the landing of the second floor and stops, stiffly stops, to a degree he'll likely catch.

She looks to her right and left, either sides of the hallway. "Blood." Selene then says. "I smell blood. A lot of it." She tips her chin to the right down a hallway that eventually splits into two others. "Down there, there's a breeze blowing the scent in this direction. A drafty house, perhaps... but its there."

She gives a look back to him now, but then starts down that hallway. As they enter it, the light fixtures along either side give the faintest glimmer glow of light within their buls before they remain dark again.

Constantine has posed:
Truth is, he couldn't possibly care a single shit less about this place. John would actively have to start caring a little bit, just to care a little bit less if his goal were to out and out give a fuck. There aren't any, his fields of fucks are barren.

Selene, however, cares.

At least a little.

So here he is. Standing with one hand in his pocket near the vial of holy water and flask, while the other twists metal rosary beads around his fingers. When she mentions the smell of blood, he looks in the indicated direction with a little frown. There's no statement of I don't smell anything because he's accepting at face value that she's probably got keener sense of smell than he... more so where it comes to the crimson substance on which she feeds to sustain herself.

"How fresh?" He wonders genuinely, dropping large parts of his cavalier joking in favor of following pointedly down the Hallway beside the vampire. "Could be the house is fed and doesn't have much use for us.." It could also be a trick it's playing on Selene, but he's not eyt ready to walk that particular plank.

Selene (Underworld) has posed:
In Selene's left hand a silver spike appears, the same kind that she'd shown John at the club, the kind that have a 'meal' of blood inside of them for the Vampire, the synthetic kind. Now though, she's wielding it like a weapon, holding it prepared to strike anything she might need to as she advances down the hallway.

"It smells cold." She quietly comments then back to him as she glances back toward him. She moves with an almost ethereal level of silence to her steps, or like an elf from a Tolkien novel if you want to get nerdy. She creeps past two sets of closed doorways before she reaches the one at the end of the hallway where the hall splits in either direction. This one, is cracked just a little and she tips it open a little further...

Inside, its visibly a bathroom, there's a big porcelain sink beneath a tall round mirror lined with gold frame. When Selene parts the door a little wider, John will finally smell it too, and feel the cold wind from outside breezing into the hallway.

Finally, Selene just pushes the door the rest of the way open and within it is... is just a bathroom, with a tub that has its curtain pulled shut of course. With a light exhale, Selene steps to the tub and pulls it back to expose whats within it.

There's nothing there. Its empty. Clean even. The blood smell vanishes the moment Selene pulled the curtain back in fact.

This, just visibly frustrates Selene. She exhales and looks back to John. "This is bullshit." The Vampire announces in her sultry, but now irritated, voice.

About 3.5 seconds later though, a girl's scream echoes through the house from the other end of the hallway where they originally were and a black shadow can be seen down in that direction making a run for the staircase where John had dropped his cigarette!

Constantine has posed:
John doesn't get tense in situations like this. It might be arguable that he's incapable of getting tense, but that's just not the case, she's seen it first hand... it's the mundane stuff that gets beneath his skin, gets his hackles up, but the supernatural? Spffffh...

He cannot mimic her silent footfalls, however, and his probably sound like base drums as he clomps down the hallway beside her with the rosary in hand now like a set of packed fist silver knuckles with a crass fixture. That'd put a lick on anything that jumped out at him just that moment... provided he wasn't too drunk to throw a descent punch, anyways.

At the doorway, his blonde brow juts upwards, prepared to step in beside her, and seems wholly unsurprised when it's empty. "Told ya love... these things play tr-" The shriek down the hallway snaps his attention back around just in time to see the shadowy figure dart towards the stairs upon which they'd rose to this level of the mansion.

"Hm..." The British Sorcerer starts purposefully back down the hall, murmuring out loud in Latin as he progresses, it doesn't seem to have any immediate effect, except that he's glowing slightly with some otherwise unseen light radiating around him like an aura on the physical plain. "Alright ya wankers, you're giving my friend a start.. she might look cold and unmoved, but I assure you, she's a tick away from deaths doorstep and you might very well be the nudge that pushes her over the edge.. and I've still not seen whether she's wearing knickers or not..."

Pissing people and things off is a tried and true method straight out of the John Constantine book of exorcism. "Show yourself to me in your truest form or I'm coming down stairs to find you... You definitely don't want me to do that, mate.. Old house like this? Catch a spark easy, electrical fire they'll say... woosh.. then what do you have, eh?"

Selene (Underworld) has posed:
Selene is mostly quietly as John taunts the spirit. She keeps the silver spike in her left hand, occasionally spinning it around in her palm and between her fingers, but otherwise her eyes are just sweeping this way and that inside of the old home. "Truly this place means next to nothing to me, other than I wouldn't mind using it as a safe house... if it truly could be safe." She speaks this words quietly while making her way down the hallway again toward where the girl's scream came from.

As they both reach the second floor landing again, what they'll see down below is... all three of the Lycans that Selene had talked about slaying in the foyer. They're... back? all three of them in Lycan form no less, nearly seven feet high, powerful wolf-shaped bodies. They're stalking around the room...

Selene's eyes go from the Lycans, to John. "Tricks, you say?" She asks him then, just as one of the Lycans - the one closest to the stair case - spies them up above. It roars, drawing its brethren's attention.

All three of the burly beasts are now rushing to climb the stairs, one of them making it halfway up before it rumbles out a blood curdling roar that rattles the entire dark house around them.

Selene whips out her left hand to throw the spike she holds, right for the back of the throat of one of the bellowing creatures!

Constantine has posed:
"It'd be a great safehouse, innit?" John says to Selene, glancing off from his swearing at some unseen spirit, to the vampire with him. There's a teasing grin on his stubbled face, about to resume taunting the house when his attention is drawn to the trio of dead, but very alive looking, Lycan Selene had mentioned earlier.

Her comment about them playing tricks wins her a helpless shrug, "They 'could be' illusions.." It's a stage whisper, hoping not to draw the creatures attention, but they'd already been spotted... "Notet o self, take lessosns in bloody skullduggery.."

There's still the matter of the rushing monsters to contend with, however. Quips are one thing, but letting them get you killed? That kind of stuff winds up on tombstones: Here lies John Constantine: He made joke, lycan ate his throat.

Even as Selene is hurling the silver spike, the Mage is speaking in some tongue.. a mixture of English and Latin that does not roll off the tongue very well at all. A ball of fire appears in his palm, held up right with the fingers bent towards the flickering flame. Like a picture, John hurls his hand over shoulder to release the fireball... but rather than a single sphere of burning, it's a jet of it spraying out from his palm lik ea fiery watergun.

"We'll try to preferve the sanctity of the place for your safe housing needs."

Selene (Underworld) has posed:
Selene's thrown spike goes right down the throat of the Lycan that is leaping toward her and it impacts in the back of it, the massive wolf drops to the carpeted floor of the second floor landing and rolls in a wild fit of flailing muscular arms and legs while it writhes in pain at having just been stabbed inside of its own mouth... with silver. A rookie mistake for a Lycan fresh to the game against a Death Dealer of Selene's experience.

The sudden spout of flame from John causes Selene's stare to shoot over to him, only now her brown eyes are gone and replaced by silvery blue pupils that mirror the color of a cold winter Moon.

One beast lay upon the ground, thrashing in agony at the silver in its throat while the two rushing John are suddenly lit in flame and begin to charge at him, covered in flickering bright hot fire!

As they reach John and Selene both, they phase right through them, along with the other upon the floor, leaving the duo of 'Ghost Busters' alone together again. The tension is still thick in the air and Selene has one of her handguns out now, her now silver-blue eyed stare upon John.

She doesn't say anything, she just starts to go down the stairs again toward the foyer. But as she's about to pass over where John had left his cigarette butt, there's another burst of fire, shooting up from said cigarette... within the flame is the form of a little girl, peering out of it up at both of them. Her early teenage years.

"This is his house." The girl's ethereal voice proclaims. "He won't let either of you stay here. You're a threat to him." She glares at them through the fire that engulfs her.

Constantine has posed:
"That's some good aim, you've got there..." When the spike strikes true at the back of the Lycans throat. He doesn't turn away from the pair of beasts bounding towards him, though.. not while firing a gout of flame from his upturned palm, and not again until the creatures run right through himself and Selene standing at the first landing at the top of the bottom set of stairs.

A clinched fist cuts off the flame, held out, but closed as his own blue gaze looks around the now empty area with a knowing, almost smug, smirk. "See? Tricks.. Is that the best you've got for us you wanker?!" Shouting as the pair of them begin the descent towards the first floor, pausing yet again when the girl materializes out of his cigarette burn on the carpet step.

"Is that a fact? What's his name, dove?" He's .. surprisingly gentle about it, even though she's glaring at them, a soft spot for dead children? Who knows. Maybe he's just trying to use a little honey after covering the ground in fiery salt.

"I'd love to get him out of the house, maybe free it up for you.. if that's a thing you're interested in."

Selene (Underworld) has posed:
Selene looks from the girl in flame, to John who she certainly plans to let him take the lead on speaking to this girl. Selene comes from a world far removed from this one and though she's seen strange things, likely even shadowy spirits here and there, she's never seen them capable of these kinds of 'tricks'. She very much feels like an outsider on this kind of job, but that being said the job itself is still enthralling in its mystery and how its unveiling to her a whole different corner of their reality...

"He'll kill you before you can." The girl says, her voice wavering in pitch and tone through the barrier of life and death. "He only lets his family come inside, they the ones who run this place. They bring people here, crying people, and hide them in the attic before they take them again." Thats cryptic.

Another glance is spared between the girl and John. "Where is 'he'?" Selene then does speak up.

The girl's eyes glare at the Vampire. "I don't speak to monsters like you." She says to Selene then, a vehement hatred thick in her voice. Apparently this girl prefers John over Selene, how about that?

Constantine has posed:
That's a hell of a comparison... John being the preferred over Selene and there's a moment of smug indignation that naturally surfaces, puffing out his chest a little even, but it fades quickly in favor of staring at the small fire girl. "He'd be the first person to ever try and kill me... probably the most powerful too.." These things he is saying are not true.

Many people and things have tried to kill John. Most of these people and things were very much dangerous and from very dangerous dominions. He is clearly not afeared... clutching the metal rosary once again clinking around his hand in a little wrist spin.

"Alright, dove, let's not be rude yeah? She's trying to help you." It was the monster that brought him here, after all. "In the attic you say? Are there any crying ones up there now?" Glancing up with narrowed eyes. That would explain why the house seems to have been repaired, living mortals keeping it prestine for their dark family spirit.

"Are you one of his family?" Eyes back on the little girl.

Selene (Underworld) has posed:
Selene, holding handgun in her right hand and a new silver spike in her left just looks between the Firegirl and John. When John shows his amusement at first, Selene huffs out a faint little exhale of amusement before she looks back to the girl as he asks questions of her, then defends Selene's value in all of this.

The girl just glares more angrily between the two of them, but resolves to it. "He's in the basement. It is where his office is..." She glances behind her toward the foyer. "This is not my home... I lived on the next property over. I came here to deliver a basket of food my mother prepared for the owners of this house... they never allowed me to leave it again."

Her spirit starts to fade then. "He's coming!" She says to both John and Selene in a loud whisper, unable to answer John's other question as to whether there are others in the attic or not. "Go or be forever sealed in this place!"

The fire extinguishes and the girl vanishes. But there's not much time to ponder on it as there are noises coming from the first floor now, from the dining room on the eastern side of the house.

Selene starts down the steps toward them. "I'm sick of this." She mutters along the way.

The noises on the first floor are clearly coming from the kitchen, the sounds of glasses breaking, likely dishware.

Constantine has posed:
"I cannot abide a child killer." John says once the spirit of the little girl has disappeared. His voice is a mix of flat anamosity and surprising amounts of sadness as he too descends the steps with a purposeful stride that likely betrays his usual cavalier, come what may, demeanor. "Regardless of what happens, this fucking wank is done.." Said to Selene, fishing flask from inside his coat to take a long swig, then another, and replace it.

"Either we banish him or I burn the place until the ashes smolder, but either way, he's done.." Cold, hands in his pocket, slow but steady jaunt taking him towards the sounds of breaking glassware. "Bloomin nephondus spirits always trapping waywards in their maze... bunch of spiders.. Should have done a record search on the house." Chastising himself for not being better prepared.

He could have known who that girl was, maybe. From news paper clippings since she sounds older than the internet by no small measure. "Alright love, game face- Oh... you've already worn one. Good on ya. Let's go kick some ghost ass."

Selene (Underworld) has posed:
Selene listens to John as they progress into the dining room, a spacious room with a long table and even a large stone fireplace on the far wall. Beyond that is another hallway that presumably leads into the kitchen because that is where the sounds are coming from of hectic and chaotic glass shattering is emanating from.

"John, wait." Selene says before they can round the corner to the kitchen. "I didn't realize how deep all of this ran." She says to him then, her eyes still that flushed pale color and now that she's speaking he can likely see her fangs visible beneath her upper lip as she speaks, they're small but easily spotted now. "She made it sound as though this is still going on, some kind of child trafficking. "We can't let this house burn down if there's any desire to further investigate whats happening here... This is out of my element, but it is in the wheelhouse of the Bat-family."

Another crash and then, silence from the kitchen, an eerie utter silence, followed by the entire house - and its foundation - groaning like an angry monster trying to crawl up out of its slumbering nest.

Selene exhales sharply and refocuses her gaze on John's eyes. "Once we've dealt with this, we should pass this information along to them. It would seem nothing about this house is 'Safe'."

She'll turn then and start toward the kitchen with him.

The Kitchen... its spotless. There's not a single piece of broken glass in its high-class decorated environment. All the cabinets are closed, the drawers are shut and there's even a faint hint of flower sweetness in the air from another arrangement of flowers on the central island counter.

Constantine has posed:
John pauses when Selene calls to him quietly and turns enough to look at her as she explains her thoughts on the house, "This is well outside their wheelhouse..." Motioning around with a flick of his wrist in one direction and an upside down point in another, "Ghosts and shit? Nothing to punch or kick or throw their expensive bloody ninja stars at?" The British mage snorts out a laugh.

"If you're insistant though, we can pass it along, but don't be surprised if they bumble it up trying to intimidate a Spirit into doing their taxes or whatever bollocks they're vengencing this week." He's gotten a little distracted by that deathly silence and is looking in that direction when they start moving again.

Pushing the door to the kitchen open with the tips of his finger only to find it is... pristine.. not a dish out of place. This finds John, rather unsurprised, honestly. He's the one who told her not to trust anything she hears here. "Alright, you're just being a brat now.." Said to the house itself, crossing to the island to lean up against the counter with his hand near the vased floral arrangement.

Purposefully, with singular intent, he reaches up and pushes it off the counter.

"Oops."

Selene (Underworld) has posed:
As John steps into the kitchen ahead of her, Selene smirks softly at him. "No." She says. "We deal with this, the dead family of child killers. The Bats deal with their living members, harming today's innocent children." She clarifies her intentions then as they both stride into the kitchen now to find it in perfect order. A heavy sigh then escapes Selene as she starts on a walk around the island.

She's in front of the refrigerator when John knocks that floral vase off of the counter causing it to shatter on the ground and send chunks of black dirt all across the pristinely clean tile floor. This makes the Vampire look to it, then up to John. "Brat versus Brat, it seems." She chides the Sorcerer before she turns her head again.

"More blood." Selene announces. "There."

Beyond John is a doorway with a coat rack beside it. "A basement door." John can step over to it and open it up, otherwise Selene will do so a moment or two later.

What is revealed when the door is inevitably open, however, is a basement with a long set of stairs going down into it and one singular white light bulb on at the foot of the staircase... only there's more.

The basement is submerged in a gently flowing and swaying pool of blood. LIkely 4 or 5 feet deep based on how high it is reaching up the visible wall at the foot of the stairs, halfway up the staircase itself in fact...

Constantine has posed:
"Ahh, yeah. I don't do deal with the living or nonpossessed." John shakes his head, "I wouldn't mind a dust up with these tossers though.." thumbing the cross hanging down across the pad of his hand where the rosary has encircled the thin fingers. "But I'll leave it to the Bat and his brooding children.."

About then she's calling him a Brat and he's smirking in response, "We've resort to insults and pet names already?" Inclingin his head, with a glance at the door she's indicated. "Blood.." Pushing off in the direction of the closed portal, "Let my eyes see true the devils visage, let my ears hear no lies." Said quietly in mantra as he casts a simple charm spell across himself and Selene so that they'll always be aware of one another, no matter what tricks the spirit might try to pull down in the basement.

When the door is open and the pool of blood down at the base of the stairs. "You don't see that every day.." Absently, turning just enough to regard the Vampire beside him, "You ready?"

Selene (Underworld) has posed:
Both of them peer down into the bloody pool below. When he asks if she's ready she looks back over to him. "I think its taunting me." She says in a moment of dry humor about a very wet and nasty situation down beneath them. "Obviously it remembers me." She says then before she acknowledges her readiness by starting down the stairway. She takes the lead on this descent though... as it seems designed specifically for her.

One step after another, until Selene's boots dip into the dark crimson ichor. She still has her gun in her hand, if it'd do any good at all, but her eyes start to look deeper into the basement as she sinks deeper into the blood. Up to her waist now, with it gently swaying and sloshing around her and her clothing. She spares a look back to John before she speaks out.

"Its warm." She grimly states.

As she settles a little further into it, submerged up to her stomach in it, the house answers their arrival by doing what one would likely expect. In that hands spike up out of the blood, all around Selene. The hands drip with the red fluid and start to get overly personal with the Vampire by trying to grasp onto her, her tight leather suit making them slip right off though before one grasps onto the front of her corset and... woosh, the Vampire is pulled right on into the blood!

Splash and gone, Selene is submerged into the massive pool of red, it now flowing wildly around in her wake!

And as creepy houses do, there comes the sound of a bellowing laugh, a man's laugh, rattling the walls and floorboards above.

"Wizaaaaaard!" The male voice then growls that singular word out, calling out John after stealing his Vampire companion into the blood.

Constantine has posed:
"Yeah, try not to let it get you too excited, eh?" John says dryly of Selene being tempted with a basement full of blood, descending the steps only a few behind teh vampire as they both make their way down into the ichorous mess that is the basement.

"Fuck this is nasty.." Hands up, blood coating his white shirt to just above his belly button and completely ruining his slacks, which to be fair were in desperate need of a dry cleaning anyways. When the hands appear, however, John reaches out reflexively for Selene, but it was a hair too late to keep her from being pulled down into the crimson vitae.

Now, at least by measure of perspective, alone.. he spins in a small circle to regard the dimly lit room with narrowed eyes.. narrowed further still when the house laughs and calls out to him, "Oh that's very fucking spooky.." He does not sound as if he believes that at all. "You'll have to get up to more than some glimmers and a couple pints (gallons) of blood to scare me, ya wanker."

The Wizards hands move in intricate aerial designs, words spilling out from his mouth that sound like filth wrapped in dark satin. The results are a shell protection design to dispel illusion, it begins at his palms and radiates outwards with a flash when he extends both arms to either side. "I've seen Ghostbusters Two.. it doesn't end well for your Vigo."

Selene (Underworld) has posed:
Hauntings of this magnitude are not that common in this world, not to this activity level, and if the Ghostbusters were here, they'd probably be in hog heaven over just how active of a haunt this truly is. But, even though most of the people in this world would be frightened into submission by this spook-laden home, John (and even Selene for the most part) are above this spirit's paygrade, so long as they keep their wits about them at least...

Selene is no where to be seen or heard from at the moment though, she'd vanished beneath the blood's surface. John's warding spells come to life with an expert level of experience in calling upon them, and they begin to work. He'll see that the blood all around him becomes non-existence as though he's moving in a shell that pushes the spirit's illumination away from the bubble he's created around himself.

A second later though and the singular functioning light bulb just behind John's shoulder explodes! A shower of yellow-gold sparks sizzle past John's ear, possibly burning an edge of it, as more rain down toward the floor below...

But if John descends, pushing his wards out to protect himself, what he'll find is darkness below, where Selene had gone. Once he's submerged in what would've been the bloody pool illusion, it all vanishes, perhaps the spirit realizes its futile at this point... It all vanishes and leaves the basement in blackness.

"John." Selene says, she can't be seen in the dark but she doesn't sound far. "I'm here." She adds, helping guide the sorcerer toward her voice.

A moment later and a dim glowing orange light creeps larger, casting its illumination around the area...

Selene is seated on a chair, she's tied to it. Above her, hovering in the air is a long wooden spike aimed for her heart. Its hovering, in thin air, save for a faint hint of a dark shadowy form grasping it in its long boney shadowy hand.

The shadow's eyes look from Selene, sweeping its smoke-like head over to glare at John. Its eyes are a solid piercing orange'ish red. "Leave, or suffer the consequences of your foolishness." The spirit hisses at the Sorcerer.

Constantine has posed:
John would never admit it out loud, but there's a strong creep factor involved in purposefully walking down into a basement full of blood... even if he knows it to be fake, that's still a lot more than the human mind is naturally equipped to handle. Only his experiences with such supernatural prevents him freaking out a little more than just scoffing off the absurdity of it, but that in and of itself is recognition that it got a nail in there for just a second.

The second after, however, he cut the whole finger off.

BUT IT GOT A NAIL IN.

When it all vanishes, as he suspected it would, there's smug self gratification. "See, always trust the British. We've a mind for the weird and unsual." He muses to himself for the sake of hearing something in the silence. When the bulb explodes, he starts and glances back, brushing fingers along his singed ear with a hiss. "Oh you cheeky..." Nodding, "Alright, that's the game we're playing is it, mate?"

Following along the path until he hears Selenes voice calling out and finds her seated, tied really, to a chair with a stake hovering above her head.

"I barely know this tart." Deadpan. He shrugs both shoulders up indifferently, "Have at it, she's a vampire, the fuck do I care?" Two fingers lift slightly away from his thigh. It's an indication to Selene. He's waiting for an opening, "Obviously if you 'do' though, there'll be a gaggle of fucking blood suckers descending on this house like a plague of locust.. Suffice to say she's not just a regular ol neck biter.." He doesn't know that, of course.

But he's banking on the spirit not knowing whether he knows that or not.

"But I'm kind of curious what'll happen, so... fuck't, mate, do it. For science." Motioning, "Here hand me the stake, I'll do it for you."

Selene (Underworld) has posed:
The basement, without the blood pool, is a strange affair. There's a desk loaded with books and papers and even a computer that looks straight out of vintage 1990s (30 years ago mind you!). Its on this desk that the lamp that is lit now rests, and beside it is Selene in the wooden chair that she's bound to, with her hands around behind her and her arms bent back in that direction. Her booted feet extend out before her and her jacket is pooled around her waist falling over the edges of the chair on either sides of her thighs.

She stares with a blank expression toward the Sorcerer as he gives her to the ghost, so to speak. "Its true." Selene says. "I don't even like this man. He smells like cigarettes and disappointment. I'd rather be stabbed in the chest with your stake than bare another minute in his company."

The evil entity hears both of the insufferable intruders into his home speak these words and it just hisses and then howls an angered reaction before it thrusts its smoky-hued free hand out toward John! A swirling vortex of smoke rushes at John, a distraction means perhaps? Either way it swirls like a horizontal tornado at the Sorcerer while its opposite translucent hand pulls the wooden spike up and readies to thrust at the Vampire woman in the chair!

Constantine has posed:
There's the opening: Anger.

Constantine watches the spirit as much as the situation, but he's aware of what's around him. The desk, the computer, and even the lamps itting beside the latter on the former. He's taken stock of it, measured it even, and is putting together something that some people might consider a plan if they were so inclined to believe he were capable of one.

When Selene cames back at him with shots across the bow, "Oh, yeah, absolutely.. insult a man while he's tip toeing in a dungeon straight out of Bram Stokers 'jack sock'..." Thumbs up for Selene, eyes rolling, and turning to the ghost. "Seriously, just do it already."

The howl of anger actually sounds like music to Constantine. He can deal with angry spirits... honestly he can deal with anything at all that GETS angry. It's not a weakness in and of itself, but it's a crack that can become a weakness.

The vortex meets John's outstretched hand, a shield of flashing bright illumination temporarily turning the basement into a sunny afternoon, "Bloody fuck, not me.. stab the vampire!" He has no intentions of letting the spirit do that, though.

"Rust away the wooden passage of time, bring the splinters down like rain." Murmured under his breath with blue eyes intently staring at the wooden stake, accelerating decomposition on the untreated wood to cause it to get soft, soggy, and decayed.. far too much so to penetrate Selene's leather suit, but not so much so that the spirit would notice that.

Selene (Underworld) has posed:
Anger always is a weakness, unless you're using it to open one of those plastic eggshell containers that sometimes refuse to open up no matter what you do, then anger has shown evidence of being somewhat helpful. But thats it.

John's efforts do get the Spirit to focus more on him than Selene though, and buy him enough time to cast his spells to thwart off that funnel of spirit smoke, with a bright flash of light that makes the Vampire woman recoil on the chair and clamp her eyes shut, forcing her to look away past her right shoulder!

The wooden stake impacts against Selene's chest, but the now brittle wood shatters against the Vampire's torso, sending splinters harmless in all directions around in front of her, but the force of it does topple Selene over in her chair, which frees her hands and allows her to roll backward, legs over head, until she's crouching behind where the chair used to be and her eyes coming up to see whats to come next!

The spirit lunges toward John now, his new primary target! And with him all manner of items in the room from all sides start to fly right at John as though he were a magnet for garage sale goods, or a black hole for dust collecting basement furniture! Either way, the wizard better look out!

Constantine has posed:
Those mother fucking egg shell containers..

Anger is good for getting into new controller packaging too.

It's like whoever packaged them never wanted a normal human being without a pair of pruning sheers to ever get into it!

Sorry, State of Decay 2, can't play you tonight, some jack ass at Microsoft packing and receiving decided to wrap you in solid concrete.

John has a self satisfied grin when the stake shatters on Selenes chest and she rolls free, but it is quickly replaced with a frown when he becomes the primary occupying force of the spirits rage. "Okay, hold on now, let's talk about this... You chose shoddy buidling materials for your weapon, that's not on me.. that's on you, mate." Both hands up, shield flashing to life visibly as the first bit of dusty furnishing collids against it.

While it never actually hits John himself, it does rock him off to one side with the impact, and spills him out on the dirty floor in a dust slide. "Oh, so you want to get physical, alright.. let's get physical."

He's no ninja and getting up isnt' nearlyt he act of grace that it would be if Nightwing were down here, but he can throw a punch! A punch wrapped in a blessed knuckle pack of rosary beeds with a silver crusifix clutched up against his knuckles.

Selene (Underworld) has posed:
The punch lands solidly upon the Spirit's gaping, screaming, maw and it truly dazes the entity that did not expect that as it hasn't suffered a blow of that variety in... possibly ever. It recoils, and then clutches the side of its face before its eyes flashes brighter crimson and it snaps its head back toward John, it howls at him, then raises both of its hands to pour out another smoke whirlwind attack, but this time two of them! Double the tornadoes of death, double the death!

The lamp that had been on the desk now lays upon the floor to Selene's left and beneath the desk that had been moved across the floor, Selene can see the spirit of that little girl who'd been upstairs. She's looking right at Selene. In front of her, on the ground at her hands the little girl is indicating something... there's a black vase with a swirling thunderstorm of dark clouds and lightning inside of it. Small enough to hold a single rose, which it does, only the rose is long sense wilted and dead, nothing more than a dried up a stem now in fact.

"John!" Selene calls out while the Wizard is doing battle. She stands up and rushes over to the vase. She snatches it up and clutches it in her hand. The Vampire holds it up on display. "What is this??" She shouts in desperation.

"Smash it!" The little spirit of the girl shouts up in a high pitched voice of youthful desperation.

Selene glances to the spirit of the child, then back toward John, she's unsure of that... it couldmake things worse...

Constantine has posed:
John dives off to the side when the two whirlwinds come at him and regrets it immediately upon impact with hard earth. He rolls over his shoulder, but it wasn't nearly as graceful as he'd likely intended and will almost certainly be sore come morning.... it's sore now.

"Fuck.." No time for remorse in that regard, he pops up and swings his fist out to throw a bolt of his own. It's not swirling tornado death, but it is a big ass fireball errupting from the palm of his hand like a fiery missile.

The call of his name nearly costs him when another piece of furniture smacks up against his shield and slams him painfully up against the stares. "A phylactery!" John shouts at Selene, "Smash it!" He shouts at her, right as the little girl does. "I'll explain later..." Another dive, this time avoiding a flying 90s computer that's probably loaded up with roms.. it smashes against the wall where his head had been.

"You're a cunt, you know that?" Said to the spirit as he stands, defiantly, to keep the bastards attention centered on him rather than the vampire. "A dead cunt who can't even bother to summon the power necessary to kill a dying middle aged wizard and a crunchy old vampire? I bet you get teased in the afterlife... there's ol Jeremiah... couldn't even out physical a man with lunge cancer... poor sad sod.."

Selene (Underworld) has posed:
Selene doesn't need to be told twice -- well, no thats not true, she was just told twice to smash it so apparently she does need to be... -- nevertheless when the Sorcerer chimes in at the same time as the girl's spirit, Selene exhales and then raises the glass vase of spiritual thunderstorms... and she SLAMS it down onto the--

Sofa cushions?

Just before the Vampire's powerful arm could crush the vase, the cushions from the old sofa in the corner had flown off of their base and swooped in beneath Selene's hand to save the Evil Specter's life force! The vase impacts on the soft cushion surface and it bounces twice before it settles.

"You've got to be kidding me." Selene utters before she is knocked square in the chest by the chair she had been tied-up on! This sends her staggering backward before she draws a handgun and ducks beneath a second chair!

As the pillow-y cushion with the vase slides toward the Evil Spirit, it absorbs the fire from John's spell and starts to swirl it around its body, as though its using John's own fire-ball to protect itself...

Selene lines up a shot and fires at the Vase while it flips through the air toward the Dark Ghost! Followed by a second, and third shot!

The vase... Well, it explodes. But in its explosion a small sphere of spirit sucking energy begins to swirl in the air where the vase's glass shards now scatter in all directions. Pulling the evil spirit toward it... but also the girl's spirit as well, she claws at the floor, screaming in terror now!

Constantine has posed:
How fucked up would it be if John, heartlessly, stepped on the little girls fingers to break her clawed attempt to hold onto the ground and keep from being sucked into the spirit world?

If he hovered over her, lighting a cigarette, dripping sweat from the five minutes of intense cardio workout fighting an evil spirit, and said something utterly scathing like; Check your privlages, ghostly cunt..

He doesn't do that, it's just a question.

John sees the glass shatter with a triumphant huzzah!, but he also sees that it isn't picky about what spirit gets pulled into the vortex. There's a moment consideration, just a hair, and then the Brit wizard acts, diving forward towards the little girls spirit, fanning out his jacket as he lands atop where the spectre is sliding towards the powerful pull of dark vortex and craddles her against him. How he's able to touch a phantom is anyones guess, but it's safe to say he's close enough to the grave that he's almost a ghost himself.

"I've got you, dove." He assures her. Hooking one oxford against the table and the other against the wall to provide as much brace against being pulled himself as possible.

Photo moment.. John Constantine just saved a little girl by throwing himself in harms way.

Selene (Underworld) has posed:
John's efforts pay off, in that the Evil Spirit bound to that vase, isn't strong enough to stop from being pulled inside it. In fact the Vase itself had been made with the sole purpose of devouring that spirit's Soul if it were ever to be shattered and the magic that created it broken.

So with the fire swirling around the blackness of the spirit and mixing within it, the evil entity is pulled screaming and shouting into the sphere vortex! Eventually its sucked right inside it like a drain for the paranormal, and then it blinks, and is gone - as if it were never there.

...

Selene steps over in front of John and the girl that he's clutching. She's still a ghost, but she's there, in the Sorcerer's embrace, and she's slowly opening her eyes...

---

What comes next is the trio spends a little more time talking with one another, exploring the house in peace and serenity. The attic is checked, and there's nothing there. The girl explains a bit about who comes and goes with other little children, she says their names that she can remember but otherwise knows only a little. She's been living in a haze for who knows how long. She does give John her name too. 'Emily Statson'.

The sun is coming up outside, there's a blue'ish glow outside the windows when the front doors open and all three of them head out onto the front lawn. After a moment, the little girl says her goodbyes - having not been outside in a very long time - leaving Selene and John to watch her run off back in the direction of her home, toward a tree-line between properties. She slowly vanishes the further away she goes until she's faded entirely away, giggling with happiness.

Selene lets out a light exhale, her hands come up to raise a black hood up from behind her neck and inside her jacket. She pulls the hood up over her head. "Well then." She states, looking to John. "I guess we did something good here." She starts to turn back toward the gate. "Ready to go? Before the sun is entirely up and I become a... much less animated woman."

Constantine has posed:
John has tons of questions, but most of them deal directly with Emily rather than the spirit world. Some people, when given the chance to speak to a spirit, would probably ask about the afterlife... he seems numb to it. He smiles though, which is rare enough, and there doesn't seem any malcontent or ulterior motives behind it.

When the trio step out onto the lawn at dawn, Constantine kneels down with a flare of his jacket and hugs Emily and whispers something in her ear before she runs off towards her home, which is likely long gone, but he suspects that's not where she's going anyways.

When he stands it's with a pack of cigarettes in hand, tapping one out to pull from the package between his lips. "Yeah." That they'd done something good. He pulls out the metal box where he usually has a match, turns it over in his fingers a few times, then shoves it back in a pocket of his coat in favor of a cheap plastic lighter. "Some questions don't need answering." As if talking about the match, rather than the girl, as he lights his cigarette in puff of deep gray and aromatic smoke.

"Go on.. I'll get back to my flat easy enough." He says to Selene with a wry grin, thumbing up at the door of the mansion. "I'm going to take another look around anyways, see if there's a chance we missed something while we were all sentimentally flapping our gums."

Before she can go, though. "So... do you wear underwear?" A hand waves, clutching his cigarette, "Don't answer, it'll just make me more curious."

Selene (Underworld) has posed:
From her motorcycle, Selene settles in and she raises a mask up over her nose, as well as slides her hands into gloves - being a Vampire you have to take some serious measures during sun-up - and she llooks over to John. "Some questions do need answers." She replies to his final words about her undergarments. She smiles, but its hidden beneath her mask now.

A moment later and her motorcycle is started up, a revving of engines precedes the Vampire offering a little nod before she pulls off, and in seconds she's just a dark dot on the horizon of the long road with the sound of the engine growing ever softer into the distance, racing the sun.

Headed to a Gotham safe house, more than likely...