#spogglewots

So there was this public park, but it was really old and decrepit, and no one went there anymore. They hadn't in years.

A feature of the park was this oldass mineshaft that had been fixed up so that people could safely go down in it and explore. But after some time the mine became unsafe even with all the supports and railings and stuff, and that's part of why the park wound up closing down.

I don't remember why I was there, but it was late at night and I was with a small group of friends, and our dog, a golden retriever. We were there trying to find something I guess, but wound up just milling around and chatting.

Then the dog smelled something and took off running. We followed it as it ran down into the mine shaft, which was long and dark and winding, paths splitting off in dozens of directions. We had to use flashlights, and eventually we heard the direction the dog went, and followed it down some stairs, into a lower tunnel.

And then we smelled something old and musty and just faintly rotten. At first we didn't know what it was or where it was coming from, but as we walked further we could see things lined up against the walls of the tunnel. They were all different shapes, some slumped figures, some blocky looking things.

The first one we got to was a little girl, sitting curled up against the wall. She had been dead for a long time, but the atmosphere in the mine had preserved her almost perfectly. Then we realized that she was a kid that had gone missing years ago, we all recognized her face from the news reports.

We thought, maybe she'd gotten lost down in the mine and could never find her way out... But then we started looking at the other shapes in the tunnel. All of them were people. Lots of kids, adolescents, a few young adults, and so many infants.

Some of the older people in the tunnel had postures like they'd curled up to rest, and then never moved again. There was an infant in a stroller near us, that looked like someone had just brought her in and parked her against the wall, and then just left her there to die.

Someone had been bringing all these people into the mine and then leaving them there to wander in the dark until they died, and there were so many of them that they lined the walls as far as we could see.

Horrified, we kept walking further, looking for the dog so we could leave and call the police. Every new tunnel we came to was filled with bodies, just this horrific amount of dead kids, all in various stages of mummification. Somehow we knew that no matter how far into the mine we went, the bodies would just keep going. We also knew that whoever had brought all these kids down here was probably in here with us, either hiding out in the dark ahead of us, or watching us from somewhere...

Then one by one, the group of us started getting smaller. Someone was missing, then another. Some of us wanted to leave before we all got too lost to find our way back out, and the others didn't want to leave our friends or the dog behind. But I knew that if we stayed to look for them, none of us would ever get out. We'd wander til we died against some wall next to other lost kids.

I finally decided to leave, even if no one else was coming with me. I hated it, and I was terrified, and I didn't want anything bad to happen to my friends. But I wasn't going to stay there, so I left them and ran for the mine's entrance.

The first one is a guy that Main and Friend run into during an investigation way up in some Appalachian mountain holler. He's a weird redneck albino, and his particular abilities are intuitive and empathetic. He can pick up on emotions, whether from a nearby person, or impressions that have been left behind in places or on things. Eeeeevery now and again he can directly see/speak to ghosts, but it's rare and they have to be especially determined.

Main and Friend first meet him when asking for directions, after which he leads them out to wherever it is they're going because, he claims, verbal directions "won't get you much of anywhere in these parts"

Once they get to where they're going, the guy tells them they really shouldn't be out there because it's not safe, and they should just head back into town. There's a whole discussion about why he bothered leading to the place to begin with if they shouldn't be there.

Jeeves took the flower from Bertie and put it deftly in its place. " 'The rub', sir," he said.

"Pardon?"

"I think you mean to have said 'There's the rub'. If you'll excuse the correction, sir."

Bertie rolled his eyes and tucked his hat firmly atop his head. "Never a dull moment with you, is there Jeeves?"

Tumblr mobile sure is a dick, so I had to screencap your questions instead of just answering them directly.

Also sorry in advance to everyone for this longass, no-cut post

This is so many questions and I love them. See, I don't think about these kinds of things on my own, and they're kind of vital to story building. ilu, thank you

Their first ghost encounter ever involves Main, and Friend. And it... Did not go well at all. They were kids, I'd say early teens? And they were doing stupid, dangerous things, trying to look cool and get a thrill. Anyway, it's a pretty sterotypical scenario at first. Some old abandon house or mine or factory that all the local kids know about, but no one ever goes into because it's scary. They make up rumors that it's haunted, there's dozens of stories. Some dumb kid eventually goes in because of a dare, or to prove a point, or because they ain't scared of no ghost. Nothing actually happens in the house aside from Main and Friend getting really spooked by noises, and they run away in a panic. The real problem is what happens later, after they're safe at home and they've gone to bed. Maybe something from the place came back with them. Maybe their fear attracted something that has nothing to do with the place. They still don't know, but it was very bad.

Main got pretty physically messed up and still has scars from that. (Along with many others that he gets later in life) Friend was less effected, but this incident is how he wound up with his lucid dreaming abilities (which initially started as horrible recurring nightmares pertaining to the encounter)

Their first encounter as a team of four was probably much more mundane by comparison. Just a lonely ghost stuck in a house with it's bones. The team does the good thing and buries it, and sends the ghost off with well wishes. Just something simple and kind of nice. Not all of their adventures are so easy though.