Hollow Hunters - Rough Start

Hollow Hunters – Rough Start
By Sephzero

Nestled in the old neighborhood many of the buildings standing since the 1940's, the Goldston's Boarding House stood as a quaint reminder of the older days. Before the high sky-rise buildings and bustling downtowns had seized much of the surrounding land or when the urban blight descended across much of the discarded and forgotten parts of the city.

Like a time capsule this little area still retain the same homely and simple nature it possessed decades ago.   

Generation of families still keep up the traditional visit to the boarding house, little changed in the interior since the time it was built. Nestling themselves in the antiqued of the past and enjoying a sense of nostalgia permeating through the place.

While the younger generations complained at the lack of sophistication and particular modern conveniences, that did little to detour the visits.  Some suspected their parents of simple coming here merely to vex the children.

Said parents remained largely silent on the response, except for a few remarking about character-building.

But it seemed things were not all that well in Goldston's Boarding House during these winter months.

"This place has always been dear to me," Mrs. Goldston mused while she stirred a cup of tea on the coffee table, "my husband built this you know? After returning from the war, he said he would build a house with his own two hands.  Bless his soul that is just what he did."

"That's great," Andrew muttered with a roll his eyes.

August gave him a disapproving glare next to him, but made no other move to correct his lack of manners before the client. The two of them had been sitting in the living room for close to an hour now listening to Mrs. Goldston regal them with tales of her past and about the house itself. Neither had been here before and Mrs. Goldston insisted on providing them the full breadth of the history to them.

"But I do believe I've taken enough of your time." Mrs. Goldston said before she took a sip of her tea before she continued. "I know how you young people are always so much in a hurry. Reminded me of when I was young. Still I'm sure you like to know why I've called you here."

"Not at all, our services are only called for to handle very specific types of problems." August replied with a courteous tone.

"Oh I see," Mrs. Goldston said before she put the cup down on the coffee table, "then it is really that bad?"

"You were correct in procuring our services. It is doubtful that any other services would be able to tackle the unique characteristic of your current dilemma." August explained.

Andrew tried to suppress the scoff at August's explanation. From his vantage point the situation was definitely beyond the scope of anything normal. A mere glance at one of the painting hanging from the wall was evident enough of the supernatural presence that seemed to be suffusing this entire residence.

The picture which initially appeared to be that of a bearded man in a suit standing pose, possibly Mr. Goldston, would hardly draw attention except for one noticeable quality. Once it likely had a fairly normal background, instead the backdrop had changed to raging inferno that moved and flickered as you stared into it.  

Moving back from that even the walls themselves had some noticeable tears which went a lot more then just some damaged wallpaper. The rips seem to reveal only a darkness that every now and then would reveal some eyes or tendrils before drawing back into the tears.  

He seriously wondered how the woman could handle all this malign influences around her. Senility seemed to be the answer that came to mind, but a look from August held his tongue in putting his thoughts into words.

"The guests have been in an awful fits since this had all started to happen. It saddens me greatly to seem them like so." Mrs. Goldston said sadly.

"Then perhaps we should move forward on the business at hand. If we're allowed to move forward, we can begin work in appraising and fixing this problem before it causes anymore burden upon your concerns." August insisted.

"I do hope you'll be able to find the problem." Mrs. Goldston remarked.

"Just from a quick assessment on the spot, I'm fairly confident in what the problem is. We only need some work to pinpoint the exact source. After that everything will be fairly straightforward." August said.

"That's good to hear, the exterminators I brought in here earlier were unable to help. I was deeply afraid there might be rats or bats in the walls." Mrs. Goldston said.

"There's a lot worse going through the walls then just rats or bats." Andrew noted when another tendril slithered out of a tear before it retreated.

"I understand your concerns, Ma'am, but those people are dutifully inadequate to handle such a problem as this unlike ourselves." August interjected.

"Even the electrician? There were some flickering lights beforehand so I thought it might have something to do with the power." Mrs. Goldston asked.

Andrew and August both glanced at once another for a moment before they turned the attention back to Mrs. Goldston. A trend was starting to form in this conversation and it certainly did not bode well for what will be asked next.

"Mrs. Goldston, how many people did you ask to look into this before you came to us?" August asked flatly.

Mrs. Goldston took a moment to think. She tapped her lips with her finger in thought while she attempted to remember. "The exterminator was the last one I called cause of the problem with the walls. But I did ask for the electrician to help and also some problems with the plumbing I had to ask the plumber to take a look too."

"And exactly what happened?" August said. She had an idea on what the answered would be, but elected to allow Mrs. Goldston to give voice to it.

"I simply don't know, I guess they got frustrated and just left. The situation left me quite baffled and upset. They could have at least given me a courtesy of a goodbye instead of just vanishing." Mrs. Goldston said with a sad sigh.

"That might explain all the trucks and vans parked outside." Andrew noted with a look at the window. Parked outside the labeled trucks and vans for an exterminator, electrician, and plumber sat along the curb. "Guess that answers what those were doing here."

"I don't know why they decided to leave their vehicles here either." Mrs. Goldston shook her head.

Andrew looked to August on whether he answers that last statement. The look from August spoke quite clearly she would handle it. He simply shrugged before reclining back in the couch to allow her to continue.

"Mrs. Goldston, I must inform you something unfortunate has happened to those people you hired before us."  August said.

The old lady tilted her head to the right, "You mean there might have been some accident and they had to leave in a hurry to go to it? That's just terrible and to happen to all three of them on the same day just so sad."

It was a testament to August's professionalism that she did not even flinch at the comment. Andrew on the other hand was not comprise of such stern material and practically slouch off the couch in exasperation at the statement.

"I think I need to go for a walk. Maybe take a look around." Andrew said as he pulled himself up.

"That would be for the best, I'll handle things with Mrs. Goldston from here." August agreed.

"You must want to go to the bathroom. Just out the door and take the third down on the right." Mrs. Goldston added with a wave.

"Who said anything about that?" Andrew replied with a twitch of his eyebrow.

"Maybe you should take a visit," August noted to him, "just to check."

"Fine," Andrew shrugged.

"It is delightful to see young people getting along so nicely." Mrs. Goldston added. The two of them simply ignored her completely.

After he had left, August turned her attention back to Mrs. Goldston, "While my associate is absent, I need information from you to better evaluate the situation at hand."

"I do enjoy a good conversation." Mrs. Goldston said with a smile.

"It will unlikely be about anything pleasant." August warned. "First, we will need to establish a time frame on when these strange occurrences started to happen."
"Is that really necessary?" Mrs. Goldston asked.

"This is to help us better evaluate the situation. By recreating a sequence of events from when this started, it will help us establish a better understanding of the both the magnitude and the source of this." August explained.

"The privacy of my guests is extremely important and I hate to betray that trust by divulging any personal matters of their." Mrs. Goldston protested.

"That may be your prerogative, but I must note that if the situation continues unabated I'm afraid I will have to file a petition to have this residence shut down." August explained.

"Would that really be necessary, I mean I'm sure there been some unpleasant things. But this is just a simple boarding house for people." Mrs. Goldston said.

"As it stands, this place is suffused with some sort of malign influence that has no doubt consumed three bonded contractors and possibly some of your guests too. There is a clear and present danger to the public's health within this establishment and if not removed there is no choice but to restrict movement into here that may endanger lives." August stated with a flash of light off the lens of her glasses.

Mrs. Goldston just blinked. It was uncertain if this was due to shock at what was said or perhaps the inability to comprehend what was said. The old lady's face was hard to read.

A voice down the hall interrupted the moment, "The toilet just tried to bite me!"

August and Mrs. Goldston glanced their head in the direction of the voice. Narrowing her eyes, August turned back to Mrs. Goldston who simply shook her head at the remark.

"It has been doing that from time to time lately. One of the guests was especially vexed about it. That was why I had called the plumber to deal with it." Mrs. Goldston said.

"Biting toilets are not in the purview of any standard training for plumbers." August remarked.

"I was assured by the plumber that he was an expert on all sorts of maladies when it comes to toilet." Mrs. Goldston informed with a sniff. "And I trusted him too; I just wish he told me why he had to leave so abruptly."

There wasn't a doubt on what actually happened to the plumber, despite Mrs. Goldston's own beliefs on the matter. Trying to pry information out of this woman was proving extremely difficult, but August knew the only other option was a completely sweep of the place. Even if it came to that, she rather possesses as much information on hand before taking that step.

"Let me reiterate my prior query," August said carefully choosing her words, "have any of your guests vanished before you notice all these oddities?"

"Why in fact yes," Mrs. Goldston said with her eyes flashing with recognition.

Finally getting somewhere, August hoped. "Who was this guest and what happened?"

"I don't want to say too much about him, he was always a private person. Did not talk much with the other guests and kept alone. He must really treasure his privacy." Mrs. Goldston reminisced.

In August's experience, those usually were some red flags. Things were finally starting to fall into place. "This is important, what can you tell me about him."

"I don't want to speak ill of him especially after he disappeared. But I was quite upset with the mess he left in his room. It was simply awful, all the weird scribbling and stains across the floor, walls, and ceiling. With all that happened afterward, I never got the chance to clean it." Mrs. Goldston explained.

"And how long ago with this?" August asked.

"Just three days ago is when I noticed he was absent and checked up on him."

August quickly thought about what happened in that period of time. Just judging from the mentions of scribbles and stains on the wall definitely fit the label of an occultist working. The isolated tendencies were also trademark signs too. Given the time frame of the disappearance this would bring it to just around the time of the winter solstice. All this pointed to likely some occult ritual gone wrong which probably led to current situation.

"Mrs. Goldston, it is imperative that you give me the location of that room. It is highly likely that the source of the problem is located there." August requested.

"That'll be the second door pass the hallway once you reach the second floor. I placed a sign for other guests not to enter till I had a chance to clean things up. " Mrs. Goldston said.

August pulled out her smart phone and quick-dial Andrew's number. It only took a ring before he picked up the call.

"I've got a location that is the probable source." She informed him.

"That's nice, but you remember that biting toilet?" Andrew reminded.

August seriously did not care to know what was going to say about it. But she suspect it wasn't going to be something he'll drop anyway. So she decided to indulge him just this once. "What happened?"

"It started to disparage and insult me. So I may have broken it." Andrew replied back on the line.

The hand around the phone tightened and thankfully the hard-cover case holding it was designed for just these sorts of occasions. A lesser phone would have been cracked by these momentary flare-ups of frustration. Every one of them was the fault of just one person.

"What's the situation?" She finally managed to ask.

"Looks like we may have broken a water main, except it is pouring out what appears to be blood and making quite a mess in here," he answered with a bit disgust in his tone.

"The waiver on collateral damage has not even been signed yet, could you not constrain yourself for a few more minutes?" August asked him. The question was largely rhetorical at this point.

"Hey, you weren't facing down some sort of possessed toilet. Besides with all that time you got chatting to the old windbag, I'd thought you get all the paperwork squared away. I am the only out here dealing with killer porcelains with mouths that bite." Andrew retorted.

Taking a deep breath, August answered, "I'll get my side of the job squared away. You need to investigate the possible source of this problem. It appears the occupant of a room may have been indulging in occult affairs."

"Since when has that been anything new in our line of works?" Andrew mused.

"Head upstairs and go to the second door pass the hallway. There should be a sign on the door. Ignore anything on the way they're just residuals from the main source." August ordered before she put away the phone. She turned back to Mrs. Goldston and continued, "It appears my associate has gotten a bit too enthusiastic in the job and incur some damage to the residence already."

"Oh dear," Mrs. Goldston manage to reply.

"Given the degree by which this situation has escalated, I'm going to need you to fill out some paper works which will encompass the various matters necessary for us to complete our service." August explained before she presented a stack of papers.

"This is quite a lot." Mrs. Goldston noted at the stack. "How much is this going to cost me?"

"Nothing, due to the extent of the danger poses to public all these jobs are directly invoiced to the city for payment. Further for signing the waiver on collateral damage which may be incurred in the process of the service, you can recover such damage directly from the city as well. The rest are forms covering basic information about this." August stated while she handed over a pen.

"This all seems so complicated…" Mrs. Goldston looked at the form.

"It would be prudent for you to sign these forms as quickly as possible. Any delay could allow the situation to escalate further." August warned before she felt the ringing of her phone. The display showed the caller being Andrew.

"Okay, I guess…" Mrs. Goldston said while she started to sign off the forms.

"Have you reached the site?" August asked on the phone.

"In a word, yes." Andrew replied though the sound of howling winds were audible behind him.

"How is it?" August continued.

"I'm currently standing on the precipice which is the doorway to the room and beyond is a crumbling floor opening up into a massive dimensional span. There is a lot of weird floating debris amidst the great swirl and a huge baleful eye down in the center of some vortex too." Andrew said while struggling to keep his voice heard.

August took a moment to consider what he had said. All the pieces were lined up. It was pretty obvious what the source of this disturbance was in fact.

"Oh yea, and that eye I mentioned before? It just blinked at me." Andrew added.

"You know what to do." August answered before she hanged up on him. "Mrs. Goldston, we've been able to identify the source of your problem. It seems that the prior tenet has opened a dimensional canker which is causing another plane to intruding upon ours, precisely through your boarding house."

"So this is like some sort of pest infestation?" Mrs. Goldston asked while she looked up from the papers.

"That would be a very weak example. Suffice to say, we have had experience with these sort of phenomenon before and can take the necessary corrective actions to stop it." August assured.

"So when can you get started?" Mrs. Goldston inquired.

The entire ceiling above them shook violently as the walls groaned audible. Sounds of yelling and crashing rang above them. Every now and then a violent smash would shake the entire building foundation causing dusts to fall from the cracks in the ceiling. Mrs. Goldston looked up with astonishment, while August merely gathered the signed paperwork up.

"My associate is already taking the necessary actions as we speak." August remarked while she checked over the signatures.

An inhuman scream echoed from above. It sound like a shriek of thousand different animals all mixed in one hideous chorus. Several loud crashing sounds like something massive was being thrown about followed afterward. A brief yell of surprise from Andrew could be heard before it was drown out again in the ensuing sounds of crashing and shaking above.

"Is he going to be alright?" Mrs. Goldston asked with concern.

"He's well experience in this sort of things, unfortunately, not in the matter of handling it in a discreet fashion." August lamented before she put away the paperwork and stood up. "I must ask you now for your own safety to vacate the premise. We'll inform you at a later time when the business has been settled."

"I guess that's okay, I got a bridge club to attend. It'll be nice to know the problem is being taken care of while I'm away." Mrs. Goldston smiled.

August escorted Mrs. Goldston to the door and watched her walk away. After the old lady was a suitable distance away, August took a step outside with the door closed behind her. She walked down the walkway before a chair crashed out of the upstairs' window and landed a few feet nearby.

She turned to look back at the boarding house to see the decimation done to the top floor, while huge tendrils covered in eyes and mouths reared out through the windows before lashing all around. Sometimes she could spot the tell-tall signs of Andrew dashing across the windows in his hunting attire, before some tendril came crashing down in that location. Taking a few more steps to put her safely out the distance of harm, August looked at her watch to see how long this would take.

A mere twenty minutes later, August walk up to the ruined wreckage at once had been the Goldston's Boarding House where an exhausted but triumphant Andrew sat. He was looking a bit worse for wear, but most of the damage at present look largely superficial. The tattered ends of his black scarves flapped by their own will without any wind to aid them. Andrew wiped his brow using his sleeve before he stood up to August.

"That was particularly nasty thing trying to push it way through." Andrew chuckled as he spied the wreckage beyond.

August did not share his amusement at the situation. "It appears that the canker has been sealed. The rift collapsed upon itself after you forcibly knocked the intruder back through."

"All in all, another job accomplished." Andrew pumped his chest up proudly.

"This is nothing to be proud of," August interrupted with a disapproving glare, "no doubt Mrs. Goldston will be quite upset about this when she returns. It will not reflect well on our agency if we keep ramping in this excessive amount of collateral damage with every case."

"It just how I do my thing, not my fault these things don't back down unless I smash their face through almost everything available." Andrew shrugged while he kicked a loose pile of debris away.

"You could handle yourself more discreetly." August suggested to him. "Your actions always seem to result in unnecessary damages every time."

"Don't complain I'm the one sticking my neck into the mess of things. You just want to sit back and just do paperwork." Andrew retorted while he rested his hands behind his head. "Since you're so concern about how you conduct yourself when you let that out."

August just glowered at him annoyed at raising that point again. She always preferred to carry herself in a shrewd and professional manner. The terrifying werejackal form she could take was like an opposite of that conduct. Less it had to be exercised was the better for her, which was one of the point of working with Andrew to allow him the built of the supernatural entanglement. It seemed the partnership did not bear the fruits expected of it.

"You really think that course of action would be prudent?" August answered.

Scratching his head, Andrew muttered, "Probably not, you'll likely end up just chewing on me again. But what else can we do about it?"

August thought on that question for a bit, before she looked back to the wreckage. That rather accidental insightful question on Andrew's part did raise the concern. It only took a moment before her mind was made up as Andrew blinked at the change of demeanor on her face. He could tell that she had just thought of something.

"It is time for us to start looking for new help." August said.