Haunt Me, Weiss
Volume 1
Takano Masamune
Chapter 1: Polter-gay-st (1)
***
"This is everything..." The real estate agent said as she happily handed the keys to the man. "Now you're the proud owner of one of the biggest houses in the town! Congratulations!" She excitedly said with such a brilliant smile on her face you could tell she was going to take a hefty commission on this property sale.
"Thank you." The man that received those keys had an indifferent look on his face. He was rather tall with short pitch black hair, he had a pair of thick framed glasses that covered most of his pale white face. His clothes looked classy although they were all in black, he seemed like a man that liked elegance and simplicity.
"I'll be taking my leave then, I'm glad I could be of help to you, sir." The woman lowered her head a bit as if bowing as she headed in the opposite direction to her car. The excited look on her face could only be compared to a child's happiness at receiving the one toy they really wanted. The second the woman got to her car she picked up her phone that had began ringing along the way. "Yes... I did it, the sale is complete..." She said in a relieved voice as she loosened up her tie and unbuttoned the top of her white button down shirt. "Honestly I've never thought I could sell that mansion... So many people tried to buy it and this is the first person the deal was actually completed with... Though I can't blame them..."
"Hm? Well..." She thought for a moment before answering the question ''Why's that?'
The real estate agent took a long breath in and then exhailed soon afterwards. "I always feel cold and get this strange feeling when I walk in to show it to potential clients..." She paused once more as if searching for the correct words to say at that moment. "I guess it might actually be true what they say... that it's haunted..."
***
Meanwhile inside the newly purchased mansion, the man walked though the long corridors, his name was Ezikiel Lamberdog. He wasn't the son of a wealthy family nor someone with incredible luck to find a building for cheap... what he was, was a realist, a hardworker and someone who always chose pragmatism instead of feelings...
Ezikiel glanced over at the furniture that seemed ancient. "Better than no furniture, I supposse..." He remarked under his breath. He'd managed to save up enough to buy this old mansion in cash.
There was a particular reason the mansion had been on the market for so long, it had already been about twenty years already... It was because everyone thought the previous owner of the mansion's spirit was haunting it...
But Ezikiel wasn't the type to believe in such nonsense, not at all, he was a man that would rather focus on tangible things that he could see, hear, and touch...
"I might need to renovate it a bit... but overall I'd say it was a brilliant purchase..." Ezikiel said as he finally smirked and crossed his arms. "I couldn't have gotten a better deal... just because there are some scaredy cats on the marked I managed to land a-" But before he could finish his sentence he heard something falling in the other room.
Quickly Ezikiel rushed to check what it was, he opened the door and saw that a rather heavy vase had fallen over. "Ah... s**t, who left this window open..." He wondered to himself as he looked up at where the vase used to be, then down at the broken parts that were laying on the ground. It was the logical conclussion as someone who didn't believe in ghosts.
"No wonder they were so scared... I mean the entire house isn't really created with the intent of living, is it? Not to mention how old and messy it is..." Ezikiel remarked out loud as he looked around. It was one of his particular quirks, he spoke to himself a lot. Maybe because he was somewhat of a lonely man himself, but mostly because he always thought more clearly when speaking rather than silently thinking in his head. It was particular but not completely uncommon, though it might have been a bit rare.
"Again?" Ezikiel turned his head as he heard noise coming from yet another room, it was in the kitchen, this time what he saw was some of the groceries he'd brought in the house just now to have toppled over on the counter and fallen to the ground, making a mess.
"Damn, what kind of structure is this apartment build on?" Ezikiel wondered to himself as he began putting away the groceries. He wasn't angry or anything, he just found it a hassle and a waste of perfectly good food that had fallen to the ground.
"...go....y..." A low whisper could be heard in the mansion's corridors. It repeated. "...go... away..." Those words clearly resounded in such a low and eerie sounding whisper as the window frame was hitting the wall in the kitchen.
"Hm? The f*****g wind again..." Ezikiel went to the window and closed it. "I should get to renovating soon, these windows are so annoying..." He remarked as he saw something in the reflection of the window. It was already considerably dark outside, it was winter after all, and the day went by quickly through the documents and p*****t.
Ezikiel focused his eyes, moving his thick framed glasses up a bit to see more clearly. There was a white ghostly face right next to his. No, rather it would be more accurate to say it was behind him. He turned around and in front of him saw the silhouette of a thin man.
"Go... away..." The ghostly silhouette said as he stared daggers into the new owner's eyes. "Go... away..." He repeated in a threatening manner.
"Hm?" Ezikiel simply tilted his head to the side. Then looked at the silhouette up and down. He noticed it didn't have legs, it was simply a floating figure that didn't even touch the ground. "Damn, I'm sleepy already... and it's not even seven yet... I should definitely eat something..." He remarked out loud as he went to grab the products from the kitchen counter.
"........." The ghost watched as Ezikiel walked past him, through him even and casually went about preparing his dinner. He even put on a song on his phone while doing so.
"Rocking roll, like never before, I watch you do your encore and ask me for more~!" Ezikiel sang to himself as he had began cutting up vegetables and cracking eggs to make himself a simple omlet.
"..........." The ghost floated through the air and went to the man's phone then turned the song off completely. "What the f**k is wrong with you?!" He asked as he slammed it's hands onto the kitchen counter but there was no sound made, nothing shook either, it was like he hadn't done it at all.
"What do you mean?" Ezikiel asked as he turned around. "Since you can talk then I guess you're real enough..." He remarked as he tilted his head to the side. He then looked down. "Don't touch my food again. I don't remember inviting guests here." He said with a threatening glare in his eyes.
"Listen here human! I am a ghost, a ghost! At least that's what your kind calls me! So listen to me!" The ghost seemed to grow impatient as the new home owner paid him no mind and continued cooking his meal.
"A ghost, huh? I don't really believe in things like that... but you do talk, and I'm not insane... so... hm..." Ezikiel thought about it a bit but then seemed to give up as he took out the freshly cooked omlet and placed it on a plate.
"Aren't you scared of me? I'm a ghost for crying out loud! I can move things around your home and I whisper quietly in the dead of night so you can get scared and leave! What in the-" The ghost's tangen was cut short by the man walking past him again and heading to the living room to eat his dinner.
"I don't really care who you are and what you do. I paid for this house, so it's mine. You'll be the one to leave." Ezikiel said as he sat down and began eating casually while turning on the old TV he'd brought in advance. He'd basically moved in his things there a week advance before the final details of the documents could be completed, so that it wouldn't be too much of a hassle for him later on.
"Me leave?! As if! I live here!" The ghost said in a teenage rebellious sounding voice. Almost like he was fighting against his parents or something, which obviously wasn't the case.
"Wait... you live here rent free? I don't think so... If you want to continue living here you better pay up." Ezikiel said as he crossed his arms. "Let's see if I take in account the space that you occupy and what a mansion like this would cost rented out..." He took a moment to calculate a sum in his head. "You have to pay me at least 800$ per month." He said as he looked at the ghost with a pair of serious eyes.
"W-what...? But I don't have any money...?" The ghost wasn't just confused, he was flabbergasted at the audacity of a mere human to ask him to pay rent. HIM, a literal ghost! It was something he'd never encountered before in his non-life, life.
"Then get out! I don't need no broke freeloaders here!" Ezikiel said as he gestured to the entity to leave as he went back to what he was doing before.
"I won't! This is my home!" The ghost refused to move from where he was standing. Which was basically him floating in midair right in front of the man as he spoke to him.
"It's mine actually, I signed the deed today." Ezikiel quickly corrected the inhuman entity.
"That doesn't matter!" The ghost replied with even more vigor than before.
"Of course it does, it has my name on it. So it's mine." Ezikiel said, to him it was as simple as that. And it was in a way a completely undeniable truth, it was a fact even.
"What... kind of an insane person has moved in here?" The ghost wondered to himself as he stared blankly at Ezikiel who was watching TV and eating as if nothing was happening around him. "He can clearly see me... but he doesn't care at all... that's..."
"I can also hear you too, so quiet down, I love this show." Ezikiel said as he shushed the spirit and turned back to watch.
"You leave me no choice..." The ghost looked even more pale than before, which shouldn't have been possible because he didn't have any blood flow at all. He looked a bit transparent but also like a thick white fog or mist as he moved around the mansion. He went to the kitchen and grabbed a banana from the kitchen counter, brought it back to the living room where Ezikiel was and threw it at the man's head.
"Ouch! That hurt!" Ezikiel turned around and grabbed the banana. "Don't waste food, dammit! Look at it, it's all squished now!" He complained as he showed the remains of the banana that had hit the side of his head then the floor and opened up, letting it's insides out int he open becoming contaminated by the dirt on the floor more than likely.
"Leave this place! Be scared of me!" The ghost yelled at the man as he went to the kitchen to grab yet another banana. Throwing it with what seemed to be all of it's ghostly might.
"STOP. THROWING. BANANAS. AT. ME!" Ezikiel said as he stopped the banana mid air as it was traveling towards him. He opened it and began eating it instead of his omlet that was sitting idly on the side of the table, half eaten and cold by now.
"Why... why are you not scared?!" The ghost looked desperate as he floated lower, steadily sinking to the ground. It almost looked like he was sitting down with his knees pressed against his chest, even though he didn't actually have legs at all. "This has always worked before... everyone before you backed away instantly... yet you went through it all... and you're trying to get rid of me... that's not possible, is it...?" He spoke in a quieter voice as if he was about to cry. But he was a ghost, it was impossible for an entity without any bodily fluids to cry.
Ezikiel moved closer to the ghost, after putting the banana peal away on the side of the table. He tilted his head to the side as he leaned down to level with the ghostly entity. Even though there was no particular emotion upon the man's face, at least none that was obvious... It almost seemed as if Ezikiel pitied the ghost at that moment. As if he wanted to comfort him a bit...
But of course reality could never be that plesant...
"Sad story, mate... Now please leave through a window or something, and close it on the way out. The place is as cold as it is already..." Ezikiel said as he stood up again and headed to the bedroom on that floor.
The ghost left stunned once more stood up in anger. "That's it! I'm never leaving! You'll see how scary I can be, you'll see!" The ghost yelled as if the point of his entire existence at that moment had been nothing but pure spite towards the person that so easily ridiculed him.
"Good night then..." Ezikiel said as he waved his hand at the man and closed the door to his bedroom. Preparing to go to sleep.
"Damn this human..." The ghost muttured quietly as he clenched his transparent fist, resolving himself to make the other pay for the humiliation he had endured that night...