Phasmophobia - N.C.U. - Part 4 - (Alt Chapter) (Patreon)

Key: FD, MC, Possession, Sleep

Description: After being radio silent for several minutes, Laura finally reappears on camera and Jessy is able to catch up with her. But is she really who she appears to be?

Eve watched as Laura slowly entered the classroom, only to see Jessy run down the hallway and follow her. “Finally something is going right.” Eve said with a sigh, just as something else appeared on the camera. For a split second, it seemed like a small orb had floated ever so quietly into the room both girls had just entered. 

Back in the school Jessy entered the classroom behind Laura and, as expected, found her friend in the room. She stood at the window, staring through it with a vacant, empty expression, as her hands hung limp at her sides. Of course Jessy was oblivious to all of this, I just thought you, the reader, might like to know. 

“Hey, we were worried about you!” Jessy said, smiling as she looked around the room. “Did you find something? She asked excitedly. “Is there a ghost in here?”

—------------------ Alt Scene —--------------

At that question, Laura slowly turned to face Jessy. Her eyes were unfocused and heavily glazed, almost like glass, as she took a slow step towards Jessy and raised her right hand towards her, revealing a deck of cards. 

Jessy, being easily distracted, looked down at the deck of cards with an excited grin “Oooh, what do we have here?” She said, taking them from Laura’s hand without so much as a glance at her friend’s face. “They look like tarot cards…” she mused, looking them over. “Let’s try them!” Again, she barely glanced at Laura’s face as she took them over to the desk and began to shuffle them. “I’ve always been curious about things like this.” She said, fumbling to shuffle the oversized deck. “Never really paid it any mind, honestly.” 

Finally, she pulled a card from the deck and held it up, angling it at the light. “Oh.”  She said nervously as she examined the card. “This one is death.” Not a moment later, the card lit itself on fire, glowing purple as it burned away the image of death to reveal the image of the fool. The image had barely revealed itself as it continued to burn and ultimately disintegrated in Jessy’s hand.  “Did you see that?” She asked Laura, who was now facing the desk at the front of the room. “They must be a trick deck!” She finished, her voice filled with amusement and excitement. 

Completely unphased by the card that had literally just lit itself on fire in her hand, Jessy quickly drew another card and held it up. She angled it so she would be able to see it as well as Laura. If Laura had been conscious, of course. “The tower. I wonder what that means…oh!” She jumped back as the card lit on fire, this time it disappeared in a blue flame before she had time to drop it. “It’s interesting, but they don’t actually burn when they…oh my god!” Jessy screamed in surprise. 

In the corner of the classroom a ghostly image had appeared, flashing in and out of an unseen light source. The figure moved and shifted as if it was looking around the room, but never settled on one image. As it did, an unsettling clicking sound filled the room. It sounded like it was coming from the back of someone’s throat, but somehow the sound filled the room. And then as quickly as it began, the image vanished and the sound stopped. 

Jessy slowly moved towards the corner where the ghostly apparition had just been. She couldn’t even begin to process what had just happened. Instead, she extended her arm and waved it through the area where the figure had been, as if she was expecting to touch something, but she found only empty space. 

She spun around, mouth hanging open and eyes wide as they sparkled with excitement. “Did you see that!?” She asked excitedly as she moved closer to Laura. “That was a ghost! An actual, in the flesh, ghost! Well, sort of in the flesh.” She was nearly bouncing as she kept looking back at the corner where she had seen it. “I love this! This is great!” she said again, spinning around to notice that Laura was reaching for one of the cards. “Ooh! Yeah you should try this, it's a lot of fun!” she smiled. 

Laura’s arm reached out and picked up one of the cards, but left it completely horizontal to the ground, not revealing it at all. Slowly, she turned towards Jessy with the card in hand and began to move towards her. 

“What's that? Are you going to show me my future?” Jessy giggled. 

“Yes…” the robotic voice of the spirit box on Jessy’s belt said without warning. 

“What the…” Jessy quickly looked down at the spirit box then back up at Laura. “Did you hear that?”

Laura didn’t respond. All she did was raise the card so that it was visible to Jessy. 

Jessy glanced at Laura in confusion as she focused on the card in front of her. She leaned in closer to see it in the pale light of the classroom. “The Sleeper?” She said questioningly, but before she could get an answer, the entire card lit up in another blue flame and disintegrated in Laura’s hand. What Jessy didn’t see, however, was that as the card glowed with the blue flame, so too did her eyes. Its magic filtered through her mind and burned away her energy and her thoughts, asleep on her feet. 

As the card and her eyes lit up with the blue flame, Jessy gasped in surprise and, all at once, her body relaxed. Her shoulders slumped almost instantly as her face lost any hint of an expression, jaw hanging open softly as her eyelids drooped and started to slide closed. But not before her eyes rolled up into her head, revealing the whites of her eyes. She let out a soft sigh as her knees buckled and she slumped down to the floor and then fell against the side of the desk. Her head rolled to the side as she simply sat there, crumpled into a small pile completely asleep and unaware. 

Without a word, Laura’s body slowly stood in front of Jessy and extended a single finger, placing it softly into the center of Jessy’s forehead.  

—---------------End Alt Scene —----------

Back in the van, Eve moved through the cameras, looking for the others, until she landed on the camera just outside the classroom where Laura and Jessy were. Once again she came to a hard stop as she clearly saw an orb of light floating through the hallway and gently into the classroom. “Hey, that orb thing is…hello?” She said into the radio, only to hear static in response. She sighed in frustration. “You had enough money for a truck full of equipment but couldn’t buy walkie-talkies worth more than a dollar.” 

Back in the classroom, where the now unconscious Jessy was crumpled on the floor, the orb was not really visible in the room itself, but it did appear in the glass of the door to the room. In the reflection, it slowly moved directly to Laura’s arm and began to roll down her entire arm, all the way to her finger, until it slid into Jessy’s forehead and disappeared. 

The moment it rolled into the young woman’s forehead she started to convulse and shake, shuddering violently as her body, unconsciously, made a high pitched gurgling sound. It seemed as if she was trying to talk while her body shook, but nothing coherent came out. Her eyelids fluttered rapidly as her head bucked from side to side, until finally her body stopped and her eyes opened. They held the same glazed and empty look, just like Laura’s. 

Meanwhile, Eve was watching the camera nervously as she waited for the static on the radio to finally clear. But then, to her relief, she saw Jessy and Laura both appear on camera, slowly walking out of the classroom and heading down the hallway. She leaned back in her chair and let out a sigh. “Well, at least they’re both ok.” 

Eve flipped through the cameras a few more times and spotted Christine moving near the starwell on the south side of the building. She picked up her radio and clicked the button a few times. To her surprise the channel was clear. “Finally!” She said in annoyance as she pressed the button again.  “Christine I have you on camera four, any sign of Carly yet?” she asked nervously. 

“Nothing yet, but I just got here. This UV light is pretty cool!” She mused as Eve watched her wave the light around on camera. 

“Just don’t shine it in your eyes.” Came Rayne’s sarcastic response. “I’m pretty sure that’s bad for you.” 

“I don’t plan on it…again. Anyway! This thing is bright.” Christine quickly changed the subject. 

Eve could only facepalm as she let out an exasperated sigh. “Seriously?” Laura gave you a flashlight. A flash…light!” She clicked off the radio and leaned back in her chair, watching Christine. “Good thing she didn’t give you guys guns.” 

“Hey, wait a second!” Christine’s voice came over the radio, more excited this time. “I think I see something glowing near one of the doors down the hall. I’m going to go check it out!” The radio went silent as Eve watched Christine move out of range of the camera and into the darkened hallway of the south wing. 

To be continued…