Chandler had arranged yet another mission for Sin Vulpes. She had met a client from neighboring town, White Crow Town, which wasn't really that unusual, seeing how Sin Vulpes' reputation had spread in the underworld circles after working as a mercenary for over twenty years. He was mostly known for killing targets and he was excellent at that, but occasionally he would do different jobs. Just like tonight. Chandler had given him the instructions: he had to enter an abandoned school building and find a man who had made that place as his hideout. He had to bring this man out of there, alive.

“But why does this have to be my job specifically?” Sin Vulpes had asked Chandler, frowning. “I bet anyone would be able to handle it.”

“It's because the school building is extremely haunted”, Chandler had replied. “Not just anyone's mind can take it. Yours is strong. Besides, we don't know what kind of madman is nesting there. I'm sure our client is relying on your remarkable abilities.”

Sin Vulpes wasn't completely satisfied with this explanation, but just let it slide. Job is a job, after all and he had done similar tasks before so it wasn't like he was against this one. Soon after he had had the conversation regarding this mission with Chandler, he had left, heading to the neighboring town where the job was waiting for him.

He was riding his old motorcycle, following a highway. When he had departed towards the other town, the sunset painted beautiful colors in the sky, but it didn't take long for the sun to disappear, leaving behind a world of darkness. Sin Vulpes didn't mind this, in fact, he preferred nighttime. He enjoyed his solitary ride through the darkness, only the light of his motorcycle giving him illumination. The scenery was mostly just woodlands, but at some point he noticed a road sign that told him to turn right, and after he followed its direction, it didn't take long before signs of human settlements began to emerge from the woods. Bit by bit the town came to be, but it wasn't densely populated at any point, not at least the parts Sin Vulpes saw. He followed the instructions he had got in order to find the specific school, and at first they took him close to outskirts of White Crow Town. This part was sleeping soundly, only Sin Vulpes himself was around. And as he was riding further and further in, he noticed how the buildings became more and more dilapidated and less like homes. After some time he was sure that no one was living around here anymore, seeing how the houses were in such awful condition. Now it wasn't surprising to him at all that there existed a haunted school somewhere in here; it was understandable that no one wanted to live near such a place.

This neighborhood had definitely seen better days. When Sin Vulpes arrived at the school he had been looking for, its horrible state of decay didn't come up as a surprise to him. He rode his motorcycle to the yard and shut it down, making his only source of light to disappear as well. But he snapped his fingers and, in that instant, a light blue orb that was glowing cold light appeared and gave him illumination. For a while he stared at the eerie sight in front of him, although decayed, the building's dark figure was still standing tall. Sin Vulpes decided to have a small smoke break, so he lit a cigarette and began smoking. In his mind he was thinking what Chandler had told him about the story of this place.
 
The school was now in ruins because of a group of three girls. They had shown interest in dark magic and otherworldly horrors and it had been a healthy curiosity, at first. There was nothing alarming in that. But they kept digging the books of these morbid subjects until they came upon some strange old tome. And from that they learned how to summon a great demon, an ancient evil, which was nothing like the demons that nowadays lived together with humans. The girls were very excited about this and decided to perform the summoning ritual at the basement of the school. Even though they were just young girls, perhaps there was a little bit of darkness staining their souls and they wanted to bring more malice into the world. They followed exactly the tome's instructions and their ritual was successful in the sense that they managed to summon the demon. However, the outcome wasn't what they had expected.

The demon killed the group first and their souls got trapped in the school. Then the evil entity began to spread its malice all around the building. It trapped everyone who had been inside that fateful day and killed them all slowly. The place got cursed and there weren't any survivors. Later, some lesser demons had managed to enter the school and found out what had happened, telling this story to the outside world. Knowing the horrors of this place, not many wanted to enter the building, even though there had been few curious ones over the years, such as ghost hunters and teenagers that were daring each other. And it was told that the ancient evil was still inside, ready to snatch the souls of anyone who had the courage to enter.

And Sin Vulpes wondered, was the person he had to find still alive in that building? He had to just find out.

He dropped the cigarette he had been smoking and stomped on it to extinguish it. He looked at the building that was standing in front of him, tall and threatening. He could even see some pale figure looking out from one of the windows. Maybe this would have been a warning sign to some ordinary person that they should leave immediately, but this didn't discourage Sin Vulpes at all. He smirked to himself and started to walk towards the building, the little orb of light which he had casted floating in the air, moving ahead of him.

Soon he reached the double doors, the entrance, to the building and he began to push them open. They screeched horribly as their rusty hinges were forced to work once again and then Sin Vulpes found himself from a hallway. Two rows of lockers were stretching into the darkness and he could see in his little orb's light that some lockers had busted doors and there were stains of blood smeared on some of them. But he just dismissed this and started to walk through the hallway, the sound of his lone steps echoing in the area. From somewhere further in he could hear faint cries; cries of desperation, fear, anguish… They hoped that somebody would come and release them from this torment, from this limbo they were stuck at. But Sin Vulpes wasn't that person and would never be.

The school's current state was something weak-minded people wouldn't be able to handle. Sometimes classroom doors would be slammed as Sin Vulpes walked past them. Lots of ghostly noises traveled to his ears, such as cries of misery, screams of pain and even insane cackling. And it didn't take long when the ghosts began to appear to him as well. Their forms were frightening, though they didn't cause even the slightest dread to Sin Vulpes.

First came a ghost boy whose head had got split in half and it was moaning weakly. It seemed harmless; it was just floating around slowly. The man tried to ignore its presence, but the ghost kept lingering around and Sin Vulpes found this to be quite irritating. He took his gun from his belt and shot the ghost – not with a regular bullet, but one made from his own magical energy. This turned out to be effective and the poor specter faded away. From that point on, the man decided to keep his gun out.

Then he encountered a girl with a broken neck, her head limply hanging on the side. It was reaching out for the man with her hands, but Sin Vulpes shot it in the face, which caused it to retreat and fade from view. But right after it came another ghost of a girl, this time her chest had been torn open, showing her internal organs. However it didn't show interest in the man, it was just running away as if being chased by something only it could see. Because of that, Sin Vulpes let it be and continued exploring the school. He found a stairway that led to the next floor and while he was climbing these sets of stairs, he could feel something cold moving past, though he couldn't see what it was. Probably just another spirit. The man didn't give it more thought and just continued climbing the stairs.

Another hallway welcomed him. As he was walking through it, he tried to listen if he could hear the voice of someone who wasn't dead yet, but he couldn't distinguish such a sound. It was just voices of those who were stuck in the past, in the moment when they had got slaughtered. Not caring about them at all, Sin Vulpes kept wandering around the building, his little orb of light providing illumination for him. Soon he came across a ghost of an adult man, probably a teacher. Its throat had been slashed open and blood was spewing from its mouth. This was yet another of those pesky kinds of spirits and it was walking towards Sin Vulpes with its hand outstretched as if seeking help from him. Obviously, he wouldn't get any. Heartlessly the man shot the ghost, forcing it to disappear and then he just moved on.

Sin Vulpes found another set of stairs that he could use to reach the third floor. As soon as he had climbed them up, he could feel a slight change in the atmosphere. Suddenly the air felt colder and he could sense a presence of something wicked. And as he was walking through the third floor, he could see glimpses of something odd from the corner of his eye, reflected on the windows and other reflective surfaces. And it wasn't a tormented ghost. Something else was here with him, but that didn't really matter to Sin Vulpes. If whatever that being was would come his way, he would just get rid of it, it was that simple.

He could see ghastly figures running around, becoming visible and then vanishing again as if they weren't sure how to maintain their form anymore. It started to feel like the further he went into this huge building, the more haunted it became. He could feel how the temperature kept dropping and how sudden gusts of freezing wind would hit against his face. Sometimes objects were thrown in his direction, indicating that the spirits were getting more hostile. He could hear sounds of crashing as some ghosts were trashing the classrooms. But all of this just made him thrilled, these ghastly activities just made his mission more interesting. Wherever his target was hiding, he probably was terrified of his surroundings. Sin Vulpes imagined himself as one more reason to feel frightened, and of course, fear was something he enjoyed seeing on the faces of his targets.

He found himself from yet another corridor where the temperature had dropped so much that he could see his breath. And from this hallway, he found the culprit behind it. In the distance he saw a strange dark figure, whose body was solid, not translucent like the forms of ghosts. It was waiting for him. It wasn't very large and it was standing on all fours like a beast. It was hard to see the details, however, so Sin Vulpes kept approaching it, his gun ready in his hand and the blue orb of light banishing the dark veil. The light touched the creature, revealing more of its appearance. It had a bulky physique, dark red skin, filled with scars and it had metal rods sticking out of various parts of its body and there were chains linked between them. Three harpoons were struck into its neck. It had an ugly head that resembled a deformed dog, various horns decorating the head. Its red eyes were blazing in the dark, their gaze fixed on the man with a gun.

Sin Vulpes smirked a little bit. It seemed like that this turned out to be a little demon hunting mission as well. Was this the fabled demon which the three girls summoned? It seemed too feeble to be one. But it appeared to be the same which he had been seeing briefly in the reflections. It looked like it was going to get eliminated soon.

But before Sin Vulpes managed to do anything, the entity spoke to him with a shrill voice: “You have dark energy… Sweet, sweet dark energy… I want your soul! I want to eat it! I want to gobble it up!”

The man found this to be amusing and he chuckled a little. “That's not going to happen.”

“No! I want it!” the creature screeched and began to dash at the man with incredible speed, it was actually surprising how swift its movements were, considering how bulky body it had.

Sin Vulpes pulled the trigger three times. Three shots of magical energy hit the creature in the face, inflicting wounds that were bleeding black blood abundantly. It stopped the critter and it was shaking its head and howling with a piercing voice that drowned all the other noises of the school. Meanwhile Sin Vulpes casted a huge blue sphere and slammed it onto the floor, causing multiple eruptions of magical energy hitting the creature like a wave. It burst open the being's belly, causing its internal organs to fall out. It was in horrible agony and was wailing miserably while the man walked towards it. He stopped his steps in front of the suffering creature.

“What a piece of shit you are”, the man muttered.

Then he prepared his weapon one more time. He focused his magic a little bit longer; a red glow had appeared in the barrel of his gun. Forcefully he smashed the gun against the being's head and shot a blinding red beam that pierced through the head and throat, ultimately ending the being's life. Sin Vulpes kicked its corpse and continued his mission. Now the air's temperature seemed to become normal again and clearly the critter had been responsible for some of the haunting in the building, but Sin Vulpes couldn't believe that this pathetic being would be the ancient evil that had been released. Maybe the demon's power had gotten exaggerated? Or perhaps the true evil was still lurking somewhere in the school. He didn't know and he didn't care. He still had a mission to accomplish and if there still were demons around, it was better for them to stay out of his way.

He kept walking through the building, witnessing the hauntings until at some point he could hear something that piqued his interest. The source seemed to be in one of the classrooms. It sounded like somebody was mumbling something incoherent and it appeared to be way different than the voices of ghosts; it didn't have the same kind of echo of the past in it. Sin Vulpes made his way closer to the door and he was almost certain that he had just heard his target. His gun ready to shoot, he opened the door to a classroom, his little light orb going in first in order to shed some illumination to the room and he slipped inside after it.

He let his gaze wander around the trashed classroom; desks and chairs were lying around the room in complete disarray and there was one huge red spot on the floor – a stain of blood. And there were still drops falling into it from the ceiling. In one of the corners Sin Vulpes noticed a crouching figure, back turned to his direction. The person's presence felt more earthbound than those of restless spirits and his form was more solid. Sin Vulpes was pleased with himself as it seemed he had finally found his target.

Slowly he walked closer to the mumbling man, whose words still sounded like total gibberish in Sin Vulpes' ears. Shortly he was standing right behind the man, but the crouched person hadn't still noticed him. It wasn't until Sin Vulpes had pressed the barrel of his gun at his neck when he finally was aware of his presence. He winced and stopped his mindless mumbling.

“Found you”, Sin Vulpes muttered with a low voice. “Get up. Somebody's missing you.”

“No, no, no, no…” The mumbling man shook his head aggressively. “You fool! Didn't you see the talisman on the door?!”

In fact, Sin Vulpes hadn't noticed it. But it didn't matter to him anyway.

“I'm asking you nicely: get the fuck up and get your ass moving”, he said bluntly. “I'm supposed to get you out of here alive, but not necessarily in one piece.”

“No, I won't leave this room!” the other man exclaimed. “It's the only safe place in this building!”

“Then why the fuck did you even get in here to begin with?” Sin Vulpes raised his voice angrily.

His target then seemed to forget that he was standing behind him. He started to mumble again: “I'm a fool, I'm a fool…”

Sin Vulpes didn't have the patience to deal with this man's problems so he just grabbed him from his shirt and forced him to stand up. Then he started to drag him out of the classroom.

“No! The demon will get us!” the poor man shouted, his voice shaking a little because of fear.

“I killed it on my way here”, Sin Vulpes answered and dragged the other man towards the gaping door.

“That was just a pup! A runt!” The man was desperately trying to get away from the mercenary's grasp, but he was too strong. “The real one is still lurking in here!”

“Well, if something comes in our way, I'll just shoot the shit out of them as well”, Sin Vulpes stated and pushed the other man out of the room and to the hallway. It seemed like the poor man decided to give up at this point and surrendered to his fate and let Sin Vulpes take him to wherever he wanted. The mercenary grabbed his arm and roughly dragged the man back to the direction where he had come from.

Slowly they made their way through the haunted school, ghosts appearing and disappearing in steady pace. The man showed fright every time a ghastly figure would emerge close to them, which naturally made Sin Vulpes wonder why had this man come to this building in the first place. But what he had learned with his work during all these years, sometimes it would be best to not inquire things. Heck, even now he didn't know why he had to bring this man alive, but it wasn't his job to question it, he had to just do what had been agreed. He could be heartless and cruel, but there was no doubt that he was also trustworthy.

The ghosts seemed to get even more upset, if possible. They were moaning and screaming so loud it was almost ear-piercing. Objects were thrown at the two men so frequently that Sin Vulpes had to cast a barrier of some sort that would deflect them. The ghosts were emerging from the darkness, holding their decapitated heads or severed limbs, screeching with no jaw, their skin torn from different places, and trying their best to keep their internal organs in so they wouldn't fall from their stomachs that had been slashed open. They were horrifying sights to witness and Sin Vulpes' target was often whimpering and closing his eyes as he didn't have the courage to face these horrors. Sometimes the fear would almost paralyze him and whenever this would happen, Sin Vulpes had to push him roughly so he would get moving again. It was a little irritating for the mercenary, but he was able to get the other man to make progress so they could get out of here.

When they had managed to descend to the second floor, a loud, otherworldly roar pierced the air and shook the structure, causing even the ghosts to feel distress. The poor man's eyes widened from horror and he was nibbling the nails of his fingers. Sin Vulpes, on the other hand, was looking into the darkness of the hallway – and smirked.

“Oh, is it the big bad boy?” he inquired, though he didn't target this question to anyone in particular. “I can't play with you now.”

He pushed the other man again so they could get moving once more. The roar was evidence that something powerful was lurking somewhere in here, but if it wasn't coming out of its hideout, Sin Vulpes wouldn't care about its existence. He still had a mission to accomplish.

It seemed like that the roar had driven away most of the ghosts. As the men managed to get to the first floor, the spirits were all scattered around, vanishing from view fast and not really paying attention to the men. Soon they were walking through the hallway where the lockers were and the sight of the entrance seemed to calm the nerves of the poor man. They were finally getting out of this haunted building. Only a few more steps and they were at the doors and Sin Vulpes started to pull them open, the doors screeching again as a result of this action. As soon as they were open again, the roar could be heard for a second time. It sounded angry, but also powerless for it hadn't been able to trap the men in its domain. Right after hearing this dreadful sound again, the poor man had dashed out of the school as if the building had been on fire. But Sin Vulpes calmly looked behind him, saying his goodbyes to the haunted school with his gaze.

“Maybe some other time”, he muttered as if the entity behind the roars could hear him. Then he exited the building and began to walk towards his motorcycle that had been waiting for him to return, and the man he had just rescued from the school was also standing by the vehicle. The doors closed behind him with no one touching them.

As soon as Sin Vulpes got to his motorcycle, he turned it on, its roaring engine now filling the chilly night air of the haunted school's yard.

“Hop in”, he commanded the other man, who did as was told and sat behind Sin Vulpes, wrapping his arms around him.

Then he drove away, not giving a single glance at the building that was left behind. From some of the windows of the school, ghosts were staring out, following with their blank eyes how the living men were getting away, unlike them, for they were condemned to stay in this place, stuck in their moments of demise. And even after the men had left the scene, the ghosts continued watching, almost frozen, envious of the freedom of the living.