Blue Spirit

The call a few day earlier has shaken Joey to the core, but he had gotten far too good at concealing his emotions. As a result, it often turned into violent bursts of rage. He was too stubborn to talk to anyone about anything, not that he had anyone to talk to in the first place, at least that's what he believed. He often desperately wished that he had an older brother, but his mother couldn't have any more children for health reasons after himself.

Shaking his head, Joey slid off the bed in his hotel room. It was still complete dark outside, so it was nowhere near morning yet. Soon they would be headed to the nearby airport to catch a plane that would fly them non stop to Italy, and their next location. And this was not going to be a pretty one, not that any of them really ever were.

Moving to the small bathroom nearby, he turned on the light and looked at himself in the mirror. His blue and black hair was messier than usual, sticking up in every direction. What little sleep he has was very restless. Reaching into his little toiletries bag, he pulled out a small bottle of hair gel, and went about putting his hair back to the way it usually looked. When he was done, he tossed the gel back into his little bag, and walked back out of the bathroom. He turned on a nearby lamp. He wasn't going to get back to sleep now...he couldn't. Too much was racing through his mind. Shutting his eyes, he exhaled heavily, then grabbed a book his brought with him and sat down by the lamp, opening it to read. It was a non-fiction book about famous haunted places of course. There was nothing else he really read lately.

Before he knew it, one of the guys was knocking at his door saying it was time to go. Joey stood and quickly packed his small suitcase on wheels, then opened the door and came out. He took very little time to get himself going. Something that carried over from the few months he spent in juvenile hall, which he refused to tell the guys about, whenever they asked him questions about what he did in the past for something to do while eating or some other thing. He walked out of his room, closing the door behind him, and followed the older men to a shuttle waiting outside the front doors of the hotel. The driver put their bags into a compartment on the side of the vehicle, then directed them in, before getting going. The shuttle pulled away from the curb, and Joey held onto a metal rod inside, looking out the window by his head. He watching the buildings outside pass by, before the shuttle entered a tunnel that went directly to their side of the airport where they had to check any large bags in. Only Nick and Aaron had bags that large, so they waited in line to check them in while Zak and Joey waited for them off to the side near the security gates.

Just under an hour after they got through the security lines, boarding calls went out for their plane, with the four of them being among the first on. Apparently this trip, to and from Italy, warranted first class seats. It wasn't the high end business class end of the plane, but it was still better than the back of it. At least the seats went much further back thanks to more space. Joey stood on his tip toes and shoved his bag into an overhead bin, before sitting in his window seat. They got a group of four seats, with two facing the other, and a small table in between them. Joey opted for the window seat because he did like to look at the earth and clouds below wherever the plane would fly.

Once everyone was on and buckled in safely, the plane backed out of where it was, and made it's way to the runway. In the back of his mind as the plane rumbled forward, gaining speed for take off, Joey heard Bastion speak, repeating the same thing over and over. "This is not a good idea...this is not a good idea..." Joey wasn't sure what he meant by that, but looked out the window as the plane took off, finally starting it's non-stop trip to Italy. When they landed over there, they'd take a shuttle to their hotel in Venice, which is where the island they were headed to was situated by.

After a couple of hours of flying, Joey grabbed one of the tiny pillows they all got and put his seat back as far as it could go. He put his head on the pillow, then dragged the thin blanket he also got up over his body and turned on his side to face the window of the plane he was sitting by. He was out in minutes, but the others were awake awhile longer. Zak, in the seat next to him, glanced at the younger man briefly, before turning back to face his friends.

"Something isn't the same with our young investigator here now...I can't figure it out...but...it's just...off.." he couldn't seem to speak properly, as he whispered the words to Nick and Aaron. Joey's unseen ghost companion, Bastion, couldn't voice the words aloud, but agreed with Zak on every bit of what he said. Soon enough the plane was above the clouds, what few there were and the land below looked like patches of different plants and earth. Joey only stirred once the entire trip, and it was to take a quick bathroom break. Then he was back into the land of sleep. The next time he woke up, it was because someone shook him awake.

"Yo...Joey...wake up kid. We're coming in for the landing" It was Zak, who had the seat next to him. Joey grumbled, but sat up, setting his seat back into an upright position. He yawned with a slight stretch, then opened his dark blue eyes, gazing about in a half asleep state. The plane went down through a cloud, and in the next instant, he could see Italy below.

"Wow..." he said softly, looking at the buildings below. The plane soon landed at the nearest airport to Venice, and, after converting money to Italian currency and getting their luggage from baggage claim, they hopped into a "taxi" and told it to go to their hotel. Joey pulled his digital camera from his backpack, and turned it on, taking pictures here and there. Going over a small bridge, they were suddenly in Venice, and Joey could make out Povelgia island, their lockdown destination, out in the the water nearby. It didn't look like much from there, but they wouldn't be here for no reason. Something was up with the island, and that's why they were here. After being dropped off, they checked in and dropped their bags off in the rooms they got. All they took was the required equipment they would need that night for the lock down.

After a quick lunch, they went to meet their first guide, who would take them to get a boat to the island, where he would explain more about the island's history. The water was a touch rough as the little boat took them over, but they got there. Joey shivered as soon as he set foot on the island, a sudden ache at his temples also hitting him. All of a sudden he had a feeling something was not right with this island. He turned to listen as it was explained that this island was where doctors wearing creepy masks brought people infected with the Black Plague to die basically. This island was pretty much a death sentence for anyone brought over.

'Damn...that's a breeding ground for hell...' he thought, knowing all too well what a place like this could be like once night fell. There was even a doctor who apparently went insane some say, and committed suicide as a result by jumping from what was a bell tower. Another addition to what would possibly become utter hell. Their guide eventually refused to go inside any part of the island, and they respected that. The boat took them back, and would be waiting for them later to return to the island.
When he got back to his room, he jumped briefly when he spotted the shaggy haired spirit known as Bastion by his window. Joey then shut the door behind him and moved into the room further, turning on the over head light as he did.

"Alright...what is it this time?" he said, looking right at the spirit.

"I don't think this island is a good idea...I...I just get the feeling it isn't...right...and that something will go wrong and..." Joey cut Bastion off right here.

"It's a haunted island...supposedly...and just like anywhere else, something could go wrong. That's nothing new" he responded, throwing himself down on the surprisingly soft bed.

"yes...but this isn't like other places...please...this is a bad idea!" Joey lifted his head and narrowed his eyes.

"It has to be visited. That's a risk investigators have to be willing to take. Even me. So enough. I'm going, and you can't convince me not to" Joey put his head back down, and looked back at the ceiling.

"...Fine...I'm still following you all there...but you'll see...I know I'm right..." The spirit faded from view entirely as always. Joey exhaled sharply and covered his eyes with one arm.

"Right...whatever..." he mumbled. Waiting to go to a spot once in the proper area was the most boring part of things in his opinion. Luckily, it didn't seem to take long this time, and the knock at his door seemed to come almost instantly after Bastion vanished. He sat up, then grabbed his own recorder, self made goggles, and digital camera, and exited the room. Of course at first Bastion was on the verge of being proved right, when their boats motor failed. But then it started working again, and off they went, back to Povelgia island. The boat driver dropped them off, and sped away, hopefully to return as he is supposed to at dawn.

They set up "base camp" as it was, and went over their X's that they'd put down earlier, one of which was at the base of the clock tower the insane doctor was said to have climbed to the top of and jumped from. As they did, the pressure around Joey's eyes and temples got worse, and he had to rub them more than once when no one was looking. It soon became pitch dark, so Joey slid his goggles down and turned them on so he could see with the night vision feature he'd installed in them. The ruins as they were of the biggest building looked even creepier than usual. Walking through the building, the pressure in Joey's head soon became damned near unbearable, but he just grit his teeth, and kept quiet about it.

However, after Zak taunted the spirits, specifically the insane doctors, the feeling changed. Instead of a normal pressure, it changed into a feeling of being attacked or held, and he finally cried out.
"...! Argh...NO! NO! NO!" he nearly chanted, catching the others attention, as he slammed a fist into a crumbling wall, his back turned. Putting the other fist up on the wall next, he kept his head down, as his entire body trembled.

"Joey? What's the matter?" said Zak, moving to go near him. But Nick abruptly got in the way, and told him to wait.

"Stop...something is wrong Zak.." his friend said, as Aaron stood nearby, his camera pointed in Joey's direction. The youngest mans body still trembled for a bit more, as he continued to repeat the word NO under his breath. And then, silence, and it seemed like even the air around Joey's body went still. The teen's chest shook, but this time it was because he was laughing. A dark, insane laugh came from between his lips.

"Ha..ha...hahahahaha!" The teen's voice seemed to have two tones, his normal voice, and a darker, older, angrier voice echoing over it. "Perfect...!" Joey's body straightened, and turned, the goggles up in his shaggy blue hair. The teen's dark blue eyes had an evil, darker tint to them as well.

"I thought I would be taking over your body.." he meant Zak, "but no..this one...this..boy...his body is even better for me..hahaha...!" Whatever had a hold of him made the teen's body look around.

"Interesting...I'd forgotten how much this has changed...but I've had time to watch...and wait...for the perfect victim...ha...finally it's come..! I will not make the same mistake twice...!" It didn't take long to figure out it wasn't a demonic spirit, but that of the insane doctor.

"Rage...hatred...violence...it all brews inside this teenager's body...perfect...just...perfect!" The spirit possessed Joey kept saying.

"Let him go...try me on for size!" Zak tried to draw the spirit out, but it didn't work. Joey's possessed body just arched a thin eyebrow at the older man.

"No...I found my perfect husk to control...so much hatred...I love it!" The spirit clearly hadn't lost his insanity, even after hundreds of years. "I...wait...what's this...oh ho ho...still fighting me I see...I don't think so boy..." he was clearly talking to Joey's actual soul, who had been pushed aside when he was taken over. "wait...how? NO!" The teen tossed a hand up to his head and gripped his hair so tight his knuckles went white. He backed away from Zak, as his other hand made it's way to his hair as well.

"NO! Get out of...my.." the teen went back and forth between himself and the evil spirit. "Your body is mine now...quit fighting it!" With a heavy inhale, and a deep breath, the teen abruptly threw his head back, and it hit the stone behind him with a horrible sounding thwack. His eyes rolled back into his head, and he collapsed, with a soft sound. The echoes of the doctor's spirit seemed to cry out, before something else seemed to chase it away. Bastion, who had followed them to the island after all despite his misgivings, chased the doctor out of the building, unseen by all, even Joey, who normally was the only one who could. The stone was weak, so Joey's head left a crack in the aged minerals.

Standing in shock at first, Zak just looked at the teenager's unmoving body, before snapping out of it, and nearly running over to him. He knelt down on one knee, and gently turned the teenager over. The teens eyes were open, so he wasn't entirely out of it yet. Joey's dark blue eyes darted to Zak, and unseen by the man over him, a tear escaped from his left eye and made it's way to the dusty, aged floor beneath his body. Then his eyes slid shut, and his head tilted to one side. He was finally unconscious, and would remain that way for a long time, with the force he put behind his head hit against the wall. Bastion returned, and knelt on the other side of Joey, looking down on him sadly. He had figured something bad would happen, but this wasn't it.

"They want us to die here..." Zak said out loud so the other two could hear him. "But that isn't going to happen..." he wanted to wake the teenager up, but it could do more harm than good. He had no choice but to lift the teen up, and take him back to their base camp.

Joey's head seemed to flop lifelessly over one of Zak's arms, as he carried him into "camp" and set him down, propping the teen's head up on a duffel bag.

"Come on...we have no choice but to continue..there's a field to check out yet..." he looked at the old doctor's mask in one hand, before turning away from Joey to get what he needed yet for the next part of the lock down. Once he had it, he glanced at the youngest of them again briefly, before turning away and walking,at a relatively fast pace,to the field they'd been shown before that he wanted to investigate.

No more than 5 minutes after they left, Joey stirred, and his eyes open just a touch, his vision still off. His head hurt like hell, but he struggled into a sitting position, fighting off the nausea the movement caused. He could faintly make out Bastion trying to tell him to stay still,but he would have none of it. Something wasn't right, and he knew it. It dawned on him why, and he hurried into a standing position, nearly toppling over again as the room spun for a minute.

"Quiet Bastion...th-the doctor i-is back...I have to.." he paused a second, then continued "to get to th-the guys...I can just feel they are in tr-trouble and they don't even know it...especially Z-zak..." He gathered himself up, and despite his headache, ran in the direction he felt he should go. Bastion didn't like it,but he followed Joey regardless. He felt a connection with the teen, he just didn't know what it was or why yet. Unable to do much else, Bastion could only direct Joey in the right directions, in pitch black, as he ran, hopefully towards the others.

With a wince, Joey slid his self made night vision goggles down over his eyes and turned them on, and he berated himself for not thinking of using them sooner. Then again, his head still hurt like hell after his stunt earlier. He eventually spotted a small bridge with a camera standing on it, and in the field beyond, stood Nick and Aaron filming Zak, who was walking around, wearing the doctor's mask, yelling "remember me?" and the Italian word for doctor over and over. It was then his goggles alerted him to a spirit like the were built for, and it was headed for Zak, from the side.

"No you don't...!" He growled, and knowing the risk of another possession, in fact knowing he WOULD be taken over again, he willingly ran into the field and got in the way some distance from where Zak was. Aaron's startled shout let him know in the second before the unseen force hit, that he'd been seen. The shout got the others attention and they both spun around, only Nick able to see thanks to his camera. Everything was completely dark yet for Zak, who could only ask what was going on.

"Zak..! It's Joey..he's.." Aaron started to say, but he was caught off by a very familiar chilling voice from before, layered over Joey's normal voice, making him sound like he was speaking with an echo again.

"Not here...hahaha...I can say I'm surprised he would come out here with me running...around...so to speak..." The goggles over Joey's eyes luckily blocked how dark and evil they'd become, again. "And it will be a lot harder to get me out this time...no wall to slam his head against out here" And then his voice changed, briefly, to Joey's normal tone.

"No...but.." He managed to fight the evil spirit enough to make his body turn. Not far away was the edge of the field, and below the small ledge of land there, was water. 'There is...ice cold...salt water..." Joey's eyes widened, but he didn't do the movement. And then he was in motion, although he practically ran in every direction and Joey and the insane doctor spirit fought over his body for control of it.

It was obvious who got control at the last minute, when the teen launched himself off land into the icy water with a loud and violent splash. He didn't surface right away, but he eventually did. He began to tread water, and he was very lucky there was no current or riptides and such at the moment. But the water was like ice, and he kept his mouth closed as possible to avoid making his teeth tapping together as he shivered too obvious. Coughing, he spit out the nasty tasting water, and looked up a little. A hand reached down, and he was barely able to reach it. The hand gave an almighty tug, and pulled him out enough to where he could crawl the rest of the way up. He turned his head, body still shaking like crazy from the cold water he was soaked with, and noted the sky getting light in the distance. He was abruptly picked up, and carried back to "base camp", before he could protest, not that he was really able. He was shaking and shivering too much to really get a word out of his mouth. It was a long few minutes to wait until they were let out, to go to the boat waiting for them.

He was helped past the concerned boat driver and the person who let them out, and put in the middle of the boat. He barely heard Zak tell the boat driver to drive, and to drive as fast as was safely possible. By the time they got back to the mainland as it was, he felt like a walking ice cube.

Thankfully their hotel wasn't too far away. It was closer than the nearest hospital even. He felt his key card taken from his hand before he could do much, which was in a way a good thing, as his hand was shaking too much to even get the key in the slot properly. He drew the line at his clothes however, still awake enough to handle that part himself. Shy about doing what was required next, he convinced the others to allow him surround himself in multiple blankets on the hotel room's small bed once he was done. They turned around to look at nothing in different directions, and he let them know it was okay once he had enough blankets over him. Thank god for the extras they got on request. He desperately wished for his mother, but she was too far away to help him now.

He was a right wimp when he wasn't full health as it was, so he turned pleading, nearly child-like dark blue eyes to look at Zak and the others. It was like he was silently begging for help or someone to start talking to him while he laid there under the covers. Zak rose to the challenge, not that it was one. He sat on the end of the teen's bed and quietly talked to him. The one thing to get Zak's attention was when Joey mumbled something about juvenile hall, and he asked him what he meant by that. Joey's tired eyes went wide, then he cursed briefly, before letting out a resigned sigh.

"If you have the patience I guess I have a story to tell you...I...got into trouble in the past..." And he took a deep breath to prepare himself for the story to come.

end chapter 3