The teen ran down the deserted road swiftly dodging around the mounds of garbage that had piled up since this area had been a

The teen ran down the deserted road swiftly dodging around the mounds of garbage that had piled up since this area had been a school. The school itself was shut down years ago when the students and staff began disappearing some reappearing mangled in terrible ways.

Milton High had been built over the remains of an old sewer system that had been rumored to be haunted and it was commonly believed by most of the inhabitants of the neighborhood that the haunting had spread to the school above it.

None of this had ever bother the teen however as his father had studied ghosts most of his adult life he knew exactly how to get around vengeful spirits and to tell the truth he went down to the sewer part so often that the spirits down there had long become used to him and these days he barely ever had to defend himself.

All of this and more ran through the mind of the athletic teen as he ran ducking below the over hang of the entrance tunnel his sneakers sliding slightly over the murky water that seemed to have more then enough slime to build a slime monster or two. As quickly as he could the teen climbed up the ladder to perch on his favorite spot.

This spot was one of the safest he had ever found apart from the ladder that was reasonably hard to find in the first place. It was close to six feet tall made of pale gray concrete that formed a circle allowing him to see from all sides. Atop the concrete was a mix of pipes and valves that he had never been able to find out the use for though the tools he had found in the nearby tunnels that he piled there were useful on the rare occasions that he was forced to slay a ghost. Not to protect himself these days because as pointed out before he had long found ways to placate even vengeful ghosts from harming himself. No they by far preferred not to hurt him.. he entertained them in other ways.

Looking down from his perch atop the pipes he was sitting on the teen sighed in regret at the sight of the ghost child staring up at him from the waterlogged stone floor. It was one type of ghost he never wanted to see. There was no name for it as far as he knew but it had a tragic tale. This ghost was the ghost of a young baby who was shot some place on its body by one it trusted to keep it safe usually the parents. From the baby being in this sewer he would say that the parents after shooting the child had dumped it’s body and since the dead tended to congregate here this one had as well.

Looking down as the curious dead that couldn’t seem to decide if it should eat him or what he began to sing to the toddler his soprano voice rising and crashing in the strains of a lullaby as the ghost in the tunnel looked out their burdens somehow easing as his voice washed over them.

Still singing the teen smiled as their sometimes hideously disfigured faces relaxed slightly. This had always been his gift and it was a gift he loved to share with the world, his beautiful singing voice was one of the few things his critical father always complimented him on and he sang whenever he go the chance. Especially after he learned how his singing soothed anyone who was restless even the restless ghosts that haunted his favorite place. Looking down his smile grew wider when he saw that the ghost of the toddler had closed its eyes and lain down closing its red rimmed eyes the lips drawn up to show of his razor sharp pointed teeth slowly relaxing and beginning to cover them. If he could get the little one fully asleep there was a strong possibility that the little toddler would pass. His burden after all while terrible wasn’t something that tethered him here for ever as some of the other ghosts were.

His smile left quickly as the small toddler ghost sat up suddenly its head swinging around to stare at the entrance of a tunnel in interest as the sounds of someone small running through the tunnel echoes to them from it. Soon a young boy who couldn’t be more then thirteen runs out of the tunnel panting as he bent over with his hands on his knees looking around at the open area that several tunnels converged at.

“Hey!” the teen yelled getting his attention finally as he seemed to have not noticed the small ghost that was toddling slowly over to him teeth bared in a silent snarl at the interrupting of it’s oncoming nap. “Hey! Get up here before you get hurt!”

“Get hurt by what there’s nothing here.” The younger teen called back calmly eyes looking around the tunnel for something that could hurt him skipping right over the form of the toddler almost on top of him, the younger teen had seen the toddler coming but hadn’t seen it clearly so assumed it was the other kids baby sibling and couldn’t hurt him, as the older boy grabbed a hammer. The only way to kill a ghost such as the toddler was to smack it hard enough to cleanse the gunshot wound from it, the hammer would help with that as he wouldn’t have to hit it as often.

Looking up at the sudden screaming coming from the other teen he grimaced as he noticed the toddler biting into the lower part of the boys arm. It wouldn’t kill him or indeed hurt him very much as it healed but it was a nasty wound anyway. Yelling once more for the other to join him on his perch the older teen tried to once again sing the child docile but it seemed the blood on it’s lips and what little of it had managed to get in it’s system from the boy’s cut was hyping the ghost up to much.

He frowned as he realized that the younger teen next to him would be followed by the toddler ghost no matter what he did now that it had sampled his blood. He had only been safe from the toddler as he was perched out of it’s reach and it had never had the opportunity to bite him and therefore wasn’t fixated on him. As the younger teen ran ahead of the toddler who was chasing after him as fast as it’s little legs could handle the older teen wondered if letting the other up on his perch was the safest thing to do. After all if the wound to the toddler was as serious as he suspected he would have to hit it more then once and once the other teen was dead the toddler would no longer ignore him no matter how much it liked his singing.

As the younger teen scrambled up and perched near him he waved him further onto the concrete away from the ladder, looking down at the ghost at the foot of the ladder staring up at him one little hand resting on the bottom rung with blood, a shining crimson in the murky light staining the otherwise innocent looking face as it tilted it’s head cutely as if trying to decide if it could climb the ladder or not.

He sighed regret filling his system as the young ghost seemed to fly up the rusted metal rungs of the ladder and come to a stop before him staring up at his face curiously. He knew that the little ghost wouldn’t attack him under normal circumstances but staring into the little eyes filled with a terrible bloodlust the knowledge of how different these circumstances were flooded his system though he did his best to hide it. He would be attacked instantly if the little one sensed that the feared it now.

Relief flooded through him again as the toddler turned it’s head to stare past him and it’s little mouth once again bared it’s bloodstained razor teeth in a sickening parody of an innocent smile at the sight of it’s former victim ad it stepped around the older teen ignoring him now even as the older teen brought the hammer down missing by not quite two inches and striking the concrete floor behind it.

Following it to the other teen the boy swung the hammer again just as it started to reach out for the terrifiede thirteen year old the hammer striking true to the head of the ghost and causing a frown to grace his feature as the ghost paused as if stunned. It must have been a terrible wound was the thought running through his mind as he swung the hammer until the ghost dissolved ignoring the slight blue sheen glowing slightly on the tip of the hammer as his supply of spirit energy in the strikes cleansed the last tie holding it to this plane.