It seemed that Hargeon wasn't the only place was starting to become 'infested', as some put it, by the spirits of the recently deceased, just as Odin had imagined. He had recently left the port town after meeting Melissa: a spirit who's final wish had been to ruin her cheating ex-boyfriend's date with his current girlfriend, something which the dark mage had delighted in doing, as it brought him joy just as much as it allowed Melissa to pass into whatever came next. But she was not the last one, as Odin had heard many stories of similar cases occurring all around Fiore, one of which was happening right now in Magnolia, the town he just happened to find himself in. There had been a flyer put up in the mission request board for someone to appear and get rid of this new spectre, but Odin had taken down the flyer for another reason, not interested in the piddly amount of money that was being offered for such a complex job, especially since these people wanted the ghost captured to experiment on. Odin had much simpler plans in mind, mostly because he was still interested in these new 'Pumpkin Pops' that he had received from Melissa for completing his previous task. The 'currency of the damned' as she had called them, and something that apparently Odin could exchange for other gifts, although he still knew very little about the entire situation. Not that it mattered too much, since currently he cared more about getting more of them than finding out their purpose. Besides, he had no idea how long the restless souls would remain on Fiore: he would have to act quickly to collect as many as he could before that time passed.

The flyer didn't give a location for Odin to meet his client, and instead just provided a rough location of the spectre that had to be removed. The location was extremely interesting, if a little cliché: a mansion that was rumoured to be haunted in Magnolia, although this rumour had started long before the dead girl's wandering spirit had been noticed. Perhaps she was the haunter in question, or perhaps there was more to it. Considering she needed to pass on to the next world, Odin assumed she wasn't spending her days giving people slight scares if they were so 'brave' as to enter the haunted mansion. Besides, there was another reason Odin severely doubted that she was the one doing the haunting: she stood outside the house, shaking as if terrified to edge even slightly closer. Something in this house was scaring a dead girl, which caused the demon prince's vessel to grow ever more interested. The mansion was known to be empty of normal life, but very few things that had happened in the past few days could be deemed 'normal', and so the olive haired mage was willing to keep his eyes, and his mind, open for whatever could appear next.

505

Approaching the girl, Odin noted that she was slightly different from the one he had previously encountered, mostly due to her very human like appearance. While Melissa in Hargeon had been formed of a wispy, ethereal blue energy, this girl, who's name Odin had yet discovered, looked almost like any other girl, if not for the fact that she was black and white, dressed in an old style dress with two long, black pigtails that fell on either side of her face. Her pale visage held a constant expression that just could only be described as 'resting bitch face', while her hands played lightly with her hair, before she noticed Odin and instantly ran up towards him, her facial expression never changing, despite her voice being one of pleading.

Oh hello mister, please you've got to help me. I don't know what I'm going to do. They've got Mr. Smelly in there, he's been so alone for so long, and I need you to save him, oh please save him mister.

After failing to completely process the abundance of information that he had just been given, Odin requested that the little girl take a deep breath, slot down, and start from the very beginning. She nodded, and then got started once again, speaking just as quickly as before, but attempting to take more breaths in between sentences to make it easier for one to understand her.

Okay, sorry mister, let me try again. My name is Annabelle, how do you do? She began as she made a slightly curtsy gesture by way of introduction, something Odin knew to have been a common way of greeting in the days long since past.

I used to live in this house a long time ago, but now I'm dead. My parents and big brother all died suddenly one day and no one ever knew why, and then I died too, by the same thing that killed them: a horrible bad man with a big knife and scary mask. She shuddered briefly at the thought, which Odin couldn't blame her for, as she had just remembered the moment when she had been brutally murdered, that'd be difficult for anyone to recollect, let alone a child.

But when the townspeople took me and buried me, they left Mr. Smelly in my room. Mr. Smelly was my favourite toy of them all, a teddy bear with a suit and top hat. I really wanted to be buried with him, but I can't go back in there, the scary man is still there. He's the reason why all the servants left, and he lives in the house now, which means I can't go and get Mr. Smelly. Please can you go in and get him for me? I don't mind what you do to the scary man, you can ignore him altogether if you want to, but just bring me my teddy back. I want to sleep with Mr. Smelly.

506

Damn, that was a lot of information to take in, even after Annabelle slowed down to explain in as much detail as she could. After all, it was just a young child's mind remembering everything it could from before she had died, and who knew how long ago that was. It was understandable that she didn't know exactly what she was talking about, it was Odin's job to pick out the essential parts of her story and work out the truth from there, which he briefly did before venturing into the haunted mansion. The details were rather obvious once he knew how to pick them out from the girl's strange story.

There were three important pieces of information that the dark mage had to take into account. the first was very simple: there was no one else living in that house, which meant he could use his magic and exploits to their fullest without worrying about being detected, or letting the world know about his guild. That was probably the only extremely beneficial piece of information that he had grasped, as the rest were extra difficulties with the otherwise simple 'search and find' mission.

The second of the three items was the monster, or the bad man, or whatever he really was. It seemed he wasn't among the living, otherwise Annabelle wouldn't be so afraid of him, nor would she state that no one lived there, which meant he was a type of spectre, and no doubt a pain in the ass Odin would have to deal with. As much as it made things more difficult, it at least kept his life interesting.

The third was more something Odin had inferred from what he had been told, as opposed to something he had been flat out told. The girl had lost her teddy bear, but hadn't mentioned where she had died. Although, her family had been killed before she had, and where else would a little girl hide if she was scared than in her own bedroom, in her bed with the covers pulled over her head to keep the monsters away. This was the dark mage's thoughts as he entered her bedroom, having already walked into the house, and found the girls room. There had not been any indication that he wasn't alone, not yet anyway. He understood why as he entered the bedroom, seeing a demonic spirit standing, waiting, a butcher's knife in his hand. He didn't move until Odin entered the room, but it wasn't Odin who entered the room.

"Superbia..."

The blond haired demon entered the girl's bedroom, and the spirit recoiled in fear, having never seen a true demon before. Without a second thought, Lucifer incinerated the spirit, before easily locating the girl's teddy and returning it to her. She was extremely excited to be reunited with her Mr. Smelly and, as her spirit began to fade into the darkness, the olive haired mage thought he saw her family join her. At his feet sat three more of those pumpkin pops. Another soul passed on, and more of this strange currency in hand, Odin moved onto the next one.

538

-Exit-