📚Of fire and water

Beck is set on investigating some kind of anomaly – as well as taking Isa along for the ride with him.

Characters: Isa, Beck, Tonantzintla, Suika

Warnings: Horror/unreality themes

Wordcount: 3,089

Vibe: uh oh.

i thought this was going to be a short oneshot………….. and then i [whips and nae naes]

some ~adventures~ with beck and isa as a part of the nightmare diaries arc :} if you know you know……..

also. isa’s aunt = suika. she isn’t directly named though as this was  sort of more by beck’s POV and i doubt suika would’ve told beck her  name ASDFGHJ

im not tagging the duo at the end bc they both get like. one line

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“Tell me, Isa… you ‘fraid of ghosts?”

“What… kind of question is that?”

Isa’s face was one of confusion as she glanced from her laptop and over to Beck. He was sort of staring out the window of Isa’s room, tapping his hand a bit impatiently.

“Well, are you?”

Isa shrugged.

“Well, geez, I don’t think I am? Like, I guess all this weird bullshit happening lately has been… odd, but it takes a lot to phase me.”

“Heh, good…” Beck mumbled, before spinning around and taking on a more determined stance.

“Because I think… we ought to go ghost-hunting!”

“…What?” was all Isa responded with.

“Man, even if my aunt is into that brand of weird stuff… I doubt it goes so far as to… ghosts. Those aren’t real.”

Beck huffed impatiently.

“C’mon, now! I’m sure you’d be quick to change your mind when you saw this mess!”

“Well, what isthis mess?” Isa asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Ever since that thing fell from the sky into the neighboring abandoned ranch… I swear, the thing hasn’t stopped burning since!” Beck explained, almost dramatically.

“What’s more… my lil’ sis says she’s been hearing… things, noises from way over there! And she’s scared…”

“I didn’t know you had a sister.” Isa said nonchalantly.

“Hey, that ain’t the issue, Isa!” Beck huffed back.

“Well, if it matters… that’s the kind of thing I wouldn’t fuck with.” Isa replied with a shrug.

“I’m not a professional, so generally I wouldn’t want to risk making whatever is going on worse. Ghosts or not.”

“Man, you’re such a quitter!” Beck groaned.

“You said your aunt is ‘into that stuff’, huh? What’s stopping me from goin’ on downstairs to get her on my side?”

Isa paused.

“I… don’t think you want to do that…” she replied, her voice tinged with concern.

“Heh, watch me!”

With that, Beck stormed out of Isa’s room, despite Isa being quick to verbally protest. He was going to downstairs, but noticed the usually closed door of the room next to Isa’s was open.

Inside was Isa’s aunt, as well as two other women. While the other two seemed to be relaxing around, Isa’s aunt was moving around while speaking – the three seemed to be having a conversation in some language or dialect that Isa wasn’t familiar with.

Hesitantly, Beck stepped slightly into the room.

“Ehm… ‘scuse me, could I have a moment?”

Isa’s aunt was the first to snap her focus to Beck, her glare shooting like daggers.

Quickly, she made pace over to Beck, and positioned her hand on the door to prepare to slam it shut.

“No.” she replied, deadpan and cold.

“Hey, wait, hold on! It’s ‘bout ghosts! Spirits!” Beck cried, as Isa’s aunt was about to cut him off with the door.

There was a pause.

“…Excuse me?”

“You heard me! Isa said you knew about that kind of thing… and I reckon I could really use the help of someone who does, if you’d hear me out?”

Isa’s aunt rolled her eyes.

“…Alright. Fine. You better be quick and make it worth my time, though.”

So, Beck explained it all.

About the thing that fell from the sky, the seemingly eternal burning of the farmhouse belonging to the abandoned ranch it landed in… and the cries and screams his sister had been tormented with since.

And as his explanation went on, it seemed that the expression of Isa’s aunt softened with a sense of interest.

“Fucking hell… I was called in for a meeting tonight too, of all times…!” she groaned.

“Whatever. Whatever!”

She paced around a bit, speaking to the other two women again in the way Beck couldn’t understand, before returning to face Beck again.

“Ugh, shit, okay.” she started again, rubbing her forehead.

“It sounds like whatever the hell you have going on should have been properly dealt with ages ago, and it’s only getting worse. While I wish I could go in and investigate myself… it feels too urgent to leave waiting much longer. Give me a second.”

And with that, Isa’s aunt stormed over to her desk, opened up an elaborate-looking tool chest, grabbed what seemed to be… talisman papers? And began hastily, yet precisely writing on them with a calligraphy brush.

The two other women in the room stared at Isa’s aunt, and then stared back at Beck – before giggling to themselves a bit.

Beck… wasn’t quite sure what to do while waiting, so he had intended to backtrack to Isa’s room – before a mystery hand on his shoulder caught him off guard.

Thankfully, it was just Isa – She was holding her odd-looking cat.

“What… did you DO?!” Isa said in a hushed manner, as to seemingly not interrupt her aunt.

“I explained the situation?” Beck replied.

“Seems like she thought it was serious enough.”

Isa looked… completely dumbfounded, but set her cat on the floor and went to peer over past the doorway alongside Beck.

The two stood by in silence, until Isa’s aunt finished the stack of charms, and wrapped them up before making her way back over to the duo.

“Ugh, alright, okay.” she started, before tossing the charms to Isa without any warning – Isa stumbled to catch them.

“These should… isolate the anomaly, and then implode on it. Clean and simple. Make sure you place all of them around the location, just to be safe. Start recording some video too, once you’re there – I want to see it.”

And as quickly as she came, Isa’s aunt turned around and shut the door behind her.

While Beck thought that was that, there was a quick follow up from the other side of the door.

“And bring Tonantzintla with you!”

“Ah…” Isa mumbled, examining the charms she had been hastily handed.

“Tonantztinla? Who on earth is that?” Beck asked, turning to face Isa.

“It’s, uhh…” Isa started, seeming hesitant.

“That’s, uh… my… my cat. Yeah.”

Beck didn’t entirely buy it, but it seemed like Isa’s cat was at the very least reactive to the name.

“Well! Guess it’s settled, then. Y’alls are comin’ over to that ranch with me after all!” Beck said rather enthusiastically.

“It’s not too long of a drive out from here, so long as y’all won’t mind my music, haha!”

While Isa seemed hesitant still, she ultimately agreed to join Beck to investigate the abandoned ranch and the burning farmhouse.

The truck that Beck drove belonged to his family, and was mostly a farm vehicle – so it wasn’t exactly new or glamorous. But it seemed that Isa didn’t mind, not even after Beck turned on his mixtape of dad rock.

There wasn’t much chatter while Beck drove, as Isa seemed a bit more preoccupied watching the light melt away from the sky.

She wasn’t afraid of ghosts – ghosts weren’t real. But if it was something that her aunt thought was important… important enough to entail bringing along Tonantzintla… 

Isa was afraid it may be something far greater.

Suddenly, Isa’s trance was broken by Beck’s voice.

“There it is, right down over there!” he called, taking a hand off the wheel to point into the distance.

And, in the form of a haunting shadow against the sunset… there it was. The inferno that had engulfed the distant farmhouse seemed to be raging, but something about it was… off.

There was no smell of smoke at all, even though Beck had the truck windows rolled all the way down. In fact… there was no smoke coming from the blaze at all.

For Beck, it was hard to keep focused on driving the closer he got to the old ranch. Not only was the strange blaze itself entrancing, but Isa’s weird cat seemed oddly active now, too.

This ended rather inevitably – as Beck’s eyes were off the road, the car’s path diverted… and with a sudden bump, the trio found their mode of transport logged in a ditch at the side of the rural dirt road.

“Shit!” Beck exclaimed. He tried to put the truck in reverse to free the vehicle, but to no avail.

“Ugh, whatever. At least nobody was around to see that…”

Beck let out a sigh, and there was a pause.

“Whatever. I reckon we’re close enough to just walk.” he mumbled with a stretch, before popping open the driver-side door.

Isa quickly followed in exiting the vehicle, but it seemed as soon as she went to open her door, Tonantzintla bolted out, to Isa’s vocal protest.

“Ugh, Tonan, you can’t just do that!” Isa shouted, as the cat sprinted over to the semi-overgrown road into the old ranch. 

Tonantzintla’s posture was stiff – ears upright, back slightly arched, tail pointed and unmoving.

Isa ran up to the cat, and was silent alongside them – though to Beck, it almost seemed like she was making conversation without speaking.

“Alright, you ready?” Beck said with a nudge as he finally caught up to Isa.

“I, uh, can handle that phone of your to record, if ya want.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever.” Isa replied, still staring off over to the farmhouse.

“Hmm… Beck? You said your sister was hearing screams coming from over there, right?”

“Uh huh, though I ain’t heard anything of the likes myself.”

Isa glanced over to Tonantzintla, who was still in a tense posture.

“Yeah, I wonder what’s up with that.” Isa huffed.

“Whatever. Let’s go.”

The three made their way through the abandoned ranch, over to the farmhouse. While the ranch itself hadn’t been lived in for years, the overgrowth was still relatively navigable. 

The closer the three got to the farmhouse itself though… it seemed that the plant life was less dense and more dead as the proximity was closer. 

Isa was silent, and though Beck felt like saying something, it was almost like he couldn’t form any words. All he could really do was hold Isa’s phone camera up to the inferno as the trio drew closer.

When they all reached a point where the were only meters away from the structure, it was indeed… odd. Visually, the farmhouse was indeed burning, but… it was hard to really make out much details of the true appearance of the structure itself.

That, and the fire didn’t even seem to be… real? It sure looked like fire, but there was no smell, no heat… just fire.

It took swallowing some kind of massive nervous lump in his throat to try and speak, but before Beck could, Isa’s cat did the unthinkable…

“Tonan, hold on-!! The charms…!”

Despite Isa’s protest, Tonantzintla bolted in through the burned-out doorway of the farmhouse.

While it was Isa’s instinct to dash after the creature, she hesitated at the doorway – before glancing around, and continuing to trail the cat.

Beck was in complete shock.

“Hey!! Isa!! What in god’s name are you thinking?!”

He stood his ground, but as the seconds ticking by felt like minutes, he felt he had no choice. Cautiously, Beck stepped closer and closer to the burning structure… and while the flames practically seemed to fade away, they were replaced by an unnerving, haunting whispering.

LET ME OUT

I’M HERE, WHERE ARE YOU?

IT’S BEEN TOO LONG, CAN YOU HELP ME?

The same phrases piling over each other, in a hushed hiss of a voice.

To say he was terrified would certainly be an understatement. Every cell in Beck’s body was begging him to run – that this was a bad idea, that wherever Isa and her cat went, they sure as hell weren’t coming back.

But…

As stupid as Beck’s self-preservation thought it was… Isa was his friend. His only true friend. And he wasn’t ready to lose her to some kind of house from hell.

With a deep breath, Beck stepped past the doorframe – and was suddenly consumed by water on all sides.

The shock of the unexpected transition made Beck exhale his held breath, causing him to panic given his current surroundings. He tried to backtrack, but found the doorway behind him was gone – in fact, it didn’t even seem like he was in a house anymore.

It was difficult to see much of anything, and Beck wasn’t sure how much longer he could go without taking a breath full of water… but then he saw it.

It was one of the charms Isa’s aunt had prepared earlier, glowing softly as it was attached to a vertical surface.

Beck scrambled over towards it, but in such a disorganized manner that he slammed his face directly into it.

Which was when he realized…

The charm was isolating the water in a small ‘bubble’. He could breathe again.

Beck took a moment to gasp for air and catch up on breathing, before he could take another look around.

It was easier to perceive his surroundings when he wasn’t actively fearing death by drowning – but like with the burning exterior, the waterlogged interior was just was completely unintelligible. In fact, Beck found that if he stared at any one spot too long to try and figure out what it was, it just made his head hurt.

Beck was afraid out of his mind. 

He had no idea where Isa was, or even where he himself was. The whispering was getting louder, too – the subtle hissing turning into more aggressive demands the more Beck focused on them. It was overwhelming, and hard to think, and…

An orange glow. This time, it wasn’t one of the talisman charms.

It seemed to be coming from Tonantzintla.

Beck wasn’t sure what kind of cat could glow, much less in the strange, swirling manner that Isa’s cat was. But he was just glad to see them again.

With a deep breath, Beck dove back into the water to follow Tonantzintla. But the cat didn’t seem to stay put – and instead continued to lead Beck deeper into the strange pocket space he was in.

Though Beck was nervous about venturing deeper and running out of air, he continued to see more and more of the charms stuck to various surfaces – allowing him to refresh his breath.

Deeper and deeper Beck went, until finally, Tontantzintla turned a corner that led beck to a dead end – with the creature nowhere to be seen. There was, however, one final charm on the wall… this one much larger than the rest, with a different inscription on it.

Beck wanted to get closer to investigate, but before he could, he was suddenly pulled back into a dry space.

Beck yelped and wanted to fight off the sudden grabbing force as they pulled him in closer, but couldn’t do much before…

“TONAN, NOW!”

It was Isa’s voice.

And then it was white.

There was a ringing in Beck’s ears, and he was half convinced he had just died.

But… the haunting whispers and demands were gone now.

It was still incredibly claustrophobic though, wherever Beck was – and the other person in the dry space, who Beck could only assume was Isa, wasn’t holding him back anymore.

So, with some light flailing around, beck was able to catch some kind of door…

And tumbled right out of the small cabinet where Isa and himself had squeezed into.

It took a second for Beck to gather his senses – he looked around, and it appeared that the cabinet was in the middle of a clearing in the old ranch… a clearing where the burning farmhouse once was.

Isa slowly crawled out of the cabinet as well, dusting herself off a little before looking around for herself.

Tonantzintla was sitting idly, and while their posture was still alert, they seemed much less on edge.

As Beck looked to the horizon, he was shocked to see that it was early dawn… despite the trio having gone inside the house sometime at night.

Beck felt like he’d had enough time to take everything in, and broke the silence.

“Good HEAVENS to Betsy! What the fuck just happened?!”

“My idea is as good as yours…” Isa mumbled, still seeming a bit shellshocked as well.

“…But whatever it was, I guess the charms did as described. Isolate…”

“And implode.”

The new voice shocked Beck, who began to look around frantically for the source.

“Wh… who was that?! Did you hear that, Isa?!”

“You said that out loud, Tonan. Jig is up.” Isa groaned, facing their cat as Tonantzintla hopped up on top of the sole cabinet remains of the farmhouse.

“I know what I did. I simply figured that after all that, your friend here deserves to be ‘in the know’ now, too.”

And though Isa’s cat had never had a mouth, much less one to speak… it was undeniable that they were the one talking.

“Ugh, whatever. It’s been a long enough of a fucking day already.” Isa groaned, and turned to face an absolutely shock-filled Beck.

“Don’t, uh, question it too much right now. Let’s just get home, okay?”

Beck wanted to say… a lot of things, to ask a lot of questions… but he was also exhausted. He figured that whatever he’d gotten himself into this time would be clearer later, and that right now, he just needed a long nap.

With a nod, Beck approached Isa – though, his ears perked up at the sound of footsteps behind him. Isa, who was facing that direction, seemed to tense up… and Tonantzintla became just as aggressively stiff as they’d gotten earlier.

Fearing for the worst, Beck whirled around.

“Now, what are you two even doing out here? You’re not using some random property for your demolition experiments, are ya? Back in my day, my good friend just did that in her backyard.”

It was a woman Beck recognized, being Daichi – the ambassador of the Craterlands and director of the space program. Her voice was lighthearted and warm, and she didn’t seem to be angry.

It was the person standing next to her that Beck didn’t recognize – and seemed to be the person Tonantzintla’s attention was set on.

“I’m… sorry, ma’am. Was just some, er, fancy thingamajig from my friend Isa over here’s aunt.” Beck nodded.

“Won’t happen again, I promise. But pardon, who’s that with you? My grandpa spends a lot of time around the space center so I visit quite a bit, and I’ve never seen ‘em around.”

While Daichi’s expression grew a bit concerned, the stranger alongside her picked up the conversation.

“Ohh, no worries! I’m new around here, haha!” they said with a smile.

“I’m an assistant to the captain here. My name is just Id, pleasure to meet you!”