The midday sun shone down with the unforgiving summer heat. Not even the nearby lake and tree coverage could block the intense heat of the sun reaching close to 35 degree celsius.

At this specific lake there were several summer lake homes but only one of them was in disrepair.

At this time, the loud roar of a rusty old Volkswagen Beetle could be heard coming closer and eventually stopped in front of the lake house in disrepair.

“God damn it, why did it have to be today of all days when the fucking sun is so hot.” a rather annoyed man in his 30s said.

Stepping out of the rusted beetle, whose red color was barely distinguishable from the rust on its body, a semi obeses man with stubble beard and brown hair stepped out. He wore a black shirt with the ghostbusters logo on it and a pair of glasses while having shorts to combat the heat.

With the beetle in its current shape, naturally there is no air conditioning so he obviously was sweating like a pig.

That said he wasn’t completely obeses, in fact this is just a minor problem with his metabolism being slower. In fact, he was very fit and instead of being flabby fat, it was all hard and toned due to the exercise he does. If he shaved and put on a police uniform, he wouldn’t look much different from a trained officer.

His name was Mark Black and he was obviously not the owner of the beat down lakeside house.

Mark has a very peculiar hobby that would normally not be any problem if it was just a hobby but he actually discovered how to properly do this hobby. What is it exactly? Exorcism.

He opened the back door of his car and took out a small bag and opened it and took out a string of beads which he wrapped around his right wrist twice before taking a strange item with three claw points on both sides and a hand grip in the middle. He put that in his left pocket where he could quickly take it out before he took out a pack of post it notes but particularly the kind that were rectangles, instead of the square ones, with twice the length over the width.

Taking out several professional calligraphy pens he began to draw on the post it notes making dozens of similar designs before changing the design.

Those with a similar design were put to the side in a pile and he made another pile of a different design until he had about ten before he stopped and pulled out a bottle of icy water.

“I will never accept another job in the dead of summer without checking the weather.” He cursed his luck but nonetheless he finished his preparation.

As you might have thought, the post it are actually talismans. You would expect him needing special ink or special paper but that was not the fact, it just needed the proper design, without any mistakes whatsoever, and energy.

As for the energy, the beads, which were actually quartz prayer beads, helped him channel his energy but he did not know what kind of energy it was and what it was called. He couldn’t freely control it either, he needed the beads as a medium and he needed to chant a mantra to gather his energy to achieve the effect he wanted.

He rubbed his head and got out of the car with the two piles, sticking the second pile of talisman in his right pocket while the other one he held and began to chant under his breath.

In his body a very faint energy began to move and was channeled into the talisman in his right hand and into the paper.

He stuck the post it on the door and began to move towards the windows and stuck one on each before returning to the door and with the key he opened the lock and entered before closing the door but not locking in case he needed to run.

Inside he felt a chill but it wasn’t the same kind of chill you get being in the cold. It was something else. It was an eerie chill common to haunted houses possessed by actual ghosts.

He began to chant quietly and more than half of the energy in his body began to move to the prayer beads before returning to his body and mixing into all five of his senses.

This was one of the things he learned and it was to use his energy to be able to see the supernatural as well as touch and speak to it. Ghosts actually can’t hear human voices unless you infuse energy into your voice. As for spirits, they are different from ghosts.

The house that had no lights turned on and only the lights from the windows became a hint darker as the veil between the mortal and spiritual was partially removed in his eyes.

The chill on his skin became even stronger now that his sense of touch was enhanced and he could now feel the intense regret and anger in the atmosphere.

“Fuck, those bastards, they should have called exorcists much earlier than now!” Mark cursed under his breath feeling the chill on his skin.

His hand instantly went into his packet and he chanted and sent energy to that strange object held in his hand already while he had one of the other talismans in his hand charged.

“Hello! My name is Mark, can anyone hear me?” he shouted.

“They are gone… because of me… leave! Leave before you also vanish!” a raspy faint voice shouted.

After trying to pinpoint the voice, he figured it was coming from the back.

Cautiously walking into the house he eventually reached the living room and kitchen combined room. Looking at the unmoved and dusty furnishing, naturally the knives were plain as day to see, making him frown.

“I really hope this guy can’t do poltergeist.” Mark prayed but just as he took his eyes off the knives he finally saw a shadow.

His body tensed as he could feel the chill in the air originate from this shadow which had a vague human shape and face. That said, he hadn’t been doing exorcism for that many years so he couldn’t see the complete body of ghosts and only in these shadow forms.

“I told you to leave.” it said in the same raspy voice but now it was louder.

“I am just here to help, you seem really agitated.” he said in a calm voice.

Exorcism isn’t simply expelling ghosts but helping them resolve their regrets and feelings that keep them attached to the world.

“They are gone, gone because of me…” he said, sadness filling the chill in the air.

“Who is gone? Is it your family? Can you tell me your name?” Mark asked.

“I… I don't remember… so long… I killed them because they weren’t coming but… now they never come… others who weren’t them came later but this belongs to my family… not them!” guilt and sadness as well as anger filled the chill in the air.

“If you killed your family then why are you waiting here? They have already passed on and you can go.” Mark said, trying to resolve this.

“I can’t… I killed them… I can’t see them now… I can’t… I CAN’T!” he suddenly roared and the shadow around the figure suddenly expanded and the chill surged with emotion and the shadow spread to any loose objects and lifted them.

“Fuck!” Mark cursed and jumped out of the way of the flying knives and objects. “This isn’t getting you anywhere! Are you going to wait here and kill more and more people just because you don’t want to leave!” he shouted.

“Be quiet!... You don’t know… how I feel!” the ghost exclaimed.

The objects stuck to the ground began to get pulled but the most dangerous ones were stuck in the ground so Mark rushed at the ghost.

It probably expected for him to not know where he was or would pass through him but Mark slammed the post it talisman to his face and pushed him to the ground due to the energy in his body.

“W-what!” the ghost said in surprise.

All objects floating fell to the ground. “Thank god, it seems you can only move objects under intense emotion.” Mark said with a sigh. “That paper is a seal talisman which doesn’t let you move or even pass through the ground or walls.” He explained.

“Let… me… go…” the ghost groaned.

“Sadly I cannot, you have caused enough trouble. Not only were there 10 deaths from your own family but another 8 from the people who rented this place for their summer break. It is time you pass on.” Mark said and stood up and went to his car, not worried the ghost would move because the talisman sealed its movements.

In the front truck, he took out a bag with several items, one of which was an incense burner and some tools for lighting it and a journal.

He took them all to the kitchen and lit the incense stick on the kitchen before taking the journal.

First he chanted and focused more energy into his voice and opened the journal which was filled with strange phrases that he began to speak.

“AHHHH!” the ghost shouted almost in pain but as Mark’s voice spread, the chill began to recede to the ghost as it seemed to get weaker but more and more emotional and angry.

Mark kept speaking the phrases until he closed the book and raised his hand, “May the lord above accept this lost soul in his arms and forgive his actions after losing his way.”

The ghost reached its weakest, Mark finally pulled out a small bottle of water. That said this water was actually glowing in the gloom. Furthermore the glass wasn’t common glass but crystal glass.

This was holy water but not the religious kind, in fact this was 95% pure water stored in a crystal bottle which Mark would constantly inject a lot of his energy daily until the water changed. Crystal glass was able to retain the energy without losing it. After the water changed, it could help purify ghosts.

He opened the bottle and poured the water on the ghost.

“NOOOOO!” the ghost shouted but its spirit released smoke and finally burst, vanishing.

The chill vanished and the house itself became warm and brighter at the same instant.

“Seems it was a success.” He muttered and wiped the sweat from his brow.

He threw away the burning coal and incense before using some lake water to clean the incense burner and then removed all the talismans and stored away his things.

Finally he got his phone and called the current homeowners.

“Yeah… I saw the ghost. I was able to exorcize it but I will return tomorrow to make extra sure that there isn’t anything else that is hiding because that one is gone.” He said.

The voice of gratitude from the phone made Mark roll his eyes as he packed up and left.

The following day he returned. He was far happier because the heatwave had mildly subsided so it wasn’t as bad compared to the previous day.

Like all jobs he energizes his body and prepares the attack item in his pocket and enters the house.

As soon as he did though he felt instant danger.

“YOU!”

All he saw was a dangerous shadow with long arms and dangerous claws with red glowing eyes, shouting and appearing before him before everything went dark.

That darkness persisted for an unknown amount of time when suddenly his eyes opened his eyes to a very familiar ceiling of his own home.

“Huh?” he muttered and got up but as he looked around he saw the house empty. “Is… this my home?” he muttered and got up from the ground.

He walked to the door and tried to grab the knob but his hands phased through it. “Huh…” his eyes widened and tried to grab it again. “I’m… a ghost.” he muttered and turned pale and collapsed.