Blake x Ella - Starter
@iamblakelove
Most people hated their jobs. She knew that. She’d seen everyone from those working at desk jobs to those working in the center of the action, up all night. But she /hated/ her job. Using her gift was something she despised with every bit of her being. Not only did it put her on the slow descent into insanity as it drove all necromancers, but she was often plagued by the ghosts as soon as they realized what she was. She rarely ever slept, between the nightmares and the ghosts whispering in her ear all hours of the night. She supposed it wasn’t all bad, sometimes she got some good ghosts. In the morning though, she begrudged leaving her bed every time. Yes, she definitely hated work.
Ella had been called by a man who owned a set of condos. They were a newer development from what she understood, which was unusual for hauntings. She asked the usual questions. How old was the building? Any deaths on sight? Background checks on the tenants. All the usual things. When she hadn’t gathered anything besides a couple of elderly people passing away, she decided the best she could do was look around the apartment. Most times it was nothing, she expected that much at this point. The landlord had given her the master key and had offered her full clearance. She supposed that came with such high reviews.
The brunette decided to head in as the evening was setting in, roaming the hallways. No ghosts thus far. It wasn’t until she got to the staircase that she started seeing spirits. They definitely didn’t fit the usual bill. They noticed her quickly, but she tried to ignore most of them. She realized that the hotspot of it all was the third floor. There were an unbelievable amount of spirits, and most centered around room 312. So she knocked on the door. She might have a key, but she was still trying to be polite.
Even though Blake felt the instant feeling of home when they got sent to earth, he still struggled at first. He was back in the place where he caused his mother’s death. Anxiety plagued his every move. It was easier to just to stay in their apartment then to risk going out into the world where he could possibly harm anyone else. That was simply the mind set that he was in. Slowly Axel managed to coax the male out of the apartment for small things and he managed to find his grasp on life again. The small town that they were in brought a community feeling. Even for the introverted Blake who tended to keep to what he knew.
Axel was out more than likely protecting earth from Jacob who was no doubt causing chaos to people who didn’t deserve it. For once Blake had the condo to himself. In his own company his mind began to wander. With everything Blake had gone through the places that it wandered weren’t particularly pleasant. His mind was moving to a place that could only be described as a living nightmare when the knock of the door alerted him back into his present state. As he walked over to the door he attempted to shake off all of the bad energy. As if that was something he actually had control over.
Blake simply opened the door without checking through the peephole, being surprised by a young looking brunette. Squinting his eyes carefully the male’s brown hues lingered behind the girl for a second and into the stairwell before focusing his attention back on the girl. She didn’t look at all familiar and since moving into the apartment the only people that had come to see him were people that he was related to. Nobody else even bothered knocking on their door. They didn’t bother anyone else and they didn’t bother them. “If you’re looking for the male entertainer he’s in 212,” he quirked, not entirely knowing what to say. His introvert natures were taking over.
She could already feel the sheer amount of spirits weighing on her. They all had stories, ones they whispered in her ear. Perhaps one at a time was a manageable number. But the volume of these spirits had reached insanity levels. There was no way a new apartment complex had cultivated so many property deaths in such a short time. It was hard to sort out the difference voices. They all blurred together, becoming a cacophonous harmony that she had to listen into. She could already feel a headache gone. No wonder there’d been complaints by the tenants. She suspected there were so many even the tenants could sense them.
Not to mention the various strength she could sense in the spirits. She had no doubt they could corporealize or throw things around if they wanted. One thing she noticed was that almost all the spirits were modern. They all seemed to be wearing average clothing and didn’t seem out of place for the time. All ages, old and as young as teenagers. She wasn’t entirely sure what to make of them all, she just knew something strange was happening.
Room 312, that was the center of it all. She could tell. She tried to resist the urge to wince as she walked to the room. Hopefully she could get to the bottom of this and hopefully find a way to purge the spirits from the room. Chances were she’d probably have to stop to an occult shop. The man who opened the door didn’t seem like someone who’d attract so many spirits, but there was definitely something strange about him, she just couldn’t put her finger on what that might have been. Ella chuckled a little at his words, even if it was hard to find laughter with the headache she had. “That’s not really my style,” she commented. “I’m maintenance I guess you could say,” she held up the master key she’d been given. It was always weird explaining what she did. People either suddenly clung to her, demanding she speak to their loved ones or they laughed in her face.
Blake was the complete opposite of what anyone would expect from a demon. He didn’t have a malicious bone in his body, his mother made sure of that. Honestly that was probably the best present she could have given to him. The small time he spent in hell was like experiencing what could have happened. Another world, another version that he could have been. The thought that his mother gave up so much to protect him still pained him. After everything she did he couldn’t do anything to save her. He was after all the whole reason behind her cruel death. That’s how Blake saw it at least. He couldn’t help but feel as though if he had done something differently, or knew about himself beforehand that he could have done something to prevent it all from happening. Ever since he simply felt as though a darkness was hanging around him all the time. A thought that he simply couldn’t shake.
Confusion was the first thing to cross his mind. Since moving in he hadn’t really had anything to do with the owner of the building or maintenance works of sorts. As long as rent was paid on time he wasn’t bothered. Blake didn’t completely trust strangers. Knowing his past that wouldn’t have been a stretch. But there was something about the girl that seemed genuine. After all, she did have a key to the apartment and could have easily just walked in unannounced. Offering a simple shrug of his shoulders, the brown haired male took a step back and opened the door a bit wider to allow the girl in. “Be my guest,” he mumbled as he made an effort to clean up some of the things that strayed and messed the apartment. He hadn’t exactly been expecting company and it definitely showed by the mess.
She was maintenance, in a way. Only she was being paid to clean up a ghost problem as opposed to fixing pipes or doing general janitorial services. She suspected she was getting paid a lot more money than most janitors and plumbers did. Not that she’d ever been the type to brag about her finances. Instead she preferred to keep it quiet, especially since the way she got her money was nothing to be proud of. Sometimes, she genuinely helped, but most of the time she told people what they wanted to hear. There wasn’t a lot of money in the truth.
“Thanks,” she smiled a little, more than happy he hadn’t been difficult. The building manager had made it seem like there would be a little bit of pushback about her entering the apartment. At first, she wanted to tackle those who’d reported sightings, but she needed to get an idea of where they were coming from more importantly. It was hard to focus on keeping a friendly conversation when she had a million little voices whispering in her ear.
Ella stepped into the apartment and glanced around. “Don’t worry about cleaning up, I’m not going to tattle to the landlord,” she said with a little chuckle. “Have you noticed anything strange around your apartment?” She decided to start in, pulling out a little notebook. Sometimes she was forgetful, whether that was from former drug addict brain or from how overwhelming ghost experiences could be. “Cold spots, sounds at night that don’t sound like they belong, that kind of thing?” She asked, figuring dipping a toe in the pool and getting some answers would be better than jumping in head first and getting nothing but the usual judgement looks. She was freezing herself with the spirit presence, she could imagine even the civilians were feeling some of that.
In a sense Blake had always been protected financially. Before his mother was the person who protected him and worked tirelessly to give him a life that was as mortal as possible. Giving him everything he needed for survival. Now it made more sense why she didn’t want him getting a part time job. She feared Blake would be found out and taken away from her. The pain of being the cause that she got taken away from him was still looming around him. It was only his quirky behaviour that stopped others from being able to see through to that. Now since he was essentially under a mission his trip wasn’t exactly a time to need to get distracted by an earnest way of living. Part of him despised the thought. As though Lucifer would realise he was trying to interfere with his plans and simply pull him back to hell.
Had Ella knocked on the door with Jake on the other side of it there was probably going to be one outcome - a slammed door in the face while some threat was shouted. Blake didn’t have the same morals as his brother which made him more human than demon at this point. The worst this girl was going to experience was the male’s sheer awkwardness mixed with possibly a sarcastic comment. “It might have been a while since I’ve had anyone actually over that’s not related to me. But don’t maintenance people actually do something like.. maintenance?” he questioned with a raised brow as he noticed the brunette looking around like she had seen a ghost. “Not just stare into the abyss.”
It was obvious at this point that this wasn’t just some maintenance call. If the look wasn’t enough the odd questions only emphasised that point. “If you’re talking about cold wifi spots I can guarantee you that they happen all the damn time,” he rambled out before realising that probably wasn’t the answer that she was looking for. Conversations was something Blake struggled with considering he was so used to being in the same company. His curiosity for what was actually going on was only growing by the second. For once he might actually have something to interest him besides the four walls that constantly surrounded him. “What kind of broken heaters require those questions?” It was true his apartment wasn’t complete without problems. Getting up during the night was like waking up in an ice box. During the day there was at least the natural sun to warm up the place. With everything that Blake had gone through though he didn’t think twice about it. All he focused on was the fact that he was finally away from hell.
It wasn’t exactly easy for her to do her job in a lowkey matter. It wasn’t like she could easily secretly say ‘hey have you noticed any ghosts?’ It wasn’t something that rolled off the tongue and it was something that was easy to disguise. And most people didn’t react well when she spilled the truth. But at least she could try to get some honest answers before she dropped the ghost bomb. People were either overly receptive or showed her the door the minute she dropped the bomb. She was trying to read the room, figure out what all these spirits were doing here. “Sorry,” she said as he spoke, turning her attention to him. She offered a small smile. “I’m just trying to see if I can hear the problem. A lot of people reported noises,” again, it wasn’t a lie. It was just the truth. Not all of it.
She knew time was ticking before he figured it out. If she didn’t get some solid leads as to why the ghosts were gathering around him and this apartment she would be at a loss for a new lead. His comments about the wifi spots had her chuckling a little. “I’ve always found that a booster solves that problem,” she remarked rather lightly. Ella took once more glance around and figured she was just about out in the fact she wasn’t the basic maintenance worker. “Well, the landlord called me in to have a look at complaints from other tenants. I’m not the common worker really. I’m what they call a medium,” she didn’t use the word she learned as the proper term. Most times people didn’t recognize those. “And I noticed there’s a lot here. And they’re all centered here, in this apartment.”
The longer that the petite brunette stood in the room with Blake the more he got a sense that something was wrong with the young girl. Actually wrong may have been a poor choice of words. There was something more to her that Blake couldn’t quite pick up on. But she felt a lot more than just the average human he saw on a day-to-day basis around the peculiar town. It only intrigued Blake to see what perspective that the girl had on the world. “I did mention about the male entertainer in the building, right? Because that’s where most of the building’s noise comes from,” he commented automatically. His nervous rambling taking over before he could actually put a stop to it.
Coming to the conclusion that he had probably put the poor girl through enough just by being in his presence Blake bit his tongue and decided to stare at the area of his apartment that she seemed most fixated on. It wasn’t particularly interesting decorative wise. Blake never had been one for collecting too many things since he’d arrived back to the human world. Part of him was still scared that one day his father would simply have him uprooted. That was why he was working on getting a place that his father and brother didn’t know about. One they couldn’t trace him too. Then at least he would have a sense of home again. “Medium,” he repeated her own words before they actually sunk in and her realized what she meant. “Wait, you mean like ghosts and that?” By this point his brows were scrunched up as he turned his gaze back onto Ella. If ghosts were haunting his current apartment, that just gave him a second reason to go. He was already haunted by his own demons he didn’t need others literally following him.
