Rocket tells everyone a creepy ghost story and they soon find there is a ghost on their ship
(Another story that’s not a reader insert, just FYI :) )
-----
“...and there was nothing there!” Rocket finished his story dramatically, throwing his arms in the air. A shudder when down Pete’s spine, even though he was pretending to the best of his ability that he wasn’t even a little bit scared.
Peter scoffed, “Yeah right. There’s no way that actually happened”
“Yeah it did” Rocket insisted indignantly.
“Now way. You made it up, it’s just a ghost story. It’s not true”
Drax frowned, “Ghost stories are true”
Peter rolled his eyes, “Not you too - the whole point of ghost stories are that they’re made up just to scare you, but they’re made up”
“I have heard this story many times before,” Gamora said, “It is true. I once met someone who was there”
“Seriously! Come on, that’s BS, it must be!” Peter folded his arms.
“I am Groot!” Groot said, enthusiastically.
“See,” Rocket said, “Even Groot says it’s true”
“Yeah yeah, well I don’t believe any of it”
Drax turned to Rocket, sitting up straighter, he said “If you had not said, I was going to warn them off the ghost. I am glad that someone else was aware of the danger”
“We’re not in any danger!” Peter said loudly. This whole conversation had happened after he had landed the Milano on planet for the night. Gamora had been the first to ask if he was sure of the place that he had landed, then Rocket had brought up the ‘ghost’.
Later that night, after all the Guardians had returned to their rooms (though both Drax and Gamora said they weren’t going to go to sleep in case of the ghost), Peter was struggling to get to sleep. He was warm and comfy in his bed, and he was more than certainly tired, but ever noise he heard made him jump and look for it’s source. It’s just a dumb story, he told himself, there’s no such thing as ghosts and the story that Rocket told was made up. There are no ghosts. But he couldn’t say that he was entirely convinced.
Eventually he was nearly asleep, he could feel himself relaxing and was just about to nod off, when there was a very distinct knock. He jumped up, staring. He looked all around his room, but there was nothing there. Just a dumb story.
Peter got up and grabbed his blaster, then got back into bed, pulling the covers up to his chin. Just go back to sleep, he told himself, it’s just a dumb story. But now he couldn’t sleep, he was wide awake.
Time lost all meaning. He couldn’t tell if he’d got up five minutes ago, or an hour and a half ago. He jumped slightly at every little noise. Until, it came again. A very definite knock... this time on his door.
He lept up, threw the door open and aimed at... nothing. There was nothing there. Peter just stood there for a while, his eyes wide, his heart racing, his breathing slightly ragged. “No” he breathed to himself.
A light came on. “Quill?” It was Gamora.
He peered out, down the ship, “Y-yeah?”
“Why are you out of bed?” she asked, coming down the corridor.
“Someone knocked on my door!” he said immediately, accusing someone and no-one at the same time.
“I didn’t hear anything”
“No, it did! It knocked on my door - and- and I heard it earlier as well” Peter sounded vaguely manic.
“I heard nothing, and I have been awake the whole time. Your mind must be playing tricks on you” she said, in a voice that Peter found far too relaxed.
“Y-yeah? Well... How do I know it wasn’t you that knocked on my door? Huh? And you and Drax and Rocket are all just trying to screw with me?”
“Why would I bother?” she looked unimpressed.
Peter sighed loudly. “You know what, never mind. I’m just sleep deprived or something, I’m going to sleep”
Gamora looked him up and down critically. “Okay”
Shortly, he said, “Night”
“Good night”
He shut his door again, putting down his blaster, he dragged his hands over his face, “I need to sleep” he mumbled, getting back into bed. He grabbed his walkman and put the headphones on, turning on his music. If he couldn’t hear any stupid noises he’d be able to sleep just fine... he hoped.
Well, it worked - for a bit. Peter came round, almost 100% sure he could hear someone calling his name. He waited to see if he could hear it again. Was that...? He wasn’t sure. He took his headphones off and listened to the silence for a while. No voices, no noises, no knock- there was a knock. On his door. Again.
He froze. He had definitely heard that. He waited, his heart racing. There was nothing, nothing at all. He shook his head. Peter took his headphones in his hands again and raised then to put them back on - but there came another knock. Closer this time. On the wall next to the door, closer to him.
His eyes went wide. “No” he whimpered.
Quietly, he got up, staring at the door and wall. He grabbed his blaster again. He waited. One hand was ready, poised to throw the door open at the next knock, the other was prepared to fire.
Knock.
The door was thrown open. Peter charged through. He fired... at nothing; there was nothing there.
A small commotion was heard as the other Guardians got out of bed, woken by the blaster fire.
“Quill?” the first voice was Drax. “What are you shooting at?”
“Dude! What the shit?” Rocket grumbled.
“I am Groot”
“Quill? Again?” Gamora said, exasperated.
He turned to look at them. “There was more knocking! Three times! I swear to God I’m not lying! It must have been right there!” he gestured with his blaster.
“What must have been right there?” Drax asked.
“The- the ghost!”
Rocket laughed, “So you admit it? It is true?”
“I didn’t say that!”
“You said the ghost was knocking, man, you said it!” Rocket folded his arms, looking smug.
Peter groaned, “Okay! Okay. Fine. The story was true. And now the ghost is going after me!”
“So why the Hell are you trying to shoot it?” Rocket asked.
“Because that’s the logical thing to do!” Peter frowned incredulously.
“Dude, were you even listening to what I said? It only kills people who see it. You don’t see it, you’re fine”
“It was knocking on my door! And my wall!”
“Uh hu - but you didn’t see it. So why are you trying to kill something that’s only gonna kill you if you see it?”
Logic started to flow into Peter’s head. If he tried to shoot it, he’d have to look at it, then it would kill him. “Well... what am I meant to do?” he asked weakly.
“Stop trying to shoot the ghost for a start” Gamora said.
Peter’s shoulders slumped, “Well yeah, I got that. But-“ he stopped speaking abruptly, staring past the other Guardians into the corridor where a shadow had just flashed by.
“What is wrong?” Drax asked.
“I ju... it wa... I... I j...”
Rocket raised an eyebrow, “Quill?”
Peter pointed past them, “I just saw... something”
They looked at each other before Rocket asked, “What exactly did you see?”
“J-just a shape” Peter shook his head.
Rocket looked to Gamora and Drax, “That doesn’t...? I mean, that doesn’t count? Does it?”
“No”
“Yes”
Drax and Gamora looked at each other and frowned.
“He saw it” Drax said.
“But he didn’t actually see it, he just saw it’s shape”
“But that is still it”
“But it’s not like he looked at it’s face”
“Is that important?”
“Guys!” Peter interrupted, wide eyed and panicking. Once all eyes had returned to him, he made up his mind. “We’re leaving”
“What? Now?” Rocket asked.
“Yes now!” Peter stared at him as if he was mad. “If we leave it can’t follow. Can it?”
“I don’t... I don’t think so” Gamora said, uncertainly.
“Perhaps” Drax added, unhelpfully.
Peter let out a tense sigh. “Ghosts are bound to one place. That’s how I was always hold. We’re leaving, right now, and we’re never talking about his again”
The others nodded, watching carefully around them as Peter stormed to the captains’s chair and started the engines of the Milano. Within minutes they had jumped several quadrants away.
Peter was still shaky, but he was slowly beginning to calm down. “Do you want to go to sleep?” Gamora asked, fully aware that he was near exhaustion.
“Nope” he said. He stook his head, staring straight out into space.
“Quill-”
“Nope. I’m fine. We’re not talking about it. I don’t need to sleep. Okay?”
follow me on Bluesky if you’re doing Bluesky and if you’re not doing Bluesky follow the trail to your heart for there is mirth in the soil and truth in the sky
Such an odd request. Garlic soup? Why would this lorge tree man want garlic soup?? In fact, why would anyone want any sort of garlic at all, given its obvious evil tendencies? Lainey went to the plane's kitchen (which is a thing that planes definitely have) to place the order, muttering "I don't get paid enough for this." However, weird as the day already was, it was about to get even weirder.
As she walked into the kitchen (which planes definitely have), she was taken by surprise. This wasn't the normal chef (a job that is definitely on planes). This was a large pile of apparently sentient rocks. "emm hello who are you?" lainey asked. "allow me to introduce myself, my name is Korg, I'm kind of like the leader in here" said the rock man. Lainey stared into the camera like she was on the Office, basically dissociating because of the absurdity of the situation. "Over here, pile of rocks waving at you, over here! But don't let that intimidate you, unless you're made of scissors" he continued. There was a squeak from behind and Lainey screamed when she saw the creature. "what is THAT" she cried. "That's my chef's assistant Miek, he's good because he has knives for hands. He chops up all the garlic.
"okay well there's a tree out there who wants garlic soup, can you get that to him" she asked. "no u" replied korg.
"This job is not worth it" said lainey as she wondered how life had come to this.
