Evil Manifest
@shadowstalking‘s On Halloween Night + The Vanishing Act AU
The city of Endsville and its immediate surrounding area had always been a font for supernatural phenomena. Even the skies bore a perpetual greenish hue that weren’t present outside of the city limits. It seemed that everything that didn't originally belong that bled into the world from beyond the veil came from the direction of Endsville. Anything involving 'cryptids', ghosts, or demons, it all circled and traced back to this one particular city in Nevada for one reason or another. It defied reason and logic. Nothing made sense, and it frustrated many a man of science. The governments did their best to simply hide it from the internet, including online maps. You'd have to find it on those old paper maps. The only route to and from Endsville was just off the beaten path. Yes, a beaten path to a city. Endsville had crummy infastructure. The tap water required boiling before consumption, crossroads had potholes, the power went out every other week. On top of that, and all the supernatural happenings, apartment rent was close to dipping down into two figures, making living here a very affordable option for the incredibly desperate. The city was, for lack of better words, a shithole that nobody needed to live in. But it was one for many secrets. And it was very easy to make a living there if you were bearing a questionable moral compass, and if you were real tough.
Mandy owned at least half of it, including both schools. That’s why it didn’t fall apart completely. The blonde was wealthy, always had been. And were she not preoccupied with her own long-term goals, she’d run for mayor and whip it into shape. Alas, she only funded repairs and repavements here and there, and kept the schools supplied with current textbooks, if only to keep the nostalgia going. A juicy little bit of information reached her ears during her visit to Endsville High. When word of a brand new janitor was just hired on that hailed from Illinois - A state with absolutely nothing in it except for the city of Chicago - Mandy was curious. And she was a very, very resourceful person. And once she learned what Michael was? Of course she had to meet him. __________
She held a vanilla folder open in front of her, and read from it verbatim. She didn’t necessarily try to keep her distance from Michael, a comfortable ten feet within the halls of the school on a Saturday evening - Nor did she bring anything to defend herself with. Not that she needed it to begin with. Mandy was a very capable woman with the capacity for graphic violence with only her two hands and two feet. The twenty-five year old cleared her throat, her icy eyes darting over the contents of the folder. ❝’... After the confrontation, the patient disappeared without a trace. Police have reported that the escaped patient is five-foot-ten, was last seen wearing a mechanic’s jumper and a white boogeyman mask. His left eye may be scarred.’ ... And there’s a photo from Smith’s Grove Sanitarium.❞
The blonde flipped that newspaper clipping over and showed it to Endsville High’s newest janitor, while she arched a brow high.
❝Your patient profile is also in here. But frankly I don’t agree with any of it,❞ she returned the clipping back to the folder, grateful that Michael was this quiet, and gave her plenty of speaking room. The way he moved and the way he listened, it was like speaking to a robot, or a cat. She liked that. She liked it a lot. ❝The medication, solitary confinement. Because you weren’t like them. Because you were different.❞ Of course there was also Judy’s slaughter, but it wasn’t a big deal. The graphic murders afterwards? People killed all the time. People died all the time. Mandy never once considered the value of one’s life beyond how useful or fun they were, nor was she bound by what humanity considered a moral compass. Who were they to tell her what was and wasn’t socially acceptable? She didn’t care for who or what they booed for, Mandy knew what they cheered for, what they wanted. They wouldn’t know greatness if it bit them in the ass.
❝I have a soft spot for people that are strange and unusual,❞ Mandy admitted, closing up that folder, before extending it forward toward him. As if showing that there was no hostility to be had here. ❝For people who are quiet. Imposing. Creative.❞ She could see a friend in this creepy, murderous janitor. Mandy didn’t have any friends, not anymore. Bill was doing his own thing. Bonehead was doing his own thing. Junior? Mandy had no idea where she stood there, and she was loathe to ask if he still liked her after the way she treated him during their relationship. It was a weird, lonely time for herself. She was desperate to have some company in her life. But not just any company. Company with someone who had thick skin, who didn’t annoy her. And right now, Michael was her best option. She didn’t care what he was, what he wore, or what he did. It meant nothing to her.
❝Mandy, by the way. I kinda own the building you’re haunting every night. I guess I’m your bosses’ bosses’ boss.❞ She didn’t expect him to respond. Or to speak, period. Which meant that a lot of their conversations are going to be incredibly one-sided. But Mandy knew that Michael was listening, and thinking. ❝... Why don’t you clock out for lunch - We’ll head to the convenience store down the street and grab a couple of burritos. I’ll buy.❞
