m_findlow

Title: Haunted
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Gwen, Ianto, OCs
Author: m_findlow
Rating: M
Length: 50,847 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for spook_me 2020 Prompt - Ghost
Summary: The team investigate rumours of a haunted house in rural Wales.

Gwen must have shifted a full foot of earth by the time Father Michael reappeared by her side, armed with a rusted looking shovel. He began to dig it into the ground, which was becoming more and more firmly packed the deeper Gwen dug.

‘Be careful,’ she warned him. ‘Don’t dig in too sharply.’ She had no idea if Ianto was inside a coffin or not and didn't want to injure him with a stray shovel blade. She prayed he was safely inside some kind of box, where there was at least some air to breathe. His body just lying in the dirt didn't bear thinking about.

They dug and dug. Gwen's arms ached from the effort and her shoulder rippled with white pain. Tears sprung into her eyes and she couldn't tell if they were from pain or her growing desperation. They must have dug down at least four feet by now and there was still no sign of anything. How long had it been? Were they already too late now? She begged for the sound of Father Michael's shovel hitting something solid, letting them know they were almost there. She would have cried out in delight at the feeling of wood, or of flesh, regardless of what unknown fate lay yet ahead.

Her tears were beginning to spill down her face as she forced herself to keep digging, dropping down into the hole they'd made to throw the dirt out of it by the handful, scratching down as deep as she could. In her frustration at their lack of progress, she grabbed the shovel from Father Michael's wrinkled hands and forced it into the ground as hard as she could. They must surely be close!

Father Michael resumed pulling away the dirt with his bare hands, before pausing as he knelt at the edge of the hole, casting his gaze anywhere but where he should be, down in the grave where her friend lay dead or dying. ‘What was that?’ he asked, reacting to a sound somewhere down the side of the house.

Gwen scarcely heard it herself between her ragged breaths and the sharp bite of metal forcing its way into the cold ground. ‘Doesn't matter, just help, for God's sake! Dig!’

Father Michael pointed. ‘Look. There's someone over there.’

Gwen broke away from her digging for only a split second, poking her head out of the deepening hole. She watched the figure staggering around in the dark like a drunken man. It looked human. She didn't want to leave and find out who it was. She couldn't. Not if Ianto was still trapped in the ground. He could be just inches away now. Whoever else was out here was going to have to take care of themselves.

‘No, Gwen, look!’ Father Michael insisted. ‘It's him.’

Her head immediately flew up. The outline was unmistakable now as it wandered closer, clearly seeing their own motions in the darkened yard. She almost fell over herself trying to get out of the hole and to her feet, running towards him. ‘Ianto?’ Part of her couldn't even believe what she was seeing, or whether it was even real.

‘Gwen?’ That voice and cadence was so familiar to her that she knew there wasn't a thing in the world that could convince her that he was anything other than the real thing.

‘Oh, God!’ She wrapped him in the tightest hug she could, relishing the sturdy feel of his body. She immediately dismissed the grave marker as nothing but a cruel jape, meant to frighten her. ‘Thank God you're okay.’

He hugged her back, which was rare but not unpleasant. Ianto just wasn't the hugging type, but she could tell that tonight they both needed it. ‘It was a close thing, believe me,’ he said, finally pulling away, but not altogether.

‘You're absolutely frozen,’ she declared, rubbing up and down his arms, feeling how cold they were. He looked a fright, but then she supposed she didn't look much better. ‘We should get you inside. Nice bit of warming up by the fire, what do you say?’

He shook his head vehemently. ‘You don't want to go in there. There's something evil in there. I don't know what, but it wants to kill. It's been trying to get me all night. I barely made it out of there alive.’

‘I've seen it. This place…’she began, not sure how to put it into words, ‘it’s trying to mess with us. I don't think it's just the shadow monster.’ She turned around, about to point towards the graveyard full of lights, but they'd all faded and disappeared. The place was completely dark and empty once more. ‘There were…’

‘What?’

‘Angels,’ Father Michael stated.

Gwen gave a disparaging look. ‘Yeah, let's not get carried away in labeling them as friendly.’ He hadn't been there when they'd forced her to flee through the woods. ‘Lights. Ghosts. I don't know. They were everywhere and now they're just… gone.’

‘Gone’s a good thing, yeah?’ Ianto asked. ‘Because seriously, I don't know about you but I'm ready to go home and this place can shove its ghosts up its bloody-’

Gwen cleared her throat loudly and inclined her head sideways at Father Michael.

‘Uh, sorry,’ came the feeble apology from Ianto. In different circumstances Gwen might have laughed at how much he looked like the contrite schoolboy getting a telling off from the principal.

‘There's nothing to apologise for,’ he assured the young Welshman.

Ianto turned his worried gaze on her. ‘Have you seen Jack anywhere?’

‘No. Not since we split up. But, Ianto, he's-’

She didn't get to finish telling him about the names carved into the tree. A bright beam of light hit them in square in the face, causing them both to squint and turn away before shielding their eyes and trying to pinpoint where it was coming from. Lo and behold, like an actor stepping onto the stage at precisely the perfect moment, who should be standing there by the back door, shining his torch at them, but Captain Jack Harkness.

‘How does he do that?’ Gwen muttered so quietly that Ianto barely heard her, yet shrugged all the same. Moreover, why was he all smiles when the rest of them had been terrorised all night?

Jack loped towards them. ‘Hi, kids. Were you looking for me?’

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