Spook_me 2020 - Haunted - Chapter 31

[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.

Jack must have seen the way Gwen tensed and kept her hand close to her hip, ready to pull the gun she had tucked into the back of her jeans. She wasn't quite ready to believe Jack was any more real than anything else she'd seen tonight. What if he was just another figment meant to lure them back inside?

Jack stopped and his hands went half-heartedly up into the air in a show of mock surrender. ‘Woah, no need to look so alarmed. It's just me.’

‘You were in there?’ Ianto said. He sounded incredulous. ‘In the house? With that thing?’

‘It's okay. The ghost problem is gone. I took care of it. No more tortured spirits upsetting this old place. Time for us to pack it up and head on home.’

Gwen couldn't believe it. It couldn't be that simple. She had a million questions. What was it that they'd all seen and experienced here? Half of it confused her and the other half almost defied explanation. How was any of it possible? And how was it that Jack had somehow vanquished whatever it was. Nothing was adding up and the feeling curdled in the bottom of her stomach.

Ianto didn't seem nearly as troubled by the simplistic explanation. He cut off any chance of Gwen bombarding Jack with her questions by practically leaping into Jack's orbit and embracing him. It was one of those carefully cultivated man hugs that Ianto was so adept at giving, without ever really having to admit how much it meant. Then he broke away just slightly from Jack, cupping his face and kissing him tenderly.

‘I'm so glad we're back together, Jack.’ Ianto cast a look back over his shoulder at Gwen and Father Michael. ‘He smells like Jack.’ It was an odd statement but Gwen took it at face value. Apparently there wasn't an alien alive who could replicate that smell - Jack's unusual scent that had nothing to do with his choice of shampoo or cologne, which emanated from his skin naturally, or perhaps unnaturally - and Ianto was an expert on it.

‘Me too, Ianto.’ Jack reached up to the hand Ianto had resting on his cheek. ‘Your hands are like ice.’

‘Keeping warm wasn't on my list of priorities.’

Jack kept one arm resting around Ianto's waist as he turned his attention to the rest of them. ‘Father, to what do we owe the pleasure? Couldn't sleep?’

‘More than you know,’ he replied. ‘This place has troubled me deeply all day and what I've seen tonight only confirms those fears.’

‘Well, like I say, you can rest at ease now. Abercrafen House will not be haunted any longer. The locals will have to find something new to amuse themselves with.’

Gwen scowled as she took a step forward. ‘No, it can't just be over, Jack. That doesn't make any sense. There was this thing, all made out of shadows and smoke.’

‘And there was blood,’ Ianto added. ‘Pouring out of the taps.’

‘Noises that couldn't be accounted for…’

‘Doors that locked you in…’

‘Broken windows that repaired themselves…’

‘Things that turned you blind…’

‘Voices in the forest…’

‘Fire. The whole cellar on fire. Burning…’ Ianto shuddered at that last remark.

‘We didn't just imagine all of those things, Jack.’ That wasn't strictly true but she had to somehow make him understand.

‘I get, Gwen. I really do. But you have to trust me when I say it's gone. I spoke with it, helped it move on.’

‘You spoke with it’ She hoped she sounded as skeptical as she felt. ‘What was it Jack, this ghost? Because I don't mind telling you that I can't believe it's just gone. There were dozens of them. Out there,’ she said, pointing behind them at the now abandoned graveyard. ‘And there was a grave. Apart from Thomas Morgan, there hasn't been another soul buried here in decades, but there's a headstone out there now with a 2009 date of death. It was freshly dug.’

‘Who?’

She gave an uncomfortable look in Ianto's direction. ‘I don't know. It just had the surname on it. No first names.’

Jack's eyes narrowed at her. ‘What surname?’

She bit her lip. ‘Jones.’ She turned to Ianto. ‘We thought it was you. I thought maybe they'd tried to bury you alive. We were digging it up when you found us.’

He seemed strangely unperturbed by the news, but then again, Ianto was often hard to read. ‘There's loads of Joneses. We're everywhere. Common as muck.’

Jack gave Ianto a reassuring squeeze against his side and a warm look in Gwen's direction meant to do the same. ‘I think it's fair to say we've all seen and experienced things tonight that weren't real.’

Gwen found Jack's guarded replies curious. ‘What did you see?’

‘I saw the real thing. The ghost of a man who could never find peace until tonight. I gave it to him.’

She folded her arms and set her gaze on him. ‘How?’

‘Doesn't matter. The ghost? It's gone.’

Father Michael shook his head. ‘No, I fear it hasn't. This house is still troubled by something.’ Gwen saw the priest fidget with the rosary beads that draped around his neck. She found his unsettled character contagious, drumming up a gut feeling inside her that everything wasn't quite as resolved as it would seem.

Gwen noticed the way Ianto seemed to take a half a step back from the priest. It was subtle but Jack caught it too. ‘It's okay. Nothing is going to get us. I told you, it's gone.’

Father Michael took a step closer to the two men and reached out a hand. Ianto immediately flinched from his touch.

‘It touched him,’ Father Michael stated.

The next few seconds were a blur for Gwen. She reacted on instinct as her hand whipped behind her to grab the gun, flipping off the safety and having it pointed in the blink of an eye. She'd done it even before she realised why.

The mask dropped and Ianto lunged. Jack was only just quick enough to grab him and pin his arms at his side.

Gwen aimed her gun with the sickening realisation that something had taken over her best friend.

Next chapter...