JJ and Ashton each grab ahold of the bag simultaneously, holding it between them like a tug o’ war.
Xavier holds up his hands in protest. “Wait! Stop fighting!” His eyes flash with blue fire. “Why are you always fighting?!” His voice is becoming deeper.
Xavier grabs his own head with both hands. "Stop it! STOP IT, DAD!"
He screams. Xavier's entire head becomes surrounded by an aura of blue flame. All of the loose objects in the room rise about an inch off of their surfaces for a moment, and the room itself seems to shudder.
Then, abruptly, Xavier collapses into a face-down kneeling position. The room is still. The fire is gone. Xavier doesn't move.
Hayden had been watching curiously, not feeling like this was anything she had to stop. Especially if this had actually gone to shirtless wrestling
"I'm sorry, 'Dad'? Is that what you said, X?"
Still kneeling, Xavier looks up, a determined and angry expression on his face. "I remember everything." He stands up.
"He has to pay."
Xavier vanishes in a flash of blue fire.
"Okay Jayj, are we willing to count the disappearing ball of fire as a lesson in maybe not messing with things without doing your homework first?"
"Well, that seemed a bit unusual." Eva says, "I wonder who his dad is?"
"Wait, Ash, are you holding?"
"Might help with X too, if we're able to get him to calm down long enough to calm down."
"Maybe we can use the spirit board to find Xavier? It still might be spiritually linked to him, or something."
Deirdre digs it out and focuses on it, trying to see a vision of the wayward ghost.
As you stare at the Ouija board, the world around you seems to melt away for a moment and the letters seem to float up off of the cardboard. Waves of white-hot emotion seem to envelop you; you sense Xavier's rage, resentment and pain. Mentally fighting your way through the cacophony, you watch as the letters converge and contract, twisting themselves into a phrase printed on the outside of a red brick building: LAKESIDE NURSING HOME
Your phone buzzes; it's a pair of texts from Malphas.
Such ignorance. They do not deserve you.
Make them suffer.
"Argh!" Deirdre doubles over and puts her hands to her head as if in intense pain. She squeezes her eyes shut. "So angry... L-lakeside! Nursing Home!" she gasps out.
"Not usually," Deirdre says to Ashton. "It was like... When I had those gummies at the party. I guess there really was some ghost residue on this thing..."
Hayden sighed. "Okay, we can't let X get himself hurt. Or let him go too crazy. Bring the spirit board, Dee. If we need to do something drastic... Well, better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it."
"We should probably also bring some table salt I guess? I'm not really sure what else to prepare; once people are dead they usually don't have to worry too much about what they promised in life."
Malphas texts back: I'm afraid that particular book is unique. We will need to recover it, but that can wait for now.
As for Xavier, you needn't feel responsible for what happens next. The boy deserves his revenge.
Everyone else:
You look up the address for Lakeside Nursing Home; it isn't far from campus. You drive there and arrive outside the building; it matches Deirdre's vision perfectly.
Deirdre pulls out the spirit board and attempts to use it to gain another vision. This time it doesn't look like it's going to go well...
Hayden glances back and forth between Ashton and Deirdre, and just walks in.
"Yeah visions and spirit boards are good for some things, but I'm betting right now all we need to do is follow the screams..."
There's no moonlight at the moment for Ashton's ability, but it stands to reason that Xavier is headed here (if he isn't here already).
When you head inside of the nursing home, nothing seems to be amiss... until you notice Xavier standing in the hallway, staring into one of the rooms with a piercing, enraged gaze.
JJ:
You get another text from Malphas:
Your friends are headed to Lakeside Nursing Home. I would recommend going there to ensure they receive the comeuppance they deserve.
Oh. Great. Way to leave us lots of options to escalate.
As Ashton careens into Xavier's new body, Hayden follows up after, eyes quickly scanning as she tries to see what Xavier's already done.
Hayden: When you look into the room, you see an elderly black man asleep in the bed inside. He appears unharmed thus far.
JJ: You recognize the car outside the nursing home; it seems your friends are already here.
Hayden slips into the room, taking in the surroundings. Even banal as rooms like this are, often there are little touches that can reveal someone's true character. Pictures, books, how often are they visited, do their nurses hate them...
As Xavier wrestles with Ashton, a puff of blue fire starts to appear in his hand but quickly fizzles out when Ashton slams his arm into the floor. Xavier snarls angrily. “Let me go! If you knew what he did to me...”
Some of the hospital staff seem to have noticed the commotion and are headed in your direction.
Hayden: As you look around the room, your fae senses form a series of mental images. Suspicious glares, revealed secrets, a screaming argument over a set of books and tarot cards hidden under the bed. The vision culminates with Xavier being pushed down a set of stairs by what appears to be a younger version of the man in the bed.
"He killed him Ash. Why else would X be here? He killed him."