You didn't want to annoy this guy, who knows what he was capable of if he managed to find you and get your phone number.

"Don't be too frightened, I'll tell you everyone you need to know in due time and when the situation comes to it. Now, tell me are you in contact with a ghost as of now?"

You didn't really see any reason to lie to him, and a bit of you thought that he would know if you were doing so.

"Yes, I'm talking to a girl that's been bound onto a street, and I've been trying to get her out of there." You text back, giving him the general idea of what you've been doing."

"Hmm, well that would probably fall into the caretaker class. Lucky you to have gotten such a thing, that class is generally rare to come by. That also seems to answer a few of my questions. So let me ask you, do you really want to get this girl out of her set boundary?"

"Yes. more than anything."

"Well then, let me help you with what you need. You were smart enough to find one of the correct ways in order to get the spirits out. Normally most caretakers go the other route instead of this ritual, but this could be relatively easier and faster than that riddle shit in which we would have to go through. Alright, I'll get you all the materials you need, they should come in by the weekend."

"What's the catch?"

"No catch, just hurry up and do the ritual."

You didn't really trust what he had just said, there's no way someone could buy this much stuff for that price just from the kindness of their hearts, but then again who were you to say no to free help.

"How did you know that I could really see ghosts? That I wasn't lying?" You ask, a bit curious.

"Our eyes are more....open than others. It's apart of our hierarchy, so don't you go worrying about it."


After you and Ned had finished exchanging messages, he had again said the date in which the materials would be coming, didn't even need to ask for your address which freaked you out quite a bit when he told you that he already knew.

Nevertheless you felt extreme joy for finally being able to get Gwen out of that boundary.

---

Ned started messaging on your phone for the rest of the time that you were in contact with him with how the deliveries were going. You were getting the ingredients on separate days individually. They each came in some pretty sketchy looking packages, ignoring this though you started storing everything in your room closet for future use.

Ned was actually pretty fast about all of this, more than you were expecting him to be considering that this was all free. You just know that there was a catch to all of this, but you didn't know what it could be, hopefully, he wasn't the devil or something and you had unknowingly signed away your soul for bird droppings and crushed ants.

It took about two weeks for the final ingredients to come in, to which Ned already knew without you having to tell him.

Ned- Alright listen here. I'm going to tell you how to mix these ingredients carefully. All you really need is a stove and something to mix everything with, you might want to throw away the pot after or just thoroughly bleach it or something but that's all on you.

"I thought the website already gave instructions on how to do everything?"

Ned- You're really going to trust instructions that are run by nerds who think they know our craft? I'll give them credit they got some stuff right, but only about 60% of it, and you need the whole process and ingredients to be perfectly accurate if you're going to make this work. Normally ascending someone would be a snap, but with what we're doing, it's going to be a little more tricky than that.

Ned then sends you a list of instructions on how to prepare the potion or drink it was that you would be making. The number of steps was pretty big, though reading through it a couple of times it didn't seem all that hard, just combining a thing or two and stirring for periods of time.

Ned had told you to get it done as soon as you could, though you were planning on to anyway.

You were lucky that your mom had gone out to go do some things were a friend and your dad was still at work. You could get the first quarter of the list done before any of them were to get home and see what you were doing. Unpacking the ingredients you needed, you got straight to work.

---

Jesus, the temperature that was emitting from the pot kept on fluctuation from hot to cold. You didn't even fucking know pots could let out a cold temperature, though will all of this ghost and stalker shit that you have come across you couldn't really be all that surprised. It must have been no joke when Ned said that the other faux ingredients wouldn't do, to combining these to make such concoctions took someone who knew what the fuck they were planning on making.

You were secretly hoping though that this wouldn't explode in your face and destroy the entire house if you did something wrong, Ned didn't say such things would happen, but then again he didn't bring it up.

The process was slower than you expected it to be as some of the ingredients took awhile to be stirred before they look as if they needed to be going by the instructions. Still, you think you would be able to finish in time before your dad was to get home since he would probably be here first.

Though as time went on, you got more and more worried that he would catch you in the act, and you had no way in knowing how he would react, and it wasn't like you could just stop what you were doing midway into it.

You could skip on stirring all the way, and only do it in half the time. The materials were already mixed enough as they were, it wasn't like they needed to be stirred to perfection.

You stir halfway

If your dad were to throw away what you were making then it would all be over, and you had no idea if Ned would be willing to send more ingredients to make up for the ones you had lost, he wouldn't be happy either way.

You had to cut corners, the people who had done this before had to have done it at least once or twice right?

So you only stirred halfway through each ingredient that had been entered into the pot. Though you made sure that you had stirred enough for it to be mixed. You had done this for about three different mixes until you started to feel a funny sensation.

The heat emitting from the pot was getting hotter, much hotter than it had ever done before. Your whole face was burning heavily as you sweat was dripping down into the liquid. It got to the point in which you actually had to back away with how your eyes started to feel.

"Shit, this isn't good..."

The sound of something steaming grew louder and louder like a teapot, the whole bottom of the pot started to glow red as smoke was coming out of from the top rapidly. The smoke detector immediately went off as you starting coughing and wheezing, trying to get to the doorway.

Somewhere along your panic, you heard an explosion.

No pain was felt from it, just emptiness, and lot's of quietness.