GHOULS! // ghost (band) fic.

Chapter 1.

you knew you were a ghoul, but you wanted to show it, but at the same time you tried to hide it and shut everyone out. since your family was highly Christian and judgemental, you couldn't tell them anything. absolutely anything. Your mother had gotten "tired of your shit" and kicked you out onto the streets, without anything at all. with only being 9 years out of school, you didn't know what to do, but. one day you were out on a stroll in the woods, and found a church. a part leaded from the church to the side road from off of the main roads.

 something about this church was different than others. it was eerie, but a welcoming type of eerie. you could slightly hear music then a singer breaking the instrumental. "dust~ my dummy dust." after that an enormous roar erupted from inside, and then a keyboard guitar thing solo. at least you thought that's what that instrument is called. you were drawn by this mysterious aura.

 your parents knew you weren't interested in Christianity, but they still forced it onto you. forced to come to weekly prayers, bible school, the lord's prayer, the holy spirit, and so on. to pass the time and to forget about those things when you lived with your parents, you often practiced guitar and singing. bass, electric, acoustic, and so on. you were always interested in music that it seemed like no one else knew about. some ghouls were able to hide their tails, but they had to be taught to. ever since you were a small child, your parents somehow taught you to hide it. You knew where you came from. since you were adopted when you were around 3, you still remember a few things after, but the 2 years before were a blur. all you could remember was seeing people of your kind.

 nobody wanted you at the adoption center. not a single soul.

 as you walked up to the church's doors, you noticed the lights were off and neon strobe and spotlights were the only sources of light. you looked at the stained windows on the side of the walls. men in robes, a hat, skull face paint.

everyone wore black. the men and two women beside/behind the man in skull paint singing looked like ghouls. is this why you were drawn to this place? the only thing you were wearing was a tattered hoodie/sweater with a star/pentagram. You didn't know what it meant at the time you bought it, but every time you wore it you got dirty looks from everyone. You were also wearing a pair of worn-down sweat pants and very old scrapped vans you found in the garbage.

 "Satan. Lucifer, Oc-sclum Obcen-eum." the man on the stage sang in a low tone. The song then continued and the backing vocals sounded harmonic. it reminded you of the welcoming but unpleasant ringing of your old church's chorus. "Kiss Kiss the go-go-at~! Ahhh!" You glanced over at the people on the stage. They all wore silver masks. an electric guitarist, a cream white guitar, and a bit shorter and petite than the other ones. the one beside him, assuming he was another guitar, had a black guitar with white lining, he was wide-shouldered and taller. the man back at the drums you could barely see, but he was very tall. the two women were both at the keyboards, and the shorter one had a mic beside her. the bass guitar was a bit taller than the cream white guitarist, and had a white and black bass guitar. You could slightly hear a masculine backing vocal, who was a taller ghoul, with an acoustic guitar resting on him with the strap. 

As the lights faded down into darkness, the next song started. You stare blankly at the stage with now only silhouettes could be seen on it. The starting riff of a singular guitar could be heard, then the hitting of cymbals on the drum set. The opening of the song was fierce, with all guitars playing, it made sure to boom and feel eerie. "I can feel your presence amongst us. You cannot hide in the darkness." The singer sang. "Can you hear the rumble? Can you hear the rumble that is calling? I know your soul is not tainted, even though you've been told so~"  

"Can't you see that you're lost? Can't you see that you're lost without me?"

As the song ended, and the lights added down, so did the crowd.

 The petite guitarist could be slightly seen throwing his pick at the wide-shouldered guitarist. As the ghouls turned back to face the crowd, you count faintly see the white-silverish glow from their masks. Just like any other ghouls, they glowed in the dark and helped them see in darker spaces. After they all disappeared, the crowd died down. You didn't want to leave. You didn't even know where you were, but you wanted to stay in this church for as long as you could. It's like a ringing inside your head that wouldn't go away like it was pulling you towards something. like your home.

The last song seemed a bit weirder than the others. It felt like it was calling out into the lost souls of people like yourself. Especially the last few verses. You spaced out for a while, thinking about the last song. You felt a slight tap on the shoulder. "Excuse me, Cara Mia, are you perhaps lost? Or are you alright?"  You jolted up from your current position and sat up straight. If you were gonna be honest, you had no idea where the hell you were, or if you were okay. You haven't eaten in a few days, and you had only drunk a small amount of water. 

You stayed quiet for a moment and forgot someone was asking you something. He waved their hand in front of you. "Oh, yea um.. I'm fine." Your voice sounded a bit raspy from not speaking in a few days. One of the ghouls walked up to you and the man that was once the singer on the stage and pointed at you and tilted his head a bit, confused. He was the bassist. The man in skull face paint shrugged. 

"Ah yes, your name is?" He asked you. "Y/N, L/N. Why do you ask?"  That was your name given to you by your adoptive parents. Your actual name was Aurum. It was the Latin name for "Gold." But you chose to use the name your adoptive parents used for you. The ghoul beside the man's brown eyes looked at you and studied your appearance then walked away to where the other ghouls were. "Oh yes, my name is Emeritus III. Or, less confusing version, Papa III." Papa explained as you nodded in understanding.

You looked at the ghouls on the stage who were unplugging cords and such. One of the ghoulettes caught you staring at them and waved at you. She was the taller ghoulette, and the other was the shorter one. After they were all finished it was like they were never even there. They all disappeared into the darkness nowhere to be seen. 

"Do you have anywhere to stay? The church has plenty of spare rooms and corridors, Cara Mia." The skull-faced man asked. You stayed quiet for a moment but then you shook your head. As soon as he seen you shake your head, it's almost like a small child awakened in him. He'd never actually offered anyone a room at the church at all. It was mostly his father, mother, or older sibling that had asked them. "Come, come! I promise the ghouls don't bite, they're just a bit loud." He added as he led you through the dark hallways. He was a small talker. Always had something to talk about, even if it was something small, like what he saw on a walk, and even if it was just one thing, he would make a whole novel based on one tiny thing he saw, if he could. 

As he opened the door, the room was nicely furnished, with wooden appliances and a dark cozy feeling to the room. It looked like it needed to be dusted but it wasn't too much work for you. Papa III then went on about things that if you heard in the middle of the night were normal, like random sprints around the hallways. "Don't be alarmed if you hear someone running up and down the halls in the middle of the night. We always hear It. Those little ghouls..." he whispered under his breath. After he was finished talking about an hour later... you had finally gotten the chance to sleep on an actual bed rather than on the hard pavement. 

It was almost like heaven but In hell.