Ghosts'Ghoul Gang

Minor Detour

"Well," Mountain said to the ghouls, "We can be glad the instruments are in the trailer."

"Kevin!" Papa summoned, he looked like he was trying to conceal his emotions, and not doing a good job at it.

The ghouls watched from afar as Papa, Kevin, the driver, and two other staffers gathered about twenty feet from the ghouls and the bus, the crunch of small rocks under their sneakers almost masked their voices. The group was talking in circles, half of them occupied by their phones in their hands, Copia no doubt getting in touch with Sister Imperator. The ghouls moved back to sit as far away from the fumes as they could, trying to breath in the fresh air when the wind blew a soft breeze in the night.

They could've been close to calm, until the flashing lights and sirens showed up; the whole trifecta; cops, ambulances, and fire trucks. Cumulus, Sodo, and Cissus stood and made a solid line in between the other ghouls ready to stand their ground; but it didn't matter. As the EMT's and officers began their walk over to the ghouls the Cardinal met them half way and extended a hand no one accepted. So Papa explained the situation and excused their services. He had to reassure the police men several time he had already contacted his insurance and a towing company, the ghouls could've guessed one of the staffers was doing just that. Cardi stood his ground, waiting and watching as the police got to their cars and pulled away, then he turned and made the rest of the way to his ghouls looking apologetic.

"Are you okay?" Papa asked them as a group.

Various ghouls nodded in response, some of them sniffled, but all of them watched Papa with wide unsure eyes.

"Okay. We've always been apparent right, so here's what's going on." Copia sighed heavily, "The firemen will put out the fire before departing, the bus is no longer drivable. You don't need to worry about the insurance or funds of things; but it'll be a while before someone can get another bus out to us, and it's probably going to be smaller. In the meantime I've ordered a larger uber for a few of us, we'll need to replace the things on the bus that won't make it out of the fire. Would any of you like to come?"

The ghoul's looked at their defeated Papa, dressed in his all red track suit, and looking more stressed and disheveled than the time they lost their costumes in Mexico. Cirrus and Swiss raised their hands, Phantom saw Swiss and also chose to tag along. Sodo, Rain, Mountain, Aurora, and Cumulus decided the excitement of the bus was enough and chose to stay behind. Some of them wanted to go, but then thought about all Papa would have to bring back, and decided they could probably use more space.

-

In the chain department store the Cardinal kept his ghouls close as they navigated the aisles heading towards the back end of the store; they were getting plenty of looks, but Papa kept them moving. There in the back end of the store unloading boxes was a lanky associate dressed in all black. Cardinal tapped the blond on the shoulder, watching the tall man rise and turn to face them with eyes of awe.

"Excuse me, Sir." Copia said, "Could I bother you for some assistance."

"Of course. How can I help you?"

The kid looked like he was holding himself together because he was at work, but his eyes said he was soaking in this moment. Papa knew then he and his ghouls were in good hands, that he'd asked the right person. The blond's eyes darted between Papa and the ghouls as Papa briefly explained the situation.

"There's been a minor setback. We need to replace nearly everything." Papa summarized at the end, "I'd like everything to be as close to matching as possible so I'm saved the arguments."

The employee was a helpful kid, even walking back to the front with the ghouls to fetch carts. Once they had returned Copia split up the jobs; sending two ghouls to stock food and another to gather a few replacement articles of clothing. They were quick to go about the store gathering all of what they needed, even when the Cardinal had to step a couple times to take a few phone calls.

Let me tell you now, checking out was its own process. On a normal night the employees would be grieving having to check out such a large transaction right before closing; but they were forgiving to Papa thanks to his warm and apologetic nature; the ghouls' dark masks thawed to smiles and helping hands as they helped bag. The ghouls would organize the bags as they received an item, a bag for clothes and foods, a bag for kitchen items, loosely folding the blankets before shoving them in the biggest bag the store had. Due to how much they were buying to replace everything the employee didn't even risk looking at the total until the last final item was rang up and passed over to the ghouls' trying and failing to hide a wince as he finally spoke.

"Your total is...$2,840.93 cents."

"Okay." Copia said, "On card, please."

The employee, and the kids manager behind him, held their breath until the transaction approved dreading putting all that back, then waited nearly 30 full seconds for the receipt to print. Very shyly, the kid asked for a photo with Papa and the three ghouls with him; the Cardinal immediately agreed with a smile, thanking the kid for all his help as they departed.

The four of them, and their three carts, stood on the curb with bags at their feet. Pap told them they'd wasted enough time here, the new bus would come to meet them, so they stood at the curb looking out into the night to wait. They weren't waiting long, maybe twenty minutes before the newer bus pulled into view and around the lot before pulling up to park at the curb. Another monstrous double decker grey bus with tinted windows, it didn't look all that different from the outside. Copia watched as his ghouls argued over the color of the blankets they wanted, Copia had no patience for any of it, clapping his hands and dispersing the packing team to load up the bus. It was another hour or so before everyone was accounted for and settled in the new bus; but they were finally moving again, and celebrated once they were on the freeway to the next venue again.

A/N 1823 w 

im back! and have much more content ideas as im back from my first ritual! so lots more concert content to come