Anthracosis

Anthracosis is a story written by shukyou and illustrated by pseudonymeter. It ran in Special Issue 4 and can be found at http://s2b2.livejournal.com/97252.html and http://www.shousetsubangbang.com/mirror/anthracosis/.

Summary

An exorcist and a woman who can see ghosts are called to investigate a haunted house.

Motel rooms always put the light switches in different places, so she groped about for nearly half a minute before her fingers found the switch and flipped it to on. Above the sink, a fluorescent bar flickered into existence, reflecting off the lime green linoleum and casting everything in the closet-sized bathroom with an unhealthy sheen. Exhausted, she gripped either side of the high white sink, trying to will her way to full consciousness on less than six hours of sleep. She ran her fingers under a stream of cold water, then raked them back across her head, plastering her short brown hair in rows away from where sleep had pushed it into her face.

Then she made the terrible, sleep-deprived mistake of looking in the mirror with both eyes, and she let out a blood-curdling scream.

Connections

Anthracosis is unconnected to other stories or universes, though the setup is very similar to Murder Ballad's.

Author's Notes

This has been described on more than one occasion as 'Supernatural, but with girls', which ... isn't inaccurate, I suppose. But it wasn't the original intent.