So.

Literally nothing is happening. It's boring Sunshine to death.

She — she misses the ghosts. And it's.. weird, to her. Because these spirits have given her nightmares, they've made her terrified of the dark and afraid to sleep in her own bed.

But there are good spirits too, right? Maybe the bad ones are getting to her.

Ugh.

She just misses it all.
⠀
⠀
⠀
They're opening the box.

"Okay," Sunshine says for the camera, sighing. "Go ahead."

"What?" Kat asks in a murmur.

"Tell them." Her voice is clipped.

"You want me to?"

Sunshine looks bewildered. "Yes! You! You're the one that's deciding to open the box, you get to tell them about it!"

Kat scratches her head. "Okay. So, the box." She leans forward to take it in her hands.

"Smells," Sunshine adds, then covers her nose.

"The box has gotten really.." Her mother makes a face of discomfort when the box is pulled closer. "Really ripe. Worse than it was before. It's — it was in the backyard and it was smelling up the whole house. Inside the house, even though the door was closed. We didn't even go in the backyard. It smells.. upstairs, it smells in the basement. It smells out front! And — and the neighbors are starting to complain so.." She pushes her hair back. "We don't know what to do."

Sunshine looks annoyed as Kat continues. "The lady hasn't been back, so we can't ask her about why it's smelling. So.. we decided — we decided we're gonna open the box."

"We," Sunshine mutters, rolling her eyes. "So, here goes nothing. We're opening the box."

The camera is angled toward the lid. Kat begins unraveling the top, lifting it slowly. "No curse on the house, no blowing up — okay, that's good. Good sign."

"I thought something would happen." Kat places the lid to the side. In the box, there are crumpled newspapers thrown in, with pictures of — wait.

"Is that a picture of me?" Sunshine growls, leaning forward.

"Where is this?" Her mother picks up the photo, which has a cross with a curled top circled in black. It's of Sunshine — she's standing outside, camera in hand, most likely videoing something.

"Is that on the back porch?" Sunshine's voice drips with panic.

"I think it is... what, what are you doing?"

"Filming but why — why's that circled, why's that sign on there?"

"I don't know what that means," Kat murmurs, turning the photo over.

"Why is it in the box?!"

"I don't understand." Her mother sounds just as confused as she is.

"I'm not liking this." Sunshine turns the camera towards herself and raises her eyebrows.

"Are there more pictures?" The newspapers have speckles of red on them, growing more crimson the lower they are.

"Is that blood," Sunshine asks, voice shaking.

"I think it is.."

"Oh. I don't do blood. Mmm."

Kat peels away the papers, and a large splotch of ruby sifts through. "Oh! Just —"

"There's a lot of blood," Kat whispers.

The more they explore, the more there is. And then, hidden in the corner of box, is — is — is a heart. Sunshine thinks she's actually going to throw up.

"Okay, all right, we're done." Her mother drops the newspapers back inside and throws the lid on. Sunshine is still with shock.

"That's sick..."

"Just — we're just gonna put it —" Kat stumbles as she pushes it away on the table.

"Pretend we didn't open it—"

"I think, I think we should just put it out — out back in the back storage shed and... we'll just, tell the neighbors a cat died, or something, something underneath the house. I don't know what else to do." Her mother looks just as horrified as she is. "Why — why does it smell so bad? What, what is that picture?"

"I don't know."

"Do you think the lady did it?"

"No, it'll be fine, mommy — it'll be okay." Sunshine is pretty sure she's just trying to convince herself of that. "I promise. And, and, what would —"

The lights flicker off.

Kat gasps. "Was — was that the lights? What? Where's the flashlight?"

Sunshine stumbles. "It's — it's up in my room."

"Why is it in your room?!"

She chokes back the words she wants to say, the words she wants to scream. But they clog in the back of her throat and die down with her rumbling fury. Her nightmares are still there! She's terrified of the shadows that consume her at night! Why wouldn't she have the flashlight in her room?

"Because I was using it!" she instead lies, jumping up.

Kat breathes in heavily. "Where's the breaker?"

"It's — in the kitchen, I think."

"All right, let's go see if we can.."

"I don't — I don't like the dark." She can't admit to the fear wrapping up her spine, or the goosebumps crawling over her arms, and the flashes of red she sees in her gaze.

"This is cause we opened the —!"

The lights flash back on. Sunshine stands, eyes wide. "We shouldn't have opened the box. We shouldn't have opened the box."

Kat doesn't respond.

"We're not opening the box. Ever again."
⠀
⠀
⠀
That night is sleepless. Sunshine can hear something clawing at her door, but she ignores it anyway. Plays it off as a nightmare. Maybe she's lucid dreaming. This can't be real.

Fuck. They shouldn't have opened the box.
⠀
⠀
⠀
The next few days go by with lower activity than expected. Sunshine is still having trouble with falling asleep. Maybe doing a fun video will help, y'know — something she enjoys.

"So guys," she greets the camera, tilting her head as she stands in her room. "I've decided I'm gonna do an entire post about pandas! Like —"

A scream from Sunshine's mother echoes from downstairs. She whips to the side, lip quivering. "It's — it's my mom."

She can hear Kat crying. "Oh no! Oh, god, come here! Honey! Come here!"

"Mom?!" Sunshine yells, standing at the head of the stairs. Everything below is dark. The lights have gone off again — but, seemingly, only on the bottom floor.

"Mom! What's wrong?!" She races down into the kitchen, everything shadowy. Her mother cries and cries, begging for her help.

"Mom?!" Sunshine jerks her head around, attempting to spot Kat. She can see that a light is on in the living room and hesitates. Why — why did the noise suddenly just stop? Why is her mother silent now?

Horrible, gruesome pictures come to her mind. She throws herself into the living room and — and, her mom is standing in front of the television, her back illuminated by the lamp, eyes closed. Unmoving. Quiet. Is she even breathing?

"Mom what's wrong?" Sunshine pauses then nears her mother, sucking her teeth anxiously. The screen glitches red, contorting. "Mom, are you okay? Mom!"

She still doesn't move.

Sunshine's eyes burn. She flicks her hand up to claw at her face until — until she realizes that she's crying. She's so, so scared.

There's a heavy breath behind her. It blows down her neck, wrapping around her skin and sinking into her bones. She whips around, a gasp flying out of her throat, teeth clattering.

Another noise sounds behind her, in the living room. And when she turns, her mother is gone. Empty space is left. It's as if — as if Kat hadn't even been standing there. "She — she's gone."

Sunshine stumbles forward, heart lurching out of her chest. "Mom? Mom..." Her legs bend beneath her and she drops the camera, a sob echoing around her.

"Honey, what's wrong?" The voice is so, so soothing. She cries out and drops forward, until warmth hits her like a fuzzy blanket. Her mother's arms wrap around her and pull Sunshine in to her chest.

She just sobs.

more ghost activity to come

had fun with this chapter

ALSO i realized that nolan doesn't appear until season 4 wtf that's 3 more parts oh well it's worth it