Chapter 011: The Ghosts Of The Past

***

Fear.

That was all he was feeling as he ran up the stairs, heart in his chest. Behind him, he heard heavy footsteps on the stairs the lights flickering madly.

"David," the voice of his father called out—but it wasn't exactly his father, something else underneath his father's familiar voice, something monstrous. "Why are you running from your old man, David?"

His heartbeat was loud in his ears as he ran down the hallway, before he tripped. He fell to the ground, twisting around.

His heart plummeted when he saw the glassy eyes of his sister, her throat a ruin of red. Blood stained her chest from the slashes across it, slashes from a knife.

Or claws.

"David. David, can you hear me? There's nothing to be scared of, son. It's all going to be okay."

Scrambling to his feet, the boy raced to his room, slamming the door closed. Stepping away, he got under his bed, heart beating so loud it might explode in his chest. Outside his door, the floorboards creaked, and he saw a shadow in the gap.

"David. Are you in there? Don't be scared. It's just Dad. Mommy and Tom and..."

A chuckle. It didn't sound like his dad's laugh—his dad's laugh was warm and jolly like Santa Claus' laugh. This was colder—a twisted version of his dad's laugh. More... evil.

"And little Jenny are all okay. They're just sleeping, David. It's punishment for losing the game. A game you're winning. Oh, you're winning it really well."

His heart boomed in his ears and he retreated further underneath the bed, hating that his dad's voice sounded like all the voices he'd been hearing since they moved into the house—all the whispering, hissing, voices.

"Do you want to know what game we're playing, son?"

The doorknob jiggled violently. The boy whimpered, going very, very still.

"It's hide and seek, son. I'm the seeker. And if the seeker finds the hiders..."

The door banged loudly, violently, and he bit back a yelp.

"It doesn't end well for the hiders."

The door gave another bang as it opened, and he saw his dad's shoes, spotted with blood.

"David..." his dad said, stalking across his room. "I know you're here, David. It knows you're here..."

***

CAMCORDER VIDEO FOOTAGE 004

3:48 AM, 28TH MAY, 1987

BEN

Emmy! Emmy, can you hear me?!

Ben is shaking Emmy by the shoulders. The camcorder and flashlight are on the chest of drawers, showing the panic on Ben's and Quinn's faces. Emmy is unresponsive, eyes still rolled up to the back of her head, holding the hair clip and flashlight in one hand and the photo in the other, her body still convulsing.

BEN

Jesus, Emmy, whatever psychic shit is happening right now, snap out of it!

QUINN

Emmy, you need to snap out of it!

BEN

Whatever you're seeing, it's not worth it! Please, Emmy!

QUINN

Emmy!

But Emmy doesn't respond, still convulsing. Eyes still rolled into her head. Still seeing whatever she might be seeing—if her being psychic is true.

Ben lets go of Emmy as Quinn reaches down to smack the photo out of Emmy's hand. Ben stops her before she can.

BEN

Wait, Quinn! We don't know what that will do to Emmy.

QUINN

We do know we can't let her stay like that! What if what she's doing hurts her or something?

BEN

You think I don't know that? That can't be the way to wake her up!

QUINN

What other choice do we have?!

Ben remains quiet, staring between Quinn and at Emmy. Battling with himself over the choice to make—to knock the photo or hair clip out of his best friend's grip and risk something happening to her in the chance it would snap her out of it.

Or let whatever she's doing keep happening, and risk her still.

***

The floor creaked as he kept hiding underneath the bed, trying not to draw any attention to himself. To not let his dad or the thing pretending to be his dad find him.

"David," his dad said. "There's no point trying to hide. We know you're here. It wants you, son. Don't hide from it."

The boy whimpered as his dad stepped close to his bed. Right in front of where he was hiding.

"We know what you are, what you can hear. It wants you more than me. It can end right now, son, if you just come out and let it in."

The boy trembled, he was so scared but he couldn't let his dad find him, he hurt his mom and siblings, he was so scared—

"Hmm. You're not here. Okay. There are other places a little boy is hiding..."

The floor creaked, before the door opened and the footsteps grew fainter.

The boy felt relief bloom through him as he crawled out from the bed and creeped to the door, peering out. There was no one there.

Opening the door a fraction wider, he walked out and—

"Found you, son."

The boy gave out a strangled scream as sharp pain sliced across his throat, as dark shadows surrounded him, pushing against him, before threads of light came and spots filled his vision and a noise of horrible anger filled his ears as he fell to the ground and his dad looked down and horror and despair filled him.

"Oh God. No, no. David..."

Then the boy saw nothing, as the lights blurred out, the house grew decrepit and dark, and a teen girl running down the hallway and the stairs tugged at the consciousness watching...

***

Ben was about to slap the photo out of Emmy's hands when she stopped convulsing. She lets go of the photo and puts it back on the chest of drawers, taking up the flashlight in its place, and turned to the door.

BEN

Emmy? Ems, can you hear me?

Emmy doesn't respond as she walks out of the room and down the hallway.

QUINN

Shit, Emmy!

She runs out of the room after Emmy, out of the sight of the camcorder.

BEN

Shit!

He grabs the camcorder and flashlight and runs after the girls a second later, as the camcorder shows him and Quinn catch up to Emmy as she keeps walking, holding the flashlight and hair clip. It's almost like she's not in control of her body as she keeps walking down the hallway, then down the stairs. 

Quinn and Ben pause on the landing, exchanging a look before racing after their best friend—no matter what is going on with Emmy, they have to be there with her considering what else is in the house. And even without the monsters, they'd always be there for her, to make sure she's okay.

They'd be bad friends if they didn't.

When they got to landing, they see Emmy go into the living room, her body convulsing again as she clutches the hair clip, so tightly her knuckles blanch. They rush to her, Quinn now holding Emmy by the shoulders.

QUINN

Emmy, what's going on? Are you okay? Emmy!

Emmy doesn't respond, as her body shakes even more, and spit bubbles in a white froth around her mouth, her nose pouring blood as her ears and the corners of her eyes start to leak blood.

BEN

Quinn, get that hair clip out of her hand!

QUINN

But Ben, I thought you didn't—

BEN

I don't care! Fuck what I said earlier! Something bad's definitely gonna happen to her if we let her keep doing this! Get it out of her hand!

Quinn bites her lip, before she reaches down to get the hair clip out of Emmy's hand—but before she can, the hair clip falls out of Emmy's hand as she gives a sharp gasp, eyes rolling back forward as her nose, eyes and ears stop bleeding. She staggers back, spit dribbling down her lips, mixing with the blood trickling down from her nose in a slow stream.

QUINN

Holy shit, Emmy, are you okay?

EMMY

I... I don't know. Fuck, my head...

She presses a hand to her forehead, wincing. Quinn hovers by her side, her face full of concern. From what the camcorder can see of Ben, concern is also on his face.

BEN

Emmy, are you sure you're okay? What you did... that was fucking terrifying.

EMMY

It was?

QUINN

Ems, you were convulsing, you moved like a zombie, and—

BEN

And your nose, ears and eyes started bleeding and you were frothing at the mouth.

EMMY

I was?

She touches a trembling hand to her nose and when it comes away bloody, the horror on her face increases.

EMMY

I didn't... I didn't even know. I just... I was just seeing what they wanted to show me and I didn't...

Now she looks like she's about to be sick or cry, hand to her mouth as a choked sob slips out.

QUINN

Hey, it's okay. You snapped out of it. It's okay.

She wraps an arm around Emmy in comfort as Ben wraps his arm around her as well.

BEN

It's gonna be okay, Ems. And we're not gonna let that happen again. Just don't touch that hair clip or photo again.

EMMY

I don't think I will. Even if I did... I think it's okay now.

QUINN

What do you mean by that?

EMMY

They showed me what they wanted me to show. I think it'll be okay if I have them now.

BEN

O... okay. But, be careful, okay? 

QUINN

We don't want to lose you, Ems.

EMMY

Feeling's very much mutual.

They stay in silence as Quinn helps Emmy wipe the blood and spit off her face with her jacket sleeve, before Emmy finally speaks.

EMMY

I... I saw the last people who were murdered in here.

Ben and Quinn go still.

BEN

Oh.

EMMY 

Yeah. I... I saw David Morrow—Harold Morrow's son—be killed by his dad, and... and I saw Lindsey Farley, one of the girls who died in '67. I saw her die earlier, but I saw it more just now. It was... I can't...

She presses a hand to her mouth, body shaking again, but this time from the impact of what she'd seen rather than anything psychic-wise.

BEN

Hey, it's okay. We're here. It'll be okay.

EMMY

It was so awful. It was so freaking awful...

Quinn and Ben remained silent, holding Emmy. They stayed like that for minutes, just comforting Emmy—and maybe comforting each other, just a little bit.

EMMY

I... I think we're okay for a little bit. I can't sense the monsters.

QUINN

Do you want to talk about how to get out, or—

Emmy shook her head.

EMMY

No. I just... I want to sit and try to recover.

Neither Quinn or Ben argued—they both felt the same as Emmy.

So they moved to the couch, just sitting there and being silent as the camcorder recorded them, the minutes literally ticking by on the camcorder as the three teens sat there on the couch, Emmy grabbing the hair clip and putting it back in her pocket at some point, faces solemn, drawn—older than they should be. It seems almost insane that these were the same kids who laughed and joked about staying in a haunted house, that they were skeptical of it.

How wrong they are now, and their faces show it, along with the exhaustion of running and hiding for their lives all night. Of learning the horrifying fate of Sasha.

The trio stay that way for a long, long while—long enough for the time on the camcorder to go well into four o' clock, and long enough that the screen squiggles out in a clear fast forward, until it stops at five o' clock, where it shows Emmy stiffening.

EMMY

Guys.

Quinn and Ben look over to Emmy, their bodies going tense as they eye the room, the shadows. The camcorder doesn't glitch.

But they don't relax, not when Emmy looks the most tense out of them all, hearing and seeing something no one else can hear as she slowly stands up. Quinn and Ben follow, going behind her. The camcorder catches Emmy's back as the three of them creep out of the living room, flickering flashlights lighting up the darkness.

They get out of the living room to see a horde of shadow monsters and broken-necked, hollow-eyed and gaping-mouthed things, at the end of the hallway. At the front is the monster that has been mostly chasing them all night.

EMMY

Upstairs. Now.

The monsters turn, and let out a cacophony of shrieks as the screen glitches.

EMMY

Now!

The teens turn and run up the stairs as the monsters give chase, the camcorder still glitching as the flashlights flicker madly, and yet they still don't stop as they run down the hallway of the second floor, desperate to outrun the monsters and survive—and what Emmy had seen and what happened to Sasha providing good motivation. The breather they took also helps.

And it also provides motivation that if they can hide away this time, to finally find a way out of here.

***

Yeah, this chapter... yeah

You got some context into what happened with the murders—and Emmy was able to "see" them. Unfortunately, it had some side-effects (and, rightfully, freaked her friends out)

And yeah, they got a moment to breathe—and it makes it clear they're not the teens they were at the start of the night. Not anymore 😢 (and the night's not over yet...)

Also... we're three chapters away from finishing!! Who's excited? I am >:)

Please read, comment and vote!

GhostWriterGirl out!