Sequel to my other spooky fic 'The Forgotten House'. For StendanMoustashe who has been waiting patiently for me to write it. And for PatriciaJessic who gave me the idea of re visiting a few years down the line. :D
No idea how many chapters it will have,hope you like the story. :) xx
Warning: This is a spooky fic, expect scary scenes, angst, supernatural content.
Just for spooky fun with Halloween around the corner.
Darkness Within.
It had been five years since the house had been destroyed. And yet the stories of the forgotten house still were told within the playgrounds of schools, amongst adults over weekly coffee mornings, even the local newspaper wrote an article about the strange goings on when the estate was being torn down.
Statements from eyewitnesses had told of strange apparitions and ghostly gusts of wind that appeared from nowhere. One witness had spoke of a child and two adults wandering around, but whenever they tried to speak to them they'd just disappear. People had began to act in ways out of character and when approached about it, complained of feeling something unnatural around them, a darkness that people feared, a darkness they all waited to happen to them.
For Ste Brady his life as he knew it had changed since the days he spent there. The nightmares started up again when the house was demolished, and when they discovered the golden box and put it on display in the local museum strange occurrences had plagued the village of Hollyoaks. Of course Ste, Brendan and the others had tried to explain it as a coincidence, but Ste knew deep down there was more too it.
It became a reoccurring thing for Ste, a gift some might say. He called it for what it was the darkness within. He dreamt about it, the trapped entity, the one who still seeked him, craved his soul. Ste still felt its strength and pull it had once had on him, the hunger. It felt like it was back the dreams were so vivid.
There was another change for Ste though, something he hadn't expected. The little girl who had once been Ste's saviour had now become his spirit guide. Protected him, warned him that it was trying to find a way out of the box that sealed itself shut. Ste and Brendan spoke often about the thing they dreaded the most,worried what they would do if that box was ever opened again.
Ste woke up in a trance like state, his eyes opened quickly, glazing over and lifeless. He moved both legs out from under the duvet and walked around to the middle of the room,swaying slightly on the spot, his breathing turned harsher, slowly becoming more visible as it left his mouth. He moved his arm up and pointed with his shaking finger towards the ceiling.
He knew where he was and his surroundings, he couldn't see,just feel and do nothing to stop what his body was doing. The room began to turn wintry cold, Ste's breathing turned to iced crystals as it left his mouth. As the dark apparition moved close by, deathly silent turning the air an icy cold, he hadn't seen it yet. It made sure of that as it circled the celling above him waiting.
It had him paralysed as soon as the snow like crystals covered over the exposed skin, Ste could do nothing but feel it happen with eyes widened in fear. Across his arms and down his chest a white icy sheen developed there moulding itself across him. Ste didn't move or shiver; he couldn't do anything but point up to the ceiling. His mind still in a trance like state,body still covering in a snow like substance.
Brendan shivered in the bed pulling the cover up over himself trying to get warm, his body felt a chill rise up in it. Brendan stroked his tongue over his moustashe and felt ice there, it roused him from his sleep. Moving his arm up his fingers traced along it, jolting them away at the spike of pain in the tips. The hair was stiff and extremely cold to touch.
He moved his other arm across and instinctively felt for Ste who wasn't there. And that had Brendan moving and sitting bolt upright in bed. The room was darkened; still middle of the night and the only light was from the street lamps that shone through the cracks of the curtains. With that he saw a sliver of light bounce off something in the middle of the room. Brendan reached over to the side of him shivering uncontrollably now as the temperature had dropped considerably.
The light switched on and the bulb exploded making the glass hit Brendan covering him in hot shards and it stung, the glass had been very hot to the touch, even though it hadn't been lit more than a second. The light had given him all he needed to see though, Ste was the something stood in the middle of the room and the sight had been harrowing.
Brendan rushed to the main switch, the apparition quickly dispersed when it rushed around Brendan and he felt a wind rush past him he gasped with fear. Brendan cried in pain seeing Ste stood in the room arm stretched up to the ceiling, covered in what looked like pure ice.
Brendan rushed as fast as his freezing legs could carry him, and they were hurting so bad now he winced and grabbed the duvet cover, yanking it off the bed with all the strength he could muster and wrapped Ste up in it tightly. He didn't move all stiff and creaking as the ice crystals broke off him.
Brendan rubbed hard with his hands over him trying to bring back some life into Ste, as his body crumbled of the ice he fell limp in Brendan's arms. His arm fell back down and Brendan carried him in his arms out of the freezing bed room and into the lounge. He sat there cradling Ste kissing over his exposed face, the only thing not covered except for one of his feet that was protruding out.
"Steven" Brendan whispered into Ste's ear and kissed him there trying to warm him up with his lips, but they too had turned the blue shade Ste's were coloured.
"Wake up baby" Brendan choked back a sob. "Not again, Steven, please"
Brendan closed his eyes and knew what they were up against;it had been building up for a long time. He felt helpless in that moment, and moved his hands over the thick duvet to try and heat up Ste as much as he could. Ste was still breathing just not responding to Brendan, he stroked his hair and ice drops fell out of it onto the floor. Brendan pressed his lips to Ste's and kissed him moving his tongue inside, it was warm in Ste's mouth and that gave him some hope as he stroked lovingly against him.
"Hey, where's my kiss back?" Brendan teased into Ste's ear "Not like ye to hold back"
Brendan moved his hand under the duvet to check Ste's body and although it was still cold it was getting warmer now. He moved his hand down Ste's skin and stroked warmth over him,clinging Ste against his body. "Come on Steven,I know ye can hear me"
After a while Ste's body warmed up more, and the pink colour began to return to his cheeks, his hair had been rid of the crystals now. Brendan was still stroking Ste, anywhere he could get his hands on as the heat travelled back into his body.
"Steven?" Brendan saw his eyelids move finally, he sighed with a huge relief. Brendan stroked over Ste's boxers and then he moved a little making Brendan smile, he stroked there longer until Ste's pink cheeks had flushed, and his eyes had began to open properly.
"Bren...?"
"Thank god Steven, ye need to pack this in ye know!" Brendan kissed Ste in desperation taking both their breaths away.
"Why are we sat on the sofa you rubbing my lap while I am wrapped up in a duvet?" Ste scrunched his eyebrows up in confusion
"Now there's the million dollar question!" Brendan laughed "I'm trying to warm ye up!"
"OH, right then, well it's working, I feel very hot, can ya move your hand a little more...yeah that's it" Ste smiled, but Brendan shook his head in disbelief. "It's not funny Steven"
"Ye don't remember do ye? In the bedroom before and what happened?"
Ste thought for a moment, and then shook his head. "No, I remember sleeping; I think I had a nightmare too, and why do I feel so cold?"
"Ye were coved in ice! I found ye in the middle of the room pointing up to the ceiling, covered in bloody snow or something"
"In the middle of summer?" Ste cried aghast
"Yeh, it's freaking nuts I know, earth to Steven, bigger picture?" Brendan shook his body a little and raised his eyebrows.
Ste twigged and hitched a breath "What? Oh god, not again, it's happening again isn't it?"
He looked worried and shuffled down into the duvet more just exposing his eyes.
"I don't know Steven, but I'm positive people don't just turn to ice in their bedrooms"
"Why was I pointing to the ceiling?" They looked at each other and Brendan gasped moving Ste up off the sofa and keeping him wrapped up in the duvet. He waddled over to the bedroom and they went in.
The temperature had turned back to normal now; they looked up at the place Ste had pointed to and then back at each other. 'Darkness within' was scrolled across the ceiling in blood. Ste shivered and Brendan placed his arms around the giant duvet he was inside.
"I say that all the time Bren...how does it know?"
"Baby if I knew that we'd be living in la la land somewhere. Unfortunately we have to live in the real world which for some reason loves to surround ye in the supernatural!"
Ste looked up at the writing then walked over to the cabinet and grabbed his phone looking over at Brendan with a smirk.
"Don't ye even dare"
"I'm gonna have to make the call Bren..."
"Don't..."
"Who am I gonna call Bren?"
"That's it; I'm off to make breakfast!"
Ste giggled to himself as Brendan went to make breakfast. Ste looked up at the celling and frowned,what the hell had done that he thought. He was still cold so huddled into the duvet more,dialled and waited for someone to pick up, the call clicked...
"Ghost busters, how can we help...?"
Darren point blank refused to listen holding up a feather duster as a way of a weapon as Jim and Dennis tried to calm him down and make him listen to reason. Darren stood up on a swivel chair and poked the feather duster at them jabbing it through the air, the chair swung precariously as Darren tried to keep himself steady on it.
"Get away!" Darren warned pushing the feathers into Dennis' face and making him cough on them, dust flying everywhere. Dennis started having a fit of sneezes as the dust cloud got breathed into his lungs and nostrils.
"Ah come on Darren, they're our friends!" Jim tried to reason with Darren. "Now give me the feather duster and climb down slowly"
"NO! Have you forgotten the Black swirly thing?! Well I haven't!"
"Sweet lord above, Darren it's trapped remember?" Jim rolled his eyes and tried to grab the duster with no luck
"Oh so Ste turning into the abominable snowman was just a party trick then?"
"He hasn't turned into a yeti! He was just iced up a little, he's thawed out completely now by all accounts." Dennis coughed up the remained of the dust cloud and a few feathers he never knew he'd inhaled.
Darren sighed getting down off his chair and sitting in it. "So what is it this time? An iced swirly thing? Cause anything to do with them lot spells trouble."
Jim and Dennis sighed sitting down with Darren retrieving the duster and chucking it away.
"We will go and see what's happened; maybe Ste is just haunted, it can happen sometimes." Jim shrugged.
"Ever since the house was destroyed he's had nightmares" Dennis agreed
Cheryl rubbed her eyes trying to remove the sleep that had formed there, a noise had rudely woken her from the dream she'd been having. Yawning and stretching out the kinks in her body the cracks it made seemed to echo around the room for some reason.
Her eyes opened and tried to focus, the feeling of not being alone crept over her like ants on her warm skin. There was something in the room with Cheryl, and it wasn't just the sleeping Nate by the side of her. The apparition stood at the bottom of the bed looking at her with blackened eyes.
Cheryl recognised the spirit, it was the woman who had once appeared to her at the house. It just stared at Cheryl as she hitched a breath, when the air around her dropped to freezing she brought up her hand to see her breath smoke white in front of her widened eyes,Cheryl trembled uncontrollably.
Without any warning the spirit rushed straight at her quickly and Cheryl screamed as its eyes were now right in front of her face. It reached out a ghostly hand to her face and scratched in anger across her cheek leaving an icy mark there in a deep fingernail scar.
It showed its bare teeth then screeched loud waking Nate up. He looked over and saw Cheryl battling with an unseen entity. Cheryl was flaying her arms around and whimpering as each tear she shed turned to an ice crystal.
"What the hell's going on?" Nate cried sitting up next to Cheryl and gasping at how cold she was.
"It's back, the woman I saw at the house, she's back" Cheryl winced feeling the nasty cut across her cheek. "Look what it did! How did it physically touch me?"
"I've no idea babe, it's since the house was destroyed,something may have followed us home" Nate sat up on his elbows still half asleep and trying to understand.
"What do ye mean, 'something', Nate what's going on?" Cheryl's eyes widened as he hugged her closer.
"We'd best call Ste and Brendan; I bet they've had some things happen too." Nate reached over and grabbed his phone. When he'd spoken to them his fear was heighted.
"We're going for the golden box" Nate threw the covers off him and placed his feet on the floor, resting his head firmly in his palms he sighed heaviest he's done in years.
"What?"
"Ste thinks it needs destroying, so we're going to find it" Nate gestured his hands up at Cheryl standing up to get dressed.
"Where is it?" Cheryl grabbed a mirror and looked at her scar fleeting her fingers across it.
"Museum apparently" Nate hopped into his jeans "They have called everyone in, probably best considering"
They all stood outside the museum, and the weather had taken a turn for the worst. Oddly none of them were surprised. High winds made the trees bend over at awkward angles breaking off branches and leaves. They swirled around their feet and crunched and snapped under foot as they made their way up to the stairs of the building.
A flash of forked lightning streaked across the sky lighting up the menacing dark clouds above them. The thunder deafening and travelling through their bones making them vibrate. It seemed to get worse the closer to the museum they got. Ste shuddered suddenly and grabbed hold of Brendan's arm tightly; he slumped over onto his knees holding his forehead in his hand. Brendan hitched a breath and couched down next to him.
The others surrounded Ste wondering what was wrong. Lightening flashed over Ste's face and showed a new face there, eyes blackened and mouth wide Ste screamed and deafened Brendan.
"It's here" The voice growled out of Ste's throat, scratching at his vocal cords. Brendan moved to his feet dragging Ste with him and shook him quickly out of the state he was in.
"Leave him alone!Get out of him" Brendan shook Ste as he fell limp into his arms.
Jim moved down and lifted up Ste's face as it had now got it's colour back once more.
"Ste? It's Jim can you hear me?" Jim shook Ste who didn't move
"Steven, come on, we need ye" Brendan kissed Ste on the lips and slowly he roused again, flicking open his eye lashes and looking up at everyone's gormless face expressions.
"What?" Ste asked puzzled "What happened?"
"Ye don't remember?"
"Your eyes were black like the woman's!" Cheryl cried clinging on to Nate so tightly he felt the moment his circulation ceased.
"Really? I don't remember! What woman Cheryl?" Ste asked getting back to his feet again,he held Brendan's hand tightly squeezing a comforting hold.
"In the bathroom at the house, I saw a woman look at me through the mirror and her face was evil"
"Oh god! I saw her too!" Ste looked up at the museum and shivered "It's here"
"You said that before!" Darren cried hiding behind Dennis
"I did? Oh...well I can feel it, the dark entity is in there" Ste pointed a shaky finger towards the museum as they ascended the stairs
"Of course, let's all go into the spooky museum, great plan!" Darren snapped sarcastically.
They broke the lock and entered the building, it was dark and eerie, Dennis moved to find the light switch but it blew out every bulb above them showering them in red hot glass. Dennis cried as one fell on his hand and burnt through the skin. The smell of burning flesh lingered in the air as they moved further into the museum armed with torches. A shadow moved across the wall behind them, they didn't see it as it followed their every step moving across the ceiling above them, it watched and waited.
Brendan gasped when a bright light appeared at the side of them; it was the little girl again. However they all continued to walk ahead leaving Brendan looking puzzled.
"They can't see me Brendan, only you can"
"Why? I thought ye were Ste's spirit guide?" Brendan gestured his hands to the little girl looking back and now seeing he was alone. The others had disappeared as he made to follow them but the child's voice stopped him
"I am, but he's in grave danger, and you need to stop him" The girl looked around her and shivered she knew it was already with them. "In fact, now none of you are safe"
"What?"
"The dark entity wants him, it knows he is here. Brendan you must get him away, there is more than one of them now"
"More than one? More than one what exactly...?" Brendan turned around and looked up to the ceiling; he saw a shadowy creature glide across the ceiling in the direction of Ste and the others. Brendan gasped and looked back at the girl, his bones covered in a spine tingling shiver that made his senses cry fear.
"They have found a way through Brendan, they will take you all" The little girl pointed behind him eyes widened.
Brendan swallowed hard and turned his head around slowly, his breath turning to an icy steam he felt his hair and moustashe cover in ice crystals. Brendan saw its blackened eyes and gasped as an arm stretched out and scratched him clean across the face making him fall to the ground with a dull thud. The torch he'd been carrying smashed hard on the floor;the light flickered on and off until it faded to nothing.
Turning in silence the apparition moved to find Ste and his friends as Brendan lay on the floor. A cold snow like substance crept over him like a blanket being dragged over his body, paralysing and covering him up in a cold white frost. Above him more shadows moved fleeting across the ceiling following the others. The little girl placed her hand over Brendan's face and whispered "I will find help, don't give in to it"
They rest of the group walked and found themselves suddenly in a room of mirrors, it was a weird thing to find in a museum they had initially thought. As they walked around they lost track of what was them and what was a reflection. Ste got separated from the group as he felt his way around his reflection kept changing in the mirrors. Blurring quickly in and out of focus.
He stopped and looked into one of the mirrors as Brendan appeared behind him Ste smiled and turned around but no one was there, he spun around and looked in the mirror and Brendan was still there. He saw him smile at him through it and smooth his hand down the front of Ste's trousers.
Brendan's eyes shined looking back at him Ste gasped turning to look behind him again he was still alone. Ste watched as Brendan in the mirror stroked over his chest and kissed against his neck eyes still staring at him.
Ste gazed on in shock,he looked down over his body, no hands on him and no Brendan. He watched for a while fascinated, unable to take his eyes off the image in the mirror. It was like watching a scene played back to him in slow motion.
Then Brendan's other hand came up around his back with a large knife in it, he carried on kissing Ste in the reflection and staring back at him, he started to smile as he brought up the knife and moved it towards Ste's chest in the mirror.
Ste gasped and put his hands forward crashing against the mirror watching Brendan plunge the knife deep into his insides and his reflection fall to the floor. He looked back up at Brendan who continued to smile before licking the knife over his tongue tasting the blood. A hand fell down on Ste's shoulder making him spin round in fright and scream.
It was Jim. "Hey Ste we've been looking for you"
Ste trembled and looked back at the mirror, his reflection back to normal, no Brendan no knife no blood. He looked back at Jim who looked concerned.
"Jim, let's get the box and get out of here" Jim nodded and led the way out.
Behind him the mirror split across in angry branched out lines,scratching a loud piercing noise not unlike metal on glass,slowly the knife moved inch by inch through the cracks in the mirror.
Please Review :) xx