Amanda Benson liked her third house, it was lightyears better than the previous house at Dark Falls and was only one short drive away at the next town. The color scheme was not black, white and red all over like jokes about newspapers and penguins with sunburns. The outer body was made with horizontal paneling that was the color of solar yellow. Amanda soon realized that it was just colorless white wood with the sun distributing nostalgic rays of light. There were no negative sensory problems such as dust or ugly noises. The neighborhood wasn't pedestrian and better yet, not dead. Even Josh, who is malcontent about everything, could not complain. They only had two friends at this point instead of a group; Carly-Beth Caldwell, a younger girl who had only just became a year older than Josh, and Samantha Byrd. One was ungracefully tall and the other was embarrassingly little.
It took a few months into their friendship for them to have their first sleepover. Carly-Beth slinks around the room upon hearing the stories about Dark Falls. Amanda, who sat at her computer, reassured that her current home wasn't at all haunted. Carly-Beth thought it was a little rude that she was ignoring her for an AOL email. Samantha was late for whatever reason and they did not begin doing any of the things they planned. The two girls present were a little bored as Carly-Beth felt beckoned to look around the room she never had the chance to see at its final draft. The first time she saw it as a gray, unfinished place. Now it was fully completed and customized to Amanda's liking. She had a creative soul, it did not show itself often but it was plain to see through her bedroom. She had the idea to combine red striped bedsheets with a dark blue comforter over it. The blend looked appetizing, Carly-Beth wanted to hop onto it.
She knocked into a cork board next to the dresser. It crashed on top of her head causing Amanda to finally tear away from the screen of her computer. Carly-Beth saw a little halo of ducks flying around her head as she sat sloppily on the floor. They vanished into obscurity when the dizzy spots faded first. Amanda stood above her, crossing her arms. The fallen girl flipped around on the floor and slapped the thumb tacks out of her hair.
"Sorry!" She was ignored once again, because Amanda cared more about fixing her cork board. Carly-Beth forced herself to help but stopped upon coming across a photo. The tacks of the board hoisted up mainly softball medals. If there was something positive taken from Amanda's past at Dark Falls, it was her sparked desire to take up the sport. She grew to become more coordinated over a short period of time and close to becoming as good as Josh.
"Is that Kathy?" Carly-Beth shuddered to think of how she was able to ask something that personal.
Amanda had a naturally serious face but in this picture she was smiling. She was in the arms of a blonde girl. Carly-Beth assumed it was Kathy, a friend Amanda has briefly talked about once before. She had a tall, lanky body like Samantha but had an air of attractiveness to her posture. Her friendly grin bears braces all across her bottom and top row of teeth. Her skin was as pale as her dim gray eyes, the contrast between it and the other girl's olive tone was clear to see. Carly-Beth was transfixed on the shadowy lines under those eyes. The pictured was plucked from her pinched fingers. Amanda put up a fuss to place it as perfectly as needed. It was treated with more respect than all the precious rewards; only sharing the space with another photo, one taken of the family's deceased dog Petey.
"No," Amanda darkly spoke, "one of the friends I made at my last house."
The sands of time will wash away most of the trauma germinated off of experiencing life in a literal ghost town. Yet, at night she still hears Karen's cries of gratitude. It would always overlap with the screams of agony from the other dead kids as they crumble in the sun. The visions may no longer haunt but those sounds will.
"She got killed by the zombies, right? I'm so sorry."
"She was one of the zombies."
Carly-Beth's throat tightened. The same person emoting greatly in the photo is now sitting in a sad slump. The room was quiet but they haven't caught on to the ramping going on below them. They get less loud as they travel up stairs. Amanda returns to her computer but contemplates if she really wants to send an email to Kathy after thinking about Karen.
Carly-Beth attempts to console her, "did I ever tell you about the time I got this mask..."
The door violently cracks open. The two find themselves receiving a broadcast of fear. The ground shakes as if it will cave in between where they were standing. It was Samantha who rushed in like the wind; she unfolds the louvered closet doors and seals herself behind them. She shouts commands for everyone to hide. This pablum act was one you would expect from someone finding out their house was manifested with spiders.
Amanda sighed. "What now, Big Bird?"
Samantha could only holler one thing. "It's back! It's back!"
Carly-Beth drowned herself into her sleeping bag and zipped it all the way. The human cocoon rattled in light of the mention of an abominable name. Amanda stood out visible in the middle of her room as she was left in the dark of this. No matter how many times she was warned to hide, she just stood in place. Samantha had to drag the two of them into the closet, where they all camped on the floor. Through the slits they share the vision of an apparition. The susurrus of its movement was like a light sneeze, or heavy breezing. To the girls, it looked like a latent person. They couldn't grab it by the arm even though they can see it because their hands would materialize right past it. Stolidity, the unidentifiable one ducks back out into the hallway with sapphire smoke tailing it.
The closet was too small to house such a maelstrom. Samantha had to cover Carly-Beth's mouth, who had to cover Amanda's. It helped that this wasn't their first rodeo with chilling members of the supernatural. They tried to bake up a plan, after they freed each other's mouths.
"Amanda and I both faced freaky stuff like this in the past," said Carly-Beth.
"And me," Samantha had to reiterate. This time, with the others laughing bitterly. She leered as to beg for the both of them to justify themselves.
"Yeah getting your wishes granted must have been so hard." Amanda dried her laughter up. "I'm crying for you."
Before getting thrashed by Samantha, Amanda halts her with a timid raise of her open hand. Her palm was clearly trembling and her head was indirect. It was twisted towards the sky. Carly-Beth unleashed a scream so screechy it can be mistaken for a boiling cat. She cranked open one side of the door after not wasting a second to stand up. She struggled to get it to properly unfold with her impatient fingers. Amanda pried them off to grab the door herself, even though she was definitely having trouble herself. It breaks down into a concave so outward the crease can easily have three preteen girls slip through it. Carly-Beth punched herself all over her body, runny splats marked her like ink stains. They all crushed the spiders off their bodies in a frenzy. Amanda drowned them in shower of her own soda drink, the can was tipped all over. Samantha preformed a wild contemporary dance to reach the ones sticking to her back. When Josh visited, he made a turn back to return to his room in an instant. He did not notice a force of blue rushing past him.
The door does not open a second time. It was left wide and unlocked for a stranger to stand at the opening uninvited. Samantha and Carly-Beth knew who it was, Amanda was still in the dark.
#
Samantha and Carly-Beth admonished her not to allow the stranger at the door to join, but Amanda wanted to see what the big deal was. After all, the spectra had a valid reason to want so. As odd as it was for any incisive person without the experience the group had, Sarah Maas can not pass to the other unless she joins a sleepover. Her spirit may be able to leave Camp Cold Lake through water exchanged from the new home's pool, but she is still jailed by her murder that was carried out by a swimming buddy. Amanda could roll her eyes, first a house in a zombie town and now a house with a haunted pool. In short time, it was plain to see why Samantha and Carly-Beth didn't want this. Things got difficult at the beginning.
"I need to sleep on left side so my head is farther away from the ocean," said Sarah Maas.
"That's the dumbest thing I ever heard." Samantha rolled her eyes. "We're in Spring Village, we are nowhere near and ocean."
Amanda's eye twitched, she was just as bad as Josh. Sarah made every matter a project and took everything personally. She was an entitled whiner, the other three had to walk on eggshells for her. Amanda wished the zombies had their way wish her, at least they were affable. They were also not royal pains. Carly-Beth had to filter the yogurt bits from the trail mix bag; not because of a serious allergy, but because Sarah hates them ardently.
When Samantha leaned over to Amanda she was expecting an "I told you so". Instead she was told this in a crisp whisper,
"Is it too late to sacrifice her to that lake ghost?"
Sarah knocked into Amanda's cork board and it crashes to the floor a second time. Like Carly-Beth, she said her apologizes. Unlike with Carly-Beth, more embarrassing content spilled from it. A candid photo tucked behind one of the visible one fluttered to the floor for everyone to see. Amanda turned hot red; Sarah did something like this before, only that time it was some asthma remission materials. Now it was a picture of...
#
Sarah slept like any mortal can sleep. She didn't use a sleeping bag but was sprawled on the rug with an arm supporting her head. Her azure force was raised from the ground. In a wisp, she was carried out from underneath. First it lifted her into the hallway, down the stairs, past the dining room, and into the backyard. In the midst of her sleep, Sarah smiles. She liked to think it was a deity or the universe putting her to rest.
Sarah's ghost was placed onto a blow up mat, that was released into the pool by Amanda, Samantha and Carly-Beth. They plan to make her spend the rest of the night outside and far away from them.
A/N: This is legitimately my worse fic.