A Haunting: Century Lane Chapter 3
The next morning, Charlie rose up quite early; stepping out in to the morning sunshine to get away from the oppressive nature of the house.
Sitting down on the front steps, Charlie tried to make sense of what he had seen at heard last night.
He knew that he hadn't been dreaming...but he didn't know if it was real, either!
Who would believe him if he said his house was haunted? No one...his own parents and brother didn't even believe him, so there was no use mentioning it at school; people would just laugh at him and call him crazy.
Hearing the door open behind him, Charlie saw his mother coming outside, two cups in her hand.
Carefully she sat down beside her son; handing him one of the cups.
To Charlie's relief he saw that it was hot chocolate instead of coffee...which he hated with a passion!
"Momma...why'd we have to come here?" Charlie asked, before taking a sip of his drink.
"Your father was offered a job with the city...plus for you and your brother to continue with your education...the move was necessary." Margaret said as she glanced at her son who was gazing down in to his drink.
"I meant here momma. Why'd we have to move in to this house?"
"This was the only house big enough that we could afford, honey. Now I promise you that this house will grow on you. Just give it some time and you'll learn to love it here." Margaret sighed; running her hand up and down Charlie's back in a calming manner.
They both stayed outside for awhile; finishing their drinks. Then they both headed back inside; Margaret to start making breakfast and Charlie to get dressed for school.
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That night, Charlie had just finished his homework...for the entire week; setting down his pencil on the desk.
When he had been at school, he had convinced the teacher to give him the extra heavy work load and to his surprise the teacher had actually given it to him!
Now having completed it, Charlie glanced at his bedroom clock seeing now that it was way past his bedtime.
"If dad comes up here and sees I'm up, I'm dead." Charlie muttered to himself; rising up and grabbing his clean PJ's off the bed.
Quickly changing clothes, Charlie flipped off his lightswitch and climbed on in to bed.
Thankfully he had remembered to turn on his lava lamp a few hours ago, so the reddish glow of the lamp was bouncing off the walls as the lava took different shapes at it made its journey up and down.
This soothing action caused Charlie to fall asleep.
Thump Thump
Charlie gasped awake, his eyes immedietly going to his bedroom clock which he could see through the glow of his lava lamp.
It read 3:24.
Swallowing, Charlie nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard the footsteps overhead again.
"Not again...not again!" He thought to himself.
Movement out of the corner of his eye caused him to quickly turn his head and almost immedietly he was gasping audibly, trying to scramble away from what he saw.
There, standing right beside his bed was a dark figure with two razer sharp horns coming out of it's head.
It was shaped sort of like a human, but it had long bear like claws and it's eyes were deep, dark pits.
Slowly the monster raised his clawed hand towards Charlie who tried to scream, but it was so low that he could barely hear it himself!
His heart pounding wildly in his chest, all Charlie could do was watch the figure slowly float forward till it was literally right beside him before he was able to shut his eyes and scream loudly.
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A loud knock at the door caused Charlie to open his eyes and quickly sit up.
He was in his bedroom he saw...the lava lamp still glowing brightly.
Had what happened last night all been a dream? Had he not really seen the being that looking strikingly like the devil himself?
~*"Hey Charlie."*~
Turning his head, Charlie saw the figure of a little boy sitting in his chair that was beside the desk.
The boy looked to be at least 9 or 10 years old, wearing a striped shirt and overalls. His shoes at dark specks on them; mud, Charlie guessed.
However, the thing that Charlie noticed more was that this boy was literally in black and white. He had no color to his features at all; in fact Charlie would have guessed he was looking at a boy from an early film had the boy not stood up then and walked over to him.
"Who....who are you?" Charlie asked.
~*"My name is Man, Charlie. I want to be your best friend."*~
For some reason, this Man ghost didn't frighten Charlie...in fact this ghost child caused Charlie to smile a little and caused his spirit to lift a little.
Rising with a big grin on his face, Charlie headed downstairs for breakfast.
Tromping down the stairs, Charlie was talking with Man the whole way, completly ignoring his brother Don who was sitting on the couch sipping his milk.
Entering the dining room, Charlie sat down at the table, still talking with Man even though his mother was trying to talk to him.
"CHARLIE!"
Gasping, Charlie looked towards his mother who was breathing hard.
"Momma?"
"Uh," Margaret began, pushing her hair away from her face, "Who are you talking to, hon'?"
"My new best friend." Charlie replied as if that was the obvious answer.
"What's his name?"
"Man."
Confused, Margaret said nothing more as she sat Charlie's breakfast down in front of him.
Looking down at the meal in front of him, Charlie's anger started to spike.
"I don't want this!" He said, flinging the plate off of the table to smack against the wall, splattering food everywhere.
"Charlie!" Margaret and Don said in unision.
Don had just finished his milk and had come in to the kitchen in time to hear Charlie's outburst and see him fling the plate off of the table.
As he rose up from the chair and turned to go back upstairs, Don saw the look of hatred and malice that he recognized oh so well...but not coming from Charlie's face!
Not knowing what to do, Don just stood there watching his youngest brother go up the stairs; hearing him start to speak to this 'Man' again, while behind him, Don could hear his mother sit down at the table in shock; too flabbergasted to clean up the food that was on the floor.
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A/N: For those of you who has seen A Haunting, you may recognize the episodes in this chapter. The description of the ghost in Charlie's bedroom, I took from the episode "Where Demon's Dwell" and the bit about the 'Man' ghost, I took from the episode "Demon Child."
Also, thank you Luvnumb3rs and Masondixon for reviewing!
