Thank you all very much for your lovely comments and reviews for this story. I know most of you were upset with the ending last time. Sorry guys :(
A reminder this is a spooky fic that will sometimes contain angst, upsetting and/or scary scenes. xx


Darkness Within

Chapter 8

"BRENDAN!" Ste screamed watching him fall and then looked up at the black spirit that began to move quickly in the air screeching at him. Ste knew it was going to get him again but he didn't care anymore, his reason for living taken from him in the blink of an eye. Behind him Cheryl was in shock at seeing her brother fall to his death. As she watched the swirly thing move towards Ste she did the only thing she could and took out the golden box and ran at Ste.

She managed to grab him over and he landed on her legs, Cheryl opened the box as the spirit dived towards them and it was sucked into the box screeching and wailing. Ste gasped and slammed the box shut. Feeling around his neck he found the golden key and locked the box. He and Cheryl lay back heavy on the floor as the box sat on Ste's chest. It rose and fell quickly as he tried to capture his breath again.

"I'm...I'm so sorry babe" Cheryl sobbed uncontrollably "He loved ye so much"

Ste closed his eyes as tears rolled down the side of his face and trickled into his ears. The feeling made him feel uncomfortable and he tried to block it all out, couldn't bare to listen to Cheryl pour her heart out over Brendan. He wanted her to shut up.

"What are we gonna do without him Ste? I can't cope...what are we gonna...

"AARRGGHH! Chez! SHUT UP!" Ste screamed into the air pushing Cheryl off his body, he couldn't breathe anymore.


Dennis groaned and woke up finally, his eyelids struggled to open properly like they had been glued together for years. His arm moved up and he cried out in pain the deep slash he'd received at the hands of the figure in the CCTV room ached and he felt it tear again blood seeping out into his top re soaking the already stained blood patch.

He carried on moving until he was sat upright and could see he was in a new room without Darren or Carmel. Where the hell was he? And where was everyone else? "H..Helloo?" Dennis cried tentivly climbing to his feet and looking around. He was in a new part of the museum now, didn't recognise it at all. He gasped suddenly when he heard a gunshot. Turning around quickly giving himself whiplash or something near to that.

He moved to the area where the noise had come from,it was dark and he had to feel around in front of him making sure he didn't bang into any of the displays dotted around. As he carried on he came into a room where there seemed to be things on the floor,he kicked at the things and heard a soft clattering noise. Then he heard a loud gasp. "Who's there?!"Dennis asked into the darkness.

"Help me...I'm being attacked by clowns"

"You what? Are you tripping or something? Who gets attacked by clowns?" Dennis moved further into the room and began to find it difficult to walk there was a lot of things on the floor. He needed some light.

"Have you a torch?"

"I did have but it fell, I only have a gun but already wasted rounds shooting into the air. Can you make your way to the wall, find a switch?"

"Hmm, I will give it a try then yes" Dennis agreed and moved a different way, wading through the sea of debris under his feet. He tried to kick his feet and that seemed to help more, eventually feeling over a wall. He walked himself around it and upon finding a switch turned it on and as the room flooded with light he gasped loudly seeing the mountain of toys before him. Made up of dolls and clowns, they were all turned facing him, but not moving.

Walker grabbed the clown that had leapt on him and ripped it apart chucking it on the floor in disgust kicking all the other toys into the air and grunting. Grabbing his torch off the floor he looked up at Dennis and panted after using all his energy to rid his space of the haunted toys. "They attacked me!" Walker cried when he saw Dennis giving him an odd look.

"OH" Dennis replied nodding his head slowly and widening his eyes.

Walker moves over to Dennis and moves his arm aloft to shake his hand. Dennis cried out in pain and held over his cut on his shoulder. Walker peered over him and frowned. "Wow that looks painful, what happened?"

"I was attacked by a thing...that was like a man, but not a man with a ruddy great big knife!" Dennis nodded as he spoke and moved to walk away; Walker grabbed his arm again and looked deep into his eyes.

"Right, take me to this area NOW"

"What? Why do you want to go there? Didn't you hear me, there's this m..."

"Shut up, if you value your life you will take me there, OK?"

Dennis looked worried but nodded his head anyway as they made their way back through the dark and oppressive atmosphere of the museum. It seemed to be getting colder as the night drew on Dennis felt goose bumps crawling all over his skin as his hairs stood on end. He gazed back every now and then to his new companion, who on earth was he anyway. And what gave him the right to treat him so badly.

Walker turned and locked on his gaze so he quickly averted from his darkened eyes and continued along the different areas. They eventually came to the rubble filled area of the front of the museum. Dust swirled around in the air like dancing fireflies in the torch light as Dennis shone it around the place. He wondered what could have happened, it looked like a bomb had gone off in the museum.

Walker was right up against his back when he felt his breath travel over his neck."It was a back draft" Walker spoke with confidence in his voice.

Dennis span around to look at him curiously "Yeah? And how do you know that?"

"Easy, I was in it" Walker looked around and pointed in the direction of the twin elevators. "Come on, this will take us upstairs, that's where the CCTV room is situated, right?"

Dennis nodded in agreement before looking back at the state of the room "Were there any others with you, cos looking at that mess, it would be dangerous to have been in it" Dennis hurried along to meet up with Walker at the elevators.

"What do you care? As long as you're safe, it doesn't matter who got trapped huh?"

"So someone did get trapped?" Dennis widened his eyes and grabbed Walkers coat tightly "Who?"

"No one Ok, now get the hell off me" Walker pressed the button and waited "What is wrong with these things?!" Walker got angry and hit the button hard with his fist and heard the lifts start to descend.

"Hmm, just needed some persuasion"

"You're bloody crazy you know that?"


Inside the elevator Carmel, Patrick and Darren had huddled together in a corner as fear gripped them. Dennis had disappeared and they had no idea where he was. The ghost that had been spooking them had disappeared when Patrick had produced a lighter and sparked it into a flame. The spirit had screeched and then gone.

Darren had looked at him in shock asking why on earth he hadn't brought it out before and used it. Patrick had got the hump and squared up to Darren in the elevator sparking his lighter as a way to stare at him angrily. Carmel had rolled her eyes and stood between them shutting them up once and for all.

"You know we shouldn't be falling out with each other here!" Carmel tried to pacify her companions.

"He started it!" Patrick wined like a child and Darren laughed at him making matters worse.

Suddenly the lift jolted and threw them back to the floor with a bump. It started to move again. They were gobsmacked and relieved they would finally get out of the lift from hell. Behind them the mirrors began to fog over with a smoke like substance. It glowed white and they all turned around and gasped. Carmel grabbed Patrick and Darren by the arms and pulled them back against the elevator doors. The only place that didn't have a mirror. They leaned back hard against it eyes wide watching the fog thicken and swirl.

"I saw that film you know" Darren whispered

"Eh? What film?"

"The Fog" Darren replied his voice shaking with fear. "Yeah the Fog came and evil pirates walked out of it killing people"

"OH WOW, thank you Darren! Not only are we trapped in a haunted elevator we now have to deal with killer pirates and evil fog!" Carmel snapped incredulous. She turned to face the door and pounded on it. "HELP! We are gonna be attacked by zombies!"

"Pirates..."

"Pirate zombies I mean!" Carmel corrected herself and thumped on the door quickly.

"Look can we pull ourselves together here? There are no bloody pirates or zombies in the fog" Patrick had had enough of the whole situation, wanting nothing more to go home and have a strong bottle of Whiskey to himself.

"How do you know what's in the fog?" Darren asked still looking into the strange mist filling the mirrors.

"It's not fog"

"It is fog"

No, it's smoke actually" Patrick turned and held himself tall over Darren.

"Might be mist..." Carmel interjected and felt both Darren and Patrick's death stares burning a hole into her. Carmel rolled her eyes and heard a low scratching noise. They stopped bickering and turned slowly towards the fog/smoke/mist filled mirror and waited for whatever the hell it was to come and get them. Their collective hearts beat fast against their chests and vibrated between them they were so tightly held on to each other.

"I'm scared" Carmel cried huddling backwards against the door and the others.

"Me too" Patrick reassured her and placed an arm around her body.

"Can I have a hug? I am scared too" Darren asked and Patrick raised his other arm around him too."Jesus"

A black figure began moving out of the mirror and they all held their breaths, when they fell out of the elevator in a heap as it came to a stop. The doors had opened and they'd crashed out into a pile at Dennis and Walker's feet. Their surprised eyes met scared ones as Dennis leaned down and grabbed Darren up.

"Dazza!" He cried and gave him a big hug.

"Dennis? But how? You disappeared!"

"Well I woke up in a room of possessed toys, and met the newest nutter to join our happy family" He gestured a thumb to Walker who raised his eye brow to him. Walker stood and looked down at Patrick and Carmel not offering any assistance to help them up and walked to the lift to get in.

"NO!" They all cried and Darren stopped him pressing the button quickly it closed the doors.

"Hey! I needed to use that lift!" Walker cried and held Darren up by the scruff of the neck.

"It's haunted! You don't wanna go in there trust us yeah? If you wanna get upstairs, fire exit is that way" Carmel pointed to the door that led to the stairwell.

Walker huffed then nodded to Dennis who sighed and began to follow him. Darren quickly grabbed his arm and shook his head. "No, that thing is still up there, stay with us, we'll find the others and get the hell away from here"

"He's helping me find my brother" Walker informed Darren and removed him from Dennis' grip.

"No, he's coming with us to find the others" Darren moved towards Walker and doing so Patrick felt obliged to help him standing by his side.

"Yeah he is staying here, if you want to go upstairs and face that monster, you do it alone. However I warn you your brother isn't here, we would have seen him" Patrick squared up to Walker and he twisted his mouth in frustration. He turned and ran to the stairs leaving them to look at each other.


It couldn't end like this could it? Brendan looked up and watched Ste screaming and getting smaller as he fell. He'd felt himself want to run to the edge of the roof, even though he knew it was the single most stupidest thing he'd ever done. He couldn't control the entity once it was inside his body; it was a strange feeling seeing everything and everyone around him but not having full control of his mind.

He felt his heart break as he fell watching Ste's frightened face; he knew how he was feeling after watching Ste's life ebb away when Walker had shot him. He had to pull himself together now he needed to survive this fall. Lucky for Brendan the building was only three stories high, a short way down in comparison to some others. He looked down and saw a window ledge below him, twisting his body around he managed to grab hold of it slamming his body hard into the side of the building and winding all the air out of his lungs.

It had been enough to prevent him from hitting the ground at a dangerous speed, however the initial jolt of his body on the bricks had forced him to let go and land in a bush on the ground beneath him. He was grateful for that, even if he would be picking twigs and leaves out of his backside for a good while.

The spirit girl appeared next to Brendan again as her bright aura shone around him he looked at her rubbing his head and groaning with the awkward landing. "Why do you always visit me now?" Brendan asked as he tried to get himself upright again.

"I am Steven's guardian angel, as such I am there to protect him and his life, Brendan, YOU are Steven's life, that's why I appear to you so much, without you he can't live" The girl smiled as Brendan nodded with her, it all now made complete sense to him why she'd appeared in the beginning.

"He's mine too. So, you saw me fall?"

"I saved you" The girl replied kneeling by his side "You would have died otherwise"

"No I grabbed hold of the ledge..."

"The black spirit wasn't going to leave your body when it did, it was going to make you fall to your death while still controlling your mind"

"What?"

"I forced it to leave your body as you fell, it was the only way to save your life, you being in control of your own mind" The girl placed her hand on Brendan's chest "It gave you your instinct back, and that made you grab the ledge to save yourself.

"Thank ye, I need to get to Steven, I'll never forget that look he had thinking I was going to die, it ripped my heart out" Brendan stood up and inspected his body, the clothes he wore now were torn to shreds and blood oozed from various cuts on his body from when he'd fell against the brick work of the museum and fell into the bush below.

"We need to catch that thing it's dangerous!"

"They have it trapped, but Brendan know this, it has helpers within the museum who will stop at nothing to free it, stay away from the elevators and make your way to the basement. There you will find more traps for the other spirits"

"Ok, I will do that, I need to find Steven again, can you tell him I am safe and I love him? Please?" The girl smiled and nodded disappearing again. Brendan made his way to the broken front entrance and ran through the door into the haunted museum once again.


"I'm sorry I shouted at you Chez"

Ste got up to his feet and began to walk towards the roof exit, despite Cheryl shouting at him to stop and listen to her he carried on, all their voices were like distortion in his ears anyway. Like he was wearing some weird white noise earphones, it crackled at his eardrums and his head felt like a fast speed washing machine on its last cycle.

Ste couldn't think straight or even process what had happened. Was Brendan really gone? He definitely saw him jump and fall. Then the black swirly thing had tried to attack him again. Cheryl saved him, why did she do that? Stupid woman he thinks to himself, life is worthless now anyway. He pushes through the fire exit with the axe divots in it and finds a cold hard wall to press against and slide down. Tears burn at the back of his eyes and leave a wet trail down his cheeks.

"He loves you Ste, he told me to tell you that" The little girl sits down next to Ste and brings her legs up to her brilliant white dress besides Ste.

Ste sniffs and sobs quietly "He's in heaven isn't he? Knew that, he's got a good heart my Bren"

"He would have been yes, but he didn't die Ste, I saved him for you like you asked me too"

"No, that can't be possible, I saw him fall, you don't have to lie to me, I can handle it" Ste wipes his nose with the back of his hand and sniffs loudly.

"I promise you, he is safe, he is on his way back to you, through the front of the museum."

"I can't believe it, thank you, thank you so much!" Ste's eyes were sore and reddened,he was so shattered from all the emotional turmoil.

The girl smiled and got up "He is nearly here...look up Ste" And with that the girl had disappeared again.

Ste held his breath looked up and waited, and waited and for the longest time he saw nothing. As he began to worry he'd dreamt the whole converse with the little girl, he turned to look for the others and heard something in the background. A figure was running towards him, Ste squinted his gaze and looked really hard before relaxing his eyes and smiling. Moving into a sprint himself he and Brendan met each other in the middle Brendan lifting up his tiny body into a warm hug.

"I thought I'd lost you!" Ste sobbed into Brendan's chest.

"Ye very nearly did Steven" Brendan sighed and pulled Ste into a tighter hold kissing over his hair.

"Bren, please can we have a holiday if we ever survive this horror?" Ste exasperated

Brendan chuckled and held Ste's face in his hands "Anything ye want baby, let's just finish this eh?"

Ste nodded and licked a kiss into Brendan's warm mouth "I love you"

"Soft arse"

"Shurrup" Ste pushed Brendan on the shoulder and glanced back at the door, the others all came through the door completely gobsmacked.

"But...but how? I mean it's great but...how?!" Jim cried walking over to Brendan prodding him in the chest.

"I believed I could fly" Brendan replied winking at Ste and taking him into his arms for another kiss. "I love ye too Steven"

"You flew?!" Jim's mouth widened "I love the supernatural!"

Nate rushed forward and pointed in front of them towards the ceiling that was moving towards them at speed. "Yeah? Well I bet you don't love them do ya?"

Everyone turned around and saw a load of the black spirits homing in on them creeping along the ceiling they all gasped as Cheryl carefully placed the golden box into her bag she stood tall. "Over my dead body they are getting this golden box!"

Everyone turned to look at her then and she swallowed "Well...you know what I mean"

Ste grabbed hold of Brendan's hand "Don't you dare let go ya hear?"

"I won't Steven, I promise"

Ste nodded and turned to face their enemies dead on with the others all stood together. "Right, let's get to the basement and kick their arses goodbye"


I'd never kill off my fave couple! ;D Two more chapters to go...xx