Okay, hey guys! I honestly have no freaking clue what to write now. I have no idea what to do with this chapter. At all. Yup. Also, I am SO SORRY I took so long to update. School work is hard, and I have too much of it.

So anyway, this chapter will go where it wants. So just hang on to something.


Lockwood and I walked home laughing and joking, just like the first time we went out. When we arrived home, George was lounging in the sun room reading a comic book. He perked up when he saw us enter. We sat down on the love seat opposite him, kicking off our shoes. He placed a chubby thump in between the pages he was reading, and turned towards us. His expression showed little that I could read.

"Where did you go?"

"A tea shop." Lockwood answered.

"Was it nice?"

"It was fine."

"Oh come on." George was practically glowing. "You've got to give me more details than that."

"No I don't."

"Yeah, you do."

Lockwood laughed, squeezing my hand tenderly. "Oh, we just had a sit down at the tea shop. It was nice. We got cake, the works."

"Well?" George's glasses were shining, "Anything else?"

"I kissed her." Lockwood's smile was boastful.

I nudged him in the rips sharply, my face turning pink. George broke out in a grin, chuckling lightly.

"It's about bloody time." He clapped his hands together, giving a hoot. "I thought it would never happen. Could you two be more obvious?"

I rolled my eyes, leaning my head against Lockwood's shoulder.

"We have to go back to the Cartwright house tonight." Lockwood said suddenly. "So let's go suit up. We've got work to do. Let's catch us a ghost."


As soon as we got to the house, I was back in the room I had found the newspaper clipping in. The dying light streaked through the curtains in fingers, dancing across the floor.

I had stationed myself in the middle of the room, rapier in hand. The sun sank below the horizon, casting the room into darkness. It was a moonless night, and the stars speckled across the sky, full and bright. They glittered like diamonds.

I lit a lantern and placed it beside my feet, the skull jar on my other side, tucked inside my backpack. It was glowing green, the plasm swirling around the ghostly face. It illuminated the floor around it in a fan of eerie light.

I plucked my thermometer from my belt, reading the illuminated numbers that were emblazoned on the screen.

52°F

It was dropping steadily. I sat down crosslegged in the circle of iron chains.

"Are you getting anything?" I asked the skull.

"Whispers. That's about it, though."

I tightened my grip on my rapier and did a scan of the room with my eyes.

The temperature dropped. I could see my breath pluming around my face.

"Elizabeth?"

Nothing. I slowly placed a hand on a salt bomb.

The floorboards creaked, and a pressure was beginning to build behind my ears.

Crying again. This was getting predictable. And we were no closer to finding the source. I pulled my hat on over my ears, my gloves onto my hands.

I stepped outside the circle. I had a feeling that what I had been seeing on the staircase hasn't been the entire thing.

Had the haunting started here? But I had to wait and see.

I had to think.

Where could the source be? Here? The room upstairs? Why had she materialized here? I stood up, pacing around the circle.

Oh.

Oh.

This is where she was stabbed.

But if she was stabbed here, there would have to be something to indicate that. Weapon? No. If the source was down here, then the apparition wouldn't go much father than the door.

Because this room wasn't the focus of the haunting. Yes, the room was included in said haunting, but no. The focus was more than that. I had a feeling that the focus was all the way from this room to the hallways that leads to the foyer to stairway, and finally to the room upstairs.

The source had to be up there. Where, I didn't know. But I needed to. And knowing specters, they don't give up their sources easily.

Suddenly, it all made sense. That was why she had chased us out of that room.

But why had she called me a liar?

The room grew colder, stinging my face. It felt as if a pair of eyes were boring into the back of my head. I turned. Nothing.

Cautiously, I stepped from the circle. I stepped closer to the rug which took up a portion of the room, and lifted the corner. The spot was frigid. I pulled my thermometer from my belt. It was ten degrees colder than the surrounding air. A great dark stain was spread across the floorboards. I touched my fingertips to the surface, and my senses exploded.

Fear, anger, and most of all pain.

Whispers. Less than whispers. They tickled my inner ear like feathers. They carried on, and then crescendoed.

A strangled scream.

"Drip... drip... drip..."

I could smell a strong scent of blood, pungent and fresh.

A dragging sound, and a grunt. The sound of a blow, and a great thud. I stiffened, the spectral sounds bristling against my inner ear.

The crying was back. I heard a tear of fabric, and the dripping noise stopped.

Heavy, dragging footsteps, away from the room.

Someone else got up. More heavy footsteps, though much quicker. I heard a shout, and the dragging footsteps sped up to a run.

I jerked away, dropping the corner of the rug.

I needed to get to the landing. I gathered the chains into my arms, and made a run through the great foyer and up the stairs.

Hastily, I spread the chains in a wobbly circle, my rapier gripped tightly in my hand. The door behind me slammed again, there was the puff of breath. A door slammed shut in the recesses of the house.

There was the pooling of the ectoplasm as the phantom person dragged them self along the corridor, and the heavy footsteps.

"NO. NO NO."

And finally, the apparition began to form.

I gave a half smile.

"Hello, Elizabeth."


I am so sorry that took so long to write. I've been busy, and I have finals this week, so I decided to do this to take my mind of things. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and please leave a review if you did!

Until next time,

~Starry