Chapter three: Within

They all walked into the house. Angel, then Gunn, followed by Fred, Wesley and Cordelia. As they walked the floor squeaked and the roof rustled. It slowly got dark outside.

"Ok" Cordelia said. "Is anyone else freaked out?"

"Freaked out might not be the right word" Fred said. "More like petrified"

They walked into the front room. There were two sets of stairs on each side of the room leading up and a hall was set in front of them. Gunn took out a flashlight and turned it on so they could see better then they could.

"Try to keep a little quite" Angel said keeping his voice low.

All of a sudden the door closed behind them with a bang.

"Ahhh" Fred shrieked jumping to the side of the room.

"It was only the door" Gunn said shinning his torch at the door to show Fred.

"Oh" Fred said blushing.

"Ok so we're in the house" Cordelia said. "Now what do we do?"

"Our best bet would to check out the house, see what were dealing with and then we do a ritual to get rid of the ghosts" Wesley said looking down the hallway. "I think we should split up. We can cover more ground. Now me and Fr…"

"Good plan" Angel said interrupting. "Cordy and Wes I think you should go upstairs, and Gunn Fred and I will check down stairs"

"Sure thing" Cordelia said taking a flashlight off Gunn.

"Split up?" Fred said. "But doesn't that always lead to disasters? Like on all those movies their like, 'lets split up' and then they get picked off one by one by some psycho killer"

"It's ok" Angel said.

"Yea now let's go already. The sooner we find what's going on. The sooner we leave" Cordelia said walking up the stairs.

Gunn took out another flashlight and pointed it towards the hall in front of them. Angel walked into the darkness first. Fred followed quickly behind her heart beating a million seconds per beat. At least that's how she would describe it. Gunn picked up a bag of junk and followed. With a sigh Wesley looked around the big great front room they all once stood in. He picked up his bag of herbs and books used to get rid of ghosts. All that could be heard was the clock ticking away in the background. It was peaceful. Wesley breathed in and out and closed his eyes enjoying he silence. All of a sudden Cordelia popped her head over the stairs rail.

"Come on" Cordelia called from above.

"Ah" Wesley shrieked

He dropped the bag he was holding and looked up in shock.

"Come on" Cordelia called again.

Wesley picked up his things again and came up the stairs. When reaching the top he looked back down.

"Did I scare you" Cordelia said with a laugh.

"More like startled" Wesley said walking in front of her.

"Wes" Cordelia said walking behind him. "Be a man. I sacred you. Admit it"

"Startled Cordelia" Wesley said.

"Same thing" Cordelia said.

"There not the same thing" Wesley said.

"Yes" Cordelia said. "They are"

"Well not the way I mean it" Wesley said.

There voices echoed in the hallway, they were now walking down.

"Hey it's echoy in here" Cordelia said.

"Nothing gets past you" Wesley said sighing.

"HELLO" Cordelia called out down the hall. "ANYONE THERE"

Wesley looked around the dark rooms as they walked past them. The rooms were big and some where locked while others were open. All of a sudden whispers could be heard in the hallway. They filled the room like air.

"What's that noise?" Cordelia asked.

"Noise?" Wesley asked confused.

"Yea it's like a whispery kind of noise" Cordelia said as she stopped walking.

"There's no noise Cordy" Wesley said thinking she was crazy

"There is" Cordelia said walking up to a wall and put her head against it trying to see if it came form the walls. "Listen. I don't know where it's coming from"

"I can't hear anything" Wesley said also stopping.

"I can hear it" Cordelia said walking away form the wall. "Its al…"

The whispers stopped and everything was quite. They stood there in silence. Wesley looked at Cordelia while Cordelia looked around the room.

"Cordy" Wesley asked concerned." Are you ok"

"Yes" Cordelia said. "Just the noise. It stopped"

"Possibly it was just the house rattling or something" Wesley said looking around.

"Probably" Cordelia said as she continued to walk.

(Cut to Angel Gunn and Fred)

"…I mean who doesn't know about the frantic physically powerful current voltage manufacturer of disaster" Fred said rumbling on.

"I don't" Gunn said under his breath as he put his hands on his neck and sighed.

"You're really scared" Angel said.

"What? M? No, I'm not scared" Fred said. "Being sacred is for the standard, unintelligent, unsophisticated, pusillanimous, uninteresting man".

Angel took Fred's hand

"Fred you shaking" Angel said showing her hand to her. "And your rambling way more the unusual"

"Oh" Fred said blushing. "Is it that obvious? I'm just worried something bad will happen".

"It's ok" Gunn said. "We got your back".

Fred smiled and looked around the empty hallway. There were pictures of people on the walls and statues of children and men's head. They seemed to be following them as they walked past. Angel looked around the hallway and into the rooms. All of sudden a crake was heard from one of the rooms they had just walked past. Fred moved behind Angel and gasped. Angel looked at Gunn and he nodded. Gunn nodded back almost understanding what he meant. He meant of course that 'I will check it out while you watch my back'. Angel slowly approached the room. Gunn passed him an axe. The door creaked. Angel pushed the door open with the axe. As it opened the door squeaked. Angel walked in looking around. For a few seconds they stood in silence. Angel examined the room very careful. Then he noticed the window was open. Angel walked over as the curtains blew.

"It was only an open window" Angel said as he closed it.

Fred breathed out loud with relief. Angel walked out of the room and continued walking down the hallway. . Gunn and Fred followed there voices echoed and got faint as they walked down the hallway away form the room. Then a hand came out of the room. The hand was white, looked old and was drenched in blood. The hand grabbed the door and slowly closed it not making any noise. Slight chuckling could be heard.

(Cut to Wesley and Cordelia)

"So I said 'hey don't point that lipstick at me buddy'" Cordelia said as she and Wesley walked into a dark room. "And then she took the lipstick and…"
"Cordy" Wesley's said annoyed but tried not to show it.

"Right" Cordelia said. "Got to be quite. Try not to blow the element of surprise"

Wesley sighed then looked around the room, examining objects and things that could be of use. Cordelia on the other hand was checking her hair in the mirror. She fixed it up and walked to the middle of the room.

"You know I think the ghosts went to bed" Cordelia began saying

"What?" Wesley asked almost making it sound like she was stupid.

A cracking noise could be heard.

"…Well that's if ghost do sleep" Cordelia said making a confused face. "Phantom Dennis sleeps. I thin…"

The floor broke and fell and Cordelia went with it.

"CORDELIA" Wesley shouted running over to the big hole in the floor.

Wesley peered into the hole in the floor. The hole went down a few stories.

"Owww" Cordelia mounded lying in the basement on top of rubble.

Cordelia looked up at the hole above her. She faintly saw Wesley's face.

"WESLEY" Cordelia called out. "HELP ME.I THINK I TWISTED MY ANKLE. I CANT MOVE"

Wesley looked around with a panicked face.

"CAN YOU STAY THERE?" Wesley asked calling out to her.

"YEA" Cordelia called out with a nervous voice. "WHY"

"I"LL GO AND GET HELP" Wesley shouted. "STAY THERE. I'LL BE RIGHT BACK. DON"T MOVE AND DON"T WORRY"

Wesley rushed off out the door and down the hallway.

"Oh yea he tells me not to move" Cordelia said sitting up. "Like I can move"

Cordelia looked around the room she was in. There was dust everywhere and she was all alone. The moon light shined into the basement. Cordelia waved dust away from her face.

"This is so scary" Cordelia said to herself.

As she said that something moved behind her. With a gasp she looked behind her. Her breathing got panicky.

"H-el-lo" Cordelia said worried.

Nothing happened. Not noise or shadow. Cordelia looked up at the hole again.

"Hurry Wes" She said.

As she said that a hand appeared behind her. It was white hand old looking also drenched in blood. It grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled on her.

"AHHHH" Cordelia screamed as it pulled her.

To Be Continued.