Chapter Two

The splintered wood creaks as he starts up a staircase that wasn't there five minutes ago. Finn tries not to flinch with every step. He turns to glance at Poe, but the pilot is still at the bottom. He looks worried, flustered.

"Come on," Finn calls down to him. "We're in this together, remember?" He continues forward, reaches the top and looks back at Poe.

Poe is gone.

"Poe?" Finn calls into the dark. "Poe? Where are you?" There is no answer, and Finn's skin is positively crawling off his bones. Something's not right. He raises his foot to go back downstairs…and it lands on the wooden planks of the second-floor hallway. Tries again, but the staircase is gone.

"Oh hell no," Finn mutters. He shines his light around the second floor. "This is not happening." There is the soft whisper of laughter on the air. It tickles the back of his neck again, and he rubs at it, trying to keep the fear under control. The house is not haunted, there are no such thing as evil spirits. It's nothing but a trick. He tells himself to stay focused and calm and trust in the Force.

He starts down the hallway of the second floor, determined to stay focused on reality. He needs to find Poe and whatever it is that's drawn him to this place, not give in to childish fears. The first door he comes to is closed. He reaches out to open it, changes his mind. Taking out his blaster, he opens the door with the Force. Dozens of small rat-like creatures pour out, skittering over his boots as he stumbles back with a livid curse.

But the room is empty, and Finn moves on. Determined.

The staircase is gone, and no amount of frantic searching reveals either the steps or Finn. Poe considers staying right where he is and waiting for Finn to come back down, but how? The stairs are gone, and standing still makes him more anxious. He needs to do something—find Finn, find whatever they're looking for, and get the hell out of there.

The hallway seems to stretch on forever; the house couldn't possibly be so large. Then again, it didn't have appear to have a second floor when they first entered, either. Finn said it was playing with them, and Poe is certain he hears the echo of laughter through the scrape of the floor boards beneath his feet.

He finally reaches the kitchen at the back of the house, bare and empty, the hearth fire-blackened and col. Poe searches the crooked shelves, the empty pots, the single cupboard: nothing. Stepping outside onto a small porch, he shines his light across the grounds. The edge of the forest whispers in the wind, and Poe watches, searching, before he turns back inside. Whatever happened here is tied to this house, and whatever they're looking for is somewhere inside. He frowns, not sure how he knows that and certain he's missing something. Which is when he notices a door to the left. A door that wasn't there before. Like the stairs.

Raising his weapon, Poe slowly pulls the door open. He shines his light into the darkness, holding his breath as his heart pounds in his chest. Something flies out at him, wings beating around his head, foul smell filling the air. He shouts and beats it away, glances up only to find it's gone. As if it never existed in the first place.

Poe laughs uneasily. He's never been one to believe in fairy tales and ghost stories before, but he feels like he's in one now. He peers through the dark doorway, where a staircase leads down into the cold earth. Already, he can see his breath coming out in white puffs. Finn had gone up the nonexistent staircase and disappeared; should Poe take the stairs down? What if he is trapped?

"It's playing with us," Poe murmurs to himself. "It's just a trick." He's not sure what kind of trick and who's behind it, let alone how they are doing it, but he does have a strong suspicion that they must follow where they are being led. That if he doesn't go down those steps, it will be something else instead, leading to the same endgame. For now, it's his choice.

He steps forward. Determined.

The room is open to the sky, the low limb of a tree pouring through the roof and clearly providing a nesting area for…well, something. Finn shines his light throughout the room, sees nothing but the small bones of whatever unlucky creature met its fate there. He moves on, hopes Poe is all right and having better luck than he is.

The next room is empty aside from a single old chair, rocking back and forth in a non-existent breeze. It sends shivers down Finn's neck; he reaches out with his senses, but feels smothered by a blanket, as if something is keeping him from knowing what happened here. Frustration swells; if he doesn't understand what happened in the past, how can he stop what's happening now? Something in the house is playing with them, he knows it is, but he doesn't understand why—or how.

The rocking chair moves faster and faster. The room grows cold. He can see his breath. He watches, mesmerized by the eerie scene. Until he senses the malevolence behind it. Raising his hand, Finn flings the chair against the wall, smashing it to pieces before turning to leave. The door slams shut before him. He reaches to open it, finds it locked. Distant laughter echoes around him.

"This is not funny," he mutters. He raises his hand and uses the Force, pulling it open with a strong effort and stepping quickly into the hallway. There is a rumbling in the room behind him, and he hurries away, down a hallway too long to be real. There can't possibly be so many rooms in the tiny cottage.

He continues, determined to find the answers—and a way out of this hell house.

The staircase is steep, never-ending. Yet when Poe glances upward, the door is only a few steps above him. Fear is replaced by anger, that whatever is messing with them continues to taunt. He turns to go back up, makes no progress. "Kriff off!" he shouts into the darkness. "Up or down, make up your damn mind!"

Whispers of laughter echo through the dark. Poe feels a push against his back, urging him down. He swallows his fear, lets his anger remain. Whatever it is, it will not win. He continues, shivering in the dark, hoping he's not walking to his death.

Poe finally steps onto a dirt floor, shines his light around a deep, dark basement. It is cold and empty, and he is filled with a fuming frustration, that he's been dragged down there for no reason. He kicks at the dirt, swears into the dark. Turns around to leave, but it's as if he's walking through poptree syrup in a sandstorm. Something is stopping him, forcing him back—or at least, not allowing him forward. He stops, and the oppressive feeling ends. He can move, but not forward.

So Poe turns and walks the other way, into the darkness. He may be forced to follow its whims, but he is determined: the house will not win.

A tickle in the Force brushes his mind. Finn turns, follows the feeling down the endless corridor and reaches out with every sense on high alert. At the opposite end of the hallway is a door that practically vibrates with grief. Finn steps forward and touches the knob, gasps as he sees flashes of the past. . .

…a woman, setting her lightsaber aside, smiling into the mirror as she clips a stone pendant around her neck and tucks a flower into her hair…

…a man, standing nervously in the twilight, the clearing lit by lanterns as he waits for his bride…

…a happy home, full of peace, contentment, and respect. The Force vibrates with their love, and then their fear…

…a twisted hatred finally finds them, leaving the entire village destroyed by its fury and haunted by grief…

Finn steps back with a gasp, his hand ice cold. His heart races. He's starting to understand the terrible tragedy that happened there. Why so much anger and pain ripples in the air around him. That one man could be filled with so much hatred, could do such things to the woman he once loved, is unspeakable. It is a fury that's been left behind and now taunts the living. Finn feels it like a living thing, trapped in a torment of its own creation.

Finn does not enter the room. Too much has been lost, and he will not learn anything more from their pain. He senses a growing anger in the air around him. He needs to find Poe, and then find a way out before they become a part of the story as well. The malevolent presence laughs. Suddenly, Finn feels the spirit of the dark Jedi moving within his mind, sifting through his memories, touching his heart.

And just like that, it knows Finn's deepest secret.

There is a sound from nearby, frantic shouting and the high-pitched scream of a blaster. A body falling heavily to the floor. Finn runs down the hallway to find Poe crumpled at the top of the stairs, motionless in an expanding pool of blood.

He's too late.

Poe walks slowly through the shadows, cold and alone. There is nothing in the basement, not a single stone, not a single creature. Until the gleam of his light flashes over something small and metallic. Crouching down, Poe reaches out toward an old lightsaber, takes it up in shaking hands. And is struck dead still by an onslaught of emotion and visions of the past…

…a loyal Jedi, fleeing betrayal and abuse, finding peace on a twilight moon as she sets her lightsaber, and her past, aside…

…a common stonemason, building a new home for a future with his beautiful bride…

…a happy village, full of love and laughter, free of evil for years until…

…fear and anger and the blood-red lightsaber of a fallen Jedi destroys everything.

Poe wrenches his body free of the paralysis, falls to his knees with a gasp. They were slaughtered, every last one of them. The entire village, wiped out by the jealous hatred of a spurned lover. Whose rage now haunts the village. It swirls around him, cruel laughter mocking him. Poe can feel the presence in the basement brush against him, and he jumps up, stumbling backward. Bats it away, but it's inside him, in his head, searching his memories. It knows how he feels and laughs once more.

With a feral shout, Poe turns and runs. The lightsaber is in his hand and he flicks the switch, blue light showing him the way to the stairs, guiding him back to the first floor. He has to find Finn, get out them out before they are lost to the same dark Jedi that killed the woman he loved, her husband, and the entire village in twisted revenge. The harsh sound of something falling echoes through floor. Poe dashes down the hallway to the front of the house. He finds Finn laying on the ground at the base of the stairs. Blood pools around him from a jagged wound in his chest, and a knife lies nearby.

He's too late.

Author's Note

Ah, I really hope that makes sense! Ask me anything and thank you for reading! Happy Halloween!