Quinn could hear the crunchy tread of stones underneath her sneakers as she walked towards the abandoned house. It was a cold night and although she appreciated the marvellous, clear view of the stars, she couldn't help but shiver as her breath hung in the air and her teeth chattered. She wished that she'd brought a coat as she was still in her band T-shirt from today.
She looked up in the direction of the nearing house. The light was still on. Quinn's mind started to bubble with the possibilities of what was behind that door. Was it actually Rachel? If so, what was she still doing there? And why did she lock the door? Quinn shivered again, not sure if it was from the cold or her thoughts.
Quinn stopped short as she reached the part of the path where the trees shrouded across. This bit of the path was almost completely dark as the vegetation blocked out the moon's light. She took a deep breath and buried her head into her shoulder, looking down at the shadowed ground. She could feel her heart beating fast as she started to become scared by the darkness and stillness radiating from this part of the path.
She had been scared of the dark ever since she was a child- when she'd started seeing ghosts. Sometimes, she used to wake up in the middle of the night, only to find someone in her room, but not all of the spirits that visited her were civil. One night, she had called out to the figure standing in her room. It was one that hadn't visited before and even at a young age she had a very bad feeling.
What happened next was something that Quinn had tried countless times to erase from her memory. As the figure turned to face her, she couldn't make out its features but the wash of fear that rolled over her as it started to walk towards her bed was unbearable.
The figure had said something, in a deep, gruff voice but Quinn couldn't understand what it was saying though she could tell it was looking straight at her with eyes she couldn't see. Then the spirit's arm had stretched out towards her and this time Quinn could the gleam of pointed nails against the beam of moonlight sifting through her curtains. At this point, Quinn could only simply watch, it was as though her overwhelming fear had plastered her to the bed. The figure then dove for Quinn and she had shut her eyes tight and screamed like never before as she felt a cloak of malevolence consume her.
Her parents had rushed into her room and as they turned the light on, all the evil seemed to fade instantly from her room. From then on, she had begged her parents to let her leave the light on at night. She had a few encounters like that sometime afterward as she grew older. She soon learnt that the light couldn't protect her. She realised that these ghosts were different, she wasn't even sure if they were previously human. They never asked anything of her, they seemed to just exist to scare her and cause her nightmares for months.
Quinn shrugged, clearing her head out of the memory and told herself to get a grip. She was nearly at the house and nothing bad had happened. Though, when she was stood on the doorstep she had noted that the light in the locked room had disappeared. She gulped hard, wondering if her need for answers was stronger than her budding fear.
Quinn knocked three times and waited for a response. The only one she got was the sound of her knocking echoing around the dank house. After a couple of minutes she turned the brass handle and opened the door. Quinn didn't step in, only poked her blonde head through the opening.
"Hello?" She tested. "Rachel? It's Quinn, I want to talk to you, I-" she was cut off by a loud clatter that sounded from upstairs that made her jump. "Get a grip Quinn, it's an old house," she muttered to herself in reassurance.
She waited, stood still half in, half out of the house, just in case she heard the noise again. Just when she was satisfied that nothing else was going to happen, she shifted through the door, closing it quietly behind her, even though in the quietness of the house, the click of the door sounded like a gun shot. She winced and scanned the almost pitch black house, looking for any sound of movement.
Her thoughts were constantly tracking back to the evil spirits of her childhood, no matter how much she tried to distract herself. Her fear had started to build rapidly and nothing seemed to simmer it down.
Quinn was breathing heavily, and the floorboards creaked loudly as she cautiously stepped towards the open staircase. She knew that she needed to go up there, to that room if she ever wanted to get some answers but she now, wasn't sure if her body and mind would actually let her do it.
"One step at a time, it'll be fine," the girl whispered to no one. Quinn congratulated herself as she was already halfway up the stairs, and she thought her fear was beginning to subside until another, impossible loud noise ignited her adrenaline, making her stumble and trip as she scrabbled the rest of the way upstairs. She ran down the right wing and launched herself against the solid, wooden door, cursing through tears as it refused to open.
"Rachel! Rachel! Damn it Rachel, let me in! I can't stand it in the dark, Rachel!" She yelled at the top of her voice, hearing it crack when she cried Rachel's name. Still, the door didn't budge and Rachel didn't appear. Quinn crumpled to the floor, leaning against the door as she buried her head in her arms, trying to control her panic attack. She'd almost forgot how afraid of the dark she actually was. Her arms were wet with tears and her breathing was rushed and hitched.
For a moment, she didn't know what to do, she didn't think she could even get up and make it out of the house without breaking down, but just then she felt in emptiness behind her as the door opened and cold hands gripped her around the waist, pulling her up and in the room.
Quinn tried to scream and fight her way out of the doorway but a small hand clamped over her mouth whilst a worried voice hushed in her ear. Quinn stopped struggling, instantly identifying the person as Rachel. She was pulled into the previously locked room and the door shut behind her.
"R-Rachel?" Quinn whispered with a shaky voice.
"Quiet Quinn, you need to be quiet!" Rachel scolded.
"Why? Rachel, what's going on? Tell me please?"
"Quinn! Be quiet, he's going to hear us!"
Quinn sat there in the darkness, stunned. Who was going to hear them? Was there someone else in the house?
"Rach, what's going on?" Quinn said almost silently.
"I can't Quinn, not now. I can't tell you now, you need to get out of here first and I'll tell you everything tomorrow, I promise, just please, stay quiet for now," Rachel compromised and Quinn nodded, even though she knew Rachel couldn't see her.
After a few minutes in silence, as they waited for something that only Rachel seemed to know, Quinn felt a body slide in next to her on the floor. A soft head of hair rested on her shoulder. Quinn's breathing seemed to calm and she felt more at ease with Rachel by her side. The girl was freezing, even though it wasn't all that cold in the room but Quinn didn't mind, she was thankful for the comfort.
Quinn then felt Rachel's head shift and realised her lips were inches away from her ear. "Go, now, come back tomorrow Quinn," Rachel breathed into her ear, sending a tingle throughout Quinn's body. The blonde slowly rose and Rachel opened the door. Then without thinking, Quinn ran from the room, down the stairs and out of the door, straight along the dark path without once looking back at the house.
Once she found her footing around the drainpipe, she climbed up and collapsed into her bed as her mind started to swim with questions that she hoped would soon be answered by Rachel.
Melodic birdsong is what woke Quinn the next morning. Her hazel eyes peeked open, squinting against the light. Her eyes stung from tiredness and her body felt as though it was doing its best to keep her under the warm covers. There was so much that worried her about today. School, the whispers and talks about her event yesterday, Holly, but most of all she was worried about going back to that house. Was it safe during the day time? She didn't think that Rachel would tell her to come back if it wasn't.
She hauled herself out of bed and started to get ready. She skipped breakfast and grabbed her bag and books on the way out of the door as she began her walk to school.
As she walked through the halls on McKinley she kept her head down, knowing that people were staring and talking about her. She found it odd that today, she didn't care so much. Maybe it was because she was tired, or maybe it was because her thoughts were otherwise occupied.
Quinn headed straight to the girl's toilettes, praying that no one would be in there other than one ghost she needed to talk to. Thankfully, the room was empty thought Amy was nowhere in sight. Quinn huffed to herself and suddenly wondered if ghosts could be called. After all, Amy had 'sensed' her ability so maybe it was possible.
She leaned against a sink and shut her eyes, focussing on Amy whilst silently calling her in her mind. At first, nothing happened and she shut her eyes to try again. She concentrated harder this time, focussing on Amy and then she felt it. A mental pop and when she opened her eyes, Amy was stood there, looking slightly bewildered.
"How did I get here?" Amy said, obviously confused.
"I, um called you," Quinn told her, not sure how Amy would react.
"You can do that? I mean one minute I was hanging around in my old room and the next thing knew, I was stood in front of you, here," she said, looking at Quinn in awe. "You're like some sort of ghost puppet," she joked and Quinn couldn't help but smile.
"I need to ask you something Amy." Amy cocked her head to the side, shooting Quinn a questioning look. Quinn took it as a cue to continue. "What do you know about that abandoned house in upper Lima?"
"What, the one on its own? With all the windows boarded up?" Quinn nodded and Amy let out a breath. "Well, I don't know how true the story is but, about eighty years ago, the man that lived there butchered his whole family and then killed himself. People claim that his spirit still haunts the place. After the family died, people tried to fix the house up and sell it, but whenever someone went in, there would always be weird stuff going on. Tools would sometimes go missing, things would break and fall over and sometimes, the workmen would get hurt in the strangest ways. That's why it's abandoned, no one wanted to buy it with its history and any renovations that were planned for it always seemed to go a miss."
Quinn gulped, was this what Rachel was going to tell her? "Have you ever been inside?" Quinn asked.
A strand of fear pulled across Amy's eyes. "When I was a sophomore, a few of us decided to camp out in there for a night, you know, just to freak ourselves out? None of us really believed the stories, but if I had the chance I'd never had gone into that place in the first place. It holds an evil air, y'know?" Quinn nodded hesitantly, she knew. She knew all too well.
Amy continued, "We were there for less than an hour when things started to get weird. We'd keep hearing unexplainable noises and one of the guys kept saying she'd seen someone on the stairs. Some things would even fall without a prompt, nearly hitting us sometimes. It was like someone was trying to evict us. Then I saw her."
Quinn's eyes met Amy's. Her, could Amy mean…?
"There was a girl, probably about the same age as us and she was sat at the top of the huge stairway, looking down at our makeshift camp in the hallway. I remember, she was wearing a summer dress and her long brown hair fell over her shoulders. After we saw her, we left quickly, completely freaked out."
That sure sounded like Rachel and Quinn felt dizzy. "When did you… die?"
Amy sighed in reminiscence, "The year after, I drowned when I and my friends went to a beach party. We thought it'd be a good idea to go swimming at night, completely wasted, but the waves were too strong." Quinn offered her a sympathetic look.
"You can't move on?" Amy shook her head.
"No. That's why I came to you yesterday, I thought you could help. I just needed to let my mom know that it wasn't her fault, just because she let me go. It was my own stupid fault. I visit her every day and even a year on, she's such a mess. I thought if I can just let her know somehow then maybe she'd finally stop hating herself. It kills me to watch her self-destruct."
"If you want, I could pass on a message? I could write it out and leave it for her?" Quinn said. Amy's eyes lit up and she beamed at Quinn.
"You'd actually do that?"
"Yeah, you've helped me today by telling me about the house so I think I owe you," Quinn told the ghost, smiling.
"Thank you Quinn, if I could, I'd hug you! Though, why did you want to know about the house?"
Quinn shook her head, not really wanting to drag Amy into it all. "It's just near my house, so I wondered what the history on it was, maybe see if it's good for pictures."
Amy's eyes became stiff. "I wouldn't go in their Quinn. There's something unnatural about that house. It's sinister." Quinn's heart thumped in her chest. She'd found that out the hard way last night.
After their encounter in the bathroom, Quinn headed to homeroom. She'd promised Amy that she'd help her soon, and Amy was more than content. The day couldn't have gone any slower for Quinn; all she wanted was for the day to end so she could finally get to the bottom of things with Rachel and that house.
When lunch time came around, she was sat on her own in the cafeteria. A tray plonked down across from her and she looked up to see Santana and Brittany looking at her pleasantly.
"Take it no one's sitting here," Santana stated rather than asked. Quinn motioned for them to sit down and they did.
"You sure you want to sit with the freak show? It might ruin your reputation," Quinn half joked.
"Like anyone would say anything to us. We're Cheerios," Santana said.
"Yeah, plus, San always slashes people with her viscous, viscous words," Brittany added, causing both Quinn and Santana to smile.
"Trust me Quinn, people are gonna shut up about it soon. I've been the talk of the school before, so I know," Santana explained.
"Why were you the talk of the school?" Quinn asked, unable to tame her curiosity.
"Because I love Brittany," she said simply, turning to the blonde cheerleader and smiling whilst taking hold of her hand.
Quinn looked down at her lunch, smiling. "That's stupid. Love is love, people should just realise that," she told the cheerleaders.
"Yeah well, not everyone's as accepting as you Blondie Locks," Santana said with a smile tugging on her lips.
Quinn enjoyed that lunch time. She liked the way that whenever Santana caught someone staring or making comments about Quinn, she'd stick up for the new girl. She enjoyed the conversation they provided, it almost made Quinn feel like a regular girl… almost. She doubted she could ever allow herself to be classed as normal when she talked to ghosts.
Finally, Santana addressed the dreaded event in the cafeteria yesterday. "So, is it actually true? About you talking to no one in the cafeteria yesterday?"
Quinn looked up at them, genuine curiosity was held in their faces. She bit her lip indecisively, wondering just how much of her life she was going to let these girls see. Eventually, Quinn sighed, deciding she'd tell them the truth.
"Kind of. Only, I wasn't talking to myself," she breathed. "I was talking to a ghost." There it was, she'd told them. She sat and watched the cheerleaders try to process what they'd just been told.
"You mean as in, dead people?" Santana asked, still a bit confused. Quinn nodded and Santana relaxed back in her seat.
"The girl I was talking to was called Amy, she was a-"
"Cheerio, right?" Brittany cut Quinn off excitedly. Quinn looked at Brittany questioningly.
"How do you know that?" Quinn asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I talked to her a few times when she was alive, she was nice. Sometimes, I think I catch a glimpse of a Cheerios uniform in reflections of things at school but when I look around there's nothing there. It's got to be her. You don't think Quinn's crazy, do you San?" Brittany asked her girlfriend who was still calmly sat back in her chair.
Santana looked at Quinn and sighed. "I'm not saying that I don't believe you or anything, but why don't we test it?" she said with a mischievous smile. "
"What do you mean?" Quinn asked, feeling the hairs rise on the back of her neck.
"I know this creepy place that we could do a séance or a Ouija board in," Santana told her.
"I don't know San, you shouldn't mess with things like that," Brittany said to the dark haired Cheerio.
"C'mon Britt, this girl says she can see ghosts, don't you think it'd be cool to actually communicate with one?" Brittany shrugged and looked at Quinn.
"I guess it's up to you Quinn," The blonde said.
Quinn didn't much like the idea, in fact, she'd even say it scared her a little but something inside of her refused to let this opportunity go- to actually prove that she wasn't crazy, that she really could talk to the dead.
"Ok," she nodded at the cheerleaders. "I'll do it."
Santana grinned at her, "Sweet. Tomorrow after school? I'll bring everything don't worry."
Quinn tried to smile back but it wasn't a real smile. She was still unsure of what she had just gotten herself into.
At last, the last bell rang, and Quinn was free to go. As she walked to the house, she looked up at the sky. It was still going to be light for another couple of hours or so. She breathed a sigh of relief. The light made things seem so much different. As she walked along the shadowed path, she never once thought about all the terrible things that could have been hiding in the trees like she did the previous night. She didn't even feel all that nervous when she was stood on the front step, but when she opened the door and saw Rachel already sat on the stairs, waiting for her- she couldn't help but feel a flutter in her stomach as her heart jittered.
Rachel wasn't looking at Quinn and the blonde doubted that Rachel even knew Quinn had arrived. Her usual deep, chocolate eyes were now distant and unreadable. She looked as though she was in a self-debate and Quinn couldn't help but wonder if she was the cause of it.
Quinn accidently kicked a piece of rubble on the way in, knocking Rachel from her daze. Rachel locked eyes with Quinn and gave a small, welcome smile. She then stood up and brushed her dress down as she made her way towards Quinn.
"Don't ever come after dark again Quinn. It's not safe for you," the brunette told Quinn with concern in her voice. Quinn wanted to know why it wasn't safe, who exactly 'he' was and if it was all connected to the mass murder than Amy had told her about.
"Rachel, what-" Quinn started but was cut off by Rachel pressing a finger to Quinn's lips. The coldness of her touch made Quinn flinch.
"I'll answer everything you want to know, but first, I need to show you something," Rachel stated in a calm, controlled voice, as if she had been thinking about the decision for some time.
Quinn nodded and took a breath. She'd have to be patient and do it Rachel's way if she wanted any clarity at all. Rachel looked down and Quinn's hand, taking it within hers. Quinn's eyebrows shot up. Why was this girl so cold to touch? Still, she didn't let go. She was mildly intrigued as to why Rachel had a hold of her hand. The petite brunette tugged the taller girl towards the door as they took slow steps. Quinn could see the heaviness in Rachel's face; she knew whatever Rachel was about to do would be big on her part.
They were almost towards the door when Rachel looked to Quinn, then out of the door. "This is what I need to show you." And with that, they stepped out into the open.