I'm back! I'm pleased that people have enjoyed my little tale. I'll put up two more chapters after this one. It'll be a rather short chapter, so bear with me, okay? I hope you all enjoy the rest of Haunted!
Disclaimer: I do not own anything relating to the Lilo and Stitch franchise. It belongs to the Disney Company.
Chapter Six: No Way Out
Stitch, Myrtle, and Yuki awoke with a start when they heard the screams. Stitch was the first the tear out of the room, fearing that something had happened to Lilo, with Myrtle and Yuki in hot pursuit.
"Stitch, slow down!" Yuki shouted, but Stitch paid her no heed. He later regretted not slowing down, for he practically plowed into Lilo and Victoria, who were still running from the specter they had encountered. Stitch, after much rubbing of his head, was relieved to find the both of them unharmed.
"Youga okitaka?" Stitch asked when he noticed that Lilo and Victoria had likewise bumped their heads. Lilo and Victoria looked up, fear on their faces, but sighed with relief when they saw Stitch looking at them.
"We're okay now, Stitch." Lilo said. Stitch looked at her in confusion.
"What Lilo mean?" He asked. Both Lilo and Victoria looked at him, terror evident on their faces.
"We just saw… well, I can only call it a ghost." Victoria said, on the verge of tears from sheer terror. Stitch, shocked at the level of their terror, immediately wrapped the both of them in a comforting hug as best he could.
"Shhh. Is alright now." Stitch said in a soothing voice as the two girls returned his hug. Myrtle and Yuki joined in, all offering words of comfort.
"What do we do now?" Victoria said. "It's like they're stalking us. I'm scared!" Victoria was practically on the verge of tears at this point, as was Lilo.
"I don't know." Myrtle said, fear evident in her voice as well. "Nobody's seen our signals yet."
"I really think we should get out of here. There's not telling what these things will do next." Yuki said. Myrtle was about to protest when Lilo cut in.
"She's right. There's no point in putting our safety at risk. We have to leave." She said. Myrtle, realizing she had a point, nodded, as did the others. Just then, they heard another sound, this one like a hundred whispers going off at once. They all turned to the area behind them. The entire area in their field of vision was bathed in a ghostly blue light. As they watched, horrified, several shadowy figures, like men in long coats, appeared within the blue light. The figures were huddled together, as though deep in conversation. One of the figures turned its featureless black face towards them.
"Let's get outta here!" Yuki shouted. They all turned and ran for it, leaving the shadow men in their dust.
---
Back at the campground, far away from Waverly's shadowy halls, Amber Harrington awoke with a startled gasp, her usually flowing blond hair now sticking to her face from the perspiration that had drained from her body. She gave herself a few minutes for her breathing to calm. She then turned to Julian, who was sleeping next to her, gently shaking him to wake him up.
"Julian, wake up." Julian didn't stir, so she shook him harder. "Julian, wake up." She repeated. Julian groaned loudly and sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes before taking a look at his watch. It read 1:15 am.
"Babe, it's past one in the morning. What gives?" He asked, his irritation not failing to show itself. That irritation was soon lost when he saw the panicked look on Amber's face.
"I had a vision." She said, referring to another one of her hidden talents, precognition.
"What kind of vision?" Julian asked, concerned. With the look on Amber's face, he could tell it probably wasn't a good one.
"I saw a group of kids, little girls, in the sanatorium." She said. "They looked like they were trapped. They kept screaming that something was after them. Julian, I think there's someone up there and they're in trouble. We have to help them!" Julian nodded. Amber's sixth sense had never failed them before, so why should he doubt it now?
"Alright, we'll go." He said. The two of them bustled about the tent for a moment, throwing their old clothes on, and pulling on their socks and shoes before rushing out of the tent and to their group's van, dubbed the "Combat Van" by Julian and Daniel years ago. A large blue Ford, the van was painted with their group's logo, the letters "PI" in old English script representing the bland name of Paranormal Investigations, with images of ghosts, Bigfoot, and the Loch Ness Monster all surrounding the letters. Julian threw open the driver's side door and hopped in, with Amber not to far behind, and started the van up. The massive diesel engine roared to life, and soon the pair was pulling out of their campsite and onto the road that would take them to Waverly Hills.
---
Lilo, Stitch, and the others were tearing down the stairs as fast at their legs could carry them. Twice one of them nearly tripped on the darkened staircase. When they reached the first floor, the first thing they encountered was a gaggle of little blue lights, the same lights that Myrtle had spotted earlier, before her encounter with the shadow man. They gang skidded to a halt as the lights came into view, and as they watched the lights began to swirl around them. The girls were plainly terrified at this development, and Stitch could sense this. He jumped in front of them and let loose a menacing snarl. It seemed to work as the lights blinked out and disappeared. Emboldened, the group raced for the front door, but when they opened it, what they saw made them freeze in their tracks.
The front grounds of the sanatorium were covered in a layer of gray mist, and moving within the mist was a multitude of brown, almost impish shadow people. The figures ran and twisted through the mist, occasionally crossing in front of the doorway and casting a glance at the group with their featureless countenances. Horrified, the gang retreated back into the hospital.
"What now?" Myrtle asked, sheer terror evident in her voice.
"The tunnel, we'll go out the way we came in." Lilo said. The gang took off, Stitch in the lead. They tore down the corridor leading to the tunnel's ominous doors, their feet echoing on the bare concrete floor as they ran. Once they reached the tunnel, Victoria and Stitch tore the metal doors open, revealing the darkened, dank tunnel. They all turned on their flashlights, and Stitch activated his night vision, and they began to make their way down the tunnel. Their trek was cut short, however, when they heard footsteps echoing up the tunnel. Out of the darkness, as they gang watched in terror, the almost transparent figure of a clean-shaven man in a lab coat and surgical gloves appeared. At first, the specter didn't seem to notice them, but then it whipped it's head around to stare at them through cold, emotionless eyes. In one of it's gloved hands, it held a small, bladed object, a scalpel.
The girls didn't even bother to scream at this latest apparition. They just turned and ran from the tunnel as fast as they could, ending up back in the lobby of the sanatorium. The five of them were panting, not just from running, but also from sheer terror. The five girls looked at each other, all their faces contorted into expressions of horror. Yuki was the first to speak.
"They're…they're not going to let us out, are they?" She asked, tears of terror beginning to fall down her face. Before the others could answer, they room was filled with a cacophony of whispers and rasps. As the gang watched in horror, the room began to fill with the same gray mist that they had seen outside. Following the mist, creeping through every doorway they saw, were black, featureless forms, shadow people. Some had a definite human shape, whilst others had a vaguely human form, and others had no form at all, just wisps of shadowy cloud or mist. The figures moved and twisted about the room, completely surrounding the girls and Stitch. The girls all immediately wrapped around each other in terror. Stitch, overcome with the need to protect his ohana, immediately jumped in front of them, growling and snarling at the shadowy intruders.
"Meega nala quista!" He roared, shouting the most foul of Turian curses at the specters, hoping to make them leave. When they didn't, he started taking swipes at them. It seemed to work, as a few backed off.
"Go away! Leave us alone!" Lilo shouted at the featureless specters, her voice quaking with terror. The others simply whimpered and shook, refusing to even look at the shadowy figures.
---
The crunching of gravel was what heralded the arrival of Julian's van. Almost immediately upon stopping, Amber and Julian unbuckled, leapt out of the van, and ran up to the entrance. Amber's sixth sense was immediately on high alert when she reached the doors.
"They're in there. I can sense them." She said. Julian immediately pulled out his electromagnetic field detector, a small, black, box-shaped instrument designed to detect, as it's name suggested, electromagnetic field disturbances. Such devices were staples in a paranormal investigator's tool kit, as electromagnetic disturbances were often a sign that paranormal activity was afoot.
A quick glance at his EMF detector told Julian the whole story. The needle on the gauge was thrust over to the very end of the scale, twitching as though it had a tic. Whatever event was going on in the sanatorium, it was clearly off the scale.
"Something big is going in there." Julian said. He tried to open the door, before remembering that it was locked. Shouting, obviously that of a little girl was heard from inside the building. Fueled by a fresh determination to get her out, Julian stepped back and planted his left foot behind him.
"Stand back." He told Amber. Amber acknowledged and backed off, and Julian took a step forward and brought his booted foot crashing on the door with all of his might.
BANG!
The old wooden door gave way and crashed open with the loudest crash any of them had ever heard. The two immediately shined flashlights into the doorway, revealing a gaggle of shadow people surrounding not one, but four little girls, along with a blue creature that looked very familiar to Julian. Almost as soon as they entered the building, the shadow people vanished, leaving only the frightened girls and snarling creature behind. When the creature noticed them, he stopped snarling and turned to the girls.
"Bark, bark!" He yapped at them, putting on his dog act for Amber and Julian, despite the fact that Julian, having seen him moving on his hind legs, was now solidly convinced that the creature was not a dog.
"Are you okay?" Julian called. One of the girls, whom Julian recognized as Lilo, the little girl who crashed into him back at the campsite, looked up and noticed them standing there. What's more, all the shadow beings had disappeared.
"Guys, they're gone." She said, referring to the shadow people. The others looked up and saw their rescuers for the first time. They immediately rushed towards them, tears of terror pouring from their eyes. Amber knelt down and wrapped them in a hug as best she could, trying her best to comfort the frightened children.
"Shhh. There now, it's all over." She whispered soothingly to them. The girls fear lessened as Amber's words filled their ears. They were glad to finally be rid of the ghosts.
Then Julian looked down at his EMF detector, and noticed that the EMF reading was going up. Something was coming.
Enjoy everyone! And be sure to read and review!