It was just before sunrise when she noticed it… Amanda couldn't sleep again because the Tv and lights had turned on by themselves, it seemed.
"What's wrong, lass?" Finn asks sleepily, sitting up and wrapping his right arm around Amanda's shoulders as the storm raged on outside… it wasn't uncommon in Miami for storms to happen or Tv and electrical systems to flicker before a blackout, especially from late summer to early autumn, where the heat and humidity still lingered.
But the Tv and lights were on fully, clear as a bell.
"The... Tv and lights were off when we fell asleep… and they just…" Amanda says… before both heard a childlike giggle.
Only to realise that Courage The Cowardly Dog was on and it was the episode where Muriel was turned into a toddler when Muriel said "Hi, I'm Muriel. I'm only 3 ½ years old, who are you?".
"I was beginning to think we were being haunted… mind's all scrambled." Amanda says as they lie back down.
"That's the lack of sleep doing that…" Finn says as the two kiss.
The madness from the whole dropped Sister Abigail storyline still lingered along with Amanda seeing the occasional spirit… but something about that girl she and TJ found seemed so real.
Too real… and it lingered on her mind.
Finn had an idea though… and lightly led Amanda outside as the storm started to lessen up a bit, both under the awning before they kissed.
Seth snapped out of his sleep and bolted upright, running to the door that adjoined both rooms and opening it… only to relax once he realised that Amanda wasn't under attack like he thought and was half naked in Finn's arms as the two kissed each other, their eyes closed and unaware of Seth nearby… until he slammed his hand on the door just to mess with them, making them jump.
"We have people staying next door, you two!" Seth says.
"You want to go crash with them, Rollins?" Amanda asks sarcastically.
Seth was about to reply when the sliding glass doors slammed shut, hard enough to send the glass flying and Seth shielding himself while Finn protected Amanda as well as the power being knocked out.
Amanda was shaken violently, Finn lightly rubbing his left hand up and down her right side.
"Is it over?" Amanda asks quietly.
"It's over… whoever it was that did that is gone." Finn whispered, kissing Amanda on her forehead.
Picking her up into his arms, Finn carefully stepped over the remaining glass in the frame and took Amanda into the room, Seth following them and Amanda pulling her black satin cami back on.
She seemed to relax… until the door was thrown open and she bolted up and kicked the shadowed figure right in its ribcage, knocking it down.
"Damn it… hint taken to wear body armour around you!" Dean says between coughing, Amanda's eyes snapping open as Seth helped Dean up.
"Sorry… storm made her jumpy." Seth says.
Amanda was about to tell them what had been going on as of late but not wanting to terrify her Shield brothers, she didn't.
The next morning in the lobby of the Embassy Suites, Kurt went to go check on his friends after hearing that not only did the sliding doors in Finn and Amanda's room were broken but also in Roman's, Sasha and TJ's and Enzo's… with Stephanie watching Nikoletta, he figured it wouldn't take long.
But he found them all huddled together at a giant table improvised of smaller ones in hushed conversation, Amanda shaking the most violently even as Finn's hand rubbed up and down her back.
"Something wasn't normal about that storm, Roman!" Amanda hissed angrily when Roman innocently suggested that she was suffering from PTSD after what happened at the Backlash pay per view that left her comatose.
"What's the problem here, kids?" Kurt asks after walking over to them.
"Mandy seems to think that last night's storm wasn't entirely normal." Roman says.
"How else would you explain several sliding doors breaking at the same time?!" Amanda asks.
"Storms here can get violent." Roman says.
"Roman, the last violent storm on record to destroy things like that in South Florida is hurricane Andrew. Mandy, tell me what exactly happened." Kurt says, sitting down.
"We were sound asleep, I heard the Tv going when I remember turning it off… I turned the lights off too but they were nearly blinding when we woke back up." Amanda says, Kurt looking at her.
"You're a bit young to remember but we were all staying at the Biltmore back in early 2002 when…" Kurt says.
"Just before John got called up to the main roster… I remember part of that trip. What else happened?" Amanda says, Kurt starting to explain it…
Kurt opened his eyes when he heard nearly inaudible cries in the hallway, stood up and walked to the door. When he opened it, he was startled to find a badly shaken 11 year old Amanda curled up in a ball and crouched down to her.
"Hey, what's wrong, kiddo?" Kurt asks.
"There's something… in the room that woke me up and I couldn't find John... I don't want to go back in there." Amanda says, Kurt pulling the small girl into his arms and letting her bury her teary face into his left shoulder as she clung onto him.
Standing up with her in his arms, Kurt looked up and for a split second, he thought he saw a small toddler in a white dress that was soaked, the toddler's head bleeding… he took a few steps towards her but stopped when the young girl in his arms let out a sharp scream.
"No! That's the ghost, that's Abi… she's angry at me!" Amanda cried, Kurt trying to comfort her… but then he saw the small hand shaped bruises on her neck and took her to his room and saw his tired wife waking up.
"Kurt, Mandy, what's wrong?" Karen asks, standing up and walking to them, her left hand resting gently on Amanda's back.
"I'll explain it tomorrow but something frightened her." Kurt says, Karen nodding…
"Except later that morning, I ended up in the hospital with a broken leg after I… damn it, I never slipped down those stairs. Abi pushed me down them!" Amanda says, Kurt knowing she was remembering it all over again.
"There's a lot in this world that can't be explained." Kurt says.
"Most of my childhood memories are scrambled… but she was so angry, accusing me of stealing the life she didn't get to live." Amanda says, Kurt seeing what looked like an aged bite scar on Amanda's left shoulder. "You only see it if you look close enough…" She says, Finn seeing it too… and remembering.
