Okay I'm finally back, I don't really have any good excuses except that I've been lazy also I faced a bit of writers block of how the ghost storyline was going to progress, because I know where it is going to end, but I just hadn't figured out how to get there without it being too fast. Also the whole thing with the play, I won't be doing the rehearsals, because I just think it would be stupid and boring I've been in all of my school plays and yeah, if you're not on stage it's pretty boring, you basically do homework. So here is the next chapter.
Disclaimer: See previous chapters.
Thinking About You Lately
Chapter 8
Beginning the Investigation
Fi and Clu met after school and headed towards the library. They didn't see Julie right away but as they headed towards the back they heard some noise. The headed towards the noise and saw Julie sitting at one of the newspaper archives. She heard footsteps and turned to look at them,
"Hey guys," she turned her attention just to Fi, "Fi I had no luck last night, did you find anything?" Fi shook her head,
"No, I was surprised. It's actually kind of creepy that there was so little about it." Julie nodded in agreement before turning back to the monitor.
"Come on over guys," she waved her hand at Fi and Clu to come over, "help me look." Fi and Clu sat down at the other two stations and scanned page after page. Fi was reading an article when her eyes wandered over to the picture of room 425 and noticed some hooks on the wall by the fated window. Her jaw dropped slightly when Julie, Clu, and her were in the room, there were no hooks by that window. She quickly printed the article. Julie and Clu heard the printer going and looked at Fi expectantly. She paid them no heed as she stood up and rushed to the printer. Clu and Julie followed. Fi picked up the sheet of paper and showed it to them while pointed at the picture.
"Fi, that's a picture of the room," Clu said thinking Fi had completely lost it, "we've been there, we know what it looks like." Fi looked at Clu with a smile,
"In this picture there are hooks on the wall by the window Clu." Clu was still looking at her like she was nuts,
"And…" Julie, however, got the message. She stared in shock at the photo and grabbed the paper from Fi,
"There are no hooks in that room Clu," she lowered the paper and looked at Clu then to Fi, "I remember I leaned against that wall when we were in there. There was nothing there."
"Look at the date," Fi said, implying there was more. Julie looked, it read 1955. Julie's eyes rose to meet Fi's. Fi looked at the both of them,
"That was the last picture taken from that room before the door was locked, supposedly, forever and all the keys were destroyed."
"It's in the ambassador's code, you can't touch or change anything in the room," Julie commented. Fi smiled,
"So, who could have removed the hooks, Clu?" Clu was staring at her eyes wide,
"The ghost." Fi nodded. Julie smiled,
"Let's go check it out." They all nodded. They shut down the stations, took their bookbags, and Julie locked up the library. They quickly ascended the stairs towards the room. Julie tried to control her excitement from the recent discovery to be careful turning the key. They door opened and they rushed over to the wall. Julie felt five small holes in the wall where the hooks would have been,
"Apparently they were hooks that you could manually screw into the wall." Fi leaned against the windowsill of the fated window,
"My guess is that the ghost that is haunting this room didn't want people to feel welcome." Julie turned from the wall to look at Fi,
"You think they wanted to be left alone."
"No," Fi paused as she looked over her shoulder out the window, "I think whoever is haunting this room wanted it to be respected and remembered as the place where Katie died," she turned back to Julie, "and having people walking around in this place acting as if nothing happened in this room offended the ghost. So finally when the room was closed they decided to removed the hooks so that no one who came in would feel welcomed to stay a while." Julie smiled turned to face Fi. She leaned against the wall and shook her head in disbelief.
"I can't believe it," she paused, "you solved it Fi, you solved why this was happening." She pushed away from the wall and started walking away, "The ghost was mad that no one was respecting the place where Katie died so they killed people until the room was condemned," she turned back and started walking back, "but some people still decided to disturb the room, so they killed those people to warn others to stay away." Julie stood in front of Fi with a huge grin, "That's it! It makes perfect sense! Oh, Fi, thank you." She enveloped Fi in a hug, but Fi didn't hug back. Julie released her and looked at Fi's grave face, "Fi, what is it?"
"Julie, I just have this feeling that that isn't the reason why people keep getting killed," Fi said. Julie rolled her eyes,
"What else could the answer be for the missing hooks? The ghost is obviously sending a message that says stay out," she paused and grabbed Fi's arm to pull her away from the window and out of the room, "stop being modest, you solved it, so the deaths are over. Come on let's go celebrate, my treat." Fi took her arm away,
"Julie…" Julie sighed,
"Okay if you're so worried, we'll do an experiment." She rummaged through the front pockets of her backpack and pulled out three new metal hooks that you manually screw into a wall. She walked over the wall where the hooks once were and screwed them into the holes that were already there. "Now, we'll screw in these hooks and leave them here overnight," she finished screwing them in and walked back to meet Clu and Fi who had moved to the door, "we'll come back tomorrow and if they're gone, then we solved the case, if they're still here then we didn't and we'll continue the investigation. Deal?" Fi nodded,
"Deal." Julie smiled,
"Now let's go, I'll give you two a ride home." The three walked out of the room and Julie locked it behind them.
On the ride home Fi actually didn't mind being around Julie and talking to her. Fi realized that ever since her and Clu reconciled she didn't feel threatened around Julie anymore. She realized that actually might learn to be friends with this girl. She knew that Clu wasn't interested in her that way. Carey was just being jealous, it would be over soon. Also Julie and her would make a great team, hunting the paranormal. She smiled and thought as she looked over at Julie who was looking at the road ahead, 'yeah, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.'
The next day they went back to the room and the hooks were gone. Julie smiled triumphantly and turned to Fi,
"See Fi, the hooks are gone, you were right. The curse is over." Fi looked at the wall then looked at Julie,
"Yeah, as long as you keep this door locked and destroy that key." Julie nodded,
"Of course. We'll lock up today and I'll destroy the last remaining key for good." Fi nodded feeling somewhat reassured,
"Good." Julie smiled,
"Okay, lets go, the sooner the better." Julie ushered Fi and Clu out of the room, "Now we can go celebrate."
Fi and Clu went ahead as Julie turned to close the door.
"Julie…" a voice whispered. Julie's head shot up and looked back into the room through the slightly opened door. She saw nothing then an image flashed before her eyes then disappeared. She stared in shock.
"Julie?" She sharply turned towards the voice. It was Fi who was waiting by the stairs with Clu. "Are you coming?" She asked looking a little concerned. Julie nodded,
"Yeah." She quickly closed and locked the door. She turned towards and started walking towards the group, "Let's go." Fi smiled and prepared to start going down the stairs with Clu. Julie's smile dropped as she slowed down then stopped.
"Guys," Julie said. Fi and Clu looked at her.
"What is it, Jules?" Clu asked. Julie turned to look back at the door with a curious, but worried look on her face. She bit her lip then turned back to the group with a smile,
"Nothing." Fi and Clu smiled then started down the stairs. 'No need to worry them,' Julie thought, 'it was probably just my imagination.' She started walking towards the stairs. Before she started to descend them she stopped again. 'However,' she looked back at the door, the key in her hand, and then back at the door, 'I should check it out tomorrow, just to be sure.' She stuck the key in her pocket and went down the stairs to catch up with Clu and Fi.
Okay I'm going to end it there for now. It just seemed like a creepy place to end this chapter. So is the curse really over, maybe, maybe not. I know this is short, but I wanted this story just to focus on the ghost storyline. I'll put up another short chapter just to make up for the shortness of this one about the play and the problems with the casting and tension between all the couples. It will be put up around Thanksgiving probably, because I'm at school and I have the script of Romeo and Juliet at home and Thanksgiving is the first time I'm going back. So don't get all scary on me for the shortness of this chapter, be happy I updated at all. I'm really swamped with school and barely have time to write at all. So please R&R!
PR1