Four more installments today, and that's the end! So close I can taste it.

Warning! This is one of my more graphic chapters. I think it's safe for T, but if you're easily spooked, this might make you uncomfortable. Not sure. Good luck?

Haunted

Lord Julius Wotton was laughing at him in the still night.

Gill seemed to be in a pit of some kind, looking up as Julius towered over him. The red coat that clashed with his ridiculous purple hair was tearing at the seams. The sound of shredding fabric filled Gill's ears as his eyes widened in horror. Julius outgrew his clothes, his skin becoming a deep red. His fingernails grew pointed and thick. Sharp claws. A forked tail whipped back and forth like a snake. Wotton's smile stretched impossible wide as his face tore.

"Suffer the consequences of your narcissism!" His unearthly voice growled deep. Julius' lips curled back revealing pointed teeth. Horns sprouted as his hair fell into nonexistence. Great yellow eyes like a cat's filled the large sockets.

As soon as Julius had completed his transformation into a demon, Gill closed his eyes. When he opened them, he was in the attic. It was empty except for the opposite wall. The portrait was facing him, the sheet still covering it.

Gill tried to move, but he found his limbs were heavy and chained to the wall. No matter how much he tugged or pulled, the chains on his ankles and wrists would only rattle like thousands of bells in his ears.

With nowhere to turn, Gill looked ahead. The white sheet slipped off of the frame, revealing the beautiful face of the original portrait. Before relief could set in, the painting began to change. The oils and acrylics melted off as the person trapped in the canvas rapidly aged. It sprung to life, the face of the young Gill morphing into abject horror as his features dimmed and wrinkled and turned grey. The spindly strands of hair fell away and the clothes became ragged. The white flesh oozed off of the bones, opening up gaps for blood to escape in a gory display.

Gill was melting. He was forced to watch, unable to escape as the portrait grew larger. No. It drew closer. The walls were coming together.

The final fragments of skin fell from the portrait's head. A pure white skull was revealed. The teeth were impossibly smiling, the mouth laughing. It was closer. Gill struggled against the chains. The eyes that were once so innocent had rolled away and two pinpricks of blue flame replaced them. The jaw opened wide. Gill cried out.

It swallowed him whole.

Gill threw himself forward, panting and sweating. The familiar surroundings of the barn stalls faced him. A cow was peering over the door staring down at him. She let out a loud moo.

It was a dream… a nightmare…

One of the most realistic Gill Gray had ever experienced. He was there… Or at least it felt like he was…

The rusty key was locked in his right hand's firm grip. Gill looked down at it, finding his arm shaking. He opened his fingers and stared at the simple little key. It had made red indentations against his palm.

"It's just a dream…" Gill told himself in a whisper. He said it louder to reassure himself. He held the key against his heart before taking a breath and letting it go.

A crunching sound alerted him to a companion. The stupid cow had left her stall and was chewing his bed. Her doe eyes blinked at him a moment before her head lowered to take more hay. Gill pushed her nose away. He shook his head and rubbed his eyes for good measure.

"Just… a dream."

"Hey, Katie?"

Katie was on cloud nine. Ever since 'Toby' had showed some promise, she was determined. It would be slow work, but there was something worthwhile finding here. She felt like the heroine of a romance novel. She could support him, be his shoulder. It was a new idea that she was excited to experience.

So she didn't hear poor Harry again.

"Katie? Hello?" The farmer waved his hand in front of her face.

Katie shook her head, annoyed to find Harry's hand before of her nose. "Ah! Harry! What?"

"It's about Toby," Harry knew the magic word would bring her to attention.

It did. "What's the matter?"

Harry held his arm and shrugged. "I don't know… He's real quiet. More than normal."

"Has he said anything?" She asked, hoping to get a prompt of some sort.

"He had a nightmare," he said. "He won't say anything else though. I've tried. Would you talk to him?"

"Why me?" Katie asked. Though it seemed defensive to the untrained eye, it was really her own sneaky way of getting Harry to say what she wanted to hear.

"Because… you two have kind of had a thing lately," Harry gave her the satisfactory answer. The poor man was just confused and troubled. "I don't know – would you talk to him? He's not eating either."

"Okay," Katie tried not to smile too wide. This sounded pretty serious after all. "Where is he?"

"Over there with Red," Harry pointed to the pasture.

He looked on with worry as Katie girlishly ran her way across the farm towards the silhouette sitting on the fence. Harry rubbed the back of his head, knocking his cap askew.

Gill held onto the post underneath him, staring out at the ocean. The cliff side dropped suddenly to a rocky fall below. White capped waves beat the rock wall in a steady motion without real pattern.

"Whatcha lookin' at?" Katie asked, propping her elbows onto the same post. "Why this spot?"

"It's the only place…" That I can't see it. "I want to be."

"Hm," Katie commented.

Red sat in the tall grass behind Gill's feet. He sniffed at Katie's ankles, but she had been visiting so much lately that there wasn't anything new to smell. She had become a regular, so the dog was content to ignore her and sniff for other smells through the grass.

"What's the city like?" The girl randomly asked, climbing onto the fence. The wood bowed slightly with the extra weight but promised to hold.

Gill shrugged, numb to such small conversation. Though it was an improvement that he was talking at all. "Not so bad. Very convenient. Clean, too, if you know where to go."

"Sounds nice," she nodded and sat down. She started to swing her legs. "But not very interesting. Nature changes every day. The trees, the flowers, even the ocean. Buildings don't do that, do they? They can just crumble or grow ivy. For awhile I wanted to go to the city, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized I would lose all of this. And I like this. This infinite variety."

Though he appreciated her intelligent input, it was hardly topical. He was growing impatient. "Aren't you here to ask me about something? I saw Harry send you."

"Yeah, you had a nightmare. But I don't wanna talk about that. You don't either. So why meddle?" Katie tilted her head in exaggerated wonderment. "Though I do wonder what's bothering you… I promise I won't get scared or leave or anything. You can tell me whatever you want. Like your own personal diary."

Gill looked at her. "Stop."

"No, I mean it!" Katie nodded, ceasing her kicking. Stilled, she straightened up and attempted to look him in the eye as earnestly as she could. "You couldn't tell me anything I couldn't hear."

"What if I told you everything is a lie? That I'm not who you think I am?" Gill threatened, treading on thin glass.

"Well, that's not too surprising. You've barely said who you are anyway," Katie shrugged though she flinched inwardly.

"What if my name's not even Toby?"

That sent a chill down her spine. Katie frantically tried to keep calm as she thought of reasons a person wouldn't use their real name. "You're hiding. Someone's looking for you."

"I told you you're wasting your time on me," Gill shook his head, looking back out over the ocean. "I've done too many things in my life I'm not proud of…"

"They can't be that many," Katie admonished with a brighter smile. "I mean… you're not that old."

Gill's silence spooked her. She ventured a guess. "Not more than twenty? Twenty-three? …You can't be older than twenty-five; I'm not believing it."

"I'm thirty," he answered shortly. The key weighed down around his throat. Like a noose.

Katie blanched. "B-But…! You certainly don't look thirty—"

"I've aged well," Gill snapped.

Somehow, it was a sensitive subject for him. Katie held tighter onto the fence post, biting her lip. Red snorted in the grass somewhere behind her shoes.

"Well… okay," she accepted the simple fact. "But I still don't care."

"You should care!" Gill shouted. He wanted to strike her. "You should just leave me alone, you stupid girl!"

Tears instinctively sprung to Katie's eyes. Partly in shock of being yelled at and the deep hurt of the insult. But what was worse was the rejection.

Still, Katie firmly held her ground. "No! Y-You're stupid! You basket case – I'm trying to be here for you! Stop shutting me out like I'm nothing!"

Gill blinked in shock. No one ever fought back against him. Gill Gray was known to throw his tantrum and get what he wanted. Or simply by persuasion. There was never a time when someone would blatantly yell back at him and tell him no. He's stupid. He was torn between asking 'how dare she' and 'did she know who she was talking to' or kissing her right then and there.

Luckily for cliché's sake, he did neither. He grit his teeth, and turned his head away. "I'm sorry…"

Katie quickly wiped the tears out of her eyes and took a deep breath of air. "Me, too."

"Don't be."

She rolled her eyes.

"I…" Gill paused, feeling the weight of the hesitation.

"Wh-?"

"My name is Gill."

Katie blinked her eyes like a deer caught in the headlights. Gill waited for her to scream and immediately know who he was. Do him a favor and push him off the fence and down the cliff.

But this was Sugar Village. And Katie was a country girl. She just smiled. "That's a nice name. It suits you better than Toby."

Because Gill didn't say anything, Katie continued in a teasing voice. "Though it's kind of strange… Gill? Like a fish? Who would name their kid after a fish part?"

"Joe," Gill immediately provided.

Katie let out a loud, clear laugh. She started to make fish faces, pursing her lips and holding her flat hands by her face. "Gill, Gill, Gill, Gill."

"Stop!" Gill lightly shoved her shoulder. His face broke out into a smile anyways.

Katie smiled wide, excited she got him to laugh. She took on a more serious tone once again. "Still, I made a promise. I don't care who you were – so I'll keep your secrets. You don't have to tell me a thing about your past. I don't care!"

"You don't care enough," Gill shook his head, turning around and swinging his legs back over the fence.

"I do! Just not about dumb things," Katie tried to defend herself.

"My past is dumb?"

"I didn't mean it like that – ugh! Stop twisting my words, and just accept I'm the nicest person ever," she whined.

Gill helped her over the fence, taking her hand to keep her balance. Katie jumped to the ground, and wasn't prepared when Gill softly kissed her forehead. "Thank you."

Katie stood stupidly at the fence for a moment, her face burning. She quickly recovered and ran after him. "Hey, wait up!"

Because she was running and shouting, Red was alerted. He barked and shot ahead as Gill stopped to wait for Katie. They walked back to the house together. Harry was waiting and greeted them with a wave. Red tackled his owner, and everyone laughed.

Gill felt the change had finally begun.