Hello again! As some of you asked me to continue this fic,here is the next chapter.
I hope it's OK as I struggled with it, hence the long wait. Thank you all for your great reviews! Love them all*
Hi to my new followers :D

The Forgotten House

Chapter 7

Tap,Tap

The car horn blasted out into the silence of the black night around them, birds flew from the trees and animals scattered from the woods with the noise.

Tap,tap

The black apparition had disappeared now. Inside the car a faint swirl of smoke had entered it from the damaged bonnet, making the air misty. They all lay unconscious, laboured breathing.

Tap,Tap

Nate and Cheryl hadn't been wearing seat belts so they had felt the force of the crash, being flung against the seats in front and landed a heap on each other.

Tap,tap

Brendan was draped over the steering wheel, he was wearing a seat belt, but had hit the wheel with his head and blood trickled down the side of his head and had stuck to his moustashe.

Tap,Tap

"STOP TAPPING!" Ste opened his eyes and groaned loudly grabbing hold of his head rubbing it. As he moved a nasty pain shot through his neck making him yelp out, he rubbed his neck and put his head back till he heard and felt a crack in it, it felt a bit better now.

"Bren? Oh my god, Brendan?" Ste moved his bloodied hand across to Brendan's shoulder but stopped sharply as the seat belt had tightened around him so he unlocked it and slowly moved across to him.

The wispy smoke in the car made him cough slightly. He shook Brendan's shoulder.
"Bren, please wake up" He shook him again, as he started to move a little.

Tap,Tap

Ste gasped and turned around quickly, he saw her looking at him smiling gently. Beautiful blonde hair and white dress, she was surrounded by a brilliant white aura that swayed around her when she moved. He recognized her straight away as the little girl he'd seen in the lake and pictures. That didn't stop him from being scared though as every hair on his body stood up; creating big goose pimples that shrouded him in a cold shiver.

"Brennn, please wake upppp! There's a ghost of a girl watching me" Ste cried as Brendan began to open his eyes.

"Stop taking the happy pills Steven, then ye wouldn't see ghosts"

"BRENDAN! Oh thank god you're OK" Ste cried and pushed his head onto his body. He moved his arms and gently pulled Brendan back off the steering wheel.
"OW" Brendan groaned as he sat back in the seat.

"Does it hurt Bren?" Ste hugged at his chest.

"Yeah,hit my head. I'm bleeding too" Brendan rolled his eyes grabbing his head.

Cheryl had woken up hearing their voices, as she shook Nate awake too; they were all sporting nasty bruises and bleeding badly.

"What happened?" Nate asked trying to crawl onto the back seat.

"I was driving, I crashed into the gate, but I left it open! Someone closed it!" Brendan thought for a moment

"Not the first time either come to think about it, on my way home from the village it was shut then too."Brendan explained.

"So they don't want us to leave, they won't let us leave?" Ste shivered. He looked out of the window again but the little girl was gone.

"I saw the girl again, she was stood right here next to the window" He gestured his finger towards the door

"She kept tapping at the window, I think she was trying to wake me up"

"So now what do we do? No car, no escape! The only place we can go is back to hell, I mean the house!" Cheryl sobbed as Nate hugged her.

"We are gonna have to stay vigilant here guys. If it is unseen forces at work, they're going to be evil ones, something tells me we're VERY out of our depth." Nate nodded while the others looked at him terrified.

"Thanks for the bedtime story Nate" Brendan raised his eyebrow. "Let's make a move back up to the house.

"IN THE DARK?!" Are you insane? It's night time, they might be waiting for us to get out of the car." Ste cried darting his eyes around outside.

"Lets take a vote" Hands who stays in the car?" Ste shoots his hand up.
The others don't. "House?" Brendan and Nate put up their hands.

"Cheryl? You didn't vote?" Brendan looked at her confused

"I am waiting for the jump over the gate, leg it into town, and get a hotel idea first" Cheryl replied chuckling nervously.

"Mmm, maybe if the gate wasn't 7 foot tall, and wasn't middle of the night. Come on let's do this, and stick together!"

They all got out of the car, and turned on their phones to see. Brendan grabbed the torch from the boot of the car and surveyed the damage. The front was smashed in a little, and was smoking. He decided he would call someone in the morning to fix it. They set off Cheryl and Nate hung tightly huddling together while they walked, Brendan held Ste's hand and used the other to hold the torch.

It was dark outside except for the moonlight with looked beautiful as it shone over the oak trees up the never ending driveway. The stones crunched beneath their feet, and twigs snapped around them, making them feel uneasy. Every now and then a small breeze passed around them, making there already cold bodies shiver more.

Two eyes appeared in the distance, they were yellow and Ste screamed with Cheryl as they wrapped their arms around each other. "Get it, getiiiit! Ste yelped.

"Jesus, it's a cat!" Brendan cried.

"We knew that! Just you know, you should get it, shouldn't you?" Ste let go of Cheryl and grabbed Brendan's hand again.
Brendan shook his head smiling; he gave Ste a longing kiss.

"Better?" Brendan moved close to Ste's mouth smiling.

"One more should do the trick" Ste replied stealing another deep kiss off Brendan.

"Wow, in the pit of HELL guys!?" Cheryl threw her arms up in disbelief.

They carried on walking a while when a twig snapped behind them, as they gasped and looked behind them. They didn't see anything, and then a shuffle moved in front of them making them turn back around.

"If I wasn't paranoid, Id say a pattern is forming here" Brendan spoke searching the torch around.

Ste squeezed Brendan's hand as he pulled him into a tight reassuring squeeze they set off walking again. As they were walking lights began to appear at random around them. Little round ones that sort of moved across the air in front of them.

"What are they?" Cheryl asked.
"Fire flies?"

"Maybe" Ste replied.

"Could be orbs" Nate suddenly spoke, surprising them slightly.

"Orbs? What are they?" Cheryl asked

"They say they are spirit energies of ghosts" Nate explained
"The first sighting of a ghost in other words"

"How do you know all of this? "Ste asked interested.

"I watch Most Haunted" Laughed Nate.

They had finally made it to the house but they wish they hadn't. All the house lights were flashing on and off as they all looked at each other. A shadow passed by the upstairs window. Then it stopped sideways on and began to turn slowly so that the shadow now looked forward but didn't move.

"Who the fuck is in our house Bren?!" Cheryl spoke shakily

"I have no idea, but I'm gonna find out" Brendan replied angrily as he walked over to the door, as soon as he touched the handle all the lights went out. They all slowly walked back into the house slowly, all pressing close together. It was dark in the house, visibility was low the dust swirled around bouncing off the torch light. Brendan used the light to scan around the room. They could hear a squeak noise above them as he trailed the light up the chandelier was swinging too and fro.

"Does that a lot" Ste nodded

They crept slowly into the darkness shifting the light around to every noise, creak and bang they heard. The light shone onto a chair in front of them as it began to move, Brendan shone the light on it squinting his eyes to make sure he had really seen it move. Suddenly the chair slid forward across the floor at them, Cheryl screamed at they all jumped to their sides and out of the way. They weren't together anymore, so Brendan quickly shone the light around frantically trying to find everyone.

Ste felt a tug at his trousers as he shone his phone down he couldn't see anything except his own body.
"Brennn,something tugged at my trousers!" Ste spoke worried

"Maybe the ghost is frisky again" Brendan quipped much to Ste's embarrassment.

"Again?!" Cheryl quizzed

"Nothing Chez, shut up Brendan!" Ste huffed getting up to his feet and brushing himself down

"Just a stab in the dark here, but why don't we switch the lights on?" Nate interrupted to a puzzled silence within the group.

Brendan shone around the wall and found the light switch and pressed it.
Nothing happened.

"Hands up who thought the house would implode then?" Brendan asked putting his hand up.

The darkness was still around them as the lights didn't work, they decided to find the fuse box, it was in the basement so they had to be careful finding their way there.
A light flashed over the room blinding them, Brendan dropped his torch as it rolled away from him.

"Oh my god, we are never getting out of here are we?" Cried Cheryl

"I wish they'd stop doing that, second time now! HEY! If you're gonna flash at us, leave the friggin light on so we can see!" Brendan shouted as he went to pick up the torch. It rolled away from his reach to the other side of the room.

"What the..."

"You made it mad Bren!" Cheryl warned.

"What's it gonna do? Flash light over me all night?" Brendan drawled now getting frustrated as he walked over to the torch and picked it up. He shone it around and saw a figure stood looking at him.

"Hey! There's a mirror here!" Brendan spoke until he looked again, it wasn't a reflection, where was the torch light? The figure looked at him in a menacing way and darted towards Brendan, as he quickly ran to the other side of the room falling over one of the sofas.

"Ow, we're not alone guys" Brendan rubbed his arm, and shone the torch onto the others' faces.

"No kidding Sherlock!" Ste snapped

"No,I mean there is another person in the house,I thought it was my reflection at first but..."

"The man from the photo? He put me in a boat!" Ste scrunched his eyes and went over to Brendan.

"Don't worry I will stay by you" Ste smiled

"Steven? I am over here!" Brendan said shining the torch over to Ste who was now stood with the figure who was putting his hands around Ste's neck.

"NO!" Brendan ran over to Ste and grabbed him back as they fell backwards over the coffee table.

"I,I thought it was you Bren, Oh my god"

"Right, Basement! Now!" Nate called as he had found the door to the basement he and Cheryl started to make their way down the stairs.

Nate went down and found the fuse box with Cheryl's phone light he opened it and saw a couple of the fuses were missing, he looked around with the phone light and saw them strewn on the floor.

Nate picked them up and pushed them back into the fuse box, he flicked the large switch as all the lights came back on in the house.

"Oh thank goodness!" Cheryl sighed

They went back upstairs to find the lounge in array, furniture had been moved out of its original placing. They found Brendan hugging Ste into his chest as Ste was visibly shaken up from the evening's occurrences.

They decided to try and get some sleep, agreeing downstairs crashed on the sofa best, nearer the exit that way. They had been asleep a while when Ste woke up, he hummed contently feeling his body wrapped up in Brendan's arms, he turned his head to face the fireplace when the little girl he'd seen earlier had appeared again. Ste's eyes widened, he just looked at her, she started skipping round in a circle smiling as her hair ruffled with her movement, the white aura waving through the air.

"You like to skip, don't you?" Ste whispered to the little girl, as she stopped and smiled at him. The girl then lifted her arm and pointed behind Ste, he reached his head around and looked at the front door.

"What? What are you trying to tell me?" Ste asked prising himself out of Brendan's fingers and arms.

The girl stopped smiling and indicated to the front door again, she walked up to the door, waved and went through it.

Ste shivered at the site of it, he wondered what to do next, whether to wake the others knowing they probably wouldn't believe him or...

"Bren, I will be back soon, the little girl, she's trying to tell me something. Love you" He whispered into Brendan's ear kissing him on the cheek and grabbing the torch he went out the front door.
Brendan grunted and turned over in his sleep, he hadn't realized Ste had left on his own again.

Ste went outside and saw the girl dancing around the courtyard. As she looked up she smiled at Ste and gestured towards the maze area and skipped off, Ste followed behind turning on the torch to shine it around. The moonlight still glistened over everything, which helped a little with visibility. He watched the little girl skipping in and out of the trees; he assumed she must have done so when she had still been alive.

He shuddered, remembering just how she had left this life for the next. Ste walked quickly behind her to keep up. There were strange shadows creeping around on the ground and in and out of the trees as he walked along,moving the torch up he saw two eyes staring at him again as he gasped. It was an owl, it hooted at him, as if the torch light had been in distaste, so he shone it back down the long pathway.

They eventually came to the lake again, the moonlight sparkled over the ripples of water, there were fireflies darting about, as a woof howled out in the distance he crept up towards the lake. Darting a quick look up at the boathouse swallowing deeply. The little girl stood at the waters edge and pointed out to the lake, Ste looked out.
"What is it? Something out there?" Ste asked pointing to the same spot.

The girl smiled. Ste looked up and saw the boat from earlier,he wandered over to it and found some oars this time. He looked across and gasped covering his mouth as he saw the little girl float across the lake and stop in the center.

He jumped in the boat and rowed out to the spot where she had been.
Once Ste got there the girl had disappeared, frantic he looked over the sides and saw her down under the water gesturing to him to follow her.

"I can't come down there! I wont be able to breathe will I?!"
The girl kept gesturing to Ste as the ripples of the water distorted the image of her under the lake.

"Can't you just tell me? Why have I got to see?" Ste asked as he looked around the lake, there was no one around, the others back at the house, he didn't know what to do. He started to take off his shoes and put them and his top and trousers into the boat.

"Bren's gonna kill me" He thought out loud, closing his eyes, and taking in a deep breath he dived into the lake again. This time though he wanted to get to the bottom,swimming down as he followed the girl lower and lower, he held his breath and followed her until he saw it.

A skeletal body, that of a child. The clothes torn and shattered around it, a locket was laid next to her on the lake bed, the girl pointed to it as Ste now getting to the point of needing air grabbed at it and swung his body around pushing off the bottom and back up to the surface, blowing out his trapped air through his nose on the way up.

Ste had almost reached the top when a hand grabbed him back down, the man he had seen earlier looked angered,started pulling him down deeper and deeper as Ste opened up his mouth to scream bubbles lunged out of his mouth as the lake water poured down his throat, his eyes widened in panic as it went black.

BANG BANG

"Groan, somebody get that please" Brendan sighed stretching.

BANG BANG

"Nate! Get up and answer the door will ye, ye so lazy!" Cheryl nudged him in the ribs.

BANG BANG

"Brendan why can't you get it?" Nate sighed loudly at them and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

He got up to his feet as the door banged once again.

"Hang on! Keep your wig on will ya" Nate opened the door as three men all shouted GHOST BUSTERS in unison.

"Now in any other time and place and that would be weird, not in this house though! Please come in!" Nate stood back and let them in.

"Where are your suits?"
 Cheryl asked peering over the sofa.

"And your proton packs! Where are them?" Brendan sat up looking a little too disappointed.

"Ah yes, very droll, we get that a lot" The man yawned.

"We are spiritual healers, ghost hunters extraordinaire! My name is Jim, this is Dennis and that one over there bringing up the rear is Darren" Jim smiled

"Right that's it, once we return home I'm getting a psyche evaluation." Brendan lay back down closing his eyes. He then opened them sitting back up quickly.

"Where the hell is Steven?!" Brendan jumped to his feet as the others looked wide eyed.

"I don't know Bren! We just woke up!" Cheryl's heart sank

"Steven?!"

"STEVEN?!"

"Stop shouting you lot! I'm here, got up early made us all breakie!" Ste walked in with a tray of breakfast.

"I ended up having a nightmare last night, it was so real too, about the little girl. I know where she is in the lake, she showed me! I don't know how but I have this too" Ste held aloft a silver locket.

"I dreamt I retrieved it off the lake bed and then that man ghost that looks like Bren tried to drown me, that's when I woke up"

Ste walked over to Brendan who looked shaken and gave him a tight hug. "Sorry I worried you" Ste gave Brendan a long kiss before breaking it and settling his head on his chest.

"Who are these lot?!" Ste asked curious

"We're the GHOST BUSTERS!" they all shouted in unison.

"Kill me,kill me now" Cried Brendan putting his head in his palms.

They all sat down in the living room,the group staring at the spiritualists. Brendan had made them all a drink,but it was an excuse to get out of the whole situation,as it was starting to wear thin. He made a quick call to a car breakdown service,he wanted to get the car fixed as soon as possible. The spiritualists had apparently rammed open the gates with their van to get through,so goodness knows how much more damage had been done. He sighed and put the kettle on.

"Right,so we will need to have a look around the house" Jim asked

"Knock yourself out" Nate agreed "Watch out in the study,it has a mind of it's own!"

"And there's a man here,looks spit of Brendan,stear clear of water when around him" Ste winked.

"And there's the little girl spirit,who now haunts dreams apparently" Cheryl sighed looking at Ste.

"Oh and my fave,the black swirly thing" Ste nodded.

"A black..?"

"Swirly thing,yes"

"Has to be seen to believed" Brendan walked through with some brews and plonked them on the table.

"It can and has possessed someone,take over you so best wear protection?" Brendan warned

"A condom? Why?" Darren asked as the whole room just looked at him wide eyed.

"Ye serious? Tell me ye are kidding me now,cos if that's the sum of your intellect I'm leaving!" Brendan gestured his arms to the room.

"Um,yeah i was" Darren chuckled into his brew.

"Who was possessed Bren? Why am I last to know?" Cheryl asked

They took out a video camera as Dennis filmed Jim talking about where they was,and what they were dealing with. Dennis moved with Jim and Darren as they headed upstairs.

"Tenner says Darren folds first" Brendan laughs

"Noo,gonna be Dennis" Nate replied

They all sat looking at the stairs waiting,nothing happened and it was very quiet.

"Maybe the ghost has eaten them?" Ste looked up concerned.

Just then a loud boom noise erupted upstairs,as the chandelier began to shake,lights in the house flickered on and off.

"Any minute now..."

Darren comes running down the stairs shrieking like a banshee and jumps behind the sofa shaking.

"OH MY GOD! It was a swirling DEMON!"

"Hand it over Nate,thank ye"

What do you think? Spooky ideas welcome! Please review xx