*Thank you for all the comments and reviews for this story, always means loads to me!*
A few of you lovely peeps asked me to do another chapter. (Ye know who ye are) I will always listen to your thoughts and this will now be the last one...so don't even think about it! HA HA! ;D Much love to ye all xx
The Forgotten House
Chapter 12
Ste was panicking and pacing around the room as Brendan switched on the light to the side of him he sat up and looked worried. A year had passed since they were last at the house but Ste had been plagued by nightmares the whole time. He'd wake up in pools of sweat gasping and other times he'd last out in his sleep as though fighting off an invisible enemy.
Brendan had always been there to comfort him, pulling Ste close to his warm body and stroking his hands over him, whispering into his ear that he was there with him and that he was safe. Ste would eventually wake up frightened and cling on to Brendan for dear life. He always did that, as his nightmares always consisted of the same thing, the black entity was hurting Brendan, every time it took away the man he loves dearly.
Ste didn't tell Brendan the ins and outs of his dreams, he didn't want him to see how affected he was by the place. Thing was this spirit had only taken over his body and mind a short while, and yet it seemed so drawn to him, why was that, he thought each time he wake in a sweat.
Ste had a particularly nasty dream though this time, he had seen it posses someone, and he knew what it wanted, it was coming for Ste, as soon as it found a way out of those gates. Then he sighed, it couldn't get out, could it? The gates protected him; it kept the evil inside the grounds where it was trapped. He was pacing, and his mind racing with all these thought, he began to be more vocal with them, and Brendan had heard enough.
"Stop!" Brendan cried as he sat up his knees were up against his chest and arms gestured out in front of him, he looked over to Ste who had stopped pacing and looked back at him.
"Steven, just stop"
"I can't stop! It's got someone Brendan!" Ste threw his hands up and began to pace again, as Brendan threw back the covers swiftly and padded over to Ste grabbing him by his shoulders and staring into his eyes.
"Yes, ye can, this has been going on a year now, it's over, it's trapped behind the gates, and can't get to ye" Brendan sighed and pulled Ste into a warm hold which Ste cradled into desperately.
"I want it too stop Bren, I can't it haunts my dreams, looks into my very soul, it wants me and I fear it's coming" Tears fall down Ste's cheeks as he sobs quietly into Brendan's chest.
Brendan moves him back and kisses the tears away and over both Ste's eyelids." I love ye Steven, I won't let it get ye again, I will fight my whole life to protect ye" Brendan caresses Ste's face in his hands and cups his lips gently over Ste's kissing him lovingly as Ste reciprocated deepening the kiss and trying to hold back his sobs swallowing them back with Brendan's breath. They parted hazy from it, and Ste squeezed Brendan tightly.
"I love you more Bren, but what I am telling you is truth. It really has got someone, I saw the whole thing." They walked back into bed and held each other close Brendan placing his strong arms wrapped around Ste and Ste lay on his chest.
"Tell me what ye saw then, help me understand what ye see in these dreams"
"I see the gates mostly, like I am flying really fast, the gates are there and then they open and a man is stood staring at me. As I walk in I try to fight it, and run away but I am drawn to the man. When I get closer I see his face is blackening, all his veins raised in his face are running with blackened blood and the red eyes, and they bore into me."
Ste stops talking and looks up to Brendan who looks very troubled but still smiles fondly at Ste and strokes his hands soothing over him.
"They could be from post traumatic stress? Ye might need to see someone about it, talk about it Steven?" Brendan suggests rubbing over his arms with his fingers.
"Bren, even if I did go and talk to someone, the spirit will still be there, within the gates. We should've trapped it properly, somewhere it couldn't escape. And then bury it under the house; we need to raise the house to the ground"
"How do we destroy the house? Fire? It's begun to flood under the house so that won't help it to burn" Brendan replied.
"We can use oil, it's an accelerant, and with an oil based fire what happens when you introduce water?" Ste raised his eyebrows smiling.
"OK, either that or dynamite" Brendan sniggered."We can't go back there again, Steven, I can't lose ye" Brendan's face changed as Ste sat up on his elbow and looked at him.
"You won't lose me; I still have the locket, and the box. You said the little girl told you they'd protect me, right?
"That's what she said yes, and that her body was still in the lake too"
"Will you drive me there, please Bren? I need to see if the gates are still locked"
Brendan sighed and rubbed his palm over his face, before glancing across to Ste."Ye won't rest until we do will ye?"
"No, Bren, I won't"
Brendan waited in the lounge for Ste to get changed, he fidgeted with the keys in his hands, and he was feeling very nervous. He had the golden box with him he was holding onto it and looking inside. He palmed over the oval gold trinket inside and wondered to himself what it was. Ste came walking into the room smiling he held out his hand to Brendan who grabbed hold and Ste pulled him up to face him. They shared a deep kiss before leaving the flat and getting into Brendan's car.
The drive to the house was a worried one and they didn't really speak much. It was only when they began to pull up to the gates when their hearts sank. They were left slightly ajar. Brendan shot a look at Ste before parking up outside them he rushed up to the gates and saw the lock strewn on the floor. The chain had clearly been cut and it lay swinging on the gates. Ste put his head in his hands.
"It's escaped, it's got someone and managed to get out again" Ste groaned to Brendan who looked angry.
"Why did they open the gates? I left a clear sign saying not to enter for Christ's sake!"
"Brendan, here's your sign, look" Ste picked up the old piece of card where the writing had faded so much you couldn't read it any more.
"Come on, let's walk up to the house, only way we can truly find out if it's gone or not" Ste sighed grabbing hold of Brendan's hand and walking through the gates.
"Maybe it's happy enough within the other person eh?" Brendan tried not to look bad saying that, but he couldn't help feel relief it wasn't after Ste anymore.
"You don't mean that Bren, you don't know what it's like, it gives you terrible images, its terrifying how it takes control of your body and mind" Ste looked at Brendan worryingly.
A figure was stood watching them in the distance, chatting with each other as they walked up to the house. Brendan and Ste hadn't noticed at first and continued to walk up the driveway. Eventually though they saw it. Ste felt his hair stand on end and pulled Brendan to a jolting halt grabbing his hand back and knocking Brendan unsteady.
"Whoa! Steady on there Steven!" Brendan joked and looked at Ste realising he was nervous and staring ahead of them. Brendan glanced forward to where he was looking and gripped a tighter hold of Ste.
"That's the man we saw before, the little girls' father, why is he looking at us like that?" Brendan asked Ste as though he had all the answers.
"I don't know,he's not exactly nice though is he? He hurt his daughter"
"He didn't kill her, she fell in the lake because she was frightened of him, he tried to save her"
"How do you know that?" Ste asked glancing from Brendan to the figure stood watching.
"The little girl told me in my dream; she was scared of him though" Brendan glanced back and he was gone again.
"Come on, lets get this over with" Ste said grabbing Brendan and they continued walking up to the house.
Water had now started to pour out of the front door; it was still black and left a dirty trail behind it. The front door was still open from the year earlier they had left it. The water had rotted the wooden door at the bottom so when they pushed it open it just crumbled away into soggy pieces of wood.
They entered the house and found it completely sodden, water was pouring down the stairs like a blackened waterfall. The water behind the bookshelf was continuing to rise up and had destroyed the study bookshelf completely, the doorway was now fully exposed, as the water gushed everywhere.
"Where are you?!" Ste shouted suddenly making Brendan jump."I am here now, show yourself you piece of shit!"
"Jesus Steven, why don't ye rattle the spirit some more eh?"
"I am sick of the nightmares Bren, sick of this thing and my connection with it" Ste spoke as he once again saw the figure of the man this time at the top of the stairs. He folded his arms and stared angrily at them.
"What the hell do you want? Where is the dark spirit? I want to see it" Ste asked the figure
"Steven, he looks mad" Brendan noticed the figure had started to walk towards them, looking angrier.
"Come on then, what you gonna do? Float through me all day? You're a ghost, you're dead, move on and do us all a bloody favour"
The figure rushed quickly down the stairs at then and a brilliant bright light shone around the room blinding Brendan and Ste enough to crouch on the floor quickly and cover their eyes.
"LEAVE THIS PLACE!" the woman's voice shouted,Brendan immediately recognised it as the spirit he'd seen before under the maze.
"We can't leave! We need to get rid of the dark enity first
"You cannot stop the dark one, it is trapped here from a different plain, brought over by black magic" The woman spoke and they tried to open their eyes to her, but it was too blinding.
"Help us, please, it has someone and we believe it has escaped again, there has to be some way to bury it"
"The box I left for my daughter, do you have the trinket?" The spirit boomed at them and they shook with the loudness. Brendan had now managed to get his arms tightly around Ste's waist holding him close.
"Yes,the little girl said it protects me,I still wear her locket"
" The trinket is a protection stone, it will help you to trap the black spirit, use the box, seal the spirit inside it"
"Right, this is freaking nuts, how can a bloody box trap a ghost?" Brendan drawled "We should have just stuck with the ghost busters!"
"Bren! Stop it; none of this situation makes bloody sense does it? If I take off the locket, will it be able to get me again?"
"Yes, but the locket has got too many memories attached to it,so place the locket in the box with the spirit,once it's trapped"
"Right, can you now please switch off the bright light, I'd like to open my eyes again this millennium" Brendan snapped as Ste nudged him in the ribs.
The light disappeared and when they looked up so had the figure. They rubbed at their eyes and stood up again, looking around. They sloshed through the murky water to the staircase and wandered up the stairs. The wood was rotten and creaked as they moved up them.
There was a loud crack and Brendan's foot crashed through one of the steps causing him to fall heavy. The weight of his body couldn't be held up by the rotten wood and collapsed through as Brendan fell through the stairs and into a pool of black water underneath them. Ste was screaming holding onto the banister, trying to hold out a hand to him, but he couldn't without falling himself.
"Brendan! Brendan?! Somebody help me!" Ste screamed as air bubbles popped up to the surface of the water but Brendan was no where to be seen. Ste took in a deep breath and dived into the water and swam down, but it was too black to see anything. He desperately moved his arms around trying to feel for Brendan. He quickly resurfaced for air, sobbing. "Brendan,no,no" Ste took in another breath and dove further down, he felt around as much as he could, there was nothing.
Dennis was at work, he sat at his desk playing around with his pen, clicking it open and shut every few seconds, then putting it in his mouth and chewing on it before repeating the entire process again.
"Will you, for the love of god, stop doing that?" Darren cried at Dennis who was bored at his desk too, throwing screwed up paper into the bin.
"What? I am thinking!" Dennis snapped clicking faster to annoy Darren even more. "That dream I had is proper bugging me" He added as Darren threw his legs off his desk and placed his head in his hands.
"Well, it was a traumatic time for you, yeah? So you are bound to have bad dreams over it" Darren sympathised.
"I know, but this one was different, like more real" Dennis explained gnawing on the pen.
"Why don't you speak to Ste? He experienced it too after all; maybe you both could try and work it all out?" Jim had appeared with a tray full of tea and biscuits for them. He sat down at his desk and looked around the reception area and saw how quiet it was.
"Nothing spooky ever happens here anymore, it's boring." Jim sighed.
"Think we had enough spooky last year thank you very much" Darren added.
"Yeah, but wouldn't it be exciting to have some more adventures?" The front door crashed open loudly as a young girl ran in panting. Jim stood up wide eyed at the state she was in and went to walk over to her. She held onto her chest and pointed to Jim trying to compose herself.
"Are you...are you the..Ghost busters?" The girl asked trying to breathe steady.
"Yes we are!" Jim cried happily "How can we help, do you have a haunting?"
"A haunting? One way of putting it" The girl walked out of the office as Jim looked at the others incredulous, they all glanced back in curiosity and both stood up to join Jim.
The girl walked in with three other youngsters. Two of them dragged in a young lad who had his arms draped over their shoulders, his head was held down low, and his breathing was slow and raspy.
"We were just curious! They looked inviting,and scary. It was only a dare,and a bit of fun,I swear it was! It was hiding and came at us from nowhere,we couldn't do anything for him."
Jim walked slowly forward to the group of youngsters and took in a deep breath."What came at you? Where have you been?"
"We don't know what its called but the gates were huge and we climbed them and..."
Dennis pushed Jim and Darren to the side of him quickly and looked at them all,he was shaking and nervous. Dennis walked over to the boy and placed his fingers underneath his chin and slowly moved him up to face him. He gasped as he saw the boys face had black veins covering his face, pulsing through his cheeks, blackened blood.
The boy smiled and opened his eyes to Dennis, the red stare made him swallow hard and back off slightly. The boy laughed a deep and menacing chuckle that seeped through Dennis' bones making his face whiten with fear. The boy showed all his teeth and grinned tilting his head at Dennis.
"What is it?!" Cried the girl. "Please you have to help us, it told us to come here? Said you'd know why, and you could help, can you save my brother?" The girl clung onto Dennis' arm and momentarily shifted his gaze to hers.
"There's only one person who can help you" Dennis turned to the others "We need to find Ste"
Darren and Jim covered their faces in disbelief, they couldn't believe it was back again, that evil spirit that they'd trapped a year ago. Darren ran to Dennis' side and held his arm protectively.
"Don't let it get you again!" He cried gripping on a little to hard making Dennis whimper and shake off the hold
"It doesn't want me! It never has done, it wants Ste, it told me enough times, he just couldn't find him so stayed in me till it had, then you know the rest, we trapped it!"
Dennis grabbed hold of the girl's arms shaking her viciously "Did you open the gates? Why, why did you open them!"The girl stated to get hysterical crying so Dennis loosened his grip holding out a gentle hand to her and apologising.
"It had my brother, I need to save him, we had no choice!" The girl fell to her knees sobbing.
Dennis rounded on the boy as he continued to grin eyes shining redder and chuckling. "What do you want?"
"You know who I want" The boy started to shake and jolt as he came back,his face changed to normal and he looked at Dennis.
"Oh god, you have had this inside you too?"
"Yes, I have" Dennis nodded rubbing his temple.
"The terrible images it shows me, I can't...I can't stand them!"the boy pleaded.
"I know, we will try and help you, just fight it, fight it with everything you have inside you OK?" Dennis held a firm hand to him and turned back to Darren and Jim. Their eyes and mouths were wide and their faces drained of any colour walked over and huddled them together.
"Where does Ste live?" Dennis asked the others.
"Flat in Hollyoaks, he lives with Brendan there" Jim spoke looking at Darren.
"Nate and Cheryl have a flat in the village too" Darren added.
"Right, we split up, Jim you go to Ste's flat, Darren and I will try Nate and Cheryl."
"What about the boy?" Darren asked
"We need to get him to sleep and back to the house" Dennis cried as the others looked scared.
"Not again, why did I get up this morning?" Darren sobs as Jim pats him on the back.
They all sit down with the boys sister and try and explain what's going on without sounding like complete Muppets, unfortunately she does think that, so they just cut to the chase. They tell her to give her brother a strong dose of a sleeping aid they know works and then they will drive back to the house. They all agree Dennis will accompany them there so just Darren visits Cheryl and Nate instead.
Cheryl and Nates
They are sat down to a lovely lunch when a loud frenzied hammering goes on their flat door making them jump with fright. Nate is angered by the ferocity of it and barges over opening it ready to give all kinds of abuse, that is until he sees Darren and his face drops. Not because he doesn't like Darren far from it, they had shared a strange past, and that was why his face fell. He gestured him in and Cheryl stood up and instantly worried.
"Hi guys, um, Nate, any chance I could have a word?" Darren gestured to the door.
"Hang on, whatever ye need to say to him ye can say to me" Cheryl walked over folding her arms tightly.
Nate widened his eyes at Darren."Sorry mate, but this is important. I need to find Ste, its back."
"What's back?" Cheryl asked glancing between them both.
"Please tell me this is all an elaborate joke, or at the very least I am dreaming" Nate cried
"Neither mate, the swirly thing has possessed a young lad, he needs our help, we need Ste's help"
"The swirly thing? IT'S BACK! What is going on, Nate?"
"Babe I am sorry, that time a year ago when we went missing? We went to the house again, the swirly thing had possessed Dennis, and we trapped it. At least we DID bloody trap it" Nate sat down hard on the sofa and covered his face with his hands.
"OH well this is just fabulous,thanks for lying to me Nate! And as for Ste,have you checked his flat?" Cheryl threw her hands in the air
"Jim went, he called me before I got here they ain't home, we think they may have gone to the house"
"What? Why? And without telling us?" Nate got up and grabbed his keys "Come on, I'm driving, we'll pick up Jim on the way" Nate looked at a wide eyed Cheryl "Are you coming with us? I am not leaving them up there alone, you know what that place is like"
"Yes i do know and that's why I am scared for ye! I can't wait here worrying can I? Come on, lets go" Cheryl grabbed her bag and they all left in Cheryl's car, they picked up Jim at Ste's flat and made there way back to the house. Dennis had called Jim and told him they were nearly at the house, and they'd drive up to it and wait for them.
Brendan was drowning, he fell into the black water when the stairs had given way to his weight now that the water had rotted them to the core. He kicked his legs and pushed his arms up in a desperate attempt to get back to the surface. His last thoughts were of Steven before he'd blacked out.
Brendan found himself once again walking towards the lake, he was confused. Was this another dream? Was it Déjà vu? He has no idea, he continued until he reached the side of the lake. It was different this time though. The water had completely drained, nothing but the wet bed of the bottom stared back at him. It was a murky black stained lake bed, with countless dead fish lying around; some were still flapping about, gasping for water as they drowned in the air.
Brendan looked inside the sodden lake bed and saw an old bike some tires, even the remains of a wooden boat lay there. The gruesome discovery of the bones though he wasn't expecting. It twisted at his insides, and it felt so real the emotion he felt in his stomach, he thought it couldn't be a dream then.
He realised he wasn't alone any more as the figure they'd seen earlier was with him, except he was stood in the lake bed staring at the remains. Brendan watched him looking, he crouched down and placed his head in his hands and started to sob.
"It was an accident!" He screamed looking at Brendan "I tried, I swam and tried to save her, but it was too late"
Brendan shuffled uncomfortably. He didn't know what to say to him, he was obviously in anguish. He was talking though, so Brendan spoke.
"Why did ye try and hurt my Steven? He told me what ye did." Brendan clenched his fists tighter as the man looked up to him.
"I was trying to show him where my daughter lay" The man spoke "She is here, look, I drained the water to find her"
"Ye drained the water? So you flooded the house, and nearly bloody drowned us all!"
"You are all protected, my daughter and my wife have done nothing but look after you all!" The man shouted back
"Erm, ye think scaring us half to death, throwing furniture around and strangling Nate, Cheryl in the bath..."
"That's not us! That's the dark spirit, it's been terrorising this place a long time, it feeds off souls, and it wants your Steven"
"I fucking wish people would stop saying that! As If I will stand by and let that happen,lay down my life for him" Brendan paced up and down the embankment
"Looks like you already are doing" The figure started to walk towards Brendan "You do realise you're drowning in the water, don't you?"
"What? No that's...that's impossible am here talking to ye"
"No, you have fallen unconscious" The man walked up to the side and held out a hand to Brendan "let me up, please?"
Brendan looked uneasy, and glanced at the man's hand.
"I want to help you, please help me up?"
Brendan sighed and grabbed the man's hand which felt so real it made him gasp in shock. He gabbed hold and Brendan pulled back not believing how heavy he was.
"How, can I touch ye? I thought ye were ye know..."
"Dead? Yeah I know, sub conscious though isn't it?" The man put his hands on his hips and looked at Brendan "Nice tashe by the way"
"Ha yeah, yeah ye too" Brendan chuckled and shook his head, he must have taken some of Ste's happy pills, was the only explanation for this weirdness. "If I die, what's it like?" Brendan looked worried all of a sudden, he kept thinking of Steven, he knew he'd be heart broken, Brendan didn't want to leave him alone in the world, and they were each others world after all.
"For me? It's hell, because I am stuck in limbo, I want to be where my daughter is, and she is there" The man points to the lake bed.
"No, she's not, I mean her remains are, but her soul is free, she has helped me and Steven many times" Brendan places a hand on his shoulder and shudders feeling the mans body. "Maybe I can reunite you both? I could ask her to come, she will for Steven"
"Really? You will help me find her?"
"Ye I will, think there's been too much sadness here" Brendan sighed
"I will help you, you are drowning Brendan, you will die if I don't help"
"Please help me, I can't leave Steven, he is everything to me, we need to get married, spend our lives together" Brendan finds himself pleading now as he begins to get really scared.
"I will, I am there with you in the water, you can open your eyes but don't breathe"
Ste is frantic he keeps diving deep into the water; he won't give up on Brendan, never. His body is limp and he's struggling to breathe properly. His arms ache and doesn't know if he will be able to make it to the surface much longer, but he doesn't even care.
Ste screams and takes in another long breath and dives. He looks around again, and its so dark,it makes him frustrated, he swims lower and lower, then he sees something in the water, it's the figure he saw earlier, the man. He is swimming towards him fast so Ste backtracks but the man grabs his leg.
Ste kicks out until the man shows him; he has Brendan in his other hand, by his wrist. Ste dives down and grabs hold too and they both swim up together with Brendan. Ste is crying in the water which feels crazy to him, but he feels them despite being in the water and then they surface, he holds Brendan under his chin out of the water, he can see he's unconscious but has no energy left. Ste sobs kissing Brendan on the lips and willing him to open his eyes.
Then Dennis is there, he is stood in the doorway with a load of other people and he's looking at the stairway collapsed, and at Ste desperately trying to get out of the water where the stairs used to be.
Ste screams at him and he blinks out of his stare and rushes over to them, and Ste tells him to get Brendan first, and he does. Drags him on the floor and thumps hard on his chest and places his ear to his mouth, nothing.
"Don't stop!" Ste shouts as he uses the last of his strength to launch himself out of the water and crawls over to Brendan. Dennis starts compressions as Ste breathes his shaky breath into his mouth. Brendan doesn't move and Dennis is looking at Ste and its one of those looks, and Ste hates him for it, he won't stop, ever he thinks to himself.
"Keep going! Dennis please,I won't give up" Ste has tears rolling down his eyes. He breathes into brendans mouth again and whispers in his ear.
"Hey you,what do you think you're playing at?"
'Breathes'
"Stop enjoying yourself up there and get back down here to me"
'Breathes'
"You promised me we'd marry, remember?"
'Breathes'
"Bren, baby, please, I can't do this without you"
"AW, look at this, excuse me if I don't cry" The boy that has the entity in it has woken up, and seen Ste trying to wake Brendan. Ste looks up and sees the blackened veins and deep red eyes and shakes his head.
"NO! You won't take him from me!" Ste panics he has to save Brendan but now the dark spirit has found him again.
"Dennis you got to help me" Ste breathes more breaths into Brendan but he just wont wake up, wont take a breath for him and he's lost now, what has he left to live for if it's without him, without him he is nothing.
Ste looks at Brendan and whispers I love you, goes to stand up ready to give himself over to the stupid swirly thing, until he feels a hand grab his wrist. Ste gasps and looks down at Brendan, his eyes are closed but his hand is gripping over his wrist.
"Bren..?"
Brendan opens his eyes and gasps loudly coughing up a lung full of black water and he struggles as Ste holds him up and squeezes him so tight, he thinks he'll never breath again so has to try and move him.
"Can't breathe baby, come on let go" Ste smiles and lets go albeit slowly.
Brendan looks around and sees the eyes and blackened face and freaks out jumping to his feet.
"No fucking chance! Ye ain't having him" Brendan holds Ste possessively behind him and stretches his hand out.
"Really? You think you can stop me? STOP ME?!"
Brendan turns to Ste then Dennis "Since when does it speak?"
"Dunno,it just did, came into the office and spoke, weird eh?" Dennis nodded
"Maybe it found a way to control the vocal chords?" Ste suggested as Dennis shrugged
"Yeah, sounds plausible"
"ENOUGH!" The boy jolted forward arms out stretched.
At the gates Nate parked up and shook his head. They all looked at each other and Nate drove up past Brendan's car and up to the house. They see the van next to the house and the door wide open. They watch blackened water pools out of the doorway, and the bottom half of the door is missing.
Cheryl looks on in shock, but Nate and Darren ain't all that surprised, they knew the house had been flooding the last time. Cheryl noticed how calm they were and it shocked her, she grabbed hold of Nate's hand as he smiled squeezing her hand.
They walked into the house and what was a mess, the house soaked through, the stairs completely destroyed, there was no way of getting back upstairs now. Cheryl saw her brother shielding Ste and Dennis at the side of them. A group of youngsters she's never met were franticly trying to hold back another boy. As they moved around to them their eyes widened as they saw why the boy was snarling and screeching at them. The entity was back.
"What is this? Ghost buster's reunion?" Nate cried looking around the room in shock.
Brendan looked over at him and Cheryl."Guys ye should leave, this isn't going to be pretty." Brendan felt something cold wrap over his head, a flicker of gold shone in his eyes,he blinked confused as Ste walked out from behind him and ran over to the boy, he placed his hand over his chest and closed his eyes.
The spirit drained out of the boy and back into Ste again quick as a flash. Ste still had his eyes closed and shuddered. Brendan rushed over to him and grabbed his arm but Ste hit out his hand and his nails swiped across Brendan's face bringing him down to the floor. The face of Ste had once again changed, blackened veins practically popped through his face and arms and eyes glowed.
The group of youngsters grabbed each other and ran, they didn't look back at the house as they tripped over each other racing down the driveway and out through the gates. Back at the house Brendan stood up and ran out of the house. The others looked on in disbelief when he did, and they all stood looking at Ste he was grinning, and pacing up and down.
"Ste?" Cheryl gasped walking over to him, she held out her hand to his face and he sneered loudly at her, she flinched backwards. "Get out of him! Leave Ste alone!" She cried as Ste just stared shaking his head at her.
"Where the hell did Brendan go?" Dennis cried "He almost died right here in front of us and now when things get a little hairy, he bloody runs off?" Dennis cried incredulous."Ste, I know you can hear me, fight it, and come on" Dennis looked into Ste's eyes. He knew what Ste was experiencing, the horror of those images, the fight needed to get back the control.
"Brendan nearly died? Why are we back here again? It's the pit of Hell I tell ye!" Cheryl began to get hysterical so Nate tried to calm her.
Ste ran off through the house into the grounds, they all quickly gave chase except for Cheryl who opted to stay behind in case Brendan returned. Ste ran into the maze as Nate Darren Jim and Dennis all stood at the entrance looking at each other.
"Ok, this maze is scary; if we split up we can't be alone" Nate warned as they all looked at each other.
"Darren and Dennis you two go that way, Jim you're with me, yell if you find Ste" They all nodded in agreement and entered the maze.
Brendan had left Ste; he was rushing down the driveway and all he could think was he'd left him in the house possessed by that evil spirit. He was running when he felt something ping against his cross, Brendan slowed down and reached for the locket around his neck. He gasped and looked back up the driveway. Ste had given Brendan his only protection; he grasped hard at the locket and growled loud. He carried on running though; he needed to get to the car.
He ran out of the gates and tried to open the car, his hands were shaking so much, was in a right mess. Brendan put a hand out on the car and used it to steady himself. He felt so dizzy now, bright lights peppered in his vision as he tried to gain some composure. Brendan felt the use of his legs leave him as he slid down the car and crashed to the floor in a heap. He could barely breathe let alone think straight.
The little girl was there again, she smiled at Brendan; her aura shone beautiful white around her. This time though she wasn't alone, her mother and father stood side by side with her now, and she looked happy. The man knelt down to him and smiled too, didn't say anything, but Brendan knew he was thanking him.
The little girl walked over to Brendan and pointed to her locket; he grabbed hold of it and looked at her. "Ste gave it to me, as protection, but now it has him again" Brendan sobbed as tears rolled down his cheeks.
The little girl saddened too and nodded, she then pointed to the car.
"The box? Is that what you are telling me?" Brendan asked wiping his eyes.
The girl nodded again pointing to the car. Brendan mustered some energy and opened the car; retrieved the box and kneeled down with it. The girl pointed again to the box, so Brendan opened it. He took out the diary and looked at her, but she shook her head, he took out the trinket and she nodded and looked to her mother. The woman stroked over her hair and nodded.
"You must trap it, with that, enclose it within the box with it, then close it, forever"
"How? It's inside Steven!" Brendan cried shaking the trinket at them
"He may not survive, the spirit has a hold of him again, and it wont let go so easily this time"
"God, I can't believe all this, what do I do?" Brendan asked, but they just looked at each other. "Hey?" Brendan clicked his fingers at them "What do I do?"
"I already told you, use the trinket, and it will lure the spirit away" The woman repeated herself
"How? How will it do that?" Brendan gestured his arms up with the trinket in his hand
"It has a soul inside it, a trapped soul, when you mess with dark magic there is always a price to pay"
"Oh, so the reason you are all here...is because you cannot pass over without a soul? Brendan asked scratching his head. "Ye know I am still hoping I will wake up in a minute next to Steven's warm body, happy" Brendan sighed as they all smiled at him.
"We have found each other now, so that's all that matters go and save him, the longer he stays inside him the more it will hold on"
The little girl looked at Brendan and smiled, pointed up the driveway and looked back at Brendan. She said something to her mother and she smiled and nodded.
"My daughter wants you to pass on a message to Steven, she says if he ever needs her to just ask, she is his guardian angel now"
"Really? That's amazing" Brendan looked at the little girl "Thank you, for looking after him, I will let him know"
Brendan took the trinket and tied it around his neck and carried the box under his arm, he took a deep breath and ran back up to the house, behind him the ghost family held hands and disappeared.
Back inside the maze Ste was fighting an internal battle, the images the spirit showed him were gruesome, it only did it to taunt him, and he pushed hard to try and gain control of his body again.
It showed the same image over and over, Brendan dying in his arms back at the house, him trying to save him and each time he couldn't. It loved to do this, bring every fear of Ste's into his vision crushing his spirit so eventually he would just give up fighting and the spirit would gain complete control and live through Ste like a shell.
Nate and Jim could hear a rustling, so they followed the noise, it turned out to be a stupid rabbit, but Jim thought it was sweet and picked it up. He didn't see Ste behind, neither of them did, Ste grinned and brought down the large wooden log crashing over Jim as he slumped on the floor swinging again at Nate knocking him out as the wood crushed against his face.
They led there covered in blood, as Ste smiled and turned quickly when he heard a twig snap behind him, and walked away leaving Jim and Nate bleeding from their wounds. The white rabbit hopped away, its fur now brushed with a blood red stain.
Darren and Dennis were walking around feeling nervous, it didn't help maters when they kept walking into dead ends, and then arguing with each other that they took the wrong turn. Little did they realise every turn they took was leading them back to Ste and the large now blood and flesh covered piece of wood he held in his hands.
Inside Ste was still fighting to get a grip of his body, he had seen what happened to Nate and Jim and he couldn't stop it, he hurt them so badly but it wasn't his falt. So when he was creeping up behind Darren his heart sank, he couldn't stop it,the worst part was watching Darren's eyes and the terrified look he gave before the dull thump of the wood knocked him to the ground.
Dennis jumped on his back though and wrestled with him, scratching at his face and pulling his hair, and boy it hurt, but Ste was glad, glad Dennis was trying to stop him. Dennis managed to get the piece of wood in his hands and Ste saw the ground as it flew towards him at great speed and then nothing.
Dennis ran to Darren and lifted him up he stroked at his hair and called him every daft name under the sun, and that if he didn't wake up he would be a complete numpty. Darren did wake eventually, and he laughed with Dennis, and they hugged. Dennis brought Darren to his feet and they both looked at Ste and his bleeding head.
They both helped to lift him up limp over their shoulders, and carried him as quick as they could out of the maze. After what seemed a lifetime of dead ends the air was now a deep shade of blue when they walked out of the exit. They dragged Ste over to the front door as Brendan came running up to them gasping for breath. He took one look at Ste, and Darren both covered in blood, he decided there and then, he didn't want to know.
Cheryl was sat on the sofa as they brought Ste in and lay him down on the other sofa; she rushed over to Brendan and hugged him close. Brendan kissed her on her head and asked them all to leave.
"I am not leaving ye Bren!" Cheryl cried "It's inside Ste, he could hurt ye again" Cheryl cried lightly touching across the nasty cut Ste had given him
"I won't leave Steven, I know what I have to do, I need ye to go into the kitchen and find all the oil ye can find, then we need to mix it with the water on the carpet and if there's enough,in the water where the stairs were."
"OK, OK I will look for ye, just be careful."Cheryl cried
"Guys, please help her, any oil OK?" Dennis and Darren nodded and went into the kitchen
Brendan sat down next to Ste and stroked his hands through his hair, it was covered in blood and he winced seeing it. He pulled up the coffee table to next to Ste and placed the golden box on it, opened it up and removed the hair and diary, putting them into his inside pocket.
He removed the oval trinket and placed it inside, he thumbed over the stone in the middle, and thought to himself he was actually losing the plot, but he had to believe.
The others came out of the kitchen with more oil than he expected, they spread it around the carpet and on the furniture,pouring what was left into the water. They hoped it would work.
Dennis gave Brendan a packet of matches from the van and they all left the house. Outside they all realised Nate and Jim were still missing. The three of them all went into the maze together to find them. Brendan took off the locket and held it in his hand, and spoke to Ste. He was still unconscious,he whispered in his ear.
"When this is over, I am going to propose to ye, I am going to get down on one knee and ask ye to spend the rest of your life by my side, I need ye to wake up Steven" Brendan saw a flicker in Ste's eyes and some movement he grasped hold of the locket and hid behind the sofa and waited.
Ste began to stir; he moaned and writhed on the sofa. Ste then sat up, and gasped; he felt the entity inside him jolt and made him turn towards the box. Ste felt an incredible pull, something inside the box was pulling him, and he could feel the spirit wanted whatever was in it.
Ste stood up and looked inside at the trinket he lurched forward and placed his hands either side of the box. His body spasmed and he screamed as he fought against the pull, and instead tried to gain control of himself. His hand moved shakily towards the golden oval trinket and as he touched it his eyes closed as the black spirit moved out of Ste leaving him fitting on the floor.
Brendan watched as the swirly black mass wailed and screeched loudly over the box, it was trying to get inside it, inside the box where the soul was hidden. Brendan rushed to Ste and wrapped the locket around his neck and grabbed the trinket out of the box and held it out to the spirit.
"Come on, come and get it" Brendan taunted the spirit he launched towards Brendan as he held the golden trinket in his hands and closed his eyes, it passed through and knocked Brendan onto the floor.
Ste stopped shaking and opened his eyes, he gasped and felt his face, it had gone. He got up and looked around seeing Brendan on the floor and in his hand was the golden trinket. He gabbed it and placed it in the box, along with the locket and closed the box, he locked it with the key. Ste moved back to Brendan and lifted his head, he was still breathing and Ste placed a soft kiss on his lips awakening him.
"Steven?"
"Hey you" Ste smiled as Brendan placed his palm over his cheek.
"Is it over?" Brendan asked looking at the box; he searched for the trinket frantically; Ste stopped him with a gentle hand. "It's in the box, I locked it, and it's inside the gold oval piece isn't it?" Ste sighed smiling.
"How did ye know?" Brendan asked getting up to his feet, his clothes now soaked through with oil.
"I felt it, when I woke the swirly thing wanted the soul trapped within it" Ste looked at the box then back at Brendan. We have to destroy the house and bury the box with it. Brendan reached into his pocket and found the hair and diary. "These too, I think we should destroy everything"
They placed the box into an oil covered curtain and put it on the sofa, Brendan took the packet of matches and struck a flame, they watched it flicker before throwing it on the carpet, as they had hoped the oil helped the fire to spread quickly as they walked out of the house and closed the door. As it started to burn they saw Cheryl Dennis and Darren carrying Nate and Jim, they were covered in blood and Ste instantly knew why. He ran over to them.
"Are they..are they OK?" Ste asked feeling dreadful at what he had done.
"Yes they are, just badly injured so we need to get them to hospital." Cheryl spoke and placed a hand on Ste's shoulder. "It's OK love, we all know it wasn't your fault,it's gone now, forever?"
Ste looked back at the house which was burning more proficiently now."Yes, I think we can now rest easy." As they were walking past the house began to collapse in on itself, the weight of the water that had flooded it had caused irrevocable damage, the fire and oil helped it along, allowing the fire to burn despite the water, for a while at least.
Brendan and Ste watched as the others left to go to the hospital, and stood watching the house get destroyed, burying with it the trapped malignant entity.
They waited till the house was a crumbled mess on the ground, before they linked arms around each other close and walked down the driveway.
Just before the remains of the house were out of view they looked back, the man, woman and little girl were all stood together holding hands, they smiled and waved goodbye to them. Brendan and Ste both waved back and left through the iron gates. They tied around the chain, and secured it with a new lock. They got into their car and drove home.
6 months later.
Brendan and Cheryl sold the land to a developer who destroyed the remainder of the house and maze and the site is now under a new development. Ste never had nightmares again about the black spirit, and neither did Dennis. They all remained firm friends with the Ghost busters and regularly pranked called them up with daft quotes from the movie. Jim wasn't pleased.
Cheryl and Nate are still blissfully happy together, and Cheryl still gets hysterical over things like spiders and gusts of wind.
Brendan and Ste got married; Brendan got on one knee and proposed just like he'd promised. They had an amazing wedding and the greatest wedding night ever, which to this day they still insist on celebrating on a daily basis. They honeymooned in Dublin,and are still head over heels in love.
Please review? xx
I hope you liked this last chapter. I thought I'd add a couple of spooky facts about this story.
*In one of the chapters, Cheryl experiences a girl skipping down the stairs towards her. This is in fact what happened to me, the day after my mum passed away.(As a little girl she used to skip on the stairs) I was 14 years old at the time, and my mate witnessed it too. True story.
*While writing this story, my laptop would continuously crash, and the chapter would erase itself from the word programme. I had to save it to email every few paragraphs so I wouldn't lose it. I have never experienced that with my other fics.
Sleep well xx