Dinner that night was very delicious. Delicious but quiet. Throughout most of the meal, those sitting at the table said very little, mostly just eating and drinking. However as Alastor dined, he took the time to notice the scent and smells of everyone around him. Per usual, Rosie smelled of Jasmine oil and Chamomile perfume, and Husk reeked of whiskey and hard liquor. Niffty's scent was a medley of what she had been cooking with; lemon, spices, flour, vanilla, and apples, with just a hint of her honeycomb scrub. He smelled sandalwood and bergamot on Vaggie, and it took all his willpower not to sigh and swoon when he inhaled the wonderful scent of Lavender and Honey-Scukle on Charlie. Then finally he picked up the disgusting odor of cotton candy coming from Angel. It was faint due a very strong smell of dirt that was on him for some reason but Alastor's nose was extraordinarly sharp.
"Is everything alright?" Roise asked when the silence made her suspicious. "You all have been most quiet this evening."
"We're fine." Charlie said. "We've just had diffcult conversations with people back home. My father was arguing with me about my career choice again."
"And...Uh...My sister was teasing me about my interests." Angel lied.
"I see. Well I can understand, as wonderful as family can be, they can prove to be trying at times. Right Alastor?" She teased with a raised eyebrow. Alastor only grinned.
"We didn't mean to be rude." Charlie said. "Dinner is wonderful. Really. Please give our compliments to Niffty."
"She'll be most pleased." Rosie said.
"So Angel." Alastor started. "You mentioned a sister, what's she like?"
"Oh well..." Angel did everything he could to not speak in a nervous tone. "She's the greatest. I mean she'll tease me but I get along better with her than anyone else in my family. We would talk about everything. She's my best friend."
"How charming. I presume she doesn't share your fascination with the horror genere?"
"She'll watch the movies and read the books."
"But she wouldn't go snooping around in a graveyard or some other creepy place she's not permitted to enter, would she?"
Angel's flesh went white.
"No and neither would I." He said. "I like horror but I wouldn't actually want to live a real life horror. Who would?"
"Oh you'd be surprised."
Alastor didn't speak to Angel again. He didn't speak to anyone again except to say please, thank you, and have a good evening. He excused himself from the table when the time came to serve dessert and the apple beignets were marvelous. So sweet and warm, Charlie savored each bite. She enjoyed the treat so much that she almost forgot about her recnt issues.
"These apple beignets are the best things I've ever tasted." Charlie said to Niffty. "Thank you for making them for us."
"You're welcome. It's nice to be able to bake something sweet once in awhile." She said gratefully. "Would anyone care for seconds?"
"No thank you, I'm too full." Charlie declined politely.
"It's good but I'm not one for apples." Vaggie said.
"I could take another." Angel said.
The table was soon cleared and everyone retired to their bedrooms. Charlie then texted Angel, requesting that they wait til everyone was asleep before they talked. She didn't want to come off as suspicious or insult Alastor and his staff. Angel agreed but the entire wait was agonizing to him, and it only became worse when the house grew quiet. That eerie, unsettling, quiet that he knew from movies to mean that this was only the calm before the storm.
It was eleven o'clock at night when he decided that he couldn't wait any longer. He quietly cracked his door open and quietly walked down the hall to where Charlie's room was. He knocked on her door quietly and they both made sure that they could see no one close enough to listen to their conversation.
"Alright Angel." Charlie started quietly. "There's something I want to tell you, but I don't want to alarm you and I don't want you to get any wild ideas just yet. I'm only telling you this to prove that you're not as crazy as Vaggie thinks."
"Okay."
"Ever since I've arrived here I've been hearing voices."
"Vocies? Like in your head?"
"No, all around me. When I'm alone, I have the strangest feeling that there are others with me, I can't see them but I can hear them. They talk to me."
"Why didn't you say anything about it sooner?"
"You saw Vaggie's reaction to what you said that you saw. I didn't want her to think that I was crazy. A logical person like her would probably think that I was in the early stages of schizophrenia."
"Good point."
"That is, I hope I'm not in the early stages of schizophrenia. I hear unseen voices but no one else does. What do you think Angel?"
"I think that we're in an old house and old houses are the number one locations for hauntings. I think you might be hearing ghosts. What exactly do they say to you?"
"Most of the time they're telling me to leave."
"Oh yeah you're hearing ghosts alright."
"You think so?"
"I've seen it in every haunted house movie. Ghosts scaring the shit out of people because they want them O-U-T, out! And I say we heed their warning because they usually have good reason to want people out."
"Well that's not the only thing they tell me. Other times they tell me that they need my help."
"Help with what?"
"I don't know, and why am I the only one who can hear them?"
"No one really knows for certain. My Aunt Ouspenskaya says sometimes it's a gift you're born with and sometimes the un-dead just randomly picks you to be their voice to the living, or something like that. Although I don't know why they would pick you and not me, I'm the one who's always believed in them."
"You have an aunt named Ouspenskaya?"
"Actually her real name was Gianna, Ouspenskaya was more of a stage name for her phony seance scams. When I was a kid I used to love helping her scare the people she conned. Of course she and Mom never got along, what with her wanting her children to grow up to be honest, Catholics. But that's not important. Point is, you believe me about something paranormal happening around here."
"Yes but I don't know what to do. You're probably right, we should leave soon but I...I don't know I...I have a feeling that I should stay. Stay and try to figure it out what this all is."
"You know the phrase curiosity killed the cat actually has some merit."
"Let's not leave tonight. I don't want to raise panic or anything. Especially not in front of Vaggie, considering what we talked baout earlier. We'll talk about what we should do in the morning."
"But Charlie we may not make it til morning."
"Angel you carry rosary beads with you right?"
"Yeah so?" He said pulling them from his pocket.
"Well I may not be as much of an expert on the supernatural as you are, but supernatural evil can't really touch you if you have some form of holy symbol right?"
"That's what every horror movie, book, comic, and my uncle Salvador says."
"Why does your uncle say that?"
"Cause he's an exorcist. According to my mom, he always suspected my old man was a demon in human skin so he would try to send him back to Hell with crucifixes and holy water."
"Wait so your aunt ran a phony seance business and your uncle is an exorcist?"
"Uh-huh."
"Well now I know where your love of the supernatural came from. Look I brought a bible with me and you have rosary beads, so we'll keep them close and nothing bad will happen."
It took a few minutes but, evenutally Charlie was able to convince Angel to go back to his room and spend another night here. One his way back, he went past Vaggie's room and realized that she didn't exactly bring any holy defences with her. Without second thought, he hung his rosary beads on the knob of the door.
"A non-believer is always in more danger." He thought.
With that done, he continued on to his room. It was awfully dark in the hallway this time around, dark with dimly lit lanterns on the walls. Only thing that could be seen were shadows. Oblong fingers of blackness curled around the corners and edges. They had a very unsettling look to them. But they were only shadows. Just harmless shadows and nothing more.
"So why are they making my flesh crawl?" Angel thought.
The journey back to his room seemed longer than expected. In fact, the door to his room looked like it was moving further and further away from him. And walls, they almost seemed like they were stretching, rising higher and higher. He stopped and blinked, hoping that what he saw was just a trick of the mind. Then when he started walking again he thought he heard faint footsteps following him.
He turned around but saw nothing. Nothing but shadows. He started walking again and again he heard footsteps behind him, and again when he turned around he saw only shadows. This routine went on for about five minutes. Finally he decided to wait. To turn around and, wait and see what was creeping behind him because he knew he wasn't alone. He knew that something was there.
He waited, and waited, and waited. At first nothing changed and he almost continued forward. But suddenly, one of the shadows on the walls moved. It moved yet Angel did not see what that shadow was attached to. He recognized it as a man's shadow but there was no other man here. Or so he thought.
Someone slowly stepped out from that shadow. Someone awfully tall and slender, his skin a mix of sickly grey and beige, his hair was the color of blood with antlers sticking out. His face twisted and maniacal looking, upon said face was the most terrifying smile Angel had ever seen, and within that smile was a full set of blades for teeth. His crimson eyes glowed in the dark and looking into them, Angel felt as if he had seen insanity in it's purest form.
Angel wanted to run. He wanted to scream. He wanted to do anything that could get him away from whoever or whatever this figure was. However in that moment, he couldn't move. He could only stand there with tiny hairs on the back of his neck rising.
"You know you really shouldn't be out and about at this hour." He spoke in a chilling, wisp-like voice that sounded very familiar to Angel but for the life of him, he couldn't figure out where he had heard it before. "You might wake someone and that is so terribly rude."
Angel didn't have time to react before the figure lifted him up from the floor by his neck. He gripped Angel's neck hard but not hard enough to stop his breathing.
"You know, you were quite disrespectful to your hosts today Angel." He said. "Snooping around, breaking the house rules, making a fuss."
"I...I don't know what you're talking about?"
"I'm talking about you going into the attic when you were instructed to stay out of there."
"I didn't mean to go up there! I swear!"
"Perhaps, but your little attempt to scare the other guests into leaving was no accident, was it not?"
"What are you?!" Angel asked in panic, ignoring the previous question.
"Let's just say I'm sort of a guardian for all who lives within this house. I keep them safe, I keep their secrets."
"What do you want? What are you going to do to me? Are you going to kill me?"
"Funny you should ask that because at the moment I'm debating on what would be the more wise action. Killing you or letting you live. On one hand I can't exactly allow you to continue snooping around and uncovering the secrets of others. Your actions could prove to be a great threat to this household." The figure said. "Though on the other hand, you come off more as a minor nuisance than a threat, so perhaps a negotiation is in order."
His grip on Angel loosened.
"You know I moonlight as a sort of deal maker so how about a deal? You cease this meddling in affairs you don't understand, keep your mouth shut about anything you've witnessed that's out of the ordinary, and I'll let you live. However if you persist, I'm afraid drastic measures must be taken."
"Look man, I don't want any trouble." Angel said. "Just let me and my friends leave. They don't believe me and I won't say a word to the cops."
"Alas, I cannot allow you all to leave. Not yet anyway. I need you all to remain here until the night of the Harvest Moon passes."
"Why? What happens that night?"
"Nothing you need to worry your effeminate head about. Just know this, I have a lot planned for that night and the days to come beforehand, and I will not have those plans ruined."
Angel was then dropped to floor and the scary figure extended a hand toward him.
"So do we have deal? You keep quiet and stay out of the way, and I leave you alone."
Angel couldn't shake his hand. He couldn't say deal or yes. He couldn't even focus on the red terror, only thing he could focus on at the moment was his out of control heart beat. He was sure that the blood pumping organ was just about ready to burst out from his chest.
"I see it's too much to expect an answer from you now. Your mind needs time to adjust and I can respect that. You have until tomorrow night to make your choice." The figure slowly turned to walk toward the wall. "I won't shed innocent blood if it isn't necessary, so don't make it necessary."
His last words before he disappeared into the shadows, leaving Angel shaking like a leaf.