Haunted (Book #1)✔️

ℭ𝔥𝔞𝔭𝔱𝔢𝔯 𝔖𝔢𝔳𝔢𝔫

Mark and Lisa finished repacking the documents allowing Mark to leave without any trouble. He had called Amy to pick him up from the Archives and thankfully, she hadn't been late. Mark climbed into the passengers seat, and buckled in.

"Hey Mark," says Amy with a smile. "What were you doing at the Archives?"

"I just thought I'd do research on our house to get a feel for the history," says Mark while Amy drove back to their house. Amy knew that something was up, he had been acting weird since they arrived at their new home on the outskirts of California. It wasn't hard to pick up on Mark's emotions mostly because she could sense them she knew about Mark's secret but just pretended not to know. In other words, Amy was pretty much waiting for Mark to finally admit the truth.

"Is everything okay honey?" Amy questions as they turned onto their dirt road. "You've been acting strange since we arrived at our new home,"

"Was I?" Mark said. "I didn't know, sorry if I was acting strange," the two rode in silence for a while. Eventually, the couple could see their house looming in the distance the iron gates pushed open allowing Mark and Amy to pull onto their property. Mark climbed out first and looked up at the attic to see that Sean was sitting against the window waiting for Mark to come back. Worry started to cross Mark's face as he made his way to the front door and unlocked it. Amy stayed quiet while she followed Mark into the foyer.

Meanwhile, in the attic, Sean had watched Mark and Amy enter the house. Once they stepped through the doorway Sean got up from his spot on the window sill and phased through the floors until he solidified and landed right by Mark who jumped in fright slightly but relaxed.

"Mark?" Said Amy worriedly. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," said Mark trying his best not to show a twinge of fear. Amy on the other hand knew otherwise, rather than pushing it she shrugged her shoulders and walked to the kitchen where she was going to make some dinner.

"When are you going to tell her?" Asks Sean as Mark started walking upstairs. "You know she'll find out eventually,"

"I'm not going to tell her and therefore she won't find out," Mark and Sean entered his office. Pulling out the notepad and pen from his back pocket, he sat the objects on his desk.

"Find anything in the Archives?" Questions Sean trying to change the subject. He didn't want to push anything onto Mark even when it dealt with his fiancé. Though, Sean wished Mark would stop hiding secrets it never went well with anyone around other people. Even during his lifetime, sometimes it was best to tell the truth and see where it leads.

"I found a few interesting facts, do you remember the month you died?" Mark questioned. Sean thought about it briefly, if he could remember the year then he could remember the month. Suddenly a thought occurred to him, he remembered how nature looked and the way the weather acted. Everything had been in full bloom and he didn't have to wear a jacket.

"It was March of 1920 when someone attacked me," says Sean. Mark nodded and opened the notepad to the first page, the first thing he saw was a date written in Mark's neat cursive writing.

"That's the same year and month the shadow murders took place," responds Mark.

"The shadow murders?" Said Sean who had been puzzled by this sudden information.

"Yes," answers Mark. "The shadow murders took place between 1920-1930," he continued. "You said you saw some sort of shadow following you, correct?"

"I said I saw a man following me," spoke Sean even more confused than he had thought before. "Then, nothing," Mark flipped to the next page where it had bulleted information about Sean's death.

"Your body was discovered in an alleyway, Sean," Mark said thoughtfully. "And from the stories I heard, this shadow murderer used dark alleyways and darkness in general to his advantage, he picks the target, follows them around and once he decides on the victim he attacks," he continued. "That's what happened to you, but because he used darkness to his advantage, he was able to avoid the police and leave little evidence at crime scenes so it wouldn't lead all the way to him," Mark kept going. "Even now, the case is left unsolved,"

Sean was stunned, it all made sense to him but the problem was that they had no idea who the murderer was. What if the murderer was still out there but only this time with relatives? Even so, how could he have avoided the police? All of it seemed impossible, but not as impossible as becoming a ghost and being earthbound. Later that night, Mark and Amy had gone to bed while Sean had gone to the attic and thought about everything he learned about his death and what type of person the murderer was. While Sean dappled with those thoughts, the door to Mark and Amy's room creaked open.

Amy was fast asleep not paying a smidge attention to her surroundings. However, Mark hadn't been so lucky he was tossing and turning, doing his best to go to sleep even attempted to count sheep but nothing worked. Sweat dripped down Mark's forehead and down his neck. Mark turned to lay on his back he opened his eyes quickly only to find out that he could not move, or speak the only thing he could do was look around. His heart pounded as he tried to sit up, but it felt like something had pinned his arms and legs to the bed. The worst feeling was when it felt like he was about to get a heart attack.

He looked around the room until his eyes landed on the bedroom door creaking open and a shadow figure standing at the door. The figures eyes glowed red as it stepped into the bedroom and began making its way toward the bed. Mark's heart pounded as he tried desperately to move and say something to Amy, anything that could make the nightmare go away.

"You think your so smart, don't you Mark?" Said the figure as it inches closer to the bed. Mark tried speaking but his mouth couldn't form the words, all that could come out was small squeaks. "It's always the same isn't it? In every generation?" It continued. "You people with your powers and abilities, you seem to try and stop me," he continued "you can't save everyone and you know it,"

Mark breathed deeply wishing he could yell backlashes back at this thing. But when it mentioned "every generation" Mark couldn't figure out what it was talking about. Suddenly, the figure was over him only revealing its eye color not even showing its face.

"I know you try, that Melinda Gordon Bitch did the same thing," it said "didn't expect that now did you Fischbach? I'm warning you, if you do not back out of this then I will do everything in my power to keep Sean from crossing over and maybe find a way to take that beautiful fiancé of yours," the figure got into Mark's face so close that he could feel the coldness emanating off the entities body. "Maybe even take away your father, he seems like a gentle soul, I will also do everything to make sure that your spirit is broken, best to think about that Mark," the figure laughed one last time before disappearing and freeing Mark from its hold. Mark sat up screamed and sat up straight now able to move his muscles and speak. Amy bolted awake to find her fiancé sweating through his shirt.

"Mark!" She exclaimed. "What happened?!"

"Sorry babe," says Mark. "I had a nightmare didn't mean to wake you,"

"Do you want to talk about it?" She questioned Mark shook his head and got out of bed. "Where are you going?"

"To the kitchen," Mark said. "I have to get something to help me fall asleep," Amy nodded and laid her head back down. Mark sighed and walked out of the room, he turned and started walking to the kitchen.