⁀➷𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐭
Oc's:
Liam - 16
Vance - 16
Vance
"Get up, Vance, we're here!" squealed Abby before opening the car door and jumping out the backseat.
"Are we?" mumbled Vance quietly, still groggy from his nap. He sat up and blinked, looking out the open door. They were.
He stepped out the car and let a small yawn leave his lips. He looked up at the house.
It's definitely bigger. No more townhouse for us then, he thought, seeing as the rest of his family were excited to move in.
Abby grabbed the keys and hopped up the steps. She turned the key in the lock and gave a big push to make up for her eight-year-old-sized body. The double mahogany doors reluctantly turned on their hinges, giving loud moans of protest.
"And definitely haunted," he muttered, an unsettling feeling coming over him.
~*~*~
Vance coughed as he entered what was supposed to be his room. It was grey, with dust everywhere, and he swore he saw something move behind a plastic sheet.
He tried not to think about it as he examined the room. It was big. Three of his old room could fit into this place and there would still be room left over.
Perfect place for the troubled ghost of a ten-year-old that died a horrific death.
Vance tried to ignore that thought too, heading over to the curtains to let in some much needed light and air.
He wasn't surprised that his window was opposite of one belonging to the neighbour's, but he was surprised at how close they were, and that there was a boy his age on the other side of his window, undressing in Vance's clear sight.
The boy caught his eyes and a warmth spread on Vance's face. He quickly looked away and pretended to be dusting the windowsill - without a duster.
Vance risked a glance back at the boy. He was gone.
Great, he thinks I'm some sort of creep, Vance thought unhappily. "And he was good-looking too."
The boy appeared in front of the window again, still not in a shirt or trousers. Instead he had a sheet of paper up against the glass.
It read: 7xx-555-4912 - Liam
Vance noticed the smirk plastered on Liam's face and it was all he could do to keep from turning a bright red.
He got out his phone, entered the number and texted it.
Vance: Liam?
Liam let go of the paper and picked up what looked like his phone to Vance.
Liam: the one and only
Liam: fascinated by me, are we?
Red crept up Vance's cheeks as he met Liam's gaze again; the sunny blond's maya blue eyes glimmered with piqued interest.
Vance: I wasn't watching you, I'd only just opened the curtains
Liam: and kept staring-
Vance: Oh shush
Liam: what is your name anyway? and what are you doing in there?
Vance: It's Vance, and my family just moved in
Liam: oh. good luck then.
Vance frowned at the latest text. What would he need luck for? They were just moving in.
Vance: What's that supposed to mean?
Liam: last ten years, families have come and gone
Liam: would be a shame if you went. i've grown fond of you
They locked eyes again and Liam smiled. Vance, on the other hand, had become concerned.
Vance: Why'd they leave?
Liam: the place's haunted apparently. sightings of a ghost. makes them paranoid. it's quite entertaining really, seeing the lot of them. one even made it onto the local news.
I knew it, thought Vance. He quickly typed another message, curious about this ghost.
Vance: You don't seem too worried about it
Liam: there's nothing to worry about. the ghost won't be coming after me.
Vance: Why not?
There wasn't an answer. Vance looked up from his phone and into Liam's window. The sunny blonde had disappeared.
Vance found it a little weird, but he dismissed the nagging thought in his head. Liam had probably gone to get dressed or had gotten busy. He'd answer soon enough.
~*~*~
Vance spent the rest of the day waiting for Liam's reply. He checked his phone every ten minutes and even imagined the device buzzing in his pocket as if he'd received a text.
His father had bought takeout and the five of them were now seated on the floor of the downstairs parlour, which had seen the most progress with the cleaning, undergoing vigorous sweeping, dusting, mopping and unpacking.
"This place is haunted, you know..." said Vance matter-of-factly.
His sister Hannah nodded in agreement. "I saw an article about this mansion and a cold case that happened here ten years ago," she recalled.
"Enlighten us with your research, Hannah," said Mum.
"The article said there were three teenagers, two boys and a girl - friends, I think. Tortured. Had parts sliced open and limbs cut off in chunks. Terrible, really. They died from blood loss. Parts of their bodies were found in different houses on this street. The killer was never found. They say the houses where their decapitated heads were found are haunted, which our new house just so happens to be one of them."
"What were their names?" asked Dad.
"Um, Mia Dane, Daniel Lloyd and... Liam James," she answered, thinking a little. "Yeah, yeah, that should be right."
Vance's ears perked up at the name.
It could very well be another Liam but just in case...
"What did they look like before...?" asked Vance.
She pulled up something on her phone then handed it to him. "Their pictures."
Vance took no interest in the first two. The girl had long oak brown hair and dark maroon eyes to match. One of the boys had dyed fanta-coloured hair along with spring green eyes. It was the last photo that caught Vance's attention.
The bright hair that seemed to be made of sunlight and the shimmering of those maya eyes were unmistakable. Vance hadn't noticed the spots of melanin speckled around the blond's face at the distance they were before. The only major difference was the roundish square glasses, of which the crystal frames were clear that seemed to make his already unmissable eyes stand out even more.
"What is it, Vance?" quizzed Hannah, taking her phone back.
"Nothing," he muttered quietly.
Liam's the ghost, he thought, although he still had a lot of questions.
His phone buzzed in his pocket and Vance was tempted to ignore it, pinning it as another false alarm, but he checked it just to make sure.
Liam: now you've got it
Vance looked up just in time to catch a glimpse of a grinning Liam, something akin to amusement in those blue pools, before he vanished into the air, leaving behind a light draft.
His family shivered then his mum declared they all head to bed and cover up; that a sudden chill had appeared in the night, but Vance didn't feel cold.
Instead, a warm feeling had taken over his body, accompanied with a fluttering in his stomach and a small smile on his lips.
