I Dream of Disney (Volume II)

He Haunts Me {Edward Gracey x Reader} Part IV

"When there's no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the earth." - George A. Romero, 'Dawn of the Dead'

Part IV - The Scooby Gang Search for Clues (Well, Sorta)

"If there's somethin' strange in your neighbourhood - " 

"Idalia, people died here." I scolded. 

"Who ya gonna call?"

"Ghostbusters!"

"Giavanna," I complained, "Don't encourage her." 

It quickly became apparent that Idalia had no care in the world. Lounging against the intricate wooden bannister, Idalia took the pose of a nineteenth-century lady waiting at the top of the stairsteps for her suitor. She gazed down at me regally. At that moment, I was almost jealous of the ease in which she inserted herself in these wacky situations. I had to thank her for one thing though: as long as she was being inappropriate, I didn't have to think about where I was standing. 

It was a strange emotion that came over me when we were tasked to climb the stairs. There was a painful knot in my stomach and, for a silent moment, I stood at the bottom of the grand staircase without any inclination of moving up. Giavanna and Idalia showed no such remorse, though they both had fun with it. 

Idalia had vaulted up the stairs the second that the group had split up, running so doggedly up and down them that dust speared upwards, forming tiny ghostlike dust clouds that she destroyed. She was dramatic and emphatic as she danced. 

"For Pete's sake," I yelled at her, "Keep your goddam clothes on!" 

Idalia clearly wasn't listening. Stalking up the stairs like an exotic dancer, she took the steps two at a time until she reached the curving section, where she swooned against the mantel. 

"An invisible man, sleepin' in your bed," Idalia chirped, "Who're you gonna call?" 

Giavanna hadn't climbed the stairs yet and was standing beside me, silent and contemplative. Her hair was flipped over prominently on her one shoulder and her hand, resting, was settled on her hip. When she noticed I was looking at her, a tiny grin formed on her lip. 

I groaned, "Don't do it."  

"Who're you gonna call?" Idalia demanded. 

"Ghostbusters!" Giavanna cheered. 

Idalia was so enthused that she immediately stripped off her leather jacket, daintily stripping each shoulder off and flinging it off. The leather jacket whooshed in the air and smacked the ground with brute force, as if it was a body flung off a building. The sound unsettled me. 

Giavanna bounded up the steps but, in the stead of that pale grey dust, the only thing she unearthed where the shrieking of the aged wood as she scrambled upward. When she met Idalia at the top of the stairs, they stopped singing and started screeching. They started an impromptu stripper dance and started dry humping the railing. I slammed my palm against my head. 

"Where did I find you guys?" I winced, "Honestly, where?" 

"Last one up the stairs is a rotten egg!" Giavanna squealed. 

I surged forward, my hand held up, "Wait!" 

But it was too late. The two girls vaulted up the steps, stirring up pestilences of dust and dislodging decades-old cobwebs and those many-legged creatures who resided in them. The girls disappeared up the stairs with only the sounds of their girlish laughter tailing them. 

I couldn't force myself to run after them. I just couldn't. 

I was scared. I hadn't admitted it to anyone yet but I was terrified. This wasn't about the possibilities of what could be lurking around each corner, or what awaited in the blinding shadows of unexplored reaches. It was about the unfailing reminder that this place reeked of the endlessness of demise. In a way, it was death.