This House Is Not A Home: Bleeding Heart (Scomiche) (Troyler) (Kavi)

Chapter 9 - Winter is Coming

<3

Next update on Tuesday.

---

I sat up straight in my bed fresh out of sleep. I stared forward through my puffy eyes and towards the dark window where the street light casted an orange glow on the bay window. I sniffled because of the cold and put my hands in my hoodie pocket, crossing my legs Indian style in front of me.

I waited and listened into the silence before finally Gregory appeared before me.

“I knew someone woke me up.” I said and he stared back at me, his eyes shadowed from sight because of the light.

“He’s not dead.” He said, his voice was distorted as if it were coming out of a television speaker. It was distant and unhuman.

“I’m working on it, Gregory.” I said. “He’s a real person…he can really hurt us if he wanted to. He’s not just a ghost.”

“You killed Catherine.” His voice was deep and harsh. “You can kill him.”

I swallowed but I remained unafraid. “I promised you I was going to take care of him. I still hold that promise, Gregory. I’m not going to let you down.”

“He’s hurting us.”

Guilt washed over me and I tilted my head down to try and make eye contact with the boy. “I will make sure he stops.” I said to him. “You stay strong.”

He disappeared and energy washed over me, making me get out of bed and get dressed. It was three in the morning and everyone was asleep in their beds, including Sticks on the couch downstairs. I walked down and looked at him, his head tilted back on the arm of the sofa where loud snores escaped his mouth. I rolled my eyes and walked into the kitchen to pour myself some water.

Eddie had been thrown into the well where a little boy had drowned. Maybe multiple kids. Remnants of their souls were still around the property and that had to mean that he was torturing them as well. I put my sneakers on and opened the door as quietly as I could. Normally it wouldn’t matter but Lottie was here tonight, and something in me told me that she had laser focused hearing.

After being stuck in the basement for so long she lost her mind, and had Sticks fill the hole that led down there. She told us never to go back down there again because we were putting the entire house in danger. I understood her view, but at the same time I couldn’t turn my back on Gregory and Charlie.

I sat in the middle of the yard and took a deep breath. It was silent outside. Not even a light breeze was passing through the usually windy woods. The snow was vanishing before my eyes and the dead grass was making its first appearance. I shut my eyes and tried to imagine how spring felt but it was buried like a repressed memory. I barely remembered the spring before because of how well I forced the memories to the back of my mind.

Connor, now named ‘Ghost’ much to my disliking, was my spring. He was my summer too. Then most of my fall until things fell apart. I shut my eyes thinking about how awfully things had ended and I cringed as I thought about how I had acted towards him and everyone that I lived with at the time. To think I almost made the same mistake coming to this home made me sick to my stomach.

Roxas had my heart. He captured me the way no one else had been able to before. Every single thing about him made me tingly and I couldn’t help but be in love with every single thing about him. Lottie still enforced the rule that we stay in our own bedrooms, making me tense most of the time but when we were able to see one another all that tension was let loose. It was like we were seeing each other for the first time again.

I stretched my legs out in front of me and I looked up to the night sky in wonder. The stars were beautiful and only being covered by the occasional cloud.