𝑊𝐴𝑁𝑇 𝑇𝐻𝐼𝑆 (locke and key gabe)

5 rewritten

Avery had soon come to realise that Matheson was not at all boring, unlike she had originally thought. Infact, it was far from boring. Finding magical keys in your ancestral home every other day was one thing, and Gabe, who Avery had accepted after barely a week of knowing to be her first crush in a long while, was a whole other story.

Life was blissfully exiting, so magical and wonderful, like it was a page ripped straight from a fairy tale.

Until suddenly it wasn't.

It was a late Thursday evening when everything changed. Avery was sat at her desk, copying her maths homework off of google, humming to herself happily when she found her thoughts straying from negative indices to the strange Well Lady.

The mystery woman had been playing on her mind for quite some time. Who she was, why she'd tricked Bode, where she came from, what she knew. And soon enough, Avery found herself peering through her window at the Wellhouse.

And then she heard the scream.

Duncan was on a business trip, and Nina was working late. That only made Avery more afraid.

She set her pen down on her desk, and closer her laptop lid, telling herself it was Bode playing a prank, or watching a scary movie; the scream was undeniably his.

But when she entered his room, she saw Tyler and Kinsey had beat her there. Bode sat on his bed beside a strange, rusted contraption that appeared to be some sort of trap or torture device, a torn-open teddy bear and a key. Not a magical one, Avery noted. It didn't have the same rich feel to it, no aura of mystery or intrigue, just an old, rusted key.

"The Well Lady was here!" Bode exclaimed. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, but she's been making me give her the keys, an-and she's been threatening me."

"Hey, it's okay Bo, it's not your fault." Avery soothed, hand instinctively sliding for the lighter in her back pocket, needing the reassurance it was still there.

"What keys did you give her?" Kinsey asked softly.

"The Head Key, the Chain Key, and the Anywhere Key," He said sheepishly. All three were fairly new finds.

"It's not your fault bud," Tyler promised. "But we'll keep you safe from her, okay? Why don't we go get some ice cream?"

The four headed into the hallway, comforting Bode as they went, promising him as many toppings as his heart desired.

Avery remembered how her stomach dropped the moment she heard the first door slam shut.

One by one, each door in the hall swung closed, and clicked shut. The group exchanged nervous glances.

"She's here." Bode murmured as the lights went out.

Avery tried her bedroom door. "Ty it's jammed," She told him when the door wouldn't budge.

She moved backwards to allow him room to try, and through the darkness Avery heard his shoulders slam against the wood, but to no avail.

They were stuck.

"A key for each of your lives."

Avery couldn't hear where she was, her voice sounded as though it surrounded her, it was above her, below her, behind her, beside her.

"Show yourself," Tyler yelled into the darkness.

She chuckled, a seductive, humourless sound. "A key for each of your lives." She repeated more harshly this time.

"Leave us alone!" Bode screamed, his voice resounding through the dark hall.

"Last chance." She warned, her voice velvet through the shadows.