Buried Within (Lockwood & Co Fanfic)

Lurking Fears

After nights of seeing ghosts lurking just outside her mother's bright yellow car, sleep was undoubtedly needed, and for a brief moment, Massie found herself able to sleep, crashing the moment her head hit the pillow.

But then the nightmare came, first of the ghosts just outside of her mother's car, followed by the memory of her mother discovering the dead body in the wall, which in turn resulted in—

Sitting up in Lacy's bed, up in the attic, Massie couldn't rightly remember what she saw, nor did she want to remember. She took a deep breath, looking around for some security from the nightmares that plagued her. Yet, there was a level of loneliness from being in that room in the attic on her own, even with how much time someone, possibly Lacy or even Lockwood, took to make the space warm and inviting.

Massie took a deep breath and got up, heading for the door and down the stairs where she could hear muttering from the bathroom. She quietly walked over, not wanting to bother whoever was busy cleaning the upstairs bathroom, expecting in some way to find her mother going at it, only to find herself surprised to see the agent named George tackling the cleaning of the bathroom.

For a moment, she stared, then she said, "You're cleaning?"

She watched George turn his head, looking up at her frowning, before saying, "Yes."

"My mother didn't make you clean, did she?"

"Depends on what you mean," George said. "She hasn't seen the bathroom if that's what you're thinking, but she'll be hard-pressed to find something that isn't to at least the standards of a normal home." He pushed up his glasses, continuing to frown. "It's kind of my thing. To clean when I'm stressed."

"Just be forewarned, my mom might want to take that over," Massie said.

George frowned. "She's a guest."

"Yeah. My mom's not exactly," Massie started to say, unsure how to say she thought her mother had, somewhere along the line, going mental.

George sat up, pushing up his glasses, continuing to frown. "You know if you're worried about your mother not being normal," he started to say as Massie shook her head, deciding she didn't want to go in that direction after all. "She's in good company, but I think everybody has some kind of mental health issue, what with The Problem making everyone on edge. They do say that our generation is living through a different era."

"Still," Massie let out a deep sigh.

"Instead of being in denial that ghosts are around, she could be a part of a ghost cult," George said. "Now that is what I call crazy, although...." He glanced down the hallway. "Last time I checked, she was going through the contents of your suitcases in the front foyer. I couldn't stick around. It made me a bit uncomfortable."

"Yeah," Massie sighed. "That's my mom. I'd better help her get our things situated into one the room she's staying in, someplace private." She turned and headed down the stairs and stopped in the hallway while turning to look and discovering that; indeed, her mother was going through everything in the suitcase. "Hey, mum?" Her mother didn't pay attention. "Hey, mum!"

"Oh." Her mother looked up. "Hi, sweetie!"

"Perhaps we should get our suitcases into the room you're staying in?" she asked.

"I tried," she heard someone say from behind her.

Massie turned, her eyes widening at the sight of Lockwood, her mouth opening. She felt a hand reach up to touch her chest. "Are you trying to scare me?"

"Am I trying to scare you?" Lockwood said, shaking his head as Lucy came from another room. "No." He tilted his head towards her mother. "You might have a better time with your mother than we have. She's got a definite preference for ignoring us. Or I'm not sure."