Locklyle - The Story after The Empty Grave

Part 8: The Haunted Hotel #2

Lucy's POV:

I screamed. And never have I screamed louder.

I has just sensed something near the stairs and Lockwood and I were moving towards them. Lockwood had been about to advance onto them when he turned around. I don't know why he did but as he turned, a ghost appeared behind him. And so I screamed. Moving faster than lightning I pushed Lockwood out of the way and slashed the ghost with my rapier. I did it so quickly I didn't even get a proper look at the ghost and I didn't notice that as I had moved I had stretched my leg. As soon as the ghost was gone, my momentum kept me going till I fell on the stairs. I landed with a massive thud and as I did, I felt my knee start to burn again. I could feel blood start to move down my leg and soak my leggings. Great. Just great! I wanted to stand up, but struggled so I just turned around. Lockwood was half lying, half sitting on the ground, his back against the stair balustrade. He turned his head toward me and must have seen the pain in my face cause he sprung up and pulled me to him. He helped my hobble to the iron circle and sat me down.

George and Holly came rushing towards us, having heard my scream.
'What happened?' Holly asked.
'Are you alright, Luce?' George enquired. I nodded my head. Lockwood started to say about the ghost, when I saw it appear again behind them in the hall.
'Ghost!' I yelled and pointed. They all spun around quickly, drawing their rapiers. This time I got a good look at it. It appeared to be a young man, maybe in his mid 20's. He was wearing a dark button down and khakis, but his arm was swollen and so was the right side of his face. He must be the person who died of an allergic reaction. When it tried to attack, Lockwood slashed it again and it disappeared. Then it appeared again further down the hall, towards the coldest bedroom.

☆☆☆☆☆☆

Eventually, George contained the source. Holly had stayed with me, standing prepared for if the ghost tried to attack me. Of course, I would have been fine since I was in the iron circle, but Holly insisted. George and Lockwood had followed the ghost into the coldest bedroom and then an hour later, found that the source was under a floorboard in which Mr Perion's Granddaughter's cot had been placed above. Lockwood had warded the ghost away while George pried the floorboard up and placed a moldy handkerchief in a small iron jar.

Without us seeing they had secured the source, we noticed. Holly gave a big sigh and turned to me saying she knew they had the source contained. She helped me out of the iron chain and I could tell there was no more ghost presence. She packed up the iron chain as Lockwood and George came hurrying down the hallway.

George told us all about what had happened while we walked down the stairs and out the door. I was leaning on Lockwood who had his arm around my waist to help me walk. The left leg of my leggings was almost completely soaked with blood and my knee still stung like hell. Holly had given me some tissue while I was in the iron circle to help with the blood flow, and it had helped a little, but not much.

On the cab ride home, my leg was stretched out on Lockwood's lap again and he had a tissue in his hand which he was pressing on my knee. I avoided looking at him as all I could think about was last night. This was almost exactly how we had been sitting before the almost kiss. I gave a full body shiver thinking about it, to which everyone looked at me weirdly.
'Are you cold, Lucy?' Holly asked. I shook my head, but she poured me some hot tea from a flask anyways. If anyone else had attempted to pour a cup of tea in a moving vehicle, it would have definitely spilled. But this was Holly, so of course, it did not.

We dropped Holly at her flat, before continuing to 35 Portland Row. Once there, we sat at the kitchen table where I rebandaged my knee and George made some tea for Lockwood and himself. Lockwood was drawing something on the thinking cloth, but I couldn't see what because my view was blocked by his arm.

Once we had a few biscuits and the boys drank their tea, George hopped off to bed. We said our goodnights, and then it was just me and Lockwood. We hadn't been alone since last night, and I was not planning on bringing it up. I sat there staring intently at the biscuit crumbs left on the plate, and I don't know what Lockwood was doing. I refused to look at him.

After a few minutes of silence, I decided it would be best to go to bed rather than sit here not talking. As I stood up and said I was going to go to bed, Lockwood spoke. I looked at him wanting him to repeat himself. But he didn't get the hint.
'What did you say?' I asked.
'Oh, nothing. Just thank you for saving me tonight. But goodnight, Luce.' He said as he smiled at me. I gave him a small smile back.

Once I was out the door, I hesitated. Should I talk to him? Did I need to say something after he thanked me? Before I could contemplate more, I yawned and decided it would be better to just go to sleep.

As I shut my door to my bedroom, I heard Lockwood's door shut too. He must have left the kitchen straight after myself.

As I got changed into my pajamas, I glanced at the burnt skull sitting on the window sill. Still nothing. It had been weeks and still nothing. Then I got an idea.

After some searching, I managed to pull out a jar from the depths of the junk pile behind my wardrobe. I placed the skull in the jar, hoping if maybe it was back in a jar it would feel at home. I knew it would most likely do nothing, but I had to try.

.....It did not work.

I gave up and brushed my teeth before heading to bed. My leg still hurt a lot but eventually, I fell asleep.