See No Evil (Anthony Lockwood)

chapter 52

Angela, being the fastest of the group, took off ahead of the rest to the room where they had heard the screaming come from. Violet was close behind her, her heart pounding loudly in her ears. Terrible worry shrieked loudly throughout her body, fear raising the hairs on the back of her neck. But maybe that was just the presence of the ghost that inched closer and closer and sent tingles shooting up and down her spine.

Angela whipped out her rapier when she got to the living room. The haunting apparition of a ghoulish man was hovering above the two boys. Timothy cowered slightly behind George, his rapier shaking in his grip.

Before Angela could make a movement, Violet had already flung herself into the fray and slashed her rapier through the midsection of the ghost, forcing him to vanish for the moment.

"That was Gabriel," George concluded, "This was the room he was executed in."

Violet let out a deep breath, "Luce! Let's find this source. I don't much fancy being stuck with the woman-hater for too long."

Lucy darted into the room with Lockwood behind her, "Right."

"Well, you two better start looking now," Angela snapped.

"Yes, that's what we were about to do. Can you stop being so snappy?" Violet shot back, "This is why we could never have civil conversations."

"No. We couldn't have civil conversations because you were stubborn and argumentative and hated talking."

"Well, maybe if you weren't such a-"

Lockwood pushed himself between the two, "The source, Vi. Now."

Violet reluctantly backed off and turned away, focusing all of her agitated energy on the feeling of the source in the room. But a tug on the back of her shirt snapped her out of it and suddenly she collided with Lockwood's chest as George threw a salt bomb at Gabriel's ghost.

"Anything?" Lockwood asked breathily, his voice close to Violet's ear.

"Yeah, it's in here, but it kind of feels like it's circling or something."

"Circling? What the hell does that mean?"

Violet made a weird face, "Circling? That might not be the right word. It's...Shit. I can't think of it."

"Are you kidding me?!" Angela complained as Gabriel showed up once again, "Did you lose that many brain cells working with these people that you can't even remember English?"

Lockwood pulled out his rapier and harshly pushed Angela aside as Gabriel lunged, "Shut up. Give her a minute!"

Angela landed on the floor with a thud and glared at Lockwood murderously, "What the fuck?! You did that on purpose!:

Lockwood gave her a smug grin after slashing his sword through Gabriel, "Oops. Did I?"

"You motherf-"

Violet snapped her fingers, "Hovering! It's above us!"

Lucy looked up and spotted a glint atop the chandelier. She could see the glass details of wings on a dove. It was exactly like the one they had found in the basement except its delicate wings were spread out wide.

"Well how the hell do we get to that?" George asked in disbelief.

Violet looked to Lucy, "Just reckless enough?"

Lucy sighed but grabbed a salt bomb, "Just reckless enough."

Lockwood looked at her in confusion, "Vi?"

"Just distract him!" Violet yelled out, already running towards the stairs.

Two sets of stairs sat at each end of the room, curving up to a balcony that overlooked the living room. The chandelier was in the middle of the room. Violet had an idea. But it would either end with her procuring the source or breaking a few bones. Possibly both.