Locklyle - The Story after The Empty Grave

Part 27: No Thoughts, Just Nightmares

Lockwood's POV:

I shoved and pushed and kicked the door, but it wouldn't budge.
'Fuck!' I cursed to myself. 'Kipps! Can you open this bloody door!'

No response.

'Kipps!'

A muffled reply of what I think was 'I can't get out.'

Great. We were both trapped in these stupid bedrooms. I contemplated jumping out the window, but decided that probably wouldn't be the smartest of ideas.
I kicked the door again, wrestled with the handle, and shoved it again.

This time it gave a little, but not enough to open. I shoved it a few more times, putting all my weight into it, and finally, the hinges broke and I was let out. Without thinking about Kipps, I plowed down the hallway and down the stairs, one thing on my mind.

Lucy. Lucy. Lucy.

Halfway down the stairs I heard another door burst open and Kipps' heavy footsteps behind me. He didn't say a word, but once we were both down, he went straight to the kitchen door to help get George out. I couldn't help but notice how much the temperature had dropped as I had come down the stairs. I tried to remain calm and pulled my coat closer around my body. As I turned the corner after the stairs, I instantly saw Lucy. My heart sank.

She was kneeling, shoulders hunched and arms hugging her stomach, eyes staring ahead, face contorted in pain. Gladly not physical, but no less pain. Tears glistened on her cheeks. When I yelled her name, she didn't turn to me.

The closer I got, the further into the living room I could see. A cloud of smoke like substance hung in the air close to the couch. Lucy was staring right at it. The worst scenario entered my brain, unwanted. She was ghost locked. But no, she couldn't be. She was shaking, and her hands were now moving up to cover her face. She wouldn't be able to do that if she was ghost locked.

Relief flooded my body, but it was only for a millisecond. What could she possibly be crying about. A bloody ghost was right in front of her. Then the realization hit me. The ghost we were dealing with was a Fetch. It was so focused on Lucy and manipulating her brain into thinking she was seeing reality that it wasn't affecting me. I surged forward and cut the blasted apparition straight through its middle with my rapier. It disappeared instantly.

'Lockwood!' Lucy screeched. I whipped around and ran back to her, kneeling in front of her. She looked up at me, tears still welling and falling onto her cheeks. 'That was Mary! What did you just do?' She screamed at me. I flinched. She wasn't happy to see me. No, quite the opposite. She was angry.

'What? What do you mean? That was the ghost, Luce!'
'NO! THAT WAS MARY! LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!'
'No. No! Luce,' I tried to keep my voice calm and at a low volume. I took her shoulders in my hands, but she tried to shove me away. I let go. 'What you saw isn't real. That wasn't Mary!'
'Well what is she doing lying there bleeding then?' She pointed behind me, but when I looked I could only see the reformed dark grey cloud. 'We have to get her help, Lockwood!' She tried to stand up, but I kept her sitting down.
'No! Lucy! That's a Fetch! It's not Mary!'
'You're not listening Lockwood! For fucks sakes! Why would you cut her like that when she was already shot? We need to get her help!'

No matter how hard I tried to convince her what she was seeing wasn't real, she wouldn't believe me. The ghost wasn't just manipulating her sight, but also her thoughts. I was struggling to keep her from running towards the ghost; she was strong and I needed Kipps to hurry up and get George out of the bloody kitchen so they could get rid of the apparition.

Just as I was thinking that thought, there was a crash as the kitchen door fell to the floor. George and Kipps came flying down the hall and towards Lucy and I. They gave us a confused look but I motioned towards the living room where the Fetch was. Without saying a word they ran towards it and sliced at it with their rapiers. With both of them hitting it at the same time, it must have done more damage than when I had sliced it with just one rapier because Lucy calmed down for a couple of seconds. She stopped yelling and pushing at me to get away. She gave me a dazed and confused look but then the Fetch got a hold of her again.