MISTER WHY?

Chapter 15

They found a dark room and hid in it, the undead girl pointed at the lock "Why." She whispered. Hannah took the key out of her pocket and thought she would give it a try after all she would feel safer if it did lock and to her surprise it worked. 

"What do we do about....?" Beth asked pointing at the undead girl, who was standing still and dripping blood. 

"She is with us." Hannah said. Then explained everything about the ghost and 

"I think she is a friend." Hannah then proceeded to explain about the ghost she had been seeing and now that the ghost might be possessing the dead body of another girl.

"You think she is like us then?" Lizann asked. Hanna nodded, "That stuff about knowing that this is a ghost inside a dead body is Bull shit because you don't know." 

"I have never seen anything like this before so I..." Hannah started,

"All I need to know is that whoever she is she saved us and that make her one of us." Paula announced confidently. "We also need to find another root back downstairs and that key could be the answer." Everyone looked Paula for the answer, "There is every chance that is a master key."

"I don't think it opens every door." Hannah replied.

"It wouldn't." Paula informed the group, "It would only open the doors that were built at the same time as the key."

"Whhhhyyy." Agreed the possessed corpse. 

"We will call you Salem." Beth announced, "Like the witchy town in the USA." 

Everyone then proceeded to welcome Salem into the group and just then a cupboard door opened. Everyone spun around to see who it was. "Falicia." Lizann said as she recognized the girl in the dark. 

"I thought it was you." The new girl didn't sound too happy.  "You hanging around with Zombies now." She said clearly shaken by everything that was going on, "Because that is crazy, this whole place is crazy." she raised her voice a little too high for comfort. Just as she said that another scream echoed through the corridors which reminded them all how urgent the situation was. They went silent and moved back from the door. "That door there goes somewhere." Falicia pointed to the door at the back of the room. Hannah twisted the key in it and it clicked open. everyone piled through the door and locked it behind themselves. The room was in a rounded tower and had an upper level. The door on the bottom level burst open and Salem screamed as the other girls ran up the stairs out the upper door and down the hallway Salem included. they stopped to take a quick breather and waited to see if they were being followed. "Run." Salem pointed down a dark corridor and started to run down it. All the girls without stopping to think followed her until they reached a small staircase that was clearly at one point the servant's corridor. All of them quickly and quietly went down the steps none of them saying a word and trying to keep quiet about as they descended the narrow and winding staircase to the kitchen. It was there that Hannah quickly dashed to the cellar door and unlocked it hoping the other girls were there but it was silent she found a light switch on the wall and flipped it. 

She hadn't seen it before in the dark but the walls were stacked with bones like the catacombs in France. "Whhhyyy." Salem said sadly.

"We need to get out of here." Falicia reminded them to hurry up as the cellar seemed to be an endless network of tunnels. 

"Hannah come on we have to go." Lizann took hold of her shoulder and made her jump. "There's none down here we can help." She told her. When they were all back together Paula had a sledgehammer and Falicia was carrying some tools. "Once we are out of here I'm burning this place to the ground." Lizann said. All the girls and Salem were in agreement. They ran up the stairs into the living room and office area. Seeing the office was empty and there was an old landline they tried it to find out that it wasn't working. Lizann started ripping out pages of a book and set them on fire building it up until the desk was covered in flames. They ran to the hallway and Paula took the sledgehammer and started hitting the door with it.  

"Here let me have a go." Falicia said and took the hammer from Paula who was struggling to make a dent. It was clear that the noise would have drawn attention and running footsteps could be heard approaching them. The glass had been broken but the door was solid. 

"Quick to the swimming pool." Hannah suggested hoping the sledgehammer would shatter the windows in there. They ran through the hallway just as a silhouette of someone watching from the shadows entered the hallway. 

They got to the conservatory and the pool area. It was difficult to see what was going on in there but the familiar smell of chlorine filled the air as they approached the glass. "Mister Why?" Salem warned as they raised the hammer to punch through the glass. There was a dark outline that Hannah recognized instantly as Alistair. Salem screamed so loud everyone covered their ear even Alistair. The Spectors of Previous Victims rose from beneath the mansion and swarmed around. A large explosion then shook the building and flames began to roar the smell of smoke burning Hannah's lungs. Paula raised the hammer and struck the glass all of them clambering through some even cutting themselves on shards as they scurried through. They ran up to the edge of the garden still followed by Alistair. Salem stopped  everyone turned around., "I don't think she can go any further." Hannah guessed.  

Lizann handed her a knife and hugged her, "Good luck." She told her.  All the other girls then wished her luck before she turned to face Alistair. She screamed to the fallen sisters and the spectators of the vengeful spirits reached out from the earth below stopping Alistair from moving as Salem snarled and ran back. The girls didn't need to see what happened next and they took each other by the hand and ran into the countryside as the blackbirds and nightingales began to sing. The house burned and the spirits left leaving only the caretaker to lock up like he had always done.