15 | TAKE A WILD FUCKING GUESS

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     JAMES HEARD A small tap at his window, he groaned softly and stood from his bed. He walked to his window and moved the curtains slightly to see what was causing the tapping. He didn't expect to see Gwen stood outside with her coat on. James quickly opened the window and the girl climbed in.

"Gwen, what the hell are you doing?" James asked, throwing on his sweater.

She sighed, realising she had a somewhat long story to tell. "I have these dreams, and most of the time they're real. I knew there were black balloons at the abduction sites way before Abby ever saw them. I get these dreams that could tell me where Finney and Abby are. I just had one, there was a house and Finney was trying to get out of it."

James stared at the girl in confusion for a moment, but after what happened with the radio, anything could be possible. "This isn't quite what I meant when I said you could come to me for anything."

Gwen just shrugged. "Do you wanna help or not?"

The boy sighed softly and quickly pulled his shoes on, they made a quick stop at the garage to grab his bike and the pair rode out, James following Gwen as she looked at every house they passed by. They were heading towards the neighbourhood where James had his odd experience with that man and a screaming woman.

He began to get chills down his spine but eventually Gwen called it off, her memory of the house becoming too vague for her to remember it exactly. So, James rode with her to her own home and then back to his house where he quickly climbed back into bed. It was an odd night and after what Gwen had told him, be believed his days were about to get a lot more odd.

The next morning, James found himself walking Gwen to school like he had done with Abby. The girl was quite happy to have James do that, it reminded her of her walks with Finney, although with James beside her, the bullies backed off. They didn't even care that Finney was gone, they were just worried James would beat them to a pulp for picking on Gwen.

"I'll walk you home, if you want." James shrugged as the pair arrived at Gwen's school.

The girl looked up at him. "Are you doing this because you wanna make sure I'm safe or because it's a weird coping mechanism to view me like your sister?"

"I..." James started before stopping himself. "I am not going to answer that. Do you want me to walk you home or not?"

Gwen gave him a small chuckle. "You can."

She understood that it was a mix of both, of course he saw her like Abby and he understood that with Finney, Abby and Robin gone, there was no one left to protect her. He could offer that to her at least until they found Finney...or forever if they didn't. But Gwen hoped that James could understand that she was not a replacement for Abby, no one could replace his sister, not even her.

Meanwhile, Abby was once again at the phone. Finney had tried to go up stairs when The Grabber left the door unlocked, but he was quicker to answer the phone than she had been. He didn't even go up a step before he went to answer.

"Hello?"

"Don't go upstairs." Abby spoke, watching the boy relax as he heard her familiar voice. 

"Why not?"

"It's a trap." Abby wasn't the biggest fan of reiterating the conversations she had had with the ghost boys before, but she knew Finney needed to hear it just like she had.

Finney looked at the door for a moment. "Did you go up stairs?"

She sighed slightly. "No, Billy stopped me before I did."

"Billy Showalter?"

The girl hummed in response. "Do not go upstairs, Finney."

"What is he doing?"

"He's waiting on the other side with a belt." She spoke softly, glancing at the boys who had to endure such fates. "He never said you could leave, so if you try, he'll punish you. He'll beat you with the belt...until you pass out."

Suddenly Billy grabbed the phone, shocking Finney as he spoke. "It hurts, kid. It fucking hurts real bad. You'll cry. You'll beg him to stop. We all did. But he just keeps beating you."

The ghost put the phone down, making Finney once again call out both Abby and Billy's names. He looked down at the silent phone before placing it on the receiver and slowly heading up the stairs, much like Abby did to see if their words were true. But eventually he was back downstairs, eating the sloppy eggs The Grabber had made him.

After letting the poor boy nap, Abby called him again. Finney quickly picked it up. "Abby?"

"The wall in front of you. It's separated from the floor."

"Yeah?"

"Billy tore a long cable loose from there."

Finney furrowed his brows in confusion. "What am I supposed to do with that?"

Abby sighed in slight annoyance as Finney didn't wait to let her finish, this caused the empty soda bottle to spin and point to the window like Billy had done for her, but she wasn't aware she had done it until Finney began to look at it.

"Take a wild fucking guess." She snapped, putting the phone down.

She didn't mean to be that rude to Finney, but she was starting to become annoyed being trapped in such an awful place. She watched the boy try and use the same technique as she and Billy before he grabbed a carpet and threated the cable through it and around the gate.

"Why didn't you think of that?" Vance asked, as they watched Finney try and climb the cable.

Abby glared at him. "Because I wanted to die...I didn't fucking realise!"

Suddenly Finney came crashing to the floor, the gate had been tore clean off the walls. Finney sat up and let out a shaky sigh, feeling his emotions run high as he believed that to be his only way out. 

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