Unnatural// 5SOS & 1D

Fleeting// part four

a.i: Skeletons in the Closet

Eight people had been murdered in my house. Eight. That definitely wasn't part of the realtors pitch and it certainly wasn't included in the ad for the house. How could nobody tell us? These people weren't just killed, they were brutally murdered. Did nobody think about how vengeful spirits were known to hang around their place of death?

It all started about fifty years back. A women in her twenties had been found rotting to death in the living room downstairs. At the time nobody had lived in the house, which is why she wasn't found earlier. People complained of the smell and that's when the police went to check it out. No one knew who had killed her or who she even was really. There were no witnesses and nobody stepped forward to claim her body. She was buried in a cemetery nearby.

The next murder happened in the same year, it was a young couple. Apparently this time people had heard screams coming from the house. Ashlee Campbell and Connor Stuart were found in the dining room with ten stab wounds each. Ashlee had put up a struggle. She had watched Connor get killed before dying herself. Still no one had seen anyone enter or leave the house. Their murders were just as mysterious as the first.

The fourth kill happened two years later to a young black women. Her boyfriend was the main suspect in the case. Apparently she had broken up with this Artie 'Arthur' Lane and he didn't take it so well. He denied ever killing her though and even had a solid alibi. She was beaten to death in the upstairs bedroom, my brothers room. There had been blood splattered all over the walls.

The fifth person was just a kid. According to his friends and mother, he had gone into the yard over to retrieve a ball that had gone over the fence, when he didn't come back right away, everyone became nervous. They called his name for several minutes before going to look for him. Somebody had bashed his skull in in the backyard. It was so bad the officer on hand said he could see all the way to his brain. I shuddered at that.

Victim number six was another girl. She was shy, a people pleaser. She had gone into the house on a dare. By then, it had become a bit of an urban legend. Because of the circumstances of the people who had died here and because nobody had ever found the killer, it was cause for some speculation and fear. It was almost like an initiation process. These girls wanted to see if Addie was brave enough to go into the house. She was and was killed for it. Addie was sliced open and left to bleed out on the stairs.

Number seven was a little.. Strange. I almost didn't count it as a murder. A section of the house had caught fire. It was more towards the kitchen area and somebody had died because of it. As far as the police reports went, they were male and burned beyond recognition. He didn't live in the house, nobody did anymore so they suspected he was just some bum off the street.

The most recent person to die was a teenager in the early nineties. Apparently their parents had picked up the house, fixed the damage caused by the fire, repainted it and moved in. Their son was dead within a month of moving in. He was found in my room with a bloody kitchen knife in his hand and a gaping wound in his chest. It was assumed that he had committed suicide. I knew it had to have been Ashton. Has he really killed himself or had something else?

"Piecing it all together." I jumped a little on the couch before looking up from my laptop at Ashton. He was staring at me grimly. I glanced around the living room like the dark man might be just behind him. "Don't worry. He only comes around at night for the most part."

"You didn't kill yourself did you?" He snorted and sat down on the armchair across from me.

"Getting right to it?" He questioned. I was quiet. Ashton sighed.

"No. He wanted to make it look like I killed myself."

"Who is he? The dark man?" Ashton shrugged.

"If I knew, I'd tell you. But like I said before, we don't exactly talk to one another." I sighed. If I had a picture of the guy maybe I could figure out who he was and why he was angry enough to kill Ashton. "You read up on everything?" I nodded my head slowly.

"I'm sorry about the whole.. You know I've just been so... I was rude before." Ashton shrugged and leaned back into the chair.

"You didn't know. You weren't being insensitive or anything. I've been dead nearly twenty years now. I think I'm over being upset about it." I pursed my lips.

"So um.. Why why are you still here? Why didn't you leave?" I asked quietly wringing my hands. Ashton sat up in thee chair and leaned forward, his arms on his knees. He looked so real. So completely here. How could he be a ghost?

"Beats me. I've been trying to figure that out for well.. As long as I've been dead. As far as I know, I'm here so other kids don't die like I did." I frowned a little.

"What do you mean?" Ashton stood up and paced back and forth in front of me a bit.

"Others have tried moving in here. I'm the only spirit whose managed to scare them out of the house."

"You're not the only one here?" I asked standing up. Ashton snorted and shook his head.

"No. Everybody else that's died here. They're stuck here too. I'm just the only one who doesn't want to watch people be killed."

"I thought.. Aren't they nice?" I questioned glancing around scared. If they were all here and if Ashton was saying he was the only nice one then..

"A few. The boy in the backyard is pretty nice. And the girl who was killed upstairs and the ones in the kitchen.." He paused. "They just don't know how to stop the dark man."

"Do they know who he is?" Ashton shook his head.

"They don't like talking about him. Everyone is scared of him that's why nobody fights back to protect the people who try to live here."

"Can I.. Can I see them like I see you?" Ashton glanced around him.

"They're here but they don't want to make themselves known." I stared at him anxiously.

"Do you remember dying?" I asked lightly. Ashton shook his head.

"He did it when I was asleep. I guess you could say I woke up dead. I was sort of standing over my body and he was there and he.. He laughed." I shuddered. "Shayline, you need to get out of here, you have to convince your parents to leave this house. It's not safe."

"How?"

"Tell them about the murders. They already know you and your brother have seen and heard things." I shook my head.

"They think we have overactive imaginations. They're not going to believe me."

"Make them believe you. I don't want to watch you die." With that, Ashton disappeared.