Unnatural// 5SOS & 1D

Fleeting// part three

a.i: Sights and Sounds

I'm pretty sure my parents wanted to check me into a mental institution. Ever since I told them about Ashton they've been tiptoeing around me like I'm some fragile figurine. While my brother had said he had heard us talking, he's ten and a known liar so I didn't think they believed him anymore.

And it wasn't like I kept bringing up Ashton. It was my parents. When they would go out to the store, they'd come back and ask if I had seen everything and for a week, my answer had been no. I hadn't seen or heard anything since that night in my bedroom. I had already thought I was crazy before then and now it was like my parents were trying to prove that I was.

I tried to look up who the previous owners of this house were but like my dad had said before, nobody had lived in this house since the late nineties. If this was Ashton's old room then he must have been a baby when they moved in. He looked to be around my age, maybe a year older. So how could he have picked his room if he was the same age as me?

----

My parents have been preparing my brother and I for a major cleanup of the house but not only that, we're actually going to reaping all the rooms. We've been moving furniture away from walls the entire week and washing down the outside of the house so we could paint it easier. My dad was even thinking about cleaning out the attic.

"No dad you can't go up there!" My brother had whined when he told us.

"Why not honey?" My mom has asked stroking his hair.

"Because of the monster that lives up there." I sat up as he said this. Monster? In our attic? My brother nodded solemnly.

"He's scary." He whispered, cupping his hands over his mouth. "He doesn't like us. He doesn't like anyone."

"How do you know there's a monster in the attic if you've never been up there?" My dad asked of him.

"He comes down from the ceiling to look at me." Now that was a creepy visual.

"What's he look like?" My parents shot me a look.

"What? It's better if he talks about it if it scares him." I argued. Adrian seemed to be unable to tell if I was just humoring him or if I actually wanted to know but he started up his description.

"He's tall and he wears all black and he carries around this flat gold disk on a chain."

"A pocket watch?"

"Maybe." He shrugged. "He's always looking at it like he's running out of time."

"Why are you so scared of him?" I asked. Adrian pursed his lips and didn't say anything for a bit.

"He keeps saying he's going to kill you." As the words left my brothers mouth I felt something touch my shoulder. It was like somebody had placed their hand there, and not in a comforting way. I whirled around but found nobody behind me. The feeling that somebody was behind me left when parents laughed.

"Good story Adrian. You scared your sister." My dad congratulated but Adrian wasn't laughing. His eyes were wide in dismay and he was staring at a spot in the room behind me like he could see something we couldn't.

"Dad, something just touched my shoulder I swear."

"Oh baby it was just your imagination." My mom chided. But it wasn't. I felt it and my brother clearly saw something behind me. Something was in this house.

----

I sat up when I heard the scratching at my door. Scratching was something I was used to before our cat Misty died. Now that she was gone, the scratching at my door freaked me out. My mom might say we have rats. My dad would say mice. But unless I was going completely insane, I felt someone standing outside my bedroom door.

All I could picture was the tall man in black my brother described and it freaked me out. Had he died here? How? What did he want with me? Throwing my covers off my body, I stepped down onto my hardwood floor. "Don't." I gasped as Ashton appeared next to me. He looked scared. He looking fucking terrified and he was holding his hand out to stop me from moving any further.

"Don't what?"

"Open that door. He doesn't come in here because I'm here. He's trying to draw you out."

"Who is?" I whispered.

"The man in black Shay. He's a scary son of a bitch and your brother was right. He wants to kill you."

"Why?" I demanded.

"We haven't exactly been talking to each other Shayline." Ashton said with a roll of his eyes. Talking? If Ashton could talk to the man in black and the man in black was dead..

"Ashton.." I said softly. "Are you.."

"Dead? Yeah.." I stared at him, hoping my jaw hadn't dropped to the floor. "Sorry I didn't tell you up front. It's not exactly a good way to start a conversation with someone." He paused. "Especially a pretty girl." I was about to reply when there was a low growl at my door and the scratching stopped.

"Where.."

"Shh.." Ashton said. He was listening to something and I was straining my ears to hear whatever he was hearing. "Fuck." He cursed and then talking off in a run, he ran through the walls of my room and disappeared. I still hadn't grasped that Ashton was dead and a ghost. I didn't even believe in ghosts but apparently I had been talking to one.

There was a crash downstairs. Ignoring Ashton's warning, I opened the door to my room. It sounded like pots and pans were flying. Were they in the kitchen? I ran downstairs to find Ashton struggling against a dark form. He caught sight of me. There was fear in his eyes. He was suddenly thrown backwards, his back hitting the cupboards. They flew open. The dark shape turned towards me. He didn't have any form, no body. It was just this dark entity standing at the halfway point between the living room and the kitchen.

"Shayline!" Ashton shouted. The man in black was rushing towards me. Before he could engulf me, a light was flicked on. Turning around quickly, I found my parents standing behind me. My dad looked angry with his arms crossed glaring at me. My mom just looked tired.

"What is with all the shouting and noise?" My dad demanded.

"It's not.. It wasn't me.." I said unable to come up with a better excuse or argument.

"Shay, did you mess up the kitchen?" My mom asked. I glanced back at the kitchen. The cupboards were open and there was a bunch of plastic containers on the ground and the pots and pans from that nights diner were out of the drying rack and on the ground upside down. How had they made such a mess when my book had flown through Ashton's arm?

"Shay, don't lie to us." My dad said angrily.

"I didn't I.."

"Arthur.. The screen door is open." My mom called out. I wanted to breathe a sigh of relief. I had seen the door when I came downstairs, it wasn't open. Had Ashton done that? Was he making it look like someone had broken in? My dad began swearing under his breath.

"It is?" He demanded walking towards my mom but it clearly was. The door wasn't just ajar it was nearly wide open.

"I heard noises and came downstairs." I interrupted. "They must have ran when they heard me coming."

"Cowards." My dad muttered before shutting the door and uttering out a few more choice words.

"Oh honey, next time you hear something you come get us. Don't come down here by yourself." I nodded my head slowly as my mom ruffled my hair before hugging me. "Come on, let's all go back to bed." I followed them back upstairs before saying goodnight. I waited for Ashton to come around again that night but he didn't.