The House on the Hill

Chapter 5: Nightmares and the Audio Tape

Sunlight poured through the thin curtains covering the glass windows in Ava's room. Birds chirped in the distance. Ava's eyes fluttered open as she blinked to adjust to the light. She stretched her arms and legs before pushing off the covers sleepily and slipping on some house slippers. She sat on her bed for a good 5 minutes while yawning and stretching. The sweet smell of maple syrup and freshly warmed waffles seeped through the crack under the bedroom door and into Ava's nose, making her smile. Her all-time favorite food was, hands down, waffles! Memories from the day before flooded through her mind and she remembered that the paranormal inc. team had stayed in the creepy vacant room that have Ava the chills. And then she remembered Will. Her grin slipped off her face and down to the floor, sinking under the floorboards, not coming back. Her heart drooped in her chest. Hopefully those cameras found something useful to finding him.

Ava thumped down the stairs, making sure that she'd wake anyone who was still sleeping. As she passed Harry's room she heard him groan and then heard a thump! Which she assumed was the sound of him falling off his bed. She let out a chuckle as she heard James whine, "Five more minutes?". As she reached the kitchen, the scent of waffles was unbearably strong, and she could not resist but to sneak a bite before the rest got there. Unfortunately her mother caught her and shooed her hand away.
"Wait for your guests!" She laughed, but Ava couldn't help but notice the way it was a fake, forced laugh.
"Okay, Harry and James are up already," she smiled. "They're getting ready."
"Okay good. When they get here they can help you set up the table," her mother replied.
"Fine," Ava rolled her eyes as she began setting up the forks for her family and the paranormal inc.

Soon Ava and her two brothers had set the table and the paranormal inc. were shuffling into the kitchen.
     "Mmmm, smells like waffles!" Nick smiled as he stuffed his Rubix-cube in his pocket. Quinn had super messy dark/light brown bed-head hair which made Riley and Ava giggle. Riley's hair was always perfect. Brian's blond hair fell over his face in a lazy way, as if he was too rushed to brush it.
     "Ugh, I...I had a nightmare last night," Brian said as he scratched his head and took a seat next to Ava. Riley raised her eyebrow.
     "Really? I did too!"
Nick gasped as Stacey placed a steaming waffle on his plate and set down the whipped cream in the center of the table.
     "Seriously? I-I did too!" He said as he looked at Quinn, who deliberately agreed.
      "What was yours about?" Ava asked Brian. He stretched his hands while stifling a yawn.
     "My nightmare...it was dark. It was super dark. And...and I remember...yeah, I remember being in a corner of a room with a big mirror. I'm saw my reflection in it. But then I saw this old man who was in the mirror, smiling at me...but when I turned around, there was no one behind me," the whole kitchen grew quiet. Ava's heart lurched in her chest. An old man... What is it with him? He must be really mad! All the rest of the paranormal inc. team stared at Brian with wide eyes.
     "Seriously?" Riley managed to say.
     "W-what?" James asked as he looked from Nick to Quinn to Riley, all wearing the same expression of shock and fear. Brian was utterly confused.
     "Yeah seriously, why?"
Riley and Nick exchanged glances and gulped.

     "B-because that was my dream too." 

...............

     "Well, ghosts who really want you out of their territory can do scary things...like present itself in your head as a vision, or a nightmare, such as it did to us. Which means that since neither of you guys have had the nightmare, it's either us he wants to kill or it's that room that's the strongest," Nick explained.
     "The strongest meaning the room he hangs in the most," Quinn clarified as he fixed his glance upon the three kids standing before him. It was after breakfast and the paranormal inc. was in the living room talking to the family.
     "So...it's really bad?" Asked Harry, his voice trembling slightly.
     "Well, in a way, yes," said Brian, who had been pacing around the room nervously. "Or it just means that we're one step closer to capturing this sucker."
     "Yeah, and maybe we should go check out what the sound and video devices caught on tape last night," Riley said as she stood up from her spot on the couch. Ava stood up with her.
     "Good idea," nodded Quinn as he followed Riley into the room with the main camera system; the downstairs bedroom.
     "I can't wait to see the tape!" James whispered to Harry quietly. Harry nodded ecstatically as he followed through the doorway. Just then, Ava heard the gasps of everyone in the room.
     "What happened?" Ava asked urgently as she tried to peek over someone's shoulder. Quinn stood, motionless and stiff, in the middle of the room. As he turned to the rest of the group, Ava could see that his face was pale and shocked with fear.
     "Oh. My. God." he whispered under his breath. It wasn't until he held up their high-tech equipment that Ava let out a gasp of her own.

Their cameras were completely destroyed. Smoke emanated from the dented electronics, and there were inhuman scratch marks on the wall next to the power cord. The rubber outlining of the power cord was ripped and shredded, leaving the heavy duty wires exposed. In complete shock, Quinn turned the camera over to get out the disk of the video it took, knowing that it would be damaged but it would be worth a try, but the slot was completely empty.
     "The spirit destroyed all our cameras!!" They heard Nick cry from upstairs. "In every room! And on top of that, stole all our camera's film disks!"

Brian ran a hand through his hair.

  "We...we have no video...no proof...this ghost is clearly more intelligent than we thought..."

     "What about the sound devices?" Riley asked quietly.
     "Smashed to shreds," replied Nick in a small voice. "All was destroyed but one," he said as he held up a sound box.
     "Excellent!" Brian said as he ran to the living room and started toying with their main equipment in the living room.
      "Let's hear it!"

He set up four headphones and plugged them into the sound box. He messed with some knobs before handing the rest of the headphones to the rest of the team. Ava, Harry and James watched eagerly as the team started the audio. Their faces, that were excited and eager....suddenly drowned into an expression of fear. Their faces grew pale as they looks frightfully at one another. Harry and Ava exchanged glances. Finally Nick switched off a button quickly and threw off his headphones.
     "Well?" Harry asked.
     "T-take a look for yourselves..." He said, his eyes fixated on nothing in particular, his face still ghostly pale.

The rest of the team were paralyzed in fear.

"What was it?" James asked.
"The ghost....l-left this audio here...on purpose..."
"What?"
"He left a message...." Nick said before rushing to the bathroom and barfing in the toilet. Ava looked at her brothers in fear.
"W-what's gonna happen?"
"I'm dunno....we'll just have to find out," Harry whispered as he grabbed the earphones and put them on his head.

Suddenly he began to scream out in terror, clutching his chest. Tears formed in his eyes as he threw down the headphones and ran to the bathroom as well.
"What did they hear?" James asked Ava, his face pale and shallow.

"Something very bad..."