The House

Chapter 8: Freedom

Hello hello and this is the last chapter.

Thank you to everyone who has stuck with this story so far.

Enjoy the last moments you have with Charlie, Beth, and the house.

Jake was having trouble keeping up with Beth. After they found out about the Devonly house, she had insisted on checking out Gator swamp. Even Jake's protests about alligators, giant mosquitoes, and the fact that it was getting dark soon didn't deter her.

"Beth, come on, it's dark now. Can't we do this tomorrow?"

"Charlie can't wait until tomorrow." Beth snapped from the driver seat. She had one hand on the steering wheel and another on a map, where she'd marked the old well with a big red x.

"But I'm hungry."

Resisting the urge to strangle Jake, Beth reached in the back for her backpack. She grabbed a pack of Doritos from the inside and threw it at him. "There. Happy now?"

Jake crunched the chips happily, orange powder coating his mouth. "Very happy."

They reached the entrance of the swamp, a forsaken gate that was half sunken in the mud. The swamp was alive with sound; crickets chirping, frogs croaking, wild birds calling out to each other. Beth leaped out of her car, holding the flashlight in her mouth as she studied the map.

"We'll get there in an hour if we start walking now." She started off down the path, her backpack bouncing with her.

"But...oh fine." Jake jogged after her.

"You know there are real alligators in here, right?" Jake said fearfully as they went deeper into the shadow of the trees. Parts of the path were flooded, and black oily water swirled around their boots. Beth jumped as Jake let out an unholy screech, upon spying a curled up moccasin on a tree root.

She slapped him with her flashlight. "Would you cut it out?"

Something crashing through the trees made them both jump; Jake grabbing onto her shoulders. "What was that?"

Beth shrugged him off in frustration. "Stop acting like a little scared girl in a horror movie." She turned toward the path...

...and saw a blonde girl in a white dress standing in front of her.

Beth's heart jumped into her throat, but she immediately reached back and grabbed Jake's hand to keep him from running away.

The girl was deathly pale, but Beth guessed that's what you look like when you are a ghost. Her dress was a Victorian styled party dress, fluffy with a full lacy skirt. She looked furious at Beth.

"Turn back now," she hissed at Beth's face, "Charlie is staying with me."

All Beth wanted as to turn and run, like she did whenever Caleb Munch or Tim Sawyer or Drew Hackle had come near. But that had been years ago. Swallowing down her fear, Beth looked the ghost square in the eyes. She thought she saw a quiver go through the girl's face, as if the ghost was suddenly unsure of the person standing before it.

"You can't bully me." Beth said fiercely, and marched straight through the ghost, dragging whimpering Jake along with her.

Eloise Devonly glared at the girl's back, until something else caught her attention, something urgent. She vanished.

Charlie was entering the basement.

*

Fleas buzz above my head when I push open the door. I bat them away, coughing from the smell of mothballs, and a whole lot of stagnant, rotting water. It's so repulsive I have to draw my shirt over my nose, and breathe through my mouth. Even then I get the taste of fermenting things.