Burned Alive

Chapter 4:Investigation

Destiny, Zachary, and Casey, all stared at the A that was printed on Destiny's  hand. It had stopped smoking. Slowly, as if it was taking its time, the A disappeared from her hand. For a long while none of them spoke, suddenly the three of them felt a cold breeze behind them. They turned around and saw Andrew standing there, he opened his mouth and said," Oh my god, Destiny, I am so sorry, are you ok?" Destiny smiled and said," yeah, I'm fine, look, it's already gone, see?" she held up her hand, and it was true, the A  that had been on her hand, had disappeared,seeing that the A had indeed disappeared.

Andrew relaxed and said," ok, sorry I freaked out like that" Zach grinned and said," it's ok, dude" and with that Andrew disappeared. Destiny turned back to the house, took a deep breath and put her hand back on the doorknob. This time nothing burned her skin. She let out a relieved sigh, twisted the knob and opened the door.

Inside the house was a short hallway, even the inside of the house was burnt, but not too bad, they could make out certain objects, like the staircase that lead upstairs, and they could also make out the twenty foot hole that separated them from the staircase. They could also make out a door by the staircase, the hole lead to the basement where there were rats crawling, and scurrying all around each other, and Zachary?, well, he hated rats. 

He took one look down the hole, saw the rats and said," well, have fun!" and turned around to run out the door, but before he could, Casey grabbed him by his shirt, turned him back around and said," no way, Zach, we said we'd help and we're helping, so man up" he gave Zach a glare that mad him gulp, he sighed and said,"ok, ok, besides my fear of those things, how are we gonna get across that?".

Destiny looked around, her eyes caught sight of a long, wooden plank that looked like it would be able to stretch across the gap and make a suitable bridge for them.  She told Zachary and Casey her plan, together the three of them grabbed the plank and pushed it across the hole until it reached the end, they made sure it was steady before letting it go.

Destiny stood up, took a deep breath, let it out and tentatively put a foot on the plank, it wobbled a little, but it didn't fall, she put both feet on the board, it didn't fall. She started walking towards the other side, slowly putting one foot in front of the other making sure she didn't lose her balance, suddenly the plank of wood twisted sideways, sending Destiny, falling.

She managed to grab the top of the side before falling, her legs hung freely, swinging like they were trying to find something to put their weight on. "Destiny!!" both Zachary and Casey screamed at the same time, fearing for their friend's life. Grunting, Destiny moved her hands side to side, like she was swinging on monkeybars but sideways. Finally she made it to the end of the board, where the other half of the house was. She swung her legs and let go of the board completely, she was up in the air doing a backflip until she landed on the other side of floor in a crouching position.

She stood up straight and turned to look back at Zachary and Casey, when she did, she found that the board was straight again, this time Casey went across and made it without anything happening, Zachary did too. Once they were all across, Destiny gave them flashlights, she carried them for emergencies, she talked," ok, Zach, Casey, you two check out the bedrooms of the house, while I check out Ariel's room " they both said," ok".

They all headed for the stairs and went up, once they reached the top, Destiny saw a long hallway, at the end of it she saw a door, she guessed it was Ariel's and Andy's parents, next to theirs, she saw a door with a big A and next to it was a D, she knew it was Andy's, so that meant that the room next to his was Ariel's.

Zach and Casey opened up Andy's door and went inside, flashlights turned on. Destiny turned towards Ariel's door, opened it, and went inside. Ariel's room had a bed facing the wall and the tv next to it, next to the bed was a table, on the table there was a framed picture of Ariel and Andy, their faces filled the frame. They were both smiling. Destiny saw that Ariel had green eyes, she walked over to the table, picked up the picture and smiled, and said,"don't worry, Ariel, I'll find out who did this to you" behind her she felt a breeze.

Putting the picture back down on the table, she turned around, and said,"Andy, I told you,my hand is fin-" she turned around, but the person she was facing wasn't Andy, it was Ariel. The ghost smiled a sickly sweet smile and said," then again, I never did say I wanted your help, oh well, guess I'll just have to dispose of you and your friends, starting with you" With such force, the door slammed shut and locked.

Zachary and Casey heard it, they instantly rushed out of Andy's room and went straight to Ariel's room, they tried opening the door, but it was locked. Zachary opened his mouth and yelled," Destiny!, Destiny open the door!" inside the room, Destiny heard her friends cries. Ariel heard them too. She looked at Destiny with her holeless eye sockets and said,"Mm, your friends sound worried, desperate even, too bad they won't open the door in time" .

With a flick of her wrist, a gust of wind was in the room, every thing in the room was lifted up and was swirling around them, for the first time in her life, Destiny actually looked scared.

Ariel smiled her evil smile at her and said," let's see how you feel about water". Outside the door the boys heard Destiny scream, that prickled their fear, they never heard Destiny scream. Zachary kicked the door open, the boys stepped into the room, instantly fear entered their hearts, Destiny was gone.