The Haunted Orphanage

Chapter 24

Dan's POV

"Phil?" I whispered.

He looked like he had been through hell. Blood covered his arms and seeped through his shirt. His eyes were bloodshot and filled with fear.

His eyes widened as he saw something behind me and he cowered in fear a bit. I whipped my head around to find the figure I had punched earlier standing in the doorway. I quickly pulled Jason and Nate away from the door and pushed them toward Phil.

"What the fuck do you want?!" I screamed, fed up with whoever was under the robe.

"You cheated," it replied.

"We didn't cheat!" Nate yelled from behind me.

"No Nate, you didn't. Dan did. He broke down the door with a flashlight instead of waiting and using a key."

I realized I was still holding the flashlight in my hand and smirked.

"Damn right I cheated. You think I care about morals at this point? You torture people I love and go off on me for cheating? Yeah, I don't think so."

I swung the flashlight at the figure as hard as I could, letting all the rage I'd felt the last few days out. I hit it square on the jaw.

Its head whipped to the side but turned back to me almost immediately. "You really think a flashlight's gonna stop me?"

"Nope!" Nate yelled as he ran up to the figure and kicked it in its stomach. "But this might!"

The figure tumbled down the stairs, but, just like before, there was no yell or scream out of pain. The only sound was it hitting the steps.

"Since when do either of you have muscles?" Jason asked from behind us.

After turning around to face Jason, I noticed that he was staring at us in disbelief. I smiled at him before turning to Nate. "For the month I foster you, I'm signing you up for soccer."

He giggled, "I don't do sports. Not when I have to."

"You could make a YouTube channel?" Jason offered.

"Hate to burst your bubble, but I'm pretty sure kicking someone down a staircase and kicking a soccer ball are two very different things," Nate replied.

"Maybe you could make a YouTube channel of you kicking people down staircases," Phil responded.

"PHIL!" I yelled. I had completely forgotten he was in the same room as us.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention," Jason started, "I took the duct tape off his mouth because I figured it'd help his breathing."

"Phil!" I repeated as I ran over to him. I unstrapped him from the metal table and pulled him into a hug.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

I pulled away from him so I could look him in the eye. "You're sorry? I'm the one who took forever to find you!"

"Yeah, but I couldn't tell you that I wasn't the one saying that stuff. And I could hear you crying and it just made everything ten times worse hearing you cry because you never cry and–"

"Calm down! It's okay!" I tried to soothe him, but he shook his head.

"It's not okay! I made you sad!"

I chuckled lightly, "You're overreacting."

He smiled a bit at me. "Isn't that what we get paid for?"

"You're turning into the comments section," I replied, chuckling.

"Hey, so earlier–"

"Glad to see you can still change the subject at the drop of a bloody hat," I interrupted.