A Series of Unfortunate Mysteries

Old Haunted Houses: Chapter Five

They all sat gathered in the living room again. Bree was about to fall asleep when Diane finally broke the rather long silence.

"Vic, come with me upstairs," She whispered, and Vic nodded sleepily. They walked up the stairs, and they creaked and moaned under their weight. When they reached the top, Diane pointed to the son's bedroom, making Vic raise an eyebrow questioningly. "I just wanna take a look."

They stepped into the son's bedroom, taking notice to the faint footprints that could be seen in the dust. "That's—" A loud thud echoed through the small room, making Vic turn to the now-closed door and Diane chuckle. "Not weird."

Vic turned back towards Diane, and she shouted, "Vic, behind you!"

A bloodied red-headed boy stood behind Vic, attempting to reach out to her but she ran towards the closet on the other side of the room. Diane ran to the door, attempting to open it while Vic attempted to reason with the angry spirit.

"So, y-you're Christopher, right?" The ghost-boy stared at the lavender-haired girl strangely, causing Vic to let out a nervous laugh. "Why don't you just let us out, okay? We don't wanna hurt you—" Diane let out a half-hearted scream as a semi-deep scratch appeared on her forearm, making her stop banging on the door temporarily. "Hey, hey, hey! Christopher, we just wanna talk!" Vic stared at him anxiously, finally taking notice of just how much he was stabbed all those years ago.

He had holes everywhere. Between his eyes, on his chest, along his arms—everywhere. He looked at the two girls sadly, but a wave of anger passed over his face at the sight of Diane continuing to bang on the door despite the wounds he had inflicted on her. "Leave... Before we have to kill you and your friends, too."

Diane stopped hitting the door at his words, slowly laughing out of exasperation before shouting. "We have never done anything to you or your family!" Diane slowly stood up with support from the wall. "Why do you do this, huh?!" There was several moments of silence, with Christopher staring blankly at them both, before Diane was lifted up and slammed violently against the door. She collapsed to the ground, barely conscious from the hit.

"Diane!" Vic ran to her best friend, helping her sit against the wall away from the door. Diane groaned quietly, touching the back of her head and feeling a warm liquid she knew was blood.

A new banging started on the door, this time from the outside of it.

"Diane!?"

"Vic?!" Two male voices called, which the girls recognized to be Luke and Reagan. They kept banging on the door, the poundings becoming softer as they hadn't heard a response.

Diane turned to Christopher one last time. "Christopher, there's no point in killing..." She struggled to get her words out as she was losing consciousness. "It's not... Justice..." She slumped back against the wall, the impact of her hit finally overtaking her.

Vic tried to shake her best friend awake, which worked to no avail. She turned back to the ghost, but gasped as two others spirits were with him. The woman had a hole in her temple and the man had two holes in his chest, similar to Elaine's account of what happened to Mr. and Mrs. Bryson. They all turned to Vic, where Mrs. Bryson smiling at her, before they disappeared with a soft gust of wind.

The door flew open, and Reagan and Luke ran in, stopping at the sight of Diane and Vic on the floor. "Help me get her downstairs." Vic ordered softly.

With Reagan and Vic supporting Diane, they all made their way downstairs, meeting the eyes of a worried Bree, who gasped at the sight of Diane's condition. She only pointed to the couch, and they set her down as carefully as they could.

Vic began to retell the previous events, making Bree stare at her curiously. "They just, disappeared?" She said in disbelief as Vic stared at her unconscious best friend.

"Yup," she said softly, turning to Bree with a perplexed look on her face. "It was the strangest thing. One second, they were smiling at me. The next, they were, gone." Bree just stared blankly at the three teens, before turning to Diane and sighing.

"Well, let's get her back home and give her time to get rid of that inevitable concussion."