All We Know Is Falling.

Chapter Seven - The Hungry Ghosts - Luke.

One Week Later.

Late December.

Somebody was knocking on the front door. They had been for quite sometime now.

Luke Robin Everson was alone in the old, aching manor house he lived in. He was also in the dark. Night time shadows danced from the timber ceiling structure. The ancient hard oak floorboards creaked under his feet as he walked slowly down the hallway, rubbing his slightly sweaty fingers into his palms. It could be anyone on the other side of that door.

Or anything.

The Hungry Ghosts were rising once again, slowly but mercilessly. Inhuman beings that first aroused in a mass from hiding five years ago. Their human past lives full of deceit, greed and jealousy, the binding universal law of Karma forcing their hollow spirits into human bodies, able to change their form's to frighten their prey, or turn invisible to unsuspectingly pounce on it. Many other powers they possessed were thought to be unknown to the human race. A Hungry Ghost would select a human, unknown to the victim, and follow them for weeks, calculating and forming a plan for the perfectly effective way to kill their specified human before the deed was carried out. It was only then the humans usually knew they were being Followed, the last moments of their life while they were dying. 

That was the reason Luke was in the dark. No trace of activity, the curtains drawn and all lighting switched off, no clue this house wasn't abandonded through the eyes of anybody else, no way he could be Followed. 

The Hungry Ghosts were what Luke had always been taught to refer to them as, their true name barely spoken of. They were called this as each mass of Ghosts craved one thing and one thing alone during their vicious lives, what they were starving for. Five years ago, it had been human remains, but ideally corpses.

Now, drained bodies found all around the world, gradually more missing persons posters plastered to every surface and the world slowly spinning into chaotic panic pointed in every direction that this time around, it was the scarlet substance of human blood.

He halted in front of the door and swallowed, trying to swallow all fear with it too. His father used to scold him harshly when he showed fear as a child. Fear is our weakness, and we must be strong. His father had always meant for our survival, Luke realized now. 

Luke turned the door handle anticlockwise, as slowly as he could, and opened it very slightly.

"Name?" He whispered hardly, his head against the hard wood.

"It's me, Luke," hissed a feminine voice back, "Just me. I don't know if there's a secret knock or anything so I just-" He flung open the door, pulled his girlfriend into the house smelling a rush of wet midnight air, and locked the front door behind her. Thea hung her snow dusted winter coat on the stand, and Luke lent against the door,

"Do you think you were Followed?" he asked, and she took his hands and said quietly,

"How would I know?" she kissed his lips, "We're together now, anyway." His hazel eyes stared into her deep emerald green ones, and he shook his head. 

"For now, but not for long." Luke looked downwards, his thoughts racing, "The human race is falling apart. Nothing lasts forever." She gazed at him momentarily, before her eyes fell on a framed emperor butterfly hung on the wall. 

"It has been such a long time since I have seen a butterfly," she whispered, her eyes full of wonder as she walked over to it.

"Do you believe the legend?" Luke asked, following and standing next to her, flicking on the small lamp on the mahogony table below the butterfly. 

"About the spirits?" Thea placed her cold fingers onto the glass containing the butterfly, tracing it's thin indigo wings, "Yes. The Hungry Ghosts are spirits with negative past lives, so who is it say butterflies aren't positive ones? Butterflies cannot exactly speak to tell us this, and the Hungry Ghosts were just a legend until the last mass occurred. I still don't quite believe everybody is either good or bad," she took in a breath, a slight crease on her forehead, "But I don't quite believe anything anymore. They are beautiful, though."

Luke put his arm around her skinny frame, and kissed her ice cold cheek, "Not as beautiful as you."

Thea turned to him, her bright eyes flooding, "What are we going to do, Luke? You are right, nothing lasts forever. We are all going to die," fear soaked her voice, "We have no way of telling if Eryn's still alive, no way of knowing what's going on in Kristina's mind and half the time I don't even know where my own brother is," her tears glistened in the warm light from the lamp, and she said before resting her head against his chest, "All I have is you."

Luke kissed her forehead, "I'm never going to leave you, Thea. I promise, and I will stay by that for the rest of my life." He closed his eyes, tears falling down her cheeks, and the heavy beat of their fear stricken hearts echoing through their bones.

After a long time, Luke reached down and switched the lamp off, realizing he had left it on a little too long. With his fingertips, he opened the curtain slightly, cautiously. He gazed at the desolate white winter countryside, trees stripped and bare, lakes turned to rock and layers of thick snow covering the ground. 

"Thea," he whispered softly when his eyes befell the horror that struck him, "There...there are fresh footprints behind yours." 

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I know it's short, I'm really sorry!

Hope you enjoyed it, love to hear your opinions :) Francesca x