Crazy House

Chapter 6 (Continued)

Wow. So apparetnly I only updated 3/4s of chapter six, but I was too lazy to fix it last night. Obviously there is something wrong with me, seeing as I am incapable of even doing the simple task of copying and pasting correctly. Anyways, here is the rest of chapter 6.

“What makes you think we will be any different?” Ingrid retorts, daring them to give anything other than a pleasing answer.

“I don’t,” Ryder leers and the cough syrup silence returns.

“Well Ryder that isn’t exactly our call, I mean our grandfather was the one who picked the fifteen of you so who knows? Besides, those were just test challenges. This is the real deal.” Elias adds with a smile; leave it to him to instantly relive some of our tension. “But you guys should not be worrying about that yet; we still have quite some time until the trials. For now, just worry about training.”

Elias continues to speak, but I have long since stopped listening. Through the doorway, I see a small girl with wide eyes and black curls standing in the hall, staring at me. I look around, but no one appears to notice her. She holds at her small little hand and after only a slight hesitation, I rise out of my seat and take it. The moment my hand slips through her icy fingers, she leads me down the hallway.

“Where are we going?” I ask, but I get no reply. Her mouth is busy sucking on her skeletal thumb; in the crook of her arm she holds a baby doll. We walk through the hallway for only a short time, stopping in front of a closet under the stairs.

“You wanted to show me a closet?” The girl stares at me with her wide, unblinking eyes then back at the closet, her thumb never leaving her mouth.

“Do you want me to open it?” the girl continues to stare at the closet so I take that as a yes. Stepping forward, I very slowly turn the handle and pull. A large shape that had obviously been propped against the door falls forward and lands on me, knocking me to the ground; I push the large object off of me and roll over to face the thing. And then, the screaming starts and I black out.

I awake a moment later on the library floor, still screaming. Elias stands over me, concern etched into his gorgeous face; everyone else stands as far away as possible.

“Juliette! Juliette, what is it? What did you see?” he pleads frantically.

“Cl-closet. Under…under stairs.” I gasp, my voice shaking. Ryder rushes out of the room, his normally lax behavior gone; he comes back a moment later, utterly stunned.

“There was a girl in there.” He says slowly, trying to comprehend what he just saw. “She’s dead.”