Return to the Haunted Mansion | BOOK 4

1. Nightmares

There's someone in my room.

The sheets cling to my sweaty figure as I inhale slowly. There's always been this presence... and it's only in my room, ever since I began having the nightmares. THey were so vivid, like broken memories. Wolves, vampires, ghosts... things that don't exist and yet do in my mind. Does something like that make me crazy?

I wrote them down, the dreams, when I was nine. The pages rest in the top drawer of my desk, each "chapter" confusing and strange, like a tale from wonderland. I wish it was from wonderland. The images I described in my stories didn't do the real thing justice, and I didn't understand some things I do now... which terrifies me all the more.

Something clatters to the floor, sending a bolt of lightning through my body. Hastily, I reach for my lamp and switch it on, illuminating the room. I swear I see something move out of the corner of my eye, but I'm alone. Everything is as it was.

Except for the book that had fallen to the floor and the few papers it took with it. On shaky legs, I make my way over to it and freeze before my fingers can touch it. It's pink cover had a flower on the front, its sparkles shimmering in the dim lighting. Why I kept this thing out, I have no idea--actually, in all honesty, I do. The pages were a mystery to me. It was mine. My diary from eleven years ago.

There's a sound of something moving back by my bed. I spin around, trying hard not to show fear, and once again saw nothing. The chain to turn my lamp on was swinging back and forth, as if something had just touched it. Which I did... but it wasn't moving by the time I stood.

My breath hitched and I grabbed the diary. Everything grew cold suddenly, my insides twisting around themselves. I felt so small, so weak... there's no possible way someone was watching me, or even in my room, is there? Ghosts... are just...

The lamp shuts off.

I clutch the diary with both hands as my eyes open wide, trying to use whatever light my pupils can find to see.

And then I see a face.

She smiles mischievously as my fingers go numb and I drop my old diary.

It disappears, a cold chill splintering through my nerves.

"Happy Halloween," a voice whispers, laughter following it.

Suddenly, it's as if the floor disappears from below me and I scream as I pass through it, gravity pulling me down faster than my brain could keep up with. I felt like Alice falling down a rabbit hole. I can see nothing and feel nothing but wind licking at my body as I try to reach out to grab onto something ,anything, but I feel nothing. The only sensation available to me is taste and smell, dirt and mildew filling my senses.

And then there's light. It's down below, lodged crookedly into the dirt, skeletons sticking out from where the light falls. A cry of help explodes from my throat as I pass it, a hole in the wall with people in it. If you could call them people. They don't even glance my way as darkness falls again, the light gone. Another bulb flickers on below to my left, and I whip by it, a chill freezing my bones as the little girl watches me the entire time, her eyes filled with anger.

Looking over my shoulder, I watch as she jumps, falling through the air with me, a few hundred feet up. My heart rate begins to speed up, and I start to reach for anything, the dirt wall not too far from reach. Darkness falls again and I hear a howl. The sounds of rushing water reaches my ears, the air growing damper as I descend.

Something comes into view.

It's a speck, way down below, glowing light blue. I peek behind my shoulder to see the girl has fallen a lot faster than I have--she was almost able to touch me. An utter of fear is expelled from my gut and I turn to see what it is at the bottom of the long hole. The blue speck has gotten bigger, white appearing in its coloring now. Another howl cries out as I recognize the circular image--it's the moon.

I crash into it. Water surrounds me and immediately; I'm suffocating. The girl crashes in behind me as I turn over to face the image of the moon, bubbles floating up from my mouth as my lungs begin to burn. Her blue fingers wrap around my neck and squeeze, her red hair like fire in the florescent glow of the moon. My sight clarifies as unconsciousness forces its fingers into my brain and I recognize her face.

Her name is Megan.

"You left me!" she cries beneath the water, bubbles spurting from her mouth as the warbled words reach my ears. "You will pay!"

My eyes snap open, my white ceiling greeting me. I sit up, coughing and sucking air into my lungs. Was I really suffocating in my sleep?

A chill runs down my back as I look at the old diary on my bookcase. It was all a dream.

But it felt so real.