Haunt You

5. Pulled Down by the Tide

     (7:56 PM)

     "So..." Dan said out of nowhere.

     "Now what?" Will asked, shuffling closer into their little sitting circle.

     "Play the Ouija board now and leave?" Kyle sheepishly suggested.

     "No," the three musicians looked sternly at the keys player.

     "But I don't like it here!" he whined.

"Too bad!" Dan threw his hands up. "We're a band, and bands stick together!"

"But bands can also break apart," Will said. "One Direction," he coughed.

"Not us," Dan hissed in the silence.

"Then what the fuck are we supposed to do until three o'clock?" Woody challenged Dan. "Like, we already explored the whole place."

"Not the whole place," Dan's eyes lit up. "The attic," his voice cadenced to a whisper.

"No," Kyle immediately shook his head. "Fuck no. Never ever."

"Why not?" Dan asked. "Ooh! We should play the Ouija board-"

"NO, DAN." Kyle lunged at the singer, hissing with the fake vampire teeth in his mouth.

"Fine," Dan scoffed and shuffled backwards.

"Then what do we do?" Woody raised an eyebrow. "Explore the house again?"

"Nah," Dan's voice rang with boredom. "I have a better idea," his blank face grew into a smirk.

"Oh boy," Kyle sighed. "Please don't say-"

"BLOODY MARY!" Dan cried with excitement. "Who's coming?!"

"Me!" Woody volunteered with courage, hastily getting up to follow Dan into the hall.

"They must be crazy," Kyle frowned. "No one in their right mind would go play that game in that bathroom."

"I know right?" Will muttered. "Just...whatever you do, don't separate from me if something happens," he told Kyle.

"I won't," the keyboardist hesitantly shook his head. But what if something tries to kill us? The twenty-nine year old nervously bunched into a ball as he and Will waited for Woody and Dan to return from the bathroom.

"WOAH!" Dan's powerful voice boomed out. "Ky! Get your ass over here!"

"Fuck," the keys player rubbed his pale face. "I don't want to go."

"No, you have to," Will's demeanor suddenly changed.

Kyle's eyes went wide as the bassist forcefully grabbed his thin wrist, tugging him roughly from the floor. The dreadfully long Dracula cape flew in the breeze as Will whisked Kyle through the long and dark hallway. And it was something the keyboardist didn't want to do, not in a million years, basically...never. He gulped at the scratched off paint, and the blood red graffiti that soaked into the walls. Kyle could have sworn he saw claw marks and blood splatter as Will took him down the long hallway to the end, where Dan and Woody were.

"Will! Ouch! That hurts!" Kyle whined as the bassist's nails dug into his smooth skin, making the musician's eyes sting with tears of pain.

"Does it burn?" Will bluntly gazed behind into Kyle's eyes.

B-burn?

"W-what?" Kyle whispered with fear, nervously sweating as the two of them reached the bathroom.

"Finally!" Woody burst out of the bathroom, causing Will to let go. "You two took a fucking long time to get here!"

"Kyle was being a puss," Will's monotone voice threw the drummer off the scale.

That's not normally like him...Woody took a cautious step back, eyes slightly widening at the bright red marks on the keyboardist's wrist.

"Oi, this is fucking creepy," Dan's head poked from behind the door. "Come check it out."

"You go ahead," Will stared creepily at the two musicians.

"Okay?" Kyle slowly pushed Woody into the bathroom.

Will's gaze continued to pierce the back of Kyle and Woody's heads as they inched their way into the strangely large bathroom. The keyboardist panicked and quickly slammed the rust-hinged door, startling Dan. Demanding an answer, the singer and drummer pressured the young musician into telling what happened, to which he willingly did, going to the smallest detail, like the talk of burning and Will's bizarre behavior and aggression towards Kyle. Additionally, the keyboardist spoke about the eerie silence that wrapped around Will and him, and how most of the speaking the bassist did was in a whispered tone.

"Do you think..." Woody stroked the stubble on his chin.

"Nah," Dan shook his head in disbelief. "He's probably just faking it to get a reaction out of you."

SLAM!
SLAM!
SLAM!
SLAM!

     "What the fuck?!" Dan shrieked like a girl.

     "Burn!
     Burn!
     Burn!" Will's loud whispers sent chills down Kyle's spine.

     "Holy shit!" Woody took out his phone to record the occurrence. "He's fucking possessed!"

     "Dan! What do we do?!" Kyle cried with panic.

     "Hold on," the singer sunk into his world of deep thoughts. "You said he whispered..."

     "And?" Woody leaned his back against the door to prevent Will from breaking in.

     "He's still whispering!" Dan said over the loud slams. "I bet the spirit hates loud noises!"

     "Get to the fucking point and do your plan!" Kyle screeched.

     And with those words, skeletal Dan immediately whipped out his iPhone, swiftly unlocking it. His desperate eyes searched for the Spotify Music logo, satisfaction flushing over his panicked mind when he found the green and black square-shaped icon. Dan's thumb pressed on the Spotify app, impatiently waiting for it to load to his home page. But when it did, he went to the loudest song that had recently been played, clicking on the song to start the tune. With the song blasting at full volume, the slams died, and all that could be heard was the sound of the old song. Dan held his phone against the worn down door, wanting the effects of the music to work against whatever had possessed Will.

     "CAN YOU FILL THE SILENCE?"

     "Agh!" Woody dropped his phone and covered his ears.

     "Mate! You're killing my ears!" a familiar tone came from the other side of the door.