Lockwood & Co. AU

Death's In Life

((Here's how Lucy died! You can read it as a flashback if you want, or however you want to interpret it, There's a small gore warning (not too graphic though) and it's really long. Anyways, enjoy!))

Lockwood strode down the steps, moving quickly to check on George and Holly. They had stopped responding to his calls, and his paranoia got the better of him.

Lucy figured that neither of them had found the Source yet, even with the information that they gathered beforehand. They knew that it was something that couldn't be found when the house was being checked. It was either a significant object that was never removed, or it was something that nobody could detect on the search of the building.

They were also told that they were dealing with a Poltergeist, so everyone was wary of any slight shift or bump that they heard. At the beginning, they were careful not to let any emotions get out of hand. As the night progressed, everyone in the company became more lenient with their self-set rules.

George became more irritable, sometimes causing objects to fly out unexpectedly as he occasionally snapped at Holly. Lockwood traveled to their level to keep them in check from time to time, but he went at the wrong time.

He left Lucy in the attic, abandoning her with the sounds of yelling and cursing from the floor below. It had been about three minutes by the time Lucy started to get genuinely worried for them. She was strictly instructed by Lockwood not to leave the iron circle, but she felt tempted to step out of the boundaries.

She breathed in sharply to shout to Lockwood when she heard his voice cut through the uneasy silence in the attic. She couldn't make out what he shouted, and that made her all the more worried. She prayed he wasn't doing anything rash, but she doubted her own hopes intently.

Suddenly, something glass crashed into pieces behind her. Lucy jumped, but immediately after she turned to look, she saw a shadow looming over her. She whipped around, jumping away as she saw it in full view. A large wardrobe behind her toppled forward as she shrieked, leaping out of the way.

"Lockwood!" Lucy cried, scrambling away as she barely dodged the falling furniture.

As she backed away, she saw other objects swarming around her. Her eyes widened as she saw sharp blades and shards suspended in the air around her. As she stumbled back, she tripped over something behind her and landed outside the chains.

She tried to move back into the iron, but the links split and shot off in different directions.

She heard the distant creaking of floorboards. Every instinct in her mind told her to run to the sound— to go to her salvation— but she couldn't. Her body was caught in the constricting snare of ghost-lock.

Lucy was paralyzed with fear, even as she heard Lockwood shout through the static in her ears. She remained frozen in perpetual dread as a faint scraping sound came from behind her.

She couldn't turn to look, but her gaze caught on a loose board on the floor in front of her.

She tore herself from the mind-numbing ghost-lock and crawled to the floorboard. Her mind was swamped with malaise, but her only thought was to find the source.

The distant scraping behind her slowly grew louder as she moved forward.

She ripped out the board to see a small book.