Scratching The Surface

Chapter 7

They had gotten the last piece off of the wall when Piper's scream was heard from above them. Instantly, Jason ran upstairs to meet her, Leo right behind him. When they got to the kitchen, they found Piper sitting by the counter with a laptop. Her hands shook and her eyes were wide with fright, a couple tears having fallen.

"Piper?" Jason ran over and kneeled beside her, his voice full of worry. "What is it? What happened? Where are the kids?"

"Living room...they're playing...in the living room." Piper managed, closing the laptop. She watched Leo leave to check the kids before looking to Jason, looking truly terrified for the first time. "Jason..."

"Just tell me what it is. We'll fix it." Jason promised, hugging her close to him. "What is it? What's wrong?"

Piper buried her head in his chest for a minute, feeling his heartbeat against her forehead. It grounded her, calming her heart rate and breathing. After a couple minutes she looked up to face Jason, her eyes watering again. "I'm scared."

"Why are you scared?" Jason asked. "What happened? You were just cooking dinner... Did you burn yourself?"

Piper shook her head. "It's...kind of a long story...and you might think I'm insane."

"I wouldn't think you're insane," Jason assured her. "Just tell me so I know what's going on."

Piper nodded slightly, wiping at her eyes fruitlessly. "The kids were playing outside. I looked away for a minute and...and Katie wasn't there. I found her in the woods. When I brought her in she explained to me that she had a friend that lived out there."

"Probably an imaginary friend." Jason offered. "That's not rare."

"She said her name was Octavia and that she was blue, Jason. That she lived in the lake with her family and her dog." Piper opened the laptop again and turned it so Jason could see the screen. "I researched. Read...read that, Jason."

Jason took the laptop hesitantly, his heart filling with dread when he read the heading of the old news article. FAMILY DROWNS, MANOR HAUNTED? Underneath, their new address was written.

"Read the whole thing." Piper reminded him. "It's all important."

"What? Is it going to tell me a girl named Octavia died here?" Jason grumbled, scanning his eyes over it again.

"Well,...yeah, it is," Piper replied, her voice small. "Apparently there's a lake in the woods. She and her sister went to swim. They didn't know the bottom was like this quicksand. Her parents tried to save them...they all drowned out there."

Jason read to make sure Piper had read everything right, and she had. The newspaper went into detail about these people and their lives. They had gotten the house for cheap and lived well in it. The parents, Percy and Annabeth, were ordinary Americans. Percy was a lifeguard and Annabeth was an architect. The news of their deaths had shocked the whole town and traveled far, but Jason had never heard of them now twenty years later. How had something so horrible become so forgotten?

"Are you sure Katie hadn't read this?" Jason asked. "I mean, if she had, it'd be easy for her to imagine it once it was in her brain."

"I just got the laptop out of a taped box. Our phones have been on us. She didn't read it anywhere, Jason." Piper took the laptop back and stared mournfully at the picture the newspaper had of the dead family. "She wouldn't have known..."

The couple fell into uneasy silence, both thinking their own thoughts about what exactly was happening there. Neither wanted to admit the possibility of the paranormal, but no other explanation came to mind. What could've happened? It would be too large of a coincidence to be believable, and yet Jason still tried to write it off as one. Ghosts weren't real...right?

"Pipes...let's calm down for right now, see if everything calms down. It could just be a coincidence...we don't know. I'll build a fence out back that Katie can't get passed and it'll all be okay." Jason kissed his wife's forehead. "Okay?"

Piper didn't seem to fully agree with him but nodded, her thoughts running with ways she could get rid of Katie's "friend". "Okay..."

Jason got up, helping Piper to her feet. "Is dinner done?"

Piper nodded, letting Jason wipe her tears. "Is Leo eating?"

Jason nodded, letting her go. "You okay? The girls will get upset if you're upset."

"I'm okay," Piper assured him, putting her phone on selfie mode to check her face. "S-See? Barely looks like I cried."

"Take a minute if you need one." Jason started to get plates down from the cupboard. "I'll set the table."

Piper watched him silently, her hand still gripping onto her phone. There was one person she knew that'd help them, but Jason wouldn't like her calling her at all. But if he didn't know...

~~Line Break~~

Nico put the wooden boards over the hidden room that night, not caring what Jason would think when he saw them the next morning. All he needed was to keep it hidden, to keep it out of the way...

That day hadn't been horrible, however, even if Nico wasn't feeling the greatest at the moment. It was nice to hear about Octavia and her family, nice to know that they were all together still. It was nice to know that they hadn't been forgotten by the living like he had.

Once the boards had been put back up Nico exited the basement quickly, not wanting to be down there longer than he had to. It was too close to things he'd rather forget. Instead of going to his room like usual, he went to the room where Jason's daughters slept. They were both sound asleep, the nightlight illuminating their childlike features. They were innocent, and Nico swore to make sure it stayed that way. Nico liked kids and hated to see them go through what he did. If there was any reason he was still on this earth it was to help those that he could.

Maddie's soft crying led Nico to her crib quickly, his arms gently picking the girl up. Pacing the room, he sang to her under his breath and rocked her in his arms, just as he had seen his mother do so long ago. Maddie quickly calmed and eventually fell back asleep with her head against his chest, but he kept singing to her for a while longer.

He never realized that Piper would hear all of this over the baby monitor.