Haunted Souls

Chapter 4

"Look at this." Will walked into what looked to be a sitting room, closing the door behind him before finally setting Ethan down. "This is nice looking."

Ethan moved to the two couches, his eyes on the cold fireplace. "Does fire go in that hole?"

Will smiled. "Yeah, it does. Let's see if we can light it." He walked over the old rug, his eyes looking the stone walls over. Piles of books were pushed up against them, not looking sorted by any kind of system. "Why don't you sit down and get comfortable for the night? I'll find you some blankets."

"No!" Ethan shook his head. "I'm not sleeping yet!"

"And why not?" Will kneeled by the fireplace, his eyes trailing the wooden logs already in it. "It's almost dark out."

"Cause we still haven't found daddy and Bi," Ethan explained. "So we have to find them first."

"I can find them while you lay-"

"No!"

"Huh?" Will looked at his son in shock. "What are you yelling about?"

"Don't leave me alone!" Ethan begged. "I'm scared! Please don't leave me alone!"

"Ethan..." Will moved to the couch to sit next to his son. "You shouldn't be scared of this place. I promise that it's safe."

Ethan crawled on Will's lap. "It's scary...and dark...and cold. The ghosts are going to come eat me if you leave me alone."

Will wrapped his arms around the small boy. "How many times do I have to say that the ghosts won't eat you?"

Ethan hid his face in his father's chest. "Please don't leave me alone..."

"I won't." Will gave in. "But you have to stay by me if I bring you with me, okay?"

Ethan nodded in agreement. "Okay."

Will got up before putting his son on his back just as he did earlier, his eyes gazing over the room around them. Where could Nico have possibly walked off to? If he didn't know any better, he'd say Nico had gone to try and find the darker side of the castle. Maybe a grave or two, maybe some blood spots. Nico always had liked to be his own investigator.

"Let's go find that insane husband of mine." Will left the room with his phone out, the battery slowly dying. "He's probably trying to summon something."

"He's going to summon the ghosts that are gonna eat us!" Ethan's grip on Will's neck almost choked him. "Tell him no! Tell him to stop!"

Will sighed. "Ethan, relax. I was joking. He isn't going to summon anything."

"We're going to find him eated." Ethan muttered. "Him and Bianca were eated."

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"Dad?" Bianca looked over at the frozen Nico, her heart sinking when she saw the look on his face. It was dark in the room, almost too dark, but his flashlight gave her some light to see his pale cheeks, his wide eyes, his mouth slightly open in shock. "What's wrong? Are you okay? What'd you see?" She looked down at the candle, relaxing when she saw that nothing had caught fire. "You could have killed us, you know!"

Nico's long eyelashes moved with each slow blink, his look of horror slowly fading into disbelief. "I...holy fucking hell-"

"Dad!"

"Sorry, I'm sorry." the beam of the flashlight shook with his nervous hands. "I...I can't believe that just happened..."

"What just happened?" Bianca asked, growing impatient. "All you've done is drop a candle, you know. Were you trying to commit arson?"

"What? No." Nico handed her the phone, it's flashlight still on and as bright as ever. He tangled his hands in his hair, pulled at the dark curls as if that would put his head back where it was supposed to be. "I saw..."

"Dad, if you don't tell me what the hell is going on-"

"Bianca!" her choice of words seemed to break through to him. "What did we just go over about cursing?"

"It was the only way to get you back to reality!" she defended. "You look insane! You almost killed us with the stupid candle!"

"The candle..." Nico looked down at its remains. "Oh... I... I'm sorry. I couldn't control my reaction. I just...dropped it."

"Why? What did you see?" Bianca pressured. "You haven't told me anything."

Nico peered into the darkness but the shadow figure was nowhere to be seen. "I don't know how. You're going to think I'm insane or you're also going to freak out."

"Dude, just tell me!"

"A fucking shadow, okay?!" Nico turned to face his daughter. "A shadow that wasn't mine or yours and had fucking red eyes! You know how fucked up that sounds?! Cause I do!"

Bianca froze, the beam of light shaking again as her hands started to match those of her father. "Oh..."

Nico's gaze softened. "I'm sorry, Bianca. I shouldn't have talked that way to you..." He put a hand to his forehead, his breaths coming out uneven and harsh. "I'm sorry. I was scared."

Bianca slowly let her hands fall to her sides. "It's okay, dad. I understand."

"You do?"

She nodded. "Let's just try to find dad and Ethan, okay? You might have made it up. Maybe you need sleep."

Nico scowled. "You sound like Will."

"Well, I am his daughter." Bianca spread her hands. "And someone's got to take care of you. You'd be six feet under if it wasn't for us."

Nico's mouth quirked up into a smile. "Haha, very funny."

"I know, right?"

"That was sarcastic."

"So was that."