Haunted Souls

Chapter 5

Will eventually found Nico and Bianca in the oldest and abandoned side of the castle. They were both moving around as if they were on an active battlefield, Bianca clenching Maria to her chest. Nico himself was paler than usual, his dark eyes narrowed in fear.

"Nico?" Will's voice caused both of them to jump. "What's wrong? Why are you all the way over here? Ethan and I found a place to sleep for tonight."

"Will..." Nico hugged his husband, his arms shaking from shock and fear. "I saw something...I don't know how to explain it...God, I feel insane..."

"Don't feel insane." Will kissed his head before looking to Bianca. "Are you okay?"

The teenage girl nodded despite the fear that shown in her eyes. "It's scarier here than I expected."

"That's because you're in the area without electricity." Will kept Ethan on his back, having more trouble now that he had fallen asleep. "I found the place where my grandmother must have stayed. It's taken care of and has electricity."

"Really?!" Bianca's eyes lit up. "Electricity?!"

"Yeah but there's no Wifi. Don't get your hopes up." Will shrugged. "I don't know what else you could use your phone for."

Bianca huffed before looking to Nico for help. "You need internet to watch your shows! Hasn't one updated?"

Nico snuck a glance at Will. "That's true, man."

Will would have facepalmed if his hands were free from holding Ethan up. "Let's just get to where there's electricity so we can sleep. Ethan is heavier when he's asleep."

Nico glanced back at where he first saw the shadow, his good mood fading just as the shadow had. "Yeah... I can tell you about what happened...hopefully, it was just my imagination."

"Imagination? If you had been holding Maria you probably would have dropped her." Bianca looked to Will. "I've never seen him like that, to be honest."

Nico waved her away. "You're not my therapist. I'm okay."

She rolled her eyes. "I know you better than you know yourself." She gestured to Will. "We've seen you watching your 'show'. What's it called again? Spongebob?"

Nico blushed. "Not my fault I didn't have a childhood!"

"That doesn't mean you have to watch every episode at three in the morning," Bianca argued. "Then you sit there searching to see if there are new ones when you know there won't be."

Nico held his hands up in surrender. "Let's go lay down before I jump off one of those staircases."

Will couldn't help but laugh at the situation. "Okay, let's go."

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That night was the hardest night Nico had ever endured. Fits of restless sleep, shadows seen out of the corners of his eyes. By midnight he had given up on going back to sleep, knowing that even sleeping by Will wouldn't help him now. Not after seeing what he had seen.

Bianca laid on one couch as Ethan laid on the other, blankets on the floor for Nico and Will to lay. Nico had gotten up, however, leaving a shivering Will under the mound of blankets. As soon as the sun went down, Will's control vanished. He was always cold, always tired. Ironic, considering his last name. He blamed it on being raised as a morning person, but Nico just found it a coincidence.

There was a grandfather clock in the corner of the room, seeming to be as old as the castle itself. Cobwebs covered it inside and out, but it still kept on ticking through time. Nico could mostly stand it, but at three in the morning it let out an eerie ring that sounded too much like a warning for his comfort.

A warning for what? It took him too long to figure out.

On high alert now from the night he had been having, Nico quickly heard the footsteps that seemed to be coming from right above him. Heavy boots, it sounded like. Heavy boots...

Nico grabbed the fire poker before peeking out of the room, his eyes scanning the dark hallways. He could think of multiple reasons why someone would be in there, including a homeless person who thought it was abandoned or a serial killer who wanted five more victims. Both didn't help his mental state or the fact that his hands were shaking the fire poker every which way.

It wasn't courage that got him to step out into that hallway. It was actually fear, fear of what could happen to his family if he didn't. His sarcastic daughter, his little Ethan and his many fears, his newborn baby that hadn't been able to experience life yet, his husband... It was always them that gave him the will to live, the will to fight for his life. It was them that got him back on his feet from the horrors of his teenage years.

Nico never told his kids, Will never told them. But his teenage years leaked in every now and again, forcing him to see how much his life had changed. If he hadn't ever met Will...he'd probably be dead.

"Who's there?" Nico asked, making sure to close the door behind him quietly. "Who's there?" Still in his pajamas, his bare arms were out in the open. Scars were seen, though most had faded away along with where needle marks once were. In the dim light, they caught his attention more than the moving shadows around him.

He walked around all night, tried to find where the footsteps had come from.

The castle was empty beside him and his family.