Return to the Haunted Mansion | BOOK 4

10. The Blame Game

It took forever to fall asleep. After the vision of the memory or dream, I'd stood up off my floor and I couldn't shake the cold air wrapping around me. Just after, I'd fished the journal off the floor and skimmed over it again, terrified it'll happen again, that I'll get sucked into whatever I saw. There must be some reason as to why I saw that when I did, and why the Megan who's terrorizing me now appear there? Something's off, and I don't understand it. If these were supposed to be dreams, then why is Megan telling me they aren't?

In my little dreams, I went back to the mansion, despite Megan's warnings. There, the supernatural beings were discussing powers. Like superhero powers. I'd been caught by a black cat and ran out the mansion, only to see an abyss of nothingness, the ground giving way to a never-ending drop of blackness. It's a startling image in my mind as I recall what I'd seen of the mansion recently. I nearly tumbled over the ledge as they cornered me, a werewolf snarling and leading the group like a pack. The werewolf lurched, making me lose my balance and I fell, holding onto the edge like in those cartoons , and Megan declared us enemies before stomping on my hand to let me plunge to my death.

Then it all turned out to be a dream.

Once again, I sprinted to the mansion and through a window and headed up to the band room, where Megan was lying unconscious. I gave away my position and was able to get out of the house, exiting through the same window, and I crouched down beneath it. The bushes rustled and a wolf--werewolf--pounced from the bushes and bit deep into my leg. It let go, giving me a bloodcurdling smile and leaped inside the mansion. I couldn't move. Eventually, the pain ceased just enough so that my body wouldn't lock up each time I moved, and I used the windowsill to stand, peering into the kitchen, dragging myself back inside.

Why did I keep going back? Was I an idiot?

I was able to make my way up the stairs once more, the beings scattered around the mansion for whatever reason, and I collapsed right beside Megan. Down her arm was a bite marks in the shape of a snout, the same shape on my calf. In shock and fear, I reassure myself that she's a ghost, which means she can't die again, and make my way home, somehow not alarming the paranormal things lurking around. My mom freaked out when I came home, and I told her that a dog attacked me. She wanted to call the police and animal control and whatever else while she bandaged me up, but I lied and told her the dog got ran over so it's okay. She told me to change and that she was going to take me to the ER. With a groan and a mutter I went to my room. On my bed was a pile of reanimated bones, watching television.

Seeing it made me angry and the next thing I knew, the world was silver and then pitch black. I'd fainted.

I look around my room, feeling as if there's eyes watching me. tightening my jaw, I go back to reading.

I woke up the next morning and something felt way off. I hadn't gone to the hospital and I was on my floor, red blood staining my white carpet. For a moment, my hand seemed transparent and I panicked, but it was solid once again the next moment.

My house was eerily quiet, so I got up to look around. My brother was playing his game in his room, and when I went to go check on him, he turned his head toward the door slowly, creepily, before snapping it back to play his game.

Back in the kitchen, I called for my mom and there was a loud bang. In the kitchen, the black cat from the mansion had gotten a bowl down--how random--and hissed and disappeared into thin air, soon after, it attacked my wound.

Moving forward a few pages, apparently I'd turned into a ghost and Megan had become human once more. It seems as though it sent her back in time, and if we didn't return to how we were, I'd disappear forever. The werewolf had approached us and revealed that her brother was behind the swap. They looked exactly alike, so she told us t put some blue paint on her fur. Paint that had been in the mansion already. How we were able to use an old thing of paint, I'd no idea, but whatever. A lot of these dreams don't make any sense.

All we had to do was walk in the band room together and we'd return to normal. Megan ended up getting cold feet and began to leave, the werewolf, whose name is Keea, and I protesting. When she saw me again, she screamed. I began to disappear piece by piece, the pain excruciating. Blood began to seep from my hairline and I completely disappeared.

I laid unconscious on the floor, flickering in and out of existence as a wolf stood over me, blood pooling around my body as I sat up, coming-to. I stood up but my legs buckled from underneath me and the floor collapsed. I ended up in a large dining room, where I ventured into the kitchen, where I met a headless cook. Megan found a way downstairs and helped me escape, only to turn around and get dragged back into the kitchen with Megan and Keea as well. Something reminded me of when I went into the mansion and they were talking about powers that I had.

Before I knew it, my eyes were glowing bright blue, a sense of calm washing over me as ghosts, zombies, and ghouls began to sprout from the floorboards, destroying the ground. I watched, unmoving as Keea and Megan fought against those trying to restrain us. Each time a creature that fought for us was wounded, pain struck me, shaking the mansion. It was as if a sudden burst of energy rushed through me and I was suddenly able to break free of the beings holding me. Everything seemed to disappear as I fainted, exhausted.

The entries end there, a cliffhanger. It was the last of my dreams.

I slump against my bed, my mind reeling. I was really terrible at explaining my emotions and actions on paper, wasn't I? I've come so far...

I feel it again, suddenly, eyes on me, and I take a deep breathe, sitting up slowly.

"Megan?" I ask quietly. No answer.

My lights flicker.

A book falls to the floor.

I tighten my jaw and clench my fists.

"Let's say these things happened," I speak out into my room, hoping it's her who hears. "What happened after I blacked out?"

The light flickers again, twice this time. Why isn't she showing herself?

I grit my teeth. "What happened after I blacked out?"

I covered my right eye, leaving everything drenched in blue. There's a faint wispy outline of a body, which I assume is Megan's.

"You need to tell me if you want me to help you."

There's a pause before she materializes.

She grins a crazy glint in her irises. "What's wrong with your eye, Katelin?"

I frown. "I think this is your doing," I reply. "Now tell me."

Megan's face falls slowly into something of despair.

"You fainted and the beings that had come to help at your command fell to ash. Keea and I tried moving you from your spot, and you woke up only for a second, mumbling about how it was all a dream." She's suddenly angry. "I'm not a dream, traitor."

Her words are jabbing as she comes near me. "I'm not something your over-active imagination made up."

"Okay, but--"

"You got us into this mess, locking us away forever, not able to move on should we choose." She's seething now. "It's your job to get us out."

A wicked smile spreads across her face, a drop of blood seeping from her hairline and onto her brow bone.

"And I will terrorize you every day until you do."