The Haunting of Sunshine Girl

Chapter 9

So.

Literally nothing is happening. It's boring Sunshine to death.

She — she misses the ghosts. And it's.. weird, to her. Because these spirits have given her nightmares, they've made her terrified of the dark and afraid to sleep in her own bed.

But there are good spirits too, right? Maybe the bad ones are getting to her.

Ugh.

She just misses it all.
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They're opening the box.

"Okay," Sunshine says for the camera, sighing. "Go ahead."

"What?" Kat asks in a murmur.

"Tell them." Her voice is clipped.

"You want me to?"

Sunshine looks bewildered. "Yes! You! You're the one that's deciding to open the box, you get to tell them about it!"

Kat scratches her head. "Okay. So, the box." She leans forward to take it in her hands.

"Smells," Sunshine adds, then covers her nose.

"The box has gotten really.." Her mother makes a face of discomfort when the box is pulled closer. "Really ripe. Worse than it was before. It's — it was in the backyard and it was smelling up the whole house. Inside the house, even though the door was closed. We didn't even go in the backyard. It smells.. upstairs, it smells in the basement. It smells out front! And — and the neighbors are starting to complain so.." She pushes her hair back. "We don't know what to do."

Sunshine looks annoyed as Kat continues. "The lady hasn't been back, so we can't ask her about why it's smelling. So.. we decided — we decided we're gonna open the box."

"We," Sunshine mutters, rolling her eyes. "So, here goes nothing. We're opening the box."

The camera is angled toward the lid. Kat begins unraveling the top, lifting it slowly. "No curse on the house, no blowing up — okay, that's good. Good sign."

"I thought something would happen." Kat places the lid to the side. In the box, there are crumpled newspapers thrown in, with pictures of — wait.

"Is that a picture of me?" Sunshine growls, leaning forward.

"Where is this?" Her mother picks up the photo, which has a cross with a curled top circled in black. It's of Sunshine — she's standing outside, camera in hand, most likely videoing something.

"Is that on the back porch?" Sunshine's voice drips with panic.

"I think it is... what, what are you doing?"

"Filming but why — why's that circled, why's that sign on there?"

"I don't know what that means," Kat murmurs, turning the photo over.

"Why is it in the box?!"

"I don't understand." Her mother sounds just as confused as she is.

"I'm not liking this." Sunshine turns the camera towards herself and raises her eyebrows.

"Are there more pictures?" The newspapers have speckles of red on them, growing more crimson the lower they are.

"Is that blood," Sunshine asks, voice shaking.

"I think it is.."

"Oh. I don't do blood. Mmm."

Kat peels away the papers, and a large splotch of ruby sifts through. "Oh! Just —"