A Night to Remember

Oh, fuck... I'm dead?

"We should get the others, they need to see this," Bob said after a brief pause.
Frank gave a small laugh. "Well, yeah, it's significant, but how does it help us? It doesn't tell us where he is or what's happened to him."

Bob turned a hopeless expression towards the shorter man.

"I'm clutching at straws, Frankie, but I need to, because it's all I've got."

Frank nodded his understanding.

"I'm out of ideas, Bob, I don't know what to do. I talked Mikey into coming here, he didn't want to, but I..."
"Hey!" Bob cut in with a commanding voice. "Mikey's a big boy, he can make his own decisions and you didn't force him."
"I did," Franks voice was barely audible. "When I whispered in his ear, I told him it wasn't haunted, that it was all fake."
"You thought it was true," Bob comforted him.
Frank shook his head. "I didn't think anything, I didn't really believe it, but I didn't know for sure."
"You thought it wasn't haunted and said so," Bob summarised. "It's not your fault. You have nothing to beat yourself up over."
"But it is! And somewhere, God only knows where, is Mikey and he's probably scared stiff!"
"I'm right here!" Mikey screamed for the third time. "I'm standing right fucking next to you!"
"We better get back," Bob could see he was losing the battle with Frank, he was guilt ridden and nothing he said was going to change that.
"Bob!" Mikey yelled with no response. "Frank! Why can't you hear me? Can't you see me? What the..."

Mikey's jaw dropped as his friends turned to face him and headed towards the door, passing right through him as they walked. Mikey spun on his heels to see Frank glance back with an expression of curiosity on his face but Bob continued to the door as if nothing had happened.

"What's up?" asked Bob pausing at the door.
"I... I don't know," Frank replied with uncertainty. "Just briefly... no, I don't know."

Mikey watched bleakly as they left the room to rejoin the others. Beside him stood a high backed chair facing the fireplace.Hesitantly he edged his hand closer to it, gasping as it passed straight through.

"Oh fuck... I'm dead?"

*

Bob and Frank walked back to the control room in silence. Frank drowning in his guilt and Bob racking his brains trying to find arguments that Frank might even consider to be valid. The truth of the matter was that Frank was struggling to reconcile what he had done against what he had said. There was the small matter of what he had called his experiment – leaving Bob in the cell, awaiting the arrival of the Devil who would come to snatch him away – and telling Mikey that the house was not haunted.How could he justify both? He had either lied to Mikey or been very cruel to Bob. Neither possibility made him feel like a good friend. Added to that, Mikey was missing and very possibly in real danger. The ghost of Lady Alverton had already tried to force Gerard to re-enact her death. The blade had been poised ready to plunge into his heart and only Bob's quick reactions had prevented it. He couldn't even begin to think about what she may do to Mikey. Would she kill him? Had she already done it? The mere thought made him feel sick to the pit of his stomach.

"Bob!" Frank finally reached breaking point. "I'm sorry about the cell and I deserved everything you did to me and if I could take it back I would. Hell, I'd take it all back if I could! We should never have come here! How could I do all that research and not even notice that Alverton looked like Mikey?"

Bob smiled sympathetically.

"And if you had noticed?"
"What?"
"If you'd noticed the resemblance what would you have done?"
"Well, I..." Frank sighed; yes, even with the benefit of hindsight he was talking nonsense. "Nothing," he admitted. "It would only have made amused me more."
Bob nodded.
"We'll find him, Frank." Bob offered his most sincere smile. "Come on, let's get back to the control room."