The Haunting of Sunshine Girl

Chapter 36

"Ew, ew ew...!"

"All right, all right, it's okay—" Kat fumbles with the camera and frowns when Sunshine buries her face in her hands, pacing the kitchen. "It's not dead bodies in the wall, all right?"

"It's skin," Sunshine retorts and fans herself with a hand.

"No, okay, all right, it's just a story, we don't know if anything he says is true. He could just be making this up to impress you."

Nolan interrupts them as he wavers near the dining room table, looking off to the side and into the living room. "Question. Nobody listens to me, right?" He off-handedly glances in their direction, but not at them.

"Okay," Kat counters, "that was really a gross story, all right, we're just kind of thinking—"

"It's not like I made it up!" Nolan says, shrugging his shoulders defensively. "I'm sorry, you guys remember you wanted to know about the.. thing..? And I was like, no, no, no, and you went yes, yes, yes!" He spreads his hands forward and mimics them in a high voice. "And I tell it, and you're all like—"

"Yes, we sound like that." Sunshine rolls her eyes.

"No, and you're a jerk!" Nolan continues mocking, wiping a hand over his mouth. "Well, look, don't be worried, it'll be okay, uh.. my grandma has always been..."

Sunshine looks at the camera.

"..I mean, happy, here. There's never been, really a— an instance of any great magnitude, you know, it's mostly just, y'know, little... temperature changes, you know what I mean." Nolan walks behind them and stands next to the cupboard. Sunshine stares at him. "The house was torn down and was rebuilt."

Neither of them say anything.

"Look," Nolan stresses, "all I'm thinking is that, it's like, y'know, the victims." He spreads his arms to his sides.

Sunshine drops her hands. "Okay," she says shortly, "the ghosts, yeah."

"All right, it's— there's gonna be—" He pauses, staring into the distance. He's thinking, Sunshine can tell, and the clear-strung hesitation isn't making her feel any better. She's sorry for feeling disgusted at that story, but honestly, who wouldn't? For starters, she's literally standing over where there were dead bodies, and now she knows what that deep, pulsing fear in her gut was about. Frank Loren is making her feel this way.

"No, what did you just—" Sunshine sighs heavily and palms her face, stressing out.

"You just had a moment," Kat observes, pushing her brows together.

Nolan walks back to the chicken dresser, placing his hands on the counter. "Well, I'm just—" He frowns. "Thinkin' that— well, I mean, you're a Luiseach."

"Well." Kat hums. "We don't know."

"I think so, I think so," Nolan continues to ramble, ignoring Sunshine glancing up at him as she leans on her arms. "What I'm— cause I've never seen anything horrible here, but... I guess I've never had a Luiseach in the house. I'm curious as to whether we run into Freddy."

"No," Sunshine mumbles. She doesn't want to run into Freddy.

Kat, still holding the camera, puffs out a breath of air. "So what are you thinking— that because she might be this Luiseach, that the more... violent..? entities may come out? Is that what you're trying to say?"

"I think we're fine, we're fine," Nolan says with a smile, but Sunshine can tell he's just trying to shrug it off and convince himself they're safe here. Well, news flash, they're not. God, Sunshine feels sick.