Ava's haunting

Chapter 3 ~ Aaron

Chapter 3 ~ Aaron

As the others were busy with getting the torch on fire Iwandered of a bit. There was this weird atmosphere in the house. It felt as ifsomething or someone was watching us the whole time. I didn't believe this wasWillow's doing. This wasn't like one of her pranks. Or she must have gotten aspeed cursus in becoming a professional prankster. But I doubt that happend.Her schedule wouldn't allow that after all. She was a busy woman. I looked atthe old paintings that were hanging on the wall behind the left stairs. Youcould see they were very old. The paint had faded a bit. But you could vaguelymake out what was on it. Carefully I removed the spiderwebs and dust from thefirst paiting. This must have been the lady of the mansion. She didn't lookvery happy. Her expression was supposed to look neutral, but she looked rathersad to me. She was wearing a pearl necklace around her neck, with some matchingpearl earrings. A ring was around her finger, probably a wedding ring. Youcould see she was latina. I looked at the name that was underneath thepainting. "Lady Emerald HackfordFulgencio." Was written on it. "Fulgencio..."I murmured. What kind oflanguage was that? It sounded Spanish. I should remind myself later to ask Avawhat it means. She would know. The painting beside Lady Emerald lay on thefloor. The wall supporting the frame that surround it. I crouched down to facethe painting better. Again I removed the spiderwebs and dust from the painting.This painting was damaged. The person who did this had much hatred for the lordof this Mansion. Carefully I lifted the pieces a bit so I could have a betterlook at the painting. Someone had been cutting this painting up. I couldn't seemuch. Lots of stains covered the painting. "LordBennet Hackford." Was written on the frame. "Someone must have hated youvery much sir." "Who are you talking to?" I turned my head immediatly to seewho the voice belonged to. "Sorry bro, why is everyone getting so startled byme today." Hunter said overdramatically. I chuckled and looked back at thepainting. "I was talking to our host here. Someone sliced him up very badly.The painting isn't really visible anymore besides forehead and hair. The personwho did this must have hated him very much." I explained. He nodded and gaveLady Emerald a look first before he looked at the painting infront of me. "Wereyou online when Willow told us the story of this house?" I nodded. "It waspossibly the housemaid. But after all those years, we could never know for sure.Vandals could have done it too." He said while shrugging. All of us met onlinecause of a game we played, Town of Salem, it was called. We came from all overthe world. I came from Finland, my boy Hunter came out of Turkey, Abigail from Belgium,Willow from the Netherlands, Ava form England and the rest of us came out ofthe USA. We were a close group of friends. We had gone through a lot together. Sowe could survive this too, I was sure of it. I shook my head and went to thethirth painting. This one wasn't as dirty as the parents. You could see a younggirl on it. She must have been around 20 when this painting was made. She hadthe looks from her mother. Her brown eyes peared right in my soul. She lookedhelpless, scared almost. As if whoever was painting her was a scary person. "Lady Magdalena Hackford" Magdalena wastruly a beautiful woman. The story says she was drowned in a bathtub. They knewit had been the housemaid but there was no prove of it. Such a shame. "Help me..." It sounded like a whisper. Asif the small breeze I felt had carried those words. "Did you...hear that?" Hunterasked and I nodded. I was glad that I wasn't the only one who had heard it."That wasn't Willow." Hunter said. I looked back at the painting but took astep back. My eyes grew big and I blinked a few times to see if it woulddisappear. But it didn't. Was this...how on earth was this possible? Hunter wasstanding next to me. The look on his face showed me he saw it too. I reachedwith my hand towards the painting, but Hunter grabbed my arm. "Wait...don't dothat. What if..." He started. "What if what? I need to see if it's real." I saidcalmly. He held my gaze for a moment but than let go of my arm. Instead he putit on my shoulder. For support I guess. I took a step closer to the paintingand let my thumb caress over the girls cheek. A wet liquid fell on my thumb. Wehad seen it leave the girls eye. It was a tear. I turned around to face hunterand showed him my wet thumb. "How can a painting cry?" I asked him and he justshook his head. He looked in disbelief at my thumb. I turned back to thepainting but it was back to normal again. She had this neutral look on herface. Just like her mother had. The scared expression was gone; there was noevidence left of the tear that had escaped the girls eye. "What just happend?"Hunter muttered confused. "I don't know. Really." I said and went with my handthrough my hair. A loud scream echoed in the hallway. Hunter and I came frombehind the stairs to see Caleb rolling on the floor screaming. "Why did you dothat Toby!?" Molly screamed at him. Nathan had put off his hoodie and put itaround Caleb his leg. There is truly somethingstrange about this house." I replied. "Atleast we had some fire. The torchdidn't burn at all. "Nathan joked and I chuckled. "That's right. Sorry wecouldn't keep that source of light." Caleb fake apologised with a smile. "Doyou think you can walk with that leg?" Ava asked. His leg did look bad. As soonwe got out of here he needed serious treatment. This was going to leave a nastyscar. "I think I will manage. I've faced bigger flames than this one." Hejoked. I was glad to see he still had is cheery personality. That was somethinga haunted house couldn't take away from him. I was kind off disappointed thatmy observations of the paintings were interrupted. I would have loved to seethe other ones. I wanted to get a closer look on Lady Magdalena's painting too.But I guess the best thing to do was to move on and stay together from now on.Strange things were happening here. And I was afraid that if we lost each otherthings would get worse.

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Sorry for the late update but here it is! Hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to leave a comment!

Love Rachel.