What Lies Beneath

Chapter Twenty-Four: Everlasting Sorrow

Whispers, that was all that remained of a young life unlived. Somehow, during the night, everyone was able to have a few moments of sleep. Though I wouldn't call them enjoyable. All except Charlie, suffered from unending night terrors.

The night was filled with horrible images of death. Each guest dreaming of their own demise.

Karen saw glass shattering around her. The shards cutting into her skin. Wyatt's dream, however, was even more grim.

In his dream, silence enveloped him. There was no sound, not even when he called out for help. Then came the blood. There was so much blood coming from his limbs. He tried and tried to stop the bleeding, but in the end all he could do was wake up in a cold sweat.

In Sophie's dream she was lying on the table where Delphine had died. There was blood everywhere, but it didn't seem to be coming from her. In the background she heard someone screaming, but before she could look, her body was engulfed in agony. Every atom in her existence seemed to send immense pain through her. In the end all she could do was wish that she was dead.

Charlie's dream was different than all the others that night. He didn't dream of his own death, so much as he dreamed of the other guests. In his dream he chased down each one with his axe in hand. The dream felt so real to him, in fact, that when he woke up in the morning he half expected to be covered in their blood.

Luckily, it was just a dream.

However, the dreams didn't stop with the guests. You see, Agatha and Gwyneth got to have their own nightmares.

Agatha found herself trapped in the house, surrounded by the unseen residents. They slowly encircled her. Their whispers over-powering her screams.

Gwyneth found herself outside. She was walking along the water's edge when hands broke through the surface and latched onto her ankles. The cold, wet iciness of their skin cut through to her bones. Before she understood what was happening, she was inhaling the murky water of the pond. So many hands were touching her, pulling her under. She couldn't breathe. The water was quickly invading her lungs. When she awoke in her bed, she found that she was screaming, and a dark figure was watching from the shadows.

By the time that breakfast finally rolled around, everyone found that they were not at all hungry. Perhaps it was the idea of sitting at a table that a girl had died on the night before, or maybe it was the still fresh memory of their nightmares. Whatever the reason, the dining room remained empty that morning.

Paul wasn't the type to go barging in on strangers, but in this case, he had to make an exception. He figured that bringing Joe some coffee might make things a little better, but he was wrong.

Not wanting to give him too many details, he tried to stay on the facts only. Paul supposed that he could have told Joe his name, but he didn't see it as important. Especially since they would never meet again after he left for the house.

However, Joe was insistent upon knowing his name. So even though it went against everything he was trying to do, he told him.

Even though Joe now knew Paul's name, it didn't stop the badgering of questions.

"How did you know that I was looking into that house? Did Bobby tell you?" It was the only reasonable explanation he could think of. He certainly wasn't going to believe that this kid knew what he was up to from a dream he supposedly had.

"I don't know a Bobby, and I already told you, it came to me in a dream. Now, are you going to listen to what I have to say or not?" Paul found himself getting very annoyed. This is why he didn't like to have to explain the fact that he could, for lack of a better term, see the future.