What Lies Beneath

Chapter Thirty-One: A Grimace and a Goodbye

Wyatt wandered around the empty hallways in search of his missing friend. He racked his brain for every possible answer, but still he had none. One moment she was standing next to him and then she vanished. How was he going to explain what happened to Karen and Paul?

They had made the decision to split up into groups of two for this exact reason. Ever since they had arrived at the house, they all had been the victim of something unusual.

This house wasn't safe, and they all knew it, but when the topic of leaving came up they all hesitated. These red, overly filled walls had a story to tell and it had drawn all of them in. All except Sophie that is. She wanted to leave, and they had somehow managed to talk her into staying for two more days. Only now, Wyatt had lost her.

The walls of the hallway seemed to slowly creep in on him as he tentatively moved forward. He wanted to keep looking for her, but he also didn't want to end up like Delphine.

As Wyatt passed by a flickering lantern, he stopped to look at the picture that it illuminated. In the photograph he saw a dark shadowy man with graying hair and a scowl on his face. His eyes were almost as black as his hair. His face was filled with wrinkles from age.

The longer Wyatt stared into the photograph the more he saw himself. Not as an old wrinkly man, but as he was at that moment. He could see the fear in his green eyes and the bags under them due to the restless nights that he had spent in the house.

He hated himself for wanting to run back to the others, but he knew that it was the right thing to do. He needed to get reinforcements.

With a newfound resolve, he took one last look at the picture before he turned in search of the others.

Gwyneth had spent the day wandering around the empty property. Every time she would near the pond though, she was reminded of her nightmare. She knew what laid dormant in the cool murky water, but it wasn't until last night that they had come to her.

She hadn't wanted to return to the house, it had been Agatha's idea to come back and fix up the place. Gwyneth had vowed long ago that she would never step foot onto this horrible property ever again, but when her old friend had told her about what had happened to the house, she knew that she had to break that vow as she felt a misplaced obligation to this miserable place. After all, it was partly her fault that history took this specific turn.

However, she never expected things to turn out like they had. The house was feeding on them. It wanted to keep them there like the others. Gwyneth had barely made it out the last time, and still she foolishly made the decision to return. And in doing so, she had endangered the lives of twelve innocent children.

Gwyneth watched as the once still water began to stir. It could feel her presence, just as she could feel it last night in her bedroom. It wanted her. It needed her.

As she watched the water, she thought about running, but she knew that it would be futile. This was it. This was the end to her story. She had tried to outrun it all those years ago, but it had simply waited for her here.

As much as she had wanted to believe that she could outrun her fate, she now knew that she had been deluding herself all these years. It had always known of her inevitable return.

So instead of running away, like everything in her told her to do, Gwyneth took a step forward. With each step she took towards the pond and what awaited her, she brought forth memories of the past.

She thought of the girl that she once knew and her tragic fate. It had been her fault that that poor innocent child met her demise here at this house so many years ago. She supposed that it was time she paid for her sins. It was time to greet her demons at the gates of hell, for where else would she go after everything she had done?