House of Spooks (COMPLETE)

Chapter 16

And there I was, lying on the red velvet heart bed, but not chained to anything or tied up with any kind of BDSM gear.

Distant memories of Camilla explaining her past to me in the time I had passed out floated through my mind. My head pounded, but I could somehow still form coherent thoughts.

"You have to understand my situation here, Devon. I joined Samantha's gang looking for an escape from my horrible PTSD. I was used by men in an alleyway once when I was, hm, about 19. I couldn't stand it. Over and over they each took turns hurting me, using me to their own advantage. Until they were done, I had no purpose to live. Then I met Samantha."

I remembered being able to talk back to her the way I did with the creature at the prisoner's ward. Her voice echoed throughout my head as I watched her sit on the bed next to me with a smile. Her eyes weren't smiling, though.

"What about her?"

"We...dated for a while. Of course, couples like us had been looked down upon still. We had trouble hiding it."

"Did she help you?"

"With my PTSD? Yes. Very much, dear. Until I noticed she was acting more distant than usual...less caring, more careless. You get the idea. She wasn't abusive, but she seemed cold..."

"And then you framed her for cheating in poker?"

"Mm-hmm. The bitch got what she deserved. I learned she had been planning to break up with me. Wanna know why?"

"Why?"

"Apparently, I was being too rough to her. I hurt her during the times we 'did' anything together, apparently."

"You reflected your trauma onto her. So she wanted to break up with you...but why do you do this to people? Why would you hurt Celine like this? Or those creature people in the ward?"

"I wanted to get revenge. Do you understand who those creatures are? Those...are the men that hurt me oh so many years ago. The men that had used me and left me in that alleyway with no will to live. So, I waited until they croaked and imprisoned them."

"Why Celine? Why me?"

"I learned that Samantha had relations with your grandmother. I curse the woman who made your mother possible."

"You're sick."

"Hmph. You'll learn someday."

As I came to my senses, Celine and the others were standing before me, looking down on me like I was hospitalized.

"Devon? Are you okay? You blacked out." Celine asked, gripping my hand tightly.

"I...Camilla, she's...she's been hurt before too."

"What do you mean?"

"Samantha, she said you...seemed more cold to her...because she was becoming hurtful. You guys dated for a while after she was raped. You wanted to make her feel better, but in return she just...shut you out and reflected her trauma onto you. Then she framed you...it's all too clear n-now..."

"Y-yes... correct. I'm so sorry I never told you the truth." Samantha said, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"N-no, it's fine. Everything's just dandy...I just...I wanna go home... where's Camilla?"

"The ray gun, Devon...when you blacked out, you must've hit the trigger and...and you shot her." Collin said.

My eyes widened almost immediately. The one thing I had to do on purpose...I did it on accident. Just by passing out.

"There's no way." I mumbled, getting up from the bed and running to the headquarters where I had blacked out.

Camilla's body wasn't there. Only a large pile of black ashes.

"It's...it's too good to be true, there's no way it's over yet, this isn't the end!" I panicked, getting down to my knees and sifting through the ashes.

"Devon, calm down! Of course it is!" Celine said, hugging me tightly.

"But it can't be. So we just go home and forget any of this ever happened? I forget my new fucking friends and abandon them and never see them again?"

"Devon...you won't forget us. I promise." Mabella said calmly, placing a hand on my shoulder.

I got up slowly and looked at the three in confusion. "What happens if I die in this world?"

"Humans cannot die in this world, Devon. I'm afraid not."

"I...I just... don't wanna leave you guys. Will a suicide pact suffice?"

I was snapped out of my silly talk by a slap from Celine across my arm. "Ow! What the hell?"

"Shut up! I will not let you fucking kill yourself!"

"But I—"

"How do we get home?" Celine interrupted me, looking at the three ghosts with a perplexed look.

Collin frowned. "You must go through many dimensions to get to your world. Your physical bodies are in a coma-like state. Exactly four days have passed since you entered this world."

"Four days? I swear I just came here when I went to bed tonight...last night? Four days ago? I don't know anymore." I said, sitting down on a dingy chair.

"Yes. All we need to do now...is burn this place down from the inside out."

"Hell yeah, arson!" Celine cheered.

"Hey, that's a crime." I chuckled.

"Not if you come up with a good alibi." Celine said, digging a red lighter from her pocket.

"Whoa, you don't smoke. Where'd you get that?"

"Stole it from Camilla. She had no idea."

I sighed and shook my head. "So, where should we start lighting?"

"Light fires in multiple places. It works better that way."

"Found some gasoline." Samantha said, hauling a thing of gasoline to us.

"Sweet! Okay, so, let's get going!"

Celine did most of the dirty work while I stood outside and reflected on my life.

What if...what if Camilla wasn't really dead?

((HELLO I'm so sorry this was super short, but I really want to break this up into 20 chapters, which is the most I've ever done. Most people (aka better writers than I am) go for the "20,000 word mark" for a complete story but I really don't feel like I'll ever accomplish that. I really want to make this my best work even though it's kind of mediocre at the moment. Camilla had been a concept in my mind for 3 years now. I don't know how much I'll develop her, but for now she's just one of those characters that I work with once and completely forget abt but hopefully I can make her a legitimate character.)