Unnatural// 5SOS & 1D

Fleeting// part nine

a.i: Haunting

"Just listen to me!" I shouted, slamming my hands on the table. My parents stopped talking and turned to glare at me. I had been trying to explain to them the situation we were in but they kept dismissing me. They called me crazy, a nuisance. They wanted me to just drop it. We weren't moving and nothing I could say could prevent that.

"We are and what you're saying is delusional! There's no such things as ghosts." I groaned.

"Tell that to the ones around you." I said gesturing out. They were all standing there, at ready even though my a parents couldn't see them. Ashton gave me an encouraging smile. My parents looked around them, though they couldn't see anything.

"There's nobody here."

"Yes there is!" Adrian piped up. "Danny is even standing at the back door and he hates this house!" Adrian said gleefully pointing to the sliding door where I could see Danny peeking in nervously.

"Who is Danny?" My mom asked him.

"He's a kid, he died here. They all died here."

"If they're dead why are they still here?" My dad demanded.

"Beats me old man. We've been trying to figure that out for years." Ashlee said leaning on my dads chair while Connor snickered next to her.

"Ashlee says she doesn't know." I told my dad. "She's leaning on your chair with her boyfriend Connor." My dad turned around instinctively and looked Ashlee up and down but he was seeing straight through her still. Adrian giggled as Connor and Ashlee made faces at him. I sighed.

"They want to get us out of here. We have to move to a different house. This isn't about me not wanting to be here, I don't care about that anymore. What I care about is not dying here."

"Like us." Sherry chimed in. I smiled at her sadly.

"Dad, there's a girl here. She looks just like me. She died when she was seventeen in the upstairs bedroom." My parents were quiet.

"How?" My dad asked solemnly.

"The Dark Man." Adrian whispered. I nodded my head slowly.

"His name is Anthony Bolger and back in the seventies he was wanted on seven accounts of murder, not including the ones he committed here."

"In the seventies? Shouldn't he be dead by now then?" My mom asked.

"He is. He's a ghost, he killed Ashton."

"Alright, I've heard enough.." My dad said, standing.

"You haven't heard anything!" I exclaimed. "You think Ashton is alive, some regular teenage boy down the street but he's not. He's here. He's right next to me." Adrian nodded his head in agreement. Ashton took my hand. "They're gone dad because of Anthony. He's the one who put the writing on the wall. He's scaring Adrian to death. Hell he's scaring me! I don't want to live in this house dad."

"How did he die here?" My mom asked.

"Don't encourage them Mariah!" My dad exclaimed but my mom didn't look at him she was staring at me. I knew she would bend faster than my dad. I sighed in relief.

"Sherry started a fire in here that killed him but they're all stuck here and they don't know why."

"This is crazy! If eight people had died here, why weren't we told before we bought the house?" My dad demanded, standing up.

"Ashton died in the late nineties. He was the last one. Since then, he's been trying to keep people out by scaring them, you guys are more stubborn than the rest." I said with a nervous laugh. "They only tell you about a murder or death in the house if it happened in the past ten years, otherwise it's not important."

"But eight people, I'd think that's pretty damn important and the fire damage.. I don't see any of that." My father said gesturing around. I sighed.

"Ashton's family fixed up the house, moved in and then two months later, he was killed." My parents were quiet.

"We've almost been here for two months." My mom whispered.

"Oh please! Don't tell me you believe any of this Mariah." My dad said throwing his hands in the air.

"It's not just Shayline seeing it Johnny. It's Adrian too."

"How is Adrian more reliable than I am?" My brother laughed.

"That's not what I mean honey. I mean both of you see them correct?" I nodded, glancing around the room. "And they're here now?" I nodded again. "Can they show us?"

"Yeah, I prepared for this actually. Go ahead guys." We waited. First, Danny knocked three times on the sliding glass door. My dad jumped away towards it, throwing it open. Adrian laughed the entire time.

"It's just Danny dad!" Danny knocked on the glass again. Then Connor and Ashlee starting banging the pots and pans together in the kitchen. They were laughing. Watching them do this sort of was comical, especially since my parents were slightly horrified since they couldn't see them. Sherry began picking up the chairs one by one and dropping them back onto the hardwood floor. Finally, Ashton walked towards my mom and put his hand on her shoulder. She shuddered and turned. He removed his hand.

"Which one of them was that?" My mom whispered as I waved my hand, motioning for them to stop making noise.

"Ashton." My dad took my moms hand. "They just want us to leave. They're not trying to scare you guys." Every one was quiet, waiting for my parents replies.

"Can't we help them?" Adrian asked tugging on my shirt.

"Help them?"

"They're stuck here. Can't we send them away, to heaven?" I shrugged.

"I don't know. We'd have to talk to somebody.. Grandma maybe. She said she used to help people like this but I can't.. I can't remember any specific stories about expelling ghosts." I paused. "And I don't really want to expel them, just send them on their way. I'm sure those are two different things."

"I know something specific." My mom spoke up.

"What?"

"It's.. It's an old story of your grandmothers. She used to tell it stories like this to my sister and I before we went sleep. Probably not good bedtime stories but they put us to sleep." My mom murmured.

"What did she do?"

"Oh gosh it was something called.. The Spell of the Haunting, but what it does is expels evil spirits. The ones who want to harm people."

"What if there are multiple spirits?"

"You have to lock it onto a specific one. You can send the others on peacefully after you've gotten rid of this Anthony Bolger."

"Is the Spell of the Haunting it's actual name?" I questioned.

"I think so.." My mom paused. "You're not planning on doing it are you?"

"Why not? I'm a Seer, so is Adrian. I think we can manage. Do we need special candles, herbs?"

"Nobody is expelling spirits in my house." My dad commanded.

"Dad! They're stuck here!"

"You could get hurt." He said earnestly.

"I'll be fine, you guys will be there right?" My parents seemed astounded by the notion. "I don't think I could do it by myself. I need help and my kid brother isn't exactly going to be much help."

"Hey!" Adrian whined.

"We have to call grandma. I need to know what to do. What to say. We're sending you guys home." I said loudly to everyone in the room. They cheered and applauded us.

"Well I wouldn't exactly call it home but I guess moving on to some sort of afterlife would be better than this." Ashlee said with a shrug.

"Are we doing this tonight?" My mom questioned.

"Why not. No time like the present and these guys have been waiting long enough." It was the first time I had seen any of them truly smile. I caught Ashton's eye and suddenly, I realized what sending them on would mean, Ashton and I would have to say goodbye.