“Idon’t feel anything other than weak. We failed you. If I hadn’ttried to run away...” I heard her sniff away tears. “I don’tblame you for running away; it’s what anyone would have done. Youwere scared, and you’re doing this for reasons even I don’tproperly understand. Just try to stay calm because it’s all goingto be okay.” I paused, seeing a rush of movement to the left of me.Although all my instincts told me to look and make sure it wasn’tanything dangerous, I knew it was and if I tried to see, theconsequences would be fatal. “Esther may not be dead. Or, notentirely. We might still be able to save her, but it’s going totake a lot of guts and concentration and you’ll have to do exactlyas I say and don’t look anywhere that can be manipulated by them.From what you’ve told me, that’s what happened to Seb.” A lumpcaught in my throat. “They tricked him by creating an illusion ofour dead parents in that room. Once he let himself in, and hisemotions went haywire with seeing them again, it was easy for them totrap him inside.”“But that’s what they did with Esther. Whyare we only trying to save her? She’s about eighty, and she’s noteven family like Sebastian.” Gwen whispered, as if the house hadears. In a way, I suppose it did.“Estherwas more prepared. She said she’d experienced the same kind ofthing in her youth, but I’m not sure to what extent. She had on hera Xenite pendulum, and as far as I could tell from our family’shistory, noobody in Lightwater history has survived this house. It’sjust me and Esther and we’ve both got Xenite pendulums. So we needto go for Seb first, then Esther.” I tried to think about what todo next, attempting to ignore the people I could see all around me,staring with hate at us. I saw one of them wearing a white robe. Ittook a step forward and I began to silently panic, not wanting tomake Gwen worse. “Gwen,you need to take me to where Sebastian disappeared. I have a feelingthat he’s alive, his body will be fine, but it will be empty. Weneed to save him before he’s too far gone and they don’t let himback.” I quickly spun and locked my eyes with her, careful not tolook at anything in between the candlestick and her scared face. Shewhimpered, and I thought for a second she might try to run again, butshe nodded bravely and took my hand. As she led me forward, theyfollowed us. Their quiet, angry murmuring bubbled around. I felt likeI was trapped in a dream as I was taken up the creaking wooden stairsinto the unlit and dank upstairs corridor. On either side wereunused, Victorian style light holders and wallpaper darkened withdust and muck. The carpets, scruffy and visibly damp from the leakingroof, led the way forward. Gwen silently pulled me forward, handclammy with fear, and stopped suddenly outside of a solid, thickdoor, red paint peeling from every inch. Very faint screams could beheard as if from miles away seeping through the doorframe.
Ishuddered knowing Seb, my only family left, could be one of the lostsouls within contributing to that noise. The pain he was in wasprobably unimaginable and I suddenly felt incapable of dealing withthe task of ridding this house and myself of all the evilness thathad decided to stick with me. I didn’t know how I was going to savemy brother and Esther, but I knew I had to even if it killed me.Taking a deep breath to steady my dizzy mind, I slowly reachedforward and grasped the door handle. Slowly, with every ounce ofcourage I possibly muster, I turned the rusty handle clockwise untilit clicked harshly into place, echoing around the ‘empty’corridor. I could see them all standing there though, watching andwaiting for me to slip up and try to look at them, or close my eyeswhich were currently stinging madly from lack of sleep or blinking. SebastianI gave aslight push and the door swung inwards with a screeching creak toreveal a completely black room whose atmosphere seemed impenetrableand dangerous. I took a careful step forward, not knowing what toexpect, and ducked as a fist came pummelling from the side of thedoorway aimed for my head. Heaving myself away from the hand, I lostmy balance with the shock and fell to the floor with a yell. Gwen’sconcentration broke and she bent to help me up. Her head snapped tothe end of the room, her eyes growing scarily wide and making methink her eyeballs might pop straight out. “Gwen?” I stood upshakily and brushed myself down. She didn’t move an inch. “Dad?”Gwen whispered hopefully. She glanced blankly just past my rightshoulder, into the depths of the opaque blackness. “Dad!”shuffling towards the pitch black corner of the old bedroom I knewsomething had happened when I had fallen, and I grabbed her wrist.“Gwen! Snap out of it!” she tried to tug herself away from me.The longer I took to bring her back to normality the closer they weregetting with their expressionless, greying faces and outstretchedhands. She pulled herself away from me. She almost began to run away,to the version of her dad they wanted her to see in the corner, awayfrom me and towards them. She tried to surge forwards. Gwen was quiteweak but managed to slip from my grasp. She stormed forwardsdeterminedly.
Ishouted her name again. She ignored me. I spun her around and slappedher hard. Straight across her face. I turned away from her afterwardswith regret. “Rick?” she blinked a few times like a childawaking from a deep sleep. “Oh my... What happened?”“Idon’t know.” I said carefully, glad to have her back. She stillseemed dazed but time was running out and the room, apart from havingthe constant noise of distant screams and a lot of violence, didn’tappear to have anything that could help us save Seb. If he could besaved at all. A light bulb, decades out of use, flickered on weakly.“There’s no electricity in this building, it’s beenderelict for years.” Gwen said, as if stating that fact would stopthe bulb being any less real. She strode over to the light bulb,unscrewed it carelessly and threw it to the floor, face contorted inmutinous resentment.Rick...</I>“Ijust heard him, Gwen. I heard Seb’s voice.” I whispered. Can...</I>“Canwhat? Can I do something?” I shouted at the unpopulated room,circling it impatiently. As I did my second route, the in-builtcupboard caught my eye. Walking over, I pulled out my Xenite pendulumfor protection. I still wasn’t sure how it came into my possession;I only knew it had always been mine. It hadn’t been a proven itemfor protection anyway, but like a child carries a comfort blanket, Icarried my milky white Xenite rock on its fine, silver chain. I had afeeling they didn’t like it, it had immense powers that overwhelmedthem; my lucky charm. A small glow emanated from the fingernail sizedstone, and I opened the cupboard doors full of determination to findSeb and end this nightmare. His limp body lay against a chest ofdrawers, face drawn and beset with terror.
My eyessaw his body with life clearly gone forever, but my mind wouldn’tbelieve. Breath came in short, shallow bursts. I perched next to himand touched his cheek. “Seb, come on. Wake up.” His cheek wasalready turning pale and cold. “You can’t be... dead. Rememberwhen we were little and you said you’d have my back, always? Youdouble pinky hard-boiled promised. We spat and shook on it. Wepricked our fingertips and shared blood so we could be more liketwins!” he lay, eyes open and staring at the stained ceiling above.I imagined he could see the bright stars beyond, one shining emblemin the sky for every loved one we’d ever known to pass on to thenext life. I hoped he had joined them.“He’snot dead because... because you just need to bring him back. You toldme that before we even came up here.” Gwen reminded me gently, asif reading my thoughts.“They’vestabbed him in the heart</I>,Gwen.” I gestured weakly to the pool of blood I was squatting inthat was growing slowly. “There’s no getting him back now,they’ve done the job properly, it seems.” My throat feltconstricted and my eyes became awash with tears. “Seb, comeback...” I murmured to him, shaking his shoulder tenderly. “Theyhaven’t ripped him up to take with them; they’ve killed himoutright and left him here to rot.” Anger reared its ugly headsuddenly in the pit of my stomach; the force of it scared me. Ididn’t want to be like them</I>,filled with hate until that was all that drove me onwards surviving.“That means nothing! Come on, you told me it would look like hewas dead but that he wouldn’t be, that we just need to rescue himbefore he’s lost forever! We just need to... To go and get him?”her nervous excitement fizzled out with the realisation that we hadnowhere to go from here, no plan B in place for when everything wehoped for plummeted to the ground and smashed into pieces. Gwen’sface slowly evolved from hopeless to cautiously excited. “Esther.”She murmured, clearly in the middle of a train of thought.
“Esther?”I asked with a hollow voice. “Weshould find Esther, I have a feeling she’ll know what to do.” Hersmile brightened the dark room, and I even felt a small, temporarytug of hope building in my stomach.I shookmy head. “Esther’s probably dead. Seb’s dead. I want to get youout of here first then I’ll</I>lookfor them. You can’t help anymore than you have already, there’sno point risking both of our lives. I’ll take you to the car andyou can wait there.”“Whatare you talking about? You know fine well there’s no way ofescaping. There’s only two ways of getting out of this place.Either we need to find out how to get rid of all these... things</I>.Or...” A sad look passed by her face. “Atthis minute in time, I really couldn’t care less about what happensto me.” I stated frankly, meaning every word. “What’s mostimportant to me is that you get out of here alive even if I don’t.”“No,Rick, you don’t understand. You don’t know everything, pleaseremember that. This is more than just me and you, it’s not aboutwho can be the bravest and most chivalrous. This is about survival,and saving humanity.”“What?”Humanity didn’t come in to it, just a troubled man who saw things.“I can’t explain, I’m sorry. Just trust me, if you don’tget out of here, there’s no point in anyone leaving. I’ll explaineverything later, when it’s all over.” She kissed me lightly.