The Freaks | Sally Face

Chapter 13: Room 403

A/N: this chapter contains scenes with blood, gore and graphic descriptions. Please read at your own risk. Thank you!

Sal's POV:-

The three of us chatted, speculated and ate over the next few hours. I was so fortunate to have these two in my life as I couldn't believe how much we all had in common. Considering River had never really had friends, you couldn't tell as she was a natural speaker and projected confidence when she was around people she felt comfortable with. I on the other hand could be incredibly shy, meaning I would often stutter which was a huge annoyance. River always said she found it really sweet so I suppose it couldn't always be that bad.

As the time went on, I could see River was getting nervous as she began to pick her thumbs. A tell tale sign she was anxious. I would often extend my hands to hers, without Larry really noticing to encourage her to stop, when she realised what she was doing she would tuck them into her palms to try and stop herself. Sometimes it would work, other times it was be useless. I suppose a habit that has happened for years is hard to kick and that was hers. I wanted her so desperately to meet Megan, she was incredibly sweet and was so easy to talk to. Whenever I had something really deep on my mind, I strangely found comfort in a child ghost as they had such a different outlook on life. I know Megan was only 7 but she changed my perspective on things and put her own childish spin on things which sometimes made me wonder why I was so worried about something in the first place.

Many of you may be thinking, how can you be friends with a ghost? Ghosts surely aren't real. Well that's where Nockfell isn't quite what it seems. I have always been very familiar with the paranormal, often detecting things that others may not be able to see. Talking to many therapists over the years, they tried to reassure me by calling them 'visions' or having a typical overactive imagination but I know what I've seen. I've seen the nicest of ghosts, ones that appear confused or lost, some of which I have done my best to help move on but not all of them do. Back home in New Jersey there was a ghost by the lake I used to love, an elderly man who had been murdered by his late wife for the insurance claims. He often told me how much he loved her and wanted to be with her till the end but when she killed him, he realised that those years of love may have been a lie. I did my best to investigate it, pull out any old newspaper clippings and evidence I could but unfortunately I couldn't help him move on due to his ties of loving her. I once told the therapist this, they said I was too involved in my dreams that they were becoming a reality. I tried my best to defend myself, saying these encounters were not dreams but the world trying to show me something that not all humans could see, a gift if you will but that was shortly dismissed.

I was often put into a small box after admitting to seeing ghosts. Therapists would try and put me on different medication to 'dull the visions' or 'allow me to see normally again' but they never worked. If anything some of them heightened my experiences, allowing me to see different creatures too. Some of which were not all that friendly. One of them being the black demon with red eyes. I first encountered this creature when I moved to Nockfell, the medication from New Jersey in my system. As I was studying the halls and particularly the fifth floor, the cold air against my nape made me instantly feel I wasn't alone. When I first entered Room 504, I saw him standing there in what was once the living room, staring at my with his dark and terrifying eyes which made my head fuzzy and my vision blur. Had this demon ever been seen before by a human? Was he afraid of what could happen? Or did his strength heighten? I remember the feeling of fear eating me from the inside out, the fogginess of my vision growing and intensifying the longer I stood there in his presence. I ran shortly after, closing the door behind me and not returning for two weeks.

When I finally built up the courage to go back, no longer on my medication that's when I first met a Megan. A small girl with long hair and an innocent smile. I wasn't remotely afraid of her as she instantly began to talk to me about her school, the games she played as well as her Mom and Dad. This continued for several weeks, us both creating a friendship and me forming a very protective bond with her. Whenever Megan mentioned her Mom, I could see the sadness in her eyes. She constantly repeated that 'mommy couldn't play with her until the monster had gone', which I only assumed to be the demon that I had first encountered those two weeks prior. I asked Megan about him and she disappeared without a trace. Her body disintegrated before me and seeped back into the old and mouldy floor boards which filled me with guilt. I never meant to scare her that fast, I was just trying to help her. It was around a month after that when I took Larry up there to make sure I wasn't crazy, when Megan appeared I was so glad to see she was ok. Larry on the other end, like we mentioned earlier nearly crapped himself instantly. It wasn't until Megan started talking to him he began to loosen up and feel a lot more open to the idea that it isn't just a human world.