Ghost Hunter: CyberNerf (Alternative Draft)

Chapter 10

He put on his hunting gear and was ready to run back up to the attic. But he halted bursting into the hallway. It was pitch black. Not a single light on in the old house. He heard something creak behind him. He spun and fired but it was only the door of his room swinging with the breeze.

Ned's flashlight was still in the attic, so he made his way to Dan's room. He remembered his brother kept one right under his bed. When he swept his hand under there, his fingers brushed the cool metal. Switching it on, he walked into the hallway listening to the commotion of voices. They did not seem to come from upstairs anymore.

Just as he turned a corner, a fleeing ghost ran into him. He shouted with surprise and fright, dropping the flashlight and holding out his gun.

"Ned! How did you get down here?" Jessie said in the dark.

"Oh, it's you!" Ned exclaimed. "Where is everyone?"

"How come you got that flashlight working?" Jessie asked, picking up the light from the floor.

"What do you mean?" Ned said.

"Mom and dad have been fighting with their flashlights and everything is just dead! I was going to get the one candle I keep in my room," Jessie informed him.

A loud crash resounded through the black house. Ned and Jessie automatically jumped closer to each other.

"What's happening?" Jessie asked as they both heard a wailing moan from the upper part of the house.

"It's the trap door!" Ned gasped. "It's open! Holy meatballs! The shadow monster has gotten out!"

"What?" Jessie frowned hard in the dark. "Wait! Ned, where you going? I want that flashlight," she snapped as Ned ran down the hallway.

Just before he disappeared round a corner, he paused and called back. "There's no time, Jess. Go to your room and lock yourself in."

Ned braked beside a window on the second floor of the house. It gave on to a view of the main floor where the hallway outside his parents' master bedroom was partially visible. He could also see some part of the kitchen and most of the dining area from up here.

At any other time, he would have simply glanced down there and continued round to the stairway at the far corner.

This time, the scene he saw through that window froze him in his tracks. First he saw Dan moving past a door holding a candelabrum. He was mumbling at something. He saw his mother struggling with a doorknob. Then he saw Joan and Jeff huddling together, Jeff holding a burning candle.

His dad walked into view slapping a flashlight. He was too busy fumbling around with the dead light to notice the monstrosity slowly flapping toward Joan and Jeff.

It looked as if it was flapping and slowly rolling itself forward along the floor. As Ned gazed, he realized its numerous limbs were not touching the floor at all.

For a few moments, frozen in place, Ned tried to make out what the ghost reminded him of. It looked like a big head all covered in bark; with gleaming eyes, all white, as large as those of an owl, set in the middle of all the limbs.

The limbs were flayed shreds of the bark making up the head, and they sprawled like hair. It strangely looked like a floating piece of a tree.

The thing didn't seem to have a mouth anywhere. But who knew what those flailing shreds of bark could do once they wrapped themselves around you nice and warm?

The thought made Ned snap out of his daze.

He realized it would be too late if he tried getting to his family through the house. The tree-like, hoary head was gaining on his siblings every minute. If he screamed from up here, it might panic them down there, only making it easier for the ghost to get them.

What should he do to get to his siblings before that barky thing did?

Something bobbed in front of his face and he shone the light up to see something he never expected. It made him smile despite the danger creeping closer every minute. The tiny spider bobbed in front of his face again, hanging by a slim strand of its web, before it jerked away out of view.

"That's it!"

He ran back past Jessie who tried to grab hold of him. "Ned, stop!"

He dropped the flashlight so she could take it. By now, his eyes had grown used to the haze. He shot up the other staircase to the third floor and scampered through the hanging trap door in the roof up into the attic, running with one finger on the trigger, in case the humanoid shadow was still lurking around. Nothing got in his way this time as he heaved himself through the window.