Burned Alive

Chapter 5: Flashbacks and Visions

Zachary and Casey stared into the room, it was a mess. There was glass on the floor all in shards, it crunched underneath their feet, but the mess wasn't what scared them. On the floor, beneath the picture frame was a puddle of blood, it wasn't a large puddle but it was just enough to get them to run. They ran down the stairs, they went through the  door by the staircase, it lead through the kitchen, the kitchen was burned also, they went through the backdoor and were met with a large backyard, and a abyss filled with rushing water.

There wasn't any bridge, Casey looked for a way that they could get across, he saw a rope hanging above the water, he got an idea.  " Hey Zach, you see that rope hanging above the water right there?" Zach looked at it, then at Casey and saw his grin. "No, no way, not happening Casey" Zach said with a look of disbelief on his face, "Do you not remember what happened to Leslie in "Bridge to Terabitha" she plunged to her death because of a rope, I'm not doing the same thing". Suddenly  they heard a high pitch scream coming from across the gap, " Zachary!, Casey!, help!!!" that was Destiny, and she was screaming for them to help her. Zach grabbed the rope and pushed off, he swung to the other side and planted his feet on the ground, he swung the rope back over to Casey," hurry!" he shouted. Casey swung and landed right beside him.

They took off running through the woods, shouting Destiny's name as they went, they ran into thorny branches, and stepped on sharp twigs, but that didn't stop them.

Meanwhile Ariel had dragged Destiny to a pond and pushed her in, the water was ice cold, Ariel jumped in also and started to choke Destiny. She slowly started to lose consciousness, suddenly she saw blackness. Ariel let go of her neck, Destiny's body dropped down as if it was suddenly weightless.

Ariel's ghost smiled and disappeared. Zachary and Casey were running fast, still calling out Destiny's name, suddenly Andrew appeared, he said," she's at the pond, Ariel is trying to drown her, she's drowning as we speak, follow me."

He started to run. Zachary and Casey followed him, they ended up at the pond, immediately Andrew disappeared and Zachary dived straight into the pond. He saw Destiny, he swam towards her and pulled her up by wrapping an arm around her waste, and swam up, they emerged out of the water.

Zachary swam towards the shore with Destiny by his side, he got out with Destiny in his arms and set her on the ground, then he started to do CPR, "come on Destiny, breath, you have to breathe" it felt like hours had passed, but only a few minutes until Destiny finally coughed up a mouthful of water.

She took a deep breath, sat up and started to cough really harshly, Zachary and Casey both sighed on relief, Casey carefully patted her on her back and said,"phew, you're ok,thank god". He grabbed her hand and helped her stand up, she said breathless," yea, I'm ok, just a little cold and wet, thanks for the save Zach" she turned towards Zach and gave him a smile, for some reason Zach felt his cheeks turn pink for some reason,  "oh n, n, n, no problem Dest".

Destiny lightly smiled and said," well anyway, than-" she stopped short, because there on the other side of the pond was Ariel, and she didn't look happy, Destiny saw her and screamed," run!!!"  they turned around and ran through the woods as fast as they could, they ran side by side.

Zachary and Casey running on either side of Destiny, while Destiny was running, the world suddenly went white. Oh no, not now she thought, it was too late she was already seeing another vision. In this vision, she was in the house, only it wasn't burnt, the walls were colored brown. Suddenly she heard pans clinking around, she saw that she was in the  kitchen, but she wasn't alone, Ariel was there too. Dressed in her white, sleeveless nightgown, none of her body parts looked burnt, suddenly Destiny realized that she was witnessing the murder before it happened.

She saw Ariel put water in a pot and placed it on the stove and turned the stove on, a small fire was lit underneath the stove, Ariel walked towards the window to look outside, suddenly the pot slide off the stove as if something pushed it, suddenly the door slammed shut, and the fire made its way up towards the kitchen window curtains, they caught fire and fell down, the noise alerted Ariel and she turned around and saw her kitchen ablaze she ran out the kitchen door and past the staircase, but when she got to the front door, it slammed shutthe fire was behind Ariel, already burning most of the house, suddenly Destiny heard a click and tilted her head, her eyes widened as she saw what made that sound, No, that's impossible, there's no one else here , she thought.

Meanwhile the fire had caught up with Ariel, Destiny started to see, the woods and hear Zachary and Casey's out of breath breathing, but before she left, she heard Ariel's blood curling scream. Her vision cleared, and she saw that she and her friends were back at the front of the gate.

She had no idea how she ended up there, but she did know why Ariel couldn't get out the house. Because someone had locked Ariel in, someone had wanted her to die, and they had locked the door so that she wouldn't be able to get out. Destiny didn't know who locked Ariel in, but she did know what had locked Ariel in.

It was another ghost, another ghost had wanted Ariel to die.

She knew what had killed Ariel, now she just needed to figure out who.