A New Estate - Crimson Peak

Late Hour Guest - Modern AU

Robert sighed and rolled closer to the edge of the bed, the body heat of the woman sleeping beside him not helping his own comfort within the seemingly unending heat wave.

Even sleeping naked with the windows wide proved futile in attempts to keep cool.

He felt sticky and disgusting barely minutes after he'd had a cold shower that evening after work, although he doubted their random bought of sex before bed did anything to help.

They had both washed up after, flopped onto the still messy bed and drifted off in next to no time, only for Robert to find himself awake barely three hours later feeling groggy and even more disgusting than he had earlier.

The soft snore coming from beside him was evident enough that he was the only one struggling with rest and he envied his girlfriend for sleeping so soundly, though a small part of him felt a sense of pride that he was probably part of the reason she was so tired.

His arm hung over the side of the bed, his eyes still firmly shut in the hopes that if he tricked his body enough then maybe he'd fall asleep.

Robert shifted again in the bed with a small grunt, feeling his skin stick to the bed sheet beneath him and instantly feeling a little worse until he felt a harsh breeze come in through the window which instantly relieved him and helped make his fatigued body feel that little bit more tired.

After what he estimated to be a few minutes, Robert could finally feel himself beginning to doze off, his eyes were welcomingly heavy and he felt his body relax into the clammy bed.

He had managed to reach a state of near sleep when he felt fingers running through his hair, catching in the sweat matted waves and brushing through them until they were satisfied that they knots were cleared and moved to another set of locks.

"I was actually beginning to sleep then," he slurred sleepily, turning his head towards his girlfriend and opening his eyes just a bit.

In front of him lay his sleeping girlfriend, her back facing him and her arms tucked towards her chest and behind him, he felt another tug on his hair at the back of his head.

Robert moved his head, thinking in his heat exhausted stupor that perhaps his hair had caught on something from behind that he hadn't noticed previously, but when the feeling moved from the tugging of tangles to a cold pressure running over his body he found himself wide awake once again and more alert than before.

The pressure, which felt reminiscent of a hand's touch, moved slowly along the back of his neck, over his shoulder and moved down his back.

It was getting close to his barely covered rear when he finally rolled over to shimmy the feeling off, from the corner of his eye as he moved Robert noticed a strange shroud of something that was darker than the darkness within the bedroom that was only minorly broken by the faintest of lights coming from a streetlight outside.

He finally got his wish of cooling off as his blood ran cold.

As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he could see the outline of a figure that loomed over him, cold fingers resting on top of his hip, the black contrasting against his pale skin.

Robert watched as strange wisps seemed to rise up from the hand, eventually reaching up to a point where they blended in with the rest of the darkness within the room.

The figure over him seemed to twitch a little, its head tilting as he leaned over and grew ever closer to his face.

The closer it got, the colder he began to feel.

A strange rasping breath seemed to be coming out of them, Robert felt his heart beginning to pound uncomfortably in his chest and his breathing seemed to become something more akin to jittered huffs.

"Thomas," the female whispered in a hauntingly serene voice, "you are just as beautiful as I remember you."

Robert let out a cry and pushed himself backwards, abruptly knocking into the woman behind him and jolting her from her slumber.

"Robert?" She asked sleepily, rubbing her eyes before turning around to face his general direction, "what's going on?"

She reached behind her and plucked her phone off the top of the bedside table to the left of the bed, adjusting her grip on it she pressed a small button on the side of the plastic device so that the screen partially illuminated the room.

Rolling back into a comfortable position she shone the light towards Robert's side of the bed, lighting up the black figure.

The expression on the spectre's sunken face was dark and unwelcoming as she glared towards the female laying naked beside Robert.

"Oh, it's Lucille," she sighed tiredly, letting the light fade.

"Lucille?" Robert croaked, moving as far away as he could without squishing his girlfriend.

"Yes, Lady Lucille Sharpe, she haunts this place."

"I thought it was just her brother," he cried in exasperation.

"Thomas," Lucille murmured again, leaning forward and reaching out a hand for Robert once again.

"No, Lucille," the living woman sighed, closing her eyes, "that isn't your brother, you know where Thomas is."

The ghost merely continued to glower at the other woman, her fingers grazing over Robert's hip bone, making him tense up as his eyes widened in worry.

"What is she doing?" He squeaked, watching her hand like a hawk.

Just as quickly as it had appeared, the hand was pulled back and Lucille's wait shifted off of the bed as Thomas carefully took her to one side, staring towards the two with a look of apology.

"I'm sorry about her," Thomas spoke, his voice soft and full of apology, "she simply can't let go."

"It's okay, Thomas," she replied, wrapping an arm around Robert and nuzzling into the back of his neck, "mistakes happen."

"Indeed," the ghost nodded in agreement before carefully leading his sister from the room, giving them a final, "goodnight."

Robert stared towards the door incredulously for a lapsed amount of time, his heart still racing and sleep now being the furthest thing from his mind.

He let out a long sigh and closed his eyes, trying to calm himself down.

"I don't know how you've managed to live here," he laughed nervously, though he was only met with another soft snore.