What Lies Beneath

Chapter Forty: Unburied

Sophie stared out the attic window. It was almost time for this nightmare to finally end. She could feel it. From her small perch, she could see the pond, it's water a dark murky red. Deep down she knew that she should feel afraid, but she didn't. There was no time to think about such trivial things, not when the plan was finally coming together. The plan that the house had all along.

Jason stood outside of the house; his eyes fixated on an upstairs window as he wiped the fresh blood from his knife onto the leg of his pants. It was time that he got what the house had promised him.

"Do you think that she's alright?" Karen hadn't spoken in a while. She knew that they should have skipped eating and instead immediately started their search for their missing friend, but they had all been so hungry. She hated herself for that decision, what if something had happened to Sophie? Something that could never be undone.

"She has to be." Wyatt was adamant. The same thoughts running across Karen's mind were playing on repeat in his. If he hadn't been so weak, or if he hadn't run to find the others, maybe he would have found her already. Perhaps she would have been safe, and they would have all eaten breakfast together. They had already been at this search for hours and Paul was constantly trying to sway them from continuing, but Wyatt couldn't give up, he wouldn't. There was no way that he could possibly walk away, not when Sophie needed him the most.

Gwyneth wandered the halls of the seemingly empty house in search of the children. She needed to find them and get them out of the house before it was too late. She had been wrong in bringing them here. She should have just left well enough alone when she made it out alive the first time. If only Cassie could see her now, perhaps she would laugh at how stupid she had been to have believed Agatha.

No, she couldn't think about that now, not when she was on a mission.

"What do we do now?" Joe didn't know what the next step was. He had only gotten this far because of luck, Bobby, and Paul.

"We need to go to that house and get those kids out, now." John had hoped that they had been lying to him or that there was a simple explanation for all of this, but he knew that there wasn't. The only chance he had to right the wrongs of the past was by saving those kids.

"Look, I'm all for saving those kids, but why do we have to go there, why can't we send the authorities?" Bobby couldn't believe what he was hearing. After everything they had learned about the house, this man wanted them to walk right into it and save a bunch of strangers all by themselves?

"We can't. They would only die and then we would have more than just the kid's blood on our hands. I know that you don't understand, but that's not what matters right now. We need to get those kids out of that house before eats them alive." John was running out the door before either Joe, or Bobby could stop him. Sharing only a quick glance between the two of them, they leapt to their feet and chased after him.

Charlie wandered through the house leaving a trail of blood dripping from his axe. Anger washed over him in waves every moment that he couldn't find his prey. The house constantly whispered to him to leave them alone, that it was almost time, but not yet. Charlie didn't care though. He wanted to kill. He had suppressed his urge long enough. Now he wanted the blood of those who inhabited the house.

Ever since he had arrived there, he had been told what to do. First by Agatha, then by the house. No, he was not going to take orders anymore. As soon as he finished his work there, he was going to burn the house to the ground and move onto his next target. It was this thought that brought a wretched smile to his face, but still he was not pleased. He had a lot of work to do before he was ready to leave this place.