[✔] sciamachy // m. fairchild

xiii

❦

The floorboards creaked under the weight of the shaking girl. Her hands were clasped over her ears, blocking out the whispers and laughs of the shadows. The moonlight peeked through the tattered curtains. Though, there weren't that many windows, only every so often–it gave the hallway a bipolar feel. She thought that the moonlight carried away the darkness and shadows with its light, but when she walked further away from a window, the shadows came back and the narrow walkway dove into pitch-black.

Y/n jumped when she heard a distant scream. The voice was deeper, raspy and raw. It echoed through the empty hallway, sending shivers down Y/n's spine. However, there was some comfort in hearing that scream, like a reminder that Y/n wasn't alone. Someone was in this house with her, although they may not be completely sane.

"Miles? Kate? Anyone?" Y/n whispered, continuing down the hall at a slower pace now. She furiously squinted her eyes, seeing if she could spot anything down the hall, and was happily surprised with the sight of a door. However, Y/n jumped once again as a crash had been heard behind her, the sound echoing around the hall like a gunshot. Cautiously, she turned around. She was met with an imploded window, the glass shattered around on the floor. Furrowing her eyebrows, she walked towards it, her hands outstretched as if with a single touch she could fix everything. As if with a simple touch she could fix the window, the house, Miles, anything she wanted.

"Whoopsies! My bad!" A high-pitched voice squeaked. Frantically, Y/n whipped her head around, trying to spot who else was in the hallway with her. Suddenly, through the wall, a blue, ghostly figure emerged from the wall. Their hair was a paler blue than the rest of their figure color, the length of it reaching back their shoulder blades. They were adorned in a silky, flowing dress that was puffed up at the shoulders and wrists. Hesitantly, Y/n walked towards them.

"Hello?" She muttered, stopping a few feet in from of them. The closer she was, Y/n noticed the dark marks on their neck. A faded blue-ish, purple, contrasting from the rest of their body. Their face also adorned many bruises, one underneath their eye keeping it swollen shut.

"Oh my!" The ghost announced, grinning. "Who do we have here?" They whispered, approaching Y/n. Frightened, Y/n started backing up, holding her hands up in a sign of surrender. 

"I'm... I'm not going to hurt you." Y/n said in an attempt to get the ghost to back up, but the ghost just kept moving forward, which caused Y/n to continue moving backward. The ghost in front of her giggled, reaching her hands forward to try and touch Y/n.

"You can't hurt me! I'm already dead! But!" The ghost enthusiastically spoke which made Y/n nervous. It was unusual that a ghost would be so... happy to be dead. Y/n furrowed her eyebrows at the thought of someone being happy to be dead–and if not happy, why would they be so enthusiastic about it?

"You could help me." The ghost sang, retracting her hands once more.

"How so?" Y/n quizzed, stepping back once more. Y/n had been so entranced by the situation of talking to a ghost that she hadn't become aware of the rush of wind that blew on her back. The fresh air and surrounded her, picking up her hair and swirling it around. The fresh oxygen that filled her lungs as she simply breathed.

"Take one more step back!" The ghost screamed all of a sudden angry. Frantically, Y/n backed up, frightened by the horrific ghost. Suddenly, her body was weightless and the floor was no longer beneath her feet to steady. Her hair whipped around in front of her face, her hands flailing upward and the wind rushed past her ears. She tried to scream but her throat was raw and sore and the wind tore her voice away before the noise could even reach her ears.

Her lungs constricted as she struggled to suck in enough breath to keep her breathing. Her eyes watered as the wind dried her irises. She retracted her flailing arms and curled herself up into a ball, wishing for the entire thing to just end already. Just let her hit cement as her spine shattered and twisted. Just let her take a swan dive out of a window, her neck snapping in two as she collided harshly with the ground. Just like her die already.

Then, something changed. She wasn't outside. She was inside. Falling over the steps, mimicking Mrs. Grose's body when she had thrown the corpsed over the railing. Then, she hit the ground.

Her body was engulfed in a burning pain, her bones rattling from the impact. Her head spun and her eyesight danced between black and white–visible and invisible. Her ears were deaf to everything except a sharp ringing. She wriggled on the ground, scratching at her arms, sobbing for the pain to go away.

"Y/n! Y/n!" Someone screamed, shaking the frame of the frail girl. Y/n was able to make out the face of a worried Kate. Y/n found herself laughing. How had she gotten here? What kind of choices had she had to have made to get her here? She certainly wasn't a bad person–she'd experienced first hand how damaging it could be for someone to have many rude things spit at them, so she didn't endorse herself in the action of being mean. So why was she being tortured so awfully? Then, her mind wandered to Miles.

Miles. The only good thing in this house. A sweet boy, forced to live with trauma and fear. Yet, he was strong, he sacrificed himself for Y/n, whom he had feelings for. They boy had feelings for each other, but confessing that would be a sacred action that neither were capable of doing. At least they thought.

"Kate?" Y/n groaned, reaching up and caressing her older sister's cheek. "We need to leave."

"What?" Kate whispered, leaning down to press her ear up to Y/n's lips so she was able to hear what her younger sister had to say.

"We have to leave." Y/n spoke more clearly now as if all of the pain in her body was imaginary. But then, there was no pain. All of it gone as if it didn't exist. Rapidly, the girl sat up, feeling around her body, surprised that she had survived a fall like that. But then again, was the fall even real?

"Why?" Kate asked, pulling her hands away from Y/n's body. 

"Just trust me! We need to get Flora and Miles out of here!" Y/n yelled, shuffling upward. She stumbled around trying to find her balance, but gripping onto Kate, she was able to steady herself. 

"Okay." Kate said, nodding her head. "Okay. You go get Miles, I'll get Flora." Kate said turning to go get Flora. At the same time, Y/n turned to head upstairs again–with mild difficulty due to being shaken up after falling. 

Y/n's breath hitched at the sight of the east-wing, but she shook it out of her head. She needed to get to Miles so they could get out of this horrid house. And with her heart sinking, Y/n pushed herself to walk down the hallway, seeking Miles' room.

[words : 1253]