Fennel and the Haunted House - II

I’m not the kind of guy who would usually ignore a little child asking for help, but I’m also the kind of guy who runs when a cute girl asks for help, not because I’m desperate or anything, just because I happen to be the well-behaved kind of person, but when they put you in this kind of dilemma, you just don’t know if you should go up or down.

“Mister, please you must help us”

“Uh, tell me, what do you mean?”

“Adam! Come, please!” – That was Fennel’s voice once again; I don’t have time to be fooling down here!

“Come boy!” – I took the boy’s hand and proceeded to go upstairs where Fennel was waiting for me.

Once I was upstairs I had the boy sticking next to me, I ordered him to be always alongside me, and to open his eyes and look around to see if he could figure where Fennel was.

“Fennel! Fennel, where are you!?” – I was totally worried, a weird child, a horrible place, and this unknown nurse had to go and disappear.

“Fennel, if you’re just joking then it isn’t funny, not by any means”

*CRACK*

I heard a weird thing coming from one of the rooms, something like a glass falling down and crashing into pieces.

“Adam, please, we must get out of here, this place is horrible”

“Uh, Fennel, why are you here? I heard something coming from that room and thought you would be over there”

“No, that wasn’t me, please Adam, we must get out of here, now”

“It’s ok, just give me a second, before we get out of here, I must confirm that no one else is here”

“No! Please, Adam, I’m scared, more than I’ve been in my whole life”

I know that the most reasonable thing to do here would be to go out of the house, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it, I could feel something weird happening in that house, something was telling me to go into the room where I hear a weird noise, I also knew that I had to help this boy, who obviously wasn’t alone, but more important than that, I knew that I shouldn’t trust her, something seemed off, like the person who was standing in front of me wasn’t Fennel, it almost felt like a ghost… no, like something that would make any of my past experiences look like children’s game.

“Fennel, could you tell me something?”

“Do you think we have time to be asking dumb questions?”

“It doesn’t matter; just answer me, could you take care of this boy for a second?”

“Oh yes, but please, let’s get out of here”

When I took the boys hand I noticed something, his hand mostly passed through mine, but weirdly enough, I managed to take part of it, it almost felt like I had to use all of my mental strength to hold his hand, or "spiritual energy" to make it sound a bit better, the thing is that it would only mean that he wasn’t a normal boy, he was a spirit, which means one particular thing.

“You shouldn’t be able to see him”

“What!? Are you crazy Adam!? There’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to see that kid”

“I never told this to any living person, and I don’t know if you will break that record ‘Fennel’ or whoever you are, but I can see ghosts”

“Please, mom, stop it…” – The boy next to me talked to Fennel, but why did he call her that?

“Ugh, could you at least let me maintain the damn game for one second Oakley?” – Her face started doing the weirdest gesture I’ve ever seen, and then it turned into a full mess, almost like something completely inhuman, almost… a demon. Her skin lost all sight of color, totally grey, and her eyes turned fully red, her hair began falling from her head bit by bit, no hint of Fennel’s beautiful face lasted on atrocity.

“Please, mister, help her, you must help my mom”

“Wait, Fennel is your mom?”

“No, that must be the face of another of her victims; my mom’s name is Amaris”

“What do you mean by a victim? Did she…?”

“No, she didn’t kill her if that’s what you’re thinking” – A girl a bit taller was standing alongside the kid, well, alongside Oakley.

“My name is Brooke Lamponne, I’m Oakley’s older sister, and as you most likely realized, the three of us are ghosts”

The mom, Amaris, started twitching weirdly; I instinctively did a little jump back, knowing that something was coming, she tried to catch me, so I knew I had to run.

“What the heck! Are you crazy Amaris!?”

This was my first time experiencing this kind of aggressive ghost, every spirit that I had seen before was friendly, or at least a pacific being, they didn’t spill this kind of vibe, almost like she wanted to kill me…

“Come here! If I must suffer this stupid thing, everyone should be in my situation!”

“You know that you aren’t making any sense, right?” – I started running around, I couldn’t stand still when she was trying to catch me.

“Oakley, Brooke! Is Fennel still alive?”

“My mom will not allow her to live for any longer though, you should take her out of here, now!” – Brooke had way more attitude than Oakley had, which was easy to notice.

Brooke and Oakley guided me towards the room where I heard a weird noise coming from; I knew that something weird happened there!

I went running into that room, meanwhile, Amaris was throwing every kind of thing towards me, mostly shattered glass; I can’t negate that I was afraid, but right now my only priority was to save Fennel.

“There you are, Fennel!”

Fennel was lying on the floor of the room, unconscious at first, but moving her a bit was enough to wake her up.

“*yawn* Adam?, You finally came!”

“Yes, I’m here to help you, why were you screaming so much before?”

“I was exploring this room and something suddenly fell down out of nowhere, then I felt like someone was talking, I felt someone touching me and then… then… I woke up here!”

“Mister, it doesn’t matter, please run out of here, now!” – Brooke was shouting while standing under the door frame, it seemed like she wanted to avoid her mother going inside the room, while her brother was still standing right next to me, just like I had ordered him before going up the stairs.

I took Fennel’s hand and help her stand up, the hardest part of this would be taking her out of the house without explaining that we had to avoid a demonic creature that she can’t see at all.

“Fennel, we must get out of here, now!”

“Uh, aren’t you exaggerating a little bit? It’s not like this was a matter of life and death”

Damn it, I knew that she wouldn’t just take my hand and escape right away, why are people so complicated to convince when you’re doing ghost things?

“Um, well… you see… someone called! I need to go to my house because my dog is alone, and she might be a bit too hungry”

“Oh, it’s fine then”

“Nice, then we must get out of here”

“But what happened with the call, did you find anyone around here?”

“No, there isn’t anyone else aside from us” – Well, at least no one that you can see, so that wouldn’t be a lie.

“Wow, that’s a bit romantic if you ask me”

“That doesn’t matter right now you know?” – I took her hand and started running towards the door.

We were almost out of the room, and then some wood fragments started floating around us, Amaris seemed like a demon, but she still wasn’t able to go over her children who were standing in front of us.

“Adam, Oakley will stay here with me, mom isn’t able to do anything to us, but you and the girl aren’t in the same situation, you must escape and search for help, ok?” – I gave her a little thumbs up to avoid talking, I should avoid looking crazier in front of Fennel after all the crazy things that she has seen as of now.

Brooke was truly worried about us, but it wasn’t hard to assume that her real efforts weren’t for us, they were to avoid her mom doing something actually bad, or well, something worse than scaring us to death.

“Mister, I and my sister can hold mom here for a little a bit… please, go out of the house and look for dad, he will know how to help you”

Oh god, I guess that looking a little crazy once in a while isn’t all that bad, at least I hope that Fennel being shocked will help me here, just a little bit.

“Where can I find him?”

Brooke looked right to me, right to my eyes.

“He is always out, waiting for us, waiting for someone like you who could notice that we still exist” – Her eyes were full of sorrow, but I could also see a glimmer of hope, and I know that I was the only person who could turn that glimmer into a ray of light.

“Ok!”

“Adam, are we getting out of here?”

“Sorry Fennel, stand right next to me”

We ran out to the hallway, Amaris was still there waiting for us, she tried to catch Fennel’s hand, but then Brooke and Oakley pushed her into the room we were before, I wanted to help them, but I was sure that Amaris wouldn’t do anything to them, the last thing I saw was how the siblings were looking at me, with a glimmer of hope that was little by little turning into a real possibility.

I had been running for the last month or so just to avoid a dumb fall like during my first day working at the hospital, but I didn’t think that running down the stairs would be such a meaningful part of my life, or at least right now it is like the most meaningful thing ever, especially if I want to keep living more than just twenty-something.

“Humph, we’re almost finally out of this damned thing” – Fennel was finally recovering her breath after the constant shocks that this day has been, and thanks god she finally talked, as soon as I turned to see her I saw that Amaris was coming for us.

The door was in front of us, Brooke and Oakley were nowhere to be seen, hopefully, their mom wouldn’t be able to do anything, but now Amaris was almost going to catch Fennel’s arm, but I couldn’t allow it. I decided to take a more active role now, I pulled the nurse towards me as fast as I could, we were finally on the first floor and I pushed her through the door frame that was at the entrance of the house.

“You are really tiring me boy” – Amaris was really mad towards me, apparently, being seen for the first time in years and also failing in your usual crime seems to be a bad thing for her.

“You’re quite a sore loser Amaris”

“Don’t try to make me even angrier stupid boy”

Amaris didn’t look gigantic or really menacing, but her grotesque appearance added to her killing vibe were too much for me, I knew that I had to get out of there soon or that would be the last of my stories.

She threw her hands at me, even if she looked like an emaciated person, she was fast enough to cause a frightening first impression in every person that could see something like this completely bizarre situation.

“Amaris, I don’t know how you ended like this, I don’t who or your children actually, but I will do everything that I can to help you!” – Amaris didn’t seem like she truly believed in what I was saying, I didn’t even have a reason to help her since I didn’t know if she was better than that before, but I was the only person who could save them now, the only hope for them, I was sure about it, and she also seemed to accept it did inside her soul, as soon as I said that I would help them she stopped trying to get near to me, it almost seemed like her children’s hope had expanded just a little bit to her, and this was my chance to get out and truly show that I would save them.

I finally got out of the house, Fennel was next to me, extremely agitated, Amaris and her children were nowhere to be seen, and in front of us, in the grass, a man was lying, a man looking at the sky without showing any sign of wanting to do anything else, almost like he was giving up in everything but the sky.

“Man, what are you doing there?”

“Oh, I didn’t notice that there was someone else here, I’m sorry about that, but no one has been able to see me in a while”

“Are you perhaps the dad in this house?”

“My name is Prescott, are you the person who going to get me into my house?”

The man who apparently was giving up everything on this world just a moment before suddenly stood up, now only a fiery aura was coming out of his sharply looking eyes, I guess that’s how real hope can look in a person who had lost everything.