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“Edgar! What a wonderful surprise!” The lady beamed as she engulfed my fiancé in a hug, while I stood there off to the side. The lady seemed to finally recognize my presence though her mood had dimmed a little.
“And you brought your wife..! Such a wonderful woman. It's too bad you don't want any kids,” She chuckled, though I could tell she hated me from the start.
“Yes,well, We both agreed we didn't want any, right honey?” I turned to my fiancé for his approval, though I was met with a stern glare.
“She didn't want any, I just went along with her foolishness,” he said as he placed his hands on my shoulders. He had a firm grasp on me and I was afraid I had said the wrong thing.
“Well you two were planning on getting married tomorrow right?” The lady said and I knew something was up with the way she smiled.
I should've known that I couldn't trust her. I was foolish to think she would help me escape.
My fiancé had grabbed me roughly and knocked me out, and I was helpless to stop him.
When i awoke, i was in the cellar, dirty and in my gown. I had been here dozens of times, though I knew I wasn't going to come out from here this time.
I could've wept but instead I sat on a chair that was attached to a desk, and I wrote as much as I could in a journal I had found a long time ago before they decided it was time I met my end.
My bruises had mixed with the burns and I screamed in agony until it was too much.
I died there that night because of a fire, though the book was hidden away under piles of dirt.
Though I wasn't the only one who died that night, and now my spirit roams these halls, always hiding from the monster I once loved.
I vowed to protect others who stumbled here at night, hoping that one day, I'd be able to leave once and for all, and be at peace.
Ono and Furuta have always been into paranormal activities ever since they were young. The two of them had grown up together and always went off exploring abandoned buildings, searching for anything out of the ordinary.
“Furuta! Furuta! Lo-Look at that… it’s floating!” Ono screamed, cowering behind the other boy while he pointed at a levitating object in the distance.
“Woah! That’s kind of cool…!” Furuta laughed nervously as he took a step forward in the direction of the object.
“Wa-Wait! Furuta, don’t leave me!”
One of them was more into ghost hunting than the other, but they still stuck together no matter what.
Furuta protected Ono, (as much as Ono denied it and said he’s the one who does the protecting) and Ono, in return, helped him get any supplies he needed from his house.
His parents were always away while Furuta’s were always home, never letting him breathe so they decided it’d be best to get supplies shipped to his house until they were old enough to open up a small business dedicated to ghost hunting and other paranormal activity, where they didn’t have to worry about hiding anything, even though it was iffy at first.
They got a lot of prank calls and they knew some people were bound to be skeptical, but it was starting to get tiring.
Furuta was so desperate for something he had looked up Top 10 Ghost Sightings and surprisingly found out about a house that had a dark history of disappearances and unexplained phenomena.
He looked up some more stories before turning to Ono, who was tinkering with some equipment, despite being told not too.
“Ono, come here,” Furuta turned the laptop in his direction, showing the research he had done about the place.
“You want us to go check that out? Seriously, what if it's fake,” Ono said, before going wide-eyed, “Oh god, what if it's real?”
Furuta rolled his eyes at him and turned back to his notes. The house was pretty normal on the outside, though on the inside, there were multiple burns and scratches everywhere. The articles he's looked at indicated that a fire had caused it, but there was something bothering him.
He had clicked on a video of the house and noticed that near the window in the back, a figure was seen peering through it. Their hands were on the glass for a second before it disappeared.
“We’re probably looking at some vengeful spirit or a poltergeist,” Furuta concluded, jotting down some notes in his journal.
Poltergeist: a type of ghost or spirit that is responsible for physical disturbances, such as loud noises and objects being moved or destroyed.
Vengeful spirits: A spirit that comes back from the afterlife to seek revenge on those who wronged them.
“Those are the worst, especially at night,” Ono shuddered. Though he had never seen either of those before, he’d read and watched a lot of movies about them, despite Furuta’s warnings not to.
“Too bad 'cause we’re leaving tonight. The man who took the video I just sent you, I think his name was Takaoka?” Furuta paused, thinking back to the article to try and remember if that was the man’s name, before simply shrugging, “Whatever. He recorded it at night, and all the other articles say that the disappearances and stuff happened at night.”
Ono stifled a groan, pulling out his phone to take a quick look at the video before he walked away to begin packing the supplies.
“Guess we're finally using the things I bought,” He chuckled as he grabbed a first aid kit and stuffed it into a backpack.
The two of them quickly prepared for their departure. The taller one would pack the supplies into bags and make sure everything was charged beforehand, while Furuta looked up stories and the places' blueprints to map out which direction to go.
Despite not getting many calls, everything always went smoothly.
Well,
more or less.
“Furuta, are you sure this is the right way to go? It feels like we’ve been walking in circles,” Ono complained, holding his flashlight close to his chest.
“That’s…probably because we are,” Furuta groaned, staring at the mark he had placed on the wall.
The whole building was a maze that even he couldn’t figure out, despite mapping it on paper and having a gps.
When the two had initially arrived, everything was going smoothly, until it started to feel like they hadn't been getting anywhere.
“I thought you said you made a map..and you did remember to bring the GPS right?” Ono asked, frustrated and still a bit frightened from before.
They had heard loud banging noises earlier as they entered the home, though when they went to check it out, there was no one there. The only evidence left behind was a couple of handprints on the window glass.
“I did! It’s like the house is changing! Like this wall wasn’t even supposed to be here!” Furuta groaned, having the urge to kick the wall though he didn't because he was smart enough not to go around kicking things.
The spirit, or whatever it was, had to be toying with them, and Furuta was sick of it.
“Don’t worry! I’ll protect you if something goes wrong, you know that,” Ono grinned, playfully elbowing the other.
“Sure you will,” Furuta said sarcastically, rolling his eyes before smiling back at him.
Just as Ono was about to retort, a sudden noise rang out and the two jumped, turning their heads, and flashlights, toward the direction of the sound. The flashlight lit up the corridor, and they noticed that a door had opened on its own before shutting loudly. The hinges rattled and the noise echoed.
Ono had clung onto Furuta in one swift movement before backing away from him, “Ah- Ahem, so uh, we should probably leave and go check something else out, right?”
Furuta gave him an Are you kidding me look.
He knew Ono would try to chicken out so he took the lead and headed to the door, not bothering to check if Ono was following him because he knew he was.
As they reached the door, they noticed it looked different from the others. It was old and wooden, sure, but it was also sporting multiple dark spots on it, and looked to have been taped shut.
Not even a fire could destroy the amount of padlocks and tape that had been on it, until it opened by itself.
“Yeah, let’s go walk into the spooky door that opened by itself,” Ono said dryly, adjusting the equipment and bags on his back.
Furuta ignored his comment, not even bothering to roll his eyes as he reached for the door, swinging it open.
Ono staggered back and coughed as he waved a hand around his face, trying to get rid of the dust that had come out.
He was definitely going to bring masks next time.
He looked over at Furuta, about to ask if he was okay, but he seemed to have completely dodged the wave of dust somehow. He wasn't even near the door and he had gotten dusty.
Yeah, he was definitely going to bring masks, but only for himself.
“Looks like this room had the worst of it, even though the padlocks still look intact somehow…” Ono shuddered, wiping off the dust from his face with the back of his hand.
The two of them peeked inside the room, which wasn't even a room. It had stairs leading downward.
Ono immediately tried to walk away but Furuta held onto his hand and practically dragged him down.
“Furuta. I'm too young to die, and trust me, I've watched a lot of horror movies to know that the funny guy always dies first,” Ono remarked, not bothering to fight against Furuta and letting himself get dragged along. Though he was careful not to step on any wood that looked like it was about to break if he stepped onto it.
Furuta gasped as they reached the bottom of the stairs. There was a broken desk to the side and half of it was burned to smithereens, though it looked like someone had been here. There was another desk, in somewhat perfect condition with an old lamp on it.
“Ono, come here,” He said, turning on the lamp. He noticed an opened journal on the table.
He turned the lamp, making the light shine on the pages as he read out loud.
“July 7, 1924”
“The mansion and its residents have secrets long buried beneath its floorboards. My name is Annabelle, and I am married to the man who lives here. My fiancé , Edgar, had a strong charming sense to him but it was all an act and the bruises on my skin can prove it. He locked me in here, and I am unable to leave. If you are reading this, it means I didn't make it out alive, but I'm glad my story could be read. I promise to come back and protect those who wander here at night.”
Furuta furrowed his eyebrows as he read.
“Was- you looked this place up right? Was there any mention of, I don’t know, this place being a mansion?” Ono said, starting to freak out a bit, “It looked like a normal house on the outside. I didn't even notice it was that big until we got inside.”
“I don’t think so..? Then again…I did stop looking after like 20 minutes..” Furuta said sheepishly, turning his head away as he scratched his face.
He opened his mouth to speak again when the journal suddenly flickered and caught on fire, a giant white flame engulfing it.
Furuta cried out in pain and threw the book on the ground, cursing out in pain as he fell back and scrambled away from it.
He cradled his hand as he watched Ono pour a bottle of water on it, the flames immediately dying out, but ruining the pages in the process.
“Argh! Furuta, Jesus, are you okay!?” Ono was quickly by his side, fumbling with his backpack for the first aid kit.
“I'm fine, it just hurts a bit,” Furuta replied, though the blonde could tell it hurt him a lot considering he was nervously chewing on his lip.
Ono cradled his hand, applying some soothing cream for the burn before wrapping his hand up. He was wide-eyed and panicky, and if he didn't want to leave before, he sure as hell wanted to leave now.
“Furuta, we should leave. One of us has never gotten hurt like this and-”
Ono paused, noticing the other wasn't looking at him, rather He was looking behind him.
He whirled around, coming almost face to face with a woman, who wore a beautiful night gown, and her hair was neatly tucked into a bun.
She reached down for the book, picked it up, and opened its pages, seemingly inspecting them.
“Why would you ruin my book?” She asked with a soft voice, looking over at the two.
“What? We-We didn’t..!” Ono stuttered out, waving his hand around while he frantically looked at Furuta for support, but he was too stunned to speak.
She suddenly scowled, turning away as she threw the book on the ground.
“He will wake up if you don’t leave! I’ve been trying to get rid of everyone who comes here, hoping to finally be at rest!” She wailed, shaking her head like she was trying to clear her thoughts, “He’ll lock you up! Like he almost did with all those people before you!”
Suddenly, a loud crash could be heard from upstairs. It sounded like someone had shattered a vase, or had broken something that was made of glass.
The lamp's light was flickering, and so were their flashlights as a wind, so icy and cold swept through the air.
The mysterious woman looked like she was ready to run, whirling around to face the two of them again.
“He’s coming!” She shrieked, her eyes wide. She looked scared out of her mind.
After years of trying to scare people. I had accidentally summoned him again, and now these two boys would pay the price.
But I had warned them, and I wanted to be at peace.
Maybe a few sacrifices would be all it would take to finally be free.
“Wait! Who’s coming!?” Ono tried to reach out for her but she had disappeared into a puff of smoke. Though he had managed to get one last look at her face and it was filled with grief.
The two of them shared worried glances before Furuta slowly got up to his feet, shivering now as the whole room became icy cold.
Like winter had decided to come early in this dirty cellar.
“We have to go, come on,” Furuta ignored the pain as he grabbed Ono’s hand, lifting him to his feet and flashing his light to the stairs.
“Furuta, your hand,” Ono huffed, his eyebrows furrowed.
The burn had not been properly taken care of, and he had run out of numbing cream so he was sure it would hurt a lot right now if he grabbed anything.
“I’ll be fine,” he replied, holding the flashlight steady in his free hand as he started to walk up the stairs.
He continued to take slow steps until he realized he couldn’t feel Ono’s hand anymore.
“Wait! Ono-” Furuta whirled around as he called out for the blonde, but he was met with a wall instead, “Ono!?”
He frantically turned back around but instead of the door leading upstairs, he was met with another solid wall. Furuta was stuck on the steps of the stairs, meanwhile he was sure where Ono was.
He hoped he had escaped somewhere.
He hoped he knew this was going to happen and left him here.
Just as long as he was safe, he’d be okay.
“Furuta! Wh-Where are you?” Ono called out, banging on the wall that had suddenly appeared before him. He held his breath, quickly turning around and preparing to be face-to-face with any spirit that may have had something to do with this, but he was met with another concrete wall.
It was locking him up.
That’s what the women had been trying to tell them. She had said he was going to lock them up and that’s what he was doing. That's what he was doing to everyone who came here.
That’s what he did to her.
“Damn it.. at-at least Furuta is safe,” Ono stuttered, his breathing starting to pick up pace as he slid down the wall and sat down.
The two of them were starting to accept their fates, just praying that the other had made it out.
The walls were starting to suffocate them, and they both shut their eyes.
I watched as the walls started to close in on them.
I watched as my fiancé stood at the top of the stairs, not knowing that I was hidden under the desk.
I could do something. I could help them out.
But I didn’t want to. Not after everything I’ve been through; not after my story was burned to ashes.
But they had read my story. They could share it.
All the suffering and bruising I had to endure.
I, Annabelle, had vowed to protect those who stumbled upon this house.
What was I doing? Cowering in fear?
He could no longer hurt me. We’re both dead. .
I took a deep breath before showing myself.
He seemed surprised.
Yet not surprised enough.
At least when we move on, he’ll go to hell and I’ll, hopefully, go to heaven.
Furuta opened his eyes, having felt the pressure stop and disappear. He looked around the room, and almost fell down the stairs as he tried to stand up.
At the bottom of the stairs, he noticed Ono with a panicked look on his face and quickly ran down the steps, almost tripping as he engulfed the taller boy in a hug, yelling,“I thought you left!”
“And I thought you escaped!” Ono laughed through tears as he wrapped his arms around the other before the relief faded and the panic set in. “Wa-Wait-what even happened!? What was that?”
But before Furuta could even respond, he felt Ono’s grip tighten around him. He glanced up at him with tinted cheeks, yet the blonde wasn’t looking at him.
He looked to the side and noticed a man, transparent bugs still visible, standing there, alongside the women that had warned them.
The women had the man in a tight hold, practically choking him with a piece of her gown and despite his constant clawing at her, she remained in that same position.
She looked at them, before her eyes flickered over to Ono and his equipment.
The two of them shared worried glances before the blonde reached for the prism, the one designed to catch ghosts and send them back to wherever they belonged.
It was the more harmless one they had, and despite wanting to send the man that had given them nightmares that will haunt them for the rest of their life; they wanted the women to have a peaceful send off.
“Thank you”
Was all I heard before a white flash blinded me, and when I opened my eyes, I saw a beautiful woman standing before me.
She took my hand and led me over to another bright light, one that radiated with warmth.
I gave her a small nod, smiling a bit as I reached out towards it before fully being engulfed in it.
It felt warm. Like the sun had decided to shine upon me.
I was finally at rest.
“We’re never doing this again,” Ono said after he had finally let Furuta go after what felt like 30 minutes of just pure hugging and rejoicing.
“We should..at least see what remains of her journal..” Furuta sighed, going over to pick up the book that had been burned and wet. He winced a bit as he picked it up with his burnt hand before passing it to Ono.
He sat down beside him on the steps, resting his head on his shoulder before he noticed a bright white page, one that wasn’t there before, hanging out from the book.
It seemed like she had left them a small letter.
To the young, two boys,
“I am sorry for being such a coward. I had vowed to protect everyone who came here but instead I had hoped you’d take my place and I could be set free. I leave you this note to apologize for not being much help and for not telling you this earlier,”
“Tell us what..?” Ono asked, furrowing his eyebrows as he flipped over the note.
“There are more secrets here than you think. Look for a red book in this burned house. Find the lady by the name of Seraphina, and her ex-husband, Marcus, and help free her and cross into the afterlife like you did for me.”