State of the Body

Chapter 8 Dakota

I looked at Valerie, could we really trust a ghost and a vampire? I thought about it, if we helped them would they help us get out? Would they help us find Alexis? It was worth a shot right? I started moving towards the couch. I felt one of the girls grab my arm, but I kept on moving. I sat down in front of the couch and looked back at the girls begging with my eyes that they would come over and listen. The girls came over reluctantly and down on and in front of the couch.

"So? Now what?" Valerie moved to the front of the room and sat down.

"Char." Valerie called softly. Charlotte looked at us and then at Valerie before she finally moved. She walked up and sat next to Valerie. Leaning up against the wall she nodded at Valerie.

"Char," She called again even softer. "I think you should tell the story." Charlotte only slowly nodded at her. She took a deep breath and let it out then she began to tell her story.

"I had invited Valerie to come over and spend the night. We were and have been best friends since we were five. It really wasn't a surprise that her parents said that she could. She came over and we talked and hung out. My little sister had her friends come over, but they weren't staying the night. My sister's friends all left so my parents made dinner so we could all go to bed. After dinner we all helped clean up and we got ready for bed. We went to sleep. I wish we knew that we wouldn't be sleeping for long." She stopped and took another deep breath. I could tell this wasn't going to be good. This memory was clearly hurting her, but she continued anyways. "We had a neighbor. She was mean. Mean and old. She had white frizzy hair. She always wore a white shirt with a bright pink jacket and skirt. I'm sure she had thirty pairs of the same outfit because that's all she would ever wear." Charlotte seemed to be spacing off as she told the story. Her face wasn't showing any emotion. She seemed like she was put on autopilot. 

"She hated us though. Valerie, my family, and me. I don't know why though. Well anyways that night she snuck into our house. She went to my parents and she...she..." Charlotte stopped and started shaking her head as if to drop the memory and deny the reality of it. Valerie set her hand on Charlotte's shoulder. They looked at each other. Valerie nodded at her motivating her to continue. "She killed them. Then to try to cover her tracks she set the house on fire. My sister came and woke us up. She told us that she saw the old lady kill our parents and set the house on fire. We jumped up and started to leave. I ran to my parent's room and Valerie took my sister into her room so she could get her stuffed animal and get her to stop crying. Their rooms were right next to each other's so it was easy for them to get to. I walked into my parent's room and looked around. I saw them lying on their bed. I walked up to the side and looked at them. They just looked asleep. I grabbed the blanket and pulled it down a little bit. There was a deep red pool forming between them, the red was coming off of their chest. I remember pulling back up the covers and fighting back tears as I kissed them both on the head as if I was only tucking them in for a long sleep." She stopped again. She looked straight up and it seemed as if she was at war with herself. Nonetheless she continued anyways. 

"I heard a loud crash and then Valerie screamed. I ran out and looked into my sister's room. There was roof rubble in front of the door. I was only starting to realize how bad the fire was and all of the smoke that was around me. Valerie and my sister were still on the other side of the rubble. I remember telling them to try to get out the window, but before they could even move more rubble fell down in front of the window. They were trapped. I heard my sister's cries and Valerie trying to calm her down . I tried to think of a way to get them out, but before I could I heard a loud cracking sound followed by Valerie's screaming for a few seconds then a loud crashing noise. Time seemed to slow down as I saw Valerie looking up and my sister looking at me. Then where they were, lied more roof rubble. I heard screaming. I still don't know if it was mine or what. I remember sobbing and then I passed out." She stopped and I saw only one single tear fall down her face. "When I woke up I was a vampire with a new family who raised me. When I was strong enough I came back and found a new house where my old home used to be. Inside was none other than my evil old lady neighbor. Twilla. She later died. I still don't know why."

"Who is your sister? You kept mentioning her, but you never said what her name was or anything."

"Her name is Brooklyn. She had blonde hair. She always wore a white dress and she loved flower crowns. She was nine when she died."

"So you said if we could help you, you would help us right?"

"Right."

"So how do we help?"

"We need you to help us remove Twilla's spirit from the house."

"And how do we do that?"

"Well we need to put her soul at rest and make her happy so she can be gone for good."

"How do we do that then?"

"First off you have to find her, then you need to do whatever it is that will put her at rest and bam we should be good to go."

"So that's the plan?"

"Well it's the outline, but yeah." Valerie stood up and motioned for Charlotte to follow her.

"We will give you guys some time to think about it." When they were gone I turned and faced the guard.

"So what do we do?" I looked everyone in the eyes.

"I really don't know..."