Lockwood And Co. The Queen's Spirit

Chapter 9

I grabbed the wooden handle and gave it a firm squeeze. It gave way quite fast and suddenly, a looming figure hovered over me.

I stuck out my rapier and heard a loud clack. "Huh? This is just a mannequin." I said, freeing my rapier from the wooden doll. The mannequin's eyes were gouged out and was adorned with a black leather jacket with a jeans skirt. The clothes were ripped in the sides as if someone had furiously pulled it off. The room itself looked like a fashion studio. There were sewing machines in the corner of the room and all kinds of cloth was strewn across the floor. There were cupboards and shelves filled with yarn, thread, cloth and sewing kits. Some clothes were still in the sewing machines and the mannequins looked like they'd all been undressed in a hurry.

"What do you think happened in here?" I wondered out loud.

"I don't know Luce. But I think whoever worked in this room must have been in quite a bit of hurry to get out of here." he replied. "Or maybe they were just really messy." he added as an afterthought, examining the room.

"I can't detect any psychic evidence in here." I said, after a thorough examination.

"Yes, me neither. I can't sense any death glows." Lockwood said. I stood by the door and watched him go through the cabinets next to the sewing machines. His dark hair looked so soft and his long coat almost touched the floor. His beautiful eyes sparkled as he kept searching for any traces of ghosts. He looked up at me and caught me staring.

"Are you admiring my beautiful features?" he asked teasingly. I felt a blush creep up my cheeks.

"Don't flatter yourself. I was just thinking." I replied, flustered.

"Hmm...were you?" he asked, his eyes glittering playfully. Then his expression became serious. "Listen, Lucy? I have something to tell you." he said walking towards me.

"What is it?" I asked curiously.

"Well..." he said coming closer. Our faces were inches apart now. I could see every detail on his face. His long eyelashes, dark eyes and thin lips.
"You have a leaf on you hair." he said, taking it off. My cheeks grew redder.

"Um, t- thanks. Well, let's go explore t- the other rooms, shall we?" I headed out the door, still flustered from that and Lockwood followed. Suddenly, I heard a scream. It sounded like Holly. Lockwood and I exchanged glances.

"Holly?" I whispered in concern and raced down the stairs to the first floor. Lockwood was taller and glided with ease ahead of me.

I saw Holly collapsed on the floor while Kipps emerged from one of the rooms. "Wh- What happened?" he asked in a trance.

"I don't know. We heard a scream and came rushing down and found Holly like this. Where were you?" I asked Kipps, shaking Holly awake.

"I went inside this room here to try and take readings but when I went in there, I saw a beautiful woman. I could only see the back of her head, but somehow, I knew she was beautiful. She was hunched over with her hands covering her face, like she was crying but I couldn't hear it obviously. I felt sorry for her and went over because it looked like she needed comforting but suddenly, I heard a scream and I realized what I was doing. I looked away for a second but by the time I looked at the ghost again, it was gone. I don't know what would have happened if Holly hadn't screamed." Kipps said, looking pale and shaken.

By this time, Holly had gotten up groggily.

"Holly! Thank goodness! You're awake! Are you alright?" I asked.

"Y- Yes. I think so. I was wandering the corridors when suddenly, Kipps disappeared. I thought he went into one of the rooms so I started going into each one and calling out his name when I felt a cold breeze and turned around when I came face to face with a woman with long, flowing white hair that was falling apart. Her nails were very long and half her face was rotting. Her eyes were the worst. They were just hollow sockets and her skin! It was coming away in patches and her dress was splattered with blood. I screamed and jumped back and hit my head on this door handle and fell. After that, it's just darkness." she said in a rant, touching her head where a big lump had formed.

"Ouch." she whispered.

"That description sounds an awful lot like the face in the window that Mrs. Ravensdale had talked about. The question is, why didn't the spirit ghost touch you?" Kipps wondered out loud.

"Because I may have used a salt bomb before I hit my head, no thanks to you." Holly said, glaring at him.

"Oh." he said sheepishly.

"So both times, it was a woman. The puzzling thing is that they manifested at the same time. What if we're dealing with not one but two spirits?" Lockwood declared.

**Author's Note**

Hey! It's been a long time since I've written. I didn't know how to continue writing this story so it took me a while to figure it out. But now I finally know so I'm glad I took that little break. I finally started reading the Empty Grave but I've been reading it slowly because I don't want this series to end. But the book is so good! I'm really sad it's the last one though. Anyway, thank you for reading! Plz vote and comment!

--Blue