Derelict

Chapter 3 Death

Shirley sat, tears falling down her pink cheeks. Daario put a comforting hand on her shoulder. Her son and daughter stepped away.

"Why is she crying?" Asked Theo's niece to Theo who tried to hide her tears.

"She's crying because she lost what she wanted and found what she hated. It's not fun being in that situation." The funeral hall was filled with chairs and many people in black and white suits sat and talked and hugged and cried.

Luke sat on the sofa waiting for the Eulogy, his tongue and sunk low into his throat. Even though it was parched and hurt, even though he longed for drugs. The smell of them, the taste of them, the pain them, the way they made him blind. The way he couldn't see that black-clad figure everywhere he went. He felt the needle stab him abruptly, he looked to his arm, nothing was there. Just pain. Then he looked in front of him.

A little, blonde girl in a blue dress stood. She looked at him, "Luke," her voice was steady, yet cute.

"Abigail?" he whispered, walking near her.

She stayed quiet.

"Abigail!" he said louder, smiling.

She started shaking her head.

"What?" he was so confused, was her spirit actually in front of him. This was just her ghost but wasn't she always a ghost.

"Layla," Abigail whimpered. "She's the only one that can-"

"Luke? Are you okay? Who are you talking to?" Theo and Steven were behind him.

"I was talking to Abigail," she looked at Shirley who began walking to them.

"Luke are you okay?' Asked Steven.

"Yes, Steve I'm okay, she was giving me a warning, she said Layla and said she's the only one that can- got cut off." Luke sat down, breathing slowly.

"She must be.....she must be saying not to trust Layla, with anything." Theo looked at Steve and Luke for confirmation.

"No," he shook his head. "It was like like she's in trouble."

"Wait wasn't Abigail your imaginary friend?' Shirley asked.

"She wasn't imaginary," Steve said shaking his head before Luke could throw an insult defending his point. "She was a ghost."

"But I saw her die in the red room, while she was waking up. As mom says." Luke sighed disgustedly, massaging his forehead in frustration.

"She wasn't before she wasn't, but when Mother killed her, she was. Before she was the Dudley's daughter." Steven said.

Everyone looked up at him like he was crazy.

"Alright, whoever she was, what was she doing here?" Theo asked.

"Trying to tell Luke something," said Shirley in an obvious tone. "She was giving you a warning, which we don't know yet, maybe it was that she's not safe as Theodora said, before."

"No," Steven shook his head. "Remember what she said before, I might be a target since I am telling you guys this."

"And Abigail just said, she's the only one who can, but then she got cut off," Luke said his tongue burning as an iron fluid exploded in his mouth. He just realized he had bitten his tongue.

"We need to get a hold of Layla right now, even though we don't know if Abigail means this, we'll become in a disadvantage if she does," Theo said urgently.

Luke pulled out a napkin and coughed out some blood, "sorry I accidentally just bit my tongue."

"Okay back to what I was saying," They all divert their attention to Theo.

Right then before all of them could agree to the plan, Hugh's phone rang in Steve's pocket. He picked it up and it said, Layla.

They all glanced at each other and exchanged austere looks. He picked up the phone, "hello?"

"Hello?!" a male, gruff voice asked. "This girl, who you phoned last is ....dead."

His phone fell, they all sob timidly, knowing what just happened. "She's dead," he breathed.

"We need to do something," Luke remarked.

"It's time for Eulogy," Trish, Theo's friend said, staring at there state.

"You guys are all dismissed," Shirley informed.

"What?" Her husband's eyes widen and so does everyone's else. "Darlin, what do you mean?" He whimpered trying not to divert more people's attention. "You guys can't just take this meeting off!"

"We have something to take care of," Theo growled, wiping a few tears. "I'll be in the car waiting for you guys."

"Look, Daario I think we're still dangered-" tears fell abruptly down her cheeks, not even noticing the mistake in her language.

"By ghosts, look we all spent 200 dol-" he got cut off by his own frustration. "Never mind, you know what actually never mind, all the shit I have put up with- go, just go, I can't care less anymore."

"Shirl lets go," Steve called.

All of them were in the car, Shirley crying her eyes out, Steve trying hard to call Layla's phone, Theo grabbing a bottle of raw spirits.

And Luke, remembering the bleak of June. He had just spent a whole two hours drawing pictures of Abigail. The smell of fresh juice hit his nose hard. Even though his treehouse was very far from the kitchen he could practically smell everything that was cooking. Though the red room was the closest, of course, it was. He ran downstairs to get some for himself, where he saw her. Two beautiful girls sitting, crying. His mother had just gone to pour some tea or get juice for them. Hugh sitting at the older girls side.

"Dad, what's going on?" He asked worriedly.

Luke pulled himself out of his vision, it was her, it was Layla. Instantly the car started, Steve turned towards Exe River.

"She's at Hill House, found dead, by rat poison," Steve growled.

The car ride was silent and long. But when they got there they wished the car ride had never stopped.

The house looked rotten, police officers running over and in. Blood dripping over the dirt road. A girl sat hiding her pale face with her narrow fingers. She stood when she saw the foursome.

"Oh is it not Steven Crain?" She growled in a menacing voice.

"Yeah, I came to see-"

"Came to see the commotion at Hill House? Your gonna write another story about it? Another lie?" The girl was thin, but the astounding feature on her face was her black orbs. Thick black orbs, they made you go in a trance and Luke knew he saw them crying before.

"Whatever he wrote wasn't a lie," Theo growled.

"It was all a lie to him, he probably didn't understand what others felt when they lived there. You were dumb, you were a liar, you didn't understand anything. And what's the newspaper scheme you wrote about, a group of ghosts got assaulted. You blamed Hugh's suicide on a group-"

"My dad didn't suicide." Shirley backfired.

"He was found, rat poison in his lungs. He suicided, you guys did nothing but embarrass yourselves in front of the whole Los Angeles." She took a deep breath. "Why'd you guys come here?"

"Do you know Hugh?" Luke asked.

"Yeah? Why?" She looked at him for the first time, disgust formed in her expression and it said, homeless wearing a suit.

"He was very important to Layla," he said.

"How do you know my sister?" Urgency formed in her tone.

"She came to dad's funeral," Luke answered.

"What was she doing there?"

"Telling us that ghosts are after us."