What Lies Beneath

Chapter Sixty-Five: The Hour of Defeat

"Who killed who?" Joe was confused. No longer was his mind lost in a reliving of the past. He needed to focus on the situation in front of him.

"Charlie killed Delphine." Karen looked up a Joe who seemed to tower over her in that instant. Her eyes wide and full of understanding. It would be fitting for Delphine to be the one who got to take him out.

"Right now?" Panic rang through in Joe's voice as he asked the question. His head swiveling around in search of his friend. He couldn't stand it if anything were to happen to her, not after everything they had gone through to get to this point.

"No, the night she arrived, but-" With those words a fact fell loose from her mind. Delphine was dead, so how could she be here fighting Charlie, but then again, Charlie was dead and fighting them. This whole situation was severely messed up.

"But what?"

"What? Oh, sorry. Nothing. This house is just messing with my head a lot." Karen offered Joe a small smile, but her mind was still busy trying to wrap itself around all of the craziness that was this house. Her father came to her, they had supernatural abilities, people who should be dead weren't, and she had killed Paul. She was going to need years of therapy if she survived this.

"You sure, because your face is telling a completely different story." Joe's eyebrows nearly met his hairline as he studied Karen's face.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Well, if you say so." Joe knew that she was lying, but there was too much going on to stop and go into full on interrogation mode. A thing he wasn't super good at, which is why he never became a cop.

"We should go help Delphine." Karen walked away from Joe. Part of her didn't really care if he decided to follow her, but she knew that he would. Joe came a long way to help them and Karen had a feeling that he was important somehow.

"I think I see something up ahead." Sophie looked up at the sound of Wyatt's voice which echoed the exhaustion his body was displaying. They weren't going to make it much longer if they didn't stop to rest and gather their strength. Thing was time wasn't really on their side. They were in the midst of a fight for their lives and their futures.

"Okay." Sophie's eyes never left Wyatt. She knew that she should look ahead and see what he was talking about, but no matter how hard she tried, Sophie's eyes stayed glued on him.

"Do you think we'll survive?" It was a question straight out of left field, but one Wyatt felt compelled to ask. They'd been through so much the last, he couldn't even remember anymore. All Wyatt wanted was to leave this house and live a long and normal life. A life without supernatural abilities, haunted houses, and the occasional, yet very obtrusive death. He known three people who died in this place already and he wasn't about to watch as Karen or Sophie met the same gruesome fate. They were his family now.

"Don't worry so much." Sophie tried to laugh off the question, but the answer was obvious. Not everyone would leave this house after this battle. No matter how much she wished for a different ending, the one that was going to be carried out was going to leave those she loved with tears in their eyes.

"So that's a no then." Wyatt didn't look at her, but Sophie knew that his face was set, no emotion on display. He could see right through her.

"It will be okay Wyatt. I promise. Our stories don't end here tonight." It was as reassuring as she could be given the circumstances. She wanted to tell him everything. The urge to tell him that he would survive and go on after this night weighed on her tongue. It would be so easy, but the repercussions too innumerable to count.