"Violet, darling, I don't have long left."
"Please tell me this is a sick joke."
"You know I wouldn't do that to you,"
"Grandad you're the only one I have left, please hold on for me."
"I'm sorry, sweetheart."
Violet stared into the chocolate brown eyes mirroring her own, and her heart broke as she watched them close, never to open again.
Darkness.
Violet shot up in bed escaping the darkness in her nightmares only to see it continue in her reality. Her hand frantically waved out to find the switch for the lamp beside her as she muffled her sobs to not wake Kitty beside her.
She finally grasped it in between her fingers with huge effort, but it did not turn on.
"Oh come on, not now of all times!" she quickly got out of bed and went into the hallway to try and turn on that light switch, perhaps it was just a faulty bulb.
It wasn't.
"No, no, no!" she whispered through gritted teeth. Right, she just needed to figure out how to fix all this. Her last resort had quickly taken first position in what choices she had left.
She had to ask Mike and Alison.
Avoiding the dodgy floorboards was a task in itself that despite Violet's shaken up form she was still able to complete it successfully. Her hand grasped the golden handle of the door and turned it at a snail's pace.
"Mike... Alison? Hello?" she whispered out into the room. Then there was a groan and the sound of someone moving in the rustling sheets.
"Violet is that you? What time is it?" Alison tiredly asked, eyes shut as she sat up.
"Umm, yeah, it's half 3 in the morning. I was just going to say, the lights aren't working, how do I fix it?" she sheepishly requested, lips folding inwards so she could wet them.
"I'm not even going to ask why you're up at this time ughhh, go down to the basement, flip the switches on the fuse box that are pointing down," Alison's words slurred with fatigue as she falls back asleep.
"Thanks Alison," Violet whispered "wish it was that easy for me to get back to sleep." she chuckles sadly to herself.
~~~~~
She had finally made it to the basement after a lengthy process of navigating the house in the dark. It would have been much easier if she grabbed her phone on the way down but in her hasty moves she had forgotten to.
Just as she opened the door at the top of the basement stairs, a figure creeped past and headed into a different room of the house.
"Right, flip all the switches that have gone down, simple as. Now where is that emergency light..."
"Oh it should be just behind you," a different voice rang out, a sort of common one, you could describe it as.
"Ah!" Violet screamed in shock and as she did she falls backwards into a switch which dimly lit the room.
"There you go you found it!" a different voice said.
"Oh wow... sorry guys, I forgot you were down here," Violet said catching her breath, hand on her heart as she looked at the plague ghosts in front of her.
"That's alright. Once I forgot to feed my kid." a guy with some interesting teeth tried to comfort Violet.
"Yeah, and then your son died, Mick." a different ghost reminded him.
"Yeah well we all make mistakes, mate," he responded bitterly. Violet was shocked at the casualness of the discussion.
"Anyways, what brings you down here..."
"Oh sorry, my name is Violet, hi!"
"Right, well what brings you down here Violet?"
"Yeah no one ever comes down to visit!"
"Ah well the lights aren't working so I came down here to fix them. Alison told me how so yeah..." Violet explained, but looked unsurely around the room.
"Oh well forget Alison! We know exactly how to help!"
"Yeah! All you need to do is... Oh, there's nothing wrong with the fuse box..."
"Let me see Walter, you could be wro-"
"Not you Nigel, you definitely won't know."
"Guys I'm sorry but you just please tell me if there's anything wrong or not?" Violet asked exasperatedly. In the normal way she wasn't scared of the dark, but she still felt the symptoms reeling from the nightmare she had and was not enjoying the idea one bit that she'd either have to stay with the plague ghosts for the emergency light or leave the room basement to go back into the darkness.
"Well all the switches are the same way, there's nothing wrong with them." a female voice rang out.
"Oh well done!"
"That was clever of you!"
"Go you!"
"Oh guys stop it! I think I'm blushing! Oh nope, just a boil."
Violet shuddered.
"Thanks, I guess, guys. Maybe I'll see you again soon." she said as she left, she couldn't deal with the collective mood swings any longer.
"Wait maybe you could-"
Violet turned off the light as she quickly marched up the stairs.
"-leave the light on."
The plague ghosts sighed.
~~~~~
When Violet made it back up the stairs, she shuffled along with her back against the wall and slid down it. She didn't know if she could deal with this any longer.
"Who turned out da lights?" a voice suddenly said into her ears.
Violet screamed.
"Can you die quietly? I'm trying to get my beauty sleep!" Julian's voice yelled down the stairs.
Violet looked to her left to see Robin grinning manically.
"Hehehe I did good." he praised himself seeing her reaction.
"No you did not do good! Don't tell me this was you as well Robin?!? With the lights?" Violet angrily said, her anxiousness turning into rage.
"Oh come on, it was cool man!"
"No it wasn't Robin! Aargh!" Violet whisper yelled at him, hands flopping in the air.
"I was just doing what they did on tele."
"What do you mean Robin?" Violet was wondering how he was going to try and get himself out of this one.
"Oh you know. Alison put it on. The people that go in blue box. Then they go different places. The docketer!" Robin explains, by the sounds of it he had a new favourite show.
"Docketer? Doctor? You mean... the reason you did all of this was because you watched Doctor Who?!?" Violet seethed, fists clenched. She loved the show, but not right now.
"Well yeah. And there was one bit where they go 'who turned out the light?' So I was like I can do that too hehe," Robin beamed, doing a perfect impression that Violet would have commended him for in any other situation.
"Right if you don't use your ghosts powers in the next few seconds to turn these lights back on Robin, I will kill you myself!" Violet ordered him.
"I already dea-"
"Robin!!!"
"Okayyy, okayyy, heerurrghh!!" Robin made the peculiar sound as he turned the lights back on with his powers and electricity returned to Button House.
"Thanks Robin." Violet sighed in relief as she headed back up to bed.
Robin blinked. It was almost as if when he turned the lights back on she was a different person.
'Never again,' he thought.
~~~~~
"Now you're all alone."
"Nobody is ever going to love you."
"I was glad when I got rid of you that day!"
Once again, Violet fearfully shot up in bed, clutching the duvet sheets closer to herself, she switched on the lamp, relieved to see it working this time. She turns to look at Kitty and is glad to see her sleeping peacefully.
"Kitty always sleeps deeply do not worrys dearie," Mary was in the room too.
Violet breathes deeply,
"Mary what are you doing here?"
"Just wanted to see if you ok," Mary said shyly, looking off to the side.
"Thank you Mary. Maybe it's time for that night time remedy?" Violet says to Mary.
They both head downstairs into the kitchen and Mary directs Violet to the ingredients she will need. It weirdly calmed her down, must be because she was thinking of other things instead.
"Then yous grabs the lavender, stir that in, then the roses, then you done! Yay!" Mary claps her hands.
"Wow Mary, I didn't even know we had all of this in the kitchen." Violet says thankfully, taking a sip of the drink that was actually quite nice.
"Oh, well I'm in here a lot," Mary said dismissively, "Now, tell me, what ails thee?"
Violet told Mary briefly what had happened in her nightmare and they soon found themselves discussing random things into the morning.
"-and that's why I loves fennel!"
"Wow, it does sound lovely the way you put it Mary!"
They move into the living room and as they do Fanny falls out of the window waking everyone up.
"Morning!"
"Good morning!"
The Captain comes running down the stairs,
"You're up early troops!"
Violet and Mary give each other a knowing look at the Captain's words.
"FOR KING AND COUNTRY!" echoes down the driveway.
"Oh, morning Humphrey!" Violet says noticing the head on the table where the different clubs are hosted.
"Good morning Miss Violet, morning Mary!" Humphrey's head speaks joyfully to them. He was happy he didn't have to wait as long as usual for someone to speak to him.
"Wow guys! You're eager for the 'alcoholic beverage drink you'd order if you were living' club!" Pat appears wearing a big grin on his face.
"Tis devils juice!" Mary frowned, folding her arms and sinking back into the sofa.
"Ok Mary! Why don't you save that for when everyone's here?!"