Matilda found herself holding her breath as she opened the door to her brother's bedroom - partly because she hoped she wouldn't find him naked, and partly because she didn't do well at being nice.
"Tony?" She called, stepping inside.
This room had been their parent's bedroom, many years ago. Matilda still wasn't used to the fact that her brother now slept in there. For the most part, it still contained the same furniture it did when they were young children - which was even weirder when Matilda considered that Lockwood slept in the same bed their parents used to have sex in.
"What 'you doing?"
Matilda turned to the right. Lockwood was standing next to the closet, hanging his coat up inside. He looked at her with furrowed eyebrows.
Matilda stared at him and closed the door. She swallowed the lump in her throat.
"Are you alright?" She asked.
Lockwood turned. He certainly hadn't been expecting her to walk into his room, concerned about his wellbeing.
He jerked his head slightly, surprised. "Oh. Yes."
Matilda pursed her lips. "Good."
Her brother stared at her a second longer before he closed the closet and moved past her to reach the nightstand.
Matilda watched Lockwood undo his tie with shaking hands. His expression was pained as he lifted his arms over his head to remove the accessory and throw it onto his bed.
"Hey, stop."
Lockwood turned his head again when Matilda spoke, and he saw her walking up to him. His eyes followed her as she picked his tie up and started wrapping in neatly around her fist.
"Sore?" She asked.
"Yeah."
"Hm." Matilda set the rolled up tie on the nightstand. "I'll get you some painkillers in a minute."
Lockwood sighed as she started unbuttoning his shirt. "I don't need you to play the big sister, Mattie-"
"Too bad." Matilda interrupted. "I am the big sister, whether you like it or not." She refused to make eye contact with him.
Lockwood stared down at his sister as She worked the buttons on his sooty shirt. "I don't think you've undressed me since I was seven years old." He said, attempting a lighthearted joke.
"I'm not undressing you, I'm simply saving you a bit of pain, brother." Matilda replied.
She left Lockwood's shirt on - now completely unbuttoned - and sighed as she stepped away. "Go on to the bathroom, you need a shower." She told him, heading for the door. "I'll get you those painkillers."
Matilda didn't wait for Lockwood to attempt to refuse, and left his room.
When she entered the kitchen, she found that Lucy was now gone, and that George was standing at the stove, apron around his waist.
The boy glanced at Matilda as she came up to the sink and reach into the cabinets, pulling out a bottle of painkiller pills. She grabbed a glass from the drying rack and filled it with water from the tap before turning around and leave once again with a quick "Already smells good, George."
Matilda walked into the bathroom, leaving the door cracked. Lockwood was already in there. He stood at the sink, staring at himself in the mirror, tussling his messy hair with a small unsatisfied frown. He had removed his shirt now.
Matilda set the water and the painkillers on the sink for her brother, and then slid past him to reach the closet. She pulled out a towel, and set it on top of the toilet. By now, Lockwood had popped two of the pills in his mouth and was currently swallowing them with the help of a mouthful of water, the glass held limply in his hand.
After making sure the towel was folded properly, Matilda turned to the shower and pulled back the curtain. She immediately scowled.
Sitting in the tub was a large jar, made from silver glass, had several different metal clamps on the top. The insides of the jar contained a vulgar amount of goopy green and yellow ectoplasm, mimicking the appearance of slimey vomit. In the midst of the plasma was a ancient, yellowed, human skull. It was quite sinister looking if you weren't used to it - and if you weren't used to finding it in strange places, much like the shower.
Irritated with its presence, Matilda leaned down and picked the Skull in the Jar up. She held it level with her face, glaring at it almost amusedly.
"Naughty," She muttered. "Just waiting for one of us to walk in here nude. Bet you'd love that, ay?" The plasma glowed.
"That's almost worse than the time it was stuck in the oven for a week." Matilda heard Lockwood mutter behind her.
Matilda hummed, and set the Skull down on the towel. Then she turned back to the shower, and started the water, letting it warm up before she pulled the curtain back and pulled the spout up, causing the water to switch from the tap to the shower head. Matilda wiped her hand on her leggings as she turned around
Lockwood was staring at her, seeming slightly confused with her behavior.
"What are you playing at?" The younger brother said.
Matilda stayed nonchalant. "What."
"You haven't been this nice to me in two years." Lockwood said. "So, what are you getting at?"
Matilda stared at her brother for a moment, reluctant to even speak. But she sighed.
"You almost died last night, Anthony." Matilda said. "I mean...waking up this morning and finding that you weren't here, and then seeing the news..." Matilda crossed her arms and sighed once more. "It terrified me."
Lockwood stared at his sister, watching her, the way she had a slight saddened frown on her lips. "Really?" He wasn't sure he believed it.
Matilda nodded. "Yeah. You're my bloody brother. 'Course I was worried 'bout you."
Lockwood didn't say anything; he couldn't think of anything. So Matilda picked the Skull in the Jar back up and walked past her brother to the door, leaving the boy alone with his thoughts.
Sleep Aludes Me
Sleep aludes me
because it is always
cold in my attic room.
Sleep aludes me
because I dream of
that coldness coming for me.
Sleep aludes me
Matilda sighed. "Sleep aludes me..." She rolled her eyes and threw her head back. "Just like the rest of this poem."
It was close to midnight. Matilda sat alone in the library, notebook in her lap, pen in her hand.
At eleven years old, Matilda had been diagnosed with insomnia. For almost ten years, she hadn't experienced a good nights sleep. Perhaps that's why she was so dead set on becoming an agent when she was young, because she knew she wouldn't have to be home at night, and that battling ghosts just as restless as herself would wear her out enough to fall asleep when she eventually made it home.
However, being an agent hadn't worked out very well for her. She'd left the life of blingy rapiers, and ugly uniforms behind years ago.
"Sleep aludes me...Like the dreams of my eleven year old self." Matilda muttered, finishing the next line of her poem.
The girl wasn't satisfied with this particular poem, but she was too irritated with recent events to care much. Besides, she would go back and revise later.
Matilda paused almost immediately after closing her notebook, and looked up at the ceiling, furrowing her eyebrows. She swore she just heard a loud thump coming from above. Perhaps George was sleep walking again?
The sound of hurried footsteps made Matilda stand up quickly.
This definitely wasn't George.
Matilda left the library and headed into the hall. Off of instinct, she snatched a rapier from the umbrella stand. She ran up the stairs, and stopped abruptly on the first landing.
The second landing was where Lockwood and George's room could be found. When Matilda was a young girl, George's room was her old bedroom. But George didn't know this, and for that, Matilda was extremely glad. She was afraid that if he knew of some of the things she'd done with boys her age in that room, he'd quit and move out. Now, Matilda shared the attic room with Lucy. In their youth, the attic had been also Lockwood's room.
Matilda obviously found the sleeping arrangements in this house extremely awkward.
Besides horrible room assignments, Matilda had stopped on the first landing due to almost running straight into Lucy. The girl had come running down the stairs in panic, eyes wide, face pale.
"Luce?! Are you okay-"
"Matilda! There's a ghost-"
They both paused, having spoken at the same time.
"Go on." Matilda said.
Lucy, chest heaving, swallowed anxiously. "Mattie, there's a ghost up in our room!" She said, almost whispering.
Matilda furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "What?"
"Its Annabel Ward!" Lucy continued. "The ghost from Sheen Road! I woke up and she was floating right above me! I-I don't know how-"
Matilda put a hand on Lucy's shoulder, causing the younger girl to pause. "Calm down." Matilda told her. Then she nodded towards Lockwood's door. "Go get my brother."
Lucy nodded. " 'Kay." Matilda watched her run into Lockwood's room.
"Lockwood, wake up!" Lucy said, rushing to the right side of the bed where Matilda's brother sleeping.
Lockwood stirred, sat up slight, blinking sleep out of his eyes as he looked up and saw Lucy looking down at him.
Lucy ignored the fact that Lockwood was currently shirtless and got straight to the point. "She's here." She told him.
"Who?" Lockwood mumbled, sitting up more.
"Annabel Ward! You know, the ghost from Sheen Road!" Lucy said, as though it were obvious.
Suddenly, Matilda popped her head into the room, sounding very impatient. "Come on! Where's your kit bag?" She looked around the room, not spotting it.
Springing into action - as he was so well known for doing - Lockwood flipped his covers away and jumped out of his bed. Lucy unknowingly looked him up and down, realizing he was only in boxers.
"Downstairs." Lockwood said, grabbing a pair of sweatpants and quickly pulling them on. "Grab those boots."
"What?" Matilda looked over, spotting a pair of her brother's boots lying conveniently next to the door. "Oh."
Matilda scooped up one of the boots and turned out of the doorway. She flung the boot across the landing, and it struck George's door with a loud thump sure to wake up even the heaviest sleepers.
And it sure did, because as Lucy and Lockwood - now fully dressed - came up beside Matilda, George's door opened, revealing a disheveled and frankly glum researcher.
George - wearing only a pair of dark grey socks and oversized T-shirt that ended halfway down his thighs - stood in his doorway looking at the other three from across the landing with a deadpan expression of "I'm not appreciated around here."
"Can't you even be bothered to cross the landing to wind me up?" The boy in glasses asked.
"Annabel Ward's ghost is here." Lockwood said from his own doorway.
George just stared at him. "Well, that's impossible." He shook his head slightly.
"Why would I be lying?" Lucy said from where she hid halfway behind Lockwood's door way and Matilda's side. "She was in me and Mattie's room, just now."
George considered it. "Okay. Twenty seconds. Non-metaphorical." He said before dipping back into his room and closing the door.
Matilda sighed and leaned against the wall.
"Are you wearing a nightgown?" Lockwood suddenly asked, sounding incredulous.
Matilda paused, looked down at herself and found her brother was right. It was no secret between any of them at Lockwood & Co., Matilda Lockwood hated nightgowns. So of course her own brother was shocked when he saw Matilda wearing one. Matilda wouldn't have worn it if she had a choice, but it was laundry day, and she had a nasty habit of wearing all her clothes and only washing them once she was left with what she didn't like.
Turning a slight shade of red, Matilda shrugged to pretend to not be concerned about it. "Yeah." She said.
"I didn't know you even still owned one of those-"
"Shut up!"
A second later, they all turned their heads back to across the landing. The other door opened back up, and out stepped George, covered in the glory of his belt, iron chains, saltbombs, flares, an extra rapier and a pair of work boots to complete the look. His legs, however, were still bare.
Matilda raised a single eyebrow, but her brother beat her to saying something first.
"All that and still no trousers?" Lockwood asked, making a face similar to Matilda's.
George only held his head high. "Trousers are for wimps."
He crossed the landing and moved up the stairs leading to the second landing. Matilda glanced down at the nightgown she wore and ticked an eyebrow.
"You heard 'im, Tony." Matilda shrugged. "Better take those sweats back off." She quickly went to follow George up the stairs.
Lockwood sighed as he and Lucy left his bedroom doorway. "I'll take my chances."
As the four of them all moved stealthily up the third flight of stairs, they kept on guard. Lockwood had taken the iron chains from George and held them tightly in his fist. Matilda stuck close behind George, her rapier raised at her side expectantly. Lucy and George held up flashlights.
As the reached the top and turned onto the landing to stare at the attic room's door, George was the first to say what they all were thinking.
"I don't feel anything." He said as they all cautiously stepped closer to the door.
"And I don't hear or see anything, either." Matilda muttered.
As they all huddled together in front of the flashlight-illuminated door, Lucy piped in. "She was here. I swear."
Lockwood was the one to open the door and step inside his old room first. The others followed him in.
It was dark inside; the only light came from the moon shining through the windows.
Matilda had never really liked the attic room. It was much yoo drafty for her. But it was big, bigger than her old room, so she appreciated that aspect of it.
There were two beds on opposite walls; the one with matte beige colors was Matilda's and the one with patterns was Lucy's. There was also an armchair by the window, along with a vanity and body mirror on the wall with Matilda's bed. Next to the stairs up to the room was the bathroom, blocked off by some old curtains.
Matilda hadn't been up in their room since earlier that evening when she had changed into her nightgown. At that time, she had found Lucy laying in her bed asleep, still wearing her clothes from that day. There had been a collection of the pictures and news clippings that Matilda and George had gotten from the archives the day before that were strewn on the floor.
As they walked up into the room now, Matilda saw that the clippings were still in the same spot, but that was all she saw.
Matilda furrowed her eyebrows as she looked around. "You woke up and she was floating above you?" She asked Lucy.
"Yes." Lucy answered.
George shined his flashlight on Lucy's bed and the wall above it. "It makes no sense that she'd be here." Lockwood said, walking around the room. "We contained her source. Covered her body with a silver net."
"How did she even get in here?" George questioned. "Its not as if her source is inside the house."
At that, Lucy went rigid, flashlight beam faltering. Lockwood noticed.
"Is it?" He asked Lucy, watching her.
Suddenly, at the sound of venomous whispering, Lucy and Matilda turned their heads to the corner near the vanity. There was a faintl swirl of plasma. It disappeared as Lucy pointed her flashlight at it.
"She's back." Lucy said immediately.
The other two turned to the spot too, getting antsy.
"She's playing with us." George said.
They all were silent as they looked around the room, searching for any sign of yellow plasma.
Matilda froze when she spotted a glowing form hovering closely behind George. The other two quickly noticed what she was staring at.
"George," Lockwood said. The boy in glasses warily glanced between all three of them. "Don't...Move."
Realizing what the situation was, George gripped his flashlight and rapier tighter. "Please tell me it's a wasp." He whispered dreadfully.
By now, the ghost of Annabel Ward was more clear. She towered over George from behind. Matilda was able to make out that she was wearing a dress with sunflowers on it. That was the most mundane thing about her, since everything else was mortally horrific.
"Stand perfectly still." Lockwood said calmly, straightening out the chains in his hands. Matilda herself gripped her rapier and slowly held it up. The ghost's expression became more vile, and they all could feel the energy in the room become murderous. On second thought, move!"
Lockwood's warning was just in time, because just as George ducked, Annabel let out an ear-ringing shriek and lunged forward.
Lockwood swung the iron chains, causing the ghost to swerve to the right. But she quickly came rebounding back for another chance. Matilda waved her rapier back and forth at the apparition, and Lucy flung salt bombs. Together, they temporarily crippled the ghost and she shrieked as she disintegrated away into sparks of gold.
Breathing heavily, they all looked around, anticipating Annabel's next move.
"Wasn't a wasp then," George whispered to himself, shining his flashlight.
Lockwood looked back at Lucy. "Lucy, if you have any idea what her source might be, now would be a really good time to say."
"Oh, um..." Lucy shined her light at her bed. "I'm starting to think...I mean, I might have an idea what it is..."
"Take your time." George told her sarcastically. "We're not under any pressure."
Matilda was about to add to the remark, but stopped and went rigid when she felt a creeping sense of miasma overtake her. Breath caught in her throat, she spun around, and was met face to face with Annabel Ward's ghost.
Matilda didn't even have time to let out a scream before the ghost flew towards her. To save herself from being ghost-touched, Matilda flung herself backwards and landed on her back on the floor.
"Mattie!" Came George's call from across the room.
Matilda propped herself up on her elbows. "No, stay back!" She yelled to her friends.
"What?! Are you insane?!"
"Stay back!"
As the ghost lunged down at her, Matilda rolled away. Landing on her back again several feet away, she heard the ghost cry in anger that she missed her target. Before Annabel could come at her again, Matilda planted her hands on the ground beside her head and swung her legs into the air. The momentum sent her propelling up and onto her feet where she then stood up and raised her rapier.
The other three in the room widened their eyes after watching Matilda do a flawless kick-up, and they stood there feeling quite useless the rest of the time she fought the ghost.
Annabel shrieked and came rushing at Matilda. The Lockwood girl spun out of the way, and sliced her rapier at the ghost's back, burning ectoplasm, and causing the apparition to squeal in pain. The ghost turned back around and sent her ghostly hands clawing at Matilda, who jumped back and swung her rapier at them expertly.
"George!" She yelled, seeming irritated. "I need your belt!"
It took George a minute to realize what Matilda was talking about, and then he struggled to pull the belt full of flares and saltbombs over his head.
As he did this, Matilda ducked away from Annabel and front rolled to avoid the ghost's flailing ectoplasmic dress. When the girl was stably back on her feet, she looked at George.
"George, now!" She yelled.
The boy in glasses threw the belt at Matilda, and she caught it. Just as Annabel turned back around, face in a ragefull, ear-splitting scream, Matilda let out a strained grunt as she threw the belt at the ghost. Annabel shrieked and cried before her plasma sparked and fizzled and disintegrated, leaving behind a burnt and smoking empty belt on the floor.
Matilda sighed deeply and let herself fall to the floor, where she then layed down and covered her eyes with her rapier-holding arm. Lockwood, Lucy and George all stared at her silently and a bit shocked, and they jumped a bit when Matilda let out a sudden loud shout of what they assumed was anger and frustration.
But it wasn't, not really. It was a scream of "What the hell is wrong with me? I'm wasting myself away, I'm living in my brother's old bedroom and I'm working for his four person agency that nobody knows about, I'm broke, my old apartment burnt down with everything I owned inside it, I almost got murdered by a ghost in my bedroom, and I want so badly to die!"
But the other three didn't know that. They didn't need to either.
Sleep aludes me,
just as death seems to do so.