(Unedited, Not Proofread, 4207 words)
Trigger Warnings: Mentions of death, cursing, light gore
Jonah's alarm wakes me up about twenty seconds before mine goes off. We all start shifting and swinging our arms to turn the blaring alarms off until the room is drenched in silence. I stay still for several seconds longer, listening to Jonah stretching and groaning a few feet away.
I open my eyes before he finishes and look at the wall in front of me for a moment, easing myself back into the energies of the hotel before I fully get up. I beat the others out of bed, so I decide to take the bathroom first.
After brushing my teeth and my hair and putting on deodorant, I head back out and get my clothes ready to change into. Mike and Abby head into the bathroom, and when they do, Jonah and I turn away from each other so we can get dressed.
"What store do you think she's taking us to?" Jonah asks, sitting down roughly on his bed after fighting his pants on. "Ghost store? Halloween store?"
"Makaylen has too much pride to take me to a Halloween store," I say with a laugh, pulling the Nirvana shirt on before the black hoodie. I bite off all the tags and peel off the stickers before I add cargo pants and a new pair of socks. When I'm finished, I stretch my arms above my head and relax back down into the new clothes.
Thank you a million times over, Kaylen.
"What about that one smoke shop back in New Orleans?" he asks. "The one with like... the sage or whatever it is burning by the door."
"Jonah, I hate to break it do you, but that isn't sage," I mumble, shaking my head. "But yeah, the little superstition corner in there is kind of what I need right now."
"What would you get to help us?" he questions, laying back down with his arms behind his head, his eyes on me as I stretch the cuffs of the hoodie out with my hands.
"I'd start with gemstones," I admit, looking at my hoodie sleeves instead of him. "My affinity for energies would amplify the effects of any crystals I own. Amethyst and smoky quartz are probably our best bets, but the chance of the stores having them— especially in this small town— are low."
"What do they do?" he asks.
"Amethyst is mostly known for its protection and ability to enhance spirituality. Some people use it to avoid temptation or to prevent dangerous conditions. Having it would be good for the group, you know?" I offer, wondering for a moment if I sound a bit insane. I've known about crystals since I met Annabeth. Her mother was a big crystal-enthusiast even though she despised anything ghost-related. She believed in their properties and let Annabeth and I read from any of her mountain of books about them.
My worries about being considered crazy dissipate when Jonah asks, "And what about quartz?"
"Smoky quartz specifically is known for its ability to absorb bad energies and prevent influence. If we can, I need to get you, me, and Abby some since we seem to be the most... susceptible to empathic feelings," I explain, and Jonah chuckles nervously.
"Beyond that, I'd need to read a bit about them," I admit, "my knowledge only goes as far back as I can remember from Annabeth's house, and we both know those memories have long since been... gone."
"Right," he mumbles, nodding a bit.
Amethyst and smokey quartz. It's a wonder I still remember them.
It takes us a while to get dressed and ready, but once we are, we meet Makaylen in the hall and she tosses Jonah his keys with the calm statement, "We're going in the same car. Don't make any breaks for yours."
"I won't," Jonah promises, holding his hands up innocently with the keys jingling between his fingers and a soft, understanding smile on his face. Makaylen nods to him and her eyes shift to me for just a second before she opens the door to the stairs and begins to walk down them.
"Go ask her then," Mike says, just louder than a whisper as he and Abby file into the stairwell behind Jonah and I. I look back and Abby catches my gaze. "Go," Mike encourages, bumping his little sister with his arm as if to snap her out of her hesitation.
It works, and as we start to descend the stairs, she hops down next to me, slipping herself between Jonah and I. At first, she says nothing, as if she can't find the words. I know she wants to ask something; I can even feel the words on the tip of her tongue. But she doesn't say anything.
When we reach the bottom floor, I hold the door open for Abby after Jonah steps through, but the little girl stops and stares at the opening for a long few seconds. Mike comes to a stop behind her and puts his hands in his pockets, saying nothing. It's like time stops for a moment.
"Josie," Abby finally says.
"Yes?" I ask, trying to sound inviting and calm.
Abby opens her mouth, then she hesitates and closes it, and then she turns to her brother with a small, panicked expression covering her features.
I follow her gaze to Mike, who nods towards his sister before turning to me.
"She wants to talk about seeing ghosts," Mike says gently. I expect a warning to flash in his eyes— something that tells me I can't actually talk to her about it. Instead, he remains blank. Unreadable. I can't even feel what he's feeling. And again, like times before, I hate it.
"Oh," I chime, tying to buy myself time. I don't get much of it before I have to carry on. "We could... do that. If you really wanted to."
"I do," Abby says, rapidly turning to me. "I want to know how it feels for you."
"I—" I look to Mike for help, but he seems just as interested as Abby. When he sees my eyes, however, his expression changes.
"You can talk about it after breakfast, Abby," Mike attempts, and as soon as Abby turns to him, I nod a bit and smile my thanks. Abby is in the middle of asking Mike why when Jonah comes back to fetch us.
I sit in the passenger seat of Kaylen's car while Abby sits between Mike and Jonah in the back. I can feel the child wanting to ask more, but her voice remains silent as Kaylen explains that we're going to the diner she passed on the drive in and that she's paying even if we try to. I'm the first to thank her, and everyone else follows in turn.
The drive is short and mostly quiet, which gives me time to clear my head and shake off the energies clinging to me from the hotel. My mind becomes my own again once we're about a mile away, and the clarity of my thoughts and the absolute bliss of the blankness between them is overwhelmingly satisfying.
When we arrive at the diner, we file out of the car and I watch Mike as he helps Abby out onto the uneven pavement. Once our doors are closed, we turn and head to the door where Kaylen and Jonah wait for us.
The diner is small and has an oddly cluttered feeling to it, both in decor and energies. We walk in and I immediately feel as if I'm in a maze. Tables and shelves filled with trinkets and old leather-bound books fill the single open room the diner has. Three of the six available booths are filled, and two tables are pushed together to accommodate a small party of friends who all turn to look at us when we walk in.
"Hello, welcome to Tabletop Diner. My name is Tracy. How many are dining with us today?" A girl appears basically out of nowhere. She's already holding an indiscernible amount of menus and silverware packets in her hand, but her eyes search each of our faces as she waits for Kaylen to count again.
"Five," Kaylen responds after a single skipped beat. The waitress nods and for a split second, I catch a glimpse of a mirror image next to her nodding alongside her. A similarly blonde girl with sharp features except I don't know how I know that because her face has been removed. Not in the way faceless ghosts appear when losing their identity. I mean that someone seems to have taken a knife to the image's face and sliced off all the identifiable features. The image is gory and the way it watches us walk as the waitress guides us away from the entrance makes my stomach turn.
The further away we get, the more I realize its presence didn't actually feel like a mirror image.
It felt like a twin.
We sit down at a long booth: me and Jonah on one side and Mike, Abby, and Kaylen on the other. Abby sits between the two and smiles at me when her eyes meet mine. I smile back and turn to the waitress, calmly telling her I want water when she asks.
Once we're alone, I start to feel energies creeping up on me. Not in a threatening or menacing way, but rather a curious one.
How close can we get? They would ask if they had voices.
How long until she acknowledges us?
Jonah clears his throat next to me and slides one of the menus over to the place in front of me. I look at it for a second, trying to focus long enough to read at least one option, but the sensation of being watched starts to grow on my neck. My back heats up, followed by my face and— in unison— the clamming of my hands. I try to examine the room without looking up, not wanting to make eye contact with whatever may or may not be watching me.
My efforts are in vain.
Look at me.
The sharp feminine voice startles me enough that I twitch into Jonah and spook him as well. I plant my gaze on the table top while he gently asks, "You alright?"
Look at me!
"I'm fine," I whisper, heat spreading down to my arms and legs. My upper body begins to ache as though I've been working out. My core feels exhausted. Even my legs are weak and shaking. Almost like I've been running for hours. Like I've been unable to recharge.
Like I need energy.
While not necessarily unfamiliar, the sensation that tags along with an entity has never been and will never be my favorite. My screaming prey instincts start to panic the moment one comes into my vicinity, heaven forbid they get this close. I guess they're not the worst things I could encounter— that title belongs to demons—, but I would much rather little children spirits possessing animatronics than the soulless corpse of something that used to be human.
"Josie?" Mike asks, his tone giving away the fact he already knows something is wrong.
Look at me.
Acknowledge me.
Find me in this mess.
Find me.
Feed me.
Free me
Look at me!
Look! At! Me!
I open my mouth to speak, but no words come out. Thoughts swirl in a mess between my head and my lips, static forming between my ears the longer my voice lacks any sound. My tongue becoming less of a speed bump and more of a stop sign or perhaps a brick wall. I know I need to speak. I need to invalidate the hold this entity is trying to establish over me, but I can't.
Because I want to look at it.
My stomach is a cavern of need, my body twitching in anticipation. Whatever this thing is, it hasn't been acknowledged in a long, long time. Entities grow more desperate the less energy they have, and this one is just about ready to do anything to get me to look at it.
"Jonah, tap her," Kaylen says gently.
"No, no, no," Jonah snaps back, "I'm not doing anything unless she asks." I shake my head, eyes still glued to the same spot even as my head moves.
Mike clears his throat and the table falls silent. To my left, the waitress walks up— I recognize the odd turquoise apron she's wearing— and she begins setting drinks down on the table. Each one taps down with a soft clink and her gentle voice telling us which glass holds which drink.
Assuming the entity has backed off now that a physical barrier is in between us, I look up at her so I'm ready to accept my own drink.
Just over her shoulder, the same faceless woman stares at me, completely silent and unmoving. She has no eyes in their sockets, no teeth in her mouth, and flesh cut open for all to see.
I have never looked away from someone, nor grabbed onto someone, so quickly. I try to cover my reaction with a soft cough into my left arm, but there are tears in my eyes and cries on my lips and I can't make any sound for fear I might start sobbing.
My heart sinks slowly to my knees as Mike and Kaylen come up with some lie to excuse my behavior. My heart skips beats and quickens as Jonah offers his left arm for me to cling to. My vision clouds with tears as I keep my mouth pressed into my left elbow, my right arm holding tight to Jonah's.
Look at me.
"She's gone," Jonah says gently.
"It's not," I whisper back, closing my eyes. "I don't think it's going to leave."
"Is there anything I can do?" he offers. "Anything I can say? Any... uh... spells?"
"Jonah," Kaylen snaps.
"What do you want me to say?" he spits back.
"Leave," Abby says sharply, drawing everyone's attention to her. I open my eyes and find her staring at where the entity is still standing. "Leave her alone."
Look at me.
"Leave," Jonah echoes, and Abby nods at him without fully looking at him.
Their efforts are heartwarming, but entities aren't chased away by words.
"Abs, pretend it isn't here," I say gently, and she turns to look at me. We have a moment of meaningful eye contact before I continue speaking. "How did you sleep? Did you sleep well?"
Look at me!! Listen!!
"I slept good," Abby replies, quickly following my suggestion. "I had a nightmare." She says this with a pointed tone, and I quickly pick up on why. She's taking her chance, she's trying to convince Mike. But what's her plan?
"I did too," I state, trying to gather information without directly asking her in front of everyone. I need her to lead the way, to show me how I'm supposed to turn this into an argument for letting her join us. I can't just tell Mike she's a good addition to the team. We have an empathic medium, a boy just learning he's an empath, a man whose only spiritual experience is almost being killed multiple times by them, and a woman who is waiting for the first chance to take us home. How is a kid going to help?
"I had two," she adds, and I nod. "What was yours about?"
"I had one about Bonnie," I mention, and both Abby and I cringe a bit. After a split second of debate, I correct myself, "Jeremy."
Look at me.
"Jeremy?" Jonah asks, picking up quick. "The Fitzgerald kid?"
"He was older than you," I mumble, flicking an annoyed glance over at Jonah.
"It's a different one. This Jeremy is the spirit possessing Bonnie," Abby explains, quickly adding, "I had that nightmare too." We look at each other for just a moment before we turn to Mike, who asks the next question.
"What happened? Did he say anything?" I glance over at Abby, who looks at me with a worried expression. Her eyes ask me what she's supposed to say, her lips are pursed slightly.
"He said we have to find him," I say, nodding ever so slightly to Abby before I look over at Mike. "He said that when we go back, we— he said 'you' in his explanation, but I don't think he was talking about me— we have to ask for him. He said the Puppet would listen because..." I let my voice trail off, dawning a confused expression to imply I don't remember what else was said.
"Jeremy told me the Puppet would listen because I'm a kid," Abby says plainly, taking the bait.
"No, no, no," Mike snaps, shaking his head. "You're not going in there."
"Mike—"
"Josie, you'd really put Abby in danger for this?" Makaylen pounces, and I can see in Mike's eyes that he hates being on the same side as her. But he doesn't have a choice, which leaves me none either.
"If the Puppet has to listen to her, then why would I put the rest of us in danger trying to find another way?" I ask, looking over at Kaylen. "I saw the kid in the Puppet die, Kaylen. I saw her die. And I've seen these kids die. So has she, —" I nod to Abby— "over and over and over again."
The silence that follows my statement is deafening.
"If we can stop that... If we can stop all of this, why wouldn't we? If we can put an end to these nightmares— both the ones they see at night and the ones these spirits are going through... why wouldn't we? Why wait? Why give up? One day, Kaylen. You promised me that, don't take it away now," I beg, tears backing my eyes.
"I've given you a lot these past twenty-four hours," Kaylen says sharply, hitting me in a spot I never expected her to, "don't take it for granted."
I wait quietly for a moment, my mouth open in surprise, no words waiting to be said. The waitress comes back during our silence and asks for our orders. I nudge Jonah after he makes his and he tells the waitress I'll have the same thing he ordered. Once she leaves, we fall back into silence. My eyes have fallen away from her and landed on the table, now void of menus.
Kaylen doesn't hit that hard. I know she doesn't. So now I'm stuck between wanting to free the spirits and knowing Kaylen really doesn't think I can. I'm stuck between two things I can't fight. Two things I can't win against.
"The Puppet has to listen to children," Mike breaks the silence unexpectedly, "but you said yourself it doesn't know the difference between adult and child." He looks at me and I nod, knowing he's about to shoot down my argument. He opens his mouth to crush my fight, but Jonah beats him out of the gate.
"I had a nightmare," he says quickly, as if it's some huge confession. We all turn to him, and I find his eyes downcast and his hands shaking in his lap. "I had a nightmare about the pizzeria, and you need to know it."
He's lying.
In front of Kaylen?
What's he doing? He's gonna get caught.
"I saw him. The rabbit. The one that killed them," he says, his voice speeding and his head shaking side to side. "I saw him. In that place. With the other one. The bear. The yellow bear."
He's not lying...
"I... I didn't know what to do... I was... I was a kid. I was a.... I was... I was scared and, and, and he— he was..."
Holy shit.
"He was trying to hurt someone. A kid. A girl. I saw my sister there, but she didn't... she couldn't... she was scared too. She was nine, then. When it happened. And the place, the place was different—"
"Jonah, slow down," I say gently, and he turns to look at me. "Slow down."
Jonah would never cry in front of a kid. He's trained himself to remain stone-faced and stubborn in the presence of anyone under fifteen. So, when I see a tear drop down his face knowing Abby's across the table, my head starts to spin.
Whatever nightmare he had, it fucked him up too bad to have been just last night. He's been sitting with this for a while.
No...
Not a while...
I turn to look at Mike, and the lack of surprise in his eyes proves my suspicion is correct.
This is how he got Mike on board. He had this nightmare after we visited. He must've mentioned it to Mike yesterday morning, before he came to get me.
"Josie..." he says weakly, "Sam was there."
"Right before you moved," I whisper, and he nods.
"She was so good at keeping secrets," he mumbles, wiping tears from his cheeks.
A mountain of thoughts rushes in all at once.
Sam saw Afton attack the girl who became the Puppet. Jonah knows this, but how? Did Sam tell him? No, she couldn't have. He was a kid. He still is. But so was she. God, she went through so much and now this? How long has Jonah been entangled in this mess?
And what of the spirit in the Puppet? Did Sam know her? Did she know Sam? Did Sam see that for a reason? Why didn't she tell anyone? If her family hadn't moved, would she have been next?
Would Jonah?
"I don't know much," Jonah admits, "but I know going back in there isn't going to be easy. Not for me."
That explains it, then. The emotions he feels in there.
"It's okay," I say gently, putting an arm around him. "We're....—" I look up at Kaylen, who seems startled— "I'll... fix this."
"No," Mike says firmly, and I look over at him. "We will."
"Mike..." I warn.
"No," he states again, shaking his head. "I meant it when I said I paid for this. And...—" he takes a moment to consider what he's about to say— "and if Abby can help them... those spirits that are trapped there— ours or otherwise—... then we have to help."
"We do," I whisper, nodding slightly. "Jeremy... Susie... Fritz... Gabriel... Cass..." I look over at Jonah and tentatively add, "Sam..."
"The Puppet," Abby adds, "Mangle..."
"Afton put them there," I say gently, "and now it's our job—" I turn to Kaylen— "to get them out. To save them. To disconnect them from whatever they're attached to."
"But if they aren't attached to the suits, then what could they possibly be holding on to?" Mike asks, bringing a forgotten question to the surface.
"Is it possible they're attached to memories?" Jonah offers, a clever suspicion.
"I don't know," I mumble, my mouth moving before I have a chance to stop it. "But we have to figure it out. I can't detach them if I don't know."
"Then that's our first question for Jeremy," Mike confirms, and I nod a bit.
"Once we figure it out," I mumble, trying to sound confident, "I think I can detach them."
"Can you?" Jonah asks, questioning my shaking voice.
"I will try," I offer, looking over at him.
"So, what?" Kaylen questions. "We go in, we- Abby asks for the Puppet, we find Bonnie... Jeremy... the kid. And then what? How do you detach spirits? What do you do once they are detached? Is it over, or is there something else? How far is this going to go?"
I take a deep breath, trying to buy myself time.
"I don't know," I admit, shaking my head. "But once we start, we won't be able to stop until it's over, or the spirits will attach to something they're not supposed to."
"We have to help them cross over," Jonah says firmly, and I agree silently.
"How?" Mike asks, a valid question.
One I don't have an answer to.
"The Puppet can help," Abby chimes, and the table falls silent.
"The Puppet can help," I echo, thinking about it.
I guess it can. I don't know how, but if Abby trusts it, I guess I have no choice but to as well.
"Hey," Jonah mumbles after a few minutes, "did that thing ever go away?"
"Jonah, no—" I attempt, but it's too late.
More attention.
Look at me.
"Please ask her for to-go boxes when she gets back," I mumble, holding onto Jonah's arm as I squeeze my eyes shut and try my hardest to will the entity away.
"We can eat in the car," Kaylen offers, and I nod a bit.
Why is this little town in the middle of nowhere so fucking haunted?
(A/N: Wow, sorry. This chapter took forever lol. I didn't proofread any of it, so let me know about grammar or spelling issues please. I will probably read it over tomorrow and make any necessary changes. Expect (I'm almost promising) a chapter tomorrow. I was supposed to include the store trip in this chapter, but it was getting too long. Expect that chapter tomorrow, I will try my hardest to not leave you all hanging like I did last time.)
Please leave a like if you enjoyed and again, feel free to correct my spelling/grammar in the comments :)