"Dad!" I screamed as I pushed past Aarons arm and ran to my dad. Considering the state his clothes and hair were in, he was at some point in the walls.
But how did he get out?
I shook my thoughts away as I focused on the wellbeing of my father. I watched as his chest moved up and down. I let out of deep breath of relief knowing he wasn't dead.
"What the hell happened?" Aaron looked down at Zak with a look of disbelief.
"We were right, he was in the walls." I dusted dirt and small wood splinters off his jacket.
Aaron sighed and bent down next to Zak's unconscious body. "We should put him on a couch or something, I'm sure the floor isn't too comfortable."
I hummed in agreement. Aaron grabbed Zak's shoulders and began to drag him down the hallway, I held his feet.
A few minutes later Zak was placed on one of many antique looking couches of the museum. Aaron let out a deep breath, ran his hand over his bald head and looked me dead in the eyes.
"Okay Charlie you need to tell me what the hell happened here, because you've barely told me anything."
I shyly looked up from Zak and into Aarons wide eyes.
"Well, I told you about the gramophone, right?" I asked, he nodded.
"Dad told me about it and showed it to me the other day, and it had this unbelievable energy. I knew something really bad was attached to it. It was almost like it was calling to me. So, when I was closing the museum tonight, I decided to check it out alone... which I realize now was a very bad decision."
Aaron was pinching his forehead. He was doing the same thing Zak does when he's frustrated with me. These are the moments where I see Aaron as a second father.
"Then what happened?"
"I, uh, I took the sheet off it to look at it better, and from there it's been hell."
Aaron sighed. "What about the woman in white I saw?"
I shrugged. "My best guess is that she's the spirit behind all this. I've never seen or felt anything like her since the gramophone showed up."
Aaron groaned and threw his neck back in frustration.
"I was going to have a nice night and watch The Wheel of Fortune tonight, but no, I have to look for a terrifying ghost that puts people in walls."
A small smile played on my lips as I watched Aaron. A sudden movement below me made me look down to see Zak moving.
"Dad!" I smiled and helped him sit up.
He slowly opened his eyes and viciously blinked in attempt to fix his vision.
"What-What happened?" He groaned.
I looked at Aaron, then back at Zak.
"You, uh, you were stuck in the walls." I gave a half smile and pursed my lips.
Zak shot his head toward me and stared at me with a shocked glance.
"What?"
"You were in the walls."
"Yeah, I heard that part, but how I did get in there?"
I thought about what to tell him, but he would understand better than anyone else.
"A spirit."
Zak's mouth opened in shock. Everything was quiet while Zak thought about what to say.
"She's quite terrifying." Aaron added.
"Who is?"
"The spirit. She's this woman in white with no face, and her black hair and dress float around her like she's in the water. She's not what I'd call a friendly ghost."
I gave a light laugh at Aarons comment, but Zak didn't even seem to notice. Something was off.
"Dad, are you alright? You don't seem okay."
He ran his hand through his hair and let out a deep breath.
"I can't remember anything. The last thing I remember was walking into the museum and seeing you. That's it."
I looked at Aaron with wide eyes, then back down at Zak.
"You don't remember the doors closing on us? The woman in white standing behind you?
Zak shook his head. "I'm sorry Charlie, but I don't remember anything."
I sighed and put my hands on my waist. "You did hit your head pretty hard when you fell, but who knows what else happened to you when you were in the walls."
A small noise from behind me made all our heads turn. All of us remained deadly silent as we felt a cold chill run up our arms and out our backs.
"You feel that?" Aaron whispered.
Zak and I nodded at his comment. We all felt that.
As soon as the chill left us, a woman humming a lullaby echoed down toward us. It was coming from the same direction we heard a sound only few moments ago.
"You guys hear that too?" Aaron's shaky voice came from behind me.
I spun around to give Aaron a sarcastic glance, but the smiling face of a woman standing behind him made me instantly forget what I was doing. My hands instinctively shot up to my mouth and a small whimper escaped my lips.
Aaron instantly noticed my mortified face, but refused to turn around and see what I was staring at. Seconds later, Zak looked up too see her and jumped off the couch and toward me, leaving a large space between us and Aaron.
"G-Guys." Aaron's eyes became wider as the woman's smile became larger. The sight of her evil features would prevent anyone from ever having a full night's sleep again.
I released my hands from my face a slowly gestured for Aaron to come toward us as slowly as she could, but when he tried, he was pulled back.
"She's holding my shirt." Aaron whispered. I once again looked at the woman behind him. Every glance I took, the more I wanted to crawl into a hole and hide. Her battered face and evil smile were staring straight ahead; as if she were a wax doll. Then, without any bodily movement, her eyes shot to me and for a mere second we locked eyes. Her smile only grew larger and she pushed Aaron's large frame forward causing him to bump into Zak and making them both topple to the ground.
As the two pushed each other of themselves, the woman rushed into me. Her long fingernails latched and dug into my shoulder as she pulled me away from Aaron and Zak. I screamed for their help and unhinged my body from her hand, but she grabbed my ankle and dragged me away from their reach. Her manic laugh rang through my ears as she pulled me away from my only means of safety and further into the depths of the museum.
Both men screamed for me and tried to run toward me, but their attempts failed as the hallway door slammed in their faces. The last thing they saw was me being dragged away by a terrifying woman in white.
I dug my hands into the old carpet in attempts to slow the woman down, but all she did was dig her nails deeper in my skin.
I could still hear Zak and Aaron pounding on the doors trying to get to me. I screamed as she dragged me through the hallways I held onto whatever I could grab, a table leg, the corner of a wall... anything. Eventually the woman stopped, and without her laying a single hand on me, my body stood up and was forcibly pressed into the closest wall. It felt like I was in a movie.
The woman slowly made her way toward me. She slowly laid her hand on my face and sweetly caressed my cheek. Her dead eyes stared deeply into my soul as she traced the edged of my face with her freezing cold hand. For a mere moment I could've sworn there was some emotion behind her emotionless eyes. Then, as if a switch went off in her brain, her eyes hardened. With the swift motion of her hand I was thrown halfway across the room and face first into the wall. The impact didn't knock me out, but it left my vison incredibly hazy. I held my hands in my head and groaned as I felt all the blood in my body rush into my head.
While I sat on the floor and groaned. The woman hummed a strange tune and stared at me.
"What do you want?"
She put her hands behind her back and knelt down in front of me.
"I've wanted you ever since I saw you. The second you entered the room a whole wave of energy hit me, and I needed more. And when you came back, I knew I had to act."
I looked at her with wide eyes. "You caused the blackout in the museum?"
She rolled her eyes and stood up and began to walk away from me. "I really thought you'd be smarter."
"What are you going to do with me?"
She turned around and gave her signature evil smile. "I don't know yet, but I need to hide you from those men. They're the only one that'll keep you away from me."
I started to stand up from the ground, but she saw my movements.
"Sit down!" she yelled and I obeyed. I was too afraid if I kept moving something worse than being yelled at would happen.
As she stood before me, I had a chance to see what she looked like up close. Her dress was browned and dirty, her hair was tangled and messy, and her exposed skin was covered in wounds.
My eyes widened as I made a realization.
"You were killed." I said aloud.
Her body spun around toward me. Her face turned sour and her nostrils widened.
"I can help you! Let me help you!" I pleaded. I could help her like how I helped Alice at the hospital, or Nora from Blackwater Prison.
Her face shriveled in disgust.
"You could never help me." she waived her hand once more and my body flew into the wall behind me.
I groaned and wrapped my arms around my stomach. That second blow caused a lot more damage than the first one.
"Charlie!" Zak's voice rang from somewhere in the museum causing me to smile.
"No!" the woman breathed. "I won't let them take you from me."
Her head spun toward me causing her long black hair to follow.
"You!"
She rushed toward me, which made my heart fall into my stomach in fear. She grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me from the ground.
She looked me up and down, then straight into my eyes.
"Sorry darling, I can't show you where you're going." She grinned.
Before I knew it, a large force came in contact with the back of my head. My legs immediately gave out and I fell to the ground. The last thing I remembered seeing what a white dress standing in front of me and her evil laughter consuming me.