October 31, 2020
Gabriel promised that he was going to go all out for Halloween and he sure didn't disappoint. Isaac walked around the house, seeing the copious amounts of fake spider webs and animatronics hiding behind nooks and crannies.
Every Halloween, Gabriel invited over the children of Matthewsville to come and go through his haunted house. It wasn't anything too scary, outside of a few jump scares here and there but Isaac loved it. He loved seeing people's costumes, even if he didn't prefer to partake in it, and loved seeing all the different decorations.
Mabel had left earlier in the month and Isaac's mom and dad were having dinner in town, leaving Isaac and Lillian with Gabriel and Rebecca. He didn't mind it though. Gabriel and Rebecca were very nice people and weren't obnoxious when they talked to Isaac.
His dad was allowed to work at the house again and, so, he was a great help to getting the decorations up with Gabriel. Isaac could only imagine how big of a pain in the ass it would be to take them back down.
Down the hallway, Isaac saw a group of children, with their parents, scream as an animatronic jumped out at them. He laughed and looked down the other side where he saw Lillian and some other little girl running across the hallway to where the third floor was.
"Lillian?" He said.
The trapdoor shut as he walked to the bottom of the stairs. "Lillian? What are you doing up there?"
He had wondered where she had been hiding. In fact, there was many times that she had, simply, disappeared in the house and nobody could find her. He imagined that this was her hiding spot.
Isaac walked up the steps and reached for the trapdoor, slowly lifting up on it to see Lillian sitting in the middle of the attic with her toy sheep on the ground.
"What are you doing up here?" Isaac asked.
"I'm playing," She said.
"Why are you playing up here? You have a perfectly good room."
"Leave me alone," Lillian said.
Isaac watched her for a moment longer before scanning the room again. There were cobwebs and dusty children's toys scattered across the floor. Isaac couldn't imagine who would have let their daughter live in such a terrible place but there were plenty of terrible parents out there.
"Well you shouldn't be up here. Who's know what's crawling around up here."65Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn0Qcz9Z28u
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"I said leave me alone!" Lillian yelled.
He shook his head and closed the trap door. Sometimes, she was the sweetest little sister and other times, he wished he could dunk her head in the toilet, as, embarrassingly, has happened to Isaac in the past. As the months have gone by, she seemed to have been getting meaner and he couldn't help but wonder if the house had changed everyone.
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"Okay, you can come out now," Lillian said.
Tabitha appeared back into reality and sat next to Lillian, once more, with her wooden duck. "He's going to tell your mom and dad now."
"He didn't see you," Lillian said.
"I know but he's still going to tell them and they're not going to want you to come up here anymore."
Lillian ignored Tabitha and trotted her sheep across the floor. Sir Billy had been quiet for the last few weeks, like he had gone asleep. It felt wrong. Even when Sir Billy was talking to Lillian, it seemed like he was getting meaner. It was strange.
Tabitha had her head in one of her arms and looked sad as she skidded her duck across the floor.
"What's wrong?" Lillian asked.
"Nothing," Tabitha said.
Lillian set Sir Billy down and sat next to Tabitha. "You can talk to me. We're friends."
Tabitha set her duck down and sighed. "You can't stay here anymore."
"Why? Because my brother's going to tell on me?"
"No," Tabitha replied. "You can't stay in this house anymore. It's bad and it getting badder."
"That's not even a word," Lillian said.
"Sorry," Tabitha said. "It's getting more bad."
Lilian picked her sheep back up and resumed moving it across the floor and Tabitha watched her play with. "Lillian, you and your family have to leave here."
"Why?"
"Because, my mom is mean and it won't be long before she's mean to your family. I... I think she's going to hurt them."
Lillian shook her head. "My daddy's strong. He wouldn't let your mom hurt you or anyone."
Tabitha paused, sighing once more. "Nobody can protect me from her. She's already hurt me so much and she's going to hurt your family. Strong guys can stop her because they can't touch her, unless she wants them to."
"That doesn't make any sense. How could someone not touch her?"
Tabitha's eyes swelled up. "Because she's not alive, Lillian. She's a ghost."65Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9v1Wazb7tU
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"A ghost? Ghost's aren't real."
Tabitha reached her hand out to Lillian. "Grab my hand then."
Lillian did as told and watched as her hand slipped through Tabitha. She scooted back to the wall, wanting to scream but Tabitha put her finger to her mouth and smiled. "It's okay, Lillian."
"You're... you're a ghost! Ghosts are suppose to be bad!"
"I'm not going to hurt you Lillian. We're friends and I would never hurt my friends."
Lillian nodded her head before slowly scooting back to Tabitha. "Why are you a ghost?" Lillian asked.
"Because... my mommy hurt me, very much," Tabitha said. "And if your family doesn't leave, she's going to hurt them as well."
"But why? Why would she want to hurt my family?"
"She's evil. She likes manipulating the guys and making them do what she wants. That's why you have to tell your family to leave. Promise me you'll tell them to leave."
"I don't know if they'll believe me though."
"There's a office downstairs that has things in it that will convince your family to leave. Tell them to go in there, okay?"
"Okay," Lillian said.
She played with her sheep and felt shivers all across her body. Now, she felt like hundreds of ghosts were watching her.
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End of Part 3
