"Ew, ew ew...!"

"All right, all right, it's okay—" Kat fumbles with the camera and frowns when Sunshine buries her face in her hands, pacing the kitchen. "It's not dead bodies in the wall, all right?"

"It's skin," Sunshine retorts and fans herself with a hand.

"No, okay, all right, it's just a story, we don't know if anything he says is true. He could just be making this up to impress you."

Nolan interrupts them as he wavers near the dining room table, looking off to the side and into the living room. "Question. Nobody listens to me, right?" He off-handedly glances in their direction, but not at them.

"Okay," Kat counters, "that was really a gross story, all right, we're just kind of thinking—"

"It's not like I made it up!" Nolan says, shrugging his shoulders defensively. "I'm sorry, you guys remember you wanted to know about the.. thing..? And I was like, no, no, no, and you went yes, yes, yes!" He spreads his hands forward and mimics them in a high voice. "And I tell it, and you're all like—"

"Yes, we sound like that." Sunshine rolls her eyes.

"No, and you're a jerk!" Nolan continues mocking, wiping a hand over his mouth. "Well, look, don't be worried, it'll be okay, uh.. my grandma has always been..."

Sunshine looks at the camera.

"..I mean, happy, here. There's never been, really a— an instance of any great magnitude, you know, it's mostly just, y'know, little... temperature changes, you know what I mean." Nolan walks behind them and stands next to the cupboard. Sunshine stares at him. "The house was torn down and was rebuilt."

Neither of them say anything.

"Look," Nolan stresses, "all I'm thinking is that, it's like, y'know, the victims." He spreads his arms to his sides.

Sunshine drops her hands. "Okay," she says shortly, "the ghosts, yeah."

"All right, it's— there's gonna be—" He pauses, staring into the distance. He's thinking, Sunshine can tell, and the clear-strung hesitation isn't making her feel any better. She's sorry for feeling disgusted at that story, but honestly, who wouldn't? For starters, she's literally standing over where there were dead bodies, and now she knows what that deep, pulsing fear in her gut was about. Frank Loren is making her feel this way.

"No, what did you just—" Sunshine sighs heavily and palms her face, stressing out.

"You just had a moment," Kat observes, pushing her brows together.

Nolan walks back to the chicken dresser, placing his hands on the counter. "Well, I'm just—" He frowns. "Thinkin' that— well, I mean, you're a Luiseach."

"Well." Kat hums. "We don't know."

"I think so, I think so," Nolan continues to ramble, ignoring Sunshine glancing up at him as she leans on her arms. "What I'm— cause I've never seen anything horrible here, but... I guess I've never had a Luiseach in the house. I'm curious as to whether we run into Freddy."

"No," Sunshine mumbles. She doesn't want to run into Freddy.

Kat, still holding the camera, puffs out a breath of air. "So what are you thinking— that because she might be this Luiseach, that the more... violent..? entities may come out? Is that what you're trying to say?"

"I think we're fine, we're fine," Nolan says with a smile, but Sunshine can tell he's just trying to shrug it off and convince himself they're safe here. Well, news flash, they're not. God, Sunshine feels sick.

"It's what you thought, isn't it?" she asks in a low voice.

"I'm just saying—" Nolan shrugs again, black leather jacket rippling. "You know, what's—"

A loud bang crashes in the hallway, causing all three to snap their heads toward the sound. Kat sucks in a breath and Nolan freezes. Sunshine can feel her blood become cold, speckles of ice trickling down her spine.

"Okay, what was that?" Kat asks.

"Don't worry about that, it's fine, just stuff— uh. A draft." Nolan mumbles something incoherent as he strides into the large doorway, poking his head into the hallway. He observes the living room, fingers clenching.

"Was there a window open?" Kat demands, padding after Sunshine. "If there's not a window open, there's not a draft, where are you going?"

Nolan slowly creeps into the hallway, holding out a palm to signal Sunshine to stop. "Stay right— there, okay?" His voice shakes and Sunshine continues walking forward, heart beating out of her chest. The hallway is swathed in shadows, darkness looming over their heads, and she can hear the thunder, see the flashes of lightning over her head, she can see the bloody handprints smeared over the door, and, and—

Get it together, Sunshine! she hisses in her head. You've been through too much to pussy out now! You've seen little children ghosts, you've watched doors slam right in front of you, you've nearly been a victim in an exorcism with your mother— are you a little bitch? No. No, you aren't. Come on. Do it. Look down that goddamn hallway with strength. Don't let the fear overtake you.

"Uh, heck no," Kat growls, hiding behind Sunshine as she crosses to Nolan's left side.

"We're fine," Nolan mutters again, staring at the light down the end of the hall. Sunshine doesn't remember them leaving any lights on. "It's cool, it..—"

"Wait..." Her mother shakes her head, breathing heavily. Nolan leads the way down the hallway, Sunshine close behind, Kat even closer.

"Okay, well, that—" Nolan is interrupted.

"Why are we going down there?" Kat snaps.

"I think it was that doorway." He rubs his hand down his face again, standing still. "I left all the doors open." Sunshine can see the light flooding through on one side, then the shut door on the other.

"Why are we— ugh." Her mother gives up.

"Just— just—" Nolan turns around and pushes his hands forward. "Chillax. Please."

Nolan takes about thirty seconds at the closed door, anxiously moving back and forth to try and figure out what to do. Sunshine sighs heavily. No biggie, they're just in the house with a murderous ghost..

"Okay," he breathes, and finally clicks open the door. The light's on in the bedroom, too. Nolan turns around with a toothy smile. "We're fine." It drops as he turns to enter. "It's just, a— I told you it was just a draft."

"Okay," Sunshine finally whispers, not wholly convinced that it's a draft but too terrified to argue. "It's just a draft."

"Yeah." Nolan waves his arm, nonchalant. "Let's go in the kitchen, I don't like it." He hugs his jacket closer to his body, shivering. "Okay. Let's just close this one." He clicks the door shut and cringes at the dark hallway, only a stream of light coming from the bedroom across. "Let's close all the doors! I don't like any of these doors to be— you know— so—"

Sunshine gasps in fright when something whispers in her ear. All she can see is darkness around her, after Nolan closes all the doors, and remembers the ghost— the demon— that had shoved her into the bathroom and burned the picture of the bagged father and daughter.

She rushes out of the hallway and into the light, oxygen sliding into her lungs. Sunshine stumbles to the side and the voices around her blur, as does her vision.

"We're fine," she can hear Nolan say.

Sunshine leans against the chicken dresser, breathing heavily.

"It's fine," Nolan continues, standing in the doorway. "Uh, that was— it's drafty in there, right?"

"A draft doesn't talk!" Kat snaps.

⠀⠀⠀
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Ten minutes later, Kat finally begins a conversation. "This is what we wanted, we said— we said we were coming here to find out if the spirits come out if the Luiseach is here, and now we're cowering in the kitchen."

Sunshine is holding the camera, which shows Nolan sitting hunched over in the chair, and Kat exhausted, staring forward.

"I used to like this place so much," Nolan whispers, not looking at either of them. He raises his gaze. "You know, it was so—"

"This was your idea to come here!" Kat exclaims.

"Ehhhhhhh..."

Kat leans forward and claps in his face. "Get it together, Nolan, focus!" He sits up and nods along, face determined yet slightly blank. "What are we gonna do? What do you wanna do, do you want to get the Ouija board out of the car, do we want.."

"No," Sunshine says coldly.

Kat sighs.

"Um, we could..." Nolan trails off.

"Okay, on all the shows, they— do— callouts—" Kat continues.

"Okay," he perks up, "what if we provided some sort of offering." He dramatically looks at them. Sunshine doesn't like that word.

"Like a sacrifice?" Kat says incredulously. Sunshine doesn't like that word, either.

"No—"

"We're sacrificing Nolan tonight, guys," Sunshine concludes.

"I'm talking like—" Nolan drops his arms. "Uh, cookies, like— cheese—"

Kat looks back at Sunshine with a confused and stupefied expression.

"We're not allowed to use your grandma's food, remember?" Sunshine sneers.

"This is important!" For once, Nolan raises his voice and leaves both women reeling in shock.

Kat quickly gathers herself once more. "You apparently never watch ghost hunter shows."

"They speak to them sometimes! Talk to them!" Sunshine offers.

"All right, tell me what— tell me what we should do." He looks at Kat tiredly.

"I don't know!" she says. "Do we—"

"They talk to them— they call them out!" she repeats unhelpfully.

"When— when we were at the beach," Kat looks at her daughter, "and we said—"

"I got it! I got it!" Nolan points at the two of them. "Bloody Mary. Have you guys ever played Bloody Mary?"

"Bloody Mary?" Sunshine crosses her arms.

"I've never played Bloody Mary, you know why? Cause I'm scared of it! Perfect!" A pause. "Okay, we— we say Bloody Mary eight times—"

"Three," Sunshine corrects.

Kat shakes her head, "Wait,"

"It's eight times!"

"It's three!" Sunshine says.

"Come on, we're never gonna— no ghost is gonna be like, all right, three times, then pop out, otherwise, there would be ghosts all over the place, all right?" Nolan bites his lip. "No, no, no, it's eight times—"

Kat exchanges a glance with Sunshine.

"—and then—"

"It's three right?" her mother asks. "Sunshine?"

"It's three," she confirms over Nolan's rambling.

"It doesn't matter," Nolan continues. "Just keep sayin' it till something shows up, right?"

"Okay, but, doesn't that require, like, a bathroom and a mirror and...?" Sunshine frowns.

Nolan grits his teeth. "Well, we have one of those."

Yeah. They're fine. They're fine, Nolan keeps saying, as he leads all of them to the back bathroom. They're fine, Nolan says as they enter the room, preparing to perform an ancient ritual that will apparently summon a demon. Yeah. Fine.

"This is my grandma's, though," Nolan says anxiously, looking into the bathroom that Kat's already entered. "She likes this bathroom—"

"Go," Sunshine says, pushing Nolan inside. She follows behind him and ignores his glare. Kat closes the shower curtain— for, y'know, safe measure— wait, "Why do you feel the need to close those?"

"I don't know, I just—" Kat groans and Nolan reaches behind her to shut the door. Great. They're in a bathroom, ready to speak to Mary Bloody or whatever the hell her name is.

Nolan dramatically clears his throat.

"Okay, do we have to turn the lights off, is that what we do?" Kat asks.

"It's not much bigger," Sunshine sighs, wishing they could've just gone to the front bathroom instead. But no, this one was bigger. Bullshit. They needed a quick escape if Frank came! Or Freddy! Or... hell, she didn't even care about his name.

"Okay," Nolan begins, "you turn the lights off, you say Bloody Mary eight times—"

"Three," Sunshine growls.

"—two waltzing ghosts come out, all right, and they sing, uh, the song, uh—"

"It's three!" she snaps again.

"Wagner! They sing Wagner!"

Sunshine can't help but laugh. "No they don't!" Kat just stares at Nolan, dumbfounded.

"God," Nolan sighs, "my whole childhood was just a web of lies—"

Kat reaches over and turns the lights off.

"All right, we're fine," he says again. Sunshine needs to start marking how many times Nolan repeats that line.

Only the red light light of the camera reflects in the dark mirror. Sunshine can't see anything, but is slightly comforted in hearing her mother's and Nolan's voices. She's not alone, not like the last time she was locked in a dark bathroom.

"So... who's... gonna say it?" Kat mumbles.

"You know, I— I've heard that if guys say it that it, uh, that it makes it not as effective—"

"Okay!" Sunshine sighs with exasperation. "I'll say it, geez, Nolan." He begins to exhale heavily, right over her goddamn neck. "Can you stop breathing so heavy?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," he tries to comfort. Oh, right, he's only comforting himself.

"You're shaking!" Sunshine replies in an annoyed voice.

"No I'm not."

"Yes— okay, shut up." She sighs shortly and stares at the red ball of light, training her eyes on that and only that. At least she's holding her camera. Hah. This is... familiar territory. "Bloody Mary—"

"Okay," Nolan intrudes, "wait a minute, wait a minute—"

"Oh my god," Sunshine growls.

"I— I just wanna— okay, I just wanted to let you guys know I— I've had a really great time, a really great time—"

"Nothing's gonna happen, Nolan," Sunshine says firmly, "can you just—"

"Yes it is! I can feel it!"

"Nolan."

"Okay, sorry, go."

"Are you sure?" Kat whispers.

"Go," Nolan repeats. "Do it, do it."

"If I start, I have to do all three, okay?" Sunshine snaps, "I'm doin' all three now."

"Do it now," he sighs.

Sunshine breathes in again.

"It's good."

She rolls her eyes and relaxes her shoulders. "Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary!" Her voice raises in pitch with each word until she's left shaking to the core.

And yet, nothing happens.

"See, I told you it wouldn't work," Nolan says smugly.

"I told you it was three," she grumbles.

"You guys were wrong."

Sunshine sighs and squints when Nolan turns the lights back on.

"Okay," Kat shrugs.

"Perfect." Nolan smiles.

"That was really... efficient." She mumbles. Nolan appears to just be standing at the door, not opening it, and Sunshine's getting annoyed. "What are you doing?" she and Kat say in unison.

"Um—" Nolan's voice shakes as he pushes his weight against the door. Every time he tries to turn the knob, it clicks back into place, slamming the wind back in their faces.

"Okay," Kat says anxiously, "What was that?"

A high-pitched ringing sounds in Sunshine's ears and deafens the world around her. She recognizes that horrid, gut-wrenching feeling again, anxiety pushing down on her chest. She can't breathe. She can't breathe! Something is wrong.

Nolan tries the door again, and the lights suddenly cut out. Everyone screams and Sunshine is brought back into the present, heart beating irregularly.

"Hey!" he yells. "Hey!"

"Turn on the light!" Kat exclaims.

"I— I don't like—" Nolan rams his body up against the door, and the lights flicker back on over their head, the demonic ringing worsening in Sunshine's ears. She sees flashes of a white-masked face behind the shower curtain, black goggles peering back at her. She screams, tears running down her cheeks, the terror returning. She remembers what this feels like. She remembers what it feels like to be helpless.

Nolan barges through the door, Sunshine thinks, so she wastes no time running after him— "Jesus Christ!" he says in a shaking voice— out of the room and through the hallway, stumbling into the living room.

"What was that?" Sunshine finally whispers, gripping her maroon jacket and pulling it close to her body. Nolan is angrily pacing somewhere in the kitchen. "Wh— what's happening?" The ringing is becoming worse, echoing in her ears, and she can't think.

"Sweetie?" A soft hand grips her shoulder and slowly pulls her forward. Her mother. "Are you okay?"

"Are we all still alive?" Nolan asks, eyes watering. He's not completely crying, but his voice breaks with every syllable. His hands are on his head, stressfully pushing his ashen-brown hair from his face.

"No, we all died," Sunshine sarcastically snaps.

"It—" Nolan shakes his head and scrunches his face. "It was to be expected. She's a— we're fine, 'cause she's got the— yeah."

"You okay?" Kat repeats, worriedly staring at her daughter. Sunshine nods but doesn't completely understand what happened or what's going on.

"My grandma's gonna be so mad," Nolan worries, standing near the couch.

Anger. "Your grandma's gonna be mad?" She glares at Nolan. Does he not understand what just happened?

Yeah... apparently he doesn't.

this is actually fun to write bc you know ya girl loves the whole gang together they never fail to make me laugh. and then this whole fred loren think is even better and just ahhh writing this again is refreshing...

hope u enjoyed thx lovelies

oh also nolan's 'we're/i'm fine' count: 10