"Okay, so..." Kat spreads her hands out as Nolan aggressively rips off his jacket. "No more.. anything. No Bloody Mary, nothing, I think we should just chill for a little while and just— be here. What do you think?"

Nolan blows out a gust of air, hunching down next to Kat on the couch. Sunshine sits near the hallway, filming both of them while she perches on a wooden chair.

"Okay," she agrees.

"Yeah." Kat nods. "Yeah."

They spend about thirty minutes kicking back and, well, honestly not doing much. Sunshine grabs the Cheetos from the kitchen and plops down next to her mother, since Nolan has moved to the big wooden chair. Nolan then asks if his hair looks okay and checks it in the mirror.

They then talk a little about what happened in the bathroom, but it's mostly Nolan rambling about his theories and how 'they're fine.' The time continues to tick on until Sunshine grabs her camera, lips pursed into a thin line.

"I'm bored," she concludes. "So, I'm gonna go explore the house." A pause when neither Kat nor Nolan move. "By myself."

"Oh, wait," Nolan stirs, blinking open his tired eyes, "don't go." He makes no move to follow her, though.

Her mother is passed out on the chair, unmoving.

Sunshine enters the front bathroom, narrowing her eyes. "Why is this bathroom so white?" she mutters to herself, turning on the light. "I'm officially afraid of mirrors." She can't shake away the flash of the white mask and black goggles peering back at her from behind the shower curtain. Even though she's spend time calming down, it greatly unnerves her. She doesn't really want to think about it, but here she is, standing in front of another mirror.

Wonderful.

"Okay," she breathes out, attempting to calm herself. She leaves a small lamp light on and turns the overhead bathrooms light off, exiting the room and glancing down the hallway. She frowns at the wide open door to Nolan's grandmother's room. I'd rather save the best for last... she remarks sarcastically.

"Creepy den," Sunshine comments, pacing away from the cave and to the guest bedroom — or, Nolan's bedroom? "I'm not going in there." However, she decides to not pussy out and does so anyway, looking around at the blue-painted walls and cute bed tucked in the corner. It's nice, she muses. "I like this room. It's pretty."

The camera always comforts her, even if it sounds weird talking to... well, herself. She supposed she does have an audience, though, just not right now.

Sunshine steps out of the guest bedroom and stares into grandma's, hesitating. "I'm afraid to go in here." She kind of hopes her mother or Nolan will grudgingly stand and follow her, but of course, they don't.

This vaguely reminds her of Creepy Guy's house, except... well, there's no Creepy Guy chasing her.

When she enters the room, that high-pitched ringing echoes in her ears. She hunches over slightly, caught off guard, but decides to continue anyway. Sunshine grips the camera with more force as it faces towards her, a puff of air blowing out of her teeth. She doesn't like this. She doesn't like being alone in here. It... it's unnerving.

She's happy she did it, and she almost smiles at that, then wonders if she should go into the bathroom. Nolan's singing in the other room calms her down only slightly. Just kidding. It doesn't, at all. Is that... Eye of the Tiger? Whatever. She needs to keep going.

The closet door closes in front of her and Sunshine can't help but gasp. She slowly moved forward, breath growing heavier. She pans the camera around the room, palms beginning to sweat, and the sharp ringing has cut off any sort of noise from the living room— all she can hear is herself.

Sunshine eventually turns to face the bathroom mirror and cries out when the white-masked figure stands behind the bed, peering into the mirror with her. She whips around, trembling, but sees nothing.

Then the sounds of the world come rushing to her. She hears a horrible, loud choking from the living room, and hears Kat screaming for help. Sunshine runs down the hallway— "What?!" — and makes it to the others, where she sees Kat bent over Nolan.

He's writhing on the couch, hands clawing at his chest, and flops to the ground. His soft grunts sound more like pained wheezes, and Kat gapes at him, mouth dropped open.

"What's happening?" Sunshine cries, moving to stand beside her mother.

"I don't know!" Kat exclaims. "He just started choking!"

Nolan's hands move up to his throat, like he's trying to rip something away from him. However, nothing's there.

"I don't know what to do!" Sunshine sobs, letting the tears fall. Nolan — Nolan is choking. Nolan is dying! "What do you want me to—"

"Do something!" Kat yells.

"I can't do anything!"

"Make it stop!"

Sunshine feels like she can't breathe. "Go away!" she screams, hands shaking. Her eyes widen when Nolan's hands drop and he begins to suck in air, coughing hoarsely. He pushes his forehead into the ground and Kat bends forward, resting an arm on his elbow.

Nolan starts to sob. "Wh— what the—" He can't hold back the tears and lifts his head up, leaning against a foot rest.

"It's okay," Kat comforts, holding his arms and gently helping him to his feet. "It's okay, come on. Sit down." Nolan stumbles on to the table and claws at his head, brushing his hair back stressfully. He looks around, breathing harshly, like he doesn't exactly know where he is.

"Are you okay?" Kat whispers. Sunshine hangs back, unsure of what to do. She... she's never really had to comfort others during a ghost attack. It was always her.

Nolan glances up at Kat in pure terror before it's masked by something less severe. He palms his way to the couch and furiously rubs at his eyes. "Yeah, yeah," he splutters.

"Nolan," Sunshine manages in a soft voice, "are you okay?"

He shakes his head. "I don't know, I don't, I don't—" He looks down, trying to breathe. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." Nolan does that thing where he shrugs it off and tries to appear relaxed and fine, but Sunshine can tell he isn't. I mean — he was just attacked, for Christ's sake.

"Nolan," she tries again.

"Yeah?" he asks, but doesn't look at her, trying to shift on the couch. "What, what?"

"What happened?"

"I'm fine."

"What happened?"

"I'm fine!" He glares at her, eyes dark. Her chest constricts. Hurt. "All right? Jesus."

Kat worriedly glances at her daughter.

"I was— I don't know, okay?" he says in a lower voice.

"Okay..."

The time passes again. It has to be at least five minutes before everyone's calmed down, but Nolan is still looking annoyed and shocked at what just happened to him.

"Okay, so.." Kat frowns. "Nolan, are you— are you okay?"

He's holding his hand to his forehead, the other wrapped around his abdomen defensively. He takes a moment to reply, but eventually offers a small, "Yeah." A pause. "Yeah," he repeats louder, blinking slowly.

"Okay, so, it's time to go." Kat nods, and damn it, Sunshine can see the full Mom Mode come out.

Nolan looks around before his eyes land on Kat. "No, come on," he says.

"Yeah."

"Come on! I mean.."

"No, we need— to leave." Kat looks serious, and for once, Sunshine agrees with her. This is a bad place. Fred— he's got them wrapped around his little dead finger, and she's not here for it. Not anymore. "It's not safe here. Obviously." Kat eyes the place where Nolan had been desperately writhing on the ground.

"We've got someone with us who can help," Nolan tries optimistically. Oh. He's talking about her.

Kat frowns. "We don't know that, okay? I know— I know that you think that she has something special—"

"I know that she does—"

"—and, no, we don't, we don't know that, and— if she really doesn't have a way to protect us," she motions to Sunshine, "then we're just three people who are in a house in way over our heads, with obviously a very, very violent entity."

"Kat. Kat."

Her mother shakes her head. "Nolan— it's not safe."

"Kat. It's my grandma's house, Kat."

"You said nothing happened," Kat responded, "with your grandma."

"That was before." Nolan grits his teeth and spreads a hand in Sunshine's direction. "And now we've got something different, all right?"

"We don't know that if your grandma comes back and Sunshine's not here that— that these things will continue."

"So what do we do, we, we leave? We leave the house?" Nolan looks angry. "Now? Like it is? For my grandma to come back to? No! Come on."

Kat sighs, trying to find a compromise. "You can stay with her, and if something happens—"

"I can't do anything."

A sigh.

"You know I can't do anything!" Nolan's voice breaks, and Sunshine understands that helplessness.

"It's not— we— we can't stay, Nolan, it's not safe, look what just happened to you!"

"Come on, it was— yeah, what happened?"

Kat scoffs. "You— you were choked!

"I know, I know I was choked, Kat—"

"So we need to leave!"

Nolan drops his hands. "What happened— what happened?"

"You were choked."

"What happened when Sunshine came back?" He stares at Kat, and Sunshine realizes Nolan's right. She'd told Frederick, presumably, to go away, and he'd listened.

Kat's at a loss for words.

"What about that?!"

"I don't think that had anything to do with Sunshine," Kat weakly says.

"I think it did." Nolan looks determined. "I think it did."

Kat glances at her daughter, who's still sitting on the floor. "What do you think?"

"What...?" Sunshine is confused.

"I think we need to leave."

She breathes. "I know I don't want to, but.. clearly you think we should, so." Her voice drops, defeated. Her mom's probably right.

"I don't think it's safe," Kat continues.

"Then let's go."

"We're not done here, okay?" Nolan whispers, eyes wide. "Please?"

"We need to go..." Kat murmurs.

He sighs. "Fine. Fine. Let's go, just give me a minute, okay?" Nolan stands slowly, legs wobbling, but he manages to get there on his own. He makes his way to the bathroom, and once out of earshot, Kat frowns.

"I'm sorry."

A loud grunt from Nolan and a bang cause both women to jump in their place. Sunshine runs into the hallway and nearly screams when she sees the white-masked figure dragging Nolan to the back bedroom. A loud, staticky screeching rumbles in her ears and she can hardly hear. All she sees is Nolan desperately clawing the wall, and she knows she can't let this happen.

"Let him go!" she snarls.

The figure drops Nolan and raises its body up, staring at both of them. Sunshine rushes forward and drops to Nolan, breathing heavily. "Nolan!"

When they look up, Frederick is gone.

"Are you okay?" Kat gasps.

"Nolan?" Sunshine tries again when he doesn't answer. He's just staring at the ceiling, twitching slightly. He begins to yell when he sees both of them and starts laughing when he realizes it's just Kat and Sunshine.

"It's gone," her mother confirms.

Nolan groans— "Wha?"— and lets Kat pick him up by his underarms. He staggers into the wall, trying to position his weight correctly. "What, are you done?!" he yells into his grandmother's room. Oh. Now he's talking to the murderous ghost. Wonderful.

"Wait—" Kat splutters.

"Are you done?" Nolan's voice wavers as he stands in the doorway to the room.

"What are you doing, what is he doing?!" Kat looks back at Sunshine. "Nolan, we need to leave!"

He laughs again, slowly limping into the white room, glancing around. The closet door slams shut and Nolan stares at it, ignoring Sunshine and Kat's gasps.

"What?" he sneers, "you think that I'm scared of you? Come on!"

"Nolan," Sunshine yells, "Nolan!"

"What?" he growls.

"Just... calm down." She walks up to him, concerned.

Nolan buries his face in his hands, trying to suck in air. Kat crosses his side and sets her hand on his back comfortingly. "Come on," she attempts, "just... sit down, relax." She shoves a box off of the old red chair and gently steers Nolan into it, "Okay?" Kat looks at Sunshine. "He's obviously not going anywhere for a minute."

Yeah. Looks like they're just gonna sit around the haunted room, where the ringing echoes in Sunshine's ears. But that's not what surprises her— it's the whispers of a man, filling the room up like a bowl. It's even audible over Nolan's loud whimpering. "Do you hear that?" she asks. No one replies. "You really don't hear that?"

Kat looks at her. "Yeah, I hear Nolan freaking out!" She turns back to him. "Deep breaths."

Sunshine stumbled back. "No, it's— it's really loud.."

"What is?" Kat whispers, still holding Nolan and trying to stop him from continuously sobbing. She leans up. "What's wrong?"

"There's a man's voice," Sunshine murmurs.

Nolan cries out.

"Do you mean other than Nolan?" Kat backs away slowly. "What? What's he saying?"

"He misses his wife..." Sunshine whispers, wincing. Nolan looks at her.

"What?"

"He misses his wife," she repeats, then steps on the bed. "It's louder up here." A pause. "No... it sounds like it's— coming from down here." She slowly moves herself to the curtains on the far side of the bed.

"I miss my wife," a raspy voice speaks out.

"I think it's coming from down here..." She looks at the floor and screams when the white mask slowly pushes itself out from under the bed, thick black goggles peering back at her. Sunshine jumps away and scrambles next to Kat and Nolan. "He's under the bed, he's under the bed!"

"What do you mean he's under the bed?" Kat rushes to the side.

Sunshine begins to cry. "He's under the bed."

Her arms splay out at her side. "What's under the bed?!"

"The man! He's under the bed!" Sunshine yells. Kat is about to bend down and take a look, but then the lights cut off, showering darkness over all of them. Sunshine screams when she hears a deep, gurgling moaning from the other side of the room.

"What the hell?" Kat hisses

"Nolan!" she yells, fearing for her friend's safety.

A pause. "What— what?" he splutters, clearly out of it and not really understanding what's going on.

"Nolan," Kat breathes. "Okay, listen, you need to go— figure out— the circuit breaker, okay?" she orders.

"Okay, okay..."

"Get it together," Kat claps.

"Okay."

"Nolan, you're the man, let's go," Sunshine says, hoping he'll move it.

"Do you have some kind of light?" Kat asks.

"Yeah, give me a minute," he murmurs, and the chair shifts as he stands. Nolan flickers his phone light toward the bed.

"Okay, okay, good." Sunshine still can't see her mother or her— friend? But at least she can hear Kat's voice. She continues. "Go find the circuit breaker and turn it on."

No movement.

"Come on, Nolan!" Sunshine yells.

"Okay," he whispers. "Okay, we're fine. We're fine, give me a minute." His phone light shines on his face as he exits the bedroom. Sunshine talks a little to her mother as they walk, but it's so dark, she's not even sure where everyone is. She stops in her tracks and holds her mother back. They should stay in here. She doesn't want to go into the hallway. Kat silently agrees and sits on the bed with her.

"Okay, you know what, we'll just— we'll just wait right here," Kat says, holding her daughter's hand, "it's okay, honey. He's gonna get the light back on."

"It's fine," Nolan says in a shaky voice as he pads to the front door. "It's fine, there's no one out here." He puts his hand on the door. "Damnit. Okay." Nolan swiftly unlocks it and swings it open, then appears to see nothing so steps out on the porch.

Sunshine can't hear him as well, now, but that doesn't stop his voice from carrying. "What, you think I'm scared of you?" he says, still trembling. "Huh? I'm not."

Sure he isn't.

"I don't like the dark," Sunshine murmurs back in the living room, pressing close to her mother. It only brings bad memories.

"It's okay, we're here," Kat soothes, rubbing her thumb over Sunshine's. "We've got the camera, don't we? Why does that make us feel safer?"

She doesn't reply, and instead focuses on ignoring the soft words whispering in her ear. Frank— Fred— whatever his name is— is just trying to freak her out. Well, she won't be scared that easily!

"Can you hear him?" she at least asks.

"What, honey?"

"The voice. It's back." Sunshine closes her eyes.

"What voice?"

"It's back."

"Wh— What's it saying?" Kat whispers.

She bites her lip. "He misses her."

"What do you mean?"

"He misses her."

"He misses who?" Kat grips Sunshine's hand more tightly now.

"I don't know... he misses his wife, I guess, or—?"

"You can hear him say that?"

Sunshine turns to her mother, though she can't even see Kat. "You can't?"

"No, honey, I can't hear anything but Nolan!"

Well, she can't hear Nolan! "It's so loud. He's so loud... you really can't hear him?"

"No..." Kat hesitates. "Nolan! Hurry up!"

Nolan enters the house again, scaring both women for a moment. Sunshine relaxes after a moment. "All right, guys, guys—" He staggers over his words. "I don't know where it is, okay? Okay?"

"Nolan!" Sunshine calls.

"What? I'm coming!"

"Nolan?"

"I'm coming! I don't need to know where a circuit breaker is!"

"Nolan," Sunshine whines as she stands.

He lifts his phone up to their faces and yells. Sunshine turns her head along with Kat and sees Frederick standing right behind them. Everyone flees from the bedroom, Nolan fastest of all, but the dark makes it very hard to sprint.

They make it to the living room and Sunshine stands next to him, Kat at her wide. Nolan shines his phone at the corner and screams. So does Sunshine. They see a dark figure in the corner, bright eyes glinting back, black, long hair flowing down the figure's shoulders.

"Get out of my grandma's house!" Nolan yells at the entity.

"Tell him to calm down!" Kat growls.

Sunshine stops in her tracks, heart stopping. "Victoria?"

Everyone goes quiet.

Holy shit. She's alive! Oh, god! Victoria is alive! Demon Mom didn't kill her!

Kat smiles. "Victoria, is that you?"

Nolan is silent.

Victoria moves forward slowly, eyes flickering from Nolan, to Sunshine, to Kat. "I'm not here to hurt you," she murmurs.

"Oh, hey," Nolan says in a small, scared voice, trembling.

"I'm here to help," Victoria goes on, staring at Sunshine, "I know you need my help."

"It's a real pleasure to meet you, by the way," Nolan splutters. "Fan, for a long time."

She just nods at him, then faces the women. "There's some problems going on right now. And you know what to do."

Sunshine shakes her head miserably. "No I don't, I don't know what to do.."

"Yes. Yes you do." Victoria's voice raises as she stands in front of Sunshine, who turns her head away. "Stop it. Look at me." Sunshine does. "You know what to do."

"I have to talk to him, don't I?"

"Yes. Yes, you do. You need to make him believe you. Do you understand that?"

"Do I have to go alone?" Sunshine murmurs.

"What do you think?" A pause, and Victoria's voice becomes stronger. "You can do this. You have to do this."

Sunshine breathes heavily and rips Nolan's phone from out of his hands. She walks to grandma's bedroom again, heart fluttering in her chest. It's dark, and the only light is that of the phone camera, and she's absolutely terrified.

Somehow, Sunshine finds strength in her voice. "You need to go away."

The doors jiggle and slam open and shut, startling her. A low groan comes from the closet.

"He can't hear you!" Victoria yells from the living room.

"You need to go away now!" Sunshine cries, staring at the door that continuous to open and shut. The moaning grows louder. "Your wife's not here! She's moved on, and you need to too!"

It says something unintelligible. "Go away!" she screams.

The groans die down, as do the moving doors. The lights cut back on over their heads and Sunshine gasps sharply, running into her mother's arms.

"Are you okay?" Kat demands.

"Yeah," Sunshine says weakly.

"That was crazy."

"Where's Nolan?"

"Right here." Kat leads her back into the living room to Nolan, who's scratching his neck.

He smiles at Sunshine. "Hey. I'm fine." He nods, and this time, she can tell it's true. "I'm fine."

Kat looks around. "Where's Victoria?"

Nolan raises a brow and turns around. "What do you mean, she's—" There's no one there. "Oh, she is so cool."

"Victoria?" Sunshine calls out.

No answer. Nolan giggles.

"She left," Kat says slowly. "Unbelievable."

this chapter took me at least 2 hours to write but it was so worth it and so fun and anyway yeah stay tuned boys and girls