Young Writers Society

"Oh, ha." Casey started, nervous in his dead-pan tone. "Stairs."

With a long moment of hesitation, he placed a foot on the bottom step. The plank promptly snapped under his foot, and he winced. He wasn't that heavy, was he?

He mustered enough courage to climb a few more steps, leaning heavily on the banister, despite the fact that the banister itself was none the worse for wear.

Raiden skipped up the stairs as quick as possible after everyone. She did not like bugs, and that were some of the things she could hear. She visibly shuddered as a particularly close sound reached her ears, and she nearly jumped on Wielde.
"A-ah, sorry. I was a bit spooked, 's all."
The haunted-ness part she could work with, but bugs?? Nope; there were, in fact, limits to her benevolence.

Wielde stopped halfway up the steps. Almost running into someone had been bad enough, but he was suddenly a bit more aware that he was the last person going up fragile stairs. All of his clothing and his heavy scepter didn't help much, nor did the creaking and groaning of the wood beneath him.

"Is this our only option?" the king said, clinging onto the railing. He sounded a little high-pitched. "I may need a little assistance."

Lucy put her foot down on the landing of the next floor, soon followed by Diane. Now the two turned to watch the progress of everyone else present in the room - namely, to watch Wielde, who had stopped midway up the stairs. Diane suddenly realized that he had the most weight on him due to his outfit; the stairs could easily give way underneath him. She would have suggested that he turn around, but the stairs were unpredictable - they could give out the moment he put his foot down on a lower step.

But Lucy couldn't do anything without having to go back onto the steps, and that was too risky. She also couldn't do anything; she didn't know enough spells. "Can anyone help Wielde get up?" Diane asked, looking at the faces of the other people climbing the stairs.

Fa glanced back and watched for a moment. She then continued on down the hallway, opening a door here and there. Pretty soon she could only hear there voices faintly, and that was when she realized she had come farther then she thought.

Diamond and Gunther watched from the top of the stairs, trailing behind the rest of the group even as Wielde got himself in a bit of a fix. Cornyx, upon seeing that using the stairs when Wielde was on them was unwise, merely spread his wings and leapt to the ground, using them to slow his descent.

"I can," Di offered, bounding lightly down the steps to Wielde and extending her hand to him.

Fa opened another door, voices now gone. her footsteps made no noise, exactly like an elf. This appeared to be a bedroom. There was something captivating about it. she sat down on the bed, her eyes gray and melancholy.

"Many thanks," Wielde said, taking the lady's hand.

"Da, you're welcome," she dipped her head. "Least I could do."

The smart thing to do was not spread out - it was Hunting 101, according to what Bobby and Diane had both told her. But she wasn't really a hunter, and she was much more interested in following Fa than waiting for Wielde to finish climbing up the stairs. Diane lingered as Diamond helped him with ascension; that was good enough.

She peeked her head into the room that Fa had entered. It appeared to be an abandoned bedroom, but there wasn't anything of major note. She frowned. Something did feel odd, though. She couldn't put her finger on what the source of the feeling was - she could just feel it somewhere in her gut that something was off.

She entered the room.

Almost immediately, a feeling washed over her. She hadn't been able to see Fa from the doorway due to the position of the bed, but now, looking at her, something felt even more wrong than before. Nothing had changed; she still looked the same. But the demon that Lucy had become knew something dangerous and mysterious was afoot, and knew she had to warn Diane.

But as she turned back to the door, she saw what looked like a ghost in the doorway.

Her heart skipped a beat.

The ghost's form was simplistic, little more than a flickering white figure. She saw bits and pieces of a face emerge from the white, only to disappear before she could get a good look at the face. The brief visions were like a broken TV, and the words potentially spoken came across as garbled static.

The ghost backed away from the doorway very, very slowly.

Lucy continued to stare at it, eyes turning black as a sign of a threat. "Whatever you do," she hissed to Fa, "don't move."


Diane was waiting at the top of the stairs when she noticed that Lucy had disappeared down the hallway. It took a little bit of guesswork, but she finally figured out which room Lucy had entered - it was the one with the open door. She gave Wielde and Diamond one last glance before hurrying after her friend - she had to see what she had noticed.

She came to a stop in front of the doorway.

There was a ghost standing only a few feet away from the door. She bit back a startled cry and tried to memorize its details. It was a white figure, with a face that disappeared and reappeared as its image flickered. But it was only bits and pieces - she couldn't make out more than a feature or two at any given moment.

She peered more into the room.

No matter where she looked, she couldn't see her best friend.

Her eyes widened in horror, but she pushed it away. A ghost couldn't hurt Lucy. Lucy was stronger than that, even though there wasn't another explanation for why Lucy was missing. She tried to keep her voice calm when she spoke. She really did. But she was scared, and her voice trembled. "Guys?" she said, trying to get the attention of the others present. "There's-There's a ghost in this room. Don't do anything impulsive or it might go after you."

The ghost watched her. She slowly began to back away, but its barely present eyes never left her. It finally turned its head to the side for the briefest of seconds, saying something in a quiet, garbled mess.

Finally, he was on solid ground. Or, reasonably solid ground. Wielde nodded in appreciation, taking a couple tentative steps forward and wincing as the rotting wood creaked and cracked. Still enough to hold his weight, even with his scepter and crown.

So he had a hard time keeping as quiet as he could when Diane mentioned something about a 'ghost.' He didn't understand what that was, but her tone of voice and warning sent a chill down his spine. Against his better judgment, he had to get a good idea of what-

Oh. Oh.

Standing beside Diane, Wielde stared into the eyes of the pale figure standing in the middle of the room. It was shifting and changing too much for him to get a good look at it, but he knew what it was. He knew that frame, those eyes, that weakly outstretched hand, could figure out that mess of a whisper.

The King dropped his scepter and leaned against the doorframe, looking far paler than he had before.

Faiolteach saw everything out of the corner of her eye. In all her days of being a hunter and hunted,, she had never, ever come across a ghost. It looked like it was trying to say something. She remained frozen however, following Lucy's orders on not moving. One could have thought she'd been turned into a statue. Where they going to get out of this? Maybe the ghost was benign and wanted help?

Another ghost had appeared in the doorway. Lucy tried her best not to panic, but things weren't looking all that good for Diane. She may have been learning magic, but she was ultimately just a human. And if there was anything Lucy had learned lately, it was that humans were very, very weak. The ghosts could have easily snapped her neck, slammed her up against a wall, burned her or even run her through with a sharp metal object. Lucy could imagine all of it. It wasn't that hard.

But then one of the ghosts dropped what it was holding.

The thing clattered to the ground, and part of it fell into the bedroom. Suddenly, Lucy wasn't looking at some strange white thing - it was Wielde's scepter. The half of it that was out in the hallway was still the same as it had been moments prior, but the part in the room could have only been what he was carrying earlier.

She looked back up at the two ghosts.

Maybe they weren't really ghosts. Maybe something was affecting her perception, and she was looking at the people that had been left outside. It was hard to tell with the flickering who the first of the two was, but she could figure out the second easy enough - only Wielde would have been holding onto that scepter.

Her eyes returned to their normal color.

Then her hand shot out, and she grabbed the figure who had to be Wielde by the arm. The other figure gave a startled, garbled cry, but there was nothing they could do to stop her - she had the strength of a demon, and demons were very strong when they wanted to be.

And, as expected, Wielde turned right back to normal the moment she got all of him in the bedroom.

Oh dear - the ghost had picked him up like he was a doll. She'd never been able to do that. Wielde seized up, forgetting to breathe for the few seconds before he found himself face to face with Lucy, who was holding him up by the arm.

An intense feeling of relief washed over him - he wasn't dead. It also muddled what communication skills he did have.

"Er," he said, looking up at Lucy, who still hadn't let go of him. "Apologies?"

Casey had reached the top of the stairs, and now he was confronting the very real possibility of the house being haunted. Though his face was pale underneath his freckles, he shifted from foot to foot ever so slightly, like he wanted to charge in and help. Lucy and Wielde had both disappeared, and that was never a good sign.

"Diane." he hissed out of the corner of his mouth. "is it safe to move yet?"