Sharie POV
Sharie was terrified. Running through the empty halls, her mind was filled with images of that horrible specter. It's glowing, ethereal blue form haunted her. It's face twisted into hatred and agony, a blood red slash on it's chest. Quickly making several turns, hoping she wouldn't run into a dead end, she searched for the exit. She left behind the others in her panic, and could only hope they were okay. She darted past several closed doors. Sparing a glance behind her, Sharie confirmed that the ghost wasn't chasing her. So she stopped, turned to one of the doors, and quickly entered. She found herself inside some sort of nursery, if the baby crib and stuffed animals were anything to go by. Looking around, she found a place to hide and dove into the closet. Shutting the door behind her, she struggled to slow her breathing and be as quiet as possible. It was just supposed to be some dumb outing with friends! It wasn't supposed to end like this! This place wasn't supposed to actually be haunted! She knew ghosts existed, but they were so rare. It was supposed to be like a camping trip. No one expects a monster attack on a camping trip, or they just wouldn't go. No one actually expects to see a ghost their entire lives, not unless they have a profession that required they deal with them. Everything went so horribly wro-
Sharie's inner monologue of regrets was cut short as blue light began to peek through the cracks on the closet door. Sharie did her best to hold in her whimpers and screams, and stopped breathing altogether. She could feel that instinctual fear return, felt her heart beating so wildly in her chest that she worried the ghost might hear it. She couldn't stop shaking, scared out of her mind. The light grew brighter in it's sickly, unholy hue. She waited for what felt like an eternity, waiting, hoping, praying to every god she knew that it would just leave her alone. That it wouldn't notice her inside of the closet and kill her. Finally, after awhile, the light dimmed and disappeared from her sight. She thanked the heavens above that she would live, that she might get out of this horrible mansion. She thought about how she would never again take anything for granted. How she would tell her parents how much she loved them, how she would look out for her little brother, how she would value her friends while she still could, how she-
Suddenly, Sharie found herself slammed against the wall. She struggled to scream, but she couldn't manage to let out so much as a whimper as she was held a foot off the ground and against the wall by her throat. In front of her, that vile, unholy thing manifested itself, that monster that existed only to hurt. It looked just as it had before, the expression of hatred and agony clear on it's face. It walked towards her slowly, and with each step it took Sharie felt her fear increase many fold.
"HHhhoooOOOWWWW CCCccoooouuullLLLDDDD YYYYOOOUUU!?!?" The horrifying undead bellowed in a raspy, hollow voice, sounding so much like and echo or a gust of wind forming words.
Tears dropped from Sharie's eyes as she felt the realization that she was going to die creeping onto her. This is it, this was the end. She would never achieve her dreams, never get married, never start a family, never have a chance to really live out her life, all because of this monster in front of her. It reached out it's hand, towards and through her chest, deeper, deeper, until it grasped something. She felt a chill pierce through her body as the vile thing squeezed her heart, and finally let go. Dropping to the ground, Sharie managed to let out just a single scream with the air left in her lungs, a scream full of regret and fear, before falling over dead.
Horace POV
Horace yelped as a scream echoed out around him. Sharie's voice. His blood ran cold and his heart dropped in his chest. Did it catch her? No, that was impossible, nothing could have happened to Sharie. He refused to accept it. She was so smart and cunning, surely she wouldn't have died? Yes, she must have been drawing it's attention somehow. Horace knew she had to have a plan. She always knew what to do, after all. He just had to wait and hide until morning came, and everything would go back to normal. So he stayed under the bed, calming himself and making as little noise as possible. He was in some sort of servant's quarters, concealing himself under one of the four beds in the room. A box of candles sat at the foot of the bed, further obscuring him. He had already been waiting her for a while, an hour at least. So he would stay here, and wait. He had also gotten lost when the group split up, and hid in the first room he found. So he waited, and he waited. He thought about his friends he came here with as he did. Terrance, who he met in his arithmetic class two years ago at Gallwin middle school in eighth grade. He met the others through Terrance, and was the newest to their friend group. He liked them, despite their shared habit of pranking each other whenever possible. There was no malicious intent behind them, just kids goofing around. Though, he had to admit, he might have a crush on Sharie. Okay, he definitely had a crush on Sharie. She was so smart, almost always in the top of her classes (Except for history, which she hated), funny, and knew when a situation called for her to be serious or not. So he made up his mind. When he escaped here, he would ask Sharie out on a date. He'd do it if his heart exploded from nervousness.
Just then, a gust pushed the cracked door all the way open. Horace paled in fear. There were no open windows around here. The wind must have been from the ghost. Sure enough, he could feel his heart speed up, his subconscious sensing something his aware self couldn't. The feeling stayed like that for so long, never once so much as waning. His stress built itself to extreme levels, until with a great creak the bed above him was hefted onto it's side. He let out a short yell of surprise before scrambling towards the door, no time to even stand up. Just before he reached it, however, it slammed shut, trapping him inside. He got to his feet and backed up against the door. Trying the handle, he found it was locked. Turning back to the room in front of him, he witnessed as blue light flashed, the form of a boy around his age stepping out. Several candles flew into the air around him, beginning to orbit around his floating visage. His face only seemed to grow even more depressed since the last time Horace saw him.
"Wait! Don't kill me, please! I'll leave, I'll leave just don-"
In the middle of Horace's bargaining, two of the candles suddenly pointed their base at the teen and launched themselves forward. Before he could react, Horace had two candles impaling his eyes. He let out a god awful scream as he fell to the ground. Finally, the ghost put the screaming boy out of his misery as a splinter from the bed pierced through his now empty eye sockets and into his brain.
