The Haunted House Says Hello

"You're going to be okay, just a little longer," Ava told Marcus, hoping her voice carried to him over the sounds of the rain.

Marcus half-nodded, his head listing back and eyes foggy with a concussion. They were lucky to be alive, Ava thought, slamming down the door knocker again.

Now if only Marcus' witch friend could help them.

The door swung open and a wide-eyed witch stood there, face pale and dressed in a robe.

"Help us," Ava said breathlessly, struggling with Marcus's weight as she dragged them both in.

"What? What happened?" The witch asked softly, raising Marcus' chin with a gloved hand. They stopped Ava from venturing further into the pitch-black house. "No, come upstairs."

The witch swung Marcus's other arm over their shoulders and together they managed to get Marcus up the spiralling stairs.

Ava sighed heavily, dropping Marcus onto the bed and flexing her aching shoulders. The room they were in was decorated lavishly, in some antique style, and dark like the rest of the house.

The witch dabbed some ointment onto his forehead and then stared at Ava, looking vaguely anxious.

"Is he okay?" Ava asked, pausing in her stretching.

"What? Yes, he'll be fine." The witch inhaled sharply. "Did he-did you-hmm." The witch dragged a hand through their dark locks and Ava frowned.

"You should not have come here in the night." The witch declared finally, and thunder clapped outside, making Ava jump.

"Huh?" Ava pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling a migraine coming on. "Listen, Marcus said you were his friend, so we're here. We just got our asses kicked, so if you could speak-I don't know, less cryptically?"

Marcus groaned suddenly and both of them looked at him immediately, Ava breathing out in relief when he opened his blue eyes. They'd lost their cloudiness, and blood was no longer pouring out of his nose.

"Zene." He mumbled, seeing the witch, and Ava rolled her eyes.

Suddenly, Marcus shot up onto his elbows. "Oh shit-"

"Relax, we escaped," Ava told him, sitting down at the edge of the mattress. Her aching muscles begged for sleep.

"No! Goddamn it, we're stuck here." Marcus squished a pillow in his arms and Ava stared at him.

Ava felt increasingly confused and the beginnings of embarrassment. "We're not stuck, I was just worried about you, idiot."

"He's right." The unusually quiet witch said, meeting Marcus's eyes. "At night, this house no longer belongs to me. You cannot leave until morning."

A lightning strike illuminated the room before another bellow of thunder followed.

Ava scoffed. "That's ridiculous."

"No, Aves, they're right. Some weird-ass things roam around at night, okay? They'll literally kill us."

"What the hell?" Ava demanded, getting up despite her everything protesting. "But we need to get out of here tonight. If Marcus is okay, we need to find the others-"

A gust of wind blew and suddenly the witch was in front of Ava, pressing a cold hand to her mouth.

Ava raised an eyebrow, but the witch pressed a finger to their own lips.

The wood was creaking outside. Ava turned to see a shadow darken the faint light from the bottom of the door.

Ava felt her heartbeat pick up. The doorknob started turning, clockwise, then anticlockwise. The door rattled with whoever was behind it.

Then finally the shadow passed, and an unbroken rectangle of light was there at the bottom again.

"Which one was that?" Marcus whispered and Zene stepped away from Ava.

"Kenny," Zene muttered quietly and Ava frowned when Marcus got tense.

"We're fucking hiding from Kenny? I'll talk to Kenny." Ava whispered since they were all doing that.

"Kenny is Kraken." Marcus corrected and Ava bit her tongue to stop herself from saying something she'd regret.

What the hell was the history here? Zene and Marcus shared way too many meaningful looks.

"I'm sorry, I don't remember what we could do to get out. So you'll have to stay overnight." Zene informed them, interrupting Ava's mutinous thoughts.

"So every night, you have to hide from things living in your own house?" Ava asked, taking a seat on the bed again. "How long have you been here?"

"Yes," Zene replied, still standing near the door. "And I don't know."

"And these things-"

"-Ghosts of monsters- Marcus and Zene corrected in unison. 

"-they will kill you?"

Zene turned to look at Ava finally, eyes dark and unblinking. Suddenly, their face twisted into a large grin. "Yes."

Ava turned to Marcus and Marcus shook his head.

"Excuse me for a moment," Zene said suddenly and literally walked through a wall.

Ava stared after them. Witches were normally extremely well-spoken, formal, proper creatures. She'd never met one...so eccentric.

Still frowning, she sat down on the bed, feeling her eyes ache with exhaustion. 

"Hey,"

Ava jumped a little when Marcus' warm hand closed around her forearm.

"I didn't mean to make it sound like I was ungrateful. That you saved me, I'm just stressed about everyone else." Marcus's ridiculously blue eyes looked into hers and Ava hated him.

Despised him for how he made her care. She didn't want to give a shit about his stupid jokes or dumb, pretty eyes but here she was, literally melting.

"Don't worry about it," Ava said immediately, not wanting him to feel bad about making her feel bad for five seconds. And then, because she couldn't stop herself, "How do you and Zene know each other?"

Marcus grimaced and Ava waited.

"Okay," Marcus sighed heavily, waving a hand. "At one point, it turned out that the witches might be working with the other side. So, Dr.Malthus-"

Their leader. Ava nodded so Marcus would keep going.

"-asked some witches to turn spy, tell us what their coven was thinking, whose side they were on. So, this witch couple, Remi and Mariella, turned for us." Marcus sat up against the headboard and Ava did the same. "And the witches found out."

Ava nodded slowly with grim understanding. "The witches-"

"Made it look like an accident. But Malthus saved their kid, Zene. And left them all alone in this creepy house."

Ava understood then: the stunted ability to communicate. The strange, lost look in Zene's permanently brown eyes. Witches changed eye colour with emotion, but Zene's stayed dark.

"And Dr.M just stuck all these ghosts in here?" Ava demanded suddenly.

Marcus looked at her, his blue eyes dark. "I have no idea why. But Zene and I have met plenty of times," Marcus scratched his head. "I think I'm the only friend Zene has."

The rain pattered away at the window. Marcus looked like a statue, clad in bloodstained jeans, but somehow classically good-looking.

Ava smiled at him, cheeks warm. "That's-"

"I brought you food." The witch appeared suddenly, carrying a tray.

Marcus and Ava exchanged exasperated but amused looks. It was two in the morning. Not to mention, Zene's sleeves were torn, and their arms were covered in scratches.

"That's sweet, you didn't have to," Ava said, reaching for some bread.

Zene smiled at her, contorting the blood-flecked on their chin, seemingly delighted with Ava eating the food.

Marcus sighed, picking up some grapes. "You're not hungry?"

"It's two fifty-one a.m., Marcus," Zene informed him, taking a seat on the bed. "I don't eat at this time."

Ava couldn't stop herself from chuckling at that. "Sorry." She mumbled, cramming her face with bread. She looked away, only to gasp when she saw somebody standing right outside the door.

Marcus and Zene looked over too, all of them deadly silent. The shadows at the bottom of the door didn't go away. In fact, more appeared to be gathering.

"Oh shit." Marcus breathed, slowly getting off the bed. "We need to get out of here."

"Can they come in?" Ava whispered, silently moving off the bed too.

"If they want," Zene murmured, waving at Marcus. "Get away from the window, they're all locked."

Ava had never hated Dr.M more than she did now. Who the hell locks someone in this horror house of crazed monsters?

"Why are they all there?" Marcus asked.

"Because they know we're in here," Ava replied, and the doorknob started moving. Without really thinking about it, she lunged to grab it, preventing it's turning.

The doorknob turned more insistently, and the door shook with impacts from outside. Ava could hear sounds from outside, and she clenched her fists, pushing determinedly against the door.

Marcus ran over to put himself against it too. "Oh goddamn it!"

Zene stood there, thinking. "We need to distract them." Then they disappeared.

Ava sighed deeply through her nose, body jolting forward as the door almost opened. "Holy shit. Will they actually kill us?"

"Yes, they're starving!" Marcus pushed his feet out, straining with the door.

A hand, a cold hand made it around the door as it opened and Ava ducked away as it clawed the air.

"Don't let it scratch or hurt you, you'll be stuck here!" Marcus said frantically, pulling her down.

The door almost opened right there, but suddenly, it shut closed, all the creatures on the other side leaving. The light went away.

"What the actual hell?" Ava slid to the ground on shaky legs, closing her eyes for a moment. "I should have not brought us here."

"Are you okay?" Marcus moved her hair to inspect for cuts. "Come on, get up, I think Zene's distracted them. We need to get out."

They moved quickly but quietly, stumbling around in the near darkness, as they hurried down the stairs.

They froze as a singing woman dressed all in white emerged from the kitchen, admiring herself in the mirror. She was cutting her hair with wickedly sharp scissors.

She does not have a reflection, Ava noted, staring at her between the bars of the railing.

The woman whirled away, still humming and Ava grabbed Marcus's hand, both of them racing for the door.

They fumbled with every lock and chain, throwing them off as fast as they could.

Marcus practically shoved her out the door, and then both of them gasped for air on the porch.

"Oh my god!" Marcus shook his head, huffing.

"You got out, good." Zene smiled, emerging from the darkness.

"Come on!" Ava held out a hand.

Zene tilted their head at Ava and Ava spotted a glimmer of blue in that brown.

"Ava, Zene got scratched years ago," Marcus said solemnly, and he shook hands with Zene. "Thank you for everything, I'll come to visit as-"

"Don't worry, I'm not bored or anything." Zene dismissed him, but Ava saw genuine sadness in the way Zene's tone flattened.

She felt guilty. But they had crises to attend to. "Bye?"

Zene tossed Marcus some keys and turned to her.

"See you. Preferably in the morning." Zene smiled, and then a tentacle shot out of the gloom to slam the door shut.

Ava probably would have stood there all night if Marcus didn't pull her towards the car.

Rain started pelting them viciously, and Ava shivered, jogging to the car.

By the way Marcus wrenched open the car door, he wasn't happy about leaving either.

"It sucks. But one thing at a time, yeah? We'll deal with Malthus later." Marcus ducked into the car and Ava took one last look at the dark house before getting in.

It was going to be a long night.