Author's Note: This one is really long so I'm breaking it into two parts for this site.
-
Lily woke up to the sun shining through her curtains, the storm had passed, and it was a bright sunny summer morning it seemed. Yawning the little girl sits up and stretches before lazily getting out of bed and going into the bathroom.
She looks towards the tub first thing and mutters a good morning to Paul even if he doesn't hear her it seemed like the polite thing to do. Lily washes her face and brushes her teeth before going back into her room and looking through her clothes.
David didn't tell her what was going to happen tonight, but the little girl was suddenly wide awake and nearly bouncing in place at the thought of the surprise, hopefully, her grandma wouldn't ruin it.
Shaking those thoughts away the little brunette settled on nice baby blue top with a cute matching skort instead of a skirt or even a dress because it both looked cute and was easier to play in and hopefully they were going to play, she briefly entertained the idea of going to ride the rides on the boardwalk but quickly pushed that aside seeing as her friends' couldn't do that at least right now.
Maybe they'd all go together someday though she thought before brushing her hair and pulling it into a lopsided ponytail and heading downstairs.
At the end of the stairs, she stops and stares at the floor in confusion, "...A rug?" There was a rug that hadn't been there yesterday. It was covering the bloodstain from her grandmother's fall. Had her grandma Star put it there she wondered.
Staring at it brought back feelings that she didn't want to linger on, so the girl just looked away and continued on her way to the kitchen only to notice another weird thing and stop just before she entered the kitchen.
"Where's the phone?"
The place where the phone had been was empty well save for the obvious signs of it having been there, mainly the worn wallpaper and phone jacks, Lily had just made a call the day before, but the phone was now gone.
Why? Her eyes wandered from the empty wall to the surrounding area but found no sign of the missing phone. She didn't think her grandmother would do this... the rug maybe but moving the phone?
Eventually she decides to just ask her grandma when she brings her breakfast, hopefully sis wouldn't get blamed for the missing phone since the girl knew she'd been the last one to use it and well it'd be like with her cell phone all over again and well Lily didn't want to think about that or the stairs...
Determined to not ruin her good mood the little girl hums a happy tune and prepares breakfast, though not pancakes because she knows that she needs more practice before doing it alone. It was too bad that Dwayne wasn't awake to help make breakfast she thinks while pouring some juice to go with the toast.
After eating her portion, she carefully takes her grandma's breakfast into her room only to find it empty. "Grandma?" Lily wanders into the room and sits down the plate of toast and the glass of orange juice on the bedside table. The empty bedside table, the lamp was missing but there was a folded piece of paper with her name on it.
Picking up the paper she opens and reads it aloud, "Lily I went over to my friend's house, the ones you called last night, remember? I should be back by nightfall so be a good girl and look after yourself until then. Love grandma..."
Lily flips the note over in disbelief to see if there's anything else written but there's not.
The girl feels slightly uneasy before feeling mad and huffs, "She could've woken me up to tell me before she left..." Lily crumbles the note and puts it on the plate angrily thinking that this is the second time she'd made breakfast for her grandmother and the second time it doesn't get eaten.
Leaving the room, she throws away the toast and pours out the juice and leaves both dishes in the sink instead of cleaning them, it served her grandmother right to have to clean them since Lily had spent the time and effort to make them.
Knowing that she was going to be alone and bored but not wanting to chance seeing that scary monster man from the night before the young girl decides to watch tv.
-
After about an hour of staring blankly at the tv her mind and eyes wander around the room, the Livingroom was the same as always well minus the biggest cross that still hadn't been put back up but there was something nagging her.
Something seemed off.
Her eyes land on a wall and she stares at it, Lily wasn't sure what it was that caught her attention but she gets up and slowly approaches it anyway. Once there the Emerson girl takes note of the fact that the surrounding wall is flat, but this part sticks out.
It was probably designed that way but still her hand moves before thinking clearly about her actions and she's touching the wall. Almost immediately Lily jerks her hand back and feels nauseous and overwhelmed before quickly backing away.
Warily eying the wall she runs back to the couch and jumps onto it and hugs a nearby pillow hoping to feel better. Lily eyes the wall for a while as if something was going to emerge from it and attack her but time passes, and nothing happens and slowly her body relaxes and Lily sighs.
"It... was just my imagination... I mean how can a wall be scary? A wall can't be evil..." She shakes her head and laughs at herself before trying to focus back on the tv.
The rest of the day passes in a boring and un-notable fashion with her dozing off at times and eating junk food throughout the day. Once she notices the time Lily starts to feel excited about her ghostly friend's appearance but then shortly after eight the doorbell rings and the girl freezes and stares wide eye towards the front of the house.
Lily doesn't move hoping it's her imagination acting up again but then it rings again and again and she's all but shaking when a voice says, "Are you going to answer that?" She jumps and a familiar voice laughs, "Sorry didn't mean to scare you."
She clams down some at being in the presence of one of her ghosts but still warily asks, "What if it's that monster from yesterday?"
David smiles slightly, "Don't worry it's not him."
"Are you sure?"
He nods, "Yes now don't keep your guests waiting."
"Guests?" The girl questions but still gets up from the couch and makes her way to the door as another voice answers, "Yes your grandmother invited them."
Standing before the door the girl pauses and looks back, "Where is-"
No one is behind her, the ghost must have hidden themselves, so Lily opens the door and is greeted by a group of teenagers holding a cooler and other stuff, one thing was box-shaped, maybe speakers? "Um-"
"Finally! The invite said any time after eight I was beginning to think we got the wrong address or something." The green-haired guy says before the barely dressed blonde girl with braids pushes her way inside making Lily stumble out of the way.
"Uh-" Lily tries again before another teenager this one with darker hair hands her something to carry, "Here make yourself useful kid and put that somewhere." Lily nearly drops it before someone shouts, "And don't drop it!"
There were six of them Lily realized; first there was the green haired guy in dark clothes who seemed to be the most talkative, second there was the blonde braided haired girl who Lily was sure was only wearing her underwear for some reason; third, the dark-haired girl-wait was that a girl? Lily wasn't sure as the person was wearing a lot of black clothes but also had long hair and sure Paul had long hair, but he didn't wear makeup, that person had lipstick on... could boys wear lipstick?
Shaking her head, she turns her gaze to the fourth person another girl she was a brunette though and had more clothes one, but they looked way too small on her and must've been old because of all the tears in them. Fifth, was a blonde guy who was very tall and like the girl his shirt was too small as it hugged his skin tightly, but she knew some people had growth spurts before they could get new clothes, so it wasn't his fault it happened to a kid in her class once. Lastly another person all deck out in black from there hair to just about everywhere else aside from the pale skin, but this time Lily was sure he was a guy... but he had lipstick on so... then guys could wear lipstick Lily tells herself mentality.
Looking at these people she can't see them as friends of her grandmother. Still, David had told her that her grandma invited these people over? Why? She quickly tries to do as the older kid instructed being glared at all the while and overhearing bits and pieces of the conversation. "This place is a dump."
"Yeah but it's in the middle of nowhere so it's the perfect place for the party." The too small shirt guy replies.
"Only if you shut up and get to work, everyone will be here in thirty and this place isn't even remotely ready, so get to it." Underwear girl says.
"Look at this thing, it's ancient." Green-guy calls out to the others while motioning to the old stereo system, "Hey you brat does this thing work? How do you turn it on?" Lipstick guy asks, and Lily shakes her head, "I think it's broken...though it did play once..." She mumbles thinking of her first night here as the green-haired guy fiddles with it.
"Leave it, it's totally busted up." Underwear girl tells him but that's when it starts playing, "Awesome I got it, take that!" He tells her as she rolls her eyes, "Yeah well try and get it to play something from this century or turn it off!" She responds, and he gives her the finger making Lily frown, her dad would've given her a time-out for that, but underwear girl sounds just like those high-school villain girls from the movies which Lily thought was fake but now she's suddenly not looking forward to high school because those girls might really exist. Lily like learning but she was learning strange things today her eyes find lipstick guy as she thinks this.
Eventually they get the music to play what they want it to, it's techno or pop or something Lily thinks but isn't sure as it's not her type of music, in fact, they should've just let it play the old rock music even if she didn't know the song at least it was a song instead of mindless noise as her father called the music that kid's like to play today. Mostly it was just loud noise that hurt her ears and had people standing way too close and shouting at one another... why couldn't they turn it down and talk normally the eight-year-old did not get this at all.
Lily is quickly pulled from her thoughts as more people arrive and soon the house is full of more teenagers than she'd ever seen outside of her tv and the small girl wonders again did her grandma really invite these people here.
At first, the original group of teens had her being their gofer but as more people arrived she managed to hide from them, Lily wanted to be polite but at the same time she wasn't their servant and it was hard to see them as guests the longer she watched them.
Lily suddenly wished to never become a teenager because they seemed just plain awful and they liked bad music and wore clothes that were not cute at all!
Quietly and quickly Lily darts around them and up the stairs before making it to her room and closing the door but even that doesn't keep the awful sound from reaching her, "...Where is grandma?" She asks herself as she goes to her bed and crawls under the covers trying to block out the sound.
"Awful I know... I nearly didn't let them change it to this... sound."
Lily quickly pulls the covers off her head, "Dwayne! Wait so the music box downstairs, was you?"
He grimaced before speaking, "It's broken but I am tied to it, so it'll play if I want it too."
"Why let them play it though?" Lily asked while pushing stray strands of hair from her face, the cover messed it up due to pulling it off like she did, but the girl hardly cares about that she wasn't happy with this surprise if this is what David was talking about.
"A party needs music... or whatever that is." He shrugs as Lily frowns and climbs off the bed, "So was this party what David was talking about last night?" Dwayne can hear the disappointment in her voice, "David's idea of a party isn't this don't worry, I'm sure he meant something else."
Lily smiles slightly, "So then this is grandma's party?" Something about that seemed off.
Dwyane looks thoughtful, "Believe it or not when your grandmother was young she was a party girl, mostly beach parties but I wouldn't be surprised if she'd attended a house party or two back then."
Lily eyed him with skepticism, "Really?" He nods, "So I guess you don't want to join the party." Lily shakes her head, "No... I won't miss David's surprise though if I stay up, here will I?"
Dwayne smiles, "I know what David has planned and I'll be sure to come and get you when it's time so until then just try and bear with the noise."
"What if I fall asleep?" Lily asks worriedly.
"If you can sleep through that then you deserve an award, that 'music' is enough to wake the dead!"
Lily looks over to the door and sees Paul shudder at the thought, "Really what's wrong with humans now? It's like they're tone deaf or maybe completely deaf how can they like this crap?"
The small brunette ignores the bad word and giggles, "So if I play it in the bathroom tomorrow you'll wake up?"
"What?" Paul asks confused and Dwayne answers for her, "You said that music would wake the dead, and seeing as how you're dead..."
Paul shakes his head, "Good thing I won't be in the bathroom tomorrow for you to try it then."
"Why wouldn't you be there?" Dwayne looks over at his fellow ghost in exasperation as the other realizes what he said, "Um er- right well David sent me to get you." He looks at Dwayne and then back at Lily, "We have some things to do before we can all hang out tonight, but if you fall asleep we'll wake you up." He winks, "Wouldn't want you to miss it after all."
"...Can you tell me what it is?"
He shakes his head, "Sorry it's a surprise." He grins and Lily sighs, "Okay... but can I help?" Her hopeful eyes find Dwayne who gently pats her head, "You can but not right now."
Lily starts to protest but the two disappear before she can, "...Stupid ghost powers!"
Walking over to her window she looks out onto the yard and sees all the cars and bikes parked in it and frowns, if this was her grandma's party then why was she missing it?
-
"Wakey, wakey Froggy woggy!" Is the first words Edgar hears upon waking up with a pounding headache and the suffocating metallic smell of blood which has his eyes shoot open despite the pain it causes.
"What the hell!?"
Edgar tries to move only to realize that his ankles are tied together like his hands, "Looking a little pale there Froggy, you know you should thank me I've given you a much nicer bath than you gave to me."
Edgar thought he was going to be sick, he was tied up in a bath of blood and even though it was not very deep it was still revolting and making him gag and struggle only to splash it and get bloodier, so he stills and tears his eyes away only to look up and scream.
Paul laughs, "Oh yeah you have no idea how hard those two were to hang up there without a physical body but well it was worth it don't you think?"
Edgar tears his eyes away from the dangling dead bleeding teenagers whose blood he was bathing in to glare at the ghostly form beside the tub, "You are sick, disgusting! When I get free I'm going to make sure you're gone for good."
Paul laughs so hard he nearly falls over while the elder Frog brother growls, "What's so funny?"
The vampire ghost wipes at his eyes as if to wipe away tears of humor despite not having any, "Maybe the fact that you think that you'll escape or maybe it's the fact that you are going to be the one to bring me back." He grins wickedly, Edgar pales further before shouting, "I'll never help you!"
"Good thing I don't need your permission."
-
Dwayne looked down at the younger Frog brother who was glaring at him through hooded pained eyes, "Whatever you have planned it won't work... Edgar will stop you." He was already weak from being shot the night before but having woken to his leg being broken didn't help in his chances but still he had to believe that justice would prevail and that his brother would save the day.
He hardly taunted his food but for once he felt the need to, "If he's your only hope then you don't have any."
Alan continues to glare, "He will stop you." He tells him with conviction, "...No, he won't you see last time I saw him he was laying in a pool of blood, Paul thought it'd be fitting if he died in a bath of blood."
Alan pales, "Y-you're lying." Dwayne smirks, "I'm not." The human's eye's trying to find a hint of deception but despite the dull faded colorless eyes they seem to be telling the truth, "No... Edgar's not dead... he can't be."
"I wouldn't worry about him right now." Dwayne brings his hand up showing the stake in it and twirls it with a grin, "Marko can't be here for this, but I thought it might be fitting to use one of your own stakes to make sure you feel what he did."
Alan's eyes widen, "B-but I'm not a vampire!" Dwayne shrugs, "I'm sure it'll kill you just the same."
Dwayne bends down and Alan tries to move but suddenly his other leg snaps and he screams, "There are some abilities that I'll miss... but it'll be worth it to be flesh and bone again."
Alan's mind was trying to focus on the words and moving but it wasn't easy, "Do you recognize where you are?" He felt something pointy on his chest and reached up to push it away only to have his arms both jerk above his head and tied together quickly and tightly so much so that whatever it was tying them were cutting off his circulation. "You've been here before." He presses the stake slowly enough to tear his shirt but not pierce the skin underneath, Alan's breath was coming out fast he was panicking and not thinking as he struggled, "Let's make a deal if you can guess where you are before I count to five I'll let you go."
"R-really?" Alan's asks in fright and Dwayne just starts his count, "One."
"Wait I-I'm not ready!" Alan shouts, "Two."
Eyes widen as he turns his head to the side and looks around frantically, "Three."
"O-outside." He was laying on the ground the stars were shining above him he could see them through the vampire's transparent body, only the vampire's hand holding the stake was more solid looking.
Dwayne chuckles, "Obviously, four."
Alan wiggled and tried to get free, there's no way he'd guess it could be anywhere outside how was he supposed to guess correctly, the monster was just toying with him giving him an illusion of hope and- wait he freezes and grips the sand in his tied numb hands... no it's not sand not completely it's ash too and the smell of this place.
Alan realizes as Dwayne says, "Five, times up."
"No, wait this is the place we buried-"
"Sorry too late but congratulations on figuring it out." Dwayne smiles, and Alan struggles again... he'd only visited this place once after he helped to bury the remains of the vampires and was surprised to see what had become of the once normal ground.
It had died as if the very ground had been drained of all its life.
There was also a smell not like the undead but an ashy dry stale one that was unlike any place he'd smelt before so how did he not realize it sooner?
The stake was slowly breaking his skin and it was painful but oh so slow, "W-what are you doing?" He questions in pain wondering when he was going to go delirious or pass out from the pain, surely, he couldn't take much more the Frog brother thinks.
"Simple I'm making sure you feel it, if I do it fast then you won't feel what Marko did and I did say you would feel the same pain."
Time passed, and the human screamed until his throat couldn't take it anymore and all that was coming out were whimpers and whispered screams, after an hour he passed out. So, Dwayne let go and conserved his energy until the Frog awoke again.
Eventually, he did, and the torture continued until the stake was firmly planted into his heart.
Dwayne stood there watching the blood drain from the dead body onto the sand, onto his grave, their graves.