The Clock Strikes Midnight

The Clock Strikes Midnight
Tracy and Luke were still half asleep while Alex and Courtney were having a pretty spirited discussion about the culprits. Or at least who Alex believed were the culprits. Tracy could see the logic in Alex's statements. Even if they did not have the evidence. Courtney was hesitant to give any answers to Vivian. After all the spectre who had them trapped there had not proven to be the sanest person as of late.

“What if he's right CC?” Luke was the first to speak up. Alex looked thankful for Luke's apparent support of his theory. Especially since that was mostly what it was. If only they could get a confession. But that was impossible. They did not have Julia here and Robert was dead anyways.

“But what if he's not? What if she gets pissed and decides we're no longer of use to her?” Courtney countered. Those were also very sound reasons. None of them wanted to exactly give Vivian their guess and wind up stuck here with a vengeful spirit.

“What if we just focus on finding a way out, huh? It's better than fighting like this. We can't just let her break us apart when we need to stick together,” Tracy tried to reason. They should not be fighting. Especially not now. They needed to work as a team.

“We’ve hardly known each other for a week. You expect me to just trust you all? Especially since this is a life or death situation?” Courtney hissed. She was stressed and anxious. They all were. But it was definitely getting to her. She ran a hand through her hair and walked out heading off into the darkness of the house.

Tracy went to follow after her but Luke grabbed her arm. “Don't. She needs to cool off a little,” Luke's voice was quiet as he kept Tracy from going after Courtney.

Alex had gone quiet and sat back down next to Sam. Courtney was right. They barely knew each other. So who were they to ask for her trust? Especially now of all times. But he knew that they needed to band together. It did not matter how they did it. They just needed to escape.

“Luke's right. Until she comes back we should just stay calm and stick together. It's not safe out there,” Sam muttered, laying his head on Alex's shoulder. Alex needed to rest anyways. He'd been up all night the night before.

Pov Change

The moon was high in the sky when Julia and Eliza arrived at the manor. It's high walls and imposing gates would have been enough to make an intruder run the other way. The screams would have been another. Eliza could see a pale form flickering through the windows on the 3rd floor. Maybe they would be lucky enough to get in unnoticed. She pushed through the overgrown weeds of the lawn dragging Julia with her as they approached the front steps.

Pov Change

Courtney was walking around the first floor. Well more like sneaking around. She would hate to draw Vivian's attention. Especially after the week they had had. She did not need anything else going wrong. She could hear the ever present displeased wails upstairs. Where upstairs? She did not know. She just knew that she did not want to anger Vivian further.

Then she heard the front door open. It was nkt exactly the quietest sound there but luckily it had not alerted Vivian. Still Courtney ducked behind an old cupboard hoping to go unnoticed.

“Now that we're in here you're gonna stay right by my side and we're gonna get these kids out,” A strange female voice rang out quietly. There were footsteps echoing from the foyer. Courtney felt frozen where she was. She knew that these strangers were talking about her and the others. She quietly snuck away to go down the hall towards Beatrice's bedroom.

The second she got into the bedroom she closed and locked the door. She was going to at least warn the others. After all, there were at least two strangers in the house. Strangers who were apparently looking for them.

When she turned to face them, only Tracy was still awake. The others had probably opted to try and rest. She sighed before quietly shaking Alex awake who went to check on Sam. Then Courtney went to wake up Luke.

“There's someone in the house,” Courtney spoke in a panicked whisper. She figured that it would be best to go about this fast while the door was still unlocked. Well she hoped it was. She had not heard anyone lock it back.

Luke jolted up grabbing his shoes from beside him. Alex and Sam looked over at Courtney eyes wide.

"You mean someone got in?" Alex whispered.

"That's typically what someone's in the house means," Courtney retorted quietly.

"How? There's no way out," Tracy finally found her voice.

"The front door. I think they had the key," Courtney answered as the others started getting to their feet.