Behind the Wall

[Poppy Hawthorne]

Poppy fooled around with ideas on what to fix, something quick, something good, and fulfilling cause lord knew they had to go diving around the house for more stuff. She figured that if they made it through the afternoon she would make something good to eat for dinner, after all he needed something delicious after all these creepy events. She settled on eggs, bacon, and toast. She put four slices in the toaster and stuck eggs in the microwave, knowing how her brother hated the taste of skillet. She didn't understand that, but it was an old habit and it was dying hard.

"Yeah." She said to his rhetorical comment, she glanced up at him as she put slices of bacon an a plate, microwavable bacon that was. "I was using the bathroom, I felt a draft and heard the shower curtain move. I looked up after a few more moments and saw this..." She shook her head and sighed out, closing her eyes as if she were hiding from seeing it behind him.

"Face and hands. A young asian I suppose it was an asian, I don't know I didn't really stop to ask it's ethnicity, nor why it was snooping on me." She looked back to Wesley after opening her eyes. "It came crawling over the shower rod and I couldn't get out of the bathroom, I mean it could have been me being stupid, but it felt like someone was holding the door from the otherside,

"I finally got out of there, this of course after falling and breaking my hip bone a little after being grabbed by my ankle, twice. I ran to the living room, tried to hit it with the sledgehammer, but lo and behold if the sucker wasn't gone." She laughed and stuck the bacon into the microwave as she pulled out the hot steaming eggs.

"These creatures apparently favor the disappearing act."

[Wesley Paige]

Wesley listened. What the crap? Maybe those Japanese spirits really did follow that man home. Wesley sighed and continued to listen, perplexed when she said she thought that the door was being held shut. It was easy to tell when a door was locked and when someone was holding it from the other side. And those two things are not something that could easily be mistaken for one another, so he believed her when she said that.

"Probably Smile Happy from upstairs, I imagine he gets around this place..." he paused a little, thinking he heard something, but after a moment he looked back at Poppy. He shrugged a little. "From my limited experience, he seems to be the 'dominate' spirit, if you will..." he watched her, thinking about that paranormal class he had taken in high school. He had at one time been a firm believer in the afterlife, in ghosts. But somewhere along the way, he had stopped believing. Now he was beginning to think he had been right to begin with. He shrugged. "Call it stupid, but that ignorant clown gets around this house more than anything I've seen yet..." he paused again. "Is that what you noticed, I mean, before I came? Did the other 'things' seem contained to one area, while he moved around more often?"

Wes felt a little odd discussing this, but at this point, nothing was weird anymore.

[Poppy Hawthorne]

Poppy smiled, she liked his many nicknames for the clowns and what not that were rummaging around the entire house, she frowned and shrugged.

"Prior to finding the mini house...it was just noises, certian things. Nothing that moved, that happened afterwards. I think, maybe, the spirits could be fueled by our acknowledgement maybe? The more fearful we are, the stronger they are?" She slit her eyes and frowned, wanting his opinion it.

"What do you think about that?" She laughed. "Stupid?" She chuckled again and looked at the toaster and grabbed the four slices and put two on a plate for both of them, followed by eggs and bacon.

"It's like the more you learn, the more..I dunno...they come out?"

[Wesley Paige]

Wesley sighed. He didn't know all that much about ghosts or anything, but he supposed that was logical. He shook his head, not answering for a long time. He was trying to center his thoughts. They were everywhere at this moment. Back to when he saw the clown in the bedroom, to the hands under the door, the eyeballs in his tea, the woman in the bed, the charred room...he couldn't believe any of this was real at all. He didn't understand how this place could exist in the real world. In the logical place they lived in.

"I don't know," he said, looking up at her. "I don't know that much about this kind of thing...it's logical enough, I suppose. I'm still trying to get my brain to catch up with what I'm seeing...I still don't want to believe any of this," he said, sighing heavily. He thanked her quietly as she handed him food. He was hungry, but he looked at the food for a long time before convincing himself that it was alright to eat.

[Poppy Hawthorne]

Poppy picked at her food for a moment before figuring she made it and it would be fine. Hopefully it would be, she didn't want Wesley to think of her as a horrible cook. She breathed in a ate quickly, in case it would change she'd not have to know about it until it was already in her stomach. She thought long nad hard about logical explanations, but she figured it was long passed the time to actually think logically. This was just plain, ridiculous.

"What do you feel like doing today, dear?" She leaned fowards on the island and looked at him. This felt odd, like these two were dating or something, it kinda felt nice, but she wasn't about to admit that to anyone just yet. She just figured she liked him because he was there helping her and being her protector, in a way, and it gave him the hero effect.

"We can go look at more rooms, if we are lucky we might see mister shivers the clown with his big red nose." she smiled, that wasn't funny to think about, but you had to admit a clown running amuck in a large house was almost on the verge of being humorous, except this clown wasn't in it for laughs.

"Later on we can go in the basement if you want, check out that said walled off passageway or something. Up to you. You are the guest."

[Wesley Paige]

Wesley began to eat, and found it was actually pretty good, considering it was made in this house. But he figured Poppy was a pretty good cook, and it tasted good, so he ate quickly just in case. He watched his plate for a long time, a little tire sneaking in. But he overcame it. He had become a master of staying up late recently. He sighed, finally, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the new pack of cigs he'd bought on his way back here from the library.

He stuck one between his lips and lit it, sucking in the airborne cancer with relish. He loved a cigarette in the morning, he couldn't help it. For the time being, the house was completely quiet. Nothing crazy was making noises, no doors slamming, no hands coming from wells, no clowns grinning back from the doorways. It was just like the night had been a bad dream, and now he and Poppy were awake and enjoying a nice breakfast and coffee with nice conversation.

It felt normal for once the whole night. He sighed out some smoke.

"Yeah, checking out this fun house will be nice..." he paused. "Well, not nice, but we might as well go for it..."

[Poppy Hawthorne]

Poppy smiled as she scooped around on the bit sof eggs left on the plate, she looked up at him smoking and she bit back a smile.

"I got your drift." She said with a nod, taking her plate and putting it into the sink. She turned around and looked at him and shrugged. "We can pick up where we left off, just minus the clown and crispy critter." She ran her tongue across her teeth as she walked back over to the island, looking at him.

"You need to get some sleep." SHe said wto him with a concerning look. "You look so tired, plus you've been up for lord knows how long." She smiled and touched his arm. "I really do aprreciate you coming here, I don't know if I've told you that or not." She smiled. "I am sure you'll want a lot of money after this, if not to cover my late night calls, but to pay for your therapy sessions as well."

[Wesley Paige]

Wesley smiled, looking up at her. He stood and put a hand on her arm. He squeezed lightly, looking down at her. He just then noticed that she had the most beautiful brown eyes. In fact...she was quite pretty. He supposed in all the chaos, and seeing her tired and angry and frightened and masked how attractive she actually was. He smiled a little more broadly.

"I don't want any money, Poppy," he muttered. "I'm just glad you dragged me down here before something bad happened to you," he said, and it was truth. He sighed a little. "I'm sorry for not believing you. I should have trusted you, I could tell you weren't crazy," he said, his smiled fading a little. After a long moment, he dropped his hand and stepped back a little, taking a deep breath of his cigarette. He sighed out the toxins. Then he laughed a little.

"As for sleep, I'm tired, but if I sleep now, I'll lose my brave streak," he said. He smiled. "Besides, after all this is over, I've got vacation time coming, I'll probably be sleeping more than I need."

[Poppy Hawthorne]

Poppy laughed lightly, she liked the way he touched her, it felt strong, masculine, she wasn't sure she just liked it, then again she liked many weird things.

"Sounds like you have a plan." She said taking his empty plate and putting it into the sink. "Sleep does sound nice, but I fear what I'll see when I wake up." She moved around the island and looked out into the lobby, so far so good, save a little bathroom troubles.

"I would ask for money though." She said with a smile, looking over her shoulder to see something peering out the small wooden slats, slowly blood began to trickle onto the white doorway where she saw...something.

"Wesley..." She nodded in the direction of the pantry.

[Wesley Paige]

"Yeah, I see it too..." he muttered. The slatted pantry door was dripping a little blood through the slats, and he could see something inside...but...he didn't know what. Nor did he particularly want to go over and find out. He swallowed. "So much for the kitchen being a safe haven..." he muttered. He watched the...whatever it was, carefully, waiting for something really crappy to happen. Like, it jump out and scream "Boo!"

But nothing happened. Blood just began to slowly pool at the bottom of the door. Wesley watched the pool get bigger slowly. And that was a lot of blood. A lot of blood. He thought, racking his brain. He couldn't remember reading about anybody who had died in the kitchen pantry. He didn't think anybody had been stashed there, either, but then again, he was missing a lot of the history before the eighteen hundreds. It could have been literally anything. Besides the things that weren't documented. He squited, trying to make out what was in there through the slats.

"What...is that?"

[Poppy Hawthorne]

Poppy was by his side within two seconds, grabbing onto her favorite thing, his arm. She watched the blood begin to spill out all over the floor and soon it would be under their feet and she wasn't particularly in the mood to have blood soaked pants and feet today.

"Last time we waited to see, we got a surprise by the charcoal lady. I definitely don't think this would be any better." She said to him, tugging on him to leave the room and pretend this never happened. The door began to rattle and her eyes went to the knob turning.

"Okay, it's turning, it's getting out, I don't wanna see, Wesley, I just...I don't." She saw a bloody hand grab the side of the door and she immediately knew, this would not be the kind of thing to wait around and see what it did.

[Wesley Paige]

Wesley highly agreed. He started to back out as the hand pushed out farther. He nodded, grabbing Poppy's hand and walking swiftly out of the kitchen. At the rate that thing was moving, it wouldn't be following too awful fast, but he would still rather be safe than sorry and get a headstart on it. Except...there was nowhere to go. The living room was right off of the kitchen, so it would easily be able to drag itself in. And the upstairs he hadn't gotten enough courage to venture to yet.

Wes glanced back at the kitchen door. He heard something hit the floor. Hard. It made the sound of a...body hitting the floor. And there were awful sounds coming from inside. He could slightly see the open pantry door from where they were standing in the living room, and he could see blood still dripping from it. But whatever had been in the pantry was out now. And Wesley didn't particularly want to find out what it was.