Chapter 35: A Night in the Dark

As they are walking up the stairs they are all squeezing in tight to Gabriel. He notices and does his best not to smile. The bed is the biggest one Gabriel has ever seen. It is definitely big enough for the six of them. “Martha, would you and Michael like to sleep with us too?”

“Yes please!”

Not five seconds after they were in the room Sandra bolted for the bed and is hiding under the covers with only her nose and eyes sticking out. “Eric, you take the far side and we’ll put the girls in between us.” Sandra is nodding her head emphatically.

“Okay.”

Martha is a good mother and putting her baby first. She doesn’t put him in the crib, she holds him in her arms. Starting from the right, which is closest to the door, will be Gabriel, then Molly, then Martha and Michael and then Sandra and finally on the far end is Eric. Sandra starts to relax when Michael is put in between her and Martha.

She starts off with baby-talk and then she says, “I want a baby.” Gabriel can tell Sandra really wants to be a mommy.

Gabriel looks at Molly because such subjects usually make her sad, for some reason, but then Gabriel smiles knowing the answer before he asks it, “Shall we tell ghost stories?”

“NO!!!!!” even Eric joined in with that response.

Molly walks up to him with ‘that’ look and says, “That was not nice.” Gabriel just smiles.

There is a fireplace in the room, but it is so warm and muggy that they only have candles burning for light. In fact, they have about ten trident candle sticks throughout the room, along with single ones for each person to carry with them.

All of a sudden Sandra slaps the bed. Her husband starts, “What?”

“I have to go pee.” Eric laughs, but Martha has an understanding look on her face.

“Babe, I’ll be right here.” Sandra is unconvinced.

Gabriel pats Molly on the bottom to get her attention and then he tilts his head towards the bathroom. “Sandra, I have to go pee too, what do you say we partner up?”

“Yes please.” Sandra gets out of bed and starts walking towards the bathroom with Molly and then stops and turns around. She walks back over to Eric and hits him.

Gabriel can’t help himself, he starts to laugh. He has been on the end of that statement once too often. Molly looks at him then wrinkles her nose and then smiles and then purposely sways her cute tush a little more than she normally does. “Humph.” Molly laughs, knowing exactly what he means. She wasn’t telling her daddy to look at her bottom, she was telling him to kiss it.

While in the bathroom Sandra screams. She at least does not abandon Molly on the toilet. When they come out of the bathroom, Molly is holding the shaking Sandra. Gabriel asks Molly, “What?” Molly shakes her head.

Then Eric asks, “What was it, babe?”

“When I was looking in the mirror I saw a ghost looking back out at me.”

“Don’t worry my Gabriel isn’t afraid of them either.” It relaxes her a little.

Surprisingly everybody falls fast asleep; that is all but Molly and Gabriel. They both can sense that this night has just begun.

“I’m going to brush my teeth.”

Gabriel doesn’t say it out loud, but he whispers it, “That’s my brave little soldier.”

As soon as Molly walks in the bathroom she walks right back out again. “What did you forget?” She doesn’t answer him she just climbs on to the bed and while seductively staring him down she starts crawling up his body. “What do you think you are doing, young lady?”

From the bathroom Molly calls out, “What did you say, daddy?”

Gabriel looks to the bathroom and then back at the thing straddling him. “What do you want?” It goes from the pretty Molly to a rotting corpse.

Molly walks out of the bathroom carrying her candle in one hand and wiping her mouth with a towel with the other. “Hey!” The apparition turns to Molly and growls before disappearing. “What the hell was that?”

“I thought she was you.”

“You thought that rotting corpse was me?”

“She didn’t look like that when she came out of the bathroom, she looked like you.”

Molly is pissed. It may be their destiny and glory to be father and daughter, still no way in hell is some rotting corpse going to get to flirt with him. “What do we do about them?” she says looking at the bed full of people who are trusting in them.

“We’ll pray and put holy water on them and around the bed hopefully making a barrier, but we’ll keep checking in on them. Molly nods her agreement.

Since Molly got the call from God she says their prayer, “Heavenly Father, may the Blood of your Son that was spilt on Calvary, our Savior, surround these gentle people with your love and grace, your peace and protection, may you assign Saint Michael himself to stand post while we investigate this place you have directed us to. Amen.”

“Amen.” Gabriel is very impressed with how far Molly has come as far as taking charge of her own spirituality and journey to God. But she is like he is; they would rather do it together.

Gabriel peeks around the corner and then they step out into the hall and immediately their candles get blown out. It takes all of about two seconds for them to pull out their flashlights and continue on.

There is an odor to the mansion. It is a musty smell like it hasn’t been lived in for decades, at least not by the living. They listen before they proceed. They move, then stop, then cover their light and then listen. It is slow going, but they have yet to be discovered.

They freeze as they hear two people talking as they are walking down a corridor. The echo makes it almost impossible to pinpoint their location and they are surprised when the jumble of incoherent sounds turns into chanting just around the corner from them. They see the reflection of the candle light before they see the two holding them. It is still hard to see, but it does not look like the same two who showed them to their room. With lights extinguished they disappear into the blackness of a door frame.