She chased Edward Charles through the dimly lit corridors of the house. She didn’t know why she chased after him. It was like he wanted her to follow him. She had to find out why. Where was he leading her? None of the hallways looked familiar to her. Would she even be able to find her way out? She passed countless doors, branching hallways, and staircases.

  Behind her came the now familiar sound of the beast. Which she knew to be a woman or a demon? She wasn’t sure. She ran faster, calling out to Edward to wait. Pushing faster than she ever had, she gained some ground on him. Pushing through a door she found herself in the kitchen and spun to lock the door and keep the beast out. Then rushed through the next door in an attempt to reach Edward. She found herself outside in a garden, Edward was standing next to a bed full of roses. She barricaded the door behind her and then walked over to Edward. He looked at her and grinned. It was the grin of a man who had caught a mouse. He moved his mouth as if speaking, but she couldn’t hear a word.

  The door behind her crashed open, blood surging through her veins in fear and she ran. She had to get away. This beast meant her harm and if it caught her she was dead. The moon shone through the skeletal trees as she ran through the iron gates of the cemetery. A heavy fog sat low to the ground obscuring her sight. She could hear the beast behind her, but she didn’t know how close it was. Why was it after her? She tripped over a tombstone and fell, skinning her knee. The pain lanced through her body as her knee bled.

  She picked herself up and started running again. She didn’t know what direction she was running. She thought she must have lost the beast, but it loomed up in front of her wearing a shredded white gown. Or at least it used to be white, now it was brown from filth and grime. She stopped in front of it. The beast stood on two legs, the hair long and stringy. Blood-red eyes with bloody veins reaching away. Long claws at the end of her fingers stroked forward narrowly missing her.

  She awoke with a start. The first thing she noticed was that she wasn’t in bed. The second thing she noticed was that she was freezing. Three she was in complete darkness standing barefoot on cement. She knew she was in the cellar again. She could feel that frigid draft that was always there. The broken window from the other cellar had been fixed, yet the draft persisted. It took her several moments to move. Fear from her dream still held her firmly in its grasp. To her, it felt as if the beast were just lurking in the shadows waiting to pounce.

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  She found the door easily this time. She opened it without turning the lights on and exited into the hall. It felt immense in the dark and she turned right and hurried along, not waiting for something to go bump. She passed the servant's staircase which she found completely creepy and wasn’t going to use and made for the kitchen. Through the kitchen and into the pantry she took the staircase and made her way to the main floor.

  The main floor was also dark with large shapes looming up around her like nightmares. Her mind played tricks on her as the darkness seemed to move. She swallowed her fear and rushed through the dining room, through the hall, and started up the grand staircase. Dim light backlit the stained glass window and she could clearly see now that the imps were indeed missing. That wasn’t possible. Stained glass windows didn’t just change on their own. She looked around hoping not to see little imps. She hurried up the stairs, she wanted to get to her bedroom.

  At the top of the stairs, she thought she saw a fog rolling down the third-floor stairs. She ran the rest of the way to her room. The lights were still on, but the chair she left in front of the door when she went to bed had been pushed away. She went to her stash of snacks and grabbed a bottle of vodka she had picked up in case she wanted a few drinks. She twisted off the cap, tilted her head back, and took a large swig straight from the bottle. It burned all the way down. She set the bottle down and started a fire in the fireplace.

  Once the fire was started she grabbed a blanket off the bed, wrapped it around herself, and climbed into the chair nearest the fire. She pulled her knees up to her chest inside the blanket. She didn’t think she would sleep again until dawn came. She had to figure out what was going on and get the hell out of this house.

  She was going to talk to Michael in the morning. She hoped they could get a priest to come and cleanse the house of these spirits. The history of the house was fascinating, working on it to bring it back to its former glory was amazing, but ghosts were utterly terrifying and she was still trying to wrap her head around this new worldview. She wasn’t sure how much more sleepwalking she could take. It wasn’t so much the sleepwalking as the nightmares and then always waking up in that creepy cellar in the basement. The rest of the basement was pretty creepy too. Especially at night.

  She grabbed her phone and put on some music to help soothe her frightened soul. She also grabbed the bottle of vodka and drank some more straight up. Soon she was quite tipsy and her eyelids began to droop. Before long her head rolled back and she began to snore softly. All tucked up in the chair.

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