Chapter Twenty Five
P.O.V: New Generation Churchills It had been two weeks since Amanda and Raymond had adopted their new children. They had settled in quickly, and were already friends with one and other. Currently, almost everyone was asleep, it was midnight, after all. However, the children would not remain sleeping for long. Kate was woken up by a voice hissing loudly in her ear.
"Hey, Kate! Get up!" Reluctantly, Kate opened her eyes and blinked sleepily at the figure next to her bed.
"Esther? It's midnight, what do you want?"
"Get your sweater, we're going outside!" Her sister responded.
"Outside?! Esther, it's cold, dark and wet out there! Besides, there's nothing to do."
"There's tons of stuff to do, Kate! Get up and I'll tell you."
Grumbling, Kate sat up in bed, and turned on the bunny-shaped lamp on her bedside table. Blinking in the bright light, she saw that her other sisters were already awake. "Don't tell me you agreed to whatever madness Esther has planned." She groaned.
"We've got no idea what she's got in mind either." Shikeriah told her. "She said she wanted to get all of us up first."
"Ahem. Now that we're all awake..." Esther began, "I'll explain my plan."
"Well, I'm not sure if you guys have noticed the white house near ours."
"I have." Baily said. "It gives me the creeps. You're no seriously suggesting-"
"That's right!" Esther interrupted her. "I propose we go check it out!"
"No." Kate said flatly. "We're not going out in the middle of the night to look at some abandoned house. Besides, It's haunted."
"C'mon, Kate! You can't
not do this after giving it so much thought!"
"You drive a compelling case." Bailey told her.
Dale raised an eyebrow at her sister. "She does?"
"No." Bailey responded, flopping back don on her bed. "Go back to sleep, Esther."
"Oh, that is
it!" Esther shouted. "I'm getting you guys out of bed if it's the last thing I do!"
Time skip... "How did you convince me to do this in the first place?" Bailey grumbled as they walked down the streets of Sunset Valley. "And why do I continue to do it?"
"Don't sweat the details, Bay." Esther said. "We're almost there, see?"
"Wonderful. Let's go back now."
"Heck no! I wanna see what's
inside the house." Esther told her brightly, as they approached the crumbling white brick walls surrounding the house and its garden.
The girls could tell the house had once been beautiful, but now it seemed to be in ruins. The dirt from the garden was muddy, seeping around their ankles as the walked through it. The vegetable and flower garden that had once been neat and tidy as now over grown with weeds and briars, spilling past the low fence. Puddles filled the area, from the rain a few hours ago. Many shingles were missing from the black, slanted roofs, a few of them strewn about the yard. The white paint from the house's wooden exterior was peeling off; several large sections of it were already gone. Almost all of the windows were shattered, the sharp points where the glass had broken gleamed like spears in the silver moonlight. It certainly looked like it could be haunted.
"Hey, what's that?" Dale asked, pointing to a small, rectangular stone, partially hidden amongst the brambles and weeds. She walked over to it and carefully moved some of the thorny vines away. "It looks like a gravestone." She said quietly. There was a thin bronze square on the stone, with a hand flailing above a pool of water engraved on it. "I wonder who it's for..."
"Maybe there's an epitaph." Shikeriah suggested, crouching down next to Dale to examine the tombstone. "Yeah, there's one right here. 'Rest in peace, my beloved Erik. I love you with all my heart.' Aww, how sad."
"I wonder who wrote this." Dale wondered. "They must be dead by now."
Esther turned around from where she was examining a broken window. "What makes you say that?"
"Look at the date of death. It's fifty years before I was even born."
"Well, if they're both dead," Kate commented, "Why aren't they buried together?"
"Maybe she doesn't love him anymore, despite what she claimed."
"Dale, you're being to gloomy. The grave might be in the back yard or inside the actual house." Esther told her sister.
"If there's a grave, does that mean it's haunted?" Bailey asked, nervously.
"Relax Bailey, there's no such thing as ghosts." Kate reassured her sister, starting towards the porch stairs. Suddenly, Shikeriah grabbed her arm. "What is it, Shi?"
"If you look behind you," Shekeriah said quietly, "You may be proven wrong."
"What do you m- AUGH!" When Kate turned around, she saw a man, but he wasn't human. He was blue colored, and half transparent. Water dripped off his entire body, and his eyes were a glowing white. He was a ghost. As soon as she saw him, she let out a scream and back quickly away from him until her back was against one of the columns holding up the porch roof.
Upon hearing Kate's scream, the rest of her sisters turned around. As soon as Bailey laid eyes on the ghost, her violet eyes widenetd and she let a scream of pure terror.
"GAAAAAAAAUGH!" Her voice echoed throughout the ruined garden, and she fell backwards onto the muddy ground, unconscious.
"Bailey, wake up, wake
up..." Dale whispered, kneeling down next to her sister and fanning her in an attempt to revive her.
Shikeriah and Kate got to their knees as well, gazing in fear at their fallen sister. A rush if horror surged through Kate as she realized the blue ghost was nearing them, his feet never touching the wet ground.
Esther planted herself in front of the others, her arms held out on either side of her, trying to shield them from the advancing ghost. "Stay away from my sisters!" She yelled. "Go away!"
To their surprise, the ghost laughed. Not an evil, menacing laugh, but a kind, amused laugh. "It's all right, little girl, I won't hurt you." His voice was distorted and echoey, but still sounded kind and happy.
Esther lowered her arms slightly. "You won't?" She asked, suspiciously.
He nodded. "It's been a long time since I've heard a living voice. I only wish to talk."
Kate stood up, brushing mud off of her knees. "What about you wife or girlfriend or whatever? The one who claims to love you forever?" She gestured to the gravestone, the carved words illuminated in the silver moonlight.
He sighed. "I guess I'd better tell you girls the whole story. Seventy seven years ago, I met Agnes Crumplebottom. She was the love of my life, and we dated for four lovely years. On the day of our fifth anniversary, I proposed to her, and she happily accepted. We were married in a quaint ceremony, only with close friends and family, and went on a romantic cruise for out honeymoon. But on the second night, when we were stargazing, the guardrail I was leaning on broke and I fell into the ocean. I did not know how to swim. I had never learned. I drowned in the sea that night, leaving my wife alone. My body was fished out, and buried on the house was had planned to live in, and start a family in. For many years, she separated herself from the rest of the world, living in sadness and misery. What she didn't know was that many young men came to her house to try and court her. I scared them all away, it was quite easy given my appearance. I know it was selfish, but I didn't want Agnes to love anyone else. But one young man came during the day, while I could only watch in horror as my Agnes was swept of her feet by the smooth talking stranger. She left our house and me behind. She died twenty three years ago, but her husband is still alive. Many believe he has the secret of immortality, and that he merely used Agnes to help him reach it."
"I'm sorry about that." Shikeriah said softly. "And after she claimed to love you..."
Erik nodded. "I've heard many ghosts saying that she's looking for me in the netherworld, to apologize and love me again, but I don't want to see her. I I'm not able to forgive her yet, and I don't know if I ever will be."
He gazed up at the lightening sky; they had been there for almost five hours. "It is almost time for me to return to the Netherworld. Thank you for listening to my tale, and I hope we we'll see each other again. Goodbye" After saying those last words of farewell, he turned into a cloud of blue light, that went into the tombstone through the bronze plaque. The engraved hand struggling above the water glowed blue for a few seconds, before the glow faded and silence filled the garden.
Shikeriah knelt down in front to the tombstone and put a hand on the bronze plaque. It felt warm despite the cold wind blowing around them. "What kind of lover would abandon her husband after claiming to love him?" She murmured quietly.
"Someone who doesn't keep promises them made." Esther said flatly.
"Hey... It's getting early." Dale noted. "We should go back home before mom and dad wake up."
Esther sighed. "You're right. Wake Bailey up and let's get outta here."
Time skip... The next afternoon, Shikeriah walked over to the blossoming cherry tree in front of their house. She snapped off lots of the flexible, flower covered branches, until she was holding a beautiful white and pink bouquet. She walked over to the open kitchen window, and looked through it. Amanda and her sisters were making key lime pie. "I'm going out for a bit!" She called, and then began walking along the sidewalk until she reached the ruined white house. She picked her was through the brambles until she reached Erik Darling's gravestone. Shikariah placed the pink and white blossoms on top of the tombstone, and ran her fingers gently across the epitaph. "Rest in peace, Erik Darling." She murmured. "I hope you will find happiness.
----
HOLY CHEESECAKE, THIS CHAPTER IS LONG!
I certainly didn't intend for it to get THIS long. Enh, well.
Chapter Notes:
* None of this, of course happened in my game. Child sims can't go out after curfew. Like, they can't even TRY sneaking out. ^^''
* If you think THIS is trouble, wait'll you see what the New Generation Churchills do in later chapters. This isn't even half of the mischief they get into.
* Despite the length of this chapter, I can barely think of anything to say for the Chapter Notes. -.-''
* This chapter took TWO DANG HOURS to write! It's 11 pm right now!
* Do not question my reasons for saying holy cheesecake. I don't have any.
* Tell me what you think of this chapter! Pwease? :3
