Who's Afraid of the Dark?

For what felt like hours, Zayn had been wandering around the large castle, poking in and out of every room, checking in every corner and behind every open door, looking for somebody. Anybody.

It shouldn’t have been as hard as it was. He had a large group of friends in the house, and even if they were all on the opposite end of the castle, they should all hear them screaming his name. Right? But it seemed like every word he said simply vanished as he spoke it. It was like no matter how loudly he shouted, someone or something was sucking the words out of the air, before they could reach any of his friends.

As level headed as Zayn always was, he tried not to panic. He tried to keep a clear head and keep calmly looking for his friends, but the more he thought about it, the more worried he became, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get the terrified thoughts out of his mind.

Louis had vanished. He’d been there one second and gone the next, just like Lottie had, and Zayn had no clue why it happened, how it had happened, or where he had gone.

He wanted to pretend that it was another prank, and that was what the rational part of his brain was telling him to think. What were the odds that both of the Tomlinson’s would go missing in the night? It had to be a prank. It had to be.

Letting out a sigh, Zayn attempted to clear his head, before opening the last door of the left wing’s seemingly endless hallway.

The second his hand hit the door knob, he felt a small tug on it, as if someone were securing it in place so he couldn’t open it, and he smiled.

“Lottie, Louis, I know you’re in there,” Zayn said, his words sounding both annoyed and happy. He was surely angry with them for playing the prank, but he was more thrilled that he wouldn’t have to walk the castle hallways alone anymore.

He tried to twist the doorknob, but it only gave a few centimeters before twisting back into place.

With a roll of his eyes, he let out a small groan. “Louis, Lottie, just open the door.”

The sound of shuffling came from inside the room, just barely audible through the thick wood of the door, but he had heard it.

“If you’re going to try to scare me, it won’t work,” he called. “You should know that by now.”

Zayn attempted to twist the doorknob again, and this time it rolled all the way to the right, and gave a small click as it opened, which was followed by a light chuckle leaving Zayn’s lips and the gentle roll of his eyes.

Placing his hand on the wooden door, Zayn slid it easily open, being met with what appeared to be the master bedroom. The room was large and spaced out, with a grand piano in one corner and a canopy bed in the other. It was a bedroom fit for royalty, and fittingly so since the castle had been built for one of the most wealthy families in Ireland.

Zayn took slow, easy steps into the room, fully prepared to play into Louis and Lottie’s game. It was annoying and childish, but he didn’t really have a choice. The Tomlinson’s could be hard to deal with sometimes, and this was one of those times.

Clicking his feet hard against the wooden floor, Zayn headed to the bed first, which seemed like a likely place for the Tomlinson’s to hide. He leaned over, pressing his ear to the ground, and peeked underneath the large bed. He was almost positive that he would have found them there, but he was met only with open space.

Shaking his head, he let out another sigh, before lifting himself back up onto his feet. His eyes scanned the room again, and when they landed on the armoire in the far corner, he had a feeling he knew where the siblings were hiding. He was more certain about that than he was about them being under the bed.

He walked towards the armoire as slowly as he could, almost as if he was trying to psych them out. He’d only taken a few steps when his head twisted to the right, and he was met with the large portrait hanging from the wall.

Zayn had never known Lottie well. She’d always simply been Louis’s sister to him, and they hadn’t spoken very many times. But even though they didn’t do much talking, he knew her well enough to know her face, and had he been less superstitious at that moment, he would have sworn on his grandmother’s grave that the portrait hanging from the wall was of Lottie.

The young girl had the same blonde hair, with the length almost identical. Lottie’s oval face and soft features were mirrored in the large portrait. It seemed impossible, but Zayn would’ve taken a bet that the portrait was of Lottie.

He was consumed in his thoughts for several moments before he heard the soft giggling coming from the armoire. It was just enough to pull him away from his racing mind, and he looked towards the corner with a chuckle.

“I knew you were in there,” Zayn said, as he took a few quick steps towards the wooden furniture.

When he reached it, he wrapped his fingers around the handle and pulled them open as quickly as he could. Instead of being met with the Tomlinson’s as he had expected, he was met with empty space. Not even clothes sat inside the armoire, and he furrowed his brow in confusion.

For good measure, he peeked behind the armoire, and found that the small space was, in fact, empty as well. It was impossible, though, because he’d heard Lottie giggling. He knew he had heard her, and there was no way the siblings were that good at pranking.

Before Zayn had a chance to figure out what was going on, in the opposite corner, the keys of the grand piano pressed down, filling the room with a beautiful sonata. Zayn wanted to laugh at the duo for tricking him so well, but he couldn’t because deep down, Zayn knew that when he turned around, neither Lottie nor Zayn would be sitting at that piano.

He spun around as slowly as he could, almost as if he were in denial as to what was happening.
His blood ran cold the second his eyes fell on the instrument, and found that, as he expected, no one was there. The keys were simply beating down of their own accord.

His entire body was shaking, but Zayn forced himself to walk over to the piano. He didn’t know what he expected to happen when he reached it, but it was all he could think to do.

Taking slow, quiet steps, he inched towards the opposite corner, with his breath stuck in his throat the whole way there. He thought he’d never been so afraid in his life, and as much as his mind was trying to reason with him and tell him that it was all part of the prank, his body thought differently.

Zayn reached his fingers towards the piano, and the music still continued playing. It was a song Zayn thought he recognized, so when it hit a note near his end of the piano, he pressed the key before it could press itself, and it caused an uproar.

The music altogether stopped, being caught off so quickly that it felt like death. The door slammed shut, and with it, it felt as though all the air was being sucked out of the room.

A dark chill washed over Zayn and he knew he’d done something very, very wrong.

“Louis?” he called. “Lottie?”

He only had a second to speak their names before the sharp pain came to the back of his head. He thought he’d been hit with something, but he couldn’t be sure, because he was soon met with nothing but darkness.