Who's Afraid of the Dark?

Charlotte didn't know what overcame her that night. One minute she was afraid of stepping foot inside Leap Castle, the other she was burning with exhilaration from just the thought of it.

It could probably be that her brother's taunts made her cast aside her fear, turning it into excitement and adventure instead. Or it could be that she was sick and tired of being the scared, timid little girl in the group. Charlotte's no longer a small girl; she's almost of legal age but because she was Louis' younger sister, everyone treated her like a baby.

So when she was the one who committed the act of breaking and entering, Louis and Zayn were flabbergasted indeed.



Charlotte was playing with her flashlight, sweeping the steady beam of dim light all around her surroundings. They were in a barren room with sparse furnishing, all covered in sheets of what she could make out as grey cloth. Other than that, she didn't find anything else remotely interesting in the room.

The two elder boys were bickering with each other; Zayn telling Louis to stop touching and breathing down his neck, whereas Louis had denied doing so. As a result, the both of them started exchanging insults, each on the verge of yelling.

Charlotte rolled her eyes and let out a soft sigh. She might be the youngest but sometimes, her role was swapped with her older brother.

"Will you two shut it already? Are we going to simply stay here, arguing the entire night while the others are having fun exploring?" she chastised. Without waiting for a response, she briskly walked towards the door and went out.

"Lottie, wait!"

Charlotte turned around to see her brother scurrying after her, Zayn right behind him.

"Don't just run off like that," Louis said, catching his breath. "I have a responsibility of looking after you, ya know? What if you got lost?"

The younger girl could only grunt her reply and directed her flashlight at the hallway in front of her. It was darker here as compared to the room they were in before, because there were no windows down the hallway; just rows of rooms behind closed doors.

"I'd suggest we turn back now, before it's too late," Zayn warned. "This place gives me the creeps."

The siblings chose to ignore him, Louis waving a hand at Zayn, dismissing the raven-haired lad. Charlotte slowly made her way down the dark corridor, beam of light focused on the floor to see where she was going. Her brother followed silently behind her, while Zayn brought up the rear. She didn't understand why they had to walk in a single file; the hallway was wide enough for two. Maybe Louis was torn to leave either one without a partner.

Charlotte squinted at what lies ahead of her. She remembered that there was a staircase landing at the end of the hallway, steps leading to the second floor. She had tried to memorise the castle's floor plan during the tour earlier in the day, but there was only so much she could remember.

"Are we heading to the stairs?" Zayn piped out from the back.

Least someone else did his homework, Charlotte thought. "Yeah. I thought it'll be better to start with the upper floors and then make our way down."

The boys gave a chorus of okay's and yeah's, and the three of them continued walking silently.

It was about ten minutes later when Louis voiced out his concern. "Are we lost?"

"I don't think so," his sister replied, stopping in her tracks. She turned around and faced the boys. "I remembered the landing is at the end of this hallway."

"She's right, Louis. I did a mental note to myself on where the steps are, so that we'll watch where we're going and don't end up stumbling on them," Zayn said.

"We've been walking this corridor for the past ten minutes or so. I don't think it'll take us very long to reach the end, right?" Louis asked. He overtook his sister and shined his flashlight forward, but all he could see was darkness. It was as if there was an abyss up ahead.

"Lottie, Zayn, can both of you shine your flashlights forward so that I can see what's up ahead? My beam isn't that strong."

They complied to Louis' demands, yet with three beams of light shining, they still couldn't see an end to the hallway.

"What the fuck?"

"Language," Louis warned his sister.

"I'd be more worried about what's happening now, rather than Lottie swearing," Zayn quipped, his voice quavering a little. "Told you this is a bad idea."

"We'll move forwards. Turning back is not an option." Charlotte was indeed a little disturbed about the neverending hallway, but she'd rather proceed with it than be a sitting duck. She knew Zayn was right about this dare being a terrible idea, but she was not going to let him have the satisfaction by giving up and going back. One thing about the Tomlinsons' was that they were hard-headed. And both Charlotte and Louis were stubborn enough not to let a little "spook factor" get in their way.

Louis led the trio now, breaking into a run down the endless corridor until he saw what looked like a division where the hallway branched into two ways. They skidded to a stop, contemplating which one to take.

"I don't remember the hallway to have a division," Charlotte panted, clutching her sides. "This castle is like a fucking maze."

Louis ignored his sister's cussing and stared at the two ways. Left? Or right?

"I don't remember this parting either, but what I do know is that we'd better choose which way to go and meet up with the others quickly," Zayn reasoned. "All of us should have stayed together in the first place."

Right after Zayn had spoken, a strong gust of wind blew past them, sending shivers down their spines. Goosebumps prickled on their arms.

"Charlotte."

Everyone stopped whatever they were doing and held their breaths, afraid that any sudden movements would cause the voice to attack them. The siblings' eyes were wide as saucers whereas Zayn was gaping.

"Charrrloootteee..."

The voice was high-pitched and melodious, just like how Charlotte heard it earlier in the day. She dismissed it as the wind and had completely forgotten about it.

Until now.

She felt her heartbeat accelerate at such speed that she felt her heart was about to explode from the fear she was experiencing at that moment. She looked at her brother and his friend, and they were both in the same condition as she was: dumbstruck and frightened. They were both shining their flashlights behind Charlotte and she had a sinking feeling that something was behind her. Because everyone got scared shitless, they panicked and took off in different directions, Zayn taking the right path while Louis dragged his sister to the left.

The siblings ran down another corridor and only stopped when they thought they were safe and far enough from whatever thing which was chasing them.

Charlotte hadn't realised her eyes were blurry from unshed tears. She collapsed into Louis' arms and sobbed her heart out, still shaking with fear.

Louis tried to calm his sister but he too was overwhelmed with fright, that he was literally quavering from head to toe.

"Ssshhh... Hush, Lottie, we're safe." Louis stroked her blonde hair, some parts of it damp due to the cold sweat.

"I want to get out of here, Lou. We should've listen to Zayn."

Her brother gently pushed her away, holding her at an arms' length. "Shit, Zayn," he muttered.

"Where is--"

Charlotte never finished her sentence as she was suddenly grabbed by an invisible force strong enough to send her flying backwards through the air, away from her brother.

"LOTTIE! CHARLOTTE!"

The last thing Charlotte remembered was hearing her brother screaming out her name at the top of his voice while aiming his flashlight at her.

Everything went black after that.