Haunted

Stood outside the two-story house, Lily swallowed nervously and shuddered as an involuntary chill ran up her spine. From the outside, the house seemed peaceful, but looks could be deceiving and there was nothing more truthful about the quote when it came to this house.

She could hear them as soon as she stepped inside, but she couldn’t make out what was being said and decided not to bring attention to it. Zak was already waiting with the rest of the crew and the family in the living room, although it was upstairs that really called for her attention.

“Lily, this is Shelly, Dan and their daughter Amelia,” Zak introduced, “Lily is the psychic medium I was telling you about, I’m hoping that she’ll be able to find out what’s going on here and help you.”

“We’re open to trying anything at this point,” Dan replied.

“Do you mind if I take a look around?” Lily asked.

“Not at all,” Dan stated with a smile.

Lily believed that every house held at least some residual energy from the past, but this one was bursting at the seams with spirits and she felt as though she was drowning. The voices continued as she climbed the stairs one at a time, pausing at the very top and entering Amelia’s room.

“Are you picking anything up?” Zak inquired from behind her as he stopped in the doorway to allow her space to maneuver.

“Someone opened a door, but they didn’t know what they were doing,” Lily told him, placing her hand on the wall and focusing, “This family is in trouble, Zak and the mom knows more about it than she’s willing to admit.”

Returning downstairs, Lily looked around the rest of the house and observed Shelly as Zak spoke to Dan outside.

“How long have you been able to do what you do?” Shelly inquired quietly, staring at Lily and putting her on edge.

“For as long as I can remember,” Lily answered honestly, “Has anyone ever attempted to contact the other side in this house?”

“No,” Shelly replied abruptly, causing Lily to take a step back and glance over at Aaron who was stood beside her.

The fact that Shelly was so quick to lie only showed how bad things were, but Lily needed to know the truth or she couldn’t help.

“When things first started happening, Shelly’s sister bought over this woman that she’d read about in the local paper and they used a Ouija board,” Dan admitted as he re-joined his wife on the sofa, “The woman said that there was nothing here, but...”

“Things got worse,” Lily finished, earning a nod from Dan and frowning as the sound of crying reached her ears.

The crying stopped when she entered the kitchen, but the atmosphere was heavy and Lily felt fear wash through her. Knowing that the Ghost Adventures crew were right behind her, she continued over to the door that led down to the basement and paused with her hand on the doorknob.

“These spirits are powerful,” Lily mumbled, heeding the warning not to open the door and stepping away, “I can’t help them if they refuse to be honest, there’s more that Shelly knows and I don’t think that Dan is aware of the full extent of the situation.”

Ice cold hands clamped around her wrists as soon as she had finished speaking, holding her in place and taking her mind back in time. She knew that she was in the same house, but the décor was old fashioned and she could hear the distinct sound of chanting.

Allowing the vision to play out, Lily soon found herself in the basement and grimaced at the pungent smell of blood. In the center of the room was an upside-down pentagram, surrounded by candles and in the middle of that symbol was a... Lily didn’t know.

The feeling of someone’s hand on her arm snapped her back to reality and she gasped, rushing outside to get some fresh air.

“Breathe, Lily,” came Zak’s voice from in front of her as she struggled to inhale enough oxygen, “What happened?”

“I saw...”

“What did you see?” Billy asked.

“A demon.”