The Haunting

by Garcia, Nicole

  "Starting from left to right we have our drug addict Felicia Wright. Next we have our drug dealer The Flame. You may have read in the newspapers about him. A man was recently set on fire in his apartment in Oroville last year. Although The Flame was never convicted of this crime he never denied the allegations.

  Jace wanted to throttle Sanders right there on T.V., but he had no choice but to grin and bear it. He would have his revenge soon.

  Sanders continued with the introductions. "Over here we have Kelly Fallon Sloane, our prostitute."

  Kelly was going to bolt forward and attack the producer, but Jace stuck his arm out in front of her preventing her from moving. When she looked up at him he shook his head no and whispered only for her to hear. "Don't, he's not worth it."

  Kelly relaxed against the tension of his arm, it took all the strength he could muster to move his arm away from her. The feel of her body so close to his made him want so much more than a mere touch. His cock began to get hard again and his balls were aching with only the thought of being inside of her.

  Alec Sanders gave him a strange look and followed in the direction of his eyes. "Something wrong Flame. You look a little uncomfortable."

  Fucking great. That's all he needed now was a hard-on while they were filming live television. It had been very thoughtful of Sanders to point it out to everyone. He would have to thank him after the show for not only calling him a murderer, but for embarrassing him as well. For now, he only glared at Alec.

  The irritating producer continued with introductions with the freckled face red head. "Next we have Amber McCarty. Amber is, or shall I say was, a self-made business woman. An entrepreneur of a high end pet clothing and supplies. Her chain of stores were a remarkable accomplishment for a girl from the small town of Hartland, Minnesota. That was until her boyfriend depleted her bank account and destroyed her credit. Now, well, she's here to redeem herself and build her business from the ground up again. To the right of Amber, we have State District Attorney Lance Smith. You may recall seeing Mr. Smith's trial on television. It seems Mr. Smith was taking bribes from the notorious gangster Carmine "The Hammer" Campanelli in order to keep his associates out of the slammer. Didn't work out for him so well did it? He was tried and convicted of perjury and extortion. His prison time, I'm sure, was less than pleasurable. Isn't that right Lance?"

  The lawyer made eye contact with Alec and Jace heard him speak for the first time. "I didn't extort any money."

  Alec smiled and winked at the attorney. "Sure you didn't. I'm positive the state disbarred you for no reason.” Before Lance had a chance to reply Sanders moved on to the next victim of his sarcastic and twisted sense of humor. “Lastly, we have Scott. Scott seems to be very bored with his life as the son of a rich powerful man. So, let's see if we can accommodate his boredom and see if we can put a little excitement in his life."

  Jace was tired of hearing Alec speak. In fact, his voice was starting to resemble the sound of fingernails scraping against a chalkboard. He was hoping he didn't have to listen to him much longer.

  Sanders wouldn’t be staying in the mansion with them so he explained the rules before leaving. "Since I will not be joining all of you here in the lap of luxury I shall explain the rules to you and the viewing audience. Rule number one, you must stay inside the house for the full twenty-four hours. Rule number two, if you leave the house you lose. You are not allowed to come back in. To ensure everyone is adhering to the rules there are two cameras placed in every room of the house. Those cameras will show what each of you will be doing at any given moment. Also, there are no amenities to make your stay here more comfortable. All the water has been shut off except for the bathrooms to flush the toilets. The knobs on the faucets have been removed so there will be no drinking water. There will be no food either, so I hope you all had a hearty breakfast. One more thing, if no one has left or given up by this time tomorrow then the contest will continue for another day and so on until only one person is left. Remember no food or water will be brought to you just because you choose to be here for more than one day."

  Alex then turned to the camera. "To all the viewers this, show is live and all programming will cease until the competition is over. Regular programs can be viewed on the TSN website.” Sanders faced the contestants and made a very weird statement. Maybe it wasn't the statement that was weird, but rather the way he said it. He had a sinister look in his eye like he knew something that they didn't. “With all that said, may you all find the salvation you so desperately seek." Alec and the camera crew broke down all their equipment then went about turning on all the cameras in the mansion.

  Jace didn't believe in ghosts or haunted houses, but after Sanders' last statement he was beginning to question his beliefs. More importantly than the supernatural entities that might be living in the house, was the difficult situation of being in the same room with Kelly.

  Chapter Eight

  Kelly was still furious after Sanders left the house. "Who the fuck does that guy think he is. I am not a prostitute, I am an exotic dancer!"

  "Same damn thing isn't it? I need a drink." Lance walked over to the glass liquor cabinet. "Locked. Fucking fantastic." Lance looked around the room and found a two foot marble statue on an end table across the room. Veins were popping out of his head from straining to carry it to the liquor cabinet. He raised it as high as he could and brought it down on the lock. The lock broke and the statue hit the floor breaking in pieces.

  "Are you insane?! Don't you owe enough people money?"

  Lance pulled a glass from the cabinet, filled it halfway with wine, and turned to Kelly. "Calm down baby. I'll be able to pay for that and anything else once I win the money. Now, why don't you come on over here and have yourself a drink. Maybe after you relax a little you can, uh, you know give us a little show." He peered out of the corner of his eye and motioned to Amber who was standing in the middle of the room. "What about you doll, how about some sexy poses. I'm sure you know about a lot about the doggie-style position."

  Scott laughed at the attorney and Amber looked in his direction. "Oh, you think that's funny. You probably think disrespecting women and treating them like dirt is so hilarious. You know what, I bet they think you're small dick is hilarious. And you..." She turned her attention to Lance Smith. "You're a disgusting pig!" Amber directed her anger towards Lance, her eyes like daggers ready to pierce his body.

  Kelly strode over to the slimy prosecutor, she smiled and took the glass from his hand. She brought the cup to her mouth then threw the red liquid in his face.

  Smith grabbed her by the arms and slammed her against broken glass door. "You fucking whore. I should give you a spanking and teach you a lesson."

  Before Kelly had time to respond with a swift kick to the balls, Jace was on top of him, pulling Lance off her. He grabbed him by his newly stained buttoned down shirt and pushed him onto a ragged orange chaise lounge in the corner of the room. "I don't want to see you touch her or anyone else in this room. If I do I'm going to break you into tiny pieces like that statue on the floor over there."

  Lance huffed and straightened his tie. "Oh, I see you've got a thing for the little tramp. I get it. Maybe we can, uh, share...."

  Lance was cut off by Jace's grip on his throat. "Like I said, if I see you touch her or anyone in the house I'll fucking break you into tiny pieces. Jace tightened his grip. "Do I make myself fucking perfectly clear?"

  The lawyer could only respond with a shake of his head. Jace let go and went over to Kelly to see how she was. "You okay?"

  Kelly rounded Jace. "I'm fine. I didn't need your damn help you know."

  "Well, it kind of looked like you did." "

  Well, I didn't. Lots of creeps at the club put their hands on me."

  "Yeah, I know..."

  Kelly turned to face him confused. How would he know? "What?"

  Jace thought quickly on his feet. "I meant I know it probably happens a lot being a dancer."

  "Yeah, well, it's to
be expected."

  "That doesn't make it right."

  "What do you know about doing the right thing? You sells drugs to people. Do you think that's right?"

  Jace strode off towards the hallway. "I don't have to listen to this."

  "Yeah, go ahead, leave when things don't go your way." Kelly watched as he walked around the corner and was gone. She could hear his heavy footsteps hitting each wooden plank of the creaky staircase. The chair covered with a sheet by the living room window was where Kelly decided to sit. When she plopped down on the cushion a puff of white smoke filled the air. She waved her hand in front of her face and coughed when the dust entered her throat.

  She peered over at Felicia. The junkie was standing in a corner shivering, her skin pale and sweaty. Not long after Jace left she went in the same direction he had. Again, she could hear the creaking steps from the hallway. At first she wondered where Felicia was off to. Maybe she was going to find a place to sit by herself so she wouldn't have to go through the stress of withdrawals in front on everyone. It really didn't matter to Kelly what she did.

  Kelly wanted to take a nap, but there was no way she could do that with the perverted lawyer in the same room. There was one good point though, he hadn't said a word since Jace threatened him.

  Scott, the rich kid, was quiet the whole time. He sat on the sofa in the middle of the room twiddling his thumbs looking worried. He looked at his silver tone watch and stood.

  There had been a pile of classic books covered with dust on the coffee table. She took the largest one and opened it. Maybe reading would take her mind off of everything and the time would pass faster.

  Scott strolled over to the door next to the breakfast bar. She assumed the door led to the kitchen. A few minutes later there were pans clanging and glass shattering.

  "What the hell was that?" She closed her book and placed it in the chair she was sitting on. Edgar Allen Poe’s story The Pit and the Pendulum would have to wait. She opened the kitchen door and found Scott fiddling with an old dumbwaiter. "What on earth are you doing?"

  He stopped yanking on the handle and turned to face her. "I'm bored. I wanted to explore the house a bit. He then walked over to the sink and attempted to put the faucet on before remembering that they were told there would be no running water in the house.

  Kelly looked over his shoulder and saw a dark figure cross the window. "Oh my god, look!"

  Scott watched the window for a few seconds, but saw nothing. "What?"

  "Someone was out there."

  "I don't see anyone. It must have been someone from the film crew or something. What do you think you saw? A ghost?"

  "I don't believe in that crap."

  "So, then what's the problem?"

  All of sudden there were footsteps running across the floor above their heads followed by a door slamming. They both stared at the ceiling.

  "There you are. The ghosts are upstairs now. Ooooo, scary." Scott was making fun of her uneasiness and waving his fingers in her face.

  "Get your fingers out of my face before I chop them off."

  A second set of footsteps were heard. They stopped for a minute then another door slammed. A scream rang out and Kelly, Scott, and Lance ran up the stairs.

  It felt as though it took forever to get to where the scream had come from. The mansion was enormous as they searched each of the rooms until they came to an open door.

  Kelly was the first to enter and the other two bumped into her as she stopped short in front of them. What she saw was terrifying and screamed at the top of her lungs. "Oh my God what did you do?!"

  Jace was standing over Felicia. She was propped up against the wall and her head was twisted to the side. Her eyes were opened, but there was no sign of life. Numerous syringes were stabbed in both her arms and blood dripped from the many holes the needles had caused. This was obviously not an overdose.

  Jace pointed at Felicia angrily and started to walk towards Kelly. "What?! I did not do this!"

  She backed up out of the doorway pushing the others out of her way, she never took her eyes off Jace for a second. "Stay away from me!"

  "Kelly, I didn't kill Felicia. I came running in here when I heard a scream. Besides, what motive would I have to kill her? And I didn't have any drugs on me anyway."

  "Um, maybe you did have drugs on you and that's why you didn't want the security guards to search you before coming in the house. And maybe she embarrassed you on national television by asking if you had brought drugs with you, so to get back at her you killed her."

  "That's ridiculous! Even if I did carry drugs into house, how could I possibly fit all those needles in these tight pockets?"

  Kelly continued to step backward as he advance toward her again. "I don't know, you're the thug, why don't you tell me."

  "Look, I didn't kill her. I had no reason to. Now, just get the hell out of my way.” He pushed his way past all of them and headed downstairs into the living room.

  Lance proceeded to close the door behind them and Kelly stopped it with her hand. "You're just going to close the door and leave her there like that?"

  "What do you suggest we do? Go running for help. Well, I'm sorry, I will not risk losing a million dollars for her or you or anyone else in this house."

  Kelly then remembered the cameras. They must have picked up what happened in the room and how it happened. She ran over the camera mounted in the corner of the room jumping up and down and waving her arms back and forth. "Hey! Hello! Someone help us!"

  "You're wasting your breath. They told us at the meeting once they leave they would not be coming back into the house until the contest is over."

  "Well, I think that would be fine if people just left on their own, but someone died here."

  Lance walked over to the lounge chair by the window and ripped the sheet off of it. He made his way over to Felicia and place the sheet over her body. "There, better?"

  Kelly rounded Lance. "No, it's not better."

  Lance followed Kelly out of the room and closed the door behind him. Scott had already joined Jace and Amber downstairs and that was one place Kelly didn't want to be.

  Lance called to Kelly as she speed walked down the hallway. "Where are you going?"

  "I'm going to go lock myself in one of these rooms until someone comes to help."

  "Fine, I'm going back downstairs."

  Kelly found an office at the end of the house which was as far as she could be away from everyone without leaving. She didn't trust anyone and there was no way she would be caught dead in the same room with anyone in this house.

  She locked the door to the office and sat in the big leather chair behind the desk. It was dark outside and pitch black inside the house. The only source of light was the moonlight peeking through one of the wooden planks that boarded up the window. She leaned back in the chair and closed her eyes. The only thing to do was to try to forget about what happened, but all she saw when she closed her eyes was Felicia's blank stare looking back at her. She clenched her eyes tighter and hoped the vision would disappear.

  Kelly dozed off for a few minutes and awoke to the sound of the door knob being turned back and forth vigorously. Half asleep it had annoyed her so much she never asked who was on the other side of the door. She unlocked it and swung it open. "What?!"

  There was no one in the doorway. She peered into the hallway for a quick look. Still she saw no one. How odd. As she was about to close the door, she was pushed backed and fell the ground. "You!"

  Lance locked the door behind him and threw the key somewhere in the corner of the room. Without lighting there would be no way she would ever find it. He walked over to the security camera and ripped the plug out of the wall. He turned to her and placed his finger over his lips. "Shh. I don't want the others to hear us and interrupt our fun."

  "We're not going to have any fun!" Kelly got up from the floor and ran over to the desk. She picked up a paperweight and threw it at his head. She missed, hitting the wall behind
him.

  He rushed towards her and slapped her across the face. He pushed her into the desk and held her hands down. He pulled his tie off and wrapped it around her wrists, preventing her from moving them. He pushed all the papers from the desktop and picked her up, he slammed her on top of the desk hard enough that the wind was knocked out of her for a moment. Her black yoga pants were stripped from her body showing her black lace panties.

  Lance slowly licked his lips and attempted to put his mouth on her. Kelly reached down with her tied hands and scratched his face. He slapped her again causing her vision to blur briefly. "I see you want to play rough. That's okay baby, I like it that way."

  She tried to fend him off, but she wasn't doing a very good job at it. He weighed much more than she did and he was using it to his advantage. She struggled and tried to scream, but couldn't. One hand was covering her mouth while the other was ripping off her delicate undergarments.

  A loud bang came from outside the door. Lance jumped up as another brutal thud against the door caused it to come off its hinges and Kelly saw Jace through blurred vision.

  He stormed at Lance like a bull charging a red cape. Jace's fist made contact with his face hard enough that Kelly heard the sound of bones crush. Lance fell to the floor with Jace right on top of him. Pummeling him. Punch after punch Lance begged him to stop until there was no sound.

  Kelly screamed at Jace. "Stop, you're going to kill him!" She could have very easily allowed Jace to kill the bastard, but she didn't want to watch someone die right in front of her eyes. She couldn't have that on her conscience. She suddenly realized she was half naked. Her panties were down at her ankles. She scrambled to pull them back up along with her pants. She ran to the bathroom across the hall and locked the door behind her feeling embarrassed.

  "Kelly wait!"

  She heard Jace close the door and lock Lance in the office. His footsteps got louder as he came closer to the bathroom until they stopped at the door. "Go away!"