“Rainbow… I don’t know about all this.” Fluttershy whimper quietly. She swung around her flashlight. Her breathing started to flare into heavy gulps of dusted air.
“Oh don’t be such a big baby.” I said, looking around for the right door. Fluttershy yelped when she walked into a spiders web, so I sighed and said breathily, “If you’re that scared then I guess it would be ok to hold onto me.” My face pinkened.
Her frantic gulps soon calmed to a bearable, and quite, hyperventilation. Her hands shook and shivered under the flashlight. I felt a cold hand wrap around my arm followed by a cold pressing against my side, part of my back and my shoulder. I lifted my arm slightly to find the shivering introvert stuck like glue to my back.
“Fluttershy… What are you doing?” I tried peeling her death grip from my arm. Her face was paler than the chipped paint that flaked from the wall. She wouldn’t come off with any strength known to man, so I just kept walking. Down the long empty hallway of the abandoned castle was a room.
The room was brass clad and contained only one window and a few stray furnishings. One great mirror braced its brassy paws against the stone floor and peeling wall. The moonlight that poured in from the small hole only made the room that much darker and more ominous..
“Rainbow…” The Fluttershy exhaled timidly. “Can we go home now?” I put down the backpack that was wedged between her stomach and my shoulder blade. This action caused her to bump into my back. “Sorry…”
“We just got here Flutters. Can’t we at least spend one weekend. We dont have much time left before school starts…” My voice trailed off. I started unpacking a few items that were needed. Sleeping bags or as my mom calls them, bed rolls. Portable cooking stove. Cans of food. Marshmallows. And a Book of Scary stories. I gave a quick shake to the sleeping bag and it unraveled.
Fluttershy stood there and nodded. She picked up the book and opened it to a bookmarked page. She let out a small yelp and threw the book it the ground. I dropped a bag of marshmallows and swiveled around.
“What’s wrong fluttershy?” I giggled. She clutched onto my chest and sniffed back a few tears. “Flutters? What’s wrong?” I asked in a more serious tone. She lifted her head up so that we could make eye contact. She pointed at the book she had thrown. The spine was bent outwards and the cover was frayed. I picked it up and looked. The page was blank.
“Fluttershy. There is nothing on this page. Why were you so scared?” I said jokingly. She snatched the book from my hand and flipped through the pages. Her eyes swelled to the size of grapefruits. She frantically looked through the book looking for what she had seen.
“But… it was there a second ago…” Her voice got quiet. I swear it was. I’M NOT LYING!” She shouted.
“What was there Fluttershy? What did you see?” I picked up one of her hands and squeezed it. She shook her head wildly and slumped to the ground. “Fluttershy. You have to tell me what’s wrong. I can’t help you if you won’t tell me.”
“there was blood all over the book…” Her quiet voice was almost a whisper. “it got all over my hands and it smeared against the words.” Her vibrant eyes, now puffy and swollen, trickled tears down onto her face. She sat there staring at her empty palms. I sat down beside her and smoothed her hair down with my hand. I hushed her frantic cries back with a calming air. Fluttershy kept rubbing her hands together and scraping them as if she was trying to get a thick sludge from them.
“Are you ok Flutters?” I asked in a worried voice. She widened her eyes at my question and shook her head. When she lifted her head, her eyes were brimming with the salty liquid that leaks from sear sadness or utter happiness.
“No… NO!” She kept screaming backing away from the doorway. I turned to see what was there and let out a shrill scream.
TO BE CONTINUED!