CHAPTER TEN.
[ x. the horrifying information ]
LIAM STRUGGLED TO get his phone out of his jacket pocket. He wiped his runny nose before grabbing the phone with both hands. Never in his lifetime would he imagine himself being in the middle of a horror movie. He knows how horror movies end up: they all die.
Liam clicked on one of his friend's contact, knowing they all need help. "What are you doing?" Scout choked out as he held Ingrid tighter. He heard her muffled sobs as she cried into his chest. Liam sniffled and continued to cry.
"We need someone smart." He looked up from his phone and stared at Scout. "Someone smarter than you," he breathed out and looked down at his phone. He pressed his friend's contact and held it up to his ear.
"They've been down there for a while," Layla coughed out as she wiped her mouth. She was referring to Caroline, Delancy, Maura, and Harriet. "Do you think they're okay?" Scout felt Ingrid shake her head, which made him softly sigh.
"Hello?!" Liam asked the person on the other line, still rocking back and forth.
"You never call me," Jonah Kelly responded with a sarcastic chuckle. Liam trembled and knew he felt guilty, but Jonah was the only person he knew who knew about the Carmichael residence.
"Please tell me everything you know about the Carmichael house," Liam pleaded in a whisper. He felt his eyes form tears again. Jonah furrowed his eyebrows and leaned back in his office chair. He stared at his blog (coincidentally, all about the Carmichael House) wondering why he might be calling. Ingrid pulled away from Scout slightly to look at Liam; she was a mess.
"Are you okay?" Jonah asked hesitantly, not liking confrontation. After all, he was a very shy and quiet person. Liam shook his head, starting to cry. Jonah's eyes slowly widened as he realized the boy was crying.
"Me a-and a bunch of other people are stuck in this shitty house," Liam sobbed uncontrollably. The three watched as he started to break down. "Something already killed Briar Gray a-and Devyn Howard. We need help!"
"Call the police, Liam," Jonah whispered as he started to look around his room frantically. Liam gasped for air, needing to calm down. Layla walked over and bent down beside him, comforting him by rubbing his back.
"We called, many times. They're not answering," Liam breathed out, taking deep breaths. "I'm so fucking scared you have no fucking idea." Jonah started to be frightened for his friend's safety.
Before Jonah had a chance to reply, all of them heard loud screams. Screams coming from females from back of the house. They all jumped, including Jonah who happened to hear the screams. "That sounded like Delancy," Layla trembled, bringing her hand up to her mouth. Liam gripped onto the phone tighter.
"Tell me everything," he said seriously. Jonah nodded and turned back to face his computer.
"Scout and I are going back there," Ingrid stayed as she looked up at Scout. The tall boy shook his head rapidly, but the girl didn't care. She grabbed his wrist and started to pull him with her.
"If I die because of you, Ingrid, I'm gonna haunt you in your sleep," he whispered to her as he was being pulled. Layla and Liam watched as the two disappeared into the hallway.
Jonah was fast at work looking at all of the information he had saved. He kept scrolling through the countless words and details he wrote himself. "Please, Jonah," Liam begged, resulting in Jonah nodding.
"Okay, um . . ." Jonah bit his bottom lip as he read his own words. "Benjamin Maurice Carmichael was born on October Thirty-First, 1901. H-He was the first child his parents, Donna Carmichael and John Carmichael ever had. He had a brother, but he died due to a miscarri-."
"I don't need to know his family history, I need to know about Benjamin," Liam yelled as he panicked. Jonah's breath hitched from the raising of the boy's voice. The quiet boy started to pick at the skin on his hands, hating when someone raised their voice at him.
"Maybe if you won't yell at me then I might!" Jonah said aggressively, so aggressively, Liam was shocked.
Jonah Daniel Kelly was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome when he was he only at the age of four. He didn't know how to socialize, he had very bad anger issues, and his apprehension to common tasks was bizarre to him. This left him as an outsider. An outsider who's a number one target to bullies around the area.
"Benjamin Maurice Carmichael was homeschooled all throughout his life. There was no history of anything informal about him at a young age, besides the fact his father abused his mother daily," Jonah quickly explained as he started to get antsy. Layla and Liam looked at each other with shock once they heard this new detail. "It got so severe his mother shot his father in cold blood in 1912. She then shot herself in the head right after."
"Oh my God," Layla said in horror.
"People suspect this is what triggered his insanity because it was documented that he supposedly watched the horrific event happen," Jonah breathed out all at once. He caught his breath, letting out a small "phew".
"That made Benjamin eleven," Layla gasped as she sat down on the ground beside Liam. He swallowed the lump in his throat as he felt a wave of the frigid air wash over him.
"He went into the foster care services, but when he was there, five children mysterious disappeared and one was found headless in the basement bathroom," Jonah explained slowly. He imagined Liam in the house, frightened for the boy's life. "When they found one of the missing kid's, Benjamin mysteriously disappeared and was later found in 1917 in the abandoned Carmichael house living off of rats, mice, and squirrels."
Liam wrinkled his face in disgust, but it didn't surprise him. "Why do you think Benjamin did this stuff?" Liam asked quietly, cautious if Benjamin would actually hear him.
Jonah shrugged, not knowing the exact answer. "I don't know. Some theorist suggest since he killed mainly children, he didn't want the children to witness their parents do horrible things." Liam looked around the living room, staring at the old century items. "But I don't know about that. He tortured all of his victims. So I don't know why-."
"Wait," Liam said quickly, cutting Jonah off. "'Tortured'?"
"Yeah. Burying them alive, skinning them, ripping their nails off, taking their teeth out, uh . . . gouging their eyes out," Jonah named off nonchalantly. Layla felt queasy, feeling the need to throw up once more. "Cutting his victims in places they would bleed out slowly."
"Are you sure he tortured all of his victims?" Liam breathed our questionably. He remembered how Briar died instantly, but Devyn was horribly tortured.
"Well, some were documented as an instant kill. But those people were only killed quickly to show something. Like . . . a warning," Jonah said as he started to scroll on his blog page again. He then remembered a journal he kept full of extra information. He reached under his desk and grabbed the notebook.
"Does it get worse?" Liam hesitantly asked. Jonah's heart dropped as he knew Liam and his friends' condition. He was silent, not wanting to say the answer. "Jonah? Jonah, you there?"
"Yes."
"Yes to what?" Liam asked fearfully.
"Yes to both."
***
"Caroline?! Harriet?!" Ingrid yelled as she and Scout ran down the hallway. "Maura?! Delancy?!" They didn't have much room to look, it was a small and compact hallway after all. Scout stared at the creepy images on the walls, seeing how dusty they were. "Guys', come on!" She yelled frantically.
Scout looked down the hallway pass Ingrid and noticed a girl with her back turned away from them. She looked about their age. Her hair looking black and short, Maura's hair length. "Is that Maura?" Scout question softly, pointing down the hallway. Ingrid turned and squinted her eyes so she could see. She saw the figure and saw Maura's features.
"Maura?!" Ingrid shouted, which perked the girl's head up. Both of the innocent teens kept their distance from the unusual girl who was located at the end of the hallway.
"Maura? It's us," Scout added in a loud voice. Ingrid knew something wasn't right and froze. She tugged at his shirt, making him confused. "What?"
"We need to go back," Ingrid whispered in a panic. "I don't think that's Maura."
Before he had a time to react, the girl turned around; exposing her horrifying condition. Her face was peeled completely off. Bone, tissue, veins, eye sockets, everything underneath the skin was exposed. Blood was running down her neck and it covered her black shirt. Pink tissue now covered the girl's face. Unfortunately, the girl was wearing very familiar clothes.
Maura's clothes.
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YEET YAH. ANOTHER FEATURING CHARACTER WAS INTRODUCED SO UR WELCOME. IM TOO SCARED TO SEE WHAT A "PEELED FACE" LOOKS LIKE SO I TRIED 🤷🏽♀️ THIS IS UNEDITED AND MESSY.