[A/N: This chapter is the second last :( and is a bit fast-paced because that's the rate at which stuff is happening. Enjoy. *cries*]

Fear is exceptional. It is what makes us human.

*NARRATOR'S POV*

Edith grins at Louis, no noise escaping her mouth as she does and Louis finding no strength to look away from the glint created from her saliva and blood covered teeth. It was hard to distinguish with the exception of this moment, when her lips were parted and the red stain was visible.

He gasped and built up the momentum to scream too late, for she had already begun dragging him towards the door. She didn't need him here, nor did she have it in her to kill him purposefully. If he left without trouble then there would be no harm done to him.

"Harry!" Louis' lungs ached as he hit the ground, completely out of control and helpless.

He couldn't see what was dragging him towards the exit, but it had a firm grip on both his ankles and felt dead to the touch. He coughed and felt like every vessel of his was about to burst from the collision pressure, except it didn't and that was just mildly worse.

Harry was there, only he'd been thrown to the floor as well and was currently trying to regain some focus. He saw Louis too late, and the door shut before he offer any aid. Louis was locked outside in the dead of night, noisy crickets and unexplained rustling surrounding him.

Harry was within, now numb with exertion and zero expertise. He kept reassuring himself that Louis was okay because the banging continued. Until it stopped completely, giving way to a terrifying and choking silence he couldn't stand. That left him in the lurch.

He ignored the stifling whispers in his ear and took a large step towards the door. What appeared before him would normally stop him in his tracks, have him obedient and pliant but his priority was anew and something he adored to the core. It angered Edith to see him concerned about someone who knew nothing about him more than a month ago so she growled and blocked the door from his vision.

Harry spun around, searching desperately for the front door but it was nowhere. Just walls and windows. He continued forward nonetheless.

Stop this.

Harry ignored her. Louis, that's what mattered. He couldn't hear Louis' banging or screaming and it scared him.

Listen to me, my son-

"I am not your son, Edith." Harry spat. He's never spoken to her that way and now he didn't fear the consequences.

You have grown stubborn and frivolous, Harry. He is not important.

Harry ran his hand across the wall where he was certain the door had been. He couldn't feel any vibrations, received no indication that Louis was on the other side except his gut instinct.

He is mortal and stupid. I? I can make you powerful.

"I do not want that. I want to live and die." Harry spoke to the wall. "I want to be weak and vulnerable, if it means I can have him."

You do not love him!

Edith was furious now, not understanding why Harry wasn't being himself. She hadn't brought him up that way. So she took away the use of his legs, seeing as if he had them then he'd just find a way to break down the barrier. He felt to the ground, kneeling because he could feel nothing below that point.

"I do." He whispered, staring longingly at the wall and avoiding her completely. "I do."

Outside Louis was a mess. He didn't know where he was going and wasn't entirely sure he was moving at all. He rounded the house, and rounded it again because he felt he hadn't.
There were footsteps beside his own, but the blood that rushed to his brain had taken away the full sense of hearing. Not until his right arm was grabbed and yanked did he let out a shrill cry. His back crashed loudly against the sound of the house when he hit it.

The Sheriff stood looming over Louis as he crouched on the ground. "Been a while, kiddo."

Louis was dumbfounded. He couldn't look up because this just isn't real. It can't be. The Sheriff is dead and that's that. He knew he was wrong and that if he glanced up but once he'd face the dark shine of the horrible man's lustful stare.

"Gonna look at me, Louis?" The voice of the never appealing or generous man has not been
altered his since date of death. It still stung like a wasp and irritated like fuzzballs of dust.

"Gonna look at me like your mother did?"

That was enough to have Louis' head hit the wall so that he may look up fast enough with a fiery desire to let this man into the pangs of a terrible death all over again.

"Like mother like son." The ghost laughed and Louis flinched when he saw that the creature's boot was much too close to his crotch area.

He scrambled to his feet, keeping his back to the house for reassurance and balance.

"What is it now? Won't talk to me, slut?"

Louis glares at him but he knew that had no emotional or long-term psychological effect on them. He also knew that ghosts could inflict said pain better.

"Don't worry. I won't do what Rupert did." The Sheriff smirks proudly. "Won't be of much benefit to me seeing as well....I'm dead."

Louis would laugh at that but the muscles that held up the corners of his face were stiff and sour.

"I gotta say, I miss your more.......philanthropic days."

Louis stares wide-eyed at this obscene entity while his mind kept floating hack to Harry. Was he okay? Where was he?

"Was easier to get you. Now you're a fucking sap who bottoms. I'm disappointed."

Louis was horrified that this man knew about Louis' sex life, but that was the very least of his concerns.

"Don't worry. Your boyfriend is alive." The Sheriff disappears and when his voice resurfaces, his standing right behind Louis' left shoulder. "I'll tell you when he's not."

Louis jumps away from the sound, his back separating from the wall and resuming the opposite position. He regrets parting with the solid surface that kept him upright.

"In the mean time." The Sheriff's face begins to alter. Tiny wisps of skin are easily blown off his
visage as he changes his identity. Louis gasps when he takes on Harry's appearance, taking a voluntary step back. "Let's play a game."

Harry stayed on the floor, in front of her completely exposed and in danger. His venture to the wall had been cut short by the numb feeling that spread through his legs leaving him immobile from the waist down. If his knees were bleeding, he couldn't feel it and if his heart was beating two miles a minutes then that's all he felt.

Why is your will to be destroyed so strong?

"I have a reason to live, Edith. You gave up yours." Harry threw back at her, setting the hatred ablaze in her eyes.

She killed her only son because she thought he was safer that way. His body was never found by the authorities or her after being thrown into Lost Lake.

Another person is not a reason to live. They're all going to take a piece of you until there's nothing left! And him? He will make you suffer but I can take away that pain.

"I feel pity for you, Edith." Harry hauls himself up to sit against the wall. "I will not say you didn't take care of me, and that means you would have been useful as a mother-"

Be quiet.

"But you did this to yourself! You robbed yourself of a reason to exist and you keep doing it to other people so they'll feel your pain."

You are my son. Listen to me.

"That's the problem, isn't it? I'm not your son. I never will be. Did you find him?"

She looked at him with an empty heart and hollow soul. No, she hadn't.

"Let me help you find him then. I will. But don't keep hurting people because not all of them deserve it."

She floats over to him with a grim expression, lowering herself to her hands and knees to get closer to him. He reached out bravely to brush away the hair strands that went against gravity,
flying motionless in the air.

"Your time.....your time's up now and you have to let go." Harry spoke softly because for the first time in twenty years he felt a victory coming on. "Of me. Of this world. Of everyone that's hurt you. You deserve peace too."

Louis had taken off instantly, running into the house after having found a window big enough to accept his size. However, it isn't the house he stepped into earlier tonight. It's familiar as well though. The house on Lost Lake had an interior that could never be forgotten. Now he was folded into a tiny space under the staircase, hiding from the man who sought him out for an evil hunger.

*LOUIS' POV*

Harry is the most terrifying person I've ever met. No, it wasn't his matted hair and torn white jumpers he put to use every Saturday without fail. It was his eyes, their cold hard stare that was as empty as a bucket coming up from a Saharan well.

Thump. Thump.

He was walking down the staircase above the glory hole I am sat uncomfortably within. I hear a drum beat, like a giant jogging after me at a pace that could kill him. Beads of unforeseen sweat roll down the flesh of my temples, I wipe it away with my sleeve. That drum beat was my own heart.

"Lou?" The voice of my assailant travels through the opaque wooden walls of my cupboard under the stairs.

I draw in a deep, silent breath that I plan to hold in for a good two hours. I imagine Harry grazing muck from those God-forsaken boots all over the staircase. He wouldn't give me a side ward glance if I were to open my mouth and complain though.

His aged Ray Bans would be pushed higher to crown his forehead; his bandana would be shifted but not removed, and he would leave the room as if I'd said nothing to begin with.

"Lou? Where are you?" I could hear that edge in his voice that arose when he was being
threatened. I was all too familiar with that resignation and it would be my weapon one day.
My chest constricts painfully and I'm forced to exhale. I am careful for the deed not to become audible, I take in another sweep of stale and damp air.

"You don't play fair, Lou." He speaks softly, chuckling to himself but knowing that the sound reaches my ears.

I gulp. My Adam's Apple bobs frantically as the air in this confinement grows in levels of
moisture, thickening and suffocating me. My vision is obstructed by burning drops of salt water that threaten to spill over onto my cheeks and my Hollister sweater.

I need to cough but at this stage, not knowing what shade of Harry awaits me on the other side of this cardboard door, I'd rather swallow it and meet with pain than let him hear me.

"Lou!" He barks outside the door. His voice is panicked now, urgent and afraid in the after-tones. I don't believe him. Harry is a master of vocal disguise and can make anyone - and I mean anyone - feel what he wants them to feel through just a few primitive words. I've seen it.
I hear his thunderous, echoing footsteps as he nears my hiding place. I hear him shuffling for something, the cheap nylon of his rain jacket whizzing as he patted the folds and pockets. Oh shit! He's going to dial my number and The Fray's You Found Me would give away my position.
I remove my phone silently from my sweater pocket, swiping my finger across the screen when I feel bile rise in my throat. It's hollow and threatening to choke me violently. I squeeze my eyes shut as I attempt to swallow. My throat clears momentarily. I refrain from putting my iPhone off completely in this house, no one ever should. I put the ringer on silent and watch as Harry's name flashes on my screen.

Below his identification is a photograph I'd taken sneakily at the party a few weeks back. Oh how I wish I could take it all back.

On account of my previous hysteria, smothering my gasp now wasn't too challenging. Harry's hamster named Hamster by originality, scurries across my lap with its tiny paws before sniffing at the door. No.

"Lou, I don't want to play anymore." Harry croaks from outside in the dilapidated doorway. I ignore the sheer hopelessness in his voice, knowing it all to be a great deception.

The furry rodent's whiskers brush against the wooden door stopper, and the thin planks keeping this structure in place. I scoop him up in one hand, bringing him to my chest in order to prevent him from causing too loud a sound.

My head throbs from lack of water, dehydration is evident with the pressing of my fingers to my temple bones. Hamster hops out of my grip when I'm distracted by the obnoxious banging thuds on the other side of this flimsy barrier.

He runs down the length of my leg, until he's scraped his way into the tiny rat hole I wish I was scaled down to size to fit into as well.

Silence. The most deafening and unassuming sound in this little town. Metal creaks and my
circulatory system goes into overdrive. The doorknob that I'd fastened not too long ago twists against my will.

I swallow back the painful lump in my oesophagus, it is as stubborn as it has always been. I shut my eyelids clenching and unclenching my fists as the door draws outward.

"Boo!" Harry whispers to me encouraging me to look at him.

My vision flutters before his handsome visage comes into focus. His black rain jacket is scattered with drops of rainwater and so is his hair. The corners of his mouth twitch into a proud smirk, revealing a few of his perfect teeth.

I look at him with hesitancy, fear rooting itself into my being.

"I told you I'd always find you, Lou." He grins clearly content with whatever's wrong with him.
I resist the urge that materialises out of nothing to roll my eyes, he'd throw a tantrum if I did.
He holds out his hand, decorated with self-harm marks and tattoos, for me to take. "It's your turn to count. I'll hide."

Except this wasn't my Harry. This face didn't belong to him. That wasn't Hamster running across his lap and it wasn't any reason to fret. Except, it was.

The eyes of this creature was empty yet too relatable to the authentic Harry. The skin around his eyes began to give away and the black of his pupils returned. Slowly, Harry fell off this man until it was back to the wretchedly disgusting man Louis had the misfortune of knowing for years before this.

"Let's go exploring." He says with a boom of finality.

Edith let all pretences drop. She could admit that upholding the illusions of every person on the premises was exhausting even for her. The extra two pairs of footsteps rang out loud and clear but she didn't hear them. Only Harry did, and when he looked up from her to smile in relief at seeing Louis standing at the doorway, she lashed out.

All arguments forgotten and all the convincing Harry had done is now out the window. She wasn't ready to have Harry so willingly move on from her just yet. If he gave her more time and ignored that bastard behind her, maybe no death would befall this circumstance.

You lied to me! Was all she said before the entire house began to shake and crumble.

Bits of the ceiling and wall chipped away until large chunks got loose. Harry got back the feeling in his limbs but wasn't in the shape to get up yet, he wouldn't let fear get to him. He searched frantically for Louis now, since there'd be no going back. Edith was bringing the house down on
all of them. She would move on with everyone she chose.

Louis stepped past the cracked flooring and ran to kneel by Harry, forgetting that the door was right behind Harry's back. "Harry?"

Harry smiled weakly. "Hi."

Louis felt like crying, letting the dam burst right here because this was the sense of ending he'd gotten earlier. This was it.

"Come on."

Louis tried to lift Harry's body but it was too heavy so he apologised before dragging the dead weight. He was halted at the door by Harry's screams.

"Stop!" Harry cried out, recoiling from Louis and moving further into the self-destructing house.

"Harry? Harry, we have to go." Louis said urgently but then, he saw it. The burns on Harry's arms and the side of his face were now permanent.

"She won't let me leave this house." Harry said quietly. "Go please."

"We have to try. I'm not leaving you."

"You can go, Louis. She won't bother you again."

"I can't know that." Louis chose to say that rather than what was in his heart. "Nor will I leave here without you."

Harry shook his head and backed away from the door. "You have to go. Do it for me."

"The house is falling, Harry! It will crush you." Louis went back into the structure as well, sitting on the floor by Harry uncomfortably.

"After all-" A thunderous crash cuts him off and Louis turns Harry's head away, his thumb brushing over his shaking bottom lip. "After all I've done for you, you owe me a favour."
Louis knew what he'd ask. He threw one leg over Harry's lap and the other behind his back for
the bigger boy to rest against. It was only for a little while.

"I won't leave." Louis states. "I go where you go."

Harry managed a weak chuckle that ended in a painful dry cough. "No privacy with you."

"Never." Louis pressed their foreheads together and Harry held on to his thigh.

"I love you." Harry whispered, for the last time. One more kiss, he thought.

"I wish we got to-"

Notes