13 Fetch

Two hours had gone by since the park had closed, and the haunted house was as dark as ever. The park had been left abandoned by the staff until morning, and even the security guards would never come around these parts to patrol the area.

Daniel, who was still tied to the chair, had just come the realization that falling asleep while sitting on a chair is actually a lot harder than it looks. His head was just never in the right place and no matter how he placed it, it just never seemed to fit comfortably.

Daniel did find some solace in knowing that the rope used by the haunted house was at least of decent quality, after all he hasn't been able to shake himself lose even after two hours had gone by. However, it were moments like these that Daniel wondered if he should've just stayed in New Hope. At least when he was there, he wasn't tied to any chair, though he did find some patients that had to be restrained otherwise they would never take their meds, but even that looked more comfortable to Daniel.

A couple of minutes had passes before Daniel could slowly feel himself dozing off. After what must've like hours of just sitting uncomfortably Daniel's body was caving in, and he was smiling happily as he dozed off. At this point he didn't care about how bad his sleeping posture was or how he was going to escape his bindings, all that mattered to him is that he could finally fall asleep until someone found him in the morning.

Daniel's eyes had just closed, when he could just barely hear something outside through the windows of the haunted house. It was the sound of something hitting the grass softly, however to Daniel this sound was a hellish nightmare. Right when he was about to fall asleep, this sound had found a way to sneak in past the walls and windows of the haunted house and into Daniel's ears. After everything that had happened to Daniel, he was especially sensitive to the sudden appearance of any sound, and his body immediately went into full alert.

"@#$*@$*&!%&," Daniel cursed out rather loudly when he realized what just happened.

The sound came by once again, but this time it was the sound of something shuffling through the grass rapidly. Daniel's anger soared through the roof, after which he uttered every curse word in the book, and even some not normally found anywhere. Even though Daniel didn't usually curse, this time he was truly annoyed. He had felt like someone had slowly lead him up for the past two hours only to pull off the rug from under him at the last second.

Daniel wriggled closer to the window in order to take a look at the fiend, and what he saw immediately dispelled his anger. Daniel looked mortified as he stared out the window at the two shadows playing in the field. On one side he could see his sister squatting down as her bare feet were touching the grass. Her arms were wide open towards the other figure who was running over from the other side of the field.

The other shadow was short but moved quickly through the grass, and towards the front of this figure Daniel could see a white bone peeking out. The white figure eventually settled down in front of Daniel's sister and he could see her raising her hand and putting it to what Daniel assumed to be the head of this shadow.

Daniel's sister then grabbed the bone back and threw it far away into the other side of the field, and thus began another round of fetch. Daniel, who had admittedly seen a lot of weird things, had never seen something this weird. He opened his mouth wide enough to fit an egg inside, as he stared at his sister playing fetch with a white shadow in the field over and over again, without any indication of stopping.

After 10 minutes had passed, Alex stood back up and turned to the haunted house, more specifically, she turned towards Daniel. This time Alex didn't say anything but instead just gave him a gentle smile and waved him goodbye before disappearing like usual, however the other figure did not disappear. It trodded over to the spot where Daniel's sister had disappeared and lingered around for a few minutes before walking over to a secluded spot in the field.

The white shadow raised raised one of its wispy limbs and clawed at the dirt beneath it, and when enough dirt had been set aside, the white shadow gently placed the bone in the small grave. Daniel recognized the bone as the one he had earned from spinning the HH Lottery, Toby's Favorite Bone. After having buried the bone the white shadow walked off deeper into the field and it eventually faded out as it reached the tree line.

In the beginning Daniel didn't really make any connections, in fact he barely had any capacity to think after what he had just witness. However, Daniel's mind eventually settled in and he was starting to connect some dots.

The fact this his sister hasn't shown up in front of him for two days now. The dog bone being outside, when he had clearly laid next to his bed that day. Even the identity of the white shadow had become clear to Daniel.

She did always have a thing for animals, and even now she still hasn't changed. Daniel smiled as he remembered his sister's affections for pets. Even though their family didn't have any pets, that didn't stop Alex from loving them from the bottom of her heart. It was such a pure sentiment that Daniel couldn't help but smile.

She must've felt a little lonely from not being able to talk properly, and seeing as how there was another ghost like her, she must've felt some sort of connection. However this just makes me wonder why Toby had turned into a ghost in the first place.

Daniel stared out the empty field where the half-buried bone laid, as he sank deeply into his thoughts. He had reasoned that the white shadow, whose outline he still couldn't make out completely, must've been Toby and that the dog bone must've attracted the spirit to come back to the haunted house. While not entirely correct about the second part, Daniel had indeed come to a fairly solid conclusion.

Toby had been in the haunted house from day one, and Daniel was just fortunate enough to have avoided him that time, all thanks to his sister protecting him. However, given that he only knew so much, Daniel could be said to have done a fairly good enough job already. He had also come to the conclusion that the owner's dog and Toby must be one and the same. There was simply too many factors between the two of them for it to be a coincidence.

Daniel felt relieved, because he had finally recieved some answers after having been presented with more questions than he could cope with. However, he couldn't help but lament inside as he thought that even his sister wouldn't be able to get him out of these bindings. It felt even worse knowing that he could be a lot more comfortable if he could just lay himself in the bed beside him, however the chair was simply too awkward to maneuver with.

Daniel stared at the bed hatefully as it constantly reminded him of the sweet comfort that was just within reach. Alas it was almost midnight and even Daniel could not stay up for so long after having gone through such an exhuasting day. Barely 10 minutes had passed before anyone could hear the faint sounds of breathing echoing peacefully along the halls of the haunted house.