Free The Haunting by Nicole Garcia Page B

forward and back. A visible chill went through her body and Jace edged her forward. She stopped short at the top of the staircase. A rocking chair wasn't what their eyes met. Instead they saw Amber McCarty dangling from a dog collar and leash. Her limp and lifeless body swaying from the crystal chandelier hanging by the front door.     
         Kelly screamed and buried her face in Jace's chest. What the hell was going on? Two people were dead with no explanation. What made it worse was no one from the network had come to shut down filming to investigate.     
         Scott came running from a room and stared up at the ceiling putting his hand over his mouth. "Oh my God, what happened?!"     
         Jace ran down the stairs and grabbed Scott by the shirt. "What the hell did you do to her? What happened, she insulted you a little bit so you decided to kill her?"     
         Scott glared at Jace. "I could ask you the same thing. I was in the study the whole time."     
         As Kelly came down the steps the doors on the second floor all began to open and slam shut over and over again. She put her hands over her ears to muffle the sound.     
         Jace walked Scott backward until they reached the study. He pushed him in the room and used the skeleton key to lock him in.     
         Scott yelled from the other side of the door. "Flame! Flame let me out of here! You can't do this! You can't just leave me to die in here!"     
         "Shut up rich boy. You're not going anywhere until we figure out what's going on here."     
         "This house is fucking haunted that's what is going on here!"     
         Jace banged on the door. "Shut. The. Fuck. Up!" He looked back to where Kelly had been standing at the base of the stairs. She was gone.   
         He shouted her name over and over again, but there was no answer. Finally, he ran up the stairs taking them two at a time and tripping over himself. It was too dark to see where he was going and he had no time to waste. She could be in danger. "Kelly!"     
          At the end of the hall he saw a small glow of candlelight. There she was staring at a doorway.  Her face looked grief stricken and she stood frozen like she was paralyzed with fear.    
          "Kelly? What's wrong?"    
         She held out her hand and gently pushed open the door to the office where Jace had locked Mr. Smith up in.     
         Jace stepped to the side and pulled Kelly's back against him. "Stay here."      
         "No. I don't want to be by myself. I'm beginning to think this house is really haunted."     
        Jace scoffed at her. "That's ridiculous. There must be some other explanation."     
        "What?! Please tell me what else it could be? We were in the bathroom together the whole time. Scott may have killed Amber, but he wouldn't have had enough time to kill them both."     
         He took her hand and they slowly walked into the office looking around for anything out of the ordinary. The door to the office slammed behind them. They desperately tried to open it back up, but it was stuck. They were stuck in the room with Lance.     
         Kelly glanced at him sitting up in the chair and quickly looked away. She couldn't look at him despite what he tried to do to her.    
         Lance had money stuffed in his mouth and there was blood dripping onto the floor from his hands. Each of his fingers had been cut off and were lying in the pool of blood at his feet.     
         "Jace, please open the door, please."     
         "I'm trying. It's stuck." He continued to struggle a little more when the door suddenly flew open.     
         Kelly ran out into the hallway with Jace not far behind her. They found a bedroom and he barricaded the door.     
          Kelly was obviously frightened, she was pacing back and forth. "Wait! We can't just