8 - Conflicted

Sarah had already calmed down after she hugged her daughter when she heard her husband yell for her.

"Be a good girl and stay in bed." She whispered to her daughter as she tucked her in before she quickly moved to exit the room.

As she exited she saw her husband out of breath while holding the broom she dropped earlier and staring at her.

"What's wrong? Did you find anything?" Sarah questioned with a face of worry as she closed the door behind her and made her way to David. She then gently took the broom from him setting it to the side against the wall and held his hand.

"Did you see anybody enter Angelica's room just before I yelled?" David asked while looking around for that shadow figure.

"No?" Sarah replied, face turning into confusion from worry.

"I saw and heard the basement door open so I went to investigate. I didn't see anything at first but just as I was about to come up I saw a shadowy silhouette standing at the top of the staircase. It moved toward Angelica's room." David explained as he more and more believed in his hypothesis of this place being haunted.

Sarah somehow became paler than before as she clutched to her husband in fear.

"This house isn't actually haunted right?!?! Why did we suddenly start experiencing this only now?"

Sarah clutched even tighter to David more and more as she spoke.

"I don't know." After David said this they both fell into an uneasy silence.

*Click* *Creak*

"Mommy? Daddy?" Angelica opened the door to her room and saw her parents looking intimate.

"What's wrong, sweetheart? Didn't I tell you to stay in bed?" Asked Sarah as she and David both turned to look after hearing Angelica calling for them.

"Sorry mommy, Can I sleep with you tonight?"

Sarah and David shared a look.

"Of course, you can." David nodded to her.

"Yay!" Angelica cheered.

"Come on, let's go to bed. " David said to his wife and then mumbled, "Hopefully peacefully."

While the family made their way to the master bedroom, Jack was watching them and laughing at them before he gathered himself and checked his experience.

[10%]

'Not bad' Jack thought to himself even though he feels like it should've been more for a scare of that level. But then again it logically should become harder to level up after his level becomes higher.

He then followed the family to the master bedroom. he watched as the family got into bed together while wondering what he could do. he doesn't have the energy for another scare and he wouldn't even if he did because of Angelica.

So he decided to just relax and do nothing, not like he had a choice he doesn't even have the energy to turn the television on.

...

Later the next morning, Sarah woke up and did the same routine as the day before but sighed in relief because she noticed the television wasn't turned on this time.

After Sarah made breakfast and lunch she went to Angelica's room to get her school clothes for Angelica and then she went to wake the two of them up.

"Angelica, David get up for breakfast." Sarah went into the master bedroom and started to pick Angelica up to take her to the bathroom to get her ready for school.

David woke up fast this morning so he waited until the two of them were done with the bathroom and went to the dining table before he did his morning routine.

After he finished he made his way to the kitchen.

"Today I'm going to contact a friend for advice on what we talked about last night. " David informed Sarah without mentioning specifics because of their daughter.

"Sure, I think I'm going to go see a friend after dropping Angelica off at the school bus stop." Sarah didn't want to be in this house alone so she came up with an excuse.

"Of course, dear. " David said smilingly and he pretended to not read deeper into it.

"Hopefully we can figure out how to make it stop. " Sarah mumbled to herself as she thought about how ridiculous it is that she doesn't feel comfortable being alone in her own house anymore.

David heard her and reached over to grab her hand in comfort.

"Don't worry everything will be fine." David consoled her although not feeling confident in his own words.

After breakfast, David grabbed his lunch box making sure to not forget and embarrass himself this time, then left for work.

Meanwhile not long after David left Sarah wanted to get out of this house with her daughter as soon as possible because her pillar of support had to go to work, so she got everything she needed, shut off things to not waste power, and took her daughter with her even if it was still early.

Jack saw how frightened they were of him and felt conflicted. Although he felt accomplished having scared them witless and leveled up. A part of him feels sad to exist to be feared as a ghost now.

Maybe that's why he wanted to make friends with Angelica. Children are more innocent and wouldn't fear the unknown as much as an adult.

Being alone now with his energy full and a good few hours to himself, he chose to take some time to watch tv now that he has enough energy and regen to flip through some channels.

After deciding, he did just that and went to the living room. He pressed the power button on the remote on the couch and flipped through a few channels for a while until he found something he liked.

After a while of watching television, he realized he could be doing much more like moving things around to gain a little experience.

He felt like smacking his head but old habits die hard, he was used to watching television to pass time.

So before the family came home he decided to go around the house and move a bunch of things.