The Haunting Of Hill House One Shot

You hoped that you would never have to lie one of your siblings to rest, it was a nightmare that you hoped you would never be faced with. Certainly, you doubted you'd be laying Nell to rest first out of your siblings. You were the youngest of the six Crain siblings and from a young age you were forced to face death and loss. Due to your age when you were in Hill House, you had little to no memories of it and that meant you didn't remember your mother nearly at all. It was hard to connect with your siblings as you couldn't recall what had happened and you didn't remember much before moving in with your aunt.

Soon enough your whole family had fallen apart. Your mother was dead, your father was rarely there and that left you and your siblings to support each other, until those relationships soon fell too. Steve pushed the others away with his novel, moving across the country to be alone; Shirley did her best to keep up appearances doing her best to keep a wedge between herself and her older brother; Theo had gotten her PhD and threw herself into work but even though she lived with Shirley, she didn't connect with the rest of the family; Luke fell down a rabbit hole of drugs and drink, taking from each of your siblings and yourself until he couldn't take anymore and had to admit her needed help; and then there was Nell. Nell still held onto the trauma of Hill House and ultimately the house was where she had died. Out of you all she was the one that held innocence and tried her best to reconnect everyone, at least in the end she had gotten you all together, it was a shame that it was due to her death.

Each of you had had a moment alone with Nell and as you went to brush a loose piece of hair from her face, you accidentally brushed her cheek. Coldness rushed down your spine as images of Hill House flooded through your head ending with falling from the spiral staircase. Out of your thoughts, you gasped for air, pain hitting your neck. The pain and shock mirrored what you had felt early in the morning of the day that Nell died.

Once everyone returned to the room, you could see the tension in the air. Your siblings sat as far apart as they could from one another, whilst Luke stood by the coffin looking down at his twin's corpse.

"I can't believe she killed herself," Shirley sighed, crossing her arms over her chest.

"She didn't," Luke said, not turning away from the coffin.

"What?"

"Nellie didn't kill herself," you piped up.

The eyes of your sibling all snapped to you.

"How do you know that?" Steve questioned.

You knew that the others, well certainly Steve and Shirley, thought that Luke was crazy or just high, when he said that Nellie hadn't killed herself. He claimed it was a twin thing and you weren't certain whether that was the case, but you could understand why they had their doubts. Nell was found in the house where your mother died, hanging from the stairs that your mother had fallen from, it didn't look good.

"I touched her and saw it all," you whispered.

Even though Theo had similar abilities as you, they all doubted that you had them too as you had hidden them for a while until you had learnt that Theo was the same. They thought you were seeking attention and lied about it all and you truly wished that it were true.

"What do you mean?" Theo asked.

"When I touched her cheek, I could feel everything, feel her pain, her fear, her loss and I saw her fall, but she was talking to mum, she thought she was getting her locket. She didn't know she was wrapping a noose around her neck and taking her life," you explained.

Steve stood from his seat, and his expression was far sourer than you had ever seen.

"No is not the time for your lies Y/N," he said sternly. "Nellie killed herself and you're trying to make it about you."

You rose from your seat, squaring up to him even though he was taller than you and also stood on the other side of the room.

"Maybe if you didn't call your sisters liars, one of us wouldn't be dead," you frowned.

"How are you blaming me?" He asked.

"Nellie told me all about how you called her a liar. Told her that everything she was feeling wasn't true and you made her feel like she had turned crazy. However, she wasn't crazy, was she Steve? She was scared of what that house had done to her and of what she saw, that's what killed her in the end. I know she phoned you the night she died, you ignored her, didn't you?" You hissed.

"Shirley ignored her too. Not that that is the point. Since Theo told us of what she could do, you decided to jump on the wagon. You don't have to lie to get our attention, especially not when our sister is dead," he retorted.

You grabbed your handbag and slung it over your shoulder.

"Whatever you want to think Steve is fine. At least I didn't sell out with a book that belittled and destroyed our whole family's image," you huffed. "I'm going back to my hotel, I'll be back for the funeral tomorrow and then we can go back to pretending we aren't related."

With that you stomped out of Shirley's home heading to your car to escape the hellish family reunion that you weren't surprised had gone terribly. Even though you wished your relationship with your siblings were better, you knew the truth about what killed Nellie and that was enough for now.

~*~

Written by Charlotte.

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