Yesterday was basically a lazy day. Madeline hung out with a bunch of friends, but I don't really think they did too much-after their friend's death, she's been mopy.

This morning, we went to Mr. Brian's office and discussed the plans. "Sounds like suicide. No one's entered on June 10th and come out alive. Fact, none have come out at all."

"Have you met us?" Madeline's eyes were bright. "We could do it."

"Why can't you enter the locked rooms?" Mr. Brian asked. We had told him about the library incident.

"Because they're locked?"

"He means when they're unlocked," I said. I never really liked Madeline's smart-Alec answers, but it seems like it's a disease that has no cure.

"I don't know that," Madeline shrugged and leaned back into the seat. "All I know is that you can't enter."

"They're on the third floor, right?" Mr. Brian asked. I can tell why he thought that, since the light's on the third floor.

"No, second."

"Hmm..." Mr. Brian leaned back in his seat and took a drag of his stupid cigar. "Have you checked the third?"

"No, I had to get out of there after the woman came for me," Madeline said.

"And yet, you're still going in on the 10th? Doesn't that seem a bit...daring?" As if he knew what daring meant. I don't think he does much besides go to work and go home, smoke a cigar between.

"Daring? I'd call stupid. But yes. I don't want to, but I'm not having another death happen," Madeline said. "We'll do it, we'll get rid of whatever's in there!"

"I have an idea," I said. "Why don't we go check out the third floor of the place after this meeting?"

"Sounds like a great idea!" I could hear the chair creaking as Mr. Brian leaned back. "Don't have much to talk about, do we?"

"Oh, uh, no, not really."

The third floor is really about the same as the second. A door's locked. Why so many doors are inaccessible is beyond me. I don't know if they're hiding something scary or what, but I do know I don't really want to enter them.

Not one bit.

One of the rooms looks like an observatory. I point this out because of what happened.

I was in there with Madeline, who was looking through more of the books. I decided to look through the telescope in there. I haven't really seen too many ghosts-they liked to show themselves when they're about to kill you-but this one, this one was like no other. It was a woman's face, looking through the other side of the telescope. Her face was wet with tears and blood. BLOOD. Then she screamed. She was screaming so loudly, I thought my eardrums would burst. Through her screams I could make out, "Stop, stop! Make him stop! I did nothing, make it stop, it hurts, I didn't want her to die, he's evil, he's a monster, it hurts, bullets hurt, it isn't my fault!" Her voice rose in octave. Then the window, of all things, shattered. I could feel the glass cutting me, stabbing me. I had to close my eyes as I stumbled backwards.

When I opened my eyes again, I was on the floor. Bleeding. With the lady standing right next to me.

Sobbing her heart out.

"No more deaths!" she screamed. "You bastard, you awful husband, stop killing, you're not a killer, don't hurt anyone else, none of this was my fault, I didn't want anyone to die, you killed them, you killed me! Stop hurting! This isn't you!"

She had bent down next to me, screamed as she collapsed on top of me. Blood ran down her temple where I could see someone had shot her. I could feel her weight on top of me. I could hear Madeline screaming, but I couldn't focus on that. I was dying.

And then the weight was gone. Madeline was standing over me, gaping. "That-you were cut-bleeding-now you're healed-what-how did that happen?"

She told me everything from her point of view at that point, but I think I was too focused on the fact I was in pain before and now it was gone, and I thought I was dead.

That's terrifying, that last bit. 

I watched Dad looked into the telescope, then as the window just shattered. No rock was thrown at it, it just went boom. I could hear screaming and watched Dad collapsed. I don't want to write this, I'm kind of forcing myself to, but I know I have to. He was cut. The telescope was obviously by the window, and since Dad was by the telescope, he was cut over and over. He was bleeding badly. Then I noticed the woman.

She was the same person I saw in the library. I think she's trying to warn us. But what Dad didn't notice, didn't write down, was that she had turned to a man, who was standing by the window. The broken window. She screamed at him, and he-oh, God, I don't want to write this, I don't want to-but he shot her. With a gun. At her head. And she collapsed. She was dead, just like I thought Dad was dead.

Then it all went away. In a blink of an eye, the man and the woman were gone, the blood was gone, the window was whole, Dad was healed, and I'm standing going What on Earth happened?

Dad was healed, but he didn't act that way. He was curled up in a ball. I think he was crying, too. I think he had been in a lot of pain, and didn't know how to react that it was gone. It took quite a bit to get him out of there. He thought he was dead.

I've never watched him break down like that, but then, this has never happened before. I don't want to go in there more than ever. If my father got that close to joining them, and that's apparently not the brunt of it, then I shudder to think what'll happen on the 10th.

I don't want to go in. I wish I had a normal life, with both parents. Not moving around a ton. Not dealing with ghosts.

Not seeing them. Thinking they didn't exist.

I wish Dad hadn't gone to desperate measures for money. I wish he had a better job than being a ghost hunter, and using me as bait. But we tried staying still. We tried living a normal life. Then we were attacked, and now Dad's on the move. I think he thinks we're being haunted, being hunted. So we hunt them down. And I don't have much of a choice.

I don't want to go in that place again. But I don't have a choice.