Cozy and the Haunted House
Officer Shining Armour had seen a lot in his few years in the Canterlot City Police Department, but sometimes he saw something that shook him, that he couldn't easily move on from. When that happened he tended to work late, not wanting to burden his fiancée with more stress.
He had been training to be a homicide detective for a few months, and had been working late quite a bit more than he had as an officer.
It was late October, people were getting into the Halloween spirit. Which meant that there was no shortage of work or paperwork for an officer of the law to do. Most officers didn't like the paperwork portion of their job, so it was easy for Shining to get extra work to bury himself in.
“Hey, Armour!” Officer Iron Wall, who had been assigned to the front desk, called from the doorway. “There's a young woman here to see you, says her name is Rarity.”
“It’s alright, send her in,” Shining said, closing the folder he had been writing in.
Rarity Belle was a teenager about the same age as Shining's younger sister, she had deep purple hair and alabaster skin. Her hair was immaculately styled, which Shining guessed was a coping mechanism more than fashion. Rarity was wearing a simple black dress. She looked so much like her little sister, Sweetie Belle. Sweetie Belle was the reason that Shining was working late, and seeing Rarity brought up the image of the girl's mangled body.
“Please, sit down. What can I do for you, Miss Belle?” Shining asked politely.
Rarity was clearly uncomfortable, fidgeting with the strap of her handbag and not meeting his eyes. He realised that she had been crying recently, no amount of makeup could hide her red eyes. “I wasn't sure who to turn to, but I remembered that you said I should call you if anything happened.”
Shining Armour didn't say anything, letting Rarity make the pace of their conversation.
Rarity took a deep breath. “When I came home from Swe-” Her voice caught in her throat, and Shining put his hand on hers to reassure her. “From Sweetie's service, I found something on my doorstep, a letter.”
“What sort of letter?” Shining asked.
Rather than respond, Rarity opened her bag and handed him an envelope. Shining took it and noticed that it was a thick envelope, had no stamp, and rather than an address it had ‘For Rarity Belle’ handwritten on the front.
“What is this?” He saw that she had already opened it.
“It’s from Cozy Glow.”
Shining stared at her for a few seconds. Cozy Glow went missing at the same time as Sweetie Belle, and had not been found but her blood was found at the scene.
“You did the right thing bringing this to me, did you read it?” Shining asked.
“Just the first few lines,” Rarity said. “I didn't know what to do.”
“You did the right thing,” Shining repeated. “Could I ask you to give a statement to Detective Vigilant Diligence? He's just in that office.”
Rarity nodded and stood up. She knew that he would do everything he could, she trusted him.
Shining put on a pair of latex gloves and pulled out the letter. It was multiple pages folded over with the writing facing up, the margins had been torn to fit the paper in the envelope. He unfolded the paper and laid it flat, it was written in ink and the handwriting was easy enough to read.
He started reading, and quickly saw why Rarity thought that he should see it.
My name is Cozy Glow, I'm I was friends with your sister Sweetie Belle. I'm writing this to apologise: I couldn't save her from the ghost that’s haunting me.
I should start at the beginning…
It was around five in the afternoon and Cozy Glow was waiting for Sweetie Belle at the corner of a street near her house.
They had planned on having a sleepover at Apple Bloom's house, but Apple Bloom and Scootaloo both had to cancel. Rather than call off the sleepover, Cozy suggested that they have one at her house with just the two of them. She hadn't been sure that Sweetie would agree, but was glad that she had.
Cozy Glow did not have to wait long, as Sweetie Belle arrived only a few minutes after Cozy did. Sweetie was carrying a backpack that had a sleeping bag bound to it.
“Hey, Cozy Glow!” Sweetie Belle waved at her when she got close.
Cozy smiled despite Sweetie’s squeaky voice piercing her ears. “Howdy! All ready for a sleepover?”
“Yep! I brought some games and snacks,” Sweetie Belle smiled.
“My house is just this way,” Cozy said, leading them down the sidewalk.
Their walk to Cozy’s house did not take long, just ten or fifteen minutes and they were standing in front of a three story house, including the attic. The building had not been well maintained, with a tree through the balcony railing being the most obvious example. The lawn was not better, weed strewn and unclean.
Cozy led Sweetie to the door and unlocked it, she walked in and flicked a switch to turn on the chandelier hanging beside the stairs that turned twice before reaching the second floor.
“Sorry about the mess,” Cozy said when Sweetie entered. “My parents have been crazy busy since we moved, we haven’t even gotten all of our boxes from the moving company yet!”
Sweetie laughed. “If you think a little dust is a mess, then you’ve never been in Rarity’s workroom. Not a speck of dust but still the messiest room I’ve ever been in.”
With a smile, Cozy closed the door. “I figured we'd spend most of the night in my room? It's one of the only clean rooms in the house,” At Sweetie’s nod she continued. “It’s up the stairs, second door on your left, the only open -non-bathroom -door. I’ll join you in a minute.”
Quite a bit of space on the first page was devoted to the early portion of their sleepover, which made a measure of sense to Shining given that the letter was written by a presumably traumatised young girl.
The letter was fairly accurate to the evidence so far, with the only part that confused Shining was Cozy Glow calling the house hers. The house that they found Sweetie Belle in had been abandoned for many years, and they couldn't find any record of Cozy Glow or her parents. They're theory had been that the girls had decided to spend the night in Canterlot's own haunted house when their planned sleepover was cancelled.
Our sleepover was going great. We decided to watch a movie before dinner, just to pass the time. But then, when I went to order the piz food for dinner, I heard something on the third floor. Was it just a mouse, or was it a phantom?
“Everything alright?” Sweetie Belle asked when Cozy Glow paused at the doorway and stared into the distance.
Broken from her trance, Cozy shook her head and smiled at Sweetie. “Just thought I heard something.”
Cozy walked downstairs and used the phone in the kitchen to order them food, but when she started coming back upstairs she paused at the landing. She couldn’t say why, but she decided that she needed to see what the noise she heard earlier was.
There were three proper rooms on the third floor, an unused bedroom, an empty playroom, and a bathroom. Based on where she heard the sound, Cozy thought that the bedroom was the best place to search. The door was locked, but Cozy easily got it open. Inside the room there were two beds, but all Cozy could see was the dark figure in front of the window across from the door.
I screamed and tried to run, but the phantom grabbed me and pulled me into the room. I’m just a little girl, I couldn’t keep him from taking me over. He made me go outside and pick up a woodcutting axe, and then…
Cozy Glow saw herself walk through her house with the axe held in her hand. She ascended the stairs and stood outside the door to her room, slowly opening it with her open hand.
Sweetie Belle was inside, still watching the movie they had been when Cozy left to order food. She noticed Cozy when the door creaked, and she smiled at her.
“What took you so long?” Sweetie asked, looking over when Cozy didn't answer.
Still standing in the doorway, Cozy offered no response. Sweetie looked at her in confusion, but it wasn’t until she saw the axe that her smile fell and she sighed.
“I told you: I don’t like horror. Put the axe down and watch the movie with me,” Sweetie said, more annoyed than worried. Cozy Glow stepped into the room and raised the axe, taking it in a two handed grip. Sweetie Belle stood up and started backing away. “What are you doing Cozy? Just put the axe down.”
When Cozy Glow raised the axe above her head and swung it down, Sweetie managed to avoid getting hit by falling backwards. Sweetie threw a pillow into Cozy's face to distract her, and then tried to push past Cozy Glow to get out of the room. As she did, Cozy swung the axe again and Sweetie Belle screamed when it dug into the side of her stomach.
Grabbing the axe, Sweetie pushed it as hard as she could, tearing it from her side and causing Cozy Glow to lose her balance and fall down with a grunt. While her attacker was on the ground, Sweetie ran downstairs to the front door.
Sweetie Belle tried to open the door, but it was locked tight. Cozy hadn’t really shown her around the house, but Sweetie thought that maybe the kitchen would have a door to outside. Rarity's kitchen did after all. She went through the dining room in the hopes that the kitchen would be the next room over, and her guess was proven correct as she entered the kitchen.
Although she did find a door in the kitchen, it was also locked. Sweetie saw an old phone mounted on the wall and tried to call the police, her own phone was sitting on Cozy's dresser. She picked up the phone and dialled the number, but nothing happened. If Sweetie had been more familiar with telephones she might have realised what the lack of dial tone meant.
She heard Cozy in the dining room, but had nowhere to go to avoid her. Sweetie dropped the phone and it dangled on its cord. She fumbled with the knife block, knocking it onto the floor but grabbing an old chef’s knife and holding it to the doorway shakily.
Cozy Glow stepped into the doorway, axe in hand and a warm, almost kind, smile on her face. She didn't say anything, not even when Sweetie pleaded with her to stop, to let her go.
When Cozy rushed at Sweetie, Sweetie dodged around her while swinging the knife. Cozy cried out as the knife cut deeply into her left forearm, and retaliated by swinging the axe into the back of Sweetie Belle's neck.
Sweetie Belle fell to the floor and couldn't move, the axe had embedded itself half an inch into her and damaged her spine. Sweetie could only watch, making vague sounds and twitching as Cozy picked up the knife and began to cut and carve.
When Cozy got tired of using a knife, she picked up the oak knife block, let the few remaining knives fall to the floor, and started smashing Sweetie Belle. She started with Sweetie’s fingers and worked her way up her victim’s arms, then did the same for Sweetie’s feet and legs.
Shining set the letter down, somewhat disturbed by the detail that it put into the murder. It described in detail how the resistance of Sweetie Belle’s skin felt against the dull knife and how her bones strained beneath the heavy wooden knife block. The coroner had determined that Sweetie Belle had still been alive while her shattered limbs were wrapped around the entry hall’s chandelier, but Shining would have been happier not knowing how Sweetie Belle’s eyes were still screaming even when the rest of her body had already shut down.
He did not believe in ghosts, he never had even as a child, but he was more open to the idea after his sister had learned how to use real magic during a school summer trip. She spoke sometimes about her adventures with magic, she said that it leaked through from another world.
She also had told him that sometimes the magic infected people, making them do things that they normally wouldn't. Maybe Cozy Glow's ‘ghost’ was like that. It would explain the inconsistencies between Cozy Glow's story and what the evidence said if Cozy Glow had been caught by the magic and it messed with her mind. She might actually believe that there was a ghost and that the phones in the old house still worked.
If this was a magical event, then he could really use his sister and her friends’ expertise on the subject. He resolved to ask her about magic in general without telling her about the case. It seemed possible that Cozy Glow was not to blame for what happened nor was she another victim, but maybe she had run away because she thought the magic was a ghost and didn't know what to do about it.
Shining Armour folded the letter again and picked up the envelope to put it back, when he noticed that there was something else in the envelope. A small strip of paper, taped to the side of the envelope. He spread the envelope as wide as it would go without tearing, and read the note that was in the same handwriting as the letter.
You know what my favourite bit of that story is? I just made it up. Yeah, it’s not even true.
There’s no such thing as ghosts.
Author's Note
This story was originally conceived for the 5th Annual Cozy Glow Short Story Contest. Specifically under the prompt Cozy and the haunted house. However, I decided not to participate in said contest because life got in the way of writing. Seeing the Category Three Horror Contest made me realise how much I still wanted to write it.
