8: Part One: Haunted House

23 Brickfield Road

Saturday, November 1st. Past 3 pm.

"And here I thought you'd never show up." Alex teases from the far end of the park nearest to the pavilion. He's sitting on the middle swing with the shadow of the old white oak tree casting over him. As I pass the wishing fountain, I catch him eyeing over my shoulder as a soft chuckle escapes him. "I think you're being followed."

I raise a brow and glance over behind myself, only to see the same black cat from the library running towards me.

"No freaking way," I curse as the little black creature scampers past the wishing fountain making a beeline toward me. I hear Alex laughing as the poor beast collides itself into my leg nearly knocking me over in the process. Instead, it rolls onto its back almost intentionally, catching me off guard.

"Come on, can't you see he just wants your love and attention?" Alex laughs.

"Yeah, I'm not touching that thing." Suddenly the cat springs towards Alex, eagerly rubbing its body against his leg, yowling. Alex, being a typical cat lover, chuckles and kneels to pet the dark creature. The cat purrs deeply in response and jumps into his arms.

"Oh wow, this little guy is scrawny." He points out while stroking the cat's back. The creature meows softly as it rubs its head against Alex's shoulder.

"It's a she, actually, according to the bookworm that lives in the library," I blurt out while passing him.

Alex smiles and walks with me with the beast still in his arms, "Ah, well she is a very beautiful and loving little stray. Maybe I can sneak her into my room on the way back and take care of her without my dad knowing. Not sure if Lulu will appreciate having a roommate, but I'm sure I'll figure out something."

"And what if she belongs to someone?"

"If she belonged to someone then she wouldn't be so skinny. Besides she seems to like you a lot if she followed you here from the library." He chuckles again.

"And that's not strange to you?" I prod curiously.

"Not really. I've had cats follow me home before, even on my way to school."

I roll my eyes, "Well, that's because you carry treats in your pockets."

"That's a very specific detail."

"You've yet to deny it."

"I cannot confirm nor deny that I carry around treats in all of my pockets all day long like some quirky little old cat lady."

I smirk at that and comment, "I think you mean cat man."

"Ah, but that's not a very appealing title. Especially coming from someone who doesn't like cats."

"I've never said that. I just don't like this one, and for good reason."

"Oh? And what reason would that be?"

"I saw something back at the library that looked like that cat, except it wasn't. It had this disturbing face...and when we followed it down to the bottom level, I only found her." I glance down at the cat in Alex's arms, indicating to whom I'm referring. Her pale green eyes notice me staring, and she immediately stretches out her arm in an attempt to paw my side.

"I guess that's pretty strange." He admits. "Pretty strange you said we instead of I," Alex smirks in amusement.

I purposely strike him with my elbow. "Oh, shut up. I had the book worm help me look for a book before I even saw the thing."

"Book worm, huh?" He raises a brow, still grinning.

"Jeffery Sanders, you know the kid with the curly brown hair and those green snake eyes; perfect eyesight, insanely smart and ignorant to everyone. He's the one that practically lives in the library reading books, that bookworm?"

"Ah, that book worm. I thought you were referring to yourself in both first and third person." He laughs jokingly, and I smack his shoulder, avoiding the cat altogether.

I roll my eyes. "You're lucky you're holding that cat, or else I would have slapped you into a coma."

"Am I that lucky?" He grins.

"How about we focus on getting to the house Mr. Sarcastic?"

"Lead the way, Miss. Monster." Alex dose a short bow while trying to keep the cat from falling out of his hold. I roll my eyes again and quickly look away, hiding the deep redness in my cheeks along with the growing smirk. I keep my eyes focusing forward as we leave Oak Hill Park.

The walk to Brickfield road appears a lot shorter than I remember. Everything seems a bit different actually, especially the road itself. I barely recognize the dike ushering through the thinning woods as we get closer to the creek, but it's the only vaguely familiar landmark I recognize. I've spent long nights walking down it years ago as I made my descent into the hardwoods further out, following alongside the slow-moving water. There's an abandoned green buggy way past the crater site if you know the trails hidden up there. I wonder if it's still out there rotting away with every dreadful memory I've abandoned in pringle cans beneath its earth.

The wind starts picking up, leaving the many trees swaying in an uncomfortable panorama that pulls me out of my head. We've been walking for probably fifteen minutes in silence, or maybe it just feels that long. I watch Alex starring off ahead of us and remark, "You're oddly quiet."

He turns his head to me as if I snapped him out of some sort of trance, "Oh. Sorry, I've just been thinking."

"About?"

His hold on the cat slowly compresses, as if the little beast is comforting him just by being in his arms. Her loud hypnotic purring makes me believe that to be true. Then again, Alex always had this special bond with cats. "It's something my grandad said to me before he died that's gotten me rattled," he eventually says.

"What..?" I slow to a stop, significantly taken back by this. "You never told me... When did this happen?"

He just shrugs it off as if it didn't bother him that badly. His eyes lie. "It's been nearly three weeks now. And I, um, I haven't exactly been around to have the chance to."

"I'm so sorry, Alex. I know how much he meant to you."

His smile is so small, it's barely even there, "Don't take it personally, Shae. I hadn't been around anyone for the first few weeks. If I'm being honest here, which I am," he laughs lightly. "I just, It got to me."

"And that's why you weren't at school?"

"Kind of. He's not entirely the reason. I mean I loved him and all, Shae, but he was very ill, and I'd rather him be at peace than to just stay a little longer here with us, you know?"

"I get that."

He sort of shrugs, "My dad's real torn up about it the most. But Shae, he told me something that night before he died, and it has been giving me these terrible nightmares about a lost boy he kept repeating. He mumbled the name, Timothy Nelson. He kept telling me that it took him. Something that wore his sister's face and acted just like her that night before the fires broke out on Brickfield road."

There's a slight shiver down my spine hearing him explain, "I never knew he had a sister."

"He rarely ever talked about her. She died when my dad was three. But my grandad said she married a man named Wade Nelson, and they had a son together that was a little older than my dad at the time, and they lived on this road in that Grey house before the fires happened."

"But the fires happened almost a decade ago. Maybe he was confused."

"Or maybe I'm going insane," He scoffs at himself. "I just, I can't stop having these dreams about him, the boy I mean. And then I keep seeing these faceless people he fades into. I can hear him talking to me, but it's all muffled, and I can't understand what he's saying."

Now it's starting to make sense as to why he was at the library looking for a dream dictionary. Well, almost. I still don't know why he was with a stranger from out of town. It was an older woman I think Maggie said. But how would I ever go about asking Alex about that without feeling like I've been spying? For all I know, Alex could be involved with her. The very thought makes me feel uncomfortable. Jesus, why am I even thinking about that when he just told me his grandad died? What is wrong with me?

"Shae?"

"Yeah?" I turn all of my attention to him, noticing the wetness in his eyes. Immediately I feel even worse.

"Thank you for coming back here with me. I really appreciate this."

"Of course, Alex. You know you can talk to me whenever right? I'm not far."

"I know, I just hate to burden you with the shit I have to deal with when you've got a lot on your plate."

"Hey," I take hold of his forearm and tell him, "you're shit isn't a burden. Not to me, ok? Us troubling kids got to stick together." I give him a little smirk and bump his shoulder with my elbow playfully. That makes him smile a little more.

His brow raises,"Us troubling kids?"

"Well we are about to trespass again at the same house within two days and most likely will continue down this path of criminal activities that'll only lead to life in a small cell with no windows, a mat for a bed, and a bucket for a toilet. So, why stop now?"

"Wow," he cracks up. "You've got us really figured out huh?"

"Like I said man, why stop now?" He shakes his head. We start walking again, and I decide to tell him about the dream I had with the boy with red eyes. I then tell him what I had seen upstairs in that Grey house before we come into view of the houses.

"Are you sure you saw a boy up there? I mean you weren't wearing your glasses last night, and I know you don't have prescribed eye contacts." I expected that last part to be sarcastic. But looking at him straight, I know he was far from acting foolish.

"Honestly, I don't know what I saw. But it scared the crap out of me, you know? To the point where I haven't been able to close my eyes without seeing those red eyes staring back. And I know for a fact it wasn't an owl. It was a lot bigger."

"Alright, so let's say you did see a boy up there with red eyes. How did he slip past you?"

"I don't know."

"Do you think he's still up there?"

"I don't know that either, Alex."

He falls silent, but I notice the cat is watching me. Her green eyes follow my movements unblinkingly. It's starting to freak me out a little.

"That cat is staring at me."

He smiles, "She probably likes the sound of your voice."

"Animals can't understand people."

"No, but I know my cat likes listening to me talk. She'll come to find me in the house when I'm talking on the phone in another room."

"Hmm," If only that worked in my favor. The entire walk so far has consisted of her eyeing me in such a creepy way.

Suddenly Alex puts his hand on my arm, stopping me from going any further, "Hey, Shae?"

"What?" I glance down at his hand first, then to his face, following his startling stare over to the houses until I locate the missing front door to the Grey house. Suddenly my throat feels dry.

"There was a door there last night, right?"

"Uh-huh," I bite the inside of my cheek hard, never taking my eyes off the open doorway gaping back at us.

"And you never came out that way, right?"

His hand tightens slightly around my arm. I can feel all the tension in his grip, "Alex, you know I crawled in through that broken window in the back and left the same way I came in. There is no way in hell I opened that front door." Perhaps thoughts of the red-eyed boy are getting tangled around inside my head and are messing with my memory. Only I know that door was there last night, and Alex had seen it too. "Maybe those assholes are messing with us?"

"Yeah, maybe...Or maybe it was that boy you saw upstairs?"

"Why would he leave out the front when he could have snuck out the same broken window I came in through? And why would the door be gone?"

"He had to of taken it or hid it somewhere."

"Why would someone go through all the trouble just to hide a door?"

The cat springs from his arm in an instant before Alex could respond. It bolts off yowling as it races through the front door and into the house. We both are static, and only then do I realize his hold on my arm is no longer there.

I break the tension first, "That could be a good sign, right? I mean, no cat wouldn't go after something larger than itself, right?"

Alex fumbles over his next words, only making me sigh aloud. Sliding off my book bag, I push it over to Alex to hold briefly while looking for something to use as a weapon.

"Uh, what are you doing?" He asks just as I find a softball size rock within walking distance.

"I'm just being safe. I didn't bring anything to use as a weapon so." I bounce the rock a few times in my hand, "This will have to do."

"Then what's in the bag?" his voice cracks.

I shrug. "I thought maybe if we found something useful we could carry it back with the book bag. I also didn't feel like carrying my books or anything by hand today. Still pretty sluggish you know?"

"You should have gotten some sleep last night," He points out after handing the bag back over to me.

"Hey, at least I ate breakfast." I give him a playful shove and walk past him, taking the lead.

"For once."

"Keep up your sarcasm and whatever broke in here will stalk you home." Oh, how easy it was to frighten him. I smirk devilishly in the delight of Alex's edgy expression and laugh, "Come on scaredy-cat, we're burning daylight." I knew the thought bothered Alex, especially coming up to the front porch and finding fragments and shards of woodchips scattered all over with the door nowhere in sight. The hinges, however, especially look to have been torn back by force, like someone or something broke out. The thought of something following him home might not have been such a joke.

"Ok, now I'm freaking out," He confesses. "Wait." Suddenly his demeanor shifts, and he's off the porch in the blink of an eye. I remember seeing Alex climb trees when we were younger but seeing him scale the towering elm overseeing the house rattles me.

"What are you doing?" I shoot a whisper his way. He just gives me this look as he grabs something strapped to one of the elm's branches and climbs back down. Once he's back on the ground, he fiddles with a grey and brown box as he heads back to the porch.

"What is that?"

"Remember the conversation between Jared and me with the bear trap you yelled at him for having?"

"Ah, how could I forget."

"Well, I borrowed a trail cam from a friend out of state who does some kind of animal photography for a hobby. I mentioned to her about a week ago that I needed a camera for a school project that would capture animal behavior at night, so-"

"So you lied to her is what you're saying."

"Only for a good cause! She lent me the motion-activated cam instead of the flash so it wouldn't spook any of the animals passing by it, or I guess in our case, this mysterious creature that seemingly annihilated the front door."

"Smart," I smirk at him," for a cat man." He frowns, but not for long as he shakes his head trying to hide his childish grin. I wonder if this friend from out of state was the same woman he was with at the library. I ponder at the thought as I watch him crack open the case to examine the video. For a few moments, he tries to replay it, then scowls.

"I might have to plug this into my computer to watch it," he sighs.

"Come on, let's look around while we're still here, and we'll watch it later. Yeah? I'm sure whatever broke in is long gone."

"Yeah," he swallows hard enough that I see his adam's apple bobble. Though Alex tries to be brave, I doubt he'll ever conquer the things I find alluring. My taste for horror and the unknown always tended to scare me too, but I do give him credit for still trying. Everyone is afraid of something. If I'm being realistic here, whatever broke out, I'm not entirely sure is gone. Thoughts of the red-eyed boy return along with the urge to know for sure what I'd seen last night was real or just a visual hallucination.

I lightly grab Alex's arm tugging him along inside the house. Immediately I'm hit with a foul odor that stops us both dead in our tracks. We both cover our nose and mouth and I'm sure he is ready to vomit, "God, that definitely wasn't here last night."

"What is that?" He muffles through his shirt.

"Well, it's not alive, whatever it is." I clear my throat and take a look around the first room. The room's floor is carpeted and looks very worn. It seems to extend to two other rooms in the downstairs areas of the house besides what I'm presuming is the kitchen. Some parts have large black patches, possibly scorch marks where the fire had eaten its way through the rooms. Speckles of black dots line the borders closest to the ceiling as black mold rots through the walls.

The first thing I notice while walking further into the house, I take a peek inside the next room facing the woods and see the glass shards still scattered across the wooden floor and the broken window. The sun had passed over the house hours ago leaving it darker than I would have liked, but at least I don't have to use my phone light. I move closer to the window, careful not to step on larger glass shards. The wind isn't blowing like before so it's pretty quiet inside and outside the house. I don't hear Alex follow after me as I inspect the floor where I found the bloody footprints. To my surprise, they're still there, leading up to the second floor, just like last night. Crouching down, I go to trace the length of the footprint just as one would do the same with an animal track in the wounds when following a trail. Not much bigger than my own, if I would compare. What stands out directly, however, is the shape of the footprint. It does not look like a normal human footprint should. The toes are narrower, with the larger toe slightly pushed down and out, ending in points almost like the nails were long and sharp. That and the foot is wider at the front, kind of like a hand, but not entirely quite right either. If it wasn't for the fact each print looked slightly different, I would honestly believe this was a prank. Now I'm not so sure.

Tension makes every hair on my neck stand up as my gaze finds the top step. A pair of pale green eyes look down at me from the floor above, watching me in static silence. My fist tightens around the rock. In its small mouth, between its teeth, is the body of that black and white voodoo doll I clearly remember bringing home with me last night. Though I can't exactly remember where I placed it.

The cat slowly cocks its head, still eyeing me with this blank expression. Its right ear turns to face the long hallway as if listening to a sound I'm unable to hear. When its head and eyes follow down the hall, the cat goes to stand before sauntering off out of my view.

Curiously I pursue the strange feline without a second thought, leaving Alex downstairs. Just like last night, I return to the same bedroom, though now the door is wide open. I can't remember if I left it that way. Glancing behind me I see that the hallway curves in the opposite direction from the stairs. I bite my lip debating on if I should head in that direction instead. Knowing why I came back here, I decide to continue in the same bedroom first. Inside the room I find the same bloody footprints leading to the corner where I last saw the red-eyed boy. They're darker now, clearly not as fresh, but the trail ends in the corner.

I don't spy the cat anywhere in the room, making me suspect she wandered off around the corner in the hall, but how did she slip past me? After taking a closer look around the room, and the closet especially, I find absolutely no one.

"And this is exactly why I don't trust cats," I sigh and set the rock down on the bed. It's unnerving not knowing where that darn creature ran off to, but I try not to focus on its bizarre behavior too long. Instead, I take the time to inspect the closet more closely. I feel for any sort of trap door or hidden compartment while looking for possibly a button or a latch. The longer I stare into the empty closet, the more I start questioning what exactly happened last night. I'm starting to believe I hadn't heard that door shut and he slipped away somehow without bumping into me. Just like that cat. I shake my head. There's a logical explanation for all of this. My next thought is he escaped through the window, but he couldn't have. Right? I check anyway, only to further baffle me. It's boarded up just like the rest of the windows in the house, all except for the broken window I climbed in through.

I exhale long and slowly. Think Shae, think. Where would you run off to hide without leaving a single trace? Trace...

"The blood trail..." If he had snuck past me somehow, he could have hidden anywhere in the house. I vacate the room and step further down the hall. There's just enough sunlight streaming through the cracks in the windows where the boards aren't covering for me to have a good grasp of the area. The bloody footprints somewhat blend into the dark wooden floorboards but don't seem to extend further away from the steps. That doesn't necessarily mean the boy hadn't fled into any of the other rooms up here. I check the next door that leads into the larger bedroom. There's a heavy breeze that greets me upon opening the door. It's cold and uninviting. The entirety of the bedroom looks to be charred, making me wonder if this was the source of the fire that overtook the house. It's uncomfortably quiet in this house, just like last night. I shiver. I doubt there to be anyplace for anyone to hide in here. There's not even a bed left for one to be under. I shut the door and continue down the hall. Maybe his wounds stopped bleeding long enough for him to find a place to hide, and that's why there isn't more blood to follow. Sticking to that thought I follow the hallway to the end where a lone door stood closed. Before I dare come any closer I notice the deep grooves dragged across the floor overrun by splinters. Immediately they remind me of the first bedroom with similar marks on that door, but these marks look fresh. And they look like claw marks.

There's a shout from below followed by a hard thud and crash that rattles my bones. I nearly fall to the floor from shock, not sure what made that loud sound, but it can't be good. Quickly I find my footing and bolt back downstairs. Returning to the living room I call out for Alex.

"In here!" The sound of his voice, wobbly and unnerving, feels like the loveliest rush of relief I've ever felt. At least he sounds alright. Quickly I come to a halt at the doorway of the kitchen, only to find him crouched down at the farthest corner scouring the wall. There, lying crookedly on its side a foot or two away from him is a large fridge sheathed in moss and various fungi. Its lone door had busted right open. Besides being practically rammed into the wooden floorboards, rocks the size of fists are in a heap at the opening.

"What the hell happened here?" I manage to maneuver over the cluster of rocks while stepping around the fridge to reach Alex. His face had gone ghostly pale as he turns his head to look at me. There's an alarming look in his eyes that I can't quite place.

I cough into my shirt after inhaling something dreadful. After a moment I finally ask, "What's wrong? Was it because of the fridge falling?"

"It didn't fall-I mean-it-it did, but, I um, I didn't intend for it to...fall" He shakes his head, clearly struggling with his words. "I thought I heard something," He voices almost in a whisper. His brows knit together over straining eyes before looking away. He goes back to peeling away at the wallpaper. Or at least what's left of it. Fungus caked the wall like a thick blanket, both dark and light. The foul odor from when we first came in smells a lot stronger here, but I can't imagine the source to be coming from the fungus. Maybe there are dead rats or larger rodents trapped inside the walls. The very thought makes me uncomfortable.

"What was it?" I ask again and listen for anything out of the ordinary. While scanning the room, I find more fungal growth covering tables and countertops and partially the floor with orange plate-like mushrooms climbing like a staircase on the legs of the chairs. More mushrooms, the thin white plate-like fungus is growing on the surface of the one table. At its center is a glass vase, and within it is held dried green algae and dead flowers. "That's sanitary," I mumble aloud more as a joke to myself. For a half-second, I ponder over the reasoning why someone would require two tables in a kitchen.

"It was behind the wall. That sound I heard, but it stopped."

I turn my attention back to Alex, who is now standing and staring at the same wall, "What did it sound like?"

Alex shakes his head again and moves away from where he was standing, "Nothing." He sighs, "I think I'm just hearing things. I didn't sleep well last night either." An odd laugh leaves his throat as if it were forced, sounding tremulous. I wonder if what I said before was possibly settling too deep in his thoughts.

"You know, I thought I saw one of the faceless figures from my nightmares standing just outside looking in through that window over there?" I follow the direction of where Alex is pointing but find no one standing in front of that window peeking in through the boards.

"I think the fungus is making you hallucinate, Alex," I bite my lip after hearing my own words. "I probably hallucinated the boy upstairs as well." The light from outside suddenly starts to decline, leaving a dreadful shadow over the house, inside and out.

I step closer to him, offering my hand while adding, "You know I was kidding before, with the whole thing following you home, right?"

He acknowledges my question but only answers with a slight nod. When he takes my hand, I start to lead us out of the kitchen.

"Alex, are you sure you're ok?"

All of a sudden, Alex looks as if he's going to vomit. He shakes his head again, his face a lot paler than before, and immediately arches over. Quickly I grab ahold of his arm to wrap around my shoulders and lead him over to the couch. Despite the couch's appalling shape, he slumps down without hesitation and leans half of himself against the armrest. I take off my bad and pull out an open bottle of water for him to drink. Instead of taking it, he groans and shuts his eyes tight, pushing away the bottle in my hand. Suddenly he starts hacking and coughing to the point where I'm sure he was about to throw up. I rub his back in the same circular motion as when I used to do with my mom when she had morning sickness with Eve, hoping it would at least help.

After a few moments, his breathing settles, and gradually the color returns to his skin. I've never seen Alex like this before, and the sight terrifies me. It has to be the fungus in the house that's making him this sick.

"Can you stand?" It takes him a minute, but eventually, he nods. "Alight, I think once we get outside and walk around in cleaner air, you'll start to feel a lot better, okay?"

He only grasps my arm in response, and I grab his other. I use my weight to lift him off the couch, which luckily for him for being such a lightweight, I can handle almost carrying him outside. "Let's get you home."