4: Part One: Haunted House

A Doll and A Mask

Friday, October 31st. 10 pm.

I scramble across the room in obscured darkness, only to crash into the wall seconds later. My pulse quickens as I try to locate the knob. The frigid metal bites at my palm as I grip it and twist hard. In one solid tug, I pry the door open, whether I was ready to engage whoever stood behind it or not. Whatever force had driven me to this point suddenly faltered, and all feeling of adrenaline quickly seizes my heart. My hands made contact with the walls first, and then the ceiling following the floor. There was nothing and no one. I take a step back and face an empty closet. Not a single sliver of confidence remained, leaving a sickening feeling in my gut. It twisted and quivered about, and every part of me trembled from the sudden exhaustion. My god, I think I'm going to pass out. My heartbeat still fluttered like some caged bird trying to flee, and I take more longer strides back. My body stiffens all at once at the silence smothering the house, more than I remember it being before. Where did he go? That question screams at my every nerve as I scramble around my head for any logical answers. No such answers ever come to the surface. Nothing about this makes sense.

Immediately I stumble back, racing to grab ahold of my phone. As soon as I feel it, I pick it up and shine the light throughout the closet, leaning in close to see any indication of an escape door, but there's absolutely nothing. Not a trap door or hidden entrance leading to a secret room. The closet is empty. Maybe I was wrong about where the boy ran off too. An all too familiar fear churned from a foreign memory. Almost like a dream that had long been repressed now suddenly resurfaced, if only for a brief moment. I retained the hint of something unknown yet so vaguely familiar I couldn't apprehend where it came from, nor couldn't I remember anything else from it. The deeper I comb through my memories, the more I start to feel dizzy, especially with memories retaining my mother. I hold my head, taking shallow breaths until the dizzy spell passes. Maybe there's something in the house that's causing me to hallucinate, and the boy I'd seen never was there. Or maybe one of the guys managed to drug me beforehand. No-no, that's insane. Plus, I never ate or drank anything from them. I glance around the room again and sigh. No one's here. It's all in my head, I tell myself. I need to calm down and get the hell out of this house. Eva's probably getting worried.

I check my phone and wince at the long cracks shown through the light on the screen before noticing the time.

10:15 pm.

"Damn it, guys." I push past the open door and step into the hallway using the phone light to guide me. The floorboards suddenly begin creaking beneath me as I tread towards the staircase, but I convince myself that I wouldn't fall through. Before I come to the top of the steps, I hear the wind howling loudly against the house outside, remembering how silent the house was before. I swallow hard. The thought of being watched or followed crosses my mind, making me a little paranoid.

"It's just in my head. It's just in my head," I murmur to myself. Taking the first few steps, I pause. Instantly I want to crawl out of my skin. My throat goes dry, and I can't help but tense. I should ignore it. I want to ignore it, but questions cram their way into my skull as I lock eyes with a strange-looking doll sitting on the floor against the side of a bookshelf facing the last step. Hesitantly, I start moving down again and make it to the ground floor without taking my eyes off the doll. Its black button gaze did not wonder, but something about it didn't feel lifeless. Its body is covered in mainly black thread with a few strands of dark blue strangling its throat. Its head is all white, like a ball of yarn wrapped tightly in place. I know without a doubt that the doll was not there before, even being as blind as I am. I would have noticed it, just like I noticed the bloody footprints. And then, just like that, I'm questioning what I saw upstairs, and if the boy I'd seen wasn't just a hallucination. Someone put this here for me to find. And by someone, It had to be one of the guys outside. Unless...what if...maybe who I saw upstairs somehow snuck past me after slamming the closet door, and without a sound, ran down the hall and got down the stairs without making a single sound. That same feeling was back along with the paranoia. Without putting much thought into it, I snatch the doll and head for the window. All my thoughts scream at me to get out of the house. As I climb back through, I make sure to clear away all the remaining glass shards quickly so I wouldn't go home with even more cuts and bruises. Luckily, I make it back onto the back porch without being stabbed again. I start to feel a little more at ease once my shoes hit the porch boards and the wind greets me with an icy hold. It doesn't last, however. A rustling in the trees causes me to turn to face the woods only to see nothing but blurry shadows dancing between twilight and pitch blackness as the wind starts to pick up. I keep telling myself I'm only being paranoid, and after another deep breath, I go to leave. I make it to the frozen ground before my attention is drawn back towards the woods. A low almost inaudible moaning sounds through the trees, sounding very close to where I'm standing.

"Really?" I grit my teeth, forcing any hint of fear far from my voice, only to sound more irritated than afraid. "Creeping around in the bushes, are we? If you're placing that bear trap, Jared, I swear to God I will do more than break your damn arm." I announce sounding the slightest bit amused. Something a lot bigger than a squirrel dashes up one of the trees, making my heart flutter like a hiccup in my chest. The moaning abruptly stops along with the wind. That feeling takes hold of me again, and I struggle to shake it off as ordinary noises come from the woods. Tension strikes through me as one of my worst fears comes stomping through the snow behind me, screaming bloody murder. On instinct, I reel around just as I feel someone grab hold of both my left arm and wolf hide and yank. Using all my physical strength to defend myself, my fist makes contact with warm flesh. Immediately their hands drop. I come face to face with a masked boy before he's on his knees wheezing with both hands on his throat. With one hand, he struggles to slide the devilish green mask off. After seeing his face, I cover my mouth in shock at the realization that the masked boy is Jared.

"Why..." He manages to sound before coughing.

I grimace, but I can't help but feel greatly relieved, "Well, I mean you shouldn't sneak up on a girl like that, you know?" My voice comes off all trembling, though I try hard to hide it. "Look on the bright side, at least I didn't' have mace or pepper spray." He lets out another painful-sounding cough before another moment of wheezing. "Or, you know, a bear trap." I grin. He doesn't respond making me wince. "Are you alright?"

He holds his hand up in reply. I offer to help him stand, but he waves me off angrily, "Yeah," he croaks through a flash of clenched teeth. After a minute he staggers up to his feet, refusing to make eye contact with me. Gently rubbing his throat, he hoarsely whispers, "This never happened."

"What, is this your first time being hit by a girl?" I snicker, though I know better than to keep pushing the poor guy. Of course, he's gotten into fights with girls. I'm living proof of that.

"Shut up." He grunts bitterly only to turn away seconds after. I don't bother sugarcoating it when I tell him to stop being pathetic. I've seen him walk away with a broken arm given to him by good ol' Tuck Hemsworth, a senior who Jared royally pissed off at a summer party in the woods about two years back and hadn't shed a tear from it. They were drunk of course and I'm no expert on how intoxicated you'd have to be not to feel your arm being snapped like a dry twig, but luckily for me, I wasn't exactly there to see it. I overheard the twins talking about it to Alex who then told me the whole thing. The twins apparently ditched Jared off at the hospital and fled the scene. Typical idiots. It didn't end well after his parents found out, but serves him right for being an arrogant stoat.

"Still can't handle a punch from me I see," I remark. He doesn't bother speaking and instead gives me the finger. I laugh dryly.

"Hey, don't forget your false face!" I retrieve the bizarre green mask in one swift motion.

"Do whatever the fuck you want with it. I just found it." Jared snarls only to commence in another coughing fit. I bite the inside of my lip to distract myself from the festering guilt forming like a tangled knot in my stomach. He's not worth it, I tell myself. He's arrogant as he is selfish and he wouldn't hesitate to punch you in your face, Shae. With or without glasses. Remember that.

Once he's out of sight I let out a shaky breath. It's not the first time I've made him yell out of anger, and I doubt any other time will make me feel any different. I shouldn't feel guilty. I really shouldn't. Jared is not a friend even if we all grew up together. He's more of an inconvenience when it comes to hanging around Alex. And the rest of them aren't exactly bad, I just... I sigh, clutching the mask with both hands now. I really need to stop enticing fights. On the bright side, I guess if I'm calling it that, we didn't end up fighting. Jared may not be able to speak properly for a few days to a week, but we didn't draw blood. So, if that's progress, then I'll take it. In moments like these, I have to wonder if a lot of the time I sometimes go too far when I get into fights with other boys. I don't hang around with girls because of the way I act, and since I rarely hang out with anyone at all, it's usually with Alex and his friends here - all boys. Alex would simply tell me that I don't go too far and that they deserve it. Jared especially, since he likes to play dirty. Though Alex is the only one who hasn't told me that I got an anger problem... Jared does too - that's not hard to see. But it has to bother Alex that I get into fights with him, a lot... And they weren't always ideal..

I bring the creepy-looking mask closer to my face, a distraction I could use to clear my head. I still don't get what Jared meant by he just found it and since he didn't bother elaborating on that statement, I'm left pondering over the damn thing. I have to bring it closer to my face while using my phone light to see its details. As a distraction, I focus on the mask, debating on what I should do with it. It's light to carry and feels like it's made from some kind of wood. The green dye coating the mask is rich but doesn't feel like paint. It feels smooth on the top as if it had been polished. The inside of the mask feels the same. The devilish smile is etched into a long ear-to-ear grin with wooden, or some kind of stone-no, are those real teeth? I pinch one of the fangs between my finger only to jolt my hand away in shock, letting the mask free fall to the ground. I look down at my finger to find blood already dripping.

"Nice," I say with a sigh before sucking up the blood. Another cut to take home with me, I figure. Hearing the rustling in the trees again, I whisk around and pause at the woods. Whatever it was, started moaning again and I quickly snatch the mask from the ground. Remembering whose face it was on, and how it already cut me, I make the calculated decision to chuck the damned thing far into the woods. It disappears immediately, landing somewhere behind the trees without a sound I can hear. The moaning stops abruptly. I stand there for a few beats waiting for something to happen. Eventually, I turn to follow Jared back to the front of the house.

I can hear the whole group laughing just before I turn the corner. Jared is already walking down the road along with the twins and Max hounding and hurling jokes at his heels. I let out a little chuckle myself, being able to release some of the tension as I head toward Alex and Eva.

"Alright, time to go home, Eve. You can go on ahead if you want to, Alex," I say while grabbing ahold of Eva's hand. We start to walk down the road together before hearing the wind pick up around us.

Alex sinks one hand into his hood pocket while carrying my bag of candy in the other, "Nah, I'd rather walk with you guys. I'm more interested in what you did to Jared back there anyway."

Eva giggles, "Why was he holding his neck like that?"

"I punched him in the throat," I say simply before eyes Alex suspiciously.

"What?" Alex gasps only to grin wildly like some madman, "That's so unfortunate for him but hilarious for me!"

"Uh-huh, how unfortunate," I smirk.

"What did he do this time?" He asks, sounding falsely innocent. I can't force back my grin, not even for a second. Everything slips including my act. At least it's only Alex.

"To be honest, he did get me there for a moment. He came up behind me screaming bloody murder in my face so I punched him in the throat. I didn't even know it was him, and at the moment I just swung." I answer with a shrug. "Listen, he could have been a serial killer. I wouldn't have known."

Alex eyes me while keeping that wide grin of his brutally unfazed, "So your first instinct was to punch him dead in the throat?"

I shrug again not sure how else to explain it, "that's what happened." Alex starts laughing like he 'hasn't hit puberty yet' kind of laugh. I don't know why but as annoying as it sounds it sets me off into a fit of laughter along with Eva, and we all have to stop walking just to prevent ourselves from falling over.

"Oh wait-wait-wait at sec, so that wasn't you screaming?" He sucks in a breath.

"It was all Jared," I squeeze out.

"Hah-ha! Oh damn!" he sighs long ending with a soft throaty chuckle, "And this is exactly why I enjoy coming along on these little scary adventures with you."

I snort, "This was your idea, sir."

"True, but even so, I still enjoy hanging out with you." Heat creeps into my cheeks from his comment.

"...well, I'm glad to be somewhat entertaining to you all," I express sarcastically and begin swinging Eva's arm back and forth with mine, encouraging her to keep walking with me. She's beat red either from the cold or laughing just as hard as the both of us. Probably both. Alex follows after us. "I guess despite managing to scare me twice tonight, I think punching Jared in the throat was a merciful act of kindness."

"Both times?" Alex raises a brow.

"Yeah. Once upstairs and the second time outside behind the house. At first, I kind of felt really bad, but he pulls that kind of crap all the time, so he deserves it, right?"

Alex slows and then stops walking. Eva and I turn and stop too, only to see him staring at us. I can only assume he sees something ahead.

"What? Is there something ahead of us?"

Alex shines the light behind us, only to make me more nervous when he doesn't answer.

"Or is there something behind us...?" Silence. The light runs down the road, across the trees on either side before shining ahead of us. Without answering me he motions for us to keep walking. He picks up his pace and we follow his example.

Eva tugs on my arm, whispering low when she's normally scared, "Is there something after us?" Not knowing how to answer her, I keep a firm hold on Eva's arm and move a little faster toward Alex.

"Alex, why are we moving like frightened sheep up the road? Are we being followed by a bear or something? Was it the house, or something the guys said? Was it something I said?"

"Jared wasn't inside the house." He finally answers but doesn't stop moving.

I waver in my reply, "What?"

"He was outside with the rest of us waiting for you to come back out."

We reach the top of Brickfield Road in less time than we spent walking down it. The rest of the group had already dispersed, heading home. Alex doesn't stop walking. I keep Eva's hand in mine as we catch up with him.

"So, you want to tell me what that was all about?"

"I just had a bad feeling, like we were being watched out there."

"By what?" I ask.

He shakes his head, "I don't know."

"Were we being followed?"

"I don't know that either, Shae. I just... It was a bad feeling."

"Ah! I was wondering when good all scaredy-cat Alex would be back. Nice to know some things haven't changed." I smirk, but by the look on his face, I might have well just been talking to a wall. Instantly I regret talking. He doesn't respond to my comment, and I fall short on words. Even my sister is vacant of any comments. We all remain silent until we reach the old park. Just before we split ways through the park, Alex stops me.

"Wait, I have something to ask you." He hands me back my bag of treats before continuing, "Have you ever heard of the name Timothy Nelson by chance while growing up here?"

Talk about random questions, but I respond after a moment of thinking. "No, I don't think so. It doesn't sound familiar anyway. Why do you ask?"

Alex doesn't answer me at first, and I started to wonder if he was holding back his answer or if maybe he didn't have one for me. He struggles to make eye contact, which is not like Alex. I lean in to ask him, "Hey, if you need to talk about this or whatever is bothering you, I'm only a few blocks away, ok? You can even call the house or message me, or you know, come inside. The doors never locked." I shrug while giving him a small smile. Gradually he offers a smile of his own. Suddenly he brings his arms around my figure and hugs me. I can't even remember the last time Alex hugged me so tightly. Another pair of arms bring us even closer as Eva joins in, squeezing us both in a python's form of a hug.

"Holy cow, child, you need to skip the Pilates!" I gasp.

Eva giggles loudly as she snatches my candy bag, lets us go, and dashes our street.

I turn and let go of Alex to yell, "Hey! You better not eat all that without me, you little cow!" I can hear her giggles all over the streets as she disappears down the road. When I look back at Alex I find him smiling. A true smile this time. Standing this close to him though, I can see a lingering fear in his eyes and worry. "I better go after her."

"Of course." He squeezes my arm gently and lets me go. "If it's not too much of a bother, um. I was wondering if you would come with me tomorrow sometime, back to that grey house, I mean."

"Are you sure you want to go back? You seem pretty shook, even still."

"Yeah, well, I figured I'd feel a lot better seeing it in the daylight." He laughs softly. "And If we were to go inside, I'd feel better if you had my back."

I raise a brow teasingly, "Oh really? Do I look like a guard dog to you?"

I can feel his eyes wander over me slowly, and suddenly I start to feel heat everywhere. I swallow hard. Despite fighting either urge to flee or playfully tackle him to the ground, filthy thoughts rush in one after another, making me blush hard. I can feel my heart racing against my chest. The cold on my ears, my toes, and everywhere else I swear feels like I had dipped them in a boiler. His ear-to-ear grin is back once his eyes lock onto mine, showing all of his freakishly straight teeth. Suddenly It's all I can do not to lung at him like some wild animal craving his touch. His voice is barely enough to hold me back, "If I'm correct, you are wearing the right costume."

"I'm a wolf, not a dog." I snarl with a smile.

"Even better. Just let me know when you're ready to go check out that house. I was thinking sometime before lunch If that's ok with you."

I bite the inside of my lip again before responding, "Sounds like a plan! I'll talk to you later then. Try not to get jumped within 5 minutes on your way back home, you hear?" I laugh jokingly, knowing his house is literally across the street from the park.

"Will do Little Miss Monster. See you tomorrow." He smirks while giving me a salute and backing away.

"Roger that," I grin. I watch Alex leave the park until he's through his front door. Taking a deep breath to calm my racing heart, I head home.