Episode 4

“Who did you see? What did he say? How hot was he?" Jess questioned at every four sentences I made with her eyes wide open as we walked out of school.

“Did he....You know....” Jess leaned towards me and whispered “....kiss you?”

“Hell no! Listen Jess, if you stop interrupting me every little second, this story I'm telling you would've been over by now.”

“Sorry.” She apologized.

“ Will you come over today?” I questioned after narrating the weird dream and shadow.

She frowned for a second or two before letting out a grin.

“Where are your parents up to?”

“They didn't tell me much, they'll be out of the town for two or three days reasons I can't understand. ”

Sometimes I just wished I was like Jess, she lived with her dad since eleven after her mom's death in a car crash. He wasn't the strict kind of person and spent almost his entire life on business trips. I actually envied the freedom she had.

That was something I could never dream of having and the little opportunity I had was when my parents weren't in town.

“The usual Anthem.... I'll just get some stuff home and be right there.”

She was right, they never told me what and where they were up to. I won't say their behavior didn't baffle me. Sometimes they made me wonder if they really were my parents. I let out a breathe which I thought was silent before Jess gently tapped my shoulder in comfort while nodding.

“Tonight's going to be a crazy one.”

Did she say crazy? The last time she said that I ended up with five days hangover and was grounded for three weeks for consuming alcohol and staying out of school for two days.  

“No worries Audrey, No clubbing and no alcohol this time, you have my words.”

“So...what do we begin with?” I sat on the bed and watched Jess change into a pair of blue jeans and a white shirt.

“Don't be so antsy Audrey ” she slipped her feet into her trainers “ it's a little tour....somewhere....not far....urgh! how I hate this fuckin' trainers. Perfect.” she got to her full height and stared at me. “ Oh come on Audrey the earlier we get there the better.”

“Euhm....Jess. Where are we?” I began to shiver. My skin finally exposed the goosebumps which were shyly making their way on to the surface. This place was so creepy. The street was so dead and just one house was in sight, it didn't look livable from the outside and no doubt from the inside too.

“Chill Audrey. It's just a haunted house.”

She said «Just» Oh my!

We slowly walked on to the dilapidated deck,  I could feel the hairs on my neck rise at every step we took. I shot a glance at Jess, she seemed so relaxed and I just wished I had such courage. I looked at my watch which read 8:30pm. We've been hear for a couple minutes but It felt like an eternity. If I had a choice between solving maths my entire life and this....there's no doubt I'll choose staring at the funny x and y's over this. Rather unfortunate I hadn't such, so I was here now facing this haunted building and there was no turning back anytime soon.

“Ready?”

Without waiting for my response, Jess pushed the huge wooden door, she didn't hesitate to make her way inside. I subconsciously made the sign of a cross, partially shut my eyes and made my way into the house. “See, its not as bad as it looks right?”

For real.

I could use two words to describe the interior. «Super Creepy» outside was way better. It was gloomy,thanks to the faint diverging beams of the crescent moon. The few furniture which were spotted were all covered in dusty white sheets.

“Seriously Jess. Where in the world did you discover this place?”

“Morning exercise.” was all she muttered. Who could someday believe,apart from being a barbie girl and fashion maniac, Jess could be adventurous and fearless.

“There could be ghosts in here Jess.” I whispered between chattering teeth and shaky legs.

“Oh come on, even kids know ghosts don't exist together with vampires and wolves and revenants and bla....bla...bla.” She rolled her eyes and swiftly grabbed my wrist. “Follow me, I'm getting curious.”

We made our way to the wooden spiral shaped stairs. We found ourselves in another hallway but this one was way different from the one downstairs on like it, this hallway was livable, no dusty white sheets and cobwebs. It was illuminated with light from each candelabra and the lone chandelier which hung on the ceiling. At one end of it was an armchair and a footstool directly opposite a smoky  chimney, a rocky chair beside the window. What captivated me was the huge bookshelf and the variety of books it contained. How on this planet earth could a haunted house look this way?— well, besides the first hallway, wasn't it supposed to smell of mould instead of pine wood? Or humid instead of warm. The house was haunted only for the ignorants— I wonder if anybody visited this suburb often.

“Someone lives here, and that someone won't take it lightly for trespassing. We've had enough fun tonight let's head home now I got a geometry assignment to work on.”

“Nobody lives here....it's probably —”

Slight thumps made us jump a metre off the floor. They were footsteps. I looked at Jess quizzically and could tell from her facial expression that she was as scared as I was.

“Don't move.” she whispered, moving slowly toward the chimney to grab a sooty pine wood in defence.

The thumps got closer every second. I shut my eyes not wanting to see what was going to happen when this person came in sight.

“Ahhhhh!” Jess screamed as she raised the wood to her prey. I opened my eyes at the sight of equally split pine woods on the wooden floor. The so called prey happened to be a bald headed aged man in his mid 80's still shielding his chubby face with his forearm.

“Oh my God! I'm so sorry mister.” Jess apologized immediately shaking off the unbelievable scene which just took place. There was little or no doubt she was as flabagasted as I was.

Once he got his arm out of his face, I could clearly see his faded blue eyes almost bulging out of its sockets and his mouth wide open with a fixed gaze at me. As if reading my mind,he quickly narrowed his eyes and got into his initial state.

“visitors, hmm,” he smiled. “haven't seen any in years, come on in...have a seat. ”

Huh!

Let me get something right here. This old man just got hit by a wood which split into equal halves right infront of us and behaves as if nothing  happened. Now this is the definition of the word weird. Jess and I were paralyzed as we watched the man move past us like nothing happened.

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