Grey Matter of an Irish Aries

The Horror House

I leaned back in my seat and sighed. It was a rainy Saturday afternoon and I had been stuck in the old minivan with Sarah, Grace and Robbie for five hours. Mom and Dad were in the front seats, whispering that we were lost again. They were murmuring in those voices where they thought we couldn’t hear them, but we really could. I was in my favorite spot, the last seat in the left corner and I had my headphones on. And I could still hear them.
Robbie was nine and a pain in the butt, once you thought about it. But, he had brains, I had to give him that. He was the smartest nine year old that I knew, and I knew a lot of nine year olds. The reason that he was a pain in the ass was because he knew that he was smart, so he would always seize the opportunity to rub that in our faces. He considered himself to be some sort of a genius compared to the twins and me, which he was sort of was, -not that I’m calling Sarah or Grace or me an idiot- but he did have a massive amount of brain power. It was actually my parents he had the power over. Once, he stayed out an hour later than he was supposed to. He was in the driveway with one of his skater boy buds and when he walked in the door at eleven thirty, my parents were about to ground him when he calmly reminded them that their driveway was part of their home. After all, home is not only one’s house, but it is also the outside property. Well, my parents had no response to that. I still can’t believe he got a warning instead of a whack for being a smarty-pants.
“Somewhere out there” was over, so I took my Our Lady Peace CD out of my CD player and put it back in my CD holder. I paused to decide which CD to listen to next before deciding on Californiacation by The Red Hot Chili Peppers. I turned on number three, which was “Other Side” and leaned on the window. I loved The Red Hot Chili Peppers and their music. I had all their albums and I played them quite frequently every day.
I looked to the seat in front of me, not moving my head from its way too comfortable position on the window, and noticed that Grace had quit on Sarah and was now out cold. Too bad, she was the only family member who didn’t snore, so we couldn’t make fun of her. Sarah had managed to set up a table in front of her, like they have on airplanes, and was now playing Solitaire. From the back, if they weren’t my sisters, I would never have known that she and Grace were twins. Grace looked more like me than she did Sarah. We both had shoulder length platinum blonde hair while Sarah’s was just a shade darker. She wasn’t a sun person, so her skin was paler than ours and she had freckles, more freckles than Grace and me put together!
Sarah turned around and stared at me.
“What do you want, dork?” she demanded, teasingly but seriously.
“Nothing,” I told her, not really in the mood to talk. I was trying to concentrate on the song that was playing. I sang along with the lyrics to “Purple Stain,” another great Red Hot Chili Peppers song on the CD. Sarah twisted around to her game and pretended she couldn’t hear our parents arguing about which way to go. I shook my head and vowed that it was my last car trip, with my family at least. Anyone else would’ve have the brains to stop somewhere before Nowhere-Ville and ask for directions. This is one of the main reasons I go to Robbie when I need some help with my homework. This is pathetic assuming I’m in high school and he’s nine-years-old.
Continuing, I went back to my music and the trip wore on and on. In that time, Robbie and Sarah had cleverly set up a way to play Crazy Eights, even with Robbie in the third seat and Sarah in the middle. Next to me, my other sister had fallen asleep and was starting to snore. Being the lazy person that I was, I opted not to wake her up. Instead, I put my own head down and found myself dozing off in mere minutes.
Four and a half hours later, I felt someone tapping my shoulder. I knew it was Grace because that was how she woke me up every morning for school. I guess she was tired of sleeping and didn’t want to see anyone else doing it, either.
“Tracy, wake up!” she said, quickly. Why she had said it like that was a mystery. I pushed her hand away and stretched. My arm was numb and I had to scratch it for a few minutes to get the feeling back. I looked out the window and sighed. I didn’t have to ask my parents where on earth we were. I already knew that they had no idea.
What I saw was pretty much nothing at all. I saw acre after acre of absolutely nothing. It was like driving in the Sahara desert, which was probably nearby, knowing my father’s awful driving skills. There were no animals, no trees, no nothing. There weren’t even a couple of cacti. It was all desert land forever.
By this time, we were all getting a bit nervous, even Robbie who was usually the cool and collected type. Luckily, the endless nothingness soon ended and we were back on the road. We had entered a small town that was filled with farms. The further we drove, the more farms we saw. Sarah and Grace were getting fidgety after they saw a farm of cows. Robbie suggested we stop and ask someone for directions.
After a ‘yes’ and ‘no’ war between my parents and Robbie, my parents surrendered and we pulled into the long and winding driveway of the next farm we saw. As we approached the house, I noticed a sign that was mostly hidden in the bushes. Even through the hailing rain, I could make out what it said.
Beware of those you trust.
I could have sat there in the boiling hot car for hours wondering what that meant and who wrote it, but I decided to ignore it and go into the house with the rest of my family. I opened the car door and raced to the front porch of the house that we had arrived at. When I got to the door, I saw that Robbie had already opened it and was inside it.
“This is so creepy,” I said to myself, hesitant to go inside. In the end, it was the freezing cold that forced me to go in. I pushed the door open wide and slipped in. I stomped my feet down to get the mud and other guck out and walked around to find everyone. I entered what seemed to be the living room and saw Robbie over at the other end, squatting at a fireplace. I assumed he was starting a fire so I went over to help.
He heard me coming and twisted around, poker in hand.
“HA!” he cried.
“HA!” I cried back, doing my best to sound just like him.
He sighed and went back to attempting to start a fire.
“This place is occupied,” he whispered as he worked.
That had to be the most random thing I had heard that day.
“What makes you say that?” I asked him.
“There are people here,” he said, making it seem like I was the idiot.
“How do you know?” I questioned.
“There are signs,” he replied.
“Like in the movie,” I said, dumbly. Yes, I’ll admit it was dumb.
He gave me a stupid look, but told me anyway.
“Look over there.” He pointed to a small desk over in the corner of the room. I hadn’t seen it on the way in because it was against the wall of the doorway. It was one of those old-fashioned desks they used to use in school when people of the older generation went, aka my parents. It was small and it had a lid you’d flip up to put your books inside the space underneath. The seat was folded up and when I went over and pushed it down, it came off its hinges.
“You broke it!” Robbie came up to where I was standing and knelt down. He grabbed the seat out of my hands and rested it back on its hinges.
“It’s old,” I protested. “What do you expect from something old?” I wanted to know.
“Still,” he said, standing up.
“So, what am I looking for?”
“This.” He picked up a cup with Santa and his nine reindeer on it. Each reindeer was looking at another one in, um, a loving way and poor Rudolph had Santa gazing at him. His red nose was bright red and his face was hot pink.
I took the cup and peeked inside. Swishing it around, it looked like coffee or something like it. It was a dark liquid with little white pieces, barely visible white pieces floating around. I showed it to Robbie and he nodded.
Just then, I noticed that nobody else was around.
“Where did everyone go?” I asked.
He shrugged and pointed toward the door I had come through.
“They went right past the door and kept going.”
“Let’s find them.” I started toward the door, pulling my brother’s arm.
“Why?” he whined.
“Because this house freaks me out and being with you makes it ten times worse.”
That made him smile.
We wandered around the first floor and came upon the living room. There not only did I find the rest of my family, but I also began to feel goose bumps tickling my arms. I took off my jacket and slung it over the back of the couch, which had to be colored the worst shade of blue I have ever seen.
“Where have you two been?” my mother asked me.
I plopped down in a huge armchair, which was comfy, but unfortunately the ugly color as the couch.
“Just looking around. I think someone is here.” I told her about the coffee, er we think, cup and the fire and she listened carefully.
“Hmm,” she said, after I was done.
At the same time, Robbie dropped into the other armchair, also the same color, and sighed.
“I think we should investigate,” he announced, after a few minutes.
My father agreed.
“I could go with your mother, the twins could go together and you go be with Tracy.”
I groaned, but unfortunately, nobody heard me. And even if they did, it wouldn’t matter. I was stuck.
Everyone but Robbie and me got up and set off. We had brought out flashlights from the car, but we didn’t really need them because all the lights were on.
Another sign that someone was still here.
When everyone had gone, Robbie leaned forward and wrapped his arms around his legs.
“I sure could use my blanket from home right now,” he said to nobody special.
Suddenly, a navy blue blanket appeared on the table in between us.
“My blanket!” He shrieked so loud I was surprised everyone didn’t hear him and come running back thinking something was wrong.
I was in deep shock when I rubbed my eyes and realized that my brother’ blanket had really appeared out of nowhere and settled itself on the table, which was merely a giant varnished piece of wood that was put over four cement blocks. Then, my eyes drifted toward my brother, who was in bigger shock and felt more terror than I did.
Although deep down, I had to smile because for once in his life, Robbie couldn’t explain something at all.
My brother and I sat there for a little while longer than we should have. We were extremely tired, despite our nine-hour car ride, which was only supposed to take us three and a half. Soon, we become conscious of the fact that we weren’t being tied down to the chairs, so we stood up and started wandering around. As we reached the stairs, I wondered aloud if some creepy music was going to start playing, like in the movies.
All of a sudden, I heard some banging. It was getting louder and louder as it approached, but I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from until I glanced up the staircase and saw a huge black and white piano aiming right for me. I leaped out of the way and crashed into the wall. I flopped over, a bit bruised from the wall, but otherwise fine.
Robbie had been behind me and was now shaking as if someone had just tried to kill us.
Oh wait, someone had.
We went into the kitchen, but neither of us uttered a word. We didn’t want the knives being flung our way.
After sitting some more, Robbie had finally calmed down. Lucky him. I had definitely not relaxed.
“We shouldn’t be scared,” he said, soothingly.
“What?” I glared at him. “You’re nuts!”
“Well, we need to calm down and find everyone else.”
I nodded.
Just then, the lights starting flickering.
“Oh, this is too much,” I commented.
Moments later, the lights went off completely.
“Okay, now I’m freaked out,” I heard my brother gripe.
“Me too,” I told him. I had been walking toward the door, but I froze, afraid of being attacked by an ugly monster or being thrown down a flight of stairs. Robbie turned his flashlight on and aimed it at me.
“You there?” he called out.
“Yeah, you still alive?”
Obviously.
We headed, slowly and cautiously, into the stairway area and waited for any more pianos to fall. When none did, we started moving up the stairs. I was shaking and I kept thinking that something would happen or someone would pop up any minute now.
Nothing.
We reached the top of the stairs just fine and then we started to snoop around. I opened a closet and immediately a ton of clothes, dusty and out of style, fell on top of me. I shrieked and stumbled backward, colliding with Robbie. We landed on a cold floor. Five seconds later, we heard a loud and happy laugh. Someone was laughing at us. Who?
My brother and I scrambled to our feet. We raced into the nearest room as fast as we could and jumped onto the bed that was in the middle of it. It was a giant king sized bed with the same ugly blue color as the couch in the living room. There was a nightstand next to the bed, but there was no lamp. I opened the drawer, but it was empty. Robbie rolled onto the opposite side and opened up the drawer of another nightstand, only to find it empty as well.
“What is going on here?” I wondered out loud, not really expecting an answer.
“I don’t know.”
Suddenly, the door slammed, shutting us in. Robbie leaped a foot in the air and I ran to the door and practically pulled it off its hinges. Robbie was right behind me as we ran for our lives into the hall. I was almost at the stairs when I tripped over something in the darkness. I managed to grab onto the railing, preventing a deadly fall down the stairs.
I landed on whatever it was I had tripped on and I saw immediately what it was.
A body.
Robbie shown the flashlight on me and I gasped.
“Dad!”
I leapt up and stared.
I couldn’t believe it. I was so shocked that I couldn’t move if there was a huge black and white piano coming straight for me. I was so caught up in the moment that I hadn’t noticed the door slamming shut behind me again. Someone had slipped into the room I had ended up in with my brother and whoever it was had slammed it shut. Robbie heard it and nudged me.
“Did you see that?” he asked me, as if our father was not lying in a pool of blood.
I pushed his hand away and glared at him, angrily.
“Can you not see this?” I yelled. “Our father is dead, idiot!”
“Okay, calm down.”
“Calm down!” I continued to rant. “How the hell can I calm down, Robbie? Tell me!” I looked at him and I could see tears emerging from his usually bright blue eyes.
“It’ll be okay,” he told me.
“No, Robbie,” I said, “our father is dead and our mother and sisters are out there in this, this, this horror house. They’re probably dead or scared to death.”
Nothing.
“Dad, wake up!” I leaned down and smacked my dad’s chest, hoping he’d open his mouth and laugh or move his head and tell me this is another of his stupid jokes.
Nothing.
Robbie was looking straight ahead, silent.
“He was probably stabbed to death,” he said, not looking at the body.
I couldn’t believe my ears.
“What is wrong with you?” I cried, wiping tears from my own eyes.
Nothing.
“Robbie?”
“What?”
Suddenly, I understand.
“Robbie?”
“What?”
He was crying and pretty soon, he broke down.
“I hate this place,” he sobbed.
I grabbed him and he tried to shake me off.
“Don’t touch me!”
“Don’t squirm,” I warned him, “I’ll hug you tighter.”
He gave up and I stood there holding up.
Then, just like that, he pulled away.
“We’ll find out who did this,” he swore.
I didn’t argue with him as he walked away. I followed him, wiping away more tears and refusing to cry, as I never did in public.
We wandered around the second floor, peering in and out of each room. As Robbie was searching the first room we had been in, I followed my ears to the bathroom, where I could hear a dripping noise. I entered and shone my tiny flashlight, which wasn’t working until I had slipped batteries into it when I was sitting in the living room with my family.
Sad thoughts floated through my mind, but I shook then away.
“We’ll find out who did this,” he swore. We would, Robbie.
I shone the light on the faucet and saw that it was still running. I went over to turn it off and felt a cold liquid washing over my feet. I shone the light on the ground and realized that there was water everywhere. I shone the light all around the room to try to figure out where the water was coming from. I saw that the toilet was overflowing and I thought I should try to stop it, but then I heard the dripping noise again.
“It hasn’t stopped,” I said to myself.
“What hasn’t stopped?” I heard Robbie’s voice and I turned around.
“The faucet,” I informed him, “I shut it off and it came back on again.”
“That’s weird,” he said.
“Not in this house,” I reminded him.
He nodded, agreeing.
Then, he said, “Let’s get out of here.”
He turned and walked out.
I followed.
We returned to the staircase, only to find it father-body-free. I started freaking out and nearly fell down the stairs, only saving myself by the banister. I managed to get down the stairs, and when I did, I waited for Robbie and we moved to the kitchen, which seemed to be a safe spot for us. We needed a plan, desperately.
An hour had passed by the time we both realized we’d need to sleep eventually.
We decided to take turns. Robbie would sleep from eleven-thirty, the time at the moment, until four and I would sleep until eight-thirty after that. Robbie handed me his flashlight so I could see in the dark better.
I sat on a stool for about another hour before I gave in and put my head down, thinking I would sleep for a little while.
I woke up some time later. I looked up and saw that I was lying on something soft and extremely comfortable. My head was in a good position. It didn’t want to get up, but I forced it. I was almost suffocating underneath the sandwich of all the covers on top of me. There was a cool sheet that was a deep shade of pink. On top of that was a thin comforter that was soft and fuzzy and white like a bunny rabbit. Topping it off was a quilt that pink and felt like silk.
I sat up, letting a bit of chill caress my face. I glanced around the room, which was oddly lit by a few kerosene lamps in two corners of the room. I saw a tall and wide five-drawer dresser. Next to it was a small table, like the ones little kids do their doodles and other art projects at. On the other side of the room, there was a big wooden rocker, which was now swaying back and forth. I smiled at the cute teddy bear that was on it. A few feet from the rocker was a vanity table. The mirror held a dark shadow, which I figured was mine since I could gaze straight into it from where I was sitting. The bed I was in was a huge one, the same size as the one I had landed in with Robbie, and I could tell it was smack in the middle of the huge room. Facing me, there was a door, which seemed like the only way out. I pushed some covers off and crawled to the edge of the bed.
It was only then that I noticed that I had somehow ended up in this strange bed in this strange [and horrible] house. I moved faster because I wanted to get out of here.
But, this bed was really comfy, so I had to stay.
It was a bit too quiet.
So, when someone said, “Hey,” it scared the crap out of me.
I didn’t recognize the voice, so I crawled quickly back into the bed, pulling the covers up over my head.
“Um, are you all right?” I heard the voice speak again.
“Who are you?” I called, out from underneath the covers.
“See for yourself,” came the reply.
I thought that was a bit rude and I pushed the covers away to tell whoever it was how rude I thought he or she or it was.
The rude person turned out to be a tall, brown-haired guy with sparkling apple cider green eyes.
He looked at me, still wrapped up in the covers. I pushed the rest away and sat upright.
“Hi.” I swear that was the only intelligent thing I could think of saying.
And it wasn’t really that intelligent at all.
“Are you okay?” he asked, a second time.
I nodded, only half listening.
The guy, I thought, was pretty cute and I almost melted when he smiled at me.
“I found you in the kitchen, sleeping,” he told me. I’ve been following you around since you got here and you really seemed like you needed a break from the commotion.”
I suddenly remembered Robbie.
“Where’s my brother?” I asked the cutie.
“Who?” He looked at me, curiously.
“There was a boy sleeping next to me,” I told him.
He seemed confused.
“There wasn’t anyone when I found you,” he said, seriously.
I grew nervous.
“My family is somewhere in this house. Whatever demon lives here already killed my father. Robbie could be next!” I heard myself inhaling and exhaling.
“They’re fine, everyone’s fine,” he assured me.
I eyed him.
“How do you know?” I asked, suspiciously.
He raised an eyebrow.
“Are you a tourist or a foreigner or something?”
“What? I don’t even know where we are,” I told him, truthfully.
He laughed.
“You’re in Fairfield, a very exclusive part of it.”
I sighed.
“Are all the farms like this?”
“Do you know what this place is?” He looked at me, like he already knew the answer.
I shook my head.
“It’s a pretend haunted house,” he told me, barely controlling the mirth in his throat.
“A pretend haunted house?” I repeated.
“Yeah, everything that happened tonight was because of us.” He seemed proud of scaring me to death. Hence why I smacked him hard across the face. Of course, he didn’t seem to mind.
“My dad’s not dead?” I knew he wasn’t. But I had to make sure.
“Nope, knocked him out by accident. We bumped into each other and I freaked.” He paused to glance around the room. “This place freaks me out.”
“So, why do you work here?”
He shrugged.
“My brother works here, too,” he told me, as if I was supposed to know.
There was a bit of silence until he decided to break it.
“We heard you freaking out,” he giggled.
I punched him in the arm.
“I thought my father was dead, dumbass!”
“You touched him and you thought he was dead! That’s sad.” He laughed so hard I thought he’d have a heart attack.
“Well, with everything else that happened, I was scared to death,” I protested.
“That’s the point.”
I shook my head.
“Where is everyone?”
He thought.
“Last time I saw Sarah and Grace, they were in the basement,” he said.
I stepped out of the bed and started walking.
“How do you know?” I asked him.
“Jordan’s on duty there. He’s another worker here. He pointed to his belt.
Walkie-talkies. Duh.
“So, Jordan heard them talking?”
“No, he saw them. Then, he grabbed them and shoved them into caskets.”
“That’s not funny,” I said, glaring at him.
“Let’s go get the rest of my family.”
He grinned and we walked along in silence.
It was a while before we found my sisters, huddled together in the dark damp basement. The guy, who eventually told me his name was Cody, shone the flashlight on them and they screamed until they saw me.
“Tracy?” Grace called to me, shielding her eyes from the brightness.
“Yeah, it’s me,” I answered. I went over to her and they both reached out and grasped my body so tight I could barely breathe.
“It’s all right guys,” I said.
“This place is freaky!” Sarah exclaimed.
I nodded to Cody, who explained about the house really was.
“Are you kidding me?” Grace snapped. I could tell the house terrified her.
“Sorry if I scared you guys,” Cody apologized, shrugging his cutie shoulders.
My sisters had pretty much the same taste in guys as me and I could see them bobbing their heads up and down.
“You’re forgiven,” Sarah said, smoothly.
“Good,” Cody replied, looking at me with a smirk on his face.
After several minutes of happiness that we were all alive, we headed upstairs. On the way up, I heard Cody mutter, “I wonder where stupid Jordan is.”
“I do too.” I heard another voice I couldn’t identify answer him.
“Huh?’ We all stopped and turned around.
“Boo!”
“Jordan!” Cody yelled.
“What?”
“You scared us!”
“That’s the point, right?” he asked.
We continued up the stairs and when we got to the top, I scrutinized the newcomer.
He was tall, a good foot taller than everyone else, including Cody. He had blonde hair and deep blue eyes. He was wearing a dark shirt that had Marilyn Manson gleaming on it.
Why would he wear that?
I put this thought out of my mind and we continued searching for the others. As the five of us wandered around, Jordan described how the haunted house worked.
“We have seven workers at one time who do all the freaky things that you see happen here. It was us doing all those freaky things to you guys,” he said.
“So, you pushed the piano down the stairs?’
“Yep.” He looked very pleased. “Took both hands to do it, too.”
I rolled my eyes, but the twins found it hilarious and were laughing their heads off.
“We’re sorry for any inconveniences we may have caused you," Jordan said in a deep manly voice.
“It’s okay,” the girls told him in unison.
“Are you open after midnight?” I blurted out. I don’t even know why I asked it. I guess I was just curious.
“Nope, we close after midnight. We have lives, don’t you know,” Jordan said.
I nodded, understandably.
That makes sense, I thought.
We met the other workers a few minutes later when we saw the five heading toward the door.
“Hey, it’s late and I’ve got school tomorrow,” one said.
“Yeah, be sure to lock up,” another told Jordan.
And just like that, they were gone.
At that moment, I wondered why the other five hadn’t booted us out.
“So, why were we allowed in?’ I asked Cody, who pulled his finger out of his ear when he noticed me staring at him.
“Um, you got here before midnight. And besides, your parents were talking about how lost you were and we felt kind of bad for you.”
“Oh, thanks a lot.”
“You’re welcome,” he replied, stupidly.
“So, did they tell you where my parents and Robbie are?”
“Actually, no.”
“So, you don’t know?”
“Actually, no.”
I started speed walking.
I’d better find them alive, I thought to myself.
We moved quickly in search.
We stayed together, fearing we’d be looking for each other instead of whom we were supposed to be finding. I still couldn’t believe this place had turned out to be a hoax. I was still a bit mad at Cody for bringing me to the bedroom. I was just lucky he was a nice guy and didn’t have the guts to try anything with me, if you get my drift.
I suddenly wondered where Robbie could have been when he found me in the kitchen. Could Robbie possibly have snuck off in search of everyone else, thinking I would be fine on my own? I must have been very deep in thought, as I often had that habit, because I suddenly felt a hard tap on my shoulder.
“Tracy?”
I heard Cody’s voice, but it was only one of the thousands of cars that were zooming through my mind.
“Tracy, are you alive somewhere in there?” Cody waved his hand in front of my face and this time I answered.
“What?” The thoughts ceased and I concentrated on his question, whatever it was.
He touched my arm.
“Are you okay?”
I nodded, not really meaning it.
He shoved a hand in his pocket and kept walking. The five of us had checked the entire first floor and there was no sign of life anywhere.
We made our way to the second floor and searched it. There was no sign of my parents or Robbie at all.
As we approached the stairs, I heard whispering, the kind of whispering my parents did in the car where they thought we couldn’t hear them, but we could.
“Could they have gotten onto the third floor?” I heard Cody ask, a hint of worry in his throat.
“Let’s hope not,” Jordan replied, the same sense of uneasiness in his voice.
“If they are…” Cody seemed scared for his life.
This, of course, freaked me out more.
I turned to them and asked, “What’s on the third floor?”
They stopped and tried to look me in the eyes, but neither attempt was successful.
“Well…” Cody’s voice faded.
Finally, Jordan managed to get the right words out.
“We’re not allowed to take people on that floor?”
“Why not?” I demanded.
He shifted the flashlight that was now our only source of light from one hand to the other, nervously.
“You don’t want to know,” he said, hoping I wouldn’t ask, which I did.
“Hello? My family could be on that floor! Tell me!” I grabbed his shirt and glared into his eyes.
“You’d better tell her,” Grace warned him, “or else she’ll kill you.”
“Yeah,” Sarah agreed, “she hurts.”
Jordan sighed.
“It was the most notorious floor of the entire house,” he began. “So, obviously, people used to go up there all the time.” He paused and glanced at Cody, who nodded for him to continue. “It was where the original owner of the house died. See, he had an affair with the maid and he got her pregnant.” I thought I knew where this was leading, but I let him finish. “The owner stole the baby when it was born, claiming the maid had seduced him and forced him to, you know, do it with her. He got to keep the baby and the maid still had to work for the family. He raped her three more times and had another child, which he stole from her.” Soon after, the lady went nuts and slashed the owner to death. She sent the kids to live with her sister and then disappeared for a few weeks. When the aunt found out she was missing, she went to the house and found her sister on the third floor.” He didn’t want to finish it, but I had already figured out how she died.
“How did she die?” asked Sarah.
“She hanged herself, right?” I looked at Jordan, who barely nodded.
“Eww!” Both my sisters exclaimed at once.
“Eww is right,” Cody said.
Jordan was silent for a few minutes.
“People say she’s still there. Hell, she probably is. After all that’s happened, she’s probably waiting for her kids to come home.”
Cody punched him.
“You’re scaring them, retard,” he said, cocking his head in our direction.
“Don’t worry,” Grace told him, “we don’t scare that easy.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Sure, Grace,” I said.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
I looked at Sarah and I could tell she was near crying.
“Why would someone do something like that?”
I opened my mouth to say something, but I didn’t know what to say. I mean, how could you explain something like murder to a small kid?
Sarah knew I didn’t want to talk about it anymore and opted to drop the subject. It was history anyway. She turned to Cody and started asking him personal questions that a child would ask a stranger.
“Where do you live?”
“What’s your last name?”
“When’s your birthday?”
The one I didn’t understand was, “Do you think that Tracy’s pretty?”
Now, I swear, I had nothing to do with her asking that. I didn’t know she was going to go that far.
I was curious as to what Cody would say.
I looked at him and he looked right back. Even in the dim light, I noticed that his face was turning bright red. Right after I scolded Sarah, I saw Cody smile and I nodded, satisfied with his answer.
We continued walking, and finally decided to make the worst decision. We opted to go to the third floor.
We were not prepared for what we found lying in streaming fountains of blood. At first, we couldn’t tell who it was, but after we wiped some of the blood off the body, we figured it out. And this time, we touched him and he had no pulse. My eyes widened and I couldn’t take it anymore. I walked away, tears flooding my face.
“Tracy?” I heard Cody, but I didn’t want to talk to him.
“Get away from me!”
I was breathing heavy and I collapsed on my knees, sobbing.
Cody tried to console me, but I pushed him away.
“I hate you! I hate this house!”
“I know.” He tried to hug me, but I pushed him away.
“Get my sisters out of here,” I told him, standing up. It was too late for Robbie, but hopefully, it wouldn’t be too late for my parents.
“No,” he said.
I looked up at his face and saw a monster. I couldn’t look at him the same way ever again.
“What?”
“Nobody on this floor can ever leave,” he told me.
I was too upset to notice the truth behind that statement.
“Get them out and help me find my parents.”
He did, leaving me alone with Jordan. My sisters protested as Cody led them down the stairs.
“You know he didn’t do this,” he said.
I nodded, not believing him.
“Let’s keep looking,” he said, reaching for my arm, which I pushed away.
“I don’t trust you,” I snapped.
“I didn’t do this!”
He took my face in his hands held on tight.
“You know I didn’t, I wouldn’t, do this.”
“No,” I told him, through fish lips, “I don’t know you at all. You could have set this up. How am I to know who the hell you are?”
We moved silently in and out of each room.
Nobody.
Nothing.
We were going toward the stairs when I heard a loud wail
“It’s the maid,” Jordan whispered, the hint of fear returning to his throat.
The cry came again. It sounded like my father’s voice when he tripped over Grace’s Beach Boys’ sleeping bag and toppled down the stairs, aka George of the Jungle.
I realized it was my father and followed the voice to a closet.
“Mom! Dad!” I twisted the knob on the door and it finally gave way. I practically ripped the door off its hinges as it swung open and a weighty pile landed on the floor in front of me.
I gazed into my mother’s eyes. She looked panicky, hurt deeply and frightened for her life. When she saw me, her hopes seemed to be raised. She looked extremely glad to see me, although it was a little hard to show it through the duck tape and rope covering her. My father had the same startling emotions on his face.
“Aww, how touching is this!” I heard Jordan’s voice and I thought it was a sick joke.
“”That’s not funny,” I told him, using my pocket knife to untie my parents.
“No, this is not funny,” he replied.
“What?” I asked him, pointing to the duck tape on my mother’s mouth.
“That you are never going to leave this floor again!”
I sighed and glanced up at Jordan, only to see him holding a huge kitchen knife.
“No wonder they call it ‘the horror house,’” he cackled, evilly.
I gasped and started running for my life. I got as far as the stairs before I was grabbed and thrown back at the wall.
There was blood rushing down the left side of my face as I struggled to my feet.
“Why are you doing this?” I shouted at Jordan, who sighed.
“It’s not me,” he said, innocently, “My mother is just very excited that her two boys are home, that’s all.”