The Pressure

Short Story: When Trouble Forces Itself Upon You
Written by: Pat Dwyer

Along the dirt path and through the grassy field lies a rather large three story building. The building has nice dark red brick along the outside, with 4 different doors in a consecutive row along the back wall. It was there the school sat, with the field and area around it currently peaceful, not a person about. But that quickly turned to chaos as the bell of the school rang, and students erupted from the many doors that were surrounding the outside of school. Many high school kids piled out, anyone from the age of 14 to 19, and maybe the odd person that was overstaying their welcome.

As the students kept piling out into the field, strangely there was two young men left that slowly made their way out the front doors. Both seemed to be in an important conversation, but it seemed more like the boy with the red curly hair seemed to be dictating what was going on, while the one with the blond shaggy hair appeared to be occasionally shaking his head in disagreement, though continued to listen any ways. "Come on Jake, you gotta come along for this one! It's just too much fun to pass up!" The red haired boy proclaimed to his friend. "This house would be amazing to explore...just think of the things we might find! Ryan's been there and he told me it was crazy!"

"I don't know about that," Jake replied to his friend, still shaking his head. "What if we get caught? Or what if we get arrested for trespassing? My dad would freak! There's no way I can do this!" Jake seemed edgy about the topic, and continued to walk away from their school, now among the fields and towards the way home. He walked a little faster now, trying to avoid his red headed friend and possibly avoid this conversation all together. Though that didn't seem to work, because his friend caught right back up with him.

"Just think about it Jake, and later on tonight you can let me know what you think. I got the car for the night so we'll get there no problem. Trust me on this man, I know it's a sure thing to find a good stash." The red head let out before noticing that Jake started to pick it up, and this is where he usually left him to go home.

"Yeah, I'll let you know," He said in a doubtful voice, turning away from his friend and heading towards his house, which was just a slight distance down the street. The moment he walked through the front door, Jake dropped all his stuff and sighed relief of finally being home. He leaned against the wall for a minute, let out a deep breath and pushed his head up towards the ceiling.

Jake knew that it'd be wrong to explore the house his friend told him about, but he did feel kind of curious. A house full of possibilities would always be something that could intrigue a young guy, whom all have a sense of adventure. Jake, however decided to ignore this sense, and simply went on to do his homework, which was his typical routine for the night, and finish up just before bed.

Tonight was going to be different then most nights though, because just after he got half way through his geometry homework, his mother yelled for him from downstairs that there was a phone call for him. Jake looked at his watch and realized it was only 8:30, and wasn't exactly sure who'd be calling him...that was until he heard the voice on the other line.

"Hey Jake, are you busy?" The voice asked, sounding very familiar.

"Not really Dave," Jake replied an annoyed voice. "Just trying to get some homework out of the way and then I'll hopefully get some time to relax. Why?"

"Simple. Don't you remember what we were talking about earlier? I wanna go try to loot that house, and see what we can get out of it!" Dave announced enthusiastically.

"I told you I'm not interested in it Dave. Look, I got some other important homework to do before I can sit down to relax. I'll talk to you tomorrow." Click. He hung up the phone and went back to his work, working away and hoping to get himself a good amount of time to relax from today's stresses. But it wasn't long before he was interrupted once again, and this time it was the door for him. He calmly walked down the hardwood stairs only to find Dave, the red headed boy standing at the bottom, pleasantly talking to his mother while he waited for Jake. This dumbfounded Jake, however he just went and met to see what exactly Dave wanted.

"Jacob," His mother started off to him. "David came here saying he was supposed to pick you up so you could go over to his place to help him study for math. I thought that was pretty nice of you..."

"I never said that!' Jake yelled towards his mother. "I don't remember telling him that I would help him study...I thought I told him I was busy!"

"Don't be rude Jacob," Mom replied to him. "If you promised him you better go. I don't want to hear anything about it. He's a good friend of yours, so you should take a few moments out of your night to help him."

"Yeah...well I guess I could if all he needs done is a bit of homework. Alright, let's go Dave." He finished, grabbing his jacket from the nearby closet and leaving the house with him.

The two got into the car, which was a 1999 Sunfire, and started their way down the street, but the direction seemed to be unknown to Jake, whom had a puzzled look on his face when they turned right down the dark street, but kept it to himself. Suddenly a little further down they took a sharp left into a driveway, which lacked light and had a house slightly aside from it, that looked as dead as the night they were out in. "Where are we, Dave?" Jake asked, his voice having a slight bit of fear in it.

"This is the house we're going to loot. I figured we'd drop by sometime tonight and check it out. It's too great of a place to pass up." Dave said, opening his car door and grabbing a flash light that was between the two seats.

"Ah...I really don't think this is a good idea man. We just got here and I already have bad feelings about it."

"It's all good buddy, don't worry about it." He exclaimed in a calm voice. "We might as well go in while we're here. I promise nothing bad will happen...it's just us two. Both of us know how to deal with ourselves, everything will be fine."

Jake simply shrugged, realizing there was nothing he could do to change the mind of Dave, he felt he might as well accompany him in case something was to happen to him within the confines of the house. They both approached the house, that was made of wood and seemed to be fairly worn down, possibly rotten in some parts. All the windows were still framed, but all had glass broken in parts. Jake started to hesitate, but noticed it didn't seem to phase Dave, so he continued to follow his friend closely. They had nothing but the beam of the flash light to follow. Upon opening the front door, Dave was first in, and discovered the floor covered in toys, books, boxes, and other miscellaneous things. The walls surrounding the corridor they were in had holes all through them, and rotted wood to add to that. But still the two boys quickly scrambled to start looking at the things scrambled in front of them, immediately interested that they might find something interesting.

Dave searched a box that was right near his feet, and found a picture of a little girl, with black hair and the Gothic style of make-up. "Check this out Jake. This girls kind of creepy looking..." He flashed the picture towards Jake, whom nodded in agreement. "Let's keep going though," Dave urged his friend. "I want to get a good look at this place before we have to go home." The two carried on, walking down the corridor a bit more, then reaching a door that seemed to go downstairs. Dave grinned, and noticed that Jake wasn't looking too excited about going down. That didn't matter to him though, cause he approached forward and stepped on the first stair, and then CRASH! Suddenly, Dave dropped through the stairs, and his whole lower body was stuck beneath them. His body was only being held up by his arms that rested on the next stair.

"Holy shit!" Jake exclaimed, rushing forward with a terrified look on his face. "What should we do Dave? Want me to go get someone?"

"No...don't worry about it. I'll try to pull myself up." Dave said, as he went to pull himself up before he heard a sound from the corridor Jake was standing in. "What was that?"

Both boys panicked, and Jake yelled when he saw another flash light all of a sudden flash on his face! Dave began to fidget and attempted to pull himself from the stairs, but it would be too late. "What do you think your doing here?" A booming adult voice asked from only a few feet away from Jake. "Get outta here kid! It's dangerous, and on top of that I could get you for trespassing right now." The man stepped out from beyond the darkness, and revealed himself to be a police officer. Jake felt a sigh of relief to know that it was a man that would not hurt them, only help them. He noticed Dave struggling to escape the whole in the stairs, and quickly reached his hand down to him. "Get up, I'll get you boys out of here." He pulled Dave up from the hole in one tremendous tug of the arm, pulling him to his feet and back on the level ground. Neither of the boys said a word yet though, still stunned by the man that had entered the house shortly after them. "Alright boys, let's take you home." The officer said, grabbing both by the collar of their shirts as they walked out of the house.

"It's no problem officer, I can drive us home!" Dave replied, yet his body seemed to be shaking in fear still. "My cars right out front, it shouldn't be a problem."

"Not tonight you aren't. You seem too shaken up. I'll drive you both home to your parents, and warn them not to be letting you kids out at this time of night, especially adventuring in abandon houses." The officer stated, before opening the back door of the car and letting them both sit down.

He closed the back door and started up the engine, backing out onto the main road. Jake looked towards his good friend Dave, whom was now still shaking and holding his head in shame. "I knew we should've just stayed home!" Jake whispered, seeming pretty angry with his friend.

"Don't worry about it, everything will be fine. Trust me, I'll make sure it works out." Dave promised, trying not to shudder too much.

"That's the last time I ever trust you that everything will be alright..." Jake said, then paused, not fit for words at the moment. The car continued down the street towards their houses, with the boys trying to imagine what was going to happen to them now.