The House Next Door

by Delilah Brennan

  "What's going on?" Mrs. Jones paused at the edge of the walkway and eyed her huddled offspring with mild suspicion.

  "Is everything okay over here?"

  "Yes," Jenna said.

  "No,” Keira blurted in the next instant.

  “I see.” Mrs. Jones put her hands on her hips and simply waited.

  “Jenna thinks this house is creepy and she’s afraid the prowler will come back and attack us all in the night.”

  “Thanks a lot Keira.” Jenna grumbled, toeing a loose clod of dirt next to a small hole in the yard, stung by her sisters betrayal.

  “Someone's going to break into the house?” Alyssa gasped. She had come up behind Mrs. Jones, bearing a bright yellow plastic Wal-Mart shopping bag and now she stood next to the older woman, her mouth twisted into a tight bud of anxiety and her eyes wide in the faint glow that was cast by the street light at the corner.

  “No one’s going to break in,” Mom insisted, looking to each girl in turn.

  Jenna was clearly disbelieving, Alyssa was terrified and Keira looked bored.

  “Troy?” Mama called over her shoulder with a sigh, “I could use a little help here.”

  “What are we doing, ladies? It’s getting awfully cold out here, isn't it?”

  Jenna tried to smile at her fathers concerned expression, tried to tell him that everything was fine, so that no one would worry and truthfully she was feeling very embarrassed with everyone staring at her, even Alyssa, no matter that the girl was too waspish and cranky to be considered likable in Jenna’s opinion. What she ended up saying only served to put her fears even further on display.

  “I'm scared to live here, in this house. Everyone on the block thinks it’s old and spooky and I'm afraid that man will come back.” So there, she thought when she had finished laying her personal thoughts and fears out for everyone to see.

  “Hmmm,” her father said after a minute, “Well, lets go inside and talk about it over cookies and whatever we've got that's hot to drink. It’s getting pretty dark out here and its not going to get any warmer that's for sure.”

  And just like that, they all trooped up the sagging porch steps and made their way into the house.

  ***

  One pep talk and three cups of hot peppermint tea later, Jenna found herself laying on a bunch of blankets both new ones and old that they'd found in a dusty forgotten linen closet. Her mother had taken four blankets into each room and folded three into a makeshift pallet, one set for each girl to use as a “bed” for the night and one for each to cover up with; seeing how the furnace refused to work, everyone had whole-heartedly agreed that the thinner blankets would be used to lay on and the thick wool ones would be used for warmth. It made for an uncomfortable, cold-without-being-all-out-freezing kind of night.

  She’d rolled over again and again, struggling with the dual task of getting comfortable on the hard floor and wrapping up in such a way as to keep from turning into a popsicle.

  So far she had been failing miserably at both. She wished then, more so than ever, for her own bed and her own blankets-for her own house with its heat that always worked and hot cocoa and double stuffed Oreos...Jenna closed her eyes and prayed for everything to be the same as it had been early that morning, before she and Keira had fallen back asleep, or even last night, when they'd witnessed a break in and been scared and certain the night couldn't get any worse. They'd been wrong.

  She squeezed her eyes shut and prayed harder than she ever had in her life. But when she opened them to peer around the dark and dusty and empty room, she realized that nothing had changed. The floor was still hard and unwelcoming beneath her, she was still cold and her house was still a clumpy, lumpy pile of ash next door.

  This she confirmed by climbing from the floor and walking over to the window. Why not? She thought sourly, sleep wouldn’t come anyway and maybe if she kept moving the cold wouldn't feel so bad. It worked when she had to run laps at school in the winter, she reasoned. Pacing from one foot to the other, she huffed out a breath, which misted in front of her to fog a circle in the glass. The window was as bare as the rest of the room, she thought, tracing a series of tiny circles in the pane, and every bit as dusty.

  Suddenly a flash of movement caught the corner of her eye and she leaned forward to get a better look. Something…she breathed, no, someone, was sneaking around the yard.

  Chapter Nine

  Psalm 9:10 “And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee; for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee”

  Jenna nearly screamed out loud, but somehow she swallowed the shrill sound and pressed window grime covered fingers to her lips. The dark figure was creeping slowly and carefully along the edge of the fence, moving toward the back gate; Jenna was scarcely aware of her other hand gripping the window frame until her palm began to ache. She looked down; her fingers had left smooth marks in the dusty sill. Presently she realized that she couldn't just stand at the window all night. She had to wake her parents-they had to call the police. So she hurried from the room and dashed down the long corridor, forgetting all about being uncomfortable, not even noticing anymore that she was cold.

  The room at the end of the hall where her parents were sleeping wasn't furnished any better than her own and in the back of her mind Jenna was grateful for this; it meant she didn't have to worry about tripping over foot stools and dodging odds and ends as she raced into a dark room that she had only seen one other time for a grand total of thirty seconds.

  "Mom-Dad!" She gasped, breathless from her flight. "You have to get up-there’s someone outside!"

  Later Jenna would marvel over her parents ability to go from sleeping to wide awake hit the ground running in three-point-five.

  "Show me." Her father said, making room for her at the window once they were back in the room that faced the side yard. His larger hands gripped the sill, obliterating the marks that Jenna's much smaller fingers had left in the dust.

  "He was right there." She frowned. "Along the fence. He must have gone into the backyard...maybe." She bit her lip and let her gaze roam the blackness beyond the glass, searching for an equally dark figure that moved among the gathering shadows of night. "Well I don't see him now," she admitted, still scanning the yard. "but he was there-he was!"

  "Jenna..." her mother murmured gently in that tone she used to use when Jenna would wake from a nightmare and insist that a monster lurked in her closet, or more often than not, under the bed.

  "You believe me, don't you?" She asked her mom, then. "Dad?"

  "We believe that you saw something out there," his answer, when it came, was carefully worded. "but are you absolutely certain it was a person?" He pressed.

  "I-"

  "It's awfully dark out there." Mrs. Jones stepped a little closer to her husband. "I cant see anything at all."

  "I think the street light might be on the Fritz again." Her dad mused.

  "Hmm." Her mother agreed. "Do you want to sleep in the bedroom with us?" She finally asked her daughter.

  "You're more than welcome to bunk with us, kiddo." Her father said.

  "No thanks, Dad, Mom." Jenna swallowed, nervous and humiliated. It was bad enough that they didn't believe her...

  Never mind that a small-tiny really-part of her actually did want to sleep in her parents bedroom. It didn't matter, she vowed as she watched them leave the room and close the door quietly behind themselves. She would never admit it. Not now and not in a million years.

  Jenna listened to the sound of her parents footsteps and the breath seemed to catch in her throat when she heard their door close at the end of the hallway. The silence that followed made her feel cold, scared and alone. No, she strengthened her resolve; she still would not go to her parents and admit just how scared she really was, would not ask to sleep with them.

  She would, however, impose upon Keira and bunk with her. After taking three deep calming breaths, she reached out and closed cool fingers around the antique prism glass doorknob
, pulling slightly but firmly away from both door and knob and twisting slowly just the way Keira had instructed. Jenna felt a surge of pride when the door opened with only the barest whisper of sound.

  The hall was dark and eerie and Jenna sent up a silent prayer of thanks that, like their old house, Keira’s room was located next door. How strange it felt to think of her home in the past tense…

  "Strange but true." She sighed., taking care to keep her voice down and her footsteps light and cautious. She inched along the short distance with her back pressed against a plaster wall that chilled her skin even through her pajama top. She'd almost reached Keira’s room when a terrible thought occurred to her. What if the man-she was certain somehow that he was a man-managed to get into the house?

  The mental picture this painted was enough to make her freeze where she stood. Statue still, her wide green eyes darted toward the pitch black opening that housed the stairwell at the opposite end of the hallway. There was supposed to be a light above it, but of course, like nearly everything else in the house, it didn't work.

  Jenna smothered her second almost-scream of the night a moment later when the door next to her opened soundlessly and icy fingers latched onto her in the dark.

  It was only Keira, she realized when her heart rate had returned to normal. The older girl shook her blonde head and pressed a finger to her lips. Jenna nodded. She understood the message that Keira hadn't spoken. Be quiet. In the next instant she found herself yanked out of the hallway and into Keira’s room.

  "Keira-"

  "Shh. Whisper."

  "Keira," she tried again, softer this time. "I saw a man in the yard."

  "I know." Her eyes caught a glint of moonlight from the bare window. "I heard you tell Mom and Dad."

  "They don't believe me. They thought I’d had a nightmare, I think."

  "I believe you-I saw him too."

  "You did?"

  "I couldn't sleep either." She confessed.

  "But you're sure?" Jenna took her sisters hands and stared at the window. "You really saw him too?"

  Keira nodded and for the first time Jenna noticed that her older sister had put on her street clothes over her pajamas.

  "I think he went into the back yard."

  "Well what are we waiting for?" Jenna started toward the door.

  "Where are you going?"

  "To get Mom and Dad again."

  "No." Kara shook her head, firm.

  "But were have to wake them up!"

  "They won’t believe me anymore than they did you." She pointed out, looking every bit as scared as Jenna felt.

  "But we have to call the police."

  "We will. But we need to see where he is and what he’s doing. Then we'll call the police."

  "Yes, but-"

  "If we tip him off that we know he's here, he’ll get away again and then he will just come back."

  Jenna hated to admit it but what her sister said made sense. "What do we do?" She asked, trying to stay calm.

  "We need to see the backyard. He went toward the back gate and stepped over the fence."

  "How are we supposed to see into the backyard?" Jenna frowned.

  "Alyssa's room." Both girls whispered at the same time.

  Chapter Ten

  2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new

  "Alyssa's room overlooks the backyard" Keira confirmed. "Although she might be scared."

  "Trust me," Jenna shook her head, "she's tougher than she looks."

  Keira gave her a confused stare but didn't question that. "Lets go. Quietly."

  "Wait!"

  "What now?" She turned and pinned her sister with an exasperated look.

  "How are we supposed to call the police with no phone?"

  Neither Keira nor Jenna owned a cell phone and she was almost positive that she hadn't seen a landline phone at any time during the tour of the old house. Anyway, it wasn't as if they had all the time in the world to wander the silent old house in search of one. That left the only telephones on the property...in their parents room. Jenna pointed this out to her sister with a growing sense of dread.

  "You'll just have to go in there and borrow one of their phones, Jen."

  "What?" She cried, nearly forgetting the urgent need to whisper. "Why do I have to get it?"

  "You're smaller than me." Keira pointed this out as though it should have been a perfectly logical conclusion.

  "What does that have to do with anything?"

  "You'll be able to slip into their room and back out again without making as much noise as I would. If I go, more boards will creak and I’d even have to open the door wider to fit through it...and then that would probably even creak." She looked down her nose at Jenna in the dark, despite the fact that both girls were close to the same height, and size for that matter.

  "You're making all that up." Jenna accused.

  "I am not."

  "You are."

  "Well do you want to do this already or stand here fighting about who has the harder job?"

  "That’s easy," she said with a sigh, "I do."

  Sometimes, Jenna mused, being the little sister was a total pain, even if it was only by two and a half years. Jenna knew exactly why Keira had elected her to go sneaking into their parents room in the middle of the night for a cell phone, and it had nothing to do with being light on her feet. Keira just didn't want to be the one to get into trouble if it all went south.

  Regardless, Jenna tuned around and marched silently out the door and down the hall before she had the chance to lose her nerve. Her spine tingled but she was braver now that her sister walked the hall at her other side. Each paused outside of their designated door.

  "Meet me in here as soon as you get the phone. I'm gong to go wake up Alyssa."

  "Okay." She nodded and took a deep breath and faced her parents door.

  "Jenna." Keira hissed in the dark.

  "What?"

  "Go for Moms phone if you can-she keeps it in her purse. Dads will be next to him-too risky."

  Jenna raised one eyebrow at her sibling but there wasn't time to ask how she had come by that information, or rather, why.

  She watched Alyssa's door close behind Keira and knew she couldn't put it off any longer. And she definitely didn’t want to linger in the empty hall any longer than she had to. So she sucked in one breath and then another, desperate to draw in enough air; she felt like she was on the verge of hyperventilating. Still, she grasped the doorknob and did her little pull back and turn maneuver and then it was done. She was in.

  The room was freezing, even colder than her own frigid bedroom. Jenna shivered then spotted her mothers purse an easy four to five feet to her left on the floor and wondered if the sound of her heart beat would wake up her sleeping parents. Somehow she managed to breath normally and it only took a few moments more for her to kneel down beside the baseboard and slip a hand into the large tote-purse her mother always carried. Mama frequently recounted stories of Jenna as a baby, teething on the wide aluminum rings and canvas strap of the bag.

  Jenna looked down at the purse and cringed, feeling a little guilty for stealing from it now. Still, she told herself that it was necessary. Keira and Alyssa waited for her in the other bedroom and...Keira was sort of counting on her, in a way. Her fingers skimmed the edge of something smooth and hard-the cell phone! She snatched it up and slipped from the room as quietly as she had come.

  Alyssa was wide awake when Jenna entered the room, and, she was relieved to see, the girl was calm. That was good. Jenna had been half worried that the younger girl would cry or make some other noise, despite her tough exterior. But Alyssa was quiet as she knelt beside Keira beneath the window that faced the back yard.

  Jenna dropped her tall body into a low crouch and practically crawled across the room to join the other two. Alyssa glanced at her with eyes that looked too large for her face, and seemingly forgetting th
at she didn't like Jenna, scooted over to make room at the filthy window.

  "Is he out there?"

  "He's there." Keira told her in a tense little voice. "Call the police."

  "Okay." Jenna huddled below the sill and her fingers shook as she dialed. In a pitchy voice she told the dispatcher on the other end of the line that there was an intruder in the yard and gave the address.

  "What's he doing?" She relayed the question to her sister.

  "He's digging holes."

  Jenna's eyes became huge green orbs but she passed the information on to the police. The woman at the other end of the line asked her not to hang up but Jenna fingers felt numb and not at all steady, and, she reasoned, the police were on their way, after all. So she set the phone down and used one foot to slide it across the room.

  "What did you do that for?" Keira demanded.

  "She said to stay on the line."

  "Are they coming?"

  Jenna stared at Alyssa, somewhat shocked that the girl had spoken to her without sounding the least bit cranky. "They're coming. Keira why’s he digging a hole?"

  "Not a hole. Holes. A lot of them."

  "How strange."

  "Tell me about it. It's almost like he's looking for something."

  "I wonder what it could be." Jenna whispered, daring to peer over the window sill for a better look.

  "These windows are so dirty." She complained.

  "And of course this window would have to be the dirtiest one of all." Keira shook her head.

  "Why don't we open the window?"

  Jenna and Keira stared at Alyssa and considered the child’s suggestion.

  "It’s not a bad idea." Keira concluded.

  "We could hear if he says anything," Jenna added, "and we could tell the police when they get here."

  "Okay, lets do it." Keira agreed and motioned for her sister to do the honors.

  "No way. I had to steal the cell phone. You open the window."

  "Oh, alright. Nobody make a peep." She ordered the younger girls before she slid the window up inch by slow inch until it was almost at the top. Jenna knew she didn't push the window all the way up because to do so would have created a loud creak in the otherwise silent bedroom. Instead, she stopped a few inches from the top and leaned over.

  "That’s a lot better." She whispered.