Chapter 9
Long and Silent Ride Home
Mike was easily going around twenty miles an hour over the speed limit and recklessly swerving around bends. He even ran a few stop signs so he could put as much distance between them and the house as he could. He knew he could get away with it at this time of day as long as he stuck to certain roads, it probably wouldn’t have mattered even if he didn’t know he could.
Jen was more scared out of the two, he was at least functioning which was a good thing given the pace he was putting his car through. She however was sitting in her seat with her knees pulled up to her chin and her face buried in them. When they initially started the drive she began to rock back and forth but her pace began to slow the further they got from the house until she was finally sitting still.
“Jennifer!” He had been trying to get her to answer time and time again but she wasn’t. “Baby I need you to answer me. Are you ok? You didn’t get hurt did you?”
She finally lifted her face off her knees and looked over at him and shook her head. Her eyes were red from tears and she had a large red mark on her forehead from having it pressed up against her knees. “Whatever that was, it wanted to hurt me. I could just feel it.” She took the back of her hand and wiped away the leftover tears from her face. “I have never been so scared. Could you feel it? Has that ever happened to you in there before?”
He glanced over at Jen and shook his head. “Nothing like that.” He looked up and checked his mirrors then took the exit to the highway. “I’ve seen things there before but nothing ever like that.”
“What happened when you and Wes were kids? What scared you to the point of being afraid the house?”
Mike looked to his left making sure there were no cars coming then he sped up as he pulled off the ramp and onto the highway. He waited a few more seconds then set the cruise and began the major part of the long ride home. He was still going well over the speed limit even being this far away from the house. “We were at a Halloween party.” The memories that had been so foggy and distant just an hour ago had come back to him at full force. It was as if the dark figure was a spark that lit a fire bringing all his memories from that night boiling up to the surface.
“There was a Halloween party there?” She asked.
“Yeah it was when it was abandoned it was actually something of a neighborhood tradition.”
“Why?”
“It was creepy and everyone heard stories of it being haunted. What better place for a bunch of idiot teens to hang out at night, especially on Halloween?” He looked over at her and she was staring at him with a questionable look. “We never had any real experiences there it was all just talk back then. The party started around six or so just as the sun was starting to go down. It was like a countdown to the fun.” Mike smiled. “There was about twenty of us there but Wes and I had ventured off on our own. Everyone else pretty much stayed together in the down stairs but he wanted to go upstairs so I went with him. That was the first time we saw her. We made our way into a room at the far end of the hall and when we opened the door. There was just enough light coming in from outside that we could still make things out. When we walked in we saw her standing by this old wardrobe.” He paused and checked to see if the left lane was clear so he could get around a slow moving semi.
Jen looked at him as if to say what happened next. She was unaware of the reason he stopped talking until she saw him checking his mirror. She then put her face back in her knees waiting for him to continue the story.
“She was just standing there like she wanted to look through it but couldn’t. At the site of her Wes dropped the flashlight he had and when it hit the floor she turned to look at us. The look on her face before she turned was… well it was hard to describe really. It was like a look of yearning I guess is the best way I can describe it. Then as she turned and saw us her face changed, it was like she was the one seeing the ghost. Her eyes settled on me and then she glanced over at Wes then back to me. She stood there for a few seconds before she just took off running. Then she just vanished after a few steps.”
“What happened next?” Jen asked.
“Well we took off running.” He glanced over at Jen. “Honestly I never really believed in all of that stuff even after what happened to me there on Halloween. It was like I had some kind of mental aversion to it or something. It was like one minute I’d be thinking it was real then not even trying to my mind would cut itself off and say no. Up until a few minutes ago I’ve nerver remembered that night so clearly.”
“Sounds like you’re in some kind of denial.” She unwrapped her arms from around her legs and placed her feet on the floor. “Wonder what happened to you.”
“What?” It was his turn to give a questionable look. “What do you mean?”
“Learned it in Psych. Traumatic enough events can scar you and like you said it’ll cause a mental aversion to something.” She noticed him giving her awkward glances. “It’s like the rape victim whose experience was so traumatic that she will completely deny it ever happening and can even put up a mental block so it’s like she forgot it ever happened. The emotional damage tends to stay of course but the memory as to why the damage is there is gone.” She turned her head and began to look out the front windshield. “Makes me wonder if something happened to you that made you put up such a mental block.”
He had no answer or response. He just sat there in silence staring in front of him.
“How do you feel about it now? Are you trying to explain what happened today away with a twisted form of logic?” Jen’s tone behind the question was almost challenging.
“No, of course not. I wasn’t trying to offend you or belittle anything. After what happened there and…” He stopped mid-sentence.
“And what?” She spit out. Realizing the harshness of her tone she calmed herself down before she spoke again. ”Sorry sweetie wasn’t trying to sound like a bitch I’m just really freaked out.”
“I understand don’t worry.” He did his best attempt at a reassuring smile he could muster.
“Why now? Why do you believe now instead explaining it off as some kind of wind current or an updraft or something?”
Had he not been so shaken up still he would have laughed however his lips did involuntarily turn up in a slight smile though. “You.”
“Me?” She turned back to him.
“Yeah when anything happened to me it was whatever, but seeing you and how scared you were… the look on your face… I can’t get it out of my head.”
She reached down and placed her hand on his leg. She actually started to tear up. She unbuckled her seat belt and leaned over and laid her head on his arm. “I love you so much.”
He lifted his arm and wrapped it around her.
She closed her eyes as she lay against him eventually nodding off to sleep.
He drove in silence, though he would have turned the radio on had his arm not been wrapped around Jen. He was afraid if he moved it she’d wake up and after the scare she just had, sleep wasn’t a bad thing. So instead he sat there staring out the windshield at a nearly empty highway. They had been on the road for only forty minutes and they had about four hours to go before they were home. It was usually longer but the fast paced beginning of the trip had shaved some time off for sure and his hurried pace now would surely shave off more. As he stared out the window what Jen had said started playing in the back of his mind. Had something happened to me when I was younger? If so what? He thought to himself. He began wracking his brain trying to think but the only thing he came up with was Halloween night but his mental block in believing in paranormal activity had started before that. Maybe I should ask my parents. Maybe they know of something like nightmares or anything. He thought. As much as it was nagging at him he decided that he didn’t have an answer and if he was blocking it then it was going to take more than just thinking about it to find the answer so he started trying to think about something else.
Just as hi
s mind was starting to fill with other thoughts his phone went off. The sudden noise woke Jen up with a fright and as soon as she caught her composure she took it out of his pocket to see who it was. Upon looking at the phone her face went pale and she dropped the phone.
“What? What is it?” Mike asked though he thought he had the answer already.
“Wes.” She reached to pick up the phone and it went off again and again. It wouldn’t stop beep after beep text after text. She started shaking and handed the phone to him.
He slide his thumb across the screen opening it up and there repeating itself was the word NO. It had to be there thirty times and then it stopped. It wasn’t over, the phone began to ring now. This wasn’t a text, this was a call and it was coming from Wes’s phone. Theye sat there shocked.
“Don’t answer it.” Jen said as she sat there shaking.
The ring stopped and it didn’t come back, but a few second later there was another beep but it wasn’t a text this time. It was a voicemail.
He sat there unsure what to do. He decided to pull off to the side of the road so he could compose himself. As he sat there he stared at the phone then glanced over at Jen. She had no response. So he decided there was only one thing to do now. He went to his voicemail and hit play then put it on speaker. What happened next was enough to bring Jen back to tears and take the breath and color right out of him. There coming out of his phone in the most terrifying drawn out guttural growl came one word. He played it again to make sure it was real and there it was again in the same horrifying voice.
“Die”
Mike ripped the back of his phone off and tore the battery out and threw it all into the backseat
The rest of the way was driven in silence neither knowing what to say. It was like their brains clicked over to autopilot. Even when they made it home they silently got out of the car, made their way into their house without saying a word. They walked straight to their room and crawled into bed. Jen scooted next to Mike and he wrapped his arms around her. They laid not saying a word till they eventually fell into a dreamless, broken, and restless sleep.
Unliving Love Page 11