"Be careful and don't eat too many popcorn balls." My father yelled from the living-room.
"You sure you don't want me to take you? You can just call me when you're ready to come home and I'll drive back out there. It's a school night and you know how bad your dreams have been lately."
I shook my head. "I took my medicine after dinner, so I should be good. Honestly, mom. I can't let whatever is happening with me change my life."
"She's right, baby." My dad butted in.
"Hush, Clay!" She turned to me with panic on her face. "Please? I have a bad feeling about this."
"Nope." I moved toward her and gave her a quick squeeze. "You agreed to let me go earlier this week. No kicks or take-backs."
"Ugh. Fine. Text me all night. Like a million times."
"Yeah, cause that's cool." I rolled my eyes and walked to the door. "Love you. See you tomorrow after school."
I paused as trepidation rolled over me. A cold chill ran down my spine and I glanced back at my mother.
"Jen? What's wrong?"
"Nothing. Just had a moment of deja vu, I guess." I shrugged and walked out the door, playing it off in front of her perfectly. By the time I got to my car, I was shaking. I closed the door and started the heater, blaming the cold air for my jacked up condition.
I put the car in reverse and let out a soft yelp as something dark moved behind the car. Pulling down the rear-view mirror, I sat up straight and narrowed my eyes. It was just after dusk and the moon had yet to appear, but the sun still gave off a bit of residual light.
After locking the doors, I started to back up. I ignored the voice inside of me that told me quite clearly to go back to my room and lock the doors.
"Shut up. For seventeen years I've been trying to get this boy to go with me to the mansion and now he says yes and I want to act like a scared little girl? Hell no." I put the car in drive and sped toward the edge of town. Some part of me hoped that a cop would pull me over and give me a ticket. At least then I'd be forced to go back home. I
I could invite Zach to the lake and we could spend the evening just talking and eating all the snacks I'd got.
My phone buzzed and I pulled it up as I slowed the car by the road in town. It was Zach. He was already there and wondering where I was.
"Dang." I turned down the road and pulled up, parking my car in the heavy brush of trees that covered the property. I didn't see his truck, but he said he was there.
Grabbing my bag from the floorboard, I got out of the car and walked toward the rickety old mansion. A calm settled over me that made no sense, but I was grateful for it. Where Zach was an adrenaline thrill seeker, I wanted a paranormal experience more than anything else in life.
Excitement bubbled up in me as I approached the old mansion, the dilapidated sign out front giving me pause. I took my phone out and took a picture of it. I'd have to put everything in my journal for later.
Vandercamp Mansion, a Place for Mentally Challenged Youth
"Zach?" I called out and moved up the four concrete steps that led to the large white and grey house. The property was overgrown and though a lake sat out to the left of it, I could barely make it out because of the bushes and trees. The home had at least fifteen bedrooms from what I recalled. I'd read bits of the story when I was in junior high and went through a phase of being completely obsessed with finding ghosts.
After getting into high school, my main obsession was not letting Zach find out how much I was in love with him. That alone was creepy.
The front door opened slowly on its own and I pressed my teeth into my bottom lip as a smile lifted my lip. "No way..."
"Boo!" He jumped out, holding an old timey lantern.
I screamed and took a step back, losing my balance. "Oh hell."
He reached out quickly and took my hand, pulling me toward him. I crashed into him, which was better than rolling backwards down the stairs. Glancing down, I realized my hands were on his chest and the fabric of his t-shirt was awfully thin... too thin.
"All these years of trying to scare you, and all I had to do was jump out of Vandercamp Mansion? Jeez. This would have saved me a lifetime's worth of planning." He smiled and brushed my hair off my shoulder. "I missed you this week."
I nodded and side stepped him. Too much. Too fast.
"I missed you too." I kept my voice nonchalant and very friend-like. "How's your mother?"
"She's not doing so well." He moved up beside me as we walked into a large ornate hallway.
I glanced over toward him as sadness rolled over me. "I'm sorry. You want to talk about it?"
"Nope. I want to spend my birthday with my favorite girl in the universe."
"Oh? Sadie's coming?" I chuckled as he reached out and took my hand.
He lifted my fingers to his face and brushed a soft kiss over my knuckles. "No. I wouldn't want to be with anyone but you. Ever."
I didn't know what to say. The softness of his kiss left me mesmerized and a thousand ghosts could have come and danced around us and I'd not have paid them a bit of attention.
"Let me show you where everything is." He winked and pulled our hands down, keeping a light hold on my fingers.
"Yeah. That would be great." I sounded like a robot and couldn't do a damn thing about it. I wanted another kiss... lots of kisses.
He turned us to the left and nodded at his bag on the ground. "Put your stuff over there. This used to be an old waiting room. You know these people had like ten foster kids, but the father actually held a practice here too."
"He was a doctor?" I tossed my bag toward his, flinching as the dust from his rose up and made a mushroom cloud. "Gross."
"Yeah, it's nasty in here. We should have brought masks." He tugged on me and I moved back to the hall, pausing as I glanced over my shoulder.
I forced myself to imagine the room filled with women and children from the nineteen-thirties. The vision of them sitting and chatting, reading magazines and laughing came to life in front of me. It was as real as me and Zach.
"He was a brain surgeon. The stuff I read said he was the most brilliant man of his time."
I turned around and stiffened. Various figures moved around the house, some nurses, some patients, but it was the tall, handsome man in a lab coat at the end of the hall that scared the hell out of me. It wasn't that I could see him.
It was that he could see me.
Chapter Eight
"Jen. You okay?" Zach moved in front of me and I blinked a few times as the images faded.
"Yeah. Just didn't get much sleep last night. I was picturing the people that might have been in the house at the time." I leaned to my right, trying to see if anyone was still in the hallway. Nothing.
"Well, they would have been from the thirties." He leaned back into my way and smiled. "Did you bring the books about the history of the place?"
"Yeah. I figured we could pull them out later after we took the tour." I chuckled and released his hand, needing the freedom to explore a little. The large room to the right looked more like a waiting room than the other rooms. "What do you think this was?"
"Assessment lab." He moved into the room and glanced around.
I turned and pinned him with a stare. "How do you know this?"
"I did my homework. You surprisingly enough... did not." He moved to the opening of the room and ran his fingers down the dusty wall. "See this break in the drywall?"
I walked over to the wall and moved in for closer inspection. I turned and sneezed loudly as he laughed beside me.
"Don't breathe the dust in. Its dead human cells. No telling what tortured soul you just sniffed." He shook his head and pointed back to the wall. "There was another wall here. Someone tore it down, but the original design showed that something was here."
Wiping my hand over my nose, I leaned in again. "I hope the kid takes over my body and scares the crap out of you."
He ran his hand down my back and took a step toward me. "Really? You want some ghost to jump inside of
you and ruin our night together? You haven't even told me happy birthday."
I felt like crap. I hadn't. "Happy birthday."
"You'll need to make up for that. It's not even special now that you've only said it because I told you too." He moved closer. "Birthday kiss from the prettiest girl in the world?"
"Yeah..." I whispered and lifted to my toes as he pressed his lips to mine.
A soft burst of air ran across the back of my legs and I jerked from him, turning to look for the reason behind it. The air vents sat at the perfect level to be at fault, but surely there was no power in the place.
"Well... that'll never do." His voice was comical and full of life.
I turned back around and shook my head at him. "It will have to do for now. I'm not willing to close my eyes again until I feel safe."
"What? J scared in a haunted house?"
"This isn't just a silly haunted house. It's the epicenter of death and tragedy. If there is such a thing as a ghost, it's going to be here. I just wonder if they are violent or like, well like puffs of air."
"Why does it matter?" Zach moved away from me and walked down the hall. "Grab your book. We'll look at it as we go."
"It matters because if all they are is air, then we have nothing to worry about. Air can't reach out and choke the life out of you." I walked back to the front and bent down, glancing at his bag and running my fingers over the thick coating of dust on it. Mine had hardly any.
"When is the last time you stuck your head out of a moving car?" His voice wrapped around me, eerily so.
I pulled out the larger of the two books and stood up, turning to walk back to him. His kakis’ and oxford shirt were a little much compared to my yoga capris and t-shirt. I would give him hell over that later.
"This is true. I guess if the air is forceful enough." I paused in front of him, contorting my face.
His brow pulled to and he reached down, taking my arms and getting into my face. "Jen, what's wrong? Is something getting you?"
"Yes. The. Air. Is. Killing. Me." I let out a long sigh and lulled my head to the side, smiling because I was a horrible liar. The devil made me do it - smile.
"Not funny." He released me and walked toward the long strip of doorways. A thick, ornate staircase rose to the second level, but multiple boards were missing. I wasn't too sure I was going to chance our safety by asking him to traverse it with me. Besides, there was enough to scare most people into a coma on the bottom floor alone.
"I had to. You scared me at the front door, so we're almost even." I flipped the book open and glanced through the pages.
"Almost even?" He moved up beside me and leaned against my arm, reading over my shoulder.
"Yeah. You scared me at the lake the other day too, remember?"
"It doesn't count if you're not scared."
"I almost peed myself." I smiled again. Damn Devil.
"Liar." He pushed a few pages back. "Here. Let's look at the kids involved and we'll stop by their rooms."
I moved to the first one, not entirely sure my sense of morbidity wanted to dive that deep. Torturing big burley guys and hookerish girls in the movies was one thing, but the couple that died in the house had tortured kids. Like sweet, little innocent kids. Why?
"This first one is Tommy Jackson. Find him and tell me what happened with him."
I flipped to his page before glancing up and pinning my handsome cohort with a hard stare. "How do you know this was Tommy's room?"
Zach laughed and pointed to the sign on the door. The boy’s name was written on it with little birds and balls drawn all over it.
"That's creepy." I looked back down at the book and moved into the room behind Zach.
"No joke. Tell me again why I let you talk me into this?"
"Because you're my best friend and my desires outweigh your conscience." I shrugged.
"More than you know." There was sadness in his voice and I started to apologize for dragging him there, but he tapped the wall, scaring me. "Read it."
"Okay. Jeez." I cleared my throat, hoping not to run into anything too bad in the book. "Tommy Johnson was a ten year old little boy send from Rust, Louisiana. His father said he had trouble sleeping at night and when the boy would speak, several voices would come out at once. They tried an exorcism, but it only seemed to make the child worse. After he..." I paused as my eyes scanned the rest. Horror sat on me like a thick cloak.
"... murdered his three year old sister and stabbed his mother in the chest twelve times after he tied her up in her sleep... he was sent here." Zach moved toward me, his eyes wide as fear sat on him too.
"You read this?" I asked.
"Not that one, but like I said... I tried to prepare for this. We aren't doing this again. This one time is it, so I wanted you to get the full effect."
"I brought the book. You didn't need to memorize this crap. It will give you nightmares."
"It would have been nice if you told me that a week ago." Zach moved out into the hall as I turned to look at the little bed.
The rest of the room had been stripped, but the bed sat in the corner. A soft tapping resounded from the closet and I jerked to face it.
"Zach?"
No response.
"Zach, if you're in this freaking closet, I swear I'm going to scare you to death tonight."
Tap. Tap. Tap.
I reached for the handle and jerked it open as the air moved around me and a soft giggle echoed in the emptiness. A dull red kick ball rolled out of the closet and I took another step back, inhaling sharply as two hands wrapped around my shoulders.
I screamed as loud as I could and turned to find the room empty. Zach barreled in, breathless.
"What the hell?" He moved toward me and pulled me into a hug.
"I don't know. I saw the ball, heard the kid." I pointed toward the closet, but the ball was gone. "Then someone grabbed me from behind."
"Ha. Ha. J. Very funny." He leaned down and pressed his forehead to mine. "No more scaring me. This is hard enough as it is. Got it?"
"I'm not kidding." I jerked from him and walked out into the hall. "Maybe we should go. I'm telling you I heard the kid."
"Okay. Okay." He walked out and shook his head as if he were being sweet to agree to play along with my delusions. "We can totally go if you want. I'd be thrilled."
I turned to look at him as his lip lifted in a smirk.
"No. You know what. I'm good. Let's let you have a ghost grab a hold of you so you don't think I'm crazy." I pushed at his chest and he took a step back.
He glanced at the watch on his arm. "Well, it’s only nine-thirty. This place is said to be a place for the harbinger to arise at midnight. I'm down with staying for another couple of house, but anything to do with racking in the harvest for hell... no. Just no."
He visibly paled and I laughed. "I'm staying until one in the morning. Actually. I'm staying all night. You are too."
I grabbed his arm and we walked to the next room as I paused. "Wait. What happened to the little boy? Did the couple kill him?"
"I don't know. The stories in the history books just say that everyone was poisoned. No one died a gory tragic death." Zach shrugged and ran his fingers by the name on the door. "Carolyn Smithers."
"Really? I thought part of the drama of this place was that the doctor and his wife slaughtered these kids."
"What? No." He turned as his face pulled into a grimace. "They were trying to help these kids, but I just told you what everyone believed this place to be."
"So the couple killed the kids to give the reaper something to take?"
"I don't know." He shrugged. "I just know that everything I read doesn't leave me feeling like they were villains."
"They poisoned tons of kids over their lifetime, Zach. I'm pretty sure that's evil."
"Carolyn Smithers." He glance back at me as if I'd said nothing.
I growled and flipped to the page where her name sat. "She was a sixteen year old girl out of Pascagoula, Mississippi.
She was found guilty of twelve counts of manslaughter and cannibalism." I looked up at him as my stomach rolled. "Good God, this is horrible. I don't want to read anymore."
"She seduced all those boys, strangled them when they were tied down to her bed, cut them up and ate parts of them while they screamed." Zach wiped his hand on the back of his mouth, leaving a trail of blood across his lips.
I screamed and turned my face from him as my stomach rolled. I moved out of the room and walked down the hall as a pretty young girl walked past me and turned into the room, dragging Zach with her. The door slammed and I dropped the book, running to the closed door and beating on it as Zach's scream tore through me.
"No. No. Open the door. Zach, open the door, baby. Open the door!"
"Open it yourself." A gravelly voice whispered behind me.
Chapter Nine
I screamed and jerked around as tears filled my eyes. Nothing.
"Zach, if you're jacking with me, you won. Great job. I'm terrified." I turned and beat on the door. It pushed open as if it was never closed. "I want to go."
Walking in, I looked around, half expecting Zach and some pretty actress to be standing in the corner, laughing. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I moved to the closet and took a shaky breath before jerking it open. The body of a teenage boy hung from the clothes rack, his flesh torn and oozing blood. I screamed again and ran to the window as a soft moan wrapped around me.
"Make it stop. Please. I'm sorry I asked you to come here. Please. Please, make it stop." I closed my eyes and moved to the closest corner in the room. Sliding down to the floor, I tucked my legs against me as my heart raced. If Zach was behind this, I was going to disown him as a friend. It was too real. Too horrible.
Had he made up all of those stories or were they real? Were children capable of such heinous things?
Forcing myself to glance up, I sucked in air like there was only a little left in the room. My panting filled the quietness in my head and I pulled my fingers from my ears, worried about having not found Zach yet.
Darkness Echoes: A Spooky YA Short Story Collection Page 5