Chapter 13 #2
I press my lips together and beam at her. When she meets my eyes I mouth, I will end you. She giggles and steps back, coordinating with me, while Zachary lifts the other end on his own. I’m fine with this. I don’t mind that he can lift it with ease. Makes our part easier.
“How far back was it?” I whine.
“Rule number one,” Kaitlynn whispers next to me where Zach can’t hear it. I ignore her and roll my eyes. Not like anyone else is here to see. Just like they won’t see me when I die crushed under a massive school carpentry project.
“Dunno,” Zach says, leading the way with his back to the bookshelf and fingers under it like a tow hitch. “It’s not super far though, right?”
“Define super far?” I say, reminding myself not to attach bitch to the end of it because it’s not Kaity, and remembering that I’m the one who should know how far it is.
Luckily it’s not as far as I thought. After an excruciating ten minutes, and four—no five—rest stops, we deposit the shelf next to the fence in a spot Kaity found where the ground rises a little. Every inch counts, right?
Between the bars, the house’s brick structure is barely visible through a light fog. It coats everything.
“Gross.” Kaitlynn frowns.
The wood sinks an inch into the dirt. The smushing noises are atrocious. Like, I didn’t know that could sound that bad.
“Yay.” Zach eyes the mud.
I lift a foot and examine the bottom of my shoe. It’s caked in wet dirt and grass. I look up and show Zachary a cheesy toothy grin.
“God,” he sighs. “If this stains, I’m blaming you.”
“Fair.” I keep grinning. “You first?”
I figure he should have the honors of ruining his project first. He grumbles, plants the messy bottom of a boot—that probably cost more than all the clothes on my body combined—on the first shelf and climbs to the top.
Mud gushes between his boot and the wood.
I’m so sorry. He’s committed though. He pushes himself up, and his waist is now level with the top of the fence.
“This might actually work,” Zach says.
Good. Now I don’t feel as bad. He plants a foot between the spikes. There’s just enough room, but it still has me worried.
“Careful,” I urge. The last thing I need is to be the reason this brother gets impaled.
“I got it.” He waves me off and starts to push off the steel fencing.
He jumps, and for a moment he’s airborne, like Hayden going in for a layup, graceful and intentional, but slow motion this time because instead of waiting for a basket, I’m hoping to Odin he doesn’t fall back onto the spikes or face-plant in the mud.
Then it ends. His feet plop into the thick mud, and something wet smacks my face.
I wipe my cheek and dirt smears along my finger.
“Really?” I sigh.
“So glad I was behind you,” Kaitlynn laughs. That’s when I notice the splats of brown on my jacket and jeans.
I huff and roll my eyes. “Thanks.”
“Who’s next?” Zach giggles and I jump up before Kaitlynn can so that I’m not the one splattered again.
“Me!” Peering over the top, the entire house comes into focus behind the foggy veil.
It’s an old place, probably early to mid-1900s and walled entirely in brick, including its two chimneys jutting from a white roof on either end. I think the barn is farther away. It’s too dark to make out much more detail beyond the wraparound porch. The fog’s too thick.
I plant my foot on the fence top, carefully positioning my sneakers between spears of iron.
Just remember, Kenzie, this was your idea.
I sling my weight over, never letting go of the fence, and let my grip on the bars slow my descent.
My feet hit the ground and sink an inch into the mud as I let my grip on the fence loose.
I did it—oh shit! My right foot slips and I stumble backwards.
My leg collapses and gravity yanks me toward the earth.
I yelp, but I collide with Zachary’s chest and his arms wrap around my waist before I can fall.
I look up to find his steel eyes inches from mine. His Adam’s apple bobs.
“I, uh… Are you okay?” he asks, pushing me up to my feet and quickly pulling his arms away, stepping back.
I nod frantically, eyes stuck on the mud. “Yeah.”
“Awkward.” Kaity’s voice crawls through the fence.
“You’re next,” I say to Kaitlynn, and whisper “bitch” under my breath.
“I got this.” She steps up and bounces over, completely unscathed. “No need to catch me.”
I shake my head and don’t wait before taking off toward the house. Just ignore it and move on. It was nothing and I don’t need to see Zachary’s reaction.
“That’s creepy,” Zach says from behind me. I check to see what he’s talking about and find his eyes fixated on the house.
“It is abandoned, and old, and falling apart,” I remind him. “And haunted. At least some say it is.”
“Yeah, yeah.” He waves me off. “I don’t know about that.”
“Of course it is!” Kaitlynn says off the cuff. “People died here.”
“I’m sorry, what?” Zach catches up with us.
“Yeah,” I say. I didn’t get to finish the story earlier, and there was more to tell. A lot more. “Several, actually.”
“Several… Uh, e-excuse me?” Zachary stutters. “And why are we here again?”
“Because it’s cool and haunted,” I say.
“What the…? I just thought it was abandoned,” Zachary complains. “You didn’t say anything about it being haunted.”
The porch seems to grow as we get closer, and my foot claps against the first step. I was expecting wood and for it to crack and moan, but it’s solid, which sort of throws me a bit.
“Should’ve asked,” Kaitlynn says, and part of me wants to high-five her.
“You change your mind?” I stop at the front door once we’ve all made it up.
“Uh…no.” He steps up.
I shrug and continue the house’s story. “So, five people died here, and, like, a bunch of animals.”
“Animals?” Zachary pouts.
“Yeah, sad, right?” Kaitlynn frowns.
“Really sad,” I say, and turn the doorknob.
It creaks and scrapes when I pull. At first it doesn’t want to budge, but I give it a good yank and the door opens.
A swoosh of air floods out with the door, ruffling my hair.
It’s darker inside. I step in and flick my phone’s flashlight on.
Without a word, Kaitlynn and Zach become ghosts on my tail.
“They started finding dead cows and chickens around the farm,” I retell what I’ve heard. “At first, they thought it was a coyote or fox, maybe a black bear. But they never caught one.”
“Not sure I want to hear the rest of this story,” Zach says.
“Squeamish?” Kaitlynn asks.
“No, just not sure I want to know while I’m here,” he says.
“You sure?” I ask, looking over the bare walls.
My light exposes a scene of decay. The wallpaper is either peeling or has completely fallen to expose old rotting wood. The space is empty, just a big open square filled with the grays of night, drooping webs, and the occasional ray of moonlight through a cracked window.
“Fine, what happened?”
I smile at his interest. Success. I turn and lean over my flashlight so the beam makes shadows around my eyes.
“Really?” He cocks his head.
“Yes! A year later—the farmer’s boy was like fourteen or something—and the story goes that one of the farm hands caught him killing a cow and dis—”
“The kid?” Zach interrupts.
“Yeah, they caught him disemboweling it. The cow. Then when the dude went to run, to tell the kid’s dad, the boy ran him down and slit his throat. They found the dead guy in one of the barns after the investigation started.”
“After?” Zach steps back.
“Yeah.” I nod. “No one realized anything had happened until like a week later.
So after that, the kid killed his own sister while she was sleeping.
Then he shot his dad in his sleep next to his mom.
The mom woke up and tried to get away, but they say he kicked her down the stairs and used the same knife on her that he'd killed the animals with. He ended up disemboweling all of them and arranging them on the floor…”
I pause as the next thing hits me. “In the living room…”
“Here?” Zach’s eyes drop to the floor.
My eyes leave Zach, and I shine my phone light around the room. There are stains on the floor, but I don’t know what from. I try to imagine it’s anything but blood. That’s even too freaky for me.
“You’re saying he killed them all and brought them here?” Zach asks, and gulps.
“Yep.” The word barely leaves my lips. “Then he cut his own stomach open and bled out. They found them a few weeks after, when people realized no one had heard from them lately.”
“That’s seriously fucked up,” Zach says.
“Okay, I didn’t know it was that bad,” Kaitlynn says, and shifts back a few steps before turning back toward the entrance. “I think I’ll just wait out there.”
Before I can protest, she leaves me alone with Zach.
“Bitch,” I yell after her.
“Damn right,” I hear from outside. I adore her.
“I—” Zachary starts, but I stop him.
“You are not abandoning me too.” I point at him and grin even though I’ve sort of freaked myself out too. “Ten minutes. Then we’ll leave.”
“How about five?” Zachary negotiates, and I go to lean in and say no, but he speaks up first. “Fine. Ten. But then we’re out.”
“Deal,” I agree.
When I face the room, it suddenly feels a lot smaller and colder. I squeeze my arms around my chest, phone in hand, shining a harsh glow around the room. Let’s just do this. It was your idea after all.
“Here we go.” I step forward, and before I get a full two steps, Zach’s jacket rubs against mine. I look at him with my nose crinkled.
“What?” he gripes.
“Nothing.” I giggle quietly and then start forward again. But it’s not nothing. My first thought is, why is he this close? Then, why is my chest pumping so hard? It’s just the thought of dead people hanging around here, waiting to haunt us, I’m sure.