Fifteen #5
“I dunno. I’ll look in a minute. Can I just say I’ve been on more airplanes this past year than I think I have in my whole entire life?”
And as he rambled on, I calmed. Even though I was in a dark, creepy house, I was at ease because we were talking about normal things. But when I came around the corner, I saw something move. There was no way to stifle the scream.
“Jesus, what?” Caleb yelled.
The living room had double French doors, both glass. I had seen my own reflection.
“Crap,” I said. “Sorry.”
“Are you kidding?” he chided me. “You just took ten years off my life!”
“Shit.”
“Maybe you should leave and—”
“No, I’m just freaked out.”
“Oh, no shit.”
“Should I just call you back when—”
“No. Do not dare hang up. Just…go to the attic.”
“Okay,” I agreed, hoping that there would be no more high-pitched screaming on my way up the stairs.
I walked all over the second floor—which was technically the third if you counted the basement—looking at the ceiling, looking for the ladder that led to the attic.
I finally found it by checking the seams in the tiles.
One wasn’t sealed like the others. I jumped up and hit it until I got it right and it slipped down enough for me to get my fingertips on the edge.
As soon as it moved a little, the long cord dropped and I was able to pull on it to get the stairs to drop down.
I had been giving Caleb a play-by-play account, and was now ready to go up there.
“Look out for vampires,” he warned me.
“Oh fuck off,” I snapped at him.
“What? You know there’s not actually vampires up there. That should be comforting.”
“Shit.”
“Ohmygod, boy, calm the fuck down,” he ordered. “Your imagination is spinning completely out of control. At worst you have a crazed maniac with a gun or a knife up there, just waiting for you because he never left the house in the first place.”
“You should give seminars on fear management.”
He laughed at me as I started up the stairs.
“God, I hate this.”
“Which begs the question—why are you doing it, then?”
I tried to see everything at once, but my flashlight was too small.
“What do you see?”
“I can’t see shit.”
“Jory, fuck it. Even if the police catch you, who cares? Turn on a light.”
I had to agree. They knew I was here anyway and were most likely on their way.
If Sam was to be believed, their arrival was imminent.
I really didn’t care. I did not have the emotional fortitude to hunt around in the dark.
Finding the switch on the wall, I flipped it on, and light illuminated the attic.
Immediately, I pulled up the narrow stairs, making sure the cord was on my side, and tried to breathe.
When I turned and saw the man, I screamed again and raised my hands.
It took me a few seconds to realize I was looking at a CPR dummy.
“Fuck!” I yelled, kicking the wall closest to me as hard as I could. I sat down after a second and tried to breathe. When I could, I realized I had dropped my phone. I found it halfway across the room beside a metal chair. I picked it up and spoke into it, telling Caleb I was all right.
“Are you kidding me? Jesus Christ, Jory! I thought you were dead.”
It was funny, but I kept my eyes on the dummy to make sure it didn’t all of a sudden turn its head and look at me. I was maybe a little paranoid, just a trifle unhinged.
“No more screaming!” He ordered. “I mean it.”
“Sorry.”
“God! Just get out of there. I can’t take any more of this.”
He couldn’t take any more?
“Just leave and go camp out at the airport and wait for me.”
“Lemme look around first.”
“If you can without scaring the shit outta yourself.”
I ignored the snide remarks, instead concentrating on the room.
It was perhaps the cleanest place I’d ever seen in my life.
Besides the creepy CPR dummy hanging on what looked like an IV stand, and a chair, there was nothing.
I walked around, making sure I didn’t miss anything, but there were no hollow walls or hidden rooms. It was just an empty attic.
The only thing scary about the place was me, all psyched up and frantic.
I sent Caleb a picture, and he was disappointed. His grunt told me everything.
“What?”
“Kinda boring, right?”
And it was.
After a few minutes I climbed back down and left the attic stairs down when I bolted from the house. I definitely needed a partner in crime. I was looking forward to having Caleb there the next day. Following up on leads in dark houses was way freakier than it looked.
I checked the car before I got in it and then locked all the doors and drove away fast before anything happened. A line of police cars passed me, and there was relief knowing that they’d actually made it.
“What are you gonna do now?” Caleb asked me, yawning loudly.
“I dunno. I’m afraid if I go home, the detectives working the case might not let me pick you up alone tomorrow morning. I don’t wanna go to Dane’s or—”
“Why don’t you get a room somewhere, and tomorrow we’ll get another room together.”
“That sounds good.”
“Okay. I’ll see you in the morning. I’ll call you when I get in.”
“You can’t, I have to turn the phone off.”
“Then just let me meet you at your room. Call me back as soon as you get one tonight.”
“Good plan.”
“I try,” he replied. “But listen, you really need to sleep tonight, all right? You’re starting to sound really weird and jumping at your own shadow.”
“I know. I’m just tired.”
“Yes, I know, so…sleep.”
“Okay, I’ll talk to you in just a bit.”
He hung up then and I turned off the burner.
I felt better, because talking to him was somehow normal. We had been through a lot together lately, and in some ways, he was closer to me than anyone. We were like war buddies, and the thought of seeing him was comforting.
As I drove toward the airport in search of a hotel, my panic subsided and I started to calm.
Once I found a pay-by-the-night place and got checked into my room, I called Caleb again and gave him all the information, and then I called Dane.
I had locked all the doors and felt pretty safe two floors up.
“Hey.”
“Where are you?”
“I didn’t wake you up, did I?”
“I want to know where you are.”
“I’m fine.”
“Not what I asked. Where”—he over-enunciated the word—“are you?”
“I’m safe. Where are you?”
“I’m at the hospital with Sam, watching over him as you asked.”
“You should go home and get some sleep. I didn’t mean that you should—”
“He’s sleeping. You exhausted him with your antics at the house. He tried valiantly to stay awake, but his body’s healing, and he just can’t expend that much energy and not be knocked out. You should think about what you’re putting him through.”
The guilt wasn’t going to work. “Okay.”
“Okay? That’s all you have to say?”
“Dane.”
“What?”
“I have to sleep. I can barely form words, but I want you to know that I appreciate everything you’ve done.”
“I know you do, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to be on Sam’s side going forward for the rest of your life.”
“I deserve that.”
“Yes, you do, and I—”
“I love you,” I blurted out. “I gotta sleep now, okay?”
He groaned and I grunted before I hung up, turned off the phone, and rolled over. I didn’t even turn off the light.