Chapter 14
I don’t see the girls as I approach the hole to the stairs, and I have to turn to step down, leaving me blind to what’s below me for a moment.
I quicken my pace and jump down. The second my feet hit the floor, I spin and find them at the end of the hall, watching me.
“Are you guys okay?”
“We thought we saw something,” Daniela says, clutching onto Layla like she’s walking through a haunted house.
I glance around. It’s still daylight. There aren’t any shadows or anything else that might be considered creepy in this hallway.
“Can we go now?” Layla exclaims.
“Yeah. Let me just close this.”
As I shut the door to the attic with a grunt, it feels like I’m also shutting the door on any hope of finding more clues to this mystery.
I meet them at the end of the hall, and Layla grabs my arm, urging me to hurry along with them. I don’t argue. I’m done here anyway. It is a little funny, though.
We make it downstairs, with them mumbling the whole time about how creepy this place is. We’re almost in the clear when Daniela suddenly freaks out, pawing at her face and taking off, startling me in the process.
I hurry after them, confused, until I see an old cobweb float away from her as she flicks her hands.
Layla and I scurry toward the door, Daniela sprints. She runs all the way out the front and down the porch steps, nearly tripping on one.
Once in the clear, she claws dramatically at her face one last time, then turns to look up at us, finally free and basking in the sunlight as we step onto the porch.
I punch in the code at record speed to lock up, then catch up to the girls.
When we’re all reunited on safe ground, we glance at each other.
After a moment of silence, we burst out laughing.
It’s the tears-stinging-your-eyes, belly-hurts kind of laughter.
Something about the mix of a mimosa buzz and the adrenaline of a creepy murder house adventure has us acting delirious.
It reminds me of the sleepovers I had as a girl.
The ones where you’d stay up late, laughing into the night.
“Okay,” Daniela says, catching her breath. “I’m never again…going on a mimosa and haunted house date with you guys.” She sucks in another breath.
“It’s not haunted,” I insist. “It just feels…abandoned.”