Hello everyone, and thanks for checking out this story here.
Originally this was written for my Creative Writing final, and it's a bit vague at times because of it. Seeing as the Prof hates Sci Fi.
I decided it was decent enough to be put on here, and perhaps I'll keep writing on it, seeing as I like the idea. Even if it was a last minute oh shit what do I write type deal. But hey, as long as it makes the grade.
And the title really sucks, I'm sorry about that.
Don't forget to review and all that jazz.
Enjoy~
The sound was the first thing that gave away that someone new was moving in across the street. You could hear the sound of the screeching old wheels, and the heavy exhaust you would find that went along with large trucks. I peeked out the window and there it was, the moving truck full of someone's hope for a better life here then where they previously resided. Though, I would never understand why anyone would want to move here of all places. Seeing as it was in the middle of nowhere, and even was a good drive away from town.
Knowing that I would never be able to return to sleep, I decided to roll out of bed and stumble ungracefully out of my room. I made my way to the living room and plopped down on the couch, turning on the television in the process. The TV clicked on, and I flipped through all the channels, remembering that my mom was gone for a few days. It was nice to be all alone, but that same thing got old after a while. Looking out the window, I decided that it must have been around nine or ten in the morning. Beating the laziness before it came, I decided to be productive by wasting time at a friend's house, and possibly getting some free food in the process. I decided to wander back into my room to grab my iPod for the walk over. The walk was short, but it was still nice to listen to music anyway. After grabbing that, I went to the front door and let myself out into the world.
You could tell that the day was going to be a scorcher. The sound of the bugs could be heard, even through my headphones. The air was muggy, and it was one of those days where it would be better just to lay around and say how hot it was. I glanced over to the house across the street and noticed that the moving truck was already attempting to make its way out of the inconvenient dead end street, driving over the freshly mowed grass of my lawn in the process. A man stood outside of the house, waving goodbye at the truck, before retreating back into the air conditioned haven. I stood at the end of the driveway, waiting for the truck to pass before walking in the middle of the street to my destination up the road.
Not before long, I'm at the base of the hill of my friend's lawn. Sighing in annoyance, I make the trek up the hill and through the un-mowed grass. I bang on the front door and wait for someone to answer, hoping that at least the dogs could hear me. If the dogs could hear me, then soon everyone in the house would be aware of my presence. Soon I heard the steps coming from the downstairs portion of the house, and the door opened to reveal my very sleepy friend, Autumn.
She groaned in slight annoyance of being woken. "What it is?"
I shrugged. "I'm bored, so I thought I'd come over and bother you."
She maneuvered out of the door way and invited me inside the house. The house was nothing special, but had a character all its own. To most people, it could be described as a dump and a fixer-upper, but the residents obviously don't care much for other's opinions on their home. The house added a nice character to the already mismatched street.
"So, did you see the moving truck that popped up?" I asked. It wasn't every day that someone new joined the neighborhood.
"Oh, cool! Did you see the people who were living there?"
I nodded in response. "Yeah. It was some guy. I didn't see any details though."
Soon a loud thump could be heard from upstairs and her brother's figure could be seen from the top of the stairs. "Guys!" He nearly whined. "Dad's sleeping. So be quiet."
The two of us just rolled our eyes as Dylan walked down the stairs, greasy hair bouncing with each step. Autumn and I made our way down to her room and her brother followed, uninvited. We perched in our usual spots and soon the three of us sat in silence, mulling in our complete and utter boredom.
"So what was that about some new neighbor?" Dylan asked as he rummaged through his sister's things.
"Some guy moved in across the street. Last house on the left." I answered.
"The one that no one stays in for more than a year?"
"The very one."
We sighed as we sat in the room. The basement was cooler than the rest of the house, but the heat of the day intensified as the minutes ticked by.
"We should check it out." Dylan finally spoke from his sprawled position on the floor.
"I'm not liking the way you say that." I sighed. Usually when he suggested something, it ended with screaming, anger, or Dylan nearly getting picked up by the police.
Before I knew it, we were walking down the road back to my house and ultimately across the street from the new neighbor's house. The three of us filed into the house and lounged in the same level of boredom in the living room. Dylan lounged on the couch by the window facing the street, and stared out at the last house on the other side of the street. Autumn and I raided the fridge for Dr. Pepper and Mountain Dew. After getting our fill and throwing a can almost violently throwing a can to her brother, we sat in the living room and waited for something interesting to happen. Soon an exclamation from Dylan had us crowding at the window, hoping to see something of interest.
The three of us nearly leaned against the window, hoping to get a good shot of the neighbor. From what we could see, the neighbor was a man, the same one from before. His clothes were a bit odd for the weather, and the area. He wore something that could be described as a suit, and even his hair appeared to be styled. Dylan's face was almost pressed up against the window as he tried to get a better look at the man.
"Do you have those binoculars of your grandpa's?" He spoke as he continued to look out the window.
"Oh brother…" I looked out the window and my curiosity finally got the better of me. "I'll get them." I walked to the back of the house and to my room. I grabbed the old leather binocular case from my closet and carefully took the old Vietnam War era binoculars from the case. I walked back to the window in the living room and began looking through the binoculars.
"He has a bowtie." I stated.
"Give me those." Dylan took the old binoculars and was leaning against the window. "Ugh, he isn't doing anything interesting."
Autumn took the binoculars next and peeked through. At this time, it appeared that the man was walking back into his house. She sighed and we all resumed are normal positions on the animal print couch.
"Who wants to go to Don's?" She asked out of the blue.
"Why do you want to go to Don's?" Dylan asked in an exasperated voice. "What about the neighbor?"
"What I'm trying to say is that we could walk by his place, and sneak a peek in his house." Autumn glared at Dylan as she spoke.
"That's creepy, and I'm pretty sure illegal as well." I shook my head in annoyance.
Dylan hopped off the couch and Autumn followed behind. The siblings headed towards the door and soon I could hear the sound of it slamming behind them. I groaned in annoyance as I saw them slinking along the lawn to the tree just before the ditch. Sighing, I walked aside to the sliding glass door, and ran up to meet them.
"If we all get caught, I will murder you."
No one listened as they ran across the street and finally up to the house itself. Soon I was behind them, glancing to the door and windows, as well as the nosy neighbors that lived one house over. We peeked through the windows and noticed that the rooms were dimly lit. There was no way of seeing past a few feet with the natural light that the sun provided us with. We peered into the windows and still nothing new revealed itself. Soon Autumn started towards the backyard of the house, and Dylan and I followed.
The back was surrounded by a tall privacy fence. We couldn't see over the fence, so Dylan came up with a plan. Autumn got on her hands and knees and soon I stood on her back, with just enough clearance to peek over the fence. What I saw appeared to be an ordinary yard until my eyes wandered towards the house itself. There was a pile of mismatched junk and some blue box like thing by the house. I raised an eyebrow at what the mix matched stuff was, and how someone could accumulate such a mass of junk in such a short amount of time. I noticed the back door of the house open and I quickly fell off of Autumn to make sure that I wasn't seen by the neighbor. The three of us quickly retreat to the street behind the house, not wanting to bring attention to ourselves.
"So, what'd you see?" Dylan glanced back towards the house as he spoke.
"A bunch of junk in the yard along with some blue box thing." I shrugged as I spoke. "Besides that, it's nothing too weird."
"But why would he have a bunch of junk laying around in his yard? Didn't he just move here?" Autumn tilted her head in curiosity.
"Yeah, if he messes up his yard that bad and he isn't here for even a day, think of what it's gonna look like the longer he stays." Her brother said.
"You have four lawnmowers in your yard, Dylan. Don't start."
He groaned as he began the trek back to our street and Autumn followed behind. Soon an argument between the siblings started and I lagged behind, hoping to stay out of the crossfire. Dylan began to run from Autumn as an chorus of loud shrieks and screams could be heard. Autumn quickly waved goodbye, dismissing herself to deal with her brother. Soon they cut across the neighbor's lawn back to the direction of their own house at the beginning of the street. I sighed and sat on the curb for a few moments, simply too hot and lazy to move. Finally my stomach growled in protest and I made my way up to my house. I walked up the hill, paying no attention to the house that.
"Oi!" A voice from behind caught my attention.
I turned to see the neighbor guy standing outside his house with an eyebrow raised. My heart raced. He probably knew that my friends and I were peeking over the fence, and I was the unfortunate one that happened to get caught.
"Were you the one that was peeking over the fence?" The man spoke with a European accent of some sort. I couldn't place where exactly, but it was definitely not from anywhere near here.
I sighed. "I'm sorry about that…" I hoped that he wouldn't be too mad.
He smiled slightly. "It's perfectly fine, really. I can see what would be so strange about a pile junk in the backyard when I haven't even been here for a full day."
"Again, sorry about the creeping through your fence." I apologized again.
"No, it's all alright, not the worst that's happened." The man shrugged it off and waved his goodbyes as he wandered back into his house, probably to his backyard to do something with that weird box or crate thing with him.
A few days later, I was at my friends' house again. It wasn't as hot as the previous days, so it was manageable. We sat around the house like we normally did, and discussed the occurrences and happenings around the neighborhood.
"So, do you want to try and see what's inside that box again?" Dylan inserted himself into the conversation.
"Yeah, and leave me to face the neighbor guy alone. Again." I said. "Do you know how bad I felt? I was sure he'd kill me or something."
"I didn't want to get caught sneaking around some guy's yard!" He retorted.
"And I didn't want him to be in the house alone and mess anything up." Autumn added.
"And so you abandon me. I see how it is."
We walked towards the door to get some fresh air. Dylan started to walk down the driveway and towards the man's house. Autumn and I sighed and followed Dylan to the house, not exactly telling him to stop due to our own curiosity. The three of us wandered down to the house and snuck back around to the back of the house. We did what we originally did before, and soon I was standing on top of Autumn's back and looked around from my perch. I heard arguing between Autumn and Dylan as I squinted to get a better look at the blue box. It looked less of a crate, and more of another kind of box, that was at the back of my mind, but I couldn't recall exactly what it was. I also noticed that the pile of junk by the box from a few days before was moved somewhere out of sight.
The arguing continued and quickly worsened and soon I felt that my steady ground of my friend's back below shake and soon I was being lifted. I was soon tossed over the fence and stumbled into the man's yard. I heard an "Oh shit" from the other side of the fence. Quickly I rolled behind a bush as to not be seen. I knocked on the wooden fence to get my wayward friends' attention.
"Guys!" Hi hoarsely whispered so that my friends could hear me. "I'm okay. Just be quiet."
It was Autumn's voice that answered back. "Alright. We'll wait next door for you."
"Alright then. Text me if you see him" I replied as I slunk back into the bush, putting my phone on vibrate.
I sat behind the bush for what seemed like forever as I waited for what would be the perfect time to escape. Looking over, I saw a perfect path where I knew from the street side, that the fence was low enough for me to roll over. Ducking and dodging behind the other bushes, I quickly made my way towards the desired escape route. I hid in front of a bush that shielded me from the house and I looked over to plot my next move. The blue box was right in my line of sight and my curiosity got the better of me.
Against my better judgment, I deviated my chosen path to maneuver towards the box. Soon I dashed towards it once the coast was clear. I stood up against the box where I couldn't be seen. It felt wooden and uninteresting, just like any other normal box, though the wood seemed more smooth and manufactured compared to anything that would be found just sitting in a backyard. I turned around, keeping an eye on the house. The box was a deep blue that was calming to look at. It had some windows on the side, so I assumed it was a shed of some sort. It seemed small for a shed, but you never know. I walked around to the back, and it looked the same on the side. Sighing I felt like this was a waste of time and energy for everyone involved.
I walked around to the front of the box, expecting it to be rather boring like the rest of what I saw. There seemed to be stuff of more interest on the front side. Looking up, there seemed to be a light bulb at the top, and something written on the sign above. Ignoring that and the sign that said something about opening the door, I stepped back from the box, looking to be sure I was still in the clear. I scanned the box again, about to leave, when I notice that the door was open. Raising an eyebrow I wandered closer to the peculiar shed to take a quick peek inside. The door was opened only a small bit inward, and I couldn't make out what was inside at the angle I was standing at. I figured that I'd open the door, steal a peek inside, close it to how it was before, and continue making my way back to the street.
Pushing my hand against the door, it opened with a creak. I let my eyes adjust to the inside of the box, curiosity tugging at my fiber of my being of what could possibly be in this box like shed.
Soon the interior became clear, and the box's secrets revealed themselves to me. I jumped as I heard a voice from behind. "What do you think you're doing here?"