Chapter 2
"Here we are guys. Our new home sweet home" said my dad in a cheery voice.
The house that I was looking at was a nice brown, two story house that looked like it was built in the late seventies or early eighties. The only good thing was that the house was on the beach and I could go there any time I wanted.
I helped unpack my room until it got dark out.
"Kelsey!" called my mom from downstairs.
I met her at the top of the stairs and asked "yes?"
"Why don't you and your brother go down to the boardwalk? Have a look around, you know?" suggested mom.
I figured it was better then having to stay here and unload boxes all night long.
As we were leaving my mom said "keep an eye on him and always stay together."
"I know mom, we've been through this before" I said, walking out the door with my little brother at my side. It didn't take us very long to get to the boardwalk. It was only about ten minutes away.
"Kelsey" nagged Stephen "can we ride the merry go round?"
"Yeah sure."
We waited in line for what seemed like forever. While we were waiting, I looked at all the missing people signs on one of the bulletin boards. There were a lot of missing people in Santa Carla. Some of the kids on there had been missing for years. One little 10 year old had been missing since 1965. He had been missing for over forty years now. I bet the parents are probably dead. That must be terrible, dieing when your child has been missing for forty some what years.
"Next in line" said the guy who was operating the ride. Next in line was us. I choose one of the horses that was on the outside and went up and down. When I was little, I always liked the horses that were on the edges of the merry go round. Stephen choose the horse that was right in front of me. The merry go round music was starting to get to me about half way through the ride.
Just as the ride was about over, I could see a couple of teenage guys coming my way. Most of them were dressed in black and had long hair and chains that made noise when they walked. The guy that was in front of the pack looked me over with a devilish grin on his face. The boy had blonde hair and oddly resembled Kiefer Sutherland.
It looked like he was about to say something but then the security guard came and said "I though I told you guys to stay off the boardwalk." The group left without saying anything. When we got off the ride, Stephen asked "who were those guys on the merry go round? They looked really scary."
I replied "I dunno. Just a bunch of kids I guess."
Stephen and I walked a little while until we found a comic book store. Stephen being the nine year old boy that he is wanted to go in so of course we I had to go in. I was looking at some of the Spiderman comics when I noticed that a bunch of guys were staring at me.
"Your new here, aren't you?" asked one of the boys.
"Yeah" I said.
"Notice anything different about Santa Carla so far?" asked another guy.
"No. It's pretty cool if you're a loser" I said.
"No, I mean, have you notice anything different about the people around here?" asked the same guy.
"Look normal to me" I said, "who are you guys anyways?"
"I'm Sam Emerson and these are my friends Edgar and Alan. The Frog brothers" said the one that claimed to be Sam.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Kelsey." They didn't say anything in return, they just continued to look at me. I was looking at the Hulk comics when Edgar came and stuck a vampire comic in my face.
"Consider it your guide to survival" said Edgar.
"I don't like comics" I said, pushing the comic away. I was never one of those tom boy girls who loved all the boy things.
"Trust me you'll need this one" said Edgar, shoving the book back in my face.
"I already told you. I don't like comics."
Stephen came up behind me, ready to leave the boardwalk and go home. We were almost out of the store when the Frog brothers stopped me and handed me a card.
"Call us if anything unusual happens" said Alan.
I said "I will" and put the card in my pocket. At the moment I didn't think much of it. All I thought was that it was a round-about way of guys giving me there phone number. Little did I know that I would actually have to call them. Not for a date but as a matter of life and death.
As soon as I got home, I crashed on the mattress that was serving as my bed for the time being. I woke very late the next morning to the sound of the ocean outside my bedroom window.
"Kelsey, this came for you this morning" said Mom when I was sitting at the kitchen counter, eating my breakfast.
She handed me the same comic book that Edgar showed me last night.
"Who's it from?" I asked.
"Some boys by the name of Sam, Edgar, and Alan. Do you know them?"
"Yeah. I met them last night at the comic store that's on the boardwalk."
"That's good. We haven't even spent one day here and already your making friends. I told you this wouldn't be so bad" said mom.
"Maybe your right. But I dunno. They all seemed really weird to me last night. This whole place seems weird. When we were waiting in line for the merry go round last night I counted 30 missing persons papers on one of the bulletin boards. We also saw this bunch of really weird looking kids who were dressed in all black and had funny looking haircuts."
"Oh, well, maybe that's the thing to wear here" said Mom. Mom was so out of the loop when it came to clothes and things like that.
"I'm going back to the boardwalk today, ok?" I asked after I was done with my breakfast.
"Alright, but take your sister with you. She's coming in to town today to see the house and help us unpack" said Mom.
"When is she gonna be here?" I asked.
"Around noon."
I stuck around till noon, or at least until Jillian got there. My sister has never been on time for anything in her life. She'll probably be late for her own wedding when she gets married, that is if she can find the right guy.
"Hello?" called Jillian once she got here.
"Hey" I said, coming down the stairs to greet her.
"Where's mom and dad and Stephen?" asked Jillian.
"They all went out to get lunch. Hey, you wanna go down to the boardwalk with me later? Like maybe tonight?" I asked. She never wanted to do anything with me but I thought I should give it a try.
"Yeah, sure. Just let me get settled first, ok?"
"Ok. The guest room is upstairs. Second door on the right I think." Since we just got here yesterday, I was still a little mixed up on where everything was and where everything goes. I helped Jillian carry her suitcases upstairs and then left her to get settled. I decided that while I was waiting for it to get dark out to go and walk around on the beach.
The beach in Santa Carla was pretty but nothing like the ones back home in Florida though the people who were on the beach were about the same. They all looked like a bunch of tourist, beach bums, and surfers. I was sitting on the beach when the kid from the other night, I think his name was Sam, came up and sat next to me.
"Remember me? From last night?" asked Sam.
"Yeah, your Sam right? The kid from the comic book store?"
"Yep. That's me. So, you like living in Santa Carla so far?"
"It's ok. Seems kinda boring if you ask me and a little unusual" I said.
Sam got a look on his face that said he was interested and asked "why do you think it's so unusual?"
"I don't know. I guess it's just because I haven't been here for a long time and it's all new to me" I said.
Sam lost the look and just said "oh. Well, you should see the night life. It's pretty crazy on the boardwalk."
"Yeah, I kinda saw that last night, remember?"
"Oh, yeah. You were on the boardwalk last night. Sorry, I forget things very easily" said Sam.
"It's ok. I forget things sometimes too" I said. Then, a tall dark haired guy came up to Sam.
"Sam, we gotta go. Mom wants us home" said the guy.
"Ok, oh, Mike this is Kelsey. She's the girl I told you about. Kelsey, this is my brother Michael."
"Nice to meet you" I said.
"Like wise. Come on Sam" said Michael. Sam hopped up out of the sand and said "see ya around."
"Ok, Bye" I said. See ya around? Who says that anymore?
I went back up to the house and found my sister sitting in the kitchen, already dressed and ready to go.
"I was thinking maybe we could find someplace to eat on the boardwalk, you know, go out to dinner since we never do that kind of stuff anymore" said Jillian.
"Ok, just let me go change" I said, heading up stairs.
"Hey, Kelsey?" asked Jillian.
"Yeah?"
"Who were those guys you were talking to on the beach?"
"Sam and Michael. I just met Sam last night." I continued getting dressed and was ready to go out in about an hour.
"I'm gonna leave Mom and Dad a note. You go ahead and get in the car" said Jillian, searching for a pen and paper.
"Lets just walk, it's only like ten minutes away" I said. I don't think Jillian heard me cause she didn't say anything in return.
We found this little under the sea themed outdoor restaurant on the boardwalk that was located right across from the comic book store. How we missed it the other night I have no idea.
While I was eating, Jillian was staring at the table behind me. I turned my head to see what she was looking at but all I saw was the same group of guys from the night before but this time they had a girl and a little boy with them. The little kid looked familiar but I couldn't tell where I had seen him before. The blonde haired guy that looked like Kiefer Sutherland was staring right back at us, or rather yet, right back at Jillian.
"Jillian snap out of it" I said waving my hand in front of her face.
"What?" asked Jillian, coming back to earth.
"You were staring at that guy over there" I said.
"What? Don't you think he's kinda cute?"
"Ewww…….. No! He's ugly!"
Then, blonde haired guy got up and came over to our table.
"I'm sorry but I couldn't help but notice how beautiful you are. I just had to come over and introduce myself. I'm David" said David.
"I'm Jillian."
"And who is this lovely young lady?" asked David as he turned towards me.
"Kelsey."
"You're the one from the merry go round the other night, aren't you?" asked David.
"Yeah, that's me."
"Well listen, my buddies and I are having a party later and we were wondering if you two would like to join us" said David in a creepy voice.
I was kinda hoping that Jillian would say no but knowing her she would never turn down a party. She likes parties and she'll take any chance she gets to go to one.
"Sure" said Jillian.
"Alright then, lets go" said David.
David and his gang lead us over to there bikes, motorcycles that is. Jillian rode with David while I rode with the girl. I think her name was Star. Sounds like a tree huger name if you ask me.
I watched as the trees and the beach went speeding by in the dark night time air. It was a cool night out, perfect for a midnight swim. I use to do that all the time with my friends. We'd sneak out of our houses and go swimming at the beach. It was so nice.
We stopped at the foot of a big cliff on the beach. I looked around and this didn't look like a party to me.
"Where are we?" I asked to no one in particular.
"Just wait" said one of the guys. I believe his name was Marko. David led us underneath the cliff into a big cave that was covered with pictures of old timey looking people. The cave was cold and damp yet well lit.
"What is this place?" I asked.
"It's an old hotel. It use to be the most popular hotel in all of Santa Carla until a big earthquake hit and the hotel fell in between the cracks. It's ours now. Nobody knows about it but us, and we'd like to keep it that way" said Dwayne.
"Y'all's secret is safe with us" said Jillian.
I took another look around. The place was pretty cool. It looked like the boys lived there instead of it being just a hang out. That cave would've been a pretty cool place to live.
"You guys hungry? We've got some left over Chinese food from the other night" asked David.
Even though we had just eaten, I didn't want to be a bad guest so of course I said "yes." My sister and I sat down in two of the chairs that were in a circle in the middle of the cave. David handed us both one of the Chinese take out cartons. I got noodles and Jillian got rice.
I was about half way through the box of noodles when David asked "how are they? How are those worms?"
"Worms?" I asked. Then I could feel something moving around in my mouth and I don't think it was any noodle. I looked down into the box and I saw worms squirming around, trying to get out. I quickly spit them out and threw the box on the floor.
"What's the matter, Kelsey? The just noodles" said David.
"What are you talking about! Look at them, they're worms!"
David picked up the box and pulled out a bunch of noodles.
"I don't know. They look like noodle to me" said David.
About two minutes later, Jillian threw her box of rice on the floor.
"Those are maggots!" she yelled.
"What is this? Some kind of sick joke?" I asked. It was weird that our food was turning into disgusting things like worms and bugs.
"No, here, wash them down with this" said David, handing a bottle that was filled with some sort of red drink.
"No thank you. I'm not thirsty" I said.
David just shrugged and handed the bottle to Jillian. Sure enough, she drank it. No questions asked.
