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Author's Note: Hi everyone! How are you all? Hope you're doing well and have had a good week. Getting ready fro Halloween yet? It's nearly here! Today I have for you the second chapter of "Things That Go Bump" I am very sorry for taking awhile to get it posted. I actually was waiting to see if some readers were going to have the chance to read it and during that time I got hit with not writer's block but writer's blues and I think that's even worse than writer's block..okay maybe not really lol But the good news is I think it's gone and I'll be back to writing new stuff soon. Of course first and foremost is this story! Thank you all for your wonderful reviews and support! It truly means so much. Like I said before, some of the stuff is new to me to write but I'm glad that for the most part you readers enjoyed it. Couple of things about this chapter, first off I apologize if there is some OOCness at the end with Red and Kitty—blame it on the writer's blues. When I reread the scene I started to not see Red but another TV character, the good news is that he's kinda reminded me of Red so hopefully things will work out. Also you may notice a part in the story that is formatted much like Marla's Lost writing, it happened unintentionally and I still think it's because she had been the one to give me the idea in the first place! Thanks again for everything Marla! And Thank you all once again for stopping by to read, I hope you all enjoy this next chapter, please do review if you can, I'd love to hear your thoughts, I hope you like, and as always, please, Enjoy!
"And then when I went to go wash my hands in the sink the knife was gone." Kitty retold the events of the previous night to her children as the four of them sat at the round kitchen table eating their breakfast.
While his sister and adopted brother seemed a bit interested in what their mother was saying, Eric appeared to be the most concerned of the three, "Wait…so the knife just disappeared? It's still missing now?"
"Well no." Kitty shook her head, "When I looked up I found it was back with the other knives in the knife block over there."
"You should've had the knife disappear completely." commented a bored looking Laurie as she swirled her spoon around in her bowl of breakfast, "Would've made a scarier ending."
Hyde couldn't help but agree with the blonde and he nodded his head but made sure not to make Kitty feel bad, "It was still a pretty good story though."
"It wasn't a story. It's what happened last night!" argued Kitty who was feeling quite frustrated by the fact that after telling her whole story—and even informing them that they had been true events at the very beginning—her kids still thought she was making up a spooky Halloween story for them.
Laurie's interest suddenly perked up again and she made a helpful suggestion, "That's good, Mom but you should say it was a dark and stormy night. It'll make the beginning way better."
"Yeah, if you wanna take the cliché route." came Hyde's remark.
"You would know, cliché boy." Laurie threw back at him, her excited smile now replaced with a snarl aimed at the curly haired teen beside her, "The orphaned bad boy together with the goody two shoes princess, could you get any cornier?"
Keeping Zen, Hyde never missed a beat as he replied to the question with one of his own, "Don't know. Could you get any whorier?"
A deeper snarl was delivered towards Hyde by Laurie before the two of them went off throwing insulting zingers at the other. Kitty did not feel like playing referee today, and they were exchanging barbs in a civilized manner, so she tuned out the squabbling pair and focused her attention to her son on her left.
"Eric, honey, what do you think?" she asked him.
She was hoping someone would believe that what she saw could have been real and she knew the best chance she had at finding that someone would be in her baby boy.
"I don't know, Mom." Eric said, his tone sounding unsure, "I mean I don't really have a problem with the beginning of the story. I do think that you should've had the knife missing for good though."
With that said, Eric looked over at Hyde and Laurie who were still in the middle of exchanging wits and so he decided to join in. On Hyde's team, of course. Meanwhile, since she didn't get the response she was hoping for, Kitty slumped her shoulders with disappointment and moved her fingertips to the side of her head where a headache caused by frustration was beginning to form; all the while her children continued to quarrel next to her.
This was the exact scene that welcomed Red into the kitchen, causing him to feel for his wife right away.
"Kids, stop bothering your mother." He gruffly ordered the three of them as he approached his seat at the table.
Laurie was the first one to speak, in her innocent little voice, "We weren't bothering Mommy, Daddy."
"Yeah, she was telling us the story of The Things That Happened Last Night." Hyde informed, giving the 'story' a working title.
"Last night?" Red scowled at his wife across the table, "Kitty, I thought we agreed nothing happened last night."
Before Kitty could reply, Eric picked up on his father's tone, it instantly alerted him that things were not good…they might even be more serious than he thought they were.
"Wait, so all those things that Mom was talking about…all those things actually happened?" Eric asked, not being able to hide the worry on his face.
"No."
"Yes!"
Husband and wife seemed to have two very different answers and it only made their children more confused and even a bit concerned. Red could sense this and he knew he had to put a stop to it before he had all four of them climbing the walls.
"Look, nothing happened last night." He said in a firm sounding voice, "It was all in your mother's head."
The words slipped out before Red could stop them and once they had been said even Eric realized they had been a poor choice of things to say.
"Oh, Dad…" Eric said while the other two remained mute, "No!"
Kitty blinked her eyes rapidly as if still processing what she'd heard, "All in my head, Red? Is that it? So I just imagined chills, and things falling, and a door slamming. A door you heard slamming too! Or maybe I imagined that too since it's all in my head!"
Red's eyes closed for a bit, "Kitty, that's not what I meant." He tried to explain, "I just meant that it was your mind that came up with those scarier reason for why those things happened instead of coming up with more logical ones like I did."
"Okay, fine. Let's just see how logical your reasons are." She said lowering her palms that she had opened seconds ago; she then looked at her boys, having to look from one side to the other, "Eric, Steven, did you or any of your friends come back into the house after the two of you left to the movies?"
The two young men took some time to think it over before shaking their heads.
"We all took off in the Cruiser not too long after we talked to you, Mrs. Forman." Hyde added though he wasn't quite sure what this had to do with anything.
A satisfied look started to make its way to Kitty's face but she wasn't quite through yet, "And what time did you boys get home at?"
"Well that depends of what you mean by 'get home.'" Eric began to say, "If you mean 'get home' as in get here in front of the house then I'd say ten thirty. Now if you meant 'get home' as in get inside our home then I'd say not until this morning when you unlocked the screen door and found me and Hyde sleeping on the patio chairs since you know, the door was locked."
Eric's words hadn't been direct at his mother but at Red. He believed it was Red that had locked the doors, whether on purpose or accidently was still up for debate but he was hoping he could get some sympathy. Unfortunately, the only thing Eric got was a look from his father that seemed to say 'talk to me when you have to sleep out in the cold on foreign ground with bullets flying over your head. The Korea Card really could win any argument.
"You see Red, it wasn't the boys who slammed the door." said Kitty.
"They're not the only ones that live here, Kitty." he turned his head to his daughter, "Laurie?"
"It wasn't me, Daddy. I spent the night over at Louie's." Laurie answered but quickly caught her slip up and attempted to cover it up, "Louise's. Louise. You remember her, she went to school with me."
"Right." Red nodded, not able to give her words much more thought when he saw the triumph way Kitty was looking at him, "Fine, it wasn't the kids. But it still could have been the wind or…"
Kitty crossed her arms over her chest, "Red Forman, why can't you just admit that something strange could be going on in this house?"
"Kitty, even if I did agree with you, what could that something strange be?" he asked using a tone of voice that clearly showed he was not going to be agreeing anytime soon.
"Well it could be…" Kitty nervously stuttered, if her family was already having trouble believing her story they were going to have a field day with what she had to say next—but she wasn't going to let that stop her, "It could be a ghost haunting the house."
"A ghost?" Red repeated with a frown, "A ghost of what, Kitty?"
This time Kitty didn't hesitate to give this answer, "Your mother."
Silence fell on those in the kitchen and while Kitty remained firm on the idea of the ghost of Red's mother being behind all of those incidents the night before her family didn't look all too convinced. There were four frowns on four faces but only one was looking at Kitty while the other three seemed to be exchanged between the three and soon those three frowns started to fade as they realized their mother could actually be onto something.
"Grandma Forman?" Eric asked, sounding frightened as he recalled his last words to his late grandmother.
Laurie looked from her mother to her father, "It was Grandma's recipe that fell out."
"She never liked Mrs. Forman either, Red." Hyde reminded, somewhat explaining the appearance and then disappearance of the chef's knife.
"Ooo wee ooo ooo!" Eric began to sing a wordless—and almost tuneless—creepy song.
Of course he was freaked out at the thought that his dead grandmother could be haunting his house, but seeing Hyde and Laurie shaken up too, it was too good of a chance to pass up! He only hoped he didn't scare his mother or upset his grandmother's haunting spirit.
"Shut it." Red barked the order telling Eric that even if he didn't anger his grandmother's ghost he'd definitely angered his father which may have been even worse.
Swiftly Eric stopped his noise making and dropped his eyes to the table to avoid his father's gaze. Once Red saw that that situation was taken care of, he looked back at his wife, ready to put an end this whole 'ghost situation' of Kitty's.
"My mother is not haunting our house, Kitty. There is no ghost." He declared to not just his wife but his kids who he knew were still listening, "The only thing haunting this house is the dumbasses that roam around in our basement night and day."
"And that's our cue to leave." Eric said standing up from his seat.
Hyde nodded in agreement as he stood up as well, "Don't go do any ghost hunting alone, Mrs. Forman."
"Yeah Mom, and try to keep Laurie with you at all times." Eric began to advise, "Her evilness will scare off any other evil spirits. It's actually the one time having a daughter who's scarier than the devil comes in handy."
Laurie squinted her eyes in a snarl at her brother as he followed Hyde out the glass side door; she figured she wouldn't have enough time to deliver a comeback so instead she ripped off a piece of Hyde's left over toast and threw it at the back of Eric's head. The scrap then bounced off Eric's head and onto the floor just in time for Schatzi to find it when he entered the kitchen from the same door the boys were exiting through.
As soon as the boys were gone Red and Laurie went back to eating their breakfast while Kitty got up from her seat and wordlessly picked up the dishes left behind by her son's. It felt like things were normal again and Red thought the whole topic from before was over and done with.
He was wrong.
"I cannot believe you did that, Red Forman." Kitty said sounding upset as she dropped the plates into the sink with a loud clank!
Red didn't understand, "Did what?"
At that same moment Schatzi abruptly began to bark loudly and quite aggressively, however Kitty was too upset with her husband to pay the barking any attention.
"Instead of supporting or at least pretending to support me you made me sound like a crazy woman in front of our children!"
"I did not." Red argued over Schatzi's high pitched barks, "If anything I tried to make you seem less crazy."
Kitty's eyes became large and she placed her hand son her hips, "Excuse me?"
"Crap." He mumbled before standing up and beginning his correction, "Kitty, I…" that was all Red managed to say because it was as far as he got in his head thanks to the dachshund's constant barking, "Laurie, what the hell is the damn dog barking at?"
Laurie looked over her shoulder and at the yapping dog. His attention and growls seemed to be focused on something in front of him so Laurie looked in the direction that Schatzi was barking at but only saw the shut glass sliding door.
"Don't know." she answered with a shrug dismissing the dog and getting back to her breakfast, "There's nothing there."
Before Red could mutter any kind of line along the words of 'damn dog' Kitty's anger toward him was quickly forgotten and worry showed on her face as she checked for herself that there was nothing there for Schatzi to be barking at. There wasn't.
"Or there's nothing we can see." Kitty said, her tone of voice sounding much like it did last night; seeing the frowns coming from her husband and daughter she continued on, "Sometimes dogs can see things that humans can't. Like ghosts or spirits or…"
Just then the glass door slid open and Michael Kelso walked into the house with a large grin painted on his face.
"Sorry, I'm late everyone. Hey there, Schatzi." He bent down to pet the little brown dog but he only backed away and barked some more; Kelso shrugged it off before taking a seat in Hyde's usual seat, "So what's for breakfast?"
Red scowled at the kettlehead now seated at his table but instead of giving him any kind of greeting he turned to his wife and finished the statement she had been cut off from, "Or a dumbass coming a mile away."
With that said Red exited the room while both Kitty and Laurie watched him leave—one looking more concerned than the other—and Kelso just looked confused as he searched the table trying to find the plate of bacon.
0o0o0o
Kitty walked into her husband's den relieved to find that the room was empty. As much as she loved her family and her son's friends she really needed a few quite moments to herself and even though her kitchen provided such moments after the odd occurrences of last night she no longer felt safe in one of her favorite rooms of the house.
She slowly sat herself down in the large armchair and moved her hand up to cover the right side of her face. She didn't know what was going on with her. Sure she knew menopause would not be the easiest stage of her life and she knew all about the signs and things to expect during 'the change' but thinking that your mother-in-law was back from the dead and haunting your house was definitely not one she had ever heard of before.
However, Kitty knew she couldn't blame this all on her menopause—like she was sure the rest of her family had already done. She also couldn't just agree with the reasonable explanations that Red had come up with for the things that happened last night and this morning with Schatzi's barking. Red had said Schatzi was glowing at Kelso but Kitty didn't believe that either. All of the neighborhood dogs loved Michael—Schatzi included. Something was going on in her house she was sure of it…Wasn't she?
Removing her hand from her face Kitty let out a small sigh. Maybe Red was right and she needed to relax, even after Red had led her out of the kitchen last night she wasn't able to relax all that much and had a sleepless night when it was time for bed. She scooted back into the chair, ready to give this relaxing idea another shot but before she could even begin to try to relax an item on the end table beside the chair caught her eye.
The family picture album.
What was that doing out? She wondered. No one ever looked trough it unless they were being forced to. And they would have put it back on the shelf in the den not left it out in the open. Why was it still out here? Kitty suddenly stopped the questions running through her mind when she realized she had been the last one to look through the album.
It had been a few days ago when she was looking for baby pictures of her boys for a page in their year book that would include their baby pictures beside their senior pictures. Of course she'd thought it had been an adorable idea and went to work in looking for the right photo. She had many to choose from for Eric and Steven had given her the few baby pictures he'd brought with him from his parent's house. Kitty wasn't sure if he'd given them to her for safe keeping or so that she could include his baby pictures with Eric and Laurie's but either way Kitty had gladly placed them into the family photo album.
With the happy thoughts of her babies as babies Kitty grabbed the picture book and opened it to one of the first pages that consisted of pictures from her and Red's courtship. She smiled at the images of the younger versions of herself and Red along with the familiar faces of friends she hadn't seen in years.
Keeping her smile in place Kitty settled back into the chair and continued to look through the book hoping the old memories would keep her mind off the spooky events going on in her home.
Meanwhile in the living room Red sat in his usual green armchair frowning at the TV screen that played a rerun of Bewitched. Today though, Red's scowl was not solely directed at the dumbass that was Darrin Number Two; his mind was still on Kitty and her whole idea of a ghost haunting the house. And not just any ghost, the ghost of his mother!
He knew the two of them never got along and for years they drove him crazy by putting him into middle of things, which was where he was now; trying to convince his wife that his deceased mother was not haunting them. The whole thing was ridiculous!
Still Red couldn't help but feel a little guilty at the way he'd reacted to the things Kitty had said. He wasn't one who believed in things like ghosts but he could have been a bit more sensitive to her feelings. He knew Kitty had been going through a lot lately; the long hours at the hospital, coming home to him and their seven kids—most of which were graduating this year giving her something else to deal with—along with the menopause that was difficult on the whole family.
Maybe it wasn't her fault that she was thinking there could be a ghost in their house, she could just be overworked and overly tired that her imagination had gotten the best of her. Kitty had always had an overactive imagination, when the kids were younger the bedtime stories she told usually came from the top of her head and the Halloween costumes she now missed making were done pattern-free; it wouldn't be too hard to believe that her imagination would come up with the idea that her mother-in-law's spirit was in her house.
The question was how could it be put to a stop?
Some rest could help, but Red had had a hard enough time getting her to relax last night. Maybe he needed to get her out of the house; it would at least keep her mind off things for a few hours. And even though it was the middle of the week, Red decided the sooner the better; after all he only had a few days before all the stores and restaurants would start hanging up their Christmas decorations while playing Christmas carols all day, every day.
Back in the den Kitty had come to the part in the scrapbook that held photographs from her and Red's wedding. Her eyes were stuck on the image of her husband in the picture of the two of them on the dance floor. He really did look so handsome in his tuxedo, maybe Kitty needed to find some new events that would get him in one again.
At last moving her gaze away from her groom, Kitty quickly scanned over the other pictures on the two pages of the opened book and realized that these pictures were not just of her and Red; they included cameos of their family members, including Mother Forman.
Knowing that she probably couldn't handle seeing the image of her mother-in-law—even if it was only in a photograph—Kitty decided to skip over the rest of the wedding section of the album. She grabbed a few pages of the scrapbook and turned them over to flip to a random page that she hoped would include images from when Laurie and Eric were little. However, as Kitty moved the stack of pages to the left side of the scrapbook a picture managed to come loose and slipped out of the book and straight onto Kitty's lap, facing right side up.
Kitty looked down at her lap and saw the picture. It was one from the wedding, she and Red were standing with members of Red's family and her eyes landed right on Bernice Forman's smiling face.
With a frightened scream, Kitty leapt up off her seat causing the album and picture to fall to the floor. Red had entered the room almost at the same time, calling his wife's name but she didn't answer him, though seemed to know he was there as she quickly wrapped her arms around his neck and jumped into his arms, catching Red by such a surprise that he almost forward.
Once he regained his balance he looked at his wife whose face was buried into his neck that she was still holding onto tightly, "Kitty, what happened?"
She pulled away and looked at him, not sure of what to say. She wanted to tell him the truth but didn't want her family thinking she was crazier than they already thought she was.
"I…I saw a mouse." She lied.
The scowl on Red's forehead deepened as he looked towards the area near the chair and noticed the album and faced down photo on the floor. Still holding Kitty in his arms, he walked towards the items and placed Kitty on the arm of the chair before retrieving the photo. Turing it over, he saw what it was a picture of he looked back at his wife.
He still wore his frown, "What's the picture doing out here?"
"The mouse brought it out." Kitty answered weakly and the expression on Red's face told her he had not been fooled; she shook her head, "Well it's not like you would believe me if I told you the truth anyways."
Red knew he deserved that but hopefully he'd be able to make it up to her with his next move. He placed the photo on the small table, noticing Kitty scooted farther away from it but said nothing about it.
"Look Kitty," he began to say, "I know you're upset because I haven't been taking you seriously about…the recent events, but I've thought it over and…"
"And you believe me now?" Kitty interrupted in a hopeful tone.
"No." came Red's blunt reply, "I still think it's your imagination behind all this." He added and when he saw Kitty getting ready to protest he continued on, "And I know you don't. So I've figured out a way to settle this."
Kitty looked a bit suspicious, "How?"
"I'm taking you out tonight." He said with a grin, "We'll go to dinner, a movie, whatever you want to do."
"Red, what is going out to dinner going to prove?" Kitty asked, convinced that he must have had another motive for this.
"Nothing, we'll have to wait till we get back home." came his answer before he started to elaborate more on his plan, "See us going to dinner will get you out of the house and help you relax and keep your mind of things. Then when we get back home if you still feeling like there's a ghost in the house then I'll believe you. If you don't then I was right and it was all in your head."
The look Kitty wore on her face showed how indifferent she felt about the idea.
Noticing the expression Red walked over and placed his arm around her shoulders, "And in the meantime you get a nice night out on the town and I get to spend some time with my best girl."
When she felt Red squeeze her a bit tighter Kitty gazed up at him with a tight smile, "Well okay." She said pretending like she had to give in, which made her laugh a bit.
"Great." he said and then helped Kitty onto her feet, "You go get dressed and I'll let the dumbasses know they're on their own for dinner."
He gave her bottom a quick pat and then headed out of the room; when he noticed the lack of footsteps behind him he stopped and turned back around to find Kitty standing in the same spot as before, her smile still playing on her lips.
"What's wrong?" he asked, confused and thinking maybe she'd changed her mind.
"You know," Kitty started to say, tilting her head slightly as she walked towards where he stood, "Even though you didn't and still don't believe me on all of this. You really are a wonderful husband, Red Forman."
A smirk crawled onto Red's lips, "I think a wonderful wife deserves that kind of husband, right?"
To show her agreement with the statement, Kitty grinned before raising herself on her tiptoes to give her husband a well earned kiss. Their lips hadn't been touching for more than two seconds before a loud boom of thunder shook the house and caused a swift end to the couple's embrace as a startled Kitty clutched onto Red's shirt.
Red sighed before he began running a soothing hand over her back, "I'll go with you upstairs."
Author's Note: So what did you think? Yay? Nay? A little bit of both? Be sure to let me know in a review!
I know this chapter was kinda RK focused but the next chapter will have more of the kids after all they're in the house alone now.
Until next time, thanks for reading, hope you liked, please review and lemme know what you think, stay tuned, take care, and have a nice day!