Chapter Three
The next morning Rose had to fight for the only bathroom in the house to get ready for her first day of at a new high school hell. Still a bit creeped out by the little music box incident, she never mentioned it to her dad, knew he had his own issues with nervousness about his first day as the new boss of the local factory.
Jacob was dropped off at his elementary school then Rose was brought to the high school where her dad handed her transfer papers and instructed she had to report immediately to the office.
Rose got out of the huge station wagon. Before her a high school swarmed by teenaged strangers, she loathed being the new kid. She stood there as the station wagon drove off, she was left to go it alone. She took a deep breath then stepped forward, nearly ran into a few of her new peers who just grimaced at her.
Yep, gonna hate it there, she thought to herself.
Rose sat on the bench in the high school office as she held her past school records and transfer papers. People strolled and paid her no mind. She already heard both the warning and first class bells go off which meant she was late for her first class, whatever that was.
Finally the woman behind the counter waved for Rose to step up.
She rose up and stepped to the counter then handed over all her information, been in the same school system all her seventeen years.
"Okay, Miss Garrett, here is your class schedule." the woman behind the desk explained then handed Rose the single sheet of paper. The woman's eyes quickly shifted, "Charley Brewster!" she snapped, her keen eye caught a late arrival and perfect candidate to show the new girl to her first class.
"Charley Brewster!" the woman repeated with stern and watched eighteen year old senior Charley Brewster shrug with his head dropped back, "That's it, come here!"
Rose turned her head. Her eyes went wide for it was her neighbor guy. She quickly turned her head, felt her face begin to blush.
"Hey, Mrs. Trimble," Charley Brewster greeted the stern faced office head. He was late again and hoped he would have gotten by the office without being called out. He attempted an excuse, "Sorry I'm late, again, but I had car troubles and my Mom…"
Mrs. Trimble interrupted Charley's excuse, "I'll let it slide, this time."
"Ah, thanks," Charley sighed in relief.
"But," Mrs. Trimble grinned, watched Charley's relief quickly diminish and explained, "On the account if you show Miss Garrett to her first class that you are no doubt late for, Mr. Brewster."
Charley looked to his left at the new arrival. There she was, his new neighbor that practically scared the shit out of him when he saw her in that all too ominous neighboring window.
Rose reluctantly looked to her right at Charley, "Hi," she awkwardly greeted, saw he recognized her from the window.
"Well," Mrs. Trimble spoke up, "Show her to her class or we could arrange after school detention, Mr. Brewster."
"Okay, Mrs. Trimble," Charley somewhat grumbled then rolled his eyes, "Come on."
Charley waved for Rose to follow him. He continued to shake his head as he stepped out of the office, "God, I hate that woman." he commented, more so to himself but heard Rose giggle at his comment. He turned his head and looked to his new neighbor. He thought she was cute in an awkward sorta way dressed in an obvious rock and roll inspired style. He asked, "You just moved in next door to me, right?"
The hallways were empty with exception to a couple late stragglers.
Charley continued to speak, "My Mom mentioned she met your dad and little brother."
"Yeah," answered Rose as simply as possible.
He asked, made an effort, "How you liking it here so far?" He couldn't imagine anyone living in the house that her family now lived in. For a year he had fought to set aside what happened within those walls of 99 Oak, so had most of the city. He had no desire to bring it up.
"I don't know," she answered though she actually hated it, "I don't know anyone, yeah, so it really sucks."
"It ain't all bad." he stated though there was some serious bad stuff he personally knew but was desperate to forget, "Everything's pretty quiet." Yeah, he thought, now that something wasn't around.
"I don't like the house." she confessed and added, "It's old and creepy. Like something out of some cheesy vampire flicks or something like it."
He momentarily froze, hated her comment, vampires. He shook it off. "Yeah, it's not too pretty to look at." he agreed. Every time he looked at the damned house it always made him remember those nightmarish things that happened a year ago.
"Tell me about it." she huffed then curiously asked, "Hey, do you know anything about the previous owners because they sure left a shitload of stuff behind."
He paused, reluctantly looked at her then quickly shook his head, "Nah, they didn't live there long." he was vague with his explanation. Nope, no details he wanted to share.
"They?" she curiously asked and almost bumped into him when he went to a stop before a closed classroom door.
"Yeah," again he vaguely stated and quickly changed the unwanted subject, "Well, we're here." he aimed his thumb at the class door, "Mr. Green is cool and pretty much has us silently reading while he sleeps." He didn't want to speak about 99 Oak any more, actually, never again. He swung open the door and was greeted loudly by Mr. Green the Lit teacher
"Late again, Charley!"
Nope, Rose didn't make any friends besides the cute Charley Brewster who barely spoke to her the rest of the day while he and his apparent girlfriend shared lunch together. She quietly sat huddled at the end of one of the large tables and picked at the typical high school food.
She was anxious to get home which meant she had to wait for her dad at the high school curb. When the wagon arrived, she didn't say a word when she got into the station wagon. Her brother already picked up, he babbled on and on about all the friends he made.
Rose and Jacob were dropped off at home for John had to return to the factory.
Yep, Rose thought, now she had to babysit her annoying brother.
She paused on the walkway as her dad drove off and noticed a nice red Mustang parked in the neighboring driveway. Well, at least Charley Brewster had his own car, she grumbled in thought.
She shrugged and reluctantly took the responsibility of keeping an eye on Jacob who immediately raced to the kitchen for an after school snack. She retreated upstairs to drop off her loaded down book bag then returned downstairs to get herself a Coke as Jacob already messed with the old console television.
She flopped down on the sofa as Jacob sat before the television hypnotized by after school cartoons. She lifted a heavy metal magazine before her eyes to block out the television, an image of the proclaimed prince of darkness Ozzy on the cover. She had her headphones over her ears to block out the sounds of Bugs Bunny with the thrashing sounds of the killer vocals of Judas Priest's lead singer Rob Halford.
Finished with an in depth article about the German band Scorpions, one of her all time favorites, Rose set the magazine down and stood up to fetch another Coke. She moved through the house and hummed in tune with Halford's powerful vocals. She entered the kitchen then through the headphones she heard that loud array of clocks go off in the basement. She pulled the headphones back and frowned. Her eyes looked up at the clock hung on the kitchen wall, it was six. Her eyes shifted and passed the kitchen window above the sink showed it was a tad beyond dusk.
The chimes and coo-coos faded, the power went out.
She startled then heard Jacob shout for her from the living room. "It's okay!" she shouted back, "This house is old, shithead, and a fuse probably blew!"
She somewhat blindly moved through the kitchen, bumped the table then a chair and felt her way to the counter. She fumbled around, heard Jacob call out to her again, "Hold on!" she shouted, "I'm gonna find a flashlight!" She found the drawers, pulled each one open along the line of the counter and dug her hands inside each one to feel for a flashlight. Her fingers finally struck gold.
She grabbed the flashlight then lifted it and hit the switch. The beam shined in her face and caused her to winch.
She used the flashlight to guide her from the kitchen then through the house. She returned to the living room and shined the beam of light on her brother and asked, "You okay, shithead?"
Jacob lifted his hand to block the light from his eyes.
"You stay put and I'll go down into the basement and see if I can get the lights back on." she explained and watched him nod as he looked a bit frightened. She didn't blame him since the house was creepier shrouded in complete darkness.
She took a deep breath and marched through the house, moved through the dining room and stepped to the closed basement door. Another deep breath, she opened the door and shined the light down the curved stairwell that led into probably the worst place to go in that old dark house. She stepped down and carefully moved down the stairwell on bare feet, desperate not to freak herself out. She hated the smell of old basements, the dust, mold, and other old basement smells.
Her bare foot dropped down on the concrete floor at the bottom of the stairs and she scanned the flashlight beam through that eerie creepiness. She had a vision of a huge monstrous fuse box as she stepped further into that darkness filled space. A creepy feeling raised goose bumps over her exposed arms. The house steadily got chilly since the furnace was shut off by the blown fuse which increased the feel of those goose bumps.
She felt lost in that huge basement, found the dead furnace and all that remained of the belongings of the previous owner. The flashlight reflected off something and she squinted through her glasses, saw a slightly exposed something that stood tall near the far wall. She moved toward the dusty sheet covered something and caught a peak of reflective gold. She reached out, grabbed the sheet then pulled back and unveiled a standing grandfather clock.
She nodded, she was right when she recognized the low sounding chime typical of grandfather clocks.
She again scanned the flashlight in search for the fuse box. "Come on, where the hell are ya?" she mumbled under her breath, felt the temperature steadily get colder. Damned house must have some serious drafts, she guessed.
She excitedly stated, "Gotchya!" she grinned then shuffled forward but stumbled, ran into a box which toppled over and spilled its unsealed contents. She darted the light down, discovered an array of music cassettes. She crouched down and picked up one of those unlabeled cassettes. Upon further inspection each cassette was the same, all unlabeled, "Huh." She tossed the cassettes back into the box then lifted the box off the floor. Got herself more music, she sang in thought, maybe.
She stepped to the fuse box, propped the flashlight under her chin then opened the squeaky metal door and eyed the inside. Her lips puckered as she eyed what were circuit breakers which was better than damned fuses. She reached to what looked like the main breaker then with a little struggle she flipped the breaker and her brother's loud cheers sounded down into the basement.
"Damn straight," she proudly stated, brought light and warmth back to the old house.
(Author)
My suggestion, whenever you come across any song and band names, give them a listen to help create a soundtrack while you read this. That's how I write!
FRIGHT NIGHT FOREVA!