A conversation with a dead person.
A/ N Just a short story I wrote a while ago and never got around to posting, I probably wont continue this.
When the moon flew high across the tar slicked road, they remembered. Although they could not be seen , they remained intangible and persistent.
Light as a shadow , but as stiff as board.
The dead never forgot.
"They call it the haunted house" and ominous voice attempted to whisper and Tess rolled her eyes attempting to fix her eye liner as she walked.
"Tress original shorty" she laughed and the small boy next to her promptly kicked her in the shins.
"I'm serious Tess!" he cried and she rolled her eyes. Baby sitting her sisters kid was hardly what she had expected to do on a Friday night , however here she was walking the brat home from the movies. He had insisted on seeing the matrix reloaded , possibly the worst film Tess had ever been forced to sit through. It was attempting to be complicated and deep but it just came off as rather confusing.
" Michael we've discussed this before , the supernatural is just a belief system formed by misguided parents who tell their children horror stories in order to reinforce their own values" Tess said sarcastically tightening her coat.
" Mom said you would say that , she says you a sink" Michael replied casually and Tess thought momentarily.
" You mean a cynic?" she asked and Michael nodded.
"Yeah that , do you think ghosts are really computer programs like in the movie?" he asked. Tess sighed and snapped the lid back on her eye liner and proceeded to put it in her coat pocket.
"It's highly unlikely" she replied brushing a strand of short black hair away from her face.
" Hey Tess?" he asked , she paused and they stood under the street light.
" Yes Michael?" she asked impatiently.
"What are those things on your head?" he asked , Tess found her head shaking involuntarily.
"Those?" she asked lightly touching the scar tissue on her temples and Michael nodded.
"Oh , my ex boyfriend and I were attacked in a parking lot by some psycho with a cattle prod a year ago" Tess said casually , although there was a slight tremble in her voice.
"A cattle prod?" Michael asked raising an eye brow sceptically.
"This is coming from the boy who believes in haunted houses" she stated as they walked in comfortable silence through the suburban streets. It was twilight and Tess watched as her breath condensed in the cold winter air . Secretly she felt relieved , she wasn't alone even if her company was an eight year old boy hyped up on sugar.
"Tess?" he asked , he never called her Aunt or Aunty , she was far to young to really be any ones aunt.
"Yes Michael?" she asked blazingly as the walked down a sleepy suburban street the dusky light filling the atmosphere with an almost comfortable warmth.
" Do you believe in ghosts?" he asked and Tess was about to answer with a curt , no of course not.
But then something flickered in her mind .A wave of nausea crept over her as she remembered something beyond a wall.
Tentacles.
darkness.
And for some bizarre reason the Pillsbury dough boys.
"I don't know" she finally said clenching onto the little boys fingers. She glanced around nervously , briefly remembering where she was.
Alone , with a child she was responsible for.
"What brought this topic up any way?" she asked dejectedly and he shrugged his shoulders.
"Because were near the haunted house , I heard about it from a kid in my class he said he knew the kid who lived next to the haunted house and that kid went crazy and was locked up" Michael babbled and Tess smirked with good humor, it was amazing how urban legends started.
"If the kid was crazy then he probably didn't see real ghosts" Tess reminded him and Michael shrugged his shoulders.
"The kid lived next to a roach hotel , people checked in but they didn't check out baby" he crooned in a false blue brothers accent. Tess found herself chortling with amusement, Michael was an OK kid and so far he wasn't showing any signs of becoming a full paid member of the future Dick heads of America society.
She wasn't really comfortable with the idea of having her own children , but others were relevantly OK.
"You sound like you escaped from the rat pack" she chortled fiddling with the Celtic crucifix hanging from her neck. She used to wear Ankh's but she had gone off them for a while , the reminded her of something to do with those damn Pillsbury dough boys, they freaked her out.
Unconsciously she began to slow down and she shivered in her stylish yet affordable black velvet jacket.
'See that's it , the haunted house some times kids go here and throw rocks at the windows.. but I don't" Michael muttered trembling slightly and Tess clenched onto his hand. It was barely more then a shack , surrounded by dust and nothing else with the letters 777 scrawled across the front in thick flaking black paint. On either side there was dingy homes in disrepair , but they were lived in not desolate.
If possible , there was the sense of being out side of watching something which belonged to a film she couldn't possibly belong to or change.
"His gone" a wheezing voice suddenly called , and Tess could see some one a man skulking around the edges of the dirt yard a sorrowful look on his face.
She stared at him , unable to move and hoping he was nothing more then an insane drunken homeless man.
Michael however didn't react , he was babbling excited about how he and some of the guys were planning on breaking into the haunted house as soon as they had grown the balls.
The voices owner looked up , frightened like a stunned rabbit and Tess swallowed loudly.
"I was supposed to come back for a reason , they told me it wasn't enough to be afraid that he had to be taken down a few notches and sooner or later some one had to do it" he continued to babble and Tess noticed he was rather cute in a malnourished psychotic sort of way.
"OK your obviously a fucking lunatic" she muttered expecting Michael to start shrieking with excitement the way he always did when some one swore.
Instead it was as if Michael had been tuned out , he was steal their present in the scene however he also wasn't.
How was she supposed to describe it , she could never really be sure.
The crazy homeless man knelt against the gutter and for a second Tess was sure she saw his hand pass strait through it.
However she blamed it on to many late nights with out coffee to give her a hyper sugar buzz.
"You've seen him" he finally said as if really noticing he wasn't alone , Tess was not quite sure how to react to that statement. Perhaps it seemed forbidding and familiar , or perhaps this was merely some poor guy one of her many ex's had threatened.
She couldn't be sure.
He stood up lanky and thing , pushing up his glasses nervously.
"I'm going to be going now" Tess said as calmly as possible beginning to drag Michael away.
"You need to know I suppose , they'll all start coming sooner or later until they get what they want and believe me I'm one of the nicer ones" he finished in a sombre tone of voice then shrugging his shoulders he disappeared into the darkness.
"Freak" Tess muttered under her breath and Michael gave her a nonplussed frightened stare.
"See I told you this house was haunted" he admitted shrugging his shoulders.
They walked away in silence and some where deep inside the bowls of 777 a torture device collapsed in on itself.
A/ N Just a short story I wrote a while ago and never got around to posting, I probably wont continue this.
When the moon flew high across the tar slicked road, they remembered. Although they could not be seen , they remained intangible and persistent.
Light as a shadow , but as stiff as board.
The dead never forgot.
"They call it the haunted house" and ominous voice attempted to whisper and Tess rolled her eyes attempting to fix her eye liner as she walked.
"Tress original shorty" she laughed and the small boy next to her promptly kicked her in the shins.
"I'm serious Tess!" he cried and she rolled her eyes. Baby sitting her sisters kid was hardly what she had expected to do on a Friday night , however here she was walking the brat home from the movies. He had insisted on seeing the matrix reloaded , possibly the worst film Tess had ever been forced to sit through. It was attempting to be complicated and deep but it just came off as rather confusing.
" Michael we've discussed this before , the supernatural is just a belief system formed by misguided parents who tell their children horror stories in order to reinforce their own values" Tess said sarcastically tightening her coat.
" Mom said you would say that , she says you a sink" Michael replied casually and Tess thought momentarily.
" You mean a cynic?" she asked and Michael nodded.
"Yeah that , do you think ghosts are really computer programs like in the movie?" he asked. Tess sighed and snapped the lid back on her eye liner and proceeded to put it in her coat pocket.
"It's highly unlikely" she replied brushing a strand of short black hair away from her face.
" Hey Tess?" he asked , she paused and they stood under the street light.
" Yes Michael?" she asked impatiently.
"What are those things on your head?" he asked , Tess found her head shaking involuntarily.
"Those?" she asked lightly touching the scar tissue on her temples and Michael nodded.
"Oh , my ex boyfriend and I were attacked in a parking lot by some psycho with a cattle prod a year ago" Tess said casually , although there was a slight tremble in her voice.
"A cattle prod?" Michael asked raising an eye brow sceptically.
"This is coming from the boy who believes in haunted houses" she stated as they walked in comfortable silence through the suburban streets. It was twilight and Tess watched as her breath condensed in the cold winter air . Secretly she felt relieved , she wasn't alone even if her company was an eight year old boy hyped up on sugar.
"Tess?" he asked , he never called her Aunt or Aunty , she was far to young to really be any ones aunt.
"Yes Michael?" she asked blazingly as the walked down a sleepy suburban street the dusky light filling the atmosphere with an almost comfortable warmth.
" Do you believe in ghosts?" he asked and Tess was about to answer with a curt , no of course not.
But then something flickered in her mind .A wave of nausea crept over her as she remembered something beyond a wall.
Tentacles.
darkness.
And for some bizarre reason the Pillsbury dough boys.
"I don't know" she finally said clenching onto the little boys fingers. She glanced around nervously , briefly remembering where she was.
Alone , with a child she was responsible for.
"What brought this topic up any way?" she asked dejectedly and he shrugged his shoulders.
"Because were near the haunted house , I heard about it from a kid in my class he said he knew the kid who lived next to the haunted house and that kid went crazy and was locked up" Michael babbled and Tess smirked with good humor, it was amazing how urban legends started.
"If the kid was crazy then he probably didn't see real ghosts" Tess reminded him and Michael shrugged his shoulders.
"The kid lived next to a roach hotel , people checked in but they didn't check out baby" he crooned in a false blue brothers accent. Tess found herself chortling with amusement, Michael was an OK kid and so far he wasn't showing any signs of becoming a full paid member of the future Dick heads of America society.
She wasn't really comfortable with the idea of having her own children , but others were relevantly OK.
"You sound like you escaped from the rat pack" she chortled fiddling with the Celtic crucifix hanging from her neck. She used to wear Ankh's but she had gone off them for a while , the reminded her of something to do with those damn Pillsbury dough boys, they freaked her out.
Unconsciously she began to slow down and she shivered in her stylish yet affordable black velvet jacket.
'See that's it , the haunted house some times kids go here and throw rocks at the windows.. but I don't" Michael muttered trembling slightly and Tess clenched onto his hand. It was barely more then a shack , surrounded by dust and nothing else with the letters 777 scrawled across the front in thick flaking black paint. On either side there was dingy homes in disrepair , but they were lived in not desolate.
If possible , there was the sense of being out side of watching something which belonged to a film she couldn't possibly belong to or change.
"His gone" a wheezing voice suddenly called , and Tess could see some one a man skulking around the edges of the dirt yard a sorrowful look on his face.
She stared at him , unable to move and hoping he was nothing more then an insane drunken homeless man.
Michael however didn't react , he was babbling excited about how he and some of the guys were planning on breaking into the haunted house as soon as they had grown the balls.
The voices owner looked up , frightened like a stunned rabbit and Tess swallowed loudly.
"I was supposed to come back for a reason , they told me it wasn't enough to be afraid that he had to be taken down a few notches and sooner or later some one had to do it" he continued to babble and Tess noticed he was rather cute in a malnourished psychotic sort of way.
"OK your obviously a fucking lunatic" she muttered expecting Michael to start shrieking with excitement the way he always did when some one swore.
Instead it was as if Michael had been tuned out , he was steal their present in the scene however he also wasn't.
How was she supposed to describe it , she could never really be sure.
The crazy homeless man knelt against the gutter and for a second Tess was sure she saw his hand pass strait through it.
However she blamed it on to many late nights with out coffee to give her a hyper sugar buzz.
"You've seen him" he finally said as if really noticing he wasn't alone , Tess was not quite sure how to react to that statement. Perhaps it seemed forbidding and familiar , or perhaps this was merely some poor guy one of her many ex's had threatened.
She couldn't be sure.
He stood up lanky and thing , pushing up his glasses nervously.
"I'm going to be going now" Tess said as calmly as possible beginning to drag Michael away.
"You need to know I suppose , they'll all start coming sooner or later until they get what they want and believe me I'm one of the nicer ones" he finished in a sombre tone of voice then shrugging his shoulders he disappeared into the darkness.
"Freak" Tess muttered under her breath and Michael gave her a nonplussed frightened stare.
"See I told you this house was haunted" he admitted shrugging his shoulders.
They walked away in silence and some where deep inside the bowls of 777 a torture device collapsed in on itself.