Chapter 2
Bad Morning After
Kim woke up early, judging from the alarm clock that Ron had brought with him, it was about 6:00 Friday morning, they had been in the old manor for 10 hours, she decided to take a shower before Ron woke up, but when she turned over to look at Ron, he wasn't in bed,
'Where did he get off to?' she thought, her question was answered a few minutes later, when the heavenly smell of bacon and eggs came from the back of the house,
'I should've known.' she thought, picking up the clothes that they had stripped off in haste last night, and put them into a corner of the room.
The scene in the kitchen when Kim got there, was one so hilarious, that she had to cover her mouth with her hands, here was Ron, running around in what appeared to be a short sleeve shirt, shorts, and an apron,
"What in the name of weirdness is this?" asked a voice from behind Kim, Bonnie was behind her, her hair uncombed, and her clothes a jumbled mess,
"Just what I was thinking." Kim added, looking over at her boyfriend, and smiling slightly,
"I was hungry, and decided, what the hell, why not cook breakfast for everybody, dig in." Ron said, smiling over at the girls,
"Cool, Ron." Kim said, pulling a plate out of the cupboard, and helping herself to a couple of eggs, and a couple strips of bacon, but Bonnie had yet to move,
"Please tell me you've got some coffee going, Stoppable?" Bonnie asked, Ron nodded over to the coffee pot, located on the counter next to the sink.
Bonnie quickly grabbed the pot, and a cup from the cupboard, and poured herself some of the strong black beverage,
"Got a little more than that for you too, Bon Bon." Ron said, reaching into the pocket of his shorts, pulling out a bottle of aspirin, and tossing it to the tanned beauty,
"You are a lifesaver, whatever bad comments I've ever made about you, I take them all back." Bonnie said, gratefully shaking out about four of the white colored tablets, and popping them into her mouth, then grabbing the cup of black coffee in front of her, she downed about half of the hot liquid in one gulp,
"Bit of a hangover this morning, Bonnie?" Kim asked, now working on the glass of orange juice in front of her,
"I feel like I got hit by a freight train, K, did I have that much to drink last night?" Bonnie asked, looking over at the pretty redhead,
"Do you really want to know?" Kim asked, Bonnie shook her head no, and left it at that.
A few minutes later, Monique walked into the kitchen alone,
"Where's Josh?" Kim asked,
"The last time I saw him, he was depositing his offerings on the porcelain alter," Monique said, smiling widely,
"but enough about me and Josh, did you and studly over her have fun last night?"
Kim blushed crimson at this, she and Ron had been caught by their best friend having a very steamy session,
"Wh--what's that supposed to mean?" Kim stammered,
"Don't try to play innocent with me, girlfriend," Monique said, looking at Kim with an eyebrow raised,
"Josh and I heard your little sexcapades last night, if you get my meaning."
Ron whipped around from the stove, his face was bright red with embarrassment,
"Okay, you got us." Kim said,
"Yeah, I know," Monique said, her face not meeting Kim's,
"and I lost twenty bucks over it, too."
"You bet on that?!" Kim said, the bewilderment showing on her face,
"Not like I had a choice, it was either that, or listen to Josh talk on, and on about it all night." Monique said,
"You spied on us?" Ron asked,
"No, I didn't have to spy, those walls were so thin, I couldn't help but overhear." Monique said, apologetically,
"We'll forgive you this time, Monique," Kim said,
"but next time, wear earplugs, or stick the pillow over your head."
Josh Mankey came down a few minutes later, he, like Bonnie, had grabbed for the coffeepot, and aspirin, he was followed into the kitchen by Brick Flagg, who had a goofy grin plastered over his face,
"Looks like Ron and I weren't the only ones who got lucky last night." Kim said, chuckling slightly, looking over at Brick, who sat to Monique's right,
"Yeah." Brick said, in a far off voice,
"I think you got him whipped, girl." Monique said, looking over at Bonnie, who smiled,
"When you got it, you got it." Bonnie said, smiling,
"Man, don't talk about getting a piece." Josh said, looking over at Monique, a frown on his face,
"What's the matter, Mankey," Brick asked, "strike out last night?"
"Understatement of the century." Josh said, looking over at Brick, a huge frown on his face,
"What did you do to him, Monique?" Kim asked, looking over at her best friend,
"I made him sleep on the floor." Monique replied, smiling impishly,
"Ooh, you are too evil." Ron said, looking over at Monique, who broke out into a huge grin,
"I'm not even dating the man, what makes you think I'm gonna sleep with him." Monique said, looking back at Ron,
"Hey, I didn't imply anything here." Ron said, speaking in his defense.
Mid afternoon found most of the occupants of the old manor house out on the grounds, enjoying the bright summer sun, Kim and Ron were near the caretaker's cottage, a rundown shack, that stood at the very rear of the grounds,
"Talk about creepy." Kim said, looking at the ramshackle house, and shuddering,
"Yeah, I know, does that house seem to give off some kind of evil vibes to you?" Ron asked, Kim nodded, and looked over at Ron,
"Investigate?" Kim asked,
"You know it." Ron replied.
The two teenagers walked up to the door, which appeared to be held onto the jamb by one very flimsy hinge, and opened it, the door came off the hinge, and fell to the floor. As soon as they crossed the threshold, a penetrating cold hit them, as though someone, or something, was looking straight through them, and into their very soul,
"Okay, we've gone way beyond the weird limit here." Kim said, looking around the small cottage, and wondering how anyone could live in such cramped quarters.
In one corner of the "house," was a small sofabed, it appeared to have been recently made, as though somebody had slept in it, and on the counter, was a full pot of coffee,
"Uh, K.P., this place is starting to freak me out." Ron said, looking around, and backing to the door through which they had entered,
"Wait a minute." Kim said, now heading for the cupboard over what was obviously the sink.
She opened the door to find, not a bare cupboard, but a cupboard, fully stocked, there were enough canned goods, and meats for a single person to live on, and what's more, the expiration dates were not for another few months,
"Oh yeah, way over the weird limit." she said,
"Let's just get out of here, please?" Ron begged,
"Yeah, I'm with you on this one." Kim said, turning for the door, but when they turned around, they saw Bonnie, and Zeta standing in the doorway,
"What is this place?" Zeta asked, looking at the crumbling old building,
"As far as I can guess, it's the old caretaker's cottage." Kim said, looking around,
"Yeah, but that bed looks like someone's been sleeping in here." Bonnie said, looking over at the sofabed,
"Thanks for spotting that one, Captain Obvious." Ron said, looking over at Bonnie,
"C'mon, Ron, can you at least give me the benefit of a doubt?" Bonnie asked,
"Well, at least use your head for something other than a hatrack, Bonnie," Ron said, looking over at the tanned cheerleader, "It's obvious that someone's spent the night in here, if so, then where are they now?" Ron asked,
"Good point." Zeta said, taking in the still steaming coffeepot, and the open cupboard,
"The food in this cupboard was recently bought at the meat market down the street." she said, looking over at Kim, she quickly grabbed the package from Zeta's hands, and read the label:
Middleton Meat Market
21 Ryerson Avenue
Middleton Colorado
"Okay, I've hit about a 9.7 on the Weird Shit O' Meter here." Kim said, handing the package back to Zeta, who put it back into the cupboard,
"Such language, K." Bonnie said,
"Tell me this place isn't freaking you out, Bonnie?" Kim asked,
"It is." Bonnie replied.
That evening, Kim, Ron, and Bonnie were discussing what they had seen in the old cottage, when Allen Platt came into the room,
"Hey, guys, have any of you seen my sister, Annie?" he asked,
"No, Dude, not since breakfast." Ron said,
"This is so not like her, she's been missing since we came back in from the back garden this afternoon." Allen said, his eyes on the floor,
"Don't worry about it, Allen," Bonnie said, "she's probably just exploring the rest of the house, like some of the others."
"Yeah, it's probably no big." Kim said, looking at her classmate, and smiling slightly. When Allen left the room, Ron spoke,
"You know, noone's seen Zeta since we came back in from the backyard either."
"Think there's a connection?" Bonnie asked, looking from Ron, to Kim. The two friends shared a look, this was one of the things that made Kim and Ron such a great team, they could communicate to each other without ever needing to talk out loud,
"I can tell by the look that you two think something's up, spill." Bonnie said,
"Isn't it obvious," Kim said, looking at Bonnie, "I mean, first the caretaker's cottage is occupied, probably by a transient of some kind, and Zeta, and Annie both come up missing, not coincidence."
"No way," Ron said, "my guess is that they stumbled onto something here."
"But what?" Bonnie asked,
"No idea, but I'll bet they're not going to be the last to come up missing." Ron said.