Chapter Two, pt 1:
Beth stepped into the room and immediately felt chillier than before. It was like she had stepped right through a wall of cold. She ignored it and instead stared in momentary stillness at the pile of fabrics on the floor. After a second, her eyes flicked to the overturned boxes scattered across the room, the threads unwound across the rug, the equipment that had slid all the way under the end table.
A moment later, with an exaggerated sigh, she knelt to pick the sewing supplies up. Nothing stayed put in this room. It was downright unnerving. It wasn't just that the fabrics kept falling no matter how expertly she arranged them, or the fact that it always felt like a window was open in here, or that the door kept swinging shut - she stopped to catch it with her hand as it began to do just that, and propped it back open. It was that anything she put in here was in a different place later. It was like her inanimate possessions didn't like being left in this room. She had shut the door to the closet, and those boxes had been stacked inside perfectly straight. How could they have fallen over like this?
It had set her efforts at sewing back a number of days, since every time she came into the room to get started she ended up having to spend twenty minutes rearranging everything she'd rearranged the day before - or even just a few hours ago. The Muddlefoots' Halloween party was the next night - she'd have to really set herself to it today and tomorrow and finally get her costume done.
The door swung closed with a quiet *creak*, and she let her shoulders slump in defeat. "Fine," she said aloud, with the oddest feeling that she really was talking to someone and not just the door to her room. "Do whatever you want. I don't care anymore. If you want to be shut, be shut."
The silence that followed her outburst was waiting to be broken. With a small shiver, she let out a breath, realizing she'd been waiting for a reply. What would I have done if I'd gotten one? she thought, and shivered again, then felt stupid. It really was cold in that room.
As she settled the spools of thread back in their box, she blinked and shook her head. The walls - she'd had the strangest sensation that they were moving. Shifting. She looked around nervously, felt dizzy, and nearly fell backwards. Great - vertigo. The ventilation in here must be almost nonexistant, she thought. Better get out of here before I pass out. She scooped up the fabrics and, on a whim, stuffed them into a nearby trunk. "And stay there," she muttered, trying to convince herself that no one would answer her because she was the only person in the house. Then she picked up her costume material and supplies with the sudden inspiration to work on them in the living room.
She felt better the moment she stepped out of the room. Putting a hand to her forehead she found she'd been sweating, of all things. "Oh, honestly," she said under her breath, and started down the hallway, then stopped as a chill ran down her back. In a few quick motions she turned back and pulled the door forcefully shut, then locked it behind her and sped down the hallway before she could convince herself that it was a silly thing to do.
Still, with every step she took away from that room, she felt herself relaxing. "You, Elizabeth Marilynn, have been watching too many Halloween specials," she told herself loudly, confidently, and allowed a self-deprecatory laugh to escape her as she brushed her fingers along the walls of the hallway towards the stairs.
She paused at the landing, blinking, and slowly drew her fingers away from the wall in barely-filtered disgust. It was warm... warmer than it had been before, and slightly damp, and... it felt awful. Not like a wall in a good house should, at all. Like it's alive- she thought, then immediately blushed, feeling stupid. Now she really had proof she'd been watching too many Halloween specials... Alive, indeed.
Nonetheless, she walked down the stairs staying as far from the wall as she could get.
It probably was the heating, like Launchpad said. She should really get around to having him come over and check it out... Oh, what the heck. At least see if he was free today...
Herb Muddlefoot was decorating his front yard when she passed him on the way to the Mallards' house. "Herb!" she called, waving from the sidewalk. He turned to face her, grappling with several long, hairy spider legs, and she shuddered. Perfect.
"Beth! How's life treatin' ya?" he called back jubilantly.
"Oh, just..." She tried not to stare at the fake spider that appeared to be strangling Herb before trying to swallow him, "Disgusting. I-I mean, great."
Grinning, he turned back and indicated the decorations in the yard. A scarecrow wearing a vampire mask sat near the front door, tombstones were propped up on the lawn, and there was a hanging skeleton ready to be strung up. "Ya like the new look for the place?"
"Quite a view you've got there," she nodded, genuinely amused by the entire effect. No wonder they kept winning the neighbourhood decoration contests each year. "So, the party's gonna be big, huh?"
"Oh, you betcha, sweetie!" he said, turning back to the spider and tucking it up in rain gutter of the house. Beth made a mental note to avoid that side of the house if at all possible. "Even better than last year - were you here last year?"
"I hadn't moved in yet," she said. "But the Wrightsons weren't here either, remember?"
Herb chuckled and shrugged. "Aw, those guys never came to the Halloween parties. Fact, if I 'member, they went away pretty much every year 'round this time. Funny time ta take a vacation, I always thought, but..."
"Hm. To each their own, I guess," Beth said with a shrug, and fidgeted a little bit. She never knew how to end a conversation. "Well, I - I've gotta keep going, um... See you tomorrow night?"
"You better show up, kiddo! You dunno what you'll be missin' if ya don't!" He waved at her, and stepped back to look at the spider from its perch on the gutter. Beth grimaced, decided he must have the effect right if it bothered her that much, and went along her way.
She'd just reached the door and was about to knock when it opened and Drake nearly ran into her. She blinked. He did the same, and they simply stared at one another for a matter of moments. Say something, stupid! she told herself mentally - this was too awkward to begin with and just getting worse by the second. But even as she pressed the edges of her bill together into a thin line, she really couldn't do much more than wring her hands and avoid looking directly at his face.
It really wasn't a surprise that Drake recovered first. He cleared his throat in an odd little coughing noise. "Beth. Nice to see you..."
"Oh you too!" she said cheerfully, putting too much effort into it, and waved her hand in an effort to seem breezy. "Yeah, we really haven't - um, talked much - since..."
"Right, right. That's really too bad." He paused. "Gotta love that talking, huh."
She giggled, entirely inappropriately, and the next second wished she could take it back. Suddenly her face was hot and red, her eyes were burning, and she looked at her feet. "Yeah, well, considering how the last one went..." she mumbled in a tight voice. Drake's feet shifted, and a second later he pushed past her.
"I've really got to go. We need bread."
"Right." She didn't face him, but worked extensively on resisting the almost overwhelming urge to turn around and run home now. "See you."
That had been... painful, she mused as she stepped inside the house. Not in an emotional way, not really, just in a tension way. Well, sort of in an emotional way - they'd been such friends before, they really had, and lately when they'd bumped into each other they'd even started getting along a little better again, and then she'd gone and said that - why had she said that? Now he probably thought she still lov - still had feelings for him, when really she was over him, she really was. It was important that he know that she was, because it was important for their friendship that he think that - that he know it, really. It was true. She was over him.
Okay, almost over him. It was only natural that there be some residue of feeling. After all, she'd lov - had feelings for him as long as she'd known him. But it wasn't love, that was for certain, and in any case, she was through with love. She was better off that way. Her therapist had agreed that it was time for her to spend some time focusing on Beth instead of on everyone else.
She wouldn't have even been seeing a therapist, of course, if not for her mother. Once she'd left home, her mother had insisted that Beth take Dr. Mortimer's referral and keep seeing someone in St. Canard, so now Beth had her very own weekly appointments with Melissa "Missy" Quillson. And that had to be the least therapist-sounding name Beth had ever heard, but she didn't say so, because one could probably say that someone named Beth Webfoot didn't seem like they'd be cut out for writing computer software, and there you go.
In any case, Beth didn't know how much stock she really put into her therapist's theories, but they were interesting, in any case. Apparently, if she believed Melissa, Beth craved acceptance by everyone - to the point where, if she didn't have it from someone, she obsessed over it. Supposedly that was what explained her infatuation with Drake - she had the approval of everyone else in his family, but not him, so she'd obsessed over him and adored him and put him up on a pedestal or something. But now she had his approval - she knew she did, really, logically speaking anyway - so she could let go.
Even if it wasn't romantic approval. Who needed that, anyway? Beth time, that's what it was about - Beth time. Not Beth-and-someone-else-in-love time.
She sighed heavily, then swallowed around the lump in her throat and checked the kitchen for Launchpad.
He emerged through the swinging door a moment before she reached it, carrying a bag of chips, a can of dip, and a bowl of popcorn. Beth jumped back, and he blinked. "Hey!"
"You have plans?" she asked, disappointment showing in her voice, and she mentally kicked herself a moment later. What - did she expect him to be at her beck and call?
Launchpad shrugged. "Oh, nothin' much. Just thought I'd sit down an' see what's on TV this afternoon... the TQ's all taken care of, I got the grocery shoppin' done, thought I'd relax. Why, what's up?"
Beth felt guilty. "Oh, nothing, nothing!" she said sheepishly, and in her embarrassment she led him to the couch and forced him to sit down. "I just wondered if, well, maybe sometime this weekend when you have the time... Um, well, you know when you offered to take a look at the furnace in my house...?"
"Oh, sure!" Launchpad's face cleared in understanding. "Heck, I can do that for ya now if ya want!"
She shook her head. "No! You just stay and relax right now, and-"
Chuckling, Launchpad stood up. "No trouble at all, Beth. I can watch TV any time!" She looked guilty, so he grinned. "'Sides, DW's havin' a slow week for some reason an' there's just nothin' to do!" At that, she brightened.
"Oh, Launchpad thank you! You're the best!" she exclaimed, and had to resist the urge to throw her arms around him in a hug. Geez, give the poor guy a break, she thought to herself, almost blushing, and followed him to the door.
In all honesty, Launchpad really was rather relieved to have something to do; the sidekicking gig was not kicking much lately. But when it came to the furnace, he really wasn't entirely sure what he was supposed to be looking for once he got there. Everything looked more or less in place, as far as he knew; but he hadn't really studied the build of furnaces before or anything, and he had a feeling he could easily miss something. He hoped it wasn't related to the pipes or anything in the house, since he was pretty sure there was no way he could take care of that, but he kept fiddling around inside the machine a bit and making any changes he thought might help.
When he came back upstairs an hour or so later, she jumped up and gave him a glass of fruit punch right off, beaming. "Find anything?"
"Not really," he admitted, feeling sort of sheepish. "I shoulda told you - it's not really my area of expertise or anything. I mean - I know how they work an' all, but I don't know if I can find the little things that might make a big problem."
Beth looked uncertain for a second, then said, "But - it looked okay, from what you saw?"
"Well, there were a few loose connections an' stuff. I tightened 'em up, made sure it was all runnin' clean, that sorta thing. It really didn't look like there was anything majorly wrong with it... Looked like it was runnin' just like most other furnaces. At least the ones I know."
She smiled. "You're the best. Do you want anything while you're here?" she asked, and smiled becomingly. He didn't answer for a few moments, just looked at her a bit distractedly, and she waved her hand in front of his face a little. "Launchpad?"
"Huh? Oh, uh, nah. I'm fine." He shook his head a little, and looked embarrassed; Beth decided against asking about it.
She turned back to the couch, and he noticed that she had a lot of her sewing supplies out and was working on something in the living room. "Hey, what's that?"
In a flash, Beth darted to her coffee table and scooped up what she could. "ACK! No no no, you can't look!" she said quickly, grinning. "Halloween stuff! No advance knowledge!"
"Aw, c'mon. Just a peek-"
"Noooo!" she said, then giggled. He wondered if he smiled differently when he thought about how much he loved her, or if he just looked the way he always did. "You find out tomorrow anyway."
"Awww." He pouted, leaning against the couch, and Beth tried to look stern.
"Tomorrow. I better take this stuff back upstairs anyway... I thought I'd work on it down here until we got the furnace looked at, but I'll do the rest tomorrow."
When she bounded back down the stairs, he was by the door, about to go. She looked at him in a sort of expectant silence for a moment, and he looked back, recognizing the look she wore when she was slowly getting around to saying something. Finally she blurted out, "Wanna stay for dinner?"
"Really?"
She blushed and pressed the forefingers of her hands together. "It's just sorta, well, to pay you back for the furnace thing and all, and besides which I like having you over..." His heart skipped a beat. What was she leading up to? "It's just sort of... I don't know, the house seems so empty lately, I really want company."
Oh. He grinned anyway. "Why don'tcha invite Gos over? Then you'll wonder how you ever thought the house seemed empty!"
She chuckled, but looked a little pained. "So - you don't want to stay? I mean, that's fine, I just need to know so that I don't make too much for dinner-"
"I'd love to stay," he said gently, then reached for her hand, chickened out, and fumbled awkwardly in her direction before touching her shoulder briefly and then letting go.
"Great! We can watch a movie or something!" she said, perking up instantly, then frowned for a moment before saying, "You know, I think I will ask Gos over. The more the merrier, right? Do you think we should order in? I mean, I can heat something up for us two, but if Gos is here she'll probably want a lot more, and I think maybe pizza. Everyone likes pizza, right? I guess I should actually call over there first and see if she can make it..."
Launchpad sat down on the couch and waited as she started to dial, hung up the phone, then started over again two more times before actually making a call. Once she actually did, at first he wasn't sure whom she'd ended up dialing, as she didn't seem particularly familiar with the speaker. "Oh, um - hi. Oh, gee, not a lot... yeah... Did you get the bread? That's good... What kind was it? Oh. I usually get... wheat..." She trailed off, was silent for a moment, then said, "So um - is Gosalyn there?"
Ah - so she'd called home. She must be talking to DW. Poor Beth... He turned around to look at her, and sure enough, she was flushed quite red, fiddling with the phone cord, an unhappy look on her face. Wow... it had all turned out so bad lately. He waved to get her attention and gave her a big smile. She looked a bit happier after that.
"No, actually, I've already got Launchpad over. We just wanted to know if Gosalyn wanted to come, have some pizza, watch a movie or two if she doesn't have too much homework -" She cut off, looking puzzled, and cupped her hand over the phone. In a loud whisper, she said to Launchpad, "He's asking why he's not invited!"
Launchpad shrugged. "So invite him!" Beth's eyes went wide. "Uh, ya don't have to. That's okay."
"No, no, I don't mind. I want to. Good idea." She got back on the phone with Drake and in a shaky voice said, "Well, we can get extra pizza. Come on over. Okay. See you guys then." And she hung up rapidly, trembling a little and looking both scared and excited. "I didn't think he'd ever want to see me again!" she confessed. "Maybe I should clean up. Is the house clean enough?"
"It's perfect." Launchpad stood and forced her to the couch. If he didn't do something she was going to worry herself sick. "I'll call for pizza. You sit there an' don't move, okay?"
"I could just dust the coffee table-"
"DON'T MOVE." He chuckled and went to the phone, watching her the entire time. She fidgeted, looking nervous, and finally sat on her hands.
"I thought we were here to watch movies," Gosalyn said expressively, helping herself to another couple of pieces of pizza as Beth flipped around on the TV in search of something to watch. "It shouldn't be that hard to find one, there're, like, a million on!"
"I'm looking for something that doesn't involve blood or razors or strange, hostile manifestations," Beth answered without diverting her attention from the screen.
Drake sighed. "You're not going to find much of anything at this time of year, Beth. If you let Gos pick, you at least know which level of horror you can get..."
Beth stood her ground. "I don't want ANY horror!" She kept flipping, starting the procession of numbers over again at 02. "It's the last thing I'm in the mood for."
This unfortunately caught Gosalyn's attention. "What? Why?" Beth flushed and didn't answer her. "Oooh! Nightmare on 13th St - awww, I couldn't even see which one it was. You know, it is Halloween..."
Shutting off the television, Beth stood up. "Well, there's nothing on. How 'bout I go get my copy of Casablanca and we watch that?" Launchpad loved the idea, although Gosalyn looked as if she thought she might die. Drake simply rested his head on his hand, his expression the usual one of resigned ennui. Beth wondered why he'd wanted to come over in the first place.
Once Beth had gone upstairs, Gosalyn turned the TV back on. "I don't even know which channel it was on," she muttered, flipping around as quickly as she could before Beth got back.
Launchpad frowned, trying not to look at the television, and reached for more pizza. The pizza seemed opposed to the idea, and slid across the table away from his hand and onto the floor with a *splat*. Launchpad blinked.
"Oh, terrific. So much for leftovers," Drake groused, and jumped up to clean it off the floor. "Gos, go get napkins. LP, give me a hand."
Kneeling next to Drake, Launchpad said, "I dunno how that happened. I didn't even touch it."
"Of course you did, Launchpad," Drake said absently.
"No, I really didn't." Gosalyn came back in with an entire roll of paper towels and handed them to her father, who had Launchpad pile excess cheese onto a few layers before using the rest to mop at the floor. "Honest, DW."
Drake sighed irritably. "Then you must have jarred the table or something. Whatever."
"But I didn't," Launchpad asserted. "I'm not sayin' this to get outta trouble or anything! I'm sayin' it 'cause it doesn't make any sense!"
"You're right, it doesn't," Drake growled under his breath. "Gos, throw those away and put some water on these, okay?"
But Gosalyn had been diverted by Launchpad's statement. "You mean it just moved across the table and ... and pushed itself off? Cool beans!" Drake sighed and took the paper towels to the kitchen himself while Gosalyn continued. "Sounds like a poltergeist!"
"Uh..." Launchpad suddenly felt distinctly uncomfortable. Unfortunately, the effect of anything of Beth's being special didn't apply to Beth's poltergeist.
"Don't start, Gosalyn," Drake said warningly as he came back in. Beth was just coming down the stairs.
"Start what?"
Gosalyn looked almost smug. "You've got a poltergeist. It pushed the pizza off the table while you were upstairs." To her immense satisfaction, Beth paled momentarily. Putting two and two together, Gosalyn announced, "And that's what you meant when you said that horror movies were the last thing you needed, right?"
"I said I wasn't in the mood for them," Beth said, recovering herself, and came over to help with the pizza mess. It was mostly taken care of, and Drake refused to let her finish up. She was touched. "I just don't want to spend another night hiding under the covers thinking I hear footsteps in the hall at 2 am," she added.
It was the wrong thing to say - Gosalyn jumped on it. "You heard footsteps in your hall!?"
Sighing, Beth noticed that not only was Gosalyn looking incredibly eager, but Launchpad was looking mildly terrified. "NO. I thought I did. I woke up from a nightmare, it's only natural."
"Nightmares TOO?" Gosalyn looked more and more delighted by Beth's misery. Drake shook his head and took the last of the paper towels back to the kitchen.
"Nightmares because I've seen too many scary movies lately," Beth said, almost irritably, and went to the VCR. "Now we're gonna watch Casablanca."
They'd barely gotten past the opening titles when Gosalyn, who had been practically bouncing the entire time, spoke up again. "Have you had anything else move around without seeing anyone do it?"
"Gosalyn! Would you knock it off with the afterlife mumbo-jumbo?!" Drake said, rolling his eyes.
Beth frowned. "No."
"Nothing? Not even leaving something in one place and when you go back to it it's in another place?"
Despite her conviction, Beth felt a chill go down her back as she thought of the sewing room and its tendency to spread its contents over the whole of the floor. "A few things fall over sometimes," she said dismissively, "but we fixed that. It was the furnace." Launchpad blinked and made eye contact with her nervously. The look said, I don't know if the furnace can do that. She swallowed. "Can we please watch the movie?"
"Yeah," Launchpad said hoarsely.
Gosalyn sighed and managed to stay quiet for another five minutes before she said decisively, "Well, I think your house is haunted."
"Aw, Gos-"
Drake interrupted her tiredly. "You're never going to win," he said, and grinned.
"Dad's right. You wouldn't even necessarily know. I mean, you haven't been here that long, right? You moved in at the beginning of November or so last year. And didn't the other people here leave at around Halloween the last year they were here, Dad?"
"It's nothing, Gosalyn. Herb Muddlefoot said they always took their vacation this time of year, that's all," Beth said, then wished she hadn't. That supported Gosalyn's argument, rather than refuting it.
"HA!" Gosalyn exploded, getting even more worked up. "See? What does that tell you? I think-"
Drake finally stepped in. "I think that's enough, Gosalyn. You're getting too excited over nothing. There aren't any haunted houses on our street. Beth has nothing to worry about."
"You threw in that 'on our street' part because you knew I'd mention Morgana, didn't you?"
"Absolutely."
Beth had her arms crossed and was glaring at the TV screen. Launchpad put an arm on her shoulder, and found that she was completely tense. "Gosalyn, for the last time. I've lived in this house for nearly a year, houses make noise and they have quirks, and it's Halloween and I'm bound to get a little nervous. However, nothing has happened outside of the realm of physical possibility and it is ridiculous to bring ghosts into it, particularly since I do not believe that poltergeists exist, no matter what the myths may say. That's my last word on the subject."
Gosalyn was quiet for a second, then slumped down into her seat. "Well... fine then."
"Way to stand your ground, Beth!" Launchpad said, grinning.
Beth smiled quietly, but when Drake joined in, it was too much. "I have to admit - that was pretty impressive." Her heart seemed to swell, and she blushed before remembering herself and shaking out of it.