Inside The Outsiders
Chapter 12
A Good Ghost Story
Darry turned 13 in March, and was ready for some big time responsibility. A few weeks after his birthday, his mother approached him.
"Darry, your father and I want to go out for the afternoon. Would you like to watch your brother's?" She asked.
"All alone, just me?" Darry asked.
"Yes. We think you're old enough to have that kind of responsibility. Do you think you can handle it?" Mrs. Curtis asked.
"Absolutely…I mean…of course mother." Darry replied in a very grown up tone.
Mrs. Curtis laughed. "Good then. We'll be leaving at around 5, and we will be back in about an hour or two. We'll leave all the emergency information for you, and tell you exactly what to do. So, you should have no problems."
Darry nodded and then went into the living room where Soda and Pony were playing.
"I'm babysitting tonight you guys, so you'd better be good."
Pony let out a whine. "Oh no. You're gonna make us go to be early, aren't you?"
"Yeah." Soda added. "He'll probably make us take a bath too!"
Darry rolled his eyes. "No. Why would I want to waste my valuable time doing something like that? You can go to bed at your normal time, and you don't have to take a bath."
Soda's eyes went wide. "Really…?"
"Yeah, why not?"
"Okay, what do you want?" Soda asked, growing suspicious.
Darry frowned. "What do you mean? I don't want anything."
"You're never this nice to us unless you want something." Soda replied.
""Yeah. I haven't even been around that long and I know that." Pony added defiantly.
Darry frowned again. "Well, I was actually going to let you guys have ice cream before bed, but now, I guess you don't want it." He said, and started to walk away.
Soda and Pony looked at each other, and then got up and followed him.
"Hey Darry, did I ever tell you you're my favorite brother?" Soda asked.
"Nice try kid." Darry said, ruffling his brother's hair.
Mr. And Mrs. Curtis left the house at 5 pm sharp, and Darry watchd them drive away. As soon as they were gone, he turned around to see Soda and Pont staring at him.
"What do you want?" Darry asked.
"Mom said that you have to play with us." Soda said.
"No she didn't." Darry protested.
Pony stuck his chin out. "Yea she did! She left a note on the fridge. Go see for yourself, smarty!" He said.
Darry wanted to laugh it off, but he thought it better to go and check, just to make sure.
To his horror, there was a note left on the fridge, in his mother's writing, telling him he needed to play with his brothers. He groaned, and turned to face the two smug looks that were standing behind him
"Told ya so!" Pony said, sticking his tongue out at his older brother.
Darry clenched his fists inside his pockets. No matter what the urge was to smack him up the side of the head, he thought it would be better not to. His mother would probably not be impressed if she came home to find Pony black and blue.
Darry sighed. "Okay, what do you guys want to do?" He asked, reluctantly.
"I want to play cops and robbers." Pony said.
Soda rolled his eyes. "You always want to play that. Why don't we play Socs and Greasers?" He asked, laughing.
"You know mom doesn't want us playing that." Darry said.
"I know. That's why I only play it with Steve." Soda replied.
"Great. Nice to know he has such a great influence on you. Does Alyssa let you play that?" Darry asked.
Soda shrugged. "I dunno. She hangs out with two of her girl friends when we play that."
Meanwhile, Pony was getting impatient and tapping his foot on the kitchen floor. Finally he got fed up.
"Excuse me!" He said, loudly.
Darry and Soda stopped talking, and turned to look at him.
"What wrong with you?" Soda asked.
"I want to play." Pony replied, very indignantly, putting much emphasis on the want part.
"Well, tell me what you want to play then…besides cops and robbers." Darry put in.
Pony shrugged. "Why don't we play hide and seek?" He suggested.
Soda smiled. "Yeah!"
"No no, no way!" Darry said.
"Aww, why not?" Soda complained.
"I am not losing you in this house." He said.
"We ain't gonna get lost Darry. Promise." Pony said, pouting.
"I have a better idea, and I think you'll like it." Darry said, grinning.
"Nothing is better than hide and seek." Pony protested, almost near tears.
"I thought you said nothing was better than cops and robbers?" Soda asked.
"Well that was before I knew that hide and seek was an option." Pony said.
"What's your idea, Darry?" Soda asked, ignoring Pony.
"Why don't I tell you a ghost story?" Darry asked.
"What kind of ghost story?" Pony asked.
"A really good one. A scary one."
"Will I be able to sleep tonight?" Soda asked.
"Probably not." Darry said.
"Sounds good to me then. Let's go." Soda said, starting to march into the living room.
"I don't know about this." Said Pony wearily.
"Oh come on, don't be such a baby." Soda persisted.
"Hey, I ain't no baby! Babies suck their thumbs, and you don't see me doing that!" Pony said, giving Soda a dirty look.
"No, not since last week." Soda said, laughing at his own joke.
Pony stuck his tongue out at Soda again, but followed them into the living room, where they all sat on the floor.
"Okay, are you guys ready?" Darry asked.
"Yeah, why not?" Soda said.
"Okay. This story is about an old man." Darry began.
"Why do all ghost stories start out that way?" Soda interrupted.
"I don't know, they just do. Will you shut up so I can talk?" Darry said.
"Sorry. Go ahead."
"Thank you. Okay, like I was saying. This story is about a man. His name was Mr. White. He lived in an old abandoned farm house with his wife and two children. One day, he went out to buy some food for supper. When he came back from shopping, he went inside his house. He went up to his bedroom, and was horrified to see his wife lying on their bed with a rope tied around her neck. He ran over to her to see if she was okay, and found out she was dead. He rushed downstairs to find his two sons, and he soon saw that they were dead also, tied to the two kitchen chairs in the same way."
Soda gulped, and Pony curled up in a ball, and moved as close to the chair as possible.
"The old man was beside himself, and sat down on the floor and cried. He heard the basement door creak, and went to investigate it. He opened the door, and went down the stairs, and that's where his neighbors found him the next day, with a rope around his neck dead."
"What happened to him?" Pony asked, in a small voice.
"Well, nobody really knows, but some people believe that the person that killed his family was waiting in the basement for him to come home, and they killed him too." Darry replied.
"So, what happened after that?" Soda asked, staring intently at his older brother.
"Well, no one lived in the house for a long time after that. But, about 50 years later, and family did move in. One day, the husband went downstairs, and found a skeleton of a person behind the door. He knew of the story, and also knew that they weren't Mr. White's bones, because he had been buried after they found his body. So, he figured that they were the bones of the killer, because they had never found him." Darry said, making his voice sound foreboding.
Soda's eyes were wide, and Pony looked plain scared.
"Well? Keep going! What happened after that?" Soda said.
"The next couple of months that went by, the family started noticing some strange things happening in the basement, the kitchen, and the upper bedroom. They heard footsteps, and one day, one of the sons came home to find some blood on the kitchen chairs, that looked fresh. When he asked his parents about it, they said they hadn't been home all day, and weren't in the kitchen at all."
"Was it the ghost's blood?" Pony asked.
"Ghost's don't bleed, dummy, they're already dead." Soda replied.
"Shut up and let me finish. You're killing the mood." Darry said. Soda went quiet.
"Anyways, one night, when the wife was in the bathroom, she looked in the mirror, and saw someone looking back at her who was bloody. She turned around quickly, but there was no one there. So, to this day, the family knows that their house is haunted by the ghost's of the White family." Darry finished.
After Darry finished his story, Soda and Pony looked at him wide eyed.
"I think it's time that you guys went to bed." Darry said.
"Noooo! I don't wanna. I'm scared now." Pony complained.
"That's your own fault. You shouldn't have listened then." Soda replied.
"You told me to. You said I was a baby if I didn't." Pony said.
"Man, you've got to learn not to give into peer pressure." Soda replied.
"Yeah…well…blah!" Pony said, playfully punching his brother in the arm.
"Okay, bed guys. Have a good night. Hope your dreams are nice." Darry said.
"Don't count on it." Soda replied on his way into his room.
Darry laughed to himself, and then went to sit on the couch to watch some TV. The dog came in to sit beside him, and Darry reached down to pat the top of his head.
There wasn't really anything on TV, but Darry kept it on anyway, because it was getting dark and he wanted some noise.
About half an hour later, the lights flickered, and went out. Darry sat up straight, and peered around him. He couldn't see anything, but he could make out if anything was moving or not. He didn't see anything.
He got up off the chair and went into the kitchen. It was lighter in there, because there was some light coming in from outside, which puzzled him, because if the lights were off inside, shouldn't they be off outside?
He was just about to turn around to go try the light switch, when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He whirled around, and let out a yell. There was a face staring at him with red marks all over it. Blood.
Darry's own blood froze, and he tried his best not to scream. Just then, he heard some laughter, and the bloody head started to smile. He let out a breath, and took the head, and the body attached to it, into the living room, and switched on the now working light. The head, was actually Soda, wrapped up in a blanket, with a couple of red marker lines down his face, and he was now laughing hysterically. Pony was off to one side of the room, giggling.
Darry's face was not one of happiness, and he yanked the blanket off of Soda's head.
"What are you doing?" He asked, angrily.
"Pony couldn't sleep, so we decided to get you back for telling us the story, and try to scare you." Soda said, through laughs.
"Well, it's not funny." Darry said, just as angry.
"Maybe not to you. But it worked." Pony said.
"Go to bed, now, and stay there." Darry said.
Soda and Pony did, and Darry went back into the kitchen, and turned the light on.
About 20 minutes later, his parents came home.
"I'm guessing you had no problems?" Mrs. Curtis asked.
"Oh no. None at all." Darry said, trying to be convincing.
"Why is there a blanket on the floor?" His father asked.
"Oh, I was just telling the boys a little bedtime story, and Pony must of left it here." Darry replied.
"What exactly did you do all night?" His mother asked, her voice growing in suspicion.
"Not much. I told them a story and they decided to get me back."
"Get you back for telling them a story?"
"Exactly what kind of story was it?" His father asked.
"A kind of story that I am never telling them again, believe me." Darry said, smiling to himself.
"Well, why don't you go to bed now." His mother said.
Darry started to go up the stairs, and then turned around.
"Umm…I have one question." He said.
"What's that?"
"Do I get paid?" He asked, grinning.
"What kind of story did you tell them?" His mother asked, smiling.
Darry sighed. "Never mind then." He said, and went up the stairs.
Please R&R!
Jess