Chapter Eight:
The Owner Of Pumpkin House
Gregory panicked. He looked around desperately, trying to find somewhere to hide. Finally, as the footsteps neared, he dove behind the couch. Under his breath, he cursed Justin for being wrong, not noticing as a tiny piece of paper fell from his pocket.
He pressed himself against the couch, almost as though he was trying to sink into it. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the dog look at him curiously then happily head towards him.
"No, go away!" He whispered furiously, while edging Zero away with his foot. At the same time a voice picked up from the bottom of the stairway, edging nearer to him.
"Zero!" Thankfully, the dog moved towards the voice.
"There you are." Gregory listened as the mans footsteps stopped. He held his breath.
The man leaned down, as the small dog leapt at it's master happily. He ran his long thin fingers through the dogs fir, before picking him up and giving him a stern look.
"What have I taught you about silence!" The man said in a hushed voice. "We aren't suppose to be here today remember?" In response the dog licked his face, and then, gave him a very smart look before wriggling out of his arms and walking back to the couch. The man shook his head, then looked up at the overhead light, which was burning brightly. His eyes narrowed as he cast a sideways glance to the silver box that hung on the wall.
"Hmmm" He put his thin fingers to his chin, but was brought abruptly out of his thoughts when Zero nudged his foot. He looked down. The dog had something in his mouth.
"What have you got there?" The man asked softly as he leaned forward and took the small piece of paper from Zero's teeth. He stood back up, and examined the Kodak shot in the light. In it were a man and a woman, and what the man assumed was there son. He looked at it carefully.
"Now," The man said slowly. "How did this get here."
Behind the couch Gregory was just beginning to realize that he was in trouble. He cursed himself silently for turning the lights on, and even more so for dropping his photograph.
'Why! Why didn't I just leave it at home.' He thought furiously to himself. He could only hope that the man would leave long enough for him to get away. He doubted the opportunity would come up. Not too many people discovered they had an intruder in their house and then just decided to let them go. Gregory tightened his lips and wished, for what must have been the fiftieth time since he moved to this neighborhood, that he was back home.
He was just considering turning himself in, just standing up, apologizing and hoping for the best, when he realized, he couldn't hear anyone else in the room. He listened carefully, to be sure, thinking that perhaps, the man was just trying to be quiet himself, so that whoever was in his house couldn't hear him. This illusion was broken when the overhead light turned off, and Gregory heard departing footsteps, getting quieter as they disappeared up the stairs.
He waited a moment in the dark, bathed in silence, before risking to move. He stood. There was no one there. Gregory let out a deep sigh of relief that ended with Gregory deciding that perhaps he didn't want to get Violet and Edward back so bad after all…at least, not in this way.
He had just began to depart from the way he had come in when he saw a tiny white photo lying by a large oak doorway in the corner of the room, right next to the power box. He approached it, and plucked it from the floor, and upon turning it in his small chubby hand, saw that it was his. He stared at it for a moment, knowing he should have been glad that the man had just dropped it, but not feeling so. Instead, he felt a certain wariness set itself into his chest. He heard the approaching sound of footprints, very close, not up the stairs at all, and knew he had made a mistake. He turned to the oak door, the only place he could get to very quickly and yanked it open. When he closed it behind him, and was bathed in a terrible darkness…he knew he had made his second mistake. He knew going down the stairs, instead of just going back through the door, and facing the owner first hand, had been his third.
As Gregory felt his way down the stairs he began to wonder where he was. He supposed, it was some sort of basement. This didn't comfort him…basements rarely had exits. Along his descent he felt against the cold stone wall for a light switch, he felt none, and was not surprised. He imagined that the switch that illuminated this room was with the others, at the top of the stairs, through the door, in that gray box. He sighed, wishing he had brought a flashlight. He had just got to the bottom of the stairs, when he felt something brush past him. He froze, and hesitantly reached out his hand. Nothing.
After a few moments he started forward again, feeling glad as he reached the bottom of the stairs. He sighed with relief, wondering if it was not possible for him to just hide down there until he thought he had a good chance of getting away. He thought he might be able to pull it off.
Gregory sat on the bottom stair, and took a deep breath. Beside him, in the darkness, he felt a small square piece of parchment. Because it was so dark, he could not see what was on it. Without thinking, he pocketed it, looking in front of him the whole time.
That was when the room came alive.
It hit Gregory so abruptly that he cried out, flinging his hands in front of his face.
It was horrible, a bright, blinding light flashed in Gregory's eyes, making them ache horribly. A strobe light. Possibly one of Gregory's least favorite so called spooky decorations. It had been so ever since the time his father had taken him to a haunted house which had had one going off periodically in every room. Gregory had gotten flustered and had gotten quite disoriented, so that in the end, his father had ended up having to take him back out through the entrance. That had been a long time ago, and he had of course been younger then, but had ever since tried his best to ignore strobe lights, for as much of the same reason he ignored the water, social events like dances, picking groups, and really huge kids with attitude problems. He didn't like things that made him look and feel like a total dork.
He was alone now, or so he thought, but that was his only comfort. The strobe light began to go off periodically. Gregory cursed at it. That didn't help, but it made him feel a little better. When the light wasn't going off, other things began to happen, that made Gregory even more uneasy then just the strobe light made him. It began to come in a pattern that Gregory memorized. First, there was the strobe light, during which he covered his eyes with his arm, then there was a red light, this one he liked the best. Every time it came on he inched forward, trying to find somewhere to go. After that, there was a black light. Gregory wasn't fond of these either. Then complete darkness, then the strobe light again. For a few minutes Gregory made significant progress, but that was before the other stuff started happening.
First were the sounds. Moans, screams, laughter. From beside him, behind him, next to him, sometimes words that seamed to be breathing down his back. Gregory began to tense, and started to lose control of his nerves.
The sounds were joined by terrible apparitions. Grinning skulls, things flying at him with long silk flowing behind them, eyes staring at him from the walls, flickering figures walking next to him, in front of him, sometimes touching him, and once, Gregory was sure something beside him was on fire.
He began to run. It was all he could do to keep from screaming. Finally, as the red light illuminated his path, he saw something that brought back some of his fluttering sanity. A Cellar door, directly in front of him. Through the cracks in the wood he saw normal sane light, he ran for it, ignoring the strobe light and drowning out the sounds as best as he could.
When he saw Justin he would tell him that the deal was off, there was no way he was going back in that house. And he would say, that no matter what the boy wanted to believe about the town's eccentricities, he, Gregory, was at least convinced that The Pumpkin House was most certainly NOT a normal place.
Gregory was so determined to reach the door that he did not even notice the casket beside it. He was just about out, when the casket door was flung open. He did notice that…Gregory screamed as two long arms wrapped around him.
"Gotcha!" Cried a voice in his ear.
Gregory struggled in the mans grip, but found soon that it was useless. The man grabbed his wrist and pulled him to the center of the room. Gregory's eyes were shut tightly, against the terrible images still playing around the cold walls. He opened them, only when he heard the noises stop, and when, he noticed, that a light had been turned on. A normal light. A sane light.
When he opened them and looked up at his capturer he had to keep from screaming when his eyes encountered what in the pale light looked a bit like a dead man. This illusion faded as the after images of the darkness drained away. And what he assumed had been the piercing angry gaze of some crazed corpse, perhaps that of Hector Skellington himself turned out to be just a very pale, and very tired looked young man, who had terrible dark rings under his eyes, and who's black hair, which fell into his eyes, and cheeks, and stuck up just about everywhere along his head, seamed to Gregory, to be even worse then his own. There was a look of impatience on the mans face, as his two almost impossibly dark eyes peered down at Gregory with curiosity and irritation.
"Perhaps." The man began. "You would care to tell me, why you are in my house?" Gregory didn't answer. He just continued to stare up at the man, hardly believing that he had been caught.
"I…" He started, only to realize that he had no idea what to say. The man waited none the less.
"Uh…Sorry." Gregory said lamely. The man sighed in frustration and let go of Gregory's arm.
Gregory straightened, as he did he caught sight of the room for the first time in the light. His eyes widened in surprise. All around him were the most detailed and realistic Halloween decorations he had ever seen. The basement was huge, and covered corner to corner, wall to wall in haunted house like apparitions that looked so convincing that if one were to look at them for too long, they may be able to fool themselves into believing that they would come alive right in front of their face. Gregory turned to look at where the man had gone and found him standing just a few feet away, messing with various knobs and switches on a box that looked identical to the one he was at.
After a moment, the man looked satisfied and slammed the door shut. Then, he fixed Gregory with an annoyed look.
"Follow me." The man said before heading towards his stairway. Gregory followed him nervously, wondering what sort of trouble he had gotten himself into. At the top of the stairs, Zero waited patiently for his master. When the man passed him he leaned over a little and patted his ankle, before continuing on into another room. Zero followed him and Gregory into the kitchen. It was lit up now, making it look quite a bit different then it had before.
The man stopped at a phone. He put his hand on the receiver and fixed Gregory with stern look.
"Who should I be complaining to?" He asked. Gregory rose his brow.
"What do you…?" He was cut off.
"Where do you live?" Gregory nodded in understanding. Then, he was struck with embarrassment. He didn't know his address.
"I uh…don't know." The man rose his brow.
"You don't know your own address?" He asked. There was a note in his voice that suggested that he did not believe him. Gregory shook his head.
"But uh…everyone keeps calling it the old Mcgoverth place. So…"
"Mcgovern." The man corrected. "When did you move in?"
"A week ago." He answered. The man nodded.
"Why are you here?" He asked. Gregory didn't answer.
"Come on, you must have a reason. Was it a bet? Test of manhood?" The man seamed to scan Gregory's features. "Did someone trick you into coming here?" Gregory looked a little offended for a moment.
"No. I wanted…to scare someone" He said slowly. The man nodded, and then, not without amusement said;
"It's going well then…" Gregory narrowed his eyes.
At that moment, the doorbell rang on the far side of the house. For some reason when it did, the man looked a bit startled.
"Who could that be?" He whispered furiously under his breath. He stood up to his full height and pointed to the back door.
"Just go. As long as you aren't here again without permission, I'll pretend it never happened." Gregory nodded gratefully and hurried towards the back door.
"Thanks." Gregory said quickly. Before he got there, the man called him back.
"Oh, by the way, if you really are trying to scare someone, I suggest you come back in a couple days. As long as you don't break in I'll loan you a few things. But you cannot use the house. Sorry." The man then walked slowly to the front door.
Gregory thanked him again before hurrying trough to the backyard. When he was back out in the sunlight he let out a deep breath and did a quick look around. Justin was gone. He cursed him softly under his breath.
Gregory tucked his picture back into his pocket before slowly making his way around the house. When he got to the side he hid a little, so as not to be noticed by whoever was at the front door. He was about to proceed when he caught sight of the visitor.
The owner of the house had not answered yet, and Mr. King stood at the door nervously, looking about him and over his shoulder in constant cycles. Gregory inched a little forwards, a few feet away there was a crack in the fence he was crawling by which he had not noticed. As he watched Jeff, someone snuck up behind him and grabbed him around his shoulders. He cried out, and disappeared into the crack in the fence. Jeff snapped his head in the direction of the yell, but didn't see anything. He didn't look for long. The front door opened and Jeff turned to look at the owner of Pumpkin House. For a moment, his look of unease remained, then, it vanished, and his eyes narrowed.
"What are you doing in town, Jack?" He asked icily.
Sigh. This chapter seamed like it took a while. I hope it sounds alright, I got stuck after Jack caught him because I wasn't entirely sure what to do after that. Anyway. I'll update soon, please review.
