3

I washed my face off in the bathroom inside the room Luda Mae showed me. It was somewhat clean. I lifted my head back some and just dried my face and stared at my reflection. Things have indeed changed here. I had to remember my Mom. I needed to meet her lawyers so we could settle things. Once that was done, I slowly left the room and looked around. It was quiet. I moved back down stairs and saw the kitchen was empty. I looked around for Luda Mae and saw she was outside folding laundry. I smiled and watched her as I sat down at the kitchen table. I remember running around this house with Thomas.

He was always shy, but seemed to really open up when I came over. I heard large footsteps approaching and I turned my head to see Thomas entering the kitchen and he was holding a chunk of meat.

"Are you a butcher now?" I asked. I got no response as I watched him put the meat chunk on the counter and just begin cutting it. I was still use to his silence. I looked around wondering if he really cared that I was back. "Are you going to make me talk then?" He was cutting up the meat and I just nodded.

"I missed you." I said and he raised a cleaver to slam it down on the meat, but suddenly paused and I knew that got his attention. "I thought about you too. Where you were and what you were doing with your life. I stood up and slowly moved over toward him and he shied away a bit and I leaned over beside him so I could see the strange looking mask that covered the lower half of his face.

"If you were happy or if you even missed me?" I asked. Truth be told, Thomas was my only friend during my childhood. The other kids were very mean with their racial names, and my brother fought any who tried to hurt us. But Thomas, he was different and hated for it just like me. Thomas looked down at me with deep unreadable eyes and I just stared at him.

"You…" he suddenly said, his voice low and raspy. "Left." I was stunned that he had spoken, I had never heard his voice and wondered if he was learning. I shook my head.

"I did not want to, but I had to. I didn't want to leave you, though." I said gently moving to touch his cheek, but he suddenly jerked away violently and caught my hand hard causing me to gasp, and now he froze and just stared at my hand as if never seeing it before. I watched as he examined my skin and with his other hand he dropped the cleaver and just slowly began to touch my hand some. I watched as he observed my hand and began to slowly slide his hands up and down my arms as if liking the feel of it. I got my answer when he began to place his hand slowly against his rough cheek and he closed his eyes and began to slowly move his hands further up my arm until he was touching my shoulder. I knew I had smooth skin, but I was not expecting this kind of attention. Now his hand began to move toward my neck to the point I felt he would grasp it. I gasped and backed away from his hold and he froze and watched me.

I was unsure of what to do now and he just turned from me and started to bang on the meat. The back door opened and Luda Mae came in and saw us and smiled.

"Well look at that. Just like when you were both young." she said and I just looked down feeling uncomfortable now.

"When did Charlie say he would be back?" I asked and she just laughed.

"It'll be any moment now. You ain't trying to leave before dinner now is ya?" she asked almost saddened now. "You just got here." I smiled reassuringly.

"No I just want to make sure my car and stuff is alright." I said and Luda smiled now.

"Don't you worry now. Your stuff will be here any minute now." she said and I nodded trying not to glance at Thomas.

"Thomas, that meat almost ready?" she asked and Thomas just nodded. I heard the front door swing open violently and I jumped and saw Charlie coming in with my bag.

"Well here it is, just like I said. Your car is in the back. I'm going to call and get it looked at. Thomas I need you to come take care of some…trespassers here." he said. I was ready to question him, but suddenly something caught my attention and I looked down and noticed the name tag on Charlie's uniform shirt. It said Hoyt on it. I stared at it for a moment before feeling Thomas brush past me and Charlie smiled.

"We'll be back Momma. You go on and get dinner ready." he said. I raised my head some.

"Charlie, when will my car actually be fixed?" I asked and he glanced at me with a dry look.

"It will be ready when it's ready. Now come on boy we got to take care of stuff." He said and began to leave with Thomas moving behind him and I just watched feeling suddenly unsure of myself about being in this house. It has been years since I was here, and my women's intuition told me things have indeed changed. Thomas looked at for a quick moment before following Charlie out to lord knows where. I looked at Luda Mae.

"Trespassers?" I asked and she nodded.

"Yeah we always get people around here trying to steal the last bit of memories we have here. But Thomas protects us…such a good boy." she said massaging the meat now. I looked away wondering how much my old friend had changed. I thought about going to explore, but Luda Mae kept wanting to talk about the past, so I knew she didn't want me to wandering about. It was still fairly early, so I kept trying to time when I should be out of here. By now noon was starting to roll around and I was growing anxious.

Charlie and Thomas returned and I could see Charlie from the window of my room looking at the wheels of my car. At least it was getting done and I had my bags with me. My clothes were perfectly folded and so I knew Charlie wasn't being a pervert and going through my stuff. I changed into one of my black rompers and braided my hair back. Once that was done, I left the room again and decided to explore the house since I was able to do so. I started to walk down the stairs and past the basement when I suddenly heard a faint banging noise. I paused and looked around wondering if I had heard that right. I heard it again and then there was a sound attached to it. I blinked and heard it coming from the basement. I tilted my head wondering what it was and so I moved over to it. I placed my hand on the knob and turned it and began to open it. I had it open by just a crack, before a large hand hit the door and shut it loudly causing me to jump back seeing Thomas with his hands on the door and he was facing it for a moment and slowly he looked at me with a dark glare and lowly growled. Immediate fear began to overwhelm and I just placed my back to the wall in fear. Eyes like that were dangerous that much I knew. I've seen it before and I knew I couldn't stay here much longer. He was hiding something, something bad.

"I-I'm sorry." I said and just moved against the wall until I was out of his line of sight and into the kitchen. Luda Mae had a pot of something boiling on the stove.

"Luda Mae, is there anyway I can just borrow a car? I promise, I'll return it as soon as my affairs are in order." I said and she looked at me and smiled.

"Oh honey, you are worrying over nothing. Charlie will get you fixed up and on your way soon. Until then, relax." she said. "I'm sure you are tired from all the driving anyways. You can eat with us, rest and you can be gone in the morning." I wasn't sure I liked Luda Mae's attempt to keep me here. It was suspicious and I knew already something was very wrong here- in this house. Hours passed and I wanted to remain in the room I was shown, but I decided to stay by Luda Mae and talk to her and maybe make it out of here before it gets dark.

But that did not happen. When it grew dark, I found myself still here and mildly annoyed I couldn't leave. Now I began to feel my second family was trying to keep me here. When it was time for dinner, I met Monty who I thought was weird in my youth, but now that he's missing his legs he looked almost pitiful. Luda Mae made stew and bread and some vegetables. The meat that floated in the stew looked odd, and I did not want to be rude so I ate everything but the stew. Charlie just talked about the war and Luda Mae just rolled her eyes. Thomas just sat there and looked at his food. Luda Mae looked at him.

"Come on Tommy baby, just eat. Tati is your friend. She won't think anything less of you without your mask." she said touching his hand soothingly. Thomas glanced at her and then glanced over at me with uncertainty and I gave a polite smile.

"I have already seen you before you started to wear those masks." I said and he just looked from me and down at his food shyly. His mask was quite strange and I wondered what it was that it was made out of. When he rubbed my hand against his face I noticed it was dry and gross. I smiled and looked at Charlie.

"I'm going to go the restroom and make room for the stew. Maybe Thomas will feel comfortable with me not here." I said and stood up.

"Well alright. It's the first door on the- well hell you 'member where it's at." he said destroying his stew. I smiled and got up and moved down the hall with ease as if I was walking through time. I began to smile at the thoughts of this place when I was younger. I was closing in on the bathroom when I heard more banging again. I paused and looked in the direction of the basement and slowly walked over toward it. I looked the door over and placed my ear to it.

"Help! Help me please." I heard faintly. Did I really just hear that? I looked around to see no one was around, so I just opened the door and was immediately hit with the stench of dead. I felt the food I had just eaten begin to come up, but I forced it down, hearing the sound of someone in distress keep my attention. I slowly entered the basement and went down the stairs. The smell was unbearable and it compelled me to go further down against my better judgement. As I made it further down the stairs I began to see what was really down here.

My eyes widened as I stared at the numerous meat hooks on the walls with human limbs of all kinds hanging from them. My eyes widened even more as I looked down to see blood all over the ground and even on the tables around me. That's when I saw a brunette haired woman bolted down on the table. She looked up at me with crazed eyes.

"Please god help me! Please help me." she begged. I took in her words but this human locker room made it almost too hard to believe. There were meat cutting knives and objects all over the place and slowly I stepped over to the woman.

"Oh my god." I said and she was crying.

"Please get me out of here please!" she begged and then she stopped and looked behind me. "Watch out!" I turned my head and was just faced with Thomas standing there huffing and puffing with anger in his eyes. I just stared at him with shock in my eyes. I moved slowly toward his large size and he just looked down at me, his eyes softening as he noticed that I wasn't screaming or showing fear. Don't get me wrong, I was terrified at this room I was in, but I couldn't let Thomas know that. I suddenly lifted my hands and gently pressed them to his cheeks. He just looked down at me with confusion.

"Oh my friend…what have you done?"