Chapter two:

I groan when I hear Giselle start to scream, "Get away from me! Get off of me! Stop it!" from beside me. I'd just finished my driving shift when her nightmares started up.

"Giselle, calm down, calm down!" I shout, shaking her awake.

She gasps for breath, sweat and tears running down her face.

"Nightmares?" I asked, knowing the signs all too well.

She nodded and stripped off her sweat soaked t-shirt.

I looked away, struggling to keep my eyes on the road, when a car horn blasted from behind me.

I checked the rearview and saw Dean's Impala.

Dean was in the driver's seat with a perverted grin on his face.

I rolled my eyes and turned my attention back to the road, when my cell rang, sending AC/DC's 'Back in Black' through the car.

Dean had been screwing with my phone again.

I flipped it open and said, "What is it?"

"You've known the girl for a day and she's already stripping for you Sammy? You sly dog you." Dean laughed, followed by a hard slap, compliments of Vanessa.

"You're an ass." I heard her say to Dean.

"And that's why you love me Nessa."

"I used to love you, you know, back when you weren't an ass." Vanessa replied smartly.

"Well that's not what you told me in the car just now." Dean replied.

I rolled my eyes.

"Hey, I gotta go, have fun with your girlfriend." I said before hanging up.

"Those two are such a dysfunctional couple, wouldn't you say?" Giselle smiled, pulling on her black leather jacket and zipping it up to cover her black bra.

"Tell me about it."

We laughed together when a sign caught my attention.

"Hey look we're almost there! The sign says it's on this exit." I pointed out.

"Pull over here; it's my turn to drive." Giselle said, pointing to a small rest area along the road. I pulled over and the Impala followed.

Giselle and I exited the car.

"You got any spare clothes Sam?" She asked.

I nodded.

"They're in Dean's trunk."

"Go change into them. Dress up like you're a happily married man."

I raised an eyebrow before going over to the Impala.

"Hand me my duffel, I need to change." I told Dean.

He reached into the backseat and handed me the army green bag.

"Thanks man. Have fun doing research." I teased before going over to the men's room to change.

I pulled on a white long-sleeved shirt under a shamrock-green t-shirt that had the word 'Lucky' on it, before tugging on my denim jacket and grey windbreaker.

I exited the restroom and entered the car to wait for Giselle.

Dean and Vanessa had already left, leaving me alone beside the street.

Just as I was about to give up and go into the girl's room to retrieve Giselle, she came out, wearing a long sky blue long-sleeved that reached her mid-thigh, over tight white skinny jeans and black ankle high boots. Her long brown hair was tied into a fancy bun, with two stands of shorter hair hanging from the sides of her face.

"I feel naked!" She whined as she entered the car.

I wiped drool from my face and said, "But you look beautiful."

She smiled at the compliment before pulling out of the rest area and onto the road.

"So what's the story?" I asked.

"You and I are a newly married couple who would love to buy the house to raise our family in. We have no kids. I am a photographer and you are an architect. Doesn't that sound believable?" She laid out the plan.

I laughed. "Why do we have to be married?"

"No one is going to want to sell a house to two young kids that are just dating. That wouldn't be very practical." She stated in her smarty pants way.

"What do we say if we get caught?"

"If we get caught, then we'll just say we were checking out the property. Is that a better plan for you Sam?" She had a playful tone in her voice, but I could still detect a slight hint of aggravation.

"Yeah, that's a great plan." I replied.
"Good." Giselle said as she flipped on the radio.

A pop/rock song came on.

'He seemed impressed by the way you came in/tell us a story/I know you're not boring!'

"Oh my Jesus I love this song!" Giselle exclaimed, turning up the radio.

"I was afraid that you would not insist/You sound so sleepy/Take this, now leave me." She sang along.

"Who is this?" I asked.

She looked shocked.

"It's the Strokes! Please don't tell me you've never listened to them before." She replied.

I kept my mouth shut.

"You've seriously never heard the Strokes before? What the Hell has your brother deprived you of?" Giselle patted my head.

I rolled my eyes and grabbed her hand away from my hair.

She stuck her tongue out at me before turning the music up louder and dancing to it.

"Yeah the night's not over/You're not trying hard enough/Our lives are changing lanes/ And you let me off the road/ The wait is over/I'm taking over/ You're no longer laughing I'm not drowning fast enough! Sing Sammy!" Giselle sang.

I chuckled and tried to mimic her dance moves.

She laughed as the song ended, returning her attention back to the road.

I moved to turn down the volume, when a familiar song began to play.

'Scar tissue that I wish you saw/Sarcastic Mr. Know-It-All/ Close your and I'll kiss you/ Cause with the birds I'll share.' The song began.

"Holy crap I love this song!" Giselle and I exclaimed in unison.

"With the birds I'll share this lonely viewin'/ With the birds I'll share this lonely viewin'/ Push me up against the wall/ A young Kentucky girl in a push-up bra/ I'm fallin' all over myself/To lick your heart and taste your health/ Cause with the birds I'll share this lonely viewin' ." She and I sang along together.

I smiled as Giselle swayed with the music.

"This song sums up my whole life." Giselle said, mostly to herself.

"How so?"

"I've got scar tissue that I wish you saw, and I'm always surrounded by sarcastic Mr. Know-It-All's." Giselle laughed at her joke.

I chuckled, knowing that there was some truth behind her statement.

We drove, silent, just enjoying the music as we went.

Finally, as the sun rose higher in the sky, we spotted the farm house.

A 'for sale' sign still sat in the weed-eaten lawn.

Giselle sighed in relief.

"At least no one bought the place." She smiled, shutting off the engine and exiting the car.

"Wait, what if the people don't believe that we're married?" I asked, feeling nervous.

'Why am I so jittery? I've been on thousands of hunts before, why is this one any different?' I thought.

'Because you love her. A little too easily if you ask me.' My subconscious retorted.

Giselle snapped her fingers, thinking of an idea.

"Give me your left ring finger." She demanded, rummaging around her bag for something.

She pulled out a small jewelry box and pulled out three rings.

The first was a man's white gold wedding band, with rubies and diamonds in it. She slipped it on my finger. "There is your wedding ring." She said.

The next was a woman's band, almost identical to the mine. "Here's my wedding ring." She said, putting it on her finger.

And the third was a small ring with two rubies and one diamond in the middle. She slipped it on over the other ring.

"And this is the ring you proposed to me with. Got it?" She explained.

I nodded.

"And please don't lose it, it was my grandfather's." She pleaded, slipping the box back into her bag.

"I won't Giselle. Can we get going now?" I asked.

"Sure Mr. Boss Man. But first, your new name is Tyler Irons and mine is August Irons." Giselle informed me before going up to the door of the farm house.

I followed behind her, knife tucked safely in the waist of my torn jeans.

We stepped into the parlor, looking around for any signs.

Finding nothing, we stepped into the kitchen, opening cabinets.

Giselle screamed when a huge rat hopped down from the top cupboard and scurried across her foot.

I snickered and opened the pantry.

"Hey this is weird." Giselle exclaimed.

I closed the dust filled pantry and went over to her.

"There's like a door or something behind the fridge." She said.

"Help me move it." I groaned, trying to move it on my own.

Giselle helped me pull it out of the way.

She was right, there was a door!

"It's a door for the dumbwaiter, it's been sealed off." She pointed out, running her fingers around the edges of the door.

"Don't houses with dumbwaiters usually have more hollow walls than a house that doesn't?" I asked.

"Yeah, they do. Do you think whatever killed the dude is living in the walls?" Giselle asked, knocking against the sealed off door.

"Maybe. Let's go check out the upstairs." I suggested, grabbing her hand unconsciously.

We entered the study where the man was killed and looked around, knocking on walls to find hollow spots.

I knocked on the wall farthest from the door and found a hollow spot, where the dumbwaiter would be.

"Found something!" I called to Giselle.

She ran over, her heels making soft clicks as she did.

"I think we can see it if we tore off the wall paper." She suggested and tugged out a box cutter. She had just put the blade to the wallpaper when a voice startled us.

"What the Hell are you doing in our house?" The voice said from behind us.

We whirled around and saw a clean shaven man with shaggy brown hair tucked behind his ears. He looked angry.

"Hi, my name is August. My husband Tyler and I just came to check out the house one last time. We were friends with the previous owner, and we've always loved the layout. It never occurred to me that someone had already bought it." Giselle sounded as calm and innocent as she could.

The man loosened a little.

"You didn't see the sign?" He asked.

I took a quick stride over to where Giselle stood and wrapped my arm around her shoulder.

"The weeds in the yard must've covered it." I shrugged.

The man eyed us suspiciously.

"This is a fantastic house, you're lucky to have bought it. But would you mind if Tyler just inspected it a little more closely? He thinks that there might be something behind the wall paper there that may be hazardous." Giselle took a step closer to the man, giving him her 'innocent' eyes.

"What do you mean an inspection? You a real estate agent or something?" The man asked me.

"Close, I'm an architect." I replied, shoving my hands inside my pockets.

"Really? Who do you work for?" The man asked, coming closer to us.

"Right now, I don't work, because of the move, but I used to work for a big-name company in Seattle." I lied.

The man nodded his head.

"Well, would you mind if I helped you with your inspection? I'm a contractor I'd love to work with a big-shot architect." The man asked.

I looked at Giselle; she gave me the 'go ahead' look.

"Yeah sure. Can you hand me the box cutter babe?" I asked.

Giselle handed it to me.

"I think you should go wait for Tyler downstairs August, just in case there is something hazardous behind the wall, wouldn't want anything to happen to you right?" The man suggested, watching me cut the wall paper.

"Ok, I'll wait for you in the car babe." Giselle called, walking out of the room.

"That wife of yours is pretty, you're lucky to have her." The man said.

I smiled. "Are you married my friend?" I asked.

"Call me Brian. And yes, I am. My wife and kids are downstairs with my brother in law, getting all their stuff unpacked." He replied, helping me peel some of the wall paper back, revealing another sealed off dumbwaiter.

"So how long have you and August been married?"

"About a year almost." I lied, tapping my fingers on the dumbwaiter, getting a hollow echo in one spot, followed by a muffled sound. There was something, or someone, behind the sealed wall.

"Honey, who's that?" A woman's voice made me spin around.

"This is Tyler. He and his wife were just up here checking out the layout of the house, and then we got to inspect the place." Brian explained to the woman (who I assumed was his wife)

"Well, hurry it up because we could use your help." The wife pleaded.

Brian shot her a smile before turning to me.

"You heard the lady Ty, you've gotta go man."

I stood up and took out a card with the fake name on it.

"Go ahead and call this number if you guys find, hear, or see anything suspicious. August and I will be in town for a few days, house hunting, so feel free to call if you guys need any help, alright?" I said.

"Thanks man. It was nice meeting you." Brian gave me a pat on the back.

"Thanks, I'll see you around." I said awkwardly before proceeding down the steps.

I strode outside and entered the Mustang. Giselle was in there talking to someone on the phone.

"Are you positive? OK, ok, geez Vanessa. So the guy who died was going to be a granddaddy? Is that why the kid killed herself? Jesus Christ that's sick!" She exclaimed, pulling out of the lot and onto the road.

"Ok, Sam and I will meet you there in about ten minutes, think you can wait that long? My God you are so immature. You and Dean were made for each other. Ho!" She laughed before hanging up the phone.

"So, looks like mole people and poltergeists are definitely back on my list of possibilities. According to Vani, the girl that killed herself was pregnant with her daddy's baby."

"That's twisted." I snorted.

"Tell me about it. But that's not even the worst of it. Apparently, the dude locked the baby in the basement and left it to die. The daughter was so freaked out of her mind that she hung herself."

"So, maybe the baby grew up to a certain age and died in the basement. That would be a good explanation as to why the guy died the way he did." I suggested.

"Yeah, maybe. So did you and your new BFF find anything?" Giselle teased, letting her hair out of the bun.

"I found the other part of the dumbwaiter, it was sealed off too, but when I tapped on it, I got like a muffled kind of sound, like there was something back there." I explained.

"I'm telling you Sam, it has got to be the Mole People." Giselle said.

I laughed.

"And I'm supposed to believe that you went to one of the best schools in Texas?" I teased.

"I told you that I went to UT Austin; never did I say I graduated." She laughed.

"Dean and Vanessa got us a room at some Inn close to the farm house. They could only afford one room, so looks like you and Dean are sleeping on the floor tonight." Giselle did a little happy dance in her seat.

"No, I think Dean and Vanessa wouldn't mind sharing. They've been awfully close lately, don't ya think?" I asked.

"Well, Dean and Vanessa kind of have a history together, ya know? They're just relishing in old memories of puppy love and random sexcapades." She replied.

I cringed. I did not need to visualize Vanessa and Dean together, I was screwed up in the head enough as it was.

Giselle pulled off on an exit and parked the old car in front of the Sunny Side Inn. The Inn was nicer than our usual places, but it was still a run-down.

"We are in room 45. Come on." Giselle informed me, shutting off the engine and exiting the car. I followed her, bag in hand.

We walked up the stairs, finally finding room 45. Giselle knocked on the door and was greeted by a , "Go away, we're busy!" from Dean. I kicked the door. "I said go away!"

"Dean, it's us! Open the damn door before I break it down!" I threatened.

A key card slid under the door.

"That's the key for your room, number 44. Now go away, I'm gettin' me some good lovin'." Dean said.

I groaned in disgust before picking up the card key and going over to the door to the left. Room number 44.

I opened the door and tossed my things on the bed closest to the door.

Giselle followed me in and pulled off her shirt, letting it drop to the floor.

I watched from the corner of my eye as she stretched, making her abs stick out.

"I'm going to take a shower." She announced, kicking off her ankle boots as she walked over to the bathroom.

I didn't move until I heard the lock on the bathroom door click, and the shower start running.

"Oh my god she is hot!" I screamed mentally.

'And she has the hots for you Sasquatch.' The voice in the back of my mind nagged me.

I stood up and paced the room, trying to rack up any memories of her before now.

I found three.

The first was our first kiss.

It was sweet and innocent.

The next was our first time.

It was short and sweet.

The last was the day I left for college.

It was the worst one.

I was half-way through an episode of Seinfeld when Giselle came out of the bathroom, wearing a red 'The Used' t-shirt and grey panties. I tried not to notice that she was braless.

"Sam, I didn't bring any shorts, could I borrow your boxers or something?" She asked, standing in the way of the T.V.

"Um, yeah. I should have some clean ones in my bag. Give me a sec." I stuttered and knelt beside my bag, rummaging around.

Finally finding some, I hand her a pair of blue and white pinstriped boxers.

"Thanks Sam, you're a lifesaver." Giselle said, pulling the boxers on over her panties.

"No problem." I replied with a smile.

She hopped onto my bed, sitting so close I could smell the soap she'd used.

It was a mix between 'Sweet Cinnamon' and 'Cuckoo for Coconut'.

It suited her.

"So, what's going on? Why is Deb pissed off at Ray now?" Giselle asked.

"I don't know. Something about Marie." I replied, taking a sip of my beer.

"Dude, it's only 3:00 p.m. and you're already getting drunk?"

"Well, it's 5:00 p.m. somewhere in the world." I laughed.

Giselle rolled her eyes and took my beer, putting it to her lips.

I watched as she took a gulp and then came up coughing.

"That is gross! How do you manage to drink that?" She coughed.

"You've never tried it before?"

"Not while I was sober." She laughed.

I chuckled and wrapped my arm around her shoulder.

"I've missed talking to you in the past seven years." She muttered.

I kissed her temple.

"I've missed holding you like this in the past 7 years." I whispered.

A smile crept across her lips, and she snuggled closer to me, draping her arm around my waist.

"You are so cheesy." She teased.

"I know, that's why you love me so much."

"Maybe you're right."

I laughed, when my phone began to ring.

I fished it out of my pocket and answered it.

"Yeah?"

"Hi, is this Tyler Irons?"

"Yeah, who's this?"

"It's Brian Carter, listen you said to call if anything weird happened right?"

"Yeah Brian, what happened?"

"Well, my son, Danny, is insisting he heard someone talking to him through the walls, and my wife Susan and my daughter Kate are hearing scratching coming from inside the walls. Do you think you can come over and help me search for whatever's doing this?"

"Uh yeah, I'll bring a few people over too, if that's alright."

"Yeah sure, just hurry please?"

"Ok, we'll be there in ten minutes." I said hanging up the phone.

"Where are we going?" Giselle asked, sitting up.

"We have to go back to that house. The kids are hearing things in the walls."
Giselle nodded before sliding her white skinny jeans back on and throwing on a pair of calf length black boots.

She grabbed her black leather biker jacket and pulled it on as I slid on my boots and denim jacket.

"Go ahead and get the car ready, I'll get Vani and Dean." Giselle said before walking out the door.

I stood up and grabbed the keys to the Mustang.

I went down the steps two at a time and unlocked the car before hopping into the driver's seat.

I couldn't help but laugh as Dean and Vanessa were dragged out of their hotel room by Giselle, wearing nothing but their undies.

I watched as they hurried down the stairs and ran to the Impala, jumping in as fast as possible.

Giselle tugged open the passenger side door and hopped in.

"Don't you think you should've let them get dressed first?" I asked.

"I did, but they were taking too long." She stated, being completely serious.

I laughed even harder before pulling out of the parking lot, making sure the Impala was close behind.

About 10 minutes later, we pulled into the Carter's driveway. Giselle grabbed her bag of emergency supplies before exiting the car.

The Impala pulled in behind us.

Dean's door swung open, revealing my fully clothed brother.

He was wearing a tight black t-shirt and worn jeans with his usual torn up boots. "Your girlfriend is evil!" He snarled in Giselle's direction.

I rolled my eyes and grabbed a Revolver loaded with rock salt, tucking it in the back of my pants.

Vanessa clambered out of the car, a duffel bag full of weapons in hand.

She was wearing a blue flannel shirt and ripped up jeans with a pair of high-top Converse.

"Let's go kick some ass." She said, pulling on a jacket to conceal the weapons she had tucked into her jeans.

Giselle whooped and followed her sister up to the house.

Dean and I followed close behind.

Giselle knocked on the door before jiggling the handle and throwing the door open.

"Hello? Brian, it's us!" I called inside.

We entered the parlor, finding no one, and then we moved to the living room.

The Carter family was rounded up in the living room, knocking on the walls.

Brian turned around and a look of relief washed over his face.

"Thanks for coming in Tyler." He said, shaking my hand.

"No problem. Brian, this is my brother Dean and my sister-in-law Vanessa. I thought they could help." I explained.

"That's great-"

Brian was cut off by the hall closet opening, and a pale girl coming out of the closet.

Kate screamed.

Vanessa pulled out rock salt and made a large circle around us.

Giselle pushed Kate, Danny, and their Uncle Ted into the circle before jumping into it herself.

"If she's a ghost, then she won't be able to cross the salt line." Dean explained.

The girl cocked her head to the right before stepping into the circle, wielding a knife.

"Holy Crap, she's not a ghost!" Kate screamed.

"GO, run!" Giselle demanded, leading everyone upstairs, leaving me, Vanessa and Dean to face the girl.