A/N: Hey y'all! Ok, the theme is 'The Holiday Season', so you can guess what we'll be talking about for the next two weeks.
***IMPORTANT***: I want to take a second to say that I have been experiencing something lately that has made me seriously doubt my writing capabilities and I read EVERY review and I see every alert and they never fail to put a smile on my face. Thanks, guys. Your support has turned me into a very egotistical person.
Chapter Five
House 2018
And so, the days flew by and we find ourselves on the brink of one of Laurel's favorite holidays.
Halloween.
It was Thursday, the 29th, and Laurel and Consty were at Consty's house after school flipping through costume magazines. Every other page they would find a costume that they absolutely must have and then turn around and find yet another costume that they must have.
Consty, whose Mother owned a Cintas branch and whose father worked inside of the judicial system, lived in a very spick-and-span suburban neighborhood. Unlike Laurel, whose house was made up of cobblestone designs, Consty's Mommy had an urban flourish, and so hers was a winding brownstone building.
The only difference between the eccentric homes was that Consty's house did not have term papers and scripts lying in strange places.
Laurel had just found a candy cane dress to die for when they both froze at a specific noise. It was a strange cross between a shoe squeak and a hungry guinea pig. Consty got up and walked over to the thing making the noise.
"Eleanor, you're supposed to be asleep!" Consty said softly to the one-year old who looked up at her uncomprehending.
Eleanor Alice Sutton (who was lighter skinned than Consty and with curly, downy-soft russet hair and eyes of a bright peru) had found interest playing with her feet. Eleanor was wearing a light green onesie, and thought it strange that, while she could not see her toes, they were still there. Hiding from her.
"Silly baby, stop playing with your feet!" Consty said as she took Eleanor's hand -as Eleanor had by now learned how to walk- and strolled her over to the play pen. The large, green netted thing had soft toys, stuffed animals and empty milk bottles littered all over the place. Eleanor was just about to protest when a laughing baby sun popped up on the television. She stared, transfixed.
Eleanor continued in that state as Consty (with no small strain) lowered the child into the pen, Eleanor's stare never breaking from the television. Consty then stood back smugly with the tv remote in satisfaction at her own resourcefulness until she had to tear her own self away from the Teletubbie roll call.
She came and sat back down with Laurel on the soft black carpet. Laurel looked at her in awe.
"How'd you do that?" Laurel asked, mystified. Usually Eleanor would put up more of a fight if she was bored and had to go back in the playpen.
"I like the Teletubbies so she has to like them, too." Consty shrugged.
"O- Hey Consty, look! This one's got wings and one of those cool circle thingies above its head!"
"Hey y'all!"
"Hi Diesel," answered their small regular lunch group. Diesel took his normal seat beside Laurel in front of Consty. Unfortunately, at that point in time there was no logic in their brains telling them that if they -Consty and Xavier- didn't like each other, they probably should sit together. But they'd figure it out someday.
Anyways, it was Friday the 30th, and Halloween was the only thing on everybody's mind, their group not accepted.
Consty and Laurel were buzzing about their newly acquired costumes and Xavier and Diesel were all about the candy.
"Diesel?" Laurel asked. Diesel stopped in the middle of his conversation with Xavier to answer her.
"Uh huh?"
"We're going trick-or-treating where I live. Do you want to come?" Laurel decided to invite Diesel because she actually wanted him to come along and she didn't want him to feel the way she did when Trish didn't invite Laurel to her birthday party.
The three of them had always gone trick-or-treating in Laurel's neighborhood because a lot of the people that lived there were old and gave out full-sized chocolate bars. Plus they needed somebody else to come along, too in case Xavier decided to jump out of the bushes and scare Ms. Ford again.
"Yeah! But..." Diesel trailed off, frowning.
"What?" Consty, the impatient, asked.
"But my big brother Dewitt said he's going to a haunted house and I want to go with him."
"A haunted house?" Laurel asked, confused.
"Yeah, House... 213?"
"HOUSE 2018?!" Laurel and Consty exclaimed at the same time. Consty dropped her spaghetti halfway between her mouth and her plate, Laurel accidentally snagged her bracelet on the end of her ponytail, and Xavier almost lodged his finger in his brain while picking his nose.
"Yep!" Diesel beamed.
"That's the scariest scary house ever! Only the really big kids go there!" Consty almost screamed, trying to rationalize the situation.
"Yep!" Diesel answered, who's grin was getting wider by the second.
"And a LOT of bad stuff happened there!" Laurel said, already scared.
"Yep!"
"And its where Laurel lives!" Xavier grinned, having recovered from minor head trauma.
"Y- WHAT?! AWESOME!" Diesel exclaimed and him and Xavier hi-fived each other. This apparently meant that the both of them were going to hit up the horrific House 2018.
"Well I'm not going." Consty crossed her arms.
"I'm not going either." Laurel said, also crossing her arms. If they wanted her to go with them, they were going to have to drag her.
"Ugh! What are we here for?" Laurel groaned for the third time that night.
They'd been having a great time all evening, even when Xavier and Diesel -who was supposed to be on her side- teamed up and terrorized Ms. Ford, the Davenports, and Mr. Funderberk's chihuahua. Their haul was amazing and their costumes were awesome.
Consty was a candy cane princess (including red-striped white dress, gloves, and red ear muffs), Diesel was a mobster (with a pinstripe suit, clean white tie, slicked back red locks, and mischievous black cane), and Xavier was a G.I. Joe (complete with army fatigues, camouflage cap and solid black adidas).
Mommy, who hadn't been able to visit Laurel on Halloween because of a myriad of meetings, flew in a fairy costume for her. It was knee-length with short, puffy, hot pink sleeves and a hot pink skirt with golden highlights. The skirt was accentuated with deep purple ruffles and trim, and the dress itself had a purple bodice and a pink lace-up front. Along with the dress were lace up gloves and shoe covers with sparkly gold hair clips.
Consty's Mommy, Ms. Adria, had done their hair. For Halloween she gave them themed styles, so Consty had hers in spiky dual buns with bangs split on the scalp line and curled to the sides while Laurel had a double top knot hairstyle with the rest of her hair and bangs wavy and down.
Ms. Adria took hair very seriously.
But, back to the current situation, they were all walking down the street together as the sky was darkening. Somehow Diesel managed to talk them into following Dewitt and his friends, who were laughing and falling all over the place, into the dark house that resided on the end of the street.
Laurel swallowed. Even in the bright of the day that was the one house that always remained dark. She still remembered the day, about a year ago, when Lia's older sister told Laurel about all the psycho stuff that had happened there.
**FLASHBACK**
"So do you guys want to hear a story?" the thirteen year-old girl asked them. It was Lia's 5th Birthday Sleepover Bash (formally) and Cori had been charged with watching them. Unfortunately, Courtney had to fill in while Cori went to go pop a zit or whatever her poor excuse was.
Naturally they all replied enthusiastically.
"Have you guys heard the story of House 2018?"
They all shook their heads.
She smiled evilly. Laurel unconsciously gripped Pinky in one hand and Consty's hand in the other. Consty used her free hand to pick her nails in boredom.
"About 30 years ago, when they were just starting to build the subdivision, a family lived in that house. It was a mom, a dad, a sister, and a brother. They were the Capes', emphasis on the were,"
Everybody ignored the fact that she seemed to have conveniently forgotten she was speaking to a group of very small children with little understanding of words exceeding several letters.
"Well, one day the daughter snapped and cut off her brother's head with a machete. She got scared and hid his head under her bed and left his body in the woods outside of their house. When her mother found her missing son's head under her daughter's bed the girl had to kill her mom, too. This time she cut her up into little pieces and fed them to the neighbor's dogs.
"So the dad was confused and scared and didn't know what to do. She cooked him dinner and her unsuspecting father was poisoned with a drug to knock him out. Then she set the house on fire, killing him. As she drove away, thinking she was making her escape, she died after a car accident after being in excruciating pain for three hours.
"Now they say that those murders still happen over and over again. Except now, you can't hear the screams."
Now, had they been older they might've been able to point the many holes and flaws with her story but this was not the case. Jenna started screaming, Trish, Laijah and Ronnie were all crying, Lia peed on herself, and Alana threw up. Laurel found the story disturbing and did not want to stay in a house with Courtney anymore.
Consty, who was also kind of scared now, took Laurel's hand. They both got up from the blanket, Laurel clutching Pinky tightly, and walked up to the now hysterical Mrs. Harmann.
"Me and Laurel want to go home." Consty stated in that way she has. Laurel just nodded her head in agreement.
She dragged a manicured hand down her face, "It looks like you're all going home."
Ten minutes later Daddy was the first parent that showed up. He was so tall and so mad the whole house was quiet for a moment. Laurel ran up to him and tightly attached herself to his leg. He got down on his haunches to face Laurel.
"Laurel, what happened?" Laurel didn't feel like talking. She began to cry. He stood back up and the heat of his anger was stifling. You could hear a pin drop in the room and Courtney, not surprisingly, was nowhere to be found.
He closed his eyes and began breathing deeply through his nose. When he opened his eyes it was like someone had set his glittery emerald eyes on fire.
His jaw was set harshly and everything about his stance warned anybody watching that Mr. Souza was a ticking time bomb. "What. Happened."
That was the last slumber party Laurel ever went to.
**FLASHBACK**
Laurel shivered. She still slept with a night-light on after the incident and living four houses away (she lived at 2013) certainly didn't help matters. Diesel and Xavier were completely oblivious but Consty took her hand and flashed her a too-confident smile. She gave a weak smile back.
They had finally reached the dark looming house. There was a sign outside that said, in decrepit letters, "Caverly House".
Laurel didn't know what that meant but she began to feel as if something fishy was going on. She locked her grip on Consty's hand as they approached the looming building. But they all noticed something belatedly.
The door was boarded up.
Dewitt and of his friends managed to throw themselves into the rotting wood just enough times to burst through the door and loose a couple more brain cells as well. Everybody crossed over the threshold, the curious five year olds and the grossly oblivious 17 year olds. And someone else, too, but they don't know that yet.
The smell of mold, termites and anything you can imagine habitating a house left untouched for countless years. Really the neighborhood should have done something with the place years ago but it was so well obscured by wild growing plants that it was unnoticeable from a distance. Just your usual case of negligence and what not.
Their group strolled across the long, tattered foyer rug. Laurel traced the designs on its red carpeting with her foot, anything to distract from how absolutely terrified she was. Xavier and Diesel were beginning to feel the air of doom hanging over the place too, and their bright smiles seemed muted by the legions of dust mites.
Everyone decided to explore but decided to stick close to the big kids, even if they were doofuses. Steven, Dewitt and Ben decided to check out the piano room. Everybody in their group followed them, but Laurel didn't like it. She had the feeling something else was in there. She absolutely knew it, she felt like all the hairs on her neck were bristling.
The room was decorated with peeling blue striped wallpaper and flourishing white baseboards. The deep gray carpet was worn thin from age and rodents in certain spots. There was a large floor-to-ceiling window with splintered beams of moonlight shining through dust-encrusted panes.
Standing solitary in the center of the room was a solid black baby grand piano with a blanket of dust covering its once-sleek ivory keys. As everybody else marveled around Laurel kept her eye steady on the right corner. It was the only spot in the room that the moonlight did not touch at all.
There came a knock on the wall. All nervous chatter ceased.
Dewitt, the ringleader, decided to speak up.
"Y-yo! Is anyone here?" his voice crumbling. Very demanding.
Something like a low growl filled the now suffocating air of the room. It seemed as though every floorboard was alive and suddenly the rotting wood of the grand staircase didn't seem so inviting as it once had.
Xavier and Diesel were by now clinging to each other in fear and Consty's hand was shaking in her's uncontrollably.
But Laurel managed to raise an eyebrow.
Without warning, a tale, hulking pale man stood into the light. His hair was dark and his eyes seemed to be burnt colas in his face. His face was twisted into a grin dripping with malice. He opened his arms and stepped forward, his dead white hands appearing to suck in all traces of light.
Steven passed out. And everyone left him there.
Arms and legs flailed as everyone trippingly ran from the room screaming and crying. Dewitt tripped and slid on the carpet, Xavier peed on himself and Diesel didn't stop running until he was down the street crying hysterically. Consty was halfway out of the door when she stopped and realized something.
Laurel hadn't come with them.
Wasting no more time she sprinted back to the piano room, sure that the eveil man had dragged her best friend halfway to hell by then. What she saw when she entered the room was enough to blow her jaw from her face, literally.
Daddy watched Laurel curiously from his sleek black sedan. In reality every car he owned was black, strangely, but that was beside the point.
The very idea that he would let his only child walk around a moderately-sized non cul-de-sac neighborhood on the brink of sundown by herself was not only ridiculous but insulting. No, he was always watching Laurel, she just didn't know it most of the time. Probably because the child was disturbingly oblivious to everything.
He watched as she and three other children -two of whom he knew, but he was going to need to research that third one- followed a group of less-than-reliable looking male teenagers. Daddy wondered why in the world they would take a group of small children to this house in particular when it occurred to him that they might not even realize they were being following.
He shook his head and got out of the BMW as he watched the numbskulls use their bodies as battering rams to open the door, which he assumed was sealed for a reason. He silently followed them into the house and almost gasped out loud at what he saw.
The house, in his eyes, was not a beautiful aging relic but a realm where every object existed with no other purpose than to kill his daughter. It took every ounce of self control within him to keep from snatching Laurel up right then and scaring the hell out of everybody in the room.
He fell back and followed them as they poked around, glancing up nervously at the precariously dangling chandelier. Laurel had a death grip on the child Constance's hand. He winced. He'd been on the other side of that many times, he knew it was far from a pleasant feeling. Her little hands hurt!
He slid along the wall while no one was remotely paying attention to his direction and watched them silently. The shadows, as it turned out, could be a very comfortable place to be. They all looked around, admiring the eeriness of the room. He sat quietly until he saw Laurel step on a patch of flooring that was much too unreliable and groaned beneath her weight (which was saying something as the girl couldn't have weighed more than 40 pounds).
His arm twitched and there was a thunk noise along the wall. He could practically hear the room's collective breath at the unwarranted noise. Daddy raised an eyebrow as a boy with too many piercings began to speak.
"Y-yo, is anyone here?" The boy sounded a second away from defecating himself. Daddy wasn't going to do anything until he noticed something he wasn't sure if he liked. The small one he did not yet know with the questionable attire was staring at Laurel with a small smile on his face as her black hair shone under the slivers of light.
This action elicited a low growl from him that he honestly hadn't meant to let escape. This resulted in a chorus of scattered whimpers and snivelling not entirely from the children. Daddy sighed, he had had enough of this foolishness.
He stepped into the light seeing Laurel looking deathly pale. She looked at him and a smile grew on her face and he opened his arms for her to approach him.
Consty looked on in abject horror as Laurel was slumped over the shoulder of the brute with her arms wrapped around his neck. Had she tried to choke him when he grabbed her but he knocked her out anyways? Did he use that move Owen Wilson had in that Fockers movie?
He then turned around and Consty took a battle stance, ready to fight for her life. The man looked directly into her eyes and she immediately recognized him. Emotionally exhausted, she walked over to the man and sank her face into his massive calf muscle.
"Hi, Mr. Souza," she mumbled. These kids are way too affectionate, Daddy thought miserly towards himself.
Daddy awkwardly stooped to pat her head, "Umm, hi, Constance."
A/N: I decided to gift you all some thrill there, and I know this chapter was super long!