Chapter 3: Programming Is Annoying
"See you tomorrow." Charlie said as John got out of the car with a wave.
"See you." John responded, watching as Charlie drove away, briefly recounting the arrangements for who was staying where.
Charlie was staying at Jessica's, Marla had her own apartment that was moderately close, Carlton was staying at his dads house, and John had been selected to stay with him. Carlton's dad was actually on some sort of trip, so John and Carlton had the house to themselves (John had refused to use his dad's room, so they refurbished the basement into a makeshift bedroom).
He looked up at said house. It was not quite big, but not quite small. It was blue with white accents and a maroon door.
He walked up to the door, the steps somehow not creaking at all, and knocked, and it promptly opened. Carlton was in the door, and he stepped aside to let John in.
"Soooo, how'd it go?" He said, nudging him while he took off his shoes.
"How'd what go?" John asked as he hung up his jacket.
"You know…" Carlton trailed off, gesturing to the door.
John blinked. "It wasn't a date or anything if that's what you're hinting at." He said with a slightly raised eyebrow.
"Fine." He eyed the bracelet John was wearing. "What's that?" He pointed at it.
John explained where he got it, which prompted him to briefly explain why he was there. Carlton nodded along as he said this. "What's with the clown thing in the closet?" He asked, clearly confused on what that was doing there.
"Probably some character they ended up not using." John shrugged. "And I can see why, it would freak me out if I was a kid." Carlton hummed.
"Think the bracelet has anything to do with it?" He asked, half to himself. "Weird that they were kept next to each other…"
"Nah. It's probably nothing."
Charlie was not having much fun at the moment.
Following the bracelet was moderately difficult in broad daylight, especially when she couldn't be seen. She had been traveling for an hour, and the bracelet was still miles away. Why did it even track it that far?
She felt static welling up in her chest as she ducked behind another tree to avoid being spotted by a car for what felt like the 100th time. She felt more leaves stick to her 'skin', and tried to pull one off. It just ended up getting stuck to her hand.
Whatever. This is fine. It won't take long.
Charlie might kill the moron who took the bracelet.
She obviously wouldn't, but she was actually considering it. She was not happy.
She was at the house that she was receiving the signal from, finally. The sun had gone down ages ago, the person(s) inside were probably asleep. She looked down at herself. Her body was in moderately bad shape when she woke up, from age alone, but now she was even worse due to having to move through miles of forest to catch up with this-
She let out a staticky sound that sort of sounded like a breath. She was fine. It was fine. The copious amount of sticks and leaves sticking to her now dirty fabric was just dandy, in fact. She had to go thank the guy who had the bracelet for that.
She looked up at the house. It was in much better shape than hers was. If it even counted as hers at this point. The front door was most definitely locked, so she decided that the backdoor was her best bet on getting inside, since having a fence may cause the owner to care less about locking up. She easily climbed over the small blue fence, her body being taller than it even if her 'feet' were touching the ground, and floated over to the door and tried the knob. It clicked as the door remained locked.
She looked around the yard for something to help with this, her eyes eventually landing on a window. It was moderately far away from the door, and open barely more than a sliver. Both distance from the door and the size of the opening would make it impossible to reach through and unlock the door from the inside.
For a human's arm, at least.
Carlton stared at the backdoor. He hadn't imagined that, had he?
He closed the fridge silently, staring at the door, intently waiting for something else. He had heard someone try the doorknob, the click had been quiet, but very audible. Somebody was trying to get into the house. Was he being robbed?
He was at such an angle with the door that he could only see it from the side, but there was a window that he could look through if he moved so the doorway to the kitchen wasn't blocking it. He grabbed the nearest weapon (frying pan) and slowly inched to where he could see the window.
He nearly yelped at what was looking through it. It looked like a comedy mask, eerily fitting the description John had given for the clown thing he saw in Charlie's old house, with the exception of the remnants of the woods on its face, glistening in the small outside lamps. It wasn't looking at him, seemingly focused on the small opening in the window, its face was deceptively small as that was all he could really see in the darkness. It looked almost like the face was floating by itself, but he could see little glints of light from the wet material stuck to its 'skin'.
Carlton realized in numb horror that the thing must have followed John. He had to go wake John up; if this thing got to him while he was still asleep, he'd be done for.
As he stepped backward toward the exit to the kitchen, which leads through a hallway to the basement, he cringed in horror as the thing stuck one of its long, thin, dirty, fabric covered arms through the window, snaking through the small opening easily, and began feeling around for the lock on the door, Carlton silently backing up all the while. Right as it found the lock, its long fingers gripping it as a light happy-sounding jingle seemed to come from it, Carlton felt his shoulder bump something on the counter.
A plastic bowl clattered to the ground, bouncing around and making an agonizingly loud sound. The clown thing's head snapped to stare at him so fast Carlton could swear he heard a crack.
There was a moment of complete silence. Carlton gripping the frying pan so hard his knuckles turned white, and the clown thing's grip on the lock slightly tightening.
After several drawn-out seconds, Carlton took a single step backward, to which the clown thing responded by quickly turning its hand to unlock the door with a quiet 'click!'
Carlton bolted.
Charlie would groan if she could as she pulled her arm back through the window.
Of course there would be someone else here. Of course they would be in the perfect position to see her while she wouldn't notice them. Just great.
She opened the door and entered the house. It was a very nice house, or maybe just average at this time. She still had no idea what year it was.
She could hear the redhead she had seen scrambling down the steps to the basement, probably to wake up the bracelet person, as she could feel the bracelet down there. She hadn't really meant to scare him, and began playing a calming tune from her inner music box to (hopefully) calm him down.
She floated down to the hallway, to find 3 doors, all of which were closed. The first door she tried was a bathroom, and the second was a laundry room, and the third was locked. They had locked the door to the basement.
Frustrated, she rattled the doorknob even though she knew it would do nothing. Her calming tune became a more harsh one as she slammed one of her hands down on the door in frustration, rattling the hinges.
Carlton started shaking John awake as he heard a music box start playing upstairs. It was a calming tune, it must be trying to draw him out, like he was a frightened child or something. He cringed as he imagined it luring out children from hiding and pulling them away into the darkness for a moment.
John sputtered and Carlton hurriedly shushed him, hoping to go as long as possible without the thing knowing they were down here. If it didn't already.
Blinking groggily, John started whispering. "What?"
"The clown thing followed you!" Carlton whisper-shouted in explanation.
"What!?"
"It got through the backdoor, it's upstairs now, I locked the door." Carlton whispered, sounding extremely panicked. John was standing now, listening in growing fear as the music moved around upstairs. It was a nice tune, but the current setting made it all but relaxing. He winced as he heard it open a door, then another, then a click as it tried the basement door.
John looked to Carlton, who had an equally horrified look on his face, right before they both looked back at the door as the thing started rattling the handle, the relaxing tune slowly growing more harsh and anxious. It ended with a slam on the door, rattling enough to make the two men aware that it was capable of breaking down the door, and the music slowed to a halt, quiet static playing through the door.
They jumped as a loud crack echoed through the room, looking over they saw a hole where the handle used to be. And a door handle rolling down the stairs, the sound of metal on wood echoing slowly through the room for every step, until it eventually landed on the cement floor, rolling under the bed.
It had torn off the handle.
Shit.
Charlie opened the door and leaned down to look down the stairway, seeing nothing, but sensing the bracelet down there.
She slowly began to float down the stairs, her static slowly morphing into a happy tune as she realized she had finally caught up with the bracelet. After the better part of a day spent sneaking through the forest, she had finally got it.
She curled her hand around the corner and poked her head into the room to look for the bracelet, and promptly felt something collide with her head. Hard.
She let out a staticky shriek and pulled her head back into the stairway as her happy melody broke off into a shocked silence. She didn't know she could even feel pain from being hit. It felt like being hit in an incredibly flimsy helmet instead of a skull, but it still hurt. What had hit her?
She remembered the redhead having a frying pan. Frustrated music began playing from her chest.
Carlton was shocked.
He had actually hurt it. He kind of just thought it would do nothing, but the sickening shriek and the pulling itself back around the corner kind of gave away that it at least startled the thing.
He looked over at John who seemed just as surprised. John's face quickly morphed back into fear as the music started playing again.
And it sounded mad.
He gripped the frying pan so hard his hands felt like they were bleeding, as he held it up, prepared to hit the thing if it came back into the room. John backed farther into the space to the side of the entrance, that music almost blaring through the room, echoing off every surface.
Something stuck out from the entrance and Carlton swung. The frying pan stopped as it hit the target.
It was the thing's hand. And it caught the frying pan.
The metal object was wrenched out of his hands and flung across the room, clanging off the wall. As the thing moved fully into the room, its head turned to look right at them. He got a better look at it now, mostly just how damn tall it was. Standing up straight, it reached the ceiling. There was also a new small crack on its mask from where Carlton had hit it.
That damned music was ringing in his ears while the thing started to slowly move towards them, its limbs almost hanging limp at its sides, like a puppet on strings. Carlton backed up, shaking as the thing stared him down, two small white dots blaring in its eyes, signaling that it was exceptionally pissed off.
"I-I'm sorry." He stammered quietly, holding up his hands in apology, not expecting it to accept the apology whatsoever.
The thing actually paused its momentum, the white dots disappearing. It tilted its head, seeming fairly surprised that he had apologized, Carlton now sharing the surprise that it actually stopped.
They just stood there for a while, before the thing shifted its gaze in John's direction, causing John to stiffen, seeming to study him. It seemed to relax, its body becoming less tense, and its arm lifted to point at John.
Carlton quickly moved out of the way, John was about to give him a look before he noticed that the thing was pointing specifically at his wrist. He pointed at it. "This?" He clarified, his voice shaking. It nodded. He took off the bracelet hurriedly and handed it over, long, almost tentacle-like fingers reaching over and grabbing it. He pulls his hand back quickly, and moves over to stand by Carlton. It wanted the bracelet, Carlton realized, it must have followed it.
Before he could think of what the clown thing wanted with the security bracelet, its fingers constricted harshly on the plastic glowing band, crumpling it and instantly killing the light. John and Carlton both jumped as the thing practically shattered, a loud crackle emitting from the object as bits of plastic fell to bounce along the floor. It promptly flung the disfigured piece of plastic across the room, hitting the wall and bouncing onto the floor, broken pieces being strewn everywhere. The thing gave an angry-sounding huff of static at it, before glancing at the two humans, then leaning under the entrance to move back upstairs.
The two stood completely still for several long minutes, until they heard the shutting of the back door. John leaned against the wall and sighed, while Carlton put his head in his hands and muttered a 'Jesus Christ'.
He was definitely going to hear that music in his sleep.
Charlie was struck with a thought, right before she walked back through the backdoor and outside.
She had nowhere to go. She thought about that for a moment. There was no other place for her to stay.
Heck, her best bet for a place to stay was-
She straightened up. Her best bet for a place to stay was this house. It wasn't like she was in danger. She was fairly able to outsmart and overpower the two guys that were here, and they were interesting. She did not know their names, so she had given them nicknames.
First was Redhead. He was called that because his hair was red. He was fine, in Charlie's opinion. She was still mad at him for hitting her in the head with a frying pan, but he apologized, which Charlie really appreciated.
Then there was Moron. He was called that because he was the moron who took the bracelet. She was still mad at him for taking it, but he had handed it to her pretty quickly, which was nice.
In fact, she thought the house was nice as well. Definitely in better shape than the one she woke up in.
She closed the door, and immediately moved upstairs to find the attic.