Haunted

by Tredick Foster

  “She told me we were going to help you. Of course, you’re the one that won me and you didn’t have the keys to summon me, so…” She trails off. I groan while nodding, “Yeah, I get it. Then, when she came out without me, you shut her down at the corner store.” I could hear some fondness in her voice when she clarified, “She did beg, though.”

  I lean on the door, rubbing my hung over head. “So, to keep the car running I gotta keep you fed. What do I gotta do besides heave a load into you?” I can hear her snicker, “Well, you could always let your friends ‘heave’ a few into me as well.”

  I roll my eyes again, “Of course. Anything else? Anything outside the box?” She hums while thinking, “Well, ghosts and other demons will do as well. Monsters too.” I shrug, “Maybe some ghosts, but not all of them. Same with the monsters, if they can’t be helped. Demons, for sure.”

  She asks in a confused tone, “Why not all ghosts and monsters?” I explain, “Most spirits just want to be released and led to their final destination. A lot of monsters are cursed people.” She groans, “Oh great. A bleeding heart.” I shrug, “Hey, you said it yourself; I earned you. That’s how we do things from now on.” I hear her huff in frustration. “Fine.”

  Chapter 19

  I’d been standing outside, leaning against the wall next to the back door. The sun had just set, so everything outside was mostly darkened. I just stared down at the gravel that made up the driveway, going back and forth in my head if I should walk home. I was pretty deep in the Junction, which is on the other side of the ABCs. It was April of ‘03, so I’d still been living in Old Towne, a block away from the high school. Everyone knew where I lived back then.

  The door opened and she stepped outside, jarring me back to reality. Her jet black hair came down to the middle of her back, still dressed up from the funeral. “Were you going to leave without even saying hi to me?” she asked. She had a kindness in her hazel eyes, reflecting some kind of need I couldn’t place. To be honest, it made me feel kind of awkward being around her. I wasn’t sure if I’d need to console her, or do anything if she started crying.

  “Well, Lauren is in there, and…” I trailed off. She nodded, “Oh yeah, I forgot you two dated.” I just nodded in response. She commented, “Really, she’s only here because she says she was dating Freddie.” I sigh, nodding again, “Yeah, the guys were saying that too. Which is bullshit.” She giggled, “Right? He always gave you all shit for dating younger girls.”

  I rolled my eyes with a smirk, “Yeah, I don’t want to make things awkward.” She folded her arms, shaking her head, “It’s not awkward, I want you here.” I narrowed my brow, “Seriously?” She smiled, “Yeah, why wouldn’t I?” She leaned her shoulder against the wall next to me, now much closer to me.

  “Pfft, I mean… well, you know Russell and Brendan. So, I’m not even sure…” I chuckle, stuttering and mumbling trying to give an answer. Even at 15, I could tell she’d been coming onto me, but I didn’t want to assume anything. Plus, at that age… I kinda didn’t have any game.

  She giggles, shaking her head “Wow, you seriously don’t remember me, do you?” I realize I’m about to be in deep shit, so I give a nervous smile and apologize, “I’m so sorry, I suck at remembering people.” She rolls her eyes, taking a beat as she bites her bottom lip with a smirk. Tilting her head, she locks eyes with mine and simply asks, “Deep Throat?”

  I flashed back to several months before then. It was during the fair from the summer before. Russell, Brendan and I were with a couple of girls, one of which had been her. It was only after the rest of the group egged her on to show me her “trick” that she deepthroated an entire rainbow swirl lollipop stick, which had to be a foot long or something.

  My eyes widen and I can’t help but mumble, “Oh, shit...” She giggles, shaking her head “You’re unbelievable!” She shoves me while I look away, trying not to laugh and failing miserably. “I’m sorry,” I chuckled, “I really have a hard time remembering, um… um..”

  She pauses, looking to me and slowly says “Fiona… Haw…-” I snap my fingers and point to her, “Hawkins! Fiona Hawkins!” She smiles, patting me on the head while commending me, “Good boy.”

  I blush, looking away as I tell her “Shut up, I swear I’m smart.” She shakes her head, still smiling, “I know, that’s the reason I wanted you to come here.” I look to her, faux-quizzically, “Because I’m one of the smart kids?” She explains, “Yep. I hear you’re some kind of expert problem solver.” I modestly shrugged, “Heard from where?” She quips, “Everywhere.”

  I sighed, hanging my head. I’m not proud of this, but when someone would ask me to solve a problem I’d get paid with CDs of porn. I didn’t have internet at my house and my friends would take pity on me for that. That’s why all the problems I’d solve usually came from Brendan or Russell. I remember thinking “So, this is why they had me tag along.”

  “Alright,” I asked, “what’s the problem?” Initially, I thought she wanted me to get Lauren to admit she was just vying for attention. I’d done some similar stuff in the past. That’s why I was caught off guard when she said, “Freddie’s the problem. I want to know why he did it.”

  My brow narrows, the smirk disappearing off my face as I explain, “I thought it was because he got sent home for fighting and his mom said something like ‘wait ‘til your father gets home’ or something.” She leans in, “Except he’s a friend of mine and I would’ve known if his parents were abusive or not.”

  I shrugged, slid my hands in my pockets and said, “You don’t know what goes on behind closed doors.” Getting more strict in her tone, she said “I do. I know what to look for when it comes to that kind of stuff.” Her eyes locked with mine. I could see it in her eyes that she’d been pulling from first-hand experience.

  “Ok,” I looked away, “so he was depressed. There’s more shit to be depressed about than just your parents smacking you around.” She quickly came back with, “You’re right and he didn’t have any of those.” I sigh, starting to dismiss her. I thought that it must’ve been the grief talking. Looking back on it, any teenager would’ve immediately jumped to foul play and denial.

  She took me by the shoulder and forced me to look in her eyes, “He wasn’t depressed. In the last few days, he was scared, even terrified of something. It wasn’t his parents.” She started to scare me a bit, so I went on the defensive and held my hands up, “Ok, I get it.”

  She continued to explain, “He had all kinds of friends, he collected those stupid Magic cards, he watched anime, played video games. He played football, for God’s sake!” I took her by the shoulder and calmly told her, “Alright, I’ll go check it out.”

  She looked into my eyes and asked “Seriously?” I could tell she wasn’t hoping for it, but was demanding my honesty. I nodded with resolve, “I swear, I’ll look into it. I promise.” She quickly moved in, deeply kissing me. I was caught completely off guard, but I found myself going with it as I slid my hand around her lower back. Her hand let go, sliding across the back of my shoulders.

  Just as she pushed her tongue into my mouth, I could hear the back door open. “Hey, is Rick out-” Russell’s voice asked before I interrupted him, holding up my fore finger from free hand. There’s silence for a beat as we continued kissing. Russell excitedly whispered “That’s my fucking boy!” as he closed the door.

  Chapter 20

  The blood spray went up the wall, into the corner of the living room and onto the ceiling. There had been so much that I was in awe of the fact that he lived after that, albeit only for a minute or so. I shined my flashlight to the couch; the origin point of the spray. That’s when it all started to come together in my head.

  I shined my light on a lone shoe; a white sneaker with a sock lying limp beside it. He took these off before he did it. It became real in my mind, standing in front of the couch as he sat there. The butt of the rifle pressed into the carpet as he hooked his big toe around the trigger guard. Tears streaming d
own his face, his whole body trembling as he bit down on the muzzle.

  I crouched down, no longer able to stay upright as the energy left my thighs. Just as I did, I could hear a faint pop in my imagination; a faint snap of a light from behind my eyelids. I was hesitant to open my eyes, praying I didn’t see some version of him when I opened them again.

  In a mixture of both horror and relief, all that waited for me when I opened my eyes was the trail of blood from the living room into the hall, heading to the bathroom. Freddie’s foot had slipped, pushing the shotgun to the side and had taken part of his face. He finally collapsed at the start of the hallway, desperately crawling to the bathroom. I could feel it in my thighs and chest; the fear and regret, the panic of what he’d done.

  I closed my eyes again, trying to right my mind into the present. I felt my own body going weak, my breathing picking up. Freddie wasn’t just scared of something, he was fucking terrified. Terrified that something had been backing him into a corner, assuring he couldn’t turn to anyone for help. He saw this as his only way out. That feeling gripped me tight in my chest.

  Taking a deep breath, I managed to stand back up, making sure to mind where I stepped as I headed down the hallway. I kept my light low and pointed to the ground, shining it into the bathroom, then the bedroom across from it; his baby sister’s no doubt.

  I thought back to the funeral when I could hear a little girl saying “Not you, Daddy. I want Freddie to hold me.” I couldn’t make out what else was said, but that poor little girl started calling him a liar, throwing a fit. I could only grip my flashlight tight along with my teeth and move on. Being a spectator to this fallout gave me overwhelming shame and regret.

  I shined my light into the master bedroom, seeing nothing out of the ordinary from a normal bedroom. However, my light hovered on the wood and glass gun cabinet with the door slightly open. I took a deep breath in, flicking the light away to the bedroom across the hall. Freddie’s bedroom.

  It was a little on the small side, which reminded me of my own at the time. Big enough for a bed, a desk and a folding chair. A cheap, black area rug covered the open spot of floor. His desk was mostly taken up by a CRT monitor for a computer and a keyboard. I was surprised the sheriff didn’t take it for any kind of investigation.

  I pushed the power button on the tower that was sitting on the floor in the tiny space between the bed and desk. I had to wait for it to boot up. Back in those days, kids like us could have computers, but we didn’t have any kind of internet in our bedrooms. DSL was a thing, but most of our parents still ran on dialup. Hell, Freddie’s machine was still running Windows 98.

  I looked around his closet, mostly taken up by a dresser with a couple of coats hung up beside it. On the shelf above everything were stacks of books, binders of his card collections, even some old toys. I started looking around his drawers, carefully moving things around.

  The glow from the monitor lit the room up rather well. The cranky sound from the loading drives stirred the silent air. The window faced out towards the tree line in the backyard. I had some time before anyone noticed any kind of light coming from the bedroom. All the same, I started to hurry through his drawers.

  In the bottom drawer, among his boxers and socks, I found a small paperback book. The cover was non-reflective black with only two features. There was a white seal on it that looked like it was two overlapped, five pointed stars. Above it was the title in white lettering…

  The Necronomicon

  Even back then, before I became who I am, everyone knew about the Necronomicon. Paperback or not, it wasn’t something you messed with. Even holding it gave me a full body chill. I pulled the hood up to my favorite hoodie, shoving the book in the front pocket. My hoodie that sported two wisps of flames on the arms and a green chinese dragon on the back.

  With the computer fully booted, I sat in the folding chair and turned the brightness down on the monitor. I started digging through the files; his C Drive, his Documents, anything that would’ve showed his mindset. I’d hoped he kept a journal, something, anything at all.

  The history only showed the ski game, pinball, a mountain of music that rivaled his porn stash. That last one made me feel kind of awkward; digging through a dead guy’s porn. Part of me thought about burning it to a disk, as payment. A full body shiver of shame shot through me at the thought.

  I needed to be absolutely sure nothing was on here, though. I even turned on the Show Hidden Files function and still got nothing. According to this, he was just a normal 15 year old who probably used it to type up homework, play games and listen to music.

  Had it not been for the book, the break-in would’ve been a bust. I flicked the brightness and contrast knobs on the bottom of the monitor back the way they were, then turned the computer off. I gave the whole bedroom a quick once over again, looking under his pillows, his bed and even in his backpack. I still couldn’t find a damn thing that stood out.

  Quick as I could, I went back down the basement and came out into the backyard where Russell was waiting for me. “You find anything?” He asked. I crouched down, taking out the two pins I’d used to unlock the deadbolt so as to relock it. “The whole bloody scene along with a bunch of music and porn.” I said, moving the top pin around. “Fuck, don’t talk about his porn, man.” he groaned.

  Russell watched me as I worked on the deadbolt and asked “You seriously learned that from a fucking museum?” I slightly chewed my tongue on the right side of my mouth as I mumbled, “The Spy Museum had a diagram that showed how to do it.”

  He groaned again, “I can’t believe you went and the rest of us got fucked over by 9/11.” I gave a smirk, explaining “My grandparents took me the summer before that.” He curiously asked, “Did you get to ride the metro?” I chuckled while shaking my head, “Dude, I’m from Oldbridge. The metro is nothing special, trust me.” He clarifies, “Well, I’m from Bum Fuck, Virginia where we don’t have a metro.”

  Finishing up on the lock, I took my pins out and stood up. I took the book out and handed it to him. “I did find this,” I explained, “think you can look into it?” He went wide eyed, taking the book with caution. “You’re better at magic and shit than I am.” I admitted. He gave a nervous chuckle, explaining “Magic, angels, demons. This is on a different level than that.”

  I shrugged, “I mean, you’ll know more about it than I will. You’ll know what to look for.” He looked back up, asking “What exactly am I looking for?” I shook my head, “I don’t know. Something that would’ve terrified him down to his very core. Something that would’ve made him lose hope.” He shook his head, “From what I’ve heard, that’s this whole book.”

  I sighed, “I mean… you didn’t see it in there. Freddie was gone. I mean, whatever he was afraid of, he thought the only way out was his death. Not killing whatever got to him, not trapping it or even sending it back.” Russell sighed heavily, looking to it with a sunken heart. He nodded, “Alright, I’ll give it a shot.”

  Russell and I snuck away successfully. Nighttime is a great cover when you’ve got on nothing but funeral black and navy blue. April nights are always cold, but this night seemed to be just a touch colder. The wind that particular night had a way of biting down hard and without warning.

  The walk home for either of us was long. Neither of us wanted to be caught in the ABCs after dark. Russell lived just on the edge of that side of town at the time, but on the further end of it. Of course, Old Towne was on the other side of the main road and I just had to live on the other side as well. I remember we didn’t say anything to each other on that particular walk home.

  I remember not wanting to say anything due to what I’d seen in there. Over the years, I’ve learned to put stuff like that into the back of my mind, to not let it affect me. This was my first time, though. Not only that, but it was from someone I knew. I remember feeling ashamed I didn’t do anything to prevent it. What exactly I could’ve done, I don’t know.

  I just remember that littl
e girl’s voice…

  Chapter 21

  “You’ve gotta help me!” Russell called out, bursting through my bedroom door. Fiona grabbed the edge of my blanket and rolled to cover herself up. I sprang to my feet at the edge of the bed. I exclaimed in pure reaction while wiping my mouth, “For fuck’s sake!” Russell stood there, completely still and in shock. “I… I… uh...” He stuttered.

  Once we’d gotten into the kitchen, Russell wasn’t any calmer. He managed to hushly say “I guess you two are moving pretty fast.” Embarrassed, I shoved his shoulder, “Shut up. Now what the fuck was wrong?” His eyes blinked rapidly, probably trying to rewind the last 10 minutes of his life.

  “Oh, fuck.” He mumbled. Grabbing my shoulder, he looked me in the eyes and said “My mom tried to fucking kill me.” I looked at him, unsure of how to react. I finally just pulled him over to the kitchen table, sitting us down. “Alright, run me through this very carefully.” I told him. He nodded, “Ok.”

  To clarify, it was a weekday. A lot of us had single parents; I did and so did Russell. So, we’d come home and have the place to ourselves. In my case, Fiona came over and she, uh… wanted to show me something. For Russell, things go a little different and that’s where he picks up on things.

  “My little brother and I are home and my mom just got back.” He starts. His little brother was an annoying, spoiled shit. “He’s running all over the house, so I yell at him to calm the fuck down. Right then, he slips and fucking plows into the shelves with all my mom’s porcelin figurines.”

  I went wide eyed, letting him continue. “Somehow, I’m the one at fault!” I tilted my head, confused “Did she not know it was him?” He threw his hands up. “I told her! He even told her! She still came at me with a knife!”