Dead End: Midnight Hollow

by Penn Cassidy

  It was my house, but also, it wasn’t. We all stood there on the edge of what used to be Auntie Fe’s coveted rose garden, which was instead blooming with what looked like night jasmine. A narrow cobblestone pathway led us to the double front door of the old-school Victorian home that was both familiar and foreign at the same time.

  Even the guys had their jaws hanging open. My aunties had lived in this same house for as long as I could remember, and I knew without a doubt it was supposed to be painted slate grey with dark green shutters and trim. I knew it as well as I knew my own name. But here we stood, staring up at the familiar façade, except it was now a deep plum purple with black painted shutters and matching trim. The windows were all replaced with intricate patterns of stained glass, and there were three rocking chairs on the front porch that had never been there before.

  “I knew we shouldn’t have eaten the carnival food,” Maddie muttered, braiding her hair over her shoulder, which was a nervous habit.

  I snorted. “You think we’re tripping right now?”

  She shrugged. “How else do you explain this?” She gestured to the house dubiously.

  “Normally, I’d agree with you, but I didn’t eat or drink anything. So, unless I’m tripping via osmosis or something…”

  “I don’t see what the big fuss is,” Jessica chimed in with a squeaky little voice. She crawled out from under my hair. “I think it’s pretty.”

  “Jessica, now’s not the time,” I murmured, my head still spinning.

  “Just trying to lighten things up. Sheesh,” she grumbled with a pout. I ignored her.

  “Are we going in or what?” snapped Jason in a deep voice, pushing past me and jostling Jessica. I had to reach up and hold her still before she slid right off. He stormed up the wooden staircase that led to the front door. Turning around, he met my eyes with a scowl. “This weird shit has your name all over it, Morticia. Fix it. Now.”

  My heart sank, but I only glared right back at him. “You think this is my fault?” I laughed, and it might have sounded a little crazy as it spilled past my lips. “You think this is some kind of prank or something? I think you overestimate how much I care about your existence in the first place. I wouldn’t waste my time.”

  Every word out of my mouth was a damn lie, but he didn’t know that. For all he knew, I really didn’t care about him or the other guys anymore. For all he knew—for all I let him know—I hated them now. No reason, no explanation. I tried not to see the flash of hurt in his eyes, but it was there before he could hide it.

  “Just come on. If anyone can explain what the fuck happened to our town, it’s your weird ass family.” Turning back to the door, Jason crossed his arms over his wide chest and waited.

  Thank you, October, for saving my ass from the big scary clowns…

  Yeah right, like I’d ever hear those words. But he was sort of right, once again. Auntie Fe and Auntie Pip were sort of the unofficial aunties for the whole town. Everyone loved them and they loved everyone, even if people thought they were a little odd. When we were kids, I used to have birthday parties at the auntie’s house, and all the kids from school came mainly because they were curious about the inside of the manor.

  Pip had always tried to bake me the most elaborate birthday cakes, even though it always ended up being a huge disaster, but their parties were the talk of the town. It made sense that the guys still looked to them for guidance, since they’d known the aunties their whole lives, too.

  “It’s okay, Toby,” Jessica whispered, too softly for everyone else to hear and quickly picking up on my nickname. “The aunties can help, I promise.” For some reason, I felt like I could trust her, as ridiculous as that sounded.

  Steeling myself for more weirdness, I made my way up the stairs and stopped at the threshold, staring at the most peculiar door knocker. It was a cat with a curling tail wrapped around what looked like a cauldron. The handle of the cauldron was fashioned into a knocker. I didn’t bother with it. I just tried the handle, and to my surprise, the massive wooden door swung open with an audible squeak.

  My eyes met Jason’s. We were standing shoulder to shoulder. He looked worried, and for the first time in a while, I saw something other than stark anger and resentment on his face. A sudden image of his dead body, sprawled out lifeless in that bus, skittered through my memory. My heart gave a painful squeeze, and I glanced away before he could see it in my eyes.

  I took the lead, crossing the threshold of the house. Immediately, the warm scent of cinnamon, spice, and sage hit me. It was the first familiar thing I’d encountered since waking up, probably the only familiar thing, because the house looked like something straight out of a movie. I gaped at the lit candles flickering on every available surface. The walls were covered in some kind of metallic floral and vine wallpaper that looked more at home in the Victorian era. The flames played along the shimmering golden surface like magic.

  The floors were made of blackened oak, and strange lighting fixtures hung from the ceilings. They looked like real lanterns and cast the whole room in a low ambient glow. There were tables everywhere, covered in multicolored bottles filled with unknown powders and liquids and stopped with tiny corks. Plants hung from the banister, and bookshelves lined the sitting room on either side of the huge fireplace. On the shelves were large tomes, some of them without titles on the dusty spines.

  The others followed behind me as I made my way towards the kitchen. The layout of the house was exactly as I knew it should be, but I hardly recognized a thing.

  “Did you guys do some redecorating?” Maddie asked me hesitantly.

  I glanced at her with a raised brow. “We’ve only been gone a few hours. There’s no way.”

  “I know, I know,” she sighed, fidgeting with her hair again. “I’m trying not to freak out here.”

  “Looks the same to me,” Jessica mused aloud again. No one bothered to respond.

  “Are your aunties even home?” asked Michael, speaking up for the first time. He was right behind me when I spun around, but his eyes were scanning the house, taking note of all the differences since the last time he’d been here for the memorial service. Suddenly, it seemed like a million years ago.

  “They’re always home,” I whispered, swallowing past the lump in my throat.

  You could run from your past, but it always caught up to you eventually.

  My aunties were homebodies. Both only about fifty years young, but they ran their own businesses straight from our home. Auntie Fe sold her medicinal teas, which pretty much everyone in town flocked to buy every time someone came down with an illness, while Auntie Pip grew herbs to sell at the farmer’s market.

  “Is that my pumpkin girl I hear?!” came a familiar voice from the direction of the kitchen. Something tight loosened in my chest at the mere sound of Auntie Pip’s voice.

  The soft thuds of her bare feet carried her closer, and I nearly staggered when the sight of her wild orange hair and bright eyes rounded the corner. It was Pip, but there was something incredibly different about her. Normally, the aunties were a little eccentric. They wore bright clothing that Maddie always called ‘hippie chic.’ But today, she wore something that straight up looked like one of my homespun Halloween costumes.

  Her floor length flowing dress was layered in fabrics of burnt orange, purple, and dark green. It had pearl buttons down the front and bell sleeves that covered her ring clad hands. Her ginger hair, that matched my own as well as Fe and my mother’s, was loose and curly. Straight hair must have been a trait passed down on my father’s side.

  “Oh, you brought us company!” A bright smile stretched her red painted lips. It took a moment to realize her cheeks and forehead were covered in patches of white powder. “Just in time, really. Come on in.” She waved us over towards the kitchen.

  “No offense, ma’am, but maybe it’s not a good idea…”

  “Not a good idea for what, dear?” She turned back around, looking at Jason in question.

  “It
’s been a really fucking strange day… Something weird is going on, and we need answers,” he said, sounding more and more unsure the longer he spoke it out loud. He even glanced at me for a second, looking lost.

  Yeah, a lot of things had happened. That was an understatement. As if the year 2020 hadn’t already been a shit show. A deadly virus had swept through the world like a storm, riots claimed the streets, giant bugs swarmed for a month or two, hurricanes struck the Gulf Coast, people forgot what it was like to walk in the sunshine, and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen the inside of a restaurant. So in hindsight, I should have expected something ludicrous like this to happen. At least we got to go to a carnival, so yay for that. The universe decided it had more fuckery in store yet again.

  Norman pushed forward with a glare at Auntie Pip. “Tell us what the hell is going on with this town. We left for five hours and came back to a freak show. What happened in those five hours?” he demanded, looking worse by the second as sweat rolled down his temple.

  “Don’t talk to her like that,” I snapped at him. Norman looked at me with wide but bloodshot eyes. He still looked like he was seconds away from passing out.

  “Yeah, don’t talk to her like that!” Jessica echoed on my shoulder, my own little cheer squad of one. I would have fist bumped her if she had hands.

  “Show a little fucking respect,” I added, mostly for his benefit. Pip was a nice lady and she had a true heart of gold, but he needed to wipe that sass from his tone before that kind smile flipped upside down. I’d been on the other end of Auntie Pip’s scoldings, and I shivered just thinking about it.

  “We’re all running out of patience. Someone needs to start talking right now.” His eyes burned into mine, emerald green swirling with gold like a flickering flame. “I don't—” His deep voice stuttered. “I don’t feel right. I feel cold…” He shivered as if to emphasize his point.

  Come to think of it, Norman was looking even paler by the second. There were tired looking bags under his eyes that weren't there before, and his lips were bloodless, making the stark black of his hair stand out in striking contrast. He didn’t look right at all.

  “Oh, dear…” Auntie Pip clicked her tongue, her blue eyes suddenly clearing. Her smile dropped. “I knew something like this would happen. Your parents should have prepared you a lot sooner, October.”

  We stared at her in confused bewilderment. “What’s going on, Auntie?” I asked. “You’re acting weird. Did you drug us with the tea again?” I eyed her up and down before moving on, because she’d learned the last time what happened if she slipped something into my tea. I got my revenge by returning the favor. “You have no idea what we went through just to get here from the bus. Which, by the way, is still stranded out by Farmer Orson’s farm.”

  “Oh dear…” she said, wringing her hands together in worry.

  There was a sudden squeaking noise and a heavy thud from the other room. Wet slaps of something moved over the floor, coming closer by the second. I saw my auntie roll her eyes and hop out of the way. My eyes bugged out of my head, and Maddie gave a yelp, jumping back at least three feet as an honest to god vampire bat hopped around the corner.

  “Get it, get it, get it!” Maddie chanted with a loud screech, crouching slightly behind Freddy with wide eyes that looked even bigger now that her hair was so dark.

  I looked at my auntie. “Explain, please!” I begged, so tired and fed up and questioning everything that had happened in my life.

  There was a small chuckle in my ear, and I felt Jessica’s spindly legs sweep my neck. I shivered. I was never going to get used to feeling her against my skin.

  “Tell you what,” Pip clapped her hands together, “how about we put on a pot of tea and have ourselves a civilized little chat, hmm?”

  She completely ignored the little creature flopping on the floor. Something wet slopped off its skin, and it was visibly attempting to shake off its hairy body. For a second, my heart sank for the poor little guy.

  “Lady, we don’t have time for tea—” Jason started with a command in his tone, but Auntie Pip’s icy glare cut him off.

  “Hear me now, boy, the next time you call me anything other than Auntie or Madam, you’ll find yourself out of this house so fast, your ass cheeks will catch fire,” she warned, but everyone knew Jason was always her favorite.

  She snapped her fingers, and we all jumped back a step when bright sparks flew from her fingertips. Holy shit… Magic. She just did magic… What the hell was happening? Was my auntie some kind of witch? It was then that I realized she was holding a wooden spoon in the other hand, waving it towards a stricken looking Jason. I eyed that spoon in horror.

  Oh, crap…Pip’s cooking. This can’t mean anything good… Never mind the fact that she went full Harry Potter just now with the sparks. Pip and cooking never mix very well.

  Her cooking—if that’s what you could even call it—was legendary, and not for good reasons. She tended to…experiment in the kitchen, and her concoctions were vile most of the time. She knew it too, but it never stopped her from forcing me to try each and every one of them, hoping for the best. I looked back down at the little bat, suddenly very suspicious and slightly horrified. I cringed when she went to pick it off the floor, but it leapt closer to us and right out of her grip.

  “Drat! The little bugger just won’t accept its fate. Come here, you little…” she grumbled, but we all watched in fascination as the bat made a beeline for Norman.

  I saw the little guy’s beady eyes lock onto him, and Norman stared back with the strangest expression on his pale face, as if in a trance. The bat flew at his chest, and Norman stumbled backwards, grasping it around its little body. The thing slumped in his palms and burrowed its snout into his hard chest. Norman was staring down at it in bewilderment before he looked up and met my eyes in horror.

  “What the fuck?” he deadpanned, clutching the bat like he didn’t know what to do. I was trying to contain a hysterical laugh. Let them make fun of Jessica again…

  “Sorry about that, dear,” Pip said, waving her spoon at the snuggling bat. “This one’s a bit wiley.”

  “Auntie, what’s going on? Why are you acting so strange? Why do you have a bat in the house? I don’t understand any of this, and I’m seconds away from pulling my hair out. Is this some kind of a Halloween prank or something?”

  “I told you to keep a vigilant eye out before you left this morning, did I not?” She gave me a pressing look that said, I told you so.

  She was right… I did remember her saying something like that as I rushed out the door for our trip.

  “I think the virus has gone to her head, Toby,” said Maddie, finally coming out from behind Freddy. She skirted around Norman, who was still holding the bat. He seemed to be…stroking its tiny head as Freddy stared at him like he didn’t even recognize his twin. “We need to find the nearest hospital, because everyone’s lost their minds.”

  “Pish posh, there’s no virus here in Midnight Hollow.” She waved a hand at Maddie. “Come now, everyone, let's have that tea. Perhaps you’d like to sample some of my famous vampire bat chowder?”

  My face drained of blood, but the second she said it, Norman moved forward, faster than I’d ever seen anyone move before, crouching and hissing at Auntie Pip. He hissed, really hissed, like a fucking cat or something. I stared for a second at the sharp, elongated incisors that grew in his mouth, before Norman shook off the feral look in his eyes and straightened back up again.

  Norman stumbled back, holding out the bat like he was disgusted, and dropped it on the floor with a wet splat.

  “What the fuck?” His green eyes were darker than I’d ever seen them, almost black, and his face was now utterly translucent white. He was so pale, he could have been a corpse. The bat on the floor hopped back onto his shoulder with a flutter of wings and nuzzled Norman’s neck in obvious affection.

  Freddy rushed to Norman’s side, shaking his shoulder and whispering hoarsely, “What th
e hell, man?” But Norman didn’t acknowledge his twin in the slightest as he stared at his new fuzzy friend.

  “Well, this is an interesting turn of events.” Auntie clicked her tongue again. “No matter, I suppose tea shall suffice for now.” She turned on her heel and headed into the kitchen in a dramatic flourish, her skirts swirling around her ankles.

  We gaped after her. The nonchalance, the lack of alarm in her voice… This whole situation was terribly wrong. Something was happening to all of us that scared the hell out of me. Flashes of green lightning, orange fog, and dead bodies nearly made me stagger.

  “Auntie, wait!” I called after her. The others were right on my heels as we followed her to the next room.

  I stopped dead when we got to the kitchen, my mouth falling open yet again. The kitchen looked like a scene out of an old school fairy-tale cottage. Wooden cupboards with criss crossed glass fronts lined the walls, filled with those same powder filled bottles of every size, color, and shape I’d seen in the hallway. Instead of the stainless steel oven I was used to, there now sat a massive brick pizza oven with a cast iron grate, and next to it was an open stove with an actual fucking cast iron cauldron simmering on the flame.

  We watched in silence as Auntie Pip clapped once and the flame snuffed out, just as the screaming of a teapot filled the silence. “Don’t be strangers, dears, take a seat.” She gestured to the massive round table just off the side of the kitchen.

  There was hesitation from all of us as we decided what to do. At this point, I knew we needed to follow along and pretend like it was normal to see magic, giant spiders, two moons in the sky, and creepy clowns on street corners. Just your average Saturday night bus crash, memory loss, and missing fifty plus classmates. Yep. Normal.

  Auntie would have the answers we needed, I was sure of it. She had to know because she was acting suspiciously unbothered right now. There was still a very real possibility we were all suffering from one of the biggest drug trips in history, and soon we’d all wake up in the hospital back in Sunset Hollow.