Ashley squinted down the sights and fired the gun. She missed, and the recoil of the rifle made her stumble back a couple steps. "Ow!" Ashley cried. "You didn't tell me it would do that!"
"Don't be such a baby," Tyler scolded. "You just have to lean forward. Don't hold your shoulder back like that."
He repositioned her then stood to the side and left her to it again, but she instinctively leaned back a little to counteract the weight of the gun.
"No, lean forward!"
Ashley fired the gun and missed again, taking a step back. "Okay, okay!" she said. "This isn't easy!"
Tyler helped her back into position and she fired a third shot which also missed. But she stayed calm, determined to hit something, and on the fourth shot, a bottle exploded.
"Yay!" Ashley cried, jumping up and down on the spot.
"Hey, easy!" Tyler warned her, taking the gun away from her and making sure she didn't point it the wrong way. She'd fired the last round in the clip, and Tyler reloaded the gun and replaced the bottles that they shot on the stumps, leaving a fresh set of four. He looked at Jess. "Okay, your turn."
Jess stepped forward and took the gun from him. She never held a gun before, and she was surprised by how heavy it was. Her heart started to beat a little more rapidly, having always been afraid of guns, but she felt comforted with Tyler beside her. She was still a little cold toward him from the night before, but she tried not to think about it. She looked down at all the parts of the gun Tyler told her were important, trying to run through the steps again in her head and remember them.
"Okay, stand right here." He faltered for a moment, but then he worked up the courage to put his hands on Jess to get her into position. He gently placed his hands on her shoulders and moved her, and the sensation sent a jolt through both of their bodies. He tapped the front of her shoulder. "Prop the end of the gun right here."
Jess did what he said.
Tyler swallowed, then he moved a hand down to her waist. "Now lean forward a little, just like this."
Jess bent with his hands and felt that warmth spread throughout her stomach. She squinted through the sweltering heat and brightness of the morning, trying to stay focused on her targets. "The gun's kinda heavy," she complained.
Tyler shook his head. "Don't think about that. It's light as a feather. It's so light, it's not even there. All you want to do is hold it in place and line it up." He removed his hands from her and took an awkward step back.
Jess lined up the shot, seeing the blurry bottle right behind the sights just like he showed her, and she squeezed the trigger.
A loud bang filled up the field and she felt the gun jump against her grip, but she remained in place. She lowered the rifle and peered down the field to see four bottles still standing.
"Try it again," Tyler said. "You got this."
She swallowed a bit of saliva down her dry throat and aimed the gun again. When she was ready, she squeezed the trigger and the gun went off, hitting one of the bottles and smashing it to smithereens.
Jess jumped.
"It's okay, calm down," Tyler said. "The gun's pretty loud, and it can scare you a bit if you're not used to it. But good job, Jess! You hit one!"
She turned her head to him and gave him a faint smile.
"Try again!" he urged.
She swallowed again and propped the rifle back into her shoulder, starting to feel the weight of it pull down on her. But she kept her position and lined up another bottle. She fired the rifle again and the bottle shattered, making her jump.
"Damn girl, you're a natural!" Ashley said.
"Yeah, way to go, Jess!" Tyler said, grinning from ear to ear.
But Jess didn't feel so great. The noise grated on her, and it was starting to rattle her nerves. But she brought the gun back up to her shoulder and aimed again. When it was lined up, she fired.
A third bottle exploded, and Roy's face, scared and dripping blood, flashed in front of her as the vodka bottle shattered on the hood of the car. Jess jumped again, worse than before.
She started to become panicked, her arms visibly shaking.
"It's okay, Jess, relax," Tyler said. Ashley looked on at her friend with worry.
Jess tried to aim at the last bottle as sweat started rolling down her forehead. Her finger hooked around the trigger and her whole body started to shake. Her breath caught up in her throat and she fired off another shot, more out of panic than proper aim. The shot missed. She hurried to line up another shot and squeezed the trigger, miraculously hitting the final bottle.
She jumped and let out a frightened cry. She wheeled around with the gun in tow, sweeping it past Tyler and Ashley.
"Whoa!" Tyler cried as he held his hands out in defense. "Watch where you're pointing that thing!"
"I can't!" Jess muttered as she dropped the rifle and ran off across the field.
The breeze rushed in her face and gave her a slight reprieve from the intense heat that was washing over her and swirling around inside her from the frightful memories. The sound of the bottle shattering on the car's hood played in her ears over and over again and she quickly went into a full-fledged panic attack. Her feet skipped through the weedy field, eventually coming to a little brook winding its way through the landscape. She followed the dip down and collapsed at the edge of the water. She pulled herself into a little ball, hugging her knees and rocking herself back and forth. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to get the sounds out of her head. The gentle noise of the babbling brook helped, but it was still difficult to breathe.
"Jess! Are you okay?" Tyler cried, his eyes wide with fear. When he saw her safe, he settled down a little, but he still wanted to know what was going on.
"Go away, Tyler," Jess muttered.
"No," he said defiantly. "I'm not leaving until I know you're okay."
"I'm fine," she said. "Now just please go."
"No. I'm not going anywhere."
Jess continued to rock back and forth and Tyler scaled down the shallow hill to the water. Mustering up the courage, he knelt down and put a hand on her shoulder. He let it remain there only for a moment to share some human contact with her, then he took it off and moved back, giving her a little space. He didn't say anything and just waited until she was ready to talk.
"I'm sorry," she said at last.
"Don't worry about it," he said.
"No, I'm sorry for everything. And I'm sorry for hitting you last night."
"Water under the bridge," he said, gazing at the lazy brook.
Jess felt herself start to calm down. The haunting sounds had finally been flushed out of her mind and she took some time to get her breathing under control. When she finally started to feel normal again, she relaxed her posture a little, feeling embarrassed.
"You must think I'm a complete mess," she said.
He shook his head. "I think you're a human being. And sometimes human beings have problems. I'm not one to talk."
She gave him a weak smile. "Thanks."
"Is this about last night?" he asked.
"No. It has nothing to do with you. It never did, even last night."
"Then what?"
"It was that night twelve years ago. At the house." Tears rolled down from the corners of Jess's eyes as the sting of those memories touched her again.
Tyler sat down next to her and stared at the water. "Do you want to talk about it?"
Jess inadvertently laughed, and she was surprised to find a bit of genuine joy stir up in her. "You know, normally I would say no, but I think with you here..." She looked at him, feeling a little shy all of a sudden. "Yeah, I want to talk about it. I don't want to hide from this anymore. He's been dead for twelve years, and I'm still letting him control my life."
"Your uncle?"
She nodded.
Tyler stared off into the distance for a long time, not saying anything. "I was serious when I suggested staying at that house tonight."
"How would we do it?" Jess asked.
Tyler l
ooked at her suddenly, surprised to hear her say such a thing. "Um... Well we would drive up there this evening in my truck—we could take Buddy along with us so he's not at your house alone. We'll bring food and water for him, and we'll do the same for us. Bring our sleeping bags and maybe some other supplies so that we could stay the night."
Jess listened. She surprised herself; normally she would be tuning him out or walking away at this point, but she needed to hear him out.
"We'd go up there while the sun's still up so that we can see everything. If there's anyone else there, we'll turn around immediately and leave. I'll bring the rifle with me to protect you and Ashley. And if anything seems weird or there's something dangerous going on, we'll leave as soon as it happens. We can get right back in my truck and drive home. We can also call the police too if we have to."
"And what would we actually do there?" she asked.
"I don't know," he admitted. "I guess it's up to you. We'd take things as slowly as you need to. I imagine even being there in front of the house again will probably be the hardest thing to do. If you can get past that and you want to go on, we could take a look in the house. If you don't, like I said, we can get in my truck and drive back. But I think staying in the house—spending the night—especially on the blood moon just like last time... it would put your fears to rest. I don't want to see you be scared like this anymore."
Jess sat there and ruminated over his words. They actually sounded very reasonable, and she knew it took courage for her to even think that. But like he said, if there was any trouble at all, they would leave immediately, and even though he didn't seem like the greatest shot with the gun, she trusted him to protect them.
"What do you think?" he asked.
"I don't know," Jess said.
They both turned their heads and saw Ashley standing at the top of the bank with her hands in her pockets. How long she had been standing there, listening in on their conversation, they didn't know. But she wasn't angry with Tyler for bringing up the subject with Jess again; in fact, she had somewhat of an intrigued look on her face.
"What about you?" Tyler asked. "What would you think about that?"
Ashley hesitated. "I mean... if Jess is okay with it, that... actually sounds kinda cool." She looked at her friend with something like apology on her face for even suggesting such a thing, but Ashley had to admit the thought of staying the night in a supposedly haunted house had an exciting appeal to it.
They both turned and looked at Jess.
Jess still fought with that small voice inside her for one last moment, and then she finally wrestled it into submission. "Yeah, okay," she said, "let's do it."
Checklist
Tyler slapped a pad of paper down on the table as he shoveled another bite of the diner's apple pie into his mouth.
"You're going to get an upset stomach eating that for breakfast," Ashley said.
Tyler gave her a dismissive look while he pulled a pen out of his pocket and placed it on the pad. "We have the weekend all to ourselves," he said. "No parents. So no rules." He stuck his tongue out at her, and she could see half-chewed pie around the edges of it.
"Gross," Ashley said, turning her head away.
Jess continued in on her omelet, eating far more gracefully than Tyler.
"So..." he said, pulling the cap off and twirling the pen around in his fingers. "What are we going to need tonight? I'm talking in terms of food and supplies."
"Well, we can bring all the snacks that we brought to Jess's," Ashley offered. "That with maybe a little bit more food should be more than enough for the night."
"I'll bring bowls, blankets, and enough dog food and water for Buddy," Jess said. "But I don't know what kind of condition the house is going to be in. If it's not safe enough for him, we can't stay. Because I'm not leaving him at home by himself."
Tyler nodded. "What else?" he asked as he jotted down each suggestion.
"We'll have to bring our sleeping bags," Ashley said. "I don't want to sleep on some disgusting floor."
"Sleeping bags..." Tyler echoed, scribbling. He marked down everything they had to say and offered his own suggestions, then when he was finished he held the pad of paper up and looked over the list. "Okay, that seems like everything we'll need. And I already went over what we'll do if someone else shows up, so all we have left to decide is when we go."
"When does the blood moon start?" Jess asked.
Tyler pulled out his phone and looked it up. "Uh... it says it starts at eleven-thirty tonight. Apex just after midnight."
Jess swallowed. Just the thought of talking about this put her on edge, and she never imagined she would be okay with this. But she wasn't about to back down now.
"Well, it's one o'clock now," Tyler said, looking at his phone. "Like I said, we'll want to get there in the daytime so we still have light to see everything in the house and around the property." His eyes stared up at the ceiling, searching around in his memory. "The sun should set tonight around... quarter after nine, maybe? So why don't we say we'll go up at six? That gives us plenty of time to take a look around and settle in before it gets dark."
Jess nodded. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but okay, let's do it."
Tyler smiled.
"You kids don't want to be doing that."
Tyler's smile faltered. The three of them glanced around at each other, bewildered, and they looked over Tyler's shoulder to see a man sitting in the next booth of the diner, staring at them. He looked to be in his mid-forties, short brown hair with small streaks of white on the sides. He dressed nicely enough in a collared shirt, slacks and a belt, but there was a disheveled quality to him; rough stubble covered his face and there was just something about his appearance that seemed off, like he was half-crocked.
"What?" Tyler asked the man, twisting around in his seat.
"I said you kids don't want to be doing that. You're getting in over your heads, and you don't even know it." His voice was ragged, like he'd seen a lot more than even his appearance let on.
Tyler stood up and faced the man, feeling challenged. He walked over to his booth, looking down on him. "You don't even know what we're talking about," he said.
"Dover House," the man said, his eyes firmly fixed on Tyler. "Or Bloodmoon House, as they call it."
Tyler took the measure of the man, not sure how to react. He took a seat down in his booth, sitting across from him, and he leaned forward on the table, finding himself strangely transfixed by the cryptic man. "And what do you know about it?" Tyler asked.
"Enough to know it's dangerous, especially for kids like you," the man said.
"We're not kids!" Tyler retorted. "We just graduated high school!"
The man chuckled. "Oh, well in that case, my mistake."
Ashley stood up and made her way over to the booth, finding herself similarly transfixed by the man and what he had to say. Jess followed after that, more timidly than the others, but she was the most captivated. As soon as the man got a good look at her, his eyes never left her face. She found this intimidating, but also intriguing. As she got closer to him, she confirmed her first impression about him being a little sloppy; she could smell it on his breath. And it showed in his eyes as well, but yet there was a piercing intensity in them that she couldn't shake.
The man paused, then he shuffled over in the booth, allowing the girls a seat. Tyler did the same after a moment, and Ashley sat next to him. Jess was hesitant, but she took a seat next to the man. He continued to stare at her, unnerving her.
"What?" Jess asked.
He shook his head. "Nothing. You just sort of remind me of someone."
"Who are you?" Ashley asked.
"Today, I'm just passing through," he said.
"How do you know so much about the house?"
"I don't. Not much more than you do, I suspect. But I've seen enough houses like it to know how dangerous it is."
"What are you talking about?" Tyler asked, getting increasingly frustrated. "What do
you mean 'houses like it'?"
"Haunted houses, kid. It's not that hard to put two and two together." The man looked down and took a bite out of his waffle, then drank something out of a paper cup.
Tyler scoffed. "There's no such thing as ghosts, and there's no such thing as haunted houses. Old houses tend to give people the creeps, that's all."
The man rolled his eyes and went back to his waffle.
"Is it... really dangerous?" Jess asked.
"Come on, Jess, you don't really believe in ghosts, do you?" Tyler asked.
"I don't know," she said. "But something happened to my uncle. There had to have been something in that house that made my uncle do that."
The man stopped in mid-chew. He turned and looked at her with a fresh set of eyes. "You were the little girl," he said.
Jess nodded.
He seemed to be stunned, and he regarded her with a look that was impossible to decipher, but it was clear that the gears in his head were turning.
"He was drunk, Jess," Tyler offered. "Or maybe someone else was there that night and did that to him." He was getting desperate to try to keep her convinced to stay the night in the house, but he realized the more he talked, the more he was shooting himself in the foot, so he quickly fell silent.
The man swept his eyes across the other two. "You're still going to go, aren't you?"
Tyler nodded defiantly, and Ashley had a look on her face that said she was sure, but she didn't want to admit it. He looked over at Jess and she was the only one who seemed on the fence.
But Jess was her own person now; she didn't need anyone to save her anymore, and it was time she took responsibility for her own problems. She wanted to go to the house.
Deciphering exactly that sentiment, the man sighed. "Well, if I can't dissuade you, at least take this with you." He pulled a business card out of his pocket and handed it to Jess. "If you get into any trouble, call me."
She took the card and inspected it. It was a simple white card with black ink, and it said Marty Palowitz, Esq. Defense Attorney. The phone number below was scratched out. Jess looked up at him. "Marty? Why did you cross out your number?"
The Haunting of Bloodmoon House Page 5
