She scoffed, suddenly realizing how clever Ashley's plan was, and she kicked herself for not thinking of it sooner; with a house this big, she didn't even need to hide. She could have just kept moving around Tyler in circles so he would never find her.
Jess listened as Ashley slowly moved down the hallway, looking for a new place to hide. She silently wished that Ashley wouldn't try to come into the room where she was and give up her hiding spot.
But then she heard Tyler's voice from the first floor. "Found you!" he cried, followed by Ashley laughing hysterically... from downstairs.
Jess gasped. Her eyes went wide as saucers and her blood ran cold.
creak... creak... creak...
The footsteps in the upstairs hallway didn't belong to Ashley. And now suddenly they weren't wandering around anymore; they were growing louder and louder, walking in one singular direction: to the secret room Jess was hiding in.
Jess peeked out of the closet, looking to the windows and praying for sunlight, but the darkness choked out the room entirely, leaving her in pitch-blackness. She felt that intangible presence permeating through the house squeeze her lungs just like she had felt all those years ago when she was a child waiting in the car for her uncle to return. She hyperventilated and she squeezed her eyes shut as tears rolled out of the corners.
creak... creak... creeeeeak...
The footsteps were loud and heavy. Tyler and Ashley could still be heard downstairs talking and laughing, and they were completely oblivious to whoever was coming for her.
Jess's heart hammered in her chest so hard that she thought she was having a heart attack.
The footsteps stopped outside the door. Then there was silence.
A fist came crashing down on the wood, and a loud bang echoed in the room.
Jess screamed and started bawling. Another heavy bang hit the door, and it sounded like thunder cracking through a summer sky. She cried and screamed, cowering deeper and deeper into the closet as the person on the other side tried to break into the room.
"Jess? Jess!" she heard from somewhere far away. It was Tyler. He heard what was happening, and he was coming to her rescue.
The pounding on the door continued and she sobbed uncontrollably as she heard the wood splintering.
Then with one final crash, the door burst open and Jess spilled out into the hallway.
Tyler caught her and she immediately began blubbering as she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her face into his shoulder. In between screams and blubbers, she tried to tell him what happened, and he told her to slow down and take it easy, that everything was fine.
"What were you doing in there?" he asked.
She took her face off his shoulder and glanced back at the room, pointing at it and starting to explain, when she faltered.
Jess suddenly realized that she was standing in the hallway with Tyler and Ashley, both of whom had wide eyes and were very concerned about her, and that she wasn't in the closet where she was just a second ago. Suddenly she became confused.
"I-I was in the cl-closet, and th-there was someone pounding on th-the d-door!" she stammered.
Tyler was becoming increasingly confused himself. "Jess... there's no one here."
"I heard him!" she cried. "He was standing right here in the hallway!"
"Jess, I'm telling you, there was no one here. You were the one hammering on the door from the inside. I opened it and you were standing right there."
Jess looked back over her shoulder, unable to put the scene together. Everything had seemed surreal to her a second ago, but now she couldn't reconcile any of it. None of it made any sense, but she was still too upset to think rationally. She buried her face back into his shoulder and he wrapped his arms around her back, cooing to her and waiting for her to calm down.
Ashley stood next to the two of them, stunned. She didn't know what to make of the situation either.
Eventually, Jess settled down. The tears still rolled down her face, but she was able to think a little more clearly.
"What happened in there?" Tyler asked her.
"I... I don't know," she admitted. "There was really no one here?"
Tyler shook his head.
"Maybe it was... it was a ghost," she said.
"I'm telling you, there was nothing here. I think you just got a little claustrophobic in the closet and got scared." He hugged her tighter. "I'm an idiot, I shouldn't have suggested hide and seek. I should've known better than to leave you all alone."
Jess opened her eyes and stared it Ashley over the top of Tyler's shoulder. Her friend gave her a sympathetic look, but one that also suggested that Jess was crazy. She turned her eyes down the hallway, and once again the house seemed like just an old, abandoned building. Had she really imagined everything? With how strong her fears about this house had been, and realizing the stupid mistake she put herself through from hiding in a closet, she was starting to think that maybe it wasn't so far-fetched.
"I promise you I won't leave you alone anymore," Tyler said.
Jess slowly reached her hand up and wrapped her fingers around the back of his neck. It felt really warm in her touch, and she quickly felt that warmth spread along her arm and into her body. She didn't know why, but when she was with him, she felt like nothing could hurt her. Despite the horrors she had just been through, the butterflies in her stomach danced.
Steamy Invitation
They settled back downstairs for the evening, mostly hanging out in the living room as Tyler unpacked the boxes they'd brought. Jess had calmed down considerably, not knowing what came over her, and she went out to check on Buddy as Ashley sat on the couch looking at her phone.
Sunset had begun and vibrant oranges and warm pinks filled up the blue sky. The air was getting cooler outside. Buddy still lay peacefully by the water main. Jess worried about him, thinking that he would be uncomfortable lying on the gravel for that long, but he showed no signs of it. He looked up at her with his big brown eyes as she walked down the porch and approached him.
His mouth hung open and he began to pant, wagging his tail. He gave her a happy bark as she knelt down and petted him.
"You must be getting awful tired sitting there, boy," she said. "You want to come inside?"
She reached for the knot tying his leash to the water main, but as soon as her hand neared it he began to growl, knowing what she was trying to do.
Jess pulled her hand away. "Okay, okay..." She sighed and looked back at the house. "I don't like it in there, either," she admitted to him.
She felt a tug on the corner of her shirt and she looked over to see that Buddy had bitten it and was softly tugging her toward him.
"Oh, come here, Buddy." She smiled and wrapped her arms around her dog, and he stood up and nudged himself into her. He whined, but she knew it was a happy whine, and she spent a little bit of extra time squeezing him, refusing to let go of those good feelings. She knew if she did, she would then have to go back into the house, and she started to realize the wisdom that Buddy possessed in determining to stay out here.
"What are we going to do with you?" Jess asked, rubbing the bridge between his nose and his forehead. Buddy let out another bark as she started to stand up, and he whined again, but this time it was more needy. She furrowed her eyebrows as she looked at her favorite canine. "I'm not going to be gone for long, don't worry." She blew him a kiss and gave him one last sorry glance, then she took a deep breath and turned back for the house.
Even the simple act of turning around to face it seemed to allow an oppressively heavy feeling to invade her chest and weigh down on her. It was akin to having to wake up on a Monday morning, knowing you had to slog through work even though it was the last thing you wanted to do.
Jess climbed up the steps of the porch and stepped back through the door, closing it behind her. Ashley was still in the living room, looking up articles on her phone on what flimsy reception she could get, while Tyler was still walking back and forth, digging things out
of boxes.
"I think we should leave," Jess said.
Tyler stopped in his tracks and looked at her. It was clear to see that he was disappointed, despite his many assurances to her that they could leave if she wanted to. "Is this about what happened upstairs?" he asked.
"No," Jess said. "It's about Buddy. He still doesn't want to come inside. There's something about this house that he finds really unnerving. And I have to say that I agree with him."
Tyler appeared anxious, and Jess could see the gears in his head turning, like he was trying to find any way he could to keep them there. "There's no question," he said. "Buddy is staying in my truck tonight. The windows will be up, the doors will be locked, he'll have food and water in there, and his blankets will be all laid out for him. And if you want, we can even sleep in the truck with him tonight. I don't know that we can fit all three of us in there with Buddy, but at least two of us could..."
He was making it really hard to say no, but Jess still wasn't comfortable with it.
Tyler could see the apprehension on her face, and he added, "Come on, Jess... we came here for you, and I know it's not easy for you, but I really want to help you through your issues. And... I want to watch the moon tonight with you. We could go home and do something else, but I think it would be kind of special to, I don't know... be by your side for it." He said the last part very sheepishly, rubbing his arm as he did.
Jess couldn't help but smile. The words he said were so sweet and they broke down her walls and melted her heart.
"Is that a yes?" he asked.
"Fine," she said, still smiling. "I'd like that."
He clapped his hands together in joy. "Okay! Tell you what. Why don't you two ladies hang out down here, and I'm going to go through the whole house again and double check just to make sure it's empty and we're safe." He walked over to the living room table and set down his grandpa's rifle. "I'll leave the gun with you just in case anything happens while I'm gone. But I'll be back before you know it!"
"Are you sure you're okay with this?" Ashley asked her friend.
"Yeah," Jess said, "I just really need to relax a bit."
"Well make yourself comfortable," Tyler urged. "Light some candles, do whatever you have to do to settle in, and I'll be back in a jiffy!" He really went overboard, trying to make Jess feel as comfortable and at ease as possible so that she wouldn't change her mind. He rested his hand on her shoulder and gave her a smile, before he turned and marched away through the house.
Jess stood there smiling like a schoolgirl.
"Jess!" Ashley said.
She sheepishly looked at Ashley. "What?"
"You know darn well what! You're practically beaming!"
Jess turned her face away in embarrassment. "I am not."
Tyler worked his way through the bottom floor of the huge house, walking from room to room and making sure that everything was in order. He kept an eye out for anything that seemed even slightly out of place, because he wanted to make sure that Jess was going to have a good time for the rest of the night. On his way to the kitchen, he looked again at the disturbing portrait of the three stick figures with the knives stabbed into them. It was too high up on the wall for him to reach right now, but he made a mental note to come back at the end of his rounds with a chair and at least take the knives out of the wall.
When he checked the whole first floor, he made his way up to the second and carefully took inventory of each room. He started to notice small details that he hadn't on their first trip through the house, like how disturbing some of the paintings in the art gallery were; some of them were landscapes or normal painted portraits of women or children in various states of activity, but some of the others had a distinctly religious tone to them, and not a pleasant one. Other paintings depicted wild and troubled men with all manner of negative emotions carved into their faces as they engaged in debaucherous activities, including graphic sex or even murder.
Tyler turned out of the room, thinking the paintings odd for people who lived almost a century ago, and he shook off the weird vibe he got from them. He wondered about the original owners and what exactly had made Old Man Dover kill his family. He remembered watching cheesy old movies about houses being built on Indian burial grounds and the murderous intent of the vengeful spirits coming back to haunt the new owners. Tyler found his own thoughts start to darken, and he forced them out of his mind and continued his evaluation.
When he'd exhausted his search of the second floor, determining that there was indeed no one else in the house with them and that everything seemed normal for a mostly-abandoned house of eighty years, he stopped in the master bedroom and decided to tinker with the space heater before returning downstairs, getting it set up for the night just in case he could convince Jess to spend the night inside the house.
Although he had to admit that the thought of just the two of them spending the night in his truck had a high appeal to him. But on the other hand, he knew Ashley wouldn't want to be left alone in the house on her own, and that if it came to that, it would probably be the two girls sleeping in the truck while he stayed in the house or out shivering in the bed of his truck.
He knelt down and opened the included pack of batteries, trying to find where to put them. Once they were inserted, he looked at the front of the heater and pressed the power button. The device came on, immediately blowing hot air at him, and he inspected the other buttons on the panel, trying to figure out what they did so he could get the temperature right. He reached into the box and pulled out the instruction manual and leafed through it.
There was a noise behind him from somewhere down the hall. He perked up when he heard it, finding it positively alien considering where he was.
It was the sound of running water.
It can't be, he thought. Running water in a house this old?
He put the manual down and stood up, turning for the door. It was half-closed and had obscured his view of the hallway as he worked on the heater, and he slowly opened it a foot or two. When he did, his heart jumped up into his throat.
Jess was standing inside the open doorway of the bathroom at the other end of the hall, wearing nothing but her bra and panties. Steam drifted around her bare legs in a low cloud, and it appeared that she was drawing a bath. Her back was to him and Tyler stopped suddenly, feeling like he accidentally stumbled upon something he shouldn't be seeing. But there she stood, shamelessly. Did she know that he could see her?
Her auburn hair flashed in the fading sunlight coming through the window. She unhooked her bra, sliding it off her shoulders and letting it fall to the floor, giving Tyler a clear view of her nude back as she stood there in just her underwear.
All of the hairs on the back of his neck stood up.
And then Jess turned her head ever so slightly to the side, as if acknowledging that someone was behind her, watching. She lingered for just a moment longer before she stepped forward and pushed the door closed behind her.
She didn't shut it entirely, and Tyler was left standing in the doorway of the bedroom, staring at the open crack to the bathroom. His heart hammered and his stomach pitched.
Had she seen him? Was she giving him an invitation to come to her?
These were questions that Tyler couldn't answer. He stood indecisively in the doorway, not sure if he should follow her or go back to the heater and forget what he saw. If he went to the bathroom and it turned out she didn't know he was there watching her, it would be a catastrophically embarrassing outcome. But if she was giving him an invitation and he totally ignored it, it would be catastrophically embarrassing for Jess.
He didn't know what to do, but his heart ultimately broke the indecision and made his feet start to move. He stepped out into the hallway, cautiously at first, then he took a deep breath and slowly made his way to the bathroom. His heart beat faster with each step, and there was a voice in his head that screamed at him to turn around. But a louder voice told him to keep going, and that was the one he wanted
to follow. Never mind the strangeness of the situation or the fact that this was a very unusually forward move from Jess, but on the other hand, maybe this was a side of her that he never knew about.
He swallowed a hard lump down his throat as he approached the door and he heard the water shut off inside. He stopped in front of it and cleared his throat, practicing in his head what he would say. But he didn't know what to say, because he didn't even know what he would see when he opened the door.
He glanced to his left and looked down the other hallway leading toward the front of the house. Ashley wasn't around, and she must have still been down in the living room, looking at her phone.
Jess said that she needed to find a way to relax and relieve the tension she'd been feeling all evening, but Tyler was surprised that she had chosen this, and directly in his view, too.
Mulling over the whole scenario from the start one more time, he decided that she wanted him to see; she was inviting him in with her.
He steeled his nerves and gently pushed the door open.
The vanity and the steam partially obscured his view from the doorway, but he could see Jess's bare shoulders coming out of the tub from behind and the back of her head, her auburn hair tied in a bun and sparkling in the orange sunlight.
"J-Jess?" Tyler said timidly.
She didn't answer him, nor did she acknowledge him by even looking over her shoulder. She simply raised her arms out of the water and rested them on the edges of the tub.
Tyler wanted to step into the bathroom and see the rest of her, but her silence made him seriously second-guess himself about her intentions.
"Jess?" he said again, a little louder this time.
Jess reached a hand up and touched her ear, as if she was adjusting something.
And then it hit him. She hadn't invited him at all; she was adjusting her earbuds attached to her phone, because she was listening to music while she tried to take a relaxing bath. The door to the master bedroom had been partially closed, and she must not have known that he was there and could see her as she disrobed.
The Haunting of Bloodmoon House Page 10
