Tyler took a step back. His heart hammered even harder as he realized that he made a terrible mistake. She didn't know he was there, and she would be mortified if she found out that he was standing there watching her. He quietly backed out of the bathroom and pulled the door closed. He glanced down the hallway toward the foyer, knowing he would be dead meat if Ashley were there. But she wasn't, and he quickly turned around and scurried back to the bedroom. When he was inside, he pushed the door shut a little like it was before and went back to the heater, pulling open the instruction manual and mindlessly flipping through the pages without actually reading anything.
His mind and his heart were racing a million miles an hour because all he could think about was Jess's nearly-naked body.
Accusations
The heater was running perfectly, yet Tyler endlessly fiddled with the temperature. He was trying to kill time more than anything, listening for the sound of Jess moving in the water at the other end of the hallway. He was too scared to come out of the bedroom for fear that he would walk right into her as she was coming out of the bathroom and that she would know he was there. But with the sound of the heater in his ear, he couldn't hear anything from the bathroom, and he was unable to work up the courage to walk over to the doorway and peek out into the hall.
After blankly flipping through the instruction manual for the twentieth time, he finally set it down on the floor and stood up. Trying not to think about anything so his thoughts wouldn't make him stumble, he walked to the doorway of the bedroom.
The door to the bathroom was wide open.
There was no sign of Jess from the angle he was standing at, and he cautiously went down the hall.
"Jess?" he asked, forewarning her of his presence in case she was still in the tub.
There was no answer and he continued along the hallway until he reached the bathroom. He peeked inside, but she had apparently finished her bath and dried off, because the tub was empty.
A weight lifted off his chest and he turned for the front of the house. When he got to the top of the stairs at the foyer, he paused, trying to think what to say in his head when he saw Jess. But a hundred voices were screaming at him at the same time, and eventually he pushed them all away and slowly walked down to the first floor.
He looked in the living room, but he only saw Ashley sitting on the sofa glancing through a Nora Roberts book that Jess had brought. He looked around, but Jess wasn't there.
Ashley looked up at him and gave him a dirty look, then went back to reading.
Tyler's heart seized up. What was that look for? Was it one of her normal looks toward him, or had Jess told her that he watched her in the bath? He mindlessly drifted over toward the living room without knowing he was doing it, his eyes locked on Ashley.
She looked up again and saw him staring at her. "What?" she asked.
His mouth hung open, but he had no idea what to say. The words jumbled in his head as he tried to form a question about Jess.
And then Jess walked into the room from behind him, holding a plastic bowl they brought from her house with some chips in it. She happily munched on one as she walked past Tyler and plunked down in the armchair.
"That took a while," Jess told him. "I thought you said you'd be back in a jiffy?"
"I, uh... um..." He cleared his throat. "I was going to say that you were really fast."
She gave him a weird look then went back to her bowl of chips. She looked at Ashley. "Are you sure you don't want some?"
Ashley shook her head. "Maybe in a bit. Not too hungry right now."
Tyler remained standing in the living room next to the two girls like a lump, looking from one to the other. He wanted to ask Jess about her bath, but he couldn't work up the courage.
Finally both girls turned their heads toward him, noticing his odd behavior.
"What's the matter?" Jess asked.
"Nothing..." he said. "I was just surprised."
"About what?"
"Well, you said you wanted to relax, but I never expected that you would do that. Especially in a place like this."
Jess scrunched up her face, starting to smile from how strangely Tyler was talking. "It's just a bowl of chips," she said with a laugh.
Ashley gave him another weird look. "No, I mean upstairs," he said. "I wasn't trying to creep on you or anything, but I saw you there."
Jess was confused. "What are you talking about?"
Both girls stared at him, silently demanding an explanation. This made Tyler even more nervous. "You know... the bath..." His face turned red.
"What bath?" Jess asked.
"The one you took upstairs? Just a few minutes ago." He didn't know if she was playing a game with him or not, and he wasn't sure why she was being so flippant with him.
"I... didn't take a bath," she said.
Tyler's heart sank. "What?"
"I didn't take a bath," she repeated. "What are you talking about?"
He looked at Ashley for a second opinion.
"Jess has been down here the whole time since you were gone," Ashley said. "What's gotten into you?"
Tyler felt himself start to sweat. He wiped his brow with the back of his hand and licked his dry lips. "You're trying to pull one over on me," he said. The girls looked at him like he was out of his mind, and that angered him. "Listen, I'm here trying to give you guys a good time, and I'm trying to protect you, Jess. Playing a prank on me is very funny, but it's getting old now."
"Tyler, we're telling you the truth," Jess said, an edge to her voice. Now she was starting to get upset.
"Jess, I saw you standing there in the bathroom! I saw you... undress. Then I went over and you were sitting in the tub taking a bath. I was in the bedroom and I heard running water. That's what made me look in the first place."
Jess was scared. "That wasn't me," she said. "I don't know what you saw, but that wasn't me."
"Fine!" Tyler shouted. "You want me to prove it to you? I'll prove it to you!" He stormed off for the stairs in the foyer.
"Tyler, where are you going?" she shouted after him. She got up and followed, and Ashley immediately pushed herself off the sofa to support her best friend.
Tyler flew up one of the curved staircases and took a left in the hallway, following the bend all the way down to the back of the house where the bathroom was. The girls struggled to keep up as he walked quickly, fuming. They came around the corner into the bathroom just in time to see Tyler standing next to the tub.
"Here, see?" he shouted. "Running water!" He bent over and twisted one of the valves on the bathtub.
But no water came out of the tap.
He paused and looked at it, confused. He twisted the other one, but was met with the same result. He twisted both valves back and forth in a panic, turning them so hard that he almost snapped them, desperately trying to produce water.
"Tyler," Jess said softly. "The tub's not even wet."
The fading light of sunset coming in through the bathroom window highlighted the inside of the tub and Tyler looked down in horror as he saw that it was bone-dry.
He stared at it, unable to take his eyes away as his mouth hung agape. His body trembled and a nasty fear invaded him like he'd never experienced before.
"Tyler, what's going on?" Jess asked, terrified.
"I, uh..."
"What exactly did you see?" she asked.
He braced himself against the wall for support so that his legs wouldn't give out. The cold sweat on his forehead came out in full force and dripped down into his eyes. "I think there might be something going on with this house," he said quietly.
A loud creaking noise echoed in the hallway.
The three of them froze then slowly turned around.
They caught the tail end of the door to the master bedroom closing by itself.
None of them spoke for almost a full minute. They became hyperaware at just how alone they were up in this house in the woods, far away from civilization.
"What
was that?" Ashley said at last. She was shaking, and tears poured out of her eyes.
Tyler started down the hall.
"What are you doing!" Jess cried.
"I don't know," he admitted, terror rising in his voice.
He crept down the hallway, keeping his eyes glued to the closed door. The girls wanted to run away, but they also didn't want to be alone, so against their better judgment they followed him, sticking right behind. The three of them walked through the hallway in a tight pack, watching the door with anticipation. Each one of them had a different version in their head of what was on the other side, and what would happen to them if they looked.
Tyler was intensely aware that he'd left the rifle downstairs in the living room. He balled up his fist, not sure what he would do with it even if there was someone in the room. The horrible revelation from the bathroom was still in his head, but his brain refused to acknowledge it, so he lent his mind over to the mindless buzz that filled it, not thinking at all, instead just acting.
The closed door to the master bedroom loomed in front of them, beckoning them to approach. They had all seen it close seemingly by itself, and none of them had heard any footsteps leading up to it.
The rooms all around them that they passed became just as sinister, and Jess looked over her shoulder, waiting for something to round the corner in the hallway and stalk them, or for another door to shut, or for her bloody uncle that she'd seen in her dream to chase her down. All of the nightmares she experienced had swirled together and crossed over into her reality.
She didn't even realize that she was holding onto Tyler's arm as they moved through the hall, and suddenly she felt like her dog, trying to dig her heels into the dusty carpet runner to keep them from going any farther. She didn't want to see what was behind that door, whatever terrible secret it held. She wanted to run far away and never look back.
The door seemed to grow in front of them, becoming taller and darker, leaning over top of them. The worst part of it all was that aside from the noises made by their movement, the house was dead silent.
They approached the door, and Tyler stretched his hand out for the doorknob. Jess felt her entire body cringe. She screamed inside her head for him not to do it, but she couldn't form the words on her tongue. She felt like that little girl again, screaming in her head for her uncle not to go into the house. But now it was too late. Tyler's hand was already on the doorknob, and soon the evil behind the door would have no barrier to keep it from them.
Buddy barked outside.
The three of them stopped suddenly and listened.
From all the way at the other end of the house, they could hear him growling and barking very loudly. This wasn't just Buddy being scared; something was wrong.
Unleashed
"Buddy!" Jess cried. She turned and ran down the hallway toward the foyer.
"Jess! Wait!" Tyler called after her. He gave one last look at the mysteriously-closing door that he was about to open, then gave a frustrated sigh and followed Jess. Ashley ran behind him as Jess bounded down the steps to the first floor.
As she headed out the front door to see what was wrong with her dog, Tyler made a stop in the living room and snatched up his grandfather's rifle, his heels nearly slipping on the hardwood floor as he made a tight turn for the door.
"Buddy?" Jess called out as she sprinted across the porch and took the steps down two at a time. When she got around the pillar, she saw her dog still attached to the water main by his leash, but he was up on all fours, jumping up and down and barking his head off. He was staring in a singular direction like a laser beam pointed into the woods at the side of the house.
Jess ran to him and wrapped her arms around him, trying to get his attention and settle him down. He ignored her completely, never taking his eyes off the woods as he barked and pulled at his restraints.
"Buddy, it's me! It's me, boy!" she said. She tried to pry his head away from the woods, but he shook her off, making her fall back onto her butt.
Tyler and Ashley came up behind, staring at the dog with perplexed looks on their faces. "What's going on?" Tyler asked.
"I don't know," Jess said. She was scared. She had never seen her dog act this way before, and she couldn't possibly understand why he was doing it. She looked toward the woods where her dog was, but she couldn't spot anything. Just rows and rows of uninteresting trees.
The sun had fallen well into full sunset, and the whole sky was painted in fading oranges and pinks as the night started to creep in.
Tyler stared at the woods. "What's he barking at?"
Buddy suddenly lunged forward for his invisible agitator. His large body yanked against the leash around his neck, pulling on the water main. The main groaned as it was wrenched away from the house by a few inches, the pipes bending.
"What do we do?" Jess asked, frantic and at a loss for ideas.
"Try to calm him down," Tyler said.
"I did! He's going to hurt himself!"
Buddy furiously yanked on his leash again and the water main groaned terribly, in danger of being ripped off of the house. As he pulled, the leash dangerously dug into his throat, but he gave no sign of caring.
In her frantic state, Jess reached for the leash tied around the water main and tore at the knot with her fingers.
"What are you doing?" Tyler said.
"He's going to choke himself!" she replied angrily. She worked at the knot, which Buddy was making tighter by pulling against his leash, but she finally got it undone, taking the leash into both of her hands and trying to wrench her dog away from the woods. She figured if she could just get him past the other corner of the house, past the porch, or maybe even into the truck, he would calm down. But she underestimated his strength.
Buddy barked viciously toward the woods and lunged forward again, dragging Jess's heels through the gravel. He gave another lurch, which made her stumble, and she struggled to regain her footing. A final lunge pried the leash out of one of her hands, leaving one overextended arm holding onto it. But Jess had already lost her balance, and before she knew it, she was falling face-first onto the ground.
Her body hit the gravel and a cloud of chalky dust rushed up into the air around her. Buddy had wrenched the leash out of her remaining hand when she hit the ground, and he ran off into the woods at full speed, finally unfettered as the leash flapped loosely behind him and he disappeared into the trees.
Jess's heart sank as she lay on her stomach and watched him vanish.
"Jess, are you okay?" Tyler said frantically as he helped her up. He looked her over, seeing the front of her body and her hands were scraped and covered in gravel dust. He tried to brush her off, but she already took off running. "Hey, wait!" he cried.
She darted into the woods after her dog, tears beginning to run down her face. The thought of losing him was too much to bear, and she wouldn't let that happen. She saw which direction he went in, and she followed the trail, though she knew she was woefully inadequate when it came to matching his speed. But her legs pumped harder than they had when she was on the high school track team, and she sailed through the trees in the woods as the sun crept more and more over the precipice of the horizon.
Tyler and Ashley ran after her, the gun swinging back and forth in his arms. Neither one of them was in quite as good of cardio shape as Jess was, and their breath was already becoming hoarse.
But Jess wouldn't let up, her adrenaline extending her past the point of normal fatigue. She saw the flash of her dog's outline darting through the woods ahead of her, but he was getting farther away and more obscured by the trees as she went. And just when she thought she got a lock on where he was, her toe caught on something and suddenly the whole world pitched in front of her. Her chin hit the ground hard and she grunted as her vision momentarily blacked out followed by stars swirling around her eyes.
Tyler and Ashley came up behind her and pulled her up, and now Jess was wheezing and gasping for breath. But she didn't let that stop he
r. She started to move again, but her rubbery leg gave out and she fell hard onto her knee.
"Easy, easy," Tyler coaxed her.
"Buddy..." Jess cried weakly.
"He's gone, Jess."
"He's not gone!" she yelled, finding a second wind of strength and getting back to her feet.
"No, I mean he's out of sight," Tyler corrected. "Don't overwork yourself; let's just calm down and search the woods. Something in here spooked him. He's not going to run forever."
Jess wanted to defy him and take off sprinting again, but she realized that she just didn't have the energy. Her lungs were about to burst, and she half-thought that her heart had already done the same. She keeled over and put her hands on her knees, taking a moment to rest and recuperate.
"We should go," Ashley said, her voice shaking. "We should drive back to town. There's something wrong with this house... I don't wanna be here anymore."
"I'm not going anywhere," Jess said defiantly. She had one singular focus: finding her dog, and anytime someone suggested otherwise, she quickly became angry.
"Well we should at least call the police," Ashley suggested.
"The police aren't going to come look for someone's lost dog," Tyler said.
"There must be someone that can help us!" Ashley said desperately.
Tyler shook his head. "We're on our own. Let's just take a breath, then search through the woods for Buddy."
Jess straightened up, feeling a little back to normal. "All right," she said, "let's split up so we can cover more ground."
"No way," Tyler replied. "We stay together. If we don't, we're all going to get lost."
"Fine," Jess said bitterly. "Let's go."
She took off, not at a run, but still at a brisk speed-walk, and Tyler and Ashley struggled to keep up with her.
"Slow down, Jess," Tyler said. "It'll be better if we take it slow and just listen for him."
Jess sighed, but she relented. "Okay."
The three of them stopped and listened, taking in the ambience of the forest. Distant critters chattered and scurried, and leaves and nuts felt from trees as a gentle wind swept through, but Buddy had stopped barking, and they didn't hear the pitter-patter of running paws, nor that low, guttural growl that he had emitted at the house.
The Haunting of Bloodmoon House Page 11
