Scary House

by Sean Thomas Fisher

  Face folding, Scotty yanked his helmet down. “Wait, what now?”

  Chapter Five

  Supernatural Chaos

  Boone slammed Gavin up against a kitchen wall, rattling the dishes in the cupboards. Long, straight hair ran over the shoulders of his jean jacket in chocolate streams. “Are you high right now?” he hissed, a watermelon Jolly Rancher floating on his snarling lips.

  “We’re not high!” Scotty insisted, throwing his hands out. “That stuff really happened, Boone. The penny, the picture of our bikes, the locked doors, everything!”

  Looking over his shoulder, Boone burned him with a heated glower. “What’d I tell you about wearing that Nirvana crap around me?”

  Mouth gaping, he looked down to his hoodie. “But Nirvana rules!”

  “No, Nirvana does not rule! They’re a bunch of whiny crybabies who killed off real rock and roll.”

  Scotty violently shook his head. “But that’s not true, Boone! Tesla’s Love Song killed off rock and roll and you know it.”

  Boone furrowed his brow, pinning Gavin to the wall when he tried to escape. “How is that?”

  Scotty filled his lungs with a cavernous breath. “In 1989, Love Song became one of the biggest power ballads of all time. It made millions and suddenly every hair band out there tried cashing in on the action. Warrant had Heaven, Poison had Every Rose Has its Thorn, and Skid Row had I Remember You. Face it, Boone, you have nobody to blame but yourself. You loved it; you bought into it and the whole time it was emasculating the genre in leaps and bounds.”

  “Leaps and…” Boone’s jaw tightened along with his eyes. “Shut your shutter and take that stupid hoodie off.”

  Releasing an exacerbated breath, Scotty pulled the hoodie over his head, revealing a smiley-faced Nirvana t-shirt underneath. “There. Ya happy now?”

  “Boone, would you please just listen? It’s all true!” Gavin squirmed beneath his brother’s weight, wriggling next to a beige Trimline for freedom. “Everything we told you about this house is true. I swear to God!”

  Boone turned back to his younger brother and stared down at him, anger swimming in his dark eyes. “Nothing you say is ever true. You’re the biggest liar I know.”

  “That’s why he’s going to make a great politician someday!”

  Flipping his long hair back, Boone ignored Scotty and spoke through gritted teeth. “Mom is going to kill you when she finds out you lost that camera.”

  “I didn’t lose it! We just have to go get it before she comes home.”

  Boone slammed him against the wall again, knocking a Phantom of the Opera calendar crooked. “This is the kind of thing that will come back to haunt both of us, you idiot.”

  Struggling for breath, Gavin’s toes barely touched the ground. “You weren’t there, Boone. It was supernatural chaos! I swear to God.”

  He studied Gavin’s twisted face as heavy footsteps tromped across the apartment above them. Sighing, he dropped him back to the floor and left the kitchen. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said flatly, slinking into the living room and plopping down on the couch.

  Gavin looked at Scotty before following into the living room where Halloween decorations peppered the walls and tables. “Why not?”

  Exhaling, Boone ran a hand through his hair, pulling long bangs to the side. “Because Brenna just dumped me. That’s why.”

  Gavin’s jaw hit the floor. Coming around for a better look at his brother, he stopped in front of a sliding glass door leading to the second-floor balcony. “What!”

  “She called a couple hours ago.” He stared out the patio door, watching a pair of heads go bobbing past in the grassy courtyard below.

  “But why?”

  “Said she needed her space.” Boone stared out the glass door through faraway eyes, getting lost in the twilight settling in outside. “Ever since she started working at County Seat everything changed.”

  Gavin laughed sharply. “But you work at the bowling alley!”

  Scotty enthusiastically nodded, looking between them and twisting his fingers.

  Boone threw a red couch pillow across the room and knocked over a three-foot tall witch with a real broom. “I know.”

  “You get free bowling.”

  “I know!” Boone threw his hands up. “Plus, I have a Camaro!”

  “Does this mean she won’t be coming over in a red bikini anymore when the apartment pool opens next summer?” Scotty asked with panic welling in his eyes.

  Boone shot him a look that could kill.

  Shrinking, Scotty swallowed hard. “It’s probably for the best. Did you know that one in five Americans admit to peeing in the pool?”

  “How could you let this happen?” Gavin yelled, planting his hands on his hips. “You’ll never find a hottie like that again!”

  Boone scooted to the edge of the couch and rested his elbows on his knees, hair hanging in his face. “Last time I checked, I’m the one who’s supposed to be upset here, mouth-breather. Go find someone else to perve out on!”

  Gavin hung his head and lowered his voice. “Look, I’m sorry,” he said. “I just really liked her. She actually talked to me like a person and not just some dumb kid.”

  Boone leaned back and blew out a slow and low breath. “We had something that most people will never find, and now she won’t even answer my calls.”

  “That totally sucks, man,” Scotty said, checking his watch.

  Shifting on the couch, Boone pulled a folded sheet of paper from his back pocket and handed it to Gavin. “And if that wasn’t bad enough, I found this taped to the door when I got home.”

  Hesitantly taking it, Gavin unfolded it. His thin eyes zipped back and forth across the tiny print, brow creasing into crisp lines like the ones in the sheet of paper.

  “Holy crap-balls!” Scotty said, peeking over Gavin’s shoulder. “You guys are getting evicted?”

  Gavin looked up, face dripping with consternation. “How can this be happening?”

  “We’re three months late on rent, that’s how.”

  “Three months?” Gavin cried, looking at Scotty to see if he was hearing this. “How is that even possible?”

  Boone snorted. “I’d say it was probably a combination of a flat tire, bad alternator and a deadbeat dad who hasn’t paid child support in two years.”

  “You know you can take him to court for that, right?” Scotty set his hoodie on an armchair. “Have his wages garnished.”

  “Kind of hard to garnish someone’s wages when they aren’t getting any.”

  Gavin dropped the paper to his side and massaged his forehead, staring at his black Converse. “Great. Just great.”

  “We have thirty days to get straight or we get kicked out.”

  “Thirty days?”

  Scotty gestured with his hands. “Hey, maybe your mom can do a bake sale. My mom made over three hundred bucks in one weekend last month.”

  Boone clenched his fists and stared at the backside of a carved pumpkin gazing out the window. “I’ll never get her back now. She’s not going to go out with a hobo.”

  “Boone, you’re not a homo.”

  His eyes snapped to Scotty and sharpened. “I said hobo!”

  “Oh, sorry.”

  Boone leaned forward and buried his face in his hands. “This eviction thing couldn’t be happening at a worse time. I have no leg to stand on now.”

  Staring at his older brother, Gavin bent over and tilted his head to one side, jaw coming unhinged. “Are you…crying?”

  “No, I have allergies.”

  “Since when?”

  “Since the stupid leaves started falling, Gavin! When do you think?”

  “Hey, I know! You guys can stay in our basement!” Scotty’s smile brightened his blue eyes as the future whisked through his mind on a bolt of optimism. He was an only child and Gavin could hear the excitement rising in his voice. “It’s huge! Our old TV is down there and we have a bumper pool table! Ask Gavin. It’ll be a never-ending sl
umber party. We’ll make s’mores in the fire pit out back and everything!”

  Relaxing into the couch, Boone pressed his lips into a thin, grim line. “Sounds like fun.”

  Gavin gestured with the eviction notice. “Are you going to show this to Mom?”

  “We have to, Gavin.”

  Scotty and Gavin traded uncertain looks. The sound of children’s laughter floated in through the balcony door as a game of tag football materialized in the courtyard. The game’s arrogant lack of consideration to their current quandary made Gavin’s blood boil.

  “Look, let’s just keep this to ourselves for now,” he suggested, folding the paper up and slipping it into a back pocket. “We’ll get some money from Aunt Martha’s estate sale soon, right? We’ll be okay. But if I don’t get that camera back, Mom will totally freak.” Gavin threw his hands out. “It’ll be like living in a juvenile detention center around here. There’ll be group meetings and trust exorcises.”

  Scotty nodded rapidly. “And probably little paper cups of pills.”

  Boone leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling like he could see Brenna watching a movie with some other guy right now, eating popcorn and M&Ms at the same time like he turned her on to. A wistful sigh escaped him. “I’m going to grow old all alone, probably in some beat-up trailer on the wrong side of the tracks.” His Adam’s apple slid up and down on his throat. “Like Dad.”

  Gavin crept closer. “You’re not going to grow old alone, Boone. And Dad lives in a condo with another woman.”

  “Whatever.”

  “You’ll find someone else.”

  His glassy eyes lowered to Gavin. “You just said I wouldn’t.”

  “I – I was upset, but you will find better; I know you will.”

  Scotty snorted. “In this town? I’m not so…”

  Gavin stomped on Scotty’s toes, rattling the floor and making Scotty’s eyelids flip back in his head. Wailing, he hopped around on one foot, clutching a knee to his chest.

  “Boone, please,” Gavin said softly, checking his watch again. “We’ll come up with a plan to win Brenna back; I promise. But for now, let’s go get my camera before mom gets here.”

  Boone stared past him, his mind a thousand miles from nowhere, life going on around him with a casual aura while his world teetered on the brink of collapse.

  “Boone!”

  His sunken eyes dragged over to Gavin like chains were attached to them.

  “Let me tell you something, you are Boone Lewis! Owner of the 1989 YMCA Ping-Pong Championship belt.” Gavin’s face tightened into a fist of rage. “Record holder of the fourth highest game in Cottage Grove bowling history and the fastest quarter mile this side of Van Meter! Now, are you going to help me get that camera back before Mom gets home or not?”

  Boone rested an arm along the back of the couch and blew out a defeated breath. “Well, since you put it that way, I guess not.”

  “Boone!” Gavin dropped his arms to his sides, voice coming out as a pathetic whimper. “Please help me.”

  Leaning forward, he hung in head in defeat. “Maybe a little drive will help clear my head.”

  “Exactly!” Relief spilled over Gavin like a Nigerian waterfall, until he remembered he’d have to go back inside that house again. In the dark. Alone. Probably while Boone cranked Cinderella’s Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone) in the Camaro.

  Pushing off the couch, Boone pulled up a pair of tight-fitting, ripped-up jeans. “Plus, how can I pass up a real life haunted house, huh?”

  Scotty shook his head. “You can’t! Especially with Halloween in two days.”

  Boone snorted. “We might have to move in to this place if it’s free.” Spreading a black pair of Nike Vandals, he set his hands on his hips and struck a pose more fitting for a Bon Jovi poster. “How much cash do you guys have? I need gas.”

  Scotty checked the watch choking his wrist, sidestepping closer to the front door. “Dang, would you look at that! I’m super late for dinner. Good luck you guys; keep me posted.”

  Boone snapped his fingers. “Freeze!”

  Scotty locked up mid-stride while Gavin slowly pulled a fist from his pocket. Opening his hand, he stared at a crumpled one-dollar bill, a dime, and two watermelon ZotZ.

  Looking up from the loot, Boone arched an eyebrow at him. “With these gas prices, that won’t get us out of the complex.”

  They both turned to Scotty, who stared longingly at the front door before releasing a conquered breath. Grudgingly, he stuffed a hand into a pocket and pulled out a neatly folded five-dollar bill with four crisp ones carefully wrapped inside, each facing in the same direction. “I was saving this for a new fall scarf.”

  Boone angrily snatched the bills from his hand. “What’s wrong with this kid?” he scowled, pocketing the cash and following Gavin out into the hallway, where the smell of laundry and curry mixed in the air.

  The phone started ringing loudly in the apartment across the hall as Boone locked their door. The ringing grew louder when the apartment door cracked open behind Gavin, sinking his spirits. They didn’t have time for crazy. Not today.

  With the chain lock on, tangled white hair partially hid the cloudy blue eye peeking through the crack in the door. “Hello, boys,” a woman said in a soft voice, ignoring the phone set to blaring in the background.

  Gavin stared at her with his jaw dangling. A waft of warm air rolled over him that smelled like a nursing home and bacon. The apartment was dark behind her, lit by a single floor lamp with a low wattage bulb, and he wondered when the last time the sun kissed her skin. His mom checked in on Mrs. Templer once in a while and Gavin knew it was only a matter of time before she found the elderly woman slumped over in her favorite recliner with a TV tray of Salisbury steak and apple sauce covered in paw prints.

  “Hello, Mrs. Templer.” Boone flashed a tightlipped smile while discreetly nudging Gavin and Scotty down the hallway.

  “Say…” The phone cried out one more time and then went unnervingly silent. “Have you boys seen my cat?”

  Gavin’s tight gaze slid down her dingy nightgown, stopping on the calico cat curling around her bony ankles. “He’s right there.”

  She looked down and smiled. “Oh, for heaven’s sake, where have you been, Isaiah?” she said, watching him do figure eights around her feet.

  “Well, have a good night,” Boone said, forcing a smile. She was a nice lady but Boone and Gavin would rather sleep outside than fix her bedframe or TV antenna one more time. Her place was warm and the smell clung to your clothing.

  Looking up from Isaiah, her one eye peered at them through the narrow crack in the door, making Scotty press up against the wall. “Just remember,” she said, “we all have our own journeys to take, some with more burden than others.” Her blue eye jerked to Scotty and widened as he sidestepped closer to the stairs. “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope!”

  Gavin stood slack-jawed in the thunderstruck silence that followed, knowing Alzheimer’s had finally set in and he was going to have to tell his mom because Mrs. Templer could burn the whole building down when she forgot to turn off the stove and they didn’t have time for this stuff right now. He had to get his camera back and pronto.

  Her eye narrowed, sending crow’s feet shooting from the corner. “Jeremiah 29:11,” she whispered, softening her wild gaze.

  Slowly nodding, Boone wrapped his keys in a fist and cleared his throat. “Okay, well…we’ll see you later then.”

  Footsteps floated up the staircase at the other end of the hall and two brown haired girls smiled brightly when they saw Gavin and Boone. Mrs. Templer slammed her door shut so hard Scotty screamed and the hallway sconces trembled.

  “Jesus,” he whispered, clutching his chest. “I think I’m having a heart attack.”

  The peephole in the old woman’s door darkened, leaving a bad feeling in the pit of Gavin’s stomach as her words rattl
e around inside his head.

  Plans for welfare and not for evil…

  Gavin couldn’t even begin to wonder what she was talking about and didn’t have time to start now. Turning, he intercepted a warm smile from the short girl suddenly standing right in front of him.

  “Hi, Gavin.”

  “Hey, Kelly.”

  “Hi, Laney,” Boone said, flashing the taller brunette a tightlipped smile. “How’s it going?”

  Brushing hair over the shoulder of a stonewashed Guess jean jacket, a short laugh rolled from her red lips. “Be a lot better if I didn’t have to babysit you know who all weekend,” she replied, glancing down at Kelly who was busy studying Gavin through starry eyes. “Our mom’s in Branson for the weekend so we’re having a movie marathon.” She forced an overly excited smile and held up some VHS tapes encased in clear plastic. “Just cleaned out Blockbuster.”

  “So!” Folding her arms across a pink hoodie, Kelly tapped a sneaker against the floor. “Have you thought about my proposal, Gavin?”

  Gavin’s face turned beet red. “Kelly, I already told you we’re not getting married, now or ever.”

  Laney laughed. “Careful Gavin, she’ll end up taking half of everything you own. Just ask my closet.”

  Ignoring her big sister, Kelly pushed some glasses up the bridge of her freckled nose and squeezed her green eyes into thoughtful slits. “Maybe you should take some time to think it over before making such a hasty decision.”

  “It’s been two weeks!” Gavin glanced at the peephole in Mrs. Templer’s door and it was still dark. Nodding at Boone, he continued down the hallway.

  Kelly moved to block, looking up into his big browns and tapping a sneaker against the floor. Tap, tap, tap. “Where’s the fire, handsome?”

  “None of your business.”

  “Well, I’m making it my business.” Setting a hand on her chest, she traded a knowing look with Laney. “If my man is in some kind of trouble, I think I have a right to know about it.”