Logan’s eyes glanced at him briefly before staring away again. He let out a sigh. “It’s Ava.”
Zack stood up, patted his jeans and sat down on the couch beside him. “The blond one in Mr. Horner’s class? What about her?”
“How do I get her to notice me?” Logan asked glumly.
Hunter leaned backwards and started laughing. His wavy brown hair was shaped like a helmet, which was the style kids wore these days. “Logan’s in love!”
Logan glared at him. “Up yours, homeboy. I just want to talk to her.”
Hunter kept chuckling. “So talk to her already. What are you … chicken?”
Logan’s back stiffened. He felt like getting up and hitting him. “I’m gonna so kick your ass.”
“Try it,” Hunter said. “You’re gonna be on the ground crying if you do.”
“Hey cool it,” Zack said, throwing a soft, black-handed slap at Logan’s elbow. “So why do you want to meet up with her so bad anyway? Do you wanna do her?”
Logan shook his head violently. “It’s not that. I want a girlfriend. She isn’t going with anyone, is she?”
“Nope,” Hunter said. “Her best friend Kim’s got a boyfriend though. Some high school dude in the junior varsity wrestling team. My brother knows him, they’re good friends.”
“That’s what I’m saying,” Logan said, “I want to be with her before someone else takes her.”
Zack grinned. “So you really like her that much, huh?”
“I just want a girlfriend by the time we start high school,” Logan said. “All the cool guys got girlfriends already.”
Zack made a low whistle. “Hey, we’re cool and we don’t got one yet.”
Hunter snorted. “We ain’t cool. The girls think we’re dorks.”
Logan was instantly crestfallen. “Really?”
Zack made a dismissive gesture. “Puh-lease. There’s like, only six guys in school that has a girlfriend. We’ll eventually get one.”
“She doesn’t have to be my girlfriend,” Logan said. “I just want her to talk to me. But I don’t want her to get pissed off if I get too aggressive you know.”
“I guess you just gotta do something that impresses her,” Zack said.
Logan gave him a sarcastic look. “Duh, thank you Captain Obvious! How do I freaking do that?”
Hunter had a sly look on his face. “I’ve got an idea. My brother knows her best friend Kim, as I said. You know what he told me about them?”
Logan turned to look at him. “What?”
“They like to tell each other scary stories during sleepovers and such. It’s always about haunted houses,” Hunter said. “They like to hold spirit séances and crap like that.”
Logan scratched his head. “Okay? And?”
“My brother heard them talking while they were at my house,” Hunter said. “You remember the abandoned house by the creek? Near Brooke Road?”
“What about it?”
“My brother says they’re going to go over there Friday night,” Hunter said. “They think it’s haunted, so they want to explore it.”
Zack rolled his eyes. “So freaking what? What’s that gotta do with us?”
“Grow a brain, doofus,” Hunter said. “The three girls will be by themselves. We can set it up so that Logan saves them from some ghosts or something.”
Logan’s mouth opened wide. “Holy crap, that’s a good idea!”
Over the next few days, the three boys hatched their plan. Logan could barely sleep because of the anticipation; he didn’t want to screw this up. He knew that Zack and Hunter wouldn’t let him down. They always stood by each other when it came to everything. When Billy Kramer tried to bully Zack once, Hunter and Logan teamed up with their friend and all three fought the bigger boy off that day. They all got suspended for fighting, but their loyalty to one another became stronger than ever.
As soon as the school bus dropped them off for the start of the weekend, they converged in Logan’s place, stuffed the gear they would be using in their backpacks, and biked the three miles over to Potomac Creek. The house in question had been left vacant for a few years now, and there was a wooden sign by the main road that indicated the property was for sale. There was a gravel driveway which led into the house from the street, so one would have to go around a thin line of trees in order to see it. The boys drove their bikes past the rusty mailbox along Brooke Road, their bicycle tires gliding softly over the pebble stones, until they came upon the front of the house.
Like most of the other residences in this area, it was built colonial style, with a raised, red brick foundation and wooden paneling for walls. The house was shaped like a square, and the main entry door was right in the middle of the first floor, just behind the elevated porch. Two windows were on either side of the door, and the classical arrangement of five windows had been constructed on the second floor above. The dark brown, medium-pitched roof had sustained weather damage over the years, and a few panels of wood were missing from its façade, giving it a slightly dilapidated look.
Logan was instantly intimidated the moment he maneuvered his bike past the main road and stared at its front. No wonder the girls thought it was haunted. The outer panes of the windows were caked with dust, and he couldn’t see what was inside of it. The only thing that kept him from turning his bicycle around and pedaling away in fear was the sound of laughter coming from Hunter and Zack. His two companions were imagining the kinds of sneaky stuff they would be pulling on the girls that evening. It was like Halloween to them, only this time it would be tricks instead of candy.
Not wanting to appear scared, Logan ditched his bike and joined his friends as they walked up the short steps of the porch and stood in front of the door. After knocking a few times to make sure no one was around, Hunter tried the doorknob, and was completely shocked when it opened. All three boys looked at each other with a mixture of wild amusement and barely concealed apprehension. Either the realtor forgot to lock the door when showing it to one of the potential buyers a few months back, or the lock must have somehow broken off. The three of them walked inside and pulled out their flashlights to check out the dim interior. There were still a few pieces of furniture left inside, and these were covered by white cloths. A couple of paint cans had been placed beside a window, possibly intended for refurbishment. The smell of turpentine was in the air, along with a slight musty odor. Hunter grinned from ear to ear. This was perfect.
The three of them moved from room to room while discussing the plan. They tried the door to the basement, but the lock on that one held, and each one of them were silently thankful it was inaccessible. They had all watched the typical splatter movies in which the teenaged victims were gruesomely killed whenever they went down there, and they figured that the girls would never even attempt it if they had made it this far anyway. So the scheme was for Logan to keep them on the first floor while Hunter and Zack used the upper floors as a hideout to play their spooky tricks on them, only to have Logan save the day. That should be enough to impress the girls, Hunter figured, and would give Logan so much prestige back at school, Ava was sure to start hanging out with him.
Logan couldn’t help but smile at his two buddies as they started unpacking the gear from their backpacks while in the upper corridor of the house. “I don’t know how I’m ever gonna repay you guys for this.”
Hunter grinned as he took out a zombie fright mask from his backpack. “Hey, no problem, bro. We’re gonna have fun and we’re gonna get to pick our own girlfriends after this too.”
Zack looked up in confusion. “How are we gonna do that? No one is supposed to know we’re here with Logan.”
Hunter rolled his eyes. “You really are a doofus. Don’t you get it? Once Logan becomes the coolest kid in school, all the girls will want to talk to him.”
Zack thought it about it for a minute, but he still didn’t get it. “Yeah, they’ll hang out with Logan, but not with us.”
Hunter let out a big sigh. “You retard
, Logan hangs out with us. That means if the girls hang out with him, they’ll end up with us too, dipstick!”
Zack nodded. Now he got it. “Oh yeah.”
Five
Mason Leigh placed the Honda Civic’s gearshift in neutral before turning on the interior lights. He looked at the three girls in the passenger seats. “We’re here, you sure you wanna do this?”
Kim Silverman nodded. Among the three girls, she looked the oldest, and was therefore considered to be the most mature. Tall and lanky, with auburn hair, she was also the de-facto leader of the group and an authority when it came to anything. “Yup, could you pick us up in about an hour?”
“Okay,” Mason said. Kim was his girlfriend and even though she was still doing what he considered childish things, he was looking forward to finally seeing her at the same school with him after her graduation from junior high school this year. He looked at the two smiling girls in the back seat. “Have fun, ladies.”
Kim giggled and kissed him before opening the door and getting out. The other two girls sitting at the back followed suit, and within a few minutes, all three were standing in front of the old house by the creek. The sedan backed away from them before turning around and driving away.
Erin Brown tittered. A curly redhead, she had freckled cheeks and braces, and was known as the loyal one. She had her flashlight in her hand and turned it on, casting a ray of bright, yellowish light in the gloomy darkness. The nearest streetlight was half a mile away and obscured by the trees. The night sky was clear, and the full moon’s pale reflection cast a silvery sheen. All they had now for precise illumination were the lights they carried. “You know, I heard this was the place where the headless horseman came from!”
Kim laughed a second time while rolling her eyes. “Oh, don’t be silly, that was up in New York!”
Ava Evans giggled along with them. She was blond and had pale skin. Her delicate features and small stature made her look younger than other two, but she was determined to be part of the clique, and she kept up a brave face even though her insides were completely terrified. “So now what do we do?”
Kim shined her own flashlight along the front of the house. “Okay, let’s play a game of truth or dare!”
“Don’t we need to like, spin a bottle or something?” Erin said. “How are we going to find a bottle out here in the dark?”
Ava didn’t say anything. She didn’t like this whole excursion, but she was too scared to complain. She figured if she stayed with the other two, nothing bad would happen to her.
“Oh, I’m sure we could think of something,” Kim said. “How about you two think of a number from one to ten. The cone that comes closest to the number I’m thinking of has to do truth or dare!”
“But that would only mean Ava or me ends up getting truthed or dared. That’s not fair,” Erin said. “What about you?”
Kim tilted her head back and laughed. She had one beer with Mason- her first- and she was feeling it already. “Oh yeah, sorry about that! Let’s think about a plan before we go in and explore this place.”
“Do we have to?” Ava said sheepishly.
Erin poked the smaller girl’s arm. “Oh come on, Ava, don’t tell me you’re scared?”
Ava just wasn’t good at lying, so she preferred to double down with the truth. “A little.”
“Don’t worry,” Kim said. “There’s three of us.”
“She’s right though,” Erin said. “It would have been better if Mason stayed with us.”
Kim shook her head. Her boyfriend was going to smoke a few joints with his friends, and she just wasn’t ready when he asked her if she wanted to join in. “Mason’s gonna do something with his buddies for a bit. Anyway, he says this stuff is childish.”
Erin started to giggle again. “I bet he’s scared too.”
Kim hissed. “Mason’s not scared of anything. He’s with the junior varsity wrestling team you know.”
“I bet if there’s a killer in there with a knife, he would be just as dead like the rest of us!” Erin said, pointing at the house.
Ava scowled. She didn’t like the way this was going. “Please stop saying stuff like that. I don’t like this outing anymore. I’m just going to stay out here.”
Kim grinned as she wrapped her arms around the blond girl’s shoulder. “We’re just kidding around, Ava. No one’s here. There’s a house with lights on just down the street so we can run over there for help if things get bad. I can also call the cops with my cell phone. But I don’t think anything will happen anyway. The worst thing that could happen is we see a ghost.”
Erin let out a deep breath, the water vapor coming out of her mouth was visible with her flashlight beam. “If we don’t go in that house, we’re going to freeze to death out here.”
Logan Russo stood beside his bike, behind a looming willow tree just a block away at the other side of the road. He had been waiting there for almost two hours, exchanging text messages with Zack Mullins and Hunter Johnson, who were hiding inside the master bedroom on the second floor. As soon as he saw the Honda driving into the front of the house, he quickly sent a text message to Hunter’s cell phone, letting his friends know that the girls had finally made it. He had already taken a piss by the base of the tree, and his feet and hands were getting numb from the cold. The wait was sheer agony, and he got an occasional text from Zack an hour before, saying that they ought to just forget about it and go play some videogames back at their place. But Logan was determined. He was going to find a way to impress these girls, and he was already imagining what the others in school would say about him once he became a hero this night.
When he saw the car pull back out into the street and drive away, he knew it was now or never. The three girls were just standing there in front of the house, pointing their flashlights at each other and talking. Logan got on his bike and pedaled out into the road.
As he got close, he pretended to see their silhouettes from the street. After pausing for a bit, he pedaled into the driveway. It looked like Ava spotted him first, and she swung her flashlight beam in his eyes. Logan winced at the sudden brightness but he kept going until he was just a few feet in front of them. By now, all three girls were pointing their flashlights at him.
“Hi,” he said.
Kim turned to look at Erin. “Who’s he?”
Erin let out a metallic grin with her braces. “Oh, I know him. He’s in my math class.” She pointed her flashlight beam at his chest. “Logan, right?”
Logan smirked as he stood over his bicycle. “Yeah, it’s me. Hi.”
Kim had a smug look on her face. The boy was slightly built, and small compared to her boyfriend Mason. “What are you doing here?”
“I was just heading to my friend’s house,” Logan said nonchalantly. “What are you ladies doing here?”
“We’re paranormal investigators,” Erin said, mimicking the host of the haunted house reality show on cable TV. “And we’re here to explore this old house.”
Logan tried to stay calm. A part of him just wanted to walk into the place and show the girls how much of a tough and resourceful guy he was, but Hunter told him he needed to be patient. He stole a glance at the upper window above the main door and noticed Zack was looking down on them from the bedroom with a huge grin on his face. He tilted his head slightly to the side to let them know he was ready. “This house? I heard it was haunted.”
Kim was still skeptical. She placed her hands on her slender hips and eyed him warily. “Oh really?”
“I heard … a fifteen year old boy hanged himself a few years ago in this house,” Logan said softly.
Ava’s eyes opened wide. Even though she wore a sweater underneath her jacket like the others, it was still cold and the added fright chilled her to the bone. “Oh my god! I … let’s get out of here.”
Logan smiled faintly at her, to put her spirit at ease. He pulled out a small plastic container. “Don’t worry, if you wanna go in there, I can protect you.”
&nbs
p; Erin pointed at the small plastic bottle in his hand. “What’s in that?”
“Holy water,” Logan said. “I was planning to get rid of the ghost in this house one day, so I always carry it.”
“I don’t think we need your help, but thanks anyway,” Kim said brusquely. She wanted this to be an all girl excursion, and even though Logan seemed nice, she didn’t want to be under the protection of a boy who was shorter than her. “We can probably do this alone. You can wait out here for us.”
Logan had already noticed that Hunter had his mask on and was staring at them from the second window at the right side. He stared back at his friend, hoping that the girls would look in the same direction. “I think he’s there,” he said softly.
Ava’s eyes were wide open by now. She was hanging on to every word he said. “Who is?”
Erin shined her flashlight to the window where Hunter was looking out of. Logan’s buddy let her see a half-second glimpse of him before ducking back down, and out of sight. Erin let out an ear piercing shriek as she nearly dropped the flashlight. The other two girls were spooked as they turned to look at her.
“Oh my god, oh my god! I saw him,” Erin said. She was visibly shaken now. “The ghost! He had a really horrible face! Oh my god!”
Ava placed a hand on Erin’s shivering forearm, and both girls hugged each other and whimpered. Kim still had her doubts but her own confidence was shaken. The only thing that prevented her from telling the other girls to run away with her was Logan’s seemingly cool demeanor as he just sat there on his bike and stared at the three of them.
Logan pulled the hood down from his sweater so they could see the top of his head. “Don’t worry, a ghost can’t hurt you.”
Ava shook her head slowly as Erin continued to hug her. “Let’s just go home, please.”
“It’s like a two mile walk if we leave now,” Kim said. “Let’s just wait here until Mason comes back.”
“I can go in there with you if you want,” Logan said calmly.
“Can you just call Mason to pick us up?” Ava asked.
The Girl in the Darkness Page 4
