He shrugged. “It didn’t matter if they shot me down; it matters if you do.” Aww. That was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to me.
I was about to open my mouth and say ‘yes’ when Gwen popped up behind us. “She’d love to, Alex. What time will you be picking her up? Better yet, bring a friend, and we can double date.” I rolled my eyes. If I didn’t love her so much I would have killed her.
***
I went over to Gwen’s house after school. My dad was working late at the restaurant again, and he could pick up something for supper there. I liked Gwen’s family. Her dad, Timothy, always reminded me of the Nutty Professor and her mom, Missy, had practically adopted me the first day she’d met me, many years ago. Her little brother James was a pain in the butt, but kind of cute, too, for a five year old. Going home with Gwen was better than going home to an empty house, any day.
Missy, was sitting on the front porch steps when we got there, up to her elbows in a gutted pumpkin. James grinned from ear to ear as he dipped pumpkin guts out of his own pumpkin, and dumped them into the open trash bag lying between them. He waved at us excitedly, orange goo and pumpkin seeds clinging to his small hands.
“Do you guys want to make jackal lanterns with us?”
Gwen scrubbed his fine blonde hair. “That’s Jack O’ lanterns, squirt.”
“Izzy can help me do mine.” He practically trembled with excitement as he handed me a small book of pumpkin designs. I laughed at him as I dropped my book bag on the old porch swing. “Pick one, Izzy. I like the witch on the second page, but we can do one you pick.” He looked so earnest, I couldn’t help but smile.
“Hold on, mister. Izzy may not feel like carving your pumpkin. She might want to rest.” Gwen’s mom tried to look stern, but she was never much of a threat and James knew it. He was the family baby and we all pretty much spoiled him rotten.
He turned big blue eyes on me, prepared to beg if he had to. He really was incredibly cute and he reminded me of a tiny version of Gwen. “It’s ok, Missy, I feel fine and I would love to help with your pumpkin, James.” Besides, it would hardly be Halloween without the annual carving. James beamed a gap-toothed smile at me as I flipped the little pattern book open. “That witch is pretty cool. We can do that one, if you want.” It didn’t take much to make the little guy happy.
Gwen dropped her bag next to mine and grabbed one of the half a dozen pumpkins lined up on the steps. She tried to be cool about it, but I could tell from the gleam in her eye she was as excited as James about the pumpkins. There’s just something extremely satisfying about cutting into a pristine pumpkin on a cool fall day.
Missy grabbed a roll of paper towels and started wiping pumpkin guts off of her hands. “Be right back, girls. Don’t let Little Man get hold of the knife while I’m gone.”
“No problem.” I sat down next to James and he handed me his pumpkin. I eye-balled the inside. “Looks like you missed a spot or two. Or ten. Let me have your scraper.” The little plastic pumpkin scrapers that came in the carving kits usually broke. Missy found out years ago, that ice cream scoops are great at thinning the pumpkin walls, and getting the seeds and stringers out. I got to work thinning the walls out while James continued pulling the guts out for me, every so often. The kid was wild about pumpkin guts.
I looked up a few minutes later as the screen door slammed shut behind us. Missy came out with a pitcher of spiced apple cider and four glasses. The woman thought of everything. Seriously. “How much homework do you two have tonight?” She started pouring cider out for us and set mine down next to James. The scent of the cider made my mouth water.
I wiped my hands off on the paper towel James handed me. I got them clean enough the glass wouldn’t slip through my fingers, at least. Steam floated up in the cool fall air. I blew on the cider and inhaled deeply. Mmmm…cinnamon and apples. “Thanks.” A tiny sip warmed me all the way to my toes. “I don’t have much homework tonight. A book report for English, but that won’t take long. I’ve read “Jane Eyre” about a dozen times, just for fun. What about you, Gwen?”
Gwen looked up from the keyhole notch she was carving into the top of her pumpkin. “I’m good. I had some calculus, and a little biology due, but I got it done in study hall.” Gwen was so smart she literally never had to study. She’d read the material once and she had it forever. I would have killed to have that ability. I was smart, but not all of it came easily to me. Math would always be my Achilles heel.
“Great.” Missy sat down on the step below me and grabbed her pumpkin back up. “In that case I’m going to order pizzas for dinner and we can start putting the Halloween decorations up. We only have a few weeks left before Halloween, you know.” James squealed and launched himself at his mother’s neck. Sticky little hands wrapped around her and a dozen kisses were bestowed. Missy had a great, tinkling laugh that made me happy every time I heard it. I’d never known my own mother, but I was very grateful, in moments like this one, that Gwen shared her mom with me.
We worked on the pumpkins for a couple of hours. When everyone’s hands started seriously cramping up from maneuvering the tiny saws, we called it a night. We didn’t get all the pumpkins carved, but we’d made a good dent in them. A few more days and both sides of the steps leading up to the front porch would be lined with jack o’lanterns and fall chrysanthemums of orange, red, and yellow.
Missy wasn’t kidding when she said we would “start” putting decorations up. She’d been collecting decorations for the entire twenty years she’d been married to Gwen’s dad. They literally had skeletons in their closet; at least the closet under the stairs. It was crammed full of ghosts, ghouls, witches; you name it. Just dragging all of the totes full of decorations out was a big job. I felt fine, but Gwen insisted on doing most of the work. I thought about telling her I wasn’t hurt anymore, but I couldn’t think of a good explanation for why I wasn’t hurt. Also, I still owed her for the whole embarrassing scene with Alex, earlier. So I took it easy. Instead, I took small breaks when Missy insisted, and avoided picking up anything heavy when they were watching me. I felt like a total sham. Not to mention, a freak of nature.
We put James in charge of the fake spider webs while Gwen and I started unravelling the giant tangle of orange lights. I love decorating for Halloween, but the light ball was always a nightmare. We ended up just laying each strand out across the yard as we went. Once we got all the strings untangled we started testing the lights on an extension cord. We got lucky. There were no burned out bulbs to replace, this year. We declared them good to go, and James ran inside to drag his dad away from his home office. Timothy popped his head out the door reluctantly, like an unhappy turtle coming out of his shell. He was always happiest with his laptop, but even he wasn’t immune to the Halloween craze at the Rose house.
Missy looked like a tiny, blonde drill sergeant pointing out where Timothy needed to hang the lights up. Wrapping the porch pillars proved a little tricky but between the four of us, we managed it. Not that they allowed me to do much more than keep the lights untangled as they wrapped, but it was better than nothing. By the time we finished, the pizza delivery guy was pulling up in front of the house, and we were all getting tired. Even little James looked pitiful as he dragged a huge wad of fake spider web around the yard looking for something to stretch it over.
He had done his level-best to haunt the yard. Trees, shrubs, even the mail box had thick chunks of spider web draped over them. We would have to go back behind him and stretch all of it out, preferably when he wasn’t looking. There is a fine line between spooky spider webs, and looking like a sofa exploded on the yard. James hadn’t learned where that line was yet, but his enthusiasm was boundless, and we weren’t about to discourage him.
Missy plugged in the extension cord attached to our orange lights, and we lit the jack o’lanterns. Darkness was coming earlier every night. Orange lights twinkled all over the front porch. It looked far more cheerful than spooky, but it was beautiful. We all stood around
oohing and ahhing over our handiwork. Gwen’s dad even looked pleased with the decorations.
It gave me a case of the warm, fuzzy feelings, being part of this family. It was a great night, and one of the last normal nights I would have for a very long time.
Chapter 6…Izzy
There was a grinning maniac coming at me with a running chainsaw. I looked back as the girl in line behind me squealed and giggled wildly. She hid her face behind her boyfriend’s shoulder, then peeked out repeatedly. Gwen huddled down a little further into the light blue hoodie she wore. She hadn’t been feeling good all week, maybe even had a cold coming on, but she wasn’t about to miss our annual tradition. Every October we spent our weekends hunting for haunted houses. This year we had Alex and his friend, Marc, with us.
My dad tried to put his foot down this year, because I was still supposed to be recovering from my injuries. I felt perfectly fine, but I couldn’t very well tell him that. Not without him going all parental, and dragging me to the doctor for a thorough check up. That would just open up a can of worms.
I had no way to explain how I’d been healed of my injuries so quickly. So I kept my mouth shut. I ended up flushing the pain pills, since I didn’t need them. I could have just left them, but I figured he might check the bottle for disappearing pills. I took the antibiotics, just in case, but deep down I felt certain there was nothing wrong with me. Certainly not enough wrong to keep me from a haunted house weekend.
Dad was less than thrilled to hear that Gwen and I would be double dating, but he was on good behavior, anyway. I was afraid he’d be cleaning a shotgun on the front porch when Alex came to pick me up, but he settled for a thorough interrogation, instead. There just wasn’t much to disapprove of in Alex. He was an overachiever and everybody in town knew he was a good kid. My dad ran out of steam pretty fast and let us get on our way to the haunted house. Gwen and her date were meeting us there.
This particular haunting was supposed to be a good one. Gwen and I had gone every year for the last couple of years to different haunted houses around our area, but this one was new. The Demon’s Lair was a multi-attraction haunting. According to advertising on the internet there was a basement full of zombies, a circus of fear, a vampire graveyard, and a haunted corn maze. Total time for the attraction was estimated at about forty-five minutes to an hour. That wasn’t bad at all for the twenty dollar cover charge. We’d spent that much last year for a really crappy haunted mansion that took all of fifteen minutes to get through, and was beyond boring and predictable.
Gwen looked like she was kind of miserable as we shuffled towards the front of the line. She had blue circles under her eyes that she’d covered with industrial-strength concealer. If I asked, she’d just say it was allergies, so I kept an eye on her and my mouth shut. If she started to get sick there were always exits in these places and people willing to get customers out who got too scared or just couldn’t handle it.
I really think the only reason she was here, instead of home in bed, was to keep me from chickening out on my date with Alex. Sick or not, Gwen loved playing match-maker. I knew, for a fact, that she wasn’t into Alex’s friend, Marc. He seemed alright, but he was trying too hard. He’d brought Gwen flowers. Any other girl would have swooned. Gwen took it as a sign of weakness. She had a need to be conquered, and sweet, kind little Marc, wasn’t going to be able to pull it off. He tried making conversation as we stood in line, but Gwen just huddled closer to me for warmth. At least we remembered to bring hand warmers this year, to stuff into our hoodie pockets.
The actors they put out to work the line were going crazy trying to put the crowd on edge. Chainsaw guy hammed it up for the people behind us, revving the chainless saw, over and over, scaring the crap out of the younger kids. I started to gag on all the smoke in the air, and the roar and rattle of the chainsaw was hard to hear over.
Alex yelled something in my ear, but I couldn’t hear, and had to ask him to repeat it. “Are you cold?!” He yelled it again, only the chainsaw cut out, so I got screamed at by mistake. Poor Alex looked horrified. I had to laugh at him. He’d really been trying hard this past week; he made a point of eating lunch with me and Gwen, and if he could swing it, he walked me between classes. He was being really sweet, and now he’d just blasted my eardrum.
“I’m ok, thanks.”
“Are you sure?” He opened his jacket so I could huddle inside, but I didn’t feel comfortable doing that, just yet. I just shook my head and smiled.
An actor, a girl about our age came up, and started sniffing at me. Seriously. Sniffing me like she was about to take a bite out of me, if I smelled good enough. She had torn clothes and zombie make up, including extensive patches of rotten skin and white contact lenses. It was an awesome make-up job, but I’d been to enough of these things to know that if she got a reaction out of me, we would never get rid of her. Alex laughed. “I think she likes you, Izzy.”
I shook my head. “I’m not her type; you are. I’m not even her species.”
Zombie girl couldn’t get anywhere with me. She snarled a little, around her fake teeth, which nearly popped out of her mouth, then lurched a little further down the line. Off to greener pastures. She found a group of younger girls that utterly freaked out, at the sight of her. The little red headed girl screamed and literally jumped about a foot sideways just to get away from her. I had to stifle a giggle. Newbies.
We had a while before we got to the front of the line, so watching the actors get the crowd fired up was pretty entertaining. Various zombies lurched up and down the line, occasionally lunging into the waiting crowd. Alex nudged me and pointed out a cordoned-off area, just up ahead of us. A fire eater performed with batons blazing at both ends. She had on a super tight, sparkly tank top that just made me cold, watching her. On the other hand, loose clothing and flames probably wouldn’t mix well, so I’m sure she had the right idea.
I got that uneasy feeling of being watched, again. The skin on the back of my neck prickled. I pretended I was watching a guy with a hatchet coming out of the side of his head lumber back toward the end of the line when I spotted a familiar face in the crowd. It was the blonde guy I’d seen at school a few days ago. Tall, blonde, and good looking just sticks out in a little town like ours.
This guy was way out of place, for more than one reason. For one thing, it was chilly outside in the line. People were bundled up in layers of coats and hoodies, but he was standing there in a black t-shirt like it was July, or something. He was a little bit bigger than Alex, I noticed, and that too, stood out. They just don’t grow them that big around here.
I turned sideways, acted like I was watching the girl dressed as a dead doll who was headed toward me. I half expected the guy to disappear again, but he didn’t. I thought about nudging Gwen and pointing him out to her, but knowing Gwen she’d go back in the line to introduce us. For some reason my gut told me that was a really bad idea. Gwen was distracted, anyway. She made a half-assed effort to act interested in something Marc had told her. She must have been feeling charitable. Usually, when she’s feeling bad, she’s just barely civil to most people.
It was probably just a coincidence, anyway. The blonde guy was probably there with his girlfriend. Lots of guys were. Lord knows he probably had girls hanging all over him. I felt a little twinge in my chest at the thought. I was being stupid. I was here with Alex, but my attention was far behind me.
I tried to be subtle as I peeked over my shoulder at him. His gaze was steady as he watched me, almost challenging. I felt heat creep up my throat, and into my cheeks. I turned around quickly and didn’t look back again, even though I desperately wanted to. It was impossible; he was too far back in the line, but I swear I heard him chuckle. He had a deep, throaty laugh that sent a little shiver up the back of my neck.
That spicy smell came from him; I was sure I’d caught a hint of it, even though the chainsaw had kicked out a huge gas cloud. There was no way I could pick out one good-smelling guy in a crowd that size
, could I? I was officially going crazy.
Alex put his hand on the small of my back and nudged me forward. I startled, and he laughed easily, probably thinking I was wired because of the haunted house. I didn’t have the heart to tell him it was because of some guy back in the line who might, or might not, be stalking me. That just seemed rude.
I was about to jump out of my skin by the time we finally got our tickets and instructions from a bored-looking lady in her late fifties. “Ok, you go through the haunt at your own pace. Don’t touch the actors, though they may touch you. Don’t use your cell phones for flash lights. Don’t take any pictures. If you get sick or feel like you need to leave, there are exits in the back of each attraction. We have people stationed to watch you at all times. They will see you, but you won’t see them. Any questions?”
We all nodded our heads dutifully and took our ticket stubs. I shoved mine down the pocket in the front of my jeans. No need to worry about me using a cell phone, I still hadn’t gotten around to ordering a new one. The only one I ever texted was Gwen, and she was about always with me, anyway.
I followed Gwen towards the beginning of the haunt. She’d perked up a little bit, I was glad to see. Marc went ahead of her, probably hoping to impress her with his bravery, and Alex brought up the rear of our party. The first thing we got to was a long, black hallway with an uneven floor. By black, I mean absolute black. Pitch black. There wasn’t a speck of light to be found. It twisted and turned as we moved forward toward the main attractions. Fake spider webs brushed against my skin, and an uneasy feeling crept up inside of me just a little; I was a tad claustrophobic. Well, maybe more than a tad. I grabbed the tail of Gwen’s hoodie so we wouldn’t get separated. I felt Alex’s hands land lightly on my shoulders and give me a gentle squeeze.
After the hallway ended, we spilled out into a huge space filled with fog and lasers playing up on the walls. The only way to cross was to go into a tunnel between two huge air bags that ran the length of the room. It squeezed my arms to my sides, and my claustrophobia ratcheted up another notch. Gwen and the guys were tall enough that they, at least, got their heads above the air bags, but I was trapped like a little rat in a maze.
Wings of Darkness: Book 1 of The Immortal Sorrows Series Page 5
