Dirty News (Dirty Network Book 1)

by Michelle Love

  I shrugged. “Maybe. If you’re very lucky.”

  She laughed then stopped as we came out of the woods and the large old ranch house stood before us. Everything was still intact, but the white paint was chipped and faded. The black shutters looked as if they’d been sandblasted and the windows were coated with dust.

  “Here we are, Katana.” I gestured to the house that was once a grand place, but now was no more than a nearly empty place where only the dead hung out. If what everyone said was true that is.

  I didn’t believe in ghosts. I believed the place was old and dark, making it scary, but it wasn’t really scary at all. It was just an old empty house, nothing to be afraid of.

  “This place is huge,” Katana said as she scanned the home. “And we can really go inside, Nix?”

  Taking her hand, I led her up to the front door. “As long as it’s still unlocked we can.” I twisted the old doorknob and it opened right up. “Come on in.”

  Stale air hit my nose right off the bat. Katana rubbed her nose as she looked around the foyer. “It smells moldy in here. Do you think there’s black mold in here? Maybe we shouldn’t be here.”

  “We’re not staying in here long enough for any mold to affect us. No one has ever gotten sick from coming in here from what I recall.” I led her through the small entry room to the main living area. The Queen Anne furniture still sat in the same places they had since I’d last been inside the home, over fifteen years ago.

  “And no one has ever seen fit to move this stuff out of here, Nix?” Katana ran one hand over the faded red velvet of the sofa.

  “If you’ll notice, the stuff in the foyer was all piled up into one corner,” I told her. “Donny’s parents moved that stuff first after the grandmother passed on. The grandfather had died a year earlier than she did. There wasn’t much in there, just a small table, a grandfather clock, a coat and hat rack and some knickknacks. The things were put into their garage that evening. Weird things happened right from the start of the things being placed in there.”

  Katana stopped her roaming around the room and touching things to look at me. “Weird things? Like what?”

  There was a picture of the couple who’d called the place home hanging on the wall, and I looked at them. No smiles were on their faces as they stood side by side in front of the home when it was new, and they were very young. “Like stray cats started coming up to the garage and hanging out while meowing like crazy.”

  “That is weird,” she agreed. “Anything else?”

  I nodded and shoved my hands in my pockets, so I wouldn’t be tempted to touch anything. Not that I believed any of the stories about the things that were in the house, but I didn’t want to tempt fate either. “The next thing that began to happen was the garage door would be open each morning. Donny’s parents even started locking it with a padlock, only to find that it would be unlocked and opened back up each and every morning without fail.”

  Katana ran her hands up and down her arms. “That gave me goosebumps, Nix. Anything else happen?”

  I made my way to her to take her to the next room. “Come on; I want to show you this awesome piano in the music room.” I took her hand and off we went. “The last thing that happened was what caused them to move the things they’d taken back out here. One night the garage caught on fire.”

  “Well, that’s not paranormal, Nix.” Katana laughed. “That kind of thing happens all the time.”

  “Well, the weird part of it is that only the things that belonged to the grandparents had been moved out of the garage, everything else burned up. And no one had any idea of who would only move those things and not tell a soul they had done it.” I pushed the door to the music room open, and the piano began to play.

  Katana screamed and threw her arms around me, “My, God!”

  I had to laugh as I recalled how many people Donny had scared with that thing. “It’s okay, baby. It’s a player piano. And they rigged it, so it would start playing when anyone opens the door.”

  I could feel her heart banging inside of her chest. “Shit! You should’ve warned me, Nix.” She let me go and punched me in the arm. “I nearly had a heart attack.”

  “Sorry, babe.” Kissing her on top of the head, I moved us into the room. “If it makes you feel any better, Donny scared the shit out of me with it too when I was a kid.”

  “No, that doesn’t make me feel any better. My nerves are all keyed up; you know that.” She pointed to the far corner where a white sheet covered something. “What’s that?”

  “A harp. Care to see it?” She nodded, so I went to pull the sheet off the ancient thing. Several of the strings were broken, but it was still a usable instrument, probably worth a lot of money. But it would never be sold. Nothing in the house would.

  Katana plucked one string, and the sound reverberated throughout the room. “Cool. I’ve never even seen one of these things in real life, only in pictures.”

  The sound of footsteps moved overhead. “Shh.” I looked up and found the chandelier swaying a little. “Someone’s up there.”

  “Let’s get the hell out of here, Nix,” Katana hissed at me. “Whoever or whatever it is, I don’t want to meet them.”

  “I need to see who it is, baby.” I looked her in the eye as I thought about what I should do with her. I couldn’t put her in harm’s way, but I didn’t want to leave her alone either.

  “Why? It’s none of our business, Nix?” she argued.

  Not sure at all about what to do, the next sound made the decision for me. A loud clang rang out, and the piano started up again. She and I both took off, running for the door and getting stuck in it for a brief moment as we wedged our bodies in the door frame.

  I grabbed her hand, taking her back through the house and right out the front door. We ran until we made it to the safety of the brush line before we stopped. Panting as adrenaline coursed through my veins, I put my hands on my knees and tried to catch my breath.

  When I heard Katana laughing, I started laughing too. “I forgot to close the damn door. We’ve got to go back, Katana.”

  “I’ll wait for you right here. I’m not stepping a foot closer to that house.” Her hands went to her hips which meant she was dead serious.

  “Okay, wait here then.” I jogged back to the house and stopped just before I got to the door. The door that was now closed. Shaking my head, I jogged back to my wife. “It was closed. I definitely think someone is inside of that house. We need to get back to the campsite, so I can get my cell out of the truck and call Donny to let him know he needs to go check that out.”

  Katana shook her head as we started heading back. “I don’t think he’s going to find a thing, Nix. That was a ghost for sure.”

  “Nah,” I said as I led the way. “It’s got to be some bum or something like that. There are no ghosts, just like there are no beasts of Medio Creek. And what about those fish you heard jumping just before dawn? What did you think you were hearing, baby?”

  “Never mind,” she said with a grouchy tone to her voice.

  I had to laugh. The woman’s imagination knew no bounds. I suppose it was her creativity that spurred that imagination. She was a talented book cover designer, that creative spark must’ve gone all the way through her brain.

  When we got back to the campsite, I saw the coons had once again come for a visit as the trash can had been pushed over. Thankfully I’d secured it well enough that they weren’t able to make a mess again.

  But Katana didn’t see it that way at all. “Oh, Lord! What could’ve done that, Nix?”

  “Coons,” I said, coolly as I picked the can back up, putting it back in place.

  “Oh,” she looked a little embarrassed as she went to the edge of the creek. She kneeled beside it and splashed the clear water on her face.

  I went to the truck to make the call to Donny but stopped as I heard a low rumble. Looking at Katana, I saw that she’d heard it too. She stood up and came to stand behind me. “What’s that, Nix?” H
er hands ran around my waist as she clung to me.

  “I’m not completely sure.” I listened for it to make another sound. Three loud stomps were heard. “Let’s get into the truck.”

  I opened the driver side door and let Katana slip in before me. Then I saw what had made the noise as it came out of the brush. Red eyes glared at me as it stomped its foot again and blew air from its black nose.

  “Shit, it’s pissed!” I jumped into the truck just as it started running toward me, barely getting the door closed before it got to me.

  Katana screamed as the jet-black bull ran right into our campsite, knocking the trash can down again then using its long, pointed horns to toss it up into the air. It came down with a loud bang, but the lid stayed on. Then he pawed at the ground a little before heading off, happy with how effective he’d been at scaring us.

  “A damn bull?” Katana shouted as she threw her arms up in the air. “I thought there weren’t any cows out here, Nix.”

  “Obviously they’re free to roam around the ranch, baby.” I shook my head as she was just so clueless about how ranches work. “He’s just strayed away from the herd is all. That’s why he’s so pissed; he’s lost.”

  So, I made the call to Donny to let him know he had a bull that needed to be picked up and a house to check out for unwanted guests.

  Chapter 6

  Katana

  I’d just about had it with the Texas outback. After a rogue bull charged us, I was ready to call it a day and pack up. But my husband was intent on staying one more night.

  Donny stopped by for a visit as his ranch hands rounded up the bull and put him in a cattle trailer to haul him back to his harem of heifers. A couple more guys had been dropped off at the house to look for trespassers. From the phone calls to Donny I’d overheard that they had found nothing. No sign of anyone being in the home at all. So that told me we had indeed experienced paranormal activity. Even though I knew Nix would never admit that.

  He’d brought some fishing poles and worms to use as bait and a few chairs so that we could sit underneath the shade of the oak trees and fish. “Now don’t be afraid to do a little skinny-dipping, Katana. This creek is perfect for that type of thing,” he kidded with me.

  “I’m not really a skinny-dipping kind of girl, Donny.” I sat on the grass between the chairs the guys sat in. I loved the feel of the cool grass as I ran my fingers through it. “I’d really like to hear some of your stories about that house, Donny.”

  “I’ve got some.” He put his fishing pole down to start spinning his yarn. “I’m not up there looking around for anyone right now because I ain’t ever goin’ in that place again. Not after what happened to me the last time I was in there.”

  Nix chuckled. “And what was that, Donny?”

  Nix seemed to think his friend was being funny, but I could see the seriousness in his expression that told me he wasn’t joking around just to scare me.

  Donny looked at me as he went on, “Once a year for as long as I can recall, I’ve gone through that house to make sure there weren’t any water leaks or any other problems with the place. Last year I went through it for the last time I ever will. I always start in the attic to make sure the roof ain’t leaking; then I go all through the second story, then the first one, and the last thing I always do is go through the cellar.”

  “And you’ve done this all alone?” I asked as I thought that would scare me to death if I had to go all through that place alone.

  He nodded. “I can hardly find no one who’ll go with me. So, there I was, all alone. I’d heard creaks and groans as I’d made my way through the house, those were normal sounds. When I opened the door to the cellar, I smelled something I hadn’t ever smelled before. Something like rotting meat, a sulfur-like smell too. It made me gag it was so bad. But I had to go on down there as I thought something must’ve gotten in that cellar and died.”

  “God, that sounds awful,” I said as I thought about how I’d feel if I had to do such a thing.

  “It was,” he agreed as he nodded. “There’s no floor down there, just dirt and the first thing I noticed was something had been digging around in that dirt as the first step off the stairs had me stepping into a hole about three feet deep. I almost broke my damn leg as I fell down. There are no lights down there so all I had was my flashlight and I’d dropped it when I fell.”

  My heart started beating hard as I thought about being all alone in a dark cellar with my leg in a hole. “What did you do then, Donny?”

  “I got up and grabbed the flashlight, and just as I did that, the door slammed closed behind me. I raced back up those stairs as fast as I could and found the door had locked somehow. I couldn’t get out. The stairs were too steep to give me a running start to bust the door open using my shoulder. I had no idea what to do.” He shook his head as he relived that moment in his mind.

  I patted his leg reassuringly. “Well, you managed to make it out of there eventually.”

  “I was trapped there the entire night. My wife had been out of town on a business trip, and no one knew I’d gone out there. No one was around to miss me.” He looked out at the water, his eyes glazing over. “As I sat on that top step, looking down into that dark cellar, knowing I was going to be stuck there for a good while, I saw something move. Like a flash of darkness, something even darker than the darkness of the cellar, it moved across the large space. And as it did, it made a terrible sound. More than a growl, less than a howl. It was unlike anything I’d ever heard in my life.”

  Nix laughed. “Okay, Donny. So, get to the punchline already. You’re freaking my wife out.”

  Donny looked at Nix with his lips forming a straight line. “I wish I was just joking, Nixon. I’m dead serious about this.” He looked back at me. “It’s good to be freaked out by what I’m telling you, Katana. I don’t want you two to ever go back in that house. You have no idea what kind of evil lurks there. By the time someone came looking for me, and I got out of that basement, my dark brown hair had turned snow white.” He pulled his cap off and showed us that his hair had indeed turned white.

  “Shit, dude!” Nix gasped.

  “I told you I wasn’t jokin’ Nixon.” Donny put his ballcap back on. “It was so bad; my mind’s blocked most of it. But all I know for certain is I’ll never go back inside that house. I should’ve told you about that, so you didn’t go in there. Sorry about that.”

  I sat there quietly as his story only served to make my nerves even more frazzled. Now I had more to worry about when night fell. The creatures, the demon or whatever that was in the house, and even rogue bulls. I’d never not wanted to see the sun go down so badly in my entire life.

  Nix looked at me, shaking his head as he could see the look in my eyes. “Don’t let his story get to you, baby.”

  “I’m not,” I lied then pulled off my hiking boots, rolled up my pants legs and stuck my feet in the cool water.

  The clear water ran over my toes, and the idea of taking a dip didn’t seem like a bad idea at all. But it would have to wait for Donny to go as I hadn’t brought a bathing suit and I would indeed be skinny-dipping if I gave into my desire for a swim.

  I leaned back, resting my weight on my palms, looking up through the thick canopy of oak leaves that filtered the sun’s light perfectly. The beauty of the place almost made all the scary things fade out of my mind.

  And when Nix reeled in a catfish, I totally forgot about all the spooky stuff as I got excited and decided I wanted to fish too. We spent the next couple of hours catching catfish that had swam our way.

  We let Donny take them home with him, and he promised to cook them up and have a fish-fry at his place before we left to go back to California. Darkness was falling just as he left us alone. But we already had the lights going, and a fire burned in the pit.

  “I’m going to barbeque some chicken breasts and grill this zucchini too.” Nix took the already seasoned chicken out of the fridge.

  Recalling the sounds I’d heard the n
ight before, I’d thought I heard the sound of the fridge being closed but found out nothing had been touched in there. That let me know my ears weren’t always right and they couldn’t be counted on.

  I had no idea what we were hearing was a bull when we’d heard that. I thought for sure we were about to see a real live Big Foot. I’d been wrong then too. It seems I knew next to nothing about the sounds animals can make. So, I tried very hard to just not think at all and enjoy the night. It would be the last one there, and I knew my husband wanted to have a great time. And I also knew being woken up by his chicken of a wife would put a damper on our little outing.

  As Nix put the chicken on the grill, I got up and grabbed us a couple of beers to get our last night started. “Here ya go, babe. I’ll slice up the zucchini. Hey, you wanna hear some music?”

  Nix looked at the truck. “Sure, put the stereo on in the truck and roll the windows down so we can hear it.”

  I went to do that, putting on some country music as it seemed fitting for a night out in the Texas wilderness. “I’ve never really listened to this type of music before. It’s catchy though.”

  Nix wiped his hands on a towel then swept me into his arms, dancing around with me. “This is called the Texas two-step, baby.”

  I followed his feet as we laughed and danced. Just the two of us, not a soul around and we were more than happy. Such simple things, dancing, camping, cooking outside on a grill had made us so happy.

  I’d fallen in love with Nix so easily. It took no work at all to stay in love with the man. It was effortless, our love.

  Sure, things could be taxing with day to day life. Dealing with the kids, work, and the mundane chores could get us down from time to time. But overall, he and I were happy people. And I knew it was because we’d found one another.

  The song ended then we kissed. Nix sighed when our mouths parted. “This is special, Katana.”