Chapter 21
Saturday arrived and taking his map with him, Henry hurried to Samantha's house, excited to tell her about the houses he'd discovered and was ready to plan their next investigation. She answered the door and found Henry with a broad smile on his face.
“Hey, Henry,” she said. “What's up?”
Henry held up the folded map.
“Feel like going to another house?”
Having been deeply involved in homework, Samantha looked tired, and just wanted to sleep, having been up for most if the night.
“Today?” she replied. “I don't know. I'm kinda' beat from studying. Can we go tomorrow?”
Henry was somewhat disappointed, but at the same time, he understood how driven Samantha was. She may not yet know what she wanted to do with her life, however, she was determined to succeed, at least, in school.
“Uh, yeah,” he replied. “We can go tomorrow. I'm not going to church, so maybe we can get there early.”
Samantha agreed, but in the meantime, Henry would go home and catch up on his own homework. It was still early in the semester, and as much as he tried, he was already falling behind. If he only had half the dedication Samantha possessed, he would be much further ahead. He might even enjoy school.
For Henry, Saturday went by like an eternity. But as his parents were leaving for church, he once again grabbed the map and left for Samantha's. This time, she looked restored, with bright eyes and a healthy color in her face.
“So,” he began. “You want to go house hunting?”
A grin came to her face as she entertained the possibility of another investigation. Stepping outside, she closed the door behind her while inquiring as to which house they were going to first. Opening the map, Henry pointed to the location of the former ambulance station, also telling Samantha about the odd conversation with the elderly man.
“Yeah,” she said. “That's pretty weird. Let's take a look.”
Henry glowed at her enthusiasm as he folded up the map and quickened his pace, prompting Samantha to keep up.
They soon found themselves standing in front of the faded green house and walking down its dirt driveway, noticed it had become dried and barren over time, resisting any growth of grass or weeds. Making their way to the backyard, Samantha walked up to the back door and cautiously gripped the knob. It was cold, brown, and displayed swirls of earth tones flowing beneath its unworn gloss. She assumed that any abandoned house would be securely locked. But to her surprise, Samantha found the house easily accessible.
“What do you think?” she asked.
In Henry's mind, nothing could be worse than his experience at the Cummings house, so it felt a bit easier to enter the dilapidated ambulance station.
The house was devoid of furniture and bore long cracks in several load bearing walls. A sign on the front and back doors read 'condemned', but this did not prevent Samantha and Henry from exploring the house. However, having seen the signs, they would do so carefully, and as they took the first steps, both were mindful of where the floors soft spots might be. Cautiously, they wandered through the first floor, seeing the lightened areas on the walls where furniture once sat. With the exception of the occasional pop and creek of the floor boards, the house was silent. Samantha stopped suddenly, having heard the silence broken by a slight, repetitive tapping.
“What's that?” she asked.
Henry strained to hear it but could not identify the almost inaudible sound.
“I don't know,” he answered. “Where's it coming from?”
They both focused intently and eventually tracked down the source of the mysterious pinging sound. Approaching a window in the kitchen, they discovered a large housefly repeatedly careening head first into the pane of glass, as though wanting to escape.
“That's weird,” Henry said.
Samantha tried to get a better look as its head struck the window, over and over again.
“That is kinda weird, isn't it?” she said.
They were both startled as it suddenly flew off in another direction and raised their hands to avoid it flying in their faces.
After it had vanished, they resumed their journey through the old house. With nothing else to see, they found a door leading to the second floor. The doorknob was similar to the one on the back door and turning it, Samantha opened the door as its hinges let out a scream of old age. The stairs leading to the second floor were unpainted and the walls unfinished with its wooden framework standing as an ancient skeleton, barely holding the house together. Leading up and to the left, the stairway opened out onto an unfinished second floor. By all appearances, there had never been any furniture, and there was no wiring. As Samantha and Henry cautiously walked the stairs, they noticed that the walls had also been ignored, leaving long nails sticking out through the outer walls, like spikes on an ancient torture machine.
“Don't lean up against the walls,” Samantha cautioned.
But her warning had come too late as Henry, while trying to steady himself in the shadowy stairway, put a hand out and onto an exposed nail. It was only a scratch but it was enough to make him more cautious of where he put his hands.
Continuing on, Samantha took out a flashlight. It was nothing more than an LED on a keychain but it was always with her. With an absent ceiling, the rafters were difficult to see as the harsh early afternoon light created a contrast that required illumination. Once the light struck the old lumber of the roof's underside, at least a dozen small black shapes became visible.
“What the fuck is that?” Henry whispered.
As Samantha was trying to identify them, one of the shapes moved slightly, partially exposing a pair of black velvety wings.
“Fuck me!” Henry yelled. “Those are fucking bats!”
The sight of these ghoulish creatures brought out one of Henry's deepest fears. He didn't know why he was so terrified of them, and at this point, he was likely better off for it. As he quickly backed away toward the stairs, Samantha took him by the arm and calmly spoke to him.
“Henry, listen,” she began. “If you move too fast, or you start yelling, you're going to disturb them. So relax, okay?”
Henry tried his best to regain his wits but maintained an iron grip on the rail at the top of the stairs, staring up at what he perceived to be something straight out of a nightmare.
“Can we just get out of here?” he whispered.
Walking quietly back down to the first floor, Henry couldn't help but feel embarrassed about his reaction to an animal that likely had never attacked anyone. Closing the door behind them, he could see a hint of impatience on Samantha's face. Although it was his idea to go to these houses, there always seemed to be something holding him back and compared to Samantha, Henry realized it was something within him - something to be conquered.
“Henry,” Samantha said.
She wanted to talk to him about his reaction, but didn't want to hurt his feelings.
“I know you're just as into this stuff as I am, but you've gotta keep your head together. We're a team, remember?”
Henry's face became overtaken by disappointment. However, Samantha was ready with a few comforting words, and put a hand on his arm.
“Henry,” she began. “It's okay to be afraid. Everyone's afraid of something.”
Looking for a way to save face and regain his masculinity, Henry was about to offer what he felt was a possible explanation for his reaction when both were startled by loud rhythmic steps crossing the ceiling directly over their heads. Their reactions were silent, reflecting both shock and fascination. The conversation that followed was spoken in whispers.
“What the fuck was that?” Henry asked.
They listened intently as the air regained its disturbing silence.
“It sounded like someone walking across the floor,” Samantha replied.
“But we were just up there,” Henry said.
“I know, but there's obviously someone here,” Samantha replied.
They listened again but heard nothing.
“Let's get outside,” Henry began. “We need to regroup.”
It seemed that Henry's fear of bats had subsided, replaced by his almost obsessive interest in the houses activity. Samantha quickly came to believe that as long as things didn't get too intense, Henry would likely be okay, and it would be much easier to help him keep his head together.
“No, wait,” Samantha said. “Maybe we missed something.”
Henry wasn't surprised that she wanted to go back upstairs, but thought there might be a compromise. Perhaps, they could go only to the level of the floor and peer out over its edge. After a moment of discussion, it was agreed that they would not go to the top of the stairs but only as far as they needed in order to look across the floor, hoping to see what had produced the footsteps. Henry's imagination went wild as Samantha slowly opened the door to the stairway, and looking out over the second floor, breathed a sigh of relief at finding nothing.
“Shit,” Samantha whispered. “What the hell was that?”
Except for the occasional shrill of bats, there was nothing. Henry nudged Samantha and motioned back to the door. Stepping lightly, they returned to the first floor and closing the door, they turned to each other as Henry spoke first.
“So, what do you think?”
Samantha gave his question a few moments of thought.
“Let's get outside first,” she answered.
Leaving through the back door, they walked into the back yard. Most of the grass was dead, leaving bare spots of pale, lifeless dirt. Continuing their conversation, Samantha considered all the possibilities regarding what they had heard, as opposed to what they had been unable to see.
They stood close to the back door so as to minimize the chances of being seen.
“There's definitely something here,” Henry said.
“Yeah,” Samantha replied. “It might be someone who died here and just never left.”
They both agreed that the only way to find out more was to investigate it in the same manner as in the Cummings house. But as much as Henry was interested, he still harbored just enough fear from their last investigation that his imagination had already begun tricking him into thinking that whatever had crossed the upstairs floor may be malevolent, an enraged demonic presence bent on driving off anyone who disturbed it, by any means.
During their brief conversation, they also agreed that it would be best to return in the early afternoon. This was something they had not done when investigating the Cummings house. They had, instead, jumped in with both feet, and looking back, Samantha wished she had been a bit more cautious. On a more positive note, this house was much smaller than the Cummings house and wouldn't take as much time to investigate. They would meet there the following Saturday, barring of course, the amount of homework assigned for the weekend. But this time, Samantha made additional plans having, over time, developed the impression that Henry strongly possessed feelings for her.