PART 1
"Do you believe in ghosts?" A strange boy asked me as we stood starring at a nine feet tall disembodied figure.
"Maybe a projection?", I spoke in a leaner voice even though I had zero explanation to what I was seeing and how I felt, the feeling that I might die any second.
The ground shook in an erratic manner and scratches on the wall made it clear that we were not alone in that building with a projection or on a long prank show and it was time for us to run as fast as we could.
"Or not!", we both spoke out loud.
Without wasting time, we made our way out of the house dodging falling woods and lime stones. We reached surface in a minute covered in dust and blood.
"Damn what the heck was that?" he coughed up dust.
"I don't even want to know." I answered looking at my injured leg.
"Ugh I must've scarped it while running away." I grunted and breathed heavily.
"I have some holy water use it." He offered a bottle of drinking water from his bag and lay down the ground.
I poured the water it hurt like hell.
"By the way who are you?" I asked.
"I should be the one asking that. You don't belong to Wang family. You are dressed like homeless person. Wait were you living here and scaring off Wang family. Oh I know Peter Wang dumped you didn't he." He blabbered nonsense none of them connected to other.
"Hey wait, Peter did not dump me. What the hell am I saying I don't know any Wang family. And I am not homeless. Why would you say that?" I spoke justifying stupid accusations.
"Peter Wang is hottest guy in our college. His grades are good and everybody loves Peter Wang. So do you, I can sense it." He replied.
"I don't know and I don't care." I commented and wrapped up clean cloth on the wound.
"Then why are you here.?" He looked at me with suspicion and a smirk.
"I was just roaming around and heard you scream and yell like you were about to die. I couldn't ignore, I came to rescue you." I answered and dusted my clothes off.
Well in reality I was trying to follow the directions I took last night dream or not I wanted to check out the place. I did ask the locals but everyone told me there isn't anything the forest although there are couple of owners with a small cabin but none with a mansion.
He processed it for a long time and was about to question me again.
"Allan! Are you alright? What was that?" Peter Wang called out. A tall and muscular man who looked both athletic and attractive, at first glance I could tell Allan was right.
"Yeah just hole in the ground." Allan shrugged off burying the fact what we saw.
"Are you sure? it was loud. Let me take a look." Peter walked towards the building.
"Hey, hey it's not safe in there. I still have to cleanse that place. Only I can enter." Allan stopped Peter.
"I don't what you are up to, if it's not ready by tomorrow night you will be screwed. And it's a warning by the way." Peter warned Allan.
"And you are? Are you alright? You are bleeding too much. Stay here I will bring first aid kit." Peter offered help and his tone completely changed.
"She's my friend and you don't need to worry I will take her to hospital." Allan gave a pretentious smile.
"Hey listen your dad's calling. Go on." Allan sent Peter away.
Peter looked at Allan with doubt and hate.
"Take care let me know if you need any help." Peter smiled at me and left.
"Ugh I know that smile, you fell for him didn't you. That sneaky bastard gets all the girls." Allan hits the stone.
"yeah, I have fallen six feet under." I laughed and got up.
"Where are you going?" he asked.
"To the hospital you mentioned. I don't where that is, since you offered to help me out I will be in your care." I replied.
"Ha-ha before that we still need to complete our mission." Allan smirked as he spoke like he is really planning something bad.
"What would that be?" I asked tilting my head.
"We are going to go back and recheck on whatever that was and fix the all the things we broke." He spoke with a dumb look on his face.
"Peter Wang lives this way right? See you around Allan." I spoke as I turned the opposite way and started walking.
"I will tell him the truth that you are not my friend but a stalker." He blackmailed and spoke louder to cover our distance.
"Then I will have to disclose your plan to steal his girlfriend this summer break. And how you broke that vase." I replied smirking at Allan.
"When did you here that?" Allan asked flustered twisting his arms.
"Well then I will take my leave. Carry on with whatever you were doing." I spoke.
"Don't you want to know what was actually in there? Are you going to spend rest of life being scared of what we saw? I'm scared too but not going in there and carrying that weight all life scares me even more. I will head down pick your path." Allan spoke trying to convince me.
I just met this guy I don't know if he is crazy or stupid to go back to that scary place. Somehow I find myself following his lead.
"You decided to come back. Let me know if you have trouble walking." He smiled gently and somewhat happy. At that second he looked more handsome than Peter Wang, maybe it's something he really wants to do.
We walked into the dusty basement things had settled down a bit, he checked if walls still holding up. It was scary at first but we eventually started picking up things which fell over. We found a stray cat badly hurt and the insulating wires of power back up being chewed on next to it.
"I think this explains the tremors." Allan spoke and carried the cat back to the surface.
"Let's call it a day. We should get both of you fixed up." Allan walked to exit dropping all of his excitement to a sad note.
He dropped me off in front of hospital
"See you around Nora." Allan waved and dropped me off in front of hospital and took cat with him.
After consulting doctor, I went back to where I had parked my car and drove to my house next to a beach. It was almost sunset and I was exhausted.
"You are back? What happened.?" Mike got up from bed and hugged me.
We talked about what happened on the whole day with Allan and how strange things happened on Peter's property.
"So you had a fun day huh? Leaving your boyfriend all alone?" Mike kissed my neck.
"I'm here now" I chuckled and kissed him back.
"I will win you over with special pasta I cooked." Mike headed towards the kitchen to get dinner served. Mike has a lot going with admission and new friends. He had his own things to take care of and I had to find a job to cover my expenses and take away my boredom.
The exhaustion put me to sleep early and slip into the nightmare and sensation I felt when I stared at nine feet tall figure with its eyes open making my entire body stiff and heavy to breathe the air which smelled like dead animal. And the moment Allan said, see you around Nora kept distorting in my mind. I woke up with stiff body at 12:12 am.
I got up and started to think about the entire day. And realized Allan and I never introduced ourselves. I just followed screams and yelling and found Allan breaking vase and checking out things. I asked him if is there any problem.
He was surprised to see me and before he could ask anything we heard a loud thud from basement and Allan mentioned that it was supposed to be just him here. So we went to take a look at basement. I didn't know his name nor did I mention mine the entire time, then how did he get to know my name.
The only person who knows my name is Mike who clearly never mentioned Allan or Peter. And also it's just been a day since we moved in. Harder I thought the less sense it made.
Days passed by and the day I Allan showed up arrived,
"You all healed up?" Allan asked cheerfully.
"Yeah. I'm alright." I distanced myself and walked to the counter in the grocery store.
"Um that's nice." Allan spoke awfully cheerful.
I left as soon as I could. Even though I had a million questions I wanted to ask him I felt avoiding him would be better.
He came out of the store and hit the garbage can. Then he got a call
"The house near a Blank beach?"
"She will not escape this time." Allan smiled creepily and got into the car.
The tingling sensation to know to what he is up to made me a stalker who followed him around all day to bunch of suspicious places to the arcade then to the pet store and then to a shady shop filled with torturing items, and then finally at the beach house.
What is he really up to, and everyone in this town seem to know who he is how is that? He is son a gangster or something.
This time he went for a long time, then came out.
"Did you finish the job?" a tall muscular man asked in deep voice.
"Yes sir, I grabbed her hair and tied her up. She will never both you." Allan answered seriously.
This is one of those situation where you walk away. I killed my curiosity before it killed me.
I had an interview in small shop which I got selected right away, and the owner answered a lot of questions about the town and how quickly they developed this land in hopes to expand old town.
"Miss Layla, pardon me I am rude. I think the town is a little weird in a way. I don't usually use these words but there is a strong feeling something isn't right." I asked the owner.
"Don't be, most of the people who live here might be offended by your statement but I'm not because I lived in much calmer places before and when I came back I could feel it. People here feel it's safer because of the old town. I would never advice you to stay there." Layla spoke cleaning up the shop with me.
"Why did they expand it anyway. To my understanding there isn't lot of population old town and they didn't build this place for tourist attraction either?" I asked.
"I'm not sure about that. Initially they did it to attract tourists but now they are saying crime rate increased and many of our people died and that is bad to our community." Layla spoke.
"That's understandable." I spoke.
"how did you get a house here?" Layla asked.
"My boyfriend is attending the college here. Considering I could be his future wife and share same house they let me be." I spoke.
"Yeah, that's one way to get here. But it's impossible if you have a criminal record or mentally unstable." Layla mentioned.
"where does this go?" I asked about the piggy bank and we continued with cleaning up.
That weekend, Mike wanted me drop him off to a party on my way home. I agreed and dropped him off and unexpected things happened. I parked near the entrance in a curve road, the house was on the small mountain. Loud music filled the air and the colorful lights lit the mountain. It was only around 20 people but they sure knew how to make noise. And the part had just begun.
"Hey! Mike. Did you bring more beer?" Kate asked my boyfriend as soon as he got out.
Dressed up in bikini with a transparent robe, holding glass of cocktail and glittered up. Not holding back, she hugs Mike and kisses on the cheeks. I wasn't surprised about it; after all I have seen this happen many times.
Somehow every popular girl wants to show off how close they are to Mike and pass down a judgmental look on me.
Peter Wang walks down to Mike and notices me,
"Who do you got there?" Peter asks,
"It's my girlfriend, Nora" Mike answers with bright smile.
"Hey Nora, come on in. Party is epic.", Peter Wang talks to me.
"I'm sure it is, but I'm I have other plans. Just dropping boyfriend and boxes of beer." I smiled and rejected his offer.
Mike takes up boxes of beer and hands over to Peter Wang,
"I am not cheating with that women, I barely know her. You know you could take up on the offer and join the party." Mike winked playfully nodding his head for the music.
"Call me if you want me to pick you up." I declined.
Mike kissed my lips as goodbye and clearly looking at me wanting to stay and at the same time understanding what I want. And as soon as he turned Kate kept him busy. He waved a good bye.
"Sorry, have we met before? Your face feels familiar." Peter Wang asks being unsure.
"No" I lied without giving it a second thought. Not only I knew who he was I even knew where he lived and their parent's history. Damn I felt like a stalker.
I turned my car and when I was about to leave,
"If you are going this way you are dropping me off Nora?" Allan opened car door and got in like it was his own. He did smell like booze and smiling like an idiot.
"Get off my car, stranger." I glared at him.
"Are you talking to me? Stranger? Ouch, that hurt." Alan turns to me with a surprise look.
"Yes, I'm talking to you Allan." I glared at Allan.
Peter Wang pops up in a window of my side enough to give a jumps scare.
"That's right you are Allan's friend who came to my home."
"Look even the great Peter Wang knows we are best friends." Allan blabbers with a smirk.
Peter gets pulled back from his girlfriend, May. They start to make out in the middle of the road. Love is blind and can make other people blind too.
I turned to Allan and he is about to cry by looking at them. So this the girl I figured. I couldn't make out anything in the dark. I thought the best thing to do is to drop him off as soon as possible and divert myself from that place.
"Where should I drop you?" I asked Allan.
"To the supermarket road." He answers and went quite.
That's pretty convenient for me, although he didn't mention anything he looked really sad. And it was bothering me, was she that good person or attractive what did he see in her girl to be that sad and crying.
Were they together, I needed answers, looking at him being non cheerful and not being his usual self was irritating so I broke the silence.
"how was the party? fun?" I asked.
After a very long pause.
"Yeah looking at how everyone dancing and making out was intriguing. So much drama."
"And you get slapped by your childhood friend and watch the guy she likes kiss another girl and another girl. While you drink as many shots as he kisses a girl and get drunk. It's pretty fun." Allan takes out his frustration in a sad and slow manner.
"That's not so bad if you ask me." I spoke.
"If you say so, stranger." Allan pouts.
"That's right we are strangers we only met once under certain circumstances for an hour. We don't have any common friends and we barely know anything about each other." I spoke in a single breath.
"Just say it you only like Peter Wang." Allan sulks and turn away.
"What is with you and Peter it's getting way out of line." I spoke angrily.
"Then why were you there? Peter Wang doesn't know you. You didn't come in. You were stalking like before weren't you." Allan spoke with a smirk as if he figured out everything about me.
"I was dropping off my boyfriend." I told him with frustration clenching the fingers on the steering.
"Yeah right. Imaginary one." Allan spoke mocking me.
I drove to the side and stopped the car.
"The supermarket is right here; you can get off now." I spoke as he got off and geared up and left without waiting for a thanks or goodbye.
I couldn't believe I was having so much emotions, mostly frustration and hate. I am level headed person and nothing people say or do, usually affects me but he pisses me off. I should stay away from this guy is the only conclusion I could think off.
But fate wasn't in my hand as he showed up with Mike the next day. The tension was still in the air and I was still pissed at Allan.
"Hey sweetie I'm so sorry booze was so different I drank a lot. I'm still feeling the high. Ha ha." Mike wobbles as he walks towards me.
Allan helps him to sit on sofa,
"Do you know this guy he kept bothering me to drive me home. I would have stayed a bit more. He said he wanted to meet you, Peter said it was okay for me to let you guys meet. You guys are friends or something. I didn't know you had friends here. I will kick this guy out if you just say the word" says the who couldn't even stand on his own.
"That is not what happened. I was dropping by and Peter asked me to drop him off since I know you. He kept bothering people to take him to his girlfriend." Allan spoke trying clear up misunderstanding.
"is that what happened. I did want to go home." Mike spoke and closed his eyes to sleep.
"it took an hour to reach your house. It's just 20 minutes' drive. He kept messing with direction." Allan growled at Mike like a cat.
"Come on, let's talk outside." I called Allan outside, offering him a seat in our balcony facing the beach.
"I'm sorry Nora. Yesterday I was just teasing you. I was pissed off actually." Allan spoke.
"What did I do to you?" I asked looking at how ironic it was.
"Well first you ignored me when I approached, then you stalked me for a whole day. Then you pretend that we are strangers." Allan spoke and I knew it looked bad, everything he had just told was truth and I had a reason to do so.
"That's reasonable thing to be pissed." I answered not denying anything including the stalking which I wasn't proud off.
"That's it you just accept it?" Allan looks surprised.
"Yes. It's true." I answered frankly debating whether or not to ask him how he knew my name.
"I thought you were going to deny. But why do you push me away Nora? I thought we could be friends." he gave a pause and asked.
"Why? Because I never told you my name, our conversation was so little one thing I knew for sure was that I never mentioned my name but then you end our conversation by calling my name. do you know how freaky that is?" I spoke and part of me wanted to step away from him.
"That's it, name?" Allan turned to me looked deep in my eyes thinking how silly it was.
"I moved in just few days ago there no one who knew my name not even my boyfriend's friends then how could you know me. And we never met before" I asked unable to hide my fear and anxiety.
Allan held my hand,
"That's not true. Nora that day was not the first time me met, we have met before. Gosh seriously how could you think that. How can you forget everything that happened.", Allan looked so disappointed and I couldn't remember a thing?
"What do you mean? When was it?" I asked.
"Well I will keep it brief. I was driving in the woods it was late night and I found you asking ride that your car broke down. We talked about few things and you ended up sharing name and hotel name you wanted to go. I dropped you off the hotel and got your car ready next morning and dropped off the keys to the receptionist." Allan told a pretty convincing story except I don't have any recollection of what he just narrated.
"If any of this is a lie. I'm going to kill you." I spoke in a rush as I heard Mike growling,
" Nora, water please."
I was about to go in,
"If you need anything call me, I have saved my number on Mike's phone. I should get going I have some work." Allan left.
"Okay" I replied in a confused state.
Allan came back while I was going inside near the door, standing too close Allan whispered in my ears.
"And one more thing. We kissed that night." Allan spoke.
"What?" I couldn't decide how else to react and my body froze to the sensation I felt and oddly my cheeks were flushed.
"You promised me that you will love me forever and stole my first kiss. I should get going." Allan gets back and I can hear him walk away and drove off and my ears feeling tingling sensation not wanting to believe his words with my cheeks red.
Why would I say that?
I blocked off all questions in my head and locked the doors. Convincing myself he is just messing with me.
The next day Allan visited the store I work in, it had a lot to offer customers for a small store, groceries, daily useable items, antiques and newspaper.
"Bill these for me Nora my friend." Allan took out a lots of item, torches, chips, mosquito repellent and many more.
"That's a lot. Going on a vacation?" I asked drawing out each item to bar code reader. Trying deliberately not think about the kiss he mentioned.
"No. But it could be a fun vacation for you." Allan looked at me with a mischievous smile.
"I have plans for the weekend." I dismissed still curious to know what he meant.
"You are about to be plan less person my dear. I picked this chocolate for you." Allan spoke with certainty which was weird like him.
"If that happens I will have a fun vacation with you." I smiled sarcastically.
"Get ready by 7pm, tonight." Allan spoke and paid the cash.
I gave a business smile as he left.
I came back home and ate lunch Mike prepared.
I borrow a book from library- "Stay awake or else I will kill you", my recent hobby. It's a book written by resident of the old town sharing her experience in the town.
I now understand what Layla spoke about old town. In fact, she was the one who recommended this book. The old town is known to be violent only at night time and peaceful normal place at day time. Almost like the safe place on earth maximum crime reported at day time is stealing or small frauds who are caught immediately.
But at the night things are different, people get robbed, mysterious suicides, murders and kidnaps. And culprit is never found and deaths are mostly not reported. There is lockdown which people take it seriously. That town is straight out of horror movie. I continued to read the book.
My phone rang and when I answered Mike was on the other side.
"Nora I don't think I can make it home today and we might have to cancel our plans." Mike spoke on the call.
Several questions flooded my mind as I was waiting for the clock to tick 7pm. Is it safe to go with him? Everyone knows this guy and thinks he harmless. Am I overthinking it? In this strange town I should be extra careful. I contradicted my statement as I packed my bag and got ready to go out.
Horn jolted my body he was 10 minutes earlier. I grabbed my bag and locked up the place. There he was in is dark green vintage car more like scrape the way he has maintained it.
" Where are we going?" I asked as I pulled the car door.
"Bashton's cabin in the west woods." He answered humming a song later.
The seats were quite comfortable and the car looked pretty neat from the inside.
"What are you thinking so deeply" he asked.
"What are we going to do there" I asked.
" Ghost hunting " he kept humming.
"Ha ha ha. Sure that's a funny statement." I glared.
" No I'm serious." Allan spoke toning his voice down and slowing down the car.
"What the hell man! didn't you had enough last time. That give creeps even after so many days. Stop the car I'm getting down here." I shouted.
"Oh come on do you really believe in ghost and stuff?" He scoffed.
"I don't but still it's creepy. I also got hurt last time." I spoke in anguish.
"Trust me you will feel way better this time. I will make sure you don't get hurt this time. And hopefully no jump scares." He spoke driving as we left the city.
"You were terrified last time." I reminded him with the facts.
" That's because it was real or something really scary. But most of them are just nonsense, people assume it's a ghost." He spoke.
"So how many were fake and how many were real." I asked.
"Well there was this teenage girl seem to be possessed and they locked her up. She scared the hell out of me then I let her meet her boyfriend she turned out to be a fine lady."
"Then there was this old lady having troubles with hearing faint noise and vibrations like earthquake she thought aliens were targeting her but it was just construction next house. She made a pot it was nice." Allan continued.
"Ooh oh I almost forgot a kid who would sleep walk and I suggested real doctor. It was beyond my capabilities." Allan kept going on.
" None of them are ghosts." I cut him off.
"True that's why I called you, to have my back just in case we encounter real one." He took a turn to the forest and the air got chilly
"I thought you called me to have a fun vacation. If I see a ghost one, I won't help you out like last time. I'm leaving with the car." I scowled and held my hands closer to chest to avoid cold.
"Okay Nora. Take my jacket it's in the back seat." Allan directed towards his jacket.
I pulled up his jacket only to notice a shadow following his car I'm not able to make out a face or what bike they are riding in the dark. My heartbeat stopped in a second and pulled the jacket bent down in my seat.
"And there was this crazy guy " Allan kept talking.
But I was too scared to look back and confirm anything. I started to sweat in the cold and Allan noticed that I wasn't talking and I had become unusually quiet.
"Are you alright? Should I stop somewhere" he slowed down the car to park in the side road.
"I'm fine keep driving." I spoke strongly. The bicycle took over from my side of the car and the chills came back I consoled myself it was nothing just someone bicycling I'm the middle of night in the forest. Right that makes sense. I spiraled.
I couldn't speak anymore. Why am I shaken up so much over nothing? The rest of the ride was in silence.
" Alright we are almost there." He spoke with little bit unsettled.
Finally, we reached it. I was hoping it would be more of creepy cabin but this was brand new and well lit with a car parked inside the gate.
Allan horned twice and the landlord came to get us.
"Hey, Allan. I thought you would be late." He smiled.
"I was starving for chicken soup." Allan smiled and took off his bag and locking the car.
"Who is this friend?" He asked.
"This is Nora my girlfriend and this is Mr. Finn he owns the cabin." Allan smirked and introduced both. Mr. Finn took that to heart he couldn't believe Allan having girlfriend.
"I'm not his girlfriend. Just a friend. Nice to meet you." I spoke clarifying and I could sense relief.
"I figured." He laughed.
"Whatever. Let's go in." Allan rushed in as if he had been here several times. He was really comfortable with him too.
After showing us the cabin with had two rooms for Finn and his brother and the other one for guests and lastly for storage purpose. And a living room cramped with all the chairs and hunting gears. And kitchen and common bathroom.
"I'm so hungry. I smell chicken soup from way up here." Allan smelled it from far away.
"Nora grab a plate and serve yourself before I empty everything. His chicken soups are so delicious you would never turn down seconds." Allan walked into kitchen area.
"Come one my wife doesn't eat seconds. You on the other hand, a pure glutton." Finn took out a plate and served me on the table.
"Yummy it's tasty and spicy too." Allan slurped.
"It's good Mr. Finn." I spoke as soon I ate one spoon and all my tensions were free and made me warmer.
"Thanks Nora, here have some more." Finn added extra onto the plates.
After we enjoyed the meal we relaxed in the couch resting whole body. Almost making me want to doze off, he didn't drug me or anything it's just exhaustion and crazy scares.
Wait so far no one has talked about what we are doing here my brain cleared the fog.
"Mr. Finn, what did you need us for. Assuming there something you need help with." I asked barely keeping my eyes open.