The house on Pinewood Drive has been vacant for years now. Local legend tells of an unexplained death and the strange occurrences that started on the property soon afterwards. Andra Morris is new to the town of Inglewood. As a self proclaimed medi...
It's amazing how quickly a person's life can change. It happens so fast that you don't even realize it. You just wake up one morning and you don't even recognize yourself.
Tonight I sit all alone in a dark empty house. I would call someone but there's no one to call. I have burnt those bridges. Outside my open window, the rest of the neighborhood is anything but silent. It's strange to hear kids laughing and screaming, the sounds of normal people enjoying Halloween. Once I was one of them. That seems like a lifetime ago.
They all wear costumes and masks of different types. Some scary, some comical, and even a few of the more suggestive variety. As I watch them going about their business, talking, laughing, and going door to door, I can't help but compare them to my real life. Every day is Halloween.
School or home it doesn't matter. Different locations but the effect is the same. Everyone is wearing a mask. Everyone I know pretending to be someone they're not. I keep thinking of the relationships I've left behind me. At some point I thought losing them might be painful but there's only numbness. I welcome it. Feeling nothing will make it easier when I unmask the worst of them. Seeing what's behind the mask was always my favorite part of Halloween.
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After some discussion, Andra and Cameron decided to wait for Melanie's text at a nearby park. They picked up lunch and headed over planning to set up an impromptu picnic. Pulling off onto the paved entrance road Andra could see that the park was larger than what she had expected. It had been fenced off into several clearly marked sections. To the left of the entrance, she could see a baseball diamond and a soccer field both lined with rows of bleachers. People were just beginning to congregate on the soccer field. A yellow and white building sat squarely between the two fields with a sliding window set into the front. Andra assumed the brightly colored building must be a concession stand.
Directly in front of the entrance sat a sandy area filled with seesaws and a jungle gym. A castle-like playhouse sat in the center with a swinging bridge that ran between three separate towers. Children ran, screamed, and squealed their way across the structure diving in and out of invisible entrances placed at the end of each bridge only to reappear moments later from tubes at the bottom. On wooden benches placed around the outside of the play area sat several women in varying stages of vigilance. A few sat talking and laughing as they watched their children playing. More than one sat with their heads bent over cell phones. A few sat quietly just enjoying these last few weeks of warm summer weather.
Cameron turned the Jeep toward the right-hand side of the park. This side of the park was more tranquil in comparison to what they had already seen. There were gray stone picnic tables placed across a large expanse of freshly mown grass. Walking paths weaved in out of large elm trees and around a large duck pond. People were jogging here and walking their dogs. One couple rested quietly on a blanket. The young woman who looked to be in her twenties sat quietly reading a book with her back against a tree. The boy with her lay napping in the shade with his head on her leg.
