Season of the Witch

Part 2

Second chapter:)
Remember to check out rwprincess on tumblr! I had a lot of inspiration from them!
Word count: 1488
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Stella tugged on your sleeve while you were at your locker. "Meet in the auditorium, after 4th." She whispered to you. In light of the news that Tommy Milner never made it home last night, she was calling you all together for an emergency meeting. The back of the auditorium was a good place to lay low, particularly because they were preparing for this weekend's production of Bye Bye Birdie, so all of the attention was focused on the stage rather than the four of you lurking in the shadows of the back rows. She produced the withered book she had found in the Bellows' basement last night from her knapsack. You and Chuck jumped back at the sight of it, but Auggie rolled his eyes, clearly over this whole situation.

"Stella... Please don't tell me that is Sarah Bellows book. Why do you even have that," You asked incredulously even though you knew no answer would be good enough for you.

"I wanted to read it. You know, her scary stories, but... a new one appeared last night."

"What in the hell are you talking about?" Chuck asked, and she handed him the book, open to a page with a story titled Harold. He sat down in one of the seats and you took the one on his left while Auggie sat on his right, looking in disbelief at the dark reddish brown writing on the page. Stella dropped into a seat in the row in front of you, turning sideways and backwards to face you and Chuck as he examined the book.

"It wasn't there before. The writing was wet. It-it did feel like blood, thicker than ink."

"How could you eat that?" Auggie ignored Stella and asked Chuck, who was stress-eating some Halloween candy. "Do you know how many body parts are in there? Seven." Chuck looked at him for a beat, still chewing, and then back to the story in his lap. Auggie turned to Stella, "I read it in a magazine."

"Ooh. He turns into a scarecrow? Fresh twist!" Chuck wasn't taking Stella seriously either. He clearly thought it was another one of her stories, but you'd edited enough of her work to know her handwriting and this scrawl was completely different from her own. Stella leaned forward, impressing that she was telling the truth.

"Okay, it's not a twist." Chuck looked up, mid-chew, and you leaned forward towards Stella together. "I told you. The story...i-it just appeared. Tommy didn't even show up to school. It's like he just..." She looked around shiftily, "disappeared."

Ever-rational Auggie gave a small sigh, "Everyone knew he was eager to go shoot some Commies." He stood up out of his seat, removing himself from the conversation mentally and physically. "Maybe he just, I don't know. Left early?" Auggie distanced himself from you three and leaned against the wall near the door, shifting and smoothening the sleeves on his white-collared gray sweater.

"There was that room," Chuck began, closing the book. You knew what he meant. He had told you more about it when it was just the two of you, walking to your house after dropping off Ruth at theirs.

"Just drop it," Auggie, who suggested from behind you and Chuck, rolled his eyes at the remembrance of the room.

"No, tell me," Stella insisted.

"In the house, when I was hiding," Chuck slid the book back over the seats to Stella, "the room was old, I mean new, perfect. Like when they lived there." He started gesticulating wildly and stood up, no longer able to contain his nervous energy. "And I saw this-this old lady and this dog and they were staring at me with this-" He was pacing in the aisle now, but looked up when Auggie cut him off.

"Listen to yourselves; nothing happened to us in that house except what Tommy did to us. If he's gone? Good riddance. We should never have gone there. You should never have taken the book; we let a...ghost story get in our heads. That's all it is. Hey, guess what," Auggie looked towards you, "now we could get rid of the list." You laughed slightly to the reference about the list you had made but it still wasn't enough tot calm your nerves. You wanted to be reassured by his words, you really did. Auggie was usually well-informed and usually right, but it still did nothing to assuage your fears.

You could tell Chuck felt the same way. He was still looking around wide-eyed and panicked, reliving his experience from last night. Auggie excused himself and darted out of the theater quickly stating he'd missed enough class as it was and that this was ridiculous. Stella stayed in her seat and kept tracing her fingers over the cover and its closed pages.

You stood up, going to reassure Chuck who was still pacing in the aisle, making small movements and muttering to himself while he chewed on his thumbnail.

"Hey, hey Chuck, are you okay? Should we leave?" You asked him, but he shook his head. He was still processing the situation. Stella announced that she was going to leave, to go off-campus and try to find out more information...and to return the book where it belonged. "I don't think that's a good idea. You can't go alone." If what Stella said was true, if the story really just appeared and Tommy was in it and now he was gone...you didn't want to risk her disappearing, too.

"I won't. I'll go home, get Ramon. I'm sure he'll come with me." You nodded and she slunk out of the auditorium as well.

"Chuck!" You hissed, interrupting him and his movements, "Are you okay? You're starting to freak me out."

"No, look!" He put his hands on your upper arms and led you back to the seats, compelling you to sit down with him. However, he couldn't stay still and started bouncing his knee, looking around hastily. "I know what I saw. It was real. How could I dream that? I don't dream wide-awake, hiding in a closet, Y/N. It was real. It was bright. I saw them so clearly, and then...then they weren't there." He had taken his hands off you to talk with his hands, gesturing erratically. He looked at you with those dark, pleading eyes, and your fear only grew.

You knew he was serious, his traumatized expression told you that he believed every word he said.

"Chuck, I- I believe you," You said softly, not breaking eye contact so he would know it was true, that you wholeheartedly offered your support. He nodded in acknowledgement, then continued speaking.

"If...if what Stella says is true, what if something awful happens to all of us? The old lady and the dog were real, I know it. And the way they just stared at me...I-it was like they could see into my soul. Even if they didn't exist out of that moment. Man, I think that house really is haunted. I mean, how do you explain us getting out of a locked door with no one on the other side?"

You placed what you hoped was a reassuring hand on his still-bouncing knee in an attempt to calm him, even though he was making his panic spread to you like some sort of contagious disease. He looked up, into your face and wet his dry lips. "What are we going to do?" His eyes searched yours for a plan.

"I don't know, but I'm sure we'll think of something. Stella said she's going to return the book, right? If a ghost is pissed that you stole their stuff, giving it back to them should solve it, right?"

"I don't think this works like it does in the movies." He whispered fearfully to you. You didn't want to admit that you agreed, even though his words left a shiver up your spine.

"Look Chuck," you started, not daring to break eye contact. "I have my trust in this plan. Okay? I believed you about the old lady and dog, now I need you to believe me. Can you do that. For me?" Despite saying all this stuff to calm Chuck down, you weren't sure if you believe it all. He was right. Life wasn't a movie. There was no guarantee this would work; it probably wouldn't.

Chuck looked at you, his eyes flickering in between your two. He was terrified; you had never seen him like this. You hated to admit it but it scared you.

"Okay... We've got this," Chuck finally answered, even though it sounded more like a question than a statement.

"Yeah... we do."