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August 29, 2015 Hackett House Upstate New York, New York
CASSIDY HACKETT HAD BEEN ASLEEP WHEN THREE PAIRS OF FOOTSTEPS WOKE HIM UP. His three cousins, most likely. Who else would it have been? Cassidy was surprised no one else in the house ever woke up from their loud footsteps. And by no one else, he was talking about Jedediah and Constance, his grandparents; Chris and Bobby, his uncles and the youngest two of the Hackett brothers (Chris was the middle child and Bobby was the youngest); and Travis, his father and the eldest Hackett brother.
The boy rolls over onto his back, staring up at the ceiling of his bedroom. He sits up and stretches, before getting up from his bed. He grabs his phone off of his nightstand and then walks to the door.
He pushes it open quietly and shines his phone's flashlight into the hallway. The footsteps had stopped by now and he could hear whispering from just down the hall. He walks out of the room and shuts the door as he makes his way down the hall. Caleb, Gabriel, and Kaylee were planning something. They've been planning something this entire week, but but he didn't want to leave his room the first few days to find out. Now was the opportunity.
He eventually reaches the room where his cousins were. He knocks on the door.
"Shit!" he hears Kaylee yell.
He then hears footsteps and the door shifts a bit as someone leans against it, but it does not open right away. "Who is it?" Gabriel was on the other side of the door.
"It's me," Cassidy answers, pulling on the door handle. But it doesn't budge.
Honestly, he wasn't even supposed to be awake. Cassidy's a heavy sleeper—he's never woken up at all during this week, not even once. What was different this time? "Why are you guys in there? The storage closet is for important things only, did you not read the sign bolted to the door?"
"This is important," Caleb replies, but that's all he says.
"Like what?"
"Like going back to sleep," Gabriel retorts. "Off you go, Cass."
"Gabe," Kaylee warns, giving Gabriel a look, "be nicer to him. He didn't do anything to you."
Gabriel says something in response to her, but Cassidy can't hear it. Then, the door opens just a little bit. He stares at Cassidy through the crack. "What do you want?"
