Unliving Love

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The Long and Silent Ride Home

Mike was easily going around twenty miles an hour over the speed limit. He was swerving around bends and even ran a few stop signs. He knew he could get away with it at this time of day as long as he stuck to certain roads, it probably wouldn’t have mattered even if he didn’t.

Jen was easily the more scared out of the two Mike was at least functioning, which was a good thing given the pace he was putting his car through. She however was sitting in her seat with her knees pulled up to her chin with her face buried in them, her feet on the seat, and her arms wrapped around her legs. When they initially started the drive she began to rock back and forth but her pace began to slow the further they got from the house.

“Jennifer!” He had been trying to get her to answer time and time again but she wasn’t. “Baby I need you to answer me. Are you ok? You didn’t get hurt did you?”

She finally lifted her face off her knees and looked over at Mike and shook her head. Her eyes were red from tears and she had a large red mark on her forehead from having it pressed up against her knees. “Whatever that was it wanted to hurt me, I could just feel it.” She took the back of her hand and wiped away the leftover tears from her face. “I have never been so scared. Could you feel it? Has that ever happened to you in there before?”

Mike glanced over at Jen and shook his head. “Nothing like that.” He looked up and checked his mirrors then took the exit to the highway. “I’ve seen things there before but nothing ever like that.”

“What happened when you and Wes were kids? What scarred you to the point of not liking the house?”

Mike looked to his left making sure there were no cars coming then he sped up as he pulled off the ramp and onto the highway. He waited a few more seconds then set the cruise and began the major part of the long ride home. He was still going well over the speed limit even being this far away from the house. “We were at a Halloween party.”

“There was a Halloween party there?”

“Yeah it was when it was abandoned it was actually something of a neighborhood tradition.”

“Why?”

“It was creepy and everyone heard stories of it being haunted. What better place for a bunch of idiot teens to hang out at night on Halloween?” He looked over at her and she was staring at him with a questionable look. “We had never had any real experiences there it was all just talk back then until Halloween night. The party started at around six or so just as the sun was starting to go down. It was like a countdown to the fun.” Mike smiled. “There was about twenty of us there Wes and I had ventured off on our own. Everyone stayed in a bunch in the down stairs but he wanted to go upstairs so I went with him. That was the first time we saw her actually. We had made our way into a room at the far end of the hall and when we opened the door there was just enough light coming in from outside that we could still make things out in the room. When we walked in there she was standing by this old old wardrobe. Mike paused and checked to see if the left lane was clear so he could get around a slow moving semi. Jen looked at him as if to say what happened next. “She was just standing there like she wanted to look through it but couldn’t. At the site of her Wes actually dropped the flashlight he had and when it hit the floor she turned to look at us. The look on her face as she turned she had this look of yearning on her face as she turned then and saw us… well it was like she had seen a ghost. Then her eyes settled on me and well I can’t really describe the look on her face then. She stood there for a few seconds and then she took off running and in about four or five steps she vanished.”