Beware of the Neighborhood.

21 - Behold the Misadventure

I stood on our front porch, my heart was racing and the crazy wind howled in my face. It was as if it was warning me to go back. Ever since I had moved into wheeler falls, night never seemed so scary. I glanced up and down the street again. There really was no one.

Now if you don't know how the street looks, let me tell you, it's cold, empty and dangerous at night. Our house is just at the end of the street, and then the hill starts, whereas on the other side, there is the straight road, connecting our house to the rest of the city. But that's pretty much it.

I looked down at my watch, which showed it was just ten minutes to ten. Well, at least it wasn't very late.

Okay, enough thinking. I thought.

I pulled my jacket more closely around me, quickly checked my flashlight, and most importantly the digoxin tablet.

I was ready.

There was no stopping me now. I made up my mind and crossed the road, all the time staring straight into the haunted house.

The front door of the house was locked. Obviously! I tip toed around the back till I was on the other side. The house loomed up dangerously above me. I realised now that ever since I moved in, I had never once seen this house from this close.

Surely I had been in there once, but that time I was in such hurry to look for Angela I had barely considered the creeps this house gave.

On the front, the house was dilapidated, with dark windows, rusty broken walls, but on the backside, it was something even creepier. Creepers and vines covered the whole house and the dried leaves crunched as I stepped on them. The backyard of the house was full of dead grass, wilted roses and lilies; they were a colour of dull grey, as if they had completely lost the will to live and stopped growing altogether. I tried to imagine the time when Dr. Dawson had actually lived here, with his wife and son. And a shiver ran down my back. I Shrugged. And I swear, exactly at that moment, even the streetlight seemed to flicker.

Just one lonesome tree stood right next to the house, its branches brushing the top window of the house, but that was it! Apart from it, the whole place seemed lifeless.

As I slowly approached the back door, it seemed as though the whole night was getting quieter since each and every sound started becoming more distant. I glanced back but somehow the backyard and the rusty iron fence, which surrounded the house, seemed even more distant. I looked down nervously but saw just the cold hard concrete steps leading to a straight old fashioned doorway.

The last time the cops had entered, they had entered through the back door. I still wasn't quite sure whether they had locked it. I reached out and pushed; the door didn't budge.

A trickle of sweat ran down my forehead. Was I really doing this?

I looked up and saw tiny crack just above the door. I reached out, sliding my hand slowly into it and slid the bolt back, opening the door.

Maybe I was too focused on going inside, or maybe I was too scared but at that moment I should have realised that it was highly unlikely that the cops will shut the door after coming outside, especially when the house was dilapidated and uninhabited.  And secondly it was almost impossible to lock the door of the house...from INSIDE. So if the cops hadn't done it, then who had locked the door?

Unfortunately if I had realised it at that time, I wouldn't have gone in at all.

I pushed and the door creaked open. Dust and cobwebs covered the doorway as I fought my way through them and went in.

The house was exactly the way it was when I had entered; first time. The back door opened into the living room, on my right side, stood the kitchen, and on the left, the staircase.