No rest for trouble

Chapter 5

Grace's father interrupted. "You said that you have apologized to that girl you got into a fight with. She then got into a fight with you." He summarized. "Yes dad. I don't know why she did that. I did apologized to her. You parents told me that I should." Grace reasoned, sitting at the dinner table. "Yes, but are you telling us the truth?" Her mother asked her. Grace nodded her head. "Are you sure?" She demanded. "Yes mom. I am. She started the fight in the cafeteria. You can ask the principal, after all, he saw it all happen." Grace claimed. "Well, at least your friend was apologetic to the girl she got into a fight with." Marxes' mother said to him. "Did she start another fight? That's what I want to know." Marxes' father grilled him. "The girl she got into a fight with jumped on her. I didn't think she knew what else was happening because it was behind the table Grace was sitting at." He answered with a calm voice.

Marxes went to take his plate off the counter. He listened as the adults discussed about what happened during their day. "I did some of my schoolwork and my homework during detention." Marxes said to his parents. "I thought that you weren't allowed to do anything in detention. You were lucky to have caught up with the schoolwork that you have missed yesterday." His dad told him. "Are you sure, that you're all caught up?" His father asked again him. "I'm nearly there. I think I could complete all of the other schoolwork tomorrow." Grace told her parents. "At least you don't let yourself get sidetracked by that girl that got into fight with you." Her mother said with a sigh of relief. Grace and Marxes slowly ate their meals. Meanwhile, the Quiet street cemetery was still. The old wooden building was left untouched. The foul smell is still coming from the old building. A section of the wooden floor in the unfinished coffin room was leaning on the wall nearby. The creature stood up from its hiding place. Suddenly, dark clouds covered the sky. It nearly looked like it was already night. The undead creature peeked through the boarded-up windows. The sky was perfectly dark. The creature tried to get out of the abandoned building. He started to push the different boards out of the way on one of the windows. The creature was careful while pushing. It also clung onto the boards it was pushing out of the way. The plastic covering the window that it was trying to leave through had a hole. As soon as the board was off the window, the undead creature took the plank with nails back into the building. The long piece of wood was left on the counter. The other boards were taken down. They were also put on the counter. The undead creature then pushed the plastic covering the window aside. He made the hole in the plastic barrier huge. It was just the right size for him to squeeze through. The undead creature went outside. He then climbed until he was on the roof of the abandoned building. He then snarled before he jumped onto the next house. The people living inside of the houses could smell the awful stench the undead creature left behind for a while. The creature jumped from house to house until it was one house away from Grace's house. It looked into one of the houses windows. His hands were on the roof of the house he was on. He watched as Grace went into her room. He snarled when he saw her.

Grace could hear a faint sound coming from outside. She thought it was a dog growling. The undead creature left off a foul stench. Grace held onto her nose. "Yuck!" She exclaimed. She went to the window. The was nothing on the roof of the house behind her house. Grace went outside of her room. The horrible smell was not gone yet. "Mom, dad, something stinks up here." Grace shouted. "Then get downstairs. I'll have a look." Her mother said as she came towards the door of her room. The smell slowly went away. Her mother opened her window and looked outside. She looked to the right and to the left. "Well, whatever was making the smell. It's long gone now. Besides, the smell is gone." Her mother replied. "Maybe you should leave your bedroom door open. That way it can air out the room." She advised before going back to the living room. She was watching a movie. After her mother left, Grace decided to work on some of her schoolwork. She felt sick by smelling the faint stench. Grace felt that she should work on her schoolwork during the next detention. She felt nauseated by the smell. Marxes also had trouble with a foul smell. "What is that horrible smell?" He demanded before running out of his bedroom. "Something stinks in my bedroom." Marxes said holding onto his nose. His father went to investigate. He went into the bedroom and had to hold onto his nose too. He went to open the window. Some cold fresh air came in. It helped to air out Marxes' room. "Mark are you sure that you didn't do anything that made the room smelly?" He pumped him. Marxes shook his head. "No dad. It wasn't me. The strong smell just came into the room a second ago." He answered. His dad left his bedroom door open. "Just leave your window open. The fresh air will help."

Having said those words, Marxes' father went back to playing a game of scrabble with the other parent. The smell quickly went away. Marxes went back into his room. He went to pick up a book that his dad gave him as a Christmas present. It was a small book that talked about some strange creatures. Marxes turned to a page that talked about a special kind of zombie. He read about how the undead creature terrorized a small village during the night. It was leaving a foul smell everywhere it went. The small story made him relax a little. While reading, the undead monster sat on the roof of the house next door. He had the fingers from his hands touching the roof. He snarled at Marxes. He was very mad. Marxes looked out of the window. He thought that he could hear a dog growling. He went to look out of the window. There was the faint scent of rotting food. Marxes looked at the house next door, and even the house roof. There was nothing there. Marxes closed the window of his room. The bad smell didn't bother him anymore. He couldn't smell the bad odor anymore. Grace held onto her nose. The smell of rotting food filled her room. Her window was closed. Then she heard a snarling sound. Grace quickly opened her door. She could smell the foul stench in the hallway. "Mom, dad something stinks here." She complained. "Come downstairs now!" Her mother shouted. It didn't sound like her mother's normal voice. It sounded like a muffled voice. Grace went downstairs. "Get outside quick!" Her parents said as they got their shoes on. Her father was carrying his cellphone in his right hand. Grace followed her mother outside. The whole family stood outside of the house on the sidewalk. Her father was calling 911. Grace looked around. There was no fire inside of her house. The faint smell of rotting food is slowly coming from the front door. Grace could smell it from the sidewalk. She looked at Marxes' house a few houses away to her left. She decided to call him. Marxes was enjoying reading about the unique zombie from his story. There was a buzzing sound coming from his phone. He picked it up and saw that Grace was calling him. Marxes answered the phone. "Hello?" He asked. The undead monster was watching him from the roof of the nearby house.

"Are you okay? Are you feeling well?" Grace questioned him. "I do feel a little bit better. But I could still smell a bad stench." He answered. "That's why I called you. My house is all smelly." Grace said. "What?" Marxes exclaimed as he stood up from sitting on his bed. "There was a strong bad smell coming from my room. It was reeking bad that we had to get out of the house." Grace said as a firetruck pulled up beside her house. The firefighters went to investigate. "I have been smelling a strange smell around here too. I think something funny is going on. Is your gas stove on?" Marxes queried as he went to stare out his window. He had it opened all the way and looked outside. He could see the flashing lights of the firetruck. The firefighters went to investigate the house. They carefully looked through each area of the house. "I hope I could get into the house tonight. If not, we would have to stay at a hotel." Grace continued. "This is very weird." Marxes said as he stared at the window. He could hear something landing on his roof with a short thud. Marxes turned around and saw something rapidly crawling over to the other side of the roof. "Marxes are you still there?" His mother asked him. Marxes held one of his hands over his phone. "Yeah mom!" He shouted back. "Hold on Grace. I will have to text to you. Just wait one minute." Marxes ended the call. Grace put her phone back into her pocket. Marxes went downstairs to see if his parents were worried again. "What's going on?" Marxes pumped his parents. "There's a firetruck that pulled up. And it looks like that the firefighters are investigating your friend's house." His father said as he went to the front door. He went as far as the front step. He watched as the firefighters brought in a giant fan. They used it to blow the foul smell out of the house. Grace and her parents watched as the firefighters worked tirelessly as they try to get rid of the reeking stench. Grace was happy when the stench started to die down. Suddenly, her phone rumbled. Somebody had sent her a text. It was Marxes who texted. "It's me." The text he sent said. Marxes thought about the story that he read. He could hear somebody sliding down the roof of his house and jumped onto the next roof. The smelly creature scrambled around to the back of the roof. There was a reeking scent that remained. He then remembered the story that he read. He started to type up another text and sent it to Grace.