𝐎𝐍𝐋𝐘 𝐈𝐍 𝐇𝐀𝐖𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐒

seventeen

as nervous as sam was, she had to at least check in on heather. she knew there was no way el could've made all of that up for shits and giggles. she especially wouldn't have taken it far enough to lead the group to a random house. a random house that had a red door. a random house that could hold whatever scared the shit out of el so bad.

what she didn't expect was the rain to still be pouring as hard as it was. she didn't have a jacket with her and knew she would end up soaked with or without one. "we are here. are you sure this is the place you saw?" sam asked, putting the car in park.

"yes." el replied, preparing to get out of the car. "listen, if we see something freaky you need to pick up that radio and call the boys." sam said, slowly stalling to brace herself for whatever they might find.

this better just be a misunderstanding, she thought, because she didn't want to face something she didn't even know was happening. her original plan for the night was to go home, shower, go meet steve for a bit, go back home, and go to sleep. now, it seemed she'd be saving a life and then going home.

the three girls had made it up to the doorstep, although they rushed to get out of the rain, it took them a minute to actually knock on the door. to no avail, there wasn't an answer. again a knock. no answer. el and max took it upon themselves to open the door.

"what did we get into now." sam groaned, to which both of the girls ignored her. the group all made their way into the house, which was quite homey and comfortable to say the least.

light string music was playing in the back, and there were nicely framed family photos hanging on the walls in the hallway. the girls creeped up slowly to one photo, a photo of heather and her parents, they were looking so happy to be together.

sam and max had slowly looked at each other, then looking over to el who was staring intently at the photo. "this is her house." max announced.

"what?" el replied. "heather's house." max added.

"Great." steve said, rubbing his eyes. "that's great."

loud laughter echoed through the house, almost scaring the three girls who had been standing in the middle of the hallway for a minute. "what's in there?" el wondered aloud.

"isn't that cute, huh." a familiar voice said. sam's heart almost went into her throat at the sound of it. the voice belonged to billy. the three stood just outside the dining room, and watched as everyone at the table was smiling and laughing. "he's so funny." the woman said, and then it was like their invisibility cloak was gone and everyone in the dining room finally acknowledged their existence.

sam had barely even noticed that el and max had each grabbed onto her hands, squeezing them tightly, and just like that it seemed the tension in the room had risen. as soon as sam heard his voice again, it seemed like it was fake. like it wouldn't be something he would say. "max. sam." billy announced, and then sam remembered her appearance.

"we didn't mean to...barge in." sam said, finally speaking for the three of them.

"we tried to knock, but...maybe you didn't hear us over the storm."max added, el releasing a bit of pressure on sam's hand. "i'm sorry, who is this dripping all over my living room right now?" the older man finally spoke.

sam slowly released both girls hands, trying to seem more collected than she was. her mind was racing a hundred miles per hour.