Sixteen-year-old new girl, Alaska, seems shy and jumpy. So Lash and his friends decide to take her under their wing and make her a part of their friend group.
But when one of their friends ends up dying, and a mysterious figure keeps showing up aro...
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#Lash
Luke stuffs his hands into this pocket and pulls out a key. He wags his eyebrows and flashes a mischievous grin, making eye contact with all of us before resting his gaze on Alaska. "I swiped my Mom's key to the Bruce Mansion.
A sneaky smile snakes across Angelina's lips and she nods. "Oh, this'll be fun."
"The mansion's haunted?" Alaska says, her eyes widening.
"It's part of Waitsburg's history, so the historical society takes care of it," Angelina says, grabbing Alaska's arm and tugging her toward the door. Angelina points at me. "Grab the snacks and let's go. I'll text Maria and tell her to meet us at the mansion."
Luke, me and Cameron load our arms with snacks and games, and scurry after the girls while Angelina pulls out her phone, tapping away at the screen and says to Alaska, "You're gonna love it. There's no electricity at the place, but somehow, there's one light that's lit all the time. There's creepy dolls, and mannequins that move, and a ghost of someone who was murdered in the house."
"Seriously?" Alaska says, her voice a reverential whisper. "Are we supposed to be in there at night?"
Luke, who's carrying a stack of games in his arms, pipes up. "It's only a problem if we get caught. So let's not get caught."
Alaska glances over her shoulder at him, her eyes wide. "We won't get arrested will we? I promised my mom I wouldn't get in trouble when we moved here."
"Did you get in trouble in your last town?" I ask, smirking.
Alaska's face pales and she shakes her head a little too fiercely before turning back around and following Angelina down the stairs.
When we get to the bottom of the stairs, all the parents are in the living room. Mom's eyes meet mine and her brows rise. "Where are you going? I thought you were playing games in your room."
"We thought we'd give Alaska a tour of the town first," Luke says, flashing my mom an innocent smile.
Mom's eyes narrow. "And you need your snacks and board games to do it?"
Luke flashes me a panicked glance.
Angelina plasters a bored expression on her face. "I asked them to grab the stuff. I wanted them play the games in my room under the black lights. Kind of an ambiance thing to make it more fun."
"Oh." Mom darts a look at Alaska's mom. "Are you okay with them changing venue?"
Mrs. Miller glances at Alaska as if checking for confirmation. Alaska gives a noncommittal shrug, so Mrs. Miller says, "Yeah. I guess that's fine." Then she adds, looking at Alaska. "You'll call me if anything comes up? I can come get you if you need me. Use one of the kids' phones if you need to."
"I can loan her my phone if she needs it," I offer, and Mrs. Miller smiles her thanks.
"Okay. That's settled." Luke backs toward the front door, flashes one more of his charming grins, and is outside in a flash, with the rest of us following.
Luke hands off the games to Cameron and Angelina, who hop into Cameron's black Toyota truck. Me and Luke climb into Luke's truck, wedging Alaska between us on the bench seat, her knees angled toward me to avoid the truck's stick shift. Alaska and I both have our arms and laps filled with snacks. I pop a Cheeto into my mouth and glance out the window. His truck rumbles to life, and he takes off down the street with Cameron's truck following.
"Tonight's the perfect night for games at the mansion. Look. There's a full moon."
"There aren't really ghosts, are there?" Alaska says, eyeing the moon.
"We're about to find out," Luke says, turning onto another street. A few minutes later we slow to a stop and Luke points to the huge tan Victorian mansion on the corner.
The manicured lawns are surrounded by tall trees on the sides, bushes in the front, and more leafy trees towing over the building in the back. The yard is pitch black with only the moonlight illuminating the property, giving it a definite haunted vibe.
Luke opens his door and climbs out, grabbing several of the snacks from Alaska, and a backpack on the ground near my feet. When he closes the door, the sound seems to echo throughout the neighborhood. He winces and glances at neighbors as if looking for people peeking out their windows. We wait for Cameron and Angelina to join us, then Luke jerks his head toward the mansion.
"C'mon. It's going to be hard to explain the snacks if someone stops us on the street."
The mansion is a big, boxy thing with ornate molding under the eves and around the numerous arched windows covering both levels of the home. Each of the three upper-level windows facing the street has a small balcony with railing.
Luke points to something that looks like a white picket fence on top of the roof. "That's a widow's walk. Rumor has it Mrs. Bruce, the owner's wife, had it built when her husband died so she could go up to the roof and see his tomb stone in the cemetery."
"How did she die?" Alaska asks.
This time it's Angelina who pipes up. "I heard that Mr. Bruce killed his young daughter, and the second she died, lightning struck one of the trees, catching it on fire and sending giant splinters from the tree into the house through several of the other neighboring windows and homes like bullets. Luckily no one else died, but soon afterward, Mrs. Bruce noticed the baby's dolls always seemed to be in different places of the house. It got so bad Mr. Bruce thought he was going crazy so he hung himself from what was left of the lightning tree and ghosts of the little girl can still be seen at night."
Alaska's eyes widen, bulging from her face. "Seriously?"
Cameron's lips flatten and he elbows Angelina. "Stop it. Don't scare the new girl. You've gotta slowly work her into your macabre sense of humor. Don't throw her in head-first."
Angelina grins and shrugs. "Sorrynotsorry."
Luke climbs the creaky porch stairs and opens the door. The silence of the night seems to amplify the slow, loud creak of the door as it swings open, then he waves us all into the pitch black house with a flourish. "After you."
****
Oooh. Things are going to get spooky. What do you think is going to happen? Are you liking it so far? Let me know in the comments. I'd love to hear what you think so far :)
This story has been a departure from what I usually write. Definitely spookier than I'm used to. I'm a scaredy cat. Thank goodness I have a bunch of teenagers mocking me and encouraging me to go outside my comfort zone ;)
If you'd like to check out more of my mystery/thriller/suspense work, my main social media is under my main pen name: Susan Cady Allred at https://www.facebook.com/susancadyallred I'd love to connect with you there!
