Jay lay on his bed for almost an hour, listening for Kimber's voice in the hall. Getting up to look through his door every now and then.
His blood trickled down his sides and dried to a crust. He tried his best to keep the wound closed but grew impatient.
Dart shared a room with him and he hated the idea of them finding out. They acted too caring when his jaw fell off. They didn't make a good mum.
He didn't want to stick around and resigned to creeping through the Harrow House, wrapping a blanket around himself and crossing his arms tightly around his waist.
Kimber's room was empty. Emmy was running around in the room next door.
He passed Benny, who remarked about his return and continued on his way. Jay kept checking his blanket for blood seeping through.
His legs shook when he went down the stairs. Micheal was making dinner and didn't notice.
Jay held his breath and took the second staircase to the basement door. Knocking as quietly as he could.
Will opened the door fearfully.
"Does Micheal want me for something?" He asked.
Jay shook his head. "Can you sew?"
Will nodded and Jay went inside and sat on the first chair he saw.
It was very dark and smelled like mould. When the lights came on, he could see the peeling layers of wallpaper.
Jay leaned against the table beside him, which was full of wires, cooler boxes, and old magazines. "Close the door," He said.
Will did, then approached the table nervously. "So... what's going on?"
Jay pulled away the blanket. His wound was mostly open, the hair-thread snapped and unravelled. Will's eyes widened, and he opened his mouth to ask about it before deciding otherwise.
He sewed Jay up with a hesitance to touch the flesh.
"Something wrong?" Jay asked him.
"No..." Will mumbled. "Did you take my iPod?"
"I wouldn't do that."
"Well, I barely know you. You're not even the first person I've asked."
Jay looked back to the walls. The ceiling leaked in the corner, littered with past attempts to stop it. "Are you a vampire?"
Will glared at him and he shrank away. Jay tried to regain his cool guy attitude as Will pulled the thread tight and tied it off. He then went to clean off his needle.
Jay watched him place the needle back into a small can that jingled with other metal trinkets inside.
The room had a lot of small sounds. Drips, creaks, crackles. There was a cheap radio in here somewhere. There wasn't a bed anywhere in sight.
Jay leaned forward in his seat. "Do people here, like, know what's wrong with them? Besides Kimber - she's dead."
"Um..." Will stood by the tap awkwardly unmoving. "Do you know what's wrong with everyone here?"
"Nobody tells me that stuff."
Will tried to stay as he was before Jay said that, but there was something more fixated about him now. He blinked less.
"Well? Do they?" Jay pushed.
"It depends! Micheal won't tell anyone, Benny can't really hide it, and Emmy doesn't know how hers works."
"Right..." Jay stood up slowly.
"What about you?"
Jay stared daggers into Will, who was overtaken by curiosity. "I know what deer bones look like. I'll tell you about me if you talk about you?"
Jay huffed and sat back down. "Sure. I don't know shit about what I am. I don't even know how I got here. I blacked out and put those guts in last night. If you tell anyone about this I'll kill you."
"Hmm." Will's hand slowly moved to a pen. "So you don't remember your brother?"
Jay stared at him blankly. He furrowed his brow. "What about you? You a Frankenstein?"
Will shook his head slowly.
Kimber slammed the front door so hard the windows shook. It was windy outside. She dropped a grocery bag on the kitchen table and began to unpack.
She put her sketchbook aside before taking out soap, four boxes of hair dye, and a tiny teal camera. It looked child-sized and plastic. Emmy ran up to see.
"For me?" She asked her.
"No, sorry," Kimber patted her on the head. "Well, fine. Tonight you can test it out." She handed it over and went back to unpacking.
"The hell have you been?" Micheal snapped.
Kimber jumped, thinking Hive was speaking through him for a second. Mrs Hive wasn't here tonight.
"For a walk."
"Yeah right..."
She huffed and took her sketchbook to the couch.
Jay came down the stairs. He was getting quicker at it again. He'd been wearing her beanie for who knows how long. She shot him a glare as he came to sit at the dinner table. He shot one back.
Will came in to help out in the kitchen for a bit before coming to sit next to Jay, who he handed his iPod to.
Kimber caught the interaction and put her book aside. "Oh, so now you've found someone else to experiment on?"
Will furrowed his brow.
"I thought he stole that. Are you bribing him?"
Will eyed Jay awkwardly. "We're just getting to know each other? I thought you'd get it, having so much in common with him and all."
Kimber tilted her head. "Were you killed?"
Jay thought about it. Tapping his fingers on the table. "I don't know if I'm alive."
Will went back to the kitchen as a timer went off. Opening the oven and pulling out the hot tray with bare hands as Micheal just watched.
"I wanted to help you," Will told Kimber sharply. "I'm happy you found somebody better at it. You can't stop me from helping others, but you can tell me what I did wrong when I tried it with you."
Kimber stuttered and scratched her neck. Eyeing everyone around watching them talk. The smell of food only brought more people in.
"Maybe I just hate being touched?" She hissed and went back to the couch.
Her chair at the table stayed empty until Micheal sat down and used it as a footrest. Jay couldn't sit still for the meal because his neck felt cold.
His hands reached for his necklace now and then, but he remembered he gave it to Will for testing. He resorted to tapping on the table for something to do.
Her voice had shook in a way that made him feel worse about his situation. He didn't want to speak to Will that night.
YOU ARE READING
What Not To Do In The Valley
ParanormalThis is a small town. If your brother ate your mum, send them into the woods. If you want fried chicken, you'll have to put up with the hooded figures. If you want to leave cryptic messages in the woods, bribe Micheal. You don't get many options out...