Natalie's First Home (short story) [completed]

When she got home..

When returning home, she found Duke who was laying on the ground panting like he was out of water. She walked into the kitchen to check to see if he had water and sure enough he did. Why was he acting like this? She just didn't understand. She let Duke out the back gate and went with him to make sure he was okay. 'Gosh this cool breeze feels amazing' she thought to herself, outside was so much nicer than inside that old house, that was humid, and smelt of mothballs. She sat down in one of the patio chairs off the back porch, and watched Duke sniff along the back gate. He didn't seem to like it here, and he didn't wanna be here alone that was for sure. Then there was a bark, sounded like Duke, but Duke looked at Natalie just as she had looked at him. She stood up just so she could see over the gate and there was Terry, her regular at Cecila's. 

"Hello there." Natalie said.

"Hi" he said.

"I know this is awfully forward of me, but when I go to work, my golden retriever Duke does NOT like being left home alone, he's only a puppy but he doesn't ever go in the house, he only chews on my one slipper, he's a pretty good dog. But he doesn't like to be alone. So I was wondering if you could watch him during the day while I'm at work?"

"Well ma'am when your at work, I'm usually there too, so I don't know how that would work out.. But he can stay here with Steffie, my dog. She can keep him company." He said with a smile. 

Natalie was grateful. Terry seemed to be becoming a good friend, and Natalie was glad she was making friends so fast in such a new town.

Duke went to the bathroom and after awhile of being outside he came up beside her and layed down on the deck. She wanted to go inside so she stood up, "come on Duke, let's go inside." He hesitated but reluctantly came in. He followed her to the kitchen and sat and watched as she prepared herself some food, she put a Stoffers Mac N' Cheese in the oven, turned it to 350, and went to go sit down at the table and read. About two pages into her book the doorbell rang. You'll never guess who it was..

"I just had to see you, and my grandpa owns half the town so I knew I could find you here, not to mention he told me you were his new next door neighbor, he said your a 'lovely lady', I think gramps has a new crush." Cale said.

"I had no idea Terry was your grampa, but yeah he's a nice guy and I'm really appreciative he's going to let Duke go over and play with Steffie, he doesn't like to be alone. Wanna come inside I'm just heating up some mac n' cheese." 

"Yes ma'am."

He walked through the door and shook his head. 

"What?" Natalie asked, "Oh, it's nothing, it just feels.. Off in here.." Cale said, he didn't seem to comfortable.. But he seemed to shake it off.

They both sat down at the table in silence, Natalie read her book, and Cale just thought. He really liked Natalie, but something about her.. Seemed dangerous maybe? Or unsafe. Either way, they had chemistry and they both knew it. And Cale's grandpa loved her! Which was his only living family left so it meant a lot that he liked her. DING! The oven went off, Natalie jumped, startled, but went and turned the oven off and pulled out the mac n' cheese and set it on the table.

"Hungry Cale?"

"Yep, last thing I ate was delicious biscuits and gravy!" He smiled.

~Next morning~ 

Natalie woke up in her bed with her pajama's on, but she couldn't remember too much of the events from the night before, last thing she remembered was pulling out the mac n' cheese out of the oven. She turned over, Duke wasn't there.. But Cale was. 'Oh no!' she though 'I did not have sex with him!' She turned back over to pretend she was still sleeping until Cale woke up and then naturally either snuck out, or woke her up. When she turned over she saw Duke.. On the ground. 'I'm surprised Duke didn't kick Cale to the floor!' she thought, he ran the other side of the bed. But this was good. It meant Duke liked Cale just as much as Natalie did. Just hopefully she didn't screw everything up so early!

~2 hours later~

'Ugh, just because I don't have work later doesn't mean I wanna lay in bed all day!' Natalie thought, thankful today was Saturday and she didn't work on Saturday's or Sunday's.

~1 more hour later~

Cale stirred in the bed. Stretched. Then awoke looking around 'Why am I here?' he thought, 'Oh no! I didn't have sex with her, did I? Why can't I remember anything' He was just as confused as Natalie, he didn't know if he should just leave or wait for her to wake up, or wake her up. He just wanted some answers. He coughed. Natalie turned over and looked at him.

"How long have you been awake?" Cale asked.

"About three hours, I didn't wanna wake you, you seemed so peaceful!" She said with a smile.

"Well how nice of you, why are we in bed together?"

"Oh great," She said, "So if you don't remember, and I don't remember we're screwed. We both have our clothes on so let's just assume we didn't have sex. I have no idea why neither of us can remember anything but let's go downstairs and see if we had anything to drink with our mac n' cheese." 

They both got up and walked down stairs. Duke jumped up and went with them. Natalie slid open the back door and let Duke out, then headed for the kitchen, there was the pan of mac n' cheese, still completely full. No wonder she was still so hungry, but that didn't make any sense at all. This was crazy! SMASH! "What the hell was that?" asked Cale. "I have no clue! But I'm gonna find out!" Natalie ran into the room where the sound came from and in the front hall in front of the door and the stairs was a curio cabinet and it fell. Behind it was a golden vent, and different color paint than the rest of the house, sort of a ugly forest green that was fading. 

"That's fucking weird!" Cale said. 

"I'm kinda scared, go grab a flashlight."

Cale went into the kitchen and rummaged through some drawers and came back with a flashlight in one hand and batteries in the other hand, putting them in the end of the flashlight.

"What now?" Cale asked, "Well look in there!" Natalie replied.

Cale slowly got down on his knees and Natalie crept down behind him, he pointed the light in the vent and found... Nothing. There was nothing in there. They both sighed. It was pitch dark in there, even with the flashlight and the vent seemed to go on forever, but there was nothing in there and that's all that mattered. Natalie got up and walked into the kitchen yelling to Cale that they needed to get rid of the curio cabinet cause it's just going to keep falling and it must have a broken leg. Cale kept looking at the vent, there was something off about it. He squinted, and scrawled in cursive in tiny tiny engraved writing on the top of the golden part of the vent said: My dear sweet Julia. 

"Natalie! I think you should come here!" Cale yelled to Natalie.

"What?" She asked, "How much do you know about this house and who owned it before you?" Cale asked.

"Well everyone that's owned it since that girl went missing in the early 1900's has moved out quickly after moving in." She said, "why?" 

"Well because do you know what the girls name is that went missing?"

"I don't think the guy that sold me the house mentioned it, but I get this odd feeling it's like Jennifer, or Jesse, or something.." She trailed off thinking.

"Julia?" Cale suggested.

"Yeah, that sounds right, did you know the story?" Natalie asked.

"No, but it's written right here."

Natalie bent down and looked at the mini engraving. Her eyes widened. She was suddenly scared.

A/N; I know this is kinda a crappy ending that leaves you wondering, but I'll update again soon. I promise(: