Watch Your Back

Chapter 6

Aaron felt that he should've argued with his parents longer instead of storming off to his room. Oh well. He had to wait for hours alone in his room until his parents fell asleep. Sneaking out of the house was no easy task. Aaron made a few sandwiches and grabbed a bottle of water to add to his backpack. His eye caught a picture of him and his parents smiling together. For a moment, Aaron didn't look anything like his dad. Hmm... Aaron thought. But just for good measure, Aaron wrapped a rag around his finger and pressed on the glass screen until it cracked. Then he went back upstairs and reasonably fashioned pillows to look like a person sleeping. He also downloaded an app on his phone to make it sound like someone breathing. Hopefully no one called him. The alarm system was on, so he couldn't open any windows or doors. Then he remembered the attic.

The last time Aaron had been to the attic was when he was six. He had to bring a storage box down. There were spiders and cobwebs everywhere. It was still the same when Aaron went back up. The attic was dark and had a low, pointed ceiling. Boxes full of junk littered the floor like garbage. And the cobwebs were covering every available surface. Aaron promptly stumbled over a box and fell into a cobweb.

"Where the hell do all these cobwebs come from?" He muttered to himself. Aaron soon located the attics' skylight. A dim ray of moonlight shone through the veil of dust and cobwebs. Luckily the window was big enough to crawl through. Aaron stood on a box and shouldered the window. It didn't budge. Aaron then forced his palms against the glass until it popped open. Aaron threw his backpack on the roof and pushed himself out the window until he was standing on the house's dark green roof. He could see all the tiny houses and the town hall and even the forest beyond the town.

"God, it looks so fucking perfect." Everyone took the asylum's haunting past and shoved it down their throats. If it weren't for the internet, he wouldn't even be this far. So Aaron slunk down the slanted roof and gently swung from the tree to his left. He climbed down the tree and landed softly on the grass. Aron then walked across the dry grass and started off down the road to the center of town.

Aaron's stomach was growling by the time he reached the middle of town and he swung his backpack in front of him to get a sandwich. But before he could reach the food, he walked head first into a pair of legs. Aaron screamed and pushed the legs away. Only then did he find out that the legs were wet. He took out a flashlight and shone it on his right hand. Sure enough, his skin was stained a crimson red. Aaron looked up and discovered that the legs were attached to a dead, bloody body. Aaron gasped in horror as he realized that this body's blood and other fluids were wiped on his face. Aaron doubled over and threw up on the road, right onto the body's foul-smelling organs, twisted and thrown across the road. Aaron wiped his eyes and stumbled away from the stench of organs, rotting flesh, and vomit.

Fifteen minutes later, he threw up again.

Twenty-five minutes later he threw the first sandwich at a bench.

Fifty five minutes later he arrived at the hill of the abandoned asylum. Aaron swallowed and began trekking up the weedy hill and towards the old, rusty door. He felt nauseous, like one of his parents were watching him. So he produced a blood stained hand from his pocket and pushed open the squeaky, old metal door. The first thing he saw was some sort of office to his right and a lobby to his left. He took a step forward and the door slowly closed behind him. Aaron took out his flashlight and shone it around the room. The smell of the blood on his face and the staleness of the building made him nauseous again. All was quiet until he heard a man singing quietly.

Blood, blood, gallons of the stuff...

Give them all that they can drink and it will never be enough...

So give 'em blood, blood, blood...

"What the fuck?" Aaron whispered. He had wanted to inspect the asylum, not listen to a creepy dude sing. There was a hallway straight in front of him. He began to walk forward, but then heard the door slam shut behind him. That's odd, Aaron thought, the door just closed behind me. It was all quiet until Aaron felt a heavy object strike his stomach.

"Ack!" Aaron landed on the dusty floor and looked wildly around. He pushed himself up with his hands and his feet swiftly and clumsily guided him to the door. Soon, Aaron felt himself sprinting from the asylum back into town. A terrible pain shook his stomach with every step took. Aaron immediately stopped running and threw up again. The moonlight was full here, and Aaron saw that besides the usual vomit, mixed in with the fluid was blood. Aaron squeezed his eyes shut and winced at the pain in his abdomen. He felt his vision go weary.

"Aw fuck, no! I can't...I can't pass out now! What if someone finds..." Before he could finish, Aaron fell face-up onto the road and closed his eyes. The last thing he saw was a tall man standing over him.