The House

Chapter 7: Dying

Beth opened the door to her home, marveling at how much she'd missed the place. The paintings on the walls, her mom cooking in the kitchen, even the ugly yellow wallpaper looked beautiful. "I'm home," she called.

"Hi honey!" Her mom called from the kitchen. "If you're not too busy, I could use some help with dinner."

"Sure, mom," Beth looked sideways at Jake, who gave a noncommittal shrug.

"Told you. Time gets weird."

"Well we can't waste any more of it," Beth strode immediately to the stairs, "follow me."

Her mom walked out of the kitchen, rubbing her hands on a kitchen cloth. "Jake, hi!" She said in surprise, puzzled to see the grungy long haired assistant from the store. "What are you doing here?"

His eyes darted to Beth. "Uh..."

"He's helping me with a school assignment. A literature essay," Beth lied quickly. She darted to her mom and hugged her. Jessica hugged her back bewilderedly.

"I love you mom," Beth kissed her cheek, "missed you so much."

Then Beth ran upstairs, Jake following meekly behind, leaving Jessica scratching her head and wondering what had gotten into her daughter.

Beth opened the door to her room, and jabbed her finger in Jake's startled face. "Now, you can come in, but these are the rules. You will not touch anything. You will sit in the chair I will bring to you, and under no circumstances may you touch my diary. Understood?"

He could only snort. "You still keep a diary?"

"Understood, Jake?"

"Yes, yes."

"I was thinking about this the entire time we were in the house," chattered Beth as she opened her laptop. Jake sat down in the chair, observing the photos of Beth and her friends taped to the walls, the candles, the painted cups filled with stationery and the puppy themed pillows.

"The girl in the house was probably trapped there herself," Beth was saying as she opened her browser, "my idea is that she's lonely, and she's keeping people there because of it. What do you think?"

"I think you're right. That's probably why she allows me to go in and out. But then why does she let us out once we find what we lost?"

"That's what I asked myself too. Anyway this is a weird supernatural shenanigan that's going on in that house, but my best guess is that as a rule of the house, you can leave if you find your lost thing. What if she was the first? The first to lose something and not be able to find it?"

"Okay, that could be, but what are you getting at?"

"Jake, when Charlie gets out, there are still going to be more people getting trapped there. And there won't always be someone like us to get them food or help them out. And no one should be trapped like that. We need to find a way to end that house once and for all."

"Right...and how are we going to do that?"

"That house was old, really old. Did you see all the furniture? It was like it existed in the 1700's or so. We have to find it."

"Again, how?"

"By using my old friend, of course," she was already typing, tabs blooming up on her screen, "hello, Google."

"What will we do if we find it?"

"Destroy it, obviously."

Jake decided that determined Beth was one of the scariest things he ever saw.