Castaway ➳ cth [EDITING/HIATUS]

Chapter 12

[Unedited]

I was overwhelmed. Why was she so strict to me?

As I entered my room, I saw how Michael was sitting there, pretending not to know about what my mother and I talked about. But I know he did.

His eyes were concentrated on the strums of the guitar. Although I didn't know him very well, his appearance and the vibes he sent out were flattering.

"Your guitar skills are impressive", I choked out and faked a smile. Shrugging, he disconnected the guitar from the amp and looked me in the eye.

"Thanks", he simply answered and hesitated, until he finally brought something else out: "Do you want to hang out some time?"

I chuckled. "I'm pretty sure we're hanging out a lot here." He smirked back and stood up. "That's not what I mean. Sure, I'm stuck with you in here for a couple of weeks, but you know... going out or something."

"Going out?" I repeated and smiled back. This guy wasn't afraid of anything, he just goes for it. I wonder why. "Is that a call for me to interpret this 'going out' thing as a date?"

Michael rolled his eyes and sighed, as if he was done with me already, but still searched for something good in me. "Oh god. You're totally insufferable."

"I know. When do you want to 'hang out'? And what did you have in your mind?" We both walked out of my room and stepped down the stairs.

"Right now?" Michael took my hand and pulled me outside. The weather was thankfully sunny and warm this time, so a jacket wasn't needed. We both walked, hand in hand, down the front garden.

My glance felt on the sidewalk, were I remembered the day I passed out and the monster of my father took my beloved sister with him.

The tears creeped out of my tear duct. I forced myself not to cry in front of Michael, and just shook and raised my head.

"Everything okay?" He asked slightly concerned.

"Yeah..." No. Nothing was okay. But I didn't want to tell him everything. We barely knew each other, and I don't want to irritate him with my past.

"Where are you taking me?" I breathed, annoyed by his hesitation. He only answered with a sly smirk.

After about ten minutes, we found ourselves in front of a tall building. The squared holes were supposed to be windows, but the glass was clearly missing. The splintered door was halfway open.

"What are you doing?" I tried my luck, but Michael still didn't gave me proper information. "You'll see", he said, pulling me into the building.

We finally stopped in front of the stairs. The house's façade appeared to crash into itself if we ever stepped further in. Not a very pleasant place to hang out.

"So", Michael finally announced and held himself on the banister to not trip. "I read about this building. They said it's haunted."

The fact that it was late noon calmed me. I wasn't a fan of haunted houses, however, Michael's presence made the little adventure more exciting and bearable.

"Hundred years ago, there was a huge family living in this very house", he slowly started to tell, "each member, grandmother, grandfather, aunt, uncle, parents, children and grandchildren got killed by a trio who was known for making trouble and murder. They said the mother killed one of the trio with a frying pan, but soon got stabbed with a ten-inch-long kitchen knife in the back by the leader. They said her ghost remained in the building and tries to kill every visitor, thinking it might be one of the two remained murderers."

I couldn't help myself, I laughed out loud. "You're so funny, Michael", I joked and stopped walking as my eyes captured a photography on the wall. It showed a huge family. An actual family used to live here. How scary. Maybe Michael wasn't lying about the myth?

"I guess you were right." No answer.

"Mikey?" I called out and looked in every thinkable direction, but still no Michael in my field of vision.

My stomach started to drop whenever I'm alone in a place that gives me big anxiety. The lack of his presence gave me the idea to leave and go back home. What if he got murdered by this creepy ghost he talked abou...

"GOT YOU", I hear someone screaming loudly behind me. I squeaked like a maniac, and tumbled backwards.

"God, Michael you scared the living shit out of me!" My palm was still pressed against my chest. I knew I'm not going to have the greatest time with him. Why did I listen to him in the first place?

"You're fun to be around. I love scaring you." He giggled, and I pretended to punch him in the arm. "You're a ruthless douchebag."

"I know", he imitated me from earlier with a high-pitched voice. "You wanna see the rooftop?"

"Rooftop?" I swallowed and stepped another set of stairs close behind him. I wasn't a fan of heights either. The wind grazed on my arms, and although the day was supposed to be warm, the temperature on the rooftop was fairly cool.

"It's beautiful up here." Closing my eyes, I lifted my arms, pretending to be Rose from Titanic.

"For me, it's not."

My eyes opened as I hear those strange words slipping out of Michael's lips. "Why?" I dared to ask and stepped in front of him.

"Couple years ago, when I was younger, I remembered coming up here..." The mood was instantly down for both of us, even though I wasn't aware of the reason why this was a terrible place.

"...a friend killed himself, right here." He pointed at the border of the rooftop and breathed out. I saw how he resisted the tears. "God, why am I telling you? I'm sorry. I don't want you to think I'm some sort of depressed or something."

Shaking my head, I snaked my arm around his neck. "You have to be sorry for nothing. I understand it's hard for you to think about that. You just wanted to show me something from your past, and don't worry, it belongs to the process of meeting someone. Let's get out of here. Let's lighten up the mood."

I was fairly surprised about myself. Did I just motivate someone? My mood was always the most negative one I've could ever think off.

I felt pride warming up my body as I just realized, I took a big step in changing a part of myself. Motivation.

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(A/N): Sorry for this crappy chapter. I just started to recover and getting more in to writing this book and I hope it wasn't very boring, although it's basically some sort of a filler.

Anyway, I'm going to remove the 'on hold' from the title, this book is back in process!

Have a great day/rest of a day!

-Ally