The Promise

Chapter 6

We laughed and joked as we approached the museum, giggling about past memories and cringy games we used to play as kids,
"Fuck me you were a weird kid," laughed Wade jokingly pushing me,
"I was weird??" I said, eyebrow raised, grinning, "who was the one that was convinced Mrs April was a witch out to kill us?" Wade let out a cackle, flashing his pearly white teeth.
"She was!" He replied eyes sparking,
"Yeah yeah" I muttered smiling up at him.
"I dunno what you expect to seen in here," I complained as we climbed the stairs leading up to the large green door of the house of wax. I rocked back and forth on my heels as I watched Wade dig into his pockets for something before pulling out his key and running it up the side of the wall.
"It is wax! Like literally." He exclaimed, turning to face me. I giggled at his nerdiness, smiling as I watched him grin and step forward towards the door and pushing it open. My smile quickly turned into a frown at the thought of him breaking in.
"Your not gonna go in here, are you?" I asked nervously.
"Yah!" He replied as if it was the most exciting thing ever. I rolled my eyes as he quickly walked in, dragging my feet, I slowly followed.
"Doesn't 'closed' mean they don't want you in here?" I asked, trailing behind Wade,
"Relax, it's just a museum" he replied easily as he explored the room, his inner geek shining through.
"What if someone's here?" I questioned anxiously,
"Hello?" He yelled, letting his voice echo around, "Anyonee in here?" There was only silence in response. "See, we're fine." He reassured me as we crept further into the museum.
"Wow, how cool is this? Everything in here is wax, the floor, the walls, look at this, this is wax!" Honestly. Could this boy get any nerdier?
"Yeahhh" I replied, boredom showing.
We wandered around a bit more, wade gazing in amazement at every single detail of this place. I must admit it was pretty cool, each and every object was beautifully made, the sculptures of people crafted so delicately you could barely notice they were fake.
"Who are these people?" He asked semi rhetorically.
" I dunno," I replied anyway.
"Aren't there supposed to be famous people in a wax museum?" He asked, walking over to one of the figures, "I don't recognise this guy" he said with a chuckle as he ducked his head down to meet the mans eyes.
"Trudy opens house of wax... Trudy's wax carvings are a hit at the state fair... Trudy and husband are expecting their first child" I read, gazing up at the newspaper articles framed on the walls in amazement. "Since when does a wax sculptor a celebrity?" I asked, turning back to look at wade.
"Small town I guess?"
"Hmm, yeah" I replied, "you thought anymore about Carly and NewYork yet?"
"I'm not saying no, I just haven't decided yet." He replied, glancing at his feet. "Oh no! There's a fire! Help me Jessie! My skirts gonna catch on fire!" He said in a silly voice holding his lighter beneath a small statue of a ballet dancer.
"Wade!" I snapped, silently appalled at his behaviour. "Cut it out! Please? That's not cool" I said as I bent down to inspect the damage.
"Hey Jess, here's a dog for you." He said, approaching the model of a gorgeous black and white dog. "Hey puppy, you a little wax dog too?" He continued, "what up dog?" He asked as He reached his hand out to pet it.
Suddenly the dog came to life and let out a vicious bark, "jeez!" Wade yelled, so startled he tripped over his own feet and fell to the ground. I burst into laughter at his antics, watching as the dog ran into the kitchen.
"Now that is cool" I said as tears of laughter streamed down my face. Wade gestured embarrassedly and whined slightly before saying a sarcastic,
"Haha laugh it up." I wondered over to a table full of weird and obscure wax models bending over in order to look at them more closely. "What's a dog doing in here anyways?" He crouched from behind me.
I picked up the weird half snake half lady model and dusted the cobwebs off with my hand, smiling as wade ran his hands over the piano. Before sitting down to play it. I lifted a few more of the models up and moved them upside down, reading the neat scrawl of writing embedded on the bottom of it.
"This Vincent guys quite the artist," I said as I observed the paintings and models labelled with his name, I ignored wade as he continued play childish tunes on the wax covered piano.
"Yeah, I think this Vincent guy needs therapy." Came Wades snarky reply. He stood up from the piano and wondered over to the dining table, running his fingers over the smooth wax.
"I mean, look how detailed this is, tell me this doesn't look real." He said lifting up a fruit and glancing at it in amazement."
"Wade babe, I don't really care, I mean not that it's bad or anything, I just think that everything made out of wax, don't you think that's a little weird?" I smiled as he snatched the lighter away from the wax fruit, acting as though it was never there, before turning to me with an adorable frown, he then turned and looked behind the door, lip quirking up into a smirk as he stared at two highchairs, one labelled 'Vincent' and the other labelled 'Bo'.
"These aren't wax," he said looking up at me,
"Ugh whatever" i complained turning around to go look at more pictures.
"Hey, when do you think the last person was here?"
"A while probably, " he replied, I wondered over towards an old mirror and rubbed away at the dust.
"Ah!" I gasped suddenly, looking round in terror as I searched the window for the face Id seen in the mirror.
"What? What is it?" Wade asked hurriedly as he walked towards me.
"I saw someone!" I said as we both approached the window,
"Probably just a wax thing?" He tried to reassure me, backing away from the window and over to me.
"No, no! It wasn't a wax thing it was moving and it was freaky looking!" I exclaimed.
"I'll go check it out." He said as he turned away from me and began to walk towards the exit.
"Wade! Where are you going? Don't leave me, c'mon." I said, terror slightly seeping into my voice.
"Stay here." He said, his voice leaving no room for argument as he walked out the door. I sighed as I realised I was alone in the creepy museum, I shut the door behind me and leant against it, looking at the figures with trepidation. Everything seemed much creepier now that I was alone.
I wondered back towards the dreaded window, heart pounding in my chest. I smiled as I peered out and only saw wade shrugging at me as if to say there was no one there. I walked through a doorway, bracing myself against it slightly before wandering through and looking around at all the waxy products. I jumped slightly at a loud rattling sound, but immediately relaxed when I saw it was just Wade rattling at an old trap door like thing outside. He once again shrugged before dissapearing behind the window frame. I walked into the kitchen, finally starting to relax, I looked at what appeared to be a wax maid, reaching up to dust the top shelves, I walked around, becoming slightly on edge as I heard more and more creepy noises, I turned around in order to get a look at where they were coming from. Suddenly there were to sharp taps behind me, terrified I turned round, only to come face to face with a half melted wax figure.
Letting out an ear piercing screech I shoved the figure, breaking it as it hit the ground, and sprinted for the exit, i ran out the door and straight into Wades arms.
"Damn Jessie, what's wrong?"
"This- this place is freaking me out!" I yelled panic etched into all of my features.
"Calm down, there's no one out here." Wade said in an attempt to placate me, hands gripping my biceps on each side.
"Please, I just wanna go! " I said as I attempted to get out of his grip.
"Okay, okay well to to the station." He said, grabbing me by the hand as I pulled him down then stairs, looking behind me just to make sure we weren't being followed. We made our way down the the old gas station, my heart still racing.
"Where's Bo?" I asked as we got there,
"I dunno, but we really need this fan belt, I'm just gonna go in."
"Wade, that's not a good idea..." I trailed off as he walked over to the garage door and yanked it up before walking over to the large selection of fan belts.
"I still don't think this is a good idea..." I muttered as he searched around looking for a belt.
"What?" He asked almost outraged, "the door was unlocked, he said he'd be half an hour and it's been 45 minutes, I'm sure he won't mind." I began to walk off when his words called me back.
"You know if your boyfriend and his yes men hadn't turned up it could've been just us,Carly, Paige and Blake. None of this would've happened."
"Now is not the time Wade."
"I just don't understand his beef with me? I've always tried to be cool with him." He whined and he reached over to replace the fan belt he just took with a different one.
"Nick has beef with everybody, you just can't take it personally, he'll warm up to you eventually."
"Yeah i guess..." He mumbled.
"Nick just struggles to deal with things sometimes, Carly's parents made it so he thinks of himself as the bad twin, and then plays himself up to it. It's not his fault"
"Hmm" was the only reply I got. I sighed as I looked out the garage window,
"God I hate the winter, it's almost dark already!"
"He's got everything but a 15 inch." Wade said moodily.
"Don't worry, we can just use a 16 inch. We can make it work somehow " I told him, smiling as he reached for it.
Suddenly a voice appeared behind us.
"You planning on stealing that?" Came the rough accent.
Both me and wade turned round suddenly, wades eyes searched mine for what to say before he turned towards Bo and said;
"What? No, we just didn't know how much longer you were gonna be and y'know we didn't wanna interrupt again. I left some money for you on the counter but you don't really have the right size, you don't have any 15 inches."
"I do at the house." Bo said bluntly.
"Look, I hope your not getting the wrong idea that we're in here." I said as I walked past him and into the main section of the gas station.
"No, it's okay." He said as he began to walk in step with me. He snatched the money off the counter before turning to Wade.
"Does that cover it?" Jeesh, wade really was giving his man attitude.
"Close enough." Came he mans clipped reply. "I'll drive you up to the house to get the one you need, it's only a couple of blocks."
"Yeah, alright" I said, placing my hand in my hips.
"You keep Fanbelts in your house?" Wade questioned suspiciously.
"Well I get things delivered there and not here... Look if you wanna use the 16 that's fine by me." He snapped back in offence.
"No, no, no, no,no,no it's okay, Thankyou" I said quickly. We joined the man in walking toward the door before wade stopped us.
"Hey do you mind if I use your restroom real quick?"
"You can use the one up at the house, that ones out of order." Bo replied, gesturing up the hill. He then turned and lead the way over to his truck, Wade placed his hand on the small of my back before nudging me along after him,
"So is it too late to sign Jessie up for that beauty pageant?" He joked glancing up at Bo.
"Unfortunatly it is; cause you would've won hands down." The man flirted.
"Aha oh, Thankyou" I said with a nervous laugh.
"So that house of wax was pretty cool." Wade said stupidly as we continued to walk.
"You went inside ?"
"Yeah, it was unlocked so..." Wade trailed off.
"Everything seems to be unlocked around here now don't it." Replied the man. I shot wade a glare. "Yeah people used to come and see it from miles away, Trudy was the main artist as it were."
"What about Vincent?" I asked struggling to keep up with the tall men."I saw his name on some of the work." I continued at his confused glanced.
"One of Trudy's boys" he replied with a small smile.
"They still around?" I asked curiously
"No, no, it's a horrible story. Trudy's husband, doc Sinclair, was a doctor in the city. But had his licence revoked for doing surgeries on the side, y'know the stuff most doctors wouldn't dare do." I glanced nervously at Wade as the story continued. " so he moved him and Trudy out here to Ambrose and got a fresh start for his medical practise and y'know Trudy really found her calling with that whole uh wax sculpture thing, it was her dream to do soemthing really incredible here. Then she had a couple of kids and things"
"What's so horrible about that?" Asked wade
"Trudy got a cist in her brain, she just started rotting away, couldn't work anymore, she went crazy. It got so bad that doc had to strap her to the bed. The whole town could hear her screaming from the house. The doctor was so depressed that he couldn't save her so" he gestured to his head with a hand shaped like a gun" blew his brains out"
"That's terrible." I said, glad to be approaching the house.
"Worst were the two boys left alone like that. Both ended up in foster homes." We continued up the drive in silence."why don't you stay here and I'll go inside and get your fanbelt, ill give you a drive home when I'm done."
"Oh no, there's friends picking us up where the um roads washed out" I said, politely.
"I'll give you a lift there then, it's the least I can do for making you wait." He said kindly.
"Cool," finished Wade
"You er said you needed to used the facilities right?" Bo said to wade,
"Uh yeah thanks!" He said, smiling at me before walking off,
"Need to use the can?"Bo said with a kind smile,I laughed before replying
"No it's alright" he smiled back before leading wade away and over to the house.