The House That Never Was

III: Reminiscing

The room was dimly lit. It was spacious with a chair and a desk on one side, and a dresser with a huge decorative mirror on the other side.

The mirror was oval shaped with a gold frame. However, carved into the gold frame were snakes and skulls. The carvings had been beautifully done. It just made it look dark and creepy. While the dresser didn't have skulls and snakes, it did have strange symbols carved into it. The symbols looked to be Egyptian. They might have even been Aztec.

The bed was a large king sized bed. The headboard was beautifully done. It looked like it was made from cherry wood. It had symbols much like the ones on the dresser. There was a huge Egyptian looking eye symbol in the center. It made Joanne very uneasy. She felt as if it was looking back at her.

"This place gives me the creeps." Joanne told John. "Those people are so weird."

"Nonsense." John replied back. "They seemed nice to me."

"Still, there's something odd about them. I don't trust them." Joanne said. "It's just a feeling I have."

Brushing the hair from Joanne's face, John looked into her eyes. "Okay baby, I know you have a bad feeling, but we're stuck here for the night. Let's just try to make the best of it. We'll leave first thing in the morning."

"First thing in the morning?"

"Yes. First thing in the morning." John replied. A smile forming on his face.

"Alright then. I'll try." Joanne replied, returning a smile.

John then pulled Joanne in close to him. "That's my girl." He then hugged her tightly. "Let's get some sleep."

Holding John tight, she replied. "Yeah. I'm wiped."

Stripping down to their underwear, they climb into bed. They both scooted toward the middle of the bed with John facing Joanne's back. He wrapped his arm around her and held her close. He began to reminisce. "Do you remember what it was like when we first met? All the fun we had? How close all of us were? Soon everyone will be going their own way." He then chuckled slightly. "Remember the night we met?"

                                                                    ~*~

It was Halloween 2013. John was meeting up with some friends at a school dance.

"Hey, John!" Steve called out. He was with Angie. Steve was dressed like Hercules while Angie was dressed like Xena.

"Hey!" John shouted back. He was dressed as a pirate.

The three of them hung out together while they waited for their other friends to show up. Soon, Jack and Lisa made an appearance. Jack was dressed as Batman, and Lisa was dressed as Catwoman. There was a girl with them that the others had never seen before. She was dressed as a princess.

"This is my new friend, Joanne. She just moved here from Ohio. She started school here this week." Lisa said introducing her. "This is John, Steve and Angie."

"Hi." Joanne said in a shy manner.

John immediately felt an attraction to her. She had soft, raven hair and steel blue eyes. He felt as if his heart was going to burst from his chest. "Hi." He said beginning to blush.

The friends all hung out together at the dance for a while. Steve danced with Angie while Jack danced with Lisa, and John danced with Joanne. John was having fun dancing with the new girl. He felt tingly every time she smiled. He felt like he was in Heaven that night. He knew she was the one for him.

"Looks like the dance is winding down for the night." John said to his friends.

"Yeah. Looks like it." Jack replied.

"What do we do now?" Joanne asked. "What is there to do around this town?"

"Why don't we go scare Old Man Johnson?" Steve asked with an evil grin on his face.

"Why not?" John replied. "After all, it is Halloween."

They all agreed and headed over to Old Man Johnson's house. It was an old, run down house out on Potter Road. The paint was peeling off. The grass looked like it hadn't been mowed or watered in years. There were weeds growing everywhere in the yard. There were a couple of the windows that were boarded up. They had been broken the year before by vandals. Old Man Johnson never had them fixed.

Old Man Johnson pretty much kept to himself. The only time he ever left his house, or ever spoke to anyone was when he had to go to the store. He usually kept interaction with people as brief as possible. He wasn't exactly the town social bug. He was more like the town Scrooge. He never put up any decorations for any holiday. He never had anyone over, and he never went to visit anyone. No one knew if he had any family. He never seemed to have any come visit him. Some of the townsfolk felt sorry for him. Others were judgemental. Most of the children were afraid of him because of the stories told about him. One story was he murdered his wife and buried her in the basement. Another was he would kidnap children and cook them. A lot of crazy stories going around about a man nobody really even knew.

The friends finally arrived at Old Man Johnson's house. They parked down the street and hid in the bushes across from his house. Deciding to be brave and show off, John, Steve and Jack decided to go up to the house. Kneeling down outside the living room window, they decided to peek in.

"He's just sitting there in his chair by the fire reading his newspaper." John said.

"Watch this." Jack told them. He quietly walked up to the door and knocked. He then ran back to where John and Steve were hiding.

Old Man Johnson answered the door and found no one there. "Damn kids!" He then slammed the door shut.

"Did you see the look on his face?" Jack asked.

They both nodded as they all three began to chuckle.

"Okay, guys. I'll stay here. Steve, you go around to the other side. Jack, you go around back.' John told them. "We'll all start tapping windows."

Steve went around to the other side of the house as Jack went around back. Almost in unison they all started tapping on the windows. Old Man Johnson flew up out of his chair and began looking around. "Damn those kids!" He then grabbed his shotgun and ran for the front door.

"Holy shit!" John exclaimed. "He's got a gun! Let's get out of here!"

The three boys ran over to where the girls were at as Old Man Johnson made it out the front door.

"I see you little bastards!" He then fired his gun into the air scaring the friends. He then yelled "You little scumbags will one day mess around someone's house and get what's coming to you!" as the six friends ran off into the night.

                                                                   ~*~

Joanne responded with a chuckle. "Yeah. I remember that. It scared the crap out of us."

"No kidding." John said with a slight laugh.

Just then, they heard a blood curdling scream. They both bolted up in bed.

"What was that?!" Joanne asked in a panic.

"I don't know." John replied. "We better go check it out.

They both got dressed in a hurry. John opened the door slightly and peered out. Seeing nothing, they both stepped out into the hall.