Monster Catchers

Chapter #2 Nighttime Adventures

Nicole's POV

When I arrived at the park Carly and Ellie were waiting for me. Carly had a drawstring bag on her back.

    "Alright, whose ready to party?" I asked, pumping my arms into the air.

    "I know I am, let's crack this baby open." Carly answered, holding up a sealed bottle of Watermelon Pucker she'd retrieved from her bag.

She removed the cap and smelled it. Her smile told me it smelled delicious. I took the bottle and inhaled the scent myself. Amazing.

    "You have the first go at it." Carly said.

I nodded and examined the label. 25% alcohol. Not bad, but it wouldn't get me drunk. I held the bottle to my lips and took a sip. It was delicious. A crisp and very sour watermelon flavor. It only slightly burned on the way down.

    "It tastes like a watermelon flavored juicy drop pop!" I explained.

    "Let me try!" Carly replied.

She took a swig and her reaction was the same as mine. She loved it. Then she turned to Ellie.

    "You wanna have a go?" Carly asked her.

    "Sure..." Ellie accepted.

She took a sip of the light pink liquid and her cheeks caved in at the extreme sour flavor.

    "Wow! That's really sour! Good though." She exclaimed.

    "I guess that's why it's called Watermelon Pucker." I laughed.

The next 20 minutes we joked and passed the bottle around. Mainly just back and forth between Carly and I, but Ellie occasionally took small sips. It was sad that none of us were really being affected by it though. Afterwards we played on the playground for a bit. Until a thought came to mind.

    "Hey guys, you wanna have some fun?" I asked.

    "I thought this was fun?" Ellie questioned.

    "It is, but I mean real fun. I've got an idea." I said.

    "What do you got?" Carly asked.

    "You know that house next door to mine, the old and rotting empty one? We should go exploring in it! Maybe there's some cool stuff in there!" I suggested.

    "That could be fun!" Carly agreed.

    "As long as we won't get caught...." Ellie replied.

    I smiled at her. "We won't get caught, nobody gives a shit about that house anyways!" I explained.

With that we got up and left the park. Carley put the almost empty bottle back in her bag as we walked out onto the deserted street. The streets were kind of creepy at night, dark and empty. We made it onto my street and towards the house. All of the windows were dark at my house next door.

We walked through the yard of the abandoned house and up the front porch. I tried the front door. Locked. Sighing I jumped off the porch and led my friends to the side of the house to another door. Trying the knob I discovered it was unlocked! I opened the door and it revealed a set of stairs going down, probably to the basement. As we entered I couldn't help but notice the feeling of being watched take over me again....

Carly, Ellie, and I all turned on our flashlights we'd brought and one by one started down the stairs. The basement was cold and dirty. Cobwebs everywhere. We looked around quietly, nothing of interest here.

I led the way up the basement steps, opening the door into the dining room of the house. It was cozy, homey almost. The dining room turned into the living room where a fireplace stood. The furniture style was very vintage, not including the mass amount of dust on everything. I knelt down to check out a figurine on a coffee table when we heard a sound.

Shining my flashlight around I saw nothing. Then the sound came again. It was faint, but it sounded like a slight bumping noise. It was coming from upstairs.

Putting my index finger to my lips I led the way up the stairs to the second floor. We had a choice of doors at the top but our decision was made by the sound coming from the door on the left.

Entering the room slowly I shined my flashlight in first, ready to fight or run or whatever came first, but nothing did. Taking a chance, I opened the door completely. The room appeared to be some sort of study. A desk with a typewriter in the middle of it, and all sorts of old looking figurines on tables, and a bookshelf fully filled with books on the back wall.

Thats when the noise sounded again. Following it, my light fell upon the bookcase. We walked up to it and examined it.

    "It sounds like it's coming from this bookcase....?" I stated.

    "Yeah, that's what it seems like. But how can a bookcase be making noise?" Carly wondered.

    "What are these books anyways? Listen to these titles. Stay out of the Basement, Welcome to Dead House, Night of the Living Dummy. Sounds like a bunch of horror books." Ellie observed.

    "Yeah, and they're all written by the same guy. R.L. Stine." I spoke.

    "Why are all of the books locked though?" Carly asked.

She was right. Every single book was closed and locked up tight with a miniature padlock.

    "Weird." I blurted.

    "Wonder if there's a key anywhere?" Ellie questioned.

    "I think I found it." Carly said, going over to the desk. She picked up a key sitting right next to the typewriter.

    "Nicole, you should take these books, read them, maybe they'll give you some ideas for that horror story that you're trying to write." Ellie suggested.

    "Yeah, maybe..." I replied.

    "Well you're going to need this." Carly said, giving me the key.

    "Thanks. I think I'll just take one for now. I'll start with Night of the Living Dummy." I answered.

I grabbed the book off the shelf and glanced at my friends.

    "Well, we should probably call it a night. It's getting late." Carly explained.

Ellie and I both nodded and we exited the study. Back down both flights of steps to the basement and out the side door.

    "You two get home safe." I smiled.

    "You too." Carly joked. I hit her arm playfully.

    "Just don't stay up all night reading your new book!" Ellie teased.

I smiled and watched them walk down the street a bit. Entering my house quietly I made it back up to my room, leaving mom undisturbed. I stripped back out of my clothes and put my pajamas back on.

I put the book and key on my dresser and slipped into bed. As I laid my head down on my pillow, something fell off of my shelf above my dresser. I perked my head up. It was just an old rock I had painted back in kindergarten that had fell. I shrugged and told myself to just pick it up in the morning.

As I drifted off to sleep I didn't notice that the fallen rock had landed on my new book and broken the lock, and the book had opened by itself.....