The Coming | The House of Voices #2

Six - Jump

Jump

Parish:

Under normal circumstances, Parish would have been uncomfortable with the idea of stealing from his own home. He’d always considered everything outside his own possessions to belong to his father and wouldn’t have dreamed of touching them. But after what October had told him back outside – that his father had actually put aside his problems with his Aunt Helena  to go visit her – had given him hope. Maybe their relationship wasn’t permanently broken after all. October’s news had given Parish a sense of hope that he thought he’d lost forever.

They started with the clothes first. Parish threw open his closet door and pulled out a handful of clean t-shirts. About four or five. He tossed them onto the bed. October, who was sitting lazily on the edge of the bed, began folding them instead of stuffing them into the bag like he would have. “Saves space” she said in response the disbelieving look on his face. He considered that for a moment and supposed it made sense.

Turning back to the closet, he picked up a pair of jeans and considered taking them too. But he realized that it wouldn’t be fair on October. He’d made sure to take a few shirts that she could wear, too. But he couldn’t take pants. It wasn’t like he’d get a chance to change his pants anyway. He could easily slip into a new t-shirt, but pants? No, taking them would be stupid. So he put them back.

Behind him, October raised her eyebrows but said nothing. She started laying the folded clothes at the bottom of the backpack he’d given her.

“We should head down.” He told her, closing the closet door and holding his hand out for the bag. She picked the last shirt up from her lap and tossed it into the bag before handing it to him. He took it from her and slung it over his shoulder easily, glancing at the clock on the wall. They’d been in the house for almost half an hour. They couldn’t stick around any longer. “Time to raid the kitchen.”

Nodding, she hopped off the bed and gestured for him to lead the way. Again, he couldn’t help but admire how much energy she seemed to have. They’d gone three days without food. Three days drinking from streams they found in the woods. Three days without a proper night’s sleep – and yet, she still somehow managed to seem energetic. It was a marvel, really.

Wordlessly, he led the way out of his room and down the stairs. The house looked incredibly gloomy in the dark – not that it looked much better during the day. Ever since his mother’s disappearance the house seemed to have lost its cheeriness. Although, Parish had to admit that he didn’t see much of the house besides the kitchen and his bedroom to know if this was completely true. For all he knew, there were times when it looked cheery, but he was just holed up in his room and couldn’t see it.

The wooden stairs creaked softly as they descended. Parish ignored the creaking, but October started walking on tiptoe, trying to tread lightly. Glancing over his shoulder, he tried not to laugh at the cute-yet-comical look on her face as she tried not to make a sound. It wasn’t like they were going to wake anyone up – the house was empty. No one outside the house would be able to hear something as small as a floorboard creaking. So he really didn’t see her need to be cautious. But still, he didn’t say anything. It was probably just another quirk of hers, like how she kept sniffing the air for rain back in the street.

He stepped into the kitchen and made a beeline for the cupboards. “Check the fridge” He told October, who nodded and squeezed past him and opened the fridge. The light from the fridge helped illuminate most of the room, but not so much that someone outside would notice anything strange. The kitchen seemed smaller than Parish remembered: the space between the kitchen sink and the rustic island seemed to have gotten smaller. He hadn’t grown in the past week, had he?