8:26 PM,
Sunday,
14th February 1988,
The Dalton's Estate,
Mooring Hills,
Babylonia, Novus Stellar
Henry was stiff as a board. He didn't even have the guts to turn his head to the right to face whoever it was that was talking to him.
"Are you ok? Did I scare you or something?" asked the girl. It was only then Henry was able to gather his courage to turn his head and face her. It was the girl from the group. All he was able to do was gave an expressionless stare on his face. He wasn't really sure what to do or say next.
"I..I..hmm..it's fine, guess you just scared me there for a bit. I thought this spot was empty. Sorry if I took up your space, I'll just find anoth.."
"It's ok, Henry! There are no rules that says a hiding spot can only have 1 person at a time!" said the girl while giving him a warm convincing smile. There it was again, the smile that would make any boy fall down to their knees, which will make it even harder for Henry to move from where he was sitting.
"I'm Shirley by the way," said the girl.
"I'm Hen..wait..how did you know my name anyway?" asked Henry.
"I saw you earlier when you came in with your parents and overheard them calling your name..[Chuckling]" said Shirley. That had to be the cutest thing Henry ever saw, aside from her smile tonight.
"You..you...have been watching me all this time?
"No, not really, guess I just noticed that you weren't really mixing with the crowd and just standing out there all alone..looking into those woods.."
There's something unsettling about how Shirley said about him looking at the woods but he wasn't about to let some wild imagination ruin this moment.
"Yeah, guess I kinda have a thing for places with..no people..you know..like empty or isolated..or just away from people..it just feels peaceful..almost like where we're sitting now," said Henry while trying to add a bit of "romance" in the air.
"Really? You like that sort of places huh? Hmm.." Shirley gave a short pause.
"Tell you what..What if I were to tell you that there's a better hiding spot than this dump and I can guarantee you that Jeremy will never ever find us there..forever.."
For some odd reason, Shirley's beginning to sound like a mix between the girl next door and the goth girl at school, cute but weird.
"Forever?" Henry finds her choice of words rather peculiar.
"Hehe..No, silly!..Of course not forever!..I mean it will be sort of like a practical joke that we can play on him and the others..You know..He'll get extremely frustrated!..Wouldn't that be funny?"
Henry's expression now turned into a confused look.
"Hmm..Sure..I guess..Where is it exactly? It's not too far is it?" Henry now sounded even more curious.
"Not too far..but we do have to cross a border..of sort.." Shirley began to sound more cryptic than ever before.
"Border? Meaning?"
"Sorry..[Chuckling]..You should really see the look on your face..[Chuckling]..I'm just messing with you. What I meant to say was, we have to go through the dark place you've been looking all night."
"Dark place? All night? You mean the woods?" Henry wished Shirley would be more straight forward with her words.
"Yeah..[Chuckling]..Sorry about that..I guess I'm just trying too hard to make it sound creepy, you know..You like creepy stuff, Henry?" Shirley had officially gone into the "twilight zone mode."
Henry had no idea what to make of the situation. On one hand, Jeremy was sort of a jerk that probably deserved to be pranked once or twice, but on the other hand, Shirley was slowly turning from Snow White into Alice in Wonderland. Definitely a tough decision to make, but being a boy in a "boy meets girl" world, the answer was quite obvious.
"Ok..I guess we could try that..but where exactly in the woods? I mean..it's totally dark in there..and I don't even have a flashlight with me..and I don't really think my parents will.." Henry was cutoff mid sentence again.
"It's ok! I can assure you! It will be bright enough for us to walk through and the house is not that far anyway!" said Shirley with a sudden tone of thrill and excitement.
"A house? You mean there's a house in the woods? Does it belong to Mr. Dalton?"
"Well, I guess you could say that, seeing how it's on his land..but..it's quite old..like really old..like older than our grandparents I guess..and it has been abandoned for a very, very long time.."
"An old house? An old abandoned house?" Now that just hits the spot for Henry.
"A prank with a bit of romance and a dash of adventure, what else could be better right?" thought Henry.
It didn't take long before the two got out there and tried very hard to stay out of sight by walking and hiding in shadows as to avoid detection, for if that were to happen, it would surely be the end for the two of them. After a couple of minutes, they finally reached the end of the woods. For the first time, Henry was actually getting an up-close view of the woods but before he was able to scan his dark surroundings, Shirley grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him closer towards it.
"Wait..slow down..where.." Before he can finish his words, the sight before him filled him with even more amazement than before.
"See, I told you it will be bright enough..Didn't I?..Didn't I?..Huh?..hehe," Shirley was half laughing while trying to catch her breath from all the running. To Henry's amazement, right in front of him was a path that lead straight into the woods but most definitely cannot be seen from a distance. Be that as it may, it didn't exactly explain the strange illuminations that seems to be hovering right along the path, almost as if there were lamp posts all the way into the woods.
"So..we just walk in there?" Henry just can't think of a good question.
"No..we'll have to run!..Otherwise the werewolves will catch us!..[Laughing]..Sorry again, Henry..I just can't help it..You do ask a lot of silly questions you know.." Shirley continued laughing in the dark.
"Come...let's go in there...the house is not that far...I promise, it won't take too long. When we're sure that Jeremy has given up, I promise you, we'll return back to the mansion..I promise you, Henry.." Shirley almost sounded like she was pleading for Henry to go on with the plan.
"Ok..here we go then.." Henry was about to take the first step forward when Shirley almost grabs his wrist again but not before he was able to pull it away from her.
"Sorry, not this time, I can walk on my own you know.." For the first time, Henry took a sterner tone with Shirley that evening.
"Ok..Your loss!..Now let's go in there!" Shirley went ahead of Henry and walked quickly into the woods, on a strange illuminated path towards a destination that was obscured from where they were standing.
"I hope I'm not regretting this," said Henry as he took a step forward into the unknown.
YOU ARE READING
We Wait
Ужасы"It took him awhile to realize that those weren't red dots. They were eyes. Red eyes."
