The Siren

Chapter 21

   +EDITED+

        ~Chapter 21~            

 We pulled up to the abandoned house. It looks about three stories high with half an acre of land surrounded by a thick forest. No neighbors in a mile radius from either side. The aura sent chills down my spine but it was egzillerating; spending the night in the backyard of an abandoned house with nothing hut blankets and a bond fire to keep you warm and friends to keep you company.

        "Finally we get here," Kevin says, he loves visiting this place, he is in love with adventure and this is the closest you can get to adventure around here.

        Kevin, Hailey, Bethany, Skylar, and Autumn all get out of the van, I was about to follow but Nate reached out and grabbed my elbow to stop me. I turn to him. "This doesn't feel right. I don't think we should do this." He whispers in a murmur. A chill rides up my spin as I look around but I wave it off.

        "I did this before it is totally safe." I tell him, but his observation got me on my tippy toes. Nate gave me a hard look.

        "That was before you joined the force," He pointed out. I shrugged.

        "I'm not in the force though. Look Nate, I know you are looking out for me, but I don't have a normal life. Tonight, can we please pretend I do?" I ask him. He sighs and nods. I smile and we walk out of the car.

        "What the hold up? We have a fire we need to get started!" Hailey yells from the backyard. I laugh and run to catch up to them.

        Once Nate and I are in the backyard I take a look around. The bushes and weeds grew thicker since the last time I was here. Every time the branches moved from the breeze it looked as if someone was walking back and forth, waiting for its prey. I shake my head as I think back to the silhouette of the man back in Nate's house.

        The only source of light at the moment was the stars. Half the sky was clear while the other half looked as if it was brewing a storm. I can feel the wind pick up a little bit. A hollow whistle comes form the house as wind goes through cracks. 

        "Ah, the sound of music, yes?" Beth chuckles as she shivers. We watch Kevin dump some gas onto the logs Hailey brought from her house. Autumn then lit a match against the match box. The small flicker of fire was blown out by a large breeze. We chuckle as Autumn huffs in annoyance and lights another one before throwing it on the logs.

        It takes a second for the match to connect with the gas but we let out hollers as the fire rises high above us from the gas. I glance over at Nate who looks at the fire, he seems happy....but bothered. 

        "Time for what I came here for, smores!" Skylar hollers as she opens the marshmallows. The boys and Autumn carried a few of fold up camping chairs that we stored at the entrance of the house. I ran to help them. 

        "Thanks," Autumn grunts as I take half the load from her. We walk back to the fire that flickered lively in the night. We set up the chairs around it. There was a long one that was backless, we usually used it as a cot rather than a backless chair for multiple people. There was also four fold up chairs. We all took a seat. Nate, Autumn, and Beth took a seat at the multiple seat-er while Kevin, Hailey, Skylar and I sat in the single seat-er. 

        Skylar started on the smores while I broke the crackers, I was the only one who was able to break the Graham crackers along the provided line without breaking off access pieces in our group. Nate handles the chocolate since he hated chocolate and wouldn't be tempted to eat it unlike the rest of us.