Lurking in the Shadows

Ch. 4: The Groundskeeper

The sound of a door slamming and my name being called made me jolt awake.
"Nicky?" Mom yelled and I raced downstairs. She and Sarah were in the kitchen, staring at the cabinets.
"Um," Sarah stared at the pile of silverware on the counter. They were in the exact same place as before. Plastic cups from the cabinet were also on the counter this time, stacked in a pyramid.
     "I have no clue what happened mom," The words tumbled out quickly. Mom was staring at me in concern, I knew she would, but Sarah had a weird expression on her face.
        "Can you guys clean this up please?" I nodded and mom climbed the stairs, leaving us in the kitchen. I avoided Sarah's eyes as I started stacking the cups in the cabinet.
     "What?" I finally snapped after almost ten minutes of obvious staring.
     "You look kinda crazy," She held her hands up when I glared.
     "I'm just sayin'. You look like you haven't slept in like a year, you keep flinching, and then this. What's wrong with you?"
     "I don't know," I mumbled and I could feel her still staring.
     "I..." I started, suddenly urgent to tell someone. "Has anything weird happened to you?"
     "What do you mean?" Sarah asked.
     "Like, the temperature dropping really fast or weird dreams?'
     "No," She looked at me like I was crazy. "Are you okay?"
     "Yeah... " I trailed off.

        As soon as I finished cleaning in the kitchen, I stalked back upstairs to my room. Opening my door, which I didn't remember shutting, I found my clothes thrown around and my air mattress was deflated. My books had been knocked off the shelf and lay in a pile on the floor. I slammed my door closed and marched downstairs, past Sarah who stared at me in concern. Outside on the front porch was the old groundskeeper, replacing a lightbulb.
"What do you want?" He barely glanced away from the lightbulb and I glared at him.
        "Have you been in the house?" That caused him to look down at me, raising a gray eyebrow.
     "No," He said, giving me a cool look. "I've been cleanin' the porch." My shoulders slumped and my breath caught in my chest. If the groundskeeper wasn't playing a prank to scare me, what was messing with me.
     He climbed down from the ladder and looked up at me, he was a good four inches shorter than me.
     "Why do you ask? Been havin' pranks played on ya?" He gave a sarcastic grin and my eyes widened.
     "You know about that?" I followed him to the shed behind the house as he put away the ladder and his tools.
     "Of course, I'm not an idiot," He deadpanned. "I've been workin' here for nearly fifty years, since I was twelve. Some bad things have happened in that house." He looked up at the window and I followed his gaze. A curtain swished, like it had been moved.