Scratching The Surface

Chapter 1

Jason pulled up to the house with anxiety and excitement bubbling under his skin. If the add was right, if the price actually was that low, he may have found the deal of a lifetime. He may be able to give his family an amazing life, after all.

Piper wasn't with him, nor were their two kids. Before getting their hopes up, he wanted to make sure everything would work. With a house this cheap, there were hundreds of things that could go wrong. Plumbing, electrics, mice, bats, and a hundred other things that were a home owner's nightmare. Despite the money, these were the reasons he had never attempted to buy a house before.

He had brought his best friend, however. Leo could look at any machine and immediately pick out the broken parts. Jason hoped that Leo could point out if anything was seriously wrong with the house, especially because he was planning on taking his family there. He wasn't going to risk his family for any house, no matter how large it was.

They pulled into the gravel driveway, unable to see the house yet through the large willow trees. They lined the pathway and blocked out the sun, but were beautiful in their own way.

"You're sure this is the right one?" Leo asked for the hundredth time. "This is insane."

"I'm sure." Jason tapped the screen of his GPS. "The realtor should already be here. She said...wow..." The breath was knocked out of him when he saw the house that came into view. He had seen the square miles but had never seen a picture and had never even dreamed it could actually be that big.

The house that loomed over them looked to be four stories tall and as wide as a mansion. Beaten down wood seemed to be the main foundation, with misty panels of glass as windows. The double doors leading into the house were tall and red, with a brass knocker on each one.

"It ain't April Fools Day, Jason." Leo moved his grease-stained hand to the GPS. "Let's type the real address in before these people see us."

"This is the real address." Jason insisted. He pointed to the car that sat at the end of the driveway. "See? The realtor's here to show us around."

The woman in question was standing on the porch, her red hair up in a bun and her fingernails tapping the wooden railing. A bag sat at her feet with a clipboard protruding from it, with a suspicious looking paper on top. The words at the top of the page were in bold and read "IN CASE OF AN ENCOUNTER, DON'T PANIC. JUST FOLLOW THESE STEPS:"

"Wonder what that 'encounter' is with," Jason mumbled, putting his car in park. "Rats, mice."

"Probably ghosts," Leo joked, his smirk returning to his face. "That'd be quite a paper, don't you think? In case of an encounter with the spirit of death, don't panic! Follow these simple instructions. Step one, RUN OUT AS FAST AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE! DON'T LOOK BACK FOR NOTHING, YOU WIMP!"

"Why are we friends?" Jason mused, rubbing his right ear. "In a year I'll be deaf from you."

"You'll be able to say you truly lived." Leo jumped out of the car, his worn boots hitting the crackling pavement with a small thump. "Sorry, dude, but I may have just abused your driveway."

"It needs repaving anyways." Jason closed his car doors and locked them. "Come on, let's get this over with."

"If you don't take this place, I will."

Jason elbowed him in the stomach before walking up to the porch, frowning at the creaking stairs. "Miss Dare, good morning."

The woman stopped tapping her fingers to look up at him, her smile looking as fake as the one plastered on Jason's boss. "Good morning. You must be Mr. Grace." She reached out and shook his hand.

Jason nodded and gestured to Leo when they dropped hands. "I also brought my friend. He's good at making sure everything is...running right."

"Good, good." Miss Dare nodded politely to Leo before getting her keys out. "Should we head in? There's a lot of ground to cover, I'm sure you see."

"Yeah, yeah." Jason looked to Leo before following the woman into the house. "When was this place built, did you say?"

"The early sixteen hundreds. Electricity has been added in, of course, with heating, but those are the only things that have been changed." She looked over at them, smiling. "It's very antique, you could say. A home for a history lover."

They stood in a large parlor with two staircases leading up to the second-floor landing. Everything was wood, with red rugs and chipped walls. The chandelier that hung from the ceiling swung slightly, creating an eerie creaking noise that vibrated throughout the room. When Miss Dare shut the door, the wind stopped blowing it. They were suddenly plunged into silence.

"It's...a lot." Jason choked out, finding the need to fill the silence with any words he could think of. "A lot for something so cheap."

"The price has gone down throughout the years." Miss Dare admitted. "But people have been so hesitant to buy something so old when there are new houses being built every day. We just haven't been able to get a sale."

Leo walked further in and swept his gaze around the room. "Has the wood been checked? Termites and everything?"

"Yes, of course. I have all the paperwork to prove it." she patted her bag gently. "Shall we continue with the tour?"

The rooms they walked through all amazed Jason to no end. The large living room, the medium sized living room, the smaller living room, the patio sitting room. It was like the home was built with the goal of creating the largest house possible. The main living room was right off the parlor and was Jason's favorite. A bar was on one side of the room, the wall behind it stocked with every alcohol you could imagine. Wines were labeled from a hundred years ago. There was a space above the fireplace that was the perfect spot for a mounted TV, but no electronics seemed in sight. Not even an old radio.

"Nice place," Leo walked in and kneeled down by the fireplace. "Let's see if we can get this baby to work."

"Oh, it does." Miss Dare smiled, but this time it actually looked in humor. "Those were their only source of heat back then, so it damned well better work great."

When Leo figured out how to light it, he proved her right. Instantly, Jason felt the room grow hotter than the summer air had already made it.

"That's enough of that." Jason moved to a window and opened it as wide as he could. "It's like a hundred degrees in here."

"We could install some air conditioning." Leo busied himself with putting out the fire. "But at least it has heating."

Jason crossed his arms but nodded. "Our air conditioning at the apartment wasn't the greatest, anyways. We'll get through with box fans and ice cubes."

"You have a family?" Miss Dare asked. "Kids?"

Jason nodded. "A wife and two little girls. I think they'll love it here, if it's safe."

"As safe as an old house can get."

He wasn't sure if she was joking or not but smiled politely at her before moving to the only other hallway he saw. "Let's keep going."

The dark hallway led to an even darker dining room and then a bright kitchen, windows everywhere. Old pots and pans hung in a rack above the island and flower wallpaper clung to the walls. It was the only wallpaper so far in the entire house.

"Pipes would like this." Jason ran his hand over the island, frowning at the amount of dust he picked up. "She would like a big kitchen, I think. She's an amazing cook."

"Have her make me a meal and I'll get a good fridge in here." Leo insisted. "This one has one from the 90's."

"That was from the last family that lived here." Miss Dare explained. "It was never moved out so here it stays."

"I'll have her cook you the best enchiladas you could imagine." Jason patted Leo's shoulder before pointing to the door beside the stove. "Does that go to the backyard?"

Miss Dare seemed to enjoy any escape from the house that she could find. "Yes, yes it does. Let's head back there." She speed walked for the door and opened it wide, creating a breeze through the kitchen. In the wind, they could hear a windchime singing away. "Let's take a break and look out here, shall we?"