Scratching The Surface

Chapter 2

Jason wanted to trust it, he really did, but he couldn't feel comfortable for one minute in the general area of the house. Even after he stepped outside, the dread didn't lift from his chest like it would in any horror movie. If anything, the wind chime made everything worse as he stared the forest face down.

The forest right behind where a backyard was supposed to be.

"Do I see a barn and a perfect spot for a remote mechanic shop? I do!" Leo moved a hand over his eyes to block out the scorching sun. "Look at that, Jason. I'll be coming over a lot more."

Jason looked to Miss Dare. "All this land is ours?"

She nodded, her smile starting to seem unnerving. "Up until halfway through that forest. They'll be a fence to let you know exactly where."

Jason nodded before looking in front of him again. The actual backyard was decent sized, with an old playset and a barn in the distance. Behind that, a dense forest rose from the dead grass. The annoying wind chime was hanging from the house.

"Can I take that down?" Jason asked suddenly, gesturing to the old metal. "It's driving me insane."

Miss Dare looked like she wanted to argue and agree at the same time. Her red-glossed lips pursed, and her arms crossed and uncrossed repeatedly. "Well, you see...that's been here since the house was built. I would wait until you're sure you're going to buy it, okay?"

Her voice let Jason know that nothing was okay with that statement.

Leo whistled under his breath. "Don't want to piss those ghosts off, huh, Jason?"

Miss Dare's eyes widened slightly. "Excuse me?"

"Inside joke," Jason assured her. "How about we head back inside? If I'm not home at a reasonable time, Piper will kill me."

"First she'd see who you were with, then she'd kill you." Leo corrected, walking past him and into the house. "And then we'd dance over your grave."

"We? Okay, that's rude." Jason ran into the house to catch up to Leo. "Where are you running off to?"

"I want to see the upstairs," Leo stated. "This place is huge and old as hell. I want to see what I can find."

"We don't have the time to go scavenger hunting." Jason hissed quietly, trying not to let Miss Dare hear them. "We need to act professionally if they're going to sell this to me."

"So you're getting it?!" Leo's eyes brightened as if Jason just told him all his favorite comic books were real. "That's amazing!"

Jason covered his mouth, frowning. "If you don't find anything else wrong with this place. So I want you to look at the furnace and the plumbing. Can you do that?"

Leo mumbled into Jason's hand, his words coming out in an angry grumble of vowels that Jason wasn't entirely sure were English. When Jason was sure Leo wasn't going to yell out anything else he let the shorter man go with reluctance.

"Are you two ready to go upstairs?" Miss Dare asked, having been looking around the room as if waiting for something to pop out at them. "Or do you want to see the basement?"

"Basement." Jason quickly replied. "I don't have time for everything today. Maybe another day. But I want to make sure everything is in good shape."

The basement door was located off the kitchen, the old wooden paneling chipped and faded. Suspicious stains marked the bottom, but most looked to have been scrubbed off. When she put the key in the door and pulled it open, a large groan echoed from it scraping against the floor.

"The key's there to keep it locked up. The stairs are pretty steep for children," the realtor explained as she flipped the light switch. "You two can head down if you'd like. My knees won't make it far."

She couldn't have been older than Jason or Leo, but neither argued with her choice. A moment alone to look around was surprisingly refreshing. When they got to the bottom of the stairs, Jason realized most of his anxiety was because of her anxiety. His body wanted to be nervous because someone in close proximity was.

"The furnace looks alright." Leo broke Jason out of his thoughts. He was crouched between the furnace and the hot water tank, a wrench he had gotten from his pocket used to poke the two machines. "Nothing too old or nothin'."

The basement was small for the house, but nothing Jason was complaining about. One side was nicely renovated, with carpet and okay walls. The other held the less exciting things: the furnace, hot water tank, laundry shoot, washer and dryer, and a slightly odd stack of wooden slabs that looked to be falling apart.

"But I say replace these." Leo kicked the washing machine, his face scrunched up. "Too old for my liking."

"Do you really think I should do this?" Jason asked suddenly. "I don't know...I just have a bad feeling."

"Because you've grown too fond of that apartment." Leo waved his hands as if he could explain everything in existence. "You just need to take the chance. Look, I'll even put in some of my money. Deal?"

Jason sighed heavily, looking towards the creeky ceiling. "Something's wrong with this place."

"Something's wrong with the realtor." Leo corrected. "She's just looney."

"That's not it." Jason walked towards the wall and put his hand against it. "There's a reason this house is so cheap. There's some history here."

The wall was chipped and cold, wood shavings that no one bothered to sweep up in a pile at his feet. He moved his hand down the wall as he walked to Leo, frowning at how some parts were just...warm. Disturbingly warm. If Jason was a different person, he would have admitted that he felt a heartbeat there that day. But being who he was he quickly wrote it off as his imagination, and he quickly ascended the stairs with Leo.

When Miss Dare went to lock up after the men had left, she noticed the small pool of blood seeping out from under the wall where Jason had stood.