The Haunted Houses part 1

The night is dark

Jeremy woke up suddenly. He knew the reason he had woken up was a dream but he didn't remember what the dream was about anymore. He felt extremely nervous and uneasy. He just couldn't be inside the tent anymore, so he opened the zipper of the tent and went out.

The night was dark and cold. During the day the sun had warmed the air, but after the sunset the temperature had gone a lot lower and Jeremy noticed that he was shivering. He went back to the tent and grabbed an extra sweater, then he started to wander around their small camp. He was anxious and restless. All the memories of Chad were haunting him taking away his ability to sleep. He didn't know what to do to get them away. Eventually he just couldn't be in the camp anymore. He decided to take a walk hoping it might ease his restless mood and help to clear his mind out. Suddenly he remember that he had only taken Chad's backpack with him and left his hoodie in the woods. He decided to go to get it.

He followed the marks they had left in the forest when they had been there. It was harder to follow them in the dark though, so Jeremy had to be very careful and look closely because he didn't want to get lost in the woods alone in the middle of the night. Finally he arrived to the root of the tree where they had found Chad's things. The hoodie was still there. It was wet and smelled like old blood and the earth.

Jeremy picked it up and for some reason felt slighty grossed out. The hoodie was so dirty and he couldn't help thinking that there was Chad's blood all over it. Suddenly he just wanted to drop the hoodie and run back to the camp.

Before Jeremy could even take a step he heard a noice coming behind him. He turned around and saw a little girl in an old-fashioned dress. She walked a bit closer without making almost no sounds. She was smiling a little bit but she didn't look Jeremy in the eyes.

"Hey, who are you? Why are you out so late? Shouldn't you be at home sleeping?" Jeremy asked. When he was nervous he had a habit of talking too much too fast and he noticed he had done that again. He couldn't understand why he was nervous though. He was a 17-year-old boy who regulary trained and went to the gym, and the girl couldn't be older than 6, looked very skinny and was probably just lost in the woods.

"This is my home", the girl said. "I come from that house you saw yesterday."

"What house? I haven't seen any house." Jeremy didn't know why he was lying, it just felt necessary.

The girl lifted her eyes from the ground and looked at Jeremy. Her eyes were gleaming mean. "We saw you, and that pretty girl. We want you to visit us."

"Why?"

"Because what you said was the truth. Chad is there too. He's just fine. He was really sick but we healed him." The girl smiled wider but that made Jeremy even more nervous.

"If he's okay, why hasn't he gone back home? Everyone is so worried about him, especially his parents."

"He likes to be with us. We're his new family."

Jeremy started to get angry. "He doesn't even know you. And who is 'us'?"

"Do you want to meet us? We love to have guests."

"No, I don't want to meet you, I want to meet Chad." Jeremy felt angry and confused. If Chad really was alive, how come he hadn't even called his friends or family? Jeremy didn't trust this little girl, but he really wanted to see Chad.

"If you want to meet him, follow me", little girl said and started walking away. Jeremy had no other option than to follow her.

They walked around the huge forest, and soon Jeremy had no idea where they were nor where the camp was. This made him even more nervous because he would be in a very vunerable position if the girl left him. The girl didn't say a word anymore, she just walked silently like a ghost in front of him. Jeremy started regretting leaving the camp.

They had been walking for what felt like hours to Jeremy when the girl finally stopped and and pointed foward. There was the same huge white mansion Jeremy and Carrie had seen. In the pale moonlight it looked even bigger, it stood in the middle of the forest like a peculiar mountain ready to get you lost on it's endless hills and dangerous holes. Jeremy didn't want to go any closer but suddenly the girl took his hand and pulled him foward.

"Look, there's Chad!" she said to Jeremy as she started running to the house still holding Jeremy's hand so he had to follow. As Jeremy looked closer he saw that it really was Chad standing in the porch holding a cigarette on one hand, waving with the other. Now Jeremy got more excited and followed the girl faster. He couldn't believe it. He thought he had lost his best friend but there he was, smoking a cigarette looking perfectly healthy.

"Chad! I thought you were dead!" Jeremy yelled to Chad as he got closer.

"No, people like me never die. We have the luck on our side, don't we? People like you and me", Chad yelled back. The sentence 'I have the luck on my side' was one of his favourite sayings.

"Well you're one lucky bastard", Jeremy laughed. "I saw your hoodie and backpack, all covered in blood. I lost my hope of ever seeing you alive again."

"Oh c'mon, like a little bit of blood would kill someone like me. In fact I think I'm immortal."

Jeremy had stopped running and was now walking towards Chad with a wide smile on his face. "I'm just so happy to see you. But if you're okay, why haven't you come back home or atleast called if you still feel too weak to travel? We were all so worried about you."

"Oh you were?" Chad said, with a bit of loathing in his voice. Jeremy's smile faded slightly. "You were worried and still it took you over three weeks to come looking for me?"

"The police didn't find anything, and your parents were too scared to come on their own. There were other missing people too, everyone was worried. But I'm so happy I found you now, we can go back home."

As Jeremy was talking, he started staring Chad more closely. Something was wrong. It had been hard to see from distance, but as the closer he walked towards Chad, he realized there was something odd in the way he looked.

Then he saw Chad taking a really deep breath from his cigarette and the truth hit him. His eyes grew wider and he couldn't help to scream a bit. The moment he did that he realized it was a huge mistake, because everyone in the yard were staring straight at him. More people seem to come from the shadows. Jeremy wanted to run but his feet didn't obey him, they didn't move an inch. The little girl was still standing next to him and touched his arm again. Her skin felt like old paper.

"I'm so sorry to do this", she said with a grin of her face that showed all she felt was extatic happiness. Before Jeremy was able to say anything, he noticed he was laying in the ground on his back with the little girl sitting on top of his chest. In her hand she had a knife as long as her own arm.

Jeremy couldn't do anything. Few seconds later he felt something warm shooting from his neck. The sky and the stars in it started to fade. His thoughts were one big mess, but right before the world faded away, he looked into the little girl's eyes and saw infinity in them.