Before and After

Chapter 7 "Jamiee Is That You?"

It was about 8:30am when I woke Aiden up and told him to get dressed. Both of my parents had to be up for work today-my dad by 5:50am and my mom by 7:30am-so I figured that if we woke up a little after both of them and was dressed and ready to go by the time they left the house, we could leave right behind them-without them knowing.

"Aiden after you get dressed lay back in bed and pretend you're sleep. We can't let mom know we're up." I whispered into his room. "Ok." he whispered back. I quickly tiptoed back to my room, got dressed, then hopped back into my bed and pretended like I was sleep. "Errrr" was the sound of my door as my mother opened it stepping inside my bedroom. Whispering, my mom softly spoke my name. "Ciara..." Still pretending I was sleep, I tossed and turned a little bit then looked toward her with droopy eyes and replied "hmm?" "Your dad already left and I'm about to leave in a few minutes ok sweetie? Make sure you and Aiden stay home or at least close by, you understand me?" she told me in her soft but stern voice. "Ok. Yes ma'am." I said back drearily. Time to get to work.

"You got everything?" I asked Aiden before stepping off the porch. "Yep." "Alright then, lets roll." Aiden and I quietly walked off the porch and tried to stay out of sight of our neighbors. "When we get to the second stop sign we're going to take a right ok? "Ok." We continued to walk for about 10 minutes until we finally reached our destination. "Here we are...you got the picture?" I said looking down at Aiden. "Yeah, here you go. We're supposed to be looking for this house right?" "Right. If you find it before I do tell me. But don't walk too far away from me ok?" "Ok, gotcha."

"AIDEN COME QUICK!" I yelled faintly but loud enough for him to hear. "What?! What?!" he asked while running toward me. When he got to where I was I didn't even have to tell him "what" I called him for. "You want to go in?" he asked looking up at me with a scared expression on his face. "No, but we have no choice but to."

Fearfully, we each took a step closer to the old abandoned house. I felt as if we were in a horror movie and the only way to get away from the killer was to go through this house. I stretched my arm down toward Aiden holding out my hand for him to grab. Immediately he took hold of it and together we stepped into the house.

The first thing I noticed after stepping inside the house was an old grandfather clock which, surprising, still looked pretty decent. Second was the smell. It was horrific! It smelt of.....death. "Cece..? Wha-what's that?" "What's what Aiden??" "Th-tha-that." I looked in the direction in which Aiden was staring at. And that's when I saw it-I small, thin, figure which was in shape of a person. "You don't think that's...? I began saying. Then was cut off by the words, "Ciara? Aiden? It's me! Jaimee!"