The Family: Ties That Bind (VOL. 2)

Chapter 5: Dwight pt. 2

Dwight Pov:

The hitchhiker grew smaller in the car's mirrors until he eventually disappeared. Where to, I had no idea. As far as I know, all that's out there is cornfields and empty woods for all the eye can see. Dusk was setting in turning the sky a hazy grey. Only a few more hours of sunlight before we'd be enveloped in complete darkness.

"Stop the car!" Penny shouted, pointing out the window. "There's the mailbox the hitchhiker was talking about." 

The car slowed beside a narrow road cutting through a field, the path so hidden If you weren't looking for it you'd miss it. Concealed in the rows of corn was a rusty mailbox with the letter S painted on the side exactly as he said. Down that road must sit the house he spoke of.

"Penny, I know what you're thinking and there's no way we're going. You saw how that psychopath acted. Who's to say this woman he recommended us to meet isn't crazy too."

"You have to start seeing the good in people, Dwighty. That guy was...decent acting until you started bashing his photography skills. I would've cut you too if you dogged me like that ."

"Bashing his picture gave him no right to set the photo of us on fire in the backseat of our car and slice my arm open when I tried to give him his stupid camera back!"

"Stop being such a baby. Do you really want this whole trip to have been for nothing?"She flashed Zack her puppy dog eyes that he could never seem to say no to. "Do it for our viewers, Zack. If no one else, do it for them..." 

"Alright alright," he groaned "But the second I hear a banjo playing like in the movie Deliverance I'm gone and leaving y'all behind." He turned the steering wheel to the right, guiding our car onto the road.

I groaned and slumped back in my seat as we snaked through the field, the corn husks bashing against the side of the car the further we embarked. I'd like to object to this expedition, but I know it'd be useless. Once the path came to an end, it spat out in a clearing surrounded by the cornfields and a dense expanse of woods. An old two-story farmhouse, the exterior painted in a crisp white that was in dire need of a touch-up with a pale blue tin roof. Charming place really, with its shaded porch big picture windows. Another building stood on the property not too far of a walk from the house, a dilapidated barn fashioned from raw lumber turned shades of black and grey through the years.  

We drove closer, minding the chickens swarming the yard and parked. The four of us climbed out and stood before the house. It's presence loomed over us, blocking out the remaining sunlight and casting a cool shadow over my group and I. Movement in a turret window— probably the attic — caught my attention. A figure, small, slender and bathed in shadow brushed the curtains to the side and stared down at us. 

Zack joined me at my side, patting my back and drawing my eyes away from the window. "Dwight, I want you to go knock on the door and ask whoever answers if they wanna talk."

"Me! Why don't you go?!" I shoved him away and glanced back towards the window, but whoever was there was gone.

"Cause I asked you first."

"You always do this, Zack. It's because you're too chicken to go yourself."

"Would you two shut up!" Penny barked, plowing her way through us and ascending the front steps.

The three of us followed her, stepping onto the cluttered porch. She raised her fist, her knuckles collided with the wood casing framing the panel of mesh screen on the door. An older woman appeared on the other side, her slender frame hugged by a plaid dress and an apron tied around her waist.