Hailey & The NoEnd House

Apprehension

Marcus

I paused in my excessive pacing, sighed, and stared at the house for probably the billionth time that day.

Hailey still hadn't come out, which wasn't right. She'd been in there for an hour already and I was starting to get worried.

About thirty minutes after Hailey (stupidly) entered that house, I had begun to pace the yard (which was huge, I might add). Tommy was sitting on the grass, playing some meaningless game on his phone, not worrying about a thing.

Well at least he was distracted.

Right after Hailey disappeared into the house, Tommy went super psycho on me. He was nearly crying, saying how we'd never see Hailey again and it'd just be the two of us. He started reminiscing about all the things us and Hailey had done together and how nothing would ever be the same.

Sometimes I just can't believe how dramatic that kid is.

I didn't know how to calm him down, so I just allowed him to let it all out, while I just stood there, awkwardly nodding. Thank God, he eventually calmed himself and begun to sadly play video games on his phone.

Now, however, he was so immersed, I don't even think he remembered where he was anymore.

I stared at the house, wondering where Hailey could be and what could possibly be taking her so long. Its was only nine rooms. It couldn't take that long, could it? Was she in a maze or something?

What was she doing?

Maybe she's dead. I thought, Maybe the story was true. Stupid. I shouldn't have brought her here.

That horrendous thought had been running through my head all day. I had begun pacing to avoid the possibility because every time it crossed my mind, it felt like being punched in the gut. I couldn't bear it. There was no way that could be true and there was no way I was gonna accept it. It couldn't POSSIBLY be true. It was only a stupid story I heard from my older brother.

My brother, Martin was seventeen years old and probably the most sadistic brother anyone could ever have. He would embarrass you, tease you, steal things from you and make you do humiliating things to get them back, but the one thing Martin was best at, was scaring people. Me and my other two siblings would always be so terrified of what he would do to us next. Right when we thought he'd done it all, he'd do something else even worse. A while ago, I told him that I was used to all of his tricks and that he couldn't scare me anymore, but he just took it as a challenge. There was no discouraging my oldest brother. He began to tell me about the NoEnd House and that it was real, not too far from our home. He told me about all the deaths and how eventually it was abandoned. I didn't believe him though and I told him that. So then, he even went as far as taking me in his car, on the weekend, to go see the house myself and that's when he told me about David Williams. I still didn't believe him, but knowing that there was this huge, mysterious house, not too far from our boring neighborhood filled me with excitement. I knew it was something I had to show Hailey and Tommy immediately.

But, still that didn't mean I believed it.

Looking at the house now, I kinda regretted bringing them here. Especially Hailey. I knew Hailey. We'd all been friends for so long, I knew them both like the back of my hand. I knew that if I showed them the house, Hailey would try to go in. That's just who she was. She was wild and did what she wanted whenever she wanted. It was only to be expected, and I was so confident that the story was fake that I just let her go in.

Now I see, that was a bad decision.

A very bad decision, I thought.

Tommy must've saw me, staring at the house, deep in thought because he spoke.

"Maybe you should text her and she if she's ok."

I broke out of my trance and stared at Tommy. He was looking up at me with an eerie calm expression, which was odd because not too long ago, he was losing his mind - maybe he wore himself out. He sat cross-legged on the grass and he held his phone in his lap. On the screen, I saw that he was playing Temple Run and he had just lost.

I nodded and pulled my phone out if my pocket. I did remember her saying to text her if she wasn't back within an hour. Even though she meant that remark to tease us, I saw a spark of uncertainty in her eyes as she said it.

And it was definitely a good idea.

I went through all my contacts until finally, I found Hailey Stewart. I tapped the box and typed:

Hey r u ok? Its been an hour already. Where r u?

And sent.

I looked at the house one more time and sighed.

Oh Hails, what the hell were you thinking going in there?

"Did you send it?" Tommy asked.

I nodded slowly. With every passing minute, I got more and more worried about Hailey. It was only nine rooms, so she should've been out by now. I was so sure the rumors weren't true, and now I couldn't afford to be wrong. If Hailey ended up dying, or even going insane in there, it would be all my fault.

And I just couldn't live with that.

Being the utter nerd that I am, I learned that love is just a bunch of chemicals reacting in your body and an increased level of dopamine, but . . . I guess it's much more than that. I won't say that I love Hailey, but maybe I was somewhere along the lines of that. We'd been friends for such a long time but, she definitely wasn't like a sister to me . . . she was something more.

Tommy went back to his game. I went back to pacing and I begun praying to God that she came out.

I guess we'd just have to wait.