signal | fillie

chapter three

A STRANGE NOISE

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"And that's how my uncle's apartment got haunted." gaten finishes, taking a bite out of his roasted s'mores. the marshmallow oozed out the side, slowly encasing the outer graham cracker.

"wait, let me get this straight. your little cousin messed with a quija board and somehow got your uncles house haunted? aren't those things fake?" sadie asks as if it was obvious, she never was one to believe in the paranormal activity and this story seemed way out of wack for her.

gaten huffs in frustration, knowing that he's had to explain this multiple times to noah.

"no, they are real. these boards tap into other alternate dimensions!" gaten trails off, his eyes widening like crazy. sadie furrows her eyebrows and flinches at his hands abruptly shooting up, her face scrunched up.

caleb rolls his eyes, "for the one hundredth time, gaten—ghosts are real!" he yells, his tone bursting with frustration.

gaten rolls his eyes and throws his arms down, "okay, really? you too?" he asks as if caleb had been replaced with another caleb. he couldn't believe caleb didn't even believe him.

"okay, guys just calm down!" sadie yelled, everyone suddenly went quiet.

suddenly, the air erupted into a tense aura. the silence was deafening, it was the type of silence that hurt your ears to be exact.

no one spoke, that is, until millie did.

she had a story of her own.

"when i lived back in england, i lived at my grandparents house because of some family issues. one night, i went to bed in my moms old room—it was all vintage and stuff," everyone listened intently to her story, not taking their eyes off of her as she continued.

"i always slept on my stomach, my head always faced the edge of the bed too. to this day, i stopped sleeping with my head facing the edge and instead i face the wall because—well because...one night i woke up to see....someone? maybe something staring right back at me. honestly, i didn't think of anything at first when i saw it—i was too tired to even think straight so i just fell back asleep. this still gets me though, every day." millie mutters lowly to the group of teens. mr. keery made a humph noise, looking at millie without saying anything.

he had been listening to the talk of these immature teens for the past two hours and he really couldn't care less. his tent was calling to him.

goosebumps erupted onto everyone's arms and the back of their neck, the story gave everyone chills.

"that...was by far the most terrifying story i've heard all day." gaten says, staring into the fire. he seemed to be more creeped out than anyone, especially since he's had paranormal activity happen to him and around him.

"millie?" sadie asks simply.

millie turns to face her, quirking a brown up as if to say what's up.

"you're not fucking with us right now, right? that was a true story?" she asks seriously, not wanting millie to mess around with them, joe gave sadie a stern look that she could only see as a warning since she said a bad word in front of him. she just hoped it was a fake story, not something real.

although, that's not the answer she got.

"yes, it is."

sadie hugged her arms close, pulling her knees up to her chest and burying her face. millie giggles at her, telling her that it was okay and that it was in the past.