Speed ➢ harry styles

Ch. 23 ~ Dimly Lit Road

a/N: DIDN'T EDIT SORRY

"That house looks haunted," Melissa murmured, her gaze fixated on the homes we passed by while Leo continued driving on the residential street. 

"Why do you think so?" Leo asked.

"The gateway has spikes on them and if you look closely there's also a weird skull design on the front gate." She said, with both palms against the glass as she peeped out trying her hardest to get a better look. 

"So? Maybe the owner just liked the design and thought it looked badass. That isn't evidence of it being haunted," Leo stated.

"Also the windows are boarded up," Melissa added. 

Leo frowned as he looked out of her window. "Well, it sure does look creepy." 

"You've never payed attention to the homes on this street? I thought you've taken this road before as a shortcut?" Melissa asked. 

"Nope and now that you've pointed them out, I'm a little scared." 

"Stop the car, we should go exploring and see if we can find any paranormal stuff." Melissa suggested.

"Hell no," Anella muttered. "That's a horrible idea." 

"Yeah she's right, that's not a very good idea. It's not safe." I weighed in. 

"Melissa, that's exactly what the characters in horror movies suggest doing and they end up being the first ones to die because they trip on air or something when the killer is after them.." Leo laughed. "And for some reason they can't muster the strength to get up and run for their lives, like  okay wow..."

"I know right? Oh my gosh, they can be so idiotic. By the way, I'm joking guys calm down. I'm not out of my mind. You know don't want to die, I just want to get to this club." Melissa said. She impatiently tapped on the glass of the window and sighed. "Hate to ask this, but are we there yet?" 

"Nearly." 

"I thought this was a shortcut but it seems to be taking so long."

"At least we haven't gotten stuck in traffic." Anella declared.

"That's true, I guess." 

"Don't worry, we're almost there." Leo assured. 

If the fact that we were driving through a shoddy part of town in which the homes appeared haunted wasn't unsettling enough, we had now turned left onto a very scarcely lit street. Perhaps only three of the nine street lamps I'd seen were actually working. The rest were either flickering or completely dimmed out as if they were too afraid to give off light, as if something here didn't want them to illuminate the worn out streets. I gnawed at my knuckle at the alarming notion that had found it's way into my mind. Anella looked at me. She was a bit concerned. 

"What is it?" She asked, her hand gingerly brushing my arm for a few seconds before she took it away. She could've kept it there, it wasn't like I minded. 

 "Oh nothing, it's just that it's so dark on this street. I'm kind of creeped out. Dorky, I know." 

"Hey now, that's not dorky at all. I'm a little on edge too." She looked out of the window and frowned. "It's just so weird because there are only two other cars and literally no pedestrians anywhere. The lights in shops are off and that's understandable because it's almost 11 pm and maybe it's past closing time, but what about the flat complexes? Why is it that there's not a single light on in any of them?" 

"It's abandoned," Leo confirmed. "It's always been this way. Well at least as long as I can remember. I've taken this route at least five times and once I went with my friend Marcus and he told me about the fire on the sixteenth floor and the alleged murder that happened two weeks prior to the fire. He talked about how the majority of the living spaces of the flat complex belonged to members of some drug cartel. I guess it provided as a temporary housing option for them and their illegal possessions." Leo shrugged nonchalantly while Melissa, Anella, and I furrowed our brows and shook our heads in disbelief.