𝕯𝖆𝖒𝖆𝖌𝖊𝖉 ☽ 𝕒𝕙𝕤

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝕿𝖍𝖗𝖊𝖊

𝚓𝚞𝚜𝚝 - 𝚛𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚘𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚍

☽

I sit on my bed, leaning against my headboard, my knees pulled up to my chest. Tate sits on the end of the bed, telling me about the history of this house.

'So why'd you move here anyway?'

'We inherited the house from my distant relatives. They used to live here a really long time ago,' I say.

'What's your surname?'

'Montgomery...'

'Woah. I didn't think they had any descendants.'

'Well here I am,' I shrug my shoulders, 'Do you know anything about them?'

Tate nods.

'They were the original owners of the house. Charles and Nora Montgomery. Charles built the house for his wife. He was a 'surgeon to the stars'. He used to perform illegal abortions in this very basement. But one of the clients told her boyfriend about the abortion and he dismembered their baby son, Thaddeus.'

'Oh my god.'

'You too scared?'

'No way. Carry on.'

'Anyway, Charles used the parts of his son and animal parts, trying to bring him back to life. It worked - sort of. What Dr. Montgomery made was alive, but it definitely wasn't his son. Nora found out what her husband had done, killed him and then ate a bullet herself. The couple had another son that got taken away after their deaths. I always thought he died, but I guess not.'

'How do you know all that?' I ask, not really believing him.

'This house is pretty famous, you know. Because of all the murders that happened here.'

'There are more?'

'Yeah, and the story is that they all still haunt this house,' he laughs, mimicking a ghost.

'Bullsh*t,' I laugh, 'I don't believe in ghosts.'

Tate pauses.

'Yeah, neither do I,' another pause, 'Hey... would you wanna go out with me sometime?'

I raise an eyebrow at him.

'No no not like a date or anything - I know a place not far from here we can just go for a walk or something. We can go there on Halloween. What do you say?'

'Well, sure, I guess. Why Halloween?'

'It's just it's my favourite day of the year.'

He gives me another crooked smile.

'Hey, what are you doing in here?' My dad appears in the doorway, staring at Tate.

He turns around and stands up.

'Sorry, I'm just going now.' He smiles at me before starting to walk off, 'Thanks Dr. Montgomery and see you later, Evie.' He winks at me playfully as he disappears down the hallway.

Dr. Montgomery?

'Evelyn, I don't want you anywhere near that boy - he's dangerous. He's one of my new psych patients, and promise me you'll stay away from him,' he says, 'I read his file'.

'Why?' I retort, 'he's nice...'

'I don't want you getting involved with him. I've seen boys like him before-'

'You want me to like it here but you can't even let me make friends?' I argue with him, 'What - you think he's gonna hurt me? Well he can't hurt me anymore than you have! You ruined this family...' I scream at him.

'Evi-'

'No!' I shout, slamming the door in his face and slumping down against it.

A feeling of rage bubbles up inside me, about to explode. But it's not a rage that I've ever felt before. It feels... odd.

The feeling keeps on building up. I let out a scream of anguish and frustration at my dad and how things will never be the same again.

I hear a huge crash and the floor shudders under the weight of my bookshelf toppling over, the books flying out with flapping pages on to the ground.

What the hell just happened?

✧✧✧

I turn off my light and walk over to my window to close the curtains. As I do something hits it, making a tapping noise against the glass before falling back to the concrete.

I look down to see where the stones are coming from. Tate is standing there, illuminated in the moonlight, looking up at me with that smile of his. That smile. His arm is poised about throw another stone. He lowers it and gestures for me to come down.

I pull up my window and raise a quizzical eyebrow in his direction.

'Come on, I wanna talk to you,' he shouts up, cupping his hands.

'Okay, okay, I'm coming,' I whisper-shout back at him. 'Just keep your voice down.'

Shutting the window again, I slip on my shoes and make my way slowly down the stairs, trying to avoid waking my parents.

I'm almost past the kitchen when I notice my dad standing there, hovering his hands above the flaming stove. He has no clothes on and he's not moving. I'm not sure I want to know what he's doing.

'Dad?' I whisper, but without any reaction.

I slip out of the door, deciding he isn't going to notice me.

'Hey,' Tate smiles, already at the door.

'Hey,'  I say back as he sits down on the porch, following him. I sigh, my white breath swirling through the cold air. 'Sorry about my dad, I don't know what's gotten in to him.'

'No, don't worry about it,' he says. His eyes move down to my inner wrists and I hide them quickly, tucking them in as I cross my arms. I know he saw it.

TW : Self Harm

I look away. He gently takes my arm and puts it against his, revealing the same marks. Looking up at him, he gives me a comforting but sad smile.

I pull my arm away.

'It's cold,' I shiver.

'Here, take this,' Tate says, taking off his jacket and gently wrapping it around my shoulders.

✧