The house next door

Chapter17

"Knock knock knock"

"Emily, what the hell!!...how...how did you reach here?"

"I asked the neighbor for a ride. Can we come in?"

"Are you and Marcus alright?"

I ignored Hailey's question as I paced back and fourth in front her entrance door.

"Come to my room, and we'll talk ok".

Without hesitation, I walked straight towards Hailey's room, where we sat and talked for hours.

As I explained everything that happened earlier that afternoon, I saw her nodding to almost everything I'm saying.

After allowing myself to calm down for what felt like hours talking, we both decided to get a snack.

As we headed towards the kitchen, I noticed how happy and loquacious Jacob was. I stood there observing him, leaving a smile to escape my lips.

"You know that's creepy right right?"

"What is?"

"The way you stare at your brother"

"Haha, I just love when he's happy"

I spun around and noticed Hailey's mouth was already full with what looks like granola bar.

"Can I have one?"

"Sure"

We both sat and ate in silence, as a thought transpire.

"I think we should visit the house tonight" I whispered.

"What was that?" Hailey asked.

"I think we should visit the house tonight" I said in more of a harsh tone.

"Shhh...Are you crazy?"

"Please Hailey" I pleaded. It's about time I figured out what's going on here, don't you think?".

Sighing deeply, I still manage to sense a little bit of sympathy from her.

"What about your mom?"

I've been checking up on her, here and then and she seems to be getting better. But I can't put Jacob at risk or myself.

I just need to find out who was living at that house,and if Marcus has something to do with it.

"Fine!! Fine!!" What time do you think we should leave to go?

"Definitely midnight" its around the time the boys should be asleep and also your parents.

"Ok"

"Do you mind if I take a quick nap?"

"Sure"

~~
It's been 2 hours, and I finally woke up from my nap. Checking my phone, I noticed 8 missed calls from Marcus, along with 3 voicemails.

"Please pick up Em"
"Let's talk about this please baby"

Ignoring his voicemails, I placed my phone back on the night stand, and headed towards the washroom to freshen up.

While taking a shower, many thoughts pondered my head, as I thought about what would I find in the house.

"Why did we move here?"

Who Marcus really is?"

What is the cause of these mysterious occurrences?".

Allowing the water to fall on me, I kept on coming up with the weirdest questions I could possibly think about.

I finally decided to turn off the shower,  brush my teeth and headed out of the bathroom. As I was making my way out of the bathroom, I noticed Hailey didn't have any more towels to dry my hair.

"Hailey do you have any spear towels?" I yelled.

"Check in my moms bathroom"

I nonchalantly made my way to her parents bathroom to get an extra towel. Admiring there huge bedroom and bath, I noticed one of the tiling on the walls of there bathroom we a bit oddly different.

Glancing behind me to make sure no one was there, I decided to remove the tile, when I noticed it was filled with pictures and a ring.  "A ring?" I questioned. I admired the pictures of Hailey and her family when they were younger when a smile escaped my lips.

Disappearing instantly, I noticed a familiar man in the pictures. Looking exactly like the same man my mom used to show us. Flipping through the pictures faster, I continued to see the same man in the pictures with Hailey's mom.

"Dad" I whispered.

"Emily...you in here?"

"I'll be right out"

Hurriedly putting back everything in place, a tear escaped my eyes as I studied to myself. "Did my dad had a double life?"

Quickly wiping the tears away and bringing myself together, I headed downstairs and saw Hailey in the kitchen sitting.

Staring at here, I thought to myself.

" Is she my sister?"

Breaking the silence, I questioned, "hey I know this is personal but what ever happened to your real dad?" 

I could sense her discomfort as she stiffened towards the questioned, but answered regardless.

"Umm... well I never really knew him. He died when I was 3 years old. My mom got remarried and I've been calling my stepfather "dad" ever since.

"3 years old" I thought to myself.

"Do you have any pictures of him?"

"Unfortunately no. My mom said it was misplaced, which is weird. But I still remember bits of him.

"She lied" I whispered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing. Sorry!!"

For the rest of the evening, I impatiently waited for midnight to arrive. We cooked some Mac and cheese for the boys, watched them play game, we chatted a lot, and that's when I realized we had a lot in common.

It's 11:30pm, and the boys have finally fallen asleep. I woke up Hailey who have also fallen asleep, and told her it's time to get ready.
Hearing a groan from her at first, she finally brought herself together.

We cautiously went up the stairs into her room, trying our best not to make a sound. Getting ready within 10 minutes, we both decided on all black out fits (black hoodie, black jeans, black converse, a black hat and a flashlight).

It took us about 20 minutes to arrive at the house. As we exited the vehicle, I took a quick look at the house I used to live in with my mom. Starring at the house which was pitch black, I was far from unable to see inside. As stood there starring, I could feel my eyes getting teary, bringing my self together, I said, "ok Hailey, u ready for this?"

"Ready as I good be I guess"

We sneakily walked to the front of the abandoned house, where Hailey and I both looked at each other simultaneously. I then placed my hand on the door nub and cracked open the door, allowing a fowl scent to leave the house, we finally made our way into the darkness.