𝙄𝙁 𝙄 𝘾𝘼𝙉'𝙏 𝙃𝘼𝙑𝙀 𝙔𝙊𝙐 ◇ 𝗣𝗔𝗧𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗞 𝗛𝗢𝗖𝗞𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗧𝗧𝗘𝗥

𝗕𝗔𝗧𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗜𝗘𝗦▪️FOUR

Valerie visited Patrick's house a few more times after that.

She never really worried all too much about getting caught and it was starting to show, as she was beginning to get careless. This was evident in the way she always left something out of place in the Hockstetter residence, whether it was the pitcher of lemonade she didn't put back in the fridge or the chair Mr. Hockstetter found scooted out when he swore he'd pushed it in the night before. Sometimes it was a single muddy footprint in front of the doormat as if someone had taken a step before they remembered to wipe their shoes.

Yes, she was being sloppy and remiss, but fortunately for her, Patrick was sloppy and remiss.

All these strange things around the house had been chalked up to him, which annoyed the boy. He knew it wasn't him, but he also knew he didn't have to defend himself to Them. So he let it go.

He decided to have some fun with the ghost, if that's what it was.

It started small. Maybe he left something in his room in a certain spot and would wake up to see that it had been, as expected, shifted so slightly. So minor a change that normally no one would notice. But Patrick noticed.

He conducted a few more of these tests. Counting his neglected multivitamins in the medicine cabinet was the last thing he did at night and the first thing he did in the morning.

Twenty-seven on Tuesday.

Twenty-seven on Wednesday.

Twenty-seven on Thursday.

With a grumble on Friday night, he counted twenty-seven multivitamin grape chews. The number hadn't changed in four days. Maybe he scared it off.

No, he wouldn't accept that. He took note of the unchanging number and went to his room for the night.

The next day, Patrick sat up in bed at twelve-thirty. The late autumn sun was high in the sky and it made his bedroom hotter than usual. Irritated, he trudged to the bathroom to relieve himself.

His vision was still clouded with sleep, he nearly missed it. When his eyes adjusted, they nearly popped out of his skull.

There on the counter was the vitamin container.

He didn't let himself get too out of sorts. Maybe he'd left it there, forgotten to put it up.

No he wouldn't do that. He quickly grabbed it, twisting the top off and dumping the contents onto the counter.

Two, four, six, eight...

Twenty-six.

Where there were once twenty-seven vitamins, there was now twenty-six. Patrick studied them with a burning focus, as if staring hard enough might get them to crack and reveal where their comrade had gone, who had taken him. He smiled to himself.

It was back.

Whatever stalked his house in the night was back. Had it taken a break? Maybe been spooked by his tests? Who cared? What mattered was now it was back and he intended to catch it.

Contrary to these thoughts, Valerie wasn't spooked.

In fact, she was less than privy to Patrick's experiments and remained under the impression her presence was yet to be detected. But her arrogance betrayed her and had she known how the night would unfold, she would have been more focused.

Things started the way they usually did. She peered into Patrick's bedroom window and saw that he was laying there, deathly still.

Valerie assumed he was in a deeper sleep than usual, but the truth was that the tall boy was listening for a disturbance in the home.