Out of the Darkness

64

"Okay," he replied firmly. "Let's get back in there before they think we left. We'll let her have tonight and just keep an eye on her." He was with me on this. Sam was going to help me. I wasn't alone in this anymore. I don't know why I didn't expect it. Sam is always here for me, no matter what. He was my brother. "Come on," he said, motioning for me to follow him back to the others. We walked back into the room, and saw a scene that was so normal, yet so weird to me. Jake and Corey were standing over by the pool table, watching something on Jake's phone and laughing. Kat was making a TikTok, that included Tara. Devyn and Cassie were sitting on the couch, doing Anna's makeup. I had never event thought about her wearing makeup. She was so naturally beautiful, it really wasn't needed. "I love the vintage look that you have going on Anna. I'd love to raid your closet one day," I overheard Dev say to her. "Oh...um, I don't really have a lot of clothes," Anna muttered, her face going red under the foundation that was now on it. "You're about my size. If you ever want to borrow anything, just let me know," Kat replied. She and Tara was walking over to the couch, the TikTok finished. I followed Sam over to the pool table, and tried to pay attention to what the guys were talking about. My gaze kept finding it's way back to Anna. The smile on her face lit up her eyes, pure joy shining through. I had never seen her this happy. "Colby's got it bad. Look at that grin on his face. He's in loooove." I heard Jake's voice, louder than it should've been, so I jerked my gaze to him. He was grinning, a lopsided, mischievous grin. "Will you shut the fuck up?" I growled, glancing at the girls to see if they had heard him. Kat had a smile on her face, but she wasn't looking at me. Anna's face was bright red now, almost matching the lipstick that Devyn was expertly applying. I didn't know if they had heard or not and I guess it didn't matter either way. "What? I'm just saying. You're looking at her like you've never seen a girl before." "Shut up Jake, I'm not kidding around," I said, my voice hard. "Jake, let it go," Sam replied. Jake shrugged. "I was just saying. If he likes her, then he should make a move. That's why he always gets friend zoned." I sighed, meeting Sam's eyes. He knew what I was going through, even if he didn't understand it. "Let's grab a White Claw and go outside," Corey suggested, putting his phone in his pocket. I glanced at Anna again, still a little worried that she might get into a situation that would tell the girls more than they needed to know about her. "She'll be fine," Sam whispered, passing me on his way to the kitchen. I tore my gaze from her, and followed him to grab a few White Claws. Our backyard was huge. There was a Tiki Bar with a large grill in it, a fire pit, a trampoline, and our very own basketball court. We walked all the way to the back, until we reached the basketball court. I sat down on the edge of the concrete, while Corey grabbed the ball from it's position up against the fence. Sam sat down next to me. Jake and Corey set their drinks down next to us, and started a game. I popped the lid on my own drink and turned it up, drinking deeply. Why did I always end up in these situations? I mean, I know that I had never been in this particular situation...I was probably the only that had ever been...wait! "Sam!" I exclaimed, trying to keep my voice down. He glanced at me, his eyebrows raised questioningly. "The guy. The worker. They said that he went crazy and thought the doll was a real person. Anna was inside my doll. What if there was actually someone in that doll too?" He held my gaze, his blue eyes burning into mine as realization hit him. "Oh my God. What if all of those dolls hold a soul or something? What the fuck is going on here Colby? What have we gotten ourselves into?" I shook my head. "I don't know, but we have to find out. For Anna's sake. For the rest of them that are trapped. We have to go back." He sighed and nodded. "That's what I wanted to do in the first place, ya know." I rolled my eyes, a small grin crossing my face now that we had a plan. Or a place to start anyway. "You know it's going to be risky though. We need to go in the day time, just to try and be a little safer about it. Way before nightfall," Sam said, already planning out everything in his head. We sat there, discussing what we needed to do, while Corey and Jake continued their game. There wasn't much to plan however. I mean, what did we even know? I wasn't sure that I wanted Anna to come at all. I didn't even know if I wanted to tell her about the trip. We suspected that the rest of the dolls there contained souls. We knew there was some kind of dark, big, bad thing there, that we had no idea how to fight. Besides making a conscious decision to go back to that horrible house, and to run if anything bad started to happen, we didn't have much of a plan. That was pretty much how Sam and I used to work, back when we just went exploring for the fun of it. It could be dangerous sometimes, but it was also exhilarating. The rush of adrenaline, the risk of getting caught, the slight danger that was present in some of the situations. All of it made the trips amazing. Maybe we were stupid in a lot of those trips but we would never forget them. We had the best memories to look back on. This trip to this Dark house was different though. We knew there was a LOT of danger in doing this. In all honesty, we should probably just forget it all together. It wasn't our problem, right? Those people had probably been gone a long time. Why were we going to risk our lives for people that we didn't know, that had no impact on our lives whatsoever? "Are we really doing this?" I asked Sam, pulling at the grass that was by my feet. "Don't you want too? To help Anna?" I sighed and nodded. "Yea, I need to help her." It was a need now, not just a want. I had to do what I could for Anna, no matter the risk. I knew that was stupid because she was already dead, and I wasn't. But was she really dead? Because the girl that was inside my house right now was very much alive.