Kids Just Want To Survive

Chapter Ten

Rachel

Lee and I watched Matt drive off into the darkness of the night. The fumes from the old motorcycle pollute into the cold air. After the loud sounds from the motorcycle are far away Lee and I head back inside. I look around the house at the mess all over the place. We started cleaning but barely made any difference.

"You think Matt's gonna be fine?" I ask Lee while we're clear the trash from the floor. He turns around and faces me again.

"Yeah, he knows what he's doing," he replies with a smile. We return to cleaning the living room, taking all the empty cans and dirty tissues of the coffee table and throwing them in the big plastic bags.

"Hey, Rachel! Did you know these guys have a second floor?" Lee yells from the other side of the house. 

"No! Where are you?" I shout back. The house is already quite big but I didn't know it had a second floor.

"I'm at the back here, in the washroom!" he replies.

I make my way to the back, trying not to get lost. Eventually, right by the washroom, I find a set of stairs and Lee. He turns his head in my direction.

"You haven't gone up?" I ask him.

He smiles and replies, "There's no way I'm going up there alone."

"Ah, well do you have a knife or something, just in case," I ask him. He takes out the dagger my dad gave him and I flip the light switch by the staircase. Nothing happens. I was hoping that wouldn't happen. It looks dark upstairs.

Slowly we head up the stairs, the wooden stairs creaking at each step we make. The silence combined with the creaks of the wood is enough to drive someone's nerves crazy. Not to mention the darkness.

Carefully we go through each room. I open the curtains to let the light of the moon into the rooms. Each one of the rooms is messy and stink. Almost every bedroom has blood on the carpets or the sheets. 

Finally, we're in the last room at the end of the corridor. As Lee twists the handle the door doesn't move. 

"It's locked Lee, there's nothing we can do," I tell him. I don't feel like wasting my energy on getting one room open.

"Oh come on," he says playfully. He looks at the door.

"Back up," he tells me. I follow his order and move back. Before I can stop him, Lee runs back and bursts the door open, putting the full force of his body on the wood. I thought that stuff was only supposed to work in the movies.

"Impressive," I tell him. He smiles and lifts himself up from the ground. I walk through the door, which is somehow still intact, and enter the room. Unlike the others, this one is neat and spotless. It even has a fireplace. If I stayed here the whole time maybe I wouldn't even know that there are dead people walking around.

"It's a pretty nice place," Lee says while looking around the room. I open one of the bed pedestals and find a bottle of Lagavulin Scotch Whiskey. 

"Damn, these people had a fine taste," he says. 

"You seem to know a bit about good alcohol," I reply.

"You've never tried it?" he asks me. I shake my head in reply. I've never gotten the obsession that many high schoolers have with it so I just stayed away. 

Lee looks out through the window, the full moon showing illuminating the room. His dark messy hair looks even better now than before.

"I guess we found a place for you to sleep," he tells me. I frown.

"What about you?" I ask him.

"I was gonna sleep downstairs on the couch we just cleaned," he says laughing. 

A sudden shiver runs down my spine as the cold in the room cuts through my clothes. Lee almost instantly notices.

"I'm getting some wood, lets get a fire going for ya, you can stay here and relax," he offers me and heads back downstairs.

I get some more blankets out of the cupboards and lay them on the bed. Shortly Lee is back in the room and starting the fire while I watch. Soon the fire is crackling away and warming the room. 

"You should stay here tonight," I say without thinking. He turns his attention away from the fire quickly and looks at me, surprised.

"You sure I don't-" he begins.

"Come on, it's not fair I get the nice room and you have to sleep on a hazardous couch," I laugh.

"Right, I suppose the bed is big enough," he smiles.