Experiment in Terror 09 Dust to Dust (16 page)

I’d be lying if I thought that never bothered me. As overjoyed as I was that Perry found some love in her life, even if by the great beyond, growing up I had looked to Pippa more than I looked to my own mother. She was love while my parents were not.

You were loved
, a voice rang throughout my head, ripe with bitterness.

I had no idea where it came from, but it was telling the truth. Pippa had loved me. And now, whether it was for me or Perry, she seemed to be gone forever.

As I walked down the street, my feet moving eagerly, I glanced beside me at Perry’s mom. We were leading the pack. She had staunch determination on her face, her thin lips pressed hard together, her brow furrowed in concentration. I wondered what was in it for her, what she was hoping to find. This was more than wanting a stroll down memory lane. She was being driven there much in the same way that I was.

But what were we being driven by?

It didn’t take long before the road started to become familiar and with that, the sense of urgency increased. I looked back at Perry. She was beside Maximus, both of their eyes trained on me, as if they had expected me to turn around and look at them.

The sight of them together riled up my caveman center but I ignored it and tried to give them a smile.

You’re all going to die
, the thought jabbed into my brain.

And then everything went black. Time jumped and skipped.

The next thing I knew, I was standing in front of my childhood home and it looked exactly as I remembered, even down to the potted palm in the front, still half-wilted, its bright green leaves peppered with brown rot. After hearing my father wax on about how magical Hawaii was, I convinced Pippa, and through her, my mom, to get a palm for the front. It never really grew and kind of stayed dormant in this hunched over, sickly state.

And it was still here, the same cracked pot and everything.

For some reason that made me smile. I looked back at everyone else but I was surprised to see them staring at the house in concern and that Daniel was gone.

“Where did your dad go?” I asked Perry.

She gave me an odd look. “He decided to go to the Natural History Museum,” she said, as if I was stupid.

I nodded, like I understood but instead I was just aware that time had skipped by me again. I looked around and counted Maximus, Ada, Perry and Perry’s mom. So there were five of us now.

All of us believers
, I thought. If that counted for anything.

“This is it,” Perry’s mom said, staring up at the windows. “Looks just like I remembered.”

I nodded. It did look just the same. It probably should have been a warning to me, since New York life changes so quickly, but it wasn’t.

The thing was, the house looked abandoned. The front door was even open a crack while the rest of the house seemed to retreat inside its dark windows. The neighbors, very close by along the sides, seemed to have a lot more life and vibrancy. Their buildings seemed to dance in the air.

This building looked dead.

“I guess no one has lived here for some time,” Maximus said, and when I looked over at him, he was inspecting the pot that had held the palm tree. Now the tree was dry and curled around itself, dead to the world.

“I guess not,” I said, blinking at the way the plant had changed. Property like this wouldn’t last more than a week in the city.

“So, we’ve seen it,” Ada said quickly. “Time to head back.”

I looked at her and noted how damn scared she looked. She kept rubbing her hands along her arms, as if it weren’t eighty degrees out and we were all sweating.

“Not yet,” her mother said and I turned to see her on the landing, opening the door to the house.

“Mom, no,” Perry said but her voice sounded like it was swallowed up by a non-existent wind.

It was too late. She stepped inside and disappeared.

Well, fucking great. Like hell I was going to be shown up by my mother-in-law. This wasn’t her damn house.

I ran up the brick stairs, my hand skirting the black iron railing, and followed her into the foyer.

I immediately felt a change in air pressure. I flexed my jaw, trying to get my ears to pop while I got my bearings.

I stood in the foyer and looked around. My body immediately calmed, like a wave of clarity came over me. I had done good. I don’t know how, but I had done good by coming here, by bringing everyone.

The place was dark, all familiar shadows. A thick layer of dust coated the floor and stuck to the chandelier above. Everything was exactly how I remembered it, down to the furniture. Even the same paintings hung from the walls, including one I used to love, Renoir’s Les Dejeuner des Canotiers. While Perry’s mom walked forward, stepping cautiously down the hall, I ducked into the living off to the side.

It had the most light, the windows large and tall, facing the street. There was a Christmas tree in the corner of the room branches brittle but still green, strands of cobwebs strung up over the lights. Stranger than that, there were presents underneath it. Just a few, but they were there, still wrapped. Waiting.

I stared at that for a few moments. I could almost make out “Declan” on one of them. A strange droning, buzzing sound came from inside the package and I had the sudden urge to go look at it, open it, but suddenly Perry was at my side.

“What the hell?” she breathed and I froze in a cloud in front of her face. I hadn’t even noticed it had been that cold in here. “Whoever was here last, must have had to leave before Christmas time.” She timidly walked across the room, to the mantle above the fireplace where Michael’s trophies were displayed. “I can’t believe they never came back for their stuff.”

I was here last,
I thought as she peered at the closest trophy.

She looked to the next trophy, blinking hard. “These are all for Michael O’Shea,” she said, her voice soft and confused. “I don’t get it.” She looked at me. “Dex, was your family the last ones in this house?”

“This is all our stuff. But it I don’t know, there must have been other people. That was so long ago. We would have sold the house, I know we would have.”

“Wow.” I turned to see Maximus behind me, taking it all in. “You can feel that, right?”

“It’s freezing,” Ada said, stepping into the house, the last of us. “And it’s giving me the willies.” She went to close the door behind her and Maximus shouted out, “No, don’t!”

But it was too late. The door closed. Not sure why that made me smile.

Ada gave Maximus an odd look then reached for the knob and yanked on it. The door opened right away and I could see the relief on his face. It was like he expected us to be locked inside. Actually, I expected that too. In some ways, I wanted it.

Now that I was here, I had no intention of leaving.

I was home.

“So this place is freaking you out, is it?” I said to Maximus with a smug smile.

His gaze on me was trained and careful. “There’s definitely a feeling here.” He looked at Perry. “You feel it, it’s heavy, the air.”

“Could be all the dust,” Ada said, wrinkling her nose. She walked down the hall toward where her mother disappeared. As she passed the Renoir painting, something in the painting moved. It was barely noticeable. Ada didn’t pick up on it. But the black eyes of the woman in the background, leaning on the railing, watched her move past.

Then the eyes were looking at me. I sucked in my breath until I felt a hand at my waist.

I jumped and whirled around to see Perry staring up at me, a hurt expression on her face.

“What is it?” she asked.

I shook my head and eyed the painting. It wasn’t moving now. Suddenly I was glad that the front door had opened when Ada tried it. Why some part of me wanted to stay in here was beyond me. I felt like it was already starting to mess with my head.

Don’t tell them that
, a man’s voice came into my thoughts.

I turned around, certain that it was Maximus right behind me, talking. But he was paused at the foot of the stairs, as if debating whether to go up or not. I wanted to tell him that was a bad idea. All of this was a bad idea. Whatever clarity I had moments ago was gone.

And yet, I felt compelled to keep exploring.

“Where did my mom and Ada go?” Perry asked suddenly, looking panicked.

“We’re in the kitchen!” Ada’s voice rang out from around the corner.

“Maybe we should just all stick together,” Maximus said, stepping away from the staircase. “I don’t think splitting up is a good idea.”

I laughed, despite myself. “It’s not a haunted house, Scooby Doo.”

He exchanged a look with Perry but didn’t say anything. I was starting to hate all their little glances and unsaid words. Still, I followed them.

The kitchen looked exactly as I had remembered. I mean, to a fault.

The table was made with settings for three people. One at the head – where Pippa would sit. The other two across from each other at mid-table. There was never a place for my father – he was never home – and there stopped being a place for my mother. She was just never sober enough.

Each setting had a red, white and black graphic woven placemat, something Swedish that Pippa had picked out, a plate, a fork, a knife. There were matching graphic napkins held together with a silver circle. Her place had a white glass. The other two had mugs.

One of the mugs said Michael. The other said Declan.

Perry’s mother was standing over them in a daze. She slowly raised her head and looked right at me.

“I don’t understand,” she said. “Why are these still here?”

The answer wasn’t in my eyes. I had nothing.

Perry and Maximus were equally silent, trying to make sense of it. Ada leaned over Michael’s cup and peered in.

“Oh, gross!” she cried out, stumbling backward into her mom who held her up. Her hand went to mouth, looking like she was going to vomit.

Curious, I walked over and looked for myself. It was filled to the brim with wriggling black insects. I stared at them for a moment, trying to figure out why it was familiar.

“What is it?” Perry asked. I heard her come up behind me.

I glanced at her over my shoulder and smiled. “Just Michael’s daily tea.”

She frowned, her face paling a bit. “Dex. What is going on here?”

I shrugged and walked over to the fridge. I opened the door.

A puff of dust blew out of it and once it cleared, I could see a dead rat inside, the black insects crawling out of it. “I guess they came from here.”

“All right,” Maximus said, irritation coloring his tone. “This is getting ridiculous. I think it’s time to leave.”

“It’s always been time to leave,” Ada said with disgust, walking around the table and heading to the hallway.

“No!” I suddenly yelled, the force of my voice surprising myself. Ada stopped in her tracks. Everyone stared at me in shock. “We’re not leaving until I find what I’m looking for!”

“Dex,” Perry said carefully. “I don’t know what’s going but someone is playing a cruel joke on you, on us. None of this shit should be here all these years later. Dex, we have to go. You’re not yourself.”

At that, Jingle Bell Rock came blaring out from the living room. Perry’s mom screamed, jumping in the air.

I ran out of the kitchen and down the hall to the living room my eyes briefly glancing at the Renoir lady. She had the head of a blackened goat.

I skidded to a stop at the entrance to the living room and felt everyone crowd behind me. Perry sucked in her breath.

The Christmas tree was lit up, a mess of cobwebs and twinkling lights. The radio was blaring and black candles were lit everywhere, inky droplets of wax gathering around their stems like they’d been burning for decades.

“The presents,” I heard Perry whisper. Under the tree, the presents were leaking shiny red blood, soaking through the wrapping paper.

All of a sudden a few thumps resounded from the ceiling, making the light fixtures swing. That was the upstairs bathroom above us.

We weren’t alone in the house.

But then again, I already knew that.

It was time for me to come home.

I turned and quickly darted up the stairs, taking them two at a time while Perry yelled for me to stop. But she was already too far away and the world was turning a little too black.

I didn’t know what happened. One minute we were staring at the Christmas display in the living room, as if the house still had electricity under all that dust, the next minute Dex had pushed past me and started sprinting up the stairs.

“Dex!” I yelled at him, trying to grab on. What had Maximus just said about not splitting up?

“Damn it,” Maximus cursed and then went up the stairs after him. I was about to but then I didn’t feel quite right about leaving my mother and sister downstairs alone.

“I think you guys should leave,” I told them but their attention wasn’t on me. It wasn’t on Dex and Maximus who had gone up the stairs. It wasn’t on the Christmas display and the presents of blood.

It was on the man standing by the window, slowly pulling the curtains shut. He was wearing a sharp suit, his back to us. There was something off about him. It was his hand, as he reached for the curtain.

It was a cloven hoof.

The curtains closed, shutting out the outside world, making the world inside turn black. I widened my eyes, trying to see better but the man was gone, disappearing into the shadows of the room

“Who the hell was that?” my mother asked, her voice soft and shaking. I looked to her and Ada. They both looked like they were going to faint.

I swallowed down the lump in my throat, my mouth feeling like it was filled with sawdust. I hadn’t even noticed how fast my heart was racing until I felt it leap against my chest.

“I don’t know,” I croaked out. “I don’t know, I don’t know.” I grabbed their hands and they both gasped from fright and I pulled them toward the front door. I didn’t know what was going on, but this was not their fight. This was Dex’s, and because it was his, it was also mine. But my mother and Ada, they had no reason to be here, no stake.