20   

“Sleep my child and peace attend thee all through the Night…Guardian angels God will send thee all through the night.”  

That song has always given me chills. My mother and father meant to sing it like a lullaby but in actuality it gave me nightmares. I had visions of ghostly figures sweeping into my window late and night and taking me away to protect me from whatever it was the stupid song was about. I mean don’t get me wrong, the idea of guardian angels is a nice one. Who doesn’t feel like they need someone watching over them, always looking over their shoulder and protecting them from whatever lies hidden? But still, I’ve always been terrified of things that I couldn’t see or worse yet, things that were just out of my reach.  

I guess maybe the reason that song bothered me was because even from the time I was young enough to have my parents sing to me and not make it seem creepy, I’ve always known that there would be no peace for me. I never once thought I’d be the person the guardian angels would have to guard against though…  

“Wow, nice house Kevin.” Howie said after literally standing and staring at it for a full five minutes in utter silence. I laughed, I couldn’t help it.

“Thanks.” Kevin answered, shooting me a look.

“It’s a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be.” Howie was looking up at the second floor from the outside. I half expected to see a ghostly figure standing at the window waving at him. I think he might have expected that too.

“You mean creepier don’t you D?” AJ whispered carefully making sure Kevin couldn’t hear him.

Howie’s silence after that question was all we needed. “Well, let’s get in there and find what we need to find already.” Kevin said leading us all inside his house.

“Alrighty, let’s go in and kill us some ghostly bitches!”

“Kill us some ghostly bitches AJ?”

“Yeah man, I felt like we needed some kind of catchy tag line.”

“Okay shit head this is my house, not Satan’s liar or anything.” Kevin seemed to be getting annoyed by us. Wonder why?

The place was just as we left it the last time we were here. I’m not sure why I was expecting it to look any different but part of me was. I half expected it to be rummaged through. Everything tossed around and searched but it wasn’t. It was ‘anal Kevin, neat as could be’ clean.

“Okay Nick and I are heading down to the basement. Why don’t you guys check up in the attic, paying attention to the stairs as you go up?”

“The attic? Why the attic? Why not these stairs right here?”

“Because I have been up and down these steps a thousand times and I know there isn’t anything hidden along them AJ.”

“I don’t want to go up to the attic.”

“Oh for the love of…”

“AJ, I have a feeling it’s the steps leading up to that secret room.” I interrupted.

“Secret room, you mean the tiny door room?”

“No Howie, there’s a secret room in the closet of one of the bedrooms.”

“Of course there is, why wouldn’t there be.” Poor D said, shaking his head.

“Fine, go check there then. Come on Nick!” Kevin handed me a flashlight and once again I felt a little flutter at the bottom of my stomach. “Be careful guys.” He warned handing AJ and Howie their very own flashlights which they seemed hesitant to take. “The lights do work, right?”

Kevin sighed and rolled his eyes at AJ, “Yes the lights work, but better safe then sorry.”

“Okay good, because I never understood why people would search a haunted house only with a flashlight. I mean if the lights don’t work than get the hell out of there!”

“My house is not haunted!”

“I know, I was just saying...”

“Just go searching before you wet your pants.” Kevin said, smiling at Bone and shaking his head.

We watched as they went up the stairs. I was almost certain that AJ would pull a Cowardly Lion and go running through the nearest window, but I was wrong. They miraculously made it all the way up to the top of the steps without him wussing out. Great, now that he didn’t wuss out that meant I couldn’t either.

“You sure you’re up for this little man?” I looked over at Kevin and nodded. He had a concerned expression on his face, probably because I had zoned out.

We walked down to the basement and as we reached the bottom I felt the urge to ask a very random question, “Why are you leaving us Kevin? I mean after all this time. How can you not think this is fun anymore?”

“Now’s not the time to have this conversation Nick.” He said never even giving me a look but only focusing on the hallway in front of him.

“When is a good time to have it then?”

“How about when we aren’t trying to uncover a conspiracy which has law enforcement illegally breaking into my house and running my friends off the road.”

“Okay, whatever man.” I said rolling my eyes at him even though he had a point.

When we reached the tiny door, I stood on one side of it while Kevin stood on the other. “Here we are and you are right, this is indeed one tiny little door.”

“Yup, but are you ready for whatever might be on the other side?” I asked him. For my part, I was growing more uncertain about opening it up. He didn’t give me much time to have second thoughts though because he grabbed the small key from his pocket and placed it in the lock and before I could even get one word out he had the door opened. A blast of hot air escaped the room, followed by a very foul stench. “Something is definitely dead in there.” I said while trying not to vomit from the smell.

 “Maybe you should stay out here.” He said looking over at me.

I didn’t want to argue with him because now after smelling what was coming from that room, I was pretty certain I did not want to go in there. Maybe Tommy has been waiting for someone to find him for years. Maybe it was the entire family, or maybe… “Jesus it’s a huge dead raccoon.”

Okay that was not one of the scenarios I was expecting. “A what?” I asked, maybe hearing him wrong.

“It’s a raccoon but never mind that, get in here and look at this.” He pulled me by my shirt into the little room. So much for keeping me out of danger I guess. And that hurt!

The smell was horrid inside the room. I’m not sure why he felt inclined to stay in there with the dead animal that was lying on its back, all dead like, right beside where Kevin pulled me in. “Gross!” I said putting my hand to my nose and grimacing.

He flashed his light on the wall and pointed, “Look at that.”

It was hard to make out because the room was so dark, even with the aide of a flashlight, but the artwork that was on the wall was astounding. It didn’t even look like a wall anymore. I heard Kevin shuffling around right beside me, and then seconds later a small overhead light went on. “That is amazing.” He said, moving closer to the wall to get a better look. Once you got through the tiny door, the actual room was normal sized. The ceiling was even a little higher than usual.

I was amazed as I looked at the intricate designs of the artwork all along the room. Not just the one wall had been painted but the entire room, ceiling and all. “This must have taken years to do,” I said standing up and placing my hand along the wall tracing the outline of what appeared to be the main staircase with my fingers. Whoever did this, made the inside of the room look like an exact replica of the living room. With the staircase being the main focus.

“It looks so real.” Kevin sounded as if he was in awe. “Do you think your girl drew this?”

“No, I think it might have been her brother.”

As I glanced around the entire room, trying my best to ignore the dead thing in there, I couldn’t believe how detailed everything was. The fireplace stood on one wall with all the photos on it. The pictures of the photos looked so real. You’d never guess they were painted on. On the wall opposite the tiny door, there were life sized drawings of all the family members, including Belle who had the softest hint of a smile on her face. Tommy was standing right next to her with his armed firmly wrapped around her shoulder. “I don’t recognize this picture.” I said out loud as I walked closer to it.

“I’m sure they have more photos then we have seen Nick.”

“Someone is missing from this one though…” I walked even closer to it standing so close that if the ghost of Tommy wanted to, he could have pulled me right through the wall and into the pit of hell. Okay that was a bit over the top, even for me, but I think I’m making my point.

“The two of you do really look a lot alike.” I turned towards Kevin and noticed how intently he was staring at me. I was standing right beside Tommy. “Maybe you are related in some way. Maybe that’s why you feel so connected to this family.”

“That would be some coincidence wouldn’t it? I mean talk about fate. You buy this house and me ending up being related to these people.”

“There’s no such thing as coincidence Nick. I learned that a long time ago.”

I was just about to press him on that one when I realized who was missing from the family portrait. It was because he was on the other wall taking the picture with a camera. “Looks like dad took the picture.” I said walking back towards the other wall. This room was almost Disney World like. I have a feeling I could spend a week in there and never see everything that was right in front of me.

Right in front of me….

That thought made me walk towards the picture of the stairs again. “Do you see any weird symbols or anything on the steps?” I asked Kevin who had finally made the dead raccoon his goal.

“I’ll be right back.” He said, taking it and placing it in a garbage bag and walking it out the tiny door.

“Kay” I half answered, once again directing my attention to the stairs. I noticed it when I got about two inches away. That’s how small it was, but it was there, the number 13. It was written on the corner of every single step as it led up to the top. “What is it about that number?” I found myself turning around to ask the fake family on the wall.

Once again, Belle’s smile hit me like a summer breeze. It was so warm and friendly. It’s when I looked at her eyes that I felt the slightest chill. “What the hell is that?” I whispered, walking over and taking a closer look. There in her eye’s reflection was a dark, sinister red. It was just a hint of it, but enough to make me want to back away.

I turned back to look at her father and he had the same thing going on in his eyes. I noticed that even though he was holding the camera in his hands, he was staring at his daughter with a smirk on his face. I recognized that smirk. I had seen it many times before when looking into my own father’s eyes. I could tell from this painting that this man was not a good or nice man, just like my own dad.

My attention then went to Tommy. While everyone else was looking at the camera and smiling, his eyes were down looking at the ground. “Did you find anything?” I felt my heart go into my throat before screaming like a little girl. “Jesus Kevin, don’t do that!” I managed to get out while holding my hand to my heart to keep it from leaping out of my chest.

“A little jumpy there, little man?” He actually looked amused. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Kevin is weird.

“Uh…” That was my reply to his stupid question. “I wonder if AJ and Howie are having any luck upstairs.” I said, taking notice of Tommy’s hand. While one arm was wrapped around his sister, the other one was straight at his side. That was normal enough, but what caught my attention, was the fact that four of his fingers were curled into his palm while the other was pointing towards the ground.

“I checked up on them after throwing out the raccoon. They haven’t found anything. AJ let out a little girly yelp just like you did though. I guess I’m good at sneaking up on people.”

“Yeah, you’re a regular Ninja Kevin. I wonder what he’s pointing at.”

“Huh?”

I motioned for him to come closer to the picture so I could show him what I was talking about but when he moved towards me, the tiny door slammed shut.

“What the fuck!” Kevin said, rather un-calm like.

He turned back towards the door, ready to open it up again when we heard it being locked from the outside. “HEY!!” He screamed! “AJ if this is supposed to be a joke, it’s not funny! Let us out!” He furiously banged on the door but I already knew it wasn’t AJ who did that.

“Jesus.” Was all I could manage to whisper as Kevin continued to bang. I frantically looked around the room to see if there was a window or something we could escape from but there wasn’t anything more than the pictures all around the room.

“LET US OUT!” Kevin screamed once more, now kicking the door.

“I’m sorry, I can’t do that.” A woman’s muffled voice said through the thick wood.

Kevin looked over at me. I did not like the look in his eyes. I have only seen that look on him a handful of times. “You have to let us out of here! We’ll suffocate!” He said, once again pounding.

“That’s how that raccoon died, isn’t it?” I asked him after he finally gave up.

He turned towards me and bit his bottom lip. “I hope AJ and Howie are okay.” He said before walking back towards me and sitting on the floor.

“If they’re not then we are as good as dead.” I said, wondering how long that poor raccoon was trapped in the room before he finally died.