After a few minutes of contemplating where I wanted to explore first, I once again made my way up the steps towards the bedrooms. As much as I wanted to know what the deal was with the basement, I’m not sure I was brave enough to venture down there all alone. It was still incredibly hot in the house which sucked. “Hopefully they’ll think to buy some air conditioners too while they’re out.” I found myself babbling out loud just as I reached the doorknob to Belle’s room.
Funny, but I didn’t remember closing the door when we left. I hesitated just for a second before twisting the handle and letting myself in. Once again I was overcome with the smell of perfume. Her room was so welcoming and inviting and very homey in every single way. I walked over and sat down on the bed as a small poof of dust came out from behind me.
“Cool it looks like my ass just exploded!” too bad AJ missed that, he would have enjoyed that little trick. Of course after about a minute of thinking that was cool I was overcome by the dust and started hacking my brains out.
I got up off the bed and made my way over to the window closest to her bed, figuring I’d open it and let in some fresh air but when I tried, no matter how hard I tried, the window wouldn’t budge. That’s when I noticed the nails…the window was bolted shut.
“Okay, that’s a little odd.” I immediately started looking around the room for something I could use to pry the nails out from the window, getting down on all fours and searching under the bed. I found a diary the first time, maybe there would be a hammer this time. I reached as far as my arm would take me and then admittedly I screamed like a little girl when I felt something furry hit my hand.
I pulled it out and rolled over as if escaping from some kind of Ninja movie, holding my hand as if something huge had just taken a bite out of it and laughing once my heart rate slowed.
“Yeah, you’re a real smooth one Carter…real smooth.”
After a few moments, I bent back down and peered under the bed only to find a small stuffed teddy bear. “I knew it was a teddy bear.” I pulled it out and took a closer look at it.
By far it was the most haggard little bear I had ever seen. The fur was gone in huge patches as was one little paw. One eye was made of a button while the other one was half missing. It kind of looked like what you’d expect if The Werewolf carried around a stuffed animal. It even had drawn in fangs which made me actually laugh.
I was about to start playing around with it when I noticed a hole right next to me, in the wall about the size of a mouse. In that hole was something small, about dime shaped and white so I put the bear down and grabbed for the white thing instead.
It was a piece of paper which was scrolled up tight and fastened with rubber bands. “I feel like I’m in a freaking movie!” I was excited, it’s almost as if these things were being left for me to find.
I excitedly removed the rubber band and opened the piece of paper, not really sure what to expect. Inside there was a picture, a very impressive one. It was a landscape, with rolling hills and trees in the background made with a charcoal pencil. Even after all these years, the black of the pencil rubbed off onto my fingers when I went to feel it.
I wonder if it was the same person who made the drawings which were down in the basement. This person had a lot of talent. “Was it you Isobella?”
I turned the picture around and there was a small note written in bubble letters.
Come play with me! It said with a smiley face at the end.
I stood up, taking the little macabre teddy bear with me and decided to go into the next room to see who was inviting Belle to play. “This is so cool!” And it really was. I can’t even tell you how exhilarating it all was, to go exploring in this house. I felt like every corner of this place told some kind of story and I was curious to get to the bottom of things.
I didn’t even flinch when the door at the end of the hall once again began to creak and sway in a breeze from some unknown location. My only focus at that moment was going into that next room. The door to that one was noticeably missing, its hinges still in place and a few shards from where a door used to be hung off to the side as if it was kicked in.
“How come I didn’t notice that before?” I walked in, and searched for the hole I was sure I’d find connecting Belle’s room to this one and sure enough, there it was right next to a closet. I lay down on the ground on my stomach to try to see into the hole. It was hard but sure enough I was able to see right into Belle’s room.
Now my next mission was to find out whose room I was in, although I was pretty sure this belonged to Tommy. It was definitely the room of a boy. The plaid blanket hid what looked like basketball sheets and pillow cases as well as a big throw pillow basketball lying in the center of the bed.
The dresser was bare and also empty. Not a stitch of clothing anywhere to be found. I opened each drawer and all I saw were mothballs. Maybe this was one of the kids who left for college or something.
I decided while I was in there, that I would try the windows to see if they were also bolted shut but these opened with no problem. So easily in fact I almost thought I was going to break them with how quickly they went up. Boy, Kevin would have murdered me if I broke his windows. The air outside was so thick and muggy I wish I hadn’t even bothered. Why did it have to be so hot now? Why couldn’t we be doing this in the winter or the fall?
I wiped at my sweaty head while still clinging onto Chub Chub…the name I gave to the crazy ass looking teddy bear, and then decided to make my way over to the closet, hoping that maybe whoever lived in this room had left something behind.
When I tried the doorknob however, it wouldn’t budge. I put the bear down and tried with both hands, thinking maybe it was the heat of the room warping the door but still no luck. That’s when I noticed the nails along the sides. “Son of a bitch!” They hammered it shut.
Why on earth would someone hammer their closet door shut? That was it, I needed into that door so I left the room and ran back down the stairs knowing that anal Kevin had to have a hammer in here someplace. I went to the big tool box he had lying next to the paint that AJ had spilled and sure enough there was a hammer. “Excellent! Anal Kevin strikes again!”
Before I could even think about it I actually ran back up the steps and into the room. I mean really ran! Boo boo and all! When I got to the door I immediately flipped the hammer over and began to pry the long nails out. The wood made a hideous sound as the nails were freed one by one. It sounded like the Titanic sinking, not that I’d know for sure what that would sound like but based on the movie, which I thought sucked by the way. I didn’t cry at all…only wusses cry about stuff like that….anyway, that kind of sound.
Finally I managed to get the very last nail out of the door and took a deep breath before I opened it. It wasn’t until the last nail was out that I started to wonder, I mean really wonder, why the thing was nailed shut in the first place. What if the dead body I was so sure was in this house, was actually in this closet?
Was I prepared to open the door and have a human body fall out on top of me? Like a real live dead body? Not just one from my own imagination? I almost didn’t do it. I even walked away for a split second, going to pick up Chub Chub and ready to walk out of there, but I needed to know so I turned and in one instant opened up the door before I was able to talk myself out of it, quickly jumping out of the way in case whatever was locked in there decided to fall on me.
There was nothing…
I still stood there motionless for a few seconds, just in case there were any delayed reactions but still, nothing happened. I think I was actually disappointed about that. I mean how sick is that?
I walked over and took a look and sure enough there was nothing in there. Empty hangers but that was about it. “This makes no sense!” I mumbled to myself, realizing that this little quest of mine was beginning to give me a headache. It figures Kevin would buy a house that made absolutely no sense!
“Right Chub Chub?” I picked up my little teddy bear again as I stood staring at the empty closet and felt compelled to hug the stupid ass thing.
I suddenly felt a burning sensation in my chest and thought the bear had released some kind of toxic were wolf creepy bear powder or something. When I pulled it away from me though, I noticed the small blade sticking out of the stomach of the bear.
“Shit!” I started to panic.
The blade wasn’t that wide, which was a good thing I guess but still I had just freaking managed to stab myself in the chest, dangerously close to my friggin heart, and it hurt like hell!
That’s when my love affair with Chub Chub went south! I flung him across the room and sat on the bed, holding my hand over my heart, which was now bleeding. Okay, technically it wasn’t my heart that was bleeding, but close enough.
I didn’t really know what to do, I’m sure I looked like a moron just sitting there on a bed holding my hand up to my chest. “I wonder if I remember the words to the Pledge of Allegiance.”
I Pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the something or other about nations and God. Wow I’m an idiot.
I stood up and made my way back over to the closet after being random. I still felt like maybe there was something I was missing and now that I had been stabbed by a stuffed animal, call me crazy but I felt more than determined to figure it out.
“Why would someone feel the need to put a knife in a stuffed bear?” I didn’t have much time to ponder when I found what I was looking for. “Well I’ll be damned…” I looked off to the side and pulled on the handle that was there.
Once again more evil sounding creaking happened as the door reluctantly opened up. My nose was hit with the pungent smell of more mothballs and old air. “I wonder if this is what the 60’s smelled like?”
The door led to a small staircase. It was actually so steep it was almost like walking up a ladder. I slowly made my way up, still not believing I was doing this. This all seemed so unlike me. Not the exploring thing, because I love to explore, but the doing it alone thing. That was all new.
When I got to the top of the stairs, I had to crawl into the room that was there. It was extremely small. If I tried to stand I’d end up hitting my head, but someone child sized…or Howie sized could probably stand and have their heads just miss hitting the roof.
When I was a kid I used to dream of having a hidden room like this, a secret place to call my own. I crawled past a blanket and pillow which were wet with mildew and over to a box. I opened it up and there were even more pictures in it. “This family was obsessed with pictures!”
But these were different. The ones in the box were done by a professional. They looked like headshots. The girl in those shots was gorgeous and I knew it was Isobella. Her hair blowing in a fake breeze as she only hinted at a smile. She must have been about ten in the pictures but with makeup and her hair done, she looked much older. I placed the head shots on my leg and picked up the next batch of pictures. This time it was the same little girl but she was surrounded by different people all together. None of them looked familiar at all; none of them were in her family.
She was being held by a man as he was kissing her cheek, and a woman was standing right next to him holding a leash of a dog. “What the hell?” Maybe they were relatives or something. There were even more of these other people in all kinds of professional poses and it wasn’t until I got to the end of the box that my brain finally got with the program and realized that maybe she was an actress. Okay, I admit what helped that thought process was the fact that they were on a cover of TV Guide.
“Belle you were famous?” I guess it explained how they could afford this house.
“A child star.” I laughed at the irony. Maybe that’s why I felt a connection to her.
I was just about to open another box when I heard Kevin’s car pull up through the gate. “Funs over I guess.”
As I started crawling back over to the stairs, I noticed a drawing pad at the other end of the room. I made my way over just as I heard Kevin call my name so I grabbed it and made my way slowly back into the bedroom. “Nick!” That was the third time he yelled.
“Yeah, I’m up here. I’ll be right down.” I grimaced at the pain in my shoulder/chest.
“What are you doing up he…what the hell happened to you?” Kevin stopped his thoughts when he saw my new wound. He came over and quickly examined it.
“Chub Chub stabbed me.”
“What the hell is a chub chub?” Oh, right.
“That stuffed bear.”
“Nick?” He looked at me in disbelief.
“I’m telling you the truth, go look at it; it was a fucking knife inside of it.”
“What?” He walked over and grabbed the bear and gasped when he saw it all bloody. AH!! With my blood! That thought made me very queasy suddenly.
“Is this your blood?” I nodded at him looking at it.
“Nick how in the holy hell…only you can get stabbed by a fucking teddy bear while we are out for an hour! Jesus Christ, are you okay? Do you need to go to the hospital? Of course you need to go to the hospital; you just got stabbed by a bear! How the hell are we going to walk into an emergency room and explain that one?” Kevin was babbling. He tended to babble when he panicked.
“It’s really okay Kevin, it’s only a scratch.”
“It looks a little worse than a scratch Nick.”
“I’ll live.” I hope.
“Let’s go downstairs, maybe we can put something on it but then you are going to go get it looked at!”
“Kevin…”
“Don’t Kevin me, Jesus Nick.” He laughed then… actually laughed. “Only you, I swear.”
“I know.”
“What is that?” He asked me as he led me out of the bedroom.
“It’s a sketchpad I found.”
“Oh, there’s nothing sharp sticking out of that is there?”
“No.”
“Why was there a knife in that bear?” He asked out loud. Good to know he was finally getting around to thinking about that one.
“I think that’s the million dollar question.” I answered curious as to the first drawing I opened up to in the sketchpad, a picture of a staircase with the number 13 at the bottom of it.
