Thorne Manner - Chapter One

Inside a creepy old building slated for destruction, some of the guests are not ready to leave.

Charlie Craddock noticed the teens sneaking into the building through a first floor window and watched as the boy pulled himself up, throw a leg in the opening and rolled in.  He then reached down and grabbed the pretty girl with him by the hands and pulled her up.  She slipped a couple of times, squealed and giggled until finally she was high enough on the wall to roll in the open window herself.

Charlie didn’t much care if kids snuck into the building to explore.  After all they were kids and the building was big and scary looking.  Mostly abandoned, it was the kind of place that would draw kids in to test their courage or just explore.  It was hard for a kid to resist a dare from his buddies, particularly when the building was rumored to be haunted.

But Charlie figured these two had something else in mind.  Or at least the boy did.  The girl was pretty, with long blond hair and was dressed, well, Charlie didn’t like the way she was dressed.   A girl would have been arrested for dressing like that when I was a kid Charlie thought.

 

The girl giggled a lot.  The nervous kind of giggle.  Maybe it was the boy that was making her nervous or the fact that they had just broken into a building or that the building was creepy and quiet and they seemed to be all alone.  Of course the boy, being a teenage boy played right into it.  Tapping on the opposite shoulder to startle her, making his fingers creep up her back like a spider.  Or just stopping suddenly and saying “Did you hear that?” It all scared her, or at least she pretended it did.

The teens moved from the first floor room where they had broken in to the hallway where they could see down he entire east wing of the building.

“Oh my God, this is huge.” The girl whispered as she looked right and left down the hall. 

“This is nothing, there are four floors above this and an entire other wing.  Austin, Brad and I made it all the way to the top floor one time.  It’s cool, you can see for miles from the top floors.”

“You guys are stupid.  Weren’t you afraid of getting caught?”

“Who’s gonna catch us?” The boy shrugged.

We’ll, me.  Thought Charlie just as Walt Taylor appeared beside him. 

Charlie wasn’t much of a socializer these days but when he did feel like talking it was usually to Walt.  They had both worked at the mill until it burned down so they had that in common, plus a love of baseball and a cold beer though neither of them could remember the last time they had enjoyed either.

“What cha doing Chuck?” Walt whispered in Charlie’s ear.

“Couple of kids just sneaked into the building.  I’m watching them.”

“You gonna scare em off?” Walt asked.

“I don’t know, they ain’t doing anything yet but I’m guessing that boy’s got something on his mind other than just spookin’ around an old building.”

Had they bothered to look, the teens may have been able to make out the vague shadows of Charlie and Walt hidden in the darkness at the end of the corridor, but they were busy with other things at the moment.

As they stood in the center of the corridor the boy put his arm around the girls waist and pulled her close.  Then put his other hand on her shoulder and pulled her close to kiss her.  She looked up and down the corridor as if to make sure no one was watching with a shy but slightly and mischievous grin on her face.  Then put both her hands on the boys waist and leaned in to kiss him.

“You figure we should step in?” Walt asked.  “She looks awfully young, what?  Maybe 15? Can you believe the way she’s dressed?  Damn indecent.  Looks like she’s in her skivies is all. No wonder the feller can’t keep his hands off her.”

You forget what it’s like to be a kid Walt?

No, I remember what it’s like to be a kid.  That’s why if I were that young ladies father I’d a never let her outa the house dressed like that.

“Let’s just keep an eyed on em for the time bein’. If anything gets out of hand we’ll step in.”

The couple ended their long kiss and the girl giggled.

“Come on, lets go explore upstairs.”  The boy said, as he took his hand off her shoulder and ran it down her back and over her a*s before reaching for her hand. “It’s cool.  I’ll show you. Come on.”

“What’s up there?”  She let him pull her forward toward the large staircase at the end of the corridor."

"There’s a bunch of rooms up on the fifth floor that face the sunset, we’ll go watch the sun go down and then we’ll leave."

“You sure we won’t get caught?” She asked.

“I’m sure. He said confidently.”

Charlie chuckled quietly, “Buddy, you’re already caught.”

Charlie and Walt followed the teens as they made their way up the stairs, hanging back so as to not let their presence be known.  He thought they might run into one of the other residents upstairs and that would convince them to leave but figured it wasn’t likely since most of the other residents didn’t come out much this time of day.

There weren’t many residents left in the building as most had moved on.  The ones that stayed usually kept to themselves although one could occasionally here someone bumping around in their room or moving furniture.

A few of the residents were louder than others and annoyed Charlie.  Crying Carla, Denny the motorcycle guy, Mean Ben. He tried to avoid them most of the time but some were some were more sociable than others. 

Like Denny the motorcycle guy, Walt didn’t know his last name and he was younger than the other residents.  In his late twenties Walt guessed, and he was all about motorcycles and girls - a bit of a daredevil.

Carla McCutchen, sad lady, always crying.  Charlie felt sorry for her but didn’t want to ask what her problem was for fear she’d make him sad too.

(More)]

When the teens finally reached the fifth floor they snooped around a bit.  Popping their heads into the empty rooms only to find them, well, empty.  It was still exciting, though, sneaking around where they shouldn’t have been made the girl feel adventurous and the boy cool.

(more)

After a while of snooping they found a room facing the West with a mostly clear and intact window and sat down to watch the sun set.  All the while with Charlie and Walt looking over them like a couple of guardian angels. 

The boy put his arm around the girl and they began to kiss.  Softly at first, then a little more, then some French kissing and then slowing and cautiously the boy began to slide his hand up under the girl’s shirt in the back.  She let out a faint lighthearted moan, signaling him it was ok to keep going. 

As he started to move his hand from her back to her front Walt said to Charlie,  "Figure it’s time we send these two love bird a packin?”

Yea, time for them to go.” Charlie replied.

He didn’t want to scare them or embarrass them, and it wasn’t really his business what they did, though he did think she was too young to be off in a place like this with a boy by herself.  He pondered a bit how to get them to leave and eventually decided since they were there because it was a place they could be alone,  he’d just let them know they weren’t alone. 

Charlie decided a knock on a door someplace, would get them thinking someone was here and they’d take off.  So down the hall Charlie found a good solid door and gave it two solid knocks.

The girl jumped and squealed and immediately put both her hands in front of her mouth. “Did you hear that?  Oh my God, someone’s here!”

The boy’s hand was still up her shirt and with his chin he trying to push her hands away from her mouth so he could kiss her again.

“It’s an old building, it makes sounds. It’s fine.”  He started kissing her again.

“No. Stop, I heard something."

“I know I heard it too, it’s nothing.”  Again he tried to kiss her.

“Are you sure” she asked

“I’m sure.” As if he knew everything there was about the building and it’s residents.  He was focused on other things at the moment and the sounds of an old building weren’t going to scare him off.

The sun was beginning to set and the building was filing with shadows.  From one of the shadows Walt had positioned himself out of view of the teens but where he could see what they were doing.  He looked down at Charlie and shook his head to say Nope, no effect.  They were kissing again and hands moving all over.

This time Charlie banged hard on the door.

“S**t.  There it was again!.  Let’s get out of here.” The girl said.

“Babe, listen it’s nothing, it’s an old building.  Old buildings make noises, that’s why people think they’re haunted all the time.  Look, that was the same noise as last time.  If someone were here there’d be lot of different noises. Now come here and kiss me some more.”

Walt raised his eyebrows and nodded, "yea, kids got a point."

 

Walt stayed to the shadows and slowly moved down hall to where Charlie was. 

It’s not workin’, the kids got his hands all over her and she’s not resistin’.  Hell, would you leave over a couple of knocks if you were him?”  Walt said.

“Awe, probably not.” agreed Charlie.  “Better just tell them they gotta go.  It’ll scare the s**t out of them though when they see us. They’re not expecting anyone to be in here.”

“The looks of you two would scare the s**t out of anyone.” It was Denny the motorcycle guy. Denny was younger than the other two men, maybe late twenties.  No one knew his last name and no one bothered to ask.  Any conversation with Denny invariably turned to motorcycles, girls or some stupid exploit that he and his buddies had done that nearly got them killed or in one tragic case, did.     (this is a repeat)

"So what’s going on here, you to old geezers getting your jollies on watching the hottie and her boyfriend down the hall?  It’s lookin like things are about to get real interesting for captain romance down there if you know what I mean.”  Denny made a punching motion with his right arm.  “Gonna get some.”

“That’ll be enough of that talk Denny.” Walt said,  “We figure she’s too young to be in here alone with a boy that got that kind of stuff on his mind.”

“Denny, just go away.  We’ll take care of this.” Charlie said.

“Take care of what man?  The dudes about to get some action.  Let him be.”

Walt and I both agree she too young and this is not the kind of place you take a young girl.  We are just going to tell them to leave.

“She aint to young for me Pops.  And ain’t to young for Mr. Stuff and Puff down the hall there.  Looks like she’s thinking she aint to young either.”

“Denny shut up and go away.” Charlie said in a voice that was between angry and disgusted. “This is none of your concern."

By this time, the girl had started to explore the boy as well and they had gone from sitting to lying on the floor and the two older men decided it was time to tell them to leave.

“Just when it’s getting interesting you old farts decide to ruin it. I’m out a hear man." Denny said as he made some kind of gesture with his hand and fingers and left.

Charlie thought the gesture was probably meant as an insult to the men, but didn’t understand it and didn’t much care.

Charlie and Walt talked a bit about what to do and both decided they didn’t want to scare the kids or embarrass them, which would likely be the case, particularly with them both half dressed at this point.  So they decided on a plan, just let them know there were others in the building and that should be enough to scare them off.

So Charlie quietly stepped out of the room he and Walt had been in and began walking down the hall toward the teens.  Making sure to exaggerate every footstep, making it loud and solid.  One thump, two thump three thump.

He turned to look back at Walt who gave him the thumbs up.  It’s loud enough, they had to hear it.

And they did.

The distinctive sound of footsteps heading their way …