Chapter Three

   I walked up the three steps that led to the front door while everyone else walked around the house, still trying to understand the beauty of it. I was like at the old wooden door when Patrick spoke:

   “Should we try to open it?” My heart jumped. I was so focuses on my own thoughts that I didn’t hear him approaching.

   “Yeah, I don’t want to sleep outside, anyway,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady.

   “Me neither.”

   So I grabbed the doorknob and turned it. The door opened with a ‘screak’. Inside, it was dark and the air felt hot and old, like it was filled with dust.

   “Man!” Patrick exclaimed. “This is starting to look like a movie.” He seemed to be holding his breath, even as he spoke.

   “Could this be? Is the almighty Patrick scared?” I asked, trying to light up the mood.

   “Pff… You wish!” he said with a smile. I was about to ask him if he wanted to go inside when we heard a scream.

 

   I panicked instantly and looked around, trying to find either Sarah or Lilly �" only one of them could’ve screamed like that.

   There was no one in sight, so I went down the porch and ran towards the back of the house with Patrick right behind me, shouting for me to slow down.

   “Shut the f**k up!” I said, still not able to find the others. Patrick stopped screaming and after some more running, we started hearing voices.

   “We’ll get you out of there, hold on!” Jack.

   “Don’t leave me here alone!” Sarah. Sarah was in trouble.

   My heart pounded faster against my ribcage as guilt began to fill my stomach, and all of sudden, I could swear I heard Katelyn’s voice telling me that whatever was happening was my fault, that It was my job to protect Sarah, because I was the only one who could possible know how broke she was, how it felt to not have anyone now that Kate was dead.

   Patrick and I followed their voices and soon enough we found Jack. A little ahead, Lilly was crouching on the floor. But no Sarah. I felt all my strength being sucked out of my body.

   “Where’s Sarah?” Patrick asked in awe.

   Jack seemed to eye me for a second, but when I gazed back at him, he looked away.

   “She’s fine,” he said, as though he was telling a cancer patient that he had a really short time left to leave, “She’s just fell �" on a well…”

 

   I was shocked.

   As I got closer, I understood what really happened. She was inside this kind of enormous hole in the ground, surrounded by dry leaves and plants, and other things I couldn’t really make out in the dark.

   “Are you hurt?” I asked, my voice trembling from fear and concern.

   “I don’t think so,” she shouted back at me. “Just get me out of here!”

   “Hold on! We’re trying to find something.” I started thinking �" what could possible come in use now? A rope!

   Oh my god, I was so stupid! A rope was a must-have when you go spend the night on an abandoned place. I started looking around, searching for something alike we could use.

   “Are you looking for this?” Jack asked. He was holding a rope on his hands. It seemed long enough to reach Sarah.

   “Yes! That’s perfect.” I had no idea why Jack would have a rope. Maybe all that story about hunting in the woods was actually true.

   So we threw one end of the rope into the hole where Sarah was, while everyone else grabbed the other end. I told Sarah to tie up her end of the rope around her waist, before I joined the others, becoming the first in line, the one that would have to pull stronger.

   As Sarah said she’d had done as I’d told her, I replied:

   “Okay. Now start climbing and we’ll pull you up.”

   “Are you sure?” She asked.

   “Yeah sure! It’s not like you’re ten tons or something. C’mon!”

   “Okay,” she said; her voice small due to fear.

   And so she climbed and we pulled. And pulled. And after nearly five minutes of pulling, I started seeing the top of her head emerging from the ground.

   I let go of the rope, trusting the others to continue pulling her up, and ran towards her, helping her up by the arms.

   Finally, we were both laid on the ground, breathing heavily.

   “Thanks,” she said, after a while.

   “Of course,” I replied. And then it hit me. That had been the first time, since that day, that I was smiling. Not because someone had said something funny, but because I was happy. I was happy because I’d been able to save a life.

 

   I sat up, still smiling. I just couldn’t seem to take the smile off my face now.

   “So is this truce?” I asked.

   Sarah smiled back. I’d almost forgotten how her smile looked like. I wondered if she’d forgotten how mine looked like as well.

   “Don’t push too hard, Harris,” she said, sitting up as well and pushing my shoulder till I fell on my side.

   “Is that a yes?” I was laughing as I spoke. Laughing! Me. Possibly the most depressed guy on our school.

   “It’s an okay on good day,” she said. “And a f**k off on bad ones.”

   “Seems like a deal.” I agreed, this time standing up for real and helping Sarah to her feet. We could see Patrick approaching.

   “You two love birds are good to go? Jack and Lilly are already inside, exploring.”

   But I’d stopped listening at ‘love birds’. My muscles were stiff from all the pulling, but they still tense up at Patrick’s words.

   “Call me love bird again and you won’t live long enough to see the insides of that house.” Sarah said, walking past him towards the front of the house.

   I shrugged awkwardly at Patrick before following Sarah.

 

   When we went inside, I realised we were standing on the hall of the mansion. In front of us was a massive stairway that led to the top floors. On each side of the hall were this enormous glad doors that led to other rooms. Through the one on our left we could see lights and hear voices, so we headed that way.

   The room �" or living room, as I later discovered �" had two giant couches on the centre, with a low table between them. On the opposite wall was a fireplace.

   Jack and Lilly were standing next to it, talking in low voices. When they saw us, Lilly said:

   “Pretty cool, right?”

   “It really is,” Patrick said.

   “This house seems too big to explore tonight,” I said, “unless you are not interested in sleeping.

   Everyone looked at me, as if trying to decide what they wanted to do.

   “Daniel has a point,” Jack said. “It’s just too big and it’s already past midnight.” He glanced at his wrist watch as he spoke.

   “But wasn’t that the whole point of this?” Sarah asked. “Please don’t tell me I came here and fell down a whole so that I could sleep in an old house!”

   “That’s right! I say we explore now and sleep later!” Patrick said, his voice filled with excitement.

   We all looked at each other, sort of still trying to decide what to do, when Jack said to Patrick.

   “Daniel and I say we sleep. You and Sarah think we should explore.” He turned around to face Lilly. “I guess it’s up to you, babe. What should we do?”

   All of us turned too, to stare at Lilly, waiting for her to say something.

   “I say we explore,” she declared, a while later, “it’s not that we’re tired or anything.” The edge of her lips curled up in a smile as she spoke. And once she did, she took the lead, not waiting for us to follow her.

 

   A big part of the house was empty rooms, or just rooms filled of furniture covered with white sheets, as though someone had left in a rush. In the end, not anything particularly fascinating, unless you were interested in big ugly rats. Or maybe the rooms were rather interesting and I’d just lost all my excitement after Sarah. I was afraid that other risks might still be waiting for us in the house, and I sure wasn’t ready for another tragedy �" visiting my therapist once a week was enough for me, thank you.

   Finally, I decided to turn to Patrick and tell him I was going to crawl up near the fireplace Jack and Lilly had lit up, and try to get some sleep.

   He “yeah okay”-ed me and I left, but not before I noticed that Sarah was watching me.

   Shortly after I’d sat in front of the fireplace, with my back resting against the dusted couch, Sarah and Patrick joined me.

   “What’s up, Harris,” Patrick asked, “an abandoned house is just not exciting enough for you?”

   But I didn’t have any time to answer him before Sarah said:

   “Nah, you know him. He’s more into killing his girlfriends.” I eyed Sarah, not really pissed, but still. She raised both of her hands above her head. “Yeah, okay, truce.” I kicked her leg anyway, even if in a friendly way.

   She and Patrick sat down beside me. The latter one’s legs were stretched out in front of him and they were so long that they almost touched the fire.

   I wondered where Jack and Lilly were, but soon enough I figured that they must’ve been making out in some other room. Or perhaps they were still exploring. Either way, a while later, I was too lost in tiredness that I could no longer tell you if they ever joined us or not.

   I fell asleep feeling that, for one night, I would not have nightmares.

Author's Note

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