PICS and IT DIDN'T HAPPEN

23. The Compound

"Please! We'll do anything in return!" The kids say.

A smirk escapes my lips.

These neighborhood middle school brats are a pain in the ass, but they can be quite resourceful when they need to be.

Wouldn't be a bad idea to let them owe me.

"Alright. Will see what I can do," I say. They all cheer.

At the dawn of the night, I go to Raylan's room and wait there for him while playing with the kittens.

Around eight, Raylan comes in.

He probably thinks I'm just here for the kittens since he doesn't say anything and just goes into the washroom to freshen up.

"I got a job for you," I say, sounding like a criminal manager who's delegating a target to her assassin.

"What?" He says.

"I need you to fetch a basketball from Mr. Finnigan's yard."

"A basketball?"

"Dennis and his friends accidentally threw one into that yard this afternoon. The ball is his brother's, and is signed by some basketball player. Dennis needs to get the ball back before his brother notices it's missing."

"So those punks came to you? Poor guys. What do you get in return?"

"Apparently those punks will do anything I say if I get it back for them."

Raylan laughs. "Like I said, poor guys. They don't know they'd made a deal with the devil," he says coming out of the bathroom. "But I'll need a lookout."

"Take Tony with you."

"I need someone smaller in case Finnigan had already found the ball and locked it into the storage. You'll fit through the gap at that shed's door."

"What's the point of asking you to do it if I have to go there myself anyway?" I say.

"It's fine by me if you go there on your own. I'm sure Toad will love to see you." Toad is Finnigan's dog. A Rottweiler.

I groan and throw back my head. Milk jumps onto my lap. I look down at him. He meows at me.

"Milk wants to go too. Can we take him with us?" I say.

"No. We're not raising our kids to be thieves."

That makes me laugh hard. "Our kids? Man, you're really such a pet human. Don't let a potential girlfriend catch you say that if you want to keep going with her."

Raylan takes out a jacket from his closet. "What about the metro guy? He knows you have three kittens with me."

Is Frank really a hard name to remember? "He does. He's also good with animals. He even offered to take in the kittens."

"What?" Raylan says, sounding and looking a little angry.

"What? Weren't you reading my messages that time? He texted me saying he could take them in."

"I only read the last few messages. And why the fuck would he take them?"

"Hey, chill, he was just offering them a shelter. I told them they are fine here and in excellent hands. The kittens are not going anywhere."

Although the wrinkles on his forehead loosen a bit, he still looks mad. "Let's go," he says.

We walk out of his house and towards the direction of Finnigan's.

"Look, I'm not taking them away from you," I say, walking behind him.

He stops and turns to me. "Why did you even tell him about this? Isn't this supposed to be our secret?"

"Are you for real? You told that gossip girl about the kittens. A complete stranger. I only told my boyfriend."

He scoffs, "Boyfriend, right. Let's see how long that lasts," he says and starts walking.

"What is that supposed to mean?" I say, resuming my walk behind him.

"What else you told him? That you go around blackmailing people?"

"Of course not! I'm not dumb."

"So you think he won't like you if you tell him everything about you. What kind of boyfriend he is if his girl can't share everything with him?"

"A damn good one. What about you? You shared everything with the girls you dated?"

"But I didn't plan to marry them the next day either, baby girl."

We reach our destination.

We both stand in front of the house and stare at it, as if captured by it.

"The place hasn't changed at all," Raylan says. I nod.

There's not a kid in Mueller Avenue that has grown without listening to the many stories about Mr. Finnigan and his house.

Most of the stories involved some kind of haunting. And the stories were never the same. Each time we heard it, it was a different version.

In some, Mr. Finnigan is the ghost. In others it's his late wife haunting the place. Finnigan also has been a murderer, spy and android in some of those stories.

"Alright, let's see if Toad is up," Raylan says and climbs onto the compound wall.

Toad always patrols around the house during the day but he's mostly inside the house with his master at night. Which is why any one who wishes to take back their stuff lost in the yard come here at night.

"All clear," Raylan says and helps me to climb up. We jump into the other side.

Our phone's torchlights scan the ground for a large brown ball.

We patiently and silently cover the yard starting from outside to inward after dividing the ground. When we reach each other in the middle without the ball in either of ours hands, we know Finnigan had found it.

Dammit, I was hoping to avoid going into the storage.

We don't have a choice now. We walk around the house to its back where there's a shed. The shed has two gates. The larger gate is locked, but there's a gap between its left side door and its frame.

I squeeze into the opening and get in.

Inside, the place is packed with all the objects that had found their way into this house. I try to spot the one we're looking for, but there are too many things to look through.

I go to the second entrance which is at the side. It's a smaller door and is locked inside. I unlock the latch, open the door, and let Raylan inside.

I close the door behind him.

Raylan says, "Turn on the light. The switch is outside."

Why didn't he say that before I closed the door? I look at the larger door. I'll just get out through that gap. I squeeze through it again and spot the switch at the side outside. I turn it on and return to the gap when I hear loud breathing.

I turn around and see Toad staring right back at me.

End of chapter

A/N - See ya tomorrow :) 🐕