The Chosen Path

Chapter Two

Jake cleaned himself up before heading over to the dinner party. He took a shower, shaved, and even splashed on some cologne. He put on nice looking jeans and a nice polo shirt. 

"Where are you going, stud?" Steve asked.

"Hot date?!" Lucas teased.

"Unfortunately not," Jake replied, pulling on one of his "cowboy" boots. "Some kids from my psych class invited me to look at their place. They have a room to rent out," Jake said, pulling on the other boot.

The guys had all been lying about casually on their bunk beds. At this news, they all suddenly sat up at full attention.

"Man, you found a place already?" Lucas asked with an air of disappointment he hadn't been the one to find a place. "Lucky you! Where?" Lucas asked in excitement. 

Jake knew that Lucas was just as anxious as he was to get out of their cramped living conditions. And, he was probably hoping there was an extra room for him, too.

"Um, I don't know. But it's only the one room, for one person, as far as I know," Jake said apologetically to Lucas.

He dug in his pocket, maybe one of the guys knew where it was. "Here's the address," he said, handing Lucas the paper George had scrawled it on.

"I called a cab," Jake said, as Lucas looked the paper over.

Lucas laughed. "You can't be serious!" he said, reading the address.

"What? Why not?" Jake asked, confused that Lucas was laughing about an address.

"That's Witch Hill. You got offered to live at Witch Hill?!" he hooted in laughter, wiping the tears from his eyes.

"What's "Witch Hill"?" Jake asked.

"Don't listen to him," Steve said, shaking his head with a smile. "It's just town rumors. People say weird things happen at that house, that it's haunted, and that a witch used to live there. There are all sorts of other wild tales. As long as you don't believe in that stuff, you'll be fine."

Jake swallowed. What if he did believe in all that stuff?

"We'll save your bunk for when you run back scared out of your mind," Lucas laughed.

"I'll be fine," Jake told them.

If he could handle his dreams, certainly he could handle a haunted house. And who knew? Maybe the house could give him some answers, like if Aurora was a ghost that had been haunting him.

He laughed internally. George, Emily, Ray, Raven, and Tony all lived there and none of them seemed like they were being haunted. No, it was only Lucas trying to scare him. Maybe to get the room for himself?

The phone rang and Steve picked it up. "Just a minute," he said, and hung up. "The cab's here."

*******************************

Jake's driver eyed him when Jake handed him the address but said nothing until they pulled up to an open gate at the bottom of a steep hill. Jake saw nothing but the gate, trees, flowering bushes, and a long driveway up.

"I stop here," the driver told him firmly in his thick Indian accent.

"What?" Jake asked, looking out of the window confused.

"But where's the house?" Jake asked him, frowning.

"All the way up there," the driver said, pointing up the drive, his arm visibly shaking.  

"I don't go up there! Strange place. You go!" he said, putting out his trembling hand for his fee.

Jake handed him the fare and got out of the cab. The driver quickly sped off, the tires squealing as he left Jake in an exhaust fume cloud.