The Carvings

Untitled Part 5

     We sat in my room, staring at the door listening to the heavy footsteps getting louder. We were all huddled close together, in the dark. "Guy's I'm scared." Dan whispered.

"Be quiet Dan, we don't want the person to hear us." Joan whispered, never taking her eyes off the door. I hugged my knees.

"Guy's should we move over to the closet or under the bed?" I asked.

"No, that's what the dumb kid in the scary movie does before she gets kidnapped or killed?" Dan answered.

"Why she? Why not he? Or he or she?" Joan asked.

"Because, it's always a 15 year old girl." Dan answered.

"Guys, that's not the big picture here." I said quickly.

"Well it's a picture." Dan said.

"Wait guys listen. Do you hear that?" I asked shushing them.

"I don't hear anything." Dan said listening.

"Exactly, the footsteps are gone." I said.

"But is he gone?" Joan asked. I shrugged my shoulders and looked from Joan to Dan then to the door.

"I'll go look." Dan said getting up. I pulled him back down.

"What are you doing? Do you know what else happens in the scary movie? Someone tries to be the hero and then they die or get kidnapped." I said.

"Well someone has to find out if he is still here." Dan said trying to get up again.

"No stop. Just hush and listen. Maybe he's somewhere else in the house." Joan said. We all quieted down and listened for a few minutes. I heard the sound of our breathing. I crawled over to the light and turned it on. I turned and looked at Joan, then at Dan. Their eyes were huge.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Julia, don't panic but the scary guy from our dream is standing behind you." Joan said in a whisper. I froze with fear, I turned slowly and screamed when someone's hands landed harshly on my shoulders. I spun around to see Dan laughing.

"That wasn't nice!" I screamed.

"I'm sorry but I just wanted to see if you'd believe that the guy from our dream came to life." Joan said laughing. 

"Okay, lets get serious for a second. Should we go downstairs?" I asked. They both stopped laughing and stood there silently.

"Um... maybe." Dan said. Joan walked over to the door and opened it quickly. We walked out into the dark hallway and I kept turning on lights.

"Way to give us away." Joan whispered. We walked down the stairs slowly. We looked through the railing into the living room.

"Guys, the doors wide open." Dan whispered. And sure enough, it was wide open. We walked to the end of the staircase, I grabbed an old bat, and we walked over to the door. I shut it and locked it quickly.

"The worst that could happen is someone could be in the house with us. Maybe we should call the police." Dan suggested.

"I don't know." Joan said. We walked around the house, aside from the front door being open, we hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary. We went into the kitchen and made sandwiches.

"Funny how someone was just in our house, and all we care about is a midnight snack." Joan said.

"Yeah, that person could've poisoned everything in the fridge." Dan added smiling.

"Typical teenagers." I said pointing to us. "You almost get kidnapped killed but once it's over you realize, the only thing you'd really miss is the food."

"And that Wi-Fi." Joan said pointing to our Wifi box. We all laughed then quieted down.

"Guys this is serious. We cant have mom and dad leaving then someone breaking in." I said.

"How do we know it was a break in? Did mom and dad even lock the door when they left? If they didn't and the person simply opened the door and walked in then that's not necessarily breaking an entering." Dan said.

"No, but it is trespassing. And besides, it doesn't matter if they broke in or not. They shouldn't have come in any way. If they simply walked who cares? They still could've stolen something or us!" Joan said raising her voice and pointing to us to make a point. "It doesn't matter how they got in, its the fact that they even came. Now we have questions. Did they take anything? Will they come back? Were they looking for something specific?"

"Those are questions we don't have answers to." I added. Just then the phone rang. We all froze for a second and listened to the phone ring.

"Who'd be calling at this hour?" Joan asked.

"Probably the person who broke in." Dan answered in a whisper voice. Joan went over and answered the phone. I could only hear her side of the conversation.

"Hello? This is her older sister. Yes... Yes... I see. Thank you for calling." That's all I got to hear.

"Who was that Joan?" I asked.

"That was Mrs. Douglas." Joan answered setting the phone back down.

"Who?" Dan asked.

"The woman you called." Joan said pointing to me. "She got your message. She wants to meet us tomorrow. "

"Okay." I answered.

"Wait, but what about my practice? I want to go with you guys but I have to go to practice." Dan said.

"We'll go after practice. Deal?" Joan asked.

"Deal." Dan and I said in unison. First, we saw the headlights then we heard the car engine pulling up into the driveway. I went over to the window and saw dads pickup truck. I breathed a sigh of relief.

They got out of the truck and hurried into the house.

"Hey kids." Mom said as she shut the door after dad. "Why are you all still up?" She asked hanging her coat up.

"We just couldn't sleep." I said.

"Oh well, Dan how's practice going?" Dad asked.

"Well it's good." Dan answered. Dad and Dan went into the other room to talk about sports.

"Mom, there's something we need to tell you." I said. Joan looked at me and before I could say anything more she quickly said.

"We just missed you so much. Never go away for that long again." Then she threw her arms around mom and glared at me.

Joan and I were headed up the stairs to my room. "What the heck Joan? Why didn't you let me tell her anything?" I asked.

"Because, then she'd want to call the cops." Joan said.

I stared at her. "Okay? And that's exactly what we need." I said.

"No, Julia you don't understand. When we were walking around the house, I felt like someone was still there with us. So my theory is, the person wasn't a person at all. It could've been a spirit with unfinished business." Joan looked so serious but I only wanted to laugh. So, I did. I laughed for the longest time.

"That's crazy." I said.

"Is it though? It might be the cause of our similar dream." I laughed at that too.

"It was all the stories the people of the town made up. The lack of sleep is making you crazy. Let's go to bed." I said pushing Joan out the door.

She turned around when she was in the hall. "So you don't believe me?" She asked her eyes getting red.

"I just think it's crazy." I added then shut the door.