A Little Insane: Raising The Dead

Chapter Three - Seeing is Believing

Love. The word made him feel numb inside, because even after everything that happened, he still loved Hart. He wanted to feel wrong and disgusted, like any normal person, but he wasn't just another normal person, he wasn't even human anymore. A human doesn't die and come back to life. He was a monster, that was all he was ever going to be. Truth be told, he'd kill again if he had to.

It seemed like he left all his fears and worries behind in the house, where they belonged. He should have known that the second he was dragged into that house, he'd never come out again. The old Riley was gone forever. He was who he was meant to be now.

As Riley walked in silence, with Nicholas not far behind, his heart began to beat faster. He saw the familiar trees he'd seen many times, the same ones that hid the house from view. They finally arrived. Riley stopped walking and looked back at Nicholas.

“Stay here. I don't know what I'm going to see in there, but I'll let you know if it's clear. If you see anything bad, I want you to run and never come back here again, you understand?” Riley told him as he fished out his dagger from his backpack.

“I can come with you, I'm not totally useless, you know?” Nicholas replied.

“I know you aren't, but this is different. This isn't a war in Afghanistan where you are properly geared with armor and weapons.”

“You don't know anything,” Nicholas responded almost instantly, with a slight irritation in his voice. “Do you think you're invincible? Do you think you are better than me because you have a magic knife?”

“Nicholas, I'm only trying to protect you!” Riley said angrily. “The reason I cannot risk taking you with me in there is because I may die. And if I die, I know that I can come back to life. But if you die, you'll remain that way and it will be on my hands.”

That seemed to work. Nicholas didn't speak another word, but he still looked angry and offended. Riley couldn't care, he had bigger priorities right now than worrying about another person's feelings.

Riley tossed the backpack and walked into the forest, finding the entrance where Hart's car would come through. He saw the house, it was as he left it; creepy. Nothing had changed, but after being away for so long, it felt like a dream. He walked over the spot where he rose out of the first time he had returned from the dead and felt chills on his skin.

From the looks of it, the house was vacant. There was no sign that anyone was currently living inside, but he wouldn't really call it living. The front porch still had red stains from his incident, sending Riley in a spiral of uncomfortable memories. He exploded, there was nothing much to it.

The door was unlocked, so he opened it and went inside. It was still cold, that never seemed to change. He remembered his first summer here, how he never even noticed it was the summer until Hart came in with more victims than usual, and most of them wore barely any clothing.

It took a lot of strength and courage, but after standing in front of the staircase, Riley called out to him. There was no response. He couldn't bring himself to call his name again, he was afraid he'd get a reply next time.

He looked around on the first floor and found it empty and untouched. He left out the basement for obvious reasons. There was no way he was going down there. Even if all of the answers he was seeking were written on a piece of paper and placed in the dark room, he still wouldn't go.

Riley entered the kitchen and only found an empty bowl, one that Hart used to eat his cereal from. He moved on to the dinning room, then to the living room and finally the library. He never entered it before, only saw it from afar when Hart would randomly walk inside. He opened the door and immediately closed it. It was dark, there weren't any windows, but he thought he saw eyes and he wasn't going to find out if his imagination was right. He'd know if they were Hart's eyes, which they weren't, thankfully.