Gone in the Morning

Chapter 10: Deformed

Unlike my school back home where I was raised, breaks were only allowed after the seventh period of class. School was almost over by then. We were sent outside for recess if you could call it that. I stood up most of the time. Some of the younger kids played in the sand, making holes and putting tiny bits of grass inside as if it were a pot of soup while using twigs to stir it. The bigger kids gathered in groups, talking and whispering to one another. Of course, I felt like the outcasts through all of this.

Gretel and a few other mean looking boys walked up to me. Their heads were clean shaved, and they had their hands shoved in their pockets, staring at me like they were the cool kids but instead they looked like troublemakers off the streets.

"You're lying," Gretel said. "I know you live in her house. You didn't give out your address by accident, and you know it."

I was planning to ignore him, but his friends crowded me. All four of them. I put my hand in my pocket, mostly because I didn't want them to see my extra thumb.

"I don't want any trouble," I admitted. It was the last thing I needed.

"What's it like living in there? I live right down the street, so I know you lived there. I saw you going inside of her house." A boy with a face full of freckles smirked. The way he leaned his head forward at me made him seem very enthusiastic.

If the kid didn't say anything about where I lived before then, he wouldn't have said anything now. "Nothing happens," I lied. I was smart not to tell what I saw at the house. They probably wanted me to say something so that they could make fun of me.

One of the boys smiled and looked at Gretel. "I heard the walls bleed at night and the floorboards creak because Lilith's fingers are still underneath them."

Still looking at me, Gretel bobbed his head up and down. "And that you can hear screaming coming from the faucet in the kitchen because pieces of her neck bone were thrown inside."

"I haven't seen that stuff," I then swallowed. "It sounds crazy to me."

Gretel let out a laugh. "One time I purposely let my dog go into the house. He came back with something chewy in his mouth. I'm pretty sure it was an eyeball. Maybe fresh kill from Lilith."

Gretel's friends laughed at him as if he was the funniest person on Earth. I just did there, looking at Gretel. Why was his name on my hands and was it possibly because he's been to the house? I didn't know. All I did know was that his presence frightened me. He was the first clue after all.

Find me.

Somehow Lilith wanted me to find her and Gretel was my clue. Before I got a chance to say anything, the boys shoved their way past me. At that time I had wished I had friends. If anyone had done that to me back in my old school, better believe that we would have gotten even.

"He's such a jerk."

I turned around and found some kid way smaller than me staring at Gretel. "Um," I said while feeling startled. "I didn't see you there."

The kid looked about seven years old. Our class did mix with some of the younger students, but I didn't recognize him.

"You're that kid who lives in Lilith's house," he said. "I really hope you can save us all. The last kid that was here didn't do good."

"I'm sorry," I raised an eyebrow. "I don't know what you're talking about."

He gave me a toothy grin. "Don't you see her shadows? I can see her shadows, all deformed and lost. She follows you. In fact, she's right behind you."

A chill immediately ran down my spine but saw no shadow when I turned around. I looked back at the kid, but he only left. I thought the town couldn't get stranger, but it was just getting stranger day by day and my parents were too blind to what was happening to us.

When I got home that day, Kane was outside smoking a cigarette. He kept tapping his foot against the ground as if he was nervous about something. I threw my backpacks off my shoulder before entering the house. Kane stood up immediately.

"I'm going to kick your ass," he launched at me. When he grabbed my arm, my book bag fell straight to the ground.

My mom ran out of the car then broke up the fight between us. "What are you doing?" She asked Kane.

"I found a bunch of dead crows inside of my gym bag. All of the heads cut off and thrown inside," He growled. "Inside was a sick little note. It said 'find me.' I warned your son to watch who he was messing with, now I'm going to beat the shit out of him."

My mom pinched the small space between her eyebrows then pointed a hand at me. "Did you do that?" She asked in a stern and harsh tone as if she had already decided not to believe me.

"I didn't do it!" I said out loud. "I was at school the whole day. How could I have done it?"

"No one else was in this house," Kane sneered. "You did it while I was asleep or something. You disappeared yesterday. Were probably out killing the poor crows."

"Why would I kill a bunch of crows and put them in your bag, Kane?" I said, getting angry. "Maybe if you didn't decide to move in a cursed house, then it wouldn't have happened."

"Dante Owens!" My mother yelled at me. "Don't you dare start that foolish stuff."

"I knew it," Kane shook his head. "Writing has gotten to the boy's brain. He should've never been writing. Now he's making up a bunch of horror stories."

"Don't you know that this is Lilith Lambert's house?" I yelled out.

My mother let out a long sigh. "Enough fairy tales. I've had enough for the day. When you get inside of the house, put your laptop in my room. Also, be helpful and clean out the basement. You have a week to do so." My mom then walked away, leaving me with an angry Kane.

Kane chuckled. "Ouu ouu, Dante's going to spend some time with the house's ghost. What was her name? Lilith?" Kane kicked the pile of dirt towards my way. Sand entered my eyes.

I rubbed the dirt out from my eyes. At first, I thought what I was seeing was just from the amount of sand that was in my eyes, but it wasn't. For the first time and like the boy had told me, I saw a deformed shadow exiting the house. It was visible until it hit the sunlight then it was gone. Before all of my senses could come back to me, my mother let out a blood-curdling scream.