Yesterday was so draining so we all slept in. This causes us to leave later than planned the next day.
Last night, an officer had come over and examined the place. He made us call our parents to assure them that we were safe. He didn't find anything nor was anything reported stolen so he dismissed it. Demi and Dem's mom wanted to rush over but she was held up at her job. We still hadn't shown Demi the note; not knowing how'll she react.
I message Kellan and Dylan, so we can go over to Mad's house; she should have been released this morning. They messaged back stating that they were already on their way.
Dem, Demi, and I board the semi-full bus. We manage to squeeze in, ending up wedged into each other and strangers. Dem and I are practically chest to chest. I can feel the up-down movement of his breaths as he took each one.
Demi is a few bodies away when a guy around our age, who was seated, asks her something. She smiles meekly and shakes her head. He smiles and seems to insist. She giggles and finally nods her head. He gets up and she sits down in his seat and smiles brightly up at him. He smiles back shyly and they continued to talk. I was thinking about how cute it was when Dem mumbles something in my ear, causing me to jump.
"You know we have to tell them about the note." He says, the rumbling of his voice sends vibrations into my chest.
"I don't think that's a good idea." I murmur back as the bus stops and more people pile on, pushing Dem and I closer together.
"Why?" he asks, re-adjusting himself from holding the bar behind me to the one above my head.
"Because, the more we play with this the worse it gets. We got chased, Mad got hurt, and Demi could have gotten killed by that dresser last night. Listen, we should leave this alone now before it gets worse, okay?" I plead into his ear.
"But-" He begins.
"No. Just drop it. Pretend it never happened. Forget it."
His jaw tenses as he stares straight ahead. I wasn't sure if he was going to say more or not. The next few minutes of the ride is quiet between us, while everyone else on the bus continues their loud conversations. Suddenly the bus lurches to stop, unable to catch the light, and I fall back. Dem catches me in time and holds me upright, his arm curled around my waist.
"Thanks" I mumble, while my heart speeds up.
"Anytime" He answers, his arm still around me. I look away, embarrassed, and I catch Demi's eyes. She smirks and moves her eyebrows up and down suggestively. Dem must have caught that because he lets me go pretty quick.
Ugh.
* * *
After what feels like a millennium, we get to our stop.
We squeeze past everyone and get off. "Oh gosh! I met the most amazing boy on the bus." Demi gushes as we begin walking to Mad's house.
"I saw." I giggle, matching her excitement. "Name?"
"Andrew. He goes to the private school near the library." She explains, dreamily.
"The all boys one?" I think out aloud. She nods and takes out her phone and answers a message, from Andrew I assume. Dem snorts in humor suddenly and Demi shoots him a glance. She raises her eyebrow and he furrows his. She shrugs her shoulders and goes back to messaging and he looks into the distance. I scrunch my face up then give up trying to understand.
"Twins" I shake my head.
* * *
A few blocks later we make it to Mad's house. After Demi rings the bell once and no one answers, Dem bangs the door loud and impatiently, earning a look from both of us. The door swings open with Madison's mom looking worn out.
"Oh my, I didn't even hear the bell." She ushers us in. "I was taking a little nap, yesterday was so --"
"Draining?" I finish for her.
"Precisely." She nods and pauses to yawn. I can tell. Her energetic personality has been completely drained.
"Oh well, don't let us interrupt your sleep we just came check on Madison." Demi smiles.
"Of course. I'm sure she's up anyway and you didn't interrupt me. I have to get ready for work soon anyway." She nods to herself, and trudges up the stairs.
We make our way down to Mad's room in the basement, which makes no sense since there are two perfectly good rooms upstairs. But it is Mad. She's just different.
"Maddy-kins?" Demi whispers opening the door to her dark room and slowly enters. She jumps when Mad suddenly emerges from the darkness. "Gosh, could you get any more ominous, Mad? I nearly had a heart attack."
"You should come on Thursday nights; we do voodoo sessions." Mad jokes while brushing her thick hair. "Sup dawgs?"
I laugh, sitting down on a chair near her book shelf. "Nothing. Just came to check on you."
"Well as you can see I'm fine." She says, pulling a sweater on and groaning in discomfort. Demi rushes over assist her, but she shoo-s her away. "I'm fine, thanks" she says.
"Are you sure? Do you need anything?" Demi asks.
"I'm fine, seriously. I get enough that from my mom. I finally made her go upstairs and get some sleep." She rolls her eyes, sitting down on her bed and pulls out some CDs.
"Oh here, Dem" She calls out to him, while he's leaning against the doorway. She hands him his iPod back. "Thanks. Oh you know this band right?" She asks holding up a CD so he can see the name.
"They're pretty good." He answers, taking the CD from her, and examines it.
"Yeah, well their new album sucks. Don't buy it." She says turning on her laptop and plugging her iPod in.
"I kind of liked it." Dem disagrees, sitting down next to her.
"Oh come on! Its just recycled garbage." She scoffs. They continue to debate, calling out names of bands I've never heard before.
"I always feel so main-stream compared to them." I say to Demi, who was still messaging Andrew. She looks up smiling and nods in agreement.
I pick up a book from her shelf and settle into a corner near her little window. Music begins to pour from Mad's laptop. We all fall into a comfortable silence. I look up and see Demi sitting on the floor crossed-legged, messaging. Dem and Mad are on the bed still flipping through the CDs. My eyes linger on them for a moment or two. He must have felt my gaze because he looks up and meets my eyes. I immediately look down to the book.
Coward, I think to myself. I still feel him staring but I refuse to meet his glower.
While I'm concentrating on pretending to read, a loud bang shocks me to my feet. My eyes cut to the window and I see Kellan and Dylan's goofy smiles close to the glass. I sigh and opened the small window so they can squeeze in.
"It's called a door." I hint once they're in.
"That's just boring. A spy wouldn't just walk through the door." Dylan says, pushing himself in between Dem and Mad.
"'Ello Love." He smiles up at her. Dem gets off of the bed while dusting the Dylan-ness off of him. He sits down next to Demi on the floor and sneaks a peek at her phone screen.
"A spy wouldn't bang on the basement window either." I roll my eyes.
"Hey. I'm an amateur." He defends himself. I chuckle and go back to the book I hadn't even begun to read yet.
"Hey, short stuff." Kellan greets Demi, poking her.
She laughs her bubbly laugh and says "Hey, Lurch!" and punches him in the arm.
"Hey! I'm sensitive!" Kellan pouts, rubbing his arm.
"So, what are we doing tonight?" Dylan says, playing with Mad's hair. Her typing on the keyboard gets slightly more aggressive.
"Dylan, you know we all can't go out tonight." Demi says while concentrating on thumb wrestling Kellan.
"And why not?"
"Because she's handicapped." Kellan whispers loudly, pointing to Mad. She flings a CD at Kellan but misses cleanly.
"I'm not handicapped." She sneers. ". . .But I am under house arrest, indefinitely."
"An even better reason for us to stay indoors." I say with a thumb up.
"Boring." Dylan groan. "We never do anything anymore. Ever since we went to that place. . ." He complains. "Speaking of which, Kellan and I went last night." He adds nonchalantly.
"You did what?" I narrow my eyes at them.
"We went back, nothing happened." He waves me off. "But we did get a few souvenirs." He reaches over Mad and gets his book bag. He pulls out some items. I stand up and walk over for a better look at his treasures, as did everyone else. He takes out a stopwatch, flyers, books, bottles, keys, and other trinkets.
"Why? Why would you steal that stuff?" I groan, rubbing my temples.
"It's not stealing if it belongs to no one. It's practically trash." He replies, flipping through one of the books.
I sigh and sit down on the edge of the bed and cautiously pick up one of the books.
"We should probably tell them about last night." Dem suggests into the silence. Everyone looks up from their artifacts with confusion. Well, except for Demi and me. I shoot him an icy glare, one which he doesn't care to acknowledge.
"Well, what happened last night?" Mad finally asks impatiently, sitting up straighter.
Demi volunteers to retell all the events of last night in great detail, sans the eerie note.
"Whoa. . . "Kellan says, slumping his shoulders.
"This is getting serious." Dylan mumbles, starring at the trinket in his hand.
"Maybe we should go to the cops or something." Kellan says, unevenly "I mean, who knows what will happen next. Or who's the next one to get hurt." He looks around and gulps.
"I don't think this is something that could go away with the help of a cop. What if it's like something. . .like. . ." Demi whispers, leaning forward.
"Supernatural?" I say, quietly, closing my eyes. We all wince at the word. We fall into an eerie silence.
"I found a note. Last night. In Demi's room." Dem makes another announcement, starring at the wall avoiding my glare again.
"A note? What did it say? Why didn't you tell me? Where is it? "Demi babbles on, attacking her brother with questions. He rises and walks over to his jacket and pulls out a crumpled piece of paper. He hands it Demi. Well, she practically snatched away. Everyone gathers around and read the little note.
Not a minute later, someone speaks up.
"So, uh. Yeah." Mad says. "That's something."
"What do we do now?" Demi ponders, nervously. "We should call somebody. . ."
"Like who? The Ghost Busters?" Dylan jokes, darkly. "Listen, whether it may be a practical joke or an actual entity, we have to figure this thing out. Find out what she, he, or it wants. Agreed?"
I speak up before anyone else had time to "No. No. No. Not agreed. Far from it. We need to leave this thing alone! The more we play with this the worse it gets. Once we leave it alone all this madness will stop." I say firmly, looking at everyone individually in the eye.
"I agree with Dylan." Kellan says. He looks sheepishly in my direction. "Sorry, Abby."
"But why?" I say in a small voice. "Can't you see nothing good comes from that place?"
"Yeah, but we can't let this thing rule our lives and have us constantly in fear!" He replies. "Don't you hate worrying all the time?" I open my mouth, and then close it, sighing. "Don't you want to find out what's bothering us and put an end to it?" I cover my face and hang my head, thinking about his words. "Don't you-" He continues.
"Okay!" I cut him off. "I get it."
"Thank you." He says, smugly. "I rest my case."
"But how are we supposed to solve this little mystery?" Dylan thinks aloud.
"Maybe we can do some research?" Demi suggests. "At that weird little library near the end of town?"
"Yeah." Dylan nods, approvingly. "They have every newspaper since. . . since like this town was founded, I think."
"Maybe we'll find out why Nightmare Land closed down in the first place." Demi says with wide eyes, nodding.
"And maybe we should go back to Nightmare land?" Dem said, looking at the wall. "Do a little snooping around, find some clues." He shrugs.
"Yeah." Kellan says, beginning to write things down. "We should start now."
"Yeah, so two of us can go to the library. Two to the park and. . . One of us can stay here with Mad." Dylan says, looking guiltily at Mad. "Sorry Mad, you are injured, and one of us has to stay to make sure you're safe."
"What? Come on! You're acting like I'm crippled" She whines.
"Sorry, Maddy-Kins." Kellan says, ruffling her hair, earning a sneer from her. "He is right, you have to sit this one out, kiddo."
"So what's the game plan?" Demi asks excitedly.
"I'll go to the library, I guess" I offer, unsure.
"I want to go back to the park." Demi says, fearlessly. Dem gives her a disapproving look.
"What? Last night's near-death experience wasn't enough for you?" He asks, bitterly.
"I'll go with her." Kellan pipes in, throwing his arm around his shoulder. "I'll keep her safe, man."
Dem frowns but says nothing to object.
"Someone has to stay with Mad." I remind them. With me going the library and Demi going with Kellan, that leaves Dem and Dylan.
"I'll stay!" Dylan volunteers before anyone can say a word. Then he turns to give her a not so secretive wink.
"Okay so, Demi and Kellan, you guys are going to Lameland. Abby and Dem are going to the library. And Dylan. . . stays with me." She confirms. "Oh joy."
"That's the plan." Dylan says, hopping onto the bed. "Message me every sight, sound, and smell, alright? And at around seven we'll all report back here with our findings."
"Yes sir!" Demi mock salutes him, giggling. "Oh, this is so much fun. It's like we are a part of Scooby Doo."
"Yeah, but at the end of the day it's not some silly guy in a costume. This is serious." I say quietly, playing with my sleeves.
"You're right, Abby." She nods, pulling herself up. "Let's go guys." We stand up, gathering our things, and head for the door.
"So. . . seven right?" I repeat. Everyone nods.
We say our goodbyes to Dylan and Mad, who are already bickering before we leave the house.