CYOA Page 189
Sep. 11th, 2013 09:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lumy12I must REALLY be losing it... I almost actually went back to that fucking creepy house! You shake your head, as if to rid it of your crazy. You look around again, with and without your flashlight's help. Of course, you see nothing. You listen hard... and hear nothing but normal nighttime sounds, like bugs and shit.
You head back up to bed. "I'm back, Joel," you say in a normal voice, because again, you're sure your movements disturbed him on some level. You hear him roll over, but you don't get a response. Maybe you attach too much... well... sophistication, or whatever? to Joel's subconscious, but you feel like it catalogued the information that you were going out to pee, and made note that that meant you'd be coming back inside soon, no cause for alarm. And now, it's hit the 're-set button' for any new noteworthy noises.
You'll ask Joel in the morning if he remembers waking up in the middle of the night, and he'll probably tell you he doesn't. Or maybe you won't ask him, because sometimes, knowing this does seem to disturb him a little. Like, he feels he should've woken up enough to remember, or something? You can point out that he always wakes up when the noise actually warrants it, but it doesn't seem to reassure him.
Oh man... that one time in the kitchen... This was after you'd been in Jackson for a while, so he'd relaxed into normalcy somewhat, compared to Outside-vigilant. You should've just gone to the bathroom and used that little plastic tumbler cup in there for water, but no, you felt like you wanted milk. You were stealthy enough to tiptoe into the kitchen and get a glass and even pour the milk, all in the dark, without rousing Joel at all. And then you fucking dropped the glass! It shattered spectacularly all over the kitchen floor. You think you yelped or something too... you don't remember for sure. Joel came flying out of the bedroom in his pajama pants, flicking light switches along the way, and he even pointed his gun at you for a moment. You were horrified to have made such a stupid mistake... to elicit such a response from poor Joel, who must have thought someone was breaking in...
And then you burst out laughing. Joel was not amused, not one bit... which only made it even funnier to you, for some perverse reason. Ahh, good times... he can laugh about it now, at least!
Wrapping yourself in that warm fuzzy memory from home, along with Joel's sweatshirt, you expect to fall asleep pretty quickly.
But you don't. In fact, you don't sleep at all, the rest of the night. You can't get that ghostly image to leave you alone!
You still feel like you don't want to tell Joel because he'll just laugh at you and tell you it's obviously your imagination, blah blah. Which you already know. Because it fucking has to be. There's no other explanation. But you do tell him you'd like to visit the 'creepy house' before you head out, now that it's daytime, just to see if you still feel anything. You can tell that he thinks you're being ridiculous, but he humors you and agrees to swing by before leaving this little town.
You have to admit, the house does look remarkably different with sunshine bathing it instead of rain... blue sky as a backdrop instead of gray. You leave your horse on the street with Joel and march right up to it, completely unafraid, unspooked... un-whatever. You don't go inside; you just stand there, staring up at it. Willing it to speak to you, somehow. Your gaze darts from window to window, as if you might see a woman in white up there, looking down at you... calling to you?
You jump a little when you feel Joel's hand on your shoulder. He chuckles softly. "Sorry... you gettin' any vibes, kiddo?"
You don't answer him right away. You keep looking, then you close your eyes and just... wait... for what, you're not sure... and when you don't feel it, you conclude there's nothing spiritual going on here. At least, not that you can feel. You open your eyes. "No... I guess you were right. It was just the storm."
He gives your shoulder a squeeze before letting go. "You sound disappointed."
"I'm not... not really... just... I dunno." You look at him sheepishly. "Sorry I put you through all that for nothing."
"Tch. What 'all that' did you put me through? We found a decent house. I'm jus' sorry you still didn' sleep good."
You shrug. "I'll sleep good tonight. No biggie. Let's go."
You give the house one last look over your shoulder as you ride on down the street... it's funny that you didn't feel anything, standing there, because now you're getting a different sort of creepy feeling... fuck...
The house itself may not be haunted... yet somehow, it's going to keep haunting you.
If you'd like to start another adventure, return to page 1.
Carlos
Date: 2020-12-06 02:00 pm (UTC)RE: Carlos
Date: 2020-12-06 02:35 pm (UTC)