Дмитрий Леонтьев – Don't trust anyone (страница 5)

Some time later, Denny came out to the street where his friend had been waiting for him. He was holding the steering wheel of his bicycle in his hands.

“Hey, bud! What’s up?” Charley greeted Denny.

“Let’s go! I told mom I won’t be long!” Denny said.

“Yeah, she always worries about you, pal,” Charley remarked.

“I know, since father left us, she’s been fussing over me,” Denny responded to Charlie’s words.

“It’s about two kilometers away. We’ll ride along that road then turn to the left and ride straight ahead for one more kilometer. And then we should leave our bicycles and climb over a high fence. And after that, if we are lucky, we’ll be right there,” Charlie explained.

“It’s very strange that the house had been empty for so long. I heard rumors that the previous owners were leaving it in a hurry,” Denny declared.

“Come on!” Charlie smiled, “it’s only a school rumor popular with little children. Just imagine we‘ll be the first who dared to go in there in ten years! We’ll film everything, make a cool video and I bet get a ton of likes! We’ll become famous in the school,” Charley drifted away in his dreams.

“What is true is true, can’t argue with that!” Denny answered and mounted his bicycle.

CHAPTER 3

The weather was nasty. The glaring noonday sun had been blocked with the dark rain clouds. The sun sheltered behind them and an occasional sun ray bounced through the clouds and lit the area.

In some places it was beginning to drizzle. Instead of the gentle air breeze came a nasty cold wind. In some places the asphalt road was already wet and slippery.

At first, they rode silently since they both were deep in their thoughts planning the trip.

Eventually they reached the arcane house. Behind the high fence stood an old two-story wooden house. In its centre there was a rotten entrance door; all the windows were shattered. The roof was an iron structure, also corroded or rusted. In front of the entrance door there was a shabby wooden porch looking too dangerous to step on. The deserted house was surrounded by tall weeds and thick vegetation. They could notice mice running across the porch. Denny and Charley stopped behind the fence and peeped at the run-down building.

“No way, pal!” Denny exclaimed. “That’s so…,” he tried to explain his thoughts, “the fence is too high and that house, you know, looks hard to get into. It’s not for me.”

“You are a coward, I knew that!” Charley uttered and looked at him.

“What are you talking about? I’m not a coward and I don’t have to prove it to you,” Denny started saying loudly.

“If you aren’t frightened, why don’t you want to go?” Charley dared him.

“Dude, I’ll do it only for you,” Denny said, “But promise that you’ll be the first to cross the doorstep of this house,” he demanded.

“I knew that,” Charley announced proudly.

“Knew what?” Denny asked immediately.

Ignoring Denny, Charley started to walk slowly along the fence until he noticed an iron gate locked with a latch.

He placed his sight on the bolt and saw that it was broken.

“We’re lucky!” he exclaimed cheerfully.

Denny ran up to him.

“It’s unlocked!” Charley told him.

The wind pushed them hard on their backs. The iron gate squeaked under the pressure of the wind and opened a little.

They looked into the gap and made their first step inside. As the gate was banging behind them, the boys froze in their tracks for a second and then walked inside the yard.

CHAPTER 4

Walking straight towards the porch, Denny decided to take a better look of the house. At first, he examined all the windows on the first floor and then slowly moved his gaze to the second floor. There, in the window, he detected someone standing and staring at him. The figure was holding something in its hands. Seeing Denny, it slowly began to draw the curtain.

“Damn!” Denny cursed.

“What? What’s going on?” Charley asked him in amazement.

“Let’s get our asses out of here!” Denny said. “There’s someone over there behind the curtain,” he pointed to the second floor.

“What? What are you talking about?” Charley asked bewildered. “It’s your damn imagination. Look up! There are no curtains in the windows,” he declared.

Denny looked up again and noticed only the shattered glass in the broken frame.

“Sh*t,” he sounded relieved. He was glad to believe that it was only his imagination running wild.

At last, they approached the porch.

“Just a sec,” Charley said taking out his mobile phone. “Stay here, near the window.”

“Why?” Denny asked worried.

“Let’s take a selfie,” Charlie explained holding the phone and coming closer to Denny. Then he took a photo.

“Great,” he said approvingly. “I’ll send it to you later,” he added.

Charley carefully pushed the entrance door open and they both found themselves inside the mysterious house.

From the nasty creak of the door Denny screamed a little.

“Damn! You scared me!” Charley exclaimed angrily.

“I don’t know why but this place is terrifying me!” Denny whimpered.

“You are a coward, aren’t you?” Charley asked him. “Come on in, bro, don’t be afraid.”

Holding up the flashlight in the phone, Denny followed Charley and they went inside.

“Wooow,” Charley said stepping into a large hall. “Ok, let’s check it out.”

Going from one room into another and seeing nothing scary, Denny braced up and said, “It’s so cool and weird that the previous owners left the house and everything behind.”

“They left all their stuff! Amazing! It looks like they were moving in a hurry,” Charley confirmed.

On the floor, there were a lot of mugs, glasses and plates. Somewhere were spoons and forks. Dirty spots on the table and on the floor. There were toys and other children’s things on the floor. The rooms looked messy.

“I’m going to check the second floor,” Charley said.

Denny headed for another room and saw several little dirty footprints on the floor. Denny rubbed his eyes and began to inspect the footprints.

They looked fresh as if somebody had recently been here. But it was very odd because the footprints were only on the floor of this room. There were none in the hall or in the rooms downstairs. Only here.

Denny followed the little footprints across the room and noticed that they went to the wardrobe. Denny straightened up and touched the handle. After that he pulled it.

“Nonsense,” came into his head, “sheer nonsense.” He made himself stop thinking.

Denny pulled himself together and carefully turned the handle of the wardrobe a second time. Then he slowly opened it. The creak of the opening door scared him even more. There was nothing there.

He looked down and noticed something.

It was a thin book with a black cover. Denny frowned from the look of it. Nonetheless, he bent down to pick it up.

It was an old book with a strange horrendous picture on the cover. There was something like a black boy sitting on the stairs of the porch.

“Jesus,” he pronounced and swallowed hard. Denny noticed that when he touched the cover with his fingers they were a little trembling. Hardly had he opened it, when he heard “booo” in the background.

Somebody was shouting from behind Denny and then, quite unexpectedly, something touched him.

From that suddenness Denny shrieked and abruptly turned around.

Charley was standing behind him and neighing.

“Charley! Never do that again! You scared me,” Denny gasped.