Hell (WIP)

When the Gleeman Corporation started to downsize last year, it offered most if not all of the engineers that ability to relocate to other facilities that were still open across North America.  The Gleeman Corporation opened in the early 1930’s and specialized in military contracts, there was one that was still open in a rural part of New Hampshire that did especially well and employed a good number of people from that state.

Mark wasn’t overly impressed when his father came in to tell him the news,

‘Hey Mark, so it looks like were going to be moving, they are shutting down my factory here in San Diego and that is the only place that has an opening.’

‘There isn’t anything around here?’

‘Well sure there is but I’ve been with this company 30 years, I’m ready to retire in 5 years and I’d be losing out on a lot of things if I left now, we’d be moving there finishing up my time and most likely be moving back but I have to finish my time out.’

Mark was clearly upset by this and his dad could tell.

‘Look buddy, I know this isn’t great but at least it is at the end of the year and you can finish up here and start fresh with some new friends.’

‘I don’t want to start fresh with new friends dad, I like the friends I have here.’

‘Lets get out there and see how things are, we still have family here so we’ll be back at least once a year - plus you have so many ways to stay in touch!’

‘Its not the same Dad and you know that.’

‘I know Mark, it isn’t. But I am excited about the fact that we’ll have seasons and we’ll see the Atlantic Ocean and mountains.’

‘Woo-hoo’

‘You’ll take a shine to it soon enough. We already have a house that was bought and paid for by the company which is great, you and I will head out there early once school is finished and your mom will hang back here to wrap up with the house here.’

‘Why can’t I stay here?’

‘Well I thought it would be nice if you and I could spend some time together, I have a couple of weeks off to get settled and get the house in order - I figured we could explore a little bit.’

‘Whatever Dad.’

‘That’s the spirit! We leave at the end of the month so that gives you at least 30 days to pack, anything you don’t need I recommend donating; toys and clothes and other stuff.’

Mark’s dad left the room - Mark shut the door harder than he should have and his dad yelled out in the hallway, ‘We’re gonna have a good time.’

Mark hated that his dad had such a positive outlook on things all the time, like he never got mad.  He dropped a jar of pickles once that they were going to use for burgers and there was glass everywhere, most people would have swore or gotten angry but his dad just said, ‘now we’re in a real pickle’ and started to clean it up; like he never showed any outward emotion.  All his friends loved Marks parents, they were so ‘relatable’ and ‘down to earth’ but to Mark they were just annoying but I guess everyone’s parents were annoying. Mark looked around his room and fell face first on his bed, he wasn’t in the mood to pack anything.

Two weeks had passed and he might have put one thing in a box, his mother came in the room.

‘Mark, the end of this week I’m going to drop some clothes off for donation - think you’ll have anything?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Did you want me to go through and find things to donate.’

‘No Mom’

‘Ok then, so we’ll see some clothes and possibly toys and stuff to donate by let’s say Thursday since I’m headed there on Friday - you and your father are leaving in a little more than 2 weeks - how exciting!’

‘So very thrilling’

Marks mom left, he look in his closet and spotted a box of toys, kicked it with his foot and shut the door.

Thursday came and Mark had filled up a bag with clothes and pulled out the box of toys he hadn’t looked in for about 10 years.  His mom asked him to bring the stuff downstairs and she looked at the sorry excuse for a pile and looked at him,

‘Mark, I believe there is so much more just waiting to be freed from the stranglehold you have on it - wouldn’t you agree?’

‘Mom, I don’t know, if you think so then why don’t you do it.’

‘I don’t think you’ll be excited if I get rid of your things, you may be leaving this house with just the clothes on your back’

‘You wouldn’t’

‘Well, there is only so much room for packing the truck so I most definitely would’ she said with a sly smile. Mark knew she was joking but he also knew that this was inevitable and needed to be done.

‘Fine, give me like a half hour and I’ll look’

‘That’s the spirit, Philip, did you hear that - at the last minute Mark has found the gusto to find some things to get rid of.’

Mark’s dad walked into the kitchen holding a magazine on some science stuff he had been reading, ‘what’s that Pauline, is Mark finally coming around after all?’  Philip tossed the magazine on the table, grabbed Mark by the shoulder and gave him a hug.

‘Did you want any help with anything?

‘Nah Dad, I got it.’

‘Ok, if you need any help with boxes just holler - i’ll be reading in the living room.’

‘Thanks’

Mark knew this was happening and couldn’t stop the move, he didn’t have any sentimental value on any of these clothes or toys.  He’d been growing so much he had to get new stuff anyway so about 80% of it all went into bags knowing that he would just need clothes to get to NH. This all took him about 20 minutes and he brought about 5 bags filled with clothes downstairs, he explained it all to his mother but she already knew.

The day had arrived, Mark and his dad had one suitcase each to bring on the plane. They had hired a moving company to bring all the bigger stuff over and Marks mom was going to fly over after the sale was final in a week.

Pauline dropped them off at the airport, they said their good-byes and took off for their new home in Falls Hollow NH.

Mark and his dad arrived later that day, got a rental car and arrived at their new home.  It was a lot bigger than their other house, it was also in the woods and there were trees everywhere.  Mark had noticed on the way in from the airport that when they landed in a city, they meandered from city, to suburbs to even denser rural area.  He had never been this far away from a city.

‘Dad, we are so far from the city.’

‘Yeah Mark, about 20 minutes away is the town, there is a grocery store and a main st - it is actually pretty nice.  We can go check it out tomorrow or the next day.’

They walked up the front pathway and onto the large farmers porch, Philip pulled a set of keys out of his pocket, unlocked the front door and opened it.  Mark walked into the living room and then the kitchen right off that.  There was a mud room off that which led to a back yard, Mark opened the back door to a giant yard that had a sloping hill out in the back and what looked like a path which he was definitely exploring later. He came back inside and moved out of the mud room to a dining room.  There were large window all over the bottom floor which was also a nice touch.  From there he made it back to the front door and his dad was standing there texting with his mother,

‘Wow Dad, this place is pretty nice’

‘The pictures definitely don’t do it justice, there’s also a garage - let’s go upstairs and put our stuff down - I want to check that out - apparently there’s a work bench above the garage.’

Mark and his Dad went upstairs - right at the top was a linen closet, to the left was a spare bedroom then the primary bedroom.  Then off to the right was Mark’s bedroom and across from the hall was a study. Mark yelled out to his Dad,

‘Dad!’

‘Mark!’

‘This is really nice!’

‘I know right, are you looking out your window?’

Yeah, you can like, see all the way across the backyard, it looks like there might be a pond back there?’

‘I believe there is a pond somewhere around here, be careful if you go out exploring please.’

Mark was a little ashamed that he was so against the move but now he was really excited

‘Ok Dad.’

Mark and his dad made their way downstairs and to the garage, there was a door off the kitchen that led to the garage. Once Philip opened the door there was a light on the right hand side of the door - he flipped it on. It was a two-bay garage, in the middle was a stair case going up.

‘Jackpot!’ Philip said

Mark walked in with him but he noticed that there were two bikes hanging by the end of the garage,

‘Dad, help me get these bikes down - are they ours?’

‘Yeah, the house is ours now so I assume these bikes are too.’

They got the bikes down, one was a BMX bike, the front tire was flat.  The other was mountain bike, that looked like it would be perfect for the knotty terrain that NH had.

‘This is great Dad, would you mind if I took this out this week? We might have to get a pump if I can’t find one here.’

‘No problem, we’ll also have to get you a helmet too but we’ll make a list before we go into town.’

Mark was checking the bikes out while his father went upstairs,

‘Hey Mark, there is a workbench up here and it looks like a game room too!’

Mark leaned both the bikes against the far end of the garage and ran up to meet his dad,

‘Wow, this pretty cool, I guess we know where you’ll be spending your free time huh?’

‘Only if your mother allows it’ Philip said with a sly grin.  We’ve got more time in the next couple of weeks to hang out and explore this place - it has been a long day, let’s get some rest and we’ll get up go get a bite to eat and see what this bustling metropolis has to offer us.

Mark made his way to his room, there was a bed already in there. Mark got in bed and was almost immediately asleep when he heard the sound of kids laughing. It sounded far off but the sound died off right away, then he was asleep.

The next morning he got up to some noise downstairs, it was his father doing who knew what.  He got up, threw on the same clothes from yesterday and went downstairs.  His dad was moving the couch that was in the living room,

‘Hey good morning Mark’

‘Good Morning Dad, what are you doing?’

‘I checked to see when we are getting our stuff delivered and it looks like it should actually be here today so I wanted to move some of this stuff around and go out and get a bite to eat, get some food for later and get back - you want to go get some grub?’

‘Yeah, I’m starving actually.’

Mark hadn’t realized it but they didn’t eat since probably lunch the day before, with all the excitement going on it slipped his and his dads mind to grab something to eat.

‘Help me move this and then we can take off’ Marks dad motioned him towards the couch.  They moved it closer to the wall to make room for some of the other furniture that was coming in.

With that done, Philip grabbed the keys and said to Mark, ‘Hey, wanna drive?’

Mark turned to him, ‘you’re kidding right?’

‘Of course I am, you can drive in another 4 years!’

Mark shook his head and they headed out towards the car

His dad still laughing, they made their way into town to find a spot to eat.  According to GPS it was about 15 minutes away, not too bad. It gave Mark some time to consider when he was going to take that bike out and explore that path in the backyard.

Philip pulled into the Main Street of Falls Hollow, relatively quaint.  It had a hardware store, a grocery store, one gas station, two coffee shops, one large diner and two other breakfast nooks and some other little shops that made it a typical main street USA.  Mark looked at some of the reviews for the breakfast spots and chose ‘Breakfast Time’, because it was on the nose and he appreciated that.  They parked and walked in.

The hostess welcomed them to the restaurant and sat them immediately, it wasn’t terribly busy here until later in the week and they came at the right time.  The waitress came by and brought over some coffee for Phillip and asked if Mark wanted anything,

‘I’m fine with water’

She left and returned with the coffee and water, ‘you boys need another minute to decide?’

They both looked at each other and said they were ready,

It took them all of a minute to order, bacon omelette for Mark and a cheese omelette for Phillip, with bacon on the side.

‘Why don’t you just get a bacon omelette?’

‘I like to enjoy my bacon instead of having it wrapped up in the omelette, let me have this!’

While they waited they discussed some plans for emptying out their storage container when it came, what was important to get out before Pauline arrived - they both agreed that the bedrooms and the kitchen needed to be done.  After that breakfast arrived, they both agreed that it was the best omelette they had in some time and it truly was. Mark mentioned to his dad that he wanted to go check out the path behind the house at some point.  His dad was ok with it but they had to remember to get him a helmet before they did that.  While he was eating, Mark was checking the area to see if there was a sporting goods store around.  Outside of town there was a department store that would have what they needed, Philip agreed to stop there as there was some things they got rid of he needed to pick up so it all worked out.  Philip paid the bill, they thanked the waitress and left.  On their way back to the house they stopped at the department store,

‘Ok Mark, we need to grab the helmet and bike pump, I need to grab a couple of kitchen utensils and other things.’

They made their way through the store, they had 2 helmets available - one was a blue helmet with a pony on the side that was Mark’s size and the other was a kids helmet that was way too small.

Philip was laughing as he picked it up and put it on Mark’s head, ‘well buddy, looks like we have a match.’

‘Not funny Dad, are there no other helmets here?’

‘Looks like this is it.  If you want to go riding I’ll absolutely buy this for you and we can order another one for you but the stipulation is I have to take a picture and send it to your mother.’

Mark really wanted to go exploring, he couldn’t explain it but something about that trail was calling him and so what, it was just a pony - he might be able to peel it off.

‘Whatever - its just a pony, as long as the helmet keeps me safe then what does it matter’

Phillip clapped him on the his shoulder, ’great attitude to have - I’m proud of you.’

Mark looked up at his Dad, ‘i’m in no way excited about this but I’m not going to let a little thing like this graphic bother me.’

‘Atta boy, ok, grab that bike pump there and let’s go get those utensils!’

Mark grabbed the bike pump, tucked the helmet under his arm and they made their way around the store and picked the rest of the goods they needed.  They checked out, made it to the car and headed back home. On the way back Philip’s phone beeped with a message,

‘Mark, can you check that - it might be the storage container company.’

‘It’s Mom, just checking in.’

‘Let her know how we’re doing.’

Mark typed back to his Mom about their night, the house, breakfast and everything else.  Mark asked how things were there, she said things were good, she was cleaning the house now that everything was out and getting ready to head to a hotel until the closing. She was excited to see the new place; she loved and missed them. She told Mark to tell his father to have him call her later, she said she loved him again and said good-bye. No sooner did Mark put the phone back on the holder did it chime again

‘Dad, looks like the storage company is messaging’

‘Whats happening?’

‘Looks like they are going to be at the house at 1 pm today.’

‘Excellent, it’s only 1030 now so we have some time.  I want to stop by the grocery store and get some food, lets do that and head back home.’

Mark confirmed the time with the storage company, he searched directions for the grocery store which was 10 minutes from their current location and they headed there.  Mark and his dad headed inside, Philip only got some essentials, lunch meats, food for dinner and some chips; enough to hold them over for a day or two while they unpacked; they left and headed back home.

They got back home and unloaded the groceries, Mark brought the helmet and the pump into the garage.  He pumped up the tires and took it for a spin around the driveway, felt like the chain needed some lubricant.  He brought the bike back into the garage, looked around but it was pretty sparse in there and then remembered the workbench upstairs.  He went up, saw that there was two large benches as well as two cabinets.  There were also some shelves with bottles that looked like garage liquids - he started there.  He saw car oil and chainsaw oil, he moved around some other bottles then saw a small black metal canister that said, ‘chain oil’,

‘Well if this isn’t it I don’t know what is.’

He grabbed the can and held the nozzle up to his nose, it had that oil smell so this must be it.

He made his way downstairs, took the bike outside and put the bike on the grass.  He remembered what happens when you oil a chain on the driveway and adults aren’t always happy about it.  He put some drops on the chain, got on the bike and started to shift the gears, like magic the clacking of the chain disappeared.  He laid the bike down, took the oil can and placed it inside the garage door for safe keeping.  Then his dad came outside,

‘What’s going on out here?’

‘I was just oiling the chain, pumping the tires.  I did find the oil up in the work area.’

‘That’s good, want to make sure things are working smoothly. Anything else good up there?’

‘I was just looking for this but it looks like there are some other ‘garage liquids’ up there so it would be good to poke around.’

Philip taught Mark early about shop safety, knowing your flammables and keeping areas clean so he felt comfortable that Mark was poking around in their new work area.

‘its at least another hour before the storage container comes, did you want to take the bike out and check things out?’ Phillip said

‘Yeah, that would be great!’  Mark was going to ask but happy that his Dad offered

‘i’m going to make some sandwiches, just be back a little before one and we’ll eat then get things going.’

Mark ran and hugged his dad, ‘thanks Dad’

‘But before you go’ he pulled the helmet out from behind his back

‘Oh yeah, that’s right’ mark said defeatedly

‘Well, you were going to wear it and I wound’t want to deny Mom this. Plus, it shows her that you’re being safe so a win-win.’

‘Yeah yeah, I guess you’re right.’

Mark put on the helmet, gave his best fake smile and a thumbs up and Philip took a picture.  ‘If we still framed pictures, I’d hang this one up for everyone to see.’

‘You’re hilarious.’

‘Ok, be safe, be back before one and you have your phone so call if there are any issues.’

‘Bye Dad.’ Mark jumped onto the bike, pedaled into the back yard and down the path.

Mark rode down the path behind their new house, it went down a slight hill, past a stream then over the stream which then led by another huge field that had a razor wire fence with cows dotted throughout the field. Mark was amazed at how much more there was to explore here or really, how different the exploration was.  He kept going and ended up going past a graveyard in the woods which he thought was really strange but figured that people have been on this side of the country longer than where he was before so it made sense. He also made a mental note to come back and check on this at some point, it was in his backyard! He crossed another stream, but this one had a bridge across it - it looked like someone took some time to really build this up since the stream was pretty high.  After he crossed this he came to another large field and there were even more cows but this one had a large rock wall, he continued to pedal and the rock wall just kept going for what felt like like forever.  Then he came up to what looked like a bunch of new houses and the path twisted and the houses just disappeared but the path continued and lead up a hill.  Mark pedaled up this hill and saw a house, it was an old, grey house just sitting in this lot all by itself.  He was at the edge of the forest and looking out at this house and it reminded him of where he was living now, except this house was rundown, old grey paint peeling and had no life in it at all; the windows had been all boarded up  He pulled out his phone to take a picture of the house and realized it had been 30 minutes since he left his house, he didn’t even realize it had been that long. He was still looking through the camera on his phone at the house absent-mindedly when he finally took the picture.  He needed to turn back around to help his father out but something was drawing him to this house, he put his foot on the pedal and started to push forward but then clamped down on the right brake depressing his front brakes.

‘No, I have to turn around - I can come back and do some more exploring later - it doesn’t look like it is going anywhere.’ Some wind picked up and whipped around, Mark heard some whispers again and looked around, he dismissed it quickly as the wind going through the trees

He took one last look at the house and backed the bike up and pedaled back home, down the hill, past not one but two fields full of cows over the streams, past the graveyard and back to help his dad unload the trailer.

When Mark got back to the house the storage truck was backing up the driveway, he saw his dad standing there,

‘Oh good, I was getting worried that I would have all the fun unloading this without you!’

Mark rode past him and parked the bike in the garage, his dad poked his head in

‘Everything ok?’

‘Yeah, just been a while since I rode a bike so catching my breath.’

Mark didn’t want to tell him about the house, his dad would probably want him to stay away or give him some speech out being safe again which he got but didn’t need to hear it now.

The truck dumped off the storage container and drove off. The container was still open from when the driver had them inspect the contents and sign off that there was no damage - they took a cursory look inside, Marks dad spoke first,

‘Well, looks like we have some work ahead of us - I have sandwiches made - lets go eat those and get started- how’s that sound?’

‘Sounds good Dad’

After they finished eating they got started on the storage container, this particular container had  things sectioned off so they knew where they could grab things from; Mark made a bee-line for where his room stuff while his dad got started on his and his wife’s room.  They discussed over lunch the goal was to just get the stuff out and into the rooms, they would unpack after - with just two of them they could probably get the storage container unloaded today and at least their personal effects taken care of.  Philip also asked Mark about his bike ride, Mark mentioned the graveyard in the woods and the cows and the stonewalls but omitted the house - for now.  There was something off about it and he wanted to go back there and didn’t want his dad worrying when he went out for another ride.

It was almost supper time, when a car pulled up the driveway

‘Dad, are you expecting someone?’

‘I didn’t tell you but I ordered pizza for dinner - figured once that got here it would be a good time to break for the night.’  By that point they had some miscellaneous boxes left in the storage container which could wait until tomorrow - everything they needed had been pulled out and in the house.

Philip went out to the driveway, paid for the pizza and came back inside, they ate and discussed more of the plan for tomorrow but in the back of Mark’s mind he was thinking about that house and when he could get back there.

The next day, Philip got a call from work, they needed an engineer located in the northeast to visit one of their suppliers to help out on a project.  He was still on vacation to get the house settled but it was a critical call for what he was working on - he called Pauline to let her know that it would push the house setup by a day or two.  It wouldn’t be a problem, she was leaving in 2 days to come to the new house, Mark would be ok alone and could do some of the work of setting up while Philip was gone.  Mark wasn’t happy with this but it actually gave him some time to bike back out to the house to do some more exploring so he’ll take the win.

Mark’s dad left around noon that same day, they had finished with the balance of the storage container, the truck was coming to pick it back up that same day.  All the boxes were in the rooms that they needed to be in, all that was left was unpacking. The only thing that his dad had asked him to do was to unpack the living room and his room and they would take care of other boxes later on tonight.  Mark took the time to move the boxes around in those rooms and unpack a couple of boxes so it looked like he did something and his dad wouldn’t be so upset with him.  His dad had left the extra set of keys to lock the doors, he checked the front door and made sure that it was locked then went out to the garage to grab his bike.  He opened the garage door, walked his bike out and realized that they didn’t have a code set up for the garage yet.  Mark looked inside and figured he could just hit the garage door button and then hop out or step out, best not to hop and then hit your head on the descending garage door.  He laid the bike down in the driveway, walked back in, pushed the button then walked back to the entryway, stepped over the sensors while the garage door slowly closed behind him.  Satisfied with his footwork he grabbed his bike and headed down towards the path behind their new house.  He made his way down the slight hill like he did before and past the same stream then over the stream which then led by another that same huge field that had the same razor wire fence with cows dotted throughout the field.  He saw the same graveyard in the woods so he knew he was going the right way. He crossed that last stream that had the bridge on it, past the field with the cows then up the hill and saw the house.  It was an overcast day, as soon as Mark pedaled into the clearing there was a feeling of heaviness.  He had noticed the state the house was in yesterday but the weather of today was making it more foreboding; the peeling paint on the house was peeling and the boarded windows gave the impression that this house was not only keeping him out but also keeping something in.  He pedaled around the house to see what was going on when he heard a noise coming from the woods, he stopped, looked around and yelled,

‘Hello?’

He commented to himself that that was a good way to get himself hurt but dismissed it, he heard some more shuffling, and what sounded like some pushing and shoving in some bushes

‘No you go’

‘No YOU go’

Then two bodies fell out of the underbrush, tangled up in some bikes just like Mark’s

‘Hi?’ Mark said

The two kids spoke up,

‘Hi’

They got up and dusted themselves off and picked up their bikes while Mark walked over to them,

‘What were you doing in the woods?’

The first kid spoke up, a girl, she seemed to be the leader of this two-person group,

‘We saw you the other day when you rode up here and we were gonna say something but didn’t know what your deal was.’

‘Yeah’ said the other kid clearly mimicking the leader, ‘we didn’t know if you were gonna come back so we didn’t wanna say nothing but here you are. We also saw that helmet of yours and really weren’t sure what your deal was.’

‘Ok, well here I am - I’m Mark by the way.’ Mark unclipped his helmet, ‘I just moved from San Diego, I didn’t have a helmet and this is all they had at the store that fit me, safety first right?’

The two kids looked at each other and shrugged, clearly not caring what the helmet looks like

The first kid spoke up ‘I’m Liza and this Frankie, we usually come up here and throw rocks at the house, it’s haunted so we don’t go inside.’

Mark said, ‘Like what kind of haunted?’

Frankie dropped his bike and approached Mark, ‘like the kind where you stand outside and throw rocks at it and don’t go in the house kind of haunted.’

‘Ok - how did you hear about this?’ Mark inquired

‘Well you see that graveyard on your way up here?  Frankie continued

Mark nodded

Well that was the family that lived here but they all died or well was killed, like a hundred years ago.’ Frankie said with a tinge of fear

Liza chimed in, ‘yeah, The Rousseau family,  they were one of the first families in the area and supposedly what happened was a stranger was walking through the woods and needed some help so they did what the Christian thing was and helped the stranger out - lot of good that did because that ended up murdering all of them in their sleep. So now all their souls just wander in the house until someone can free them.’

‘That sounds crazy, and nobody has gone in there since they closed the house down?’ Mark said full of skepticism

Frankie turned around and looked at the house, ‘someone from the family still owns the land, they just refuse to tear it down because it and the land is haunted, don’t you get it?!’

‘Well then, I think we should go inside then and see what is actually going on.’

Liza threw her bike down and ran up to Mark, ‘you’re crazy! We just met you, what if you’re a stranger like the other one and you are going to kill us and then we are going to haunt the house or the land too!’

Mark laughed, if that’s what you want to think then ok, I’m going to go in the house with or without you’

Mark walked his bike up to the house and leaned it against the porch - he could hear Liza and Frankie arguing back and forth. He heard ‘murdered’ and ‘haunted’ and the phrase ‘I don’t want to be a ghost’, he laughed and turned around and said,

‘Is there another way besides the front door?’

Liza cupped her hands and shouted,

‘There is a bulkhead back here  - we’ve opened it a couple of times but never gone down.’

Mark walked up the front steps and tried the front door - of course it was locked.  He walked back to where his new friends were arguing about their next steps and walked past them, Mark saw the wooden bulk head.  He walked over and opened it up, unlocked as Liza had said.  There were 3 steps then another wooden door with a safety latch and lock that wasn’t clasped - Mark yelled back up

‘Looks like I found a way in, if you want to come in then this is the way.’ He pulled out his phone, turned on the light and then pushed his way in the door.’

The musty smell of the basement hit him right in the face - it smelled like this door hadn’t been opened since the house was closed up - he could smell the moisture hidden in the dirt and wood - the dead animal bones that have long since been consumed by the dirt.  There was a small amount of light that was coming through the windows and he could see a staircase just barely - he made his way over to the stairs and put his foot on the first step, a hard creak - he would have to take it easy on these stairs as the rot may have set in and he didn’t want to fall through.  He took his time going up the stairs, he was about halfway through when he heard Frankie call his name,

‘Hey Mark you down here?’

Mark called back to him,

‘Yeah, I’m over here on the stairs.’

Both Liza and Frankie had cell phones so they had the lights on and it better illuminated the basement, Mark could see some pipes coming through the ceiling joists so the house had been updated at some point. Liza and Frankie made their way to the stairs,

‘You’re really going up there?’ Frankie said

Mark looked over the railing, ‘of course, I wouldn’t have done all this for nothing.’

He continued up the stairs and heard more creaking behind him and smiled to himself, sometimes the mystery is greater than the fear.

Mark got to the door and turn the handle and the door opened, it was so quiet.  He peered around the corner into what looked like a hallway into a kitchen.  The walls were a dull grey just like the outside, the wood floors just the bare wood and unfinished - this whole house has been lifeless for so long until now. He exited the basement landing followed by Liza and Frankie and they all walked out into what was the kitchen.  They all began opening up the cabinets but they were empty, they turned and shrugged to one another.  Mark turned and walked out of the kitchen into another room, just as empty as the last and he yelled back,

‘Well, doesn’t seem that bad right?’

‘It doesn’t seem that bad right now, Mark…right now.’ Liza said

‘I guess I’ll give you that, I’m going to head upstairs and see what’s going on up there.’

Liza and Frankie followed Mark as he made his way through the living room and found a staircase heading upstairs.  They made their way to the landing and it looked like there were 4 rooms, Mark went right towards two of the rooms and Liza and Frankie went left towards the others.

The first room that Mark came across looked like it had been a closet but the door was removed, he saw bowls with some script on it that he didn’t recognize. His mom had a similar one at home, mortar and pestle is what she called it but it was much smaller and didn’t have this writing on it. He picked it up and it was remarkably lighter than he thought it would be for its size, it felt old as well so he put it down cause well, why be responsible for breaking this. There was also some chalk in the closet but he largely ignored this and moved on. He made his way to the next room which from where he was in the hallway looked like the main bedroom in the house when he heard Liza,

‘Hey Mark, I found a phone! Like an actual house phone!’

Mark turned around and walked over to where Liza was, there was a rotary phone just laying on the floor and a cord going to the phone jack in the wall.  That was weird, why would there just be a phone lying in the middle of this abandoned house? There were actually no lines coming to the house from anywhere, it could just be something that was left over from when someone lived here.  Mark looked at Liza and she shrugged - he walked over and picked the phone up - nothing - the line was dead.  Mark tapped on the little plungers on the top of the phone to see if that would get a response and then he heard some clicks and the phone started ringing,

He was holding the phone away from his ear, ‘Liza - the phone is ringing like it is calling out to somewhere…’

‘well hang it up!’

Frankie came and grabbed the phone out of Marks hand,

‘Let’s get out of here, this is weird!’

Just as Frankie grabbed for the phone, smoke started to pour out of the receiver, Frank dropped the phone on the ground and the kids back away to the wall - the door to the room slammed shut and the shades on the windows drew themselves down and pressed against the frame of the window, not letting any light in.  The smoke started to take shape, billowing like a giant cloud until finally it took the shape of a man in a business suit, busy wiping down his sleeves and making sure his suit looked tidy; all three kids looked at one another like they couldn’t believe what was happening. Mark spoke up first,

‘You guys are seeing this right?’

‘Yea, some guy just formed out of the smoke, is this for real?’

‘Oh I am very for real Liza thank you for asking, and Mark you are not seeing things at all!’ Frankie just stood there with his mouth wide open, ‘Frankie, it is for real so you can close your mouth.’ Frankie closed his mouth.  It has been awhile since I’ve had any company, Faust, William Faust. I see you’ve unlocked my little smoke show here so thank you for that.’

‘What the hell is going on here and how did you know our names? Mark said

‘Well Mark let me tell you exactly what is happening here, first off I’m here to make your dreams come true, its not everyday that someone pops out of a phone and says that right?’ The kids looked at each other and just shrugged, ‘I’ll take that as a yes and continue, this may be hard to believe but I can in fact grant wishes - you each get one wish. So that should answer the question of how I knew your names because if I can grant wishes and didn’t know who you were, it feels like I wouldn’t be that good - just my thoughts.’

Frankie spoke up first, ‘wait, so you want us to believe that you are some genie that came out of the phone that we picked up and we each get one wish? I thought genies gave three wishes?’

‘Very astute Frankie, but since each of you were touching the vestibule that I was in you each get one wish, sorry but those are the rules.’

Liza looked over at Mark, they hadn’t known each other very long but you could tell when someone gave you a suspicious look, Liza spoke up to William,

‘Do we need to make our wishes right now?’

‘You do not my dear Liza, you have 48 hours to make your wishes.’

‘Ok, give us a second while we talk about this.’ Liza pulled both Frankie and Mark aside and started to whisper, ‘ok, this is super weird right? Frankie and I have been throwing rocks at this house forever….

‘Actually Liza, for 3 years 6 moths and 88 days, I’ve heard it every day.’ William chimed in

‘See, super weird and now that we’re in here and picked up the phone this guy is free and wants to grant us a wish, seems sus to me; I say we sleep on it and meet back up here tomorrow and talk about it.’

‘I agree with Liza,’ Mark said, ‘I know we just met like an hour ago but who knows what this is and we really should talk.’

Frankie nodded and said, ‘if Liza thinks its weird I agree.’

The kids turned around and Mark stepped forward, ‘ok Mr. Faust,’

‘Please Mark, call me William.’

‘Ok, William, we just wanted to see what was going on in here not get wishes so give us a night to sleep on it and we’ll be back tomorrow.’

‘Very wise of all of you, I’ve had some people waste their wishes almost immediately and regret it right away.  I applaud your restraint young ones and look forward to seeing you tomorrow.’ Then the smoke started to suck back into the phone and William Faust was gone.  Liza walked over to the phone and picked it up, she put it to her ear and held it out, ‘nothing, like its dead.’ She walked over and hung it up.

Frankie went to go pick it up again but Mark slapped his hand, ‘no Frank, I think we’ve seen enough of that guy today - lets get out of here and talk about this outside.’

The kids agreed and made their way downstairs, into the basement and out through the bulkhead.  Once they were outside he reached Into his pocket and grabbed his phone, it was almost 3 and he had a text from his dad checking in to see how he was, it was pretty recent so it wasn’t bad that he hadn’t responded just yet. The kids started to talk about what just happened,

‘So what’s the plan here, I mean we all have a wish so we should use them right?’ Frankie said

‘It depends Frankie, said Liza we need to make sure we’re doing the right thing and also that we don’t regret our one wish you know?’

‘I guess, I really can’t think about one specific thing that I want, he said.’

‘Exactly as she raised her arms, why would you just waste a wish on something trivial when you could have something really great and meaningful. Hey, Mark, you’re being awfully quiet.’

Mark was staring at the house with his back toward Liza and Frankie, he turned around, ‘look, lets ignore the fact that a smoke man just came out of a phone and offered us a wish each but why is that here, like how did it even end up here?’

‘I don’t even know - the last time anyone lived here was when the Rousseaus’ built the place and let the stranger in but remember what I told you?’

‘Yeah, supposedly he murdered them. I don’t know - I need some time to think about this, which way are you guys going?’

‘We head the opposite direction from you,’ Liza said

‘Alright, then lets meet here tomorrow morning at around 10 - if something happens let me know.’ Mark gave them both his number and they texted so everyone knew what everyone’s contact info was. They got on their bikes and couldn’t leave just yet, something about the house was holding them there,

‘You know we can’t tell anyone about this right? Liza said

‘I was wondering that - I was going to tell my brother tonight but there is now way he would believe and he’d want to come here.’ Frankie said

‘Absolutely not Frank’ Mark said this has to stay between us, would you believe anyone if they told you what we saw today

Frankie shook his head and Mark continued, ‘alright I gotta go - text me if there are any issues but I’ll see you here tomorrow at 10am.’

They waved to one another and pedaled in opposite directions back home.

Mark got back home and his dad wasn’t there yet, he had gotten a bite to eat and was sitting on the porch when his phone went off, it was Liza,

‘I had fun today, that was pretty crazy but it was fun’

‘I’d say that was insane but you’re right, it was a lot of fun.’

She replied back with a smile and so did he.  Mark made it home and his dad still wasn’t there, Mark pulled out his phone and messaged his dad to let him know that he was home and was going to start diner. He walked over to the windows to look out, like his dad might magically appear; his phone started to buzz, his dad was calling,

‘Hey kiddo, I’m so sorry I didn’t call earlier, have you been trying to get in touch with me?

‘’No, It’s ok Dad, I’m just getting home actually and wanted to make sure you hadn’t gone out or something.’

‘I should have called sooner - things went sideways here really fast and I’ve been in a classified area all day so my phone has been locked away. I’ll be home late so you might want to go ahed and eat some dinner. You going to be ok there alone?’

‘Yeah Dad, I’ll be fine, thanks though.’

‘Alright kiddo, I’m going to text you the number for the facility, there is another engineer that is outside of the area - if you need anything at all call that number ok.’

‘Ok dad, talk to you later.’ Mark hung up the phone - he didn’t normally feel afraid in fact the last time he felt afraid was when he was underwater for too long, he didn’t think he would make it back to the top and was running out of air.  Now that his dad wasn’t there and after his run in with that William thing he was feeling a little creeped out.  He thought that maybe if he had something to eat it might help him out a bit.  He found some random stuff that his dad had bought; lunch meats, some dino nuggets and even made a salad.  The cable company hadn’t come yet but he still could watch some videos on his phone, his parents wouldn’t be excited about the phone bill though.  He finished eating and put all the food away, cleaned up and went up to his room - he looked out the window towards the house, he couldn’t see it but could definitely feel it. He picked up his phone and messaged Liza,

‘Hey - you awake?’

‘Yeah, it’s like 600, what are you doing?’

‘Just finished dinner, thinking about today - you heard from Frankie?’

‘Nah, he games at night, he’ll message me a little later but I don’t see him online so who knows what he is up to.’

‘I wish we could get this taken care of now’

‘Yeah, everything is unsettled - we could go back to the house, not sure what good that would do?’

‘You mean you and I go over there?’

‘Yeah, we don’t have to pick up the phone, we could just check it out, maybe we missed something that could help us out.’

Mark thought about this for a minute, it actually wasn’t a bad idea.  The house was bare and they didn’t spend any time going through the house at all, just the bottom floor.

‘Do you think it’ll be a good idea to be in the woods at night? I don’t have lights for my bike..’

Mark really wasn’t sure about this - he would have to tell his dad who would automatically be skeptical.  Also, if they were going to check things out what if something went wrong?

‘I have to get in touch with my dad and let him know’

‘Your dad isn’t even home and you’re going to tell him?’

‘Yeah Liza, what if something happens?’

‘Fair enough’

‘Give me a couple of minutes and I’ll see what I can do’

Mark called the number that his dad gave him but it just rang, it was late enough that either the person that was supposed to be there had left or didn’t care enough to answer the phone.  He messaged Liza back,

‘He didn’t respond, I don’t think its a good idea tonight, plus it’ll be better to look when the sun is up and we can see everything.’

‘Sure, but it isn’t everyday that a smoke figure comes out of a phone granting us a wish either’

‘Touche’

‘If I head over there I’ll let you know regardless’

‘You really shouldn’t’

‘I know but I’m bored and it seems like the best thing to do with my time tonight’

Mark smiled, he wanted to go, in fact everything was telling him that he should go.  He got up and walked around the house, it was still pretty early in the evening and he had nothing better to do so he started to unpack some boxes in his room when he heard a clink.  He looked up and looked around, then he heard another one, he walked over to the window - it was Liza, Mark opened the window,

‘What are you doing here and how did you know where I lived?’

‘We know where all the paths around here lead so when I saw you head down this one I figured this is where you lived?

‘And you knew which one was my room?

‘Oh no, I’ve been throwing rocks at windows for like 10 minutes, I’m surprised it took you this long.’

Mark laughed, ‘so what is this, are we going on an adventure?’

‘I messaged Frankie but haven’t heard back from him and I’m bored - we still have a couple hours of sunlight left so lets go back to the house and check out the rest of it - who knows what else we’ll find.  ‘Look’, she pulled off her back pack - I brought some flashlights, headlamps and snacks and water.’

‘If anything you came prepared, what about the first aid kit?’

‘I’ve got a little more room in here if you have one of those.’

Mark groaned, ‘alright, give me a minute to get some stuff together.’

It took Mark about 10 minutes to get some stuff together, that first aid kit, an extra sweatshirt cause why not and another flashlight. He grabbed his bike out of the garage and met Liza up front and headed towards the Rousseau’s house,

They talked on the way to the house as they made their way way down the  slight hill like, past the same stream then over the stream which then led by another that same huge field that had the same razor wire fence with cows dotted throughout the field.  They went past the graveyard in the woods then crossed the stream that had the bridge on it, past the field with the cows then up the hill and saw the house, not only did they see the house but they saw a bike laying out in front of it,

Liza spoke out, ‘that’s Frankie’s bike’

‘Did Frankie tell you that he was going to come back?’

‘No, but he must have thought of some reason to come back - you saw him - he was scared out of his mind so this is unlike him.’

They put their bikes down and made their way to the bulk head door and headed in. In the basement Liza turned to Mark,

‘Do you think he is ok?’

‘I don’t know, this whole situation seems suspect so lets just be quiet going up and see what’s going on.’

Mark and Liza made their way upstairs to the first floor, they could hear voices - it was definitely Frankie and William Faust talking. Liza turned to Mark, we’re going to have to go up there and see what’s happening,

‘Ok’ Mark said, ‘let me go first’ Mark put his foot on the first step and it groaned loudly then the voices stopped upstairs and he heard Willam Faust speak to Frankie,

‘I think we have visitors, perhaps you should go see what is happening..’

Mark turned to Liza, ‘shit, I wanted to see what they were talking about - well lets go then.’ They could hear Frankie coming out of the room and was already saying their names, ‘Liza? Mark? Is that you?’

Liza spoke up, ‘yeah Frank - it’s us’

‘What are you guys doing here?’

‘Better question Frank is what are you doing here?

Frankie came down the stairs a little bit and started to whisper, ‘i couldn’t get it out of my head, we each got a wish and he gave us no other details about why he was stuck in a phone so I wanted to find out and so that’s why I’m here.’

Mark looked at Liza then at Frankie, ‘So what did you find out?’

‘It sounds like the previous owners made some wishes but they were too greedy and well, we know the story.  The guy that came here that night was just a traveler but took everything from them. In the altercation the vestibule that the Faust was in broke it ended up in the phone - the Rousseau’s never finalized their wishes.  Essentially, this house and this land are enchanted but Faust so everyone just stays away from it and the town recognizes it as protected land - it’s actually kind of cool to be honest; aside from the murder parts of it.’

Liza scoffed, ‘yeah, I supposed, but what if Faust wanted the murder to happen?’

‘You mean he made them wish for things that would result in their murder and then Faust would then be trapped for years until someone came and freed him? I don’t know, seems a little too far-fetched on top of the already far-fetched scenario we are in.’

Mark walked down the stairs and into the living room and paced around, ‘is Faust still out or back in the phone?’

Frankie looked up towards the room, ‘I think he is still out.’

Mark looked at Frankie, ‘have you made a wish yet?’

Frankie sheepishly looked away.  Liza grabbed Frankie, ‘Frank - come one - did you make a wish?’

‘Lizzie, I’m under a lot of pressure next year going into varsity baseball and I wanted to have an advantage over everyone.’

‘What does that mean Frankie?’

‘I don’t know, I just wished that I could be the best player possible and have an advantage over everyone going into baseball next year.’

‘So did you think that was forever or just for next year?’

Frankies face fell, ‘oh, I don’t know, it sounds like when I say being ‘the best player possible’ that it just keeps going right?’

‘Maybe to you but Faust may interpret it differently which is why we were waiting to do our wishes!’

‘Then why did you guys come here?’

‘We were going to search for more clues as to why this is happening and we couldn’t get in touch with you and now I know why.’

Frankie slumped to his knees but Mark piped up, ‘listen guys - the wish has been cast and there is no reason to argue now - lets find out what’s happening and figure this out.

Mark headed up the stairs to the room, Faust was standing there in the smoke form that Mark remembered looking out the window, ‘I see that not much has changed in the area which is good to see.  Now Mark, what can I do for you?’

‘I heard Frankie made his wish, to be the best player possible and to have an advantage over everyone next year; tell me, does that only mean for next year or is that forever?’

‘What do you think it means Mark?’

‘Well it was a two part wish and you’re not in the business of happy endings I think so it is only for next year.’

A smile spread across Fausts’ face, ‘Master Mark - you are a smart one, we’ll have to watch out for you. Unfortunately for Frankie he wasn’t very clear on what he wanted.  Yes, he wanted to be the best player possible but only for next year.  As you know if he had said something like, ‘I want to be the best baseball player to ever live’ then we could have arranged that but he didn’t so here we are.’

‘I get it, so we have to be extremely clear and not mince words with our wishes?’

‘Precisely’

Mark called back to Liza and Frankie, they came into the room, Mark gathered them into a huddle and they all nodded in agreement,

‘Well I think I’m ready to make my wish then.’

‘Oh this should be fun, how exciting.’

‘I wish the Rousseau’s never discovered you’

The smile disappeared from Fausts’ face, ‘no, no you cannot.’ As soon as Mark said the words the flooring and walls started to change, the colors brightened and furniture started to fill up the room.  Faust was screaming, ‘how could you, I could have made everything better for you!’

Frankie was smiling, ‘it looks like you only wanted to make everything better for yourself!’

His smoke form started billowing back into the phone, which was itself disintegrating.  Faust was clawing to stay out of the phone.  Mark, Liza and Frankie were backing away while the house was changing around them, Liza looked at them all and said, ‘we should probably go.  They moved into the hallway and things there were just the same, the walls were all getting coats of paint, pictures were being placed on the wall.  As they made their way to the stairs they could see beds taking shape in the rooms, he pointed at them for Frankie and Liza to see.  They bolted downstairs and more to see here, the living room had couches, chairs and a tv on the wall.  The kitchen was up to date, they continued outside and there were two cars in the driveway, they heard voices around the back yard where their bike were, Frankie whispered,

‘What do we do?’

Mark said, ‘well, we can get out bikes and just get out?’

‘Liza replied, ‘seems like the most straightforward plan, lets peek around the corner and see what’s going on.’

The creeped to the corner of the house and a family was outside, unaware of the chaos that just ensued inside.  Here were the Rousseau’s, or the next generation of them after the horrible incident that never occurred.

Mark turned to his friends, ‘I know, we’ll just say that we dropped our bikes to go explore the woods and didn’t think it would be an issue cause you know, we’re kids.’

Mark walked forward, one of the kids noticed them first and called out to their parents, the father, Mr. Rousseau came forward,

‘Who are you?’

‘Oh hi sir, my name is Mark, this is Liza and Frankie’ they both waved.  We usually bike back here and we dropped our bikes to hike around and didn’t realize that it was in your back yard, we’re sorry about that.

‘We were wondering whose bikes they were. There are an awful lot of trails back there, plus the ones behind our family graveyard, have you seen those?’

Frankie chimed in, ‘not yet, that’s why we dropped the bikes cause the trails are too rough for us to bike so we just walk down from here - we’re awfully sorry for trespassing.’

Mrs. Rousseau piped up, ‘Well you’re here now, lets introduce ourselves and if you are going to be in the woods it would be nice to know who is there and that you’re safe.’

The kids and Rousseau’s made their introductions, the Rousseau’s said that they were welcome to use the trails behind their house whenever they wanted to but to let them know first.  The kids thanked them for being so kind and understanding, they also needed to get going as it was starting to get dark and the woods weren’t going to be any lighter.  As they were leaving Mr Rousseau asked if they had lights, both Mark and Liza had flash lights and he suggested that they duct tape it to their handlebars - they went to the garage to set this up.  As Mr. Rousseau opened the garage door, he told the kids to ignore one side of the garage, there was a lot of junk they were trying to get rid of and it all ended up here.  They moved their bikes inside to do a little work on them.  He found the duct tape and Liza and Mark got their flash lights out.  As Mr. Rousseau was busy concocting a solution Frankie elbowed Liza and nodded his head towards the junk Mr. Rousseau said they were getting rid of and saw the same phone that William Faust came out of,

‘Do you think?’

‘No way, Mark wished it away - this family is here so he’s gone right?’

‘I want to pick it up.’

‘Frankie, no’

‘It’ll be fine right?’

Frankie made his way over to the phone, picked it up and put the phone to his ear, his hear was jack hammering, no dial tone, ‘see Liza, no dial tone.’ He removed it from his ear slightly then heard, ‘who is this’ and smoke started to billow from the phone.