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Mark swears, he’s just gonna stay on campus next break. This drive was not worth it.
Sure, he could switch with his cousin in the passenger seat if he got tired. And yeah, they had found 2 others to help with gas.
But dear god, the drive!
It didn’t help that his back window was busted and refused to go down OR up and his dumbass frat brother had gotten it stuck in the down position (Chad swears he’s just hung over but Mark is fairly certain he’s still drunk). Luckily they had found a tarp in his trunk to help with wind and Keith’s dorm mate Danny said he’d help fix it when they got back.
But now they were driving in what looked like someone had opened a bucket of water and dumped it right over the road. Like seriously, clear skies and rolling fields until just a bit ago when all of a sudden a downpour came out of now where right as they were driving into a stand of trees.
Mark was NOT looking forward to dealing with whatever rain had made it past the tarp. He knows some has simply because it woke Chad up and he is complaining about it.
Loudly.
Seriously, fuck frat brother solidarity at this point.
Thankfully, it looked like there was a house up ahead they could stop at. Coincidentally, it even looks like it has one of those over hangs for fancy people to pull their cars under to let the passengers off at the door.
Mark is thanking his lucky stars right now.
As they pull under the over hang and park, Danny jolts awake. How he stayed asleep through Chad’s bitching and moaning Mark will never know but the guy now seems as alert as anyone could be.
“Why’d we stop here?”
“Seriously dude? LOOK at my clothes man!”
“Did Chad hurl on himself?”
“WHAT?!”
Mark turned and gave Danny would could only be described as an incredulous look. “Dude, I can barely see the road, are you serious right now?”
Which of course prompted him to turn his head from the dilapidated house and see the water pouring beyond their cover. (Mark really hopes he didn’t offend the guy, he REALLY doesn’t want to pay someone to fix his window).
“No worries Mark, Danny could sleep through a cannon in the hall. Don’t blame him,” Keith laughingly states as he hops out of the car for a stretch.
Good call, Mark should probably get out for a stretch too.
As all the young men piled out of the car (some with more grace then others, CHAD) they took a fuller look at their current shelter. The house seemed oddly big for the middle of nowhere but Mark wasn’t really a rural kinda guy so who was he to judge.
“You sure this is the best place to stop?” asked Danny as he looked around with more caution that any of the other 3 thought was necessary. (When did he get that thermos? Mark made it perfectly clear no liquid besides water in his car dammit.)
“Awww, is the little baby afraid of the w’ittle old house?”
“Shove it Chad”
“You shove it, Mark”
“Both of you shove it,” honestly Keith loved his cousin but come on man “Danny, there’s no way anyone’s living here. No one will even know if we wait the rain out for a bit.”
This did not seem to assuage the guy’s nerves as he continued to look at the trees beyond the house.
“What about wild animals? This is a random forest in the middle of fields, how is there not gonna be wild animals here? We should probably stay in the car…”
“Fuck that noise, my seat is soaked!”
“Whose fault is that again?”
“I told you to shove it Mark!”
Thankfully for everyone’s sanity, Mark took the highroad and ignored the idiot. Danny was right though; it definitely felt like something was watching them from somewhere. Everyone (who wasn’t drunk) was starting to feel it.
Their nerves were not at all put to rest when they heard a loud crash from inside the house.
“Jesus Christ, what the hell was that?!”
“Cats” Danny replied promptly, far more sure than he had been about the trees just a moment ago. (Although his grip on his beverage let Mark know he probably wasn’t as calm as he seemed, that or it was some hella good coffee which he better be sharing.)
“Cats?”
“Yes Keith, Cats. Probably feral, maybe with rabies. Hence, my suggestion to get into the car.”
“Why Cats?”
Good to see Mark wasn’t the only one confused, but he’ll be damned if he lumped himself in with Chad at this point.
“Abandoned houses are good cover for raising litters and stuff. It happens from time to time back home, the local newspaper had to do a whole write up on it when visitors to the town kept hearing noises in constructions sites.”
Seems fair, dude even sighted his sources.
“Nah man, it’s probably a ghost.”
This, of course, had all eyes looking at Keith (whom Mark would have sworn was better than this before today).
Silence reigned (though not as heavily as the water rained) for a few moments as Keith just stared at the house. That was, until he cracked a smile and looked at his car trip companions with what some (including Mark) would describe as a shit-eating grin.
“Goddamn Keith”
“Sorry guys, but look at this house. Someone was gonna crack the joke sooner or later.”
As the turned to continue their lighthearted banter, another sound came from the house. This time quieter but with far more impact.
The door slowly creaked open.
All eyes snapped back to the house.
“Cats again…”
“Dude, enough with the cats.”
“Nah man, he was right!”
“About the cats?”
“No, not Danny. Keith! It’s ghosts!”
“I was obviously joking man…”
“No fucking cat came out that door. How did it move on it’s own? I’m telling you, this place is fucking haunted!”
“Cats can move quickly and quietly,” Danny argued, seeming far more invested in convincing Chad than Mark that he really needed to be (given it was Chad). “Maybe we didn’t see it or it just brushed up against the door. Way more plausible than a ghost, which everyone knows isn’t real!”
“No, fuck that,” came Chad’s reply as he pulled out his cell phone. “This place it haunted and I’m gonna get it on film! It’s gonna go viral man!”
Eye rolls could be seen on all the other faces as Chad tried to remember his lock code (he had a tendency to break things and his poor phone was on it’s last leg so other methods to opening it were useless).
It was all fun and games watching his idiot frat brother figure his device out until yet another sound came from the house, even worse than the other two and far more bone chilling.
A loud scream was heard from the upper floors drawing all eyes and causing all four men to freeze in their spots. As they waited to hear more, it seemed Chad was the first to un-clench.
“Cats, huh?”
“Nah you’re right,” Danny replied. “It’s obviously not cats. That was probably a fox.”
“Are you SHITTING me?!”
“What?”
“That was a fucking scream dude! How the hell was that a fox?”
“Have you never watched a video on what noises a fox makes?”
“No, why would I?!”
“Got that stupid ‘What does the Fox Say?’ song stuck in my head a while back and wanted to actually know what a fox says,” replied Danny with a shrug. “Sometimes you just fall down the Wikipedia rabbit hole when it’s night and you’re avoiding writing a paper.”
Okay, fair point, but Mark was pretty sure that wasn’t a fox.
“No way! That was a ghost, this place is haunted, and I’m gonna go viral!” and before anyone could stop him, Chad rushed into the house.
“Dammit Chad,” Mark huffed under his breath. There was no way he was gonna get out of having to explain this to the rest of the guys at the frat now.
“At least he didn’t break, just enter?”
“Not helping, Keith.”
The remaining 3 men waited for a moment, as the rain continued to pour, hoping Chad would come back out. He might have been a drunken idiot, but he was kinda their drunken idiot right now.
After what seemed like both a short and long amount of time, Danny (who seemed weirdly intense about the house) shook his head and started heading for the door.
“I thought you said it was a fox?!”
“It probably is, but those things can have rabies too. Chad’s dumb enough not to even notice so I’ll go deal with this. You two stay out here.”
“Danny’s right, we should probably go look for him.”
Great, just what Mark wanted. A reason to test if his tetanus shot was up to date.
“No, no, no. You two stay out here, I’ve got this.” Before the cousins had a chance to refute, Danny had booked it into the house.
They stared at the door for a moment before Mark opened his mouth and looked at the only guy left.
“Your buddies kinda weird Keith.”
“Yeah, but dammit all if that dude can’t fix anything. You better hope he doesn’t break something in there looking for your frat brother or your window isn’t getting fixed anytime soon.”
“shit…”
As they waited for what seemed like an even longer time (but was probably less than 5 minutes if Mark was honest) they heard the scream again. However this time, they heard another scream to go with it and what looked like multiple flashes.
All of this was quickly followed by the sound of something running down the stairs and before the young men could deduce what happened, Chad was running back out the front door.
“fuck, shit, hell, get in the damn CAR!”
“What the hell Chad, what did you do?!”
“Where’s Danny?!”
“Fuck this man, there’s a fucking GHOST in there!”
“Oh for god sake man. If we have to call an ambulance or some shit because your freaked and pushed Danny onto something to hurt him I’m gonna make your next semester hell.”
“FUCK YOU! THERE WAS A GHOST!” Chad screamed, punctuating each word.
“No there wasn’t,” came a much calmer reply. Mark and Keith looked back at the house to notice Danny casually strolling back out, covering back up his thermos (and at this point Mark would be fine with taking a swig, even if it was something stronger than coffee in there).
“Are you fucking crazy man?! There was A GHOST in that HOUSE!”
“What was the flashing we saw?”
“THE GHOST!”
“Nah, that was the flashlight on Chad’s phone hitting one of those chandelier thingies with the crystals and such.”
“BULLSHIT!”
“And the scream?”
“Like I said, fox.”
“Are you SHITTING ME?!”
“Dude, calm down!” Seriously, if Mark never saw his brother again it would be too soon.
“Nah, you’re still just wasted. Speaking of, you left this behind inside,” Danny said as he pulled out what appeared to be a flask.
“The fuck I did! Where did you get that?”
“Did you not just hear him? He said you left it inside.”
“Mark, I love you man, but that shit was in my inside zippered jacket pocket. Which for the record, is still zipped!” The man replied, dramatically unzipping and re-zipping his pocket, as if to prove a point.
“Oh, and what? Danny somehow got into the pocket himself? He magically pick pocketed you without needing to open the zipper?”
Seeing that no one was going to believe him at this point, Chad (wisely) decided the argument wasn’t worth it and grabbed his flask back.
“Whatever man, I’ve got it all on camera, see!”
Upon viewing of the footage, Mark was reminded just how badly Chad treated his tech.
“Dude, it’s grainy and staticky as hell. No fucking ghost in that footage.”
“WHAT?!”
The phone was roughly grabbed back into Chad’s possession for inspection.
“NO! What happened?!”
“I don’t know man but the rain let up like right before you guys came out. I’m ready to head home. You still good to drive Mark?”
“Yeah no worries.”
As they all piled back into the car, Mark took another look beyond their temporary cover. The rain did indeed stop just moments before, and almost as abruptly as it had started.
“Weird weather is weird.”
“Yeah, climate change is causing some shit. Didn’t think it was this localized though.”
“Nah guys,” Danny said throwing in his two cents with a smirk. “That shit was ghosts.”
That Danny dude might be weird, but even Mark could agree he was funny as hell.