Page 2 of While They Watch

I sit back down, closing the door and locking it. As I sit, trying to process what just happened, I can’t for the life of me understand what I was thinking. I just opened the car door to... do what? Was I going to fistfight a stranger in the dark?

I need to take some breaths. Being surrounded by these trees in the dark is bringing me right back to childhood with my overactive imagination. I try to quiet my mind; I don’t want to trigger my anxiety by falling into an old habit of conjuring up all kinds of monsters in the woods. It obviously wasn’t real. I’m just hungry and, once I eat, I’m going to laugh about how quickly I still get spooked in the dark.

Suddenly, the lights in the cabin start slowly turning on one by one. Thank God for that. The light coming from inside begins to illuminate the property outside and I’m able to get a better look, but there’s still nothing to be seen.

The place almost looks alive with its two big upstairs windows. They look like glowing eyes, staring at me from the darkness and the wide-open door looks like it’s ready to eat me alive. I’m chilled by the thought as I look out the car window to make sure I'm truly alone. As I scan the woods, that gnawing feeling of not being alone returns, as if I’m being watched.

I force myself to get out of the car to go find Luke, knowing I’ll feel more at ease with him nearby. Even though I want to run straight for the front door, I stop myself, deciding to be brave and grab our bags out of the trunk. Damn my practicality. My dad always taught me to never make a trip empty-handed. When I open the trunk, I’m reminded of how much of an over-packer I am and am immediately annoyed with myself. Right in time, I feel Luke lay his hand on my shoulder.

“About time you get out here. I didn’t think you were actually going to go through every room in the house,” I tease but when I turn around to hand him his bag, I'm alone and find myself staring into the dark trees once again. As I scan through them, I see nothing out of the ordinary. My breath gets caught in my throat with the feeling of my rising panic. I grab our bags and rush to the front door as fast as I can, the feeling of someone at my heels follows me the entire way, making me want to scream. As I get to the door, Luke is stepping out with a big smile on his face.

“It’s all clear. No ghosts or ghouls, none that I saw anyway. Although, maybe a few dust sprites. As far as I can tell, no one has stayed here for a long time,” he says with a hint of annoyance. The feeling of wanting to tell him everything that just happened grips me and I can feel the words pushing to escape but the happy look on his face stops me. We aren’t even ten minutes into this trip, I can’t ruin it already. I need to pull myself together. Nothing really happened, and this isn’t even close to the first time my mind has played tricks on me. So instead, I plaster a smile on my face, trying to calm my racing heart.

“What a relief,” I say as I roll my eyes. I drop his bag at his feet and trudge the rest of the way inside. The feeling of being watched following me every step of the way.

Chapter Two

I need to find the bathroom and kitchen as soon as I can. I feel as if I’m withering away. There’s something about eating only potato chips and chocolate for 8 hours straight that just doesn’t satiate a person. I’m in dire need of a home-cooked meal although I don’t know what that is going to look like either. Luke promised that he would be in charge of cooking all the meals on this trip. It was one of the ways he got me to embark on this “adventure” with him. The scary part is, he doesn’t give food much thought, so I’m half worried that he only brought those terrifying freeze-dried meals he lives on while camping. He says they “do the job” but they're not exactly my dream meal, although at this point, I might consider it.

“Did you happen to find a bathroom?” I ask as I start getting antsy, hopping around as I try to distract myself from my bladder's imminent explosion.

“I haven’t found one on the main floor yet but there’s one upstairs, the first door on the right. Is there anything else in the car I need to go grab?”

“No, I don’t think so, at least nothing we can’t live without while we sleep,” I practically yell while running up the stairs. I’m moving too fast which causes me to trip on the very top step and slam onto the landing, hard. My stinging palms make me forget my need to pee for a moment, but I quickly snap back when I see how dark it is up here. I guess Luke didn’t turn on all the lights. I stand up carefully, glancing behind me as I have the very intrusive thought of falling down the stairs. A cold shiver crawls down my spine moving me into motion. I get away from the stairs and start looking around trying to find a light switch, but I can’t see anything in the dark.

I take a tentative step forward while running one hand along the wall; my other stretches in front of me making sure I don’t walk into anything. The walls feel rough and torn like they are covered in old wallpaper maybe. My hand slides into something wet, alarmed I pull my hand away and instinctively wipe it on my pants. I don’t even want to know. As I take a couple big steps forward, I hope that whatever was on that part of the wall was in an isolated location, feeling reluctant as I return my hand to its search. I don’t find a light switch, but I do come to what I think is a door frame. I run my hands across it and down until I find the doorknob. “Thank god,” I sigh while opening the door. I find a light switch right where it should be and flip it on. To my luck, it not only works but it's also the bathroom. No time for excitement or celebration though. I have seconds before I pee my pants which is not the exciting way I want to start a romantic trip.

____

The relief I feel is short lived when I find out the toilet won’t flush. Luke and I have been together for a little over a year now, but we only just started living together and I haven’t been in a position where I need him to help me with any plumbing issues. Honestly, I’m hoping to avoid it forever if possible. “Of course….” I swear if the sink doesn’t turn on, I’m going to lose my mind. I walk over to wash my hands, a silent plea repeating in my mind as I turn the handle. It gives a bloodcurdling squeak before water starts to trickle then pour out. The water is freezing but it’s there, so I’m not going to complain. I look around, realizing there’s no soap. With a groan, I give up quickly turning toward the door.

Now the real dilemma is, do I pretend like I didn’t know the toilet didn’t flush or do I act like a grown up? I guess I’ll decide when I find him. Whatever feels right in the moment, plus I don’t know if I want to distract him if he’s making dinner, which he better be. I feel like I’m going to literally pass out or pass away.

I turn off the light as I leave the bathroom, and I swear it’s even darker in the hallway than it was before. The only difference is I can see the light coming up the stairs to help guide me back. I look the other way first, deeper into the dark house. It’s the kind of dark that swallows light, making it feel like nothing has ever existed there, and I’m not someone who is truly afraid of the dark, but something about it makes me pause. I turn my phone’s flashlight on with its last remnants of battery. It’s the only thing it will be good for this weekend, which in a house like this, isn’t nothing. The light puts me at ease, so I take some tentative steps out into the hallway.

I only make it a few steps towards the stairs before I feel a breeze against the back of my neck, blowing my hair toward my face. What is that? It can’t be wind, I’m inside and it didn’t look like any windows were open. It’s warm and has a vaguely rotten smell, like bad breath. I turn around quickly, not letting myself think too hard about the choice as my heart starts beating wildly. I pause, waiting for a moment but feel nothing. Right as I’m about to turn to leave, slow, warm air blows against my face, and the smell is stronger this time. It’s what I imagine something that’s dead and rotting to smell like. I cough and gasp as I fall backward onto the floor.

Feeling terrified now, I point my phone’s light up, further into the hallway but there’s nothing there. I’m frozen for a moment, trying to gather my thoughts, but the only thing coming to mind is “Get Luke.” I shoot to my feet and run down the stairs desperate to find him. I stumble into the kitchen noisily.

“Jesus, Hanna! Slow down, I know you’re hungry. Don’t worry, I’m making Mac and Cheese. I know it's not one of the comforting home-cooked meals that I promised you, but it could be worse. I could have dug out my famous freeze-dried lasagna. Now sit down before you hurt yourself.”

“Luke! Shut up! I think there’s somebody upstairs. I thought you checked the house?”

He turns around and looked at me. “What? What are you talking about? I did. I went into every room. You saw someone up there?” My face must have a skeptical look because he adds, “Are you sure it was a person and not just a shadow or something in the dark? From what I can tell, the owners have packed this place pretty tight with all kinds of furniture and other junk.”

“Well, no I didn’t see anyone technically, but I felt something. Someone was... breathing on me and there was a horrible smell. There was a vibe, Luke. A bad one. Can you please just come with me and check again? If you don’t, I’ll never be able to sleep here,” I plead as I walk over and grab his hand, lightly pulling him. I can tell he is trying to be a good sport but still has a hint of exasperation as he turns off the stove and follows me.

“Okay okay, I’ll go look again.” He tries to lean to kiss my forehead but at the last moment I spot a knife block on the counter. Dodging him as I pull away, I march over and grab the biggest one. “Maybe we should take this with… just in case.” I hold it up.

He rushes over and takes it from me. “Whoa there, I think that’s a little overkill. We don’t know anything yet and more than likely we… you,” he amends with a little side eye my way, “would end up hurting yourself or me. Let me go check again and then we can discuss weapons after that.” He puts the knife back and we head upstairs. As we get to the landing, he says, “It’s pitch black up here, Hanna. That probably didn’t help. Why didn’t you turn on the lights?” I can hear his eye roll which makes me instantly on edge.

“I couldn’t find the light switch, Luke, or obviously I would have turned them on. I’m in a house I don’t know, do you really think I would stumble around in the dark on purpose?” He takes a couple steps forward to the opposite wall I was inspecting earlier and immediately finds the switch, flipping it on. He looks back at me and points to it.

“You really do need to eat. Okay, inspection number two is coming up. If you hear screams, save yourself.” He winks at me, and I, in turn, stick out my tongue and shoo him away with a hand wave. I don’t know what I want to happen at this point. Obviously, I don't really want Luke to find some sort of lurker hiding here but at the same time, I don’t like the idea of staying in a house that is already making me this uneasy.

Now that there is light and I can see, the upstairs is actually pretty plain and empty. Nothing on the walls other than old, peeling wallpaper. It probably used to be pretty back in the day, but it’s become yellowed and distorted with age. I walk over to the wet spot on the wall, but all that’s there is a big brown stain that looks like it leaked down from above. I tentatively touch the wall but it’s dry. I could’ve sworn that earlier there was something thick and wet there. I look down at my pants where I had wiped my hand, but they’re clean. Odd.

Luke pops out of one of the doorways, pulling me out of my thoughts. “I got the toilet working again and so far, no boogeymen,” he says with a smile, walking over and nonchalantly kissing my cheek. The lightheartedness of the moment immediately puts me at ease. This is one of the many reasons I love him. He is always there to help me without embarrassing me or putting me on the spot. Anxiety is always trying to put a wedge between me and happiness. It has been tirelessly trying to convince me that Luke is a bad thing. I decided a while ago though, he’s my person, and I won’t let anxiety win.