Thrills and Chills (fiction)

My grandmother’s house has always been a place of solace for me. She’s always lived a simple life. She didn’t have internet or cable, and it’d always been my little getaway spot. I remember sitting there on her porch sipping on my glass of sweet tea. There was a nice breeze out and the sun was descending from its position in the sky. It was rather peaceful. Though her front yard was gated, I could clearly see the homes around me.

There was a white faded building directly to the right of my grandmother’s home. It was an old apartment building that held two families. It was old looking, and unattractive. It always felt oddly placed in the neighborhood, but too old to tear down. An old couple lived on the second floor. They kept to themselves. The man often sat by his open window, occasionally lifting a cigarette to his mouth. He remained in the spot for much of the day, while the old woman would leave to buy groceries from time to time. There was a family who lived just under them. The couple was in their early to mid thirties and had three small children under the age of ten—the youngest was no more than two years old.  They came and went as well. I didn’t know much of anyone around me, nor them of me; I simply watched them when there was nothing else to do and we all just kind of came and went throughout the day.

As I sat there counting the number of cigarettes the old man would smoke in one sitting, a blue minivan suddenly came speeding around the corner and down the road towards me; it grasped my attention immediately. It was always so slow in the neighborhood, and I was quite excited to see some action taking place around me. The van braked to the right of me, converting my slight excitement into fear. The minivan remained on as the driver quickly got out and frantically walked to the door of the apartment building. He clenched his fist tightly and began to hit the door with the side of his hand.

“Mark, open the door now!” He yelled. “Let me in! Let me see them!” He continued to bang on the door but there was no response.

After a while, the door slightly opened. The chain appeared to still be on and someone stood by the door facing the minivan man. They appeared to be having a soft conversation which aggravated me. I couldn’t hear a thing. The minivan man began to take slow steps backwards away from the door. As the apartment door in front of him closed, he quickly turned to his car to enter the driver seat door. His expression had changed. I only caught it for a second before he sped off in the same manner he had arrived, but I recognized the expression. It was fear.

I sat there, pondering on what had just occurred. His very expression had given me chills. An expression I couldn’t escape. It was forever engraved in my mind and I needed to know what the man knew. What had Mark told him? I was not only aggravated with my lack of information, but the man’s expression continued to trouble me.

I got up from my chair on the porch to refill my glass with sweet tea when I heard another car come speeding down the road. It was a police vehicle. He didn’t have his lights on, but even from afar, I had a feeling it was going to stop at that old apartment building. And it did.

Two cops came out of the speeding vehicle when it had finally came to a halt. There was nothing distinctive about them. They were both older gentlemen, perhaps in their forties or so. They faced each other, the car in between them, and begin to whisper something across the roof of the car. They both nodded in response to their secret conversation I was not a part of, and I watched intently for their next move.

One of the police man reached for his radio, reciting some numbers I didn’t know the meaning of. And they then, both in sync, walked towards the door and retrieved their pistols from the holsters on their hips.

I debated on going inside for the next couple seconds, but quickly convinced myself that watching this was very entertaining and I wouldn’t want to miss it.

The policeman closest to the door clenched his fist and too began to bang the side of his hand against the old wooden door. “Brownsville P.D! Open the door!” He gave the door a couple more hits, repeating the statement a second time, but there was still no answer. The policemen exchanged a brief look and nodded to one another.  The first officer took a couple steps back and used his right leg to kick the door. It fell to the floor instantly as they rushed into the apartment, announcing themselves as police officers.

There was silence after their announcement. I waited, staring at the door that lay there, but still heard nothing. About thirty seconds had passed. I knew kicking down someone’s door was serious, and I waited for an arrest to take place, but there was none. I heard movement coming from inside the apartment, as one of the police men quickly made their way out of the door opening and onto the sidewalk outside the apartment building. He leaned over towards the grass in front of him and vomited. The second police man made his way out of the same opening, and his expression matched that of the minivan man’s. He reached for his radio and looked towards the porch where I sat. He looked into my eyes for a second, realizing he was not alone, and turned his back towards me as he whispered into the radio attached to his left shoulder.

TWO YEARS LATER…

“Alright, I just have to stop by my grandma’s house for a second to pick up something for my mom and then we can take off. It shouldn’t take too long. Try not to be inappropriate,” I said with a smile.  I pulled up to the right of my grandmother’s house to enter through the side gate.

            “Hey, I think I’ll just wait in the car.” I looked towards her, as she stared at the old white building.

            “Why?” I said sternly. “My grandma really wants to meet you.”

            “Your Grandma’s house gives me the creeps. It just looks like a haunted whore house,” she said jokingly.

            “First off, my grandma’s house is over here” I said pointing towards the familiar porch to the right of me. “And secondly, people died in there. So let’s not joke about its creepiness, because it really is just creepy.”

“Are you serious?” she said, staring at the door way boarded up cheaply with wood that had corroded over the past couple years.

“I wish I wasn’t.”

“Was it just like a random person died in their sleep, or was it like murder or something?” she seemed very interested in the topic. I suppose I would be as well if I hadn’t been on the porch that day.

“It was a murder suicide. Multiple murders actually. This guy killed his three kids and his wife, and then he killed himself.”

“Oh gosh, I remember it now! The guy was all over the news a couple years ago. His friend came to visit him, but saw something weird inside or something, so he called the cops, but they got there everyone was dead. That’s the place right? Did you know the family?”

“No. I don’t really know anyone around here. Are you ready to get off?” I asked, hoping she’d forget about the building next door.

“We’re gonna go inside? Is it open? I kinda wanna know what’s in there!”

“I was talking about getting off to meet my grandma, not breaking and entering into the building next door, Sam. I really don’t wanna see what’s in there, if there’s anything still left in there. The police were in and out of there. They probably swept the place clean.”

            “Oh, c’mon. Just for a minute or two?” she said as she reached for my hand. “Please?” She smiled that smile I adored, the one that made me do all the things I never wanted to do.

            “Fine. But not right now. My grandma’s waiting.”

            “Okay. We’ll come back tonight then!” she said with her eyes still fixed on the building next door. She was a little too excited to enter the place I had only ever seen from the outside.

THREE DAYS LATER…

The night felt darker than usual. There was an obvious absence of stars in the sky above me, and the clouds were parting their way towards the full moon rather quickly. I stood there for a moment, mesmerized by their motion, as I began to walk towards my parents Sedan, my head still tilted back gazing at the black sky.

I spent my life looking for the thrill. The little chill you get when your friend jumps out of the dark to scare you, I liked the feeling. I wanted the thrill of the chill, and now I can’t escape it.

My phone began to ring, loudly piercing the silence of the night. I jumped at the sound of it as it fumbled in my hands, and quickly brought it up to my ear.

“Hello?” I answered before the voice on the line had spoken.

“Are you coming? I don’t want to be alone.” I knew the voice. Sam had asked me to stay the night with her before, but her intention was different this time. I could hear the change in her voice. Her tone was now different; she was different. I could hear the fear in her voice and it gave my body chills.

“I’m on my way. Try to get some sleep. I have a couple of errands to run.” I hung up quickly before she could contest. I have no errands. The truth is she doesn’t want to be alone, but I don’t want to be alone with her. I’m supposed to be brave for her, but I’ve never been so scared.

I opened the door to the car, and hesitantly glanced into my rearview mirror. There he was. I quickly turned away. I didn’t want to look at him. He was always there. They all were. Everywhere I looked. I saw them when I was awake and I saw them in my dreams. I couldn’t escape them.