Page 2 of Strangled
Such a pesky little thing.
I brush my pinky along the slab to my left and watch as it crawls off my finger and disappears into the perforated wood.
Heavy footfalls snag my attention back to my hole. I peer through just in time to watch the stranger walk through the doorway and down the sagging stairs. He stops at the bottom, the waist-length grass swaying lightly in the autumn breeze.
It looks crisp outside, the sight before me serving as a reminder that it’s been months since I’ve left my walls.
I will have to soon, but for now…
The man’s eyes flicker over my house with fervent interest and my gut twists with… something.
ONE
Ihave to stay hidden now—one with my walls. It’s not much different from before, but now Idon’thave a choice.
I don’t like that.
Making the conscious effort is more difficult than I would have thought, and it has been for less than a day.
The stranger is here, moving histhingsinto my house, befouling it with his suffocating presence.
I hate it, but I don’t.
It’s new—something different than what I have grown accustomed to.
Perhaps this house is meant for more than two. Maybe three is the right number after all.
I happen to like the number three. It’s odd, doesn’t break apart evenly.
“Are you my number three?” I whisper into the dense webs as I glance through a large crack. It’s one I didn’t make myself, and it’s more obvious than the others, but the man doesn’t have a clue I’m here.
He doesn’t know this house is mine.
But he will when he becomes one within.
Welcome home, stranger.
TWO
“Did you hear that?”
I strain my ears even though I know Cadence is full of shit. I’m not going to tell them that I did fucking hear it, that I’ve been hearing strange noises for days, because they’ll only shove their paranormal beliefs down my throat. And I really don’t want to hear it.
Every year on Halloween, they turn into an unreasonably paranoid mess, but it’s been worse since I moved into this house a couple of days ago.
“Bro, you know there’s nothing there.”
“But I don’t. That’s the problem.” I roll my eyes, the display blatant with my deadpan expression. Cadence shoots me a glare, but a smile twitches on their lips.
“This house is fucking haunted, dude.”
“No, it’s not.” I take another hit from the bong, inhaling as deeply as I can before letting the smoke flow from between my lips. My head swims, and I grin as my mild annoyance floats away. “Maybe you are though.”
Cadence shoots up from the couch with a gasp, their hand flying to their chest as their eyes dart around the room, taking everything in with feverish glances.
“Oh, come on, it was a joke. Lighten up.”
“That’s not something to fuckin’ joke about, Lyken.”
