Page 12 of Monster Mansion

“Speak of the devil.” I chuckled. “He’s actually calling right now. I’ll text you later. Bye!”

“Bye!” Blair hollered just as I swapped lines.

“Hey, Dad,” I said in my best ‘everything is normal and fine’ voice as I raised the phone to my ear. Unlike Blair, my dad wasn’t the biggest fan of video chatting. He’d said it made him feel like he was being watched—even though I reminded him of that being the entire point. I sat down on the edge of my bed and held the phone up with my shoulder as I applied lotion to my legs and arms.

“Well, hey back, kid,” he said. I could hear the smile in his voice, and my heart hurt when I thought of him alone in the house again. “How’s your adventure in the beautiful, scenic mountains of West Virginia treating you?”

“It’s justswellso far,” I answered, matching his tone. I could tell when he was laying it on thick for the sake of a bit, so I did the same. I could hear his low laugh as I continued. “But seriously, it’s actually pretty great. The guy who hired me had some folks come out to clean and do some updates to the kitchen and bathrooms so it’s much nicer than I was anticipating.”

I could hear the subtle chew of my father’s trademark toothpick. “That was nice of him.”

“For sure,” I said as I placed the lotion back on my side table and started digging through my drawers to select a clean outfit for the day. “And you’ll be happy to know I’m notentirelyalone out here.”

“The hell that’s supposed to mean?” he snapped back with a thick layer of suspicion.

“Nothing weird like that, I swear!” I responded, keeping my tone light. The last thing I needed was my dad thinking I was holed up here with some weirdo and getting paranoid when I was already trying to keep the much stranger reality a secret. “There’s a groundskeeper here as well, or a handyman, or something like that. He’s here every day ‘til five getting the house together.”

“I suppose that does make me feel a smidge better,” my dad grumbled. “Does he seem like a decent guy? Don’t tell me he was acting funny or giving you any trouble.”

Leave it to my dad to immediately assume any male presence was out to get me or cause me grief. “Yeah, he seems sweet. He’s got a wife and kids at home, so he’s told me about a thousand times he’s gotta be out the door by five every day.”

“Well… alright.” Dad sighed. “You always knew how to take care of yourself, anyway. You’re a tough kid. What have you got on the agenda for today?”

With my choice in clothing crumpled in one hand, I threw my phone down on the bed after putting it on speaker to pull on the t-shirt. “Not much, honestly. I’ll probably just head down the mountain into town to grab some groceries and stuff.”

“Gotcha,” he answered. “Ahh, well, I suppose I’ll let you get to it. Enjoy the day, kid. Glad you made it safe and sound.”

“I will, Dad. Thanks. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

Talking on the phone was never my father's and my area of expertise. He wasn’t an incredibly talkative guy, and I needed someone like Blair to steer the conversation, so when it was just the two of us, things were kept remarkably short and sweet.

I checked myself out in the full-length mirror that hung on the back of my bedroom door to make sure my selected outfit covered the strange welts, and it appeared I was good to go. I’d just have to suffer through a summer day in long pants, although I preferred that to possibly having to come up with some backward excuse to Ted as to what the weird marks were, not that the guy should be checking out my legs, anyway. I winced at the suspicious thought. The conversation with my dad had apparently rubbed off on me.

Before heading downstairs, I grabbed my phone and notebook to have something to do with my hands while I drank my morning coffee. Thank goodness my employer was kind enough to provide a few basic necessities. Otherwise, I would have been on zombie mode until making it to a grocery store. I started a pot brewing and sat down at the kitchen table to enjoy the morning sun and write down as detailed an account of the events of the night before as I could. The concept of following through with the piece I intended to write about this “haunted mansion” was starting to feel like an unnecessary risk. What if the presence in the house disliked it and started to cross even more lines with me? I drummed my pen on my notebook as I stared blankly ahead until the gurgling sound of the coffee as it finished brewing stirred me from my concentration.

I leapt up and fished a mug from the cabinet, noticing that it and the rest of the drinkware were most definitely purchased at a truck stop with a souvenir section. “Wonderful West Virginia!” was stamped on the side in a boring bold font on top of a dark green outline of the state. Beggars couldn’t be choosers, and at that moment, I was most definitely a beggar looking for her caffeine fix.

The first gnarly sip of budget brand coffee with powdered creamer truly drove home the “beggars can’t be choosers” philosophy, and I swore I would head straight into town as soon as I finished this cup that I was unwilling to waste.

“There are tired kids in Africa…” I muttered to myself with a chuckle as I sat back down in my seat and ripped out a piece of notebook paper to jot down what I figured a single girl sharing a mansion with some sort of paranormal creepy crawly might want to eat for the next few days.

Mr. Silver had said he’d be paying me under the table via one of those send-and-receive-money apps and had already sent my first week’s pay as a gesture of good faith. I was pleased to see it cleared into my bank account, so I had some decent funds to play with at the store. Maybe I’d go crazy and get all the name-brand snacks I was never allowed growing up.

I glanced out the window and saw Ted laying grass seed in a bald patch of the side yard. He caught my eye and offered a friendly smile and wave, which I happily returned. It was definitely a relief having him around. At least I hoped he would be able to hear me screaming for help over the sound of his lawn equipment.

Stop it, you psycho,I thought to myself.Thinking that shit could bring it into existence.

More of my family’s superstitious traditions made their way aboard my train of thought. I thought back to the witch bells hanging on my bedroom door and considered if perhaps that was what had kept the creature having a temper tantrum in the hallway on the far side of my door rather than barging in to unleash its fury upon my vulnerable body. The bells clearly couldn’t stop whatever had brought the darkness, but then again, the darkness and its touch wasn’t exactly causing me harm. At least not yet.

I balled up the piece of paper I’d intended to use to make a list and threw it across the room into the wastebasket, missing it by several feet. I knew the list was going to go right out the window once presented with the opportunity to just buy whatever looked good. Cringing, I swallowed the last of the coffee and dumped the cup in the sink before dashing upstairs, taking two steps at a time to grab my bag and head out the door.

“Oh, hey, Ted!” I exclaimed as I locked the front door. He had made his way from the side of the house to the front, laying seed over any brown spots in the lawn on either side of the drive. “You want me to leave this unlocked for you?”

“Nah, I don’t think I’ll be needing to go in there today,” Ted responded with his hand over his eyes to block the sun. “The missus sent me to work with a cooler full of snacks and drinks.”

The look on Ted’s face was so endearing that I couldn’t help but smile. Here was a man who was clearly so smitten with his wife that even mentioning her gave him this jolly expression.

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