His friends watched from across the street as Jared fought to open the rusty gate and push his way under the low hanging branches from overgrown trees, through the overly long grass, to the sagging front porch. He had a flashlight they'd snaffled from Max's house, but even though it was pretty bright, and the moon was clear and full, it wasn't anywhere near light enough for Jared's liking.
The giggling from his friends stopped the moment Jared used the big brass door-knocker, and everyone held their collective breath. Jared had one foot on the porch and one on the top step ready to flee at the slightest noise or movement. When long moments ticked by and nothing happened, he started feeling a little braver, waving to his friends as he shone the torchlight in a sweeping arc, up and down the length of the decaying wooden structure. He stepped past an ancient broken porch swing and shone the light past rotting, moth-eaten curtains into the front room of the house. He couldn't see much through the grime, but it looked in much better shape inside than it did outside.
When nothing at all happened; no clanking of chains, no Boo Radley jumping out at him, not a single peep other than the slight breeze rustling through leaves, Jared did a drunken pirouette on the top step and bowed to his friends. As he began to retreat he heard a sound so faint, he wasn't sure he actually heard anything at all, but for a moment it sounded remarkably like a human sigh. He stopped dead in his tracks and listened. His fight or flight instinct going from high to overdrive, but when he heard nothing but the same breeze through the trees and the nervous laughter from his friends, he put it down to his overactive imagination running away with him.
As he sauntered back toward the group, stumbling a few times over broken paving stones, his bravado was back in full force. He'd done what nobody else that he knew of had been brave enough to do. That's when he'd made his next mistake. He drunkenly bragged about how courageous he was to Chad...and that's how he found himself in his current predicament, so terrified that he thinks he may have peed a little, and wondering if he'll live to see the morning.
Fill: The house at the end of the street - Part 2
The giggling from his friends stopped the moment Jared used the big brass door-knocker, and everyone held their collective breath. Jared had one foot on the porch and one on the top step ready to flee at the slightest noise or movement. When long moments ticked by and nothing happened, he started feeling a little braver, waving to his friends as he shone the torchlight in a sweeping arc, up and down the length of the decaying wooden structure. He stepped past an ancient broken porch swing and shone the light past rotting, moth-eaten curtains into the front room of the house. He couldn't see much through the grime, but it looked in much better shape inside than it did outside.
When nothing at all happened; no clanking of chains, no Boo Radley jumping out at him, not a single peep other than the slight breeze rustling through leaves, Jared did a drunken pirouette on the top step and bowed to his friends. As he began to retreat he heard a sound so faint, he wasn't sure he actually heard anything at all, but for a moment it sounded remarkably like a human sigh. He stopped dead in his tracks and listened. His fight or flight instinct going from high to overdrive, but when he heard nothing but the same breeze through the trees and the nervous laughter from his friends, he put it down to his overactive imagination running away with him.
As he sauntered back toward the group, stumbling a few times over broken paving stones, his bravado was back in full force. He'd done what nobody else that he knew of had been brave enough to do. That's when he'd made his next mistake. He drunkenly bragged about how courageous he was to Chad...and that's how he found himself in his current predicament, so terrified that he thinks he may have peed a little, and wondering if he'll live to see the morning.
TBC