I stopped, midstep, “ Who’s hand do I have, then?” Nobody answered. I slowly turned around to find Justin joking with me.
I slapped his arm, “Don’t ever do that to me. That freaks me out. You’ll give me a heart attack.”
He let go of me hand and held his arm, “Ok, jeez I was just joking with you.” I crossed my arms over my chest; I didn’t think it was funny. If he were in my shoes, he wouldn’t like it either.
“Somebody needs to take up a hobby,” Justin whispered to Chris. I gave him an ugly glare.
“Justin, come on give her a break. She has to handle you for a month you’ve got to give her respect for that.”
“Funny, Chris, so hilarious, I’m laughing.”
I shook my head. “Man, Justin, with a smile like yours I would be laughing too.”
He turned toward me, “Smartass.”
I took a step forward challenging him, “Momma’s boy.”
He took a step forward now towering over me, “Bitch.”
“Asshole.”
“Dyke.” Chris got between us, trying to stop us.
“You should be thanking Chris that he is between us, or I would’ve pounded that triangle nose of yours into your perfect face,” I told him, my eyes glowing with anger.
He laughed a little, “You? A girl? That small? I would like to see you try.”
“Is that a challenge, fro boy?”
“Only if you want it to be, babe.”
“You guys grow up. You’re acting like a bunch of kids,” Chris said.
“You’re right. Sorry Tabitha.”
“Yeah, sorry.” We continued down the hall. The red walls had portraits of people hanging off of them. History of the people who died here. I shivered at their presence. The lights grew dimmer and dimmer every time I was down here. Justin stopped suddenly causing Chris to run into him.
“Hey man, why did you stop?” I turned seeing Justin looking at one of the portraits.
“This one looks like your mother and father,” he turned toward me with a questionable look. “Why are they on this wall?” I moved beside him and looked at the dimly lite portrait. The lady was sitting on a chair her brown hair up in a simple bun. Her large blue dress surrounded her. Behind her stood a man with brown overalls and a white shirt. His black hair was slicked back. They did resemble much like my parents.
Chris leaned up and read the date on the left lower corner, “1710? Your parents aren’t that old are they?”
“No course no, I’m sure they’re different people. It’s just an aquinsidence that they look alike. Come on, they are going to wake up if we don’t hurry.” We went a ways before we came to the end of the hallway.
“Ok, look,” I told them, “we’re right below the guest hallway. If you go straight, right now you would go into your room, Justin. Now, if you turn right, you would go to Joey’s. Turn left, the rest of the guest rooms. The first one is J.C’s, second Lance’s and third yours, Chris. Now who is going to wake who up?”
“I’ll wake, Lance,” Justin said.
“I’ll wake, J.C,” Chris informed. “Then I’ll take Joey. You’ll going to find a really dark hallway to your right. There is going to be a light switch. Click that on and it will light up the hallway. You will feel a steep incline and might have to kneel as the hallway becomes smaller. When you reach the end it will look like you are at a dead end but pull the small medal chain hanging on the light in front of you. A little piece of the wall to your right will open up and you go through it. No more than 5 feet you will see steps; go up them and you will be in the room,” I explained.
They left, leaving me looking after them. I started toward Joey’s room. Finally reaching the trap door; I pushed it revealing a bright room. Getting up I heard somebody talking. Joey was standing with his shirt off in front of the long mirror at one wall admiring his muscles. I stood there watching him, arms crossed.
“I’m too sexy for my shirt… too sexy for my shirt… so sexy it hurts,” he sang.
I smiled, “You stud.”
He whirled around. I crossed the room, where he was, laughing at his astonished face. “Ho-ho-how long have you been standing there?”
“Long enough to see you flexing your so called muscles.”
His jaw dropped more, “Bu-but,” he pointed to the door, me, then the mirror, “bu-bu.”
“How did I get in here?” I guessed helping him.
“Yeah.”
“There are a lot of secrets in this house you don’t know about. Now come on I told the rest of the guys that we’ll meet them in my bedroom,” I grabbed his hand, pulling him towards the trap door. Opening the hidden door in the floor I reminded him to put on a shirt.
“Why?” he asked as he closed the trap door.
I answered him while closing the second door by pulling the cord, “Well, those black widows sometimes get aggressive.”
“Black widows?”
“Yeah, one of the most poisonous spiders in the world. Oh, don’t worry if one does bite you, you will have 5 minutes to get the medicine before you die.”
“5 minutes?”
“Yeah, oh look,” I pointed to the wall right next to his neck, “ there’s one.”
“Where?” he moved over to where I was an eye wide.
“Oh sorry, that’s just a crack,” I started giggling moving past him.
“Thank the LORD,” he whispered.
copyright © 2001 AngelH