No pre-match nerves compared to how Heather felt now. The shape of her life was being unavoidably wrapped around this moment. No matter what happened tonight she wouldn’t stay up wondering if she was boring anymore. She was alive.
Friday night she’d partied with the Swans and all the other students that showed up to ride the victory high, and mooch free beer. Heather was incoherent from sleep debt, fried nerves, and anger so intense it brought her beyond caring.
When John insisted to everyone around the fire that he could do a backflip, but instead crashed into a table of empty drinks, Heather didn’t laugh at him, she laughed with him and everyone else. She laughed all night, sang with Brittany when their favorite song came on, even cheered Katherine on when she started winning at beer pong.
Sometime after midnight Jake did the cool older cousin thing and discreetly picked them up to go home. The stale beer in her belly sent Heather to sleep before she got her jeans off, and she stayed that way until well into the afternoon.
When she woke, the sun was shining through orange leaves, crisp air coming through the window. Her head felt clear and fresh for the first time since she broke into the house. She still had to finalize the plan, and deal with Sera, but nothing seemed insurmountable. She was ready to rock.
By 11 she was back in Jake’s restored mustang, parked in front of Brittany’s house. It was a treasured Saturday Halloween. By now most of the little kids were in bed sleeping off sugar crashes and the costumed forms still wandering the street were college kids traveling to house parties, lugging coolers and backpacks quickly through the cold. Music thumped from a neighbor's house.
“I could be at one of those parties you know,” Jake said to Heather.
“I know you could,” Heather said from the back seat. “I wasn’t the one who asked you to do this. Did you have a costume picked out?”
“Uhh…” Jake said, scratching his head. “I probably would have just gone for a toga.”
“So no, same as last year,” Heather teased. Jake had short blonde hair that naturally spiked up a little bit, and shared Heather’s green eyes and big smile. Heather would have been comfortable acknowledging he was cute if Brittany hadn’t always teased her so much about it. But his winning smile was not on display tonight.
The passenger side door opened and Brittany hopped in. “Welcome to Chez Jake, tonight we’ll be taking you on a leisurely drive to the creepiest part of town, so I can ruin my life when you’re caught doing crimes unknown, for reasons I don’t understand. Refreshments will be served soon.”
“Damn decent of you to come Jake, and you brought your standup routine! I didn’t know you sprang for the five star treatment Heather.” Brittany said. “By the way, chez means house.”
“We’ve got the whiney version of Jake tonight,” Heather said. “So wait, are you upset about missing a party, or getting in trouble?” Heather asked.
“Both? I’m honestly having a hard time remembering why I even agreed to this. Brittany refused to tell me why you need me to idle near Bark Street.”
“You mean you said yes to Brittany and she didn’t even have to tell you?” Heather asked, impressed.
Heather could see Jake blush a little in the weak light. “Hey, you know her. You can’t say no to this girl. She’s got powers I swear.”
Brittany mussed his hair. “You didn’t sound so put out when I asked you. Of course you could have said no.” Brit’s innocent grin deepened Jake’s frown.
“I mean, it’s you two,” Jake said. “I guess you can’t be up to anything too bad. Are you going to saran wrap someone’s car or something?”
“Don’t worry, we’re just going to check out the old house on Bark street. We already went in a few weeks ago but had to leave before we found anything cool.” Heather said.
“That huge abandoned ugly thing? I’m surprised it didn’t collapse on you guys the first time you went in.”
“It seemed sturdy enough, just dusty,” Heather said. “We need you there just in case a neighbor spots us going in and thinks we’re up to something sketchy, I want to be able to get out of there quickly.”
“Are you doing anything sketchy?”
“Come on Jake, it’s me.” Heather smiled.
He sighed. “If it was anyone else....”
“Well we’ve got one more person to pick up on Lawrence,” Brittany said. “Take us away, driver.”
“You’re lucky the party sounded lame,” he said as he pulled into the street and turned up the AC/DC 8-track that had been thrumming under the whole conversation.
Heather had expected to feel nervous, or at least scared the closer the second attempt got. Scared of being caught, scared of how important this whole thing felt. Scared of what she might find. And she was... But the buzz she’d felt all day was swelling in her with the Angus Young solo. And under the excitement and the fear she felt kind of content, in a way she hadn’t felt since she was little. Her big cousin was here, her best friend, and weirdness and arguments aside she was glad her oldest friend would be there too. Maybe this was how she’d figure out where she stood with Serafina? The night was alive with possibility. They were going into this adventure together.
The car slowed as it went down a few one way streets into Orchard Bay, a dense part of town where the music was much louder and came from so many more houses. They stopped in front of a small ranch house with its lights off. The yard was sparse, with an old rope swing hanging from a solitary tree. A well worn rocking chair creaked in the breeze on an unpainted deck. Brittany sent Serafina a text that they were outside.
Heather stared at the swing. She saw herself clinging to it with small hands, pushing back and forth urging it to go higher. It transformed into a rocket ship, blasting through purple skies before landing to let Serafina take a turn. It had taken so long for Serafina to invite Heather over. She kept saying it wouldn’t be very fun to hang out at her place. No toys, and a mom that might be a gracious host, or just as likely scream and chase Heather away. But that swing had entertained them longer than just about any toy at Heather’s place had. Out there, both of them had relaxed, let themselves be silly. Just the two of them in a spaceship, with the galaxy before them.
“What’s taking Serafina so long?” Brittany asked.
“Serafina?” Jake said. “Serafina Medeiros?”
“That’s our girl.”
“What the fuck guys? I thought you said you weren’t doing anything sketchy?”
“We aren’t! We told you exactly what we’re doing.” Brittany said.
Serafina knocked on the window and Heather leaned over to unlock the door. She was wearing black and carrying a large drawstring canvas bag. When the door popped open she slung it in and said, “I told you the getaway car shouldn’t be conspicuous.”
Jake’s voice deepened. “One of you tell me what’s going on right now.”
“Jake, chill!” Brittany said.
“It looks worse than it is, I promise,” Heather said.
“It’s looking pretty bad. I’m gonna need more than a promise.”
“We’re just going to walk around that empty house for a little bit, and then go home. Okay?”
“Yeah.” Serafina said in a steely voice.. “Just a simple b&e job, in and out, easy peasy.”
Jake’s eyes bugged out. “What’s in the bag?” he asked.
Serafina grinned and shook it a bit, encouraging a metallic clanging. “We've got a couple kilos of coke, a baggie of shrooms, stacks of counterfeit cash, uhh two guns, anti-personnel rounds, I think a grenade…” she shook the bag again.
“Okay okay I get it. I’m sorry. Just, shit, you must know your reputation.”
“Jake!” Heather and Brittany said at once.
“I must, I very carefully maintain it.” she said, menace in her voice.
“But hey, what is in the bag actually?” Heather asked. “You told us to get most of the stuff.”
“My bag of tricks. It’s how I’ll be keeping Ms. Callaghan busy.” Sera said.
“The...the social studies teacher? She’s involved in this?” Jake asked.
“The very same!” Brittany said. “You’re on a roll Jake. How are you doing that exactly Sera?” Brittany asked.
“Better you don’t know, just trust that I am. Gotta keep plausible deniability. If I do my job right this will be smooth sailing.”
“And how long am I supposed to just sit parked like a dope, waiting for the cops to take me away?” Jake asked.
“Those two will go in, explore the space, get comfortable,” Serafina said. “Then when I’m done I’ll join you in the car and we can walk them through the rest on the walkie. So don’t worry you’ll have company.”
Brittany pulled one walkie talkie out of her bag and tossed it to Serafina. She hooked another one to her belt. “You’re not going to tell us to do anything stupid, are you?”
“No, I’m not. And if you decide you don’t want to do what I say, I can’t do anything to force you. You can always turn off the walkie, leave, whatever you want.”
The car glided on, tires making slight noise against the wet road. Heather didn’t have the faintest notion what Serafina was going to ask them to do, but she felt more at ease now than she had yesterday. Her co-astronaut wouldn’t let her get into trouble.
Jake pulled within 50 yards of the house. “Alright munchkins, end of the line. Thank you for riding, come again!”
“Where on Bark are you gonna park?” Brittany asked.
“I’ll be around the corner so you can cut through the back yard and hop in on the run if you need to.”
“Thanks a ton for doing this. Sure you won’t be too bored?”
“I’ll be too nervous to be bored. Besides, I’ll have Serafina to entertain me.” He tried to smile at Sera but she looked back with daggers. Jake swallowed. “Just don’t do anything too stupid, yadda yadda all the older cousin stuff I already said. And if you do end up doing something stupid, do not fuck me.”
“Don’t fuck you,” Brit said. “Got it.” She patted Jake’s hand very affectionately and hopped out laughing.
Jake’s car rolled on leaving Heather and Brittany a few houses away from their target in a small copse of trees. The spitting rain of the day had given way to fog. Distantly, sightless wind chimes rang. Even with the fog, Heather could see the House and its windows beyond skeletal trees. Empty windows, this time.
Standing here again somehow felt inevitable. She’d run as far as she could on a leash and had been jerked back. In that moment all the fear returned. The illusion that they were on some fun madcap adventure popped like a soap bubble. All that remained was the smothering presence of the house and the shadow that waited for her on the third floor. Standing there now in a pool of terror, it seemed crazy that she’d ever doubted what she saw, and crazier that she’d questioned Serafina. It was all too real.
Heather turned to Brittany. “We ready for this?” Brit looked a bit pale, but gave a hard nod and took off into the cover of trees.
They made it to the same window as last time. They’d decided not to lug along a ladder this time, less to leave behind if they had to bail in a hurry. Brittany linked her fists and pushed Heather up, just like she was setting in volleyball. Heather heaved her elbows onto the windowsill, and with Brittany holding her feet up, she gave the window a sharp push. It didn’t budge.
“The fuck?” Heather said.
“What’s wrong?”
Heather grunted with effort, pressing her hands against the cold glass to create some friction. But the window didn’t budge. “The window feels like it’s locked.”
“Didn’t we leave it open last time?”
“I mostly shut it...I think.”
“Maybe it froze? Let me try.”
Heather hopped down and boosted Brittany up. Her muffled frustrated growl told Heather her luck wasn’t any better.
“Is there a pry bar in the bag?” Heather asked.
“No! I thought the window would still be open. Do you think it was Callaghan?”
Did Callaghan seriously think a locked window was going to keep them out, after she’d tried to derail Heather’s life? No, they’d find a way in. “I think we could get to a higher window.”
“Where?” Brittany asked. Heather leaned back, craning her neck and looking up at a second story.
“Right there. The windows are different there, we’d have some grip to pry it open. I’m just not sure how we get up there.”
“Well, there’s a tree right there.”
Heather’s heart skipped. There was a solid 5 foot gap between one of the tree’s branches and the roof. “You want to climb that tree and then jump onto the roof of a 300 year old house?”
“Well, if you don’t want to do it you don’t have to.” Brittany got a dangerous look in her eye.
“Don’t you dare. You’re going to smash through the shingles and break your fucking neck, and then I have to explain this whole thing to an EMT!!”
“I love climbing, I’ll be fine!”
“You love climbing, you hate climbing down! If you get stuck in that tree, I’m...I’ll mock you forever.”
Brittany smirked, “I think I can handle some mockery.”
Heather crossed her arms and Brittany started to circle the tree. It was old, so the better climbing branches were higher up on the trunk, but she managed to jump and catch one of the lower ones before swinging herself like a trapeze artist to the next limb. “So many hours wasted struggling on volleyball Brit, you should have done gymnastics. Or the circus.”
“Yeah, then you’d have followed me to gymnastics too and your huge legs would have gone to waste.”
“My legs are not huge!” Heather stomped. “And you followed me to volleyball. Just hurry up and crash through that roof so I can say I told you so!”
Brittany inched across the branch and swung herself up to a higher level. Heather moved to be vaguely under her, but wasn’t sure what she’d do if Brittany actually fell. There was a “hawoof!” from up above and to Heather’s shock and relief Brit managed to swing herself right onto the edge of the roof.
“Jesus Christ Brit. You could have taken that slower.”
“Chill! I’m going to try the window, toss me the light.”
Heather carefully lobbed their one flashlight up to Brittany, who slipped a little as she caught it. “Back in a flash!”
Heather chewed on her lip as Brittany scuttled out of view, slipping a little on the porch roof. Heather wondered, were there any more surprises from Callaghan? Would the roof hold? For a moment, she forgot about why they were there, while her brain ran through rehearsals of how she’d explain this to Brittany’s parents if Brittany ended up hospitalized.
“Ahh!” The short scream cut through the night air, and Heather heard scrabbling on the tiles.
“What happened! Are you okay? Brit?” Heather stood with tense legs under the roof, ready to catch Brit, run for help, do something. Her chest hurt.
“I’m fine, sorry! Absolutely fine. The window just, it was like spring loaded, flew open as soon as I touched it.”
“You’re going to do it.” Heather covered her face in her hands. “You’re actually going to kill me. You’re going to get back down here, and I’ll be dead, and it’ll be your fault.”
“Quit being a baby. Man, wish we’d tried this last time. Using the crowbar gave me splinters.” With that, Brittany’s voice vanished into the house, swallowed by the ancient thing.
Heather waited, staring up at the foggy sky. She needed something to distract her. She pulled the walkie from her rucksack and clicked the switch. “This is Heather. Uh, Brittany is inside getting the door open. How are you holding up Jake?”
The walkie squealed with static and feedback for a few long seconds, and Heather wondered if the others were out of range.
“You didn’t say over Heather, over.” She could hear Jake’s smirk through the walkie. But before Heather could respond a door creaked open around the corner.
“Heather! Get in here!” Brittany said.
Heather clicked the walkie. “Ok folks, we’re in. Over.”
As she stuffed the walkie back into her bag she heard Jake’s muffled voice say “It’s ‘over and out!’”
Heather walked around the corner to the front yard. Brittany was leaning back posing like Vanna White before the open door. Heather shouldered by her into the house, not trying to hide her smile.
As soon as Heather crossed the threshold she felt the change. The outside world was only a foot away, but she was as removed from it as if she were under the earth’s crust. The wind chimes and leaves, the smell of rain, the light from the moon, were now all muted and distant. She stood with Brittany in a cloakroom. The pegs on the walls still held nylon winter coats. There was a silent grandfather clock against the wall opposite a low table full of framed pictures, too covered in dust to be recognized. Brittany looked around with open wonder, as if to say ‘are you seeing this shit?’, her flashlight’s beam thick and defined against the floating dust. Silently, they walked through the next threshold and stood in the living room with their canvas bag, single flashlight, and walkie talkie.
“So, we made it.” Brittany said. “Does it feel like last time?”
Heather wasn’t sure. The room was cold, as she expected. And she could feel something else in the house, but it wasn’t the same as last time. It didn’t feel as oppressive, not quite as present. It felt more like a doubt lingering in the back of her head. She’d honestly felt more unnerved outside.
“No. I’m good. I didn’t think I’d be, but, I can handle this.”
“Hey, that’s one of us! So what’s our first move?”
“Well, I guess we check in with Jake, right?”
“Oh! Duh!” Brittany picked up the walkie and as she raised it to her mouth Jake’s voice barked.
“Hey, what’s it like in there?”
“Shitfuck!” Heather jumped about a foot back towards the cloakroom while Brit fumbled the walkie.
“Okay, so maybe I don’t feel quite as good as I thought.” Heather said.
Brit pressed the button. “We haven’t really looked around yet. We had window troubles and only just got in.”
“Well, it’s almost midnight,” Serafina’s voice came through. “And that’s when I need you to do the ritual.”
There was a beat of silence. Followed by several more beats of silence.
Serafina’s voice crackled in, “You guys are going to be okay with it, right?”
Heather raised her eyebrows at Brittany. “Yeah, sure,” she said. “How’d running interference go?”
“Flawlessly. You have tons of time.”
“Okay...What do you need us to do?”
“Listen carefully. If this works, it’ll let you talk to whatever might be in the house. If nothing happens, well then I guess there was never anything there to begin with. But we’ll know.”
“Wait, what the fu-” Heather heard Jake in the background before Sera released the walkie.
Heather felt ice water flow down her back. Maybe she didn’t necessarily want all doubts removed. She could live a very long happy life never directly trying to talk to the shadows she’d been seeing, never knowing if it was her imagination or not.
“Will you calm down and let me talk? Good.” Sera said to Jake. He quietly grumbled in the background. “Brittany, Heather, this is how it’s going to work. It’s Halloween, the veil is thin, we’re crossing into the New Year, Celtic stuff yadda yadda, you don’t care. You’re going to be stepping through a thin spot in that veil into their world. It should be straightforward. You pick a threshold in the house, preferably with a door. At the stroke of midnight, set a piece of paper down at your feet, speak some words, and cross the threshold.” The line went static and no one said anything.
“So you’re like really deep into this stuff?” Heather asked.
Brittany took the walkie and swatted Heather on the arm. “That’s it? That’ll let us talk to whatever is in here?”
“Well not exactly. That starts what I’ve been hearing people call ‘The Midnight Game’.”
“Hang on didn’t they just make a bad movie about that?” Brittany said.
Heather heard Sera’s frustration through the walkie. “They did. That’s not what it’s from.” This was much more involved than Heather had expected. “I thought our goal was to look around the place, see if the police had missed anything.”
“And provoke some spirits.” Brit said. “See if they exist or not.” Heather released the button and Sera was already talking.
“-s’ll let you do that, for sure. Once the Midnight Game starts you’ll be partly in their world, but they’ll also be drawn to our world. You’ll be able to talk to beings stuck between,” Serafina said.
The following silence was broken by Jake. “Just say it, it’ll help.”
“Fine. Over,” said Sera.
“Okay so,” Brittany said. “What are the candles for?”
“Over,” Heather said.
“Don’t touch the button and let me talk for a bit. Okay so you’re opening the gate to talk to whatever is in the house right? Well, other things will be attracted to the gate. Or maybe what’s already there isn’t so friendly. That’s why you have the candles. You march around the house by candlelight, always moving. If you stay still too long, anything bad you might have woken up will catch you. But if you keep moving, you can investigate with little to no risk.”
Heather wanted to shake Serafina. Sera must have known how crazy this sounded, and she waited until they were already committed before giving all the details.
“If the candle goes out, relight it immediately. That is the most important part. If your candle goes out something has caught up with you that isn’t going to be friendly, and doesn’t like the light. If you can’t get your candle relit in 10 seconds, don’t try. Make a circle of salt around yourself as fast as you can and sit there. Do not move from that spot until the game is over. Hopefully it doesn’t get to that point because once you’re in that circle of salt you kind of just have to ride out the storm.” Serafina’s voice took on a storytelling cadence. “If there is anything dangerous in the house it won’t be able to directly harm you. But they’ll speak to you, show you visions from the worst parts of your nightmares. But so long as you stay in the salt you’ll be fine. At 2am the ritual ends and you’re free to leave the salt.”
Heather’s hand with the walkie fell by her side. Brittany’s mouth was hanging open. So at least she’d been blind sided too. “Oh, just visions of our nightmares is all,” Brittany whispered.
“You girls still there? Over?”
Heather pressed the button and fought to calm her voice. “Tell me you’re not fucking with me. Tell me you didn’t make us come all the way out here just to get back at me or something. I don’t want to believe you’d carry a grudge that long and hide it that well. Over.”
“I’m not fucking with you, this is what I want you to do. This is your end of the deal. Look, you can still wander around the house looking for clues. But, I need to see if you reach anyone, okay? It sounded stupid to me when I first heard it too, but I think it’ll work. Over”
“What do you get out of this? Over.” Heather asked.
“If you talk to something that answers your questions, it’ll confirm a lot of things for me...” she trailed off and Heather waited for her to continue, but there was no more.
Heather muttered into the walkie, “And you’re serious about this? Over.”
“Deadly serious. Over.”
“And we’ll be fine so long as we get in the salt. Just some bad nightmares? Over”
“That’s what I’ve found, yeah. If anything happens, we’re right here. Over.”
Heather shut her eyes. “Okay. I’ll trust you. Over.” Heather holstered the walkie. “Alright Brit. Do or die time.”
“Choose better words.”