A Place So Wicked Patrick Reuman (children's ebooks free online TXT) 📖

the window, remembering what he had seen when he had looked up from outside, in the atmosphere of the new house, in the darkness locked between its walls, he questioned that very thing, if ghosts existed. He couldn’t deny it to himself, the thoughts that lingered in the recesses of his mind. Even if it wasn’t a ghost, or a demon, or whatever, it wasn’t a person either, a human. It couldn’t have been. Unless some lady was living there without their knowing, taking shelter in the walls, or the attic, or even the basement. That wasn’t impossible.

Toby reached the bottom of the stairs, still in his plaid pajama pants and a shirt, and rounded in the direction of the kitchen, his hungry stomach guiding the way. He stopped suddenly. A quiet, distant sound grew louder. He quickly traced it down the hall to the basement. Just as the door came into view, the doorhandle started to shake and then turn.

His dad and Robbie came out, single file. They were talking about something but stopped when his dad noticed Toby standing there.

“You all right?”

Toby realized he had been frozen for that second before the door opened, like time had slowed with the motion of the doorknob.

“Yeah. Yeah! I’m fine.”

He remembered he had been heading to the kitchen and turned away from his dad and Robbie’s questioning eyes. He felt them on his back as he walked away. He needed to snap out of it, to stop acting like a weirdo.

He opened the fridge and searched its bare contents. There was a jar of jelly on the upper rack, so he grabbed it, assuming peanut butter and bread were nearby. When his dad and Robbie passed by the kitchen, he heard his dad mention a door in the basement. He wasn’t sure what that was all about, but the tone behind his dad’s voice was strange in a way he couldn’t fully understand.

“Toby!”

Toby rounded just as his dad entered the kitchen.

“Listen, I’m gonna run into town and pick up a new lightbulb for the basement and stop to see the realtor really quick. Can you do me a favor while I’m gone and mow the lawn?”

Trevor came walking down the stairs.

“And your brother can help.”

Trevor looked up, a dark hue below his eyes. “What?”

“Your brother is going to mow the lawn while I’m gone, and I’d like you to help him.”

“I don’t feel so good,” Trevor mumbled.

“I’m sure you’ll make it,” their dad said.

“Where’s Mom?” Toby asked.

“Upstairs in the shower.”

Their dad and Robbie headed for the door. “Your sister can help, too,” he said as he followed Robbie out the door.

The car’s engine started, and Toby heard the tires reversing out of the driveway. He returned to his task and completed the sandwich. Trevor had disappeared back up the stairs. The next time he heard steps working their way down, they belonged to his sister.

She entered the kitchen. “What are we doing?”

“Mowing the lawn.”

She nodded and started making a sandwich of her own. They stood there eating, the only sound the light hum of their chewing. Toby washed it all down with a swig of water and then rinsed his plate and put it in the sink.

“So, what’s the plan?” she asked.

“Where’s Trevor?”

“He’s upstairs laying down, said something about feeling sick. We can probably do this without him anyway.”

Toby thought of how infrequently he and Paisley hung out together, like just the two of them, and smiled. While he had absolutely no issue with hanging around Trevor, it was almost unheard of for her and him to hang out, like just them, without Trevor. Trevor and Paisley were practically glued together at the hip ninety-nine percent of the time.

Toby smiled. “I’ll mow. You can pick up sticks and stuff, get them out of the way.”

Paisley agreed, and they headed out the door. Toby wasn’t sure where the lawnmower was but found it quickly, stuffed away around back near the house’s rear entrance. The backyard was pretty big, maybe thirty to forty yards back and thirty or so from the left to the right.

The size looked daunting and made him want to head back inside. He began to question the previous night’s quality of sleep when the mere sight of such a task left him feeling exhausted, even tired. Toby looked up at the beating down sun and heard crickets or something buzzing off in the distance. He felt for a moment like he was standing out in a desert or a massive field so large in size that he could have no hope of escaping it.

“He didn’t say what part we had to mow, or how much,” Paisley said conspiratorially. “We could just take care of the front yard and still be able to say we did that much at least.”

It was a great idea. The heat blazing down from the sun seemed to multiply exponentially when he remembered he hadn’t had the chance to shower yet. The mounting sweat in his hair and all across his body acted like an extra layer of skin, trapping in the heat.

His stomach felt a bit off as well. It churned and waved like the tilting sea. Maybe it was the pizza they had all eaten. It couldn’t have been a coincidence that Trevor wasn’t feeling well and now his insides were also beginning to feel like they were swimming. But that could just as easily be the heat. It had been decently cool out the night before, a little cloudy, with a cool moisture in the air, but it didn’t look like he was going to be that lucky today. Yesterday’s moisture was today’s humidity.

He grabbed the lawn mower and dragged it out front behind him. Paisley was already at work when he came around the corner. She was