Portal House - Chapter 16
Kitt to the Rescue
PEPPER:
I gasped for air and woke myself up. Heart racing, I looked at my watch. 3:03 AM.
The light from my smart watch blinded me in the heavy darkness. I heard no noise at all besides the hollow creaks of the house. A minute later, a click echoed against the walls and the air conditioner kicked on, initiating a quiet roar of airflow. With no daytime noise as a buffer, the house sounded like it was alive.
I could feel my phone buzzing, but I couldn’t see any light from it. The screen on my wrist was lit up by a call from my older sister. I jumped up to shut my bedroom door before clicking to answer the call.
“Kitt, what’s wrong; are you okay?”
“I was gonna ask you that,” she said with a sleepy rasp in her voice. “You still need me to come get you?”
“Come get me? Why?” I frowned, sitting on something hard on my bed. My phone. I unlocked it and checked my notifications.
“Yeah, your text was really weird,” she said through a yawn. “You okay?”
“Huh? Let me see.” I clicked on the text conversation with Kitt, reading my initial message aloud. “I need help, come get me?”
“Something’s not right, P, I’m putting my shoes on now,” she said, her voice picking up urgency. “This is too weird.”
I was too confused to respond.
“Be outside your house in ten minutes, okay?”
“Okay,” was the only word I could squeak out before she hung up.
I was enveloped in the tight silence of the place once again. It pulled and squeezed and made my body tired, but at the same time, my mind stayed alert. I hated being the only one awake here, and I tried hard to be the first one to bed because of it. For once, I wished I could hear my roommates talking and giggling from another room.
I struggled to fill my lungs, turning on the flashlight of my phone. I fumbled around for my zebra print slippers and my thin hoodie, then started to tiptoe through the shadows. I took small steps, shaking as I aimed the light ahead of me. Every step closer to the front door felt heavier and heavier.
“Oh my GOD. Stop it, there’s nothing here,” I told myself. I took another breath, feeling like I was breathing through a thin straw.
Finally my hand gripped the handle, and immediately it turned with all my weight behind it. I stumbled out onto the sidewalk to see no more chair where it had been for two weeks. I ignored the absence, making my legs take me to the edge of the driveway. I looked back at the house, every light off except the front porch, with the front door hanging wide open. I ignored that, too. “There’s nothing here,” became my whispered mantra until I saw my sister’s car pull up.
I didn’t let her park longer than a second before I hopped in and yanked on the seatbelt.
“Whoa, girl, slow down,” Kitt said, grabbing the seatbelt to let it out until it unlocked. “Whatever it is, you don’t have to break my car about it.”
I looked back at the house, now more lit up from the kitchen chandelier than a minute ago. “I forgot to shut the front door,” I muttered.
“Well, somebody shut it for you, now let’s go get some food and figure out what I’m doing out here. Cool?”
I nodded. “Y-yeah. Sorry.”
Kitt let out a long sigh, turning her car around to leave the driveway. “You know that house is totally creepy, right?”
To Be Continued…