Portal House - Chapter 5
Gary's Discovery
Rita strolled alongside me and Ruby, holding the box of drinks along with one of the bottles from it in one hand, and her car keys in the other. I sighed.
“What now?” She asked in her most sisterly voice.
“Can I just...” I started to say, gently grabbing the six pack out of her hand before she dropped it.
“Hm.” She grunted, which was all the thanks she typically could muster. Then she continued her quest to bend the cap off her stupid drink.
I placed it on the ground beside me, staying crouched down for a minute to scratch underneath Ruby’s faded red collar. She licked my arm in gratitude, then led me to her next sniffing spot. I checked my phone, seeing three missed calls from Pepper, so I clicked on her voice message.
“Um, where the hell are you guys?” She asked in the recording. “I just got home and the house is a wreck. Your sister isn’t answering either. If you don’t call me back soon, I’ll assume you’re both dead and I can look for some roommates who can pick up their damn mess.”
“Pepper tried to call us,” I told Rita, with my eyes fixed on Ruby’s nose.
A scent trail guided her into the neighborhood they finished building sometime last year. She pulled me across a driveway and through a front yard, where she shoved her face into a hole in a fence.
“Ruby,” I whispered. “This isn’t our yard, girl, you’re gonna get us in trouble!”
She was obsessed. The breeze carried a thick odor, which had to be what she kept tracking for the entire walk. I gave her leash a slight yank, but I was stunned. I’d smelled that before. What was it? It was sour, stale, and familiar to my gag reflex. I’d already swallowed five times before I realized I was going to throw up.
Rita strolled over and grabbed the leash. “Come on, give him space.”
I dry-heaved several times, then my miniscule dinner tumbled out of me, mostly undigested. I always thought about grapefruit when I smelled vomit. Such a putrid fruit.
“You okay?” I wasn’t sure if I heard warm concern in her voice or the artificial charisma of alcohol. I looked back to see the answer. She’d already uncapped and guzzled three of the five bottles and placed them back into the wet cardboard container.
“No.” The angry buzz of the street lamp above us made my head throb. “But I think I’m done spilling my--”
I locked eyes with it. No, it had no eyes. Shaped like a child about three feet tall. It leaned on a pickup truck the same rusty red as its skin. I thought I saw its hand move for a second, then I noticed the rotting jack-o-lantern sitting on the truck’s tailgate.
“Oh my god, that thing scared me. I almost forgot it was October,” I told Rita with a laugh at myself as I caught my breath. Some Halloween crap was all it was. I grabbed the leash again, pulling down on my shirt collar to stifle the choking sensation it caused.
Rita stood, frowning at my puddle of noodle bits, then up at the decoration by the truck.
“It just startled me. I’ve seen scarier stuff at the dollar store,” I lied, trying to distract her from whatever ominous thought she was about to voice.
“I’ve seen it before,” she mumbled. She stared at it for several minutes, then shook her head. “Probably some movie I can’t remember. Let’s go home.”
“Yeah,” I said, trying my best not to look at it again. “We have to face the wrath of Pepper.”
“You do, maybe. I can kick higher.”
To Be Continued...