Portal House - Chapter 6
Don't Mention It... Please.
Rita and I crossed the road onto our driveway, our pup leading the way.
She’d retrieved her stash of food and was ready to go eat it in her favorite patch of grass.
My heart pumped audibly in anticipation as I walked by the cars, but all the weird tension from earlier had lifted.
“There you go,” I said as I unhooked the leash from Ruby’s collar and shut the gate behind her. She didn’t look scared, didn’t growl. Maybe our walk actually did help somehow.
I turned to look for Rita, but she was already next to me, opening the gate, petting Ruby’s head, and heading for the side entrance.
When I followed her in, I smelled aerosol air freshener. “Hey, we’re home.”
“About time,” said Pepper, looking through the box of hard seltzer bottles Rita left on the island counter. “Thanks for leaving me exactly one, that’s sweet.”
I smirked and began separating empty bottles into the recycling bin. “Sorry, Ruby needed a walk. We didn’t mean to take so long.”
“Right, well, next time you go for a walk could you maybe pick up the chairs off the floor, shut the drawers, the cabinets, and by the way, the damn front door? Look, I don’t care if you have parties while I’m at work, as long as I don’t... what now?” She followed me into the living room. “What is that dumb look on your face for?”
I touched the knob on the front door, then opened and shut it a few times, pulling at it, checking the screws.
“Gary, what?”
“Sorry...did anything w-weird happen?”
She folded her arms around her slender frame, hesitating. I finally noticed the outfit she’d chosen for bed. A black oversized tee with Eminem’s “Relapse” album cover as the graphic, and my faded red and black gingham pajama pants I’d just re-hemmed.
“I don’t know, I was kinda tired and pissed off at the mess, but I thought I might have seen...” Pepper sighed as I opened the door again, checking the chair’s position. Right where we left it. “Stop it with the chair. You’re tired, I’m tired, let’s just forget it.”
I shut the door, locking the knob, deadbolt, and chain. “You’re right. You must be so tired that you forgot your clothes don’t live in my dresser.”
Pepper’s typically light-brown cheeks flushed redder than her fruit punch hair dye. “They’re just so comfy...”
“They or He?”
“I don’t know. They, I guess. You don’t have to ask every time, weirdo.”
I shrugged. “Sorry about the house. I’m going to bed.”
“Tell Rita she parked in my spot again.”
“Nope, you tell her.” I waved and headed for my bedroom, glancing at the number seventy-one displayed on the thermostat as I passed.
As soon as my head hit the pillow, all the least calming thoughts rushed to the front of my consciousness, competing for my attention. The chair outside that I never actually saw move on its own, but definitely did when I wasn’t watching. The crazy faceless Halloween decoration of an alien or a demon or some generic mix of the two. Then I realized... that house was perfectly in line with the barricade at the center of the bridge where the dog always got spooked. And the source of the nasty smell.
The same smell surrounded me in my bed. Musty, wet, withered. It smelled rotten. Just like the mole Ruby killed and stashed under the porch last year. It must have been under there for weeks before we found it, because she’d shoved it so far in with her nose that she had no way to pull it back out.
I was feeling nauseated again, and now I was shivering. I looked at the digital clock, then immediately bolted out of bed. I knew it was just a horror movie trope, but some part of me truly believed that nothing good happened at three in the morning.
“Welcome back,” Rita said, scooting over on her bed to make room as I entered her room without knocking. She was eating from a package of cookie dough and a pint of vanilla ice cream, alternating with the same spoon, while watching an old Tarantino flick.
I grabbed her spoon and ate some cookie dough. “Have you been to sleep yet?”
“Nope,” my older sister said, handing me the hoodie I’d left in her room the night before last. “I read an entire book before I realized the buzz saw I was hearing was coming from Pepper’s nostrils. Want me to start this over?”
I nodded, pulling on my hoodie and handing her the spoon back. “Want to stay up till sunrise?”
Rita nodded, pointing the remote at the TV while we both ignored the room’s impossible drop in temperature.
To Be Continued…