Bad Taste (Part I) // Colby Brock

173 - Rebecca

Jake sat me down on the living room floor while he zipped off upstairs. I didn't argue or complain, waiting for him. He came back with a large chest that looked like it could crush a man if dropped on him. But he carried it with ease and placed it on the floor in front of me before sitting opposite. He looked like a kid at Christmas as he opened the chest to reveal a shit ton of photos, random items and a couple of creepy dolls. He started to go through them pretty much one by one, explaining everything he knew.

"How does your dumbass brain remember this shit?" I asked, confused when he perfectly recited a letter he'd passed over to me.

He smirked. "Simple: I actually care about it. I don't give a shit about much else."

"Clearly," I murmured.

He moved onto the dolls, which he took some weird kind of pride in. I could, for the first time, really tell that he was passionate about something—serial killers, of all things. He told me about one creepy doll called Angelica and started spouting a bunch of bullshit.

"Things got weird when I bought this girl," he told me, "like, I'm not kidding, this shit would move around."

"Sure," I snorted.

"I'm not kidding! We were fucking terrified of it." My brow raised. "We meaning myself, Corey, Sam and Colby."

"And Colby?" I repeated, making Jake start grinning. "You're shitting me."

"No, he hated this thing," Jake insisted as he sat up straighter to explain. "Things were a little different then but he fucking hated her. He kept trying to get me to get rid of it because it freaked him out."

I couldn't help it when I giggled. "It's just a doll. What got you all so worked up about it?"

"I told you, this thing was fucking creepy, dude. It moved around!"

"Unless I see proof, I'm never going to believe you, Jake," I pointed out, "but that's funny."

He rolled his eyes. "I'm not letting this bitch out of this chest ever again. She hasn't moved since we put her in there so I think we're safe now. I'm curious as to whether Colby still finds it creepy."

"I hope so," I replied, smirking. Jake mirrored my expression before he put Angelica back into the chest and took out a smaller chest, this one looking to have wax all around the opening.

"This was fucking scary, too," he explained. He told me the specifics of everything—when he'd gotten it, when he learnt about it both at the time and afterwards, the fact that it was supposed to be some demon box. He even said they invited a priest over to "cleanse the house". He told me that with a straight face that soon deteriorated when he heard the snicker I let out. Colby was a part of the concerned club also at the time.

"Do you want to know the, like, markings and shit that was on this? I was never able to pronounce it, hold on..." Jake started to write down on a piece of paper, but what he wrote weren't markings. He slid the note across the table giving me a look, glancing down at Angelica.

ℓєтѕ ρяαηк ɕσℓву. тαкє тнє ԃσℓℓ тσ нιѕ яσσм αηԃ нιԃє ιт, ι вєт уσυ нє'ℓℓ ցєт ѕɕαяєԃ. ιт'ℓℓ вє ωσятн ιт.

His handwriting gave me a mild headache but a smile came over my face before I could contain it. I glanced in the direction of the red room as I fake sighed. "Yeah, I have no fucking clue—or interest. Move on to the next thing," I said, nodding at Jake. He casually passed Angelica over to me while searching through the box for something else.

He explained the last few items to me quickly, eager for our prank to go ahead. "And that's just about everything," he said, "but I do have more coming—that's why Sam and I were talking about it. I bought more shit. Do you want me to show you when it arrives?"