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Oddly enough, the death was, in fact, not ruled a suicide, but a murder. It took tons of evidence, thousands of dollars on good lawyers, and a shit load of convincing on Jasey Rae's father's part, but, in the end, it was ruled a murder.
Jasey's mother was the sweetest, most down to Earth girl you'd ever meet. She was a beautiful woman with the kindest of eyes and the oldest of souls, but people get jealous. I don't know if it was of her beauty, her money, her daughter, her husband, I don't know. But someone killed Jasey Rae's poor mother and left her in her own bathroom to rot. And for her poor five-year-old daughter to find her on her way to brush her teeth one random Thursday morning.
Jasey pushed her face deep into Alex's chest. He sighed and held her as tight as his now numb fingers would allow. The adrenaline was wearing off again and the pain was finally getting to Jasey. Her leg just felt so unbearably horrible.
Jack pushed open door after door after door, finding nothing but more creepiness lurking in all the shadows. It was no longer amusing. Jack was petrified; there was no denying this. He wished there was more light. More beer. Less of this house, and the blood and the stench, and the weird noises, and the...
half-eaten animals on the floor?
Jack's breath hitched as he looked down. The squirrel at his feet was destroyed. Its head was missing. It definitely had a bite taken out of it. Jack held his free hand over his mouth.
Alex's eyes dashed from around the hallway. His eyes were met with a pool of blood containing all but two, maybe three, pairs of footprints in it.
He gulped. Three?
"Jack..." Alex nodded his head towards the mess. Motioning for him to look. Jack took the hint and walked over to it, going pale as he realized the same thing Alex just had. Jasey began to pick her head up, though, so Alex asked, "Do you think they've gone far? I wanna get out of this place already."
Jack gawked at the question in confusion, but Alex gave him wide eyes and Jack subsequently also picked up that hint. shaking his head he answered, "How am I supposed to know? Do I look like a fucking water genie to you?"
Alex made a face of disgust.
Jack started following the trail of prints while Alex tried to catch his breath. The footprints went on for five hundred feet or so, giving the boys a little over a three-minute walk.
The entire time Jack was one push closer to shitting himself. He couldn't peel his mind away from the fact that he was following a trail of bloody footprints (which began very near to a half-eaten squirrel nonetheless), no matter how hard he tried. He had spent the entire past month wishing for something crazy like this, but now that he was actually experiencing it he wanted nothing more than to squeeze his eyes shut and cry for his mother. Alex felt the same way, but the weight of Jasey Rae in his arms reminded him of the fact that he simply couldn't. She was the only thing stopping him from turning around and bolting.
And if anyone knows anything about Alex Gaskarth, it's that he wouldn't ever leave Jack Barakat alone in a situation like this.
Meanwhile Jasey Rae's mind was swarming with thoughts of Jack's past Halloweens. She did this for him- she agreed to this for him; to repair what she smashed to pieces. Rian and Zack were Jack's friends too. He deserved them too, and she just scooped them up and stole them away. She spent years worth of Halloween's with Rian and Zack yet this was Jack's very first. His very first and she had ruined it with a pool of blood.
"This is too scary, man."
The halls twisted and turned, they constantly kept winding around the boys, leaving them feeling as though they were traveling in a circle, and eventually simply not traveling at all. Who knew three minutes could feel so long? Nonetheless, Jack felt more nauseous now than he did when he first saw Jasey Rae in her pool of blood.
He brought a hand to his mouth and sighed into it, the warm air dissolving into his cold and numb palm. He missed the warmth the day had provided. After sundown, it was as if all the heat was drained with the light.
"Jack," Alex coaxed the boy out of his thoughts. "Did you see that?"
Jack dropped his hand from his mouth and leaned it against a wall. He was a bit behind Alex, who was still carrying a cold, pale, hiding Jasey, but not too far.
"In there...?" Alex nodded his head towards a room a few feet away. Jack nodded in response and moved, slowly, to the scene.
He almost died at the sight.
His stomach dropped into his toes, his blood rushed into his ears, his heart began to beat a thousand miles a minute. His breath ran from him, his lungs squeezed. His chest felt tight. His head pounded.
"Oh my fucking god!" Jack turned around to face his friends. "No. No, I can't do this. I can't do this, Alex. We need to leave."
"Wh-wh-what?" Jasey picked her head up slightly. She didn't turn to face Jack but looked right up at Alex. All the while holding two big fistfuls of his shirt.
"Nothing, Jasey. We're just... looking for the boys still, tha-" Alex stopped. He brought his voice to a low whisper. Jack's face turned a shade of white. "Did you hear that?"
"What the fuck?" Jack ran his hands through his hair.
"Help me! Help me!"
Rian. His yells pierced the air like fourth of July firecrackers. Loud, screeching, terrible. Jasey Rae felt the entire world shift underneath her.
She felt dizzy.
Jack turned away from Alex again. He felt his lunch rise up the back of his throat, burning as it did so.
Jasey buried herself back into Alex's shirt and felt herself beginning to cry. Her best friend, probably alone. Probably about to die. Snot bubbled on the brim of her nostrils and tears welled in her eyes. She squeezed them shut.
Alex was the only one paying attention. He was the only one keeping his eyes peeled long enough to see a flicker of light from a room down the hall. He was the only one to see that small flicker turn into a huge burst of light; so much so the boys didn't even need their flashlights anymore.
So, as Jack doubled over and threw up, Alex- curiosity getting the better of him- walked angrily towards the light. He dripped with fear. The screams of Rian still rang out in Alex's ears. He felt the strong urge to bolt grow stronger. But also a sense of urgency; he felt he needed to see how these candles were lit. He was angry. He burned with fury. But by the same token, it was almost as if this was the ultimate key to Rian and Zack.
Alex walked up to the doorframe slowly. He tiptoed close to the entrance and did his best not to make any noise whatsoever. As he shifted his weight back and forth, the floorboards creaked beneath him. Jasey was so distraught crying over Rian that she had no clue of what was happening, but if she had, she would've jumped out of the boy's arms already.
Just as Alex was about to set foot into the room, about to figure out the cause of the random candles, about to unlock the biggest secret of the night so far, something else caught his attention.
Another scream from Rian rang out all through the house, this time way louder than before.
