Oil [Full Story]

Chapter 3: Habromania

The next week passed by fairly quickly. Jess was unusually quiet for most of it, and Cal didn't say much either. It was Friday when they started on the subject of the Sheridan house. "Cal, let's go to Jitters after school today." Cal had nodded absentmindedly and before she knew it the school day was over and she was walking with Jess to their favorite coffee shop. They ordered their usual, a peppermint steamer and a hot chocolate with two of the large iced sugar cookies the place sold and sat at a booth in the back. Soft music was playing overhead and there was a few other customers enjoying the cool afternoon. It was only after they had finished their cookies and half of their drinks did Cal bring the subject of the Sheridan house up.

"Okay, so, what the hell happened last Saturday dude? How the hell did we go from Saturday to fucking monday in the span of maybe four hours?"

"Heck if I know dude. But..." Jess frowned thoughtfully. "What if, and bear with me here this is gonna sound stupid even by my standards, what if there's something in that house? Like, I don't know, a ghost or something that can manipulate time and murder people?"

Cal paused. "Would that make the weird black liquid ectoplasm or something?" Jess blinked. "That makes a lot of sense."

"Okay, so we got a ghost that probably murders people, manipulates time at least within the house, and it leaves black goo everywhere. But we didn't really... see any paranormal activity. And if all that's true, why didn't we get horribly killed? Why didn't we see anything?"

"Those are... good questions. Maybe it's not a ghost? Maybe it's like, some horrific failed science experiment? Or like, maybe it's an alien, like the clown from that one Steven King novel!"

Cal stared at Jess incredulously. "You read?" Jess put her hand to her heart in mock hurt. "Yes, I occasionally pick up a book. I'll have you know Stephen King is one of my favorite writers of all time. All of his books are spine chilling! But," Jess waved her hand dismissively, "We're getting off topic here. We need to go back into that house, but this time we'll come prepared!"

Cal's expression turned blank. "You want us to go into the probably haunted house where we think the murders are happening, where a being that can manipulate time probably lives and probably isn't too happy with us trespassing, again?" Jess shrugged a shoulder.

"You got any better ideas?"

"Uh, yeah, call the police! Tell an adult maybe!"

"Hello, yes, 911? I'd like to report an emergency at the spooky house at the end of Sheridan Street. We think a ghost or maybe an alien that can manipulate time and probably murders people lives there, even though we don't have any solid proof and no one else seems to really notice!" Jess threw her hands up. "We'd get put in the looney bin!" She shook her head. "No, we can't tell any adult, but we can get the school's resident supernatural nerd."

Cal groaned. "You don't mean-"

Jess nodded smugly. "I mean Daisy Fernandeza."

Daisy Fernandeza was the school's resident supernatural nut. She's obsessive for all things weird, and had plenty of conspiracy theories that would put many other conspiracy theorists to shame. She had black square glasses from which hazel eyes peered out of and cropped brown hair. All of the popular kids avoided her (though to be fair, the popular kids avoided anyone that wasn't popular) and the kids who couldn't sit through a 30 minute lecture on why bigfoot was a hoax avoided her, too. Cal, while not outright mean to her, had never really had a full one-on-one conversation with the girl. Jess, on the other hand, was one of the few who very much enjoyed listening to Daisy ramble about chupacabras and demons. Cal didn't understand it, but she had never really understood any of the motivations behind her friends actions, so she didn't care too much.

Still, though, the idea of dragging another person into this whole mess was not a nice one. If anyone got hurt, they'd probably be sued. They'd probably drown themselves in guilt, too. Cal would, at least. It was a 50-50 shot with Jess. It depended on the person she supposed. As Jess pulled out her phone, likely to shoot Daisy a text, Cal grumbled to herself and traced patterns onto the table. She shook her head. "This is a bad idea, Jess." Her friend shrugged. "Most of the ideas we have are bad, to be fair."

"Jess."

"Yes?"
"Most of the ideas 'we' have are your ideas."

Jess nodded sagely. "So they are. Also, Daisy will be here in a few. Let's go get refills before she gets here."

Daisy arrived 15 minutes late. She stepped through the door, looking haggard but grinning wildly. She paused to glance around the coffee shop before she spotted them and practically skipped over. In her hands she held two binders and several loose leaf papers. Slung across her shoulder was a beaten looking grey backpack. It was unzipped and everything inside looked like it was about to fall out. Daisy plopped down at their table, (next to Jess, Cal noted) with a messy grin. She smacked her binders and papers onto the table.

"You rang?" She asked.

Jess grinned at Daisy and raised a hand for a high five and said, "We sure did." Daisy grinned back and slapped Jess's hand and then looked across the table at Cal. "Alright," She started. "What's happenin'?" Cal tapped a rhythm into the table with the tip of her nail as she explained everything they knew so far. It wasn't much. By the end of it all, Daisy was nodding thoughtfully. A few minutes of silence passed while she digested the information, and then the quiet was broken by her sudden, and loud, exclamation of "Aha!". She turned to dig in her backpack and pulled out a green binder that was falling apart at the semes. It looked like it had suffered water damage long ago. Papers poked out of the top.

Daisy licked her thumb and opened the binder, leafing through till she got about halfway through it and then she grinned triumphantly and slammed it down in the middle of the table. "This here," She leaned over the table and pointed to the page she had opened it up too, "Is everything I got on the Sheridan house. There isn't much, cause you know, most people aren't crazy enough to go into that house, but I have seen a few articles and what not on it." She held a finger up. "And! Get this," From her backpack she pulled out another binder. It was white and in pristine condition. "I found this outside my doorstep a couple years ago. Dunno where it came from, but it's got like, experiment logs and medical files and things like that in it." She leaned forward and a gleam entered her eyes as she said, "I think the solution to our problem is in this here binder." She tittered.