Possessed Soul

Chapter 26

Chapter 26

The house was big, with dust bunnies occupying every nook and cranny. Everyone felt on edge here. I guess it was because they weren't used to living in an actual house instead of in the Warehouse. On every wall hung pictures, from which I could deduce that a family of four lived here. There was a photo of a young woman, with hair so pale it looked the same colour as her wedding dress. She was standing next to a man significantly older than her; he looked like he had forgotten that you were supposed to smile in photos. The couple had two girls. Identical twins: blond hair twisted into pigtails and chubby, dimpled cheeks. There were school photos from each year, standing parallel to each other. The little girls both wore crisply pressed, starched, black blazers; and their hands were curled into balls so that their knuckles stood out. I almost laughed out loud at the fake smiles that made it look like they were undergoing torture. I was grateful that I had never had to take school photos. I came out bad in normal photos and school photos were specifically meant to look bad, kind of like passport photos.

"We have no idea when they'll be back." Aaron came up behind me. "Flynn thinks they've gone on holiday, or something like that."

"How long have I been unconscious?" I enquired. It couldn't have been more than a couple of days.

"A few hours," Aaron replied. Huh, shorter than I thought. "We've had our eyes on this house for a while. You know, to rob and shit like that." He trailed the tips of his fingers along one of the expensive looking frames. "Pure silver," he told me. "Anyway, we came here immediately when we were forced to leave the Warehouse. Holden's idea," he clarified. He stuck out his tongue and played with his lip ring, which made me wonder if the silver band was as uncomfortable as it looked. "You knew Derek before?" He didn't wait for a response. "Do you by any chance know his number?" He looked towards the telephone on the counter.

I shook my head. "Sorry." I winced, realising it was my fault that we had had to leave the Warehouse, and that Aaron was blaming me for being separated from his boyfriend.

"Should have known," he said, sounding deflated. "In this day and age who bothers learning phone numbers anymore." He began walking away with his hands stuffed in his pockets.

"Oh, I almost forgot," he said, spinning around on the balls of his feet. "Holden wants to talk to you. He told me to come get you, although I can't for the life of me figure out why he couldn't find you himself." Aaron threw his arms in the air, in what looked like a very dramatic way to express his frustration. He looked at me for a response and I vigorously nodded my head, not wanting to test his patience.

Aaron put his hands on his hips and jerked his head in the direction in which he wanted me to go. "The lounge," he clarified.

"Ok," I replied.

Kaden was out stealing survival essentials for us, because this house was surprisingly empty of anything edible. He had promised he'd only steal essentials, but the smirk that followed his promise was enough to convince me that our interpretation of the word essentials were very different.

There would have been a time when I would have been sceptical about talking to Holden, especially when Kaden wasn't here. But now I confidently walked over to the lounge area, knowing Holden wouldn't hurt me, because hurting me would hurt Kaden.

***

"Do you know what this is?" Holden enquired, placing a rectangular shaped object in front of me. The lounge was spacious and open. A window had been opened and a breeze drifted in, cool enough to make me wish I had put on one of the jackets I had seen in the walk-in closet; but using somebody else's clothes felt wrong, like I was intruding on their privacy and they were intruding on mine. Nobody else felt the way I did, they just took their pick of whatever clothes were available. Holden, for example, was dressed in a blue body warmer that opened up over a white, long sleeve shirt. He completed the look with black jeans that were torn at both knees, revealing his spooky white knees.