Vermilion

Chapter two...

3 weeks later they are pulling into the same long driveway. There were 2 moving trucks already there. Joey grins and gets out of the car as soon as they park. The suns out today which apparently isn't very  common around here. He pulls his backpack over his shoulder and walks through the front door, which his mother had already unlocked. 

As soon as he steps in he gets that same weird feeling, its stronger then last time. He takes a second to look around the entrance, the house is way creepier when your the only one in it. He shakes his head and goes upstairs. He makes his way to his bedroom at the end of the hallway. He liked it because it was across from a bathroom. He opens the door to find his furniture already there, ugh. He would move it around another time. Its a nice sized room, not too big, but not too small either. It has two windows, one looking out to the side garden, and the other is looking out to the street. The walls are a off white colour with dark wood wall trims. He likes it. He can see some workers walking to and from their trucks, and his parents bringing stuff inside from the car.

Suddenly there's a knock at his door. He jumps slightly. "Um, come in!" The door opens. There are two men, one speaks up. "Hey, uh, your parents said to bring your box's in here so...." He trails off. They seem uncomfortable. "Oh. yeah that's fine." The man nods and both of them turn around and start bringing in the box's they had with them. After a few more trips of going up and down the stairs the men had finally brought in all his box's into his room. he makes sure to thank them before they leave. 

He sighs and slides off the bed and kneels on the wooden floor. He grabs the nearest box, its labelled 'Joey- Records'. He clenches his jaw when he realises he doesn't have anything to open them. Fuck it. He cant be bothered going down there. He somehow manages to get the tape off after some attempts and urges to throw the box against the wall and scream. His record player is in here too, so he grabs that first. As gently as he can he carries it over to his dresser and sits it on there. After that he grabs all his records and puts them in a pile next to the player, he'll need to find something to put them in later.

There's another knock at his door. He rolls his eyes, cant people just leave him alone? It opens before he can answer, its his mum, and she has his suitcases. "Here. make sure you actually fold them and not just shove them in your drawers." She says sternly and leaves. He cant help but roll his eyes again. After bringing them in, he wonders if he should slam the door just to be petty. He decides against it, he didn't wanna risk blowing the door off. Not like he could even do that if he wanted to.  

He grabs a random record to put on, master of puppets, that'll do. He doesn't feel like putting away his clothes, but when has he ever? He goes back to his bed and dumps all the contents on it from is backpack. It mostly consist of posters. They're gonna be creased but he doesn't mind. He goes downstairs and into the kitchen, he needs blue tack and a snack. After going through the many box's and trying not to mess them up too much, he finds the blue tack. It seems as though most of the food has been put away. He looks through all the cupboards until he finds some random chips. He also grabs the scissors that he spots on his way out.

 Joeys putting up his last few posters when he swears he hears something. He stills. He cant tell if it was from the wall or roof. Maybe it was nothing at all and he is hearing shit. After a few moments of waiting for something else to happen he slowly goes back to what he was doing. Minutes later, he hears something again. It was a lot louder. He could tell it was from above, maybe they had an attic? He decides to check it out and goes into the hallway. By now the moving trucks were gone, and he can hear his parents down stairs. He wonders around until he comes across the hatch. He smiles then frowns. How the fuck is he supposed to get it down? He tries jumping to grab onto the hook. He thanks whoever that there is no one around because he knows he looks so stupid right now. He huffs and glares at it. 

Maybe his parents would know where the hook thing is? He decides its worth asking and goes downstairs. His parents are bickering about something to do with the living room. He stands there, just watching. He was used to it at this point, there was always something. He shifts on his feet when his dad walks away. Suddenly his mum looks at him "What is it Nathan?" She sighs. "Uh. Do you have the, y'know, thingy for the attic?" "The attic?" He just looks at her. She sighs again. "Just check the basement or something, I didn't even know we had one." Joey had started walking to the basement before she finished her sentence.  

Once the basement is in sight he realises the door is cracked open like last time, maybe it just does that? He cant deny that it does put him on edge either way. He opens it and bites his lip before going down. Its cold, freezing. He can just see around because the light coming in from the door. He finds the string and pulls it. Thank god. The lights super dim, but his grateful it works. He wraps his arms around himself as he looks around.  

Its basically empty, just a few box's and shelves. Stone walls and concrete flooring. He slowly walks over to the counter that looks to have a toolbox on it. Its silent. He can hardly  hear what's going on upstairs with the door open. His just getting paranoid. The toolbox has 2 rusty screw drivers and a wrench. He sighs and turns to go back upstairs when something makes a loud noise. He jumps a mile and turns around, somehow not screaming. Scanning the room with wide eyes he lands on the source of noise. "The fuck?" He breathes out. The thing that fell over is the rod thing to open the attic. Was that there the whole time? But he would've seen it wouldn't of he? He guesses not. With shaky legs he runs over to it and grabs it. The eerie feeling was really starting to freak him out. He sprints up the stairs, thankfully not tripping and shuts the door. 

"Did you find one?" His mum calls from the living room, she must've heard the door. "Y-yeah!" He sounds and feels like he has just ran a marathon. He honestly cant wrap his mind around what happened, but he doesn't waste any time running back up the stairs and to where the hatch is. After a few failed attempts he gets it hooked and pulls. It makes a clicking noise and pops out of its place. Thankfully he moved just in time before the ladder came down. There's some light coming in from the small window that's up there. He climbs up the ladder, still slightly shaking form the basement, mostly just adrenaline now. 

When he reaches the top it isn't really what he expected. First of all, its way bigger then he thought. He can actually stand without knocking his head. There's also what he assumes to be... Couches? Covered in sheets, along with other things he cant make out. Just below the window is a box. A wooden box. Joey tilts his head. Why were all these things left behind? Did they forget? He stands up and kneels in front of the box. He didn't really care if these were other peoples things, its their fault for leaving them. 

When he opens it, he stops. What the fuck? there are 8 masks. Fucking scary masks! Joey hesitantly picks one up. He probably shouldn't, he has seen how this goes in movies. Its like a jester mask. Its chin is pointed and has a zipped mouth, he sets it down and picks up another. Its... A simple clown mask? Well... not simple, but its a clown. The next one he picks up is a pig, with a squished up looking face, unsettling. The next one has a hole in the middle, he figures for a nose. He guesses its supposed to look like steel. He is about to pick up a gas like looking mask, buts spots something way better. It has the zipped mouth like the other one, droopy looking eyes, and a long nose! But before he can grab it something sharp stabs his finger. He yelps and pulls his hand away, he can feel a small bit of blood dripping down his finger. When he looks back his mouth forms an o shape. This weird looking helmet has fucking spikes coming out of it! He glares at it, as if its going to do something. He wipes his hand on his jeans, the sting still there. He decides not to stick his hand in there again, maybe that was a sign? He shakes his head at himself. He takes his time looking at the long nosed masked, he thinks that's his favourite. He glances at the last mask, its disgusting looking. It had a hole for its mouth and eyes, and his had these yellowish green dreadlocks, he think it looks-

"Nathan? are you up here?" He gasps and turns around, his mum is halfway up the ladder. He looks at her wide eyed. She gives him that mum look once she reaches the top. "I've come to tell you to come down for din- what are those?" She's looking at the box. "Uh. I don't really know." She scrunches her nose "We are not keeping those. Now come on. Dinner." No way was he gonna let her throws those out, they are badass! He is better not to mention it, she'll forget about them with some time...