Lonely Hollow

The Moore House

"How was school, sport?" My dad asked me, his face in the newspaper, and his right leg draped over his left knee.

"Good," I replied, not knowing another word to describe the day.

I kicked off my shoes in the front room and put my backpack down on the couch. I slipped off my fingerless gloves and threw it on top of my backpack. They  landed perfectly, and then one slipped off. "I'll take what I can get." I thought to myself.

"Got any homework?" 

"No"

"Good...good," He shook his newspaper straight and readjusted his glasses so they were closer to his eyes.

I didn't really feel like talking to my dad, so I slipped into the hall and went into my room, closing the door behind me. I pulled out my portable gaming console from under my bed and started playing my favorite video game. I was planning on getting a home console from "LH Electronics" but they didn't have any of them left, and the new ones wouldn't hit the shelves for another few months. I booted up the little device and picked up in the game where I left off.

After a while of playing the game, I heard a knock on my door.

"Sweetie, you should go outside if you don't have any homework to do," My mom said through the door. "You know, get some fresh air."

I sighed and took a look at my watch. I was surprised that I had been playing the game for over 3 hours. 

"Ok mom. Just give me a minute."

"Fine with me," She cheerfully agreed.

I continued playing my game, following my player with my eyes as it walked into a house. I wasn't too excited to go outside, but my mom was gonna make me if I refused. Suddenly, I remembered something, the smoke from the house. Now there was an interesting reason to go outside. Maybe someone had moved in. Or maybe not. For some reason I was pretty interested in going to find out what house it had come from.

I emerged from my room walking down the creaky hardwood floor and walking past the hallway and into the front room once again, my dad ignoring my presence. I sat down on the couch and picked up my blue sneakers, untied them and placed them on my feet, which still had my mismatched socks over them. I noticed that the navy blue paint in the front room was beginning to chip in some places in the corners. I thought about telling my dad, but I bet he already knew. All the houses here were pretty old. I quickly tied the laces, only doing a single knot, hoping to leave the house as soon as possible. I wanted to get there before the sun went down.

Right as I was about to exit the house, I heard my dad acknowledge me.

"Turner, where you headed?"

"Just out for a walk, I'll be back in a bit."

He just nodded and waved without even looking at me, but then again, I didn't expect much else. I always viewed my dad as a nice person. I knew he cared about me. He just wasn't very talkative.

I closed the door behind me as I energetically leaped off of the steps leading down to the sidewalk, scaling all three tiny, but long stairs. I got off to a jogging start down the old, cracked pavement towards the general area of the smoke. As I rounded the corner of the intersection, I gasped at what I saw. Way off in the distance, just like before, I saw a plume of smoke, rising into the now orange shaded sky with the sun now beginning to set. It always got dark quick in Lonely Hollow, so I decided to hurry up and find out which house it was coming from. I didn't want to look strange though, nobody was ever really in a rush this time of day. I would just check and see what house it was coming from, and see if anyone new had moved in. I was pretty excited, thinking about new people to introduce to our small town of only about 700 people.

So I just casually walked in steady progress to my destination, I figured that it wasn't going anywhere, and it wasn't that big of a deal in the first place, so why rush? I took notice of all the buildings around me, the most that Lonely Hollow had ever known. The name made sense to me, but it just seemed a bit ominous and strange. Not to mention that this place wasn't even on most maps, it was miles away from any other civilization, and in the middle of the forest with only one raggedy dirt road that lead out to a smaller, paved road that was miles off. As the story goes, Lonely Hollow was founded by a large group of people hoping for booming industry. The state had told them that the new road would run through the forest, so they built a small town by where the main road was planned to be built.  It was originally named 'Roadside Hollow'. However, a few weeks after the town was built, the state lost a sizeable portion of their budget and cancelled the project, only having enough money to clear a path and make the one dirt road that lead out. After that, people realized that most of them had spent all of their money investing in 'Roadside Hollow'. And they didn't have enough money to make a return trip and buy their old houses. With the dream of success dashed in the blink of an eye, the town became an old, depressing place renamed Lonely Hollow, the only town that was simply out all alone in the middle of the forest. But that's just how the story goes, it's not like I was there for it.

I took a right and followed the streets closer and closer to the smoke. I had a song stuck in my head that kept me entertained. All I noticed was the turns I was taking. Another right. Left. straight for a while. Right. Left...and there it was, the house with smoke coming out of the chimney. I gasped in disbelief, well what a coincidence...Andrew was right, again. It was the old Moore's house. It gave me the creeps, I felt the hair on my neck begin to stand on end. I was alone, in the street, the night overtaking the day, standing and watching as the old, unused house of a couple that mysteriously disappeared before I was even born, gave out fresh smoke. Someone was inside, enjoying a fire. I was officially a bit creeped out. I turned back instantly, walking away a bit faster than I did when I came.

And then it hit me. The lights in the house were turned on. What kind of old beat up house that hadn't been used for over a decade would still have a perfectly operational electrical system? Some light bulbs were bound to have broken or burnt out over the years, but yet here they were in good enough condition to light the house up. There was only one explanation, someone had bought new ones and repaired the electrical system. The Moore's house was not a popular place. It was just a bit creepy, and supposedly, nobody would want to go inside. Yet here it was, already gone inside of by somebody doing something.

Couldn't someone just start a fire in their own house? Or turn up the heat? Why would anyone decide to go here of all places in Lonely Hollow to enjoy an evening? I guess it's these questions that eventually lured me back to the front door of the house, about to go inside. I had a bad feeling in my the pit of my stomach, and my hands knotted themselves in a ball of fingers and knuckles. Why did I have to go inside? Couldn't I just walk away right now? Yes. But I didn't. 

My hand trembled as I reached for the loose, brass doorknob. Grasping it firmly, sweat coating my palms, I turned my wrist. I pushed open the door and slowly went inside...