The Haunting

The Second Night

The whole rest of that day had passed uneventfully. Armen had gone off to the library after he'd slept, leaving a note for me when I got up later:

went to library

be back later

After I read it, I had gone back to my room and read a bit. Ate a bit. Slept a bit. I was still somewhat started from the night before, but I knew that the best thing that I could was relax and wait on Armen to get back.

Night eventually came, bringing back the uneasy chill that I'd felt before. I stood alone in my room, staring out the back window and waited in silence for Armen to get back. He'd been gone for hours, and I was starting to get nervous. I did my best to distract myself, but I wasn't really succeeding. I'm sure he's fine, I thought, but the fear continued as I watched sun slowly sink below the horizon behind the ivy covering the outside of the window. The wind blew dry leaves across the ground, instead. The air smelled of rain.

"Dang, man, I'm scared...," I whispered to no one in particular. The sound of the front door opening and slamming shut startled me out of my thoughts. Armen had finally returned.

"Drake, I'm back!" he cried gleefully.

"Yeah," I called, "I can tell."

He was grinning from ear to ear when he ran into my room. "You'll never guess what I found just down the road!" He held up something in his hand. "There's a new arms shop just down the road! It's super sweet! I got a new gun and some ammo, and the sign said everything was free for the opening week!"

Something about that sounded off. He also sounded oddly excited; like a little kid. Wait...how old is he again? I couldn't seem to remember. Come to think of it, I couldn't seem to remember my own age. Sixteen? Seventeen? I didn't feel like I could be any older. Why would I forget that?

"I'll show you it tomorrow, if ya want," Armen said as he walked away, cutting a knife through my thoughts. I got the sense that I was missing something, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

I shook off the weird feeling and watched as he threw his bag of whatever it was that he'd collected while he was gone on his bed in the conjoined room, then followed him out. The pile of wood from the night before was still off to the side of the door. He glanced down at it and selected one before placing it over the door as a sort of barricade.

"Um...What are you doing?"

He glanced over at me as he finished. "It's just in case the guy comes for us again."

"But...," I replied in confusion, "didn't we determine that it was a ghost?"

He had already walked over to the kitchen and been pulling out an apple when he glanced up. "Oh yeah! I almost forgot! So while I was at the library looking for anything about ghosts, I found a book that might explain why this place would be haunted!"

His excitement was disturbing. "That's supposed to make me feel better?"

"No...I guess not." He went into my room, and I followed, curious. He was already in his own bedroom and digging around in his bag for something. "Here it is!" he proclaimed as he pulled out a small book that looked more like it belonged in a museum than a library. It's leather cover seemed ancient, and the pages were so old, they were turning brown at the edges. Armen flipped through it gingerly, careful not to tear any of the pages. "Okay, listen," he finally said, holding his finger on a passage.

"At this time, a new threat was rising," he read."A boy named Collin had come into contact with a great evil thought to be banished long ago. The spirit, simply known as "Herobrine," slowly corrupted the-" Armen stopped and glanced towards the door. "Did you hear that?"