The Terror Next Door (Based on a True Story)

9)Disturbed

"Silent Night" Youtube Scary Version
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While the sisters sat in awkward silence, they kept busy by texting back and forth to each other so that Blake had no way of overhearing them from upstairs. Although, even communicating about it through technology wasn't making Sophia feel any better. The realization that Blake could only have echoed Alex's wording had to be from him overhearing their conversation from the day before. But upon doing that, Blake would have had to have been pretty close by. Even though the deep end of their backyards were practically connected, their driveways weren't at all close. Alex hadn't been screeching the conversation either that her voice could have carried across the massive lawn.

That brought Sophia to the scary conclusion that Blake had either been rather close, or perhaps, had a way of listening in on them while they had been speaking.

Do you think he bugged my phone?
As soon as she fired off the text, she almost felt instantly Alex wouldn't believe this theory. To her strong surprise, Alex's eyes widened in realization. She glanced towards the stairs to make sure Blake wasn't near. After that, she took Sophia's phone from her hands and started to pull the back off of it.

"What are you doing??" Sophia hissed in a whisper.

"Background actor, remember?" Alex whispered back, removing the battery. "When a TV show pretends to be bugging a cell, they always place it on the inside of the device using a slim button-like object." Upon her wiggling the battery out, she frowned as she glanced around. There was positively nothing out of the ordinary on Sophia's phone.

"And if there isn't one on the phone...?" Sophia asked as she accepted the pieces of her phone before fixing them. Alex started doing the same with her own cell phone. Once she was satisfied she didn't find anything out of the ordinary inside or outside, she breathed a relived sigh.

"Then it means he heard us some other way....Ah!" Alex shouted, having heard the same noise that Sophia did. A loud, ear-piercing scream come from the next room. Stupidly, Alex darted for the next room to take a look around. Sophia was quick behind her, soon breathing a sigh of relief as more background noise started to take place, showing a movie was on and playing in the next room. Both Summers' girls came to a stop witnessing who it was that had somehow come down the stairs and into the large den area without having come down the stairs. Blake sat on the couch with his feet propped up on the coffee table. A bag of chips sat in his hands while he watched the very large flat screen with strong dedication.

A sobbing scream issued from the woman on the screen before the sound of a rough, crunching sound occurred. Next, an ugly slicing sound came on. While Alex paled and grimaced, Sophia covered her eyes as the flat screen depicted a woman getting a part of her anatomy smashed onto with a meat cleaver. What was on looked to be an old seventies horror movie. By the time the graphic and gory death scene was done and over with the woman's murderer laughing manically, Blake released his own amused laughter as if what he saw was simply the funniest thing in the world.
"Ew," Alex commented as Sophia dared to open her eyes once more.

"No, Pathetic. As if that little of blood would occur when a woman's boob is smashed before her nipple is cut off," Blake remarked, smiling as though he were giggling at something earnest and not completely revolting.

"We didn't see you come down the stairs," said Alex slowly, clearly spooked by his chilling words. Sophia could tell her sister was trying hard not to show her sudden alarm and disgust.

"I was not aware I needed to keep you informed when I was or was not coming down the staircase in my own home," Blake replied coolly, his eyes unblinking as he watched the TV screen.

"I'll rephrase. Since there's only one staircase how did you get down here?" Alex inquired. Sophia wondered whether she was bothered he had been in the room right next to them for seemingly a while. The movie seemed to be halfway done. The only reason they realized Blake had been down here was because he intentionally raised the volume of the movie once the woman was being murdered.

"I have ways to get around my house that I don't have to disclose to someone who doesn't live here."

Alex frowned as she exited the room with nothing more said. Sophia was about to follow her before Blake's voice broke the silence. "You don't have to leave just because she did, Sophia." She turned slowly to look at the strange boy she was certain had ruined her locker as well as purposely hit her. The teenager was certain she held a look of loathing on her face. Blake smiled sweetly while she glared. "What's the matter? I'm gaining the impression you don't like me very much."

The teenager could've snorted at the remark. "I've gotten the same feeling from you lately."

A sly smile lit up Blake's boyish features. "Oh don't worry. If I didn't like you, you would know."

As Sophia quickly left the room in search of her sister, she discovered that Alex had found the strange room that held horror movie memorabilia. She had nearly forgotten about the fascination this family held with serial killers. "They like clowns," Alex murmured, releasing a shiver.

If she weren't spooked by this room herself, Sophia might have laughed. She had forgotten Alex had a deep  fear of clowns that stemmed from childhood. When the young woman had been only five-years-old, her parents had taken she and a younger brother to the circus. During this time, Alex became separated from her parents as a lengthy line took over the ticket booth. While she had been struggling to find her parents again, a stray clown had come up and pulled her into a strong hug before walking off with her for a few steps. It had been an innocent encounter before the tall clown had set her down, but it had traumatized Alex all the way to adulthood. To this day, she was still positively terrified of clowns. Even Ronald McDonald petrified her.

"Yeah, didn't I tell you...?"

Alex slowly shook her head as her eyes widened. Taking a look around the room, she looked positively disgusted. Sophia didn't seem to recognize names, but judging by her expression, Alex could. "Albert Fish."

That was the name on a poster showing a black and white mugshot of a man in a hat. "An American criminal," Blake recalled, practically appearing out of nowhere to stand beside Sophia. "Lived from May 19, 1870 – January 16, 1936."

Alex shot Blake disgusted look. "You keep a framed photo of him?"

"But of course. The man was practically a legend with his many aliases," he grinned. Sophia couldn't help but notice her elder sister's pure disgust as she watched Blake. Alex looked dismayed by his words.

"A legend?" she rolled her brown eyes. "More like a psychopath. He was a pedophile and a cannibal."

Sophia did a double take. "Wait, what??"

"His many nicknames make him notorious, not his 'crimes'," said Blake, his voice wrapping air quotations around his last word. He ignored Sophia's question as he watched Alex with a blanketed expression. "The Gray Man, the Werewolf of Wysteria, the Brooklyn Vampire, the Moon Maniac..."

"-The Boogey Man," Alex intervened curtly. "I'm familiar with his history. If not for how he raped and ate children, he wouldn't be notorious with his stupid nicknames," she shot back. Sophia had forgotten her sister had taken an introduction to horror in one of her screenwriting classes. Even though many of these names did not seem familiar, the older Summers daughter most likely recognized them from school.

"You're not a fan of clowns," Blake noted, unblinking as he watched Alex. He ignored her comment, instead watching her instead. His head tilted as if to analyze her. "You purposely stand away from clown memorabilia, including the framed photograph of John Wayne Gacy in his clown attire. Even now, the way you hold your body suggests you can't stand to even look at them."

"Some little boys like cars, bugs, or Marvel movies. You like psychopaths," Alex replied, not at all acknowledging his words as when he didn't respond to hers. "That says a lot about a person."

"Dodging my observation does not make you more intelligent than I am."

A silent stare off soon commenced. Neither Alex or Blake blinked as they watched one another. Soon, the eldest Summers' daughter walked over to Blake only to step between he and Sophia after he had slid closer to her. The boy got the hint and walked out of the room.

A strange parental intuition seemed to take over Alex after that. For the rest of the evening, she wouldn't allow herself to be away from Sophia for even a second. The sisters sat in the living room they were left in by the Bradshaws, Alex even recommended Sophia not leave the room without her consent. To a degree, Sophia felt like she was being babysat along with Blake. Something had changed in Alex, something that made it so that she did not only become more protective towards her younger sister, she also became very distrusting of Blake altogether.

Sophia felt the same distrust, but that was because she already didn't trust Blake as far as she could throw him. Right here and now, Sophia noticed Alex was deeply alarmed by something she was not voicing. By the time Mr. and Mrs. Bradshaw entered the home an hour later, Sophia was pulled by the shoulder towards their direction. "We need to get going," Alex announced to the Bradshaw's, not blinking as she said this.

"Oh of course," Mr. Bradshaw smiled politely as he fumbled for his wallet. "So, will you ladies be available this upcoming Monday?"

"No, unfortunately we won't be," Alex answered automatically as soon as Mr. Bradshaw handed Sophia a very decent sized wad of cash. "School and work are picking up and we won't be able to do anything babysitting for a while," she lied breezily while acting oblivious to Mr. Bradshaw's disappointed look. "Have a good night."
***

It was only when Sophia and her sister were a great distance away and practically inside their house again did Alex finally voice her thoughts. "I owe you a strong apology."

Sophia turned her head to find her sister's face looked pale. "For what?"

"Not believing you."

Even though she was strongly relieved to hear these words, something also alarmed Sophia regarding Alex's expression. "What's wrong? You've been quiet for a while."

"You ever just get a bone-chilling feeling? A strange, alarming vibe that makes the tiny hairs on the back of your neck stand on end?" Alex's face looked pale. "It feels like...It doesn't matter what seems logical or practical anymore, you just know from that feeling alone you should be terrified of something or someone?"

Sophia couldn't recall a time where she had seen her elder sister look so serious. Alex was not only pale, she looked quite frightened. "What are you saying...?"

The elder Summers girl didn't bat an eyelash as she exhaled a breath. "Blake Bradshaw gives me that feeling."