By Next Thursday

Chapter Twenty

A deafening, female scream reached our ears before the line went dead.

And at the same moment the same bloodcurdling sound came from the inner recesses of the dark house in front of us

 

.

 

For a split second I held a staring contest with the darkened windows of the house before everything started happening at once. Jay dropped his phone with a choked gasp and I bit down a scream so hard I think it would’ve bled if I could’ve inflicted injuries on my ghost self.

“Fuck, this can’t be happening. Oh god, this is my fault. I should’ve –“ I cut Jay’s rather loud rant off by picking up a stick and hitting him over the head with it.

“First off, shut the hell up. Giving away the fact you’re out here is the dumbest thing you could do right now. Second, he said he wasn’t going to kill her yet, so pull yourself together and figure out a plan. Dumb shit,” I added under my breath. “And third, this family is getting crazier and crazier by the second so no matter what you had said or done differently, Meredith would still be in danger right now.” I said exactly what I knew was true, since I knew Meredith meant a lot to Jay already, despite the odd circumstances that brought them together. The thought stung in an odd way but I quickly brushed off the feeling and reminded myself that Meredith mattered to both of us. And Rory was using her as leverage.

Jay brought his lower lip between his teeth, his frustration rolling off him. Each muscle in his body seemed strained, his tension seeping into me, setting my teeth on edge. “Sorry,” he hissed. “I just have obviously never been in a life or death situation where the life in question wasn’t my own. What the hell do we even do at this point?”

I followed his gaze back to the house in the clearing, seeing the front rooms had been dimmed and flickering light indicating the television had been turned on. The rest of the house remained pitch black. “Unless their all pleasantly watching TV together with Meredith and my unconscious body, I think it’s safe to assume there’s a basement.”

Jay snorted but chose to disregard my sarcasm. In fact, through the rapid loss of daylight, I could see him visibly relax at my lame attempt to make light of the situation. I had learned in our short time on good terms that the only way to help Jay’s stress or fear was to make him laugh or angry. I was much better at the latter, but that was beside the point.

 What impressed me was how far we had come in a week, from borderline ripping each other’s throats out to cheering each other in a very dysfunctional way. I internally laughed at the thought of telling me a week ago that Jay Carmichael and I were actually incredibly similar. It made sense that we loved Meredith so much, we needed her gentle soul to balance our harsh personalities.

“This is so like a spy mission, only this time we’re not assassins and we have no clue what the fuck we’re doing,” Jay grumbled quietly. “On that note, my professional opinion is that we break into a back window.”

“Will I be able to get in there?” I asked, my voice laced with uncertainty.

After contemplating for a minute, Jay just shrugged. “Worth a try, innit?”

We crept through the yard, the dead, spring grass crunching under our shoes. As we circled to the rear end of the house, I was struck by the size. Up close, it was clear the house was huge, looking about three stories with hefty square footage on each floor. I couldn’t why one creepy man would need so much space.

Unless Karen and Rory lived here to, I thought to myself.

“Here,” Jay’s whisper drew me over to him. He was standing at a back window, peering into the dark room. The sun had gone down completely, providing him with the protection of night time. “The first floor in kind of high so I’ll have to find something to step on. It sucks you can’t touch people, I could just boost you up.”