175 Years

That Night

"Macy, please, recall the night the incident took place once more. You and Leo had become well acquainted with each other, right? How did the chain of events lead to the unfortunate episode?"

Over the next few days, Macy showed Leo a few other houses. Some she had been to before that were safe enough to revisit. Others were mostly little shacks that had been forgotten about on the outskirt of people's property.

To the relief of some, they had toned down the PDA after the first day. In public at least. Their time alone together became less about painting, but, according to Leo, "It hadn't been about painting for awhile now."

Macy decided to leave the painting to him as he seemed to be the one with more talent.

On this particular night, her and Leo were planning to go visit a new house on the county line far out of town.

Leo had been painting beforehand since it was something he'd put aside since him and Macy got together.

It was never Macy's intention to put him off his hobby, they just got easily distracted in each other.

It neared dusk, and Leo finally decided to start wrapping up his painting.

Macy had been laying on his bed, mindlessly clicking away on her phone. Putting her phone down as she watched him start cleaning off her paintbrushes, she rolled onto her back and threw a hand behind her head. "Will you paint me like one of your French girls?"

The childish grin on her face probably screamed the opposite.

Chuckling, Leo walked over to the bed and pulled her by her legs towards him. Climbing gently on top of her, he placed a kiss on her nose.

"Tease." She said, flipping him off of her and standing up.

"Ditto." He begrudgingly pushed himself off the bed and followed her towards the door.

As they headed out the church parsonage door, Leo's dad stopped the two.

"Leo, oh, hi, Macy. I didn't realize you were here."

"Hello, Father Chambers."

"Where are you two going?"

"We're just going out on the town." Leo said, holding the door open for Macy.

"Make sure to stay safe." The priest said, never breaking eye contact with Macy.

The comment was unnerving. Leo pushed Macy through the door, not having any response.

Less than an hour later, the sun had set and the two came upon the heavily wooded area that the address led to.

"I don't see an abandoned anything anywhere." Leo said.

"Sometimes, you have to search the property for it. It might be a small little thing."

Flashlights sweeping across the property, Leo and Macy made sure to stay near each other to not get lost. The woods were extremely heavy for the small town, and, Macy didn't want to frighten Leo, so she didn't tell him that she never had to hunt this far before.

As Macy's flashlight explored through the foliage, Macy quickly caught sight of a flash.

The hairs on her arm stood up.

It wasn't like anything she had seen before. It was two eyes. Red eyes, glowing from the dark.

"Leo, Leo.." She tugged on his arm quickly. "Look, do you see that?" She asked. But when she turned back, the eyes were gone.

"I'm sorry, Macy. Nothing that I can see."

Macy refused to let go of his arm, dragging her hand down it to clutch his hand tightly. "I'm thinking we should turn around.."

"Wait, I see something!"

Macy gasped, worried it was the eyes again. Thankfully, it was the little cabin they were hunting for. Although, Macy had really strong urges to turn around and forget the place.

Leo led her to the cabin. It was just a little shack. Almost like an outhouse, but there was no toilet.

The floor was scattered with leaves, debris, trash.

There was nothing even photograph-worthy that Macy saw, as she kicked around the leaves.

"Macy.." Leo's voice dropped deep to seriousness.

She walked over to where he was standing, and he quickly moved his flashlight.

"We need to leave."

"Wait, what? What happened?"

"We need to go."

"Leo, what's wrong?"

"I can't. It's too.."

"Leo, what!" Macy flicked her flashlight to where he refused to let her see.

He was right.

She couldn't handle it.

Her ears rang, blocking out all the noise, and Leo's insistent demands to get her out of there.

Her eyes had never seen something so horrid. Gruesome. And she was never one to be bothered by blood.

The sight of a mostly decomposed body sticks with you though. Even as she closed her eyes, running through the woods, she could see it in her mind.

The only sound that brought her back from her thoughts was the sound of fast rustling trailing behind them.

"Leo, Leo. I think something's following us!"

"Then don't look back, Macy. Just focus ahead." The obvious strain in Leo's voice hinted at his fear. She could tell he was trying to stay strong for her though.

Even when she started lagging behind out of breath, he never let go of her hand or pulled her along. They ran, Leo always making sure Macy was right beside him.

Macy didn't know how long they were running, but it was longer than she had ran in years. Cuts from branches as they were running weren't visible until they neared the closest diner that was at least a mile down the road.

"Leo, I—I.." Macy couldn't comprehend what just happened. It almost seemed like a lucid dream. Maybe it wasn't at all what they saw and it just looked like what they thought was a dead body.

But then Macy remembered the smell. Not able to make it to the nearest trash can, she doubled over and threw up everything that she had for dinner.

"Macy," Leo's hand rested on her back as she doubled over. He carefully lifted the hair out of her face. "Macy, it'll be okay. Let's.. Let's go inside."

Leo wrapped his arm around her once she regained composure and escorted her inside.