That day, my friends went home, leaving me with my parents and cousin. I gave up on searching for my brother and sat on my porch and watched as the police were investigating what happened. The thought of the boy at the house came to my mind again. It could have been just a hallucination, but if it wasn't.....
Forget it, it's not important. The fire was just playing tricks with your mind that night. I thought. But why, I felt like my mind was wrong and that I did see a boy that night. Nico came outside and sat beside me.
"What's up?" He asked me. I stared at the police cars as they drove off. I thought about the call on the school field.
"Nico, why was my dad asking you and Karma where I was?" I asked him. He looked at me, confused.
"What do you mean? Your dad didn't ask us where you were." Now it was my turn to look confused.
"If he wasn't asking for me, why did you call me?" He looked at me with an even more confused look.
"What call? I didn't call you the whole day."
"Wait. If you didn't call me, then who did?" Nico shrugged.
"I don't know. Anyways, I found out where Karma is. I think." He said, changing the topic. I raised my eyebrows.
"Really? Where?" I asked him. He got up and went inside. I followed him inside. He went to the table where we were practicing for our upcoming exams. He picked up his phone and showed it to me. There, on the screen was a map with a red dot blinking at the centre. I stared at the dot, confused. "Which house is that?" I asked him.
He looked at me with a grim look. "The one house we never thought Karma would ever go to again. The Solstace house." He said, fear rising in his voice. I looked at him, terrified as well.
"Why would he ever go there? I thought he said he would stay as far away as he could." Nico shook his head.
"I don't know. What I do know is that we can't go there until morning." He whispered. I looked at him, confused.
"Why are you whispering? There's nobody to hide from." I said loudly.
Nico shook his head again. "You don't understand. If your dad finds out what we're doing, he will tell my dad and we'll both be grounded for life." He whispered loudly. I nodded my head slowly.
"Alright. I suppose you're right." He nodded. He looked at the clock hanging above the couch in the living room. He muttered something under his breath.
"I should be going. You want to continue talking about it after dinner?" I shrugged.
"Sure. Why not? That is, if I'm free. Mr. Abe love's giving us homework that could make Einstein go mad." He chuckled and went to the entrance. He opened the door and looked at me.
"You wanna try at nine? That would give you enough time to finish your homework." He said. I smiled as he left, because I had already made a plan in my head.
~~~
(8:52 pm) You
Hey. You here?
Nico_Asuna (8:53 pm)
Hey. You finished early. What is it?
(8:53 pm) You
Meet me in front of my house in two minutes.
Nico_Asuna (8:54 pm)
Okay. Why?
(8:54 pm) You
Just come. I have an idea.
Nico_Asuna (8:55 pm)
Alright. But before I do, what is this idea?
(8:55 pm) You
When you get here, I'll tell you.
I paced back and forth while I waited for Nico to come. I checked the time. Nine thirty-two. I frowned.
I looked up and flinched. Nico was right there, standing not one foot away from me. I backed up a bit. He looked behind him and then at me. "What's wrong?" He asked me.
"How did you get here so fast?" I asked him. He looked at me confused.
"What are you talking about? I got here in twenty-five minutes. Anyways, what is this idea you have?"
I smiled. "We"-I pointed at both of us- "Are going to the Solstace house. Now." His eyes widened.
"Are you mad?! Why in the world would we-my bad, why would I ever go there now after what happened the last time we were there at night?!" He looked at me as if I was crazy.
"Lower your voice. And yes, we are going to go back inside. If Karma can go in there after what happened to him, why can't we?" He looked at me with shock while I walked in the direction of the house. After about two minutes, and chased after me.
"Wait! Don't think that because I didn't say yes doesn't mean I wouldn't come!" I chuckled and looked at him.
"And you said I was a coward." He frowned at me, but said nothing. The house was only two blocks away from my house, but it seemed like a father. We didn't even reach one block before Nico started to get tired.
"Why couldn't we have gone in the morning? Why did we have to come now?" He groaned. I rolled my eyes.
"Like I said, Karma might go somewhere else if we go in the morning. And besides, we already finished the game, so we'll most likely not be attacked by any other monsters." Nico stopped abruptly and cocked his head at me.
"When did you ever say that?" He asked me.
I sighed and continued walking to the house. When we were only two houses away, Nico gave up and made me drag him to the house. "Of all times you were capable of murdering others, I didn't expect this from you now." He still said nothing.
"I still don't see why we couldn't wait for the morning. I mean, what if he comes back in the morning? That would be amazing." I ignored him.
"What are you doing here?" A familiar voice said. I turned around and yelped. Mune and Jay were standing there on the porch of Solstace house.
"We should be asking you guys." Nico said confidently. Jay smirked.
"You first." We tried to get through them, but it was like fighting with fire. Jay and Nico were arguing nonetheless, while I explained to Mune why we were here.
When Mune was telling us why he and Jay were, both Jay and Nico stopped arguing. They looked out the window. Inside was a light; small, yet bright light. We all looked at each other, confused.
"I thought this house was left to rot after the fire." Nico said, staring at the light as if it was something much more than that. Jay's face turned pale.
"What if it's the dead souls of the Solstace family? Do you think they realized we were here and might try to kill us?" He said, fear rising in his voice. Mune rolled his eyes.
"If that was so, they wouldn't need a light. Besides, ghosts don't exist. Obviously someone-probably Karma-is inside with a flashlight or candle and heard you two"-he pointed at Jay and Nico- "arguing like mad." We watched as the light came closer and to the door. We all ran behind the trees nearby except for Nico, who found a crack below the porch and hid there. I stared as a boy about my age holding a flashlight looking around.
"Hello?" He said loudly. He looked in my direction. I hid. I heard him come closer. "Hello? Is there anybody there?" I watched as the light came closer in my direction.
"I know you're there. Quit hiding and show yourself." He sounded so confident. I took a deep breath, and revealed myself. He flinched when he saw me, but he kept a brave face.
"Oh. I thought you were someone else."
"Sorry. It's just that I was looking for my brother and found him here. In your house, in fact." He smiled.
"You must be talking about the boy who came by. No, he left shortly after." I frowned. Nico said he was here. How could he have left that fast?
Karma might have gone somewhere else during that time. I thought.
"Okay...Sorry for disturbing you." I said, slowly walking back. The boy also left and as soon as he closed the door, Nico and the others came out of their hiding places.
"What did I tell you?"Nico said, frowning at me. "He might've gone somewhere else."
Jay stared at the house, confused. "I don't get it." Mune looked at him.
"What do you mean?"He asked.
"I mean, the whole neighborhood knows that this house is cursed. And then this guy just shows up there. I don't get it." Mune shrugged and continued to walk with us.
Only Nico seemed to stay there, staring at the house. We all stopped, and I looked at him and frowned.
"What now Nico? I thought you said you were right. So why aren't you coming with us?" I asked him. He didn't answer. He just went around the house to the backyard. We all watched as he started to climb the house, not making a sound as he did. We stared at him as he reached the top and slipped into a crack in the attic window.
"We should follow him before someone notices us." Mune said. We all agreed and followed him into the house. Nico looked at all of us, his eyebrows raised.
"I didn't think you guys would actually come." He said, looking at all of us. He shook his head.
"That doesn't matter though. We need to find the lever to open the attic door." With that, we all searched for the lever. It seemed like hours, but somehow, Jay found it.
"Found it!" He said. We all gathered around him as he pulled the lever. The ground in front of us opened, and a staircase slowly crawled down to the second floor. We all made our way down, Jay at the rear as always.
I walked downstairs while the others tried to close the attic door. I looked through the living room and froze. Inside were two people; Karma and another kid. Karma was sitting on the couch at the far left, bandages wrapped around his forehead and on his hands to his elbows while holding an empty cup in his hands. Sitting across from him was the boy who said he didn't know where Karma was.
Karma frowned. "I still don't understand why you stopped looking for me, Vanitas. I mean, couldn't you have asked the people around you for help or something like that?" Vanitas shook his head.
"I did. I asked as many people as I could, but no one seemed to know anyone that matched your description. That's why I stopped, because I couldn't find you." He said. He sighed, and headed to the kitchen. He stopped halfway, and looked at Karma. "Promise me you won't tell anyone about this, please."