Braylan checked Jayden's message after returning back. He had nothing to do. For sometime, he simply sat, doing nothing, then he started pacing around the house. He could strongly feel some presence in the house. It was making him restless. He paced around the house for 30 minutes, then he started pacing his room. He wanted Jayden to return. He didn't want to be home alone. He was really restless. He drank cold water to calm himself but it had no effect. He had a weird hollowness in his stomach and it was definitely not because of hunger. He walked back to his room and sat on the bed. After sometime, he felt sleepy, so he decided to take a small nap. He wasn't actually asleep. He was aware of his surrounding and he was sleeping as well. He heard the front door open and shut, footsteps climbing and some shuffling sounds. After that, he heard some weird scraping sounds. He was struggling to wake up. He used all his willpower to open eyes.
"BRAYLAN! " Jayden shouted and he snapped out of his slumber. He went to see what happened, but when he asked, he replied nothing. He wasn't even looking at him. He rolled his eyes at him, saw what he was staring, muttered 'Thanks jerk! ' and returned back to his room. But his mind was bit with him. A question that was repeating in his head was "Why did Jayden call him and why didn't he even acknowledge his presence when he went there? Why was he staring his schoolbag as though it had a poisonous snake in it? " He took the bearings of his room. He had tossed his blanket in the hurry and the bedcover was all wrinkled. He started tidying up the room, thinking all along, about the incident that took place a few minutes ago. He heard footsteps coming towards his room. Probably Jayden was coming to talk or something like that. But the footsteps stopped abruptly. He turned around to see why Jayden had stopped, but to his surprise, there was no one in the hallway. He poked his head , but the hallway was empty. "Imagination. Its in my head! " He said.
An uneventful hour passed and finally, Jane was home. Braylan was relieved to have his mother around him. He was feeling the Presence stronger, but neither Jane nor Jayden seemed to feel anything. He didn't disclose his fears and tried to act normal.
"You are kinda early. " He said.
"Yes we made a deal quite early. " She replied. Then something clicked in his mind.
"Mom can I go to Samuel's. It's not that late you know. " He asked.
"Yeah, but be back soon. " She replied. He dashed towards his room, grabbed his laptop, wore his shoes and dashed out of the house. He stopped for a moment to catch his breath and then knocked Samuel's door. It was Samuel who answered the door. The boys climbed the stairs and reached Samuel's room. Samuel's cat was lying on the rug. She had so much fur and if it wasn't for the fact that she was white and the rug was red, Braylan would have stepped on it. Braylan opened his laptop.
"So two or three days ago, I started feeling a presence. I can't explain how. But it was someone other than our family. First I ignored it. But now I just want to make sure if there is something or not. " He explained, opening the footage. To his surprise, there was nothing out of ordinary. It was weird. "Sorry for bothering you, dude. I better leave." He said.
"It's fine. You can come here whenever you want. " Samuel replied. He smiled and left.
The dinner was ready. Marco was home a few minutes later and they sat to eat. Braylan didn't know what was going on. He was absent-mindedly playing with his salad. He heard Jayden laugh and Marco said something. After a minute or so, Jayden shook him and he turned towards him.
"Dad asked you something! " He said, looking directly into his eyes. He turned towards his dad-
"Are you alright? " He asked.
"Yes Dad! I am just tired. Today we had presentation and I slept late yesterday. " He said the truth, but not the complete truth. He had no proof about the existence of the Presence and when everything was back to normal, he didn't want to ruin it. After dinner, Jane said him to go to bed, so he went up early. The upper floor smelled like it had been closed for years together. He wrinkled his nose in disgust and pinched his nose with his hand. He took a spray of air freshener and sprayed it all over the floor. It made the smell more disgusting. He went to bed, breathing with his mouth, trying to keep the dinner in his stomach. The smell was so strong that he could almost taste it. He was on his bed, but sleep seemed miles away from him. He was thinking about his day. It was a pleasant day until he returned back to home. Their presentation was second best. First was done by a group of four. So everyone said that they deserves to be first as they were less members and better work. But who cares? The presentation was awesome and then there was a kid, Henry Martin. It was his birthday. He distributed chocolates and his mom had sent cake and sandwiches for the whole class. Even though he was known as the spoiled brat, he was a good kid who knew how to respect others. He wasn't the 'I-own-the-world-because-my-parents-are-rich' kind of brat. His parents got him everything and of course they celebrated his birthday twice. Once at school and second at home. They had a lot of fun. All of them made a huge wish-you-happy-birthday card. He was happy and they enjoyed making it.
He was lost in thoughts when he heard footsteps he ignored them and then his mom came in his room to check on him. He pretended to sleep. He heard footsteps here and there but now he knew that they belonged to real, living humans.
How very wrong was he. All four if them heard the footsteps but each of them assumed it to be someone else from the family. No one was walking but footsteps were echoing in the hallway. They died after a while and everybody slept peacefully, not aware of the nights that were coming ahead and the dangers that were lurking in their house. Not aware that it was going to be too late after a few days. It was best for them to sleep peacefully when they could as there were many sleepless nights waiting for them ahead.
They were fast asleep and hence no one noticed the smell that filled the house. It was the smell of wet clothes not dried up properly. They slept unknown to all of this. Braylan shuffled in the bed uncomfortably, but didn't wake up. He was in deep sleep, yet he was uncomfortable. The temperature in the house has dropped at least 5 celsius and Braylan was cold. He wrapped his comforter around him tightly and shrank to the size of a ball. It was a bit better. He didn't wake up until the morning alarm.