Mirror Eyes end of 2 and all of 3

[bucketopolis.livejournal.com]

Hey guys, 

you said you wanted to hear a bit more.. so heres a bit more the end of chapter 2 and all of chapter 3... opinoins are welcome.. as long as their nice! haha.. jk... sorta. hah

PS. I'm total crap at actual grammar so please forgive me.

Sitting on my bed I turned over each event that had happened that day. First, the boy at his locker. Why did he look at me like that? Now, a new house, well, a fixer upper. I’ve heard of this Bract Manner, supposedly a wealthy family lived there many years ago until the mother started claiming the devil was in love with her. He was going to make her his bride or something, can you imagine, the queen of Hell? Creepy. Then a couple days later the whole family disappeared, leaving the house and all their belongings. I remember the house was some sort of museum but it lost all its funding and shut down, where it’s housed crack addicts and Satan worshipers ever since. I made up my mind that I would take Guy tomorrow and we would check out this Bract Manner.

----

“Are you crazy?” Guy snapped when I told him my plan the next day during lunch. He wasn’t as up for adventure as I was.

“Guy, what’s the big deal? I’m going to be living there in a week.”

“And I’m going to miss you.”

“And, what exactly does that mean?” I scowled.

“Girl, do I look like a Blair witch fan? I won’t be coming there. Creepy things happen. You guys are going to turn into the Addams family in there. Pretty soon your sister’s going to sound like Lurch.”

I gave Guy a dirty look and said firmly, “Fine, if you’re going to act so homosexual I’d rather you not go. There’s nothing worse than a scared gay man.” With that I stood up from our lunch table and stomped away.

Sitting in my next class, chemistry, I felt eyes on me, I looked next to me I saw that it was Ralph Dickson, who Claire dubbed “tasty”. I smiled politely at him and tried to send “stop staring at me beefy” with my brain. He smiled more broadly and even gave me a nod with his eyebrows. What did this guy think he was doing giving me bedroom eyes? Was he drunk?

Right then my cell phone buzzed, I looked down at my pocket then at Ralph, he gave me a nod. I opened the cell and saw I had a new text.

H R U QT?

It was like he was trying to communicate with me, unfortunately I was horrible at speaking letters.

What?

I sent back. He laughed when he read it.

Wait for me after class.

He replied. I gave him a quick nod and turned my attention back to atoms.

After class I was walking out the door and I heard Ralph yell, “Hey, Cadence!” I had “forgotten” to wait for him, so I slowed down and waited by the door. When he walked out he gave me another dazzling smile, “How are you?” he asked.

“Fine, how are you?” I asked awkwardly.

“I was wondering what your plans for this evening are,” he asked.

“Oh, you know, exploring creepy abandoned houses my parents decide to buy and move into.” I said casually.

“Oh yeah? That sounds awful dangerous, you might need some extra muscle incase ghosts jump out and scare you.” He mocked, “Maybe that extra muscle should be me. Yes, it defiantly should be me,” he said smiling and giving me a gentle nudge.

“Wow, you actually want to go with me? Don’t you have some crazy awesome man stuff you have to do tonight?” I said and nudged him back.

“Nothing I can’t reschedule,” he stopped and looked right into my eyes, “come on Cadence, are you kidding, danger, excitement, and possible romance?” He gave me a wink, “Besides, this way we can get to know each other. I’ve been noticing you for a while, and I don’t know if you want to hear this, but, you’re totally cute.”

I actually blushed, not many boys had asked me out, and those that did I’d talked out of it by dangling my sister in their face, erasing any crush on me and developing outright devotion to Claire.

“Well,” I said eyeing him, “I suppose a little backup might not be a bad idea, Bract Manner, 4 o’clock?”

“I’ll see you then,” he said after looking in my eyes for a moment more. He turned and walked down a hallway to his next class.

The rest of the day my attention span was gone, I was analyzing whether or not I could actually like Ralph, if he was compatible. He was quite handsome, with blonde hair that had a slight shag style. He was built well, and had a little extra tone from playing football but not enough muscle to look like his arms were swollen balloons. His eyes were gray and kind, and his smile was broad with teeth that gleamed white. Ralph had the trendy style of polo shirts and expensive jeans that were professionally torn. He was a poster boy for everything all-American. He was smart and ranked high in our class but on the other hand, he was a big partier. He was in all the classic drunk stories, either playing the main character or supporting role. Actually, I’m pretty sure he dated Katelyn Stillwell; whose dad, conveniently, owned the carwash that Ralph worked at. She had left for college in the fall, but I didn’t know they had actually broken up.

As I walked towards my locker I saw a familiar body leaning against it. Guy had his puppy dog eyes turned up and handed me a homemade card in the shape of a cupcake. Inside the card said, “For you I’ll never be a scared gay man. I’m sorry, let us make amends with a lap dance.” I laughed and hugged Guy.

“I’m willing to go with you,” Guy said shyly.

“Don’t worry about it, Ralph is accompanying me,” I said nonchalantly. Guy’s eyes almost bugged out of his head.

“Ralph Dickson? You mean King Keg stand? How did this happen?”

“I have no idea,” I said shaking my head. It seemed like I had bought a one-way ticket to the twilight zone.

  “You know the drill girl; call me if any action occurs.” Guy thought he was privileged to any juicy details about my life. Unfortunately up till now nothing remotely interesting had happened.

When I pulled up to Bract Manner Ralph was standing by his green neon. He was dressed in dark jeans and a forest green polo shirt. He looked pretty, I laughed at that thought as I got out. He came up to me and gave me a high five.

“Did I win something?” I asked puzzled.

“No, I think any lady who ventures into a house as creepy as this alone deserves some kind of award. Thus, a high five.” He smiled and winked at me.

I turned to look at the house and my breath caught in my throat. I was glad Ralph thought I was brave before because looking at this house now, I knew I would never go in it alone.

It was white plantation style house with a wraparound porch with broken planks every few steps. Most the windows were broken and the few that weren’t were spray painted black. The lawn was overgrown and sprinkled with trash left by people who had passed by. The door was spray painted with a red pentagram and a red hand print that smeared to the left, giving the effect of smeared blood.

“And to think, my parents thought this was a bargain.” I said to myself. I got my flashlight from the passenger side seat and headed towards the door. Ralph slowly followed behind with his own flashlight.

The door was locked; I produced the key my mother had supplied me with. I felt the soft clank of the lock and the door creaked and I swung it open. It was now or never. I gasped as the open door revealed a large pallor. The walls were once a dark purple but now had faded into a mixture of purple and mold there was a grand staircase to the right and long hall on the left that lead to the rest of the house, the staircase was missing most of its steps and the rail was split in half with half still holding on and the other half laying on the ground. A coat rack was directly on the left of the door and a large trunk that had a bolt lock on it sat next to it. Clothes still hung on the coat rack, they looked old and torn. I clicked on my flashlight and looked at Ralph, he was still looking all around with his jaw dropped, and I grabbed his hand and lead him down the hall.

“Come on stud,” I said.

The first door was on the left, we opened it to reveal a study there was a big desk in pretty good condition except for the fact it had a couple layers of dust. It was covered in papers and open books. The walls were all bookshelves; books were sporadically placed on them. The floor was covered in an old red imprinted rug that curled at the edges. It had a large black spot in the middle.

“Very Sherlock,” commented Ralph. He was right, I could see this being a place you’d come to sit down and solve mysteries.

He pulled me from the door way and pulled me into another room. It must have at one time been a sitting room, there were several broken chairs and tables, a large cough with springs sticking up sat against the main wall next to yet another fire place, the window frames were very long reaching from the floor to the ceiling, there was lots of light, there was also gross dolls that had been mutilated and hung from the ceiling by nooses. The floor was wood but had so been so banged up there may have been one or two good planks left.

“Very cozy, this room just screams party doesn’t it?” Ralph said in a gay tone as he dramatically walked around the room.

“Hardy har,” I replied dryly.

“Oh now I just love this décor,” Ralph continued, “mutilation is just so hot right now,” he paused, “what’s that over there?” he said finally dropping the gay accent. I looked to see what he was talking about and there lying in the corner half hidden by a broken piece of wood was something shiny. Ralph walked over and picked it up; he looked at me and said, “Close your eyes.” I looked at him skeptically and slowly shut my eyes.

“If it’s something creepy like a necklace strung with human teeth, you will pay.” Suddenly I felt something being pinned to my shirt; I opened my eyes and saw that it was a broach. It was silver and in the shape of an eagle with two heads that has its wings spread. The feathers on the wings are detailed with purple gems and the eye of the bird is a bright green jewel. It was stunning.

“How could something this beautiful survive in a place like this?” I asked, I looked up at Ralph and he smiled at me, “thank you.” Ralph lifted my hand a placed a kiss on it, “no, thank you.”

Ralph continued to stare at me; he was trying to figure out if I wanted to kiss him, unfortunately, I was trying to figure out the same thing too.

“This almost looks like some kind of family crest,” I said quickly pointing to the broach, drawing attention away from the ideas of kissing.

“I think these colors mean something,” I paused, “I’m not entirely sure but I’m pretty sure the purple means royalty.”

Ralph was paying attention to my lips but not to what was coming out of them, all of a sudden the room seemed very small and Ralph seemed way too close.

“Cadence,” Ralph took a step closer, I could smell his cologne. He placed a hand on my cheek and leaned in towards my face. My mind was swirling with thoughts, wasn’t it proper not to kiss on a first date? Was this a date? Could I make my mind remember what it was like to kiss? Besides a few random games of spin the bottle in middle school I hadn’t done too much kissing.  Just as Ralphs mouth was mere inches away from mine I heard a loud crash, we both looked at each other and headed toward the noise.

It came from the hall; a mirror that was hanging had mysteriously fallen off and broken into millions of shards. My face reflected into all the broken pieces on the floor, I saw the kitchen door swinging in the reflection and looked up to see the kitchen door still. All of a sudden I knew the mirror had not fallen of its own accord.

“We should go,” I said to Ralph, “We’re starting to lose a lot of daylight and I have nothing to clean this mess up with.”

“Yeah,” Ralph agreed.

Ralph walked me to my car and opened my door for me.

“Can I take you out to dinner tomorrow?” Ralph asked coolly as he held open my door.

“Oh, I can’t, me and Guy kind of have plans tomorrow, and it’s sort of like a weekly ritual.”

“That’s ok. How about Friday then?” Ralph persisted.

“sure.” I said smiling.

Chapter Three

Every Thursday for the last four years Guy and I have been going to the local Green Fin Bar for karaoke night. At first it was just a practical joke, but over the years our love for karaoke grew and became a real passion. Maybe it’s the cheap thrill of local drunks chanting our names, or the choreographed dances we perform, but I really think the main attraction is that Claire goes with us and gets just as wrapped up.

Wednesday night is spent deciding the theme, you know, so the crowd knows what’s about to go down. Last Thursday we did a country western theme, tonight we all decided on 80’s love ballads. Guy arrived at my house around 7:30. He strutted through the door in classic white parachute pants, a tucked in blue shirt complete with suspenders, and a hairdo tribute to flock of seagulls. He entered Claire and I’s bedroom and assumed a classic 80’s lean against the doorway pose. Claire busted out laughing and congratulated Guy with a high five.

“Simply brilliant,” Claire awed. She had decided on an acid wash jean skirt complete with jean frills and white tights, an off the shoulder/midriff shirt with New Kids on the Block on the front and concert dates on the back, one of Caleb’s old shirts before he was old enough to know boys who like boy bands is frowned upon, a pony tail on the side of her head and all the rubber bracelets she could find. The overall image was Madonna mixed with Tiffany.

“Oh, but ladies, you both are treasures to behold,” Guy said excitedly walking up to Claire and hugging her.

“Look at you Miss Benatar,” Guy said ogling my outfit. I laughed; it was true I had gotten my inspiration from Pat Benatar’s You Better Run video. I was wearing a red and white striped shirt with a red belt in the middle of my stomach, true 80s style, and the cheesiest leather pants the local thrift store had to offer. They clung to me and felt like wearing extra thick hose, I completed the look with red hoop earrings, trashy red high heels, and the broach Ralph gave to me.

“All in all, I’d say were about to rock the crap outta this.” I said in a cheesy rocker tone. We grabbed our things and headed to the living room. The twins were huddled around a stack of papers and whispering to each other, when we walked into the living room they stopped and looked up at us with way too innocent eyes. Our mother was sitting in the corner at her easel putting finishing touches on a painting and our father was reading a book in his favorite chair.

“Look at my girls! And Guy! No one can pull off parachute pants like you.” my mother said cheerfully. Claire smiled brightly, Guy winked at my mom and the twins, I gave Mom a kiss on her cheek and we headed towards the door.

“Listen, while you’re both in here I want to remind you to be thinking about how you want to decorate your room, I’m going to start buying paint soon, and Saturday we’re all going to be heading over to the new house to start cleaning it up. Cadence, do you still have those keys?” My mother said quickly.

“Yeah Mom,” I said while halfway out the door.

“Well, I’m going to,” I never caught the rest of that because I shut the door quickly and we headed off down the road.

Lucky for us the Green Finn was located just a couple blocks down the road so we walked most of the time to save money on gas, (and people say teens aren’t responsible!) I turned and looked at Guy while crossing the crosswalk.

“What?” I asked smiling.

“Don’t act like you don’t know. When are you going to tell me about the hunky Ralph Dickson?” Guy said raising his eyebrows.

“Oh, that,” I hope they didn’t notice my blushing. All of a sudden Claire came to a sudden stop right in the middle of the sidewalk and thrust her hands out.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Did you just say what I thought you said? Ralph Dickson? My sister? Hunk?” Sometimes Claire has issues putting words into sentences, “The Ralph Dickson practically married to Katelyn Stillwell? Yeah, I believe that one.”

“Well, word on the street is they had a nasty fight last month and broke up,” Guy was always quick to defend my honor, “Besides it’s about time a decent guy like Ralph figured out he was in love with Cadence, now I wish another one would figure out he loves me!”

            “Ah, vell zen Miss Cadence it seems you’ve been very naughty indeed, yes, very naughty. Your sister is not pleased, no, not pleased at all. How vill you ever make it up to her?” Claire said in her most German sounding accent while making a steeple with her fingers. Apparently she was Freud now.

            “You guys act like he’s tattooed my name on his bicep, we’re having dinner tomorrow, that’s all,” Even as I said this I felt a wave of tiny shivers dance around my body at the thought of a date with Ralph, “the discussion is over.” I said firmly hiding a grin and pulling them into the bar.

            The Green Finn Bar is where forgotten people come to wallow in their self pity. A sad place really, except, they turn more into a crowd of star struck girls when we perform. It’s not like we’re stars or anything, with the exception of Claire, Guy and I can’t carry a tune but we sing loud and we dance without shame. What more can you ask for?  

The first time Guy and I ventured into the bar was simply because I dared him to, but knowing how afraid he was I went with him. So much for dares. The bartender wasn’t very nice to us, clearly, because we were under age but when we told him we just want to karaoke he let us stay. When we did an impromptu summer loving from Grease and our fate was sealed. The bar went crazy and we did every duet we could think of and even did a couple jazz squares.

I was usual the first to sing, as I got on stage I noticed most of the regulars had left their bar stool and sat around the five barely holding tables strung out in front of the stage area. The lights dimmed a bit and the first few notes of Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing began and I heard a few eager ‘Woo’s.

“Just a small town girl, livin in her loooonely worldddd,” I belted and so did most of the audience. I don’t know what it is but drunken people love Journey.

As I finished my last note and took a bow I was greeted by a wave of applause and woots. I couldn’t help the giant smile that danced across my face; I was a sucker for appreciation.

Guy was the next one to take the mike. He did an awesome rendition of Bad English’s When I See You Smile. He enjoyed singing to the ladies in the audience, even though most of them were drunk, toothless, and over 45. They ate him up and more than once had Guy been offered to go home with these high class ladies. His big finale he held his note out for an extra three beats and fell to his knees dramatically. All the women jumped up and cheered. Guy blew them kisses and exited the stage. When he arrived at the table we both busted out laughing.

“Dang,” was all I said.

“I’ve got the touch,” Guy said smugly as a pair of women slinked towards the table we were seated at.

“My god boy, if you were just ten years older I would eat you up,” one of them slurred and gave Guy a sloppy smile.

“I would eat you up right now, ten years or not,” the other one said pulling down the side of her shirt to reveal her shoulder.

“Ladies, ladies, you both know Cadence is my girl,” he wrapped an arm around my neck and pulled me in for a big cheesy kiss on the cheek, “sorry ladies, until this little lady leaves my side I’m afraid I’m off the market.”

They both gave me dirty looks and slinked back to where they came from, as they sat down one mouthed slut to me. Seriously, old women love Guy.

“Next time keep your tongue in your mouth,” I scowled at Guy. I turned to see Claire take the mike on stage and give the crowd her famous smile. Her face lights up when she performs, she truly loves it. Cyndi Lauper’s Time After Time began slow and steady and Claire began to sway to the beat. As she sang she did a slow interruptive dance that made it hard to take your eyes off her. Men and women started lining up by the stage to tip Claire. She usually made twenty five dollars on one song alone. She was a shining star stuck in a crappy bar, it almost made me sad. The song ended with her singing barely above a whisper. She bowed her head and everyone went nuts. I saw a couple of women holding each other teary eyed talking about when they were younger. Claire gleamed as she exited off stage. Two men brought her diet cokes instantly; she thanked them politely and brought them to the table.

“You are such a dirty little hooker,” Guy snapped, “Even if there were any cute men in here they wouldn’t be able to see me for you standing in the way. Take you diva ass on out of here.” Claire smiled at him and took his hand, “I’m sorry pumpkin,” She cooed, “It’s not my fault my ass looks awesome in this skirt!” She stood up quickly to show him exactly how good her butt looked in the skirt but as she moved her arm she had hit the soda on the table and sent it flying, where then shortly after it landed in my lap.

“Ah, crap,” I muttered, “I’ll be back in a minute.”

“I’m so sorry!” Claire said as she ran towards me, “that what I get for bragging,” she sighed.

“It’s alright, it’s not like tight leather pants are in style. I think you’re safe.”

As I stood in front of the bathroom mirror trying to wipe off the spilt soda I heard a noise behind me I turned around quickly to see a women looking at me confused. I could only imagine the look on my face as I looked down and saw I was in a karate pose. I apologized and turned back towards the mirror, the woman walked quickly out the door.

“Come on,” I stamped my foot, “dry!” I heard another stall open. I looked up and saw another lady around her mid 30’s standing there staring at me. She was wearing an old fashion pilgrim dress that was a dingy grey, her hair was hanging down to her shoulders and greasy, she also had a look of pure horror on her face. All at once she started screaming and pointing at me like I was trying to kill her. I turned around to calm her down but realized no one else was in the bathroom with me. I turned back to her; she had walked up to the mirror and was clawing at it. She then pulled back her arm and threw a massive punch at the mirror causing it to crack not only her mirror but the one I was looking in as well. I stood there a minute paralyzed by fear. What had just happened? I ran out of the bathroom as fast as I could and grabbed Guy and Claire.

“We’re leaving.” I said walking towards the door, “I have to go, NOW.” I was beginning to become hysterical.

“Are you ok, Cadence? You look pale.”
            “I’m fine Guy, I just have to leave now, you guys can stay if you want.” And with that I walked out the door and ran home.