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Thankfully, we saw no one, therefore no one could stop us, or me, from going. My mom drove us away from Montgomery Manor without another word, and I watched as the mansion grew smaller in the mirror on the side of the car, then disappeared entirely as we turned onto the street.
I didn’t know what to think. What had happened? Was Gareth involved? Had that motherfucker lied to me so well that he’d gotten me to believe him? Something had to have happened to make Erin and her family go into hiding without telling anybody, something really, really bad. I had no idea what it could be, but if Gareth was involved, I could use my imagination.
I told my mom where to go, following the GPS on my phone to the address Erin had given me. My mom asked no questions. Maybe she was just happy I’d made friends here in Eastcreek, because it wasn’t something I’d ever done before. I was always too busy with my art, being a loner, not bothering to try to make friends.
It was a strange feeling, being alone when you were in a crowd, surrounded by people. Strange to feel alone at school, while you were with a bunch of people your own age. Even when I was young, I’d never really had friends. In kindergarten, I was much more enthralled with finger paints than I was with community playtime or recess. Even from a young age, I’d separated myself from everyone else.
I’d known it nearly my whole life, but it wasn’t until my mom married Alistair and I met Gareth that I knew how different I was from everybody else. I used to think it was just because art had taken up my whole life, that it had swallowed up every facet of my being, but now I knew differently.
It wasn’t just that. It wasn’t just the art. I knew that now.
There were parts of me, dark parts I never let the world see, never let myself see, that had only recently begun to surface. Parts of me that could stare the devil in the eyes, witness his fire and fury and destruction and not even blink. Parts of me that were curious about things I shouldn’t be. Gareth had helped to usher these parts of me out, but he didn’t create them. They’d always been there, hidden, waiting for the right time to surface and make themselves known.
The address must’ve been on the opposite side of Eastcreek, because it was at least a fifteen-minute drive. Through winding roads that curved along the sides of hills full of trees; it was like a whole different world. More rural. Fewer houses. Absolutely no sidewalks. The road we currently drove on didn’t even have edge lines. We passed no cars going the opposite way as us. It was like this area of Eastcreek was deserted.
This was out in the boonies, for sure, and I couldn’t help but wonder why Erin and her family were out here. If things were really so bad, why not just leave Eastcreek entirely? Hunkering down within town lines seemed like a stupid idea, but what did I know?
After a while, we came upon the mouth of the driveway of the address Erin had given me, and I said, “It’s here.” The driveway was surrounded by trees on both sides, so heavily you couldn’t see the house it led to. The woods here were so thick, the trees blocked out the sun’s rays completely. It was like nighttime, even though it wasn’t.
My mom turned into the driveway, though she stopped ten feet in, just enough to get the car in the driveway so she could turn around. She looked at me, not saying a single word. She wanted me to get out, not even bothering to offer to drive me up to the house.
“Thank you,” I told her, unbuckling my seatbelt and turning off the GPS. “She said she can drive me home after.” A blatant lie; if my mom cared enough to pay attention, she would’ve noticed my phone never left the directions screen.
“Good,” she muttered. “Have fun.” My mom sounded irritated, like she itched for me to get out. She hardly paid me a spare glance, and that told me she’d already checked out. She didn’t offer to drive me to the door, not that I thought she would. She’d make me walk, because bringing me here had already meant she had to go out of her way for me.
My mom wasn’t the kind of mother who enjoyed doing things for her child. My whole life, she’d barely contained her hatred for me, the resentment she felt towards me clear. I was nothing more than a reminder of her past, of how old she truly was, of her failed first marriage. I wasn’t into girly things, not into making a brand for myself and becoming an influencer—something she could get behind. No, I was everything she didn’t want in a child. Weird. Different. Strange. Not once in my life had she ever let me forget it.
I got out of the car, said, “Bye,” and shut the door. I gave her a wave as she backed up into the road and drove off, and I waited until she was out of sight before I turned and started down the driveway. I texted Erin that I was here and coming up the driveway now.
My feet took me up the driveway, step after step. It curved and seemed to stretch for an eternity, going on and on. By the time I finally spotted the house around the last bend in the driveway, it must’ve been five minutes.
Erin hadn’t texted me back. My phone was silent the whole time, and I worried something was wrong.
I didn’t know what to expect, but as I approached the house, I could honestly say it wasn’t this. The house was a small ranch, nestled in between tall trees, with an unattached garage off to the left side of the house, a good thirty feet away. It was old, run down, possibly one of the worst-looking houses I’d seen in Eastcreek, its white siding peeling to reveal the original wood color beneath. The few bushes that lined the front of the house were overgrown, like they hadn’t been taken care of in years.
Who owned this house? Was it abandoned? Was that why Erin and her family had settled in here?
Heading toward the front door, an uneasy feeling swept over me. I checked my phone again, finding no messages from Erin. I noticed the windows had curtains drawn over them, so I couldn’t see inside the house, and the front door had no glass. The house was locked down.
I stopped when I reached the front door, and I pulled open the dingy screen door before knocking. “Hello?” I asked, not sure if anyone could hear me inside or not. “Erin, it’s me, Brianna.”
Nothing but the sounds of nature filled the air, chirping insects that had made their homes in the trees around the house and birds flying around. It was all very eerie, and a part of me wanted to step back, turn around, and leave—but I was already here, so I had to see this through. If Erin was in there, and she needed help, I’d never forgive myself if I abandoned her.
Just for kicks, I tried the knob. My hand curled around the old metal door knob, and I twisted it, expecting it’d be locked.
It wasn’t.
It turned open easily, allowing me to push the door open. I could see nothing but a black entryway, and I stepped inside, cautious as I said, “Erin? Erin, are you here?” The air in the house was stale, almost rank, stuffy and dusty, like it’d been sitting untouched, the windows closed, for an eternity. It was almost hard to breathe.
I walked inside, glancing all around. I tried a nearby light switch, but when I flicked it, nothing happened. The power wasn’t working, and with all the windows covered in curtains, it made it next to impossible to see.
It took a few moments for my eyes to adjust to the darkness, and once they did, I saw the hall I’d stepped into opened into a tiny kitchen on the left, and a small living room on the right. Further down the hall were two closed doors.
I turned to the living room first. Now that my eyes were a little adjusted, I could see an old-fashioned, boxy TV sitting in the far corner on the floor, the kind of TV that had been way, way before my time. A wood-burning stove was in the adjacent corner, a small sofa along the wall near it.
The room wasn’t that big, but maybe it only felt like that because of the darkness. So, I turned to the nearest window, wanting to open the curtains, but I stopped short, finding it wasn’t curtains pulled over the windows but instead sheets, nailed to the wall around the window.
That’s weird.
