A Recollection of Ideas: A Series of One Shots

I sighed, putting turning the music up just a little louder. My parents had left the house hours before to jet away on a trip to the Bahamas.

It’s a business trip! They said.

Just for a month! They said.

You’ll be fine! They said.

I had just wished them luck and watched them drive off. Nothing more happening from that. They told me I would be fine and I believed them, I truly did. All I was worried about was figuring out what to do for the month they were gone.

I could go swimming. The local pool was open this summer and the cool blue waters were calling my name. I couldn’t wait to dive into the deep end, letting the bubbles rush around my head in a frantic escape to the surface.

Or I could listen to music and nap in my hammock out back. Under the shade of the old aspen tree, I could easily drift into a soothing world other than reality. I can plug in headphones and drift off to sleep. Oh yes, that sounded amazing.

Or I might be able to hang out with Kellin, one of my good friends from school. He always loved to walk around Main Street on Sunday. The farmer’s market was open and many of the local residents had their own wares to sell. You could find anything from peach honey to wrought iron chicken sculptures.

But for now, I was stuck listening to music off my computer and taking care of all the dishes left in the sink from lunch. Shutting off the silver faucet, I went to the refrigerator, fishing out a string cheese to nibble on. A note caught my attention.

Cass, don’t forget to brush your teeth while we’re gone and don’t let Kellin eat all the food this time. Love you!
-Mom and Dad

I chuckled as I closed the fridge. Kellin ate all the food last time my parents were gone and my mom was always worrying that I would forget little tasks such as brushing my teeth. I wouldn’t, I told her that!

But she was always worried, like mothers should be.

I took the string cheese and set in on the counter before going outside into our garage. We had an outside fridge with some cold drinks in it. I pulled out a Monster and returned. Something was missing. I eyed the counter suspiciously.

The string cheese was missing.

“Well, that’s odd.” I muttered to myself under the music. Some My Chemical Romance was playing. Had I not taken the string cheese out? No, I had…I had…

Cracking open the Monster as the song changed, I went to go get another cheese stick. This time, I opened it and took a bite before taking a sip of my energy drink.

“I swear that teenagers scare the living shit out of me!” Gerard sang. I licked my dry lips, contemplating the string theory, or rather, the missing string cheese theory.

I set my bitten into string cheese on the counter before going outside, pretending to water the plants for a little bit. I returned two minutes later, returning to the counter.

The string cheese was there, laying in the exact same position. But I swear another bite was taken out of it…

**

Later that night, I was up watching some Netflix. I was watching House M.D., to be exact. I loved the show and House’s sarcasm. I was constantly switching between loving House and his sass or hating him and his Vicodin addiction and how it messed up his life.

Moral of the story: Don’t get addicted to pain killers, kids.

The lights were all dark in the house, the windows and doors locked, and I felt somewhat safe. Dr. Cuddy and Dr. Foreman entered the scene. Cuddling underneath the blankets in my living room, I yawned sleepily. It was somewhat late at night.

Creeeeaaaaak….

I jumped at the soft, long sound that came from a back hallway. All nerves stood on end. I paused the episode, breath catching in my throat. I swear it sounded like one of our squeaky doors opening up in the back of my house.

But no one was home…

Okay, enough Netflix for tonight. It’s getting kind of creepy.

I shut off the TV and used all my will power to stop myself from sprinting to the top of my second floor and slamming the door of my bedroom behind me. When I finally reached my bed, I curled up deep under the covers, only having a little, miniscule pocket of cover open for me to breathe.

It took forever to fall asleep, but when I finally did, it was an uneasy rest.

**

It had been a week since my parents had gone.

The creepy noises and occurrences had never ceased.

Three days ago, the fridge was suddenly lacking in milk.

Two days ago, the piano lid was open.

Yesterday, I heard a few notes tapped out before ceasing into the night air.

This morning, the newspaper was just inside the entryway of the house instead of at the bottom of the driveway like normal.

Kellin had stayed with me a couple nights ago after I begged him to help me watch the house. He had left as soon as the morning sun came up. I guess it was just too creepy for him.

This afternoon seemed quiet. I wanted to put on some music, but I wanted to hear in case something else freaky was going on at the other end of the house. Currently, I sat on my couch in the sunroom right across from the kitchen. I couldn’t decide if our house was haunted or there was a constant visitor in the middle of the night. Was it a person or a horde of rats?

Could I catch the creeper?

Come on, you can do it! You can figure out what’s going on. Maybe if you solve the puzzle, it’ll stop…I eventually convinced myself. It took a while, but I devised a plan to try and figure out who (or what) was haunting my house

I set out a cheese stick on the counter again. This particular haunt had a fondness for cheese sticks. I would sometimes find just little bits of string cheese left over on the counter.

I set the cheese stick on the counter and went into the pantry, keeping the door open barely an inch. I checked, making sure I could see the kitchen counter. After assessing that my judgment was correct, I slowly exited the pantry and turned on some music.

“What a good day for some Bring Me the Horizon. What should we put on first? The Suicide Season album? Or perhaps the Sempiternal album? Yes, I like that one.” I said to myself as loudly as I could to attract the possible attention of my visitor. After turning the music on as loud as I thought was needed, I went over to my back door, opening it and closing it to sound like I was leaving.

On silent feet, I crept back to the pantry, situating myself behind the door, looking out the slots to see the kitchen counter.

I waited and waited. Two, three, four songs passed by. Right as Empire started, a figure appeared from the edge of my vision. It crept along, no, it didn’t creep.

It limped along the edge of my vision.

The shadowy figure had a ripped up light turquois shirt on with brown short cargo pants. His right arm was tattooed, his head low and swinging around like a wild animal. His hair was messed up, like he had been in a bar fight. He was taller than I was. I was only eighteen. He had to be about three years older than I was, no, two years. Yes, two years older than I was.

I watched him slowly approach the counter, his head turning to the sound of the music. There was a soft huff of approval before his hands closed on the cheese stick. As soon as it happened, I jumped out of the pantry door, ready to confront my attacker. My hand was on my phone, three numbers already dialed in. All I had to do was press call.

The boy’s head whipped around to face me, his eyes scared and frightened. He took off down the hall, quicker than I thought possible. The kid had swift reflexes, but I was just as fast.

I chased him down, ready to lock him in a room for me to call the cops.

I turned the corner, watching him disappear into my parents’ bedroom, favoring his left leg. I noticed little spots of blood splatter on the floor. I paused long enough to let him get in the bathroom. I slowly cursed myself for getting too distracted.

Had this kid gotten into a fight? What had happened to him? I just want to know and I mean, he hadn’t done anything bad within the last couple of days. He was just trying to feed himself and he had even brought in the newspaper this morning!

I heard soft whimpering, or maybe sobbing, coming from the other side of the door. Looks like he had locked himself in there with no way to get out.

“Hey, are you hurt?” I asked slowly, making sure to stand against the wall, just in case he came charging out from the other side of the door.

No answer, just little whimpers.

He had looked like a hurt puppy when he invaded my kitchen.

“L-look, I w-won’t call the police if you come out and tell me why you’re in my house.” I bargained. I peered around the wall to see if the door had opened. Nothing.

The whimpering had stopped, but there still was no response.

“Are you okay?” I asked softly. It was if he had gone mute. The doorknob slowly turned as the lock clicked back. A kid stepped out into the open, scanning the area like he was afraid I was about to pounce on him. I stepped out behind the wall, looking at him curiously.

His eyes met mine and I could see him freeze up. His eyes were a blue green color, like that of a wild sea. He had small gauges in his ears and his hair was matted with confusion and fear. We stood six feet apart, just assessing what one another would do next.

I looked up and down his body. His shirt was torn in multiple places, revealing bruises and scars and cutes. It was obvious he was favoring his left leg, keeping most of his weight off of it. A large, bleeding cut ran from just off the corner of his right eyebrow down to the base of his ear.

“Why are you here?” I asked quietly. The boy’s lip quivered. I raised an eyebrow before pointing to my phone. “I’ll call.” I threatened. He shook his head, shoulders hunching up in anxious terror.

“No, please! Dad hurt me. He got drunk and beat me. I ran away to try and stay safe, but then when I came back, he beat me again. He was sober the second time. I had nowhere to go and no access to food. I’m sorry I stole from you. Please forgive me.” A tear streaked down his cheek, mixing with the slow moving blood. I softened up. What parent would do that to a kid?

“What’s your name?” A moment of silence passed before he collected himself, wiping his eyes with the back of his wrist. A smudge of blood streaked his pale skin.

“Justin Hills.” He mumbled. Clearly this kid wasn’t much of a talker. I took a few steps towards him and he seemed to take a few back.

“Come on, Justin. Let’s get you cleaned up.” I offered. A whisper of a smile ghosted his face before disappearing. The boy followed me into the bathroom again. I pulled out a cloth and some bandages from the medicine cabinet.

Wetting down the cloth, I gently pressed it against his face, waiting for the bleeding to stop. He shivered at first before closing his eyes with contentment.

It took a while, but I managed to bandage him up. He was bruised from head to toe and his left ankle might have been sprained. Unfortunately, I’m not a doctor so I wasn’t exactly sure what was wrong.

“Thank you, Cass.” He mumbled. My mouth opened to ask how he knew my name but then I realized that he had been in the kitchen enough to read the note on the fridge with my name on it.

“No problem. Justin, do you have some place to sleep? There’s a storm coming in over the next few days and I don’t want to send you back out onto the streets.” I asked him. He shook his head. I took his hand, dragging him off the bathroom counter and out to my living room on the big couch.

I pulled out some blankets from the hallway closet, throwing them on the couch. It was late in the afternoon, but I wanted to make sure he had a place to sleep tonight and I didn’t forget to put blankets out.

I left him along until later tonight. He kind of just rested on the couch. I offered him water, which he greedily drank as if his life depended on it. I was constantly back and forth between the fridge and Justin, giving more and more water until he sighed and left it on the coffee table next to his makeshift bed.

I was in athletic shorts and a tank top, going up to bed. It had started raining and now that I didn’t have to worry about the mysteries going on in my house, I was anxious for a goodnight’s sleep. My bed was huge and warm and next to the window so I could watch the lightning gallop and race across the sky.

I lay down in bed, curled up under my covers, chin tucked against my knees. The soft booms of thunder cannoned me to sleep. I sighed and let myself be taken away from reality for a while.

I dreamed.

And dreamed.

And dreamed of that boy.

But my dreams ended.

BOOM!

A particularly large crack of thunder echoed over the sky. The lightning flashed as the rain pattered against the roof. The rain wasn’t hard and fast, but the lightning and thunder were particularly loud and bright.

I opened one sleepy eye. It was about twenty three minutes after midnight. Gosh, only three hours of sleep so far. I sighed and laid back down. The thunder sounded like it had been going on for a while.

BOOM!

Another clash of thunder and streak of lightning made me open my eyes. Groaning, I rolled over away from the window and faced my open door and the darkness of the floor below me. I’m sure Justin was sleeping through this just fine.

No, I hear whimpering.

A figure scurried up the stairs. I jolted awake, my half lidded eyes flying open as the figure darted into my room. He ran as fast as he could with an injured leg. Justin skidded short of my bed, heavy breathing a sign of his growing anxiety.

“C-C-C-Cass….” He stuttered, barley able to get the word out. Reaching up, I fumbled for the light that clipped onto my bed stand. The dim bulb let out a glow that made us both blink.

“What is it, Justin?” I asked. He was dressed in an extra-large green shirt that I had and was in some boxer shorts. His eyes pleaded, rimmed with frightened watery tears.

“Can I sit with you for while? I hate thunder.” He admitted softly, just as a loud whip pierced the sky. He ducked his head into his folded arms. I sighed and peeled back the covers, invent him to crawl in. As soon as another lightning bolt flared across the sky, he dove into bed next to me, right as the thunder echoed, slightly dimmer this time.

Justin dug his head into the pillow, hiding his face from the world outside. I felt kind of bad for the kid. He was afraid of thunder and had no family to comfort him. At least I could do my best to help him out.

I rolled over onto my side to face him. I reached up and clicked off the light. I could just barely see the outline of him in the darkness. I could see the lightning light up my room and the rain fall harder and harder. As soon as the light flooded my dark room, I threw my arm around the boy, as if I could shield him from the outside world. He curled up, snuggling against my body, head buried in chest as the thunder boomed.

I intertwined our legs, making him a part of me. I knew the feeling of being desperately afraid of something. I put my other arm out, wrapping him tighter against me as the thunder droned on. I ran my fingers through his tangled hair as his breathing evened out. I pulled the covers over us, letting him be enclosed in comfort. Moving my other arm under his head, he settled into the crook of my elbow. I nuzzled his shoulder affectionately with my thumb. His arms slowly wrapped themselves around my waist, gripping onto my tank top tightly. A sigh escaped his parted lips. Even though the storm outside was relentless, he didn’t seem to shake as much. I ran my fingers from the top of his head down his back, slowly letting him unwind.

“Thanks.” He murmured. I put my chin on top of his head as I felt him squeeze me tighter.

“You’re welcome.” I whispered back into his silky hair. Justin fell into an easy sleep as did I. All I could think about was the boy holding on to me tightly and how I could be lucky enough to have helped him.

Notes

This is for my good friend PiercetheKatt! Hope you loved it :) I had tons of fun writing this and I'll be turning this into a story, but it won't be with Justin. I'm going to have it with Jaime, and the plot will be only slightly different, but it's going to have the same idea!

I'll be doing the other one shots soon enough, I'm a little busy this afternoon, so I'll either stay up really late to get them done tonight or I'll do them tomorrow! Thanks for everyone who has been waiting!!

Don't forget to keep on requesting!