October 2023 Fiction Project: The Witch House – Oct 15

I have my hand on my chest. My heart feels like it’s knocking on the insides of my ribs, going “Let me out! Let me out!”

My head hurts.

My lips are shivering against each other.

My arms and legs are twitching. My whole body hurts from being scared and tired.

I feel frozen, I’m so cold.

The end of my nose is dripping from being cold and crying at the same time.

My tears feel dry on my cheeks.

My knees are against my chest.

The scratchy wool blanket is scratchy where is rubs on my arm.

Lola is on the couch and she is shaking. She still has her shoes on. Dirty snow is dripping off them and onto the carpet.

I unplugged the glowing green lamp but it didn’t stop glowing, so I moved it into the laundry room.

I turned on the TV and there was some show where people were laughing at each other and Lola made a terrible noise, eeee, so I turned the channel and it was The Creature from the Black Lagoon. That was okay, she didn’t make the noise, I left it there.

I am sitting on the floor.

Lola’s forehead is next to my ear.

It feels hot. She is sick.

She can’t eat or drink anything. She threw it up.

Mom and Stepdad Dave are upstairs fighting.

They don’t know she’s here.

I rescued her from her house, from the cardboard box in the basement, and carried her piggyback all the way to Stepdad Dave’s house through the tunnel that isn’t really there.

It was cold and it was dark and I couldn’t see anything and I was crying the whole time, following the ghost cat.

The ghost cat was not really there either.

I’m going to go upstairs and try to get medicine for Lola’s fever.

I have to be brave.

I am brave.

💀

The stairs creaked while I was trying to go upstairs.

Mom and Stepdad Dave both stopped shouting at the same time.

I said, “Sorry.”

Mom said, “David. Get out.”

Stepdad Dave said, “This is my house.”

I went up the rest of the stairs quickly, but before I could get to the bathroom, Mom put her head out from the kitchen and looked up at me. I almost threw up, I was so scared. She had on another bright headband, a different color this time, and a new sweater. She looked cute.

Mom said, “Jayla, get your backpack. We’re leaving.”

I was scared to go with her. I couldn’t forget about the black thing in her mouth when she was standing above my bed. I knew it wasn’t a dream and I wasn’t seeing things.

I said, “I don’t feel good, Mom.”

“Jayla!”

Stepdad Dave said, “I’ll go. You stay.”

He stepped out of the kitchen and looked up at me. There was a red vee-shape on his forehead from being angry. His eyes were squinting and blinking quickly.

“Jayla. Look after your mom.”

“Okay. Okay, sir.”

Mom said, “Don’t even think about going upstairs. Just get out.”

As soon as Mom looked away from me to glare at him I went into the bathroom and closed the door and turned on the fan. Then I bent over and threw up by sticking my fingers down my throat.

A few minutes later, Mom knocked on the door.

“Jayla? Are you all right?”

I wiped off my mouth and flushed the toilet. Then I washed my hands and face and opened the door.

She looked worried and sad and tired. “I’m sorry, Jayla. I didn’t mean for us to raise our voices at each other.”

“Are you okay, Mom?” I asked.

Her eyes squinted down at me. “What do you mean? I feel fine. I feel better than I have in a long time.”

I don’t like to lie. Lying is hard. I don’t like it.

I said, “Stepdad Dave didn’t do anything bad to you, did he?”

Her mouth opened in an O.

“No, baby. He didn’t do—we’re fighting. I’m angry at him.”

“Okay.”

I needed to get back downstairs so I could give Lola some fever medicine and some Gatorade. The Gatorade was in the kitchen pantry.

I needed to make sure Mom didn’t find Lola.

I didn’t think I could tell any more lies tonight.

I took a deep breath. “Mom, can I be alone for a while? That was a lot of yelling and if I don’t calm down, I’m going to be sick again.”

She looked sad. “Okay, baby.”

“I’m going to go downstairs and finish watching my movie.”

“What are you watching?”

“The Creature from the Black Lagoon,” I said. “It’s on TV.”

Mom said, “Hug?”

I started to cry. I couldn’t help it. I didn’t want to hug her.

She took a step back from me and there were tears in her eyes, too.

“Okay, no hug. Do you want anything?”

“Can I have a Gatorade to help settle my stomach?”

“Would you rather have a ginger ale?”

It sounded good.

“Can I have both?”

Mom went back down the stairs. They creaked under her feet. She trailed one hand on the railing. She has orange fingernails now.

“Jayla?”

“Yes, Mom?”

“Do you want some crackers? Some saltines? To help settle your stomach?”

“No.”

She went downstairs. I got medicine out of the cabinet and shook out six pain medicine capsules, then looked in the drawers under the sink until I found a package of flu medicine, the powdered kind that you’re supposed to put in hot water. I put them all in my pocket.

Then I brushed my teeth.

I stopped at the kitchen on my way downstairs. Mom was cleaning the stove. She had already left the drinks on the counter for me. She didn’t look at me. She was cleaning pretty hard, the top of her head lower than her elbow.

I took the drinks and went downstairs.

Lola was watching the movie. I sat next to her and made sure she took two of the capsules and drank some Gatorade.

Then I let her lie down again. She put her forehead against my ear. Soon she was breathing deeply.

Then she was asleep.

💀

After a while I started to freak out that Mom would come downstairs to tell me to go to bed and find Lola. I didn’t know what to do.

Just as the movie was ending, Stepdad Dave crouched down beside me. He smelled like snow, like coldness and snow, the mostly dry kind.

He held a finger in front of his lips, then pointed to Lola, then upstairs.

I nodded.

“Wait here until the movie is over,” he whispered.

Then he lifted Lola up and went upstairs without making a sound.

I only have a few minutes left until the movie is over.

I’m going to look through the rest of the basement and see if I can find Mom’s box.