The Haunting of Pruet Lane

Cricket songs swarmed the inky black night. Talise squinted, her eyes adjusting as she looked at a massive shadow looming in front of them. A dark path of overgrown moss and cement led towards the house they were supposed to spend the night in.

It was a dark and hollow night. A portal had taken Talise, her husband Stannin, and their boys, Roman and Vaughn, to this place for training. They’d work together and survive the night. Roman and Vaughn were too young enough Talise could trust there weren’t genuine threats inside the creaky walls of the house. Instead, it would be little critters and sounds that send shivers up your spine. Her best guess was that the mission was a bonding trip, more aimed at Talise and Stannin helping Roman and Vaughn through fear.

Talise could handle that.

Despite the chill in the air, Talise smiled towards Stannin. His curly hair, the shimmer of his chestnut eyes in the moonlight, and the stumble peppered across his jaw, were only the beginning of what she loved about him. He’d taken the boys in as his own when they didn’t have anywhere else easy to go. Sure, they were genetically Talise’s, but they were from another timeline and they weren’t Stannin’s by blood.

Bonding was something they all needed.

Talise headed up the path. As they crossed over a small bridge and a moat, the house illuminated with a dim purple glow in the windows.

“This is different,” Vaughns said. He walked up the hill. “Do all haunted houses have purple lights or just this one?”

“Why don’t you tour a few and get back to us about that?” Talise asked.

Vaughn turned to her. “Can we? For science?”

“Yeah!” Roman jumped up. “Unless this goes badly. Then…” He shook his head and took a step back. “No. I won’t be touring any haunted houses.”

“What if purple is an omen?” Talise said. “Good, or bad, or something. We don’t know until we go inside and find out.”

“Is it?” Vaughn asked.

“I guess you’ll have to research it and let us know.” Stannin wrapped his arm around Talise’s waist and kept the group moving towards the house. “For science.”

Talise leaned against him. “Let’s get this over with.” She hid her sparks—excitement, anticipation, and most of all elation that she was back on training missions after all the adjustments with the timelines merging.

Roman squared his shoulders and walked up the steps to the porch. The wood creaked beneath his feet. He hesitated a step from the door and looked back at them.

The door creaked open. Purple light burst outwards. There was a stillness, both from the house and from their group.

“Hello?” Roman asked. Stale air, dust filled and visible in the crisp night air, rushed into his face. Roman stumbled back and crashed into Vaughn on his way down the stairs. He turned around with his back pressed against Talise and Stannin. “Yup. It’s haunted.” He looked up at them. “Mission accomplished?”

It was Vaughn’s turn to be brave. He cracked his shoulders as he shifted them up, square and stoic. “That’s just a creaky door. Dad could fix that in two seconds with a spell.” He swallowed so loud Talise could hear it, then walked up two of the stairs. “Well? Aren’t you coming?” he asked.

“You go in first,” Roman said.

“It’s going to be fine.” Talise ushered Roman back up the steps and onto the porch. He moved to the side, eyes wide as he looked in the open doorway.

Stannin brushed his lips against Talise’s head. She turned to him and kissed him lightly before entering the house. The open foyer was covered in cobwebs that dangled down from the ceiling. She spun in a circle, a little fire on her body to glow for light and burn the webs away. “See? Nothing to worry about. It’s just a creepy house with some rats and mice and probably a racoon family.”

Vaughn entered next, then Roman, and finally Stannin. The door slammed behind him. “The wind,” he said, but they both knew there was barely a breeze.

Talise swallowed. Just a creepy house. “Yeah, it’s fine.”

Vaughn cowered against her. “What are those oogly eyes on the table?” his finger stretched out toward another room. Talise turned and followed his finger. On a wood dining table were dozens of black balls with white spots. Eyes. She forced herself to stand still, to not jump or move or even squeak a sound of fear. “Mmm.”

Roman charged into the room. “Those aren’t eyes.” He grabbed a few of the not-eyes and started walking towards them, wiggling the eyes. “Oooh, the eyes are coming for you.” They smelled of brine. Roman popped one into his mouth. “They’re olives.”

Vaughn sighed and went to the table. He picked a few olives up, eating them even though they didn’t know where they’d come from. “They pop like eyes.”

“Why are there so many olives on the table?” Talise asked. What she meant was who put a bunch of olives on the table? 

Vaughn said through olive-stuffed cheeks. “In case we got hungry?”

Stannin’s arm wrapped around Talise’s waist. He grabbed a few olives with the other hand. “Who’s hungry for eyes?”

“Maybe don’t eat those?” Talise suggested aloud. “What if they’re poisoned? Who put them here?”

Roman set the olives down. He stumbled back a step, dramatic. His hand flew to his throat and he gagged, choking on the olives. He fell to his knees. “I’m dying. I’m…I can’t breathe.” He reached his hand out towards Stannin and Talise, gasping. “Help me.” He collapsed completely to the floor, his face plastered against the dusty wood. He let out one last guttural sound that was something between a frog being squeezed between narrow rollers and a fish trying to breathe through its mouth at the surface of the water.

Stannin knelt by Roman. He turned him and began the Heimlich maneuver.

Vaughn, for all the brain cells he usually had, kept eating the olives like popcorn at a show.

As Stannin reached to force the blockage out of Roman’s lying lips, Roman burst out laughing. “Stop. Stop! I’m good.”

Stannin leaned back on his heels, a little stunned.

“You believed that?”

Stannin stood, quiet.

“Hilarious,” Talise said. She leaned into Stannin’s side. “The mission is to stay the night and see what’s here.” It would be easy now that they’d gotten Roman and Vaughn’s pranks out of the way. Unless they had other pranks up their sleeves, in which case the night was young.

Talise turned towards the table to examine the rest of the food—probably brought by Nell—when the lights flickered and shut off. There was no thunder or rain or reasons for them to have gone out.

“What was that?” Roman’s voice pitched, not the fake dramatic of dying but actually scared.

He was an excellent actor. Talise rolled her eyes. “A power outage?”

The air turned icy. Stannin warmed them with fire, but the air kept getting colder and colder. Like Niels having a panic attack, ice formed over every surface.

“This feels off,” Stannin said. “Different.” He tried to glow—so did Talise—but it was like the light was being sucked out of the room, and so their glow vanished into the murky depths of the room.

It felt more real, like it wasn’t another prank. “Um.”

There was a sound, like boots sliding across wood. Vaughn shrieked. He jumped against Roman, who was spinning. The two of them ran towards the door, but it slammed shut and clicked. They pulled at the knob, but nothing happened.

Stannin went into action, because even if they’d fooled him once, he’d rather be fooled a thousand times than let someone get hurt. He lifted Vaughn to his shoulders and Roman into his arms.

“Let’s get upstairs.” Talise moved, forcing her fire to illuminate the inky black.

“What if we die?” Roman squeaked.

“I’ll die first,” Stannin said. He got up the stairs and to the top landing. Something followed them, its body slick and heavy against the steps. “You can watch me die.” He set the boys down on the landing and turned to block the top of the stairs.

Talise ducked under his arms but stopped. She pulled Stannin away from the stairs and towards a door. The four of them filed into a small bedroom filled with an old creaky metal bed and dingy sheets. “No one is dying. Especially not before me.”

Stannin raised a challenging brow.

“I mean it, Stannin.”

“You can’t die, Mom!” Roman threw himself at her and held her. He turned towards Stannin. “Throw Dad to the wolves.”

Stannin glowed; Roman had called him Dad.

Something banged against the door. Together, they pushed an armoire to block the doorway. What did Nell want out of this and why hadn’t he done it himself?

No, that wasn’t very professional of her. Talise was here to do a job—train in whatever this would achieve, and then be amazing because she’d passed the training. She inhaled as the door shook and goo oozed across the floor from beneath it.

Suddenly, Stannin’s chin jutted upright. He howled, deep and guttural and hollow and harrowing all at once.

A return howl echoed through the house beyond the door.

Talise shivered. “Wolves? Gooey slime wolves? Or…Really?” She sparked.

There were more howls, a pack of them as they clawed at the door. Shards of wood cracked as the wolves ripped them away. More ooze flowed into the room like a flooded embankment.

“Run.” Talise went to the window and tried to pry it open.

“Mom!” Vaughn was inside a fireplace. He’d pushed some bricks aside and revealed a passageway. His fire illuminated a staircase.

“Everyone inside.” Talise made sure Stannin made it too, even though his face had elongated and his voice sounded like a dog whimper. He howled again.

“I’m not leaving you!” Talise pushed him inside the passage. She followed. Roman sat on the floor with his foot itching his ear. Vaughn helped her push the door shut, his fingers curling into claws.

The olives. It was the olives.

Vaughn sobbed. Roman wrapped paws around him. “I can take some wolves. I’ll save you, Vaughn.”

Stannin wrapped his arms—furry and heavy—around both of them. “Do we have travel packs?”

Talise shook her head. “He said make it through the night…we have nothing.”

The armoire burst from the wall as wolves flooded the room beyond the stone wall. Talise put her finger to her lips.

“Nell is…” Stannin’s neck strained as another howl threatened to bubble to his lips. He swallowed hard. “We’re going to have a talk when I get back.”

Roman leaned against Stannin. Talise went and joined them. They were themselves, even if they were turning. She had to help them hold on to themselves.

“Are we going to die?” Vaughn whispered.

Howls upon howls, a thudding, slither sound, screams….

“Yes,” Roman said.

“No.” Talise rubbed their backs. “No. We will not die. Not tonight.” This had to be a test, and there had to be something, somewhere, to counter the olives. “I promise I’ll fix this.” She glanced at the stairs behind them, narrow steps and a steep incline. “Let’s get up there.”

They made it to the stop, slowly, to avoid creaking the steps. When they got there, she barricaded that entrance too and looked for any other ways up. They were alone; safe for a moment.

She sat huddled with them at the top of some stairs, a small round window their only view of the world. Beyond it, the full moon was bright, illuminating the room with its glow. Talise got the boys settled and tried to stay quiet. They wouldn’t be able to hide forever, but they had a moment to rest.

She tucked them in, whispering soft lullabies in their ears, and then she went to sit with Stannin. While the boys shuddered into wolf form, their legs twitching with dreams. Stannin held on the longest. She ran her hands through the dense fur of his arms that ended in a padded, fluffy hand. “We’ll make it through the night.”

“Will you?” A voice said.

Talise looked around, but there was no one there.