Up There



  Up There

  K. Massari

  Up There

  by Karen Massari

  Copyright 2014 Karen Massari

  This eBook is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locals or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

  He stood on the first step and looked up warily. Shifting his weight, from his toes to the balls of his feet to his heels, he could make the wooden board creak. A lot of them were creaky; the house was old. How old it really was, no one seemed to know. No one wanted to talk about it. Tyler frowned. Did he have to do what Dad’s new girlfriend said? The last one had left after only six weeks. And then, all the rules were changed.

  “Hey, where are you?” she called.

  Her face appeared in the door frame. Tyler raced up two steps at a time.

  “Stop! Don’t go up there!”

  Danielle came running up the stairs after him. She was fast, much younger and more agile than the last one.

  “Tyler, please don’t do this.”

  He knew the upstairs better than she did. ‘Better than she will ever know,’ Tyler told his bear.

  Last night, they had held a family conference in the living room, and Dad and Danielle had wanted to sell him the idea that 10 year olds do not have grimy stuffed bears. They had wrapped it in a dark plastic bag and left it on the back seat of the car. Just like that.

  Tyler jumped out of the left front window and onto the top of the porch. He climbed the flimsy fir tree like a monkey and pulled himself onto the roof in no time. Danielle would never guess where he was. He sat on the roof with his bear, listening to Danielle’s increasingly panicky voice. Munching M&Ms, Tyler gazed down upon the neighbor’s swimming pool.

  He liked the way the water moved, how he could see clear to the bottom. There was no one in it, and a beach ball floated lazily towards the ladder. Tyler wanted a pool, too. But his dad said they needed to wait a bit. Every time Tyler wanted something, it seemed Dad’s answer was: “Not now.”

  He could no longer hear Danielle, and when he looked down, sure enough, there she was, across the street, her arms folded over her chest. “I just called your father, he’s on his way!” she yelled up. When he did not react, she added: “Come down here. Now!” Tyler flipped her a very small middle finger. He cradled his bear in his arms.

  Stretching his legs, he admired the bright orange sunset. His dad would do a lot of yelling, but at least he would know he was there. Then Danielle would drive home instead of staying the night, back to her apartment, where she belonged.

  It would be safe for her, too. There was something wrong. At first Tyler thought he was doing it. He got angry sometimes, and it was such a strong feeling, it started to live outside of his head. That was what he thought. But then, he heard things, even when he was not angry. He hadn’t told anyone yet, not even Dad. Dad was always complaining how much work he had to do, how he had so much on his plate. Tyler hadn’t wanted to bother him – with “stories”.

  It wasn’t much, really. It was just … there. And real. More real than life.

  Tyler heard the whoosh and thud of a car door being slammed. Dad was home. Danielle was filling him in. When Tyler peeked over the encasing of the flat roof, he stared directly into his father’s eyes. But it was okay. Dad wasn’t totally angry, just medium angry.

  So Tyler stood up, dropped the bear and yelled:

  “I don’t know how to get down anymore!”

  His father held out a hand. “Stay calm,” he said flatly.

  “How did you get up there?” Danielle called out.

  Other neighbors were gathering, folding their arms, talking quietly, murmuring. All eyes were on the front wall.

  “I was scared,” he said. And in a softer tone, barely audible:

  “This place is weird.”

  “Move to the back of the house, slowly, I’ll get the ladder,” his father said and headed towards the garage.

  “Do you think that’s a good idea?” Danielle asked. “Don’t you want to call for help? You’ll break your back.”

  But Tyler’s dad ignored her. He had a plan.

  Tyler sat down again, daydreaming as the sun set further. It would take a while for them all to carry the ladder out back and put it in place. No rush there. There were many voices in the street below, much commotion, and Tyler could make out a word here and there. “Boy is up there.” “Where?” “On da roof.” “THAT house?” “Oh yeah.” “How long have they … here.” “The dead girl.”

  Tyler felt like scratching himself. His skin was suddenly itchy all over. What he had seen, in the smallest room of the house, was, amazingly so, female. And even though the girl looked weak and had the consistency of a hazy cloud, there was strength in her and – a force. Stronger than anything Tyler had ever felt in his life.

  Once a bully had punched him after school, and the blow had sent him reeling backwards, and shocked him with its raw brutal power, not even that strong. The girl in the house was much stronger. But was she really dead? Maybe she just knew the house well enough and knew where to hide.

  His dad’s voice woke him from his reverie. Tyler got up and ran to the back; his father’s face was coming up over the bricks, concern written in every line on his forehead. “Tyler, are you okay?”

  “Sure, Dad.”

  But Tyler could not suppress a few tears. He wrapped his arms around his father’s neck.

  Robert Matthews was a tall, strong man, 29 years old. His young son jumping at him and hugging his neck with fierce love sent him teetering backwards. The ladder flew a foot or two, but he pushed it back towards the wall of the house. His girlfriend Danielle and a sturdy neighbor were holding it down on the ground.

  “Son, be careful now,” he muttered. With the boy clinging to his neck and chest, he slowly descended the ladder. Tyler was choking him. Robert blindly stepped down as fast as he could. When they were on the ground, there was cheering and clapping. Tyler and his dad bowed gracefully, smiles on their faces. Tyler glanced briefly back up to the roof, and for the length of time it takes to bat an eye, he thought he saw a white figure standing in the window. He brushed his hand against his temple. The image was gone.

  ~ ~ ~

  Danielle had thrown together some sandwiches and mixed a salad. Along with a large bowl of potato chips and orange juice, the three of them sat quietly eating in the garden.

  Dad was looking at Tyler, but with a hint of amazement, not scorn or anger.

  “What were you thinking, Tyler?” Danielle blurted out, no longer able to keep her concern hidden. “Why were you running away from me?”

  Tyler nodded his head up and down playfully.

  “Not you. I was not running away from you.”

  “No?”

  “Did you want some time to yourself?”

  Tyler frowned. He decided not to tell them just yet. It was scary.

  “Yeah, I had to talk to my bear.”

  Danielle and Robert burst out laughing, and Tyler laughed along.

  “One of these days, I’m gonna throw that dang bear in the neighbor’s pool!” shouted Robert happily, after a beer or two and a long day. Even though this was not necessarily funny, Danielle and Tyler laughed along. They did not notice the pale girl watching them. The pale girl with the dark eyes. She was not happy, in fact, she was seething with ill will. She stood at the window of the top floor in her white dress which had been torn to shreds years ago, and watched them.

  Danielle suddenly felt cold. She draped a sweater over her shoulders and looked at Tyler, raising her eyebrows. He shrugged. “Let’s go inside,” she said softly, and reached for his hand. But he dodged the gest
ure, and ran inside alone. Robert smiled weakly at his new girlfriend, who had been hurt by the rejection.

  The pale girl looked down on them and smiled a black, crooked toothed smile.

  “No, you won’t,” she whispered.

  “No, you won’t love each other!”

  ~ ~ ~

  It was late at night, and Robert was still awake. Cradled against him, Danielle slept, mumbling and twitching. An old tree branch somewhere scratched against the outer wall of the house, rasping like the voice of a lost soul. At times, it sounded like a muted whip.

  Robert decided to get up and check on things, he couldn’t sleep anyway. Tiptoeing to the dresser, he put on jeans and a T-shirt. He slipped into comfortable shoes. Trying to make as little noise as possible, he rounded a corner and tread lightly up the stairs. There was a light, and at first he thought Tyler was fooling around with the flashlight again. He followed the circle of illumination, and it led him to the front of the house. Then the light vanished through the left front window. Was it Tyler … again? Climbing the fir tree out front to the roof, in the middle of the night? What had gotten into the boy …

  Robert heard a scream, of a girl or a woman, but it sounded so far away. He saw images in his mind, of a blood filled mouth, of shards of glass, of angry people, many of them. He heard the sound of clothes being torn, of someone being beaten. When he got to the window, he peered out onto the porch, but all was quiet. The fir tree was swaying slightly in the wind.

  Piqued by curiosity, Robert considered climbing out onto the roof of the porch himself in search of the mysterious light. But he thought better of it. He was tired, still drowsy. It was easier to just check on Tyler. If he was not in his bed, Robert could still consider the possibility that he was on the roof all the way up there again.

  Tyler had chosen a room for himself above Robert’s bedroom, a large spacious room. Sometimes he slept there. Robert opened the door which was ajar and peeked in. Sparse light flooded this bedroom from the street lamp outside. There was a lump on the bed, and Robert walked quietly to the bed just to check. Tyler’s blanket covered a heap of clothes. This was not good. The boy had gone wandering.

  As Robert turned, a figure quivered in the doorframe briefly, but it was such a fleeting impression, Robert was not quite sure he had seen it. And he was so very tired. ‘What am I supposed to do?’ he thought. ‘Scream?’ He hurried quickly to the staircase and descended. The steps creaked under his weight, and if Danielle woke up, it was okay. Tyler not being in his bed could be serious. Checking the living room area around the TV, Robert did not find Tyler sleeping behind the couch, either.

  He found a rumpled Danielle in the kitchen.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked, the irritation evident in her voice.

  ‘If Tyler keeps this up, she won’t stay with me for long,’ Robert thought. Snuggling against Danielle’s body, he apologized.

  “I am so so sorry for this, Dan,” he said softly. “This crazy old house, my son. I just wish I could make it better.”

  Danielle said nothing, fighting back the tears and shaking her head.

  “I’m just tired, that’s all,” she said, and her body stiffened in his embrace, despite her yearning for his touch.

  “Let’s go find Tyler, and then get back to sleep.”

  ~ ~ ~

  In the yard, which was very dark, a pale light was shining towards the back, where Robert had recently hammered the old boards of the high wooden fence firmly into place. There was a wrought iron gate there that led into a swamp.

  Behind the light was Tyler, walking a dazed kind of walk, bear in one hand and a windbreaker dragging on the ground in the other. Robert called out to him, but he did not react. Danielle was faster. She raced past Robert with a maternal instinct come to life, and just when she got to Tyler, grayish dead ghost hands snatched the boy from her and whisked him away through the gate.

  Danielle, shocked, fell to the ground. When Robert reached her, her eyes were open, but she did not respond. He looked in the direction Tyler had been kidnapped. He had not clearly seen what had happened. He had seen a female figure.

  He was not so sure this was a ghost.

  When he had taken his first tour of the house, the real estate agent had told him the story of a drug addict who had lived here. Robert had not bothered listening. He just needed a place to stay. The creepy old house was a close commute to his office. And it was cheap. Plenty of room and a yard for Tyler to play in.

  Now he wished he had been more careful. Maybe this person was out of rehab? Released from prison? Robert was furious beneath his fear. He needed his sleep. He was tired of all the drama.

  “Dad!” Tyler screamed, somewhere ahead of him in an undergrowth of tangles and weeds. Robert would be risking a fall in the darkness. The ground was wet and deep in places. As he stood in the gate, Robert wondered what his best course of action would be. Return to the house and call for help … pick up Danielle … run after Tyler and his kidnapper – while there was still time …

  Robert bolted forward. The faster he tried to run, the more he felt a sticky wetness rising through his shoes to his pants legs. The faster also the pale light which seemed to engulf his son flashed forward. At the end of the swamp, a light went on in one of the few houses. Robert stumbled twice but managed to steady himself. A branch whipped into his face. He was out of air.

  He was certain the woman was headed towards a car with Tyler. He felt a sharp searing pang of pain at the thought of never seeing the boy again. Despair dragged him to his knees and brought tears to his eyes. He had to keep moving. His strength, however, was gone.

  ~ ~ ~

  Tyler kept thinking: “Let me go! Let me go! Let me go!”

  At first he had been too shocked and too amazed; he was flying through the air. He knew this woman, this girl. She lived in the house. And she was very strong.

  With an unrelenting icy grip she flew forward with him in her claws at an incredible speed. Her long fingernails were digging into his flesh in places like talons. Tyler wished it were all over, and he could sleep not in his bed but next to Dad. The new place they lived in now was spooky. He only felt completely safe when he was next to Dad at night.

  They were moving through the swamp - the swamp even his teacher had told him never to play in – and up ahead a light had popped on in a house by the street that bordered on this piece of undeveloped wilderness. A heavyset man came lumbering down his few steps to the sidewalk. Scratching his head, he was wearing only shorts and loafers. He had a confused, what the hell expression on his face.

  With a thud and a moan, Tyler landed at his feet. The strange icy woman was suddenly … gone.

  “Hey kid, are you okay? What in the world was that about?”

  The man looked annoyed. His hair was unkempt, his face scrunched together – he must have been sleeping.

  Out of breath and panting, Robert Matthews caught up with his son.

  “Oh my gosh, oh good Lord …” he whispered, his voice barely there, as he collected Tyler in his arms and squeezed him.

  “Mister, what is going on?” the heavyset man wanted to know.

  “I have no idea,” Tyler’s dad answered.

  “Did you see that woman?”

  “I saw something, beats me who or what it was.”

  Robert nodded wearily.

  “Want me to call the cops?”

  “No.”

  “Sure?”

  Robert needed sleep. He vowed to check into a hotel or motel with Tyler the next day. By the time the police arrived on the scene, the sun would be up. And besides, what to tell them. He needed just one hour, or two hours, of sleep. He could barely stand.

  “I’m sure. Thank you and good night.”

  “Good night.”

  His next decision was to either walk through the swamp again or to walk around it. For the sake of speed, Robert carried Tyler through the swamp as quickly as possible.

  He did not find Danielle
on the ground anymore. He found her in bed, sleeping the deep sleep of exhaustion. He placed Tyler between them, set the alarm and collapsed on the bed.

  ~ ~ ~

  Tyler woke to a bright beam of sunlight. Its warmth felt soothingly good. Next to him, Danielle was wrapped in a blanket in a fetal position. Her face was swollen. He felt love for her somehow. She had given it her all to save him, just like a real mom would have. With his little hand, he traced the curve of her chinbone. She wouldn’t stay. She would leave like all the others. Tyler put a hand gently on her shoulder and said: “Please don’t go.”

  Later, while sipping coffee, Danielle and Robert hardly talked. There was a passionate kiss for goodbye, though, and there was love in her eyes. Tyler could see it. When Dad dropped him off at school, there was love in his eyes, too. It had been a long time since Dad had really, really looked at him, and cared that much.

  Throughout the day, Tyler watched the clouds fly by in the sky. He managed to listen to everything his teacher said. He liked school. He played with his friends, and forgot most everything about the night before … until school was over. The sky turned abruptly dark, and he felt an uneasy knot forming in his stomach.

  “The dead girl is waiting for you,” a wicked voice in his mind threatened.

  Then it all came back to him. The thought of a desperate woman hiding somewhere in the house, perhaps not dead, but gone insane, was freaking him out. He wanted to call Danielle at work, he wanted to stay with his friends. Somehow, he was suddenly alone, walking the short distance from school. Everything was as it always was, as it had been the few short weeks since they had lived at their new place, which was the creepy rented out old house a few blocks away.

  Tyler swallowed hard. He would have run to the corner store if the clouds had not promised rain. He heard thunder rumbling, and compared to that, the house was not quite as bad. If he stayed downstairs, with all the lights on, at least until Danielle came home, maybe he would be all right. He could turn the radio on, too, and the TV, and the computer. If he had them all running at once, he could block out … the bad things. And … her.