CHAPTER VII: A HOLE FEET DOWN
Author's Note: For the new followers reading this—as I haven't updated since 8 months ago, welcome to the "House of Eugene," where 7 boarders live in a house with mysterious happenings. With individually-seen body parts tromping the regions around the house, and a caretaker for which everyone has nearly fallen in love with, this is sure to be a joyous yet enticing tale. Enjoy!
Paige looked up from her phone, her face aghast. "Eugene. His name was Eugene."The girls stared at each other, stunned. So many details were beginning to make sense. "So we are living…in the house of a murdered boy…" Paige whispered.
Her friend nervously smiled. "Let's not get carried away. Here, review the facts: A teen named Eugene died in 2006—6 years ago. This house is named House of Eugene…of course, 'Eugene' could be a common name," Rahie tried finding common logic to straighten her mind, though was wary by the second.
"'Perfect boy," Paige squinted, reiterating the phrase in the article describing the victim. "You don't think they meant Jerome's brother, do you?"
The older girl shrugged, still looking behind her back hoping Arabella hadn't actually gone to tell Jerome anything. "Jerome said his brother was a little kid when he disappeared—6 or 7."
"And you believe him?"
The girl stopped as she stood past the door. "I don't think so."
Arabella had discreetly knocked on Jerome's door in case he was busy attending to some other need. With a slight muffle of a "Come in," she stepped in his office. Out of the many teacher's offices she'd seen, Jerome's was by far the most modern. With wooden furniture and zebra-striped bed in the corner of his room, she'd really like what he had done with the place.
"Ah, Arabella. What brings you here late at night?"
The girl took a deep breath, feeling comfortable in his presence. "It's Paige and Rahie. They have their suspicions about you and quite frankly, it makes me furious!"
"Ah really?" His flickered up towards her before returning to his paperwork as if this were no surprise. "What have they said?"
This time, Bells could not keep her aflamed cheeks hidden and was suddenly cautious of defying her friends' trust. "Well I…I couldn't very much well hear them, could I? They're just suspicious of your story and can't seem to trust you. Which is rather silly if you ask me," she smiled towards him. "You're honestly one of the sweetest housemasters I've ever known!"
"Quite true," he nodded once in appreciation, his eyes glinting. "How about…we turn this into a fun little game? If they say anything mean about me, tell me quickly, and we can scare them by sarcastic gists of what they've said about me?"
"That seems like a very fun plan!" Both of them smiled.
The majority of the girls had left. Dianna's first class had gotten cancelled for the morning which was always good news. This way, she had more time to work on the assignment she'd attempted to do at 1am the night before last when she had been spooked from the two figures outside in the woods. Yesterday she found out that one of the figures was Charn but no one could tell who the last person behind her was. As she looked back, she remember that the figure was taller than all of their heights. She squinted, trying to remember any more details. She remembered along with (flashlight hold?) she had seen he was holding something reflecting in the moonlight. It was tall, a rod-shaped but distinctly wider at the top. She couldn't place her finger on it as she washed her breakfast plate and went back to her room. The closer she got to it, the more banging she could hear. Rather than the sound being in her room, it was in the room next over. She continued to walk down the hall curiously when stopped at the door entrance, spotting Jerome. The girl sighed.
Having just thought about the figure in the dark, she had half a mind that he unrealistically would be there.
"Good morning, Jerome," she smiled to him.
"Morning!" he gave a quick smile before tugging away at the shelving Prissy had made herself home at in the younger girls' room. All the tools were at hand – a saw, screwdriver, brooms and dust pans.
"What are you doing to the shelving?"
He shrugged. "Installing a new shelf. Frankly, this board is old and dusty, plus it's not stable," he joked, shaking the still-connected board to prove his argument.
"And splotched with with blood from a satanic ritual," she nodded.
"Ha!" he laughed. "This is a valid point. Plus," he motioned to a new white-wooden shelving, "she'll enjoy being able to point that anyway she likes."
"Wow, so you're spoiling Pressy, are you?"
A devilish grin took upon his lips. "Oh, I like spoiling all my house guests."
The Grade 9 Honors English class was reading silently for 20 minutes—Katie, Charn, Priscila, Arabella, Bubbles, and Tammy all in the back section of the classroom, far from the teacher's eyes and ears. It was no secret that old Ms. Hemsworh offered too much respect and faith on the young teens. As the teens didn't want to afford getting in trouble, quitely they passed a paper around, each with their own specialized colored gel pen to write with to distinguished one another's comment —it's an Anubis Thing. Boarders from Simon House were agog when it came to the tales from their neighboring house. Their house seemed as if it were quite the opposite of the House of Eugene—unlike Jerome, the Simon housemaster was fun, novel. The girls enjoyed talked to him, sometimes holding parties at night or themed-dinners (last night's theme was magic tricks).
"That's still so freaky about how the nightguards kept disappearing last year," Katie wrote, her eyes cautious in case anyone looked their way to see that she wasn't reading.
Over time, after being passed around in a near rectangle, the paper was written and covered in all sorts of colors:
'You're telling me—I was there and followed by some creep!' ~ Charn
'What do you think that person was doing there that late at night?' - Arabella
'idk but I say we go investigate before supper!' ~ Tammy
'In the woods!? You must be out of your mind!' - Bubbles
'It'd be light still! No werewolves. We'll bring weapons. FOR UNITY!' - Priscila
As Arabella started writing 'What happens if dark scary men are there?' with the youngest girl peering over her shoulder, Priscila quickly snatched the paper and wrote furiously before tossing it to Katie. As she did so, the group of girls leaned in towards Katie's desk to read the note:
'We castrate them. I'll bring the saws. SAWS! AND JACK HAMMERS!'
Without a moment's notice, they burst into laughter, accidently getting scorned by the teacher.
A few minutes passed when the notes circulated around once more, reading "Are you in?"
The girls were out, following Charn's lead as she remembered her path she most likely took those few nights ago, tracking the mysterious person's footsteps who followed. Of course, with the usual Britain rain, all traces of ground indents had vanished. With an hour left to spare before supper was called, Tammy looked around towards the hills that marked the four corners of the woods—it was interesting to see how the woods were a type of valley, which could easily be seen from any four of the houses, each on top of a hill. House of Eugene and House of Simon were in opposite directions, with a vast river cutting through the woods in the perpendicular direction. Tammy squinted her eyes, the sunset bright in her eyes as she looked at each four houses—the four houses were definitely facing each other, despite the distance. Shrugging, she caught up with the Katie and Bubbles.
"Are you sure it's this way?" Bubbles narrowed her eyes?
"I don't know!" yelled Charn as they continued walking through the thick of the woods. "It was nighttime and I was freaking out when I heard footsteps!"
The girls began to bicker when Katie screamed, falling as if she went through the ground, onto heavy peat. They all stopped, staring down, facing a large hole, around 4 feet deep with a 2 foot diameter. As the peat was made with soluable fat and waxes, the water from the rain had formed a pond…muddying up to Katie's knees.
Charn inhaled as Katie repeatively cried "Ew ew ew ew!". "No rain could wash away that…"
Mere 10 minutes passed by the time the girls had helped Katie out, the peat and water mixture nearly drying on her pants, legs, and shoes, smelling similarly to old moss. They could hear Jerome along with the three other house masters calling for their tenants to come to supper. With quick goodbyes, Katie, Bubbles, and Tammy left the Eugenites, Charn still leading the way in case the girls came across anything new from the shadowed person. Half their hopes were gone. The girls had nearly stepped inside when Arabella's shoulder brushed against something, leading to a clanking of metallic sounds; the girls looked back.
"What is it?" Priscila asked as Arabella's hand stretched towards the origin of the sound, patting the door frame until she felt a series of beads. Bringing her cell phone to light up the area, the three could clearly see that a beaded necklace was caught onto the wood of the door frame, a white shell caught within a small hole.
Gently, Bells loosened the necklace, the lot looking at the somewhat-worn necklace covered in dried mud.
"Let me see!" Charn exclaimed as Arabella passed it to her ("Finders Keepers though!" Arabella reminded them). As soon as Charn had it in her hands, footsteps could be heard from behind the door. Not wanting to share their discovery with whoever was coming their way, Charn slipped it in her pocket, seeing Arabella scorn at her.
"You'll get it back!"
"I better be."
The door opened, showing Jerome, a calm expression on his face. "You better be what?"
The girls stood agaped. "I…" Arabella mustered, thinking of a lie before she grinned, "I better be your favorite!"
The man slightly smiled, opening the door farther to allow the girls in. "Ah, not for today. Today's spoiled victim is Prissy!" he ruffled her hair as she passed by him.
She gasped in excitement."Oooh! What is it!?"
His head jerked towards the top of the stairs, smiling. "Go check out your room."
With the girls walking in, Jerome's eyes slightly narrowed—once towards the back of the girls and the other towards the now-darkened grounds before he slowly closed the door.
Dinner was fairly uneventful, though everyone was busy chit-chatting away. With the dishes washed, the girls were all in their rooms, Jerome having gone to his office down below. Dianna, Ducky, and Paige were sitting on one of the younger girls' bed as the other three sat facing them. The shell and beaded necklace was being passed around, hand to hand as each took their turn to rub away the dirt.
"So we have a necklace," Paige stated, updating what mysterious happenings have been going on.
"And a hole—" Ducky began when Dianna finally remembered when she had seen the other night, the image that was burned into her mind all day, tantalizing her. It all made sense now. " A shovel!" she cheered, gaining blank looks. She continued to explain herself. "Two nights ago—when Charn was walking outside and I saw her. The figure behind her? He was carrying something tall—rod-like. I bet you anything it was a shovel."
The girls nodded. "We never saw a hole that big during orientation here a few weeks ago, unless we specifically didn't walk in that direction," Ducky motioned.
Below them, they could hear the 10pm bell chime, signaling for the mark of bedtime. "Alright, we'll see you in the morning," the three older girls stood up. As Ducky was nearest to the door, she twisted the doorknob, opening the door further when she gasped and froze.
The disembodied feet stood in front of her. But it wasn't just feet this time, unlike the first she had seen them. Erect as if they belonged to an invisible spectator, And yet the flesh wasn't normal. As Ducky continued to stay frozen on spot, she looked at the legs more closely, seeing that the flesh was more discolored as if bruised. Her body rigor, the girl's heart felt like it was ripped out of her body & placed back hurridly when she realized that there was blood stains on the somewhat rotten flesh. Blood stains from what she could clearly see now where hack marks and other sharp lacerations across every few inches of the flesh.
She shrieked.
∞ξ§*˜˙˚º•~ † ~•º˚˙˜*§ξ∞
∞...Inӂthe...
ξ˚..House of Eugene..˚ξ
We all follow
˙*.Our King.*˙
ºººººººº
†
~And to our rule, with eyes of blue, We'll do the salute of Vwabloosh shoutingEnegue'~
And So We'll See You Soon At…
THE HOUSE OF EUGENE
~And the plot thickens as they say...~