The next ten hours were a punishment for turning down the promise of adventure. We couldn’t just go home, like I desperately wanted. There was still a search party looking for Victoria, and I’ll flatter myself by adding my name to the list. After all that had happened, we were only gone for about an hour. We both returned with our clothes ripped, and hiding secrets. Most were just happy to have Victoria back, and left it at that. They brought us beers, and asked her where she’d run off to.

Hayden I could tell wasn’t buying it. He’d been my best friend for my entire life, and could sense that I wasn’t being truthful with him. It’s how he knew I was planning on dropping out of college, so of course he knew here too. Thankfully he didn’t want to start anything with a crowd so he kept silent during the whole party, then again so did I.

I withdrew from the party completely; I couldn’t stop thinking about those things beneath the forest. Could the people on the train really keep us safe from that? It was a cold thought that wouldn’t stay out of my mind, not during the party, and not once I was finally allowed back in my bed.

Sleep was a joke. Each attempt my body made to bring me down into the darkness of dreams just summoned the image of that place again. I could see those golden eyes staring at me from every shadow, and from behind my own eyelids. This all prophesied dark things for my shift at work the next day, but there was nothing I could do.

“Dozing off?” Nathan was only 29, but I’m sure to him it felt like a lifetime of experience. He strutted about the store in his slacks, button up, and tie like it was his own personal kingdom. He seemed to have a endless supply of of yellow shirts which to me looked like sweat stains. I’m sure he had his redeeming qualities, but I hated him, and this is my book so he will be subject to endless character assassination until I feel like my vendetta is settled.

“Yeah.” I yawned, and propped myself against the register. “I couldn’t sleep last night.”

He was unmoved by my plight. “I hate to do this Yorick but if you can’t handle the responsibility of manning the register I’m going to have to take you off.” He turned his head to face Andie who was restocking candy. “Andie you’re up.” He then pointed a finger at me. “There’s a pallet of potting soil in the back, why don’t you pull it onto the floor and see if stacking it wakes you up a bit?”

“I would love to.” I feigned a smile, and waited for him to go express his god-like powers elsewhere.

Andie came around the counter, and my heart did its familiar dance. “You know it hurt him to do that.” She said with her familiar snark. “He likes you, but he’s got a store to run.”

“Yeah.” I smiled. “I just hope I didn’t disappoint him.”

She laughed and that was nearly enough to banish the monsters from my mind entirely. Andie was the best thing about the store, at least as far as I was concerned. She was funny, cool, and if you care about this kind of thing; gorgeous. She had long brown hair, and round cheeks I’d always wanted to pinch. “I heard you ended up on the missing persons list last night.”

“Only for an hour.” I winced. “You’re one to talk, I thought you were supposed to be there.” In fact I’d been looking forward to it. I couldn’t help it, Andie had an effect on me that was pure chemistry. If she came near me I would combust, no amount of self-talk or denial would effect that.

She cringed, and smiled. She had something embarrassing to say. “I pulled a double.”

“Again?” I gaped. “At this rate I’ll never be manager of this place.”

“Yeah.” She shrugged. “You know my dad can’t work right now, so I’m just trying to keep everything afloat.”

“Yeah.” I nodded sadly. Andie’s dad had been sick for a while now. He’d had a big surgery the month before, but was still recovering apparently. It was disappointing to hear. Not only because the poor guy had been in a lot of pain for so long, but… Well Andie had more or less said that her responsibilities to her dead were why we couldn’t be a thing.

I thought true love could overcome anything, but apparently, she didn’t share my opinion. I had to respect that even if I didn’t like it. I could have been there for her, supported her, given her whatever she needed. Alas, poor Yorick. That was a year ago, and I’d been stalling ever since. It was pathetic really. I hadn’t dated seriously, I hadn’t done anything seriously. It’s like her rejection had just frozen me in time.

“Well.” I tapped the counter. “I better go haul some soil, before I hurt Nathan any more than I already have.”

Smooth.

I headed to the back room, and tried not to mope. At least the sense of cosmic terror was dulled by the familiar old gloom of a doomed romance. I saw that the hand forklift had already been loaded with the pallet Nathan had mentioned.

Disregarding this I pulled the forklift free, brought it over to the second rack from the back, section C. I grabbed the remote which operated the lift, and placed my feet on the forks. (Don’t try this at home kids.) Punching the button on the lift, I was taken up two stories into the air, where an open space waited for me. I gently stepped out of the lift and into a little den that was hidden amongst the boxes. This was our hideout, a little home away from home when you needed take a few minutes or maybe an hour away from the floor.

Hayden was already there, laid back on a cot, sipping a soda and reading a dirty magazine. “A little privacy?” He asked, and gestured to the magazine. Apparently, it was a good one.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Thought you’d be here.” I sat on the shelf, we’d pulled a rugs from the store to make sitting more comfortable, plus it just classed the place up. “I feel like you’re avoiding me.”

“Why would I be avoiding you?” Spoken like someone who was trying to avoid someone else.

“I don’t know, you seemed pretty upset when I came back with Victoria. I just don’t get why.”

Hayden grunted and sat up. He set his magazine aside on the coffee table, and sighed. “The two of you were lying to us the whole time, and for the life of me I can’t figure out why.”

“We weren’t lying to you.” I lied.

He sneered, I knew that sneer. He usually got it right before he swung at someone. “Then I guess we don’t have anything to talk about.”

“What do you think happened?” I asked. Surely he didn’t think a pool of oil sucked us into the ground where a million monsters were waiting for us. He wouldn’t budge, he really didn’t have anything to say from me. He just glared at me, knowing full well that I was a liar. I tried to think of what would make him so upset. There was a fifty/fifty chance that he and Victoria were dating at any point, maybe he was worried about her? Did he think I’d snuck out with her, was he jealous? No, that wasn’t right. Then I remembered the claw marks across my chest, like a human hand had scratched at me. Surly he didn’t think Victoria had done that. He didn’t think she’d have to defend herself from me did he? “Wait a second. You think I hurt her, don’t you?”

He scoffed, and looked away.

“You do!” I gasped, horrified. “She was gone way before I found her. I was with you when she went missing.”

He balled up his fists. “Then why was your shirt torn up like that? Why were clothes a mess? You two were way more messed up than you should have been if you were lost in a forest for only an hour.”

“I promised not to tell.” I pled.

“So you were lying!”

“Yes.”

“Tell me.”

“I can’t.”

“Yorick.” His voice softened. “If you don’t think you can trust me, then I don’t know what the fuck we’re doing around here. You’re my best friend.”

“You won’t believe me.”

“Try me.”

“It was a monster.”

He paused for a long moment. “I don’t believe you.”

I shrugged. “Then I hate to break it to you, but that makes me right and you wrong.” I rubbed my face, and tried to think of how much of the truth to give him. “When I found her she was already out cold. There was this thing with her, it looked like it was made of shadows, with these golden eyes.” Hayden’s eyebrows were creased and cocked, even if he did think I was a liar that was at least an interest in seeing someone try. “I grabbed a tree branch and drove it off, not before it took a swipe at me. After that I was able to wake Victoria up, and we both promised to keep it between us.”

Hayden smirked. “A promise you were able to keep for almost twelve hours.”

“Don’t make fun of me when you’re the one who made me tell.”

“Why would you even keep this a secret?”

“We didn’t think anyone would believe us.”

“I don’t.” He crossed his arms, and looked off into the distance.

“Then I guess we’re at an impasse.”

Hayden nodded and stretched. “Looks that way.” He picked the magazine back up, and reclined back onto the cot. “I’ll at least have to check to see what Victoria says. Until then I’ll just have to assume that you’re lying and telling the truth.”

“That’s fair. So we’re cool?”

“Cool enough.”

“Then I’ll leave you to it.” I crawled back out of the hole, and got back onto my elevator. Unlike Hayden, Nathan actually expected me to work, and would soon be prowling around to find where I’d gone.

With my soil in tow I went back to the front, and began to stack the bags. You had to do it in alternating layers of horizontal and vertical lines. Nathan would except nothing less. This kept me occupied for a little while until Andie asked me to pull a generator for her. I of course took up this challenge because I was her hopeless love slave.

Five minutes later I was wheeling a generator over to its proud new owners. I relaxed when I saw it was three men that had ordered the thing. Nathan had a bad habit of sending me across the islands with carts full of bricks for some lady. He’d do the same for a man, because he was the king of customers service, but they were usually too proud to allow it. “Got her right here for ya.” I said bringing the generator to a halt beside me.

The three men checked it over for a second. They were each stylishly dressed, which made me assume they had money. It made me think they were a part of some fraternity. One of them, a slender guy about my height had a neck tattoo of a rook. That didn’t look like something a future business leader would have. “Thank for the help.” He said cooly, his voice was low and pleasing. I liked him. He was a slacker too, I could tell by his voice.

“Getting ready for a storm?” I asked. There’d been a big one last year. Power had gone out pretty much everywhere, and since then it had been hard keeping these things on the shelf.

He shook his head, and slid his hands into his jeans. His arms were covered in bracelets, and the sleeves of his plaid shirt were rolled up to his elbows. “We’re renovating an old house. No power.” He shrugged.

I smiled. “So you’re the guys who moved into the plantation.” After last night I’d assumed it was our train riding friends. “You don’t look homeless.”

He looked surprised that I figured him out. “Thanks, neither do you.” He smiled back.

“That’s cool.” Andie laned forward on the counter. “What are you guys going to do with it?”

The man turned to her. “We’re going to turn it into a club house.” He looked back at me. “Of course, right now we can only afford to do half the rooms. The rest we’re sealing off, until we can get a little more funding.”

Called it. They were part of a frat. “Well if you ever need more supplies you know where to find us.”

“Sure do.” The man held out his hand. “I’m Ian.”

“Yorick.” I shook it back. “Do you need any help getting this there? We offer delivery services.”

He laughed. “Trying to get a peek huh?”

Busted. “Can’t blame a guy for trying.”

“No problem.” Ian slapped me on the back. “It is haunted as hell though. Feel free to stop by, we’re always over there these days.”

“Really?” Andie grinned.

“Yeah sure.” Ian’s friends started to wheel the generator away, and he looked after them. “I got to clear it with my boss first though.” His friends were almost out the door. “I gotta go before they break something. Thanks again Andie!”

“That’s one mystery solved.” I said, approaching Andie. “We were just talking about them at the party.”

“Think he was serious about it being haunted?”

I never really believed in ghosts, up until yesterday at least. Now I wasn’t so sure. “Maybe he was.” I matched Andie lean against the counter, our faces dangerously close for coworkers. “Do you want to go see? I’m free tomorrow.”

She smiled, but pulled herself back into a standing position. “Sorry, I’ve got another double.” She couldn’t maintain the smile through that confession. I don’t even want to know how disappointed I looked, but it must have been pathetic. It was clear on her face. Her pity quickly turned into a slight smile, dare I say she looked resolute. Like perhaps she’d just came to a conclusion she’d been wrestling with for a long time. “So we should go tonight, yeah?”