“...Every small town has its fair share of secrets, and Amberdale is no exeception. "
"On the dark, crumbling corner of East Elmer Blvd. there lies a descecrated house left in shambles. It was once your average suburban home and at one point it might've been a lovely place to live in , The once lovely two story home was a mess."
The rusty-brown paint of its walls had long since been chipped and weathered by nature and age. Most of the windows had holes in them as a results of years of abuse by the local populace of vagrants and miscreants deadset on leaving their marks on the ancient property.
The humble home that owed its The chimney that once stood proud had collapsed long ago and the wooden walls looked rotten and marred by decades of negligence.
And this house wasn't alone. Rows of houses in the same state as the first laid everywhere in the abandoned district of Amberdale, and it's been that way for decades, centuries even.
You would think a town wouldn't leave such property and future land lots to waste away preoccupied by unused space, but there was a reason both city planners and residents of Amberdale considered the abandoned district hallow ground and fenced off the area with barbed wires.
It was cursed, Or at least everyone thought so.
There wasn't any sign of an unholy fire, nor was it the sight of a mass disappearance. Some say a witch massacred the citizens living in that area, sacrificing the souls of the recently deceased as fuel for one of her blasphemous rituals, others say a midwife, desperate for love and attention, asked a demon for a child.
But all of that just sounds ridiculous. Simply the speculations of retired seniors and young minded youths looking for a bit of excitement in the small little town. But then, if the abandoned district wasn't cursed and was simply a tale for good parents to tell their wispful children late at night, then where did the story of it being cursed come from?
Who's to say that Will Flannel, the Amberdale registered drunk, really hadn't seen a person in one of the buildings in the abandoned district? Who's to say that Sheriff McHarth really hadn't heard screams of terror in one of the ‘abandoned' houses? And who's to say that Daniel Copper, State renowned chef and local owner of ‘The Rebound’ didn't see a bloody person standing in the street of the abandoned district for a moment before he disappeared into thin air?
Well stay tuned for next time for more “Mystery Diver!” to find out. I'm Jonah K. Bailey, signing off. Good night folks, and If you enjoyed the show or just want to share one of your own close calls with the supernatural displayed on our show, just go to our website at www- ”
The Television flickered for a moment before shutting off as Nikolai turned it off with the help of his handy dandy TV remote. the absence of the television's light left the draw room pitch black save for what little Nikolai could still see in the dark expanse.
"Fucking hell" remarked Nikolai as he lounged back into the sofa of the couch, staring at the blank screen for a moment as he reveled in the quiet of his living room. His gaze shifted over to the clock on the wall adjacent to him, The hands of the clock rested narrowly on 5 am.
It was 11 pm when he started binge watching reruns of old public network shows and he regretted doing so. His eyes ached from constant exposure and he rubbed them before blinking rapidly, trying to regain some feeling in the corner of them.
it wasn’t a school night so he wasn't too worried about his parents busting him at this hour, though it would still be one helluva pain to sit through. Still, his Mom was sure to have his head if she saw how much time he had spent watching “Mystery Divers!” last night.
“Mystery Divers!” Was a local ghost hunting channel that ran on the public broadcasting channel that also managed a radio show that ran for most of the day, although it acted more like a news station then anything else. that was intent on proving there was something strange going on in everything. They once featured an episode on Kentwood High’s Mystery meat friday special, sure that it contained some monster meat or human flesh. Turns out, it was just refrigerated shrimp and day-old tuna.
Nikolai wasn’t normally one for the supernatural, it never interested him before. Who cares if a ghost is scaring away house buyers? If he was a ghost he’d do the same thing, just because he’s dead doesn’t mean he can’t keep his home. But still, Nikolai found himself tuning into the show more and more often. It started with listening in on the radio while driving to school with his older brother, Rudy. Then he started actively flipping the TV to the public access channel, and Now he finds himself staying up late at night just so he can watch as many reruns of the show as he can he can fit in a saturday night.
Why was he so attracted to a show that never once proven itself true? Well if Nikolai had to answer that question, then it'd of definitly had been
The thought of going out in the wild, catching bad guys, solving crimes, discovering ancient civilizations, and just Indiana Jones-ing it up in general excited him to no end. But there was one tiny problem that cockblocked his eternal love for the wind, just one itsy-bitsy notation that just won’t leave him alone.
Amberdale is SUPER boring, for Nikolai at the very least.
Who cares if they have a great high school basketball team? Who cares if they're the state champions in football and soccer? Not Nikolai, not even a little.
Most towns or cities as old as Amberdale usually had a folktale, a myth, or some kind of legend or bogeyman parents would tell their kids at bedtime, but Amberdale had none of that. There was no interdimensional conspiracy taking place here, no Space-warping alien in a box to whisk Nikolai off to speak with the devil himself. Hell,listening to his neighbor “ Mamma Gertrude” prattle on about her traveling days was more interesting than half the things in this small town off of route 72.
Still, Nikolai was never one to take it lying down. If he couldn’t find adventure than he might as well make his own, And that’s exactly what he and his best friends,Thomas and Andrew, planned on doing that saturday.
It was going to be another 2 hours before the sunrises and another 8 hours before his friends came over to explore, leaving Nikolai with more time on his hands then he knows what to do with.
Nikolai thought about turning the TV back on to see if anything else is on but it just felt redundant to do so. Instead he picked himself out of the sofa cushion and grudgingly made his way over to the bathroom down the hall.
With a satisfying ‘click', Nikolai locked the bathroom door. He turned to face the mirror that hanged above the bathroom sink and slightly cringed at the sight of himself.
His orange hair was a disheveled mess and his amber brown eyes were bloodshot to the core. He still wore the same blue T-shirt he had on yesterday which he didn't mind much, save for the mustard stain on the bottom of it from last night’s “Hot Dog Palooza’’ as Rudy likes to put it.
Long story short, he was a mess.
He slipped off his shirt and walked across the length of the bathroom so that he was as far as possible from the hamper as he could. The bathroom was fairly large and Nikolai’s mom just had it renovated a couple of days ago so the freshly marbled floor sparkled a little as he went to line up the shot.
Taking a stance, Nikolai balls up his shirt and gets ready to throw it.
“He lines up the hit, He aims! He shoots!”
Nikolai throws the balled up shirt at the laundry hamper, it soars through the air and hits the rim of the basket...
“ He-”
...Only for it to bounce right off of it and onto the floor
-missed?!”
Feeling disappointed and slightly embarrassed that he even did this in the first place, Nikolai picks up the shirt and just tosses it into the hammer, No fanfare to greet his shameful display of skills.
With a sigh, Nikolai strips the rest of his clothes off and grabs a bar of soap and his toothbrush before hopping into the shower. He didn't want to waste time and planned on brushing his teeth and taking his shower at the same time.
Placing the toothbrush in a cup hanging on the rail of the shower, Nikolai blindly twisted the shower handle and was immediately greeted with cold, chilly water.
“Hieeee!” screeched Nikolai as he hopped out of the tub without a shred of pride and freezing his balls off.
Raising his hands to his mouth, Nikolai checked to see if anyone woke up after hearing his scream.
After a full two minutes pass, Nikolai sighed with relief as he hopped into the shower once more and made extra sure the shower was on hot and not cold.
The shower head erupted with warm water and Nikolai felt a sense of calm run over him as the warm rain splattered on his person.
Once he got over the euphoric feeling of being hit with warm water after being soaked in cold, Nikolai’s mind wandered back to that episode of Mystery Divers he was watching before he shut the TV off.
The abandoned district was always a spooky topic of conversation for the residents of Amberdale. Back in the early founding of the town, the abandoned district was known as the prosperous east side of Amberdale. Mines were plenty and close knitted back then filled with all manners of gold, iron, and other impure metals. A creek ran through the town running east to west and the district was the best place in the city to catch a cod or two.
Nikolai tried to remember more about the Amberdale Abandoned district, but nothing came to mind. He probably should’ve paid more attention in history class but he was always tired in Mr. Randolph's First period history class, The man was as monotone as a metronome.
Deciding he’s washed himself well enough so far, Nikolai turned off the hot stream of water coming from the shower nozzle and grabbed the white towel hanging not to far from the shower.
After a few minutes of admiring himself in the mirror (and a round of embarrassing flexing) Nikolai was hopping down the stairs donning a mostly clean green and yellow striped hoodie and shorts before stepping onto the porch of his parent’s faded orange suburban home. He gave a slight glance towards the poorly managed garden and scoffed before heading into the garage.
The lights flickered on as nikolai flipped the switch and he was quickly greeted by the warming mess that was the garage. Books, old games, stupid christmas knick knacks and more laid strewn about the garage in mounds of junk that were haphazardly pushed to the side. The garage was a bit on the large side, having the capacity to hold two cars within alongside the junkpile that took a good third of the room.
“Alright, now where did i put that bike..” Nikolai said to no one in particular as he started sifting through the seeded garage.
There was plenty of sacred memorabilia and artifacts his mom and dad had stored, But the treasures of his parents years of undertone hoarding wasn't the reason for Nikolai’s being here.
Nikolai walked past his Dad’s black sudan and headed towards the red pickup truck at the far side of the garage that belonged to his big brother, Rudy.
Rudy knew fully well that someone like him having a red, nearly rusted, ford pickup truck was as stereotypical as can be but for whatever reason ( probably just to bother Nikolai with it) he kept the thing like a prized horse and would customarily ride it up and down the streets every few nights, guzzling gas and sodas along the way.
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But enough about that archaic car, Nikolai had a bike he needed to find
Nikolai wrapped around to the back of the truck. He tries looking into the bed of it to see if his bike had been stored in the back of it only to be sorefully disappointed. He was sure he had left his bike under a green tarp in the back of the rustic red accident-to-be but when it became apparent it wasn't there he couldnt help but sigh to himself.
‘Rudy probably moved it’ Nikolai surmised and he sighed once more as he realize he was going to have to walk without his prized bike.
Making sure to turn off the lights as he went, Nikolai strolled out to the front of the house and stood on the sidewalk, facing the rows of houses that ran down both sides of his parent’s house. some of them varied in colours but all of them followed the same static design. Two floors, a ramped roof, maybe a basement, maybe a garage or two, but regardless they all felt the same to Nikolai.
Nikolai’s eyes gazed up at the early twilight sky. He still had a good hour and a bit until sunrise so most of the stores and places he’d have wanted to go to were either closed or he just didn't feel safe in. Just because he wanted some excitement didn't mean he want to get involved in some underworld crime affair that may or may not exist. It probably does though, you can never be too cautious.
Nikolai went back to sitting at his doorsteps, feeling the creeping sensation of boredom coming onto him when a brilliant idea popped into his heads. Well, brilliant for Nikolai anyways.
‘If i'm going to be bored, I should be bored on a full stomach!’ He thought as he figuratively gave himself a pat on the back.
He picked himself up off of the wooden porch and started marching down the street. There was a convenience store he frequented not to far from where he lived and he had haphazardly decided to buy some snacks there to enjoy in the meantime.
‘And hey, Why don't i buy some supplies for our trip later?’ He thought as he neared the sliding doors of the small convenience store, having only walked not even 10 minutes to reach his destination
He was faced with a blast of cool breeze as he stepped within the confines of the convenience store, although the breeze wasn’t very different from the cold autumn air that was fluttering about. He glanced around the convenience store before his eyes settled on the slushie machine off to the side of the store. As much as he’d like to buy one, he decided it would be better to spend as much as he could on some drinks and grab any ‘essential’ that came to mind before he’d go for one.
Before he started his spending spree though, Nikolai glanced over to the cashier. They were nose deep in a printed article from ‘Mystery Divers’. He didn't recognize the issue so he assumed it was new, but onto more pressing matters.
‘Let’s see here… potato chips, nacho chips, cone shaped chips covered in chocolate, chocolate pretzels, Gummy bears, Gummy worms, Gummy Gum shaped gum. Am i missing anything?’ he asked himself as he looked at the his arms full of junk food. He made sure to only grab what was essential, so why were his hands already filled? He didn't even get started on the drinks yet.
‘’Oh yeah, The Fairy Cola!’’ He remarked as he remembered the Cherry-Apple flavored off brand delight that he and his friends had an appeal to.
Nikolai heaved his mountain of junk over into the aisle over where the refrigerators stood. He knew for sure there’d be a six pack or two of Fairy Cola for him to snag. But as he crossed into the aisle, a look of shock and surprise crossed his face as the drink he had expected to find was replaced With boxes of so called Advent orange soda. Ugh.
Nikolai tried looking in the next couple of refrigerators for any sign of his favorite soda but after a few minutes of searching, all he could find were either more Advent packing or some cheesy brand that his fully developed, cherry-loving tongue refused to have any relations with.
‘Where O’ where could my cherry flavored prince be’ Nikolai imagined his tongue saying as he gave up on the search for Fairy Cola. The lack of sleep was probably hitting him harder than he initially thought if he was going to start thinking of a korean drama starring his tongue and cherry flavored confectionery.
‘I guess Thomas or Andrew could pick some up on the way’ Nikolai shrugged as he started to lug his exceedingly large amount of junk food towards the counter.
The content in his arms spilled all over countertop, Catching the eye of the cashier who looked over the pages of his paperback issue. The cashier's eyes lit up as he looked over at Nikolai and he thumbed down the top corner of the page before setting the paper down and turning to face Nikolai.
“Nikolai! I didn't expect to see you for another couple of hours man” The store clerk started talking excitedly before he noticed the dark circles around my eyes. “Stayed up watching reruns i presume?”
“I didn't expect to be here for while either Rodney, but you know how it is sometimes.” Nikolai said with a smile at his good friend.
“Sheesh, you know it’s bad for you to stay up all night right?”
“Coming from you, that means nothing” Nikolai remarked as he points to the similar dark circles underneath Rodney’s eyes.
Rodney was a devoted reader and listener of Mystery Divers and was one of the main reasons he got into it in the first place. He was a good friend of Rudy as they both starred on football team in highschool, Although Rodney was a year ahead of him in classes. Rodney was the one who got Rudy listening to Mystery Divers on the radio every morning, so in a way he’s completely responsible for Nikolai’s current affliction with the show. A classic patient zero.
Rodney was probably 19 now, though Nikolai never bothered to ask. With short yellow stubbles adorning his chin that matched his short blonde hair and bags under his eyes, Nikolai could only assume the man had either stayed up late like he had or had just gotten out of bed late
“Hehe, you got me there. My alarm woke me up an hour earlier than it should’ve today.”
“You didn't set it right?”
“Of course i did. Well, i think i did. I sorta just stumbled into bed after spending way too much time arguing the latest Mystery Divers issue online.” Rodney rubbed the back of his head as he chuckled at the thought
“What were you defending?” Asked Nikolai curiously, sure that his friend would never try and argue a point against his favorite source of untypical news.
“Oh you know, some snark calling Mystery Divers a load of baloney after posting that article about Will and Phil running over a zombie near the abandoned district. I admit it sounds pretty far fetched to me but I was already too invested to back out by that point. We argued up until one in the morning.”
Rodney laughed nervously before he noticed the pile of chips that laid on the counter in front of him again.
“You probably want me to ring those up for you, huh? Alright gimme a sec”
Rodney quickly got down to work as he somehow rapidly and accurately scanned all of the items in 23 seconds top. Just one of Rodney’s many useless skills.
“Alright that’s 4 potato chips, 2 large bag of White Chocolate Pretzels, 3 Haribanana Gummy Bears, several small packs of “Gummy Gum shaped Gum”, 2 bags of Chocolate Dunces, and a package of Spicy Vacho Nachos. Did you get everything you’d like or is there something you’d like to add?
Nikolai nodded as he pointed at rodney’s issue of Mystery Divers. He only heard tidbits about Will’s finding on the T.V and was interested in finding out more for himself in the issues.
Rodney smirked a bit to himself as he pulled a copy from behind the counter and slid it to Nikolai.
“Your total Rings up to be about $17.85”
Nikolai nodded again as he handed his old pal a $20 dollar bill. His mind started wandering as he started to wonder when candy became so expensive.
“Do you need a bag or are you going to try and hercules this stuff back to your house?”
“What do you think?” Nikolai replied as he rolled up his green and yellow sleeves on his right arm and started flexing.
“I think you’re going to need two bags” Said rodney as he pulled two plastic bags and started packing Nikolai’s items into them
“You’re darn right I do” replied nikolai once more without an ounce of shame as he grabbed the two bags before making his way for the sliding doors.
“Cya around Rodney, I hope you don't get swathed by spider-cows”
“Hope you don't get abducted by duck billed, two-faced aliens”
Nikolai laughed as he stepped out into the dark twilight and although the laughter died down, he continued to snicker about it to himself, all the way from the convenience store to his front doorstep where he had to abruptly stop his merriment for fear of someone hearing him. that someone, he hoped wouldn’t be his mother.
He had already peaked into the living room window and saw no signs of life in the house, but you could never be too safe.
Holding his ‘groceries’ in one hand, Nikolai slowly turned open the doorknob and opened the door, realizing his mistake as he had forgotten to lock the doors before he had left this morning.
The door creaked a bit, but to a manageable extent. Once the door was wide enough, Nikolai quietly clambered into the house and closed the door behind him. This time making ‘extra’ sure he locked it this time.
Nikolai slowly drew his gaze across his house. The Kitchen stood not to far off from the door to his right and the entrance to the living room which stood off down the hall and to the right had no lights coming from its chamber. There were no lights down the corridor near the stairs, no signs of life in his silent home.
Feeling victorious in his little excursion, Nikolai drew a sigh of relief before he stepped into the kitchen. He turned on the oven light so as to have some reprieve from the darkness that still enveloped the house. He decided to set the bags on top of the black countertop in the kitchen and took one of the potato chips out of the bag.
‘I’m sure Thomas and Andrew wouldn’t mind me taking a chip or two. Heck they wouldn’t even know about it!’ Thought Nikolai as he prepared to open the bags of salty goodness.
But before he could even pull them open, something stopped Nikolai in his tracks.
“You’ve got some nerves coming home this early in the morning with a load of chips...” A gruff voice called out from behind him.“And you didn't bring any for me”
Nikolai could practically hear the smirk in the voice and sighed. He had been caught, and he had been caught by one of the worse people to get caught by.
He slowly turned around, chip still in hand, as he faced the voice. Standing a few feets away was an orange, almost blood red hair coloured man. He was a good 5 inches taller than Nikolai at the very least and was probably only slightly shorter than Rodney. Although Nikolai wasn’t drastically weak or anything, This man before him almost made him want to crumble.
That man was none other than his older Rudy.
‘Why’d it have to be Rudy?’ Thought Nikolai,unable to recover from the scare of being caught by someone who’d not only take his chips, but would probably report him to Mom if he didn't give him one.
...And to think this morning started off so well.