Halloween I.F. – “Going Dark” – Day 12

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It occurred to Fern that someone might be watching them. Shitty things happened in short-term rentals all the time. The thought made their skin crawl even harder. 

They slowly backed out of the bedroom, and did a quick search-over of all the other rooms they’d been in, checking the corners, behind blinds, and so on. 

There were no cameras. Not that they saw, at least, and anything too well hidden behind something wouldn’t catch much anyway. They checked the bathroom mirror even in case it was a two-way mirror with a camera behind it: touching it to do the fingernail test (it passed), rapping for a hollow sound and only hearing solid, shining a light on it. They shone the flashlight around in general in each room, hoping to find any glass reflections where there shouldn’t be any—well, hoping not to, but at least looking for them.

No, as far as they could tell, the place didn’t have any cameras on the either of the above-ground floors. They went down to the basement to check that as well, but didn’t spot any there either, though they didn’t bother to check that mirror, since it was free-standing.

There were almost certainly ways to hide a secret camera that Fern wouldn’t know how to look for, of course, and they didn’t know how to begin to look for bugs. But they felt they’d done a pretty solid search. 

On their way back, they paused in the kitchen, cleaning off the railroad spike before wrapping it in a tea towel and putting that in their hoodie pocket along with the hammer and screwdriver. Things were starting to get a bit heavy, but whatever, they felt better to have it. It could make a wicked weapon, in a worse case normal scenario. And if the sense in the second bedroom had been… mystical somehow…

Well. It might protect them? Or even react to something. They imagined they could feel that through their hoodie pocket if so, nearly against their skin.

They shook their head at themself, then grabbed a notebook to take notes. They grabbed the radio as well, hoping to entertain themself as they explored the second room.

The room didn’t feel any different on second entry, nor did the spike do anything unusual. They felt… odd about the idea of actually inventorying this room; there didn’t seem like any reason to do it, especially since they weren’t even supposed to be in here. But Fern figured they might get a rough idea of what was here, write down some notes, and come back to individual spaces if they were inclined to for other reasons.

They checked the ottoman first. It was large, more of a chest with padding on top than  anything else. Inside were some folded goods: Without pulling them out, something Fern was loath to do, they spotted what looked like clothing, table linens, towels, bed linens, and for some reason, some plateware. What purpose that served, they weren’t sure. Things this lady owned that weren’t otherwise property of the household, maybe?

They circled around to the bureau, finding Victorian-style women’s undergarments—Fern felt as if they might be acting a bit rude—some sewing supplies, a couple pocket books, corsets, gloves and handkerchiefs. The bottom drawer had some children’s clothes, but they looked older than the rest; perhaps this woman had kept her childhood clothes to pass on to her own children, or as a keepsake? They leaned more toward the latter on discovering a very old jar of baby teeth. Suddenly intensely uncomfortable, they slammed the drawers shut.

On top of the flat surfaces, they saw various perfumes, jewellery, a hand-mirror, makeup, the hair brush, the parabolic candle magnifier, and a small collection of stones, including a piece of amber with something hazy trapped in it, and some petrified wood, along with just so much clutter. They didn’t want to stop and mark everything down. The jewellery box was locked and they didn’t spot the key at a glance—

There was a thumping sound from behind them. 

The hair lifted on the back of their neck. Suddenly extremely reluctant, they slowly turned. 

There was nothing in the room. No further sounds, either.

Old house settling, they thought. This was definitely an old house.

Nevertheless, they turned the radio on. They’d previously left the dials on Bannick’s station, and soft classical music began to play. It was sure to cover any further unnerving house sounds, something Fern decided spontaneously was a good idea. If there was nothing there, there was no point in freaking themself out.

Having turned to face the thump, though, they found themself staring at the padlocked door to the wardrobe. After a long moment of feeling too intrusive, like they were doing something wrong, they tried the spare keys on the lock, but none of them worked. No luck there. They weren’t going to break that padlock, obviously…

The last thing they wanted to do was look under the bed, but after a moment, they convinced themself to kneel down and take a look.

It was mostly empty other than the dust balls, but as they shone their flashlight around, it glinted off something metal. They lay down and stretched themself out, then shuddered as the spike dug into their stomach in their hoodie. It was sideways, so it shouldn’t be able to harm them, but the dream came back to them…

In order to reach the metal object, they’d have to be on their stomach. To do that, they had to pull the tools and spike from their hoodie pocket. It was the only thing that made sense.

“Hey, everyone.” 

The sudden voice, and the way the music stopped to accompany it, almost jolted Fern out of their skin. They let out a strangled sound that didn’t quite make it to full scream, freezing for a few long seconds.

“How are we out there, this lonely … well, afternoon?” It was Bannick’s voice. It was significantly earlier than his show yesterday, but Fern didn’t know how long or how often he actually ran this thing. “I’m great,” Bannick added. “Fantastic. Doing wonderful myself. Would love to hear from more callers, catch up with the neighbours. Anyone want to call?”

They could let it run, of course, see if Aris called Bannick again, and just listen to it while they took everything out of their hoodie and shove themself under the bed to reach the metal thing. 

Or they could abandon their attempts to reach it and just call in right away. 

Or something else?

And if they did call in, what should they tell Bannick, and what should they ask?

[Comment below with a suggestion for Fern. ]

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