THE HOUSE part 4

“Dave the workmen haven’t shown up today”…said Melody over the phone…
“What do you mean?”…”They were there yesterday”…
“The foremen,, John I think his name is,, called and said they weren’t coming back”…
“Yea,, John Cooper,, he’s supposed to be working on the porch and railings”…
“He was yesterday,, but he said he’s not coming back,, I don’t know why”…”Oh,, and Dave,, the house phones aren’t working either,, you’ll have to call me on my cell phone”…
“OK,, I’ll see if I can get a hold of him”…

“Is John Cooper there?”…asked Dave to the lady on the other end of the phone…
“I think so,, can you hold?”…”I think he’s in the garage”…
“Yeah sure”… ”This is John”…came the gravel surfaced voice of John Cooper over the phone…
“John,, this is Dave Lunder,, why aren’t you working at my house?”…
“I’ve been waiting for your call,, I ain’t going back”..
“Why?,, I’m paying you top dollar for your work”…
“My men are scared,, they keep seeing things in the windows,, black shapes that appear from nowhere”…
“And yesterday something chewed off the electric cords on my saws and threw them into the bushes”…”Something ain’t right there”…
“Look,, there’s nothing there,, my wife is there all the time and she hasn’t said anything”…”Your men must be drunk or taking something”…”It’s just an old house”…
“I run a clean crew,, and I’ll tell you something”…”I seen it too,, moving black shapes out of the corner of my eye”…
“I ain’t coming back,, get somebody else”…
“We have a contract,, I’ll sue you for everything you got”..
“Go ahead,, I ain’t got nothing”…said John as he slammed down the receiver…
“Shit”…

The ride home was a weary task for Dave,, the long hours and the endless dealing with the contractors were taking their toll on him,, he found that he had little patience for the little things that go wrong…His sniping at his employees at work was becoming harsher and harsher,, he was even starting to get angry at Melody…On the drive home Dave decided he needed to take some time off,, a week at home would do him some good…He also made the decision to stop all repair work on the house until next spring,, except for the roofing repairs…Fall was in the air and soon Winter would be casting its white shadows over everything…It was time he thought,, to take a break and not have to worry about so much happening at the same time…

“Knock,, knock,, knock”…came the sound of someone at the front door late Saturday afternoon…Melody stopped her work of steaming off the old wall paper near the staircase and
opened the front door…On the porch stood two young boys maybe 6 or 7 years old,, their bicycles laid in the front yard…
“Hi,, what can I do for you?”…asked Melody sweetly…
“My mommy said we could come over here and ask you”…
“Who’s your mommy dear?”…
“My mommy is Lisa,, she sold you this house”…said the little boy as he scratched his head of black hair…
“I didn’t know Lisa had a son”…replied Melody,,
“What do you want to ask me?”…
“I’m Timmy and this is Josh,, the school is having a can drive---”…
“And we would like to have your cans”…piped up Josh…
“Oh,, that sounds good,, you can have our cans”…”But I have to get them ready for you”…”Can you come back next week?”…
“Sure thing lady,, we’ll be back later”…said the boys excitedly as if they had just won a prize…
Melody watched the two young boys get on their bikes and scoot off onto the gravel driveway,, pedaling as fast as they could towards town…The longing for kids of her own crept over her…

Later that evening Melody was sitting at her worktable in the basement,, putting glazes on some of the greenware plates she had made a couple of days before…The headphones from her Ipod blaring out the tunes of Green Day,, her favorite group,, Dave was sitting on the couch watching a preseason football game,, ready to fall asleep…
A white shimmering image of a door started to fade in and out of existence on the wall behind Melody,, finally taking solid form,, it opened quietly,, exposing the sheer blackness
beyond…
“Waaa,, waaa”…softly came from the blackness…
“Waaa,,, waaa…Melody”…the voice a little louder…
“Melody…Melody”…
Melody took off her headphones thinking that Dave was calling her…She listened for a moment than returned to her glazing…
“Meow,, meow”…Cleo jumped up onto the worktable,,
causing a plate to crash to the floor and knocking over a bottle of glazing…Melody jumped up from her chair in surprise…
“Cleo,, you damn cat”…”You scared me half to death”…
“Get out of here”…smacking the cat on its rear…
Cleo jumped down and watched as the door closed
disappeared into the wall…
Melody cleaned up the mess on her potters table and the broken pieces of plate on the floor,, then went upstairs to change out of the clothes that had gotten glazing on them…
“Honey what’s the matter?”…yelled Dave when he heard Melody stomping up the stairs…
“Oh,, nothing”…”Cleo just made a mess of things downstairs and I have to change”…”She scared me to death”…replied Melody from the stair landing…
“Ha ha ha,, I told you that cat was a menace”…

“Meow meow sissth sissth”…came the sound of Cleo as she chased a mouse in the basement,, one of only a few that she had found…Cleo caught the mouse and quickly bit its head off then carried it to the middle of the basement floor,, where she laid down with the mouse between her paws…A black serpentine tentacle came from under the white door that had reappeared in the basement wall…It silently squirmed along the floor and raised itself high above Cleo…
Cleo was joyfully licking the dead mouse between its paws…
“Wewewerwe”…Cleo screamed as the tentacle grabbed her,, and coiled around her,, lifting her into the air …The white door opened and the black tentacle retreated into the blackness with Cleo in its grasp…The door once again faded into the wall…The light bulbs flickered as the remains of the mouse melted into the floor leaving no trace of hair or blood…Then silence returned to the basement…

Melody came down from the master bedroom late Monday morning dressed in her robe and sat at the small table in the kitchen,, placing her head in her hands,, a dejected frown on her face…
“What’s the matter hun?”…asked Dave as he came from the parlor where he had been removing wallpaper,, the portable steamer still in his hand…
“I’m tired of removing wallpaper,, I need a break”…
“Lets go into town and look around”…”Lets take the whole
day off”…replied Melody glumly…
“That’s OK with me,, but I only have this week off to help you”…”Lets get dressed and look the town over,, and maybe have some lunch,, we need to get out and meet some of the townsfolk”…

The day was a cool fall day but the brilliant sunshine helped to warm Dave and Melody as they walked along Grove City’s main street,, looking into the various stores…It was a little past noon when they walked into the ‘Mill’ a little café on the corner…A little bell chimed announcing their entering…Almost in unison everyone in the little café became silent and turned their heads to watch Dave and Melody as they sat down at the old fashioned marble counter…
“What can I get you folks?”…asked Martin Reinhand,, the owner of the café…
“How about some lunch”…replied Dave…
“Sure we can do that”…said Martin as he placed two glasses of water in front of them…”Let me get you a couple of menus”…
Dave looked around at the small crowd that was there,, he didn’t recognize anyone…They all sat in their chairs speaking in muffled tones…Dave ate his hamburger and fries while Melody nibbled on her salad,, occasionally stealing a fry from Dave’s plate…It was one of the best hamburgers that Dave had had recently…The wind had picked up slightly as Dave and Melody left the café bringing a sudden chill to the air…They decided to finish their stroll down main street and then return home to relax for the remainder of the day…

“Oh my,, oh my…excuse me”…Lisa exclaimed as she emerged from the hardware store bumping into Melody…
Her son Timmy following her…
“Hi Lisa”…remarked Melody…
“Oh hi,, you two”…”How do you like your new house?”…
“Oh,, we like it a lot,, but there is so much to do”…”We thought we would take a break and come into town”…
“Well that’s nice,, that’s nice”…”You know that’s a very special house around here”…
Melody paused for a moment and looked at Timmy…
“Is this Timmy?”…”Your so much taller”…
Timmy had grown at least 2 feet taller since the last time Melody had seen him…
“Oh my yes,, he’s just growing like a weed”…
“No school today?”…asked Dave
“Ohh,, ohh ..Timmy had a dentist appointment today
so he didn’t go”…”Well we must be going,, got to go”…
Lisa and Timmy scurried down the sidewalk away from anymore questions from Dave and Melody…
“That woman gets stranger every time we meet”…said Dave…

“Did you notice anything weird when we were having lunch at the café?”…Dave asked Melody after they got back home…
“No not really,, just that I don’t think we’re going to make many friends around here”…
“No it’s not that,, it’s just that everyone in that café had black hair”…
“Yeah now that you mention it I did notice that”…”I thought we had walked into a Chinese restaurant at first”…
“Why do you think that is?”…
“I don’t know,, must be genetics”…”I’m going to take a shower and lay down for awhile”…replied Melody…
“OK,, hun…I’ll be up later to play”…
“Well don’t wait to long,, I might be asleep”…

Dave sat on the couch flipping thru the 4 channels on the TV,, looking for something,, anything to watch…His eyes starting to close with his chin falling onto his chest until he dozed off…Melody finished her shower and laid on the bed wrapped only in a towel,, half asleep as she waited hopefully for Dave to join her…The door to the basement opened and a black tentacle snaked across the floor,, it crept into the parlor where Dave was peacefully snoring then lifted itself high over Dave’s head… ”Dave are you coming?”…
The black shape hearing Melody’s voice stopped and slithered back towards the stairs,, climbing them until it was at the top...It went down the hallway and rising itself up looked into the room were Melody was laying…It creped forward and hovered near the bed,, then collapsed onto the floor forming a throbbing black mound …A few moments later a humanoid form rose from the floor…The figure was a shiny black color and quivered when it moved,, quietly it moved towards Melody,, then it slowly undid the towel that covered Melody’s back…It paused for a moment then began to caress her back…
“Hmmm,, that feels good”…murmured Melody…
The figures hands continued to caress Melody’s back,, rubbing her shoulders and sliding down farther on her body,, then it spread her legs…
“Hmmm”… moaned Melody just before she fell asleep…

Melody dressed in her bathrobe gave Dave a big kiss when she found him in the kitchen…
“What was that for?”…
“For the backrub,, silly”…”It was your best one yet”…
“Backrub?”…”I just woke up and came in here to make myself something to eat while you were sleeping”…
“You didn’t---I guess I was just dreaming”…
“Better than mine huh?”…
“Hmmm yes”…
“I guess I’ll have to improve my technique,, later tonight”…replied Dave as he kissed his wife on the forehead…
“Want some dinner?”…”I think we have some ribs”…
“I’m starved”…
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To be continued