Emery Lison hopped off the airplane into the humid Hawaii airport. As she shed her sweatshirt she muttered to herself how she wasn't used to all this heat, and instead preferred the cold of Northern Canada, but she wouldn't complain out loud, not when she was finally going to see Hazel again, who -according to the Hawaiian newspapers- had just bought a new house that seemed to hide some secrets. As she turned towards baggage claim she pictured a few wild ideas of her friends house, all ranging from old witch stories, to a full reenactment of Ghost Busters.
Yanking her bag off the round about, she dragged it up the stairs and threw open the sliding glass doors, almost crashing into an elderly lady, who was fumbling along with a twisted wooden cane. Once outside she had to give the airport credit. Never before had she seen such a large extravaganza of color. There were plants of every color of the rainbow and small waterfalls trickling down vast mounds of pebbles on each side of the entryway. But she didn't have much time to enjoy the view. A taxi had pulled up and she was one of many people who had taken an afternoon flight, and wanted to catch a ride.
Crashing into the backseat with her bag, Emery tossed the stunned driver ten dollars, clipping her seat belt and rolling down her window.
"Where to?" He asked, his voice quavering like he didn't quite trust her.
"Kukui Lane." She answered, pulling a wet starburst out of her hair, not seeing the drivers stunned expression as he pulled away from the parking lot, letting another agitated cab pull in to the empty space.
***
After dumping her bags, Emery followed Hazel around the first and second floors of her house. Walking down the hallway of the third floor she began to wonder where the reporters got the idea that this house held secrets, the atmosphere was to friendly. Dark oak paneling covered most of the walls, and the furniture was a perfect mix of rustic, and modern.
She tore her eyes away from one of the handmade glass chandeliers and returned her attention to her friend.
"... and this is the other guest room... this is the library... this is the TV room..." Hazel said, walking down the hall, gesturing to each open door and only gave Emery one quick look at each before grabbing her hand and pulling her forward.
As they walked out of another guest room Emery nearly tripped as the dark blue carpet bunched, revealing a small trapdoor near the wall. "What's that?" She asked.
Hazel's face briefly whitened, but she managed to plaster on a look of confusion.
"I have no idea." She said.
Suddenly the "happy atmosphere" collapsed as Hazel sent her a pleading look, and suddenly Emery didn't feel so doubtful of those reporters anymore. There were a million thoughts swimming around in her mind, but she shrugged off her questions for later.
***
"Hazel."
"Hazel!"
"HAZEL!"
Before Emery could call to her friend again, a third firework exploded off a barge and a explosion of screams and cheers rang out from the beach. Emery was a bit surprised at how many people were on the beach. Hundreds of folks were crowded on the warm golden sand to watch the daily fireworks shooting up into the air in the last moments of day as the sun was setting.
Emery slid her way threw the people shouting. "Another firework." She muttered for herself, just as she noticed her friend, cheering along with the rest of the crowd.
"Hazel!" She cried, running forward and grabbing the girls shoulder.
The girl turned around, it wasn't Hazel.
"Oh." Emery sighed and turned away, but felt a small tap on her arm. She turned around, and saw the girl staring at her, with a white face.
"Your looking for Hazel?" She asked timidly. Emerys vigorous nod gave her enough courage to continue, "You didn't know? Hazel stopped leaving her house soon after she bought it. Told everyone she was "still adjusting". Everyone knows what happened to the last owner." Emery stared blankly at her, causing the girl to sigh. "Your not from around here, are you?"
Emery shook her head. "I'm from Canada. I’m just visiting Ha-” she paused, “an old friend from college.” Well it wasn’t a lie.
The girl sighed again. “Well everyone thought she was crazy, but the previous owner used to tell people there was a man in the piped. Retell all sorts of weird conversations they supposedly had in morse code. Then one day she completely lost it. Called the plumbers saying he needed to get out, and he was trapped. When they finally sent someone over, he heard it to. They both left the state and we’ve never heard from them again.”
Emery was wide eyed. No! It’s a silly story. Hazel wouldn’t keep something like this from you!
"I don't know about you, but I wouldn't sleep in in that house. Not for a million dollars, which my sister says is a good thing, because if she were evil, she could pay me that if i did it." After that last sentence, the girls mouth shut like a trap and she slid away to cheer with everyone else.
Emery's mind started spinning. "A story, that's all, just a silly story. That girl was just trying to scare me." Still, she had just spotted Hazel next to a palm tree, where she hadn't been a second ago.
Still, when the next firework shot into the air, she saw her friend flick her eyes one over to the path, and mouth one word, trapdoor.
Emery shivered, and when she opened her eyes, Hazel was gone. The only thing that stopped her from believing that girls story was the sight of her friends purple floral dress disappearing up the hedged in walkway.
***
That night, Emery couldn't sleep. No matter how many times she rolled away from the open window, or fisted her hands in the orange duvet cover, nothing calmed her down.
After the sound of fireworks and shouting finally died down, she had been left with just the sound of her own jackhammer heartbeat.
Emery sighed and sat up in bed. The clock on her bedside table read, 12:34, and there was an almost full moon shining through the thin gauzy curtains covering her balcony windows.
The closet door handle made a snapping noise as she turned it, and the old wood creaked slightly as it was pushed open just enough for her to slip one arm through and grab a dusty towel and walk into the bathroom just off her bedroom.
The bathtub filled surprisingly fast, and the warm water calmed her surprisingly better than she had expected.
After about five minutes, all the random sewage knocks she had been hearing stopped and she didn't hear anything.
Then all of a sudden, like it was happening directly below her, Emery heard, tap, tap, tap, taptaptap, taptaptap, taptaptap, tap, tap, tap, then a low, sad moan.
She just barely held in a scream as she ran out of the bathroom, throwing back on the sweatpants and t-shirt she had worn to bed, and ran out into the hall.
Rushing into her friends bedroom she threw off the white sheets to find the bed empty. So was the bathroom. And the closet. Hazel left?
The paintings on the wall became a blur and her hand squeaked on the banister as she ran down the stairs to the front door.
When Emery ran into the garden, Hazel was there, wide eyed and open mouthed, wearing flowery blue sleep shorts and an adidas sweatshirt.
"What did you do!" She cried, clutching a small leather backpack to her chest and pinching the bridge of her nose with the other hand.
Emery stared at her. "I don't know! Your the one who never mentioned the had a frickin' ghost living in their house!”
Her blazing eyes met Hazels terrified ones. "He’s not a ghost. We need to get out of here."
Part of Emery’s anger flew away when she saw how fast her friend was running with her bare feet on the gravel. She is actually terrified of this thing! That was a surprise. Hazel had never been one to have nerves or worry about anything. It was a trait Emery had admired in her, the way she was totally willing to act like a child around complete strangers in her twenties.
They managed to get at least five blocks away before the screams started. Black mist spreading over the buildings behind them, wails cut short as people were swallowed by the fog like substance that was covering everything.
Emery saw her friend call for her, and saw a tan arm reaching through the dust to her. She grabbed Hazel’s hand, the last solid thing around her as her body fought for air and her mind struggled to stay conscious.
Breathe, breath, breath. She kept instructing herself until even that became to much. She felt Hazels arm go limp, and that was the last thing her mind could register before she was swallowed by the dark.
ns 15.158.61.54da2
