One Night

It all began with a simple phone call one night after dinner.

“Lily,” my brother hollered up the stairs, “It’s for you. It was Gil and he sounded upset.”

As I came down the stairs to pick up the phone, I was not happy. I was tired and had really looked forward to a nice, quiet evening of blogging and another ridiculous adventure with Gil.

Thirty minutes later, however, Gil’s (put car make model and colour here) swung into our driveway and Gil was leaning on the horn before the car came to a full stop. Grabbing my coat from the couch, I walked out my front door with all the enthusiasm of a man to stand before a firing squad.

Wrapping my coat around me I walked over to the car only to be greeted by an annoyed looking albino.

“What’s wrong?” I sighed. He did this all the time. He’d go out with Antonio and Francis then come over to my house pouting like a small child.

“’S nothing.”

“..Gil, why don’t we just go inside for a bit? It’s cold.” He got out of his car and led me back into the house. He went and sat on the couch as I shooed Sam, my stupid twin who was always in the way, out of the living room. Sighing, I walked back in and sat next to him. “Now will you tell me what’s wrong, Gil?”

“The boys were just sayin’ that we don’t spend enough time together and Antonio asked when you were available.” He frowned.

“..Oh...Well, you know that’s not true don’t you?”

“I guess...” He still looked down.

“I have an idea. Why don’t we go up to that old lodge my parent’s own? Should only be a few people this time of year and with all the trees around it’ll be pretty.” I smiled.

“Why not,” he replied, standing, “Go pack your bags and some food. I’ll come grab you in say an hour.” Before I knew it he was already out the door. I went and packed like he had said and was waiting for him by the door with the bags and keys. He pulled into the drive and hopped out of the car; he quickly loaded the things into the car but stopped to look at my laptop bag. “You really need to bring that babe?”

I crossed my arms. “Yea, I have a story due and I planned to write a bit while we were at the lodge. It’ll be easy to focus without Sam constantly badgering me to make him stuff.”

He sighed,” Fine, do whatever you want. Just don’t become too much of a shut in.”

“Promise I won’t” I smiled as I slid into the car next to him. We drove for what felt like days, but were actually a few hours. We pulled into the drive and I looked at the old lodge. It was just as I had remembered; an old log structure looking as though it has never aged since it was built back in the sixties. I went inside to check in while Gil unloaded the car. The decor never really changed either, same old drawl things; I remember how it used to scare me as a kid with all the animal heads and black and white pictures.

I got our room key and met Gil by the car. “I got the room key.”

“And?”

“Two rooms plus a kitchenette, sound okay to you?”

He smiled “So you’re gonna have to cook stuff~”

I laughed a little, “Only if you’re nice Gil.” We walked inside and to our room noticing the lack of people as we went.

“So when you said it was the slow time of year, you weren’t kidding’”

I looked at him, “Well, it’s almost Halloween and there aren’t many houses up here. Plus it closes today.”

“Then how are we gonna stay, Lily?”

I laughed. “I told you, my parents own the place thus giving me the right to stay here even past the running season.” He still looked a little confused but I ignored it and worked on unpacking. After I had unpacked everything, I took my laptop and headed out to find a nice place to work. There was an odd room that was perfect for me to work. Now, I say odd because it was almost all windows except for the wall with the door; it faced the woods showing all the beautiful changing leaves. On top of the peculiar design, in this room were two things; a desk and a chair.

Setting my laptop down, I found an outlet for the power cord and got to work. Hours flew by and I never noticed, focusing only on my screen and the sounds of the key clicks. I looked up, as if by instinct only to see Gil in the reflection of the window.

“What are you doing, Gil?”

He stopped in his tracks. “I was just coming to check on you, it’s kind of boring by myself.”

“Then what do you want to do you goof?” I sighed, standing and closing my laptop.

“I dunno, why not go for a walk~”

“Fine, just let me go grab my jacket.” He wandered off and I headed back to the room for my things, although I couldn’t shake the feeling of eyes staring me down. I turned only to see an old portrait of what looked to be an upper class woman from who knows when. Under it was a plaque saying who she was. “She died in a fire....”

“Who did?” I jumped at the sound.

“Gil! Don’t sneak up on me!”

“Geez, sorry, I thought I was loud enough seeing that I called your name, like, ten times.”

I frowned. “..Guess I was just out of it, I didn’t hear a thing.”

“Whatever; get your coat yet?”

“No, I got distracted by the painting there.”

He gave me an odd look, “What painting, Lily?” I turned and looked to where it had been.

“It was just there I swear!” he put his hand to my forehead.

“Maybe you should go lie down; you’ve been working too hard.” I sighed and nodded. He lead me back to the room and made sure I was asleep before he left.

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He walked outside, tugging his jacket closed against the cold. He knew she had been working too hard, but it wasn’t like Lily to see things, even under stress. She had muttered something about a fire before he had scared her and that worried him even more. He didn’t like this place, it was kind of creepy and yet very peaceful. He shoved his hands in his pockets and continued moving.

‘This is ridiculous,’ he thought. ‘It must’ve been some sort of flash back. She’s been here more than me.’ He continued to walk for a few hours but headed back to the hotel. He found Lily still sleeping soundly, and at that he smiled. That seemed to be the only time she wasn’t up in arms, and one of the few times she would actually relax. Sam was always on her case about stupid thing, like something was going to attack her. It seemed ridiculous to him, but who knows, Lily’s family was an enigma to him. Her parents were never home and they had locks on almost everything. It was a little suspicious but he didn’t want to dwell on it. He looked over at Lily before lying down next to her and falling asleep.

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I opened my eyes to find Gil sprawled out next to me. Smiling I slid out of bed and headed to the kitchenette. I decided while he was sleeping that I would make something for us to eat and sure enough that woke him up. He shuffled into the kitchen and wrapped his arms around my waist, resting his head on mine.

“Whatcha making babe~?”

I smiled, “Figured you wanted something to eat, so I figured that if I made some bacon I could make a BLT or something.”

“Sounds good Lily” he said as he sat at the table. I finished cooking then headed back to the odd room to get my laptop. I walked in to find my computer freaking out, speaking nonsense code on the screen then it went to static. Carved into the desk was a circle with an X through it and the windows were all open. Grabbing my laptop I ran back to the room and slammed the door.

“What’s wrong, Lily?”

“I-I just. The room-. And-. I just-.”

“Calm down Lily,” he said hugging me. “It’s okay, just show me what’s wrong.” I opened my laptop and showed him the nonsensical code. “So, you got a bug? That’s it?”

“When your computer starts spurting things like ‘Always Watching’ and ‘Let us out’ you don’t flip?!”

“It’s probably a prank, Lily.” I glared at him.

“It’s not! There were things everywhere in there a-and the painting!” He sighed and hugged me.

“Stop thinking about it, you’re fine.” I glared at him. “Look Lily, get changed and we’ll go for a walk.”

“Fine.” I went and got changed. Before I knew we were wandering through the woods on the trail. It was getting dark quickly and when we went to head back we couldn’t find our way. “Look Gil, just continue straight, I’ll go left and call when you get to the end.”

“I don’t like that idea Lily…”

“Trust me, it’ll be fine.” He grumbled a little and headed down the trail I had told him to. I walked for a while, seeing no sign of an end and hearing nothing from Gil. There was a sound behind me and I whipped around to see nothing. The wind picked up, creating an even eerier atmosphere. This was getting a little freaky.