The Other Half

It was late in the fall when she finally came to the conclusion something about that house just wasn't right. At night the energy always seemed to go cold, like having chills go up the back of a warm body. For so long her parents; who had left her there alone, had told her that it was just all in her head. The night her friend Ashley came to stay for the last weekend of their break from college, all her questions got answered.

The vacation house that she and her family had traveled to almost every summer when she was just a child wasn't so inviting anymore. It was a beautiful lake house that sat at the very back of the lake, the hardest to get to if you didn't already know how to get there. Although every other property off the shore of the lake had a clear view of it, traveling there wasn't the same. It is the biggest and best built of all the homes. It was surrounded with lush green blue grass and rose bushes that lined the property as if they were trying to hide the beauty behind them. Tall tall trees that reached to the heavens and lavender bushes scattered that stood out like a sore thumb throughout the tree line leading up to the property line. There was an old wooden boat deck with a small boat house that was weathering from lack of use and care. No boat ever saw the likes of it from her memory.

"Hey Cymeburg!" Ashley had yelled loud enough for anyone else on the lake to hear as well. "I'm here, where are you chick?" "Where do i put my stuff?" As Cyme walked out the front door down the porch Ashley caught sight of her and ran up giving her a hug that almost knocked both of them into the water that sat not far from the edge of where the two girls made contact. "Damn think you could have hit me harder?" she told her friend as she brushed off her shirt as if she had got her dirty. "You'll be in the room down the hall from me" she said with a big smile on her face. As the two girls walked into the house a strange noise came from the woods and they both looked back with fear, then at each other laughed and ran up to the rooms where they would spend the rest of their break.

"So what's up with you Cyme? Everyone at school is wondering. And Kodi seems to be worried about you. How you just took off without saying anything to anyone." Folding a fresh load of laundry piled there on the trunk at the end of her bed, " Awe you know, I just needed to get away from school and everyone. I Need time to think about things."

"What things?" Ashley asked with a grin on her face, implying to the fact that Kodi had asked Cyme for her to marry him not but a few weeks before.

Then suddenly there was a knock on the front door. "Who could that be?" Cyme asked an indirect question, knowing Ashley also had no clue. "I don't know, maybe the pizza boy" she giggled as they both went back down stairs.

When they got to the front door it was opened and no one was standing there. Cyme looked back at Ashley ``That's odd! I thought i locked this when we came in." So she shut the door and locked it again. As she turned around to tell Ashley about the strange dreams she was having before she left school she ran straight into a body that was not Ashley, instead a tall, solid, rock hard, body of Kodi. Who had grabbed a hold of her because she had become scared the moment she hit his body. She hit him, knowing it wouldn't feel like more than a fly landing on someone but made her feel better about the scare of him. "What the hell?" she yelled at them all. Josh was also standing there in the front entrance of the big house with Ashley just laughing from what they had caused. "Well what do you think? I would drive all this way by myself to this scary ass old house?" "We were worried about you, Cymie, ' Kodi said as he kissed her forehead, looking down at her as she hid her face.

"We're going to go out and collect up something to burn. It's cold here." Josh said as he rubbed his arms as if it was already winter. Him and Kodi went outside into the woods, Kodi yelling back to the girls "Yeah, you should really have your groundskeeper keep up!" Ashley and Cyme looked at eachother with questions in their eyes because there was no grounds keeper. They ran back up to the rooms to finish what they had been doing.

A few hours later Cyme went down the hall to where she had left Ashley so she could get the bathrooms more tighty for the unexpected company of their boyfriends. "Ash, why didn't you warn the guys where you were? You know you guys scared the hell out of me." As she turned into the room she had set up for her friend, she had found that she actually was asking Josh because Ashley wasn't there. He had been going through a bag that she felt like belonged to her friend, not him." What are you doing? Where's Ash?" she told Josh in a stern, and mean tone of voice. "She and Kodi were downstairs playing with the fire" he said as he put something back down into the bag and walked up to her. He looked at her with his big green eyes she admired so much but never admitted to anyone but herself, "You ok Cymeburg? I noticed the day you left school you looked a bit scared, like you were running from a ghost or something."

"You saw me leave school?"

"Yes I was in the hall locking up the computer room, when you passed, were you crying Cyme?"

"That's none of your business Josh!" she almost yelled at him.

"Look, maybe it's not, but you know I've always liked you but you act like you are too good to even be my friend, always giving me dirty looks and ignoring my existence."

She enterupted "Well you shouldn't have made me look stupid in class"

"Made you look stupid? Are you kidding? you're not talking about that first day in 8th grade are you? You are! How can you even hold that against me now?' that was like years ago? I appolagised the next day after your dad called my mom complaining threatening my life."

"It doesn't matter Josh. Forget it, and get out of my way ,I need to talk to Ash about something!"

"You mean talk to her about the bad dreams you've been having? I've been having them too."

"How'd you know that? I haven't spoken a word to anyone about me. Have you been reading my journal like a creep?" As she pushed him away from the doorway.

They had known each other for a little while longer than either ever admitted to their mutual friends. His parents also had a vacation house on the same lake. "Who's a creep?" Ash said startling both Josh and Cyme as she walked into the room where they had been arguing.

"That guy was creeping around the side yard when Kodi and I came up from skipping rocks. Who is that guy Cyme? I don't remember your parents having a'' and he stopped himself mid sentence forgetting they had made a pact to never speak of their past history.

"Wait what did you say?" Ash asked Josh. " Remember? You mean you guys know each other outside of school? Why did you act like you didn't know her when I introduced you to her at launch Josh!" She looked over at Cyme "Why didn't you say something Cyme?"

"I didn't want anyone knowing I knew the jerk, I didn't need him embarrassing me like he did in mid school, I didn't want to know him and wished I didn't have to grow up being his neighbor either, he was always such an asshole to me in school."

"What the hell Josh? why would you do that to someone?" Ashley asked him, giving him a look to kill.

"I don't know, I wanted to be the cool guy, she was so... stuck up."

"Stuck up? I was not!" yelling this time as she stormed out the room Kodi had made his way up to "What's her problem?" he asked because she had stormed out mad. "Josh used to make fun of her in middle school!" Ashley said leaving the room the same way Cyme had. "Cyme, wait up hold on '' she yelled in the direction Cyme had stormed off. At about that time a loud sound came from down stairs like someone had just broken a window and it stopped them all and they ran down stairs following Cyme to check out what they had all just heard. Little did they find that not one window, not one door, not one thing was out of place. "What is going on?" Kodi said in a rage, from the fear he kept to himself. "I don't know she's playing some sort of game I bet cause we surprised her, that's like her to do, cause she's never been able to take a joke" Josh said in a jealous, forgiving manor. "Oh bull crap!" Cyme snapped back at Josh. "I don't know what you're talking about, I don't care what you think and I don't have a groundskeeper, stop trying to be the cool one" She said with tears in her eyes. "Stop lying Cyme! Kodi and I both saw the guy, he told us your parents hired him to look after the place! You don't have to pretend to be Cyme, just admit it, you're a spoiled rich girl!" "Josh! enough." Ashley yelled at him. "Did I miss something?" Kodi said as everyone else went into the den where the fire they had just built was out. "I thought you guys were building a fire? or did Josh lie to me about that too?"

"Cyme, no Josh told you the truth. This fire was going strong when I went back up the stairs, I don't know why it's out. Kodi, did you pour water on it?" she asked as she noticed that someone had done. "No! it's freezing balls in here!" He said walking over to the fire place in question of what Ash had just said. Sure enough someone had poured water over the fire.

"Josh, it isn't funny playing games like that" Cyme had claimed to be the conversation they had up stairs. "I didn't do it, I was up stairs with you." "Cyme Josh isn't playing a game. How could he put the fire out when y'all were arguing about that day in class" Kodi said. "Hey how'd you know what they were talking about?" Ashley asked but was by him "Look lets go have a look around the yard Josh."

"No, Ashley asked you a question." Josh said hearing what Ashley had questioned during the argument of who put the fire out. "I heard you guys," he said.

"How'd you hear from all the way down here?" "Well if you weren't being so loud about it Josh maybe I wouldn't" " But i didn't even hear them and i was walking up" as the three were arguing with each other Cyme had been watching the courtyard from the window on the other side of the room.

"Shut up all of you! They're right Ash someone is out there. Look!" Ashley went over to the window as well, "What? where?" And then she spotted the man Cyme had been watching. "But I swear my parents haven't hired anyone. The last time I talked to them I told them I was headed back to the campus. They don't know I stayed, they don't know you're here with me, any of you. I was going to call them back but by the time I got back to the store it was closed early. Guess Mr. and Mrs. Coffee left back to the city to spend time with their new grandchild. And they have the only phone on the lake that still works. The phone company won't run a line to the cabins because of how thick the woods are. They said it would be too much work for little money and use since anyone is only up here for vacations anymore and not often, most families have stopped coming or and a lot of them the owners have died and the bank owns em. It's been years since any of the families have made use of these old lake houses since the lake has stayed too low to take their boats out on the water."

"yeah leave it to Cyme to come to the most deserted place on earth '' Josh said not making fun of her but having in mind the nightmares they both seemed to have been sharing.

"Josh stop already, Cyme didn't know.." Cyme interrupted Ashley.

"No, he's right, I have never liked being around a lot of people"

"When we were kids all of us kids thought she didn't like us as if she was too good to be our friend because her parents have lots of money, but I knew different, the first time I shared her nightmare with her, she is different from the rest of us. She feels energy and cam" "Shut up Josh'' Cyme said in a light tone

"No, I am telling them Cyme, anyways she sees things. Things from the past and things that have yet to happen. And she can share her 'dreams' with people, well she does me anyways. I thought I was going crazy the first time it happened, We were in our freshmen year and when i fell asleep i saw a girl, in a boat house that was flooded and full of trash, standing above a another girl in the water I couldn't see anything but their backs the one girl, the one knee deep in the corner of the boat house was Cyme looking down at a girl from our block a few doors down that had gone missing a few weeks before, Her name was Nichole Malleck, very pretty popular in school, her and Cyme didn't get along anymore"

"So Cyme drowned her" Kodi said teasingly because he was getting creeped out over the whole storey. "Shut up!" Ashley said to Kodi "Then what? What happened?" Ashley asked Josh.

"Well they used to be friends, best friends. They had a falling out because Nichole kissed the guy Cyme liked and Cyme saw them and didn't really talk to anyone after that. Well in the dream i was having Cyme looked back at me crying, she was soaking wet from head to toe like she had been swimming but she had a long nightgown on that looked like what old people would wear, it was dirty and way to big for her, almost like it was an old shirt of her dads, and she said 'help me!'"

"it belonged to Ray" Cyme said

"Who's Ray?" Kodi asked. "My twin brother," Cyme said with tears running down her face.

"He's dead," Josh said. Cyme all of a sudden got mad and the tears turned into anger "HE'S NOT DEAD" You could hear the pain behind her voice.

"Well he died in the house that was burnt down because he hid himself in it and the other parents found out and set fire to it in hopes it would kill him. He was said to be the one that killed the girl, None of the parents believed him when he cried out to them and screamed in pain as the fire burnt him up. well that is what the story is anyways. None of us kids were around that house when it happened." Cyme said "Josh please stop" begging him not to go on because it was so painful and something she had to live with everyday since. "It wasn't him," she said in a whisper. "Well what happened next?" Ashley and Kodi both said at the same time as if they were listening to a spooky story kids would tell around a campfire.

"That was it, after she said 'help me' I woke up, and I'm glad I did. It scared me like I was a little girl scared of the dark or something. I had been sweating when I woke brething hard like if I ran ten marathons or something, I felt really odd, like the dream was real, like i was there in real life."

"Okay so it was just a really bad dream cuz you have a secret crush on Cyme" Kodi said shrugging his shoulders. Ash hit his arm the same way Cyme did when they scared her earlier that day.

"But It wasn't a dream, it really happened. I was the one that found the girl, just like he said happened in his dream. Only thing is I cried out for help when i found she had been drowned Josh wasn't there, it was late at night when i found her and i only found her cuz something told me i needed to go to the boat house my mother always told us to stay away from it cuz it was going to crumble any day and would hurt us if not drown us. but i just had to go see why i had been so attracted to it for days, before disobeying my mother's wishes. "So your brother killed the hot girl and the parents waked him for it? Kodi said, summing up the story in fear. "Hell no, I believe Cyme, I don't think her brother did it either, he was a cool guy everyone liked him. him and her were two of a kind, two peas in a pod, they had a connection strong as hell. Her best friend. and he's dead now, that's why she isn't supposed to be up here. Her parents kept her away from here for years because she got strange after that she wasn't herself anymore, people started thinking she went nuts in denial and then one day she wasn't in class and the next day either and no one saw her again. She never came back to school. Rumors went around that she killed herself that her parents sent her away in shame that she was part of ray being they're twins and all. Her parents did send her away but not cuz she was nuts but to keep the memory from affecting her anymore. "

"How do you know that Josh I've never told you any of that! How do you know why my parents didn't want me anymore? I never told anyone that i ever spoke a word aloud of it."

I told you you shared your dreams with me. I don't know why or how. I just know that's how I knew where you were. Where I followed your dreams. I found you from the dreams you shared with me. you think it's just luck we go to the same college 256 miles away from home? No you asked me to help you that night in the dream see it wasn't a dream i was there just in your mind like a ghost, you're not the only one with a weird gift, i can travel anywhere after i go to sleep, i don't know how i just know i can and thats why im here you asked me for help you knew i was there even though u couldnt see me you felt me, like i heard you!" At that moment they heard someone in the kitchen knock down a glass and it shattered. They jumped in fear but Cyme and Josh ignored the fear and looked at eachother and went to check it out.

The man that was found in the kitchen trying to hide from them was very dirty, like a groundskeeper would be, he had a huge axe in his hand and it had blood on the handle in the shape of his hand ass he pulled himself from the floor. They were so scared at whom they found kodi grabbing a small kitchen knife from the rack of dishes that had just been washed and charged at the guy. the guy hit him with the axe handle and knocked him out the girls screamed i fear and josh was frozen for what he saw and ashley tried grabbing him so they could run from harm's way but he just stood there.

The man that had just hurt Cymes boyfriend yelled out in a tone of voice with pain and anger filling it as it echoed down the hallway Ashley and cyme has started running down, "Cyme! stop Cyme!" the voice got louder and louder as they ran and he tried chasing after them. Having to fight his way through josh's frozen body. "Cyme another voice screamed" Kodis voice, "Its Ray! your twin Cyme run he's going to kill you you know" and out of nowhere josh punched him and screamed down the hall "stop"

The man was now on his knees crying out. "Please stop Cyme Please!" She stopped as if she ran into a brick wall, right before they hit the front door. In shock, the voice she hadn't heard since the day of the fire was more than just in her dream.

..........TO BE CONTINUED......