The Chair in the Middle of the Room - Part IV

The Chair in the Middle of the Room

Part IV

Written by Cassia Sherrill

The boys arrived at the house, and at Ethan’s suggestion, they parked their bikes closer to the woods to the right of the house. He suggested that area because if the police were to come around then they wouldn’t be as likely to see their bikes from the road.

They made their way closer to the house, and they went under the caution tape. As James was making his way under the caution tape, he got a glance at the house that was actually real in front of him. This was no longer his nightmare. This was real life. He felt his stomach drop, and he couldn’t remember why on earth he would agree to something like this.

He had stopped in his tracks after clearing the caution tape, and Q loudly whispered, “James, dude, come on! We need you!”

That snapped James out of his deep thoughts, and he wasn’t sure if it was the peer pressure or something else but he continued on with the rest of the boys. Even though, deep down he knew this was going to be a mistake.

They stood at the edge of the old porch steps leading up to the front door. The front door that had been the beginning of so many sleepless nights for James. He felt his palms starting to sweat. Ethan stepped up onto the first step, which creaked loudly as his foot stepped onto it. Every single one of the boys looked quite skittish and was doubting Ethan’s idea. This was his only chance to rally the troops before they all bailed.

“Okay, guys,” Ethan spoke to them quietly but with purpose, “We are still going to split up as we said earlier. Will and Q are taking the bad end of the house, and James and I will take the front end. Sound good?”

Will looked very pale in the face and quite innocently asked, “Um...can you remind me why we are doing this again?”

“Because terrible things have happened in this house,” Ethan said as he looked down for a moment. It was in that moment where James for the first time wondered whether there was more in this for Ethan than he had originally stated. “And they will continue to happen if we don’t figure out a way to stop them. We will pull out of there if something really scary or bad starts to happen though okay?”

Q gasped, “Like what?!”

“Shh...it’s just a precaution, dude.”

“Well, should we have a safe word or something?” Q questioned.

“Sure. Let’s do….’peaches?’”

“Peaches?” Will raised his eyebrows at Ethan. “Why peaches?”

Q mumbled to himself, “I like peaches.” He closed his eyes as if imagining peaches in order to distract himself from everything.

“Let’s just go with peaches. It’s quick and easy to remember. If something goes wrong, yell ‘peaches’ three times, and we will abort.”

Everyone nodded, but Will quietly mumbled, “We could’ve come up with something way cooler than peaches…”

Ethan rolled his eyes and ignored his comment. “Everybody got your flashlights?”

They all pulled the flashlights from their “spy bags” and clicked them on.

“Good. Let’s go!” Ethan led the way, headed straight into the front door of the house. Will went behind him followed by Q, and James brought up the rear. Will and Q immediately peeled off in order to start investigating their designated section. Ethan immediately headed straight for the chair in the living room to begin taking some polaroid pictures of it. James, however, stood there right in the parlor area that the front door opened up into.

Ethan was calling out to him to come and look at the blood stains on the chair, and he was asking James some specifics. But James didn’t hear him. He was completely caught up in the house. He walked around, and it was surreal. He knew every single inch of this house but not because he had ever been physically inside of it. He had seen it time and time again in his nightmares that he knew where everything was. He walked through the parlor to the tiny kitchen that had decade’s old appliances inside. The appliances looked like they hadn’t been touched in years. He walked through the second doorway of the kitchen that opened up into the empty dining room. Not a single piece of furniture was to be seen in there. He could see scuff marks of where there had been a table and chairs, but whoever lived there last had completely gutted the furniture. James was starting to make his way up the stairs which he knew held the only bedroom in the house when Ethan came up behind him.

“James? James, dude?” he said as he put his hand on James’ shoulder.

The touch made him jump but pulled him away from his thoughts. He turned around to face Ethan but all he gave him was a blank stare.

“Dude, are you okay? I have been calling you for like five minutes?”

“Uh...yeah, I am fine,” he said as he looked up the stairwell. “It’s just so weird that I know every inch of this house even though I have never been here, you know?”

“Yeah...that is super weird but also kind of cool too! But hey, I need your help. Did you write down all the things you remember about your nightmares here?” He started leading James back towards the living room, but James stopped in the hallway before he could physically see inside the room.

“No...I didn’t write it down because I just remember it all in my head. So I can tell you what you need to know. The only thing I wrote down…” he hesitated, unsure whether he should share. He gave a deep sigh and then continued, “The only thing I wrote down was this.” He pulled the wadded up piece of paper to Ethan, and he opened it up. He glanced at it, and his eyes grew wide as he read the warning at the bottom.

“What will they know? Who are they?”

“I don’t know, Ethan…” James said as he looked around the room. “I don’t remember writing this, but it is my handwriting…”

Ethan for the first time looked a bit scared. “What should we do?”

“I’m not really sure...but I think we just need to be careful. I have no clue what we may be up against.”

“Right,” Ethan nodded in agreement as he was processing this new information. “Do you think it would be okay if you look at the chair at least? Not sit it in...just look, I guess.”

“Yeah, I guess...”