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Snow kicked up around her boots, as she made her way down the sidewalk. The air of the cold winter night stung against her nose, threatening to turn the skin as red as the hat on her head. The Santa hat had been plopped on her head and pulled over her ears back at Shorty’s. Her sister insisted she needed to relax and ‘get into the spirit,’ as she forced it on her.
It wasn’t that she was unhappy to be back in Purgatory for Christmas, she just had other things on her mind. Things like her dissertation and waiting for the review to come back. Back in town though, her sister and friends decided she needed a night of drinks, catching up on town gossip, and remember when’s.
Now she was drunk, walking down neighborhood streets alone to look at the Christmas lights. It was something she used to do when she was younger, just walk around to see the decorations on the houses and forget about everything else.
As her eyes roamed over a beautifully lit houses, taking a mental count of classic white lights vs the multicolored ones, she found a dark gap in the row. An old, unlit house. Coming to a stop, she only looked at it for a moment as her alcohol fused brain caught up to her.
She remembered this house.
In the dark of the night, and shoved between two brightly lit homes, it appeared even creepier than the foreboding image of it she had in her dust covered memory of it. Windows were boarded over, paint peeling in random flakes, and a wildly overgrown yard noticeable despite the snow behind the wire fence.
The witch’s house.
A stupid myth among the kids of Purgatory when she was growing up. A woman had lived there, an erratic, unkempt woman who never seemed to go anywhere; only seen through windows or wandering around her backyard, snapping at anyone caught looking at her.
They said she was a witch. That she’d snatch kids up for her spells if they wandered too close. Some of them used to make a game of seeing who was brave enough to get closest to the house. Even daring each other to ring the doorbell or, in extreme cases of childhood stupidity, try to get inside and take something as proof of the conquest.
Waverly was constantly ridiculed among friends and bullies for her fear of the stories and the building itself.
Maybe it was the alcohol. Maybe it was the idea of proving to her friends and herself that she wasn’t a scared little kid anymore. Maybe it was something completely different. But something, something moved Waverly’s feet towards the fence. The frame of the metal gate was ice cold under her hand as she pushed it open, rusted hinges protesting loudly against the movement.
She stopped after stepping inside and looked up at the decaying structure, feeling the same nervous flutter in her stomach she used to get when looking at it as a child with a head full of spooky stories. She shook her head, trying to snap herself out of the ridiculous fear.
It was just a house. Just an old, creepy house. That woman was just a woman. Just an…unusual, poor, probably lonely woman who didn’t deserve such cruel town talk. And by the looks of the place, she was long gone from it anyway.
Fueled by the drinks and stubbornness, Waverly took out her phone and video call Chrissy.
“Waverly!” her drunk friend shouted over the music, “What, have you been away so long you forgot how to get home?”
“Nooo, I made a pitstop. Remember this, place?” she said spinning around so the house was on camera.
“Oh shit,” she snorted and then let out a laugh, “You put on big girl pants today.”
She joked with a grin as Waverly continued towards the house. She stopped on the porch and made a show of being there. Waving her arms around and leaning back against the door.
“Who’s the chicken now?”
Chrissy laughed again and sipped her drink.
“Oh! You should go inside!”
“What?” Waverly shook her head, “Chrissy, I’m not breaking into someone’s house.”
“Come on! She died months ago, it’s empty,” Chrissy reasoned, “Come on, Waves, for old times’ sake. Just pop in and take something. It’ll be hilarious.”
Waverly stared at the house for a moment.
“This is crazy.”
“Yes!” Chrissy cheered.
“Ok, I’ll call you later.”
She hung up the phone and looked around a moment before trying the doorknob and finding it locked.
“There’s gotta be a way in,” she muttered to herself before stepping off the porch and trudging through the snow around the house for an entry point.
The backdoor was also locked, but she spied a window that wasn’t completely boarded and grinned.
“Bingo,” she said before shoving her phone in her back pocket.
She grabbed a trashcan and dragged it towards the wall below the window. Brushing snow off the top of it, she climbed up to stand on it. She tugged on the plank of wood that dangled from where it had originally been secured, almost falling off when it finally ripped away and smacked loudly against the trashcan under her feet.
Waverly looked around, hoping no one had heard the noise before grabbing the window ledge with both hands and jumped to heave herself through the open space. The heels of her boot hit the remaining plank above the one she’d ripped off as she tumbled in with a clatter.
“Jesus,” she hissed quietly, dusting herself off as she stood and then grabbed her phone again. She turned on the camera and whispered to it, “We’re inside the witch’s house. Look.”
She turned it around the small bathroom she found herself in, feeling stupidly proud. Not just of facing the old fear, but also the thrill of doing something she shouldn’t. She’d always been a stickler for the rules, this was her first taste of some kind of crime. As small a crime as breaking into an abandoned house could be considered, it was still technically a crime.
She didn’t even think she could blame the alcohol anymore.
She scanned the camera around the bathroom, looking for something she could bring back as a trophy.
“What’s in here?” she asked as she approached the sink and opened the medicine cabinet.
As soon as the mirror pulled away, a jar of something fell off the shelf and dropped into the sink. She cursed and put it back on the shelf. The moment she set it down, the entire shelf collapsed dropping prescription bottles and lotions tumbling chaotically to the sink or ground.
“Ok, that’s enough. Let’s go,” she turned off the phone and grabbed a bottle at random. Turning to leave the way she’d come.
However, when she looked out the window, she saw that the trashcan she’d used as a stepstool was tilted over on its side in the snow. It must have been pushed back when she jumped off of it.
Shit.
She’d just have to go through the house. Hurrying to the bathroom door, she pulled it open and screamed, falling back to the floor in her surprise. Her tailbone smacked into the wood, but she didn’t care about that.
She cared about the gun pointing at her.
“Who the hell are you?” the woman behind the gun asked.
“Wav-Waverly,” she stuttered out, holding her hands up.
“What are you doing in my house, Waverly?” she asked.
“Your…” she started, “I’m sorry. I thought it was abandoned and I-I never do stuff like this. I can explain, just…can you put the gun down? Please?”
The woman looked her over for a minute and then held out one hand.
“Give that to me first,” she requested, “and I will.”
“This? Yeah, take it,” she said, slowly standing up and tossing the pill bottle towards her.
Once she moved to catch it, Waverly took off. She shoved the woman aside and ran through the door.
“Hey!”
Waverly heard her running after her and increased her speed. She found the stairs and jumped down two at a time, hearing the wood creak and groan with each landing until she got to the main level and went for the locked door.
“Stop!” the woman shouted before following down the stairs.
Waverly looked back at her a moment before her fingers found the deadbolt. As she was about to turn it and forget this dumb adventure, she heard a shout of surprise and a loud crumbling crash behind her. She spun around, eyes wide when she saw the gaping hole in the stairs and the woman nowhere to be found.
“Shit,” she said staring at the hole. She started walking towards the broken stairs, whispering to herself, “Please don’t be dead. Please don’t be dead.”
She got to the bottom step and leaned over the gap, already hearing groaning as she neared it. Good, she wasn’t dead.
“Hello?” she called down, seeing the silhouette of the woman in the shadow of what looked to be a basement. She took her phone out, using the flashlight to get a better look, “Are you ok?”
The woman coughed and pulled herself into a sitting position with a groan. She looked around and then back down at herself before answering.
“I’m just dandy,” she snarked, looking up at her.
“What happened?”
“I fell,” she said back, “Obviously.”
“I mean, how did- “
“It’s an old house,” she interrupted, “No upkeep and…” she stopped, swiping her hair from her face, and looking up at Waverly, “Why am I answering your questions? You broke into my house.”
“I didn’t know it was your house!” Waverly’s voice kicked up a pitch as she responded, “I didn’t know it was anybody’s house!”
“Well, it is!” she growled as she stood up, wincing at the ache in her ankle as she put weight on it. She put her hands on her hips and took a breath before looking around.
“Are you hurt?”
“Think I sprained my ankle when I,” she gestured vaguely through the air, “you know, fell through the floor.”
“I’ll come help you, where’s the basement door?”
“It’s in the kitchen, but- “her words were cut off when she saw Waverly disappear from the opening and heard her footsteps hurry along the floor above her.
She sighed and waited, listening to the doorknob rattle at the top of the stairs for a minute. She clicked her tongue and shook her head with an amused smirk when the running steps returned her to the hole.
“But it’s locked,” she finished what she meant to say looking at Waverly with a wry grin.
“Ok, where’s the key?”
She shrugged, “I haven’t found it yet. I’ve only been here a few hours.”
“They didn’t give it to you when you bought the place?”
Nicole shook her head, “I, uh, I didn’t buy it. I…inherited it, I guess.”
“Inherited?” Waverly asked, her brows wrinkling in confusion, “But the only person I’ve ever seen own this place was this weird- “
“My mom,” she interrupted, causing Waverly’s mouth to snap shut in horror as the woman held an arm up in the air as if they could shake hands despite the space, “Nicole Haught. Nice to meet you.”
“Shit,” Waverly’s hands curled anxiously over the edge of broken panels, “I’m so sorry. Really, I didn’t mean…I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine,” she answered, “She-She was…different.”
“I’m sorry,” Waverly said again softly, “I didn’t know she had kids.”
“Well, she did,” Nicole said and quickly changed the subject, “What about your phone?”
“Oh! Yes!” Waverly looked at the phone in her hand, “I’ll call the police or-or the fire department!”
“No, it’s not an emergency or anything,” she reasoned, “I can call my friend. We drove here together. He took the car to get some food in town. There are tools in the trunk, we can call him and get the door off until I can find the key.”
“Ok, what’s his number?”
Nicole told her the number as Waverly dialed and gave her his name.
“Hi!” she greeted cheerfully, “Xavier? You don’t know me but I’m, uh, I’m with your friend Nicole. Yeah, there was an accident? Sort of? No, she’s ok! But she’s locked in the basement, and we were hoping you could come with the tools and…What?”
“What?” Nicole asked.
Waverly didn’t answer, instead went over to the window, and looked outside.
“Oh,” she said, seeing the light snowfall had increased to a heavy, near ridiculous amount. Already she could see the road covered as more thick, sticky flakes fell from the sky, “Ok. No, yeah, stay safe. We’re ok. Yeah, bye.”
Waverly ended the call and heard Nicole shouting from the basement.
“Hello, what’s going on?”
Waverly hesitantly returned to the gap and leaned over.
“Um, the snow picked up pretty bad,” she explained, “He’s stuck at the diner.”
Nicole let out a bitter laugh, “Of course.”
Waverly tapped her phone against her hand, “What do we do?”
Nicole to the floor and laid down on her back folding her arms behind her head, “Guess we get comfortable. Looks like we’re riding this out.”
Waverly slowly sat down on the step, trying to take the woman’s advice and get comfortable for however long this weird situation would last.
She didn’t know how long they stayed there in the silence that was only disturbed by the howling wind outside. It sounded like the storm was getting worse as time passed.
“Are you a drug addict?” she heard Nicole ask after a while.
“What?! No!” she answered, “Why would you think that?”
“Don’t be offended,” she said, “I found a stranger in the house holding a bottle of pills. Two plus two.”
“No. No it’s nothing like that.”
“What’s it like, then?”
Waverly sighed, “It’s…It was kind of like a dare.”
“A dare.”
“Yeah,” she licked her lips, feeling a bit ashamed now that she was in the presence of the daughter of the so-called witch, “When I was a kid…this was the spooky house in the neighborhood. We used to dare each other to…see who was brave enough to get close. Creep inside and take something to prove it.”
Nicole scoffed, “That’s dumb. Not to mention dangerous. Going into some random person’s house.”
“Yeah, it is,” she answered, “I was always too scared and…I don’t know, like you said, it’s dumb.”
Nicole sighed, “Ok, you go. Ask me something.”
“Umm…Are you…” Waverly thought for a moment, “a natural redhead?”
Nicole let out a laugh, “That’s what you’re asking?”
“Yeah,” Waverly propped herself up on her elbow and looked down at her with a grin, “I can ask whatever I want, right?”
“Sure,” Nicole answered, “Well, to answer your question, yes. All natural, all mine. Right down to the shitty fire-crotch jokes in high school.”
Waverly wrinkled her nose, “Gross,” adding quicky, “The jokes I mean. Not your…you know.”
Nicole rested her hands on her stomach and smiled, “I knew what you meant.”
“Your turn.”
“What’s with the hat?” she asked, “Did you come from a party or something?”
“Sort of, I was at a bar with my sister. She put it on me,” she answered, pulling off the hat, “I actually forgot I was wearing it.”
She held it over the hole and dropped it down. It landed on Nicole’s chest, who chuckled as she ran her fingers over the soft material.
“Sounds like a good time.”
They traded questions back and forth, passing the strange time as the snow continued to fall. Waverly found, despite the situation and their uncomfortable introduction, she was enjoying herself in Nicole’s company.
“Have you ever been in love?”
Waverly thought about the question, brushing her hair back before answering.
“Maybe,” she said honestly, “I think I was. Rosita, my chem lab partner.”
“What happened?”
“The usual,” she said vaguely, “We were younger. Grew apart. Nothing juicy or dramatic. Stayed friends, though.”
“That’s good.”
Waverly nodded to herself and bit her lip before asking her next question.
“How come I never saw you around?” she asked carefully, rolling over onto her stomach to face her, “Your mom lived here all these years, but I never saw you.”
Nicole took a deep breath.
“My mom wasn’t-she wasn’t always good at taking care of herself,” she explained; clearing her throat, “When you can’t take care of yourself, you can’t really take care of a kid either. She’d take medicine, and be ok for a while, and then be feeling so ok she thought she didn’t need it anymore. The cycle would repeat over and over until Dad got tired of the back and forth. They had an ugly split, court gave him full custody, and I guess she came here. I didn’t know where she was until I got the letter from the lawyer saying she died and left this place to me.”
“I’m sorry,” she said softly, “That couldn’t have been easy.”
“It’s fine, most things aren’t,” she said with a shrug against the floor. Running her fingers over the hat, she licked her lips before continuing, “Except…talking to you. Is that weird?”
Waverly ducked her head, feeling a blush heat up her cheeks, “I don’t think so. It’s easy to talk to you, too.”
Nicole sat up then, “It’s my turn.”
“Yeah, go ahead,” Waverly instructed, shoving down her disappointment that Nicole apparently wanted to change the subject.
“What would you do if I was standing in front of you?” she asked, “Right now?”
Waverly took a moment, surprised by the question and unsure if she should voice the answer flashing brightly at the front of her mind.
“What would you do?”
Nicole pulled herself up to stand and looked up at her.
“I’d give you back your hat,” she told her.
Waverly did her best to keep from being saddened because of her ridiculous expectations. Her head hung a bit, but she trained her voice to remain composed.
“That’s nice.”
“And then I’d kiss you,” Nicole continued, seeing the way Waverly’s head lifted back up to look at her completely, “I think if we were standing in front of each other, I’d be in real trouble. Because I’d kiss you in a way that would make me forget every other kiss I’d ever had. That’ll make Rosita the lab partner disappear. The kinda kiss that makes you blush when you think about it years later.”
Waverly’s hands tightened around the ledge, feeling her blood start vibrating in her veins.
“I’d let you,” was all she managed to say.
She looked around for a second, an idea coming to her.
“Where’s your gun?”
“What?”
“Your gun, were you holding it when you fell?”
“No, I left it in the bathroom. Why?”
“Because I want to kiss you Nicole Haught,” she stated before standing and carefully traversing around the gap in the steps to head upstairs.
“Waverly, be careful!” Nicole shouted when she realized she was going up the creaking stairs.
Waverly hurried to the bathroom and found the gun, as Nicole said. It was laying on the counter, telling Waverly that Nicole had never had real plans to shoot her. Otherwise, why leave it behind and not fire when she was running? Clearly, she only wanted to scare the intruder and possibly keep her until the police could be called.
That didn’t matter, however. Waverly grabbed the gun and hurried back the way she came. Placing her feet between the bannisters on the railing to get safely around the hole in the steps.
“What the hell are you doing?” Nicole asked, having an obscured, brief view of the woman climbing across the space.
Waverly didn’t answer, only focused on her mission. Once she was on sturdy ground, she took off running through the house back to the basement door.
“Stay back!” Waverly yelled.
“What are you doing?” she asked, instantly ducking, and covering her head when she heard a shot go off, “Jesus! Waverly!”
Another gunshot sounded and Nicole flinched, quickly moving aside to be out of the view of the stairs and the door. After firing her third shot into the wood, Waverly slammed her heel into the doorknob, sending it clattering down the stairs in a loud mess of bouncing metal.
The door swayed open a few inches after it was knocked away and she wasted no time in pulling it all the way. Nicole appeared at the bottom of the stairs, looking wide eyed at the woman. They stared at each other for a moment, neither moving for a few heartbeats of time.
Then, as if a switch had been flipped, they both moved at once. Waverly hurried down the stairs while Nicole limped up as fast as she safely could. When they met, Waverly’s heart was pounding out of her chest. She looked into the eyes that held a glimmer even in the shadows.
“My hat?” she said through the tension.
Nicole looked down at the item still in her hands before lifting it. She placed it on Waverly’s head, letting her hands trail over her hair as they moved down to cup her face.
Her thumb ran back and forth over her cheek, leaving a trail of fire over Waverly’s skin. Waverly tilted her head back when, as promised, Nicole moved in to kiss her. And as promised, it was like nothing in her life happened before Nicole’s lips were on hers. Her hot tongue swiped away every memory from before as long arms wrapped around her and held her close.
Time froze and sped up simultaneously. Everything and nothing existed when she was kissing Nicole Haught. Waverly’s hands found her neck and pulled her down, bringing her in for more, more, more. A never-ending cavalcade of the woman attacking her senses and keeping her safe and warm.
When they finally pulled apart, the two of them rested their foreheads together, breathing in their mingling breaths as they panted together with their eyes closed.
“Waverly?” Nicole said between heavy breaths.
“Yeah?”
“I’d really like to get off these old stairs.”
Waverly laughed, bringing up a hand to run over the side of Nicole’s face. She brushed her thumb over her lips, feeling Nicole’s mouth chase the digit to press a light kiss against the pad.
Waverly pressed another short kiss to her lips before sidling up beside her. Wrapping an arm around her waist, she nudged herself under her arm and helped her up the stairs.
On the ground floor, Nicole tightened her arm around Waverly’s shoulder, rubbing her hand over her arm slowly as she looked around.
“So, the storm is pretty bad.”
“Practically a blizzard,” Waverly answered, “Think we’ll be stuck here all night.”
“All night, huh?” Nicole said, turning her head to nudge her nose into Waverly’s hair as she spoke, “Sounds terrible.”
“The worst,” Waverly teased along with her, moving as she moved to stand in front of the woman. She took her hand and swayed it back and forth, “Whatever will we do to pass the time?”
Nicole grinned and leaned in again for another kiss.
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