Chapter Text
Woodhind wasn’t exactly somewhere you’d move into in the summer of the 2000s. A small town with a boring school, a boring mall, and boring neighbours. You’d be nuts to want to come here.
But apparently, someone did. A grey, sad-looking moving truck took its time to slowly shuffle towards the empty house.
The house had been unoccupied for years. Around the time Sage had been born, there had been rumours that some nobody got murdered in it, so no one had wanted to buy the house for a decade, worried they might get haunted or something. Sage Breezley didn’t believe in that, of course.
~
Sage was crouching in a bush, spying on the new neighbours through a crack in the chipped fence. She tapped her finger on the wood impatiently, watching the driver step out. He was a sad, fat, and sweaty-looking man, which did kind of match the town’s atmosphere. She hissed as the wood splintered and cut her fingertip. She sucked the blood off the wound.
A short plump lady stepped out, with blonde-ish dyed hair and tired eyes. Geez, she looked pissed.
She shouted something at the man, who grumbled and opened the back of the trunk to carry out the moving boxes. She strutted up to the empty house with keys in hand and unlocked the front door.
“Right, I want those boxes moved in 20 minutes. Got it?”
“Yes madam.”
“And take off your shoes before entering.”
“Yes madam.”
“Freaks..” Sage muttered, diverting her attention away from them.
There was a summer heatwave today. A bead of sweat dripped down her forehead.
An ant crawled up her leg, but she couldn’t move; she’d give away her hiding spot.
A boy walked out of the truck after the lady. He looked nothing like his mother, to be honest. He was tall, lanky, had a really ugly bowlcut, and was slouching in a hoodie. Sage couldn’t see his face.
Ew. She grimaced at the gloomy boy. The ant was halfway up her calf, and she was trying so hard not to flinch.
The boy kicked at the dead lawn, cursing something. He slung a guitar case over his shoulder, kicking the poor house.
The ant was crawling up her knee.
“Stupid- fucking- ugly- hou-“
“AHHHHHHHHHH!!!” Sage jumped out of the bush, slapping the back of her thigh to get the ant off.
The boy jumped and stumbled backward, falling onto the grass. He locked eyes with the intruder behind the fence in confusion. Sage stared back for a solid 10 seconds, both frozen like they had just encountered a wild animal.
“Augh, stupid ant..” She grumbled, her face tinted pink.
“HEY! YOU!” She dusts off her jeans. “You-“
The boy scrambled off the floor and sprints into the house, slamming the door behind him. The driver peeked out from the truck, peering at Sage.
“Phhhfffff, rude.”
Sage was probably the rude one for spying on the neighbours, but whatever—she'd deal with the weird boy tomorrow. She stretched her legs before walking barefoot back into her house.
~
Micheal slammed the door behind him, panicked, and weirded out. He sighed and looked around at the empty house with a dark look on his face. It reeked of mould.
His mom was in the kitchen, shouting at someone over the phone again about the bills. He quietly went up the stairs, reaching his room at the end of the hallway.
It was sad, honestly. The only things in it were a rusty bed, a small cross hanging above it, a torn grey curtain, and a carpet he was pretty sure something was living in. The floorboards were faded and creaky, and there was some mysterious brown liquid on the walls. He set his bag and guitar case down, looking out the window. He had a clear view of that girl's house as well as the rest of the street—if he tilted a little to the right. The house was deafeningly silent, other than the occasional passing car.
He dragged the carpet out and threw it down the stairs. The whole place stank like shit.
The bathroom was no better; the mirror was cracked, the drain was clogged, and the toilet bowl was yellowish in color. He glanced in the mirror and grimaced. He hated how he looked with his ugly blonde hair.
He wouldn’t even try to make himself feel “at home” in this place. It was utterly disgusting—and the moment he turned 18, he’d move away from this hell hole.
Micheal sat back on the crusty mattress. This was surely a toddler’s bed, because it could only fit him from head to knee. This place sucked, and he wanted to get OUT. He put an arm over his eyes, on the verge of tears.
6pm. It was still early, but he was exhausted out of his mind. The irony smell of the bedroom was giving him a migraine. Oh, and that weird girl next door. He didn’t like the way she was looking at him.
This place was isolated and lonely, but not like where he came from was any better. He groaned and rolled over on the dusty mattress, thinking no more of the mentally unstable girl next door, before falling into an uneasy sleep.
~
The next morning, the first thing Sage did when she woke up was go and bother her new neighbours.
Sage knocked on the door of the house next door. She hated the texture of the door—the once vibrant brown oakwood now covered in a new layer of sour-smelling white paint.
No reply. She knocked at it again, rubbing the sole of her shoe against the doormat underneath.
“Who is it?” It was that lady, “If you’re that god-forsaken mailman again, please leave me alone; I don’t want it.”
“Uh, no. I’m the—uh, your neighbour.” Sage answered.
The door creaked open a crack, and the lady peaked out. After ensuring there was no mailman, she opened the door. She was wearing a crusty bathrobe.
“And, who are you?” She looks Sage up and down.
“I’m Sage, from next door.” She smiles widely, maybe a bit too fake. “It’s really nice to meet you, and, uh, you are..?”
“Mrs Pierce.” She narrows her eyes suspiciously at Sage. She looked kind of annoying.
“Ah, nice to meet ya,” Sage gestured at the house, “do you need any help? Moving in? Cleaning up?” The forced smile was making her face hurt.
“What do you want, girl?” Mrs. Pierce snapped.
“Uhm, just wanted to.. check up, I guess? Oh, and was that your son I saw yesterday?” Sage mentioned.
She immediately regretted hinting that she was spying.
“He looked nice, and I figured we’re going to the same school! Can I meet him? Just wanted to make some new friends, haha.”
“Right..” The gloomy-looking lady shouted something in the house. “Mike, come here! A girl wants to talk to you!”
Sage watched as the boy grudgingly dragged himself out of the shadows, looking like a dried corpse.
“Aughhhh, what is it, mom?”
He jumped when he saw Sage, looking disgusted and freaked out. It’s the first time Sage has heard him talk. His voice was a bit squeaky, but in a raspy kind of way. Sage didn’t like his voice, not that she liked anything about the family so far.
“AUGH, what is she doing here?!” He ducked away from Sage's view.
“Come on, Mike, go make some new friends,” she pushed the reluctant boy out onto the porch. “I needed some quiet time anyways…”
“Nice to meet you!!” Sage held out her hand to him but was rejected by an awful look on the boy's face. The door closed behind them with a click, leaving them alone on the porch.
~
“Augh.” The fake smile on Sage's face immediately disappears. “You.”
“Yes-me, what?”
“You acted like I was a ghost or something,” she mumbled, “why are you wearing that? It’s a freaking heatwave in the middle of summer…” She pointed at his hoodie.
“God, what do you want from me?” He asks, self-consciously pulling his hoodie down.
“Nothing, duh! I just wanted to see who you were. What’s your name?”
“No thanks,” he said, narrowing his eyes under the sunlight beating down on them.
“Ok, no thanks.”
“Augh, dork. Very funny.” He shoved his hands in his pockets.
“Hey, what’s your problem?” Sage growled.
Sage watched the boy fumble with his hoodie, his blonde hair covering his eyes. He was wearing big nerdy glasses and had acne on his face where his hair wasn’t covering.
“You were spying on me yesterday—weren't you?” He hissed.
“Uh, no. That was called you walking into my view.”
“What the hell are you talking about? He scrunches up his nose, “You literally-“
He pinched the bridge of his nose. He couldn’t deal with this today. Maybe he could just tell the stranger to scram and return to the comfort of his room.
Sage grinned evilly. “Anyways, I’m Sage.”
“Sage..” He repeats the word slowly, dragging the end. He keeps his gaze on Sage, studying her. “What a weird name.”
“You’re Mike, aren’t you?” Sage asks.
“…No, actually it’s Micheal.”
~
Sage was usually pretty good at starting conversations, but apparently this guy was a whole other level of introverted. She did manage to (forcefully) drag Micheal like a weed into the backyard of his house.
“So why’d you move here?” Sage asked, walking around on the dead, brown, lawn.
Micheal stood like a pole under the shade of the tree. “That’s none of your business.”
“Well! It was really stupid of you to move here, to be honest,” Sage shrugged, “This town is freaky as hell.”
At least that’s something Micheal agreed with. He didn’t throw a rock at her, so Sage figured it was a cue for her to keep talking.
“There’s this old lady that lives outside the gas station. She buys tongue, ya know? Tongue, as in beef tongue. And there’s a rumour she uses it for sacrifices! She’s a witch. And I’ve seen her in the forest before, when I was like 12.”
He scoffed and raised an eyebrow. Odd way to start a conversation. “You believe in that bullshit?”
“That she’s a witch? Yeah, duh! But I don’t care.”
“Anyways, there’s also these people that sleep in the park fountain. I doubt they’re homeless… I suppose they’re just so bored with their lives that they sleep in public. This town’s so boring that it’ll drive you insane! It’s freaky.”
Sage slid her hand over the cracked wooden fence. An ant crawls up her pinkie, there’d been a lot of ants lately.
“Life’s alright here, I guess... But you’ll probably regret coming here.”
“I already do.” He answered stoically, shifting uncomfortably under the blistering summer heat. Beads of sweat were forming on his forehead, and he started regret wearing a hoodie today.
“Also, time here moves weird as well! Like sometimes, you’ll feel like it’s been an hour, but it’s only been 5 minutes in. And once in a while, the sun sets at different timings too.”
Now Micheal knew she was definitely a crazy person. He walked towards the backdoor of his house.
“Hey hey! Where ya going? I’m not done talking-” Sage jumped and followed after him.
“Could you- SHUT UP? For one second! Please.” Micheal cut her off, groaning.
Sage felt a bit bad for pissing him off. He fumbled with the backdoor’s handle.
“Wait, are you leaving? So soon?” Sage gawked.
“Yeah.” He mostly wasn’t leaving because of Sage's annoying voice grating on his ears. Rather, he was already drenched head to toe in sweat under the thick hoodie.
Sage opened her mouth to protest, but he slammed the door shut and locked it with a finality that echoed in the stillness. She stood in his backyard confused, something knotting her stomach.
She walked around aimlessly, her fingers brushing against the rough wood of the fence, pausing when she felt the give of two loose boards. With a careful nudge, she pried them off, and slipped through the gap, leading to her own backyard.
Like weeds do, they only come and grow back again, so this time she figured she’d let him be.