Nightscape

7

Okay, I'm getting just a little bit freaked out here," Maria said, looking into the freezer.

"No kidding," Isabel said. She was getting impatient with Maria and her outbursts.

"Excuse me, but it's midnight. We're in the liber-creepy haunted house from hell. It's sealed up like a tomb… irony intended… and no one's been here for years except that the meat fairy filled up the fridge recently. Oh, and I left out the fact that, according to Madame Sees-the-Future over there, I'm scheduled to get chased down these stairs by the bogeyman."

"Actually, I think it was more in the front of the house," Liz said, smiling and pointing the other way down the hall.

"You think this is funny?" Maria said, her voice rising even higher in pitch. Then she smiled in spite of herself.

Liz clearly had patience for Maria. For that matter, so did Michael… a seemingly endless supply, on this trip.

Better them than me, Isabel thought.

"Look, there's no reason to panic. I'm. sure there's a logical explanation for everything," Liz said.

"Why?" Isabel said, more sharply than she had intended.

For a second, Liz didn't respond; then she said, "Well… there usually is."

Isabel just shook her head.

It's getting late.

Where did that thought come from? Isabel wondered.

"What?" Max said to her. She realized she must have spoken it out loud.

"I said it's getting late," Isabel said, more testily than she had intended.

Max just nodded and said, "Right, we should settle in for the night."

Maria started to protest, but Max waved her off, "After we've searched the house to make sure it's empty."

"If you think I'm going upstairs…," Maria said.

"Then you can stay by yourself down here," Isabel said.

Maria just glared at her.

Michael stepped up to Maria and put an arm around her shoulder. "Stay close to me and you'll be fine."

That seemed to satisfy her, and she was… thankfully… quiet.

"What if we find someone?" Liz asked.

"Then we'll tell them our car broke down and politely ask if we can stay the night," Max said.

"We'd better leave out the part about being alien human hybrids on the run from a ruthless secret organization within the federal government," Michael said.

Max nodded and gave a small smile. "Probably a good idea."

"What if the place isn't empty, but there's nothing alive here?" Maria said.

"What?" Isabel said.

"You know, ghosts," Maria said.

"Come on, there's no such thing," Liz said.

"How can you be sure?" Isabel found herself asking, surprised for a moment that she was on Maria's side of the discussion.

For a second, Liz was unsure, then she said, "Well, you can't see them. And there's no proof… "

"You grew up in Roswell believing the same things about aliens, until you started dating one, right?" Isabel said, immediately regretting her harsh tone.

"I guess we can keep an open mind," Liz said, giving her a strange look.

I don't need to keep an open mind, Isabel thought. I used to talk to a ghost all the time. Not so much lately, though. In fact, the last time we talked, he complained, "You newer call, you never write."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure that any ghosts we meet will be wisecracking but friendly and join our little troupe," Michael said. "Now, can we get on with this?"

"Yes, let's," Isabel said, pushing her way past the others and stepping into the hallway that led to the rest of the house.

"Hold on," Max said, but Isabel continued down the hallway. Max didn't catch up to Isabel until she was standing in the next room.

He stepped inside and started to say something to Isabel but he was too startled by his surroundings to finish the sentence. He was in the largest dining room he had

ever seen. There was a long table in the center. Max quickly counted ten chairs on each side, plus one on each end. Someone behind him hit a switch, and the chandelier over the table came to life, filling the room with a soft, yellow light. With the light on, Max could make out more detail. The walls were a rich, dark wood and had candle-holders mounted every few feet.

He couldn't get over the scale of the room. You could fit the entire Crashdown in here and have room to spare, he thought.

"Remind me to go into the lumber business," Kyle said.

Unlike the outside of the house, the inside was in good shape. In fact, it had been impeccably maintained. And there was something wrong with that fact, Max realized.

"There's no dust," Liz said, speaking his next thought out loud.

"That's right… if no one's used this house in years, there should be dust covering everything, even with the Saran Wrap over all the windows and doors," Maria said.

Just then, there was a bright flash outside that illuminated the three large windows on one side of the room. The loud thunderclap followed a split second later.

"Ahhhh!" Maria screamed.

"Oh, please," Isabel said.

Max saw that Isabel had been annoyed with Maria ever since they'd arrived at the house. The girls had never been great friends, but they had reached some sort of detente shortly after Maria had learned their secret. Now, Isabel seemed to have a very short fuse with Maria. True, Isabel had not been herself since they left Roswell and she left

Jesse, but she had mostly been quiet and withdrawn. This was something else.

Maybe this is a good sign, Max thought. Maybe she's coming back to herself.

It was possible, Max knew, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something else, something new, was bothering her. He made a mental note to ask her about it when and if they were ever alone. Even then, he doubted it would work. Isabel rarely opened up to him anymore.

Liz calmed Maria down with a hand on her shoulder, and Max noted that the plastic covering the windows made the outside world look distorted, as if he were looking at it through a fog. It gave him a claustrophobic feeling, even though he was standing in such a large room. It also made it more difficult to see what was happening outside. Well, he hoped they would leave early enough that that wouldn't be much of an issue. With any luck, they would be gone long before anyone showed up.

"Maria, it's okay. There's nothing to worry about," Liz said.

"Really," Maria challenged, "then what about the dust? You said it yourself, where did it all go?"

"Yes, because no human being could have dusted a place like this," Michael said.

"Look outside," Maria said defiantly. "No one's been here in years."

Max saw that it was time to put a stop to all this. He raised his hands to shush them both. "Look, clearly someone has been here. They turned on the power, cleaned the place up, and left some food. That's it. No one's here now but us… and we'll search to confirm that," he added before

Maria could protest. "The important thing is to stay calm and not be at one another's throats," he said, giving both Maria and Isabel serious looks.

"Nice to see you taking charge, Max, but as you've said yourself, you are not the leader here," Isabel said. Then, before he could respond, she turned and started heading for the next room.

It was a library and sitting room. Books lined the walls almost to the twenty-foot ceiling. There were also antique sofas and chairs, as well as low tables. The furniture was clearly old, but all in good condition. The bookshelves were intricately carved dark wood. In the center of one wall was also a large fireplace that was big enough for four of them to stand up inside it.

Liz immediately started scanning the books on the shelves. Even Isabel and Michael were doing it.

"I wouldn't mind staying here for a few days," Liz said. "Exploring would be fun."

"And you haven't seen the mad scientist's lab in the basement yet," Michael said with a grin.

Maria was shaking her head. "It's like I'm taking crazy pills. Have any of you been paying attention?"

"Come on," Max said. He wouldn't have minded staying here for a while, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to make sure the rest of the house was clear. He was sure Maria was just nervous, but a quick search might relax her.

Next, they found an office with a giant desk and some more bookcases.

"Look at this," Liz said, pointing to a plaque on the wall.

Max walked over and saw that it was a newspaper article

mounted on a piece of hardwood. The piece was from the front of the Washington State Times. The headline read, "Benton Lumber Celebrates Thirty Years." It was dated November 3, 1937.

From his position by the desk, Kyle said, "I found some newspapers."

Max went over to where Kyle had laid out half a dozen yellowed copies of the Washington State Times. Several of them carried front-page stories about Benton Lumber.

"Looks like business was pretty good," Kyle said.

"What's been going on here since then?" Liz said.

"I'm guessing that the owner holed up here, getting more and more eccentric, or more paranoid, until he died and started haunting the place," Michael said.

Maria just glared at him.

"Come on," Max said, and they continued. Their next stop was a large, open room.

"It's a ballroom," Liz said.

It was a large space, as big as a wedding reception hall, and very elegant, with chandeliers hanging throughout the room.

"Jackpot," Kyle said, heading for the far end of the floor.

"What is it?" Max asked as he and the others followed.

Kyle reached the bar first and vaulted over it. When he turned to face his friends, he was smiling. "This haunted house comes with an open bar," he said, producing a bottle from under the counter. "Looks like a party."

"Well, we can't really drink, you know," Max said.

"Oh yeah," Kyle said. He had been with Max the first night Max had tried alcohol, and then the second. The

effect had been profound… and dangerous. Besides the disorientation Max had felt, his powers had gone crazy.

"I respect that the aliens among us must abstain, but that doesn't mean we mere mortals can't enjoy ourselves," Kyle said.

Max turned to Liz and said, "I don't think it would be safe for you now. Not with your developing powers."

"Well, I was never much of a drinker before," Liz said, a thin smile on her lips.

Max was glad for the smile. Though he hadn't intended it at the time, he knew he had changed her somehow when he had brought her back that day at the Crashdown. At first she had been terrified by the changes and the emergence of her powers. Max knew she was still scared, but maybe this was a good sign.

"Looks like it's just you and me, Maria," Kyle said.

"Yeah, that's what I need, because I'm not freaked out enough," Maria said.

"Leave it to our alien friends to spoil the party," Kyle said, frowning. As he looked back at the bar with disappointment, something caught his attention. "What the…?" Kyle said, bringing up something else from behind the bar.

"Great, Snapple," Michael said, reaching out to take the bottle from Kyle. He opened it and took a sip. "That's what I'm talking about."

"What will everybody have?" Kyle asked. "I've got soda, Snapple… you name it."

"Should we?" Liz asked.

"Come on, we can leave a few bucks on the bar when we go," Michael said.

Max nodded and Kyle passed out drinks.

"When we're finished our look around, I say we see what else they've got to eat around here," Kyle said.

"All the better to fatten you up with," Maria said.

"What?" Kyle said.

"You know, Hansel and Gretel? The witch that built a candy house? To attract kids that she could fatten up and then eat?" Maria raised her eyebrows with each question.

"And you think that's what's going on here?" Kyle asked.

"Makes as much sense as anything else we've come up with," Maria said.

"Not really," Isabel said, and walked on.

The group continued its tour of the mansion. They found a great room in the front of the house. It had another huge fireplace, sofas, and large windows that looked out over the front of the house.

Continuing, they found an actual gymnasium as well as a children's rec room full of old toys and early pinball machines.

"I am really starting to respect Old Man Benton," Kyle said.

Max looked at the toys and got a chill. Everything was in good condition, but bore the unmistakable look of age. The house looked like a museum without the red velvet ropes. He wondered what happened in this house that the owner kept it intact as the years and decades passed. He had no doubt that someone had been here recently to clean up. Still, long before that, someone must have lived here for years with the place frozen in time. He guessed that the outside had been neglected for maybe ten years. But the

inside was stuck in… what?… the fifties? The forties?

It didn't make sense. And behind it was a feeling that Max couldn't quite place. He saw Isabel taking in the room and thought she looked very absorbed. Something in this house was affecting her.

Suddenly, Liz was next to him. She took his hand. "Feels like they're still here," she said, whispering.

That was it. Intellectually, he knew they wouldn't find any people here tonight. Yet, he couldn't shake the feeling that they weren't alone here.

"Come on, it's after one," he said, checking his watch. They needed to finish and get to bed. He realized he would feel better when they were off in the morning. Away from here.

Isabel stared at the toys.

"Iz," he said. When she didn't turn around, he approached her and tapped her on the shoulder. "It's getting late," he said.

"Ahhh!" Isabel exclaimed as if he had given her an electric shock. She whirled around and looked at him. For a moment, her guard was down completely. She looked vulnerable and… what was it?… scared?

Max was immediately sorry he had scared her. An instant later, her control was back and her face was unreadable.

"Don't sneak up on people," she snapped, glaring at him.

"Sorry…," Max said, but she wasn't listening.

Isabel led the group down the main hallway and up the main staircase. Max felt Liz tense up and he guessed this

was the place from Liz's vision. He saw the balcony at the top. That must have been where Maria fell… would fall, unless they prevented it.

Maria clutched Michael as she headed up the stairs. Beyond the balcony was a long hallway with closed doors on each side. Isabel opened the first door. From behind, Max could see that something was wrong; she was holding her hand to her mouth.

"What is it?" Max said, sliding in behind her.

Then he saw inside the room. Like the rooms downstairs, the two large windows were covered in plastic. But this wasn't an extravagant living space, this was a child's room. A girl's room.

Against a far wall was a canopy bed with frilly pillows and a lace bedspread. In the center were a rocking horse, dollhouse, and doll collection.

"Are you okay, Iz?" Max asked softly.

"I thought I heard someone laughing, maybe a child," she said. Then she shook her head. "No. It's impossible. Must have been something else."

Max nodded, but he thought there was something odd about the room: It looked like someone still lived here. It was easy to imagine that the little girl might return any moment. That thought gave Max a chill.

Gently, he took Isabel by the arm and led her back outside. "I think this house is getting to us," he whispered to her when they were in the hallway.

"What is it?" Kyle asked.

"Nothing, just a bedroom," Max said.

"So is this," Michael said from the next door down.

They walked the hallway, trying each door. The entire floor seemed to be bedrooms. There were two more children's rooms… a nursery and a boy's room. There were also a number of large bathrooms and a children's library. Farther down were adult bedrooms, each with large, ornate beds and heavy curtains. Each room was in pristine condition.

"Creepsville," Michael said.

"I don't think so," Isabel said. They were the first words she had spoken since they had found the first bedroom. "It's all kind of… comfortable."

"A little over-the-top-gothic for me," Maria said.

They came to the end of the hallway, where there were ornate double doors. Isabel opened them and revealed what was by far the largest bedroom.

The room took up the entire rear of the house. There was a large bed against the wall, and a bank of windows that overlooked what must have been a beautiful garden.

Max could see an empty swimming pool as well. There were bookshelves, as well as sofas and chairs. The place

looked more like an apartment than a bedroom. Stepping inside, Isabel opened a door and disappeared inside. Max followed and saw that she was inside a large walk-in closet, still full of clothes. Through another door was a bathroom three times larger than his room at home.

"This is my room," Isabel declared. No one questioned her.

Max said, "Looks like there's no one here. Let's go downstairs and get what we need from the van and keep watch for a while before we go to bed."

They headed out to the hallway, but Maria stopped. "If it's all the same to you guys, why don't we take the back stairs."