7 Chapter Six.
Diane drove into the driveway of the house in which they were soon going to officially move into in the next 24hours. As she parked her car behind Jakes Mustang, she leaned over to reach for her handbag which was on the passenger seat beside her. She pulled out a little, red round shaped pocket mirror from her bag and opened it. Staring at herself and slightly adjusting her hair.
“Perfect” she said to herself as she glanced at into the mirror with a trivial smile.
“Oh my Gosh!” she shrieked.
A short yet scruffy old man was standing at her window, with what was most probably the creepiest smiles on his face.
“Excuse me, may I help you with anything?” while stepping out her car with a diminutive smile on her face. She tried to not make it too obvious that she was unaware of his presence which had startled her 5 seconds ago.
“I apologise for giving you a fright, I really did not intend to.” He said with a smile on his face. “I’m Mr. Crawford, I live a couple of houses down from here. I’ve been seeing the moving trucks and you and your son bring some furniture to the house for the past week and my wife and I just wanted to give you guys a nice warm welcome.” He said with stretched out arms and a pie right between them.
“Oh, how pleasant” She responded with a wide smile on her face. “you are a bit early though, we officially move in tomorrow but thank you so much for the pie, this looks really delicious.” As she reached out to grasp the pie and smelling the steamy mouth-watering scent that arose from it.
“Mhm, apple pie” she said with closed eyes as she inhaled its rich smell once more “my favourite.”
Mr. Crawford Gazed at her with intensity in his eyes and an exceptionally serious look on his face. He was quick to change his facial expression and smiled at her as soon as she opened her eyes, acting as innocent as any decent old man would.
“I’m Sorry, I didn’t quite get your name.” he said to her.
“Oh, my apologies, I must have gotten carried away by the pie. I’m Diane Harper. Miss Harper or Diane, honestly you can call me either one.” She replied timidly with a stretched-out arm as he gave Mr. Crawford a warm handshake.
“and this right here is my son, Jake” as she turned to face Jake who had just walked out the house to the trunk of his car and pulled out the last box that seemed to be filled with picture frames and posters.
Jake held the box with one hand as he shut the trunk of his car and walked towards his mom and Mr. Crawford.
“Good Morning Mr.?” he said while giving Mr. Crawford a handshake and dragging the letter ‘R’ from the word Mr., as he blatantly stared at him with a bit of a smile on his face.
“Mr. Crawford” he responded with a wide wrinkly smile while he slightly lifted the front end of his hat with his other hand.
Jake froze for a moment and stared at him. He knew who he was, he recognised the name a from the article he had read a few days ago.
“Ahh, Uhm yes, uh nice to meet you” Jake said as he hesitated to find the correct words, “should I take that inside? I’m sure you’ve been holding it for a while now.” Jake said to his mother as he pointed the Pie in her hand.
He held the pie in his one hand and the box in the other as he walked into the house. He placed them both on the kitchen counter with a little sigh of relief as the box was starting to slip out of his hand. With both hands on the kitchen counter, he stood there for a moment, staring at his mother through the window as she waved to Mr Crawford while he made his way out of their driveway. He found it weird that he still lived there even after what he had experienced with the death of his neighbours. He looked down and noticed the blood trail from Hailey’s nosebleed the previous day.
“Oh yes, we better get that cleaned up” Diane said to him as she walked into the kitchen. “what do you think about Mr. Crawford, he seems like a really nice old man. He brought me this pie that his wife had made for us, isn’t that sweet?”
Jake walked out the closet with a mop in his hand to clean up the blood that was on the floor. He hardly heard a thing his mom said as he was so focused on Mr. Crawford, he really seemed bothered, besides that there was just something about him that seemed off. Mr Crawford of course. Something that just sent a cold chill down his spine, but he could not put a finger on it.
“Jake, did you hear what I said?”
“What? I’m sorry, I’m just a bit Uhm, never mind, I’m fine actually.” Jake responded as he started cleaning up the blood trail that was all over the floor.
“Hey, I know you’ll miss home and most probably Hailey as well but –”
“Home?” he laughed “Hailey yes, but I’m not going to miss home mom. I don’t want anything to do with something that reminds me of that man and what he has done to us. Who runs out on his own family like that, he is a coward! I am more than happy that we’re moving out of that house, but I’m fine okay. You don’t have to worry about me” Jake said as he let out a bit of frustration.
He continued cleaning the blood on the floor but noticed something a bit odd about it. the trail of blood started to go upstairs, yet another trail went outside. Initially he knew that the trail of blood would lead to the patio outside the house that looks out into the garden but not the trail that led him up the stairs.
“Mom!” he said, as he knelt down to get a much closer look of the blood.
“Yes, what’s wrong?” Diane rushed towards him.
“Why is there blood on the staircase, Hailey and I were in the kitchen when she was bleeding, not upstairs.” He said as he looked at his mother with a raised eyebrow.”
“I’m sure she must’ve gone upstairs at some point, who else’s blood could it be” Diane responded.
Jake quickly ignored the situation and got back to cleaning the blood. As soon as he got the top of the staircase, he noticed that the trail of blood seemed to stop which was a bit odd. It did not go into any one of the rooms or the bathroom, but it just stopped like it came to a dead end.
“huh, well that’s weird.”
He went back down the staircase to clean the rest of the blood. He got the Patio outside and stood there, staring into the woods, admiring the nature that surrounded him. He slowly shut his eyes and took a deep breath of fresh air and listened to the birds chirping and the trees creaking as the winds gentle breeze swayed the treetops ever so gently.
Suddenly, he heard a loud slam and he quickly opened his eyes. He walked to the edge of the garden and looked through the thick trees to see what was going on. It was a bit of a distance away so he could not see much. He decided to pull out his phone to take a video so he could zoom in on the house from where the sound came from, he did not see anything though. So, he stopped the video and put his phone back in his pocket. He turned around and walked away towards the house. But he did not know that he was being watched.
“Mhm, this is delicious.” Diane said as she scooped up another piece of the pie with her fork.
“I can’t believe you’re eating that; does he not give you the chills? There something weird about that man he’s creepy”.
“Just because he lives next to that house it doesn’t mean there’s something wrong about him Jake, come on be nice for a change”.
“I’m just saying, I mean how did he know we were going to be here anyways?” Jake Responded.
“Okay that’s enough Jake, the least you could do is be nice and stop acting like an 8 year old boy who has just watched horror movie for the first time. There is nothing creepy about him he is just old and has freckles, it’s called aging and its part of life, you will get to that stage at some point of your life and kids will call you old and creepy as well. Now Just sit down and have some pie, okay?” Diane said as she handed a fork to Jake.
“ha-ha okay I’m sorry”.
Jake sat down besides his mother and they had a bit of a laugh. They sat there for hours on end talking and just having a good time, with the excitement of finally getting to move in the house the next day. As it started to get dark the two decided that they should finally lock up and head back to the house. Jake opted to leave his car, so he parked it in the garage and drove home with his mother. After the tiring drive home, they arrived at the house only to see Hailey sitting at the front door on her phone.
“Is that Hailey?” Diane said, wondering as to what she was doing outside the house in the dark all by herself.
“Yes, I wonder what she’s doing here, I hope she’s okay”. Jake said to her as he unbuckled his seat belt and got out the car as soon as his mom had stopped Infront of the garage door.
“Hailey what’s wrong?” Jake said as he walked up to her and gave her a hug. “why are you sitting here in the dark all by yourself?”
“I texted you a couple of times and tried calling, I just had a bit of an argument with my mom, so I decided to get out the house for a while. I wanted to see you.”
“Yeah, my phone died, and I had left my charger here, you should’ve called my mom or something.”
“I figured; I just didn’t want to bother her.”
Diane walked up to Hailey and held her with concern written all over her face.
“Hailey sweety, are you okay, did she hurt you, what happened, are you sure you’re alright”
“Mom, she’s okay” Jake responded.
“Yes, I’m fine Ms. Harper, we just got into another argument. She’s just always drunk and I tried to talk to her about it, but she wouldn’t listen.”
“What about Mia, your little sister, where is she?” as she looked around to see if Mia was standing behind Hailey or not.
“Mia will be fine she’s asleep. My mom would not harm her at all. It’s me that she has a problem with”. Hailey responded. “would I be bothering you if I stayed the night Ms. Harper?”
“Not at all love. come on let’s go inside and I’ll whip up a good dinner and for everyone come on, let’s go.” She said as she placed her hand on Hailey’s shoulder.
