14 Chapter Thirteen.

“Good Morning”

“Oh, Morning Amelia. Did you have a good night’s rest?” Diane asked her as she handed her a plate of pancakes.

“Wow this looks delicious and yes I did thank you, I can’t remember the last time I had such a peaceful night. It was really relaxing actually.”

“Well, I’m glad that you managed to get a good night’s rest.”

Hailey and Jake joined them for breakfast shortly after that.

“Mom, were going to go help Amelia clean the house again, seeing we have nothing else to do we may as well help her out.”

“You’re not making her pay you right? Please tell me you’re not paying them Amelia.”

“Oh no, they offered to help actually.” Amelia responded.

“Well, aren’t you lucky.” Diane said with a smile on her face.”

“We’ll see later in the afternoon, Enjoy your day at work.” Jake said as he got out of his chair with a mouthful of food.

They made their way out the house at the exact same moment that Diane drove out of the driveway. They walked down the road and soon they found themselves walking past Mr. Crawford’s house. Jake spoke.

“You know, something is strange about Mr. Crawford. The fact that he came to our house and even gave us a warm welcome, then next day he didn’t even greet us when we spoke to him, it just doesn’t seem to make sense to me. Yeah, I think he is a creepy old man but it’s not like I said that directly to his face.”

“Wait what did you say?” Amelia asked as she stopped Jake in his track.

“That he is a creepy old man?”

“No, his name, you said his name.” Amelia said anxiously.

“Oh, Mr. Crawford?”

“You mean he still lives here?”

“Yeah, he does actually, Hailey responded. “we also thought it was weird that he still lives here after all these years.”

Amelia stopped them and stared at the house. Ever since that night she despised the old man. She felt that he had something to do with the death of her parents, in fact she suspected him more than anyone else. But It was a hard allegation to prove. She had no facts, and it was all just a conspiracy for her, at the moment.

“Is everything okay?” Amelia said as she held Hailey’s arm out of concern.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” She said as she stared at Mr. Crawford who was peeping through the curtains as they started walking away from the house.

They eventually walked into Amelia’s house and stood there for a moment, staring at each other as they waited for someone to say or do something as none of them knew where to even start. Jake took initiative and made his way to the kitchen, Amelia suddenly stopped him in his tracks right before he entered.

“I don’t think I’m ready to face what’s in there Jake.” She said to him looking worried as ever.

“I understand, but the only way we will be able to figure out what happened is for us to go to the actual scene of the crime. I know that it may be uncomfortable for you as well, but we will also need you to try remember what happened that night.” He said as he held Amelia while staring directly into her eyes.

The little moment made Hailey a bit uncomfortable. Seeing Jake being so gentle with Amelia kind of aggravated her. but she remembered that they were just trying to help. Suddenly, Hailey saw something on the kitchen floor, it looked like there was a light coming from beneath the tiles. She walked towards it and knelt on the ground trying to see through the cracked floor, but she couldn’t see much.

“Hailey what is it?” Jake asked her as he curiously made his way towards her.

“There’s something beneath us Jake,” Hailey said. “Amelia, did you guys have a basement?” Hailey asked her as she looked in her direction.

“Uhm no, not that I know of.” She said muddled as ever.

“Well, it looks you do. Because there is no other explanation as to why there would be light coming from your kitchen floor. How do we even get down there?”

“Look around, there has to be a staircase in the house that leads down there.” Jake said.

The three of them scattered around the house looking for a door that could possibly lead them to the basement under the house. They spent at least 40 minutes of flipping furniture and looking for possible hidden doors, but they found nothing. They all gathered in the lounge as they had nowhere else to look. They sat on the dusty couches and tried to think of how they could make their way into that basement.

“Well, we tried our best.” Hailey said to them.

“No, there has to be some way into that basement. We’re not giving up until we find a way in, even if it means tearing the floor apart.”

“Okay hold on for a second. No one is tearing anything apart. Who’s going to pay for the construction work afterwards? I don’t have that kind of money at the moment so let us just think of another way to get down there okay.” Amelia said to Jake.

Jake got up and walked towards the bookcase, he grabbed one of the books that was on the shelves and started pacing up and down the living room as he tried to think of how he could possibly make his way into the basement.

“hhmmm, maybe if we…” Jake scratched his head as he had nothing to say. “Uhg, this is actually annoying.” He chucked the book on the floor out of frustration and it let out a loud thump throughout the house.

“Jake that was loud” Hailey said to him.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean –.”

“No, I mean it was too loud.” Hailey said once more as she got off the couch and walked towards the book.

Amelia stared at Hailey as she tried to figure out what she was talking about.

“What are talking about?” Jake said to Hailey with a look of confusion written all over his face.

Hailey got to her knees and put the side of her head on the mat. She listened carefully as she used her one hand to knock on the floor.

“It’s hollow.” She spoke.

“Of course, a trap door.” Amelia said as she got to her feet and walked towards Hailey. “Jake, come help us.”

Hailey got up and pulled the coffee table that was on the matt to one side. Jake and Amelia grabbed hold of the one side of the carpet.

“You, ready?” Amelia said as she looked at Jake.

“Yeah.”

They rolled the carpet over and discovered that Hailey was right. There was a trap door in the wooden floor. which Amelia knew nothing about. Jake grabbed the handle and looked at the two girls. He could tell that their hearts were racing as fast a track car, but so was his. He pulled up on the handle, but it did not open. He tried pulling even harder for a few times, but the door would not budge.

“Damit, it’s stuck.” He said as he kept on pulling on the handle.

“A key, we need to look for a key” Amelia said.

“Look in the bookshelves or in one of the books, it has to be here somewhere.”

They all started scrambling through the dusty old books that were neatly packed on the shelves, none of them could find anything.

“You guys keep looking. I’m going to go upstairs to check in their bedroom.” Amelia said.

She rushed up the stairs towards what used to be her beloved parents bedroom. She reached out to grab the door handle, but she froze for a moment. She was afraid, afraid that once she opened that door memories of her parents would overwhelm her. Amelia realised that she was not ready to find out the truth of what happened to her parents. Everything just seemed to be rushed. She felt like she would not be able to handle whatever she was about to find once they managed to make their way into that basement, but she also knew that it was the only way for her to actually move on and accept what happened.

She grabbed the doorknob and turned it ever so slowly. She opened the door and walked into their room. She never thought that she would ever be as nervous of having to walk into her parents room, but at that very moment she was more than nervous, she was actually terrified.

“Come on, you got this Amelia” she said to herself.

She took a deep breathe and walked towards one of the side tables that were next to the bed, she searched through the drawer to see if she could possibly find a key. There was nothing but old prescription pills and electricity bills. She shut the drawer and went to the one on the opposite end of the bed, as soon as she opened it, there it was. A big golden key covered in dust in the drawer. She stared at it, knowing that she had never seen that particular key in her entire life up until now, she knew it was the one she was looking for. Amelia grabbed the key out of the drawer and suddenly she noticed a picture that was standing on the side table. She picked it up and whipped the dust off of it with her sleeve. Gently brushing her finger on it, tears started dropping from her eyes. She was overwhelmed by emotions as she stared at her father. She missed them, more than anything in the world, and how she wished that she could just find a way to bring them back one day.

“Did you find anything!” Jake yelled from the bottom of the stairs.

“Y-yeah, I got it I’m coming.” She whipped her tears before she left the room. And just as she was about to shut the door behind her, she heard something.

“Amelia” *the voice whispered*

She stopped and turned around.

“Hello?” She said as she slowly walked back into the room “is anyone here?”

Suddenly the wind picked up and there was a big cold breeze that blew the curtains.

“Ameliaaaaa”

The voice whispered once more. It almost felt like it was being carried by the wind. The cold breeze suddenly stopped, and the room went silent. Amelia trying to stay calm looked around her. Unexpectedly, the door slammed shut. She rushed towards the door screaming.

“HELP! JAKE, SOMEBODY HELP ME!” She yelled as she aggressively banged on the door.

“Wait do you hear that?” Jake said as he turned around to listen carefully. He could hear Amelia’s faint screams coming from upstairs, he rushed off with Hailey right behind him.

“AMELIA I’M COMING!” Jake yelled.

He got to the door and pushed it open. In tears and fear running through her heart, Amelia immediately wrapped her arms around Jake.

“There’s something in here Jake.” She cried while holding him even tighter.

“It’s okay I’m here.” He said hugging her back trying to calm her down.

Jealousy started to fuel up in Hailey’s heart and she snapped.

“Are you serious? You can cut the act Amelia, none of us are falling for that, there is nothing in here.” She said as she pulled her off of her boyfriend.

“Hailey!” Jake yelled at her.

“No Jake, just shut up for a moment okay! She responded in frustration. “Can’t you see what she’s doing? This is all a joke Jake, there's nothing in here.”

“Hailey, stop it! Can you not see that she is terrified, huh? Something happened and she got spooked. That is it. unbelievable.”

Hailey did not respond.

“I’m Sorry I Shouldn’t of –”

“You don't need to apologise Amelia.” Jake Responded.