Chapter-7

"Brad did you meet Robbie yesterday?"

Brad was busy scooping out the dried fruits from his bowl and throwing it away on the floor, I hardly slept yesterday, it was already seven in the morning and mom had already left for work, so it was just me and Brad on the table.

"Brooke, don't forget your promise." Brad said with a smile on his face.

"What promise?" I replied, he smile quickly faded away, "ice cream!!" he screamed, " don't tell me you forgot."

I slapped my head, I completely forgot about it, why did I even tell him that, I thought he would have forgotten it by now.

"Sorry, we'll go after breakfast." I said

"Yay!!" Brad shouted and jumped out of his chair and ran around the table, " your the best!!."

"Don't run like that." I shouted, " if you fall we'll be using the ice cream for your wound."

"That's ok, I will lick it off."

I held the phone in my hand and punched mom's number, after a minute or two she answered it:

"Mom, when are you coming back?"

"Brooke, have you had your breakfast?"

"Yes, mom when-"

"What about Brad, did he eat or?"

"Yes, he ate listen mom-"

"Alright, then make sure to pack the cake for his lunch."

"Mom! When are you coming?"

"Same as usual, I'll be back in the evening, is something wrong?"

"You see, Today Brad is singing at school and Iam going there as his guardian, just wanted to let you know."

"That's great Brooke, you really are sweet, now I have to hang up, my boss is coming bye!"

"Brooke can we go now" Brad said, he was so excited, " breakfast is over"

I looked at the time it was half past seven, "ok, go put on your shoes, it's going to take a while to reach the ice cream shop."

I locked the front door and went down the lane, the weather was surprisingly pleasant, the street was empty like in some zombie apocalypse.

We passed by Mrs. Rose house, she was sitting at the porch reading a book, I tried to ignore her and quickly walk pass her but she noticed us passing through, "hey! Little muffins." She called out, I gave out a sigh I really wanted to avoid her today.

"Brooke, why is that witch calling us." Brad said

"Hush! Brad, don't say anything." I slowly turned around and gave her a smile," hey Mrs. Rose what are you doing?" I said.

"Oh Iam just reading my favourite book , 'Hansel and Gretel'." She replied

I laughed when she said she was reading Hansel and Gretel, that book is meant for children like Brad why in the world was she reading that.

"I just love when the kids ate half of the witch's house." She said laughing, "Kids really are brats."

Brad was hiding behind me, " Brooke what if she eats us like the witch in the story." He said

"Silly boy, she won't."

Mrs Rose tilted her head trying to catch a glimpse of Brad behind me, " why are you hiding young man." She said, " don't worry I won't bite you." and she laughed again. Brad was already terrified by her, "Brooke I want to eat the ice cream, let's go." He said and pulled my shirt.

"Umm…Mrs. Rose we're going for ice cream, so umm see you later." I said and quickly turned to make my way but Mrs. Rose called me again, I got irritated but surely turned back, " I have some blueberry ice cream, you can have them it's free." She said giving us a grin but Brad pulled me even harder, " Brooke I don't want blueberry, let's go get chocolate." He said.

"Oh we do have chocolate too!! Come and have a taste."

"Iam sorry Mrs. Rose we don't want to trouble you we'll just have it at the ice cream shop."

Mrs. Rose smile faded she looked as if she was offended, " well since neither me nor Silas eats ice cream…I was just trying to feed you." She said her voice slowly becoming softer as she spoke.

I gave her an awkward smile and quickly made my way towards the other side of the street as quickly as possible to the ice cream shop.

Brad ran as fast as he could to reach the shop quickly, "Brad don't run!" I yelled, I had to chase him down till the shop, luckily the inside of the ice cream shop was conditioned, it helped dry away the sweat, it was a good thing to have an ice cream shop in the middle of nowhere. Brad was already at the counter but there was no sign of anybody inside the shop. I went ahead towards the counter and rang the bell that was lying on it,

"Brooke, why is no one at the counter." Brad said, "if nobody comes can we steal some."

"Try that and I will cut off your fingers."

I rang the bell once again, is no one there? I then started to ring the bell continuously until the door behind the counter open and a fat man came out.

"Brooke, he looks like a plum cake." Brad said pointing at him,

"Hush! Brad." I said and quickly slapped his finger away from the man. The man just stood there staring at us, he didn't seemed like he cared what he heard.

"Can I have two chocolate cones." I said

He narrowed his eyes at the fridge box and examined it. "Sorry out of stock." He said

"You must be mistaken" I replied, " I see chocolate right there." I pointed the tray that contained the chocolate to him but he just narrowed his eyes again and said, " sorry, that's not for sale."

I laughed for a while, "you must be joking right, when did ice cream shops display ice cream that are not for sale."

" You can choose a different flavour but leave aside the chocolate." He said

"Ughhh fine, give me the raspberry then."

He quickly opened the fridge box and scooped out two scoop of raspberry ice cream in a cone and handed one to me and one to Brad.

"Plum cake." Brad said angrily and snatched the ice cream from his hand. The man just stood there not saying anything

"Let's go Brad"

I licked the ice cream and the flavour melted inside my mouth, I started to savour the taste till everything was over.

It was already nine in the morning and Brad was late for school, I quickly washed Brad's face and dressed him up then quickly went back to the kitchen dragging Brad along with me and packed two slices of cake into his lunch box.

"Brad hurry up your bus is already here!" My mind was all messed up, I never thought being late will feel like this, going for the ice cream was a bad idea, the bus was right outside our house and was honking at us.

"Brad quick." I shouted, he ran as fast as he could but turned back before entering, "Brooke, don't forget about today." He said.

"I won't, now go on." I replied, he quickly got on the bus and the bus door slowly shut.

I breath out a sigh of relief, "that was crazy," I said,

"What's crazy?"

I turned back, " Geez! Silas you scared me."

"So your brother goes to school huh?" he said

I narrowed my eyes at him, " you think he doesn't go to school?"

He laughed, " That's not what I meant."

"Whatever" I replied and walked pass him but he joined me as I walk towards my house.

"Your house really is old." he said

"So?"

"You can come live with us." Silas eyes sparkled as he spoke.

I ignored him and open the front door which made the usual creaking noise.

"Can I enter too." He asked looking at me with his wide dark eyes,

"Do whatever you want."

He jumped in joy as he enter the house, " wow your house looks more older than the last time I visited." He said looking up and down from the ceiling to the floor,

"Is that all you've got to say?" I replied angrily," if you think it's so old why don't you buy us a new house."

Silas eyes dropped down right at me, " I can ask Mrs. Rose for that." He replied

I raised my eyebrows and said, "and why would you do that."

He didn't say anything and just smiled at me, his lip lopsided as he smiled

"Weirdo." I replied, " I think it's better if you go away, you know I have to get ready for my brother's school."

He squinted his eyes at me, "Your kicking me out?" He said and suddenly kneeled before me." Don't do that your hurting my feelings." he said and pretended like he was crying

My brows twitched with anger, " what's wrong with you?" I said angrily, " both you and Mrs. Rose are very weird."

He slowly opened one of his eyes and looked at me then gave me a grin, " ok Iam going." He said as he slowly stood up.

"Great," I said

He slowly turned his back and walked towards the door but stopped for a second.

"What are you waiting for?" I said while holding the door, he turned around and slowly tilted his head towards my ear and softly whispered " I was going to tell you something about this house and why it is so old but you don't seemed to be interested so Iam not going to say." Surely that peaked my curiosity, " What do you mean?" I said

He smiled at me as he backed away, " that's upto you!" He cried as he stepped out of our house and made his way,

" Wait!" I called out, he quickly turned back

"Come back here! You have to tell me."

Silas grinned at me and walked back into the house, " see, I knew you couldn't resist me." He said

My eyebrows were pulled down when he said that. " What the- Eww I called you here because you said you know something about this house, why are you so Ughhh I don't even know what to say." He burst out laughing and started to fall down on the floor holding his stomach, 'he's so ugly.' I said to myself.

After his long laugh he finally calmed down and was ready to tell me about the house.

"So what's wrong with our house?" I asked, I didn't bring up about all the weird stuff that was happening in our house cause he didn't seem like the type of person to take things seriously.

He just smiled at me without saying anything

"Hello?" I said, "Speak!"

"Nothing!" He replied happily, my jaw dropped when he said that, I stood up on my feet and tightening my fist I went close towards hi to punch him.

"Whoa wait!!" He cried and quickly stood up and tried to get away from me, " I was just kidding, I was just kidding I'll tell I'll tell."

I quickly calmed down, " don't play with me." I said angrily, he slowly sat down on the chair, " Gosh! Your scary."

"Well then tell me if you don't want to get hit." I said

"Ok ok fine I'll tell you."

I opened my eyes and ears as he slowly began to tell me about the house.

"You know…" he started, " I have been staying with Mrs. Rose for four years now, I don't know much about this house but when I was new here, there was a family staying here and just like your mother, the mother and father would always leave their kids alone at home and go for work, I would always come here and play with the kids."

He stopped for a moment and continued, "I forgot the name of the boy but his elder sister's name was Emily, she was such a sweet girl, her brother would usually hide from me whenever I come to play but she always seemed happy when she saw me, but Mrs Rose didn't like the fact that I always went to their house to play with them, so I stopped going everyday and suddenly one day when their parents were not home, there were police at the front door of their house I was curious so I went to check what's wrong then I saw Emily and her brother laying on the floor, their eyes were opened but they were not moving, I thought they were dead at first but they were still breathing, I wanted to help them but the police dragged me away." He remained silent after he finished saying.

I couldn't really believe what he was saying because just some minutes ago he was joking around but judging at his face he seemed serious.

"So what happen to the kids?"

He breathed out before saying, " I don't know, I've never heard from them after that, after they were found like that the next day theirs parents moved away from the house." Silas head was down when he said all those, he really seemed to be telling the truth. " That day was very scary." He continued, "I was all alone and Mrs. Rose was nowhere to be seen, she came back only after some days."

Did that really happen here? I thought, is that the reason why there are strange stuff happening around here. The voice, the face on the ventilation, Brad talking about Robbie, did those kids see them too?

Silas suddenly stood up from his chair and stretched himself, his back cracked

"Ooh that felt good." He said, " hey aren't you going to give me some tea, I told you a long story Iam tired."

"Why don't you go have tea with Mrs. Rose." I replied, I couldn't help but notice that even though Silas is just a caretaker at Mrs Rose house, his clothes speak otherwise, he is dressed in designer's clothes and even his shoes are Reebok,

"Hey, how much does Mrs Rose pay you." I said

Silas shrugged and replied, "depends."

"What does that mean?"

"I take care of her and she pays me, the better I take care of her the higher she pays."

"I know you take care of her but…"

"Yea I take care of her special."

"What do you mean special-wait don't tell me!"

Silas smiled and looked at me.

"Silas don't tell me you really are.."

Silas said nothing he just grinned at me

"Silas what's wrong with you, she's like seventy and your like fifteen or sixteen."

Silas burst out laughing, " it's not want you think." He said, "Yes I do take care of her special but not what you think, besides she's too old for that."

I made a disgust face at him, "eww what's wrong with you? I thought you were just some caretaker."

"Ha ha," he laughed again, "Don't worry the pay is high."

"Your weird!" I said, " both you and Mrs Rose should just disappear."

Silas looked at the watch on his wrist, "oh it's almost time for Rosy to take her medicine, I better go." he said

"You even have nicknames for each other?"

he just winked at me and quickly ran out of the house and jumped over the fences to Mrs Rose house.