Creepers & Clichés

 

 

31st October - 2 Days Later
09:15

The sun had risen a couple of hours ago, a fine dew beclouding the grass flanks and wild plants surrounding the reach of the estate before it met thick woodland. A light fog veiled what could be miles, most definitely into the main town as Corrina had found out when she had driven there and had to pay more attention to the temperamental country roads than she wanted to. The blonde had met with Harold King, the town's Sheriff - who seemed to Corrina like a caricature of rural East-coast, small-town law enforcement, but was a personable old man nevertheless. He told her of how he had lived in Whitevale his entire life, and been on the force for fifty years that up-coming November, something he was more excited about than acquainting the newest addition to the community with than the important goings-on of the town. He bought her a coffee and showed her around with vague tidbits about the local establishments as he briefly explained the workings of the tight-knit community. The municipal sport was the Whitevale Knights Basketball team, mandatory church service was every Sunday at 8:30am sharp, and there were two local holidays in the run-up to Christmas - all of which would be discussed on Friday evening next week at the town hall meeting.

Their getting to know of each other came to an abrupt end when a young man with facial scruff and the offset of a greying hairline interrupted with complaints about someone trying to break into his surgery again, his Scottish accent flaring as his arms wafted. Ignoring the woman's sense of politeness, the senior citizen in charge of order twisted around and turned away. Using a call from another townsfolk demanding his attention over 'something important', a brief apology was given. Sheriff King said his goodbyes - avoiding the foreign doctor entirely bar a very pointed look as he passed the irritated man.

Corrina's eyes slid from the white-haired, bushy-bearded man's back and to the Scot stood beside her. Brows flickering when their line of sight matched, she nodded upwards. "Hard day, Doc?"

"Lil' shits are always trying to break into the practice even though there's a sign on the window telling them I don't keep medication on the premises."

"I guess you can get junkies anywhere." She turned around only to pause and look back at the dishevelled man. "Do you take on patients from other towns?"

"General ailments are fine, but I-"

"-My friend and I just moved to town. It'd be a pain if we had to travel over to the next city for prescriptions and check-ups every time we needed medical help." Twisting her body to face the slightly taller man with dark circles surrounding his eyes, the blonde scratched the skin of her thumb pad with her ring-finger nail. "Are you fully booked up?"

"I won't just refill your scripts without having an appointment. You'll both have to come in for a check-up before I start prescribing you medication."

"Good to know." Untucking her hair from under her jacket collar, she held her hand up in farewell and crossed the empty road in order to get to the mart on the other side.

Finishing her shopping, Corrina was well and truly ready to go back to the house when she was pounced upon by a stranger. The mature woman was likely once a classic beauty with her strong jawline, high cheekbones, and deep-set eyes, all immaculately made-up. From the way she dressed in the duck-egg tailored skirt-suit and heels, she was clinging to the fact with her naturally long crimson nails. The bottle-blonde with her hair set in pin curls just above her shoulders had strode over to Corrina and introduced herself as Patience Conrad, and told the younger woman that she was her closest neighbour if she travelled straight from the back of Hosanna.

Deep hazel eyes slid to the cardboard box in the woman's grip and a taught smile tugged the corners of rouged lips. "I saw the fliers posted around for a Halloween party at Hosanna Heights; I thought it was a joke made up by miscreants again." She was well-spoken, and the way she carried herself gave away that she wasn't originally from around there.

Corrina frowned at the telling. "Again?"

"At this time of year, the local kids always use it as a stop on their Halloween to-do lists." Her neat brows flickered up in clear mocking, "spooky, I suppose they must think." Holding a slim cigarette between her leather gloved fingers, the older blonde blew smoke off to the side but Corrina still got a whiff of menthol when the wind picked up and pilfered it by. "You should be careful about who you let into your home, my dear."

"I heard from the realtor that it's a bit of a hotspot for things like that because of the urban legends. That's part of the reason why my friend and I decided to throw a party: we'd rather have people come take a look and have a good time than get curious at random and decide to break in while we're sleeping."

"Yes, well, there is that."

"It's probably not going to be your sort of thing, but it would be good to get to know you considering you're our nearest neighbour. We'd like it if you could call around when you're free. We could have tea, or maybe dinner some time."

Patience's eyes narrowed as she examined the heavily tattooed woman's bare forearms, and then her face. A smile returned so quick it was almost like she hadn't been scrutinizing. "You seem like a sweet girl; polite. I didn't expect it."

"I wouldn't worry so much about it. I'm often mistaken for a thug." Corrina laughed from her gut when the older woman's expression shifted again. "My friend and I didn't come here to stir up the status quo or bring trouble. We came here for the same reason people have remained here for generations-"

"-I doubt that, sweetheart. The reason most people stay here is that they're too stupid to learn how to leave, bar the esteemed Doctor Blaine, who blustered past you while you were speaking to Harold." Wobbling her head a little, Patience flicked the ash from her vice onto the wet pavement. "A handsome, unmarried man coming to a place like this...there must be something wrong with him."

Shrugging the box up her stomach, Corrina couldn't help but to grin at the snippy reply delivered with a disdained eye-roll. "We're here to start over somewhere with trees and fresh bodies of water, somewhere with-"

"-You don't have to explain yourself to me. I don't need to hear it and, as fellow bleached-blondes, I think you can understand, I want to get out of this God-forsaken drizzle."

"Can I give you a ride?"

"A kind gesture but I'll be fine, thank you." Inclining her head gracefully, Patience bid farewell. "It was good to meet you, Miss..."

"Ouh, I'm sorry-" Juggling the box bigger than her torso with one hand, the corner jabbing her in the hip, Corrina held her right hand out. "-Corrina Larkin." A navy leather glove accepted the gesture and shook her hand twice as Patience gave her a final once-over before setting off.

Corrina stood at the side of her car for a few moments just watching the older woman totter off and go into a store which stated seamstressing and dry-cleaning. Shaking her head at the interactions she'd had so early already, she fought with opening the passenger door while balancing the cardboard box without its overflowing contents spilling onto the damp ground.

She had lived in a handful of countries, and several dozen towns, but she had never come across people like Patience or Sheriff King in how they took to her immediately and introduced themselves without blatant ulterior motives. From Corrina's personal experience, there were three types of neighbours: The ones who don't even acknowledge you were there at all; the ones who liked to cause trouble for no reason; and those who would stick their nose into all of your business until you needed their help, then pretend not to see or hear a thing no matter how desperate you were: she'd been the victim of all of them. Maybe if she would have moved there sooner, she wouldn't have the problems she did. Not wasting another second, she got in the car and drove back to her new abode.

 

---

 

Staggering up the damp wooden steps of the decking at the side of the building rather than going up the front, Corrina went through the side door leading into the pale kitchen. Struggling with the carrier bags hung around her wrists and the boxes in her hands squishing her breasts and face, the blonde swayed with the goodies. Selene had been in the kitchen since Corrina had left, sat on a stool at the marble-top island in her pyjama shorts and a Hello Kitty tank top which barely covered her junk. The younger female had her waist-length locks tied up in an unbrushed bun as she alternated between giving one of the thirteen pumpkins a face, and shovelling scrambled eggs garnished with crumbled Hot Dorito's into her mouth.

Pushing the heavy shutter door closed with her rear, Corrina croaked as she juggled the new items she'd bought. "Don't mind me, just sit there." Sarcasm dripped from the older woman's voice and the redhead looked up with a similar expression of sardonicism.

The kitchen had been remodelled and refurnished wonderfully by the previous owner; it was one of Corrina's favourite rooms and probably the one she'd spend the most time in if given the opportunity - it was a damn cert she hadn't spent twelve hours in there the night before just because she wanted to find fault. As someone who disliked social media, and the internet for most reasons in general, she was greatly amazed (and way too excited, Selene thought) by the fact Amazon really did deliver 'anywhere'. The cupboards and freshly cleaned fridge had been stocked to the brim two hours before dinner time, and the blonde had been possessed by the spirits of cooking Gods in order to prep food for the upcoming party. Any normal person would have ordered a few pizzas and chucked out a couple of salad bowls. Corrina Larkin doing that? Not a chance.

Selene woke up wanting cold-cuts with her eggs. She got realistic sized gin & tonic human brain-shaped jellies, hot dogs made into fingers missing their nails, eyeballs made out of who knows what, and an assortment of plump bugs stacked on a plate staring at her when she opened the fridge. Even the freezer was chockablock with ice-cube trays filled with gruesome items that were apparently edible.

Sniffling, Selene put her utensils down on the counter littered with all sorts of decorations. "Do you know how many people have been lurking outside today?" She grimaced as she scooped up the pumpkin pulp and seeds in her hands and chucked them in the bin liner by her feet.

"What?" Furrowing her brows, the blonde scrunched her face in confusion, "why?"

"The gardeners came and took the rest of the 'communal waste' as they called it. Our house is a communal dump, don'tcha know?" The redhead's Southern accent weaved through her irritation, the knife jabs to the poor orange fruit getting harder with each attack.

"It'll be fine after a couple of weeks and they hear that people actually live here." Sucking her teeth of the pistachio skins from the pastry she'd been given at the diner, the older woman rolled her neck to relieve the tension. "It's just like the Drop Hole, and Harmon's Peak; kids used to smoke, drink, fuck, and litter out there all the time; 'we' used to do all that because it was the place to be. Don't go getting old and start complaining about a little trash and a few people dossing." Corrina enjoyed watching Selene get riled over menial things providing there was a good distance - or a moron between them - once she really got pissed off.

"I'm all for people having a good time: I'm the fricking ambassador of fun! Hell, let's set up a horror hotel, I don't care about the dossing." She wafted her hands, pumpkin juice flying. "But there were others that came down the drive, stayed for a few moments, took pictures, and then left again without saying anything." The redhead pulled funny faces as she tried to flick off a stubborn piece of pumpkin gut from her digits and the front of her tank top. "I got pissed off by the time the third lot turned up - the floodlight comes on and it sets the security system off. If you don't catch it within a minute, the whole thing loses its shit and it trips the electrics." Corrina hid her smirk behind the tea-towel she was using to dry her face from sweat and rain remnants. "I went out and asked what their problem was and they said they'd come to check if people were really living here, like we're Jerry Dandridge. Goddamn busy-bodies."

Corrina could imagine the scene of the half-naked Selene running out onto the decking in her booty shorts, her bosom bouncing with her hands covered in pumpkin gunk as she brandished a carving knife, all the while screaming obscenities at the curious small-townsfolk. She was kind of sad that she had been out at the time. Finally managing to unload all of the stuff onto the almost full worktop, Corrina turned and gripped the champagne coloured counter by the sink, hunching over while she tried to catch her breath from the hike up the steps with the extra weight. "What were they like?"

The redhead looked up in irritated thought. "The last lot, they actually got out of the car when they saw me." She returned her line of sight to the older woman in hopes of some form of an explanation. "There was a creepy blond dude and a brunet that twitched a bit; fantastic cheekbones~ I could see them from the top step."

"That, and the introductions I got in town..." Rooting through her jeans pocket, the blonde's lips twisted downwards as she shrugged off her jacket and tossed it over one of the stools. "Sounds like we moved to a great place."

Sliding her legs from underneath the counter and hopping off the leather-topped stool, Selene shuffled over to the sink, her Hello Kitty headed slippers bobbing with each movement along the stone floor that needed a good ol' scrub. "They asked if the fliers were from us and if they were true." She put her plate in the sink and twisted the faucet for the hot tap, hoping that the little issue of having no pressure in the pipes had been fixed by leaving the downstairs bathroom water running.

The fliers were indeed from them. They had planned to have a Halloween party even before they arrived at Hosanna - It just happened that the house had paid off for them. Before reaching Whitevale, the pair had gone into a photocopying shop and had a few dozen open-invites printed out. During their quick trips to town, they had stamped the neon yellow slips in public places and even along the main roads near the closest university and fringe of the city twenty miles away. This was also the reason for Corrina making an early morning dash for the mart - she had ordered in half a catalogue worth of flashy decorations and had to pick them up so they could put them around in time for their party.

Selene loved Halloween as much as the next person, probably more, but Corrina celebrated the holiday harder than Jews did Hanukkah; Selene would know – She was Jewish. Corrina's prancing lasted at least four days before, and four days after, the actual date. She never took much notice of the fact you were meant to give candy to kids, as "That's a paedo's job" (said by the pair of tits on legs who had a penchant for skating the thin line of hooking up with younger guys), but she decked the halls was slime green silly-string and bought high-end pumpkins nevertheless. It was ridiculous that a grown woman got so much joy from such a trivial thing.

Selene drank her custom tea cocktail from the made-up jug as she eyed the woman flushed red over her face and neck. Pulling a cigarette from the packet, Corrina smiled and she rested her vice on her lips. "And it looks like what they say about small towns is true: big news travels fast."

Selene refrained from so much as making a sound. Her head-voice, on the other hand, dragged out a lengthy, exaggerated ghetto-swill. Lots of dates held weight for the blonde in the later months of the year. It was almost like the older woman wanted to hide something. Whatever it was, a feeling, a memory, a crime, Selene would be there to hold the other shovel used to dig the hole needed to make her friend ease up.

Not even bothering to fix the smudged kohl around her eyes or the platinum hair that had gotten into a mishap with a string of fierce autumn blusters, the tattooed woman rolled her neck to relieve some tension. "As long as they're not dumping off baby animals or small children, I don't care."

Glowering back over her shoulder, Selene mumbled. "They said everyone was talking about it because this place is supposed to be haunted."

"Sounds cliché to me." The blonde watched the flame of her prized Zippo as she lit the end of her smoke. "Ouh," she cried out, the sides of her phenomenal bust spilling from either side of the muscle t-shirt as her arms flailed in mockery. "Ohohohoh, c'mon, take me ghosties!"

Flapping her hands crazily, the younger woman pulled a comical expression. "I actually believe it could be possible: you picking a place out in the middle of Hick's-ville that just happened to be some kind of murder-house seems more believable than the fact you were up before 8:00am without doing an all-nighter."

Cigarette hanging from chapped lips, Corrina began unpacking her goodies for the night without looking up. "Why'd you say that?"

"'Cause in all the years I've known you, I don't think I've seen you sober for more than twenty-four hours," Selene said, twisting the tap off. "But more importantly, your luck sucks mouldy cowboy toenails."

Oh, how Corrina loved her best friend's poetry. "Lovely. Just the image I needed on this fine autumn's morn'." She ignored the discomfort of her friend and pointed at the two carrier bags filled with novelty plastic lights and paper cut-outs. "Go and put those in the basement."

Selene glared at the decorations and then at her friend whilst taking a step back. "How about we forget the basement?"

Lazily taking a drag on the cigarette, Corrina peered up. "'Ya scared?" There it was again, that same look from their first night at their new abode; the hazy eyes and the husky foreign tone that tested everyone who happened to hear it. Selene loved it - When it wasn't directed at her.

Turning her nose up, Selene scoffed. "I'm not scared."

Examining her friend's 'not scared, just mildly bothered' expression, the blonde snorted a burst of smoke from her nose. "Jesus Christ, I'll do it. Put the plastic cups in the sitting room and then put a few pumpkins out on the decking." Snatching the paraphernalia off the counter, she shuffled towards the back door and took a left around the narrow corner.

The redhead moved around the island and gripped the edge of the cold counter. "You're going to go down there?"

It was a reasonable enough question in any normal person's mind. Neither of them had done a full re-con of the building yet. From the blueprints they'd been given, there were four floors including the basement and attic, eight bedrooms, three bathrooms, and so many other odd spaces it'd make your head spin.

Shrugging the decorations up into a more comfortable position, the older female mumbled as she tried not to get smoke in her eyes or drop the slim white stick hanging from her lips. "No, I'm gonna use ma mind powers ta do it from 'ere." Smoke flying from her nose as the cigarette wiggled in her mouth, the blonde wobbled her head madly. "Yesh, I'm goin' dow' thur."

Selene slowly extended her neck as she watched her house-mate turn the corner opposite the tiny set of servant-stairs leading up on the right. She could soon hear the door to the basement squeak open like something from a horror movie and then the stairs creak under the weight of the blonde carelessly bouncing down into the potential death-trap neither of them had ventured into yet. She waited a few short moments to see if there was some maniac laying in wait before breathing a sigh of relief. Turning back to the masses of plastic cups and pumpkins on the counter, the redhead scowled at the job. The younger woman picked up the shrink-wrapped cups and a bone-chilling shriek shook the old foundations. Dropping what was in her hands, Selene snatched the carving knife that had been left out from the pumpkin defacing and dashed for the basement. "What-what?!" Stampeding down the loose wooden steps and into the musty space scarcely lit by a single swinging bulb, the redhead screamed as she brandished her weapon. "What are you doing?!"

Bent double and choking on her cigarette smoke, Corrina struggled to keep her eyes open. "Gotcha." Shuffling out from the shadows, the older female cackled.

"You fuckin' bitch!" Selene punched the blonde's bare upper arm with a loud thwack when she realized she'd been had. "That wasn't funny, Cory!" She stepped back clutching the Hello Kitty print material over her chest with a hitched breath.

Forcing a steady breath, Corrina straightened up as she rubbed the assaulted spot already gone numb. Pointing around teary-eyed, the blonde kept her grin. "Now we're both down here, do you wanna have a look-see if anything good was left behind?" She gestured to the furniture and boxes piled chest height and covered in dust-laden tarpaulin rags at the far end of the sectioned off space.

Selene's body forced itself to relax in exhaustion, the cold sweat she'd gained from the impromptu exercise and adrenaline spike making her feel itchy. Or maybe that was just the musty air and cobwebs. Scrunching her face, the redhead resisted the urge to beat the older female with the childish plastic ghost lights. Heaving a deep breath, the younger woman made for the exit. "Do I fuck. I hope a spider lands in your hair, you cunt." Spinning around, redhead stomped back up the creaky wooden stairs in order to finish her tasks, Corrina's cackle louder than before still audible when Selene made it to the ground floor.

 

---

---

 

Updated: 24th December 2019 - 23:29