I told Kass about the boys and how I had met them and saw their mother. When I got to the part about last night and them being in the house, all she did was laugh. I couldn't believe her. She threw her head back and looked at the ceiling. "Esther, you have got to be kidding me," she said. "Not silly little ghost stories."

"Hey, I think it's crazy too," I snapped. "but you never know. I was sort of freaked out. I mean, I did faint." We both argued about it, coming up with theories that this was just a joke, or that mom and dad weren't telling us something about this place. I mean, it wasn't impossible I thought. There's good and bad energy everywhere.

Kass got up. "Alright. I got to go. I'm going to lunch with some dude from school. He said he'd get me sushi."

"Have fun," I told her.

As soon as she left I went upstairs and grabbed my laptop. I quickly looked up my address on google and surprise surprise-the article came up. 

Up and Flames

That was the title of the article. It wasn't long. It talked about how there was a mysterious fire in this house and how the family all got out except the daughter. Later on it talks about how the mystery continues, as the mother, and their two other children died only a month later. The father was said to have moved out of the country because they never found him. The mother and children were found in a locked hotel while still searching for a new place. No foul play involved. They died in their sleep from natural causes the reports said.

"No way," I mouthed the words. I wondered if mom and dad knew about this. No wonder I kept having weird dreams. There was bad energy in the house. I just kept thinking about how I would convince mom and dad to send a pastor to bless the house. Ha, like they would. I thought about what the Marques and Keith said about the presence in the house.

I sighed out loud. I really didn't want to deal with this but at the same time I thought it was pretty intriguing in a way as well. After closing my laptop, I got up to take a shower and to get ready for the day. I didn't have any plans towards what I would do, but I did want to explore the creek area. 

As I'm washing the rest of the soap off my body, the water starts to get a bit hotter. I stand back and nearly hop out the shower cause it burned my skin. "Ow!" I turned it off quickly. I wrapped my towel around my body and stepped out to look at my arm. My shoulder down to my wrist was red. It didn't even hurt that much but the way it looked seemed like I was really burnt.

"Great," I said to myself.

***

Down by the creak, I began taking pictures with my phone and skipping rocks. I always tried to appreciate nature but I was feeling a bit bored...lonely. I didn't have that many friends and the ones I did had weren't keeping up with me since I moved. I thought about texting my friend Gabby but since I left, she always seemed busy. 

What the heck. I thought. I could text her one more time and see if she'd come along. She was only a 20 minute ride away. Gabby quickly responded back to my text.

"Hey, I'm having such an off day. I'd love that. Send me the address and I'll be there shortly." She replied.

***

I had to meet Gabby by my house then take her back to the creek because it was in a woodsy area surrounded by trees and lots of trashy items like old tires, broken bikes, and just trash that other people left behind. Once I saw part of a road underneath some moss on the ground which indicated there used to be a highway in that area many years ago. 

Gabby and I spent the time walking around and throwing rocks while catching up on things. I hadn't seen her in almost month. In that month, she dyed her hair red. It reminded me of Ariel from the little mermaid but super straight and just a bit longer. She got new glasses. Her acne definitely worsened-probably from stress. It also sort of showed that she was stressed. Gabby normally dressed really nice and liked to match but today even during the hot muggy weather, she wore all black. Black baggy pants and a hoodie. I felt hot looking at her.

"I'm glad you're doing better," Gabby said to me while we sat down on some rocks. "your place looks nice aside from the demons in there." 

The two of us laughed. "It's just been weird." I said then showed her my arm, pulling up my jacket. "The water turned hot on its own today and look-"

I jumped up and took the whole jacket off. The redness on my arm was now more intense and seemed swollen. It hurt when I touched it. 

"Jeez!" Gabby's eyes widened when she saw it. "That looks bad. You should get that checked out."

"I don't understand," I said while feeling it. "it wasn't that hot to cause this." I put my jacket back on, feeling a bit anxious now. I wanted to tell mom so I could get it checked out as soon as possible. 

Suddenly, I saw Keith and Marques in the distance. I took a few steps and waved. "Hey guys!" I don't think they heard me cause they just kept walking in my opposite direction. "Marques! Keith!"

"Are you okay?" Gabby asked. 

"Yeah," I said. "those are the two boys I was telling you about."

Gabby stood up and looked where I was looking. "Um, Esther there's no one there..."

I looked again. Sure enough just like that, they were gone. Out of site...