“Woo! Taxidermy!” My friend Ollie shouted excitedly, clapping his hands together and collapsing into a rickety old wooden chair next to the workbench. I folded my arms on the back of the chair I was standing behind, then proceeded to rest the side of my head on top of my arms. The sun from the open doors of the shed behind me was beating on my back, making me hotter than I already felt. I gave Ollie a side smile and giggled.
“You know how weird that sounds, right?” Ollie shrugged, pulling off his gloves and tossing them onto the workbench.
“You know you like this stuff too, missy. And I can’t help but feel excited after finishing a long job like this. Look at the final product! She’s perfect!” Ollie responded, gesturing toward the workbench with wide open arms and beaming his crooked teeth at the taxidermy rabbit standing proudly on top of it. I shifted my head so that my chin was now resting on my arms and observed the rabbit myself; it was really impressive. We had only been practicing taxidermy for a few months at that point, and this was only the fourth time we did it without the help of my dad.
“It’s pretty cool,” I said. I felt a sense of pride radiate in my chest. I’ll admit, this was the first project me and Ollie had completed on our own that I was actually proud of. There weren’t any wonky parts, no visible stitching or blood spots on the fur. I couldn’t help but break a small smile when I thought of showing it to my dad later.
“She’s a beaut,” Ollie mused, gazing longingly at the taxidermy rabbit with his arms folded across his chest. I snorted a laugh.
“‘She’?”
“It’s like a boat or a car. You call something you’re proud of ‘she,’ right?” I shook my head, smiling at him.
“You’re so corny.”
“Love ya too, April.” He grinned widely at me, chuckling at his own comedy.
He was truly the corniest person I’d ever known, but he was my best friend, so I loved him nonetheless. He was one of those guys that I couldn’t see myself getting close to if I had met him, say, yesterday. But practically being raised as siblings and constantly living close to each other had sort of forced us to get along, and it worked well, to say the least. Seven years later and here we were, practicing a hobby we both had become invested in together during the weekend before we had to return to the horrors of 10th grade. I had other friends at school, of course, but I just felt this sort of connection with Ollie that was different compared to everyone else. It really did feel like he was meant to be my brother, but something happened in the timeline that kicked him out of my family tree. At least we were in each other’s lives, I guess. I just wish things could return to normal like they once were before everything went to shit.
Anyway, once the job was done and we had finished reveling at our creation, we decided to head back inside my house and wash up. I was the first to get to the kitchen sink, so I flipped on the water and began to wash my hands, scrubbing them real hard to get all the germs off of them. As much as I liked taxidermy, I was still freaked out by how many germs resided on the dead animal. While I washed my hands, Ollie walked over to the fridge and ripped it open, whistling to himself. He stood for a second before letting out an excited “Aha!” and diving behind the fridge door.
“You didn’t tell me you got more lemonade!”
“I didn’t want you drinking it all,” I said, smirking to myself.
“Ha ha, real funny. I’m not gonna drink it all,” he responded, stepping back out from behind the door, the gallon bottle of lemonade in his hands. It must’ve been heavy, because he was using both hands to hold it against his chest as he hobbled over to the counter next to me.
“I’m surprised you still want to drink lemonade after the 4th of July party a few months ago.” I started laughing as I remembered what went down then. Ollie grimaced, shaking his head.
“Yeah. Dark times. I’ve learned not to down six cups of lemonade in the span of ten minutes anymore. I’ve matured,” he said, sounding mildly proud of himself. He reached up and grabbed a cup from the cabinet, having to stand on his tiptoes to reach the inconveniently high handle.
“You’re gonna make yourself sick again right now if you drink before washing your hands. All those germs are gonna get into your system,” I said, flicking the water off my hands into the sink before reaching for the roll of paper towels. I left the water running so that Ollie could go ahead and use it. He stepped over to the sink and waved a dismissive hand at me.
“You’re such a worry wart. A little dirt won’t kill me,” he said, drenching his greasy, stained hands in the water. His skin had been ever so slightly tanned from the sun, but it was mostly burned from his lack of sunscreen.
“Dirt might not, but grime from the nasty fur of a dead animal might,” I said, shoulder-checking him as I walked past to the trash can, tossing my bundle of used paper towels into it.
“I wore gloves for a reason. So did you. Gloves repel dirt, yeah?”
“No.”
“Well, whatever. My hands are clean now, see?” Ollie showed me his wet hands as he turned the water off by knocking the faucet handle with his elbow.
“Good job. You want a cookie?” I cooed sarcastically. He decided to get back at me by flicking the water from his fingers at me, sprinkling me in cold droplets that made me squirm. I laughed as I flailed my arms in front of me to protect myself from his attack.
“Nah, I want lemonade,” he said, drying his hands off quickly and launching the paper towels into the garbage as if he were throwing a basketball. “Score!” I clapped for him, laughing even harder now.
As Ollie poured himself a cup full of lemonade, I noticed a large black figure in the distance zoom through the sky from the window above the sink. I looked up and realized that it was a massive vulture, its black wings flapping in authority as it landed on the roof of an old, grey, seemingly rotting house that stood just behind the few trees on the hill that separated it from my backyard. Soon after, another vulture came fluttering down from the opposite side.
“Ugh, they’re back,” I said. Ollie paused his drinking and looked through the window with me.
“Ew, I hate those things. They’re so creepy. They also eat all the things we could’ve used to turn into a great taxidermy piece,” he said. He shook his head disapprovingly and took another sip of his drink, then his eyes went wide with a revelation. He slammed the cup down, somehow managing to keep any of it from spilling. “April! What if we went inside that house and tried to find the dead animal before they could? Maybe a vulture even died in there and we could take it back to your shed and turn it into taxidermy! That’d be sick!”
“That’s not part of my property, idiot. We’d be trespassing.”
“Does someone really live there?” I looked back at the building, noticing that another vulture had landed on the edge of an open window, looking inside at the eerie darkness. I furrowed my eyebrows and tilted my head in thought.
“Uh, well, I don’t think anyone lives there. I think it’s just part of the neighbor’s property. Kinda like my shed.”
“But that thing’s, like, three times the size of your shed. Have you seen anyone actively try to make it not look like shit?” Ollie grabbed the bottle of lemonade and made his way over to the fridge, putting it back in the place it was before.
“Well, no—”
“Then it’s definitely abandoned! The neighbor guy probably wants it torn down, anyway. At least we’d be giving it some purpose. So what’s the harm in exploring a bit?”
I decided to bite my tongue and stop arguing with him. If there’s one thing about Ollie that I had to say I hated, it was how damn persistent he was. If he found something he wanted, he would go to incredible lengths to get it, willing to sacrifice himself and his dignity without batting an eye. I pressed my lips together and sighed heavily through my nose as he returned to his spot next to me.
“Fine. We’ll go for a few minutes, but then we absolutely have to leave.”
“Are you scared or something?” Ollie asked, placing his empty cup into the sink and leaning his back against the counter.
“That neighbor has a shotgun that he uses to scare off intruders. So yeah, I’m scared of getting shot,” I said, emphasizing the word “shot” so that he would understand how serious this was. All he did was shrug.
“Then let’s not get caught, alright?” He gave me a sly smirk and a slight nod before he pushed himself off the counter and walked over to the backdoor. “We leave at sundown. Gather your swords, your steeds, and your strongest men, for we are about to embark on a journey of great peril!” And with a villainous laugh, he opened the door and strutted out to the backyard.
I rolled my eyes, giggling to myself. But my mind immediately snapped back to the situation at hand. How were we supposed to sneak inside that decaying house without the neighbor noticing? What if we ended up breaking something and the neighbor finds out about it? What if we get some sort of disease from all the mold that’s most likely filling the place? Or tetanus from anything rusty just haphazardly laying around? I felt my heartbeat start to pick up with anxiety and I heard a loud bang on the window next to me. I nearly jumped out of my skin, but when I looked at the window and saw Ollie standing outside waving at me, my fear was replaced with annoyance. I banged on the window right where his face was, causing him to stumble backward, laughing. He motioned for me to come outside with him, so I did.
“We’re not leaving right now, are we?” I asked, panic beginning to set in.
“No! No, not now. When it gets dark we can head out. That way it’ll be easier to sneak in. And it won’t be so damn hot,” Ollie explained, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand. He ran his fingers through his shoulder-length shiny brown hair, each loose curl falling back into place once he finished. He looked back at me, a few curled strands falling in front of his eyes. “I feel like a wet dog right now.”
“You look like one, too,” I teased.
“And you look like the backside of a baboon with how sunburnt your face is,” he said, stuffing his hands into his pockets before he turned on the heels of his feet and started backing away. “You clearly can’t stand the sun.”
“What, do you wanna start airing out the dead animals inside the shed? Make the whole place stink up?” I asked, following him.
“No, I’m good, actually.” He turned around and continued walking, and it only occurred to me then that we were walking up the hill toward the house. I stopped in my tracks.
“What are you doing? I thought you said we weren’t going until tonight.” He turned around to look at me.
“I know, I’m not going inside the place. I’m just scouting out the area around it. Get a lay of the land, ya know?” I paused, bending sideways slightly to peer around Ollie at the house. The vultures were still perched on the roof and window of the building, idly shifting their wings as they sat in wait. Just looking at it gave me the creeps and, despite the beaming sun, I felt a chill roll down my spine.
“You have fun. I’m gonna stay clear of that hell hole until it’s time to go.” Ollie shrugged.
“Suit yourself. I’m not gonna go too far, just gonna get a basic view of the building. Might try and find good spots to slip in through.”
“Alright. I’ll be inside, trying to cool down my baboon face,” I said, spitting out the last couple of words with playful agitation. Ollie let out a hearty laugh.
“Alrighty, ass-face. I’ll meetcha there. I’ll tell you what I find around the spooky vulture house,” he said, drawing out the last part in a ghostly manner. I chuckled, then turned around and headed back to my house.
It didn’t take too long for Ollie to come back, maybe about ten minutes. I was sitting sideways on the couch, looking through a magazine while a standing fan was blowing directly on my face. Despite it being incredibly hot both outside and inside, the side of my face closest to the fan was now covered in a numb chill from the air blowing on it. I heard Ollie come through the back door from behind me and dipped my head over the side of the couch just in time to see him round the corner.
“Welcome back, Mr. Adventurer,” I said. Even though he was upside down for me, I could notice his smile and eye roll. He walked up to me and slapped my forehead before taking a seat next to me on the couch. I sat up straight again and watched him as he spoke.
“Wasn’t much of an adventure. There wasn’t anything too interesting outside the building. Just some crates and vines. I did find a way in, though. There’s a window towards the back that’s completely broken. The frame is gone and everything! I’ll have to get on your shoulders to get to it, though.”
“Um, no,” I said, closing my magazine and tossing it to the side onto the coffee table. “I’ll be getting on your shoulders. It’s the gentlemanly thing to do.”
“Sorry to burst your bubble, April, but I’m not the classiest man in the world,” Ollie said, gesturing to himself. His jeans were spackled with mud and his grey t-shirt was wrinkled and dusty. He had a hoodie tied around his waist that smelled like smoke from a campfire. Just looking at him, you’d expect him to have a thick country accent saying that he used to live on a cow farm, but he was actually from the city. I don’t know how he turned out the way he did, but I liked it.
“Whatever. We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” I said, side smiling.
“Indeed we will. The sun is setting evermore into the evening, and that is when we will roam!” Ollie said, crossing his legs and gesturing dramatically.
“Are you a poet or something?” Ollie shrugged.
“You could say that. All those poems in English class are starting to get to my head.”
“I’ll say. Wanna watch some TV while we wait for nighttime?”
“Sounds good.”
And that’s exactly what we did. We channel-surfed and watched whatever caught our interest for a few hours, occasionally getting up to bring snacks over to the couch. By the time the sky started to darken from a deep peachy color to an inky blue, more adult TV shows were coming on and the couch was littered with chip crumbs. Ollie groaned and stretched his arms and legs, then scratched the back of his neck.
“I really should’ve taken a nap,” he complained. “I’m beat.” I couldn’t help but let out a cackle.
“Beat from what? We’ve been sitting down for hours now!”
“I worked my ass off to be entertaining for you during that time, didn’t I?” Ollie said, resting his elbows on his knees and holding his face up with his hands, looking at me with a sly smirk. I rolled my eyes and clapped a hand down on his shoulder, pushing on him to raise myself up from the couch. He grunted as he sank lower into the couch.
“Let’s just get this over with, alright? My mom and dad should be coming home soon, and I don’t wanna get caught being out of the house.” I glanced at the clock that sat next to a window on the wall next to me. The time was 10 o’clock on the dot. My parents worked really late, being surgeons and all that. We still had to act fast, though. We had anywhere from thirty minutes to two hours to explore, and I had no idea which it was gonna be.
“You’re right, April. You’re very right. Let’s go!” Ollie said, hopping off the couch and marching towards the backdoor. I followed him quickly and let him lead the way to the house.
The hill was steep and the grass crunched under our feet as we walked, each sound sending a fearful chill down my spine. I felt like I was being watched as we reached the top of the hill. I walked on my tiptoes behind Ollie as he not-so-quietly made his way to the window he found earlier. He stopped directly under it and gazed up at the abyss it led to. He huffed a laugh to himself, then looked over at me.
“You wanna go in first?” He whispered. I didn’t even try to hide my shock and let my eyes bulge wide open.
“Hell no! Absolutely not! Are you insane?” I whispered back, being as aggressive as I could without raising the volume of my voice. Ollie laughed inaudibly, propping one hand against the wall of the building and cradling his stomach with the other.
“Thought you said you wanted to get on my shoulders to get inside, though!” I paused, my mouth hanging open with an invisible retort. I closed my mouth and sheepishly looked away from him.
“I changed my mind.”
“Thought so. Okay, I’ll get on your shoulders so you can help lift me inside. It’s really freaking dark in there, so we’re gonna have to try not to trip on anything.” He let out a gasp and snapped his fingers. “Shit! We should’ve grabbed a flashlight!” He smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand and groaned, clearly annoyed. “Ugh, I’m so stupid.”
“I can grab one from my house. It’ll take me, like, two minutes. Do you want me to help you through the window before I go?”
“That would be great, actually. I could start scouting out the first floor while you grab that.”
“Alright,” I said breathily, immediately realizing how terrible of an idea this was. I walked over to him. “Please don’t die in there while I’m gone.”
“That’s a promise I will probably be able to keep,” he said, pointing at me with a smile. I scoffed and pushed him lightly, then kneeled on the ground, facing the house.
“Alright, get on.”
Ollie started off by sitting on my shoulders, instructing me to stand up so he could get closer to the window. The window itself wasn’t a crazy distance from the ground; in fact, once I was standing up with him on my shoulders, he was able to lean against the bottom of the window with his belly. Still, he wouldn’t have been able to crawl in without my help, and I wouldn’t be able to without his either. He took a moment to look around inside the dark building, murmuring a quiet “Woah.” Meanwhile, I could feel my shaky knees starting to buckle underneath the weight.
“Can you hurry up? I’m gonna collapse if you don’t get off me in the next few seconds,” I pleaded.
“Hold your horses, April. You’re just weak. Don’t think I couldn’t hear you grunting and groaning trying to stand up. You almost toppled over. I could’ve gotten really hurt!” I risked letting go of one of his legs to punch him in the side, making him squirm. Him moving almost sent me crashing into the ground, but I somehow managed to keep myself upright.
“Whatever. Just get inside already.”
“Got it, chief.” Ollie shifted his legs and eventually was standing on top of my shoulders. I could feel his feet digging into my collarbones, and when he finally pushed off to jump through the window, I was almost certain they were going to crack and break. Luckily, I remained uninjured, and when I looked up I saw Ollie pop up through the window with a toothy grin. “I’m in!” He whisper-shouted, flashing a thumbs up. I could barely see him, but the light from the moon that was somewhere in the sky helped illuminate him a bit. I nodded.
“‘Kay, I’ll be right back.”
“Be quick. I’m scared of the dark.”
“Pfft, yeah right.” I turned on my heels and made my way back down the hill, graciously taking the opportunity to distance myself from the creepy house for a few minutes.
I was able to find two flashlights, which was good. The bad thing is that retrieving said flashlights took way less time than I anticipated, and before I knew it I was already back up the hill, watching Ollie flick some decayed wood flakes off the glassless window frame. I stood directly under him and tossed the flashlights one at a time to him. I couldn’t help but be surprised when he caught them both effortlessly and tucked them into his jeans pockets. He sighed, then leaned over the edge of the window, his hair drooping down over his head and bordering his face like a curly wall.
“So what’s the plan now? How’re you gonna get up here?”
I clicked my tongue and looked to my sides, squinting in the darkness to see if I could find a rock or something to stand on. I noticed off to my right that something was peeking from behind the house; I could tell by the texture of the object the moonlight was illuminating that it was some sort of wooden crate. I pointed towards it, a triumphant smirk playing on my face.
“That’s my way in.” I looked back up at Ollie. “You’re gonna have to pull me the rest of the way, though.” Ollie nodded and saluted me.
“You got it, chief.”
I made my way over to the crate, taking careful tip-toeing steps over dried leaves and pebbles. Once I got to the side of the house, I noticed that there were several other crates lined up against the backside of the building. There was also a strange smell being emitted from them, one that I couldn’t quite place. I guess it smelled… old? Musty? Anyway, I reached down and grabbed the crate, and was startled by the weight it had when I lifted it. I could definitely carry it, but it drooped low down past my waist due to its heft. I placed it down as quietly as I could, then stood on top of the crate and raised my hands towards Ollie. He could easily grab my forearms from where he was now, so he grabbed my arm as low down as he could and hoisted me up. I held onto his upper arm and climbed up the side of the house until my knees hit just below the window frame. Then, I lifted my leg up, feeling a stretching pain in my thigh as I flung my leg over the window and into the building. I let out a deep sigh and climbed the rest of the way in.
“Way to go, Spider-Man!” Ollie whispered, panting as he flexed his fingers.
“Yeah, thanks,” I responded, already worn out. I put my hands on my knees and looked around the room we were in.
My eyes had adjusted to the dark by now, so I was able to see a good bit of the room, starting off with the two chairs and table in the left-hand corner. The glow from the moon allowed me to see all the chips and holes in the wood, so there was no way that those chairs were actually usable. Off to my right on the other side of the room was the staircase and railing, which also didn’t look the most stable. It was difficult to see the actual stairs themselves, and I was only able to see the dark shadows molded vaguely into the shape of steps. They traveled upward towards more darkness that was blanketed by the decrepit ceiling. I took a minute to process the interior of the house before I voiced my opinions on it.
“Ew,” I said.
“What, you don’t think this looks like a 5-star hotel?” Ollie asked, grabbing one of the flashlights from his pocket and handing it to me. I stood up straight again and took it from him, flicking it on and squinting as light flooded the room. Turning on the light didn’t make me appreciate the place anymore, though. It looks just as disgusting and mold-ridden as I expected.
“Not necessarily,” I said, panning my light around and taking another look at the bottom floor. I was able to see how truly nasty the place was. Moss was collecting in corners of the walls and I even saw some mushrooms poking out from cracks in the floorboards. And I know I’ve been using a lot of the same words or words that mean the same thing to each other to explain what the house is like, but I really don’t have any other way to describe it. It was just purely, one-hundred percent gross.
Ollie turned on his flashlight as well and looked around the place, making a quiet, drawn-out “eugh” sound. The moment he started walking, the entire floor began to creak and groan, and I immediately grabbed his arm to stop him from moving. He looked at me over his shoulder, his eyebrows furrowed.
“What?”
“The floor’s loud as hell, he’s gonna hear us!”
“Let’s tiptoe then.”
“That’s not gonna solve the floor problem, dumbass.”
“Long steps. Watch this.” He freed himself from my grip and stretched his leg out far, practically leaping about two feet away from me. He did this a couple more times, and every time he landed, the floor creaked loudly, but he was already at the staircase. He held his arms out triumphantly. “Follow along, little duckling!”
I rolled my eyes before I copied what he did, taking large steps towards the staircase. I cringed every time the floor creaked, but I made it to Ollie with no other issues. With that, we took the terrible-looking stairs up to the second floor, skipping one step at a time to shorten our time on them. I almost fell backward on the stairs when I heard a cacophony of wings flap as we neared the top. Ollie had to grab my arm and pull me forward so I didn’t fall and crack my head open. Rearing the edge of the floor to the second story helped me realize that the wings flapping was the sound of the vultures flying away, most likely due to them hearing us come up. I watched as their freakishly large bodies hurled off the window frames and into the night. Knowing those freaks of nature were gone gave me some solace about going to the next floor.
The second floor wasn’t much better than the first floor. It was any better, actually. If anything, it was worse, because there was a smell — no, a stench — permeating throughout the whole floor. It was way worse than the smell coming from the crates outside. It smelled rotten and moldy with a hint of animal shit. I covered my mouth and nose with my shirt and gagged.
“You can say that again,” Ollie said, his voice strained. He pinched his nose with his free hand and walked further into the room. “Smells like someone’s decomposing grandma that only ate chewing tobacco blew up in here.”
“I can taste the smell,” I said, swallowing back another gag. “It’s so sour and moldy.” As I said that, Ollie gave no effort in trying to stifle a retch, flinging his arm across his face and burying his mouth in the crook of his elbow. I gave him a back-handed slap on the shoulder. “You’re gonna freaking get us caught!”
“I’m gonna throw up first, though,” he said, his voice muffled. “The taste hit the back of my throat. It didn’t help when you described it as fucking moldy.”
“Jesus, language,” I murmured, walking past him.
I quickly discovered that the awful smell wasn’t the only thing that made this floor worse than the first one. The more I walked into the room, the more random objects cluttered up the area, and not generic ones like the chairs and table downstairs. There was a deflated basketball hanging limply off the arm of a rocking chair directly under a window on the other side of the room. To my left and off in the far left corner was a pile of crates similar to the one I used to step on outside, except these were haphazardly covered with duct tape. There were also dozens of Zippo lighters, some open and some closed, scattered around and on top of the crates, my flashlight catching the glint from the metal of each of them as I scanned past them. Other random objects I found include a broken garden gnome, a few rusty knives, and a waist-height wooden cross leaning against the wall. What I did not find, however, were any dead animals.
“There’s nothing here for us, Ollie,” I whispered, leaning close to his ear. “We need to leave.”
“We don’t know that yet. We need to search the whole floor.”
“I can see most of the room,” I said, beginning to get pissed off. I already felt like we had overstayed our welcome, and I was getting desperate to leave at this point. I really, really wish we did. But we didn’t, and instead, I briskly moved my light around the entire room, shining it from the ceiling above us to the floor below us. And as the light grazed across the floor underneath the windows the vultures were standing on, I realized why they were there in the first place.
It was silent for what seemed like an hour, an eternity, my heartbeat growing louder with every pulse. My throat grew dry as I started to take deep, panicked breaths. My eyes stung with tears that were about to fall but didn’t get the chance to before Ollie spoke up in a broken, barely audible voice.
“An arm… that’s a fucking arm.”