Page 2 of The Haunting
Ha! I shook my head. Typical man, threaten his sex life or manhood, and they fell into place.
“Brother, you took the wrong turn off,” Chance agreed. He rubbed his MC patch that proclaimed him President of Hellfire MC.
“Did not!” Drake rumbled, annoyed.
“Wanna bet one hundred bucks?” I retorted.
“Done! And you’ll owe me a blowjob!” Drake growled out.
“Yeah, I’m more likely to bite the fucker off right now, Drake. Jesus, this is horrendous,” I hissed, looking out of the window.
We weren’t at home. No, we’d driven across state lines to Nebraska. This year, I hadn’t put on a fright night; we were still recovering from the war, and it didn’t seem important. Drake had noted how down I’d been and booked a stay for several of us at a haunted hotel. It had been a nice thought, but we hadn’t expected the weather…
At half-past twelve, the sky had turned darker than anything I’d ever seen. The clouds were heavy and clashed together with ominous thunder. Within moments, the rain-clouds broke open, and the rain lashed down. Drake had slowed the car as visibility worsened with every passing moment.
We were now an hour behind and totally lost. The sat nav had crashed, and Drake was winging it.
Luckily, I was a paranoid bitch, and I’d made sure we had a road atlas with us. I navigated the map while Chance helped Drake keep an eye out for hidden dangers. Visibility was so poor, we’d be on top of something before we realised.
Clio, sitting beside me in the middle of the minivan, swapped glances with me. Chance’s wife had stayed quiet, but she wasclearly worried. She’d been following the directions too and looked concerned as the rain came down even harder. Drake was driving at a slow crawl, and I was a little scared.
“Shit,” Drake murmured moments later as tree branches whipped at the car windows. Lightning flashed across the sky and lit the way momentarily.
“Wrong turning, twatwaffle!” I crowed. Drake had turned us down a one-lane street, and now the minivan’s suspension was taking a battering as we bounced down the uneven road surface.
“There’s nowhere to turn around,” Chance muttered as he tried to peer into the darkness.
“Phoe said you’d taken the wrong road!” Calamity stated.
“Shut up, who needs your opinion?” Drake hissed.
Calamity chuckled. “Clearly not you, brother.”
Drake began muttering threats under his breath.
“Look, is that a light?” Clio cried and pointed over Chance’s shoulder.
Chance leaned forward, trying to see what Clio had seen. He squinted and then his body slammed to the side as Drake swerved. A tree crashed down behind us as Drake hit the brakes.
“Oh my God!” Rosie squealed as she and Calamity spun around and peered out of the rear window.
“Drake, that was fuckin’ close!” Calamity exclaimed as he gazed at the thick branch lying in the road.
“There’s no way back,” Drake said.
I noted the worry in his voice. Drake caught my eye in the rear-view mirror. He smiled briefly, trying to reassure me, but I knew he sensed my fear.
“Maybe we should just park up?” Clio suggested.
Then, a creaking noise made Drake hit the accelerator, and we shot forward as another branch came down.
“There!” I yelled as I saw a flickering yellow light in the distance. “There’s a building ahead.”
The minivan started crawling again, its high beams barely piercing the darkness, and we drove through a set of open wrought-iron gates. “The Washington Manor,” I read the words woven into them.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Clio muttered, her eyes wide and peering around.
“Yeah, me too,” I agreed.
