Among You by Jack Wallen Read Free Book Online Page B

unfathomable. If I thought, for even a second, that we could allow what we have to evolve into something greater, without the risk of undoing a once in a lifetime friendship, I would jump into those waters with both feet. But that thought doesn’t exist. There’s no guarantee this would survive that. I don’t want that if it means I can’t have this .” I lifted our entwined hands to send my point home.
    Cold tendrils of silence crept up my back and neck. Sally stared at me, her eyes welling up. I wasn’t sure if I could survive her crying…not without giving in.
    And then she smiled.
    “ Scott, you are, without a doubt, the one thing in my life I couldn’t lose. As much as I want to be everything to you, I…”
    Sally hesitated to blink tears from her eyes. My heart sank into my shoes. “ I understand. The same thoughts have rattled around in my chest for such a long time, but my heart insisted we could make it work. I love you and will always love you. But more than that, I respect you and need your friendship. I would love to have you as my boyfriend, but not at the cost of this…or that.” Sally looked down to our joined hands.
    She laughed; which in turn made me laugh. The end result was an epic hug I was certain I’d feel for days…maybe weeks.
    When Sally pulled back from the embrace, she faced forward, put the car in drive, and said…
    “ We have a haunted house to find.”
     
    *
     
    The second the car crossed into Tyler’s End, the world – my world – changed. What I thought was going to be a visit to a first-class haunted house, turned out to be a journey into a magical world that would fold my definition of life inside out.
    “ Scott,” Sally whispered, “look at them…everywhere.”
    “ The costumes, the makeup…” I couldn’t find the words to describe what my eyes beheld. Walking about on the streets were horrific characters, all taken from the same page of the same book. As if time had no point or place in Tyler’s End, every person was dressed in a variation of the same theme – Victorian England. Waist coats, bustles, stockings, ruffles…every piece a precise turn of fashion with a twist of the macabre.
    It wasn’t actually the clothing that brought about my bug-eyed awe. The makeup was astonishing. Every character’s skin was a shade of grayish-green and looked cracked and aged by too much sun. Some had what looked like over-sized boils, threatening to pop, on their cheeks and lips. Some, mostly the males, had horns budding from the tops of their foreheads.
    Sally pulled the car into a cordoned-off field for parking. “They all look so…real.”
    “ And happy,” I added.
    That was quite possibly the strangest thing of all – each and every one of the characters glowed with a joy that seemed to emanate from within. They talked, laughed…sang.
    “ This is…Sally, I don’t know what to say.”
    We got out of the car and spun on our heels to take it all in. There was so much. Even beyond the idea that the haunt of haunts awaited me, I couldn’t get over the fact that the entire city seemed to be transformed into a horror-themed delight.
    “ It’s Monsterville,” Sally said.
    “ What,” I asked.
    Sally looked at me and smiled. “This place is like a town filled with monsters…Monsterville.”
    “ God ye good eve’n,” said one of the towns folk as he passed by. The tails of his coat swept up into the wind as if to wave ‘hello’.
    “ What did he just say,” Sally asked.
    “ He said ‘Good evening’ in a Victorian England colloquialism. At least I think that’s what it was. Or maybe he thought one of us sneezed. I don’t really know for sure.”
    “ It doesn’t matter, Scott; it’s all so stinking charming.”
    Sally reached out her hand to me. “Come on, let’s go find the house.”
    It wasn’t hard. It seemed every member of the town criers assembly was headed in the same, general direction. That kind of deduction could be handled by a