Chapter 3

 

By Rachel

After the shock finally wore off slightly, Nick slowly pulled himself up from the ground and hastily ran a shaky hand over his eyes.

The voice of Brian saying, "Where's Frack?" to Kevin caused Nick's breath to catch in his throat.

"I don't know, Bri," growled Kevin.

"I'm going to go in the kitchen and make sure he isn't in there," he said as he walked closer to the kitchen entrance.

Nick quickly hurried for the door in the kitchen which led to the backyard and threw the door open and ran outside as fast as he could and stopped at the corner to catch his breath. Once his racing heart slowed down to about a normal pace, Nick quickly looked around and seen that no one was around so he took of running towards the field behind the house. Once he reached a area with high grass and a distant view of the house, Nick lowered himself to the ground and laid on his back looking at the sky as the sun was beginning to set. Within minutes, his eyelids began to close and he was soon off to sleep.

Nick woke up with a start when he felt a sudden cold chill overcome his body. He quickly sat up and discovered it was already dark but he couldn't figure out where the cold chill had come from since it was a nice temperature outside. He stood up and yawned, stretching out his body and looked towards the house and gulped. There was one light on in the house "Probably Kevin" he thought miserably while walking towards the house.

Five minutes later he was on the porch steps standing just a few feet away from the front door. He hesitantly reached for the doorknob, silently praying that the door was unlocked so he wouldn't have to draw attention to himself by knocking on the door. Nick let out a breath he didn't know he was holding when the doorknob turned and the door quietly opened. He crept inside the house and walked towards the living room where the light was coming from to get upstairs to his room, hoping he wouldn't be noticed by whoever was.

Nick entered the living room and sighed in relief when he seen Brian asleep on the couch as the TV played some "I Love Lucy" reruns. He quietly climbed up the stairs and walked towards his room which was between the rooms Kevin and Howie claimed as their own and across from Brian's room. He turned the light on and walked over towards the bed and grabbed a blanket off of the top.

As he quietly crept down the stairs, he looked over his shoulder occasionally to see if anyone had woken up. He reached the bottom stepped and walked over to the couch as he unfolded the blanket and spread it over the sleeping body of his best friend and then walked away.

"Frack?" he heard a sleepy voice say that caused him to turn back around.

"Yeah it is me Frick go back to sleep." quietly said Nick.

"Are you ok? When we came back you was no where to be found, where did you go? Kevin told us you mentioned to him earlier you was going for a walk to explore." Brian said as he looked expectantly at Nick

"Yeah I had to think some things over so I went out for a walk and fell asleep." Nick said

"Typical Frack" chuckled Brian.  "Well I'm going to bed now since I know you are safe, Frack. Goodnight and don't forget to lock the doors and turn out the light" said Brian.

"Yes dad" replied Nick. He received no response and sat on the couch staring out the window for a few moments before getting up and turning off the TV and locking the front door. He walked back upstairs and fell on his bed too tired to even bother taking off his clothes and shoes and fell into another deep sleep.

Nick heard the faint sound of a dog barking in the distance. He looked around and discovered he was in a field and was beside of a man dressed in old fashioned work clothes who was working on planting something. "What is it, boy?" Nick heard the man ask as a small puppy approached him. "Oh my god!" Nick followed the man's gaze and was horrified by the site in front of him. He watched as the man ran towards the burning house screaming the name "Lucy" Nick watched in horror as seconds after the man entered the house, the house collapsed and it was all silent except for the crackling sound of the flames as they ate away at the wooden house. Nick felt a cold chill and looked behind him and gasped in shocked. It was the same man that had run into the house only seconds before, Nick thought for sure he was dead. After a few moments, the figure of the man started to fade away. Once the figure was gone, Nick couldn't get one image out of his mind. The eyes of the man where the same eyes he looked into of the supposed ghost, then all went black.

"AAAAHHHH!!" Nick screamed as he woke up. He quickly sat up and squinted his eyes and the door opened and the light from the hallway lamp that was just turned on streamed into the room.

"Nick are you ok?" Nick heard the voice of Brian ask seconds before the light in his room was turned on.

"What is going on?" the booming voice of Kevin demanded.

"You wanna tell me what happened Nick?" asked Brian as he sat down on the bed and pulled his friend into a brief hug.

"Ghost, Fire" mumbled Nick

"Ghosts? Yeah right Nick. You woke us all up for nothing." exclaimed Kevin as he backed out of the room with AJ and Howie close behind "

Thanks a lot Nick" AJ loudly mumbled.

"So tell me exactly what happened.  I can't make out anything from the words ghost and fire." joked Brian to lighten the mood. Nick took in a deep breath and told Brian about his dream, only to burst into tears afterwards because of the look Brian gave him. "Nick, there are no ghosts. Just go back to sleep it is your imagination working overtime" Brian said while walking out the door.

"But Frick" started Nick only to be greeted by the sound of Brian shutting the door and walking towards the hall. Nick sighed deeply and stared at the ceiling hoping the sun would rise soon.

 

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