Chapter 8 - July

CLACK! with a dry noise, the front door lock relents. Cody opens the door, to reveal a room with some crazy floor tiling going on.



As the door opens, the dogs go crazy and double their efforts to break in, alarmed by the intrusion in what surely must be their masters' house.

"We're monster hunters!", Al says. "Haven't you heard? We defeated the Linda-bot and Mother Ruth." She frowns. "But we can't defeat Chet. I didn't do anything to annoy him. He's just a bully, you know?" She pauses and thinks. "I guess we kind of saved Davey from him one time. So maybe he's still mad about that."

At the mention of Mother Ruth, Logan feels a little shiver, and starts looking at Alana and Alice's long hair... in that unhealthy, disturbing way he felt before, while in the games shop. He steps a little away from them.

You all have to talk quite loudly, to be heard over the racket those dogs outside are making.

Alice looka at Al with a frown. One eye brow raised up, her mouth a bit open. As if trying to see if Al is joking or crazy.

"Linda-bot huh?" Alice says, in a voice that might sound as if she is interested, but is actually a but distant. "Sure... there are no monsters you know? Except those three big dogs barking at the door I guess."

"Of course there are monsters!" Al crosses her arms and attempts to stare Alice down at this. How ridiculous do you have to be to pretend monsters aren't real?
"How would we have fought monsters if they're not real, huh?"

Alice shrugs for a moment.

Isn't she to old to play make-believe? she thinks.

But after soccer practice and all chases she is just to exhausted for an argument.

"Okay then. Prove it. Show me a monster. A big and ugly one if you can." she says, her eyes big in excitement, motioning her open hands a bit by her face as if to gesture at some that isn't there.

Al gestures to the door that Cody just opened. "Yeah, duh, that's the whole point. We'll explore this house and I bet there'll be one here."
She exaggeratedly rolls her eyes at how little Alice knows about monsters.

"Alright. I take that bet. Two bucks!"

Alice spits in the palm of her hand and streches it for Al to shake and seal the bet.

Two bucks is a whole lot of money but Al isn't one to back down from any challenge. So she spits into her own hand and shakes Alice's.

Logan shakes his head as he listens to Alice and Al. Either way, the only way we can go is inside the house. Be it for monsters or a way out.

Logan then turns and walks into the house.

Cody follows Logan inside the house. The barking of the dogs is a little less intrusive here. The rest of the house seems silent.

He casts a glance back at the porch, where Alana and Alice are shaking hands.
He points at the front door of the house. "Don't know about you, but I'd feel better with this door closed too... you know, just in case those dogs..."

You all enter the house, closing the front door behind you. The sound of barking dogs continues outside, more muffled.

At first glance, it does not seem what you imagine a spooky haunted house would look like. It's not dark, or sinister, of full of creaky noises. The furniture is old fashioned, and there is a decorative window that is a bit unusual opposite the door, but it's not creepy.

Perhaps expecting something different, the hunters look around. They stop to listen for signs of occupants.

Alice steps into the room.The pattern of tiles on the floor gives a brief moment of disorientation. She looks around.

"Fancy," she says on a low voice, while wiping her hand clean on the side of her shorts "Not a house where a monster would live in. Maybe a chess nerd, going by the floor."

Logan walks down the hallway looking at all of the old fashioned furniture.

Alana and Alice look at each other. They both heard something, like a very faint electric buzz coming from somewhere. It's tricky to hear with the damn dogs barking (will they ever stop?!?), but it's definitely there. Not continuously, it starts and stops. It sounds quite distant.

Trying to track the source of the sound, they notice that, when they lower themselves, it seems a little louder. They all lean closer to the floor...