Page 55 of When Darkness Calls

I’m not even a hundred percent sure. I haven’t looked at what’s inside it in probably four or five years.

However, the haunted village he mentioned…that’s something I know about for certain…because it’s been in my closet since the last time we had it out.

I hum. “Hm, I wouldn’t be so sure about that actually. If my eyes are seeing correctly, you actually got the Christmas village box down…and I know this because Nick has been unwrapping all of them and apparently hasn’t thought it was odd he’s unpacking stuff for the wrong holiday.”

There’s a long drawn out groan from the living room. “Are you fucking kidding me? I thought they were all just mixed together here and I just had shit luck plucking out all the Christmas ones first.”

I snort and Grayson barks a laugh.

The two of us moved into the rooms lending a hand to everyone in their pursuit of whatever tasks they had been stuck with.

I helped Nick repack the Christmas village and passed the box along to Grays to take out to the garage. It’d be easier to pull that out of there in a few months than to shove it back up in the attic to get pushed towards the back.

I then moved on to Keegan who had been trying to untangle the mess of lights for hours, only succeeding in freeing two sets of orange and purple. It takes a while, but the large mass becomes far more manageable until all of them have been separated into their respective bundles, just in time for Alex to finish lining the entire fucking kitchen in orange and black garland. Just about every flat edge has been attacked by him and the staple gun.

Slowly, the chaotic explosion of boxes, bins, and decorations is organized. Everything that’s not for fall and Halloween is boxed back up and put away and the correct box is dragged out to take its place.

Grayson worked hard all morning alone, I’ll give him that. He just didn’t take into consideration that I had it all stored in a specific way. I had a system and his unawareness of the system meant he spent a good six hours this morning digging through random shit and lugging around the wrong containers.

It’s alright, though, because now, finally, we’re on track. Each of the guys has been given a job, and once that one is completed, I’m in charge of delegating them to their next task. So far, it’s been working efficiently. We have already gotten the bushes and porch covered in lights, the skull solar lanterns lining the driveway and the path to the front steps, and the flag jutting out from the porch has been switched out from the butterflies and sunflowers to the one we made when I was in middle school with all of our bloody hand prints covering it.

Cade and Keegan have been working on getting the skeletons set up around the house, some of them even looking like they are climbing up the side or hanging upside down from the roof. Nick is raking the leaves up from around the yard, getting them all piled up to be stuffed inside the pumpkin bags. Grayson has taken on the job of getting the graveyard fixed up underneath the tree in the front yard. We’ve already gotten the grim reaper hung up on the lowest branch, his gauzy cloak billowing in the light breeze.

Which has left me with the task of getting Frank fixed up for another year with the help of Alex.

At some point between his garland adventure and helping with getting the lights strung up in the bushes he had snagged one of the left over party hats and found a pair of costume sunglasses shaped like flowers from the year Liz had dressed up as a hippie. For some reason the vibe works really well for him with half his hair pulled back. Well, it would work better if he didn’t have about half a pound of hay stuck in his hair or down the back of his shirt or falling out of his pockets.

How it happened? I have no idea, but here we are.

We have fluffed Frank up, restuffing him where needed, and changed his clothes since his original flannel had nearly torn in half when we were taking it off. Frank the Scarecrow is making his grand return with a major glow up, including his new skeleton mask, which is rubber this time and not the flimsy plastic from before that had faded so badly you could barely tell it was supposed to be a skull.

It was all coming together. All that was left after we finished these jobs was to get the fake spiderwebs hung up and Mom’s village set out on the bench.

“Do you think you could handle it from here?” My question interrupts the comfortable silence that had fallen between Alex and I as we worked.

“Huh? Oh, yeah, yup. All good here, Doll.” He gives a hard nod that pushes the hat forward, near his forehead.

“Okay, I’ll be back in a bit. If anyone needs me, I’ll be in my room.”

The grass rustles under my feet before the sound gives away to the dull thuds as I climb the steps of the porch, through the hall, and to my room. I stand before my closet door for a long moment. The steady beat of my heart in my ears calms my nervous energy racing through my veins.

I’ve not touched this box in years. Mom’s villages haven’t been put out since the holidays before she died. She was the last one to touch it as she slid the box onto the shelf in my closet. No explanation for why she was putting it there instead of in the attic with the other. She just gave me a quiet smile before she turned and shut the door behind her.

The soft click of it closing echoes in my head as I pull my closet door open and tug on the chain hanging from the light. The dim glow illuminates the box high over my head.

Fuck. I didn’t think about that.

I step forward, arms outstretched, standing on my tiptoes, but no luck.

Shit.

I’m not the shortest person ever, but I’m definitely the shortest in my family.

The desk chair would work…kind of. If I can manage to keep it from sliding backwards or shifting around.

I just had to have the swivel chair, didn’t I?

I groan, turning to head to the kitchen to grab one of those chairs, dread slinking down my spine knowing that dragging it all the way upstairs is gonna suck.