Mercy

I watch as my best friend Keller gets wheeled away on a stretcher to an ambulance, while my hands are cuffed behind my back and douche bag Donovan isn’t anywhere to be seen. If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place. Keller wouldn’t be heading to a hospital unconscious and I wouldn’t be facing charges. But here we are, because of Donovan. Go figure.

It was only this morning when Keller ran into my house screaming, “Dude, ditch the bag! There’s been a murder!”

I stared at him confused, wondering what the punch line would be, but none came. So I continued putting on my bag, grabbed the toast with strawberry jam I’d just made and walked past him and out the door. No way I’d let his typical hysteria make me late for school… again.

he came out running behind me, continuing his big news, “did you not hear what I said? There was a murder, as in someone was killed.”

I stopped walking and stared at him with a bit more urgency, “you’re being serious?”

“Yeah man, an actual murder. And no one knows who did it.” He said with excitement.

“Who was killed?” I asked. We live in a pretty small town called Mercy, in the heart of Maine. The kind of town where everyone knows everyone.

“His name was Ambrose Holland.” Okay, maybe not everyone. I don’t know of any Hollands living here, let alone an Ambrose.

“Never heard of them, they new to town?” I asked.

“Nah man, they lived here way before you and me were born. Died in his home off Maple Street.”

“Alright, is there something important about it that got you so wound up?” I asked as I started my walk to school again.

“Just the fact that you, me, and Donovan are gonna go tonight and check it out.” He grinned proudly like this was the best idea ever.

“Yeah, sure. We’ll just go to a crime scene we have nothing to do with and poke our noses around for no reason.”

“Oh come on, we both know I’m going and you’ll come along to make sure I don’t die, so why don’t we skip to the part where you decide you’re in.” He pleaded.

“Why do you want to go so bad? There’s no reason to snoop in the first place.” I tried to reason.

“Because I want to see a ghost!” He squealed in excitement. I sagged my shoulders in defeat. How would I even begin to reason him out of that one?

“Fine, but does it have to be with Donovan?”

“Oh come on, he’s the one that found out about it in the first place. It’d be totally uncool to exclude him.”

“Alright whatever, can we get to school now?” I suggested, hoping we could finally change the topic and move on.

“Why would we do that? We got some phantoms to find.” He said like it was obvious and I was the person talking crazy.

“I thought we were going tonight?”

“We are.” He confirmed.

“Then why would we need to skip school if we plan on going after it’s over?”

Keller slumped his shoulders and sighed, “fine, whatever killjoy.” He continued following me until we got to school. “There’s Donovan, I’ll go tell him you’re in.”

“sure, we’ll meet at your place around seven. It’s closest to Maple.”

Keller grinned and nodded, “See ya tonight man.”

He walked away while I went into the school wondering what the hell I got myself into this time.

It was around seven o’clock, I stood in front of Keller’s house really wishing I had come up with some excuse about not being able to go. But I couldn’t let Keller go off with him alone to get into who knows what kind of trouble. I mean, Donovan hadn’t actually done anything for me to hate the dude, he was just a douche bag looking out for number one.

I walked into Keller’s house, not even bothering to knock. I l pretty much lived there for half my life.

I heard some muffled talking in the back of the house so I followed it into the kitchen where Keller and Donovan were eating some sandwiches.

“Sweet, you’re just in time.” Keller said. “Me and Don were just talking about the plan for tonight.”

“And that is?”

“We’re gonna drive over in Don’s car in about an hour when it starts getting dark.”

“Well,” I responded, “that’s one hell of a plan.”

“I don’t think we’re forgetting anything. We just need a time and a ride there.” He explained.

“There’s a few details we’ll need to know,” I listed the questions off my fingers. “Like how long are we staying? What are we bringing? What do we do if the killer comes back? And the most important detail, did he have a family living with him? We can’t really break into a home that has someone still living there.”

Keller looked pensive and then glanced at Donovan. “Uh, you got any of those answers, dude?”

Donovan laughed, “no one lives there, the house has been vacant for years. And who cares about the rest? Just chill.”

“And we’ll stay until we find a ghost! Or until morning maybe.” Keller added in.

I put my hand up, stopping what Kell was about to say next. “Hold up, it’s been vacant for years? Keller said that someone was killed in his home.”

“Yeah, twenty years ago. It’s been abandoned since.” Donovan clarified.

I stared at Keller, “are you kidding me? This morning you acted like someone in town died and we needed to investigate. But you’re telling me you just wanna go to an abandoned house because some man you didn’t know died two decades ago?”

“Are you deaf? I said twenty years ago, not two hundred.” The douche bag Donovan laughed despite his own obvious ignorance.

“Are you an idiot? I said two decades, not two centuries. Maybe you should learn some basic vocabulary.” I quipped.

He mumbled, “who cares.” As much as I would have loved smacking his stupid douche bag face, I bit my tongue and focused my attention on Keller.

“Kell, what is going on?”

“Well, I didn’t think you’d go with us if you knew it was safe and I’d be fine. So I just kind of didn’t mention that part. But I didn’t lie! I swear! I just wanted to see a ghost.” He explained and I took a moment to think it through.

“Fine, I’m here already so might as well get it done. But we should at least pack flashlights, extra batteries, and some snacks.” I conceded like I usually do.

Not too long after, we parked in front of the abandoned house. We stepped out of the obnoxious orange Jeep Wrangler and headed for the door. The house wasn’t too bad for being abandoned as long as it has. Vines grew up the sides, floor boards on the porch were sunken in, and steel blue paint was chipped all around the building, but it wasn’t falling apart. It was still pretty solid.

As we walked inside the house, I could smell the dust floating in the air and saw cobwebs everywhere. Keller flicked the light switch up and down but no lights turned on.

“Maybe it’s the wrong switch, I’ll look for another.” He said.

“Kell,” I stopped him. “The house doesn’t have electricity. It’s abandoned.” Then I handed him one of the flashlights I had packed.

“Oh, my bad.” He said sheepishly. Donovan laughed at him so I glared in response. I know I’m a bit over protective of Kell, but he’s the closest thing I got to a brother and this guy had no right to laugh at him.

“You sure you wanna stay here for the night? It’s pretty creepy.” I said as I look around the living room with my flashlight.

“Hell yeah!” He answered.

“What’s wrong Carter, you chicken?” Donovan teased.

“Yeah right, just making sure you weren’t gonna wet yourself is all.” This guy seriously bugged me. “All right, guess we should start looking around.

“Nah it’s still early. Ghosts won’t be out yet. How about we play Clue.” Keller said.

“Clue?” I asked. Then Keller pulled out the board game Clue from his backpack and sat in the middle of the living room.

“Yeah, I thought it would be fitting to play here, ya know? with the unsolved murder that happened here and everything.”

“Sounds good to me.” Donovan sat down and started pulling out the pieces with Keller.

“Guess I’ll go look around for some more candles.” I started walking away when Donovan called out,

“There should be extra in the kitchen drawer next to the sink.”

I stopped and looked back at him. “How do you know that?”

“It’s not my first time here. Prime real estate to get drunk.” He explained, too focused on setting up Clue to even glance my way.

The candles were exactly where he said they would be. I set them around the room and lit each one, creating a warm glow around us. Then sat down to play the game.

After the game, some booze Donovan brought, and the remainder of the time scrolling on our phones, Keller’s phone alarm went off causing all of us to jump.

“Sweet! It’s midnight guys. It’s officially ghost hunting time!” He exclaimed.

“Finally,” I said as I got up off an old lazy boy chair with a dusty white sheet covering it. “My phone is only two percent away from dying”

“You know,” Donovan started, “I think it might be a good idea to split up and search around. If any of us find anything we’ll shout.”

“I don’t think so, I’m sticking with Kell, but you can go check out the basement by yourself if you’re feeling up to it.” I offered. Donovan glared at me and then gave a smug smirk. Like he was privy to some joke I wasn’t in on. Dude made my skin crawl.

“Come on Carter, it’ll be fine. We can all check different floors and then meet back here in like fifteen minutes.” Keller suggested. I let out a sigh in defeat.

“Fine, but anything seems fishy and you come get me, alright Kell?”

“Deal!” He said eagerly. “I’ll check out upstairs!”

“And I’ll take the first floor.” Donovan quickly added.

“Meaning I’m stuck with the basement. Let’s get this over with.” After that, we all headed in different directions.

I descended the stairs to the basement. Every step creaked loudly as I shifted my weight onto them, only adding to the eerie feeling this house already gave me. The darkness engulfed everything except for the beam of light my flashlight made. I saw a wooden work table, something you would see in wood shop class. It was covered in dust and junk, but thankfully among the junk was a camp style battery powered lantern. I turned the knob and felt relief wash over me as it turned on. I was finally able to get a good look at the basement now.

There were yard tools and equipment piled against the brick wall to my left. A gray metal framed shelf filled with old cans of food. Plastic storage bins stacked everywhere. A small rectangular window right below the ceiling, and a dark green metal storage cabinet against the wall on my right.

I pointed my flashlight to the ground to see foot prints in the layer of dust that covered the floor. Footprints that weren’t mine. It made some sense though, Donovan said he’d been there with his friends and I’m sure other people had been there to explore or drink or find ghosts like Keller.

My stomach felt queasy when I saw a note taped to the metal cabinet. It was a typed note that read, ‘having fun yet?’ I couldn’t figure out what type of prank it was. I took a deep breath, something I regretted doing when all I got was lungs full of dusty air. Then I slowly opened the cabinet doors. Before I could process what was inside, something big fell onto me knocking me over. The smell was putrid. The lantern I was holding broke when I fell, I could hear the glass shatter. I reached out trying to feel for the flashlight, finally I grasped it in my hand and could aim it at whatever was on top of me. But what I saw made me regret that choice all together.

There were two dead bodies on me. Human bodies. I was too horrified to scream. I wanted to though, but no sound came out of me. I wasn’t even sure if I was breathing anymore. I scrambled out from under the corpses and ran for the door. The door that was now locked from the outside. I banged on it and yelled for help. No one came to open it.

I know I didn’t lock it behind me. I didn’t even shut it, it was too dark and creepy for that. Either way, I needed out and the locked solid wood door wasn’t the answer.

I went back downstairs and as I got to the bottom, the putrid smell of dead people slammed into my face.

I counted to twenty, counting to ten just wouldn’t cut it this time, and tried to steady my breathing. Something I learned when I had panic attacks as a kid.

I took a moment to think things through. I’m locked in the basement, there are two dead people with me, but no one else, so I should be safe for the time being. I looked at the window, but it was too small to fit through. I walked over to the yard tools hoping something would be usable on the door, nothing stood out though.

As I was about to look in the drawers of the tables, the basement door opened, but no one came down.

“Hello?” I called up. Honestly I didn’t know which was worse, staying down here with dead people, or going upstairs when there’s obviously something sketchy and probably dangerous going on, but Keller was upstairs so ultimately I chose to go upstairs.

I slowly ascended the steps, trying to see past the opened door at anyone who could be there. When I got to the top, I saw no one. I quickly hurried to the stairs leading to the top floor, but I didn’t need to go up. Keller was laying at the bottom of the steps. His head was bleeding and he wasn’t moving. I forgot all about the sketchy situation and screamed for Donovan as I frantically searched my pockets for my phone. But it was dead.

I checked Keller’s clothes for his phone, “don’t you fucking die dude,” I muttered as I patted down his pockets. The phone wasn’t there. I couldn’t decide whether I should stay with Keller and keep trying to wake him up, or go find Donovan, who seems to have bailed, in hopes he had a phone. I didn’t have to decide though because moments later, red and blue lights started flashing from outside.

“It’s okay Kell, you’ll be okay now,” I sobbed. I don’t know if it was from the fear, the relief or a mixture of both, but I couldn’t stop myself from crying. All I knew is I needed Kell to be okay. “We’re in here!” I screamed.

Two officers came rushing in, one of them pulled me away from Kell and the other radioed for the paramedic to bring a stretcher in.

“His head is bleeding, you need to save him.” I pleaded.

“It’s yourself you need to worry about.” The officer who pulled me away said as he grabbed my arms and cuffed my wrists behind my back.

“W-what are you talking about?” I asked.

The officer sighed. “Look kid, there is a boy bleeding out and unconscious, while you were hovering over the body with your hands literally covered in blood.”

“What? You think I hurt Kell? I was trying to help him.” I tried explaining, but it fell on deaf ears. The officer shoved me through the door while holding my cuffed wrists. Then walked me over to the side of a police car where we stopped.

“Stay here.” He said curtly. Then walked towards Donovan who stood in the middle of this mess saying something to the cops. Pretty soon, Donovan finished up and walked over to me.

“Donovan, where were you? did you explain what happened to the cops?” I questioned. He shrugged like it was all a typical Friday night, without a care.

“Nah, didn’t get the chance to. They asked what happened to Keller but I didn’t see anything. Apparently, someone made a call saying some kids broke in, then they heard screaming, and stuff breaking.” He shrugged again.

“Who made the call? There’s no neighbors to hear us for miles.”

“Anonymous.” He answered.

“And where’d you go? You were supposed to investigate the first floor but you weren’t there.” After I said that, he smiled at me, and walked away.

So now, Keller is critical, I’m going to jail, and Donovan gets off Scott free, despite this whole thing being his idea. I knew he was a douche bag, but I sure as hell had no idea how lucky he was.

“Sir!” A police woman says as she comes out the house. “There are two dead bodies in the basement.”

Oh shit.