This is the second part in a series, so if you have not already done so, you should probably read Part I before continuing.
“It’s your turn, Luke. Truth or dare.”
“Dare,” Luke said forcefully.
Boris grinned in a way that told Luke he had been hoping Luke would make that choice.
Luke was suddenly uncomfortable, but he swallowed his fear and stuck out his chin, hoping Boris hadn’t noticed his moment of hesitation.
“I dare you to sneak into that house and stay inside for ten whole minutes.”
Luke looked in the direction Boris pointed and gulped. “The crazy old man’s house?”
Boris nodded, his grin widening.
Luke took Boris’s gaze for the challenge it was. Never one to back down from a challenge, Luke puffed out his chest and looked back at the house. “No problem.”
He swaggered across the street, but as soon as he reached the sidewalk in front of the house, he stopped and looked at the house, trying to see if there was movement in any of the windows. But it was the middle of the afternoon and the sun was shining, so there were no lights on in the house and the sun reflected off the windows, making it impossible to see inside.
Luke crouched, crept across the front lawn, and approached the house from the side. When he reached one of the side windows, he jumped up, grabbed onto the window ledge, and pulled himself up just high enough so he could peek through the window and into the house.
He saw a large dining room with a big wooden table surrounded by matching chairs. The walls and ceiling were all dark wood and the floor underneath the table and chairs was covered by a carpet whose dark colors were woven into intricate designs. The only thing in the room that wasn’t dark was a silver chandelier that hung from the middle of the ceiling.
Nothing about the room was welcoming, but Luke didn’t see anyone, so he reminded himself his honor was on the line as he opened the window and crawled inside.
He had only opened the window a few inches before he went in headfirst, which meant his head and arms started to fall to the floor while he was still trying to get his legs through the window. He crashed gracelessly to the floor as his legs finally followed.
“Who are you?”
Luke was back on his feet in a flash, arms coming up to protect his head if necessary as he looked for the source of the voice. He found a girl about his age wearing a dress that looked like something the pioneers had worn 200 years ago. She even wore her brown hair in pigtails that framed her face as she stared at him.
When she didn’t move to attack him, and Luke had determined no one else was nearby, he dropped his guard. “I’m Luke.”
“And what are you doing in our dining room, Luke?”
Luke’s eyes shot back and forth across the room as he tried to think up an answer to this perfectly reasonable question. In the end, he decided he was better off just telling the truth. “It’s a dare.”
“What’s a dare?”
Luke stared at her for a moment, wondering if it was a serious question, but the quizzical expression on her face never wavered. “You’ve never played truth or dare?”
She shook her head.
“Well, it’s a game. You have to pick truth or dare. If you pick truth, the other person asks you a question and you have to answer it and tell the truth. If you pick dare, the other person tells you to do something and you have to do it.”
“What if you don’t do it?”
“Then you’re labeled a coward.”
“And then what?”
“What do you mean?”
“What happens after you get labeled a coward?”
“Do you know what a coward is?”
“Yes.”
“Then you know just getting called a coward is bad enough. They don’t have to do anything else.”
Her head remained tilted, brows furrowed in an expression of incomprehension as they gazed at each other across the dining room.
“You’ve really never played truth or dare?”
“Really.”
“What do you play?”
“My brother Adam and I like to act out Bible stories.”
Luke’s eyes widened and he wondered if his ten minutes were up yet. Then he realized he hadn’t thought to check the time when he entered the house. He had no idea how long he had been in here. “You wouldn’t happen to have the time, would you?”
The furrow in the girl’s brow deepened. “How can anyone have time? Time is a construct. It is not something one can have.”
Luke felt a chill travel up his spine, but managed a weak laugh in an attempt to hide his nervousness. “I just meant, do you know what time it is?”
“If that is what you meant, then why didn’t you say it?”
“It’s just an expression.”
She continued gazing at his face and Luke gulped like a suspect being interrogated under a bright light.
Finally, she averted her gaze just for a second to glance at the large grandfather clock standing in the other room. It was right in front of Luke, but somehow he hadn’t even seen it. “It’s 3:10,” she said, turning to look back at him with that unsettling gaze.
“Great. Any idea what time it was when I got here?”
“I would say some time between 3:00 and 3:10.”
“Great. That’s helpful.”
“I’m glad.”
“That was sarcasm.”
“What’s sarcasm?”
“You’ve never heard of sarcasm?”
Her only response was to continue staring at him.
“It’s when you say the opposite of what you mean.”
“It’s a lie.”
“No, a lie is intended to deceive. Sarcasm has no intention of deceiving. You’re supposed to pick up from my tone that I don’t mean what I say.”
She stared at him for another moment before saying, “Sarcasm sounds complicated.”
“It’s really not.”
“Was that sarcasm?”
“No.”
“Now I don’t know whether to believe you.”
Luke gave up. “Look, I just have to be in here for 10 minutes, and then I can go.”
“Why?”
“I told you, it’s a dare.”
“Why did they dare you to stay in here for 10 minutes?”
“Because this house is creepy, and they wanted to see if I have the guts.”
“My house isn’t creepy,” her voice changed instantly to one of indignation.
“It really is, though. It’s always dark and we never see anyone leaving.”
“Why would we leave when we have everything we need right here?”
“To talk to other people. Get some fresh air. Sunshine.”
“We have each other for company, and we can see the sun through the windows. And if we want fresh air, all we need to do is open the window.”
“How many of you live here?”
“Me and Adam and Father.”
“Just the three of you.”
“Yes.”
“What happened to your mother?”
“She died after Adam and I were born.”
Now it was Luke’s turn to cock his head as he looked at the girl. Suddenly she became uncomfortable and squirmed under his gaze as he remembered something.
“What is it?” she said.
“Your mother’s not dead.”
“Of course she is. Father told us so.”
“Then he lied to you. All you need to do is look it up online.”
The girl took a big step back. “You lie. The internet is full of lies.”
“Well, that’s true, but it also happens to tell the truth every now and then, and I remember hearing about your mom. She didn’t die, she escaped.”
“Escaped what?”
“Your crazy dad.”
“My father isn’t crazy.”
“That’s not what she said. Here, take a look.” He had pulled up the article from the archives of the local newspaper on his phone and he held it out to her now.
The girl cringed as though the phone would attack her.
“Do you want to find out what happened to your mom, or don’t you?”
“How do I know it’s not another lie?”
“It was reported in the local paper. They don’t get everything right, but they are required to do their research before printing anything. See for yourself.”
The girl seemed to be at war with herself over whether to take the phone, but in the end her curiosity won out and she took it from Luke and quickly scanned the screen. “This is but one paragraph.”
“You have to scroll up.”
“What?”
“Have you never handled a phone before?”
“Not like this.”
He sighed and showed her how to scroll up and down. She gasped at the revelation, then quickly scrolled through the whole article as she devoured it. When she got to the end, she said, “Is there more?”
Luke shrugged. “Probably. There might have been some follow-up articles, maybe even one of the national papers picked it up. You can do a search for it.”
“I can?”
“Yeah, just put her name in the search bar”
“Search bar?
“Here,” Luke said, taking the phone from her. “What was your mom’s name?”
“Why are you asking about my mother?” said another voice from the other room.
Luke looked up to see a boy about his age dressed as oddly as his sister. “She said your mom was dead, but she’s not. Or at least she wasn’t a few years ago when these articles were written. I’m just looking her up to see if there’s any other information on what happened to her after she left.”
“She didn’t leave. She died.”
Luke shrugged, “Sorry, buddy.”
“What do you mean?”
The boy took a step forward, but the girl put a hand on his shoulder. “Adam, it’s true. I saw it for myself.”
“Where?”
“An article.”
“On the internet? You know the internet is full of lies.”
“But the article says things about Father, things they couldn’t possibly know unless…”
“Unless what?”
“Unless someone told them. Someone like Mother.”
“Mother is dead.”
“Look for yourself.” She took the phone from Luke and showed the article to her brother, who couldn’t help but read what was in front of him.
“What’s going on here?” came a man’s voice from another room.
The girl dropped the phone and she and Adam both turned to face the source of the voice. Deciding he wanted no part of whatever was about to go down, Luke grabbed his phone and disappeared out the window.
“It’s her fault,” Adam said, pointing at his sister.
Eve trembled as their father’s hard eyes turned on her, but she did not look away. “Eve, what have you done?”
Instead of answering, she said, “Why did you lie to us about Mother?”
His face contorted into a series of emotions before he grabbed Eve and hauled her to the basement.
Adam ran to his room and shut the door behind him, hoping his father would forget about his involvement if he could just remain out of sight for long enough. He sat on the floor with his ear to his door, breathing shallowly so he could hear his father’s movements through the house. After several minutes had passed and there was no indication that he was coming upstairs, Adam allowed himself a sigh of relief and eventually began playing with his Barbie dolls.
To be continued…