<\/p>\n
Achilles Heel<\/em><\/p>\n The moon washed down on the ruins of Black Hill, and the fire built on the site of the old Post Office burned bright, but Laurie and Lon still sat close together, shivering despite the summer warmth, and Walt felt every shadow at his back.<\/p>\n \u201cSo,\u201d Lon said, \u201care we not going to talk about earlier?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWind.\u201d Walt replied.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t fucking think so, man.\u201d<\/p>\n Walt looked over the fire at him and flashed a lopsided smile, \u201cCome on, Lon. What do you think it was?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think it was some fucked up shit.\u201d<\/p>\n Walt shrugged. \u201cA windstorm?\u00a0 Not fucked up at all. What, did you grow up in a bomb shelter?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA windstorm from nowhere, you screaming at me to point the camera down at the town\u2026 Then it stops just like that. Now maybe it\u2019s different on your planet, but I call that weird.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know about the weather, but I wanted you to get everything on film.\u00a0 Who knows?\u00a0 Maybe it was a ghost.\u201d\u00a0 Walt waggled his fingers and cooed.<\/p>\n \u201cNothing showed up, though.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll fuck with it when we get home.\u00a0 I\u2019m hoping for a dark hand to have been on Laurie\u2019s shoulder the entire time.\u201d<\/p>\n Laurie jerked, crossing her arms and putting her hands on her shoulders, \u201cDude, fuck that.\u00a0 If you see that on your fancy computer at home, I want you to fucking lie to me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo it\u2019s stupid for me to be spooked?\u201d Lon asked.<\/p>\n Walt nodded, \u201cYes.\u00a0 Relax.\u00a0 And if you get spooked, just start filming.\u00a0 Focus on the job.\u00a0 That\u2019ll take care of it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo will this!\u201d Lon said, pulling out a bottle of Jim Beam.<\/p>\n Walt grimaced, \u201cActually, that\u2019s a great way to get hurt.\u00a0 Fall down and break a leg here and, what, have us drag you down a mountain for two hours in the dark, row you across the river, then drag you up to the car? You\u2019d have better luck with the ghost.\u201d<\/p>\n Lon rolled his eyes, \u201cFather, forgive him, for he knows not what he says,\u201d and twisted off the cap, taking a long, deep swallow before handing it to Laurie.<\/p>\n Walt waved the bottle away when Laurie offered it to him and stared into the fire as his friends drank into the night, eventually zipping their sleeping bags together and curling up in each others arms.\u00a0 He waited a moment longer, listening for their breath to even out as they fell asleep, and then stood and moved silently into the woods.<\/p>\n With only the moonlight as a guide, he moved cautiously to the east, towards the Witch\u2019s house, and stopped when he came to the row of Oaks that marked the edge of her property.\u00a0 Her little two-story frame house stood in the center of the Oak circle, gnarled Dogwoods dotted here and there were still marked with a few bottles and caps glinting in the moonlight.\u00a0 The house stared back at him silently, long windows making shadows within shadows.<\/p>\n He stepped across the row of Oaks and immediately felt a chill run up his spine.\u00a0 Then, slowly, he pulled out his digital camera and snapped a photo, the flash bathing the front yard in a burst or harsh blue-white. The chill receded, and he snapped another picture to his left, then his right, then up into the crowns of the old Oaks.<\/p>\n The chill was gone, replaced by the summer night, and Walt looked at the house, his face breaking into a toothy grin.\u00a0 \u201cGotcha,\u201d he whispered.<\/p>\n He returned to camp and climbed into his sleeping bag.<\/p>\n Another take at the Atherton house went off without a hitch shortly after breakfast, and Walt was reviewing the footage while Laurie and Lon poked around the old mansion.\u00a0 He listened to them inside, and also kept an eye on the surrounding woods.\u00a0 Lon stuck his head out of an upstairs window and shouted down.<\/p>\n \u201cHey, the staircase is scary!\u201d<\/p>\n Walt peered up, \u201cBe careful.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m the king of careful!\u201d Lon shouted back, raising up and slamming the back of his head on the windowframe.<\/p>\n Laurie glided through the entrance and came down to stand by Walt, looking up at the window where Lon had been.<\/p>\n \u201cBasement looks spooky,\u201d she muttered.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not going to mess with the basement.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat warms my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLon!\u201d Walt called into the house.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s crazy going up that staircase.\u201d<\/p>\n Walt huffed, handed the camera to Laurie, and then stalked into the house.\u00a0 The floor was rotten, and he immediately moved towards the walls, stepping carefully towards the right-angled grand staircase, half of which had caved in on itself.\u00a0 He shook his head and called up to the second floor, \u201cLon, get the hell back down here.\u201d<\/p>\n No answer.\u00a0 And no sounds, either.<\/p>\n Walt called again, waited, listened, then cursed under his breath and climbed onto the first step, which creaked and gave slightly under his boot.\u00a0 He tried to spread out his weight, splaying his fingers out and crab-walking up the stairs awkwardly, until he reached the second landing, vertigo jellying his legs.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He moved quickly from the edge towards the first room \u2013 once a bedroom, now a black mildewed mess with a tree branch growing through the window and up into the shattered roof.<\/p>\n He called for Lon once more, listened, then angrily screamed for him to stop fucking around.<\/p>\n Laurie\u2019s voice, from below, startled him.\u00a0 \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWalt didn\u2019t move towards the edge of the landing, so he called out towards the steps, \u201cDunno.\u00a0 Hold on.\u201d<\/p>\n The second floor was just a long hall, with rooms on either side and large, six foot windows at the end.\u00a0 Walt moved down the hall, sticking his head into each ruined room, calling for Lon.\u00a0 There was no sign and, when he finished and came back to the steps, Laurie was frantically hovering on the first stair looking up at him.<\/p>\n \u201cLon\u2019s screwing around,\u201d Walt said unconvincingly, carefully picking his way down the stairs along the wall.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat?\u00a0 What?\u201d\u00a0 Laurie moved up another step, but Walt pulled her down to the floor when he reached her.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s not up there.\u00a0 I looked everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLon!\u201d she screamed up the stairs.\u00a0 When there was no reply, she backed up, then ran outside and peered up at the windows.\u00a0 Walt joined her, his jaw set.\u00a0 Then, as if fulfilling the joke from earlier, Laurie pointed Walt towards one side of the house and split off from him towards the other side.\u00a0 He turned and stared east, then went through the motions of searching for Lon, meeting Laurie around back.\u00a0 She was looking down into a hole in the ground, the debris-choked stairs to the cellar.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s not down there.\u201d Walt said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to check.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s down there in the dark?\u00a0 Really?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe he fell\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s not there.\u00a0 He\u2019s messing with us.\u201d<\/p>\n She turned on him, \u201cWhere?\u00a0 Why?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s at the witch\u2019s house.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe house we haven’t seen yet? We don’t even know where it is.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s half a mile that way.\u201d<\/p>\n Walt didn\u2019t wait for a response.\u00a0 He set off toward the house, ignoring Laurie\u2019s protests and not looking back. After a few moments, she took off after him, running awkwardly on the rocky soil to catch up with him and glare for a moment.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t notice, his eyes fixed ahead, and didn\u2019t stop or acknowledge her until he came to the row of Oaks.<\/p>\n Laurie backed away instinctually, and Walt turned to watch her.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t like this place.\u201d<\/p>\n Walt took out his camera and tossed it to her, then turned on Lon\u2019s camera and panned it across the house and the yard.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat, you\u2019re still making the thing?\u00a0 Fuck that.\u201d\u00a0 She screamed towards the house, \u201cLon!\u201d<\/p>\n Walt grabbed her arm, \u201cThe camera will save you.\u00a0 Remember that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSave me from what?\u00a0 What are you talking about?\u201d<\/p>\n But Walt turned and moved towards the house.\u00a0 As he did so, Lon screamed from somewhere inside.\u00a0 It was a scream that gave him a moment of pause, and he shuddered slightly as he moved the camera up, filming the house.\u00a0 Laurie shouted and ran past him towards the house, and he lunged to stop her but missed.\u00a0 She was inside before he got his wits back and rushed through the open door himself.<\/p>\n There was no sign of Laurie.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course,\u201d Walt sighed.<\/p>\n He filmed the inside, carefully covering every inch and corner.\u00a0 The deeply stained floor seemed to burn through his shoes, and he moved towards a sitting room to the left.\u00a0 The house was a simple sort of T-design.\u00a0 A large entrance area with two rooms flanking it.\u00a0 Stairs led up and a narrow hallway squeezed past them to the kitchen.<\/p>\n Walt filmed everything for several minutes until he finally started to pull himself together.\u00a0 He moved freely through the ground floor, slipping past the stairs into the kitchen, filming the whole way.\u00a0 The kitchen floor was covered in a layer of water, a hole in the center dripping down into a cavernous, water-filled basement.\u00a0 He briefly fretted that Laurie had ended up down there. But figured that even she wasn\u2019t that stupid.\u00a0 The sun glared through the windows, the kitchen the brightest room in the house.<\/p>\n He moved back to the entrance hall, standing on the wash of old blood, and called up the stairs.\u00a0 \u201cI know you are not Amanda Atherton! But she died here, didn\u2019t she?\u201d<\/p>\n He listened to the silence, felt a pinprick on his arm, ignored it and continued to glare into the darkness of the second floor, faint sunlight showing from somewhere down a grim hallway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[252,405],"class_list":["post-661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-serials","tag-romney-wood","tag-serials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=661"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1338,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661\/revisions\/1338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}