The Mysterious Barn

There is a small town nestled in the heart of another, called Heights Lake, which has always been a charming, safe place for most of its locals. A place where one could keep their doors unlocked and kids can play late at night in the park. It may seem strange to some, as the way of the world doesn’t really allow for such things, but the truth is, not that many people know it exists. For travelers these days, prefer to take the fast roads, the highways, leaving less and less to travel down the backroads that lead to this enchanting place; a road called Mercer Street. It is the only road that will lead you right through the town and out again, turning into Main Street as you enter back into its surrounding town of West Maidenhead. There you could find every shop, restaurant, fire house, police department, and library, as well as runner and bicyclist. It’s the vein the leads to the heart of this magnificent town.

On this particular day in Heights Lake, Emmalee Williams and Jonathan Miller were walking down the street on their way home from working on the very edge of town at the home improvement chain, HearthBeat. It had been a long day for them, and they exchanged stories of the customers they encountered as they made their way to the local bar, situated directly on the water, and aptly named Tavern on the Lake. It was the place everyone usually found themselves at the end of the day, at least everyone that Emmalee and Jonathan knew. Jonathan held the door open for Emmalee and watched her walk in, noticing the way her long, wavy, dyed bright red hair skimmed the center of her back and swished a little with every step, her bright blue shirt enhanced her tan-brown skin, and her jeans made her legs look longer than usual, which he found impressive considering she had to be under 5 foot four inches? Maybe five? The sound of the bar grew louder as they walked in, and he pulled himself out of his thoughts. He cleared his throat.

“Ems, lets sit at the bar, I want to talk to you alone, if that’s okay,” he tried not to sound as nervous as he was, he shook his head and looked towards the tv playing some dumb commercial about car insurance.

“That’s fine… are you okay?” Emmalee touched his arm, and he nearly jumped a mile. She pulled her hand away quickly and got closer to his face, “Okay seriously, what is wrong with you?”

“I’m sorry, I was going to wait until later when we walked home but I can’t hold it in any longer…” feeling a sharp slap on the back he stopped and turned towards the pain, it was Randall, one of the most annoying of their mutual friends.

“HEYYYY you guys! You have to come check out the barn outside, it just showed up in the parking lot yesterday and no one knows where it came from… spooky, right?” Randall sloshed his drink as he spoke getting Jonathan’s pants wet in the process and thoroughly annoying him, as per usual.

“What’s in the barn?” Emmalee asked with animated curiosity, she pushed Randall back gently when she noticed he was getting Jonathan with his beer and gave a smile to Randall to let him know he had her full attention.

“Dude I don’t know, but it’s super weird, we gotta check it out together. Jazzy and Hayden are already heading out there,” Randall talked as he backed up and turned away expecting them to follow him. For Emmalee, hearing that Hayden was heading out there was reason enough for her. She was dying to get him to see her as more than a friend for ages. She looked up at Jonathan who was staring at her, his eyes sad and his face miserable.

“I know you want to go; I saw your face perk up when you heard Hayden was here,” looking down as he spoke slowly, he tried to hide his eyes welling up and his hands trembling, “so we should see what’s going on out there, it’s probably stupid.”

“Yay!” Emmalee clapped and skipped as she turned around to follow Randall. She knew Jonathan was upset but she didn’t want to feed into it. He seemed to despise Hayden from the moment she introduced them, and she couldn’t understand why, they seemed so similar she thought they would get along great. She turned back to make sure he was there; for a split second she saw him differently, he had taken off his usual baseball cap and his black hair moved around his blue eyes in a seductive way she was not prepared for. THUD!

“Whoa Ems! You okay?” Hayden came running into the bar from the back door as Jonathan placed his hat back on his head, shaking it in disgust.

“She’s fine, just classic Emmalee…” Jonathan touched her shoulder and they looked each other in the eyes for a second until she blinked away laughing.

“Oh my God, I’m fine… just a little clumsy,” she smiled wide for Hayden letting him help her up, “so I hear there’s this amazing barn I have to see?”

“Oh yea, totally have to see it. Jazzy thinks it might be haunted,” he pulled her up and stepped back, touching his blonde hair to make such his hair was still in place and took her hand, “come on, I’ll make sure you don’t fall this time.” Jonathan rolled his eyes as they all walked outside to see this glorious barn no one wanted to shut up about.

There it was, not exactly in the middle of the parking lot, it was in the grass by the surrounding trees and nowhere near the lot. Red and brown paint peppered the white pine outside, and the windows were boarded up with black painted wood. It looked incredibly old, run down, and smaller than Jonathan or Emmalee were expecting.

“I wouldn’t really call this a barn, maybe a shed?” Emmalee joked as they were standing outside of it debating who was going to be the first to open the door.

“Maybe we shouldn’t be over here at all?” Jonathan looked over his shoulder back at the bar but there was no one there, “what if someone sees us?”

“I already asked at the Tav, no one knows where it came from and everyone is afraid to look inside, I think we’ll be okay,” Hayden looked Jonathan in the eye and slapped his back. He half smiled and looked away, what was with everyone doing that today? He looked at Emmalee who was still holding hands with Hayden and gave her a head tilted look, but she ignored it.

“I’ll do it!” She yelled and let go of Hayden, “Jasmine, my love be the lookout please for dear Johnny,” she looked to Jazzy, and they both laughed.

“Sure thing… my love,” she shot a look at Jonathan when she said that last word, she knew how Jonathan felt about Emmalee and was wondering why he hadn’t told her. They were spending more and more time with Hayden since he started working with them a few weeks ago, eventually his window of opportunity would be gone, which is what she told him. She didn’t like to hold anything back, especially from her friends, and they were her closest ones.

Emmalee pulled the door, but it barely moved an inch, she turned towards everyone and gave an embarrassed smile as she tugged harder with both hands, slowly getting the door to skid open inches at a time, pulling the grass and dirt along with it.

“Thanks guys,” she mumbled as she pulled the last time, and it was open enough for them to go inside one by one. Randall jumped in immediately and began yelling out the different things he was going to take.

“Blankets! Bottles! Paint! Tools!” he danced around inside watching the rest of them pile in.

“Dumbass, you know you can’t take all this stuff with you,” Jonathan said as he looked around, it was all junk and looked to be as old as the outside appeared to be however everything looked pristine, like something out of an old movie, “guys something doesn’t feel right…” SLAM!

The door shut fast and hard making them all jump.

“Sorry about that,” Hayden laughed and touched the door, “I didn’t mean to scare you, is everyone okay?” They all nodded while watching him move from the door, no one took their eyes from him.

“Well, this was fun, yea? How about we go?” Jonathan grabbed Emmalee’s hand, ran to the door, and pushed as hard as he could, but it wouldn’t budge; he looked to Hayden, “what did you do?”

“It’s going to be okay, don’t worry,” Hayden had his hands behind his back and was beginning to pace, “we are just waiting for one more person to arrive,” as he spoke a figure appeared in the corner of the barn.

“I am here now Hayden.” A man’s voice came from the corner, he had an accent that no one could quite place, and his tone was deep.

“I did as you asked Lord William, they are the strongest people I have met here, they will be perfect for your army,” Hayden’s voice became submissive and low as he spoke to William, keeping his head down he bowed backing away from the rest of them. Jonathan, Jazzy and Emmalee were speechless as they watched the exchange, but Randall couldn’t keep quiet, perhaps it was the beers or maybe just pure fear he screamed as loud as he could.

“What the hell is going on?! AHHHHHHHHH! SOMEBODY HELP!!!” he ran to the door next to Jonathan and began banging but there was no sound, he looked around at everyone else with his eyes wide hoping for someone to join in, “so no one is going to help me? You all are a bunch of idiots!” he ran towards William but stepped back as he emerged. William was younger looking than his voice sounded, with thick brown hair and a beard, his eyes were piercing fiery red as he pulled Randall towards him by the neck and ripped him apart before them. That was enough to wake them from their frozen state as they all began screaming and running from the door looking for places to hide inside the barn.

“What are you doing?! This was NOT the plan,” Hayden said in a hurried yet hushed tone, “you said you were going to turn them and then take them to the future…” SLAP! William hit Hayden to shut him up.

“I don’t know if I can trust your instincts any longer Hayden,” he pulled Hayden’s face to his, “that human was barely worth drinking from, let alone someone I would take with me and fight alongside!” He pushed his face away and Hayden flew backwards landing next to Emmalee.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered as he leaned closer to her face, she pulled away fast and crawled towards Jonathan who was leaned against a boarded window. Hayden watched her go and noticed Jonathan’s hands on the boards. He winked at him, turned to William, and jumped back up.

“I can’t let you kill them; you have to go through me…” Hayden tried to make a case, but it was too late, William jumped on Jazzy and bit into her face drinking furiously.

“Got it!” Jonathan yelled as he popped the board out of the window with his back, pulled Emmalee with him. They fell hard but quickly recovered from fear mostly and ran as fast as they could through the forested area that lined the lake. Jonathan took her hand, squeezed it hard to let her know they were going to be okay and let go.