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Old Miss Thompson's House; Wyatt, a bit of Ida Mae
Topic Started: May 7 2009, 04:47 AM (94 Views)
Ricochet
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The Stalking Cat
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“Now you remember, be back here in time to wash up before supper!” Ida Mae called after her son and two of his friends, as they headed down a dirt path away from the house. Seven-year-old Wyatt turned, nodded and waved at his mother, smiling as he turned back and ran to catch up with his friends. His two friends were brothers, who lived just down the street. They didn’t really hang out all that often, but Wyatt would take just about any opportunity to get away from his bossy older sister, and so a walk with Johnny and Craig Lively was a welcome distraction. Johnny was more Wyatt’s age, whereas Craig was considered the ‘grown-up’ of the group, at his nearly fourteen years of age.

As the boys headed off, the conversation turned to where they should go. The river? It was pretty close, but seemed to not hold their attention today. The old warped oak tree? It was pretty far. No no, Craig had a better idea.

“The old Thompson place isn’t far, and I heard it was haunted!” Craig said excitedly, grinning like a fool at the younger two. Johnny would go along with whatever his brother said, but Wyatt was unsure.

“My pa said we ain’t ‘sposed to go over there.” Wyatt said, lowering his head with disappointment. Even at seven years of age, he was wearing a white, wide brimmed cowboy hat.

“So, what? You a scared-y-cat, Tanner?” Craig mocked, and started making chicken noises. This brought Wyatt’s head up, and his bright green eyes flashed with anger and resentment, and he fixed in on Craig with a glare.

“N-no!” He exclaimed, taking great offense at being called such. “I ain’t scared! I ain’t scared of nothin’!”

“Then prove it! When we get there, I dare you to go inside,” The older Lively sibling taunted, his voice obviously condescending. Arms folded over his chest, Wyatt drew himself to his full height, which was still shorter than Craig’s, gave a nod, and started marching in the direction of old Miss Thompson’s house.

“I will.” Wyatt muttered, and the two Lively siblings had to scramble after him. Johnny was now unsure himself - heading to it was one thing, but going inside? Both his brother and Wyatt had to be nuts! The walk was in silence, and soon enough, the three boys were standing before the old, worn out two-story house. Wyatt’s hands now lay at his sides, as he looked up at the house. He had only seen it once before, and even then it hadn’t seemed nearly as old. Maybe this wasn’t--

“Well?” Craig asked, drawing out the word as he raised a brow at Wyatt, glancing pointedly at the house. Wyatt’s eyes narrowed, he snorted, and walked towards the house. His only hesitation was in prodding the door open, but within seconds, he was around the door and inside.

It was dark. It smelt bad, like a stuffy old closet, and there were cobwebs everywhere. As he stepped forward, the floorboards creaked horrendously beneath his boots. To his right, there was a staircase, and many of the steps had collapsed some time ago. There were even some plants sticking up here and there through the floor, and piles of debris were everywhere. No doubt there were many small creatures roaming around that his eyes simply weren’t able to catch. Up to his left, he looked in on a hole in the wall, and realized it had at one time been the house’s dinning area. There was a long table, and some old chairs, but that was all he could see. He continued forward.

By this time the two Lively boys were at the entrance, but neither one would move forward to actually step foot inside the house. In the fading light, they could see Wyatt down the hallway. Now he had entered what he figured to be the kitchen - there was a sink off to his left, and some countertops. Or at least he thought they were countertops.

“All right Wyatt, come on back! We should get outta here, before anyone - or anything - finds us!” Craig called, suddenly seeming to be fearful. Wyatt agreed with this assessment, and turned to make his way back. However, he didn‘t make it.

Mid-turn, the floorboards let out a mighty creak, and gave way beneath him. Eyes wide, his lips could only part in surprise, he had no time to call out before he was gone from sight. The whole house was shaking now, and the Lively brothers, both quite frightened at this point, began to take a few steps backwards. Giving a mighty moan and groan, the whole second floor came collapsing down, leaving just a wall or two still standing.

Craig and Johnny took off running.

It took a few minutes before they realized Wyatt was not with them. Indeed, he couldn’t be! He was trapped underneath the house that had just collapsed! The boys did not stop until they reached the safety of their own home. Out of breath and wide-eyed with fright, it took the boys’ mother several minutes to coax out of them what was wrong. Mrs. Lively immediately phoned the Tanners; Jacob set out at once to find his son, hoping to at least ascertain if he was still among the living. Ida Mae stayed behind to watch Kayla, while phoning around to some of the local families, rallying for their help.

Unfortunately, by this time, there was very little light left. And at first Mr. Tanner had tried to go in with his bare hands, but it became blaringly obvious that it could not be done that way. There were things much too big for a single man to move, let alone a horse. And then a friend pointed out to Jacob, that in the dark, they were more likely to do harm to the child rather than help him. They needed to wait until they had the proper equipment, wait until the first rays of light came back around. Jacob could see the wisdom in this, they had none of those big electric lights handy; there was nothing more to be done at present. They still had not made contact with Wyatt, he had no idea if his son was alive, or if they would be retrieving a corpse. It was the longest night of both Jacob and Ida Mae’s life; though Ida had to stay at home with Kayla, neither parent got a wink of sleep.

For his part, Wyatt had no clue what had happened, other than the house caving in. He now knew why his father had told him never to go over here. But, Wyatt had disobeyed - and now he would pay the price. He had yelled and hollered after the dust began to settle, hoping to hear from the Lively siblings. He just didn’t know that by this time, they were well on their way home. So, by the time his father came, Wyatt was all hollered out. And now fear and panic were settling in.

What if Johnny and Craig didn’t tell anyone? He didn’t know them all that well. He would surely die here if he didn’t do anything! He tried to move, tried to raise himself up, anything, but he simply couldn’t. There was a throbbing pain in his ankle, and a stinging fire in his arm that brought tears to his eyes. He was pressed in too tight; he couldn’t move!

No matter where he looked, it was dark. And he knew his eyes were open! Icy fingers gripped his heart - what if he was already dead? . . . No, that didn’t make sense. His ankle and arm wouldn’t hurt, then, right? Still, he was trapped, he couldn’t move nor cry out even if someone was around to hear, and he would surely die down here. He had disobeyed - his father had sat down with him to warn him of not coming here, repeatedly. Tears sprung to his eyes once more, as he thought of how disappointed his father would be, and how he, in Wyatt’s mind, would not want such a rebellious son, and would undoubtedly leave him down here.

Panic taking firm root in the small child, Wyatt drew his head down to his chest - the only movement he could manage - and, eyes shut tight, tried to focus on breathing. Because that was becoming more and more difficult.

Sometime during the evening, young Wyatt passed out.

At the first rays of dawn, the work began to dig the child out; and the town’s people began to wonder why they had not demolished this place some time ago, to prevent this very thing from happening. The noise of the work, plus some things shifting around him, woke Wyatt up. Too scared by it to call out, he waited, eyes shut tight, curled into as tight a ball as he could get.

It took hours upon hours. Jacob was getting increasingly worried; most of the house was removed now, but where was Wyatt?

Well, the old Thompson house had a cellar. Which just happened to be the area over which Wyatt had been standing when the floor boards gave way - he had fallen into the cellar, and it had saved his life when the second story collapsed down on him, though he did not escape without injury. A sprained ankle and badly fractured arm were the worst of what he came away with, it was truly amazing he was not hurt worse. It took a while for Wyatt to become himself again, for a while after he was released from his prison, he was abnormally silent. He would have nightmares, and so sleep did not come easily. Eventually, though, the nightmares became rare, and he started up with causing local mischief and such things once more. Though, to this day, he does not like, and will likely freak out, if caught in cramped dark spaces that remind him of that cellar he had been trapped in for hours.
Ulysses & Trey Sloane | Clint Allen | Irene Parker | Wyatt Tanner
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