Just in Time

A little bright light shone back and forth into Thomas's eyes. The light clicked off suddenly for Thomas to see the man behind it once more. He was dressed in a robe and had a mask over his face which pushed every breath of air up to fog his glasses.

“Well?” the grumpy man said close behind.

“Besides some nasty bruising and some emotional trauma, he did not contract the infection.”

The doctor pulled down the mask and lifted Thomas's arm to see a nasty rug burn. Thomas kind of just sat there staring back and forth at his surroundings. He didn't make any sudden movements and felt locked inside himself. Was this what being in shock felt like? Thomas didn't know. He just stared as the doctor and grumpy man talked about him and other things. His mind decided to stop listening after awhile.

The lights made such a difference on the atmosphere of the building. The wind was still howling and a crack of lightning shone for a moment across the room. They were in a living room of some kind just off the foyer. The grand staircase was just out of his view, but he could see the white marble tiles that filled the area. One of the double french doors that lead into this living room was open a crack allowing the warm yellow light shine across the cold white floors. What once was an abandoned haunted house suddenly turned into a cosy home.

The room was staged professionally with Thomas sitting on the softest couch. The doctor slightly blocked the view of the matching love seats across the coffee table. Magazines no older than a month were in two messy stacks with a couple coffee rings added to the over all texture of the room. This was someone's home, and Thomas had intruded on it.

The doctor placed a bandaid on the worst of the rug burns and waved his hand in front of Thomas's face. Thomas blinked a few times as his gaze went back to the doctor.

“Ah, there you are,” a warm smile came across his face which pushed all of his wrinkles up with it, “my name is Dr. Kennedy the man over there is Mr. Stan, head of security.”

Security? Thomas cautiously stole a look at the man in the corner. His arms were crossed and leaned against a wall. Thomas could see his strong harry arms that the short sleeves could barely contain. Oh my, he woke this monster up from his sleep. He was surely going to die.

“He has a few questions for you. Don't worry I won't leave the room.”

Dr. Kennedy sat up from his spot on the coffee table and moved to one of the love seats. 'Mr. Stan' left his spot at the wall and slowly walked over. His arms were still crossed and his hard look didn't leave his face.

“Do you know how much trouble you are in right now, boy?”

Thomas's jaw started to tremble again as he tried to find the right words to say.

“According to the federal law, I have every right to shoot you on this property for what you have seen. So I'm only going to ask you once, who do you work for?”

“I... I-”

The man's large hand suddenly found it's place on his shoulder. Dr. Kennedy shouted at Stan for him to stop, but that didn't help. Thomas winced at the pain as he stared into the man's cold eyes.

“What of those other kids? Who are you all working for? Damon? Nevermore?”

“I'm sorry! Please, I didn't want to come here. I found this place by accident the other day on a walk-”

“Lies don't work well here boy.”

“I'm not lying! I'm only 16! All I've got is stupid ideas, please we are just some dumb kids that thought this place was a haunted house!”

Thomas cried in fear and pain as Stan pulled the boy off his seat.

“STAN! Put the boy down! He's telling the truth.”

The french door opened to a short girl and a lanky man. She was dressed in all pink with the longest hair Thomas had ever seen on such a tiny figure. She shoved the lanky man into the room, who tried to keep his balance. She mimicked Stan's harsh stance as she glared at the man for him to talk. An awkward smile fell upon his face as he gave a nasally 'sniff'.

“Jack...” Stan growled and still not letting go of Thomas.

“Heh... well, The Twins and I saw the the poor...heh... chumps... climb over the fence and... uh, sneak across the yard. We thought it would be funny to play a little joke on them...”

Stan released his hand making Thomas fall back down onto the soft couch. Maybe this was where those girls got their rough handling from. He walked towards the man who awkwardly stood there between a tiny girl and the big gruff man.

“So let me get this straight. You ignored our lock down protocol and got the girls to play on one of your unstable dimensions for a joke?”

The man leaned backwards with Stan towering over him. He played with his hands and looked away.

“Well...you saying it does make it sound stupid...”

The pink girl relaxed her crossed arms and placed them on her hips, “though, Stan, you have to give him credit. He was able to hold that long enough not to disrupt the rest of the house.”

The girl looked back over to the terrified Thomas and shook her head, “besides if he was from Damon's group or Nevermore, wouldn't you think they would have trained him better?”

Thomas shifted to the corner of the couch. Dr. Kennedy kind of just stood there not saying anything. Who were these people? Thomas just wanted to go home. Something the girl in pink noticed. Stan straightened up and followed the girl's look towards Thomas. After a few moments of getting Jack out of the room. The girl made herself comfortable in Stan's place in front of Thomas. He noticed that she was older than he thought. Just tiny. She pulled a hair tie off of her wrist and tied her hair up into a bun on top of her head.

“Alright, why don't we start over. What's your name?”

“Thomas...”

“Well, Thomas, my name is Audrey. I'm basically in charge of this entire home. I need you to explain to me everything that happened leading up to right now.”

Thomas was quiet looking back and forth from the three in the room. Stan moaned saying that this was a waste of time. Audrey shushed him and looked back to Thomas with a serious stare.

“Thomas, you don't realize just how much trouble it is for you to be here. Not just on a Federal level but also on a pandemic level as well. We have been in lock down more than a week now due to an infection originally from a company called Nevermore. Dr. Kennedy here has confirmed that you do not have the infection, as do we here, but that does not mean that you aren't contagious.”

“Actually, he would only be contagious to a person infected originally by-”

Audrey shushed the doctor and kept a fixed look to Thomas, “though according to Federal law, I need to report you. This means that the government could be here in mere hours and your friends and family will never see you again.”

“But... I don't even know what is going on!”

She sat back and crossed her legs, “then please do explain.”

Thomas explained that he was on a walk with his parents on Thursday before they got the snow they did that evening. He wandered off and on his way back to the main path he found the gates of the house. He instantly was intrigued, but had to get back to his family. He wasn't able to get back out there again until this Sunday afternoon once the snow was starting to melt. He had told Ben and Zane about the strange house in the woods. Why wouldn't he? It was a huge home in a clearing surrounded by skeleton trees and untouched snow.

He described the house any way he could, but the more he described it the imagination of horror crept in. They were bored most weekends anyway, pushing off homework for another time. So sneaking into a home like this for a couple hours sounded fun. However after they planned this, the more he gave into his imagination. He described how he didn't want to come, but the boys pushed on anyway. He explained the boarded up window where his torn jacket should be. It wasn't until they reached the other side of the dark basement that the 'ghost' appeared.

“I just thought we were in a truly haunted house or something by the way the walls moved and the ghost would reappear down any way we would go. Forward or backwards...”

Though now knowing that there were two it kind of explained how the ghost was so quick. Goodness he couldn't even believe that he was entertaining this. How could this still happen? Audrey uncrossed her legs and placed her chin in her hand in a thinking manner. She turned towards Stan who looked like he had many other questions to talk about than what was given. He shook his head signaling that she knew what he had to do.

“Thank you Thomas,” Audrey finally said standing.

“Wait... that's it?”

“From what I need, yes.”

A smile formed over Thomas's face, “then... I can go home then?”

“No. You can't.”

She started towards the french doors. Thomas instantly stood and ran to her. She was smaller than he was by a lot. She looked up to him with arched eyebrows, looking appalled that he touched her. Thomas felt his pulse rise in anger and confusion.

“I told you everything I knew! Why can't I go home?”

“I told you that we were in lock down,” she raised a hand and stopped the doctor from talking again, “I don't care that he wasn't originally infected by the ion rays, no one under the age of 20 would be anyway.”

Thomas was about to say something but then closed his mouth. He stopped pointing at Audrey and looked at the floor in a thinking manner. Looking back up to Dr. Kennedy, to Stan, then back at Audrey. His eyes suddenly grew large. His thought went back to the man Jack that was in here before then to the girls. They looked exactly like some war heroes he knew of from when he was a kid.

“No way... that can't be possible.”

“Audrey!”

“He's not going anywhere Stan. He'd bound to find out anyway,” she threw her arms into the air and finally exited out of the french doors, “now it's one AM and I'm going to bed!”