It probably seems a little unconventional, but this story jumps ahead about five months to the beginning of summer from that moment spent in Cassie’s room studying during the middle of winter. In the time in between, a lot of things transpired that changed my life forever, but those are all tales for another time since this is a story about the raven-haired stunner known as Kaede.
After receiving the first blowjob of my life from her, the two of us stayed in contact off and on. I unfortunately lost contact for a few months with Rosa and Cassie due to things getting a little weird between the three of us. It wasn’t something I had foreseen or wanted to have happen, but it did. After all, we were still young enough that such mistakes were commonplace in our lives.
Even though we were still friends and there was an obvious spark between us, Kaede and I only talked in passing at school and every once in a while outside of it. We would sometimes see each other at stores or in the mall when we were out with friends, but it was usually nothing more than a, “Hi, how are you?” It sucked that things had become weird between us, but apparently, they had. I couldn’t help but think that it was my fault. For the longest time, I thought that maybe she had only given me that blowie because she had become overtaken in the moment, but after a while, I started to wonder if it was me…and by me, I mean my actions.
Maybe Kaede – even though she was still always nice to me and even called me from time to time – figured that since I wasn’t initiating anything with her, she wasn’t appealing to me…and that was just crazy. There wasn’t a thing I wouldn’t have done with that girl. All she had to do was ask and I would’ve been there for her.
So, as I already mentioned, a lot happened to me during that final year of schooling after the events of that fateful afternoon in Cassandra’s upstairs bedroom. Shortly before the end of the school year, I was able to reconcile with Cassie and we started hanging out on a normal basis again. When summer started, we were probably chumming around three or four times a week. We weren’t dating or anything, but it seemed to be as close to it as a man and woman could get without actually doing so.
It was probably the third week of summer when my phone rang one afternoon and I happened to be at home and not out with Cassie or at work. I was downstairs in my room when my mother answered it. I don’t remember what I was even doing at the time: I could’ve been watching a movie, playing a video game, or reading a book for all I know, but all of that was irrelevant when my mom shouted down to me and informed me the call was for me. I just assumed it was one of my male friends since my mom didn’t say otherwise, so I made my way down to a room at the end of the hallway that was mainly our family’s office room. I picked up the phone in that room and told my mom I had it. I was met with surprise when the voice on the other end of the line was not only that of a woman…but it wasn’t Cassie’s voice.
“What’s going on, Marcus? How have you been?”
“Kaede…?”
“Yeah, silly! Who else did you think it would be?”
I was momentarily stunned since I hadn’t been expecting her to call. I did my best to quickly recover as I asked, “Well, how are you? What have you been up to so far this summer?”
“I’m great! I’ve been keeping busy! Having fun and whatnot!”
I decided it was none of my business to pry and thought I’d move the conversation along. I couldn’t think of the best way to do so at first, but since I didn’t want an awkward silence to take over the call, I said the first thing that popped into my mind. “Are you thinking about college at all?”
“Nah,” Kaede responded from her end of the line. “I’ve had enough of school for the time being. I just want to have a little time to myself now that I can officially be considered an adult!”
“I hear ya,” I let out a small sigh. I was happy to have parents who weren’t pressuring me to immediately march off to college.
“Aren’t you going?” Kaede asked, somewhat surprised by my response.
“I’m going to take a year off,” I told her. “I plan to stay in town and work for a while. I figure that way, if I change my mind and don’t go, I’ll have enough money put away to maybe look into renting my own place in a year, but if I do go, I’ll have the money to start helping with my education.”
“Sounds smart,” Kaede matter-of-factly said. “But then again, you were always a smart guy, Marcus. I’m sure that no matter what you choose to do, you’ll do it very well!”
“Thank you,” I chuckled, and once again felt that awkward silence creeping up. I said the first thing I could think to say when I asked, “So, what are you up to this weekend?”
“Not much,” Kaede answered with renewed energy. “In fact, that was one of the reasons I called!”
I waited for her to say more. I wondered where the conversation was going…
“Have you heard about that supposedly ‘haunted’ place up north?”
I have to admit that my curiosity was slightly piqued. I didn’t believe in the supernatural by any means, but the very thought of it generally intrigued me. “Are you talking about that cabin out in the woods?”
“Yeah!” Kaede exclaimed. “I heard that some of the kids we graduated with went out there last weekend…and they claimed they saw some really spooky shit!”
I had totally forgotten about how the raven-tressed beauty really had a flair for going off and exploring the paranormal. She had always enjoyed checking out books from the school library about ghosts and ghouls, and she had said on a few different occasions that she would’ve loved making a life out of driving all over the world in search of proof of life after death. It wasn’t something I was apt to forget since it wasn’t every day that I met someone who wanted to be a bona fide ghost hunter.
“So, what do you think of being my partner in crime, Marcus?” Kaede gained my attention once more. She then made her voice sound like a damsel in distress as she said, “I have a handheld camcorder and was wondering if someone brave and gallant like yourself would accompany me so I wouldn’t be all by myself out there…”
“You plan on driving out there this weekend?”
“Yup! I planned on heading that way around five or six tomorrow evening. If we left around that time, we should be able to make it to that haunted little cabin in the woods by about eight or nine…just in time for it to get dark and scary!”
“And you really think you’re going to capture some creepy footage?” I asked. I didn’t mean to sound like an ass by any means, but I was serious and wasn’t sure if she actually thought she was going to catch some kind of activity on camera.
“Won’t know until I try, right? So, how about it?”
There was absolutely no way I was going to let a dazzling woman like Kaede drive up north to a secluded area in the woods all by herself. I wasn’t afraid of her being attacked by any ghosts or goblins…but instead by deranged vagrants who spent their time preying on pretty females who were out and about by themselves. Since my raven-haired friend hadn’t mentioned anyone else tagging along, I couldn’t let her go off alone. And since I wasn’t working and didn’t have other plans…
“Well…?”
“When are we leaving?”
*
It was a little after nine and the sun was just about gone. Perhaps it had a bit to do with the tangle of trees above the solitary road we had been driving down for the last hour, but the only light we had came from our headlights on the road in front of us. The mood had really been set and became even spookier thanks to the fact that we hadn’t seen another automobile in that hour.
“Out in the middle of nowhere with not a soul in sight,” I said to myself as I reclined back on the passenger’s seat. I was about to glance out the window on my side of the car, but my attention was diverted when Kaede suddenly let out a playful, yet sarcastic laugh.
“And what am I?” She asked. “Chopped liver?”
“I happen to like chopped liver,” I told her with a devious grin on my face. “I’m probably one of the only guys who will say that, but it’s true.”
“Good answer,” the raven-tressed woman said with a nod. She kept both hands on the wheel as she glanced in my direction. “You’re still the smooth talker you’ve always been, huh, Marcus?”
I wasn’t exactly sure how to answer the stunning female’s question. I had never really been able to hang out with her in a one-on-one setting before, so I wasn’t sure what exactly she meant since I didn’t feel like I had ever been “smooth” in front of her. Instead of saying anything, I simply stared at her for the longest time. I took in every inch of her and shuddered when I realized just how beautiful she truly was.
Kaede had always been a very attractive female and was “easy on the eyes” as some might say, but seeing her next to me in the vehicle that night…it was really hitting home. She had on a black skullcap over her dark locks, and she had on the same skintight, black leggings she had been wearing on the day when she first sent me to a land of euphoria. She was also wearing a tight, sleeveless white shirt that really made her breasts pop. I’m pretty sure she had a bra on beneath it, but I could still see the outline of her nipples when I looked closely enough…so I did my best not to since I didn’t want her to think I was ogling her.
“Maybe not so smooth at the moment!” The young woman corrected herself with a laugh as her words broke into my thoughts. “You’re not even talking at all! What’s up?”
I shook my head to break out of my momentary trance and turned my eyes to the road ahead of us. With the absence of the sun, it looked like we had entered the typical “scary movie” territory. We truly were out in the middle of nowhere. “Sorry. I just have a…lot on my mind.”
“Like what?” The brown-eyed beauty asked as she reached down to the cupholders between our seats and grabbed her open can of grape soda. She took a drink of it before once more taking her eyes off the road so she could look me over. “What’s on that buzzing mind of yours, Marcus?”
I stared out the windshield and thought I saw a deer dart across the road in the distance. We weren’t going fast enough to catch up to it if the animal had indeed been there, but it could’ve easily been a trick of the light. “Just wondering what we’ll see tonight,” I finally said.
“What do you want to see?” Kaede impishly asked as she smiled in my direction. Her eyes went back to the road as she noticed something to her left and instantly pointed it out. “There’s our turn!”
I observed the gravel road that the dark-haired driver had spotted and realized I might have missed it if I had been driving. It was off the beaten path and obscured by some bushes, and we were in an area I wasn’t used to. At that point in my life, I hadn’t done a whole lot of traveling outside of the security of my hometown.
As the vehicle turned down the darkened road, I could see that the trees became even more entangled with one another. The darkness was truly closing in around us and the headlights were barely able to penetrate more than five feet of blackness ahead of us. Kaede slowed the automobile to a crawl in order to be cautious.
I quickly realized that our current situation had bailed me out since the raven-haired driver seemed to forget all about the question she had asked me. I was happy about that because it was near impossible to read Kaede in any way whatsoever. I honestly couldn’t tell what she had meant by her words. My deliberations continued to swirl around that small question until my partner in crime finally stopped the car. I snapped out of my fleeting reverie while realizing exactly why she had done so.
“What the hell is that?” She asked as she put the vehicle in park and opened her door. She then pointed to the glovebox right in front of me while putting her left foot on the gravel outside of the car. She pulled off her cap and threw it on the driver’s seat while telling me, “There are a couple of flashlights in there. Could you grab them, Marcus?”
I did as I was asked and also climbed out of the automobile. I shut the door behind me and met with Kaede in front of the car’s hood. After handing her one of the lights, we both turned them on and began shining them on what we had beheld.
A large tree had apparently fallen at some point and was blocking off the road. I was no scientist, but I was fairly certain that it had been down for a while. Most of the trees in the surrounding woods were full of green leaves due to the summer weather, but this particular giant was bare and its branches were twisted and mangled. What we were looking at couldn’t have been a recent development.
Kaede walked right up to the large birch and gave it a kick. She obviously didn’t do it hard enough to hurt herself, but she wasn’t pleased with what she was looking at.
“What’s the matter?” I queried.
Kaede incredulously gazed at me. The look on her face told me that the giant roadblock should’ve been enough to answer my question.
I smiled in response since the black-haired beauty was looking at me like I was an idiot. I held up the flashlight in my right hand and reminded her, “We have a couple of lights, we have our feet, and you have your camera in the car. All we need to do is shut the vehicle off, grab the camcorder, and then hoof it through the woods the rest of the way. What do you say?”
Kaede’s smile became larger than mine. I could see that she liked my go-getter attitude, and she was just as ready to trek through the forest as I was. She darted back to her automobile in order to retrieve her camcorder and shut the vehicle off.
When my raven-tressed compeer reappeared at my side, I looked into the mess of trees before us and shined my light around. I could hear the buzzing of insects and the distant hoot of an owl, but I saw nothing. I didn’t see a single animal as I realized we were truly in the middle of nowhere. I couldn’t help but mention, “I wonder if those kids you were talking about who came out here last week did what we’re about to do since this tree has obviously been here a while.”
“I’d be willing to bet the wimps chickened out!” Kaede gave her opinion as she handed me the keys to her automobile and asked if I’d place them in one of my pockets since she didn’t have any on her tight leggings.
I did what was requested of me before lowering my voice and inquiring, “Are you sure you’re okay with this, Kaede?”
“You holding my keys?” She jested. “Why wouldn’t I be? Do you plan on ditching me in the woods and driving off in my car?”
I laughed since I knew she was only joking and said, “No, I didn’t mean that! I’m just wondering if you’re okay with traipsing through the woods in the middle of the night out in the middle of nowhere with a relative stranger.”
“Well, for starters, the sun just went down about ten minutes ago, so it’s not the middle of the night!” The playful woman then shook her flashlight at me as she lectured, “And since when were you a stranger, Marcus Veovin? Sure, we may not hang out every day, but I’ve known you for quite some time! Hell, I even sucked your dick, so if that’s not getting to know someone…”
I’m sure if there had been enough light, Kaede would’ve noticed my cheeks growing a dark shade of red. She probably also would’ve seen a bulge forming in my jeans, so I was glad the sun had indeed vanished for the day. Her orally pleasuring me may have put two of the most important friendships in my life on the rocks for a while, but I can’t deny that it will go down as a fond memory I’ll never forget as long as I live. “Yeah, you certainly have a point.”
The lithe woman then carefully slipped over the massive trunk in the middle of the gravel roadway while holding her flashlight in one hand and the camcorder in the other. I couldn’t help but notice that the way she placed her legs around the wood looked slightly erotic, but I hastily cleared my throat while telling her to lead the way.
*
We had been walking for close to forty-five minutes when it finally dawned on me that I hadn’t told my parents how long we’d be out. I was certainly old enough to make my own decisions, but my mother was one of those moms who tended to freak out if she didn’t hear from me after a while not out of anger, but out of nervousness. I’m pretty sure she acquired that little quirk from her mother, but this isn’t a story about my family tree: This is a story about the hottie in the tight leggings in front of me who was once again straddling the trunk of a smaller tree that had fallen.
Since I told Kaede to lead the way, she had opted to guide us off the gravel road and more into the woods. She informed me that the cabin wasn’t off any road, so following it would be a clear waste of time. I took her at her word and trusted her. After all, she did live for these kinds of adventures.
Another fifteen minutes passed when my dark-eyed leader came to a complete halt and allowed me to catch up to her. I wasn’t that far behind, but I had been lagging behind on purpose. I didn’t think we’d run into any trouble, but I was adamant about protecting Kaede from anything that could have been lurking in the woods. Also, it didn’t hurt that it was extremely entertaining to watch her amazingly shaped caboose move in those black leggings. I could hardly take my eyes off those buns.
With a huge smile on her face, Kaede displayed her pearly whites for me as she motioned ahead of us…and I could see the rundown cabin in the middle of the woods. It was still a good fifty feet ahead of us through the trees and bushes, but we had located it nonetheless. Correction: She had located it. How, I’m not exactly sure, but she had espied it through the darkness.
“Pretty spooky, huh?” She asked me as she shined her flashlight in the direction of the dilapidated structure. I could see the eagerness on her face and knew that she was looking forward to journeying inside the ramshackle, little building.
Standing right next to the black-haired beauty, I took a moment to appreciate the sheen on her skin from the perspiration of hiking through the woods for the last hour. Her athletic build was incredibly appealing, but seeing it glisten with sweat made me want to reach out and touch her. Of course, I was able to refrain from doing so. I had always prided myself on control around women and never acted without letting them okay it first. I may not have been as experienced as some of my friends at that point in my life, but I had never been accused of being anything less than a gentleman.
“My camcorder has night vision on it, Marcus,” Kaede then informed me as she started playing around with the gadget in her hands. She asked me to shine my flashlight on what she was doing so she could better set it up.
While keeping the light steady, I perked up and told her to be silent for a moment. She became just as alert as I was and took a moment to listen. When she was apparently unable to hear what I had picked up on, she whispered, “What is it, Marcus? Do you hear something?”
“Nothing bad,” I reassured her since I had unintentionally frightened her. “To our left, I think I can hear running water. There must be a stream or something nearby.”
“What way is that direction-wise?” She queried.
Trying to properly position myself, I answered to the best of my ability by saying, “I think that would be west. Without the sun, I always get turned around.”
“Well, that’s good to know,” the raven-haired woman said as she went back to work on the camcorder. When she finally had it set up to her liking, she glanced up at me with that sly smile spread across her face while adding, “If our little trip ends up being a bust, we can always go for a late-night skinny dip in the stream!”
I prayed that she didn’t notice my face contort into an “O” when she offered the suggestion. I was pretty sure at the time she was joking, but she seemed to be messing with me an awful lot. It was actually kind of a cruel form of torture to keep egging me on with such comments since we had a bit of history together and I thought she was really hot stuff.
“Come on,” she then regained my attention as she led the way through the trees and toward a small clearing in front of the rundown cabin. She swatted at a few insects that I’m sure were mosquitos as she made her way forward. Conserving the life of her flashlight, she had me use mine from two feet behind her as she decided to start relying more on her small camcorder. As we trudged forward, she suddenly confessed, “I probably shouldn’t have had all that soda on the way here.”
“Are you feeling all right?” I asked with concern in my voice. The way she reached for her stomach, I couldn’t help but wonder if she was getting a little queasy from all the walking and all the grape beverage she had consumed during our little road trip.
“Oh, I’m fine. I just have to piss like some rushing rapids…and hearing that water in the distance isn’t doing me a whole lot of good right now!”
I couldn’t help but laugh since Kaede had that way about her. She could take the smallest detail and make it funny somehow. I don’t know if her natural charm had something to do with it, but the woman was downright amusing without having to try very hard.
“Hold this, would you?” She asked as she handed me the camcorder. Once I had it safely in my hands, she turned her flashlight back on and shined it on a few oaks and willows only yards away from the cabin. “I’m going to go over there to take a pee. Don’t let any spooks get me, okay?”
I nodded since her straightforwardness kind of caught me off guard. I knew she trusted me to keep watch for her, but it also made me tingle just knowing that she didn’t mind going within earshot of me. Of course, it wasn’t like we hadn’t seen each other naked before. Still, relieving oneself in front of somebody else was an altogether different story.
I walked with Kaede and then branched off in order to give her privacy. I wanted to be close by not because of any perverted thoughts, but because I wanted to indeed protect her in case anything happened. We both knew it was unlikely that there was anybody else around, but I felt that we couldn’t be too careful. I wasn’t about to let some maniac hurt her. I have to admit that I’m not much of a nature enthusiast, so for all I knew, there could have been wolves or bears in the surrounding woods.
From where I stood in front of the decaying cabin, I could see the beam from Kaede’s flashlight moving about as she went to the bathroom. I tried to remain silent so I could listen closely: Again, not for immoral reasons, but to make sure that the sound of her urinating was the only thing that could be heard in the vicinity.
When Kaede was done, she walked around to the front of the cabin where I stood. I shone my light on her and saw her jump a couple of times in the air as she dramatically pulled her pants up and made sure they were where she wanted them. I chuckled since I knew she was doing it for attention.
“Thanks for holding the camera!” She exclaimed as she placed her hand out. When she had it back in her grasp, she raised an eyebrow as she looked at me and added, “Glad to know you aren’t into any of that freaky shit!”
“Come again?” I asked since I wasn’t quite sure what she was getting at.
“Just didn’t want you filming me taking a leak so you could go and put it on the internet for all to see!”
“I wouldn’t do that to you, Kaede!” I laughed along with her since I felt like she was testing me every few minutes. I don’t know what made me think of it, but I decided it was my turn to test her when I said, “I maybe would’ve filmed you sucking my dick if I had had this camera at the time, but filming you while you’re in the middle of relieving yourself is where I draw the line!”
“Touché!” She exclaimed with a laugh. She then turned her eyes toward the entry of the cabin and could clearly see that the door was missing. It looked like a yawning void leading into despair and disrepair. She turned her camcorder’s night vision on and pointed it at the gaping maw. “Well, this is it!”
“Are you telling me not to say anything stupid from this point on since the camera’s going to be on?”
The dark-haired woman flashed me one of her dazzling smiles. “Too late! I caught that lame comment!”
I chuckled while letting her lead the way. The porch looked just as decrepit as the rest of the place, so I quickly offered to check the steps before she ascended them.
“Very gentlemanly of you, Marcus, but I’ll be just fine!” Just as she had said, the raven-haired woman climbed them with no issues. They didn’t bow under her weight or anything. That wasn’t exactly surprising since Kaede was in such great shape, but I figured the age of the wood alone would be enough to snap them in two. Apparently, the place had been built to last.
“So,” I spoke up as I slowly followed her toward the doorway. “What exactly is it that people claim to see around here?”
“Every place has its ghosts, Marcus,” Kaede responded while making sure to capture everything she possibly could. She scanned the entire porch before stepping through the threshold and entering the “haunted” structure.
I wasn’t trying to crowd my friend, but I wanted to remain close to her at all times in case there was any kind of trouble. The fetor of age assailed my nostrils almost instantly, and I was surprised that Kaede hadn’t reacted more to the stench. I quickly remembered how tough the young woman was, though, and I recalled how on the car ride up to the whimsical location, she had told me how this wasn’t the first creepy home she had ever explored.
Since Kaede was using her night vision, I wasn’t sure if using my flashlight would mess up what she was doing. I did my best to aim my light in the opposite direction of where she was filming, and I also did my best to remain quiet. I could hear her softly speaking as she cautiously stepped through the debris in the cabin, and I could plainly tell that she was trying to narrate our adventure.
As Kaede documented everything she was doing, I looked around and took in the sights. What little furniture sat in the place had been upturned and looked as if rats had made giant nests of anything they could get their paws on. There were holes in the upholstery of each chair and the couch, and stuffing had fallen out and onto the floor.
I also noticed that the cabin – while appearing structurally sound – had plenty of water damage. It was evident from just looking at the wood of the ceiling, and since most of the windows had been broken and weren’t boarded up, it was a good bet that rain and countless winters had crept inside throughout the flow of time. Upon making my examination, I reached out and touched Kaede’s arm so I could get her attention without interrupting what she was doing. When she turned to look at me, I whispered to her that some of the flooring beneath us was warped and that we needed to be careful.
Surprisingly, the raven-tressed stunner abruptly swung the camera toward me and started filming my mug as she announced, “This handsome fiend accompanying me on this little adventure is Marcus Veovin! He’s been watching out for me every step of the way, and if everything goes according to plan, his night should end in a very satisfying manner!”
I had no idea what my partner in crime meant by her words, but I held my hand out to somewhat obscure her from getting a decent shot of me. I’ve never been the most photogenic person, so I didn’t want to be seen on her video. I continued to act difficult as she continued to tease me and asked me to move my hand numerous times. We went back and forth for a good thirty seconds until we both heard a loud thud.
Kaede whipped around as I immediately became alert. I’m no detective, but I could instantly deduce that what we had heard hadn’t been the place settling or anything that could have happened under normal circumstances. There was something in the cabin with us. Thankfully, we were right next to the open doorway and had an easy escape route.
Unfazed by the loud noise, Kaede continued to creep across the floor of what had once been a living room and cautiously stepped over the debris littered about the area. The girl had guts…and she wasn’t about to back down.
“Kaede!” I spoke her name in a raised whisper. I wanted to rush forward and grab her, but I was nervous about putting too much weight on the floor near my friend. I thought if we stood too close together, we could crash through the wood…and from what I had noticed outside, the place definitely had a basement we would fall into.
“Come on, Marcus!” The determined stunner mouthed to me as she held her camera out in hopes of picking up any kind of footage that would prove her beliefs. “We have to prove that what we heard wasn’t just a stray animal bumping around in the basement!”
I sighed after hearing her words. I was afraid she had noticed the same thing I had as she confirmed my fears: The thudding sound we had heard had indeed originated in the basement. It wasn’t that I was afraid to go down there by any means…I was just afraid to have Kaede go down there. I was well aware that she feared absolutely nothing, but I feared for her safety. If anything happened to her while we were in this withering abode, that would be on me.
“Look at these old cabinets,” my eager comrade suddenly regained my attention on the far side of the room. “I’m not a hundred percent certain, but I think this is cedar.”
“Might be a little too warped to tell for sure,” I told her, doing my utmost best to sound smart. I wasn’t too sure about some of my grains of wood, but I didn’t want her to think she had dragged a moron along for the ride.
Kaede continued along and moved to her left into what appeared to be a study. There was no wall separating it from the living room area, and the only reason I would’ve called it a study was because of an old desk and a few empty bookshelves. A thick layer of dust covered most of it, and strands of old cobwebs hung from the ceiling. I hoped Kaede wasn’t getting any of them in her lovely, black locks.
I poked my head around the wall where the cabinets were and noticed a kitchen on the other side. It didn’t smell nearly as bad as I was expecting it to, but that probably had a lot to do with the fact that there didn’t appear to be a shred of food in the place. Nothing had been used in years, and that put me at ease. Whatever we had heard in the basement had more than likely been just an animal and not a squatter.
I chided myself for not thinking ahead and bringing any kind of weapon along. I should’ve had a knife or something in case we did actually encounter any kind of threat to our lives. My dad had plenty of tools in his garage back home that I could have chosen from. Even a blunt object like a hammer would’ve been preferable to nothing at all.
“Look at this, Marcus.”
I followed the sound of Kaede’s voice and carefully made my way over a tipped stool in the study. When I reached the young woman’s side, she was staring out the back entrance and into what had probably been a really nice backyard at one time. It was now overgrown with weeds and thistles, and vines wrapped their way up the closest trees where a couple of birdhouses hung after so many years. A fenced-in garden sat on the far edge of the yard and obviously hadn’t been tended to in years.
“I bet this place was beautiful at one time,” Kaede said in a voice that almost sounded melancholy. “It’s so sad to see the hopes and dreams of people from our past dashed in such a way in the present.”
Hearing the sadness in her voice made me want to aid Kaede in any way I could. I didn’t think it would help, but I placed an arm around her and gently shook her to let her know that I was there for her. I was more than a little surprised when she leaned in close to me and placed her head on my left shoulder for a few seconds. She continued recording the backyard while doing so.
After an all too brief moment of tenderness, the young woman got right back down to business and once again started moving about the cabin. She filmed a bit of the kitchen and even went through a few cupboards before telling me that she wanted to go down to the basement. I didn’t think it was a good idea, but I knew there would be no stopping her. I wasn’t about to let her out of my sight for even a second.
Kaede led the way and I followed her as closely as I could without being annoying. On our way through a hallway, she noticed a bedroom off to the side before we found the stairs leading into the depths, so she placed a hand out and opened the door that was actually still there. The minute she went to push it open, we both received a small jump when it fell off its hinges.
After we had a small chuckle and regained our bearings, I told my raven-tressed compeer that I’d be going in first. At first, she somewhat argued since I think she felt like she was a diver discovering a treasure that had sunk to the bottom of the sea decades earlier, but I convinced her I was only doing so for her safety. She quit quibbling when I jested, “You have to make sure you live long enough to get the tape into the right hands so you can become famous. I’m simply expendable, remember?”
She laughed since she believed I was just joshing around, but deep down, I was willing to defend this woman with my life if it came to it. It wasn’t because I was in love or anything of the sort: In all honesty, I barely knew Kaede. Our three-hour trip in her car had been the longest we had talked to each other in our lives, and although we had been friends during our final year of school and shared a naughty moment we probably shouldn’t have committed, we still didn’t know a whole lot about each other. However, that didn’t stop me from having a fierce sense of pride, and the fact that my father had taught me to respect all women also played into things. I would be this woman’s shield no matter what.
After realizing that the room was full of nothing more than a bunch of broken junk and an old bed that had seen its time many years earlier, I told Kaede that everything was safe and she could venture in if she wanted to get a shot of the old chamber. She did just that and continued to narrate our little adventure while I waited just outside of the room in the musty hallway.
I flashed my light back into the main room we had already been in, and then I turned and glanced in the direction of the staircase we would be descending shortly. I tentatively stepped toward the top of the stairs and glanced downward. I could see that they went down to a very small and cramped landing before a second set continued downward out of sight. The place apparently went a little deeper than I had originally thought.
“Boo!” Kaede said from behind me, but didn’t manage to rattle me. Her little trick might’ve worked if I hadn’t heard her coming. “Aw, poo! I was hoping to make you jump on camera!”
“You’ll have to try a little harder than that,” I chuckled as I watched her study the stairs before us.
“The night is young, my Marcus!” She said in her best spooky voice as she placed her left foot on the first step. “You never know what kind of horrors await us! Mwa, ha, ha!”
END OF PART TWO OF THREE
