The Road to Maine is Bloody Part 21

Stephen came to a stop in front of Ashley’s two story brick house with the varnished wooden porch and put the Corvette into park. “Do you want me to stay and help?” He asked, peering through the windshield and momentarily he had a feeling of uneasiness and a chill raced up his spine.

Ashley shook her head and leaned across the seat and kissed his cheek like a girl being dropped off at school by her parent, kissing his cheek quickly before her friends could see. “Thanks, I’ll be fine. Thanks for dropping me off and taking my rental car to the mechanic. Hopefully it’ll be ready before I leave tomorrow.” She smiled and Stephen waved his hand in protest and shooed her out of the car.

“Think nothing of it hun, I’ll be back around six to pick you up. Just give us a call if you need anything.” Ashley nodded and grabbed the blue bucket Tabitha lent her filled with a bottle of windex, roll of paper towels, green scrub sponges, Mop N Glo and Pledge wood polisher. She’d already bought a mop and a broom along with a rake, hedge clippers and a box of black hefty garbage bags and brought it over the day before.

“Thanks Stephen, the real estate lady will be over around four to look at the house, hopefully I’ll have it done by then.” She opened the white wooden gate in between the length of the picket fence that surrounded the vast yard with her free hand and it slammed shut behind her with a loud bang. She didn’t look back when she heard Stephen drive off and started up the walkway.

Dead rose bushes surrounded the front of the house, brown leaves that crushed to dust when you closed your hand around them were scattered here and there among the bushes, determined to hang on for dear life and brown thorns that looked like the claws of a cat. She started up the steps, the wooden planks creaking and groaning under her weight. She stopped at the door, the bucket dangling from her right hand, hesitating to go in, some feeling of foreboding coming over her like a fever infesting her body.

Suddenly out of the corner of her eye, she detected a movement. Ashley flipped her head around and looked in the window that were mostly covered in white curtains that were now yellow with age and saw a shadow moving past the window on the far end of the living room and Ashley’s heart began to pound in her chest.