Chapter 3

The Thomas family was up and getting ready to go at 8. 30 am the next morning. The cleaning company had promised they would be ready to start at 9 am.

“Can’t I just stay here Dad?” Luke had begged his father as he rushed them to the minibus.

“I’m sorry Luke but no. I need everyone’s help with this, you are going to have to help your brothers outside. You do understand that the gardening services are not open yet.” Joe told him.

“Neither is the cleaning services but you got them out anyway,” Luke argued.          

“We need to move in, I need to get back to work by Tuesday, and by then, everything needs to be done. Are we clear?” Joe said to his youngest impatiently.

“Yes, Dad,” Luke said and very reluctantly got into the bus.

The ten-minute drive to the Thomas Gardens seemed to take only a few seconds. Luke’s heart was pounding in his chest. He had seen a lot of people the previous day, and all of them had signaled him to be quiet before they vanished right before his eyes. None of them looked mean, but it was just the way they kept themselves, he saw the pain and despair in their eyes, and that scared him. And no matter what his father was telling him, he knew the place was haunted. He could feel them, he could sense them, and he knew, it was only a matter of time before they tried to make contact.

James had no second thoughts about being back at the house, he was simply interested in having a go at the ride-on lawnmowers his father had bought. He was curious about the property, he wondered what secrets lay within the boundaries. Perhaps there was a treasure hidden somewhere and the family had made the stories up to keep people away. It was adventure time!

Brian was trying to figure out how to tell his girlfriend why he hasn’t been able to talk to her all weekend. He started taking selfies turning the camera this way and that so that he can catch his siblings unawares. Then they were driving through the gate and Brian chanced one last click of the name board, not having any desire at all to walk back to the gate to take that picture.

As soon as Joe stopped the minibus he felt anxiety creeping up on him. He had no idea where that came from so he shrugged it off, took the keys, and hurried to the door. He yelled instructions to his boys as he walked up the porch steps, almost tripping over a rock that had appeared out of nowhere on the last step.

Cynthia noticed him stumble from the corner of the house and saw the annoyance on his face as he turned back with a dark frown and then heard the rumble as he pushed something off the porch with his foot. The rock rolled down two steps, then stopped. Her husband had turned his back and had gone into the house.

“Look, alive people! Here comes the cleaning crew!” Cynthia called out as she spotted a minibus approaching.

The crew stopped next to her and she slipped her mask from her chin over to her mouth.

“Good morning. Thank you so much for coming!” she said as the driver’s door opened.

“I’m so sorry we are late, when my crew heard we were coming over here almost a quarter of them had backed out. I had to promise the crew that did come double pay for the day.”

Cynthia smiled at the fierceness in the green eyes of the redhead in front of her.

“I’m Cynthia, my kids are all over the place, and my husband is in the house, he’s lost his temper for some reason or the other. I’ve been hearing things about this place since yesterday, and how more than half this town is scared to death of it, or us, I don’t know.” Cynthia introduced herself and pointed to where her sons were trying to get into one of the containers so that they could follow their father’s instructions.

“Nice to meet you, Cynthia, I am Skyler, my crew calls me Sky. There are a lot of damning stories about this place you know, how the family could never get it sold but still did regular maintenance and so on. Do you know if you have electricity in the house?”

“You’d have to ask my husband, he’s just gone in, but you are more than welcome to go in after him,” Cynthia replied.

“Oh no, no, no, no, not without a Thomas by my side. My crew feels the same way, you’ll have to post one of your kids in that doorway or they won’t be doing their jobs.” Skyler argued quickly.

“Are the stories really that bad?” Cynthia asked critically.

“Girl… you don’t know anything about this place, do you? It’s not my place to tell. If your husband is a born Thomas, he needs to call his momma or his daddy and get the truth about this place.” Sky gave Cynthia a matter-of-fact look and then turned to the second bus that drove slowly into the gates.

“You lot sure took your time.” She said to the fifteen-odd people that were getting out.

“Doofus wouldn’t go through the gate!” The man that got out of the driver’s seat said and slapped one of his colleagues.

“Why?” Sky asked him with an angry frown.

“People were walking all around!” the other man claimed.

“I told all of you, we are here as a service to the Thomases, nothing is going to happen to us as long as we don’t poke our noses where it doesn’t belong. Are we clear?” Sky yelled at her crew.

Sky turned to Cynthia and said

“Well, mama Thomas lead the way, and get a cub that can get us through the door?”

From behind the safety of the container door, the ‘cubs’ in question had to stifle their laughter. They had no idea just what it was that they were dealing with.