When Reid first led them into the room, Danny was nowhere to be found. Flashlights searched the room until Reid’s stopped on a figure lying on a rundown bed. The frame rusted, the mattress tattered and dingy and appeared to have been chewed up by rats. The room reeked of mold and decay.
There was a dilapidated dresser straight across from the bed against the wall. The wood was rotted and had strange holes that resembled smolder marks. Atop it stood a four-foot mirror. Although intact, it was covered in a sooty smear.
“Danny?” Reid approached the bed, apprehensively, placing one foot fully flat before lifting the other.
The others also turned their flashlights onto Danny, lying on the bed.
Alex moved to within a few feet from the putrid mattress, and a look of disgust washed over his face. “Hey, Danny, I know you’re not feeling well, but I don’t think…not that bed.”
Danny opened his eyes and acknowledged his friend before him. His tired eyes softened, and he gave them all a warm smile. “Hey, guys, thanks for coming. Mom just went to get some medicine.”
Reid looked to his friends, confused. “Huh? What the fuck is—”
Alex lifted a hand toward Reid. “Your mom? She’s here?”
“She’ll be right back. I asked her to open the windows, maybe bring a fan. It’s so hot.”
“You got a fever, remember?” Heather stepped behind her brother and leaned over his shoulder to look at Danny in the grubby bed.
Danny rubbed his arm. “Yeah, I think from those scrapes I took on the way to the house the other night. Infection.” He nodded, slowly.
Clint scratched his head. “The other night? Where are we right now, Danny?”
Danny laughed, which turned into a cough. “You guys are being weird.” He lifted a brow. “We’re at my house. You guys came to visit me ‘cause I’m sick. Duh.”
Reid turned to look at his friends, wondering if they were seeing what he was seeing. They all stared at Danny, worried expressions on their faces. He started to talk but thought better of it.
Danny weakly lifted a hand to his brow and wiped off the sweat. “This must be a real doozy of a fever. My eyes…I can’t see so good. All cloudy and fuzzy.”
It must’ve indeed been difficult because Danny’s eyes were no longer streaked with red. The white was completely gone, swallowed up by the flaming blood-red that had taken over, as if he’d never had any white to them at all. Reid could count on one hand all the things in his life that’d made him scared and then added this to the list.
“Just close your eyes and rest until your mom gets back.” Alex frowned and looked back at Reid.
Reid pulled the others across the room, beside the dresser. He turned back to his friends, and whispered, “He doesn’t even know where he is.”
“We don’t really even know where we are,” Alex said. “This is Danny’s house, but it’s not. We’re inside a one-roomed house, yet we’ve gone through a few different rooms, a basement, and a hallway.”
Clint hugged his arms around himself. “It’s the mark. The house, haunted. And the creature. Now…he’s dying.”
Heather’s hand came up so fast Clint never had a chance. The sound of her palm across his cheek made a thwack sound.
Clint’s head jerked to the side.
Reid erupted with laughter and bit his tongue to hold the rest back. “Sorry.”
“Enough!” Heather snapped. “Don’t you say any—”
A blood-bubbling scream bellowed from Danny. “It burns! Make it stop! It’s burning me!”
Heather leaned forward, but Alex held her back. She didn’t fight his hold this time.
“What is?” she asked. “What burns?”
“Everything! Inside!” Danny convulsed and lurched forward, holding his stomach. Coughing and heaving, he clawed at his skin as if trying to release the fire. “Get it out! Make it stop!”
Sweat beaded and pooled all over his body, his clothing sticking to him. His skin turned flush-red as if he was sunburned.
Reid watched, paralyzed by fear.
Then with one painful sounding gasp of air, Danny flung back down to a laying position. For a long moment, he appeared to not breathe at all.
Reid could hear his own heartbeat as everyone in the room seemed to hold their breath, anxious to hear the faintest sound, the slightest evidence that Danny was still alive.
The air grew heavy and warm. The feeling of a sleepy night around a campfire rushed in and tried to lull Reid’s body into false sleepiness. He panicked.
His voice came out fragile, almost inaudible. “Does anyone else feel tired?”
“And hot,” Alex said.
They all nodded.
Clint scratched at his chin. “Something terrible’s about to happen.”
Danny flung his eyes wide open and stared at his friends. “You found Mom.” He smiled.
“Mom?” Heather said. “Where?”
“Just beside you.” Danny pointed at the dresser—the mirror.