As Camilla already knew, Jack had received a call from some frantic woman not two hours earlier, a call that supposedly originated from this house. But where was this woman now? Cam had no doubt observed that oddity, it would have been hard to miss. Everything was quiet. Still. Not the abode of a woman who had recently lost her son. But In addition to the silence, who in fact opened the damn roller door for them? It must have been remotely activated by a controller inside the house - one would imagine - yet the person who supposedly opened it hadn’t revealed themselves, no less made a peep. Not to mention the fact, and the thing that continued to play most on his mind, was the For Sale sign in the yard. There was no Sold sticker plastered on the front of it, probably meaning it hadn’t been sold yet, and yet the lawn hadn’t been cut in weeks, which didn’t exactly indicate the typical upkeep for someone trying to sell.  

Jack’s best guess, despite not being sold, was that the house was empty and the call he received earlier wasn’t actually made from anyone, at least no one who was still alive. This was pure speculation at this point, educated speculation of course, but still speculation. He may have been wrong, and therefore he didn’t share that specific insight with Cam. Increasing the girls fear unduly wasn’t about to help their situation, not even if his hunch proved correct.  

He was, as always, curious about Camilla. She was enjoyable to watch and listening to her commentary amused him. Still, his face remained void of expression as she made too much noise on her approach to the door. 

“Remind me to get you new shoes.”  He said, as she looked back to give him a smile, though his voice was so low and soft that it was barely audible. In jack’s eyes, she seemed to treat everything like a game, despite the possible dangers. Even when she was serious he had a hard time seeing her that way. She was fun. She had a good smile. The whole package was cute in a hazardous kind of way.  But he wasn’t about to let his unmentioned affections get in the way of the job at hand and possibly jeopardize their safety. Especially hers. 

He followed her inside calmly, slowly, removing his Glock from the belt at his rear while holding up his free index finger in a sign to be quiet.

Inside, he gently gave a tug to the back of her jacket to have her fall back. He took the lead until they arrived to the side of the foot of the stairs. There, he stood and placed one hand on her shoulder, letting her know to keep still. From their position they had a clear view of the main ground-level hallway that led to the kitchen, the stairs, and the living room on their left. Camilla was right, something really did smell. He hadn’t even noticed before now. Then again, women were known to have better noses than men. At least he thought that was the case. He hoped that was the case. Hell, his mother had the nose of bear on heat. The problem of course was that the smell of sulfur didn’t fit with what he actually suspected to be the trouble with this place. 

Removing the hand from her shoulder, his fingers slid gently down Cam’s back and came to rest on the curved summit of her buttocks, but he was actually too absorbed in stretching his hearing and scrutinizing every detail of their surrounds to be aware of where his hand actually came to rest. 

A cold chill ran his spine.

“Anyone home!?” 

Without warning, Jack had finally exerted himself, sharply calling out the words that proceeded to echo in an unnatural cascade of repetition that eventually concentrated their roll directly down the hallway and fell silent at the entrance to the kitchen… where a middle-aged woman now stood staring at them from the threshold. The woman was pale. Bare foot. Dressed in a thin, white nightgown. Dark rings under her glazed eyes. Her hair hadn’t received a touch of attention in what appeared to be decades. Jack was staring back at the woman for no less than a couple of seconds before she suddenly burst into action – 

The foundation of the house convulsed hard enough for both Jack and Cam to falter when the woman charged at inhuman speed directly toward them, her arms flailing madly while screaming in a voice that sounded like grating metal: “GIVE ME BACK MY SON!” 

Jack’s automatic reaction was to shove Cam from the woman’s path, which he did, but barely had time to raise his gun before the woman arrived. He was lifted off his feet by her presence and launched clear through the air until crashing out the front door and tumbling across the lawn. The woman, however, had come to an abrupt halt where Jack had been standing, then shifted her empty glare down at Camilla before vanishing. 

Out on the lawn, just a few feet from the For Sale sign, Jack twitched a few times before finding the strength to lift his face from the earth. 

“I guess that explains why the house is still on the market.”