chapter four
Sincerity
There's not even electricity here. Well, there's a generator, and we have a gas stove and stuff, but no nice florescent lights. There are candles. CANDLES. Like we're motherfucking Puritans or something. I feel really weird and out of place. Molly's all cutesy with Taylor, I can tell that Will is jealous. He's not used to being second place with anything, and I think he kind of considered Molly to be "his". I've been keeping myself in my room (which is fantastic), writing some songs, reading books and such. I guess it would help things if I were a little more social. I just feel weird, like I don't belong. Although I guess I'm kind of used to it, being "the adopted one" and all. Damn, I need a cigarette.

I closed my journal and grabbed my half-empty pack of Marlboro Lights, throwing on my Ramones hoodie before stepping out through the French double doors and into the cold, windy northeastern night. I pulled a cigarette out of the pack and placed it daintily between my lips as I struggled with my lighter. The wind kept making it blow out, and I found myself wishing that I wasn't so much of a cheapskate, that I had bought that stupid hot pink windproof lighter at the gas station that I had my eye on. Four dollars is just too much for a lighter, though, unless it's a freakin' Zippo or something.

A windproof flame appeared in front of me, and I gratefully lowered my head and lit my cigarette. "Thanks." I mumbled as I looked up. "Zac? I didn't know you smoked." I smirked.

"Not many people do, actually. They think I'm the good little Hanson." I could smell the distinct scent of Lucky Strikes wafting towards me. "What about you? You seem a little…Different."

"Is that your nice way of calling me weird?" I smiled. Zac began to protest, but I continued before he could say anything. "I'm a rebellious one. Don't know what it stems from."

"I guess I'm…" he trailed off, leaving me wondering what he was going to say. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear…What?" I asked.

He put his finger to his lips, and I fell silent as I quietly put out my cigarette and followed him back inside to my bedroom. I saw the door leading to the hallway drift open slowly in front of us. Now, what would I normally do in this situation? I would crawl under my bed and cower until the scary stuff went away. But with Zac, the ever-so-brave, adventurous Hanson by my side, I knew that wouldn't happen. He grabbed my hand and pulled me forward as I whimpered. "Stop being such a chickenshit, Sincerity." he hissed at me.

"I can't help it. Besides, whatever's doing all this scary stuff can probably hear me coming from a mile away, my heart's beating so fast. I'm going to go into cardiac arrest before this week is over…" I whispered back at him as he pulled me to his side.

We stepped into the hallway, where the candelabras hanging from the walls lit, one by one, down the hall to a door past the staircase. I stepped closer to Zac, my eyes wide as we headed to the door. I didn't remember seeing what was inside the room before; it wasn't any of our bedrooms. I had dismissed it as being a linen closet before.

Zac's heartbeat had sped up as we slowly tiptoed to the door, and he looked down at me when we reached the door. He was breathing just as quickly as I was, only he was shaking less. He reached out with one hand, the one that wasn't clutched between mine, and opened the door slowly.

We poked our heads into the dusty room, and, upon seeing that no immediate danger lay ahead of us, carefully stepped inside. A rocking chair sat by the window with knitted quilt lying on the seat. There was a trunk sitting at the foot of a carefully made bed, and a teddy bear lay on the pillow. Our footsteps echoed inside the room as I let go of his hand to touch the quilt. It was almost like nothing in the room was real. It was all too neat and tidy.

The door shut behind us. There was only one window that was letting the moonlight in, a small, round window near the ceiling. I could barely see Zac, and even then, he was just a shadow. "This is just a little creepy. Can we come back when it's daylight, and when we have a flashlight…Or ten?" I asked, grabbing his hand and pulling him towards the door.

"Wait, Sin. What do you think is in this trunk?" He let go of my hand and headed towards the bed.

"I don't know, and I don't care! I just want to go back to my room and forget about all this stupid creepy shit that's happening! I want to go back to my normal life in my normal house, with my normal sister and my normal friends!" I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes as I spoke. I had waited all of my life for an adventure, but now that it was sort of happening to me, I didn't want it anymore. When Zac knelt down to open the trunk, I turned around. "Fine! You can stay here, for all I care. I'm leaving." I headed to the door and turned the knob, but when I pushed to open it, it wouldn't open. "No. I will not be stuck in here with the adventurous Hanson brother! Let me out!" I exclaimed, pulling on the knob. I backed up a pace or two and kicked it, hoping that maybe it would collapse…The house was certainly old enough for it to do so. It didn't work, and I kept banging on the door, hoping that someone would hear me. Tears were streaming down my face, and I sank to the floor, defeated. Zac ran over to me and engulfed me in a hug.

"Listen. We're not going to be stuck in here forever. The others are probably sleeping. In the morning, they'll realize that we're not around, and they'll look for us, and they'll find us. Don't worry. Nothing's going to happen in here, we'll be fine." He spoke in a soothing voice, stroking my hair as my tears subsided. "All better?" I nodded. "Okay, good. Now, let's see what's in that trunk."

"Zac!" I exclaimed. "After my crying and freaking out, you still want to be the adventurous one?"

"What do you think is going to be in there, a dead body?" He pointed out.

"You never know, in this stupid house." I muttered as we moved towards the trunk. He tried to lift the lid, but there was a lock on it. "Oh, darn, it's locked. Looks like we won't get to find out after all." I said sarcastically. I lay down on the bed, not caring that it was dusty. I picked up the teddy bear and looked at it. It was rather scruffy. One eye was missing, and there was cotton stuffing sticking out of its belly where the seam had started to split. Zac sat down on the other side of the bed and took the teddy bear from me, setting it on the rocking chair.

"Do you want to go to sleep?" he asked me.

"You think I can sleep in here?" I retorted. "It's like a bad episode of 'Are You Afraid of the Dark'."

"That show always creeped me out when I was a kid." Zac picked up a pillow and lay down next to me, hugging the pillow to his chest.

"It gave me the wiggins, too. That one episode with the dollhouse? I couldn't sleep for two days." I admitted, and Zac laughed. "It's not funny! I was, like, eight years old. Besides, dolls freak me out anyway." I yawned and rolled over on my side. "You promise we'll get out of here in the morning? I still think we should be beating that door down."

"There's no point, it's not going to come down. Neither of us is that strong. Just go to sleep, and someone will find us in the morning."

"You'd better be right, Zachary Walker Hanson. Because if you're wrong, I'll…Well, a suitable punishment isn't coming to mind right now, but I'll think of something really bad." I yawned. I felt an arm go around me, and my eyes shot open. "Zac, don't you dare try anything."

"I'm not trying anything! I'm trying to be comforting, that's all." He reassured me. "Besides, Isaac would kill me." He muttered under his breath.

"What about Isaac?" I asked.

"Nothing."

"Bullshit, nothing! Tell me or I'll pester you so that neither of us gets any sleep." I sat up.

"He has a thing for you. I thought you knew. Everyone else does."

I lay back down, laughing. "Bullshit. Stop fucking with my head, and let's go to sleep." I lay with my head next to his shoulder, and his arm went around me, one hand resting on my arm.

For the whole night, I kept waking up at random points, sometimes because Zac would move, and sometimes because I'd hear someone talking, although it didn't sound like anyone who was in the house. I dismissed it as dreams. Sleeping in that freaky house would give anyone weird dreams.

The next thing I remember, I was being shaken awake. I opened my eyes, and the small window was streaming sunlight into the room. I rubbed my eyes, and saw Isaac standing above me, an angry look on his face. "What the hell? We couldn't find you guys anywhere! What the hell were you two thinking? We didn't even know this fucking room was here until this morning, when Taylor pointed it out, after we had searched the entire rest of the house for you!"

"We're sorry, Ike, man. We heard some weird noises last night and wanted to check out where they were coming from." Zac explained. I noticed that he left out the part about the candles lighting up one by one down the hallway by some disembodied force.

"Whatever. Come downstairs and eat lunch. We have to rehearse this afternoon." Isaac turned his back on us, walking out of the room. He took one last look at me before he stepped into the hallway, and I could swear I saw a little bit of hurt in his eyes.

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