The House On Turner Street

Chapter 15 - Recounting

"I hate taking another break, but I'd like to shed some light on this. I guess we are gonna Scooby Doo this thing after all. Evan and Val know the equipment better than anyone. You two go check the van and see what happened. I'm sure Tyler and I can hold down the fort for a minute or two. "

"Are you sure, Stephen?"

Val was still shaking from her fright.

"It'll be fine, Val. This way, none of us will be alone."

She didn't even know why she wanted to disagree. Stephen was right. They'd be ok. She consented to the plan, and she followed Evan out the door. He was determined to figure this out. Everything seemed to end up having a rational explanation so far. They got into the van and started the playback. He got to the place that Val had told him, and his blood froze.

"What the hell is that?"

Evan watched the footage three different times. He couldn't understand it either. It really did look like a portal opening up to hell. The heat signals were swirling, and the temperature tending to be the opposite with spirit involvement.

"Did you see anything, Val? Surely you'd have seen a disturbance of this nature?"

"I'm not sure what happened. I was closely monitoring everything after you guys found the rats. I was curious whether there would be other occurrences. I say the pattern on my screen and panicked. I did see something that resembled embers swirling around me. So I screamed. It's really embarrassing. All of the things we've looked into and this one scares me."

"It's ok. I was doing fine until you screamed, Val. You scared me as well. I'm not gonna let anything happen to you."

Val blushed but managed a quiet "thank you" in response. After a moment of awkward silence, they jumped back into the footage. They'd been quiet about ten minutes before Val broke the silence.

"Evan. I'm sorry if I worried you. You know me. Even as shy as I am, I don't frighten easily. After hearing Tyler's story, my imagination was already running wild enough. Then I saw these images. I was terrified. I was worried for myself for a moment, but then I started thinking about you. What if something? What if I feel through some portal to hell and never had a chance to speak with you again. You'd blame yourself. You always do. And I wouldn't be there to tell you it's ok. To tell you how to I feel…."

At that, she was afraid she'd said too much. Her feelings were no secret to anyone. Evan knew if he fell through a portal to hell that she'd jump into it to try and save him. Guilt washed over him. He knew how she felt. He just wasn't in the same mindset. Not at this point in life.

"Val. I love you to death. I know you'd go to hell and back to protect me. Don't doubt that I'd do the same for you. I can't imagine my life without you. I wish I could be everything you needed and deserved. "

"It's ok. I'm happy as we are, Evan. I just got scared of the idea of losing you and keeping the regret of never saying anything. I'm ok. I'll always be ok. I know this is terrible timing, but thank you for listening to me. Now we better get back to work."