A love forsaken

A mysterious invitation

Chapter Two

Maggie was the first one. Black beautiful teen who lived in the suburbs of northern Robcity caught his attention the very first day they met. He was hiking that day, drunk and alone. You could say it was his way of escaping from reality. What he would term hiking, not so realistic either.

Blake found himself hiking for the fifth time in the alley off 26th Avenue. It was time he spent alone with himself, exploring the wonders of the pitch black alley that seemed to have no opening at the other end. One could easily mistake it for a tunnel because of how round it was when one had walked for twenty minutes in it. Others said there was light at the other end, but in all his years of hiking, Blake hadn't still seen it.

That was Blake's definition of hiking. He did it to clear his mind of all stress. Except that he had to be out of it to be in it. A wrap of his favorite smoke had done it for him. He took his hiking gear with him to the beginning of the alley and stripped to his underwear there. A few guys came to cheer him on. It must have been their first time there and they must have thought he was gay.

He hurriedly wore his safety jacket and the shorts he had in his bag. Stuck in a smoke empowered cloud nine, he picked his hiking boots and laced them on.

Just as he was about to pack his bags and continue his journey, he was forced out of the way by a moving cycle. He could not decipher which it was at the time of the hit, but the effects sent him to St. Michael's hospital for three full working weeks.

Unlike Miranda, she had mild blue cat-like eyes and was dark-skinned. She was quite slim, which was mainly as a result of not having enough and being on the streets for too long. He had to accept it early that even though everyone deserves love, she was not the one for him.

Maggie was ruthless and sometimes too kind. He had offered her a home under his parents' home without them knowing for two weeks, until they started losing some loose change around the house. Blake's father suspected that he was responsible and blamed it on teenage hormones. He was going to have a gentle conversation with him, but his mother prohibited it.

Although she understood his motives, she did not want to put him in a position where he would think that she no longer trusted him. That was how much she trusted Blake. Her son would not steal and she knew it.

Blake was just done with high school and was not really considering college. He was out on one of his book club meetings and that was when it was discovered that he was harboring a thief in his room. His father was disappointed but his mother did not know exactly what to feel. She was happy that her son had learnt to be a hospitable man at a very young age, but he was not a smart one.

You wouldn't call that a relationship, but Blake and Maggie would beg to differ, because that's the true definition of toxic love. Sadly, parental influence ended their relationship and Maggie had to move out of his humble abode. What could be more toxic?

Blake cross-checked the address for the umpteenth time as he stood on the porch. There's no way she could have lived here. It wasn't what he expected in the very least.

The building that stood before him was an abandoned mansion, with beaten roof sheets and broken window panes. This was exactly what it looked like from outside.

The paints on the walls were peeling and begging to be redone. What Blake could tell was once white was beaten to a light brown and had long streaks created by rainfall.

The door bell button was out, and all that was left of it was two wires, one red and one yellow. Blake shook his head at the sight of it. He knew there was no way he would be knocking on that door especially after he saw how full of spiders it was. It was nothing like the spiders he wrote about in his stories.

More Publishers would be pleased to know that he was not out of his mind when he described spiders as what they were.

He took the wires from their coated ends and tried to join the two together. On the first try, it did not work. He dropped them when he realized they were not really different from the door itself. Cobwebs had already crept onto his index fingers and it scared him that some spiders had found their way up the sleeves of his super expensive coat as well.

There was no way he was doing this. He took out his phone from his coat pocket after thoroughly cleaning his hands with the little napkin he carried about. It was sad that one was going to have to go as well.

Blake opened his call logs and dialed the number on top. He immediately put the phone to his ear before he even heard the first ring. On the third ring, he heard her voice.

"Why are you late?" She asked, giving no room for greetings or pleasantries.

"If you could at least say hello," he started.

"I have no time nor patience for pleasantries, Blakey. Are you there already?" She asked.

From the sound of her voice, Blake could tell she was in motion. "Is this a good time or should I come back at another time?" He asked, hoping with everything in him that his suspicions were invalid.

"You can come in now, Blakey," she told him. "Take the bold step. Just open the damn door," she said. "I'm watching you."

"You are what?" Blake asked.

There was no response.

"Hello?" He said into the phone this time.

There was still no response.

He looked at his screen and saw that she had hung up.

"Hurry," a voice yelled from inside the house and he was startled. It didn't sound like her, and it piqued his interest even more.

He inspected the building, looking for where Miranda might have been watching him from. He only succeeded in turning in circles with his head lifted high three times.

"Okay, okay," he whispered to himself. "You've got this Blake. You've got this."

"Blakey is the name!" The voice repeated and giggled after. It was Miranda trying to give him a scare for sure.

"What do you gain from doing this?" He asked.

"I can't remember forcing you to come down here. It was an invitation you could have politely declined." She said through the sound system.

"Uhm," Blake began. He was confused. "You literally did not give me a choice. Just a piece of paper, a novel and a warning not to be late."

"For the good of all," Miranda added.

Blake sighed and made up his mind he was going to overcome his dislike for spiders and walk through the door, just as Miranda must have done.

He took a closer look at the door, trying to determine if someone had actually gone through it in the last ten years. It was too dusty for something someone had used some minutes ago, even days ago. He had a feeling he was being played, but she chose to ignore it. You only live once and if curiosity made him die, then it'd be a good cause.

"The time is ticking. Remember I said not to be late," Miranda said again.

"I'm trying to figure out how you're in there. This door looks like it hasn't been opened in decades." He told her.

"I can't remember where I wrote down or said that it has," she laughed. It was too light for a wicked one.

"What do you suppose I do now?" Blake asked.

"Find your way in. The door is unlocked. All you have to do is open it." She said and hung up again.

Blake put his phone back into his pocket and began to calculate how he was going to push the door down, without having to hold the knob for a long time.

"I'm waiting, Blake," she warned. No Blakey? That sounded too dangerous.

Blake took two deep breaths and with the force of the wind, he pushed the door down.

"Ew!" He yelled and tried to get rid of the cobwebs that tried to stick to him.

"Now was that so difficult?" Miranda asked. He could hear her voice loud and clear now.

He had not yet lifted his eyes to see what was behind the door. But being the oversensitive guy he was, he could sense the presence of many other people.

He raised his head to meet a full party. Lost in his own little head and trying to come to terms with the fact that he had not yet been swallowed by spiders, he had involuntarily shut the music out. But now he could hear it. Loud and clear. Jason Derulo's Swalla blasting from the speakers.

'Love in a thousand different flavors,

I wish I could taste them all tonight.

Well I ain't got no dinner plans,

So you should bring all your friends

I swear that to all, y'all my type.

All you girls in here,

If you feeling thirsty...'

"