Bitten (Once Bitten, Twice Shy #1)
Noelle Marie
CHAPTER ONE
Middletown, for all intents and purposes, was just as dull as its namesake implied.
In fact, located on the northern edge of Iowa and surrounded almost completely by corn fields, it wasn’t unusual for passersby to completely miss the tiny town on their way to more grandiose cities.
And honestly, they weren’t missing much.
The extent of Middletown’s attractions included a modest-looking school, a meager city hall, a bank that doubled as a post office, two bars, a church, a small grocer, and a decrepit, worn bowling alley in which half of the lanes didn’t even work properly.
Perhaps the only place of true interest in the entirety of Middletown was the old, abandoned house on Miller Road.
The house was located on the very fringe of the minuscule town, at the end of an otherwise forsaken dirt road, and was subject to many a ghost story. Terrifying tales of ghouls and malevolent spirits were passed down from generation to generation as not even the oldest residents of Middletown had any memories of the house ever being anything but empty – at least of the living.
With nothing else to do on the weekends – especially on Sundays, as the bowling alley was closed – it was common for the youth of Middletown to disregard their parents’ cautionary warnings and pay a visit to the broken down house in hopes of an adventure.
This was exactly where Katherine Mayes found herself.
In the midst of a small cluster of other teenagers – no one was as brave alone as in a group after all – she was walking along the winding dirt road that lead to the house in question. The full moon was out, its natural glow acting as her guide in the otherwise dark of night.
Even as she hiked the pothole-filled road, face sent into a mask of indifference, she couldn’t help the awful feeling of foreboding from rising up in her gut. Why, oh why, had she allowed herself to be talked into doing this?
Truth was, Katherine had always been just a little bit uncomfortable with the presence of the house at the end of Miller Road. That’s not to say she believed the numerous horror stories about the place – not in the least. It was something else. Some strange, deep-rooted feeling of something – uneasiness maybe – filled her whenever she thought of the old, decaying house and as such, she had always adamantly refused to go whenever her best friend had tried to nag her into tagging along with the rest of the neighborhood gang. She honestly couldn’t explain why she had agreed this time. After all, she had made it sixteen years living in Middletown without visiting the run-down house once.
She was already regretting her senseless decision when the house finally came into view and the terrible feeling in her gut grew in intensity. It was much worse up close than the glimpses she had caught of it at the other end of Miller Road. From there, the house was barely visible, nearly completely hidden by the overgrown trees and bushes that surrounded it. Up close, Katherine could see the rotting rafters sticking out in spots where the roof had caved in, the twisting vines creeping up the walls, and the shutter or two that still managed to hang crookedly from glassless window frames.
More terrifying than all of this, however, was the faint light that seemed to be peeking through one of the main floor windows.
When Katherine saw it, she immediately jerked to a stop and tried, without any luck, to prevent a shiver of apprehension from running through her. The others in the group, her best friend Abigail Gallagher – or Abby, as the redhead preferred – and three other girls her age that Katherine didn’t particularly care for, but that Abby got along with, seemed to have also seen the eerie light and stopped their movements as well.
Katherine heard Abby shift next to her and couldn’t prevent a surprised flinch when the animated girl grabbed her left wrist in a tight, excited grip. “This has never happened before,” she whispered eagerly.
Katherine couldn’t help but to inwardly curse her bad luck.
Before the group could continue onto the property, she quickly made her opinion known. “I think we should leave.”
Mallory Flanders, the blonde girl who had stopped directly in front of the two friends, smirked over her shoulder at the hurried comment. Jacqueline Smith and Heather Nelson, the other two girls that made up their small group, copied her actions. “You’re not scared, are you, Katherine?”
“No,” Katherine immediately bit back. And it was mostly true. She wasn’t scared, per say. It was just that the terrible feeling that had originated from the bottom of her belly had grown and spread to the rest of her body, making her feel positively heavy with tension. “I just don’t think it was a good idea to come here.”
“Then I don’t know why you came,” Mallory replied scathingly.
“We certainly didn’t invite you,” Jacqueline added.
While Katherine remained unaffected by their comments, only too used to the other girls’ cattiness after having put up with it for years, Abby bristled angrily, her grip on her friend’s wrist tightening. “I invited her,” she protested heatedly, “as you all very well know.”
Her angry words merely earned rolled eyes and sneers from the other three girls.
“Whatever,” Jacqueline retorted dismissively.
An uncomfortable silence descended after that. Whether the discomfort stemmed from the small disagreement or the light still eerily peeking out at them through the window of the abandoned house, Katherine didn’t know. Eventually, Abby hesitantly broke the uneasy silence. “Well, are we going to check it out or not?”