Room at the Back of the House

E.B. Borbón

Description

In this horror tale, an eleven-year-old boy, his sister, and their cousins set out to discover the dark secrets hidden in a room in the back of his grandmother’s house.

Just like every other Christmas, eleven-year-old Eric is looking forward to visiting his grandmother during winter break along with his sister and cousins. After he arrives, Eric mistakenly believes that this visit will be just like all the others.

One night when Eric notices his grandmother acting strangely as she emerges out of a secret room she keeps locked in the back of the house, his curiosity about the room ignites. After he enlists the help of his sister and cousins, Eric sets out to unearth the truth behind the secret room and his grandmother’s connection. In their quest to learn more, the children unwittingly open a gate that has been holding back dark spirits for thousands of years, and then realize that the spirits have been using his grandmother to lure children into the shadows. Now it is up to Eric and his companions to try to save his grandmother from being possessed by the spirits, and hopefully more children from meeting a dark fate.

In this horror tale, an eleven-year-old boy, his sister, and cousins set out to discover the dark secrets hidden in a room in the back of his grandmother’s house.

Sujets

• Fiction
• Paranormal
• Fantasy

Informations

• Publié par: Archway Publishing
• Date de parution: 20 avril 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781665738323
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

ROOM AT THE BACK OF THE HOUSE
 
 
 
 
 
 
E.B. BORBÓN
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
Copyright © 2023 E.B. Borbón.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
 
 
 
Archway Publishing
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.archwaypublishing.com
844-669-3957
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6657-3831-6 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6657-3832-3 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023902199
 
 
 
Archway Publishing rev. date:  04/14/2023
CONTENTS
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
About the Author
CHAPTER ONE
“Y ou are going to be good for your abuela , right?”
“Yes, Mom,” Fay and I said in unison.
“And I won’t be getting phone calls about how you are making her life difficult?”
“No, Mom,” we said together.
“And if you do, you know the punishment is that I will pack you in a box and send you to Mars, right?”
“Yes, Mom,” we said, but this time, I could only pretend to be annoyed. Fay shot me a look when she heard the smile in my voice, and I shrugged.
“I will miss you both,” Mom said, turning around in her seat to look at us as the car stopped. “But your grandmother is very much looking forward to having a house full of children for Christmas. It was her only wish. And your father and I could use some time together. OK?”
She wasn’t really asking a question. She was asking for acknowledgment of what she said, not if we were actually OK with any of it. The decision had been made. Fay and I would spend the Christmas break with Grandma Maria, our cousins would spend time there too, and Mom and Dad were going to spend some time alone together. Which meant they were going to try to figure out how to love each other again.
Fay and I had listened to enough arguments to know that was the plan. Mom had even started dressing up again recently, and Dad was buying her flowers all the time. According to Fay, who at twelve was a whole year older and clearly much more in tune with adult behaviors, they might even try to make another baby.
When I had asked if that was the plan, Mom had gotten very red in the face and told me to go play outside. I wasn’t sure if that was a confirmation or not, but I decided not to be too shocked if Mom had a baby in her stomach after Christmas. I wasn’t too familiar with the process of how it all worked, though I’d heard rumors, but I assumed there was some mathematics involved. They needed a couple of weeks to make it happen. So Christmas break it was.
At least I liked Abuela’s. She loved me, doted on me even. She said I looked just like her Antonio when he was young. I liked that I carried on the family resemblance of my long-gone grandfather, and I felt special that as firm and cold as Grandma Maria was, she treated me like the apple of her eye. I especially liked how it aggravated Fay.
“Your father and I will see you Christmas Day,” Mom said, opening our door to let us out. “Now go see Maria, and tell her I love her but I had to run. Go, go, go!”
A suitcase was shoved into my hand, and my duffel bag, full of the toys that I absolutely insisted on bringing, was thrown over my shoulder. Mom kissed us both and ducked into the car. She had more excitement on her face than I had seen in a long time.
Good , I thought. While it would be sad not to see them for a week or so, they needed this. I hoped it would make life better when we got back home. Until then I was going to have to stay in the house that creeped me out for reasons I could never quite explain and try to make the best of it.
The door opened before we could even knock, and Mom was still technically on the street. Grandma Maria opened the door with a flourish, the wreath bouncing heavily as she stopped it wide, sending glittery bits down on the floor and making the fake pinecones thunk off the wood.
“Come in. Come in!” Grandma said, grabbing me in a tight hug. My face was buried in her large chest as she reached around me to hug Fay too, squeezing her against my back. The smell of flour, sugar, and clean, sweaty skin seemed to eclipse the rest of the world as I waited to be released from the embrace.
“Hola, Granny,” I said, muffled by the apron that was rubbing an embroidered gingerbread man across my cheeks.
“Tsss,” she said, releasing us and reaching down to kiss my cheek. “We speak English in this house, Eric,” she said. “Your grandma needs the practice. Besides, it would make Sean feel left out.”
Looking around Granny, I saw Sean, who waved. I waved back just as Grandma Maria took my bags from me, put them at the bottom of the stairs, and shoved a cookie into my hand.
“I just got these out of the oven,” she said conspiratorially, whispering near my ear. “I need a taste test before I give them to everyone else. You will be my little sous-chef, si ?”
“Yes, Granny,” I said, shoving the cookie into my mouth to hide the evidence before Fay saw it and freaked out.
“You have grown so much , little boy,” she continued, fussing over me and straightening the collar of my school uniform shirt. “You look like such a little handsome man. Just like my Antonio. Oh. How I miss him.”
She smiled, but there was a sadness there. A sadness I had come to recognize any time she talked about her late husband. Which was often.
“Thank you, Granny,” I said.
“Go on. Go in,” she said, shooing me into the front room as she moved back into the kitchen. “Tell me if the cookie is good.”
“Delicious, Granny,” I said.
“Good,” she said from somewhere beyond the door of the kitchen now. “The rest will be ready in just a few moments!”
As usual, the front room was an awe-inspiring hoard of Christmas decorations. It was like a Christmas decoration store had exploded in the room and just littered everything in red, green, and white. Candy canes, ornaments, little figures depicting Santa and his reindeer, and mangers with tiny baby Jesuses in them were everywhere. Every surface seemed to have a knickknack, doily, or shiny decorative thing on them, making it difficult to cross without worrying you were going to break something. The couch, an ancient flower-printed thing that Dad said had been old when he was a child, had a colossal handmade Christmas quilt draped over it.
The large tree sat in the corner, still undecorated. As was tradition. That was something the family did together. Now that we were here, I was looking forward to the first time she turned on the twinkling lights.
“Here we are,” Granny said, coming back into the room with a platter of cookies. “Fay? Fay, have a cookie. You look incredible, little princess. Like a grown woman, almost. You and your cousin Natalia are going to give your grandma heart troubles!”
Fay rolled her eyes so hard I thought they were going to be permanently stuck in the back of her head.
“I’m twelve , Grandma,” she said. “Natalie is a teenager . We aren’t children anymore.”
Now it was my turn to roll my eyes. Fay idolized our cousin so much, mostly because she dressed and acted like an adult all the time. I never understood the appeal. I liked being a kid.
“Well, such a big girl,” Grandma said, a slight sarcastic coldness to her voice. “Maybe you want an apartment instead of staying with Maria, yes?”
“No, Granny,” Fay said. “But I will take the front bedroom!”
“Hey, no fair,” I said. “Where am I going to stay?”
“You could sleep on the couch,” Granny suggested. “Or you could stay with Sean. He has the attic room now.”
I realized Sean had disappeared, and I saw that Fay’s bags were missing. He must have already put himself to work. That was pretty normal for Sean. As a foster kid, it always seemed like he was trying to prove his worth, but over the last year, I had stopped thinking of him like a foster kid and more like a new addition to the family. We all called him our cousin anyway. Besides, for as quiet as he was, he was smart and kind. A little too scared of everything maybe, but I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt.
“I don’t want to stay in the living room alone,” I said.
“Scaredy cat?” Fay teased, sticking out her tongue.
“No,” I said. “I just don’t want you waking me up when you get mi