Josephine Routledge is the twin sister to John B Routledge. Their dad goes missing during the search for the famous shipwreck, the Royal Merchant. The twins and their friends, JJ, Pope, and Kiara, come across the sunken boat that holds a clue to the...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"You guys know whose house this is, right?"
"Oh yeah. I know," I responded to Kiara as we walked through the overgrown front yard.
Both JJ and Pope whipped around from in front of me with wide eyes.
"What?" I asked as Pope shushed me, and JJ stopped walking and fell into step with me.
"Which stories did you hear?"
I rose an eyebrow at JJ as our shoulders brushed together.
"The one where she killed her husband with an axe and that she's been holed up ever since."
"On certain nights," Kiara added from up front, "when the moon is full, you can see her in the window!"
She wiggled her fingers towards me and JJ, causing me to laugh with her and JJ to scowl.
"No, it's not funny, 'cause it's all true. I swear to God, guys, this is all real. I knew Hollis. Jeez!"
I laughed at him as he flinched at a statue, shoved me behind him, and put up his fist as if getting ready for the statue to attack us.
"Wait, you knew Hollis Crain?"
"Yeah, dude," JJ said, dropping his fists as Pope shoved him to get his attention.
"Dude, how do you know Hollis Crain?"
"She was my babysitter, man. She told me all about it, told me the truth about her mother and what happened in this house."
"I seriously doubt she would tell you all about it while she was babysitting you."
JJ grabbed my wrist as everyone circled around him. I looked up at the house, my eyes widening when one of the curtain moved, suddenly closing. I used the hand JJ wasn't holding to grab onto his arm, partially hiding myself from any eyes in the house in front of us. Axe murderer or not, someone was still in that house, and we were trespassing.
"So as a kid, she heard all the stories that her mother killed her father, and she was a murderer and all. Hollis didn't believe it. Until that night."
JJ let go of my wrist before grabbing onto my hand, wrapping his fingers around mine.
"What night?" John B asked skeptically.
"It all came back to her. When Hollis was six years old, she heard her parents arguing downstairs, so she goes downstairs to see her mom washing her hands in a sink full of blood.
"Her mother just says that she cut her finger. The next morning, she says her father and her split up, but then Hollis noticed something. Her mother going into the parlor constantly, in and out and it and out with plastic bags. Weeks pass, and Hollis decides to use the outhouse, and as she's using it, she looks down, and there, in the outhouse, is her father's head, looking straight back at her."
