- 7 -

                Penny was fighting with her locker, about ready to break something out of frustration, when Eric appeared around the corner, hands shoved coolly into his pockets and a vacant expression on his face.  Penny tried slamming the locker door one more time before she began slamming it over and over.  Eric, expression quickly melting, reached over with a quiet, “Hey, hey, chill.”

                Penny froze and glanced around, wondering if anyone had seen.  Luckily she and Eric weren’t the primary focus of the school that day, but she still took several steps away.  He had also looked around, realizing his mistake.

                “You have to jiggle it…” he said a little lamely, wiggling the handle in such a way that the door finally swung open smoothly. Like it had never been stuck stubbornly at all.  She resentfully grabbed her books and began shoving them into her backpack, unwilling to look at him.

                “You said you found something,” she said through gritted teeth as she jammed her math textbook between two notebooks.

                “Yeah, but I’ll wait ‘til you’re done.”  She sighed and zipped up her bag, slamming her locker door and crossing her arms.

                “Done,” She said, her tone a little snarkier than she meant for it to be.  Eric threw up his hands in mock surrender.

                “Geez, why are you so cranky?” he asked.  She gritted her teeth again and muttered, “You should know.”  When he only looked confused, she almost screamed in frustration.  During their simultaneous lunch periods, Penny, who had been minding her own business and eating the disgusting school lunch had become the primary topic of conversation at his lunch table, with one of the girls eventually calling her “a little fat” and ending with a critique of her clothing as “white trash rags”.  It wouldn’t have hurt so much if Penny hadn’t already started feeling that thing her aunt called “normal girl stuff” about her weight.  And her clothes were bad, she knew, but there wasn’t anything she could do about it.  She tried to take consolation in that fact, but it hadn’t worked.

                “Your stupid friends were calling me fat and poor. Again,” she hissed at him, crossing her arms more tightly.  Tears she had been suppressing all day sprang into her eyes and she hurriedly blinked them away, focusing on how angry she was instead.

                “Really? My friends did?” he asked, but she knew he had remembered by the slightly guilty expression on his face.  She rolled her eyes.  He sighed and lowered his voice.

                “What do you want me to do about it?  If I say anything they’ll…”

                “They’ll what? Think we’re friends? Think we’re ‘going out’? They wouldn’t make fun of you. Come on, Eric. Seriously,” she burst.  She laughed bitterly and turned to go.  Eric sighed loudly and said, “Wait.  Okay, I’m sorry. I…I’ll say something to them. Tomorrow. I promise.”  She doubted it, and if she was honest, she didn’t actually think it would help, but it was enough to keep her around to hear whatever he had found, the purpose of their discreet afterschool meet up.

                “What did you find, Eric?”  He watched her for a long time before he said, “Follow me.”

                She slung her backpack over one arm and followed him, exhausted from the variety of emotions that had raged through her in only a few minutes.  He led her down a hallway, up a flight of stairs and through another hallway before stopping in front of a classroom door.  The door was closed, but he glanced through the window and quickly ducked out of sight.

                “She’s in there. I was hoping she hadn’t left yet.” Before Penny could ask who he meant, he swung the door open and ducked into the classroom. She followed and slowed to a stop when she saw who was sitting at the desk.

                They had arrived at Mrs. Scholtz’s classroom, and the moment they walked in the door, Mrs. Scholtz looked up and smiled. “I wondered when you two would show up.”

                Penny glanced at Eric curiously, cheeks blushing a little for some reason she couldn’t explain.

                “Sorry,” Eric said, “I just wanted to make sure you were alone.  I didn’t want to ask you about this between classes.”

                “That’s fine.  You should probably sit, though,” she said.  Penny glanced between Eric and Mrs. Scholtz again, a little lost, but she stayed silent and followed Eric to the two front desks.

                “I probably should have told you as soon as I knew you had gone to the house,” Mrs. Scholtz said, staring out the window, “but I wanted you to figure it out for yourselves.  That means you’re truly…seekers, I guess.”

                “What are you talking about?” Penny asked finally, staring at Eric who was leaning forward in anticipation.

                “Well, I’m assuming you made the connection between me and my unfortunate sister, Ann,” she began, and Penny nodded.

                “She never stopped looking for her,” Eric said, glancing at Penny.  Mrs. Scholtz nodded.

                “My brother…he blamed himself.  God knows why.  He went off and died in Vietnam a few years later.  I was alone.  So, no, I never stopped looking.”  Mrs. Scholtz walked to the window and stared out at the school yard emptying of students, afternoon sun oddly cheerful despite the dark nature of the conversation.  Penny could almost feel Mrs. Scholtz’s loneliness across the room.

                “I studied the paranormal, the occult; I studied religions, met with religious leaders.  No one could give me answers,” She continued, her voice tired, “So, I finally decided to go to the house myself.  I had been too afraid that whatever had happened to Ann would also happen to me if I went there, so I had avoided it for years, but I had no other options.”  Eric was so excited he was bouncing in his seat as she spoke, which was in direct contrast to Mrs. Scholtz resigned gait across the room.

                “Did you see the doors?” Penny asked.  Mrs. Scholtz looked at her for a long moment, the sun reflecting off her glasses so that Penny couldn’t actually see her eyes.

                “I not only saw them, I understood them.”  She sighed and reached to pull a chain from around her neck.

                “And they also gave something to me,” she said.  She pulled the chain out from her dress, and held it up for them to see.  An old golden key swung from the chain, the handle shaped into the symbol Penny had seen on the last door.

                “Whoa,” Eric murmured, and he leaned so close to her that he almost tipped over his desk.  Penny felt oddly terrified as she stared at the key, and a chill ran through her as she glanced at Mrs. Scholtz’s face and saw her own terror mirrored on her face.

                “Why haven’t you used it?” Penny asked.

                “I tried.  It won’t work for me,” Mrs. Scholtz said, tucking the key back into her dress.  Eric leaned back and sighed.

                “Really?  But…but why?” Penny asked, feeling almost instantly relieved as the key disappeared from sight.

                “I have a theory about that,” Eric said quietly, and they both looked at him.

                “Well, I mean, it’s really just a theory, but…what if the house sort of…calls to certain people?  I mean, like me and Penny.  Tina didn’t see or hear any of the things we experienced.  And maybe that’s because she was outside, but she doesn’t really care about this stuff like we do, right?  I mean, I’ve been dreaming about the house…thinking about it all the time. I even…” He didn’t go on, but Penny knew he was right.  She had seen the garden on her TV. She had felt the house calling to her.  Something wanted her to enter the house.  Something had drawn her in.

                “But why us and not Mrs. Scholtz or Tina?” Penny asked exasperated.

                “I don’t know. I haven’t figured that out,” he said, shrugging.  Mrs. Scholtz sat down on the edge of her desk and studied them.

                “What he says is true,” she said quietly, “the house chooses some and not others.  I don’t know if it’s a blessing or a curse, but I do believe that all those people that have vanished…they are somewhere.  And I’ve been waiting a long time to give this key to someone.”

                Penny felt the bottom of her stomach drop out.  They would have to go back to the house, use the key.  And who knew what kind of doors that key would open.  She looked at Eric, and when their eyes met, he grinned broadly and squared his shoulders.

                “What do you think, Penny? You in?”  Penny looked from one to the other, then stared down at her hands for a long moment.  What did she have to lose anymore, she wondered.  Then, setting her jaw, she looked up at Mrs. Scholtz and said, “I’m in.”