Free Infinity House by Shane McKenzie Page B

what neighborhood didn’t have a so-called haunted house? And Mike was doing just what he’d promised: taking care of his little brother and his grandmamma. But with no money and no weed to sell to get money, they were fucked.
    Another round of coughing and the squeaking of bed springs.
    Mike ran the necklace—heavy and sharp —through his fingers, bit his lip. “You can show me where you found this?”
    “Yeah, I can.” James’s smile turned side-ways. “So, what happened at that house anyway?”
    Mike kept his eyes on the necklace, watched the light sparkle off of it. “It was some shit happened back in the day.” An alarm went wild in Mike’s head, an alarm that sounded a lot like Mama’s voice. But he kept seeing that Mexican with the shotgun, kept glancing to the empty stash spot in the floor.
    “Did Mama tell you about it?” James’s eyes landed on Mike’s and pinned him there like twin needles in a dead fly. “She wouldn’t talk to me about it.”
    “Yeah,” Mike said. He rubbed the heels of his palms into his eyes, sat back, put his arm around James’s shoulders. “Lot of kids went missin’ back in the day. Mama was little, younger than you.”
    James nodded, snuggled up against Mike. He fondled the loose string on the ripped knee of his jeans.
    “She said there was an old man that lived there, used to give out cookies and shit to all the kids, said he was real friendly,” Mike said. “All the parents were trippin’ cuz kids kept disappearin’, then they started noticin’ the flies.” Mike widened his eyes when he said the last word.
    “Flies?”
    “Yep. Mama said everybody knew it was him, but by the time the police tried doin’ anything bout it, he was dead. Killed his self.”
    “He did?” James stared at the ground, his arms crossed over his stomach.
    “Yep. When they found him, he had maggots crawling all over him, flies all over the house. Musta been dead a long minute.”
    James clicked his tongue, pushed away from Mike, looked at him. “Are you lying? Did Mama really say that?”
    Mike remembered her warnings, had to hear them over and over. She and Grand-mamma had blamed the house for how bad the Oak had gotten over the years, said evil attracts evil. Kids still went missing, but it didn’t seem like anybody was trying to do anything about it. Grandmamma thought every missing kid was dead, murdered. She said their souls had been kidnapped by the evil and trapped in that house. But her mind had already started its decline at that point.
    When Mike had found Mama raped and beaten outside of their house, she was barely clinging to life, was reduced to a quivering purple pile of meat. It was as if she hung on, even as death was tugging her into the afterlife, just to give Mike one last warning. It was that house. It caused this, caused everything. Keep him safe, Mike. Keep your brother safe. Mike nodded. “Yep. No bullshit.”
    James’s doubting face loosened and hung from his skull. His bottom lip jumped as if he wanted to say something more, but all that came out was, “Wow.”
    “She said there was dead kids all over the house, some of ‘em already bones. Said there were so many flies, the walls looked like they was moving. The floor was covered in maggots.”
    Mike patted James on the back, rubbed his head. James just kept staring at the floor.
    “That’s why you don’t go over there.” Mike set the necklace on the coffee table and the diamonds clinked together. “But we’re goin’ back tonight, and you gonna show me where you found this.”
    James pursed his lips, wiped his palms on his jeans. “Come on, Mike. Can’t we go back during the day?”
    “What, you scared now? You were already there and nothin’ happened.”
    “Yeah, but I didn’t know an old man killed a bunch of kids there. I don’t wanna go back.” He stretched his eyes wide.
    “Look,” Mike said. “Remember the guy with the shotgun? He took everything we had, James. I don’t know if