I've come to learn that there are certain feelings that come along with purchasing a new house.

These feelings can include extreme happiness, giddiness, and excitement as the new homeowner starts to think of all the things that can be done with the home. Perhaps they will think of raising a family, or thinking about the prospect about being able to have more people over to host parties, or even just enjoy the luxurious space that they can now call home. They might even feel a bit of pride, as becoming a homeowner is admittedly an accomplishment, and a milestone that people yearn to achieve.

As a freshman in college, and looking at the house in front of me, I thought none of these things.

I cannot exactly think of a word to describe the feeling that looking at the house gave me, except perhaps disorienting.

It looked fairly similar to those around it. Small, modest, maybe a bit run down. However, it wasn't any of these things that made me feel disoriented.

No, it was the fact that the house seemed to have a personality. It had qualities that I couldn't quite explain.

Nevertheless, a house was a house, and it was all I could afford. It had actually been my grandfathers, which he left to me when he passed away a few years back. I didn't want to find a roommate to split the cost of an apartment. Instead of taking on multiple jobs to pay for an apartment for myself close to the college I was attending, I decided to move into my grandfather's old house. It was a bit out of the city, but the commute was fine, and was much cheaper than the alternative.

I had never really visited my grandfather at his house, since he always flew down to us for visits, so I didn't really know what to expect.

That's how I ended up standing in front of the house, moving boxes still in my car, and with me standing on the front step, the key clutched in my hand as I stared up at the house in front of me, apprehension and nervousness starting to seep in the longer I looked at it.

I don't know what was wrong with me. I was probably being stupid, but the house just had.. a feeling of dread, of negative emotions around it, like an aura, if you will. You’re being stupid. Grandpa didn’t have any issues with the house, and neither will you. I told myself.

I was immersed in my own thoughts, trying to convince myself that I was being utterly ridiculous.

"Hey!" A voice rang out behind me.

I startled, nearly jumping out of my skin as I whipped around to find the source of the voice. I half expected some crazy old man with a cane to warn me the house was haunted, or maybe a crackhead. In Portland, you could never be sure. To my immense relief however, I saw it was neither of these things.

It was a boy, who looked to be around my age, standing on the sidewalk. He was tall, a bit taller than me, with messy dark hair and dark blue eyes. Looking at him, I couldn't decide if his hair was really dark brown, or just black. He looked sheepish as I turned around. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. You just moved in, right?" He said, motioning the house behind me.

My heartbeat was still pounding, but I managed to swallow and nod. "Oh! Um, yeah. Well, I just got here. I've yet to "move in" yet, the boxes are still in my car.." I stammered. The boy looked at the car before looking back at me with a small smile. "Ah, I see. Well, let me help. It'll go faster." He said, starting to move up the path that led to my house.

I was slightly taken back, but managed to compose myself as he approached. On one hand, I wasn't crazy about the idea of a complete stranger helping me move into my house, but on the other hand, he seemed harmless, and it was going to take me an eternity to move everything in by myself. "That's really kind, you don't have to though. Most of the boxes are really heavy.." I said as I looked at him.

"I'm sure I can handle it. It's what neighbors are for, right?." He said with another small smile. Confusion crossed briefly across my face as I looked at him. "You're my neighbor?" I asked, glancing behind me at the neighboring houses to mine.

"Yup. That one right there." He said, pointing to a house on the right side of mine. It looked a lot more loved and cared for than mine. I turned back to him, slightly more at ease knowing that he was my neighbor, and that he didn't look like a crackhead.

"Ah, gotcha. Well, if you seriously don't mind, I'd appreciate the help." I said, giving him a small smile of my own, something inside of me telling me to trust him. The boy beamed.

I unlocked the car and popped the trunk, walking alongside the boy as we walked over. "I really appreciate this. I'm Ethan, by the way." I said, holding out my hand.

"Pleasure to meet you, Ethan. I'm Avery."

We spent the next little while moving boxes into the house, chatting and making small talk while doing so. Talking to Avery distracted me temporarily from the fact that as soon as I stepped inside the house, the feeling I got when looking at it from the outside was amplified by about a hundred. It was really quite cold, with a sickening sense of unease to match the musty kind of character that the interior had. Trying to shake it off, I focused on unloading the boxes.

After the last box had been put in the house, I brushed my hands off on my pants and looked around, smiling slightly at Avery, who had put the final box on the kitchen counter. "Hey, I can't thank you enough for helping me out." I said, to which Avery gave me a small shrug. "It was really no problem. If you ever need anything, you know where to find me." He said, returning my smile, before looking around at the house.

"No one has lived in this house for a while, but it's sturdy, and a great house. In need of a few touch ups, but otherwise really great. Let me know if you need help with anything." He said before looking back at me.

"I'll keep it in mind. The house isn't haunted or anything, is it?" I said, teasing in my voice. I expected Avery to laugh, or even smile, but to my surprise, he looked a bit uncomfortable.

"Well, that's something I wanted to mention.." He started, pushing a hand through his hair. Looking at my expression, he hastily rushed to speak again. "It's not haunted! It's just- there is one thing you should know. This is an old house, and has some pretty weird history." He said, not quite meeting my eyes.

"At night, you might find a yellow door in different spots in the house. You can't open it, under any circumstances. Don't touch it, don't interact with it. I can't tell you why, but please trust that it's in your best interest." Avery said, finally looking up at me. Maybe he was a crackhead after all. A yellow door? That only showed up at night? Please. I might be skeptical when it came to the paranormal and stuff, but this was a whole new level. Maybe this was some sort of hazing that the neighbors did for new homeowners in the area.

"Um, okay? If I see one, I'll leave it alone." I said, playing along, and giving a small smile.

Avery didn't return it, instead, looking relieved. "Awesome. Okay. Well, as long as you follow that rule, you should be all set. I actually have to run to a class, but here's my number, in case you need anything." He said, pulling a piece of paper and a pen from his pocket and scribbling down a number before setting it on the counter. I nodded, giving him a tight smile and waving as he left the house.

As soon as he was gone, I let out a breath, the creeping feeling of unease coming back as I was left alone in the house.

I spent the rest of the day unpacking, and making the house feel a bit more like home.

The day went by, spent unpacking and debating whether or not to make Avery a contact in my phone. Part of me wanted to, grateful that he helped me move the boxes, but on the other hand, I was a bit annoyed at his take on hazing, talking nonsense about the "yellow door". I tried to not think about it.

Instead, I called my parents to let them know I was getting settled, and started to get myself ready for bed. I made a mental note to replace some of the furniture to make the house a little more up to date as I settled into bed, checking to see what classes I had next week before finally putting my phone down and dozing off.

As much as I hated to admit it, the last thing I thought about before drifting off to sleep was what Avery had said about the yellow door.

||

The next few weeks went by without anything exciting happening, although college is a lot harder then people make it out to be. My classes were changing every day, and my schedule was hectic. I was stressed, since in order to maintain my scholarship, I had to have perfect grades in all of my classes. I tried not to show it, still being socially active and going out, but I was constantly exhausted, and the goddamn house wasn't helping.

The house was old, I would give it that, but it was difficult to fall asleep, since every time I tried to, the house decided it was the perfect time to start creaking and making general old-house sounds. I didn't think about the yellow door anymore, chalking it up to nonsense, especially since Avery had never mentioned it again.

Avery, as it turned out, was actually in a few of my classes, and I saw him regularly. He was actually really fun to be around, and I made quick friends with him, often getting coffee and such together before our morning classes. Far away from my parents, I let myself notice the little things about him. Like how his mouth twisted to the side when he was deciding to laugh about something, or how he tapped his fingers against a surface when he was thinking. Sometimes, he would be waiting on the sidewalk in the mornings, coffee already in hand for me. When we hung out after school, sometimes we would go to my house

He never invited me into his.

I had also made a small group of friends with some people in my Anomaly class, which actually counted towards my science credit, since it was "natural sciences."

Two of the people in our group were siblings, Ava and Liam, who had lived in Portland all their life, and showed me the best places to go for coffee and pizza. The necessities.

There was also Lucas, who was kind of loud, and thought of himself as a great physical comedian, which really only involved making loud, absurd comments, and flicking rubber bands at people. Despite this however, he was fun to be around.

With being around Avery, and my new group of friends, life actually was more tolerable, and though my workload hadn't decreased, I wasn't as stressed all the time.

Unfortunately, this didn't last long.

It was a Friday, and after weeks of bugging me, Lucas finally convinced me to throw a party at my house. I had never really thrown one before, but Lucas helped, and by the time we were finished, it wasn't half bad. Lucas got the alcohol since he had a fake ID, and once he brought it all into my house, I realized that I never asked how many people were going to show up.

"This is a ton of booze, how many people did you invite?" I asked him, to which he shrugged nonchalantly.

"Dunno. A bit, but most of them probably won't show up." He said, his words careless and sure. I was already jittery and nervous about this entire prospect, already having second thoughts. What if the cops showed up? What if the neighbors filed a noise complaint? Would that go on my permanent record?

However, when I expressed these thoughts to Lucas, he punched me in the arm and told me to loosen up, and to live a little.

God, this was a bad idea.

Lucas went into the kitchen to start setting up some sort of station, and I pulled out my phone to call someone. It only rang twice before they picked up.

"Ethan?"

"Hey, Avery. Where are you right now?" I asked, leaning against a wall, trying to sound casual. "I'm going to my last class of the day. What do you need?" He replied, and I looked around the corner to make sure Lucas was still in the kitchen.

"Oh, I don't- I don't need anything. I was just calling to ask you a question. I was going to text, but then I decided I would call, since that would be better, and so that brings us to now.." I said, cutting myself off in the middle of my ramble. God, what was wrong with me?

"Mm, gotcha. Well, what was the question?" Avery replied, and I could hear the smile in his voice. I tried clearing my throat. "Well, I'm sort of throwing a party tonight, and I was wondering if you wanted to come? It starts around ten." I said, leaning my head back against the wall.

There was a short pause, which was enough time for me to start to become embarrassed. "I mean, only if you want to. You don't have to, I was just-" I started to stammer, but Avery's voice cut me off. "No, sorry. I was just thinking. I'd love to come. See you at ten?" He finally said, his voice soft and smiling. In that moment, I was immensely glad he couldn't see the idiot smile that came across my face. "Ten. Yes. I'll see you later." I replied, deciding to hang up when I was still ahead.

A few hours later, people started to arrive. A lot of people. Eventually I stopped opening the door, and just left it unlocked for people to come in. I had been to a few parties in high school, but nothing compared to this. I didn't really have the taste for alcohol, but Lucas had started following me around with red cups in his hand, telling me I needed to live a little more. After a while of this, I finally grabbed one from his hand, and drained it just to shut him up.

Admittedly, this was a pretty bad idea, but it was also coming up on eleven, and there was still no sign of Avery. I felt stupid and embarrassed, and not wanting to sort through my feelings right then, I decided to get another drink.

More cups kept finding their way into my hands, until my vision was starting to get blurry and the room developed a tilt. I had never done anything like this before, the entire night feeling like everything I was doing was an out of body experience.

I had just put my hands on the counter in the kitchen, ignoring the sticky spills of alcohol and overturned cartons of mixers that I'd have to clean up later. I closed my eyes, trying to get the room to stop spinning, when I felt a hand on my arm. "Ethan?" A soft voice asked. I didn't need to turn around to know who it was.

I turned anyway, being greeted by a tall, dark haired figure with a sheepish expression. I glanced at the clock. 1:34 AM.

"Hey." I said, leaning against the counter and trying to get my vision to focus. "I'm so, so sorry I'm late. I got caught up with something that needed to be.. dealt with. I'm really sorry." He said quietly, putting his hands in his pockets. I looked at him for a moment, before shaking my head and running a hand over my face.

"No, it's no problem really. You just needed to take care.. of whatever you needed to take care of." I said, slurring my last words. At this point, I didn't even care. Avery looked like he was about to say something, but a sudden wave of nausea washed over me, making my eyes widen and for my hand to grip the counter behind me. Avery didn't miss this.

He took my arm, quickly leading me to the bathroom, looking relieved to find it was empty. He got me in front of the wide basin sink just in time.

He stayed with me for a while, pushing the longer strands of my hair away, keeping a hand on my back.

Finally, when there was nothing left in me to throw up, I sank to the floor, leaning my head back against the tile wall next to Avery. I couldn't remember a time where I had felt worse.

"You don't have to stay." I mumbled, pushing a shaking hand through my hair. My entire body was shaking, a mixture of just having thrown up what felt like my entire body contents, and the rush of emotions that I'd been ignoring all night. "I know." Avery said softly. Without another word, he moved closer, putting an arm around me and pulling me against his chest. I didn't move away.

I was mad at Avery, for making me feel stupid, for making me feel like a little kid with an elementary school crush. I wanted to be mad, to let myself stay mad, but the longer we sat like that together, the longer I knew that I couldn't. I wanted him close, I wanted to keep feeling the comfort and protection that being around him made me feel.

"Avery?" I said, my voice cracking slightly. "Yeah?" He replied, matching the soft tone that I had. "Please don't go." I said softly. I didn't say anything else, because I didn't need to. The way that his arm tightened around me, the way he moved closer so that we were flush against each other was the only answer I needed to know that he understood.

We sat like that for a while, until the room stopped spinning and I finally started to feel more like myself, until I started to become more aware of my surroundings. Aware of Avery's arm around me, aware of the ticking clock above the door, aware of the needing rush of exhaustion slowly creeping up on me. Sitting there against Avery, I let my eyes close, I let my body relax against his. I was tired of being the one who felt all of these conflicting emotions, tired of being the one to prove himself to others. I was just tired in general.

Eventually, I couldn't keep myself awake.

||

3:34 AM

Ever since I was a little kid, I always remembered falling asleep, even on weird places like airplanes.

As a noise startled me out of sleep, I realized that this was the first time that I hadn't.

It took my brain a moment to register where I was. Sitting up, I realized that I was in my room, which meant that someone had taken me up here.

Normally I would have been freaking out, but I was oddly calm as my brain tried to walk through the most likely situation. I probably fell asleep on Avery downstairs, and he just brought me up here, and made sure everyone cleared out of the house. Sitting up, my mind still felt hazy, and I had the beginnings of a headache, but other than that, I was fine. I glanced at the clock. 3:34 AM.

It was then, when I heard the breathing. I didn't have any pets, and it wasn't my breathing. Someone was in my room.

My heart started to pick up speed as I sat up a little straighter, and looked around, careful to not make any noise. There was a figure laying down beside my bed, on the floor. A tall figure, with dark hair. I let out a sigh of relief. It was just Avery.

My mind worked for a second to think of why he was still here when it hit me. I had asked him not to leave, and he had taken that request seriously, along with probably making sure that I didn't suffocate in my sleep or throw up again. He was asleep, with his arm under his head serving as a pillow. I smiled down at him, appreciation and admiration surging through me.

I briefly wondered what woke me up, but that thought moved from my mind as I realized suddenly that I was really quite thirsty, my throat feeling rough and dry. I silently moved out of bed so as not to disturb Avery, still feeling slightly sick as I made my way out to the hallway.

I had just turned around the corner to walk downstairs when a violent BANG came from the other end of the hallway, making me jump and turn. My breath seemed to catch in my throat when my eyes landed on the source of the noise.

It was a yellow door.

My heart hammered in my chest as my eyes were glued to it. Maybe I’m still drunk. Maybe it’s a hallucination. I told myself.

My feet started to move me towards it without thinking. As I got closer, I could see that it had originally been a bright red door, but looked like someone had painted over it messily with a vibrant yellow paint.

All of a sudden, the house felt very cold, very quiet, as if someone had sucked the life out of it. The stillness was disorienting.

How could I have never seen this door? That was the only explanation. I must have missed it. I didn't hang around upstairs much..

Maybe it was Avery's idea of a prank, a joke. Catching me off guard when he had warned me about it when we first met. I was only a few feet away. I placed my hand on the doorknob. What would happen when I opened it? A jump scare? Probably. Just get the joke over with. I told myself. I twisted the doorknob, and pushed the door open, bracing myself from some kind of practical scare. None came.

Instead, on the other side of the door, was a room. A nagging voice told me not to go in, but curiosity had already overpowered logic today. I stepped through.

Looking around, I saw that I was back in my room. Confusion washed over me. It wasn't possible. Turning around, I could still see the hallway, and my bedroom door. My real bedroom. I turned back to look at the room I was in. I looked at the clock. 3:34 AM.

Suddenly, there was yelling coming from behind me. I whipped around, seeing Avery at the other end of the hallway, running towards me, calling my name, panic in his eyes and voice.

A cold, high giggle erupted out of nowhere as the door between us slammed closed.

"Avery! AVERY!" I yelled, rushing to the door, rattling the doorknob. It wouldn't open. "Ethan!" I heard him yell from the other side. "I'm coming! I'M COMING!" He yelled, pounding on the door as panic sized my chest. What the actual fuck was happening?

A noise came from behind me, from the other side of the room. I turned around, my heart stopping in my chest.

It was a tall, black figure. It's limbs were too long, too thin, a black, smeared face, with a white, painted mouth, perched on the bed. It was grinning.

I wanted to scream, but my voice was lodged in my throat. I could hear Avery banging on the door behind me.

Suddenly, a voice came out of.. the thing. It was speaking, but its mouth wasn't moving.

"Curiosity may have killed the cat; more likely the cat was just unlucky, or else curious to see what death was like, having no cause to go on licking paws, or fathering litter on litter of kittens, predictably." The thing said, moving closer. It cocked its head.

"Are you the cat?" It asked. I didn't have a chance to answer before it suddenly came at me, its long limbs reaching for me.

Its long, black hand grabbed my ankle, pulling me down. As soon as it touched me, white light blinded my vision as I screamed. Pictures of things were rapidly flicking through my mind, none of which I recognized.

A baseball field. A glass window. A blonde. A brunette. A river. A store.

Picture after picture flipped through my mind as I could feel the thing dragging me closer, its jaw becoming unhinged, opening wider, and wider, too wide to be natural.

Behind me, I heard the door finally slam open, like someone had broken it, but I hardly noticed.

Yells, followed by a horrible screeching noise filled the room as I felt hands on me, dragging me away. Gentle hands. Human hands. The pictures finally stopped as black started to fill my vision, and for the second time that night, I let myself fade out of consciousness.

||

Avery and I don't talk much about what happened five years ago. We live in an apartment together downtown, far away from my grandfather's house, although the house was only half of the problem. I asked Avery many questions, most of which he tried to answer, but many others were left to my imagination. Sometimes I have nightmares about that Friday night, but Avery's always there to wake me up, to remind me that I'm safe. That I'm okay.

Sometimes late at night, when I went to get water, or to go to the bathroom, I see the yellow door. I never go near it, instead retreating back into my room where I could be next to Avery, where I could wait it out until morning.

After all, I didn't want to be the cat.

​

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Ethan? Theodore? Aiden?

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