The Holiday House - Ch16
Long-fic update jumpscare. Did you know that this is my oldest fanfic? I haven't dropped it yet, despite all the hiatuses it's had. Scott discovers an intruder in his loft.
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | This is Chapter 16 | AO3
Rather than returning home last evening, Scott had spent the night camping against the cliff-face of Tracy Island’s second tallest mountain peak.
The plan, yesterday; had been to climb to the highest point of the mountain possible, then, jump. However, as it turns out from his lack of energy, he seriously underestimated the height of the mountain.
Thank god he brought his emergency hammock and sleeping bag, because he wasn't expecting to sleep out at the cliffs overnight. And, after an hour of searching for a ledge that could be considered safe enough to rest on top of, he found nothing. So, finding a place where he could be able to set up a hammock against the nooks of the vertical rocks came as a relief.
The hammock was secured with a multitude of IR certified equipment and carabineers, ensuring his safety as he prepared his sleeping bag for the night.
Then, morning arrived.
Waking up the next day came with promises: The sky was bright blue while the air felt humid yet manageable. The morning view was gorgeous; too bad he didn’t bring a camera to share the outlook later with his family. If only Virgil were here; he would’ve loved this view. Maybe he should invite him out here sometime later in the future for some quality brother time, then, they could watch the sunrise together by the peaks.
Hours later: Scott had reached the top.
Oh boy— peering down the edge where he could barely see the bottom due to the clouds beneath him— was he high up.
The villa glowedgolden with the morning sunshine beaming over it. He could see his bedroom door through the hexagonal glass roofing. Was that someone walking past the hallways? It’s hard to tell, all he could tell is that there’s just a moving dot strolling through the hallway. Maybe it was one of his brothers? Or Dad? No… It’s most likely Gordon; that fish the only one, in the fanily, possibly capable of waking up at this sort of hour in the morning.
The ocean view was much broader than the line of sight towards the house. It silently enveloped the whole island with its waves. From the front, they were soft, glimmering from afar with the sunlight reflecting them into his eyes. From the side, there were large waves, the kind that he would expect his aquatic brother to drag him out for. It would be nice to go surfing again with him some time. Even going on his own sounds like it could be so much fun.
Wait, does he have a surfboard? Note to self; talk to Dad about requesting a new surfboard.
From behind, there was his holiday loft hidden amongst the thick bushes. He could just about make the opening of the trees where the entrance allowed for skylight to shine down on. The third floor was visible too— after all, it is the only room that escaped the roof of the bushes made up of leaves— allowing for a skylight window to bring forth natural light into the rooms; that, of course, is why it was called a sunroom, after all.
Scott takes a deep breath. The beach is clear. He knew that already, but he can see it from here too. It’s wide, empty, and it’s a perfect spot to land over. As long as he times this right, he should be able to catch the wind and make it out far enough the reach the south side of the beach. The closer to the South he gets, the easier the walk home will be.
He peers over the edge. It’s steep. All it takes is one little slip up, and he’ll find himself falling for a long time before eventually hitting the bottom of the ravine between the two mountains.
For some weird reason, that thought only sparked his need to jump off the mountain even more.
He unzips his wing-suit from his blue neoprene sleeves. They’ve been hidden under there since when he had first donned them yesterday,prior to beginning his hike. It’s one of the cobalt blue prototypes that Scott had helped Brains’ test out years ago the engineer originally disposed of it upon feeling dissatisfied by the results.
Under normal circumstances, wearing such a thing should be considered a cause for concern.
Except, this is Tracy Tech.
The breeze is coldly still up here. But by the shorelines, he can see the world stifle.
He braces. He leans. He leaps. He falls. He flies.
Home. Just a few steps now.
The flight had been everything he had hoped for: Cool, and adrenaline inducing. By the time that it had ended, he had burnt out every bit of adrenaline that he had left in his system. The rest of the walk back home had thus been nothing but a slow yet enjoyable pace through the nature trails under the canopy of trees and bush past the beach. He hadn’t felt this at peace in months.
Stepping up onto the stone porch, Scott unclasped an aluminium key from a thumb-sized black carabiner that was hooked to the leather chain discretely wrapped around his neck. He grasped his thumb and fingers firmly over the key and pushed it through the lock of the front door.
The loft firstly greeted him with the kitchen’s warm Autumn smell of wood smoke and apples. A scent specifically curated for him within his custom candles. Albeit it still being Summer, Scott never deterred from his favourite scents.
Despite the warm smell, he could still feel his fingers freezing within the temperature of the loft. While cold temperatures are to be expected in a house specially designed to be void of electricity in mind, Dad had given him a list of procedures to restore warmth for poorer days.
Recalling everything that he had been told, Scott begins his mental checklist: Close the blinds, turn on the geothermic floors, get the fireplace running. That’s not too hard.
It would be most convenient if started with the geothermic flooring. There’s a dial by the fireplace that activates the floor’s heating. Oh the joys of living in the late 2060s, with technology as advanced as geothermic flooring that requires absolutely no electricity to manipulate… Except for the secret steam engine that is stationed very deep underground of course… Water can’t exactly flow without momentum, after all.
Now for the fireplace that rests between the lounge room and the wall of the open-space walkway. Luckily, due to the flax basket full of firewood inside the pantry, Scott doesn’t need to travel too far for access to fuel. It costed only a short moment and a little bit of grunt work to carry the basket out and heave it to the front of the fireplace.
Scott kneels slowly, beginning his setup with some fire-starter and kindling before working his way up to the larger log pieces. Then, with the gas lighter gifted to him by the kitchen drawers, he reaches into the fireplace and lights it up. It starts as a small glow within the darkness of the logs, however, upon a few hefty blows from his lungs, the fire grows, until it takes up the space of the kiln.
Lastly, the blinds. They’re situated at the highest floor of the house, the sunroom. If he can recall correctly, it’s a hand crank that rolls the blinds down from the top of the sunroom to the bottom of the ground floor; inefficiently yet effectively covering up the entire main window of the grand loft. Scott beams, as this would be his first time actually getting to use the crank. Excitedly, he navigates his way around the kitchen counter and makes for the ladder that leads to his bedroom.
Every step he takes up the ladder is far more eager than the other. Yet, unfortunately, without the railings to heave himself all the way to the top on his feet, he is forced to crawl the final steps until he safely makes it to the floor. At the top, his bed greets him with neatly pressed navy blue blankets and the whelming smell of fresh linen. The room was just as fresh as he left it. He grins among pulling himself upright by the grasp of the nearest furniture corner and onto his feet.
Behind him is the rectangular hole in the floor that sits above the living room, where he had stripped the railings away to widen the feeling of spaciousness. To it’s side, opposite of the main window view, is a walkway that not only leads to the side-balcony, but the next set of ladders that’ll take him to the sunroom. He twirls on his heels, ready to face the walkway…
When he jolts.
As he’s suddenly met with the dark silhouette of a man through the window, outside on his balcony, casually sitting on the railing.
“What the hell!?” He screams, adrenaline gushing down his spine like wildfire. His eyes stay firmly locked on the uninvited human figure staring back at him from the other side of the glass. The figure, tilting their head, abruptly jumps from the railing and onto the balcony floor, Scott quickly steps backwards, the underside of his knees nearly hitting the edge of the bed, if not for him to stop in time— attempting to reach for the dressing table, where a weapon potentially lays— when he suddenly catches notice of the stranger’s shape.
Wait. He squints.
That’s no stranger…
“Alan?” He calls out.
The figure, his visual details only being darkly masked by the brightness of the sunset beyond him, waves energetically from the window. It’s an action so familiar that Scott almost trembles from the ripples of relief washing over him.
Then, a realisation hits him.
“WHAT THE HELL, ALAN!?” He shrieks.
Chapter 17: “Wow, this place is nice!” Dismissing the look of shock on his older brother’s face, Alan beams as he marches in.
