Remember The Past's Demons

Remember the Past's Demons 2

After setting off two bombs, one dropped down into the room past the stairwell, and setting up the specialized fan system that removed any extra gas after about twelve hours, they returned to the room. Richard pulled on his specialized mask, his throw away suit crinkling as Leon pulled on his own mask.

"I really hate having to use these but who knows what's going on down there," Richard said, voice muffled through the mask.

"It's better than having issues or having to burn clothes, old or not," Leon said. Richard's parents had talked to him the day that they had bought the packs of suits and masks, telling him how Richard's dad had ended up on some heavy antibiotics because they hadn't gone in with masks and had found mold.

Richard huffed and tied the pants of his pants down around his ankles before he pulled on each booty. He picked up the medical grade gloves and pulled them on over the sleeves of his suit, Leon following his example.

With their masks on and bodies covered as much as a suit could, Richard grabbed his lantern and flashlights, turning on the flashlights as they reopened the door. "Okay, let's get this over with," Richard sighed. He stepped onto the landing with Leon. It creaked, but it held up under their weight.

Adjusting the brightness of his lantern so that it threw out a good amount of light, Richard lead the way down the stairs, marking which ones had a worrying creak with a paint pen and a frown. Leon, being heavier than him, added two more marks by the time that they got down the stairs and stood in the room.

Looking around where the light landed, they noted that the room was just that, a large room that took over a good chunk of the back basement area. It was the perfect size that was missing from the basement, not including the rental apartment that was about half the size of the upstair house. Turning up the lantern, Richard raised an eyebrow at the walls, frowning slightly.

"I'm thinkin' that we're going to need some bigger lights," Leon said as he scanned the flashlight in his hand around the room. "And I think that this was indeed part of the original house and not the add on. Just like the retailer told us."

"Yeah..." Richard drawled slowly. He was feeling creeped out, as if he wasn't welcomed in the room. He looked at the lantern and turned it up as high as it could go, adding some more light to the room. He noted that there was a hanging hook for lights near one wall, he took in the rest of the room. The walls were stone, still solid, but covered in spider webs. In the middle of the room sat five rows of short pews, each one big enough to hold four people as long as they didn't mind squishing in. They all sat before a podium that looked as if it came from a church.

There was nothing else in the room that they could see. "It's looking like it's a home-grown chapel," Leon mused. Richard nodded before carefully walking into the room, making a note to fully sweep every inch of the floor. He used both lantern and flashlight to hunt for the other exit, finding that it was tucked near one corner, and didn't have any noticeable doorknob.

Leaning down so that he could look through the hole where the knob should have been, Richard frowned. "I found the door. I can barely see the back of that one bookshelf that was bolted down, the one we need to unbolt. I think that that a couple owners back, someone sealed this room off fully. At least that's what it's looking like."

"Wonder why the last owners never found this place," Leon said. Richard stood back up, adjusted his mask and shrugged.

"Maybe because they didn't really do much and only lived here for a year." Richard turned to his friend. "Let's go get some brooms and shit, get the floors swept up and get rid of the spiderwebs. Maybe move one of those lamps down with an extra long extension cord to throw light. We can get some help from that one guy doing the bigger shit we can't do to help move that bookcase. I think I might also make plans to hit the library and get at the newspapers."

"That sounds like a plan. I'll hit my online sources," Leon said, turning to the stairs. The two headed upstairs and stripped out of the suits, shoving them into plastic bags. Noting the time, they decided to wait to do the basement room, closing the door before heading out, dropping the bags into the trash cans as they headed to their friends.

After he got home from his shower, Richard packed up his bag, including his laptop, wallet, and notebook, he looked in on their contractor. The man was finishing up the removal of the old cabinets, taking his time in pulling them free to reuse them. "I'm heading out for a couple of hours. You got everything you need?"

The man looked up from where he had just pulled a cabinet free from the wall. "Yeah, I do. I should be done stripping this place out in about an hour. It wasn't badly done. They did do floor glue on the baseboards as I found out, but that was normal for a fifties reno. If I have any time left, I'll start taking the floor up. They used glue on the tiles that isn't heat resistant so if I have ta I can use a heat gun to get it up."

Richard smiled at him. "Great. The payment went through okay?" he asked. He got a nod. "Good. Leon has the charge card if you need anything suddenly so just tell him how much and get a receipt to pay you back, Mr. Risen."

"Not a problem. I can tell ya the new cabinets will be in next week. I got the floorin' yesterday so all I have to do is pull up the old stuff. And call me Garrett. I keep tellin' ya that." Garrett pulled the cabinet further from the wall and looked it over. "Since you're so willing to let me keep whatever I can salvage, it helps keep your prices down since I can make a good penny on these. They're solid. Just need some sanding, new paint or varnish. New hardware."

"But not the best for this house in style. At least for what we need. Just remember to draw up that new contract and bring it over tomorrow so we can sign. We'll have classes for a good chunk of tomorrow, so you'll be alone until about three. We'll leave the keys in the mailbox next to the front door for you," Richard said. Garrett chuckled at that. "I'm outta here. Oh, best not go down those stairs. You're bigger in size and weight then even Leon and their iffy at the moment."

"Not an issue. I don't plan on goin' down there until I'm done up here," Garrett told him. He watched as Richard waved and headed out of the house to his car. Shaking his head, he hauled the cabinet out to his truck and loaded it in with the other pieces that he had put there. He would fix them up after he was done with the current job. He had worked with Richard's parents before and knew the kid, getting a good contract to do the electrical lines, the bathroom and help rebuild the basement apartment into something better.

Leon was learning, but both of them were pretty good at doing rebuilding as they needed, mostly because what they did was the surface rebuilds. Richard's parents had taught him well in all aspects, but when you were flipping to live and sell a house, he had learned to call in people. And Garrett was one person that was kept on their speed dial.

Turning to stare up at the house, he mentally went over what was in it. An attic had already been cleared out and was set to be re-insulated by him after the kitchen. The second floor had four bedrooms, two and a half baths, and two storage closets that flanked the stairs. That was mostly cosmetic outside of the bathrooms. The first floor held the very large living room, dining room, kitchen, another half bath, and soon, a large office. And finally there was the basement.

He had been down there already to check out the apartment that took up half of the basement with it's own door out. It was a good space, more studio then one room, but still good. The guys though were thinking of cleaning out the rest of the basement, outside of a laundry room down there, and extending the apartment. The plan was to turn it into a one bedroom apartment with a nicer bathroom and kitchen. It would bring in quite a bit of money from someone looking for a good apartment in a quiet neighborhood.

But still, there was something creepy about the rest of the basement. His parents had always told him to stay away from the house, and his friend's all knew of the legends around the land and the houses that had stood on it. He still remembered when he had first walked into the house before they found the basement door, going over what they wanted to do with it. Walking into the laundry room through the apartment, he had shivered slightly.

Brushing off those thoughts and the memory of the stories that he and his friends used to tell each other, Garrett walked back into the house. He was intent on finishing off the removal of the cabinets. His mind was was already turning to what kind of hardware he could use on them, and the type of varnish to use to get the most bang for his buck.