Three Steps

                                    

                                              


                          
Tires thumped angrily against potholes as Josh Richards turned onto the dark country road and slowed to a crawl. The trees around him were barely illuminated by the car's headlights. He looked at the piece of paper lying on the passenger's seat. Maybe his cousin had given him the wrong directions? There was no way somebody actually lived out here.
                          
"No, this has to be the right road," he muttered to himself, double-checking the directions. He had followed his cousin's instructions perfectly. The house must lay at the end of this road.

                          
He winced at his surroundings as he thought that over. This was why he had spent his twenty-three years in the city. No one should have to venture into a place this dark and ominous, but he guessed that's what was done when you lived in Iowa.
                          
Josh sighed as he watched the dark road in front of him. He'd enjoyed visiting his aunt and cousin, but couldn't wait to fly back to New York in the morning. A week of being their tiny town was taking its toll on this city boy. The place had no decent coffee in it. A person could go mad just from that
                          
Eyes shone in the headlights ahead of him. Josh slammed on his breaks and watched as a dark shape took its time crossing the road. Its eerie eyes never left his as it walked.
                          
"Stupid deer," he said, shivering as the creature moved to the side of the road. It stopped there, eyes still glued to Josh's. He didn't know why the animal unsettled him with its gaze. Those eyes bored into his soul in ways he couldn't even define.
                          
"Creepy deer," he muttered as he let the car roll passed it.
                          
Creepy deer. Creepy road. Stupid town. Thank god it was only for one more night.
                          
Josh frowned as light shone through the trees ahead. Why had he let his cousin talk him into going to this party? He could be in bed right now, oblivious to all until it was time to take his flight back to reality.
                          
Relief flooded through him as the road turned into a long driveway. A large two-story house stood in front of him, the windows glowing from the life inside.
                          
It was a beacon of light in the darkness around him.
                          
Parking the rental car, Josh smiled slightly at the pulse of music coming from inside. He reached the porch, his knuckles rapping hard on the door as he hoped they could hear him above the music. The door opened and a guy Josh's age stepped out.
                          
"Hey, cuz. I see you found the place," he said with a grin.
                          
Josh reluctantly returned the grin. "Just barely, Tony. Why on earth would anyone throw a party out here?"
                          
His cousin looked slightly offended. "Hey, Paul can't help where he lives."
                          
Josh glanced back over his shoulder with a frown. "I think he can."
                          
Tony laughed. "Come on, I'll introduce you to the rest of the gang."
                          


                          
***
                          


                          
After the party ended, Josh sat on the couch with a drink in his hand, listening to the story being told.
                          
"And that's how he ended up that way," Karen, Paul's wife, told them. "He had spent too much time in that old building and it changed him."
                          
"Oh, come on. That never happened," Tony scoffed. "I never heard that."
                          
Paul shrugged. "I did. Only I heard his bed had been made from all of the missing pets in his neighborhood."
                          
April giggled. "Eww, that is so gross." She looked at her sister. "Is that true, Karen?"