New Release Sample: SEMI-PSEUDO-SUPERHEROES

I have to admit that I avoided looking at the house in question. Instincts again? Who knows?

On first glance, it didn't look menacing or dangerous. However, when we got out of our cars and really looked at the place, a chill that had nothing to do with the bright fall day passed over and through me. It was an Indian summer-warm day, even with all the scarlet and gold leaves showering from the trees around us, thanks to a really strange cold spell just the week before. Well, that's what makes this time of year Indian summer, a warm reprieve after the first hard taste of the winter weather to come.

Then I realized just what I was seeing. The trees on either side of the house were utterly bare. The house didn't have any trees in the front yard, and while the grass was tall, proving no one had done any maintenance in weeks, maybe months, it was brown and patchy. I swear there were matted spots that looked moldy. It made very ugly contrast to the emerald velvet lawns on either side of the house. Except, of course, right along where the neighbors' yards touched the abandoned property. Spotty patches of brown extended into the other yards, like mold or the way dirty water wicks up into paper towels set on the edge of the puddle.

I decided to listen to my instincts, since Angela had just told me not to ignore them, and told the others what I saw. Just in case they didn't. No one looked annoyed. I had the feeling they were noticing other things, besides the evidence of how bad neighbors could lower property values.

"What do you feel?" Ford said, finally turning his gaze off the house long enough to glance at Kurt.

"Nothing." Kurt kind of frowned, kind of pouted, and those creases formed around his eyes, meaning he was concentrating hard enough to give himself a headache. "If anything is going on here, if there's something dangerous about those professors, it's not here. It's just an ugly old house."

"Perhaps." Angela tipped her head toward the house. "Shall we?"

I wanted to ask if we could all hold hands as we crossed from Neighborlee into Darbyville. The words clogged up in my throat, because I realized how much I sounded like a Kindergartener. Again, I should have listened to my instincts.