Haunted

Reiner rolled his sleeping bag up and placed it by his duffel bag at the door. Reiner checked his phone to see if Marco called. It was 5:25 AM so he had a bit of time until Marco was supposed to come get him. Reiner hoped that he would bring some coffee with him, he barely got any sleep that night due to the gut feeling that he was being watched. He just spent the past three hours catching up on the last season of The Mandalorian until he watched the season two premiere with Gabi on Halloween and watching the last season of The Clone Wars. Reiner decided to do one final sweep of the house before he left. Nothing seemed to have changed since he had last been there. His heart skipped a beat when he looked inside the library. The book he threw. It was back on the table with the bookmark inside. Reiner slowly opened the book as if it would explode. He felt like he would be sick when he saw that the bookmark was on the same page it was on before he shut it. Reiner tried to come up with a rational explanation until he heard a car horn outside. Reiner ran downstairs and looked outside to see Marco walking towards the front door. Reiner grabbed his bags and walked out the door. The morning air was a bit chilly as Marco helped him put his bags in the trunk. Reiner sighed as he felt the heater blasting when he got into the passenger's seat. “I didn’t know how you take your coffee, so I just got you my usual.” Marco said as he handed him a cup of coffee. Reiner thanked him as he took a sip. A little bit sweeter than he usually takes his coffee but it was good enough for him. “Do you mind if I turn some music on?” Marco asked as they pulled out onto the highway.
Reiner shrugged. Reiner was a little surprised when he heard Gerard Way coming from the speakers. “You never struck me as an MCR guy.” Reiner said.
“Oh yeah, I’m a huge fan!” Marco said as he tapped his fingers on the steering wheel to the rhythm of “Boy Division”
“So did you see anything?” Marco asked.
Reiner suddenly remembered the photos.
“Oh yeah, I was meaning to ask you about the attic.” Reiner said as he pulled out his phone.
Marco’s brow furrowed. “The attic?”
“Yeah. I found all this stuff up there and was wondering why it wasn’t somewhere safer.” Reiner said as he handed Marco his phone.
Marco’s eyes lit up as he saw the photos.
“How did you get up there?” Marco asked
Reiner was confused. “The staircase at the end of the East hallway with the white door.”
Marco gave him a strange look.
“You’re sure you used a staircase?”
Reiner’s brow furrowed.
“...Yeah I’m pretty sure I used a staircase.”
Marco chuckled.
“The only staircase to the attic collapsed when my parents were teenagers over thirty years ago.”

After an hour of small talk, Marco dropped Reiner off at his house and invited him to lunch at the diner later on. Reiner dropped his bags in the living room and walked into the kitchen. There was a note from his mother saying that she and his father had to go pick up some more shipping boxes from the next town over and that Gabi was at Zofia’s house watching The Mandalorian with the other two boys he met at the diner, Falco and Udo. Reiner grabbed a glass of water from the kitchen before heading upstairs to his room. There were some boxes in his room but at least his bed was clear. He would have to unpack all of them this week or his mother would start nagging him about it. Reiner went to go take a shower before he could go to sleep. He couldn’t stop thinking about the painting. Those green eyes were burnt into his memory. Reiner stood there until the water started getting cold. Reiner got out of the shower and into some sweatpants and a tank top. He flopped onto his bed and pulled a blanket over him. Reiner was about to drift off to sleep until he heard a quiet gasp behind him.
“W-where am I?”
Reiner jolted up and whirled around. His heart started beating a million miles an hour when he saw a tall kid with black hair and dark green eyes staring down at him. It was the guy from the painting.
For the first time in his life, Reiner screamed like a little girl