Intro ~
It all started last Tuesday night…
Me and my family had just moved to our new house, not too far away from our old one but in a neighborhood we hadn’t known very well. I was sound asleep in my bed, still just a mattress on the floor, and I was abruptly woken by a noise in the direction of my closet. I soon checked the time on my phone, it was quite earlier than i had thought reading “3:23 am”. I set my phone back on the drawer next to my bed and drifted back to sleep… I couldn’t help thinking about that weird sound I heard . It was probably just my sister sleep-walking or something.. From then on, something about my new house had felt very very wrong.
Chapter 1
I hear my doorbell ring “Coming!” It was around 6 pm. I had invited my friends over for the weekend since my parents had taken my sister, Poppy, on a trip to the beach. I ran up to the front door, almost slipping on the floor tiles. I open the door with an excited look on my face “Hi besties!” I welcome my friends Yuki and Melanie in “Hey Astrid! Says Melanie’s mother dropping off her and Yuki since their families are so close. Bags in hand with sleeping bags, snacks and any extra things Melanie and Yuki walk inside. “God these bags are heavy” Yuki comments, dropping her bag on the tiled floor with a thud. “Anyways hi Astrid!!” “Melanie honey you call me if you need anything, I’ll be at home” says Melanie’s mom blowing Melanie an air kiss. “Bye momma” Melanie says softly back and waves. We watch her get in the car and drive off.
I close the door soon after and look at my friends now inside “EEEEE, HI!!” “How are you guys?! I’ve barely seen you this summer!!” I ask my friends. “We’ve been doing alright, been to the pool a few times, how has moving into this new house been?” Melanie speaks up. Unnatural to me since Melanie isn’t usually very talkative or at the least she’s very quiet. “It’s been ok, still getting used to the environment.” I tell her while stretching my arm out. “Pretty tiring as well. Come with me, you can drop off your bags in my room.” I take them to my new bedroom. It’s on the first floor of my house so it doesn’t take long to get there. I share the wall with my sister, her room being on the other side. My room still had a few boxes since we had just moved in, holding papers and decorations I once had in my old room. I do miss my old house but this one is fine as it is.“You guys go ahead and drop off your bags here.” Melanie and Yuki drop their heavy bags on the side of my room looking quite exhausted. Melanie pulls out their sketch book from the front pocket of their bag, she brings that sketch book almost everywhere we go, school, the pool, ANYWHERE. “Would you like to see some drawings I’ve been working on-?” Melanie asks soon after. “YESS!!” Me and Yuki both say. We huddle around Melanie to look. “I drew you two when I was bored.” she says pointing to a page in her sketch book. It shows me and Yuki in a sketchy style sitting in the grass together. “Woahhh it’s so pretty” Yuki says, eyes widened. “So uh, what do you guys want to do.” I say looking around my new room for things we could mess with. Melanie mumbles “Don’t know.”
“I mean my parents and Poppy aren’t home so we can practically do whatever” I say. They said I could stay home as my “babysitter” (my neighbor who just turned 18) would keep me safe. I doubt that she’s actually going to come, so I invited my friends over! “Well.. before we do anything, aren’t you guys hungry?!” Says Yuki holding up her phone with our local pizzeria on the line.
We take turns ordering what we’d like being, pepperoni pizza, plain cheese pizza and some bread sticks. “That should be all of it! Our address is 113 Willow ln” Yuki addresses the woman on the phone. There was a long pause. Yuki gives me a nervous look. “She asks if we’re being serious.. Says this property has been unused for over 20 years.” “That.. doesn’t make any sense, did we get the address wrong or something?” “We could umm go pick it up?” Melanie suggests. I’m still startled by the fact that this property isn’t supposed to be used. “We could ask Tori to drive us there to pick up our pizza.” I exclaim, questioning if that was a good idea, I wouldn’t like to bother her.. Tori is our neighbor who’s supposed to be babysitting us. Soon later we walk next door, knock on Tori’s door and wait. The door screeches open “Hey kiddos” says Tori looking down at us “Watcha doing here” Melanie looks at her feet nervously “We were wondering if you could drive us to Booty smackin goods pizza (filler)” “Just to pick up our pizza!” I ask Tori in my most convincing voice. “I CALL SHOTGUN” Screams Yuki “Chill!! I can drive you guys there real quick” Tori says giggling. Honestly I’m glad she hadn’t been watching us. Since she isn’t we have FREEDOM. We hop in Tori’s surprisingly clean truck, Yuki and Tori sitting up front while me and Melanie are squished in the back. Tori keeps her car quite warm as she drives us over to get our pizza “Sooo what are you kids up to, anything fun?” Tori asks us. Nobody speaks up, pure silence other than the engine. “Well we haven’t done anything much yet-” Yuki interrupts me clearing her throat “I was thinking we could get a uh house tour or something, Astrid.” she says in an ironically deep voice looking back at me from the front seat. That reminds me, my friends haven’t been to my new house yet, it would’ve been the polite thing to do. “Shoot I forgot to do that, not used to- you know being in a new house.” I exclaim giggling from the deep voice. “It’s ok Astrid, really I don’t mind, plus I like getting used to the house myself.” Melanie says, looking at me. Yuki often jokes around with me but other than that it’s really nice that my friends are so forgiving and kind to me. Especially since I’m so forgetful. Soon Tori pulls up to booty smackin goods pizza (filler). We hop out and walk to the main building. Tori holds the door open for us “Here you are.” The small chime connected to the door is set off by the 4 of us walking in. Tori walks up to the front counter, me and my friends behind her. The pizzeria had been quite empty, a family or 2 eating here. Tori rests her arms on the counter “Got a to go for.. Yuki?” She says looking at Yuki grinning. “Yes mam.” the man at the counter said, handing Tori a bag labeled “Yuki Pizza” in big red letters. Yuki walks up next to Tori at the counter handing the man a 20 dollar bill “You can um keep the change.” He smiles back at her “Thanks kiddo, you girls have a nice rest of your day.” He waves as we walk away, Tori bag in hand. I offered to hold the pizza bag on our way back home, It smelled of the creamy cheese and bread crust, delicious.
The car ride home was pretty quiet, only the sound of the car engine. As Tori drives us back to her house I wonder what had been going on in my house that I didn’t know about. I stare out the window mindlessly until we get back. We slide up to Tori’s little house, thank her for the ride,and walk down the street to my house. I unlock my door with the key my parents had handed to me before they left for the beach. I try to have it in my pockets at all times so I don’t lose my way into my own house. We go on inside, I take my friends to my kitchen/dining area so we can eat. “Lets try to not make a mess, my parents would kill me if they came home to cheese and sauce all over the walls.” I say opening up the bag carrying pizza and bread sticks. Yuki and Melanie sit down next to each other at the dining room table. I set the pizza boxes of plain cheese and pepperoni on the table next to them along with some plastic plates I had gotten from a box next to the kitchen sink. “Sorry about the mess just.. You know, moving stuff.” We had lived in our old house so long it’s been pretty hard to get used to. We moved because the property was getting hard to take care of from what I know. I sit down next to Yuki getting myself a plate with plain cheese pizza. I pick at my food for a moment before picking up the slice and shoving it in my mouth. I hadn’t had pizza in quite a while since my parents are all about everything healthy, it’s quite refreshing. We take a few minutes to finish up, Yuki and Melanie talk about their art… stuff while I just sit and listen in. I’m not much of an artsy, drawing person, I really have tried to get into painting and stuff but I’d rather stick to hanging out and occasionally writing short stories.
Melanie handed me their plate, she hadn’t eaten much but that was pretty normal for her, small appetite. “How about we get a little house tour about now.” says Yuki handing her pizza crust over to Melanie for she refused to eat them. I take everyone’s plates to the trash bin I had set up in the kitchen before my parents had left, yawning. “Yeah ok I’ll give you a little tour.” Honestly I still hadn’t looked around my house too much, tough when you grow up in the same house from when you were born to your 14th birthday.
I started in the room we were currently in. “As you should know this room is the kitchen and dining room space.” This room having a small kitchen connected to an island, we had a bigger dining space in the living room that would be my preferred place to eat with family though. I then take my friends to the hallway front way from the entrance, connecting to my room, my sisters room and my living room through the closest doorway. I show them the living room, still pretty empty, many boxes stacked up and a table on the left of the room. “Pretty boring, I know.. Promise my house will be cooler once we actually get stuff organized and get rid of all of these boxes.” I say in disappointment. I feel bad for inviting them over in all of this mess, I still think it’s worth it to see them though. “