Home

As soon as Alessa got out of the car she knew that there wasn’t something right with it. Nothing on the outside gave it away. It was a simple farm house, painted a nice eggshell blue with white shudder windows on all three floors. The fenced deck was cute and come complete with two rocking chairs that looked out at a wide, green property. That was apparently Lilly-Anna’s favorite part as she ran straight to the swing set.

“Lilly, be careful on that. It might have old nails or something sticking out from it.”

“Dear, you worry too much. This is a good sign. We want the girls to like this house...right?” Their father wrapped an arm around their worried mother and gave her a reassuring kiss on the forehead. “What about you Ally?”

Alessa cringed at the nickname before looking up at her dad. “What about what?” They had pulled her out of school which she didn’t mind. School really wasn’t her thing and it wasn’t like she had friends there or anything. The thing she was going to miss the most was her room and the forest she would explore. Not to mention all the wild life that she’d watch day and night.

“Well your sister is currently playing on the swing. I’d say that would get you an extra five minuets to claim your room before her.” He winked at her. “Just don’t grab the biggest one or your mom and I will veto you out.”

For once, her dad made sense. Looking at her little sister completely oblivious in her own world she grabbed her stuff and tried to move as naturally as she could towards their new house. If she moved too quickly her sister would notice but if she walked at a normal pace she’d probably just continue playing in her world. Alessa was reminded of one of those stupidly, annoying, stealth levels she hated in her video games. Now, to put those skills to use.

As soon as she passed the threshold of the door a cold chill ran down her spine, every hair on both her arms stood at attention while her mind raced for reasons why it did. While wrapping her arms around her body she looked up at one of the banisters and suddenly it felt like what she thought walking into a ripple of melted glass would feel like. Instantly dread and panic lit up inside her and all she could think of was “run!” That’s exactly what she did. It took all of her courage to walk underneath it but as soon as she did she took off up the stairs. Right when her foot hit the last stair everything went back to normal and she remembered why she was in the house in the first place.

“No fair!” Whelp, Lilly-Ann finally figured out what was going on. Alessa giggled as she ran down the halls trying to figure out which would be the perfect room. There were so many of them it was like a maze. Lilly-Ann and I will have to make a map of this place later. She tucked the thought away as she opened yet one among the numbers of doors before. It was a medium sized room, had two windows and a good amount of space for her to put away her stuff. The thing that sold her though was the window seat. It had a perfect view of the woods and looked comfy enough to listen to her music and continue her drawings.

“I claim this one!” The words came out loud as soon as she heard the small pitter patter of her sister’s feet.

“Aw man! All I could find were closets.” She kicked the floor and stuck out her bottom lip. With a big sigh she left the room to go and try to find her own. Alessa would help but she had her own unpacking to do.

It took up the whole day but while the sun was setting the moving van emptied. “Well that was the last of it. Congrats family we are now officially moved in!” He wrapped a sweaty arm around their mom who made a face.

“As much as I love you honey, you stink.”

“That’s the stink of a man who just moved his family to a new start.”

“No matter the stink I think we should all wash off and then we can eat our take out.” Everyone murmured in agreement.

“Oh dad!” Steven turned around to his daughter.

“What’s up Ally?”

Another cringe but she knew she’d never get him to stop; it was just another dad thing. “Did you feel really cold when you first walked into the house?”

“Of course, the heat hasn’t been turned on yet. Plus, it was so warm from moving everything I figured it’d be nice to have a cool house to walk into...Might be a bit of a problem now though. Ah well get all those little things done tomorrow.” He ruffled her hair before walking into the house which didn’t seem to bug him in the least.

What does he think little means. Heat, electricity...No internet!” She rushed into the house completely ignoring the chill this time over terror of not having the thing she needed the most.