HAUNTED?

“…there was not one sign of the bodies in the burnt house. It’s still a mystery where they could have disappeared to. Maybe it was a setup, maybe their ashed bodies had mixed in with the burnt remains of the house so much that they couldn’t be differed from the ashes of the wood, or maybe it was something far grimmer, something to do with jinns!” Dad finished with a bang, glancing for a little while off the road and at me sitting beside him.

Sara was scrolling on her phone.

“You could have told me I was boring you,” he muttered dispiritedly.

Sarah looked up at him in surprise, “Sorry dad, what were you say…”

She saw his pouty expression.

“Aww, sorry. It’s just that the school’s guide was messaging me and I really want to make a good impression so I can fit in fast and make friends quickly. The faster I fit in the easier it will be to get the flow back. This is the most important year of my high school.”

“It doesn't even matter, we are going to be out of this house as soon as we get accustomed to it. Why are you even trying,” Sami voiced from the back seat.

They could all sense that he was still brooding about having to say good bye to his friends due to the move. Sarah had known that this move would be the hardest on Sami, and rightfully so. He was just starting his teenage years. The time of his life where he would have to go through so many natural changes.

Having to deal with finding his people again, along with finding himself was not going to be easy. This had been worrying Sarah. And she couldn't understand how to help him navigate these awkward years. She had gone through this time to but she had had to deal with it fast so it all seemed like a hazy memory to her. All she remembered was having a really good support system in form of her friends and the lovely neighbour next door.

But right now was not the time correct time to deal with his troubles. She could practically see the anxiousness wafting from her Dad.

“Sami,” she warned, sternly.

“What! It is true and for the record the story was actually boring, I was dozing off when you were only two sentences in.”

Mr. Haris sighed. Sarah gave him a sympathetic pat on his shoulder.

Putting her phone down she said, “Don’t worry about him, I want to hear that story, and since I am now done with the messages I will give you my full undivided attention.”

“Thanks honey, but we are almost at the house now,” Mr. Haris smiled.

“Look, api! Look!” the five-year-old Alina shouted from near Sami.

The little girl had been staring out the road for the whole journey. It was the first move that she had consciously been a part of so she was very excited about it.

“Are you sure the house is only thirty years old, and not a hundred years old dad?” Sami asked looking at the grotesque, slightly blackened Victorian styled mansion from the window. The new sight brought on a new atmosphere in the car, a considerably lighter one.

“Someone was listening,” Mr. Haris teased, “Well they say that the owner of the house was a huge enthusiast of historical houses and so he designed it exactly like it.”

“The property is humongous, I thought they were ripping you off,” Sarah chimed in.

“Do you take me for a fool?”

Sarah coughed.

“Didn’t the original building burn down, though?” Sami asked

“I had the house rebuilt to match the original blueprints, though some of the rooms are still unsafe to walk in without precaution, mostly the ones on the top floor. So you two…” he looked in the mirror, eyeing the younger kids, “…can’t go their without one of us accompanying you. Look they even followed my instruction in trying to paint the house in a way that it would still look a bit burnt,”

“What, why?” Sami asked.

“To preserve the originality of the house...And because it would look good on camera.”

Sarah bit her lips and whispered to her dad, “Hey dad, wasn’t it expensive? You having the house rebuilt and all (and now that Sami’s tuition fee will be increasing)...”

The last few words remaining only her thoughts.

Her dad smiled, “You are forgetting that I now have investors backing me up. Most of the money came from them. Let’s hope this time it turns out to be actual jinns and not faulty infrastructure behind the rumors of this house being haunted,”

“I doubt that,” she smirked.

Sami scoffed, “You say that and yet you had priests exorcise the house that one time.”

“Look there is a difference in believing the existence of jinns and believing that they have enough free time to spend days having humans scream in their faces. I don’t think they fancy being around humans, much less interacting with them. We should stop thinking they find us that interesting,” Sarah protested quietly, crossing her hands around her chest.

Alina started jumping up and down in the back, “Daddy! Api! Look, look a grey jinn!”

Sarah turned her face around to see the entrance of what was to be her dwelling for at least sometime and found an old man standing at the front of the house with an unsettling smile waving at them. He had a weird aura around him and for some reason his presence didn’t quite sit right. It felt like he was made to be a character in a gory horror film.

“Who’s that?” Sarah stared at her dad.

Her dad became sheepish, “That will be...ahem...the butler.”

“What!” Sarah’s eyes widened.

Sami gave a whimpering laugh, “I don’t know if this is going to turn out to be a haunted house or not, but it sure as hell seems like we are setting it up to be turned into a murder house.”