Chapter 1
“Liz, let me stay here with you please.” I sigh, plopping down onto my bed in my emptying room. I look up to see Liz sitting on the edge of the bed giggling at me.
“Oh come on Izzy. You are only moving across town. Plus you’ll be closer to Connor.” She winks at me with her light green eyes.
I roll my ocean blue eyes at her causing her to laugh at me. “Still Liz, the house is ancient.” I whine and lean back staring at the ceiling.
I look up at her noticing she is sitting there on her phone ignoring me. “Liz! You’re not supposed to ignore your best friend while they complain!” She starts laughing causing me to shoot her a glare but then start laughing at how ridiculous I sound.
“I should probably head home,” Liz says walking to the door.
“See you later.” I smile looking up at her. She nods and heads out the door. Shortly after I hear my step mom call me from downstairs.
“Izellah, can you come down here?” She yells from the kitchen. I roll my eyes setting my phone down and walk downstairs.
“What Stephanie?” I ask annoyed as I come down the stairs.
“Izellah watch your tone,” my dad yells at me without looking up from the box he is packing up. I just roll my eyes which earns me a glare from Stephanie.
“Is everything in your room packed up and ready to go? The movers are coming today,” Stephanie says as she bends down helping my father with packing up the final dishes that are in the kitchen.
“They aren’t supposed to come till tomorrow!” I groan, frustrated. I glare at my dad and Stephanie.
“Izellah do not raise your voice and go finish packing,” my father yells, giving me a cold stare.
I scoff and rush up the stairs slamming the door behind me. I lock it and plop onto my bed hiding my face in my pillow. I scream into the pillow muffling the sound. Tears drip down my face and soak into my pillow cases.
About an hour later, there’s a knock at the door. “Izzy?” I hear my father. I just roll over in my bed not wanting to let him in.
“Go away,” I grumble out as I wipe my eyes from the dried tears.
“Izzy please let me in. I’m sorry for yelling.” I sigh, getting up, opening the door for him.
“Dad I don’t want to move. I like this house,” I whine looking down at my lap after I sat back down on my bed.
“Izzy come on. You’ll have a bigger room and it’s not even far from here,” he says sitting on the edge of my bed. I look up at my dad. I don’t even look like him at all. He has dark brown eyes and light brown hair and my eyes are as blue as the ocean and my hair is as black as the night sky.
“Now come on the movers are here.” He gives me his hand and pulls me off the bed. I grab a box and so does my dad and we bring them down to the truck.
After about an hour we have everything in the truck and we all get into dad’s car and head to our new home.
We drive up to the house and I look at the sad excuse of a house that’s in front of me. It’s got faded red brick covering the outside. Three large white columns that stretch from the ground to the roof that look like they are about to crumble to the ground. In between the columns is a white fence making a patio and balcony. The house is a total of two stories plus an attic and a look out room on the top.
“Why did we have to move here? Our other house was nicer!” I yell out frustrated.
“Because we wanted to move. Now stop complaining and go pick out your room,” he says without looking at me.
I sigh heading inside and look around. It looks just as old inside as it does outside. The paint is chipping off the walls. Most of the carpet is a stained, old creamy color. I walk up the stairs and with each step they creek like they will collapse under my feet. I look around upstairs. It looks just like the downstairs, old. I walk into one of the bedrooms in the back of the house. I decide to use it as my room because it’s the farthest from my dad and Stephanie’s room and it has a view of the backyard. Slowly the movers bring up the furniture and I help them make sure everything is where I want it.
The moving truck leaves when everything was out of the truck. I sit on my bed checking my phone when I heard a bang come from my bathroom. I slowly get up looking into the bathroom but can’t see anything that would be the source of what I heard. I hear the sound again and it sounds like it’s coming from behind the mirror.
I decide that it’s probably nothing and start opening the box that is filled with my clothes. I empty everything out in my bed and dig in another box to find hangers. I start by putting hangers on all my shirts so I can hang them up in the closet.
When I finish putting hangers on all of my clothes I grabbed a handful of shirts to start hanging them up and organizing them in my closet. While I’m in the closet I feel someone’s arms wrap around me. I jump as high as a kangaroo.
“Baby, it’s only me.” Connor whispers trying to calm me down, knowing that he startled me. He pulls his arms away and brushes a stray strand of hair out of my face.
“Thank you for coming,” I whisper, looking up at Connor as he places a kiss on my forehead.
“No problem,” he says softly. “Now let me help you hang up these beautiful clothes of yours.” I giggle as he takes the clothes out of my hands and starts hanging them up. Connor acts like a typical bad boy at school but is really as sweet as puppy.
We unpack two boxes before he looks at me. “I’ve got to get going baby but I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” Connor smiles at me and kisses my forehead. I nod and hug him before he leaves.
After he leaves, I head back to my room and start to hear the same sound in my bathroom but it’s louder. It sounds like someone is banging on the wall but it’s impossible because no one is in the room behind it.
“Dad. Dad!” I yell running downstairs.
“What Izzy?” He asks, annoyed.
“I keep hearing a weird sound in my room,” I stutter.
“You are just paranoid. It’s late, you should head to bed.”
I let out a long sigh nodding my head, walking upstairs. I get ready for bed then lay down and stare at the ceiling. I try ignoring the feelings that someone is watching me. I end up drifting off to sleep only to wake up in the middle of the night hearing someone’s feet shuffling across the floor. I reach for the lamp on my nightstand. The light illuminates my room to reveal the source of the sound.
Stephanie is there hovering above me. She has a blank stare on her face and a large kitchen knife in hand. I quickly shuffle to get off my bed on the opposite side.
“Stephanie?” I stutter.
I only receive a blank stare from her again as she stalks towards me blocking my path to the door, the only way out of my room.
“Dad!” I scream, trying to get help. I can’t get to my phone to get help.
Stephanie snapped out of it. She looked down at her hand seeing the large knife. I can tell she doesn’t understand what is going on. “Oh my god Izellah. I’m sorry, I must have been sleepwalking.”
I stare at her speechless as she leaves my room. I know that wasn’t her just sleepwalking. Once she is in her room I grab my phone and call Connor. I don’t get a response so I stay in my room with the door locked. I spend the rest of the night on my phone trying to find the story behind this scary house. There’s more here than me just being paranoid. I come across an article that was published in 1990. My eyes moved left to right frantically, as I couldn’t believe what I was reading. I find out that in 1990 a family of three lived in this house and one night the mother killed her husband along with their six year old daughter.
I grab my phone again this time texting Connor. ‘Babe, I need out of this house. Stephanie was in my room with a knife and was about to kill me. Can I come over please?’ I wait anxiously for a response staring off into the darkness thinking. The house is silent but is suddenly interrupted by a scream. It’s from my father, I know it is.
“I need to get out of this house,” I mutter to myself. I grab my phone and a hoodie before sneaking down the stairs as quietly as I can.
“Where do you think you are going?” Stephanie questions in a demonic voice. I see the knife once more in her hand but this time it’s covered in red oozing blood. I know it’s my father’s blood.
“L-let me go.” My hands start to shake causing my phone to drop to the floor. She blocks my path to the front door. I check behind me seeing the path to the back door is clear. I bolt to the door slamming it behind me.
I run as fast as a cheetah out to the back of the house. I check over my shoulder to see Stephanie running behind me, quickly catching up. I run off the property towards Connor’s house and once again check over my shoulder to see that she’s gone. When I reach his house I ring the doorbell knowing that it was going to wake his whole family up but I can’t stay outside or go back into that house. When the lights turn on I see Connor and his mother walking towards the door. When Connor sees me and opens the door I collapse into his arms and tears cascade down my face like a waterfall.
“M-my dad’s dead. Stephanie killed him,” I cry out into his shoulder. Connor helps me inside and I explain what happened and they both look at me like I’m crazy.
Connor’s mom agrees to let me stay the rest of the night and in the morning we would all go back to my house to see what had happened.
In the morning we got ready and went to my house. Unlocking the door to the house I peek my head in first. My jaw drops in terror. Looking around I see bright red blood streaks all along the walls. Connor’s father walks in and immediately pushes me behind him. Walking through the hallway he yells to see if anyone is still in there. When he got no response he took out his phone and dialed 911.
Connor wraps his arms around me. “I’m sorry Izzy,” he whispers softly into my ear. “But it will all be okay, I promise.” I know Connor will keep that promise and I actually felt safe in that moment but Stephanie is gone and I know that this won’t be the end.
