The Darkin House

This was our first ever story… ever. Besides the awful one we did the year before, but, uh, that doesn’t count. Anyway, this story means a lot to us and we want to get it right. So we’re currently trying to rehash the plot, make it actually work, and then we’ll talk through it and I’ll start writing it again. Might be a long time, though. We have a lot of other projects going right now. I think 10 or 20. And we add new ones a lot, but the Darkin House is very important to us, so we definitely won’t ignore it. We’re just giving it time, because we aren’t good enough writers right now, and it deserves the best we can give it.

Connor’s point of view:
It was our first day of school and Great Aunt Opal was still at the hospital. The girls hadn’t talked to us about the incident. And to tell you the truth I kind of liked it better that way. I really didn’t know what to say to them. It was their fault, okay it was our fault, that Great Aunt Opal was in hospital. We didn’t even know if she was really all that bad. We were just riding on what some girls in our closet told us. No real actual information. Nothing could actually prove who they said they were.
I continue to contemplate this as my little half-sister Molly walked over to place Ms. Flopsy, her stuffed rabbit, on the table next to me.
“May we join you? ” she asked in a British accent.
“Sure” I said smiling. Then I turned away again to question my actions.
“What’s wrong?” She asked her big blue eyes staring at me.
“The girls” I said without realizing what I had done. After I said it I put my head down on the counter and groaned. Why was I so stupid?
“You mean the ones that pictures?” She asked
“what?”
“The girls in the pictures” she said it like she was surprised I didn’t notice.
“What pictures?”
She frowned up at me and put her hands on her hips. And she dashed into the other room and came back with a picture frame in her hand.
“Theses and ones” she said handing me the frame.
I looked out of the picture and realized that it was a picture of Susan and Rebecca . An old-fashioned photo all splotchy and fuzzy. Still I can make out that it was Susan and Rebecca. Rebecca sat in a chair and Susan stood behind her. Looking as fierce as ever. That was Susan all right.
“Where did you-” I start to say.
“They’re all around the house”
“really?!”
“Yes-” she began to say but I hardly had time to hear because I was out of my chair leaving my breakfast unfinished. As I looked around the room I realize that there were pictures everywhere. And almost every single one of them had the girls in it or at least one of the girls.
I skidded out of the living room heading straight for where Devon was on the porch.
“Devon!” I shouted when I saw him
He turned and smiled then gestured to the garden.
“Hey did you notice the garden looks better?” he said as I approached.
“What?” I ask you forgetting my reason for seeking him out.
“Yeah, for some reason it looks better, like someone taking care of it and you know what else I could have sworn I left my shoes on the floor this morning and now they’re upstairs in my room. And the house, you know how there’s dust everywhere all the time, well used to be all the time, it’s all gone.” He sounded very satisfied with himself that he realized all this.
I nodded to myself realizing that is all true. The downstairs did look neater, everything look polished.
“You know what else ” I said just remembering why I had came.” This pictures of them all over the house.”
“Really?” He said surprised
I was about to say more and perhaps shown him the picture. But then my stepmother called the two of us out to the bus.
“I’ll show you later” I told him as he rushed to catch the bus.

* * *
I spent most of my day wondering what I was going to do when I got home. But once I did get home I was ordered right back out again by my stepmother. She told me to drive my brother Devon and myself to the hospital to check on Great Aunt Opal. I had no time to check in with the girls.
When we got in the car Devon said “She probably wants us to see if she’s dead or not.”
“Probably” I agreed.
It didn’t take long to get to the hospital. The woman at the desk directed us to where we need to go to find Great Aunt Opal. When we entered the room she was sitting on one of those big hospital beds. That could adjust themselves with a remote.
“Why hello boys” she said in her crackly voice. She sounded weak and tired as if the stress of the entire thing was just too much for her.” Have you come to keep me company? ”
“Actually-” Devin began but I elbowed him in the rib before he could continue. He shot me a nasty look but I ignored it.
“Great aunt Opal” I said firmly “I disobeyed orders and opened the closet door”
For a moment she looked like she was going to rip my head off. Like she was about to jump right out of the hospital bed and wring my neck. But she didn’t, instead should contain her emotions and smiled sweetly at me. A bit too sweetly.
I glanced over at Devon, for some support but it looks like he want to kill me to. His expression said something like ‘why the hell did you go do that?!’
“Now why would you go and do that dear?” Great aunt Opal asked after a moment.
“Curiosity” I said smoothly “and-” I pause for a moment my voice a bit shaky. “We found some… girls… in the closet.”
“Then you know about magic.” She said “what did they tell you.”
“That you were possessed” Devin put in.
“I’m not” great Aunt Opal said “they lied to you they are the ones who are evil. They poisond that house since the beginning. All except for one, they’ve killed every person who has ever lived there. Always letting one live, to tell the story you know. I had trapped them in their when I was little without knowing it. That is why we all lived. It’s all their fault. How suppose explaining how they lived there for so long? They’ve stolen other people’s life forces. Don’t you see?”
The story sound believable. More believable than the girls story. Great aunt Opal sounded like she knew what she was talking about. I thought I had read in a book somewhere that you could steal people’s life forces using magic. Granted it was a fiction book but now I knew that magic wasn’t fiction.
Devon looked like he want to say something. But I had the feeling that we should leave, I got what I needed to know. Explaining to her that I suddenly forgotten something. As we left she shouted something at us.
“Trap the girls, they are only using you.”
Well I thought they had definitely been using using recently. Like the thing with the plate. Still I need some evidence. I needed to go to the library. But as I walked on the hall Devon begin to struggle against my graph.
“Why did you do that?! The girls told you not to! They said she was dangerous and, and… Why would you do that! ”
“Because I need to know the truth!” I shouted at him.
This seems to me to pause and think for a moment. A rare thing for Devon.
“You mean the girls could be lying”
“yes” I said hollowly
“what do we do?” He asked
“we find out the truth” I said and was tempted to say the line ‘to the library !’

* * *
when we got the library I slid into one of the chairs that occupy a desk that had a computer and begin to look up the Darkin House. At first I didn’t get anything. Then I searched locally. And tons of stuff came up. Stuff about haunting, stuff about the house, stuff about people live there, stuff about murders.
There were pages and pages of it. So much stuff that I need at least a few hours to read through it all. So I decided to skim out the import bit’s to tell to Devon.
Like the part where was true that only one person lived from every household. Have a great aunt Opal’s entire family had survived. Our family. That too mysterious girls had lived in the house. There is a website all about it. They had come over from England and there was quite a few pictures of them. There was also pictures of the first family. The father was a seamon and the mother, well she was like any other mother in the 1600s . They had three children a girl and two boys. Apparently only one of the boys lived to be a man. They also come over with the two cousins of the mother whose name was Maria.
Maria was the name of the ‘ghost’ apparently. As I read through the website there was information that supported both stories. There was also some pretty creepy stuff like witch burnings. Apparently Susan and Rebecca Darkin both died on the stake on the date 1655 on a Monday. Some pretty creepy stuff.
When I told the story, or at least the important bits of the story, to Devon he still seemed to be on the girls side. To tell you the truth I was starting to believe Great Aunt Opals story.
In the end there was only one thing to do. That was to ask the girls. Talk upfront and honestly whether or not they were cold-blooded murderers. I was the only thing we could do. The last option we had to get the truth. And to be truthful I wasn’t too excited about it.

**Sorry for taking so long. I was in Florida… No Internet down there. But I’m back now and here the next chapter I hope you enjoy!**

Connor’s point of view:
There are only two more days left of summer vacation. And I was starting to wonder how was going to use these two days wisely. Of coarse number one is spending the most time possible with Rebecca. Sadly Susan had to come along with her as well. To tell you the truth she kind of creped me out. Still, I thought as I scooped another fork load of pancakes into my mouth what to do with two girls from millions of years ago that he can do magic and art allowed to be seen outside of that room.
I looked over at Devon he was mechanically shoveling pancakes into his mouth still half asleep.
“Devon” I whispered “meet me up stairs when you’re done” as soon as I said that I got up and took my plate to the sink. Then I walked up the stairs to wait for Devon. He came and a few moments later.
“So what’s this all about?” He asked
“I was going to ask the girls what we can do to help them.” I said “but, I’m scared to do it alone… Mostly because of Susan “I piped up .
“All right I’ll help you” Devon agreed
And just like that the door swung open.
“Creepy… how they can do that?” I said as we walked in.
“So you want to know how you can help us?” Susan said looking actually a bit pleased by this. Best expression I see on her yet.
“Yes” I said quietly
“well that’s good” Rebecca said shutting the door.
“You can help us” Susan said “by getting rid of Great Aunt Opal.”
“Get rid of her you don’t mean like kill her right?!” I shouted
“killing her would be ideal” Susan said
“but” Rebecca continued “that means we would also be killing Opal as well, and she doesn’t deserve to die.”
“Good point” Susan said
I exhaled my held breath. At least you wouldn’t have to kill her but how we were going to get rid of her? It’s not like we could just send her off to a home.
“No worries” Rebecca said smiling “we have many plans, right sister?”
Susan nodded and walked in to her closet then bring out rather thick book. She opened it up and to my surprise the inside was hollow. Instead of having the pages it had a plate. Very carefully picked up a piece of China. Then she held it so that all could see.
“This is an exploding piece of China” Susan informed
Exploding piece of China? Does that mean it would go boom and everything? Or was she trying to pull my leg? Then again all that going on recently had been quite real, so if she said it was an exploding piece of China, then it was an exploding piece of China.
“You see boys the reason why you’re so important to this task is that you are going to be setting the pace of China downstairs. And as soon as Opal picks it up it will shatter in her hand. Therefore the family will automatically take her to the hospital. And that is how we will get her out of the house.” Rebecca said very simply.
“Do you think you’re up to it?” Susan asked.
“Sure” Devon said before I could say ‘no’.
“good” Rebecca said as Susan pressed the China plate into Devon hands.
I couldn’t say anything as Susan was pushing both me and my brother out the door. Rebecca said sweetly as we left. “We’ll put the planned in action tomorrow afternoon so find somewhere to hide the plate till then.”
I nodded and felt the wind from the door being slammed behind us as we once again stewed in our room.
“You idiot” I said flatly and then walked over to my bed and buried myself in it.

* * *
All that night and into the morning the China plate lay underneath my brothers pillow.
“Couldn’t you have found a better place for it?” I asked him that morning.
“It was late” he whispered “I was tired”
I rolled my eyes at him and finished putting away dishes.
“It’s not like anyones going to look underneath their” he continued “at least if they’re not the tooth fairy.”
“The tooth fairy doesn’t exist” I said
“why not” he asked quizzically “I mean witches exist don’t they, so why not the tooth fairy”
I turned away. Back to the dishwasher. He did make a point. A really stupid point but a point nonetheless. Witches did exist. And if witches existed then it was safe to say that things like the tooth fairy, the Easter Bunny, the Sandman and maybe even Santa Claus could exists to.
It was all possible theory but just that a theory, nothing more nothing less.
“You have a point” I said after a while
Devon grinned at me he knew that he had caught me off guard with his remark. Now he was going to revel in my moment of my ignorance and his genius. Isn’t that a rare moment for him.
“You want to help set the plate?” He asked after his silent gloating.
I nodded and he ran upstairs and got the plate. He was back down a moment handing it to me.
I found at him “did anyone see you” I asked
“of course not I’m not that much of a idiot”
“I wouldn’t put it past you” I said quietly under my breath.
Then the both of us walked over to the China cubrt placing the dish so that it would be used during dinner. As a hell the dish up the rest I realized that it was not anywhere near similar. I thought they said they thought this through. Just as I was about to open my mouth to make a snide remark. I watch as the plate began to change my hand it was fixing itself so that it looked exactly like the plates around it. I was so surprised I almost dropped the plate itself.
Now I held the plate out again, the new one, and it looked exactly if not a complete replica of its neighbor.
“So that’s magic” Devon said quietly
I nodded as I held the plate out put in place. So they Devon opened the cupboard and I placed in the exploding China plate.
And now our part of the deal was done.
All we have to do is wait.
Sad thing is me and Devon aren’t too good at waiting.

* * *
All we did, all day was wait. Wait and wait and wait and wait. Until the sun went down and waited. We waited for our stepmother to say it was dinnertime. They’re going to have a big dinner before school started since this was to be our last day. And now the two of us, me and Devon has spent our entire last day waiting.
Yes waiting for plate to explode. Which I suppose made it a little bit better, at least we get to see something explode.
Then again I should feel a little guilty at that last thought. We were exploding our Great Aunt Opal.
“Connor, Devon” I heard my mother’s voice call. The two of us were out of our chairs faster than her mother had ever seen. We never moved faster for anything, not even food. “Could you…” She trailed off surprised at how quickly we responded.
“Wash our hands, sure” I said before my stepmother could say another word.
Devon went toward the kitchen sink but my mother directed us upstairs. As we to walked to the dining room to the stairs I watched as Great Aunt Opal reached for the cupboard. Still we kept on walking. We were halfway up the stairs when we heard the bloodcurdling scream. Then the shatter of the plate and the piece of China hitting the floor. Then there was a thud, that must have been Grant Aunt Opal.
The two of us sped down the stairs to see where Great Aunt Opal lay. She was sprawled out on the dining room floor her face a bit scratched up from the flying pieces of China was now spread out all on the floor.
“Don’t come over here!” My stepmother shouted at us as we stood in the doorway. There was China everywhere.
“What was that!” My older brother asked behind me.
“Call the ambulance!” She shouted at him.
“Clara what’s going on!” My older sister Erika asked as she ran down the hall. Clara was the first name of my stepmother which is basically what all my sibling, including myself, called her.
“Call your father” she ordered
My older sister nodded picking up on the situation quickly.
“Boy go upstairs.” She commanded
And that’s when we ran off upstairs as my stepmother continued barking orders at everyone else.

** Sorry for the delay… I’ve had midterms and they’ve kept me quite busy. Then I got sick… So … I hope you enjoy this chapter !  Again very sorry **

            Connor’s point of view:
Suddenly it felt like we were floating and surrounded with swirls of colors and shapes and shadows. Then suddenly everything stopped and we were standing in the middle of the forest. No- in the middle of a road that cuts through the forest. They seemed to be leading us up to some sort of large house. Mansion more like I corrected as everything stopped spinning.
Wait a minute what just happened? Where are we? What’s going on? How did we get here? Was that magic? Did we just use magic to get here? Did we teleported somewhere? Or is it more like time travel?
“… and that’s how it works” Susan finished
“Where are we?” Devon asked
“We are at the mansion,” Rebecca informed us, “about 200 or so years ago.”
She grinned as both mine and my brother’s mouths unhinged.
“So we went back in time?” I blurted out
“No, not exactly,” Susan said.
“More like… back in memory” Rebecca finished her sister sentence.
“What’s back in memory?” Devon asked.
“Going back somewhere you remember,” Rebecca answered.
“Come now,” Susan said taking Devon’s arm forcefully, “we’re going to be late.”
Susan then started to drag Devon forward as she made her way up the road.
Then to my surprise I felt Rebecca’s arm settling on my own. I looked down at her with an expression of bewilderment. She only smiled up at me and said “Shall we go?”
I nodded because my tongue had suddenly become so heavy that I couldn’t move it and my lips were sewn shut.
She began to leak me up the long road that led to the mention. It was probably the biggest house I’ve ever seen. On a big plaque on the door in red the ivory, that must have been the houses name. The same way our new house had a name because it was so old. But this house didn’t look old at all. It looked quite new.
“Are you going to go in or are we just going to stand there?” Susan asked a bit agitated.
“Right you are, sister,” Rebecca said and proceeded to walk right through the door. That is, without actually opening it. Since her arm was ringed around mine I was pulled in along with her. And I too went right through. On the other side of the door the room was large, warm and bright. There was also soft music playing in the background. The type of classical music my sister Erika likes to play when she reads.
“The dancing hall is just down there.” Rebecca said
I hardly heard her because I was still trying to comprehend how we had just phased through a door. I look back at my brother to see if he had an explanation. Even though I knew he wouldn’t, it didn’t hurt to try. He gave me the same bewildered expression. Something like between a “what” and… perhaps a “duuuh”, so a… “dwuuuh?”
I looked down at Rebecca, about to ask her what had just happened, she decided to read my mind.
“We phased through the door” Rebecca said “because we are only here in memory. “
“So, it’s like nothing’s real.”
“Exactly,” Rebecca said.
“Let’s be on the way” Susan said as she walked forward down the hall and took a swift right. Rebecca hauled me along as she followed Susan down the hall and to the right and then into a rather huge ballroom. The ceiling was all glass but the walls were of stone. There were pillars on the outside of the dancing floor. There in the corner a small band of string players stood on a raised platform playing music. A piano accompanied them. I watched figures swirling around the dance floor. Each with their partner stopping and going and spinning in synchronization. Others stood murmuring by the refreshment counter gossiping about the goings on of that time. Not our time. Their time.
I saw Susan and Devon now approaching the snack counter. Though I guess you wouldn’t call it the snack counter, probably be better to call it the buffet table because of how elegant the food was. I noticed with not inconsiderable alarm that Susan and Devon looked transparent compared to the rest.
I look down at my own hand and realized I could see right through to the floor. It was tiled with cream and white colors.
“We look something like ghosts,” I said out loud without meaning to.
“Yes,” Rebecca replied, “it’s because we’re only here in soul, not body.”
“Wait, then where are our bodies?” I asked nervously.
“Back in the room.”
“Won’t someone find them?”
“No, no one will go in there. You see we’ve done this many times before. It’s how we entertained ourselves throughout the years we spent trapped up there.”
I nodded silently to myself. It would make sense. Any normal person would probably go mad by sitting in one room for so long. You needed something to entertain yourself.
“Do you mind if we dance?”
I looked down at her suddenly not knowing how to respond to the question. I’ve never danced before. Especially not ballroom dancing.
“I haven’t been able to dance so long,” she said mournfully, looking longingly out on the dance floor.
“Sure” I said stupidly. I didn’t even know how to dance. What was I thinking? Of course I wasn’t thinking, all I knew was that she had a heartbreaking longing stare that made me want to help her.
She pulled us out onto the dance floor and then turned to face me. She placed one hand on my shoulder and the other up in the air waiting to hold my hand.
I had completely forgotten that in ballroom dancing you actually had to touch the other person. But when I didn’t move she took her hand off my shoulder and took my other arm and placed it on her waist. I felt my cheeks beginning to go red again. Lightly she placed her own hand back my shoulder. Holding my hand she begin to dance.
“You don’t know how, do you?” She said when she looked up at me.
I shook my head in shame.
“That’s all right I’ll lead” as she said so she took the first steps forward. I felt a cold sweat run over me. How was I going to do this? Out of all the things that happened so far this is probably the most worrying.
“Connor, I hate to inform you,” she said suddenly breaking my train of thought, “but you’re dancing.”
I looked around myself. I was dancing. Sort of. We were spinning around the room taking elegant strides together. We didn’t look as good as the others around us but since no one could see us, did it really matter? We danced for a few more minutes then pause and walked off the dance floor.
“Susan” Rebecca called “you must come dance with us”
Susan eyed Devon then shook her head no.
All Rebecca did was grinned and lean on the buffet table, somehow not falling through it.
“I know you’re dying to Susan,” she teased.
“Not in the slightest,” Susan answered stiffly. “Not with this idiot.”
“Come now Susan, it’s not that bad.” Rebecca said. “Really they do actually have a clue, well at least this one did.”
I couldn’t help but find it funny how she couldn’t remember my name. Or at least how low she thought of me that she wouldn’t use it unless talking to me. So she really didn’t like me. So much for that. Of course I was used to letdowns.
“Fine,” Rebecca said after a while, “if you’re not going to dance then we should just go.”
Was she pouting?
“Good, then let’s go,” Susan said. If Rebecca was pouting, Susan was ignoring her.
Then in a flurry of sparkles and swirls we were standing back in their bedroom.
I was never going to get used to magic. For as long as I lived I was never going to understand why anyone would want to do something like that, it made your stomach feel sick after a while.
“Good night you two,” Rebecca said as Susan pushed us out the door.
“Wait a minute,” I said careening backwards, “we spent the whole day there?”
“Heavens no” Rebecca said “more like a few seconds- maybe minutes. It’s still tonight if that’s what you’re asking.”
I nodded as Susan pushed me the rest the way out the door. I heard a deafening slam as I stood in my room. Devon looked confused.
“I don’t know about you but I’m going to bed” Devon said, collapsing on his pillow. “ Enough excitement for me.”
“Me too” I agreed landing on my bed and pulling the covers over myself.

Connor’s point of view:
What was I thinking? More like what was I doing! I knew what I was thinking, I was thinking: she’s pretty, she sweet, you just can’t say no to that.
So now, because of my decision, I was in this position. Standing in their room in the middle of the night, going to a ball. I didn’t even understand what they’re talking about. What ball, where? Balls didn’t just spring up out of the ground. But she insisted and so, what can I say, I’m weak.
Now Rebecca and Susan were waking up Devon. I could hear his groaning from here. Something like, ‘five more minutes’. So you can hear everything to those walls. Well that’s just great.
Finally they dragged Devon out of the bed and into their room with me. As they sat Devon down on the bed because he was still looking more than a little sleepy, Susan turned and shut the door. When Rebecca turned on the light, I finally got a good look at what they were wearing.
Rebecca was wearing a pale green dress that touched the floor. Two layers of white lace formed the trim round the edges and then at the waist it was tied around with a big white bow that also had lace sticking on the side. The top fitted her nicely and had to straps that hung round her shoulders but so that they would droop down in an elegant cascade of fabric.
Susan dress was light blue almost like sea foam that also reached the floor. At the bottom it had one layer of cream colored lace. Then just lace stitch round the waist that was obviously not in a bow form whatsoever (I couldn’t imagine her with one) with a top that was cut the same as Rebecca but the sleeves, instead of sagging, the sleeves sat on her shoulders firmly and had cream lace that was stitched around the sides.
“Well,” Rebecca said before I was finished gawking at them, “you can’t go like that, now can you?”
“Go where?” Devon asked sleepily.
“Go to the ball,” Susan said sternly as if he should know. “Though I don’t know why Rebecca’s inviting you… we were fine going by ourselves; we don’t need escorts.” the last part she said more to her sister then to us.
Rebecca shrugged and then turned her gaze to me. She stared for a few moments, I could feel myself getting self-conscious, that she turned towards her closet ran in for a few moments and came out again carrying a bundle of clothing. She tossed the pile down at my feet.
“This is for you,” she said that tossed another pile in front of Devon.
I stare down the bundle closed for long time, finally identifying these clothes as dress clothes. Why would we need dress clothes? Were they actually seriously thinking about going to a ball? No that couldn’t be, unless they want us to sneak out of the house.
“We’ll go and let you get changed,” Rebecca said and dragged Susan out with her. I heard the door close and Susan mumbling something about how we really didn’t need to come.
So how do you go about putting on dress clothes? My father had never shown me. You see I wasn’t the type of guy to go to those fancy dances. I’m going to be honest, I never went because I didn’t like them and because I never got a date for any of them, and going by yourself means that you are geek and an idiot at that. Because for sure the next day everyone will be talking and laughing about how you came dateless to the dance. So dress clothes were not really my thing.
I started with the pants because those would probably be the easiest. But there were these strange suspender-like things that were clipped on the pants and I didn’t know how to unclip them or maneuver around them so I just moved on to the shirt. I took off my pajama shirt and began to put on and button up the white dress shirt. So far so good.
I looked over at my brother to see how he was doing. He had the white shirt on, but he was also having trouble with those suspenders. Somehow he managed to pull them off, now the only problem was that he was having a hard time getting them back on now that he was wearing the pants.
I look down at my own pants, and experimentally tugged at the suspenders. They didn’t want to come off but I found if you yanked them hard enough they would. So as soon as they were off I tugged at my pajama pants and began to put the dress pants on. Rebecca was surprisingly good at judging the size of someone just by looking at them because the pants fit perfectly… strangely perfectly come to think of it. After that I completely skipped the spenders and moved on to the vest. I was doing pretty good until I looked at my finished work. Somehow they were off the top is too high the bottom was too short or I buttoned it wrong. Whatever it was it wasn’t working.
I look to the Devon again and for some reason his white dress shirt was back off but suspenders were on now or sort of on.
That’s about when Susan and Rebecca burst into the room. Immediately I went red in the face (even though I was basically fully clothed).
“Why are you here?” Devon shouted before I could say anything. He had a right to, though, being shirtless and all.
“We thought you would be done by now” Susan said sourly, eying him with distaste, as if he was a dirty dishtowel.
“It looks like you could use some help.” Rebecca offered.
She started to unbutton my vest before I could even say a word. I felt my cheeks getting even hotter as her slender fingers ran down the front with lightning speed. As soon as that was done, or should I say undone she began to pull the vest off. My cheeks were on fire when she pulled it off.
Trying to ignor her so that perhaps I stopped going red in the face I looked over at Devon has Susan attempted to help him with his suspenders. She got one off and now the other and now you could see his cheeks getting red as she helped reattach it to his trousers.
“Now, this is how you put the suspenders on.” she said as if he was a little boy.
I turned my attention back to Rebecca when I felt her hand curl into my pants. I was so surprised at it that I almost screamed. I looked down to see what she was doing. But she was only very innocently clicking on one of the suspenders. Then the next the next andthe next she put them all on with ease.
“You think you can do the vest, or do you need me do that to.” she said sweetly – a little too sweetly as if she was almost mocking me.
“Now I got it” I said and again began to do up the vest, this time trying to pay more attention so not to get it wrong.

I did see that Susan had gotten Devon’s suspenders reattached. She stepped back to admire her handiwork. “Well it does help if you put a shirt on first.” She conceded, and quickly helped Devon with the whole process again. She didn’t even offer him the chance to button his own vest. Apparently she had decided that he was a lost cause. Either way, she was done before I was, somehow.
“Alright,” Rebecca said, “now that were all dressed, we can go.”
I looked up at her from fixing my glove and began to reposition the jacket that I was wearing.
Go I thought. Go where? There was nowhere to go, unless we were going to sneak out of the house. Which I was not planning on doing.
That’s when Susan pulled out from a nearby jewelry case on the bedside table, a small glowing ball on the end of chain. She had to Rebecca and Rebecca held it out for us to see. If the ball there with swirls of all different colors, like almost the way they seem to dance the small ball. If magic did exist then that was certainly magical.
“What is it?” Devon asked
Susan gave him a very hard glare.
“It’s a very small crystal ball-” Rebecca said
“well I could tell you that much” I said
“that is used for” Rebecca continued rather irritated “traveling back into memories. “
Traveling back and memories? How did you travel back to a memory? I could think back to tons of memories. But not travel back to them.
“It works quite simply” Rebecca informed us.
“Yes,” Susan continued, “you hold it like this…”
Susan took hold of one of the small links that made up the chain that held onto the ball. Rebecca held another one of them and gestured for us to do the same. Both me and Devon took hold one small links and then the room started to spin.

**so…because of the snow day I decide to do a bonus chapter 🙂 enjoy! **
Conner’s point of view:

“So what do we do now?” Devon asked.
“How should I know?” I said, exasperated.
“’Cause you’re the smart one…” Devon said.
I sat on my bed. The smart one really, was that the best he could do? All the smart one knew was that two girls were living in a closet for who knows how long, we had just had a strange conversation with them and my brother was asking me what to do? How should I know? How does any normal person approach this? Oh that’s right- they don’t. Any normal person would pretend that they didn’t just talk to two girls living in their closet who can apparently do magic. Magic which you just learned existed. (And I don’t mean sleight of hand, rabbits out of hats, that kind of stuff, I mean real magic!)
“So, should we tell someone?” Devon asked
“No!” I said sternly “that is something we’re certainly not doing.”
“Why?”
“Because how are we going to explain ourselves? Oh yes I just met these two girls my closet and apparently they can do magic and oh yeah I was wondering what do you think we should do about it?” I paused briefly “No I don’t think so.”
“Fine, then what’s the plan”
“The plan?” I asked.
He nodded, “You know, I mean, they can’t just stay there. Can they?”
“I don’t see why not.”
“Well I think it’s weird having two girls of the other side of the wall.”
“You just think it’s weird to have two girls on the other side of that wall…. Not that they can do magic, not that they claim to be living here for thousands of years, not that they just spun us around on a bed and how weird that sounds when you talk about it, not one of those extremely scary things…. No, you just think it’s weird that they’re on the other side of the wall.”
“Don’t you think it’s weird? Having them over there… what if they can hear what were saying?”
“Did they say it was soundproof?” I reminded him.
“Yeah… But I thought that was just in their room that was soundproof. Like they could hear us but we can’t hear them, or something.”
Okay. That was something that I had thought about. And if they could hear us that meant that they were listening to the entire conversation.
“Maybe,” I said slowly. “Maybe, we should go downstairs”
My brother nodded in agreement, and we quickly headed out the door.

When we got down the stairs we regained the ability to speak normally.
“So what do you want to do?” Devon asked as he flopped down onto the couch.
“What, just like that and you’re back to normal?”
He shrugged.
I breathed deeply, then pinched the bridge of my nose with my thumb and forefinger.
“Why don’t we play a board game” I suggested
“Cool, something to get our minds off that stuff”
So he was still thinking about it. I guess it was just too much to wrap his mind around and so he’s going to avoid it. Fine by me I was all for, avoiding it. I turned around and walked to the cupboard that Erika said had games in it. I placed down monopoly that I had taken from the cupboard and we began to layout the pieces. As we did so my twin sister Sarah walked by.
“Hey, are you guys play Monopoly” she asked as her eyes locked on to the Monopoly box.
“Yeah” Devon said flatly
He better not welcome her to play. No don’t take me wrong. It’s not like I don’t like my sister. It’s just she has a way of getting the truth out of you even if she’s not suspicious of whatever you’re not telling her.
Then again me and my sister haven’t been hanging out much since middle school. We used to play a lot when we were kids. Me, her and Devon. She was the oldest so she would always lead. All the games from her imagination, which was always keen on another idea. Then one day she grew up for some reason she lost this ability and stopped playing with me and Devon or as we got older ‘hanging out’ together. She became popular but in a different way than Devon did. Devon was popular with the girls but he still had ‘lame’ friend like me and some other kids. Devon was the ‘social butterfly’ (more like a universally loved moth), a floater and always fitting into every group. So it’s safe to say that me and my sister are complete opposites. Ironic I know; we look exactly the same. The only difference is that her hair is longer.
“Can I play?” she asked casually.
“Huh? Sure.” Devon said absentmindedly as usual.
I silently cursed him under my breath. Now even if we did want to talk about them, we couldn’t.

* * *
It was about halfway through the game when my brother suddenly realized that Sarah was here and we couldn’t discuss you-know-whom. So for the rest the game me and him were quiet, nervous and jumping at anything and everything that was even remotely related or relatable to them, which was one heck of a lot since there were pictures of them in practically every room.
It took forever for the game to finish, but I could’ve told you the outcome. Sarah won, as always. It was a good thing, too, since neither of us had the willpower or sanity to stay in the game. Sarah had noticed, and was taking great pleasure in talking to us, the room in general, anyone who would listen, and watching us practically scale the walls.

When she finally crushed us both, we dragged ourselves upstairs like depressed zombies and collapsed onto our respective beds, exhausted by life. And Monopoly.
I only had my eyes closed for a few moments, when I heard the closet door opening slightly. I felt myself stop breathing, heart pounding faster. (How stupid that that is, your heart pounds faster yet you stop breathing- human design is so… stupid.) I close my eyes tighter as if that was going to help.

“Oh boys?”

Conner’s point of view:
For long moment all I could do was stare. Part of me couldn’t believe it actually worked. Another part still wouldn’t admit it actually worked . So both me and Devon sat there on our beds with our mouths gaping open. It worked. It worked. It was like magic. Or a voice-activated lock.
“Did it really?” Devon began
I nodded. It was only thing I could do, my mouth seemed to be sealed shut.
Then as the two of us had a fast conversation with our eyes, a hand slowly crept its way over the rim of the door. It was so pale you think the person never saw sunlight. Mine and my brothers eyes widened more and more as we saw whatever it was was slowly making its way out of the closet. I wasn’t sure whether I should : greet them, scream, congratulate myself for finally opening the door or help them (because whoever it was looked rather ill) . For long moment the figure just stood there half hidden by the door . The atmosphere was so tense I have to admit I was so frightened that my stomach begin not up as if I was going to vomit. The hairs on the back of my neck began to stand up. Not to mention my legs were beginning to shake. Still I couldn’t move. Not Devon though. Out of the corner of my eye I could see him. His expression was horrified. Probably the same would be found in my face but since there was no mere I could not tell. My throat started to get dry. My lungs burned and I suddenly realized I stop breathing.
Then in the most nonchalant fashion the door swung completely open. Revealing two young girls. I know what he was thinking. How could this possibly be? Mother never told me to beware of the women in my closet. I always thought there were just monsters. My mouth must have dropped completely open. My brother too was gawking and turning red I noticed. Of course my own face was getting red because I was only wearing my pajamas.
Slowly, my mind began to process our visitors. The girls looked like complete opposite. One, the one who standing in front had long blonde hair that looks like it went down to about the middle of her back. The strange thing about her hair was that looked like she had bangs but at the same time they weren’t bangs at all. Her eyes were green- the darkest green had ever seen. It was like looking into a fern forest or one of those huge evergreen forests I thought. Now the girl standing behind her had dark brown hair and a fierce looking her green eyes just as dark as her companions. Her hair flowed past the point of her shoulders and at the ends curled. Which is very odd because the rest of her hair was straight. But I wouldn’t be surprised if she had a curling iron in there with her. In the closet.
“Well it’s not polite to gawk” said the blonde girl in a sweet musical voice. The one behind her just crossed her arms and continued to glare at Devon.
“Well” the blonde said “your names the both of you” she sounded impatient almost annoyed.
“Devon! ” my brothers spat out. The blonde girls gaze then turned to me. In my panic I immediately blurted out my name.
“Connor!”
“Very good” the blonde girl said it like she was commending a pet for doing a trick.” I suppose I should tell you my name then, it is Rebecca and this is my sister Susan” she said gesturing to the girl behind her.
I could only nod you see because I hadn’t realized that they would actually have names. They seem like some sort of Angel. Well at least the blonde one did, the brunette, I mean Susan , would if she stopped glaring at us so wickedly.
“I’m sure both me and my sister would like to thank you for letting us out.” Rebecca said
“letting you out?” Devon asked. His voice startled me because I was quite sure he was just as scared as I was even now as we both knew they were just girls. Or were they…
“Yes, letting us out” the dark haired girl named Susan said in a tone that made it clear she was questioning my brother’s intelligence. Not that I blamed her.
“that witch Opel trapped us in here for the past… what” she said turning to her sister “50 years?”
“at least” Rebecca said. They paused to consider this while Devon and I resumed our gawking.
“so” Rebecca continued “does that mean the possessed girl Opel is gone?”
“No” Devon said flatly “she still here and we’re her… grandnephews”
the two girls suddenly got very tense and then the door to our room suddenly slammed shut, all on its own, apparently.
“She mustn’t know we’ve gotten out” Susan said quickly and quietly. And angrily. “Why hasn’t she kicked the bucket yet?” she added, seeming to blame Devon for this fact.
Two girls were much more panicked than they were before. As if this notion of great aunt opals present with something to be feared. I knew she was a creepy old lady. But it’s not like she was scary I mean it’s not like she can do anything.
“Come” Rebecca called “it’s safer if we talking in here” she gestured to the closet behind her.
” In the closet” I said out loud without meaning to. Because of this I got a sharp look from Susan. As it walked into the closet. I then realized that it wasn’t a closet at all. It was a room all to itself. It had two beds. With the names Susan and Rebecca on either one. They also had closets of their own. One would S and one without R inscribed on it. Susan and Rebecca sat down on the bed with Susan name painted on it. They gestured to the one that belonged to Rebecca. I made certain to sit across from the blonde girl Rebecca since she just seemed nicer.
“It seems we must tell you the whole story.” Rebecca said after a while.” Since you are the ones who rescued us, in a way”
“let’s see where should we begin.”
“How about telling us how you got here and who you are and what you plan on doing here and –”
Rebecca cut Devon off with a wave of her hand. A sudden hardness in her eyes.
“I do not like to be interrupted” she said sternly “so sit and listen well” her sudden severity was so surprising to the two of us we shut up immediately. Susan was smiling. Had they switched personalities or something?! No, I realized, Susan just liked seeing us get yelled at.
“All right let’s start towards the end” Rebecca said. A part of me desperately wanted to interrupt her and say that it was ridiculous to start towards the end. She must’ve read my mind is the next thing she said was.
“It makes more sense start there” yes I thought, of course, it makes perfect sense to start ‘near the end’.
“you see we have been living this house for a very long time. As long as this house has been standing to be precise.” Personally I thought a little hard to believe. But still it’s not dare interrupt. “When your great aunt Opal moved in with her mother and two brothers we took to the attic immediately. You see we were certain that one of the children were perhaps the mother of the possessed by the demon.”
The demon? What was she talking about? And possessed? Possessed by what? And why did they go to the attic? If our family moved in that means that no one else would have been living here. And why would they-?
“You see known for a very long time we have been living here. We’ve kept it a secret. So when the family moved in. We had to make special cautions so that they could never get to the upstairs. We can temporarily turn one of the room to the kitchen.” Susan looked satisfied, for some reason.
How in the world.
“But of course the little girl Opel, the youngest of all, somehow slipped in. Children can do that you know, get past magic.”
Magic?! Okay this girl was pretty and she was sweet but she was insane. Where did magic come from. But for some reason I couldn’t bring myself to ask a question. I looked over at my brother half expecting him to be bursting with questions. But still he did not say a word. No something was very wrong here.
“Of course the minute the poor thing stepped upstairs she was swallowed up by the ghost of our enemy”
the ghost of their enemy? Why would they have an enemy? And why was the enemy a ghost? And what was it doing possessing are great aunt?
“You see she is the ghost of the woman who once lived in this house. The wife of the man who built it. She did not love him therefore should plan to murder him. But we discovered her plans. In her outrage she vowed that she would kill us if we ever spoke a word. But once her husband was dead the children knew who had done it. So the oldest boy told the villagers that she was a witch and us too because he thought we were some part of it. The mother was burned on a steak and we would have been burned too but somehow we managed to get away. We had to wait for a long time in the old shack that that became a cottage that I think is still there today.”
Thought to be whitches? Murder? Burning?! Living for millions of years?!
“The woman, Maria, holds us responsible for that and her children. She only let the youngest boy survives out of all of them. You see she is a ghost and a which at that and very powerful. She stays and haunts the house killing all but one of the children. A few generations later they moved out because of how many children were dying. That is when we moved back in and try to seal away Maria’s ghost. But you see we had to keep secret from the rest the world because we were frightened that they would try and burn us as they did before. And so when your great aunt got possessed she was able to seal us away in this room.”
Burned them?! And are they saying my great aunt Opal is possessed by some ghost.
“Any questions?” Rebecca suddenly said happily
“yeah!” Devon shouted “are you like trying to punk us”
“punk you?” Susan asked inquisitively, now regarding him as if he was the one who was insane.
“I have a question” I said before Devon could keep yelling.” If you say you’ve been here this entire time then how can you be so young.”
“She cursed us” Susan informed “she vowed to have her vengeance on the pyre when she was burning. She vowed to have what is rightfully hers until that day we would never sleep. So we became immortal”
“you mean like vampires?” Devon asked
“no stupid” Susan said “not like vampires, more like a sort of spell, a curse … like witches”
“oh yeah” Devon said putting his arms up “because that makes all the difference”
“there is a very big difference” Rebecca said “vampires don’t exist”
“and witches do?” I said
The two of them gave us a sly look. As the saying ‘what , he wants us to prove it’ and we gave them a look as if to say ‘you better or where not believing this’. With that the bad proceeded to hover about 2 feet in the air swing around a bit then touched back down with the tow of us screaming our heads off. I’m surprised no one heard it.
“This room is absolutely soundproof” Susan said the tone of obviousness to her voice.
“Okay , so your witches” I said trying to wrap my mind around the fact that witches did exist.
“Tell me you’re not the bad kind ” Devon said.
“There are no bad witches” Rebecca said “just bad people. ”
“Oh” Devon said “that’s good” that’s when the two of us collapsed on the bed because of how much our stomachs hurt from spinning . Not to mention this new world changing information.

Conner’s point of view:
“You mean you didn’t do anything?” I said looking over my brother shoulder.
“I’ve been busy” he said.
He was doing his math packet only a week before school. The entire thing. All in one week. It was meant to be done over the entire summer break.
“You think you might help with it?” He asked
My brother was the complete opposite of me he had unruly dark brown hair that brushed over his blue eyes. He was 15 and was the heart-throb of our entire school, well what used to be our entire school until we moved. Now at the new school he would be the reigning king of women. He was 15 but had already gone out with at least 12 girls. Ranging from the ages of 14 to 18. He definitely knew what he was doing. On the other hand myself- blonde hair with bangs that swivel one side of my face always just so that it wouldn’t obscure the view of my blue eyes. I never had a girlfriend in my entire life of 16 years. Yes he is my little brother and he had been with more girls than I had. It’s that he had girls, but I had the brains of the family. I was a straight a student and always have my work done on time I finished the summer packet a week into summer vacation .
“You mean do it for you” I said
he grinned up at me “if you’re willing” he said jokingly
“At least try the first one.”
He suddenly got a determined look on his face. As if he was really doing math. After a few minutes he gave up. Turning around looking at me. “Hey what you think of that door ”he said after a few moments
“what door? ”I asked trying to play dumb.
“you know the one in the room.”
“I know not to go in it ” I said, especially after the incident with great aunt Opal , the other day. I thought to myself .
“What he thinks behind their?” He asked suddenly.
“Why should we care?”
“Because she doesn’t want us going in there” he said matter-of-factly “and if adults don’t want going the places then that means there’s something extra special in there. I mean it would be cool if there was like treasure  or some deep dark secret.”
“ what?”I had to admit I was little curious especially for was some sort of secret. What would it be, our family never kept any secrets. We were just a big dysfunctional family.
“How is this” My brother proposed “we sneak into the room at night so that she doesn’t suspect us we can look and see what’s around and be in and out before anyone notices.”
“All right” I said.  I was beginning to get interested. It would be nice to have something actually fun happen  here. Otherwise it would just be boring.

* * *
I slipped out of my bed. As both me and my brother snuck over to the door. Every time I put my foot down the forward Creek and I hesitate to see will anyone. But never did in time I made my way across the room. When I got there Devon rolled his eyes at me.
He whispered “you idiot everyone’s fast asleep”
then very slowly he placed his hand on the knob. I felt my breath catch in sweat began to collect on my palms. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I watched as Devon began to slowly turned the knob. He was almost always there when there was a sudden thunk . It was the knob hitting the lock. We couldn’t get into the room even if we tried. The door was locked.
“Well that sucks” Devon said aloud. A bit too loudly if you asked me.
Defeated I turned back my bed. “That failed, you mean” I said finally as I pulled the covers over my head. What a waste of time that was. We got up in the middle of the night just to jiggle the knob of a door that is locked.
* * *
I was exhausted as I walked down the stairs. We spent the whole night sulking about not finding anything interesting. So my stepmother handed out pancakes that morning I can hardly keep my eyes open.
“Rough night Connor?” She asked jokingly.
“Yeah” said absentmindedly. Devon was still upstairs sleeping. Then again he was always a heavy sleeper. So the nighttime expedition probably didn’t help much.
“ go wake your brother up” my stepmother asked.
I gave her a look. Not the rude sort of look. It’s not like I hated her. Just a look that said are you serious you really want me to go up there get myself killed.
Suddenly there was a loud bang and the stairs. And some unskilled at the corner in the kitchen.
“Never mind here he comes now”
“Connor!” He said grabbing me by the wrist dragging me out of the kitchen. He directly all the way into the ballroom were finally stopped and caught his breath.
“You won’t believe what I found”
“what” asked finally.
That’s when he pulled a piece of paper and a key.
“I think the key to the door” he said excitedly.
“What makes you think that ”I asked inquisitively
“well what else could it be”
“I don’t know ”I said “there’s tons of doors in this house”
“yeah but none of them are like that one” he had a point but I have my doubts.
“What’s the paper say?”I asked
“nothing really ”he said
“let me see?” He handed me the wrinkled up old piece of paper. On it were written words.
Say the magic word
the magic word. It didn’t make any sense. What was the magic word. With the magic word what opened the door. Or was it just some prank.
“It doesn’t make any sense ”Devon said reading over my shoulder
“I don’t know ”I said “I think it’s something like the thing with ‘open sesame’ . You say the right wording you get in”
“what, is it like magic? ”Devon said
“maybe not” I said
“you want to try out the key? ”Devon said excitedly
“what about Great Aunt Opal”
“she won’t notice ”Devon said “I mean come on she just an old lady” he whispered
“fine” I said “let’s try it out”
With that the two us ran upstairs. Skidding around into our room and stopping at the secret door.
Slowly Devon for the key to the lock. But as he went to turn it. The key was too small. Another dead-end.
“Dam it ” Devon cursed underneath his breath .
“Let’s go back downstairs” I suggested. He nodded to show double room. Though there were still part of me that wanted to try out the whole ‘say the magic word’ thing. But just didn’t want to be disappointed again. It almost seemed as if the door was bolted shut from the other side.
As we milled around in the sitting room. I began to ponder what the magic word was. It would be something like ‘open sesame’ or ‘please open for me’ but what else was there. ‘Bipidy bopidy boo’, ‘hocus pocus’. No that was ridiculous. Then again what it was that. Shouldn’t we at least try. Even if it didn’t work. We could still try it.
“Hey” I said looking over Devon who was lounging on the couch.”Why don’t we try that magic word thing”
“why not” Devon said defiantly
so we picked ourselves up. Then walked back up to the room and to the secret door.
“You go first ”I said
“Fine”
“okay “he said “here we go ‘open sesame’” we waited a few moments
“you see “he said “nothing happened”
I grinned madly. Trying to hold back laughter.
“Well” I said with my jaw tight “that’s because you said ‘open sesame’” on the last word I into  laughter.
“Then you give it a go if you’re so smart”
“I will thank you very much ”okay. Let’s start with the basics.
So I started with the basics. Then I went to some more complicated stuff. Then after that me and Devon start to spew out random words. Around 500 words later we were starting to give up.
“Well obviously there is no magic word ”Devon announced
I have to admit I’m starting to agree with him. Without once again we shut down the stairs.
“I’m going to get old going down these stairs ”Devon said
“and why’s that?” Sarah my twin sister asked.
“What’s the magic word?” I burst out.
“The magic word?”She paused for a moment. Then said “well I guess it’s ‘please’”
“please!”Devon said exasperated. He began to laugh “please!” He said between chuckles. “You’ve got to be kidding me”
it did sound pretty unbelievable. That the magic word was please. I have all the words. Please
That just didn’t make sense. Devon turned on the seal. In all the stairs. I followed him slowly. I watched him as he slept in the bed I did the same on my own.
“There’s just no way ”he said “that it’s ‘please’”
with that we have soft click. And watched the secret door open ever so slightly.

Conner’s point of view:
I watched as a golden red and yellow leaf fluttered down from the sky. Immediately it slammed right into our car as it sped down the slick road heading towards the Darkin house. I know- it’s an interesting name for house, right? Though most houses these days don’t have names. You see this house is much older than its neighbors. It is owned by my great aunt Opal whom we are going to be living with now the next few years or as long as my stepmother thinks it is necessary or until the old woman dies and we inherit the house. My stepmother says that it’s for the old woman’s own good that someone should take care of her but I know what she’s really thinking. She’s thinking that as soon as the old woman bites the dust the first people to inherit it are the ones already living there.
Breathing deeply I listen to the chatter around me. My younger half siblings were fighting in the backseat. Ted, who was seven, was continuously stealing little Molly’s stuffed rabbit. Which made her wine and kick at the back of my brother Devon’s seat. Finally he turned around to scream at them.
“Will you quit that!”
Sadly his yelling did not help the noise level of the car. To tell you the truth it only made it worse. I tried to shift my weight over even a little bit in the small space so that Devon could wave his arms around. So instead of getting in his way I collided with my older brother. This is probably much worse than getting whacked in the head by Devon’s arms. At least he would apologize. No, my older brother was not known for his mercy. His name is Michael though he preferred to be called Big M. He was on the football team and he made sure that you knew that. Even though I was his brother he still picked on me to the extent of bloody noses. Of course it would be my nose that was bloodied. Since he was well over 5 inches taller than I was it was not much of a fight.
“Sorry” I amended immediately. He must’ve been tired because all he did was roll his eyes. Then again there wasn’t much space here in the car with all six of my siblings not to mention my father. My stepmother is driving her sports car in front of us as she is apparently the navigator for the family. So she’s obligated to drive ahead.
“How much longer” I asked absentmindedly.
“Not very long” my father responded.
“I don’t even understand why we have to go here” my brother Devon suddenly said “I mean it’s not like we really know her and without school and all our old friends…”
My father sighed heavily. He had basically already had this conversation with all of our siblings and this was Devon’s fifth or sixth time at least that he had to say the same exact explanation. Since my father was a very tolerant man he merely restated what he had said already 1000 times. “Our last house is too small for us. We need something bigger for our family- it’s growing you know not to mention your Great Aunt Opal will be on the way out soon so we should spend time with her while we still can.”
“ Yeah but we still don’t know anybody.” my twin sister Sarah said. She was sitting in front of me next my oldest sister Erika.

“I know I know.” My father said as he pulled into the driveway of the Darkin House. It was old and majestic looking as if it had a million stories hidden within its walls and if only it could speak it would tell you every one. I couldn’t help but gawk at it. It was something straight out of an old-fashioned horror story. It reminded me vaguely of the other Victorian but there was something different about it something very unique something that only this house could have. What was it? I couldn’t put my finger on it.
Finally  the car came to a rolling stop in front of huge porch that rimmed most house. The paint was peeling now that I looked closer. It looks like the entire house could use a few coats of paint. Scanning the house my eyes caught a window that for a moment, it seemed a shadow or two were hovering behind it. But as quickly as they were there they were gone. I think my eyes probably just were tired. Opal I thought, but she probably could hardly climb the stairs let alone move so quickly.  I had little time to ponder the thought. My father was ordering me to carry out bags from the car and bring them to the stairs.  The girls would be given the tour of the house including the rooms that would be staying in for who knows how long.
Slowly I made my way the porch stairs with two bags. As I walked into the house I was greeted by a hunched over old woman. Immediately I recognized her as Great Aunt Opal. She was certainly great, perhaps great-great considering the wrinkles around her face.
“Why hello there sonny” she said in a crackly voice. She made a gesture as if to take the bags but then thought better of it and instead guided me up the spiral staircase. Everyone formed an orderly line behind her as she climbed the stairs. Looking down I thought how dreadful it would be for someone to fall. Making a mental note to always be careful on the stairs, I continued.
“Well” Great Aunt Opal said in a huff “the room to the right can be yours dear” my twin sister looked at the room quizzically then smiled and nodded. I walked over and put one of the bags in the room.
“Here you go” I said
“thanks” she said
I looked around her room and I had a canopy bed that was a pale pinkish cream color the rest the room seemed to fit the scheme of pinks and creams. I smiled.
“I guess she does know you” I said to my sister laughed.
“perhaps she does.”
I turned around to see that Great Aunt Opal had already divvied up most of the rooms the only ones left were me and Devon.
“Well, I suppose you too can have this room” Great Aunt Opal said gesturing to the door on the opposite side of my twin sisters.
“Thank you” I said as a drop my bag atop the bed. There are two beds against the right-hand wall. There is a red rusted old looking dresser in one corner. And half of the table and leaned up against a wall. It was the strangest table I’ve ever seen. It looked as though the wall  hadsplit the table into when they made the house. I watched as Devon began to unload his suitcase into the only dresser.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I shouted at him.
“What does it look like I’m doing.” He said “I’m unpacking”
“yeah into the only dresser.”
“You can have a closet” he said gesturing over to the door that I hadn’t seen in the wall. It was most because the door been painted over. There was also no rim to designate when the door began the wall stopped. Not to mention the half table was right in front of it. I moved the table away and began to turn the knob when suddenly Great Aunt Opal burst into the room.
“Don’t touch that!” She screeched flinging her body in front of me that I can get at the door. “You’re not to touch this door.” A wild look in her eyes made me step back. She looks so frightening that it didn’t even think of asking why not to go in the door. All I could do was nod. She smiled up at me. Suddenly returning to original form.
“Very good” she said “just don’t touch that door” she restated as she left our new room.
I turned back my brother. Waiting for an explanation from him. He only had the same question in his eyes.
“What was that?” he finally asked aloud.
“I have no idea” I said flatly.
“I didn’t think she could move that fast” he said finally.
“No one should really move that fast” I said “especially not a little old lady. “

No really. Come in, sit down. Susan will make you some  tea. Would you like to come into the lounge? This way, please.

Excellent weather we’re having isn’t it?… where’s Susan with that tea? Oh, and she’s brought the boys too… you can use Devon as a footrest if you want. There, isn’t that better?

Okay, okay, Rebecca, we’re supposed be introducing the story!

Really? But we were going to have tea…

Yes, well, the story is just a tad more important!

Is it now…?

Only just a tad bit! Only just a- Susan, put that down! why do you have a frying pan in the lounge anyway?!

Yes, Susan, calm down. You don’t even like tea all that much…

Oh, you’re right.

Thank you Rebecca! T-T

Hey, I’m getting a little uncomfortable down here…

Stop whining Devon.

sorry.

Shut up, idiot.

sorry.

Susan that’s a little mean!

Yes, Susan, we have company. By the way, would you like more tea?… no? Very well, your loss.

So I guess we should get back to that story, huh?

Oh, yes, that. Well you’ll have to read to find out.

Lazy idiots.

Susan! Control yourself!

I am in control!

ow! You didn’t have to kick me!

Shut up, Devon.

sorry. Please read!!

Wait, I was supposed to say that.

Really?

Yes, it says so in the script.

You’re right. But isn’t Connor the main character?

yes.

Shut up I said!

ow. Sorry.