Prologue

A Brother's Last Wish

Francesca,

If you're reading this, then you've just left my funeral, and neither Vivian or Violet remain to do this for me. I've always taken care of you and Tessa, kiddo. This is me taking care of you two one last time.. I know, I know.. You're sitting there saying you don't want anything I could possibly give you guys, and that you're doing fine on your own, the clothing line is doing better than you thought.

I also know that if someone doesn't do something, kiddo, that damn house is gonna continue to suck the life out of anyone who lives in it. It's a money pit, a trap. I want you to sell the house and take the money, expand your business. Hell, take a cruise with it for all I care, sis. But do not, and I repeat, do not, under any circumstances, live in the damn place. It's a lemon from the ground up, trust me. It's not safe for you and Tessa. I don't want you two living I do want you two to be taken care of now that I'm gone. Selling that house?

It'll bring in more than enough money for you guys, you can expand your clothing line, Tessa can take more dance classes, hell, there might even be enough there to put up for her college one day.

The point is this, sis.. You're the owner of that damn hellhole now. Sell it and do not look back. Because living in it will cost you more than the place is worth. I speak from experience, baby sister.

Love you both,

Benjamin

–

The above letter was found in the hospital room of Dr. Benjamin Harmon. His body was found hanging in his private bathroom. The police ruled it cut and dry suicide. After all, he did just lose his teenage daughter Violet and his pregnant wife Vivian and their unborn twins in this very hospital.

It was mailed to Francesca Harmon – McLane after it's discovery, through Ben's attorney, and shortly after, the real estate agent of the house, Marcy, got in touch with Francesca at her home in Houston, Texas.

The events that happened after are where the real story is.. Because there wouldn't be a story, would there, if little sister had just taken big brother's advice and let the house go up for sale, taken the money made from it, used it to expand her growing clothing line and the ezine she co editored from home.

I'll spare you the lengthy introduction this time, but this story? It's pretty damn weird, so bare with me here.

It's mostly about me, Tess, and how living in Murder House affected me.. But like I said.. I'm Tess McLane and this is my story.

If you're curious as to whether this actually has a happy ending, or it's all doom and gloom, well then by all means.. Keep right on reading.

But I warn you, it's not all peaches and cream.

–

Tess peered over her sunglasses at the house that lie on the other side of the black wrought iron privacy gate as she exhaled quietly, muttered to herself over the pounding bass music from her car's stereo, "Damn.. I think I see why Uncle Ben wanted mom to specifically sell this thing.. It cannot be livable, there's no way."

She came to a stop beside an ancient call box near the tall and stately wrought iron privacy gate, and pressed it, waiting on the gates to open. They did seconds later, slowly, almost agonizingly slow, actually.

A shiver passed over her body and she came to a stop beside her mother's parked SUV, got out, eyeing the house warily.

Up close it looked even creepier than it had on the other side of the gate. For a split second, as her warm brown eyes looked at the second floor's bay window, she could've sworn she saw the curtain move. She rubbed her eyes after sliding her shades up into her long black hair, and then muttered "It was the wind, had to be." her Texas drawl coming out slow, soft.

From the doorway of the house, her mother called out, "Did you finally get here?"

"I stopped at the mall on the way in, Mom. Had to get something to sleep in." Tessa stated as her mother waved excitedly, practically bouncing on the balls of her feet, "Well? Don't just stand there, Tessa, come inside. Let's have a look around the place?"

"Mom.. Uncle Ben specifically said to sell this turd. Not to go in it, look around, fall in love with it and wind up living in it. If he didn't want us living here, there had to be a reason." Tess pointed out patiently, as her mother said "Your uncle was always overprotective.. It's actually in great shape, all things considered. Just come look?"

"Ughh, fine. I still agree with Uncle Ben's letter. We need to sell it and go." Tessa murmured as she slunk towards the house, flicking a cigarette down, stubbing it out on her way in, quickly, so her mother didn't see it.

She stood in the entrance of the house, looked around, brow raised.. The house was obviously in the early stages of renovation, it had been repainted, refloored.. Why would her uncle start on a renovation and never finish it?

That didn't seem like the uncle Ben who'd been like a father to her for at least 90 percent of her early childhood when she and her mother were living with him and her aunt Vivian. She trailed her fingers slowly through her long black hair as she muttered quietly, "Okay, so it's not that bad in here..."

She sat her two Victoria's Secret bags down in the hallway, along with the oversized black leather purse and ventured down the hallway just a little farther. She peered into the kitchen, looked around and smiled a little. She could almost see her aunt Vivian in there now, cooking something she'd just seen the recipe for on television. Her aunt had been really adventurous like that sometimes.

Unfortunately, a lot of her little 'adventures' well.. They hadn't actually panned out well, as far as the kitchen went. Like Tessa's own mother, the woman hadn't been the greatest cook around. Tessa, however, even at 17 knew her way around a kitchen. So she wouldn't starve if she had to depend on herself to get the cooking done.

"Not bad." she said quietly, walking out of the kitchen, into the back hallway, what would've been the 'servants entrance' in the 20's when the house had been built. A rubber ball rolled slowly across the floor just outside what must have been the door leading down to the lower basement level of the house, stopping at her feet.

She looked around warily, bent down and picked up the little red ball, bounced it before throwing it out in front of her and into the darkness. A shiver passed over her arms again and she shook her head, turned around.

It almost felt like she were being watched right now.

"Must have been the wind or a rat or something.. It's an old house, it's gonna have insects and mice and ughhh.. I'm gonna go back into the main part of the house now." she said as she grimaced at the thought of spiders and mice.

She was the girly one.. her cousin Violet had been the more tough one of the two of them. Sometimes, it almost seemed like Violet had been sort of cold. She often called Tessa the family 'drama queen'.

For the most part, it was true.. Or it used to be. Lately, though, Tess was maturing, she was sort of coming into her own, finding her way in life. She wasn't overconfident, but she wasn't anywhere near as sensitive as she'd been when she was smaller.

And if she had to say it? She was turning out pretty damn tough. And good.

Her mother called her name and she called out just outside the hallway she'd just come off of, "Yeah? I'm down here, Mom. What's up?"

"The realtor is here." her mother said as Tessa said quietly, "And? Seriously? Why talk to her?"

She grumbled as her mother called her name again, this time a hint of warning in her tone. She didn't want to make her mother angry or anything, so she bit her tongue on her thoughts on the place so far, and made her way out into the parlor where the two women sat, talking quietly.

"So if we want this place.. It's free and clear?" Francesca McLane asked as she looked at the plain and pudgy realtor named Marcy.

"Your brother paid for it up front. As you can see, Ms. McLane, he's done a lot of work to the place. He sent you a letter I heard?" Marcy asked, biting her lower lip. She hated being the realtor for this house, it kept her in far more hot water than it was worth. If she could get the single mother to take this house off her hands, she could finally wash her hands of the damn place, once and for all.

She'd almost managed to do it with Ben and his family, after they'd bought the place. But then he'd decided that the house was pure evil, that it's reputation was enough cause to move out.

Tessa sat down, eyed the plain and pudgy woman and then spoke up quietly, "Mother.. Uncle Ben wants us to sell the place. Not to live in it. I know what you're thinking.. But I'm about to be in my last year of high school.. I really have no interest in starting over this late in high school."

"There are excellent schools." Marcy started, the girl giving her a firm glare as she said calmly, "But they're not my old school with my old friends and my cheer squad. I'd have to start over again and I've got no interest in doing that. At all."

"At least let the woman talk, Tess." her mother started, giving her daughter a firm and commanding stare which Tess returned, her hand on her hip. "Don't give me that look Tessa Marie. I'm the parent here, not you. If I think a move is best, then we'll move." Francesca said as she turned her attention back to the realtor and asked "Are there any papers?"

"I happen to have them in my briefcase. Would you like to look them over?" the realtor asked as Tess grumbled and stood, storming out of the room quietly. Outside, she sat on the stone wall that went around a sort of breezeway just outside the kitchen's French doors, lighting a cigarette, fuming while swearing aloud.

"You're gonna die here." a girl said as she stepped out, making Tess drop her lit cigarette on her bare thigh in shock. Tess gaped a moment and then said quietly, "Nope, not if I have my way about it. If she moves us here, I swear to God.. I'm going to completely rebel."

Addie studied the girl carefully and then asked "What's your name?"

"Tessa. What's yours?" Tess asked as she exhaled deeply, leaned her head back against a stone column leading up to the roof, supporting the stone wall she currently sat on.

"Addie." Addie answered quietly as she said again, "You're gonna die here. They all die here." before walking away, around the corner, vanishing into thin air once she was out of eyesight. She'd tried to warn them, if they didn't listen, there was nothing she could really do. She'd crossed over, after all, she could only visit here now and then, and she only did so when she sensed that her mother was lonely.

Or she felt like seeing her brother or the twins that were stuck in the house because they'd died there and hadn't been able to cross over. She wished that Violet had died there, so Tate, her brother, would have some company in the house, he'd really, really liked Violet, but sadly, she'd died in the hospital after an attempt to purge her system of the pills she'd taken.

So Tate was alone again, and now, since Addie was among the few ghosts crossed over, her mother, Constance was alone too. And as much as Addie disliked her mother and brother in life, the girl also cared and worried about them in life and in death.

Maybe this girl would stay and she'd be different than Violet.

Tess flicked her ashes onto the ground and grumbled, resting her head against her knee as she wound her fingers through her thick and long black hair, biting her lower lip. She slid out her phone, glared at it when she saw a text from this jerk of a guy she'd been dating a while now named Tim.

Apparently, he was at some party, a party she'd been invited to, but naturally, her mother dragged her all the way out here so now she was missing it.

She sighed quietly, slid the phone back into her pocket as she muttered "Ten bucks says he fucks another girl. And then I'm beyond done with his shit. I should've already dumped him." while scooting off the wall, standing, stretching.

She looked around the backyard and said quietly, "It's not that bad of a house.. I mean it is free, and it is closer to the home office for Mom's design company.." while looking up again at the second story bay window, blinking again as she saw the curtains swaying as if she'd been watched.

"That shit's creepy though. Maybe Mom or that realtor opened a window." Tess said as she slunk back into the house.

Upstairs, in the room that the curtain just moved in, Tate Langdon stood there, peering down into the yard, a scowl on his face. He'd heard the talking downstairs so he knew who the two females were.

Or he knew enough about them for now.. The 17 year old with the killer body and the long black hair, however.. He only knew one thing about her.. He wanted her. He had to have her. She was going to be his, one way or another.

If he wasn't going to be with Violet, then he'd just take the next best thing. Her cousin, Tess. In a far corner of the room, Violet's shape slowly came into focus and she said quietly, " She needs someone to protect her."

Tate glared a moment and then asked in a hostile tone, "Don't you have an afterlife to get to? You left me, remember?"

"Tate, you raped my mother. You indirectly caused my father's death and you would've let me die in this damn house if my father hadn't found me the night I overdosed. But I know you loved me. I know you were changing whether you want to admit it or not. I just.. I couldn't be with you in the end, you did too much to my family."

"Yet you hint about your cousin.."

"Technically, Tate.. I'm crossed over.. I can only come and go here and there. I'm in your head. So this is really nothing more than you rationalizing your wanting her for yourself." Violet said quietly as she bit her lower lip, looked at him. She'd loved him once.. Then everything he'd done in life and in death came out and she'd had to do something, distance herself from that.

And she realized too late just how much her loving him had changed him for the better. Now they were stuck on completely different realms and she just wanted him to be happy and to get closure.

And she wanted someone to watch over her cousin Tess, because if she were seeing right, Tess was getting in over head with these new 'older' friends of hers in Texas. It worried Violet even if she and Tess hadn't ever exactly been the closest.

She disappeared and Tate picked up a paperweight from what used to be his desk and threw it at the spot she'd vanished from. "Damn it Violet. I loved you more than anyone else. Even myself." he called out, wiping at his eyes, angry at himself.

The door opened a few minutes later and the leggy raven haired girl walked in with two Victoria's Secret bags and a large purse, all of which she sat on the desk. He watched her intently as she walked around his old room, peeking here and there, looking in the closet.

At one point, he was almost chest to chest with her and he could smell the vanilla perfume she wore as she looked into his bathroom mirror, reapplied her cotton candy scented pink lipgloss and said aloud, "Okay, so this place isn't that bad.." as if she were trying to convince herself that moving here wouldn't be the worst thing that'd happened to her in her whole life.

His hand reached out, trailed slowly along her cheek. She gasped as if she'd felt something and ran from the room screaming in an almost deafening high pitch as the Nicki Minaj song she'd been listening to on her phone continued to assault his ears.

"Damn it.. She could've at least turned that shit off." Tate swore as he picked up the hot pink phone and peered at it in curiousity. He knew a little about how to work them thanks to Violet, but her phone wasn't set up exactly like Violets had been either.

After a few moments of nosing around on it, he threw it down onto the bed, bored. Then he walked towards the pink shopping bags and started to dig through them, holding up bras, panties, looking at the size of the bras, looking at the fabric, raking his hand through his hair as he muttered "Well then.. So you two were like night and day. If you were night Violet.. She's day, right?"

From the distance, he heard Violet's laugh and he grumbled, shoved the bras and panties, the pajama set back into one of the bags. He dug through the girls purse next, dumping out a makeup bag, a pack of cigarettes with a silver Zippo that had a Playboy bunny logo stamped on it, a name engraved below it.

The same loopy and hardly readable but elegant scrawl was on the bottom of a receipt in the purse and he finally figured out that it said "Tess."

"Tess." he repeated the name, smirking as he did so.

Tess tried telling her mother what'd just happened upstairs but her mother just laughed it off and then said "Do whatever you want, sweetheart, but I think this move will do us both a lot of good. And this house is free. The other house we're living in.."

"Mom.. I don't care how small the other house in Riggins is.. I'd rather live in the 9th ring of hell than I would here. I'm telling you, Mom, something fucking touched my face up there!" as her mother turned to the realtor and said "Kids, huh?"

"I'm not a child, mom and I'm not lying. There is something in this motherfucking house." Tess stated as she turned on her heel, walked out of the room, slamming a door or two in her wake. By 9 pm that night, her mother was on the phone with movers, and they were preparing to be moved in by that weekend.

And Tess glared at her mother the entire time, arms crossed, none too happy about it. She ducked out to smoke and for a few moments, she could almost swear she heard her dead cousin calling her name, whispering something about how being here wasn't going to be so bad, how she needed this to happen she just didn't realize that yet.

Tess plugged her ears and then exhaled smoke, standing, crushing out the cigarette in a hurry before walking back inside. "I'm sorry Mom."

"It's okay, Tess. I'm not mad at you, I'd have done the same thing at your age. I know it's hard, but we only have each other. And if we move here? I don't have to fly out here for 2 or 3 weeks every new season, whenever the company's ready to launch a new line for a new season. I'll get more time with you. And you might get away from those friends of yours. I worry about you, you know, being around those older kids, especially the boys." her mother said as she sighed.

Tess sank down in a plum velvet chaise lounge and said "In that case, I've picked my room."

"Not the master I hope.. I call dibs on that one, did you see the tub?"

"Nope.. The smaller room it's got the bay window? And it's own attached bathroom?"

"Not Violet's old room?"

"God no. That'd be morbid, Mom."

"Okay. So we're good? You're not going to give me hell about this?"

"One condition.. We have this place exorcised." Tess said quietly as her mother groaned and said "It was probably just the wind Tess."

"Mother, it felt like a fucking hand."

"Tess, I'm telling you.. It was just the wind."

Tess grumbled and then said quietly, "Going to bed now, Mom."

"If you get scared again, Tessa, just come into the room I'm in." her mom called out as Tess said calmly, "Okay." then disappeared up the stairs.

Francesca looked around the house and sighed. Maybe this move would be good for both of them. She felt closer to her brother here, she could sort of feel him in the house. They'd always been really close.

She sighed again and stood, said to herself "Maybe he's not too pissed at me right now.. I never was very good at listening to him.. But this place is renovated, it's closer to the company's main office, it's got too many pros to pass up." as she walked up the stairs and into the room she'd chosen earlier.

In another day their own things would start arriving. And this house would become their new home.