Bella moves to a new town with her mother, Renee. Things are not as they seem and could mean great danger if Bella doesn't stop it. Expect surprises along the way. Kind of an erotic thriller. Tell me what you think. Thank you!
Bella POV
I remember being cold. I had been drifting in and out of sleep for the past couple hours. The radio was on the country station, Keith Urban I think. Not exactly my Mom's style. Looking forward I could still see a long stretch of road with a lot of empty fields. It was dreary out but it was still summer, it didn't look like this county had summer in a long time, it was probably always a mix of fall, winter and spring all year round. Taylor Swift came on, at least some of her songs were tolerable. I found it harder to keep my eyes open as I shifted. Out my window I could see only grey and black skies, dead trees and dried up land. It was like we were driving to the end of the world. Creepy abandoned buildings, the kind Renee would explore but was likely not in the mood.
She was searching for another station on the old van radio, struggling to tune into anything near by. Sick of Swift I guess. A man's voice was loud enough to jolt me awake, only he wasn't singing, he was preaching.
"YOU HAVE ALL COME SHORT…YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE AND HE KNOWS WHO YOU ARE…" the signal was going in and out. Renee was laughing. "IF YOU WANT TO PLEASE HIM YOU HAVE TO SACRIFICE FOR HIM…HE WANTS THE BLOOD…HE WANTS THE BLOOD…" he kept repeating this, it was getting weirder by the second.
"He wants blood? What kind of preacher is this?"
"Maybe it's a Satanist church" Renee smirked over at me.
"THE BLOOD THE BLOOD THE BLOOD THE BLOOD THE BLOOD THE BLOOD…" I guess finally Renee got sick of him too because she turned off the radio.
"We should be home soon." I sighed, I wasn't looking forward to this but it was better than being back at the old house, a lot better. A fresh start. "You'll have a football star boyfriend in no time."
I couldn't even laugh at the ridiculousness of that, the last thing on my mind right now was dating. "What if nobody likes me?" Sure it seems like a dumb statement, teenage girl moving to new town but if you knew my history of making and keeping friends it was 50/50 on a good day. I was never popular, why would I be? I never thought of myself as beautiful or anything, I dressed really plain and always thought of myself as being kind of a weirdo. The only other weirdo I knew was Renee.
"Bella, hon, people like you and you're a pretty girl." I was meek, awkward around everyone. "Smart. Caring." I was also clumsy. Pessimistic. Maybe a little selfish. "Maybe a little stubborn" Renee added with a smile. "And no one knows who you are so you have a chance of making a good first impression."
"If I don't land flat on my face or butt first."
I'm not sure how I would describe this story I'm about to tell you. Horror? Yes. A romance? I guess you'll have to decide for yourself...
We passed the sign:
WELCOME TO DARK HOLLOW
We passed a rundown trailer park, it looked more like a junkyard now with abandoned cars and junk piled everywhere. I was pretty sure no one lived there in a long time. One trailer was completely black with soot. Maybe used as a meth lab.
Our house wasn't as scary, 2 floors 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom. The outside still looked sketchy. A fence up in the backyard. The lawn wasn't really taken care of. We didn't really have a lot to unpack. A moving truck would be coming in two days so I guess it was eating on the floor.
I don't think I saw any cars or any people outside when we pulled into the driveway; the population on the sign said 5,000. Was everyone working today?
I didn't have my bed yet but did have an air mattress. As I waited for the electric air pump to inflate the thing I looked out my window. I could see our backyard and our neighbour's. A huge circle with dead grass, more than likely a pool was there quite some time ago.
I was startled to see someone in our backyard, I almost jumped; I'm such a scaredy cat. Renee was downstairs in the kitchen unpacking so I knew it couldn't be her. I couldn't see the persons face but could see it was a young woman.
I thought maybe it was just someone next door who saw us drive in and wanted to say hello. Not: Oh someone is creeping around in our backyard and could be a psycho. Renee didn't see anything when I went downstairs and asked her. I journeyed outside, dumb curiosity. I'm a virgin so I assumed I was safe according to horror movie rules.
I moved pretty slow on the back porch, looking around for signs of the woman. "Hey, you!" It was a girl on the other side of our fence; I would later learn her name was Jessica Stanley.
"Um, hey" I awkwardly greeted.
She was pale but not as pale as me weirdly, I thought she was pretty, not the kind you would expect in a town like this. "So you're our new neighbours."
"Yeah. I'm Isabella but everyone calls me Bella."
She had this very underwhelming look on her face, she wasn't looking at me she was looking through me, "Will you be trying out in the fall?"
"Trying out?"
"For cheerleading" She rolled her eyes.
"Oh", I smiled trying my best to be friendly to this girl, "No it's not really my thing." I think I offended her because she waited a moment to speak.
"Where are you from?"
"Pheonix, Arizona."
She had the slightest smirk, "Aren't people from Arizona usually tanned?"I laughed at that. She pointed to something behind me. I was shocked. Graffiti all around the siding of the house. COCK. PUSSY. HAIRY BALLS and TITS painted in huge letters and it didn't look very amateur either like someone actually took time out of their day to do that. When I turned back to Jessica she was gone. That was a weird encounter but it was the first of many.
I ran into the kitchen to tell Renee she was excited as a kid at Christmas morning when she saw it; it's weird when I take this stuff more seriously. There was also some beer bottles left under the porch and even more artwork including a crude pentagram.
We ordered pizza and waited for it sitting on unopened boxes. "Yes. 69 Shadow brook lane" she told the guy on the phone.
"Is it seriously 69?" I asked, sometimes I couldn't tell if Renee was just being childish but then why would she give a fake address?
"Yup."
20 minutes went by and it looked like the pizza could be free but it was such a small town that it seemed unlikely that it would take too long. Without cable or internet setup we made small talk to pass the time.
"There's a lot of half empty beer cans under the porch" I said glaring at her, she knew I was kidding though.
"Don't worry, it's not mine" She joked. She had gone through the 12 step program before so she liked to make light of the situation. One of the huge reasons my dad left was because of her drinking, the other was a woman only 5 years older than me. Renee could see someone walking up the driveway, "Pizza is here. The pizza guy looks cute."
She handed me the money, her way of telling me to talk to another human being. I opened the door only to realize it wasn't a pizza guy but a pizza girl. "Hi, there!" she said. She had short dark hair under a red cap that matched her uniform.
"Hey" I said.
"You guys just moving in?" She saw the boxes including the one Renee was sitting on.
"No, this is just how we live now" Renee laughed.
"Oh" the girl laughed now, "It's a really nice place. I don't know why the last family had to leave so soon" she paused, "That's 18.55."
I handed her the money and thought about all the graffiti outside, "It's not that nice in the back. Someone spray painted…some interesting stuff all over the outside of the house."
"Really? That's awful. I know someone who could help you with that, they'd probably do it for almost nothing."
"Cool" Renee said, "I'm kind of liking it though."
The girl gave me a weird look, "She's joking" I rolled my eyes, "That would be great."
"I'm Alice."
"Bella."
"I actually live next door."
"Really? Do you know that weird girl?"
Alice made a sly grin with her head back, feeling embarrassed, "She's my sister."
I felt a little bad, not because I called her weird but because she was her stuck up sister. "Oh."
"Yeah. Not related though, at least that's what I'me told." She handed me the rest of our order and she was about to go, she clearly had a few more orders. "You should come by tomorrow, Bella. Don't worry, Jessica won't be home."
"That would be great."
"Do you know Emmet Black?"
I was puzzled, I'd never heard of that name in my life, "No. Who's he?"
"Jessica's future husband" she made air quotes in the air, "Just a heads up, she gets super jealous. Have a nice evening."
I brought the pizza over to our cardboard dining table and chairs. "Emmet Black" Renee repeated, looking at me with the uncomfortable grin.
"Please don't start" I said before devouring a pepperoni slice.
Renee raised her diet coke can, "Hey" I took the cue and raised my can of Fanta cream soda, "To new beginnings."
"To new beginnings" I sighed.
We each took a sip. Renee belched loudly.
"Lovely" I tried to act all serious and mature but ended up laughing.
To be continued. Look forward to uncomfortable moments, sexual content and weird cults and possession.
