I would first off like to thank everyone who added this story as a favorite and reviewed. I would like to answer some of the questions you guys left but at the moment I'm afraid that I would ruin what's going to happen later on if I did. Anyways I'm really glad you guys seem to like it so far.
The smile he had faded as he noticed the skeptical way her eyes narrowed at him. "What do you mean by new neighbor? I was told that no one lived anywhere around here." She strictly recalled the word they used to describe this area of the woods, isolated. A term that she knew meant something that was far away from other places, buildings, or people. If what Arthur said was true then it meant that the relator who sold her this house didn't seem to think that Arthur was a person. Although, it was more likely that they simply neglected to mention him.
"Hm, then it seems that you were wrongly informed." His gaze briefly left her for the house. "Although, I'm guessing that's not the only lie you were told."
"Actually, for your information, I knew very well what I was getting into." She also knew that part of that was a lie.
His eyebrows raised up curiously as the beginnings of a smirk appeared on his lips. Although he hadn't meant to insult her, she took it that way. "I haven't seen you around here before, is this your first time seeing it?"
"I've seen it before," she paused "just not recently." The last part was spoken softly, something she didn't usually do.
"Just how long ago was that?"
She considered lying to him. He seemed young, probably around her age. He couldn't have been living here long especially since he was British. "Well, I mean I-I would have come back sooner if my parents didn't move away and-and I already saw it once so I didn't think it was necessary for me to come all this way just to see it before I bought it." It was obvious to tell that he was becoming impatient with her rambling. She shifted uncomfortably on her feet, looking down she answered "It's been ten years." It may have been the look he gave or the just the general way he came off to her, either way she found herself telling the truth.
Amelia never enjoyed overly critical people, usually she brushed people like that off and continued on with whatever she was doing. However, somehow she didn't want him to look at her like they did. Like she was naïve child. "But you did see recent pictures of it, right?"
Amelia knew that no matter what she told him, she would sound like an idiot. Saying yes meant that she knew what condition the outside of it was in beforehand. Saying no meant that she bought this place knowing very little about it. "Not really," she admitted.
"You're telling me that you made a life altering decision that probably cost someone like you quite a bit of their savings and you didn't even know what it looked like!" His reaction reminded her of the one her parents had when she first told them the news.
"Correction, I didn't know what it looked like recently." He shook his head at the light smile she made. How could anyone smile when they just made one of the biggest mistakes of their life?
"Have you seen what it looks like on the inside?"
"What?"
Scoffing he repeated, "I asked if you've ever seen what it looks like on the inside."
Her answer was obvious to him when she began to rub the back of her head. "No, but it's not like the inside can be any worse than the outside, right?"
He couldn't help but laugh at her statement. "Well you're in for a big surprise."
The hand on her head joined the other one on her hips. "Have you ever seen what it looks like on the inside?"
"I have," he stated flatly. "I guess you could say that I used to be a bit of a caretaker for the original owner."
Now it was Amelia's turn to laugh at him. She eyed the gloomy place up and down once more before continuing. "Well you've certainly taken care of this place for me." She didn't catch him rolling his eyes at her, not like it would matter much to her if she did.
Her upturned lips began to fall into a frown as she began to think about the interior of her house. What if there was spiders and rats crawling over every surface? What if the furniture was so moldy and torn up that she wouldn't be able to distinguish the couch from the bed? What if there were holes in the wall the size of people? Amelia was young, fresh out of college. Arthur had been right when he said that she used about a substantial amount of her savings to pay for this house. She did have money left over for renovations but not enough to fix the disaster she was thinking of.
Theories surged through her brain and clouded her vision. She didn't notice Arthur leave her side until he stood directly in front of the chipped door. Scowling, he looked back towards the absent-minded woman. "Oi," her gaze snapped away from the shingles to look at him, "don't you want to see what it's like on the inside?"
There was a part of her that wanted to say no, to leave and stay somewhere else for a while. Though that part of her, the part that had tried to stop her from buying the house in the first place, often was ignored. Arthur was a bit taken aback when she began marching her way towards him. The last owners were an older couple who waited in hotel while their sons inspected the place to see if there was any major issues.
Amelia had held her head up high on her way over to him, intending to look just as audacious as the main characters in her favorite horror movies (the ones that lived of course). The first step on the porch had made the smallest of creaks under her feet, nothing more. Unfortunately she couldn't say the same for the second step. "Ah!" It took Arthur a second, two for Amelia, to realize what had happened.
"Did you seriously not notice the missing step?" Strangely enough, Amelia didn't even realize that she had tried to step on thin air until he had pointed it out to her.
Note to self, get steps fixed, she thought. The note, however, would easily be forgotten within the hour. Panicking, she pushed herself off from off the ground, afraid that he would eventually come over to her. One hand tried and failed to discreetly brush the muck off from the back of her jeans. Thinking it was clean, she continued her way to the door.
"For the record I am not clumsy just . . ."
"Unobservant." She recoiled at the statement.
"Err . . . I guess you could say that."
He didn't respond back and neither did she. Well, at least she would have if there was something more to say. Her left hand glided down the ends of her shirt and towards entrance of her pants pocket. It wasn't hard to find the key seeing as it was pressed up against a mini box of altoids. "Aha," she made quick work of pulling it out and pressing it into the lock.
Arthur, out of habit, was the first one to grab the handle of the door and push. However, rather than swing open with ease, it remained shut as if something was pushing against it from the inside. Tilting her head to the side, Amelia watched the Englishman press his entire weight against the door. Gritting his teeth, he glanced back over towards her. "It doesn't usually do this," he grumbled.
"Maybe I should try?"
For a moment the relentless rattling of the handle stopped as her statement registered in his mind. "I highly doubt that a girl like you would have better luck than me."
Her right hand moved to press against the edge of the door. Despite the fact that distance between her arm and his head was so slim that the edges of his hair brushed up against her, Arthur didn't see her hand. Much like Amelia with the porch steps, he didn't notice the door swing open until he started to fall forward. The scarping of the door upon the chipped wood floors echoed throughout the halls, much like a student pulling in their chair during a test. Strangely enough, no sound came forth when Arthur's body tumbled onto the foyer floor.
Amelia's chest heaved up in rapid motion as she took in a sharp gasp of surprise. Although it was not because of Arthur. Actually, any thoughts and concerns about him disappeared the moment her eyes met the interior of her house.
This . . . was not what she expected.
