TWENTY TWO YEARS LATER
The front doors opened of the Fenton Mansion to reveal 38 year old Star Polaris wearing an orange skirt with a white top and orange heels. Behind her was a real estate agent named Shona Camblefield.
Star smiled at the sight of her friend's old family home and saw the furniture was still there as she walked around and said, "It's been so long since I've been in this house. It brings back a lot of memories of the times I slept over here. I'm gonna fix this place right up to its former glory"
She then called out, "Dani! Billy! Come inside and look at this"
"I'm sure you and your children will be very happy here" Shona said with a smile. Star's smile dropped and changed to sadness and said, "Um….actually I'm their foster mother. Their real mother Jazz Fenton the one who used to own this house and her husband died last year in an accident"
Shona nodded understanding. Star smiled again as she saw fourteen year old Dani Fenton and her 12 year old brother Billy Fenton walk into the house. Dani wore red jeans and a blue short sleeved hoodie over a long sleeved blue shirt and Billy had red hair like his mother and wore a black shirt with jeans.
"This was mum's house?" Dani asked as they both looked around.
"Yeah it was. I used to come here to sleep over whenever she came back from boarding school" Star answered.
Billy continued to look around until Shona walked up to him and asked, "So what do you think young man? Will it be big enough for you?"
Billy however said nothing and just walked away. Dani sighed sadly and said to Shona, "Please don't take it personally. He hasn't spoken a word since it happened"
"I'm so sorry" Shona said.
Dani secretly smirked and decided to play a trick and continued to pretend to be sad as she said, "It's okay. We barely even knew our parents. They were always travelling and we didn't even know they loved us. But when the ship went down in Monte Carlo they did manage to write us a beautiful goodbye note that was found in the bottom of a champagne bottle that was found in the debris!"
She pretended to sob and walked away as Shona eyes widened at the story. Dani then quietly laughed at her joke which Star noticed and said to Shona, "Sorry about Dani. She's always playing practical jokes. They're parents were very devoted to them. They died of a car crash in New York"
"Oh I see" Shona said as she started working out the paper work with Star.
Later that evening they almost finished unpacking their boxes. Star went through the house to unlock some of the doors but some of them didn't work. Billy looked through one of the key holes to see a bike inside it.
"Hey Bill can you take this suitcase up to the attic please? Then we can all have ice-cream" Star said as she walked down the stairs.
Billy grabbed the suitcase and headed upstairs to the attic and opened the door to reveal the dark, gloomy, dusty old attic. It was filled with stuff from here to there, he turned on his flashlight and started looking around when he heard some sort of screeching noise coming from the wall.
As Dani removed a cloth from a couch both her and Star suddenly heard Billy screaming. Star and Dani both ran upstairs to see Billy running out of the attic while dropping the torch and Star grabbed him as he hugged her around the waist.
"What is it Billy? What's wrong?" Star asked.
They all heard a noise coming from the attic again and Dani said, "I'm going Motel 6"
Star scoffed and shook her head and went to the attic. She picked up the torch and opened the door slightly to check it out. When she heard the noise again which sounded like an animal she immediately closed the door and locked it.
Early in the morning a pest control man named James came by and inspected the attic but he couldn't find any sight of the animal Billy described….well what Dani had described for Billy since he didn't talk.
"I don't see any bats in sight here" James said as he continued to look around.
Dani walked up to him with a book in her hand and said as she pointed to a picture, "He said it looked like this one only it was glowing green and had three eyes"
"Well that's an African bat but as for the other descriptions I'm sure it must have been the dust playing tricks on him" James said. "Funny. Some kid back in the 90's said she saw something like that back then. Well whatever it was, it's gone now. I wonder why you guys moved in this place. I can understand that it was your mother's house but personally I wouldn't want to live in a house where someone was murdered"
Billy and Dani stopped in their tracks when they heard that and Dani asked, "Murdered?"
"Yep. Young Danny Fenton. Jazz Fenton's little brother" James answered. "I say his father was the one who done it. There's a million and once places where he could have hid the body that is if he didn't chop it up at first"
"Dani! Billy! You're gonna be late for school!" Star called out from down stairs.
James leaned over and called out, "There's not a bat in sight miss. Whatever it was, it's long gone now and you can definitely sleep safely tonight"
With that Billy and Dani left the attic and started getting ready to head for school.
It took the entire day but Star had done all the cleaning and finally finished fixing up the house. By the end it looked exactly how she remembered it back when she was a teenager. Unfortunately she also had to see Dani and Billy's principle at the school since they both got into trouble.
They sat down at the dinner table quietly as Star came in with the gravy and said, "I can't believe I have to see your principle on your first day of school. What am I gonna do?"
Dani and Billy looked down in slight guilt for causing their foster parent some trouble. Star sighed and said, "Let's just finish our dinner and talk about something else"
"How come you didn't tell us about apparently our uncle Danny Fenton?" Dani asked.
Star sighed and answered, "I'm surprised Jazz never told you about him but then again I wouldn't blame her. It was….a pretty sad time for her. Yes your mother had a brother named Danny. I knew him from school, he was a nice guy unlike some of the other jerks that went to our school. I remember Dash Baxter always pushing him around. One day he just disappeared and no-one could find him"
"Maybe that's why you got the house so cheap" Dani suggested. "Because his father chopped him up to little pieces and hid him in the walls"
Star immediately became appalled by what she said and said, "Okay I am sick and tired of you making stuff up young lady. You're grounded and for your information I knew his father and he would never do anything like that to his son"
Dani just shook her head and left the table as she said, "Fine! There's nothing to do in this stupid town anyway and just so you know, I didn't make that up! That's what everyone in town said what happened"
Star sighed and said, "Dani wait!"
Dani stopped at the staircase and looked at Star who calmed down and said, "Look yes I know about the rumours people have said about your uncle's disappearance but believe me when I say that I knew his father. He would never have killed his son. He loved him so much"
Dani sighed and looked down and continued up the stairs to her room. Later that night as Dani slept, she suddenly woke up hearing an eerie noise coming from the roof and got out of bed. Billy lay down looking at a picture of his mother and father, he heard someone coming to his room and he quickly placed the picture under his pillow and turned off the lamp and pretended he was asleep.
Dani opened the door and climbed into the large bed with Billy who turned and sighed in relief to see it was only her. Dani then asked, "Did you hear anything a little while ago? A weird noise?"
Billy shook his head and asked, "Do you miss mum and dad?"
Dani looked down and answered, "No"
"Liar" Billy said knowing it wasn't true. "If you don't cut that out Star might send you to a shrink"
"Where do you think they're gonna send you if you don't start talking?" Dani retorted back.
Billy said nothing and just turned around while Dani laid down and they both tried to get some sleep until suddenly the eerie noise came back and the two children used their eyes and looked towards the roof wondering where it was coming from.
TO BE CONTINUED….