Chapter 9

After I had roused myself from Christmas sleep, a heavy headache greeted me in the morning. I rolled out of bed, going into the bathroom and searching in the medicine cabinet for some aspirin. After I had found a bottle, I swallowed them with a quick gulp of water and slipped into the shower. The warm water drumming on my body was a nice wake up call, and after I had finished showering, I sat in the bathroom and relaxed in the steamy room. I stepped out of the bathroom, looking at the clock and realizing that I might be late for breakfast, I picked out a quick outfit to put on and went downstairs for breakfast.

As I was walking down, I had already anticipated that the tension was going to be thick at the breakfast table because of me and Zach's episode last night. Calista and Charles were surely going to be giving me evil looks at the table, and because of that, I avoided the dining room. The house was still quiet; faint noises from the kitchen were heard as breakfast was being prepared, and there was no sign of Zach, Nicholas or Annabelle. I decided to venture the house instead out of curiosity. In the den of the great house, a large, magnificent piano sat in the middle of the room, the sunlight bouncing off it. Immediately, I was drawn to it, and I sat down at the polished bench and lifted the cover off of the keys. Something inside of me was pulling me toward it, signaling to me that I should play a few notes. My hands lifted themselves onto the black and white ivory keys, and slowly lowered them to play a chord. My fingers had a mind of their own, and soon, I was playing a mournful song on the piano.

The song had finished, and my hands lifted off the keys and sat in my lap, and I stared at them, feeling amazed, curious, and terrified all at the same time. Where had I learned to play the piano? Questions raced through my mind, and I leaped from the bench and slammed the cover down on the keys and shook my head. How did I know how to play?

"That was wonderful Rose. I didn't know that you knew how to play the piano," I heard from behind me, and I turned around to see Annabelle at the den entrance, Zach by her side. I blinked a few times and looked up.

"I didn't know that I knew how to do that either," I said softly, trying to reach into the depths of my brain to find this lost talent. Annabelle gave me a puzzled look and walked into the dining room, while Zach still stood there.

"How are you this morning? Does your head feel like it's been pressed between two boulders?" He asked as I walked toward him.

"I took some aspirin, but I still have a faint headache," I explained, still baffled at what I had done.

"You don't remember learning how to play piano?"

"No, I don't," I murmured. "It must have been..."

"Been what?"

"When I was in boarding school," I quickly concluded. Zach shrugged and we headed toward the dining room together. Calista and Charles were already seated at the table, Charles at one end and Calista at the other. They looked regal with their spines as straight as rods, their noses high in the air. I saw out of the corner of my eye that Calista's eyes had narrowed into tiny slits as we entered the dining room, and she held her posture higher, if it was possible. Annabelle instructed us where to sit, and we waited for Nicholas and his parents to arrive. They were in the kitchen, whipping up a wonderful gourmet breakfast for us all. A few moments of awkwardness passed over at the table and suddenly they burst out of the kitchen doors, carrying trays of food. They placed them on the table and took their seats, Nicholas looking over at me and smiling.

"How is everyone this morning?" Marie asked. "Oh, help yourselves," she said with a laugh. Everyone reached forward to serve themselves as they mumbled their quick responses. Light conversation was floating around the table; one of the conversations being about my piano skills this morning.

"Nicholas, did you know that Rose knows how to play the piano?" Annabelle asked nonchalantly. Nicholas's eyes sparkled with interest.

"She did? I had no idea," he said, his eyes locked on me. Suddenly I was the topic of discussion at the table and my cheeks flamed red.

"Yes; As I was walking downstairs this morning I heard her play a wonderful song. What was that Rose?"

"I have no idea," I said, shaking my head with desperation. I really did want to know how long ago I learned how to play the piano and what song I had played.

"Well then, maybe we should hire a private teacher to come out to the house to give you lessons. Would you like that?" Nicholas asked. I darted my eyes over to Calista, and from what I saw, a tiny speck of approval glimmered in her eyes. I didn't care if I pleased her with these piano lessons, but I did want them.

"Yes, I do very much," I replied, taking a sip of my orange juice. Nicholas smiled.

"Good, then it's settled. We'll take care of it when we get home," he said and bit into his breakfast. I smiled, grateful that he was going out of his way to please me, and I loved him for it.

The mood lightened a little bit at the table, and soon, breakfast was finished. Everyone helped cleaned; even Calista and Charles, which surprised me, and soon, we packed our things and were ready to leave the house. Nicholas's parents were outside with us to see us off, and Marie pulled me aside and hugged me.

"I'm sorry that I didn't get a chance to meet you or spend time with you," she said. "But I promise me and the old guy will come down and spend the weekend with you."

I was moved. We had no blood relation to each other; we were practically strangers to each other, but hearing what she had to say moved me to tears. She smiled, kissed my cheek and patted my back. I went to put my things in Zach's trunk and said one last goodbye to my new grandparents. Annabelle and her parents were quietly talking, a stern look upon all of their faces, and they finally said goodbye to each other, barely giving each other hugs. I shook my head as I got into the car, looking over to see that Calista was staring at me, her eyes cold and beady and she crossed her arms across her chest and sighed. I shut the door, shutting her out of my heart and turned to Zach.

"Let's get out of here," I pleaded. He grinned and started the car, peeling out of the driveway and out onto the road.

"Did you have any fun?" He asked.

"Yeah, a little bit."

"Well, I have to say, playing drunk monopoly was the highlight of this Christmas, besides getting that autographed basketball," Zach said with a big grin on his face.

"I guess. Too bad it was spoiled with Calista," I thought out loud. "Why did she think that something was going to happen between us?"

Zach was silent for a moment.

"Last Christmas, I was able to bring my girlfriend at the time, Diana Kruger up to the cabin with us. My parents trusted me and my grandparents had another one of their boring adult parties, just like they do every Christmas. So Diana and I snuck upstairs, with a bottle of wine and had a few glasses before things got a little crazy," Zach explained. "Next thing I knew we were ripping our clothes off and were about to do it before Calista discovered us."

I sat there, wide eyed. "You really did that?" I asked him. He shrugged.

"So pretty much, they don't trust me anymore, and that's why Calista thought that. She's a tad crazy," Zach replied. I nodded. That seemed right. "But maybe we'll have to play drunk Monopoly again; that was pretty fun."

"I don't plan on getting drunk for a while Zach," I answered with a laugh. "At least not until it is legal."

Zach scoffed and turned his eyes to the road.

"Well, now that Christmas is over, I get to finally yell at Mom for her secret affair," Zach said on a happier note. I turned toward him.

"Are you so bent on revenge that you can't wait to scream at her?" I asked him. He turned towards me.

"Put yourself in my shoes, Rose," he urged. Pretend your mother is having an affair with a kid, a teenage boy, and she lies to you about loving your father and about hating sex. It's not exactly the greatest situation," he said, locking his eyes on the road.

"I'm sorry Zach, I know that it's a bad situation for you, but please, don't ruin what would be my first real Christmas," I pleaded, touching his shoulder. He turned his head toward me, stared at me for a second, and nodded.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," he mumbled, accelerating. I leaned back and closed my eyes, not realizing how tired I was until I had closed my eyes. I slowly drifted to sleep to the soft radio in the background and the sound of the engine, and before I knew it, we were at home.

"Get up Rose," Zach said, lightly shaking my shoulder. I woke myself up and stumbled out of the car, going to the trunk to get some of my things to bring into the house. It was mid afternoon now, and the clouds made a threat of rain as we carried our gifts inside the house. We put everything away neatly upstairs in our room, and I went lay down just as my phone rang. I reached over to answer it, wondering who it was that could have been calling me.

"Hello?"

"Rose?" I heard, and I shot straight up.

"Stephen!" I cried happily, so relieved that it was him.

"Hi," he said with a laugh.

"Hi, how are you?" I asked, running my hands through my hair as I sat against the headboard.

"Pretty good. I called yesterday and nobody had answered. I wanted to wish you a merry Christmas. Where were you?"

"Oh, goodness, I forgot to tell you. We went up to Nicholas's and Annabelle's parents holiday cabin to spend the day up there with them," I explained. I went on to explain how cold Annabelle's parents were and how nice Nicholas's parents treated me, and the incident the night before.

"You got drunk and played monopoly?" He asked.

"I know. I lost control. I feel really stupid about it now," I said. "I promise it will not happen again."

"I know, it's really no big deal. I used to shoplift Hershey's candy bars from the drug store across the street, so I'm not saying that I have a clean conscience myself."

"Really?"

"Yeah, but that was in seventh grade. A long time ago. So tell me what else has been going on," he asked. I remembered that I had to tell him about the Christmas party and what I had done to Andrew, and slowly, I preceded to tell him. He was silent for a few seconds, which felt like stabs in the heart.

"Wow," he said. My heart instantly sunk, thinking that he was really going to be disappointed in me.

"He didn't really kiss you did he?"

"No! Not at all!" I cried. "He tried to kiss me on the neck, but that's when I warned him that he wouldn't be fooling around with girls anymore."

He laughed, which was a relief for me. "Just don't do anything wild before I get home. I'm only here for a few more days, and then we're coming home."

"I really can't wait to see you. I've missed you so much."

"I'll be home soon, I promise," he said, and my heart melted. He started to tell me what he did during his vacation. He went paint balling, opened his gifts yesterday morning with his family, and just hung out around the house. I smiled, glad that he was having a good time, and then he had to go. He was on his grandmother's cell phone and she only had so many long distance minutes. I said a long goodbye to him and hung up, sighing. I wanted him to come home right now at this instant and run into his arms and hold me forever, but I remembered that I had to wait a few days before I could do that.

I went downstairs to entertain myself; to go find Zach or Nicholas and be with them, but I walked by the family room, where Nicholas had his grand piano. I was drawn to it instantly and went to sit down at the bench and glide my fingers over the keys. They felt so smooth underneath my fingertips, and they pressed down and made a chord that rang in the air. My hands had a mind of their own by now, and they were traveling up and down the keys, and the song came to it's climax. I sat there, staring when Nicholas walked in.

"Rose, where did you really learn how to play piano?" He asked, walking over and sitting down next to me on the bench.

"I don't know, Nicholas. I honestly don't know," I replied dreamily, the keys putting me in a trance.

"How do you not remember?"

"I don't know. My memory fades in an out because..." I roused myself out of my trance and realized that I hadn't explained to Nicholas that my memory had been wiped clean when I was five years old.

"Because of what?" He held his breath in anticipation.

"Shortly after my mother's death, my mind hadn't come to realize that my mother was dead and that she was never coming back. I had claimed to see her and feel her around me, and my grandmother was so upset that I couldn't face the fact that she had been killed. So she took me to a psychiatrist and had given me electroshock therapy treatments to wipe the murder out of mind. Ironically, it still lingers but other things had disappeared in my mind," I answered him, thinking back on this time. "I must have learned how to play the piano at the Academy and my mind must have forgotten it," I reasoned, shaking my head.

"I didn't know that," he said quietly. "You've been through rough times."

"Yes," I said, folding my hands in my lap. Nicholas rubbed my shoulders and smiled.

"I called the piano teacher. His name his Raymond Wilmont and he will be coming by next Monday. He's a piano professor at one of the community colleges around here."

"Thank you," I said, putting a smile on my face. "I really appreciate this."

"I'll do anything to make you happy Rose," he said in a serious tone. I nodded, believing that he would, and I stood up and shrugged.

"I think I'm going to go upstairs and write a little bit," I announced. He nodded and rose from the bench and followed me out. I went upstairs into my room and scrawled my thoughts into a journal before going downstairs to talk with Zach. He was downstairs in the living room, sitting in front of the TV with a few friends by his side, playing a football video game. They laughed and cheered and didn't even realize that I was in the room until Zach had turned around.

"Oh, I didn't know that you were standing there," he said, handing his controller to someone else and standing up. I shrugged in response.

"When did everyone get here?" I asked, seeing that all of the boys had turned to look at me. Andrew was one of them at the crowd, and when our eyes locked, he guiltily shifted his away. I smiled.

"Just a few minutes ago. Do you want to play?" He asked, gesturing toward the game.

"I don't know how to use one of those things," I replied, wishing that I hadn't said that in front of all of the boys. Now the must think I'm really stupid, I thought.

"Well, we'll teach you," he said, grabbing my wrist and pulling me over there. Zach handed me his controller and showed me how to use it, and the games started again. I didn't really like the football game, but it was pretty fun. They boys ended up beating me pretty badly, but they said that I was pretty good at it for it being my first time. I smiled, glad that they didn't think that I was a complete fool, and they invited me to stay and watch a movie with them. They popped in a funny comedy movie, and everyone was laughing hysterically, even myself. Zach smiled, happy that I was enjoying myself with his friends. The movie ended and Zach's friends wanted to go out and do something on the roads.

"Let's just drive around and do something. Do some damage to the town," Daryl suggested with an impish grin on his face.

"Fine," Zach suggested. We headed outside to the cars and spilt up, all of us following Zach's lead.

"Are you always the ring leader?" I asked him as we sped downtown. He grinned.

"You could say that," he said as his cellphone rang. He answered it, listening to the other person on the end of the line. He suddenly burst into a wide grin and made a sharp turn to the left.

"Where are we going Zach?" Daryl asked as Zach went even faster.

"Don't worry about it," he mumbled, darting his eyes at me as he dared to drive even faster. Soon we were going 70 on an empty street, and I started panic.

"Zach, you're going a little fast," I reminded him. He laughed as if it were no big deal, and made another sharp turn down a dirt road. The dirt flew around us as we headed toward a large plantation style house at the end of the road. The other car pulled up beside us and we all got out. It was getting darker now and the clouds once again threatened rain.

"This is the McCullough Plantation house Rose," Zach announced. I turned toward the house and shiver, a bad feeling crawling up my spine. "About 150 years ago, Robert McCullough lived in this house with his wife and his three kids, all of them girls. He ran a cotton plantation and had lots of slaves on hand to help him. He wasn't exactly nice to his slaves when they were out in the field, and one night, all of the slaves decided to rebel against their master and the family, and went on a killing rampage. The family was killed and the slaves ran from the plantation, never to be found.

"A lot of people say that the house is haunted; the family doesn't rest in peace and are still waiting for the slaves to come back so that they could get their revenge. So, we decided that we're going to spend a little while inside the house, just to prove the rumor true or false," Zach concluded. I looked at all of his friends, some of them wearing smiles, some of them looking dead serious.

"Why?" I asked. It came upon us so suddenly that we had decided to do this, I was suspicious.

"Just because. Look, I won't let anything happen Rose, I promise," Zach said, drawing closer to me. I looked back at the other boys and decided that it was harmless fun. Zach smiled, took my arm and pulled me to the house as the others followed. The house was badly out of shape; it had been abandon and was falling apart. As we entered, some of the old furnishings were in the house, covered with layers of dust and cobwebs from the spiders that now occupied the house. We all walked carefully as if the floorboards were about to break and glanced around the house, our ears opened for anything. The anticipation in the air was thick, and by the time we had reached the staircase, I had wanted to get out of the house. But I wanted to prove these boys wrong; to show them that I wasn't scared of a stupid house, so I didn't say a word. In the distance, something clattered to the floor and all of us jumped, including Zach.

"It was probably nothing," he concluded, shrugging it off. He started to climb the staircase, warning us that it was about to go at any second, so we all cautiously walked up the stairs and explored the bedrooms.

"See, not so bad," Zach assured me as we went into one of the kid's rooms. Some of the other boys wanted to go explore downstairs and see what was down in the basement, so we decided to spilt into two teams. We still ventured upstairs, and I started shivering because of the cold. Zach offered me his sweatshirt and I put it on, smiling at the scent of the cologne he wore, and we made our way to the master bedroom.

"This is where the first murder occurred," he said to the group. "They were slaughtered in their sleep." Out of the corner of my eye I saw a flashing light and turned around to see what it was. Nothing was behind me, and we continued to move around. Daryl decided to go downstairs, claiming that he had to use the bathroom, so he left the group, and all that were left were me, Zach, and Danny. Zach decided that he wanted to go into the playroom, and behind me, I thought I heard a floorboard squeak.

"What was that?" I asked quickly, running out of breath.

"Nothing Rose, it's an old house," Zach convinced me. I realized that I was freaking out about something little, so I tried to ease up and enjoy the tour. When we got into the playroom, a bolt of lightning flashed in the air and I thought I saw a brief figure standing near the window. My heart started to pound as Zach looked underneath the beds, in the toy boxes, and just looked around.

"I guess this place isn't too interesting after all," he said with some sadness in his voice.

"Good, let's get out of here," Danny suggested.

"Maybe if we just wait a little longer something will happen," Zach said with some hope in his voice. Another bolt of lightning streaked in the sky and I could clearly tell that there was someone at the window.

"Zach, I think that there's someone at the window," I said softly. He walked over and checked to see if anyone was there.

"Nobody's here Rose. I think you're just freaking yourself out a little bit. Maybe we should leave," he

said with some hesitation in his voice. The rain started to lightly pour, and just as we were about to leave the room, a loud creaking sound came from behind us. We spun around, seeing that it was the closet door that was slowly swinging open.

"It's the storm. Come on, let's go," Zach urged us, but Danny stayed frozen.

"Wait," he whispered. Chills erupted on my skin and traveled throughout my body as the door suddenly stopped, and we waited.

"It's nothing, let's go," Zach demanded and I turned around to leave the room when I ran into someone in the doorway.

"Sorry," I said, thinking that it was Daryl returning to the group, when I looked up and saw that it wasn't Daryl. It was a tall man, dressed in a tuxedo with bowler's hat on. He grabbed my shoulders and turned me around and dragged me down the stairs, and I started screaming and fighting back.

"Let me go!" I screamed, trying to get his hands off of me. I couldn't hear Zach or Danny behind me, and I had wondered if they had been taken to. I was taken outside and sat down in a chair where other people surrounded me. It was completely dark save for the lightning that occasionally lit the sky, but I couldn't see what was going on and who these people were.

"Leave me alone!" I shouted, realized that I was being tied to the chair and I tried my hardest to get out of their grip. They tied me successfully and stood there watching me, and I was pleading that there was light around somewhere so that I could see something. As my wish had been answered, a light flashed on my face, and for a moment, I couldn't see. After my eyes had adjusted to the light, I could see all of Zach's friends standing around me, smiling and laughing. Zach pushed through the crowd and stood in front of me, looking down at me.

"Get me out of here!" I screamed with rage. He chuckled to himself and he came from behind me and untied the rope. I leaped from the chair and pushed out of the circle and turned toward them.

"What were you doing to me? Was this some kind of sick joke!" I yelled. Zach came forward and took my hand, but I pushed him away.

"I'm sorry Rose, we couldn't help ourselves," he said, trying to keep a straight face. I pushed away

from him and started to walk away toward the cars.

"It wasn't funny!" I screamed back at them as the rain lightly poured down on me. Zach ran forward, somehow retrieving an umbrella and holding it over me.

"Come on! What are you doing?" He asked after I didn't stop at his car.

"I'm not riding back with you! You're the one who set this all up!" I shrieked at him.

"Rose, you don't know how to get home; you can't just walk until you find it," Zach said. He grabbed my arm, and because he was stronger than me, he pulled me toward him. "We're sorry. It was a stupid joke. It was obviously not funny. Now get in the damn car, and you can be mad at me later." The other boys had circled around us, and I shook my head, stomping over to the car.

"Well, she's one hell of a fighter," Andrew murmured to Zach as I sat down in the car. I slammed the door, seeing that he was going to try to talk to me, but I wouldn't listen. He sat next to me in the driver's seat and sighed.

"Why would you do that?" I asked him as he started the car.

"We just wanted to have some fun," he answered.

"That scared me so much!" I yelled at him. I grunted in anger and pouted as we drove back. Once I saw that we weren't going home, I turned to him.

"Take me home!" I ordered. He shook his head, pulling into a drive-in ice cream parlor.

"What do you want?" He asked calmly.

"Nothing from you," I spat. The intercom came on and Zach ordered two vanilla milkshakes to go. I looked at him and shook my head. He was a stupid boy, I thought. He handed me my shake and I just stared at it.

"Please eat it," he asked as we pulled out and headed toward home. I picked up the spoon and took a few bites and glared at Zach. He just smiled and shook his head, and soon, we were in the driveway of the house. I hurried inside, avoiding Nicholas and Annabelle, and Zach chased after me.

"Don't you realize I can run just as fast as you can?" He asked as he caught up to me at my door.

"I don't want to talk to you right now," I said, opening my door and slamming it, but Zach pushed it back open.

"Okay, I'm sorry. How many more times am I going to have to tell you? I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he pleaded, getting down on his knees. I stared at him.

"If you wake up in the middle of the night with someone holding a knife over you, don't be surprised, it'll only be a joke," I answered dryly, sitting down on my bed.

"You wouldn't really do that would you?" He asked, his eyes going wide. I couldn't help but laugh.

"Get out of here," I said. He stood up, smiled and hurried out of the room. I sat down on my bed and decided to turn in early. School was going to start in two weeks, and as soon as the holiday break would be over, Zach would immediately jump on Annabelle about her affair with Jonathan Jackson. I only hoped that blood wouldn't be spilled.