Chapter Five

It was easy to tell that the people here were different than the people we were used to seeing in Phoenix. Goths, people with a bunch of piercings and tattoos, even homeless people just wandering around the amusement park and the surrounding areas. I saw one lady kissing what looked like a mouse or a rat, and I couldn't hide the grimace on my face.

We stopped for a moment for a bite to eat and to walk around and stretch our legs, and Sam could not stop freaking out about the rides and stuff on the boardwalk. As Nanook walked alongside him, he kept staring at it.

"Mom. There's an amusement park right on the beach!" I heard him tell her as he ran over to her. Soon after I saw he walked over to some kids digging around in a dumpster as Michael was taking his bike out of the trailer. I saw him talking to one guy, though I'm not sure what was exactly said between the two. Around us people were riding rides and screaming as they did so. It looked like a lot of fun, but it was one major thing that caught my eyes in the midst of all the fun.

The missing posters. Literally everywhere. Telephone poles and booths, on the sides of buildings, inside said buildings, everywhere. It gave me the creeps. When it said MURDER CAPITAL OF THE WORLD, I was hoping it didn't mean literally.

Once we were done doing some small explorations, it was time to get back into the car. Michael followed behind on his motorbike, and Mom drove us into the mountains to her childhood home.

"How'd you get friends to come out here, Mom? It's kind of…" I trailed off.

"Creepy." Sam finished. Mom shook her head.

"You two. It really isn't all that creepy. It's the same as it was when we were last here after your grandmother passed away.

"So creepy." I reiterated. "With all the dead things."

"You know how your grandfather loves to hunt." Mom parked the car, the brakes squealing as she did so. Michael came up on the driver's side, stopping his bike. There were wooden statues everywhere, a camper in the background, some cacti and clothes hanging on clotheslines being the first thing we saw. Sam got out of the car, grimacing a bit before looking back in.

"Come on, Nanook."

In response, Nanook barked and hopped out as I got out of the back. Mom was looking around as a creaking noise was heard. I looked at Sam.

"Creep level one thousand."

"Yeah." Sam nodded in response. It was then we saw Mom see something on the porch. Looking in the direction she was, we saw our grandfather sprawled out on the porch. Mom and Michael walked up first, Sam and I in tow. Mom made her way over, kneeling next to Grandpa.

"Dad? Dad?"

"Looks like he's dead." Michael stayed next to us.

"No, he's just a deep sleeper." Mom placed one hand on Grandpa's face and the other on his chest to wake him.

"Are you sure about that, Mom?" I raised my eyebrows.

"If he's dead can we go back to Phoenix?" Sam piped up. Mom gave him a stern look as Grandpa leaned his head up.

"Playing dead." He confirmed. "And from what I heard, doing a damn good job of it too." He began laughing as Mom shook her head.

"Dad!" she said as Grandpa reached up to give her a hug. "Oh, Dad."

Sam, Michael and I all looked at each other.

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Sam, Michael and I were the first ones in the house, and we looked around a bit.

"This is a pretty cool place." Michael said.

"Yeah, for the Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Sam retorted with the dishes on his head.

"Leatherface could be anywhere!" I carried in all the dish towels, as Sam and I chuckled at the joke.

"Come on, guys, give Mom a break." Mike sighed softly.

"What's wrong with this picture? There's no TV." Sam set the clothes in his arm down. "Have you seen a TV? I haven't seen a TV, Mike." He set the dishes on his head down as Michael had his clothes slide off his barbell. I saw the dishrags box on the counter, leaning on it. "You know what it means when there's no TV? No MTV."

"No MTV, No Family Ties. No 21 Jump Street." I added.

"Oh, this sucks." Sam groaned.

"Sammy, Casey. We're flat broke." Mike did a few reps with his barbell. Sam and I grabbed our things we left in the living room, making our way upstairs. I looked at my twin brother, smirking a bit.

"Since we have to share. Biggest room?" I asked.

"Biggest room." Sam grinned, holding his box of his belongings. We went upstairs as quick as we could, going to the room. It only had one bed, but I could accommodate to make it to where Sam and I weren't touching, get a job and then get my own bed. No big deal. Sam grabbed his comic books, laying them out on the comforter as he began to organize them as I started grabbing my Michael J. Fox posters.

"Those go on your side of the room, Case. I don't want Alex P. Keaton staring at me in the middle of the night." Sam joked.

"Now I'm definitely putting them on your side." I stuck my tongue out at him, laughing. Sam grabbed one of the pillows, throwing them my way as he began laughing. I snorted as he went back to organizing his comic books and singing Ain't Got No Home to himself. Though it was a bit more like he was speaking it than anything, but the words were going along to the tune of the song.

"Oh, no, no, no you two," Michael came in, setting down his box. "This is my room."

"But we were here first, Mike!" Sam argued.

"Yeah," I set down one of my posters as Sam tossed down a comic book.

"You, Spidey, Richie Rich, Michael, Johnny get your asses out of here." He began to go after Sam's comics, and Sam and I both began to retaliate with Sam pushing Michael back a bit though hanging on to his arm as Michael had his shoulder. I grabbed Michael by his shoulders, hopping on top of him before he shrugged me off, making me snort.

"Hey! My way or the highway bud!" Sam got into Michael's face and pushed him back a bit.

"I'll flip you for it." Michael said simply as Sam started grabbing comic books.

"Okay." Sam nodded, dropping the comic he had grabbed. Instead of grabbing a coin, Michael grabbed Sam around his waist. "Hey, Mike!" Sam yelled as he got turned upside down. Almost immediately, he bit Mike's knee, making him yell out and drop Sam. I started laughing as Sam began to run downstairs with Michael on his heels. I could hear him laughing, his footsteps landing heavily on the stairs. "Mom. Mom, you've gotta help me." The grin was heard on his face as I walked out of the room to see Sam running past Mom and Michael hopping over the rest of the stairs to run after Sam.

"Soon." She told him. "Hey, guys, no running in the house!" Mom yelled as Sam and Michael ran over to a set of doors that took Sam a good minute to open. "Casey," Mom nodded her head to motion for me to follow her to her room. I nodded in response as Grandpa began to show Sam and Michael around, beginning to lay down the rules of the house.

"What's going on?" I leaned on the open door as Mom began to put some of her things away in her old bedroom.

"I was talking to your grandfather," Mom hung up some of her clothes. "And I was explaining to him how you weren't exactly happy about having to share a room with Sam."

"Well, no. But I will if I have to." I shrugged as I responded.

"I know." Mom smiled softly, grabbing some more of her clothes. "But Grandpa told me that there is a spare bed up in the attic. It's been there since I was a little girl, so it may or may not be the most comfortable which is why it slipped my mind until we got here but—"

"Mom, am I being offered an attic room?" I cut her off, my mouth dropping open. Mom nodded her head.

"If you want it. It needs to be cleaned and dusted really well, but Grandpa did say the room and everything was stable. There's no insulation that's in the way of anything, so the floor is clear. You'd just have to move some boxes around, clear out some cobwebs and check to see if the bed is still comfortable. If you like it, we can go into town and I'll get you a bedframe for tonight." I beamed, running over to her and hugging my mother tightly as she chuckled out of surprise. I felt her hug me back, her hands patting my back. "Maybe a mattress if it's too lumpy," she added softly. I giggled excitedly.

"I'm going to go grab my things," I left her side, hurrying out of her room and going to grab my boxes of stuff. Mom followed behind me, going to the car to get the last of her stuff.

"…hey, Grandpa," I heard Michael's voice before I saw Grandpa in the front, going towards the room that had a bunch of taxidermized animals. Michael had his arm around Sam and Sam his arm around Michael. "Is it true that Santa Carla's the murder capital of the world?"

"Well, there are some bad elements around here." Grandpa did not clarify, but his tone made it a simple answer to me, and that answer was yes. Undoubtedly yes.

"Wait a second, let me get this straight." Sam looked somewhat concerned as we followed Grandpa to his taxidermy room. "Are you telling me that we moved to the murder capital of the world? Are you serious, Grandpa?" Sam stared at him as Mom walked by.

"Well, now, let me put it this way." Grandpa started, stopping in his tracks as he did so. "If all the corpses buried around here were to stand up all at once, we'd have one hell of a population problem."

Sam and I stared at each other before looking back at Michael who simply opened his mouth in an "O" shape, mocking the idea. It was a far cry from what I saw him do earlier when we saw the sign coming into town.

"Great, Dad." Mom sighed, rolling her eyes as she made her way to her room again.

"Now, on Wednesdays," Grandpa started with the rules again—almost like regularly scheduled programming—and we followed him to what seemed to be the workshop. "When the mailman brings the TV Guide, sometimes the address label is curled up just a little like that." He showed us on the cover, but I doubted that Sam and Michael were listening even just a bit because Michael kept messing with Sam's ear and Sam kept trying to flick him away. Before Grandpa spoke again, Michael shoved his finger into Sam's face and Sam smacked his hand away. "Now, you'll be tempted to tear it off. Don't." Sam tapped Michael in the face. Michael messed with his ear again. "You'll only wind up ripping the cover and I don't like that." Grandpa finally made it to the taxidermy workshop and turned on his heels to face us and shut the doors. "And stay outta here."

"Wait, wait." Sam grabbed the sides of the doors in somewhat hopeful urgency. "You have a TV?"

"No." Grandpa elaborated a bit after this as Sam's face fell somewhat. He looked at Michael and then back at Grandpa. "I just like to read the TV Guide. Read the TV Guide, you don't need a TV."

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Thankfully, the mattress wasn't too lumpy. It seemed to be newish, hardly ever used. I grabbed the duster from downstairs after bringing in all of my things. I dragged Sam upstairs to help me clean the attic room, and immediately Sam was coughing dramatically.

"Oh, stop it," I shook my head. "It isn't that bad."

"I think I'm gonna choke to death on all the dust," Sam fake wheezed. I looked over at him, tossing my stuffed teddy bear his way. He started laughing, tossing it back at me. I swerved a bit, flipping him off in response. We got most of the dust in under an hour, as the room was a good size but it wasn't all useable in the sense I couldn't stand where the roof slanted, and Sam looked out the attic window when we were finished. I looked over at him as I sat on the mattress that was currently on the floor next to the small window.

"What're you thinking about?" I asked him. My twin shrugged, looking over at me.

"I already miss it, you know. Phoenix."

"Yeah," I smiled sadly. "Me too. We'll go back soon."

"Maybe I'll put some ice down Vanessa's back again like I did the last day of school." Sam grinned at the thought. I started chuckling.

"She would kill you."

"A life well lived." Sam laughed his little shithead laugh, and I simply chuckled a bit more and shook my head.

"Casey!" I heard Mom call from downstairs. I got up from the floor, going over to the stairs. I looked down to the door, leaning on the railing.

"Yes?"

"Are you ready to go?" I saw her in the doorway downstairs, purse in hand.

"Yeah, give me a minute to bring these dusters down." I called back. I reached for Sam's duster, grabbing it and shaking it slightly as I did so. Sam let out a soft yelp.

"Hey, you're gonna get that in my hair!" he whined. I shrugged.

"You gotta get a bath anyway don't you?" I teased, hurrying downstairs.

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Bedframe shopping was a success in under an hour and a half, which was something of an accomplishment for Mom and I. We usually were out shopping for over two hours, but I think with the urgency of having to put this bedframe together, as well as get my bed made tonight with a new box spring, comforter and bed sheets, as well as pillows was enough to put a fire underneath us. We—we, of course, meaning Michael—had the bedframe built within an hour after getting home and I had the bed made and started unpacking as Mom went downstairs to start on dinner. By the time dinner was called, I had the room decorated in my Johnny Depp and Michael J. Fox posters, my CD player on my bedside table we got from downstairs that Michael didn't want, along with my clothes all hung up on some railings as an impromptu closet. I had things like my underwear and socks in bins under my bed, and while some girls would shudder at the thought, I thought it was amazing. We found an old stand up mirror that was hanging out in the corner, and I set it on the other side of the small window. I got it cleaned in thirty minutes with some Windex and afterwards I set my many pairs of shoes next to it. Afterward I found some old Christmas lights in a box and began to hang them around the room for light, and after plugging them in there were a couple stands that didn't work and some that did, but it was just fine. I went downstairs and grabbed a lamp that Mom didn't want in her room and put it on the other side of my bed, and plugged it in. The lamp gave me the amount of lighting I needed in my room, and I made a mental note to grab a rug later on to help give it the touch it needed to complete itself.

While Sam and I would still share a bathroom, it was nice to be able to have my own space and be my own person. I would just have to listen to him moan and groan about all of my makeup and hair products. I think that would be a nice sacrifice to have my own room.

Dinner itself was uneventful, and Michael had dishes to do this night. This time, Mom offered to help him—something she did from time to time even though she cooked—and Michael actually took her up on the offer. Sam excitedly hurried into the living room, turning on the stereo. He grinned as Lost in the Shadows began playing and I heard Mom's voice from the kitchen.

"Sam, my ears!"

"C'mon, Casey. Dance!" Sam ignored her. I shook my head.

"Sam!" Grandpa's annoyed voice came from his workshop. It didn't faze my brother a bit.

"Sam, you know I don't dance." I laughed softly.

"C'mon, don't be a party pooper." Sam grabbed my hands and made me dance with him for a few seconds. I started laughing, and he let me go as he hurried to the kitchen. I saw him drag Mom away from the sink, beginning to dance with her and not two seconds later he did the same with Michael. The four of us began to dance—stupidly, I might add—in the kitchen for a moment before Michael went back over to the sink. We were smiling in somewhat varying degrees, and it was the first time that I thought to myself that everything here in Santa Carla was going to be alright.