"Who the hell are you?" he shouted as he climbed out of his Ute. He was a tall and handsome man and he must have been in at least his 40s.
"I'm Anita Parker and this is Tyler Harris. My Mum left me this house when she died," I explained. It was true, I didn't owe him any explanation but to stop any further yelling, I simply told him.
"Oh, so you must be Charlotte's daughter," he said excitedly.
"No, actually, I'm her granddaughter. And who are you?"
"I'm Alex Ryan," he introduced himself with no explanation.
Alex Ryan. I had heard his name before. He must have noticed my expression, because he talked quickly to explain.
"Alex Ryan, Junior. The real Alex Ryan was my grandfather."
"Oh I see," I replied. "Who was your grandmother?"
"Claire McLeod," he said and then glanced at me. "Are you testing me?"
"No, no. Nothing like that," I laughed. "I was just trying to figure it all out. So I guess you are my mother's cousin."
"Yeah, I guess so," he smiled and reached his hand out to me.
"Do you live here?" I asked as we shook hands. He reached out to Tyler who clasped his hand and then promptly let go.
"No, I am your neighbour. We do have some shared fences, boundaries, if you like," he replied. "I'm own Kilarney."
"Kilarney?" Tyler asked, confused.
"Yeah," Alex continued. "It's been my family's property for a hundred years or so. You know, we hand it down from dad to son."
"Wasn't this house your family's too?" Tyler asked, a perplexed expression on his face.
"Nah, not really. This place was belonged to the McLeod's. They were my grandmother and her sister. Kilarney's owner was my grandfather's father," he said and then stopped. "It's really complex. Why don't you come over to my place for dinner? We can talk then, and you can meet my family?"
"Oh, more relatives, sounds good," I replied. "We'll come, wont we Tyler?"
"Yeah sure," Tyler smiled.
"See you at seven then," Alex said smiling. "Just follow this road and turn left when you come to the crossing."
Then he headed towards his Ute, got in and sped away, leaving me no more informed than I had been before his visit. I was slightly comforted to know that I had living relatives, no matter how distant or how vaguely related we were.
"Come on, baby. Let's head inside," Tyler said, as he took my arm and squeezed it.
I didn't respond, just followed him to the big dark spooky house. There was a kitchen on the left, which was really large and hearty. The unwelcoming cold room on the right looked like it was supposed to be a dining room. There was something in there that scared me, chilled me, infact. There was nothing on the table but a photo frame and it was the picture of a young lady on a beautiful horse. The frame was placed to be looking through the window and it seemed like a big deal of nonsense had occurred before it was placed in the unusual spot. I figured, because of the weird position, that there must have been something in front of it before. There were so many dead flowers around the table and yet not a chair in the room. It was really strange.
I stepped quickly away from the room and headed to the next one. It was a study. I pushed the door open and stepped in. As I was walking towards the desk, my vision suddenly blurred. I shook my head in an attempt to clear my mind and saw a female figure sitting right there in front of me. It was the lady in the photo. She was sitting on the desk and the room somehow didn't seem as untidy anymore. I could feel my heartbeating fast and in a state of shock, I just stood there and found myself unable to move.
"Why do you keep pushing me, Tess? Why do I have to wear that dress?" she spoke.
That voice was the same voice I had heard when we just arrived there. The woman who had unlocked the door.
"Because this is my wedding, Claire," the other woman, a blonde and shorter one answered as she was entered the room, passing by me like I didn't exist.
My eyes widened and I was shaking crazily. They could not see me. What the hell was happening?
"An, are you there?" Tyler called from the hall. I ran to him when I saw him standing at the door, then stopped and turned around to face Claire and Tess again. Because I had Tyler there with me, I felt safe and protected. I turned to look but there was nobody in the room. Nobody but Tyler and me.
"What's wrong, honey?" he asked gently.
"Nothing," I answered in a jovial tone. I didn't want him to worry about me. "Nothing's wrong."
"Lets check upstairs," he said excitedly as he took my hand. We headed upstairs together. As I was climbing up the stairs, I looked down back to the study again and saw them standing there, looking right through me. It was horrible. I was scared, scared to death…