Chapter 1: Life at the Moment

Thursday was one of the worst days of Katherine's seemingly, never-ending, tortuous life. For one, her parents are the complete opposite of herself, and it is very hard to deal with. She has the kind of mother that wants her daughter to be an exact replica of herself. (A fun loving, likes everyone kind of person) she thought she could be a fun loving if she wanted to be and sometimes she was. But Katherine really dislikes people in general. She believes most people are rude, disgusting slobs. That's why she is very picky whom she decides to be friends with. Katherine didn't want friends who burps, blows their noses, or even farts at the kitchen table, and doesn't even excuse his or herself, but instead laughs at it like a five-year-old child, and makes fools out of themselves.

Now, Katherine was just in a really bad mood. Her father is in the army, and they are transferring to another state again. Springwood, Ohio. Katherine was used to moving all the time, but she just made friends, and she thought the house they were going to move in was too creepy.

"Kasey, sit down." Katherine's mother, Cathy said. Katherine had just walked through the door of her 100-year-old house, coming home from school. She didn't receive any greetings. Katherine slowly turned her head to look at her. She had a look of nervousness on her face. Oh, man! What happened now? Katherine thought.

"Mo-om! Can I at least put my school stuff away and get a snack?" Katherine whined. She knew she was too old to be whining at 16, but she couldn't help it. She had a headache.

"I would much rather you sit down. Your father and I have something to say."

Katherine rolled her eyes and reluctantly dragged her feet over to their family's large, comfortable blue chair, and she threw herself into it, she let her book bag fall to the floor. She stared blankly and uninterestingly at them. Her parents were holding hands and looking at Katherine as though she was a ticking time bomb, and she was going to explode at any second. It was quite annoying. After about 20 seconds of this uncomfortable, awkward silence, (well not exactly silent, if you count the car horns and yelling taking place outside) Katherine dared to say something.

"What is it?" She cried impatiently.

"Honey...we're moving." Her father, Randy blurted.

"What! Again?" Katherine immaturely screamed.

"Yes."

"But...but...WHY!" She cried.

"Dear, you know why," Cathy butted in. "It's the same reason as the last"

"Yeah! It's military business." Katherine thought.

Tears began welling up in Katherine's blue eyes. She did nothing to stop them. She just blinked and they gently and slowly ran down her pale cheeks.

"Where are we going this time?" Katherine whispered helplessly.

"Ohio. Springwood, Ohio." Randy informed his crying daughter.

Katherine took a deep breath, raised her eyebrows and shook her head vigorously.

"No." she said simply. "Ohio is like...a million miles away from here! I'll have to start a new school." She gasped. "I won't have any friends!"

"You'll make new ones..." her dad said, starting to sound really nervous. "Here." Randy handed Katherine a picture and she snatched it away and stared at it. She stared at the picture of the house. It looked old. The roof was green. On the roof there was 3 windows indicating upstairs. The rest of the house was painted white, except for the blue shutters, red door and the brick porch. On the porch there were two white pillars that held a 1/4th circle canopy. And the address numbers that were on the right side of the door were golden.

1428. That number was going to be etched into Katherine's brain forever. She just didn't know it at the time.

It was a nice looking house. But there was something terribly wrong with it. As Katherine looked at the other houses, she saw that they looked cheerful and bright. But this one was gloomy and dark. She furrowed her eyebrows. There was something seriously wrong with this place. Something dreadful must have happened, but no idea came to her head, but the thought of it was as dark as death itself.

Katherine felt as though she must have started to drift off, because the next thing that happened had to be impossible... In her head she heard a little girl's giggle. Katherine looked up at her parents expecting to see a look of confusion on their face, but no. They were talking together about the future. Katherine looked down at the picture again and brought it closer to her face. In the left upstairs window, she saw a little girl. No older than 6 years old. She had brown hair that was put up in two red ribbons. Katherine knew she wasn't there before. The little girl was smiling, but she didn't look very happy. She waved slowly up at the picture holder and walked out of sight. Hey! Where did she go? Katherine thought. Then more voices appeared in her head, and it sent shivers down her spine. Katherine knew she would never forget them.

"Fred, please! I won't tell!" A woman's voice screamed.

"You Bitch! I ordered you not to go snooping around my work!" A man screamed back. " Now… it's time to take your medicine."

Yells.

Screams. The sounds of somebody being strangled.

A little girl crying helplessly.

"Don't worry, honey. Mommy just had to take her medicine for snooping in Daddy's special work. But you won't tell...will you?" The man's voice said sweetly.

"I won't tell." The little girl sobbed.

Then all of a sudden, right before Katherine's eyes the large house was emerged in blood. It began bubbling out all over the place...her hands...the floor.

There were screams coming out from the house in the picture.

Katherine screamed.

She threw the picture down and it fluttered to the floor. Katherine looked down at it fearfully. It looked normal. Her hands and the floor didn't have blood on them anymore. Was she really dreaming? That could have not possibly been real. Katherine looked up at her parents and saw that they were staring at her, startled by her screaming. She really didn't want to tell them what happened so...

"When are we leaving?" Katherine demanded.

"This weekend."

"This! This weekend? But it's Thursday! We don't have time!"

"Sweetheart, we have plenty of time, and we will have plenty of help. We shall start packing tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?"

"Yes."

"Tomorrow."

"Yes..."

Katherine violently shook my head again. "No. We won't. You'll start packing, because I'M NOT GOING!"

She stood up and quickly gathered her things. She started for the stairs. When she was half way up, she looked down at them. Katherine couldn't see them, but she knew they were getting upset.

"And my name isn't Sweetheart. It's Katherine!" She cruelly yelled, turning and stomping up the stairs. Katherine made every effort to cause as much noise as possible. When she got to her door she turned around again.

"KATHERINE!" she reminded them again. Katherine ran into my room and slammed the door as hard as she could. She threw her backpack on the floor, almost hitting her white cat, Frosty, and her black cat, Reaper, who were lounging together. They both cowered and looked at their distressed owner for apology.

"I'm so sorry, babies." Katherine cooed at the kittens. She shuffled over to her canopy bed and flopped down onto it. She looked outside her window. All she could see was skyscrapers and cars. And she heard shouting people. Even thorough all this noise she knew she couldn't leave New York and her friends.

"Katherine, honey. It's time to get up." Katherine heard her Mom's voice say.

Katherine slowly opened her eyes. Cathy was standing in front of her daughter with a smile on her face. Katherine realized it was still a bit dark outside.

"I'll be downstairs in a second." Katherine groaned. She nodded and left her room. "Good. Stay gone." Katherine thought.

Katherine gently shoved Frosty and Reaper out of her way so she could get up. They were always on her bed in the mornings. They sucked on her blanket. Katherine dragged herself out of bed and changed into a pair of black jeans (that matched the color of her long hair,) and a white tank top.

She gathered all her school supplies and dragged her feet downstairs. She sat on the chair and let her backpack fall to the floor again. She crossed her arms to show still present attitude. She saw Dad's feet appear and stop in front of her.

"Katherine, what are you doing?"

Katherine looked up at him. He was still in uniform. His black hair was hidden stuck out all over the place and his green eyes showed confusion in his young looking face.

"What do you mean 'what am I doing?'" Katherine looked at the clock. 6:56. "I have to leave in about 19 minutes to catch the bus. I have to tell my friends goodbye."

Katherine was begging to become confused when she could see her Dad was trying not to smile. Katherine stared at him.

"Kasey...it's still Thursday." Dad said as calmly as he could, without laughing. Katherine heard her Mother burst out laughing from the other room. Eavesdropper.

Katherine tried not to look stupid, but she found it was very difficult to get the look off her face.

"Oh."

"Well...uh...dinner is in the kitchen."

"Well thank you." Katherine said as sarcastically/politely as she could. There was a plate on the round dining room table. Its contents were: steak, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes and gravy. She smiled and retrieved the plate. Grateful, Katherine walked into the living room and sat down again. She automatically began eating.

Her parents knew this was her favorite meal, so Katherine figured they made it for a peace offering. Katherine looked up at them with smiling, thanking and forgiving them. Then she realized they were both staring at her again.

"What?" She asked through a mouthful of steak.

"You want to go to school tomorrow?" Mom asked.

Katherine swallowed the steak, and stared at them.

"Of course! I have to tell my friends goodbye!"

"But we have to start packing tomorrow Bab...Kasey."

Katherine looked at her quickly. She knew she was going to call her 'baby,' and she didn't want that right now.

"So what?"

"How about you go to school half a day, and then we can pick you up and start packing."

It wasn't a question. And Katherine knew they weren't going to take 'no' for an answer, so she nodded. She didn't want to piss her dad off too much. Usually something bad happened.

Katherine finished my dinner, and then washed the dishes. She needed music afterwards, because she was beginning to feel depressed. So she said her goodnights to her Mom and Dad and told them she wouldn't be back down. Katherine went upstairs, leaving her backpack downstairs. She shuffled into her room and closed the door quietly. Frost and Reaper were already in there on her bed sucking the blankets again. They actually pretty much lived in her room, because all the stuff they needed was in there. A litter box, their food, their toys, and their scratching post gym.

Katherine changed into her leopard spotted pajamas and went searching through all her CDs. She picked out her favorite one: Iron Butterfly. Katherine gently put the unscratched CD in the CD player, and put it on track 7: In-a-gadda-da-vida. She loved that song. It was 17 minutes long, and she knew it would put her to sleep. It never failed.

Katherine switched the light off and threw herself onto her bed. Frosty and Reaper settled themselves at the foot of the bed. She turned to her CD player and pushed 'play' and 'repeat.'

Katherine covered herself with a black comforter.

Katherine listened to the music and by the time the song played around for the 2nd time, Katherine was already in a nice dreamland.

In-a-gadda-da-vida, honey,

Don't you know that I love you?

In-a-gadda-da-vida, baby,

Don't you know that I'll always be true?