Caroline stood at the back window of her bedroom, starring up at the large house on the hill. It intrigued her. It sparked her imagination, and even more, her curiosity.

Ever since she had moved here with her younger brother and mother, she had felt some what of a loner. The feeling of detachment from the people around her grew stronger every day. She longed for a companion, someone to talk to, someone to understand even half of what she felt. Her brother, only nine, could not help her with that, and her mother, well, her mother wouldn't give her the time of day if she had it. Always bustling around, never taking a moments rest, or a second for that matter.

She continued to stare out at the house. Fiddling through her mind to find an excuse to go up there. Just to see what it was like, only for a short while. After several moments of pondering, nothing had yet to come to mind. Caroline gave up and walked out of her room towards the front of the house, then to the door. Jerking it open and stepping through the threshold, she grimaced. There, along the entire street were houses, not just normal houses, houses of all different colors, but all the same. Pinks, blues and yellows filled her eyes as she looked along the street, but the only thing that differed them was the color.

Suddenly, she resented ever moving here. Everyone had smiles plastered on their faces at all times and they were so fake, it made her dry-heave just thinking about it. 'Be true to yourself and to your feelings' her father used to always say. That's what she loved him for, that and many other things, but above all was his drive to be different. He didn't want to be like everyone else, he pushed himself to be the opposite of his surroundings. And that's how Caroline had grown up to be this way. However, the effect wasn't very permanent on her mother and brother.

"This place...I need to get away..." She spoke quietly to herself, fiddling with her necklace her father had given her just before he passed.

She sighed and looked up at the sky with eyes filled with mourn. "I wish you were here, Daddy." The seventeen year old begged to the sky.

Tears threatened to fall from her eyes, but she blinked them away quickly. With a sigh, she picked herself up from the stoop and walked back into the house. Once more, she looked out at the house on the hill, in dire desperation to be there.

Without another thought or a word, she pulled a slip of paper from a notepad and scribbled a note onto it with the black ball-point pen she retrieved from her pocket. The words she wrote to her mother were:

Mother,

Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. I went out for a bit.

I should be back sometime later on today.

With Love,

Caroline

She highly doubted her mother would care if she was gone, nor would she fret if she didn't get back on time, but she wrote it just incase. With that, she pulled her grey massager bag over her shoulder and trudged out the door. A dream and a destination in her mind set.

'Reach for the moon, and if you can't get to the moon, settle for a star.' The words of her passed father burned inside of her, both motivating and depressing. Whatever the feeling, she carried on up the hill. She stopped, pulled out her professional camera and took several pictures of the breathtaking view of the mansion.

The closer she got, the more intrigue she became with the structure. Finally, she made it to the front gates. Instead of just busting through, she stood and looked up, admiring it from the view she had. Caroline looked at all of the windows, the many crooks and turns in the only built building. Her eyes gleamed as she took it all in. Then, she stopped. Her gaze settled on a single window, at the top of the mansion. A figure stood there, starring down at her. All she could make of it was a tall, thin being.

After seeing the person in the window, she wanted to find out who it was. So, she stepped over the partially broken gate and walked into a courtyard. There, she took pictures of an entire sculpture garden. These weren't ordinary sculptures, they were made from shrubs.

Almost all of her film was gone by the time she finished with the garden and tracked on towards the large doors of the house.

Her knuckles rapped on the large doors and she waited, shuffling sounds came from above, but no one came to the door. Her curiosity got the best of her, wanting to know who had indeed decided to live her, and she just opened the door. Carolina's mouth almost hit the stone floor when she glanced around the very large vestibule. There was a large staircase in the center and rooms around to the right and left. Inventions, machines and odds and ends were everywhere. She would have looked around if she hadn't seen that person in the window earlier.

She quietly shuffled her feet along the dusty stairs. They looked as though no one had stepped on them in ages. Which was quite odd, seeing that someone lived there, unless, it was a figment of her imagination. With not more of a thought to that, she continued up the stairs and didn't stop until she got to the attic, where she had seen the figure in the window.