"I was not going to leave Shelby there alone. So I called my sister."

"And when Matt told me about his sister, I called mine."

/

Shortly after Lee had arrived at the house, another car pulled up outside, and a young woman got out of it, shutting the door behind her. She shivered slightly at the sudden change in temperature, with outside being noticeably crisp and cooler than the inside of her car. She pulled her denim jacket closer around her body, smoothing out her floral patterned above-the-knee skirt, before turning to lock her car door. She then began to walk up the steps to the front door, ringing the doorbell, before remembering her suitcase, and walking back down to retrieve it from the trunk of her car.

When Matt had informed Shelby that he'd invited his sister to come and look after her, Shelby had done the same thing shortly after, inviting her sister Kelly. There was no way Shelby was going to deal with Lee alone. There was too much bad blood between them for Shelby to feel comfortable being alone in a house with her. So Kelly had packed a bag (or suitcase), and driven out into the wilderness (or what seemed to be the wilderness) to keep her sister company. But Shelby had neglected to inform Kelly that Lee would also be staying with them.

The front door of the house swung open, and Shelby all but ran down the steps to greet her sister with a hug. Matt and Lee trailed behind Shelby. Once the two sisters had pulled away from the embrace, Kelly greeted Matt in the same way, before giving Lee a polite nod, not quite sure how to greet the woman she'd only met once or twice before. Lee could instantly tell that Kelly hadn't been aware of her staying there, and she felt slightly angry because of it. Did Shelby really think Kelly wouldn't come if she knew about Lee?

"Shelby never liked me. Which is fine, because I was never a huge fan of hers. She always tries guessing what people will do before they happen. Even with her own sister."

The two joined families walked back up the stairs and into the house, as Shelby began to talk to her sister. Mainly ensuring she was safe, and that nothing had occurred during her trip. She always doing this. Any time Kelly was out of her mother's or sister's sight for longer than an hour, they'd become worried. And they'd become more worried as time goes on. It's been like this since Kelly turned six.

"Are you supposed to be driving, Kelly?" She asked her younger sibling, who appeared exasperated already, despite only being in the house a few minutes "Did your doctor clear you for that? What if-"

"I'm fine, Shelby." Kelly cut her off, rolling her eyes as she took the mug of coffee that Matt had offered her "Nothing happened." She took a sip of her coffee and sat down on the couch. She didn't say anything else after that, causing Matt to give Lee a look, as if to say 'Don't Ask'. Now, Lee didn't like having things kept from her, so she'd find out what this was all about soon, either way.

"Shelby worries too much. I get that she wants me to be safe, but I agreed to stay with her because our mother is always hovering over me. It's annoying."

"My sister... She suffers from a condition. Nothing too serious, nothing life threatening..."

"I get blackouts. Well, technically it's called dissociative amnesia."

"I'm just making sure..." Shelby said quietly, not saying anything after that, leaving an awkward silence behind as the four of them sat in the living room. Kelly sipped at her coffee quietly, none of the others really knowing what to do next, before Shelby practically leapt off the couch "Kelly, I'll show you where your room is, and where everything else is." She said "You too, Lee." She added as an afterthought. Lee rolled her eyes, but began to follow Shelby, as did Kelly.

/

Later that night, Kelly was in her room, writing in her diary. She didn't know of many adults that kept a diary, but she felt as if she had to. She had a diary, her phone, and a pocket voice recorder. If she was talking about computers, she backs up her files to keep them safe. To make sure that she doesn't lose them. Except the computer is her brain, and the files are her memories. She was currently documenting everything that had happened in that day, right up to the point where she had entered her room.

Kelly closed her diary and sighed when she heard Shelby and Lee arguing. Despite it being a large house, it was also quite empty, so the sound resonated clearly through the whole house. She knew that she was staying there to prevent any conflict between the two, but she honestly couldn't be bothered to deal with either of them at the moment. She was too tired, and would probably end up yelling at the both of them (which wouldn't help anyway).

Closing her diary and putting it on her nightstand, Kelly pulled the covers over her and rested her head on the pillow, closing her eyes in an attempt to get any amount of sleep before she'd inevitably be woken up again by her sister and Lee's argument. Sure, she was supposed to be protecting her sister, but again, she was tired. Sighing softly, Kelly relaxed and began to drift off to sleep.

"My family was in danger, and all I could do was watch."

A thudding noise made Kelly open her eyes again. At first she thought it was the wind, and attempted to go back to sleep again, but then her phone lit up with an incoming call. Sitting up, silently cursing whoever was preventing her from sleeping, Kelly picked up her phone and answered it, pressing it to her ear, rubbing her eyes at the same time, and trying not to yawn directly into the phone.

"Hello?" She said tiredly.

"It was Matt. He'd been trying to get a hold of Lee and my sister, but to no avail. There were intruders in the house."

Kelly quickly got up out of her bed. She grabbed her voice recorder and immediately hit 'record'. She then grabbed a glass vase that had been on her nightstand. She then began to quickly walk out of her room. She made sure she had a firm grip on the vase, which was now her makeshift weapon. There had been nothing else in the room she could've used. Literally nothing. Kelly made a mental note to remind Shelby and Matt to furnish the rooms when this was all over.

"In most horror movies, people hide inside the house, instead of running out the front door. Guess what happens to those people? They die."

Kelly made sure to check both ways down the hall before beginning to walk down it, constantly checking behind her to make sure no one was creeping up on her. She had only been at the house for a short amount of time, but she had memorised the quickest way to get to the front door in case of times like these.

"Yeah, I knew that Shelby and Lee were still in there, but I was no good to them if I were dead. The smart thing to do was to call the police and get the hell out of the house."

Dialling 911 on her phone with shaky hands, Kelly spoke to the operator in a quiet voice, so she wouldn't alert any intruders as to where she was. After the classic '911, what is your emergency', Kelly began to calmly explain her situation before listing off the address. There was no point in getting hysterical, that wouldn't solve anything.

"I was stupid though. I didn't check my surroundings during my call. Rookie mistake."

The sound of glass shattering and a scream rang through the house like an alarm bell, proving Kelly's earlier thought about the emptiness helping sound travel further.

/

"I just kept saying, 'Please, God, just just get me home. Please just don't let me be too late.'"

"We were down there twenty, maybe thirty minutes, but it felt like forever."

/

"When we finally got out, Shelby instantly went looking for her sister."

"I didn't have to go very far..."

The entrance hall and the stairwell were all covered in what appeared to be string dolls. It was crisscrossing all over the place. The sight of them made Lee feel all cold, as if someone had just walked over her grave. The first thought that ran through Lee's head, was 'How the hell did they do it so fast?'. She heard Shelby's gasp, and immediately looked to where her sister-in-law was standing.

Sitting underneath one of the string dolls (that were reminiscent of some sort of witchcraft), and holding one herself, was Kelly. She was sitting calmly in her nightgown, blood trickling down the side of her head from a gash that appeared to be from some sort of blow to the head. Her eyes were open, and just staring off into space.

"She was just sitting there... so still... She wasn't even blinking. I thought..."

"Shelby thought I was dead. But I was just in shock, I guess. After a while, I came to. I was instantly asked lots of questions by both Shelby and Lee, but..."

"She couldn't remember a single goddamn thing. Matt told me about the blackouts, but seriously? The one time we needed her to remember something..."

/

"How did they do this so quickly?" Matt asked, half in disbelief and half in wonder as he looked around at the 'vandalism' (as the cops had put it) that the intruders had created. He wasn't happy at all with the fact that people were trying to scare them off, but even he had to admit that they had some skill.

"That's not the point, Matt!" Shelby exclaimed, not believing that Matt was really only thinking about how quickly they put all the dolls up, as opposed to what they'd actually done. "They broke into our locked your sister and me in the basement. And they did... God knows what to Kelly." At the mention of Kelly, the three remaining adults all looked at her. She was sitting on the staircase next to Shelby, staring down at the doll in her lap.

Shelby shook her head and snatched the doll out of her sister's lap, throwing it across the room. She couldn't bare to look at those things, let alone have her injured and slightly drugged (the paramedics gave her something to numb the pain in her head) sister seem so fixated on it.

"They were here." Shelby continued her mini rant, growing more and more agitated by the second. "They lured us down there, made us watch this creepy video..." She trailed off as she remembered the video, and she felt Lee grow tense at this statement too. That sick video had shaken them both up.

"What video?" Matt asked. Neither Shelby nor Lee had mentioned a video before this point, and if he saw it, perhaps it could lead them to whoever was tormenting them. Then they could put an end to all of this.

Soon after this question was asked, Lee, Matt and Shelby all went down to the basement, leaving Kelly upstairs alone (they'd thought that in her state, she wouldn't be able to handle the gruesome video).

Now completely alone, Kelly stood up from her staircase seat, and slowly shuffled over to where Shelby had thrown the string doll. Kneeling down to pick it up, Kelly remembered something. Her voice recorder. She picked up the doll and straightened back up, taking out her voice recorder from where it sat in her pocket.

She began to play the recording.

"It was mostly just random noises. Footsteps, my laboured breathing... but after the sound of my scream and glass shattering, there was something else. Chanting."

As Kelly listened to the chanting, she found herself getting closer and closer to the door. And when she opened it, she could faintly make out a golden glow amongst the trees. As if something was on fire. Like the torches Matt said the intruders were holding.

The next thing Kelly knew, Shelby was pushing past her and running outside. Kelly watched as her sister got into the car, and made no effort to stop her as she drove off into the night. Kelly looked back up at the trees. The golden glow was now gone. Kelly looked down at the doll in her hands, before closing the door.

/

The sound of a phone buzzing.

"Hello?"

"Shelby, come home."

Screaming. Tires screeching.

"Shelby? Can you hear me?"

Panting.

"Are you there? Shelby! Oh, my God."

Footsteps.

"Shelby! Are you all right? Can you hear me?"

Silence.

"Shelby!"

/

End of Chapter One

A/N: Thoughts?