heyy okay Ive actually turned this into a fanfic and i have a good idea of where its going ITS CRAZY

and Im not van drannen

and i got the rat idea from the angie sage 3

review :

The next morning I woke up when the sun woke up. (Blame the lack of window coverings) So I got up and began to prepare breakfast. Sometimes I go out of my way to prepare a nice breakfast for Vera and Meg as a sort of thank you for adopting me type of thing. I usually try to make some type of pancakes or fruit salad or something nice. Not today. Nope store made bagels it was. So as I am attempting to cut a bagel in half I hear someone stomping outside in our front yard. Then walking up to the front door. And I dunno, but I was still a bit shaken up from the idea of people disappearing around 'these parts'. When the story was told from that crazy man's point of view it may have been funny, but the idea of people disappearing sure wasn't. In fact is really creeped me out. Then the doorknob began to jiggle, very slowly mind you. I felt the tension building in my back, and there's no way I want to end up on the bottom of a lake. So as the jiggling is getting louder and louder I am looking for anything, anything to defend myself with. And then I look down and realize, how very convenient, I was holding a steak knife in my hand, the one I had been previously attempting to cut my bagel with.

So now I'm wielding this thing before me ready to defend myself against anything that may come through that door. Suddenly the door banged open and I froze. And thank goodness that I did because who walked through that door but Sammy's grandmother. So as I'm wondering what the hell is going on, or if I'm hallucinating Vera comes in behind her and jumps when she sees what I am holding. "Honey put that down before you hurt someone!'

"Sorry I muttered," and I placed the knife back onto the table. "Um, hi Mrs. Keyes, what are you doing here?"

"Oh I thought this would be a nice surprise!" Vera cut in smiling When I was talking to that man Silas last night he said how much more fun his kids seem to have when their cousins came over, how nice it was for them to have someone with a similar age. Meg and I contacted Rita last night and we all thought it would be wonderful if she and Sammy stayed here with us for a nice vacation!"

"Wait Sammy is here?" I interrupted. (For some reason my mind was having trouble functioning at a normal pace.)

"Of course Rita added," She would be up here already except she insisted on carrying both of our bags," she rolled her eyes. "You can go back for her if you would like."

"I'd love to!" I said finally having everything sunk in. Sammy was going to be here with me. This little 'vacation' wasn't going to suck after all!

I ran outside down the dirt path until I about crashed into Sammy. "I'm so glad you're here!" I cried hugging her. "Here let me help you." I took one of the heavy looking bags she was carrying.

"You seem excited to see me," she said bluntly stating the obvious.

"YES! Are you kidding? There are only old people who hang around here. And one told me this really creepy story about all the people who have gone missing in this lake. He's nuts!

"So there are psycho old people here? Come on Holly I live in the senior high rise, it cant be that bad."

"Well there is this one guy Tyler. He's pretty nice. You will never believe who he's related too. HEATHER!! And Tyler says Casey is coming to stay with him tomorrow. He says heather usually comes too but I guess she's still in Europe or something. He's glad though he hates her too!" I guess I said that all kind of rushed because Sammy took a minute to let that sink in. I turned away as I felt myself blushing.

"So your telling me there's an Acosta here?"

"Well yeah. He seems really nice too."

"So you, this guy Tyler, Casey and I are going to be hanging out. That sounds reallllyyyy bad. In fact, it sounds like this vacation is gunna suck!" she said smiling.

So Sammy and her grandmother unpacked and I went into a more detailed explanation of what had been going on. And after her bag was empty she was ready to stop hearing about all of these people and start seeing them for herself. We left saying I was going to show her around.

"So how did you get here so quickly anyway?"

"Houston actually. Vera insisted Grams should invite a friend and a suggested Houston. It took a lot of convincing… you know how Grams gets. Though finally she realized that the only way we were going to get up here was if he drove us. Besides supposedly he knows someone who lives up here. That's where he is right now, catching up. We will meet up with him later." We were now walking through the brush near the side of the road. Suddenly I realized I was walking alone.

"Sammy? Where did you go?"

"Back here. Sorry I tripped over something." I looked back and saw that she was kneeling near the side of a rusty spigot. I breathed a sigh of relief. I don't know what it was but something about this bungalow colony made me feel like there was a whole story hidden in this place, and it made me nervous. "Hey look, there's a path here." It was completely over grown. There were weeds sticking up through the cobblestones. It wouldn't have been noticeable except that someone had obviously just been down there for the weeds were crushed down in a few places.

Now if you know Sammy you know she cant just see someone walk into an ally and not follow them, she cant just see an old broken down hotel, she has to have a look inside and she definitely cant see an old hidden path with out having to see where it leads. So after we followed the path for a few minutes we came to a dilapidated house sitting in a clearing. Some of the tiles had fallen off the roof and the shingles looked as if they were in the process of disintegrating. The sun was hardly able to penetrate the thick canopy of leaves over our heads. We hardly made a sound for leaves carpeted the forest floor. Eire sounding classical music came floating towards us from the inside. Most of the bungalows were somewhat nice and clean if not fixed up since the time they were built. This looked like it was the oldest one in the entire place as well as probably not has been cleaned for seventy years. I am not going to lie there were chills going up and down my spine. Sammy didn't seem bothered though as she began slowly walking towards the house. I ran to catch us with her but slowed down as we came closer to a window. "Watch out," she warned me, "termites." I looked down and saw little bugs crawling over one of the fallen shingles.

Now at this point many girls would probably be forcing themselves not to scream. Thankfully I am not like that at all. Perhaps if it were Marissa McKenzie in my place it would be a different story. But I'm not like that and bugs are usually the least of my worries. I suppose after living in a box by a riverbed you get used to them. I think that's why me that stupid story freaking me out was so frustrating to me. I never get like that.

So now Sammy is slowly approaching the window. There were old, yellowing, lace curtains hanging from them. (Note to self: Need to get some of those) now as she's trying to peek between the curtains I'm looking around hoping that no one sees us.

"Oh my gosh, Holly you have to see this." She turned to me looking some what disgusted. I tip toed over and peek in between the crack in the curtains.

The room looked like a once nice room gone to seed. The chairs and couch look like they had once been finely upholstered, but the fabric had now turned a garish shade of pink and was beginning to tear. The music we had heard earlier was coming from one of those old jobbies with the horn on top and the needle swaying over the record. The creepiest part was worse though. Far worse. There were cages aliening the wall, small cages that looked like they could hold a rat or something. And they were. Except not rats someone would keep as a pet. Dead rats. Rats that looked like they had been caught and kept in cages until they had starved to death, and then still kept in cages. Then my heart jumped as I saw a lump of rags in a corner. Except the rags were breathing. Someone was sleeping in the room and I sure didn't want to find out who it was. "Come on Sammy we need to get out of here!"

"No need to tell me!" she answered as we began to slip away to find the path. Then behind us we heard a creak and male voices. "Hide!" Sammy whispered and we jumped into the nearest bushes. Then through the leaves we watched as the front door began to slowly open and the voices get louder. Then the plaid man George stepped outside with a huge smile on his face, Plaid hat slightly askew. "Hey that's George the crazy man I told-" except then Sammy shushed me as we saw a second man walk out of the house.

Houston.