"I'm Dr. Harmon." Ben said "How nice to meet another family! You can call me Claire. Come in please," she said stepping aside by then Grace and Charlie were both watching by the doorway of the kitchen "come here guys" Claire said nodding towards her anti-social children "are we interrupting anything?" asked Vivien "not at all!" "Well, I'm Vivien, and this is our daughter Violet." "Oh, my do you go to Westfield how old are you?" Claire asked in one sentence "no, I home school her she's 17." Vivien responded "oh so is that like your job then or?" Claire said rudely "For now yes." Replied Vivien "we heard about the break in." said Ben Violet still mute "Yes, thank goodness we're all okay, well almost," she said putting her arm around grace, who was tempted to remove it, but didn't since they had company over "Gracie is still having hallucinations, seeing crazy things around house and everything." "mom." Charlie said, Grace slowly moving away from her mother's reach.
The Harmon's stood there awkwardly "Well, you're a doctor!" Said Claire to Ben "Yes, a psychiatrist." He replied "Maybe we could make some arrangements for you two to talk yes?" Claire said speaking for her daughter. Violet couldn't believe she agreed to help her parents she didn't see what the big deal was, new family. Why didn't they just scare them like the others? She looked over at grace who was looking up at her brother it was hard to believe they were related let alone twins, she felt bad for the both of them for the way their mother treated them, and embarrassed them. "Whatever Grace wants." Ben answered to Claire he glanced at grace who was now staring at the ground "Well it was a pleasure meeting you and your family." Said Vivien and they left.
"What the hell?" Charlie said to his mother "excuse me?" Claire said shocked "what is wrong with you? Why don't you just tell the whole world our life story and put grace in a mental hospital? Because that's what you're making it sound like." he said "I was making conversation Charlie it's what you do when you meet your neighbors." "Yeah, that doesn't mean you try to make an appointment with a therapist in front of his whole family!" "Which I don't need." Grace added "Why do you do this to us! We're always the kids with the crazy hover mother all the time." Charlie said going up to his bedroom. Grace could admit that her brother was overreacting; she slowly went up the stairs "Aren't you going to finish your dinner?" Claire yelled as she walked into the dining room and gulped down the last bit of her wine.
Grace didn't say anything in return she heard Charlie's door shut loudly. After all the yelling she almost felt sick unless it was because she hadn't eaten dinner. She opened her bedroom door to see Tate "What are you doing?" she said "Tate I told you to not come in the house!" she said "Ya know therapy doesn't work." He said "what? You were listening?" she asked "I'm getting Charlie." She said about leave "don't bother, by the time you get back I'll be gone and who would believe you anyways with all those hallucinations you've been having." He said "Besides I have to ask you something." "I barely know you." She said "Yeah, but I need help." She gave in and decided not to go get anyone taking her fingers off the door knob she turned around "do you know how to play chess?" he asked she shook her head no.
He put the chess board on the floor and explained the main points of the game. Grace didn't know what to think "what do you need help with?" she asked quietly "well, you see there's this girl." "Grace laughed "I think you're asking the wrong person, Tate." He squinted at the chess board "you're asking a person relationship advice to someone who's never had one." She said "any ways I did something bad. Actually I did a lot of bad things, but I want to fix it so she'll maybe just start talking to me again." "What's her name?" Grace asked "doesn't matter." He said "Wait so you were together previously?"She asked he nodded yes. "Well, what did you do?" "He was silent "did you cheat?" "no." he replied though wondering if that was arguable considering what he did to her mother, no he thought that was before he met violet he has changed "did you hurt her?" "no." he said again then thought that he probably did emotionally, tears started to form in his eyes, his head down "Tate I can't help if you won't tell me anything." He wiped away his tears. This was so strange, a teenage boy who she barely knew was in her bedroom playing chess crying, but she didn't want to tell him to leave she felt sorry for him and wanted to help.
"Gracie! Telephone!" her mother yelled from downstairs she got up and left "hello?" "Grace? It's Leah can you meet me after school tomorrow?" "I guess where?" she replied a little shocked "do you know where the indoor skate park is?" "You mean that old building with the huge pit it in?" "Yeah." "sure." Before she said anything else Leah hung up "who was that? A friend?" Claire asked her daughter ignored her and went back upstairs Tate was gone. It was dark outside now; Grace sat on her bed staring at the chess board. Maybe he went out the window because he was embarrassed? She thought questioning her sanity if the whole thing was even real, she felt her stitches hopefully they'd be healed by the next week. She got up and made her way down stairs she saw her mother in the study reading a magazine.
"Mom?" "Yes?" "You never told me about Mrs. Langdon and why she was here." "Oh, Sweetheart she was never here. She said so herself." Claire said taking a sip of wine "What? Wh- what are you talking about she was here I saw her with my own eyes she spoke to me." Grace said "Gracie you've had a tough week with all these medicines and new neighbors and… everything you were probably just dreaming." Her mother said yet again taking another sip of wine "Are you fucking kidding me?" Grace said "Gracie, I will not tolerate that language!" her mother said raising her voice "would you quit calling me Gracie? For the love of god I'm not seven anymore!" "go up to bed" her mother said "no, mom I feel like I'm going crazy Mrs. Langdon was here and there was someone in the attic too!" "You heard the doctor it's just hallucinations." Claire said "You know you told us we moved here because you and uncle mark believe in these ghosts that live here, and now that I'm telling you that I'm seeing people in this house you don't believe me?"She said tears forming in her eyes "What's going on?" said Charlie coming down the stairs "It's bullshit Grace everything we've heard about this place is complete bullshit!" Claire yelled.
"What? Then why are we even here?" asked Charlie "Fine! You want to hear me say it!" Claire said standing up "You were both right your uncle is a total jackass! He totally screwed us over!" she said smashing the wine glass to the floor "shit!" She said looking at the mess "What happened?" Charlie asked "My poor, defenseless brother needed some money," she started still very angry "he told me about this place and how he could make millions if we would just move here and I could lent him some money, now he's gone." "You believed him?" Grace said "Well, it's not so easy telling your sibling that they're crazy, I thought maybe he would get better and we could become closer." She said sitting down putting her hand on her forehead "and…" she sighed "now we're stuck here in this house." She ended and left to the kitchen.
The next day when Charlie and Grace got up for school there mother was still in her bedroom sleeping "it's gonna be just like when dad left isn't it?" asked grace Charlie placed his hand on her shoulder. That was the only thing Charlie ever had to do he was Grace's security blanket they had grow apart in the last few years mainly because of different interests, but whenever she needed him he was there and he didn't even have to say a word. Grace sat in the empty kitchen she really didn't want to go to school today. She spotted the telephone grabbed it and went to the backyard then shut the door. Redialing Leah's number "Grace?" Leah answered "are you going to school today?" Grace asked.
Looking slowly around the empty pit she spotted Leah in the corner smoking. "What did you want to talk about?" she asked and sat down next to her "do you know why they make fun of me?" Leah asked Grace shook her head no, "it's that house grace." "What are you talking about?" Leah explained the story of how she was trying to score some coke from the girl that used to live there (not mentioning violet's name) "It attacked me Grace that thing attacked me and so far no has believed me. But, how else would I get this scar?" she said pointing to her cheek "I've honestly never noticed it before." Grace said "it's faded some I mean it was almost three years ago." "Three years?" grace questioned "that's right." Leah said "I'm nineteen almost twenty and I'm still a senior in high school." "Oh my god." Grace whispered under her breath "I'm sorry." She said after thinking she was being rude. "I feel like my life is falling apart." Leah said choking back tears "each day is getting worse, and I don't know if I can take it much longer." She said she lifted her sleeve to reveal cut marks on her wrists "Leah…" Grace sighed brushing the cuts gently her own eyes filling up with tears "I don't know if that thing you're talking about in the house is real or not, but it can't and it won't hurt you I promise. I think it's time for me to go home." "Grace, you can't it will get you too." She said reaching up as grace started to leave "please, you do believe me don't you?" she said crying "okay you're really freaking me out now." Grace said "those things and people you are seeing aren't fantasy they're real and they're right in front of you." She said then started sobbing "I believe you Leah." Grace said quietly backing away to leave.