Chapter one: Nosy little sister.
I sat down on the couch of my new house, It was the house that my mom had grown up in, we moved in with our moms grandma and grandpa for a few years until we could move back, since the Jones legally owned the place now (after our dads grandma died, she left the pink place apartments to us- we use the attic apartment for storage and the married couple of old ladys down stairs are moving to nursing home in a month.
Since the place was so old and creaky, the bank did not care anymore and I don't think we even have house insurance, my parents are probably only living here to say money. But anyway the house was not safe for little kids at first, but now we have to live in an old gross house, yay.
I am 12, my little brother King is 10 and Carmen is 7. We divied out bedroom, thank god there were enough so we didnt have to share bedrooms, I am not sharing a bedroom with a smelly boy again.
I got moms old bedroom, it had a cool window with a seat on it. I unpacked my things and decorated the room. I am going to paint the walls purple soon but right now they are a bland pink color.
Our moving truck comes tomorrow so I leave most of my things in my bag so I can unpack them neatly.
Right now I am going to clean up here. I grab windex, rags, Clorox wipes, paper towels, a mop, and a vacuum. I start by vacuuming the debris of the floor and then I mop up the floor until it's shiny, then I take off my shoes and wipe everything down with cleaning wipes, I dry it off with paper towels and clean the windows with windex.
When I am finished the room is clean and smells good. I go to my sister's room, but she is not there. "Carmen?" I call through the house
"In the living room!" I hear her shout
"What are you doing?" I ask, she is kneeling on the floor peeling at the wall paper.
"It's hollow" she said staring me in the eyes creepily
"It's probably just storage space or and old cat door to outside" I dismiss, I am about to ask her if she wants me to clean my room when she tears the wall paper away in a fluid motion
"Carmen! Mom is going to be mad at you-" I start to scold her but when she moves I see a small door in the wall
"Scootch over" I say peering intently at the door, I knock twice it gives out a hollow thump
"How did you find it?" I ask
"I stubbed my toe on it and noticed it was hollow" Carmen says reaching forward
"It's locked" she said after trying the handle
"Probably for good reason then" I say, "there might be rats" we both shudder involuntarily
"Gross" she sniffs
"Anyway, let me see your room I can clean it if you want" I said, getting up
"First of all, yes please, second of all, I have a feeling we should cover this back up" she said glancing at the small passage
"Actually now that I think about it I do to" I say quietly, I glance around the room, "here, help me push this coin h in front of it" I say, we move the couch and walk to her bedroom,
"This used to be grandpas office, but now me and king share it" she says, well he will move into the storage room when we get it cleaned out" she said gratefully
"Ok" I say, we clean her room top to bottom until it looks as clean as a 170 year old house can look.
"We should help mom and dad out by cleaning some more of the house" Carmen suggests, our parents and king had gone to town for groceries and to connect our house to power again and wouldn't be back for another 45 minutes or so
"Perfect idea" I say, we take the cleaning supplies to the kitchen and work together, she cleans the counters and windows and I vacuum the cabin area and clean out rat poop from the fridge, just as I finish the fridge turns on and the lights flicker to life, "sweet, they connected the power" I say we finish the kitchen and move to the living room, with the tiny door.
As I am scrubbing a stain of glitter out of the carpet near the fireplace Carmen speaks "who do you think this blue boy is?" She asks
"I don't know, maybe a kid of the first owner" I say "but it's ugly we should take it down"
"Ooh we could replace it with the one of our family at the beach!" She says enthusiastically
"Great idea" I say, as I life the painting of its nail, something falls from behind it, "what was that" I ask
"Look" she says, she picks up the object and I place the painting on the floor and study the thing
"It's a key" I say, "wonder what-" but Carmen had already stood up
"Help me" she says shoving uselessly at the heavy couch, I help her push it aside and we stare at the small door, the key is about three inches long and has a button on one end, "will it fit" she whispers in awe
"Let's check" I fit the key into the door, it's a match I wiggle the key and turn it side ways
a soft click breaks the silence and the door creaks open "ready" Carmen asks with a brave smile
"It's probably just a storage closet" I roll my eyes but I open the door slowly to obey her dramatic fantasy.
"A brick wall? Seriously!" Carmen stands up grumpily, "I thought there would be a secret passageway or at least some treasure" she whined
"Sorry, but I did tell you so" she baps my arm. I lock up the door and slip the key into my pocket. we finish cleaning the living room and return the couch in front of the door, then we move to the bathroom which was groos, there were bugs in the shower and rust everywhere.
Once we got that to an acceptable amount of cleanliness we moved to the rest of the first floor, with two people we had finished the first floor by the time our parents and brother got back
"Girls we are back, and we brought McDonalds" our mom calls
"MCDONALDS!" we shout and run in from the hall, we gobble down our food and after diner we work on the stairs, our parents praised us greatly for our work.
"Bed time kids" dad yells from down stairs
There is a hustle but we all get into our pajamas and brush our teeth, I lay down on an air mattress our parents blew up for me, my siblings had to share one until our beds came.
I fall asleep with ease after a day of cleaning.
I start awake, not reason for it but I jolt up in bed and grab my phone, my charger is in the moving van s its dead, i squint through my room lit only by moon light and decifer the clock, It is 1:29 AM I turn over grumpily and try to fall asleep
"Blake" I hear a voice whisper, I sit bolt up right and stare at my door, through the gloom i can make out a figure, small and petite, holding a familiar floppy bunny
"Oh my god, Carmen you scared the crap out of me" I sigh
"Sorry" she whispers "I need you to come with me" she says in a voice higher than her own
"Carmen your scaring me" i say nervously
"Sorry, Im fine i just need to show you something" she says stepping back out into the hall
I hop out of bed and pad down the hall way after her, "look" she says when we reach the living room, "behind the couch" she whispers
The couch legs scrape softly agains the rug as i pull it away from the wall to reveal the small door again, "what about it-" my words die in my mouth, the door is pulsing with a faint green light
"Do you hear anything?" Carmen asks
'Brooklynn…' a soft voice hushes from the door, I nearly scream bu i dont want to freak her out, she is only seven "what do you hear" i ask in stead
She puts on an eerie hushed voice "Carmen, come to play" she whispers
"All I hear is the wind out side" I lie
"So you think its my imagination" she asks playing with the frilly hem of her night gown
"Probably, we have been working all day" i say holding her small hand in mine
"Can i sleep with you tonight?" she whispers "you can say no"
"Of course," I say helping her up "you should ask mom and dad if you can have the spare room, since its right next to mine" i add
"Yeah" she says and follows me upstairs, I climb into bed and she crawls in with me, she keeps my hand in hers all night
I finally fell asleep but all night I thought I heard that whisper again, coming from that key which I had hung around my neck…