Fear of the Unknown

Chapter 2 The House Gives Me The Creeps

"Wake up girls!" Mom yells happily. "Time to go!"

I groan waking up to the sound of her voice. Once again I glance at the clock and it read 11:00am. At least I got some sleep. Surprising though, since my mind couldn't stop thinking about mom's mysterious guy. I hear voices from outside and went to go look at the window. Cora is already out of the bed and helping mom move stuff into the moving van. Relunctantly, I wash up and get dressed packing my clothes in a suitcase.

Quickly, I walk out to put the rest of our things in the van. We don't have much, considering we move constantly. We must be experts by now. In a matter of minutes, we had everything out of the house and into the van.

"Okay, you girls ready for a long drive?" Mom asks.

"Oh sure," I mumble.

"Yeah!" Cora exclaims.

I wish Cora could see how wrong all of this is. This is weird, she just met this guy like a month ago and he decides to marry her? Call me paranoid but it seems strange to me. My mom starts up her red car calling out to the van driver to follow her. Cora and I get in the backseat buckling up. I search my pocket for my phone and took out a pair of earphones handing the other one to Cora. I put my phone on shuffle and the song  'Hot n' Cold' by Katy Perry plays.

Cora starts to sing along to the chorus.

Cause your hot and you're cold
You're yes then you're no
You're in then you're out
You're up then you're down
You're wrong when it's right
Its black then it's white
We fight we break up
We kiss we make up

I begin to sing along with her earning a curious amused look from our mom. Funny how this song kind of relates to mom and her exes.

"You guys sound great!" Mom exclaims.

"Thanks!" Cora replies.

I look out the window facing the blaring hot sun. It was the middle of summer break right now. I'm glad we moved at our house in the beginning of summer break preventing me from making new friends. The last thing I need is getting myself upset over losing friends. I roll down my window a bit, letting air flow in cooling my face. It is a beautiful day, I love the smell of summer.

After what seemed like forever we slow down to a small neighbourhood. There is a large yellow house up ahead with a beautiful vintage porch. Several palm trees surrounded the house. We come to a stop in front of it.

"This is our new home!" Mom says.

The house is beautiful, I love it. I cross my fingers hoping that maybe this could be our permanent home after all. I can see it, growing up here till I'm old enough to move out. The moving van pulls up behind us shortly helping us move our stuff into the house. Mom searches for a key in her purse and finally finds it. Cora and I follow her in. There were stairs leading up to a second floor. The house is a bit old and musty. It kind of gives me the creeps. The sunny yellow paint on the exterior of the house fooled me. The house definitely gives me some serious messed up vibes. There's something eerie about this house, I can feel it.

"Where's the guy?" I ask.

"He will be here soon!" Mom exclaims.

Cora runs up the stairs looking for her new bedroom.

"I call this one!" Cora yells from above making me go up the stairs myself.

There were three rooms up here. I'm glad, I thought I was going to have to share. I love Cora but I need my personal space sometimes. A guy named Mark comes in carrying my desk into my room. He is in his early twenties and has an impressive set of muscles. Unexpectedly, he gives me a wink.

"Like your new home?" Mark asks.

"Yeah!" I reply. "Kind of creepy though."

"Probably because this house use to be a funeral home." Mark says nonchalantly.

I stare at him in shock, a funeral home! No wonder this place is so cheap! My skin starts to crawl thinking of how many dead people were in here.

"Honey, who are you talking to?" Mom asks.

"Mark, he moved my desk up here." I answer.

"Who?" Mom asks again.

I turn around to point at the guy but he is gone. He must've went downstairs already. Oh well.

"Nevermind." I reply.

When the moving van workers were finished moving everything in, I started to explore in more depth. There is a door upstairs that I did not notice, a lock is placed on it. Why is this door locked? This must go up to the attic. Cora comes up beside me handing me an apple. I gladly take it and take a bite. Mom then comes up the stairs and sees what we're up to.

"Why is this locked?" Cora asks.

"I don't know, why don't we wait for my fiancé?" My mom beams at the word 'fiancé'.

I give a small grunt, annoyed with mom's excitement. I want to go up to the attic. No matter what, I will find a way to get up there.

"Come on girls, let's have dinner! We're having lasagna!" Mom says.

My stomach grumbles in the moment causing mom and Cora to laugh. They both know that lasagna is my favorite food. The smell wafts through my nose. I sit down in the kitchen and Cora sits beside me. Mom carefully pulls the lasagna out of the oven and sets it on the table.

The door turns and opens, a man with brown hair, blue eyes walks in with a big smile on his face.

"Hi girls!" The man says.

"John, you're here! We're just about to eat." Mom calls out excitedly.

Cora and I shyly say hi and ate the lasagna in silence. This couldn't be more awkward.

"This lasagna is delicious Margaret!" John exclaims.

Mom grins from ear to ear blushing madly. I roll my eyes, oh boy this is going to be interesting. I decide to make this even more interesting by shooting questions at him.

"John, so what makes you think you're worthy of my mom?"

He looks at me surprise plastered on his face. Mom shoots me a death glare.

"BETHANY!" mom yells.

John holds up his hand stopping her nodding at me. Cora sits up in her chair engrossed in our conversation.

"It's okay Margaret," John begins.

Mom backs down with an annoyed look and a glare.

"I know you may not believe me but I love your mom very much." John says. He leans in a bit and whispers to me. "No one will break us up, got me?"

My face goes into shock. Did he really just say that to me? I look over at mom and Cora. They seem oblivious to what happened. I give John a seething glare. He did not just do that to me. He better watch it. He does not scare me! It seems this isn't going to be good for me at all.

When everyone is finished with their dinner, I help mom clean up. John goes into the living room and turns on the T.V putting on a football game. Mom washes the dishes by hand since we don't have a dishwasher. Cora and I help mom dry the dishes.

I lean in a whisper to mom.

"I hope you know what you're doing."

She looks at me with a confused look and I just shake my head and mouthed be careful okay? Mom nods but I still have this queasy feeling in my stomach.

"What?" Cora asks me.

"There's something weird about this John guy." I answer.

"You know, I think I feel it too." Cora replies.

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