Fear: American Horror Story (CANCELLED)

Chapter Three

My mom said it was normal to have strange feelings about a new house. She told me that I wasn't the only one who ever found their new home a little creepy.

I believed her. It's not like anything downright terrifying ever happened, or anything that could have actually harmed me. Plus, ghosts aren't real.

Well, that's what the rational adults of my life always said. Ghosts were make-believe. Fake. Phony. A story told to frighten campers and young children.

I don't think that they're right. I think ghosts are real. They exist down dark corridors and eery forests. They exist in our minds and hearts. Who knows if they are actually dead spirits? It doesn't matter. They exist. We exist. And we all leave the Earth sometime.

It was a week until school started. One more week of freedom, but I didn't know where to go or what to do. I didn't have any friends here, nor would I probably ever.

Over the last couple of days I had dedicated my free time to decorating my room, so my walls were plastered with band posters, and my bed had some old fairy lights I had taken from my family's Christmas decorations. This was where I spent my time, reading and listening to music. Occasionally browsing through YouTube and Tumblr. Sometimes attempting to write short stories and poems. In short, I did nothing. I was wasting my summer. Even Lynn wasn't just sitting around all day, she was still hanging out with that Tate.

She had also taken to turning up her music so loud I couldn't think, and on the off chance it was turned down low enough to hear anything else all I can hear is her and Tate's voices from her room. Stupid. Fucking. Tate. All she ever talked about was Tate, when she ever did talk to me. I was sick of it.

Tate was over again, and I was trying to tune out their voices when I heard a knock on my door. "Come in?" I called out. No one ever knocked on my door. Either they just barge in or don't come in at all. It was like my family didn't know what privacy was.

My door opened and Violet walked in. I was really surprised to see her, because we hadn't spoken since the day we met. I just assumed I had made a bad first impression, and she didn't want to see me again.

"Hi, Salem," She said. "We need to talk."

"About what?" I asked.

She sat down in a chair across from my bed. "It's your sister."

"My--what? What happened?"

"It's not what happened. It's what might happen."

"I don't understand."

Violet stared me in the eye. "Well, you better. It's important!"

"Okay, okay," I said. "Just tell me what it is."

"Your sister can't hang out with Tate."

"What? Why?" I would have thought Tate was just an ex of hers or something, and she was jealous, but the intensity of her gaze made me think otherwise.

"He's dangerous."

"Dangerous?"

"That's what I said, isn't it? She can't be with him! She'll get hurt! You have to make her stay away from Tate."

"I can't do that." The truth: No matter how much I disliked Tate, I couldn't take away the source of Lynn's newfound happiness. I couldn't do that to my baby sister.

Violet stood up. "Are you hearing what I'm saying? Lynn could get hurt. She could die!"

"Woah, wait," I said. "Die? But he's only a kid! He's like my age, how could he do something like that?"

"You'd be surprised," Violet said coldy, walking towards my door. "And it's not really my problem. You can just let it happen to her. I don't care."

"Wait--" I started to say, but Violet had already slammed the door shut.

I leaned back on my bed and let out a deep sigh. Violet had seemed like she really believed Tate was a danger, like he was some sort of psychopath or something. Maybe she was the one with a mental illness. Why else would she be so paranoid? It would also explain why she didn't go to school.

That reasoning made perfect sense, but for one thing. Violet wasn't crazy. Either that or she was one hella good actress.

Maybe I would watch Tate a little more closely. Make sure he was really what he appeared to be. I doubted that he could actually kill anyone, but he might have been an abusive dickhole. I've been through what those kind of people can do, and it's not something I liked to think about.

I started to sit up so I could do anything but lie alone with my thoughts, but a voice stopped me.

"Going somewhere?" It asked.

Tate. Tate was in my room. I hadn't heard the door open because of Lynn's goddamn music.

I sat up quickly, and noticed Tate was standing in the other side of my room, by my door.

"Why the hell are you in here?" I asked, slightly unsettled because of the conversation I had with Violet about him.

Tate shrugged. "I heard someone yelling. Decided to come check it out."

"Where's Lynn?" I fired back.

"Shower. We spend so much time together that it's become pretty normal for her to do things like that while I'm here.

"So. Who was yelling?" He said.

"None of your business. Go hang out with Lynn and leave me alone."

Tate shut the door and started walking closer. "Like I said, she's in the shower. Not that it wouldn't be fun to join her, but I don't think it would be a good idea at this point in our relationship. Now who were you talking to?"

"A girl named Violet. You probably don't know her. What's it matter to you?" I didn't add that the reason she was yelling was because of him.

Tate laughed ruefully. "Oh, I know her." He didn't say anything else, and I didn't ask him anything else. He was starting to scare me.

Tate had kept walking, closer and closer, and he was soon standing over me at the side of my bed.

"Why are you scared of me?" He asked.

"I'm--I'm not!" I said. I suddenly felt very exposed in only a tank top and pajama shorts. I curled my legs up so that my sstomach was covered, like a vertical fetal position, but it was far too much like that night, two years before...

My heart was racing and I could tell he knew I was lying. I was scared, and it was obvious.

Tate climbed onto the bed, and stood on his knees in front of where I was sitting. He put his hands on the headboard, so that I was blocked in.
No, no, not again, this can't be happening...

"Yes, you are. You are terrified. You think I'm going to hurt you, rape you even. You're thinking that you should have listened to Violet. Yes, I know what she was saying. She told you I'm a monster. That you shouldn't trust me. That I poison everything I touch, kill everyone that I meet."

He paused for a second, and the strangest thing happened. He started to cry.

"Do you know how hard it is to see her, every fucking day, and not be able to have her?"

"Lynn?" I asked, confused.

"Fucking Lynn? Of course not! I mean her. I have to see her and all I can think of when I see her is how much I miss her and how much she hates me. All that I put her through...I just can't do it anymore!"

He sobbed for another couple of seconds, but then stopped. It was as if he was never crying at all.

He leaned down to whisper in my ear. "Just remember that all monsters are human."

My breath caught in my throat. Oh my God...

Tate started to laugh, then got off of my bed. He laughed all the way out my door, leaving it open. I usually hated it when my door was open, but I couldn't move. All I could think of was what Tate had said, and why when I first met him I thought his voice sounded familiar.
All monsters are human...