Blanket of Stars (Chaelisa ver.)

Chapter 6: And so, It begins

For me, the scariest movies aren't horrors. Thrillers always stay with me so much longer. I saw The Hand That Rocks the Cradle when I was about six years old and remember telling my father that no matter what happened, I was never going to have a Nanny.

The only time I laughed during that was when Alice did an impression of the little girl in the movie shouting "Peyton" from the stairs. She's so funny sometimes. Funny in the way only a little sister could find amusing.

I'm not sure why I was always allowed to watch whichever movie I wanted, regardless of the rating. I had a friend when I was little, her name was Vanessa and her parents were really strict about letting her watch movies with the appropriate age ratings.

I can't imagine being an only child. I would have been so bored without having Alice to bug or having her around to try, and more often than not, succeed in bugging me. We prank called the cops once and when our mother confronted us after listening to an angry policeman, we pointed at each other to take the blame. Lisa didn't have anybody to point at.

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She's hardly started to unpack. The boxes from her old house are still in the corner of the room, untouched. She gets out what she needs and leaves the rest. I noticed that she doesn't attend school and her parents don't seem fazed by it at all. My parents would hit the roof if I dropped out of school. I joked about it once.

It went down like a ton of bricks.

Her parents both go out to work at the same time everyday. I don't know where they work, I'll have to ask Lisa about it. I just have to work on not terrifying her first.

She's just getting out of the shower. I heard the water stop a few minutes ago and thought I'd give her some privacy and wait downstairs. I'm going to try talking to her again when she gets down here. There are no baseball bats down here. I checked.

She's taking too long and I'm impatient today. I even woke her up this morning by tapping on the window. I know, I'm evil.

I put the television on, the volume going to the highest setting before I sit back and wait. To my surprise, Lisa doesn't hurry down the stairs as I predicted. She's either got a bath full of water in her ear, or she's hiding in the bathroom or my bedroom.

I'm so silly. Of course she's not going to run down here when the television switches itself on. I'd throw myself out the window if it were me. Or, perhaps something a little less dramatic.

After I switch the television off I walk up the stairs slowly, idly remembering how many times I tripped up them when I was rushing. I'm lucky I didn't bite my tongue off. I can be such a klutz.

The bathroom door is open and my bedroom door is shut. I do the math and knock lightly.

"The money is downstairs," Lisa tells me unnecessarily and nervously.

I knock on the door again and she shouts that the cops are on the way. I highly doubt that. There isn't a phone in her bedroom because it's on the kitchen table. I push down on the door handle and proceed to push it open, only to have it slammed back in my face, her body pressing against the other side.

"I'm serious! They'll be here any minute."

"Open the door," I say clearly, her audible gasp reaching my ears through the wood separating us.

The door is swung open and Lisa is dressed like she just threw on her clothes in two seconds flat. She scans the hallway up and down with an almost defiant expression on her face. "I'm not hiding from a girl; show yourself."