The Yellow Room

Moving Day

     Juniper stepped out of the back seat, clutching onto Lemon, her childhood bear. She glared at the almost decrepit house that loomed over her. It was a red brick house with no fancy exterior, just a square of brick. The front stairs led up to a tall, dark door with three little windows to peep through and a small brass door knocker attached to it. The knocker read "The White's" in bold capital letters. 

     "Like it?" Her mom, Alice, asked while slamming the driver's door. Juniper turned her head to look at her mom, who had a wide smile on her face as she looked up to their new home.

     "Well, I haven't gotten the whole feel for it yet..." Juniper said in response. Her mom, never breaking eye contact with the house, just nodded and broke off towards the house. Juniper did the same, looking back so often to ensure Marlowe was okay. Marlowe was sitting near the bottom of the driveway, taking Polaroid pictures of a small patch of white flowers. She would snap a picture, shake it, then place it face down on the concrete below her. "Marlowe!" Juniper called, just loud enough for her sister to look up, squinting her green eyes at her. "Can you take a picture of me?"

     "Sure..." Marlowe said, pulling the Polaroid up to her eye. "Smile!" She shouts. Juniper hugs Lemon, closes her eyes, and smiles as wide as she can. After a few seconds of silence, Juniper opened her eyes and Marlowe was back to her batch of flowers. 

     "Juni?" Juniper quickly turned around to see her mom poking her head out of one of the windows. "How about you come inside and pick out your room?" Juniper hops up the stairs and opens the door to reveal a dimly lit, empty living room. To the left was a hallway, inflicted with five different doors. She walked along the wall, placing her hand on every door. 

     The first door was a small white room, just big enough for the essentials, accompanied by a closet just big enough to hold a person. She closed the door behind her before going to the one across the hall. The room before her was an awkwardly colored teal-blue bathroom. Tripping over the toilet as she moved further in, she flipped the light on to reveal a large countertop sink. "Nothing necessarily special about a bathroom I suppose." She whispered to herself before turning the light off and exiting. 

     As she closed the door behind her, she looked over the door on the left side of the far wall. She walked over and placed her hand on the doorknob. She hissed as she snatched it away in pain. "What the hell?"

     "Juniper!"

     "Sorry mom..." She bent down to get a closer look at the handle. It was just like the others, with nothing different or unique about it at all. She licked one of her fingers and carefully placed it back on the doorknob. When there was no sizzle or burning sensation, she grabbed onto it again and pushed herself into the room. "No wonder why they moved out..." She was standing in a bright yellow bedroom. Two awkwardly placed windows, one facing the woods while the other faced the road. The walls were empty, with no sign of life before them except for one chair in the corner. 

     "So, what do you think?" Juniper turned around to see her mom leaning against the door frame. She was eyeing the room. "The small pink one is mine." She said with a smile. Juniper moved towards the door and motioned for her mom to move so she could get out and revealed the last room. 

     "No wonder they moved out, these rooms are horrendous." Juniper stood in the doorway of another teal-colored room, "I'll take the yellow I guess." Her mom smiled and squeezed her into a tight hug.

     "This is going to be great. We are going to have a great time here! I can feel it!" She pulled away with her hands still tightly pressed on Juniper's shoulders. "How about you go get Marlowe and show her the rooms? Then you guys can explore a little more while I order a pizza and get some furniture in here." She let go and disappeared around a corner. Juniper sighed before heading back towards the road where Marlowe was still observing, she could hear her singing quietly to herself the closer Juniper got.

     "Hey," Marlowe jumped at the sound of Juniper's voice and snapped around. "Sorry... mom wants us to walk around together, also your room is like the ugliest color blue." 

     "You picked out your room? That's so not fair, I'm the oldest so I should pick first!" Juniper tried to hide her smile creeping into her face as Marlowe raised her voice.

     "If it makes you feel any better, my room is the ugliest color yellow." 

     "I guess..." Marlowe looked down at her camera and slipped the strap around her neck. She grabbed Juniper's hand and started walking up the hill, followed by the stairs before she opened the door. "Have you gone into the basement yet?"

     "No. I went into all the rooms and the bathroom. I haven't even seen the kitchen yet." Juniper outstretched her arm to her sister's newly founded room and stepped in after her. "Our rooms are pretty much the same in size. We can switch if you want."

     "I actually don't hate the room situation, I'll figure out the teal situation, but other than that it'll do." Marlowe motioned for Juniper to follow her out of the room and without turning back to close the door, they both rounded the corner into the kitchen. Their mom was pulling pots and pans out of a large cardboard box labeled "kitchen." She had her phone stuck between her ear and her shoulder as she spoke to the pizza place just down the road. 

     The kitchen was dated. The rose wallpaper was pealing near the ceiling and the tile was stained yellow around the edges. The cabinets squeaked when you opened them and there was no dishwasher. There was a large wooden door that led out to a back porch which further led to the woods. Past the kitchen was the stairs to the basement. It was a small hallway staircase, at the bottom was the garage door, and a bathroom to the immediate left. The old carpet crunched as the sister walked further into the empty basement. 

     "What is that smell...?" Marlowe said as she grabbed her nose. 

     "Probably the carpet... It is probably dated back as old as the house." Juniper said as she walked into the laundry room. 

     "Hey, Juni! Come check this out!" Marlowe yelled from somewhere through the wall. Juniper stepped out of the laundry room and followed the basement walls to find her sister standing in an empty closet. She was pointing up at something that wasn't visible to Juniper. "Come here," Marlowe waved. Juniper stepped into the closet and squinted her eyes at what Marlowe was pointing at. 

     "Is that... a door?" She said as she squatted down next to Marlowe.

     "I don't think it's a door. I think it's a crawl space, you know, like the one in Coraline. Obviously, this one doesn't lead to a different dimension, but I'm sure it's just a little place to store stuff... Should we open it?" 

     "Dude, no way! What if something is in there?" Juniper said, standing back up. 

     "If there is something in there it's dead. This thing hasn't been opened in a while..." Marlowe brushed her fingers against the edges of the door, "Go get a screwdriver or something to pry this open with." Juniper rolls her eyes and runs back up the stairs. She searches every box she can get her hands on, and she finally finds a large kitchen knife.

     "This should do..." She carefully trots down the stairs, back to her sister. "This is all I could find."

     "That's fine, give it to me." She said, reaching her hand back. Juniper carefully placed the handle in her sister's hand and Marlowe immediately went to pry the door open. It popped over fairly easily but it knocked the two sisters onto their behinds. It caused Juniper to gag and Marlowe just stared in shock. "Holy fuck-"

     "Well... Now we know where that smell is coming from..."