A Mystery At Ravenscroft

Moving In

We are now back on the road, and after about 30 minutes of being lost, you can quickly tell we are nowhere in Ravenscroft anymore. We arrive at our new home in Nighbury Falls, where everything finally feels normal. It looks like a typical house with ordinary neighbors. It appears kind of new, but you can tell there were former inhabitants. But we don't mind. I step out of the car and take it all in. This is going to be our home. I am no longer going to think about Ravenscroft and its problems because this is where I need to be. I can figure out where to send that video I took later. We are starting a new life, and I'm going to be entering adulthood a little faster than I had hoped. Our house is surrounded by trees that look like they have lived for a very long time. It's the beginning of Fall, and the leaves are starting to change. There are a lot of leaves in the yard that I'm sure my mom will make me rake later. It's now early evening, and the sun is starting to go down; the sky is light orange, and a small shadow of the moon is visible. The house is made of brick, and the shingles are burgundy. As I'm looking at the house in front of ours, I could've sworn I saw their curtains move. Was someone watching us?

"So, Parker, what do you think?" She asks, looking hopeful.

"It's nice," I say to her. "It's something different for sure, but that's what we wanted, right?"

She smiles and walks over to me. She gives me a hug and sighs.

"We are going to love it here, I just know it." She says.

It's progress that she's saying even this much to me. It's been hard carrying a conversation with her because she says I look so much like my father. She lets go of me, and we start to unpack our things. I'm dragging one of many suitcases down the pavement and up the steps that lead up to the house. My mom pulls out the keys and unlocks the door. We walk inside, and it looks really nice actually. As soon as you walk in, there is the living room. The carpet has been freshly vacuumed, the furniture looks rustic but chic, and the paint on the walls is the color of eggshells. It's kind of bland, but it gives us a lot of room to decorate. It's a three-bedroom house, a room for my mom, a room for me, and a guest room. My mom takes the largest room, of course, and I pick the second largest.

After what seems like forever, we move all of our things inside the house. I make my way up the stairs and find my room. It's a good-sized room. It has a queen-size bed, a vanity, and even a huge dresser. I can find myself really liking it here. My mom's room is right beside mine, and the guest room is across from hers. I walk over to my dresser across from my bed and start unpacking. The first thing I put on my dresser is a picture of my dad and me. We were so happy in this picture. He had just found out he got a promotion at his job and took us to get ice cream at our local creamery. He told me I could get anything I wanted; it was his treat. It was at that moment I told him about my dream of becoming a photographer. He was so happy for me and gave me the biggest hug you could ever imagine.

He gave the best hugs.

He was so happy I would be following in his footsteps. He always had a feeling I would, but I didn't want to give him the satisfaction that he was correct. But then again, I was always stealing one of his plethora of cameras to take pictures with, so he might have always had an inkling. I stared at the picture, putting myself back in that moment, and I start to tear up. I ended that dream after he died. It would bring back too many memories, too many tears. I'm just not ready for something like that. Right now I'm just taking the generic college courses I need to take online, and we'll go from there. I walk over to another dresser, where I put my TV. I move the dresser away from the wall to look for a power outlet to plug my TV into. I find one, and directly below it, I can see a piece of the wallpaper pulled back. I bend down to inspect it and see it's dark behind the wallpaper. The spot is hollowed out. I walk out of my room and go downstairs to see my mom looking at a scrapbook with pictures of her and dad and decide not to bother her right now to tell her. It can wait.

I go back upstairs and move the dresser back some more. If there was a lot of damage, we could file a claim. We need all the money we can get right now. I sit down on the floor and use the flash of my phone to peer inside. There is something there; I can just barely see it. I peel back some more of the wallpaper, gently, and stick my hand inside. I just prayed that an animal or bug didn't leap out at me. I felt around a little bit, and I felt something. A notebook maybe? I take my hand out, and it's a book. It's dusty, and you can tell it's been a while since this thing has been unearthed. As soon as I open up the cover, my heart drops.