The Ghost of the Lake

Chapter 4

We arrived at the house that still didn't look nor feel like home. It would take months to get used to living in a new place and not feeling like you were on vacation.

I got out of the car and headed for the door. I enter and was greeted by Balto. Reu was arranging all the furniture in the living room when I walked in.

"Hey," I say.

"Hey, you're already back?" he asks.

"Yeah we had to hurry though. It started raining hard after we left the store," Nelly tells him as she enters the house with the groceries. May follows her in with more groceries in her hands. She didn't tell him that we were at the ice cream store. I guess she knew what would happen if Jackson heard this. He would start throwing a tantrum. Thank god that we finished our ice cream before we got home.

"By the way thanks for your help, Opal," Nelly says sarcastically.

"Yeah, your welcome," I respond with the same sarcastic tone.

"Where's Jackson?" Nelly questions Reu as I leave the room.

I go into the kitchen where I find May leaving the grocery bags on the counter. Balto followed me. I go to the nearest bag and start emptying it out. I open the cabinet , and am shocked to see that they are all empty. Then I remember that everything in this house is empty. I guess I'm not used to seeing the cabinets so empty.

After I'm done with the groceries, Balto and I go up to my room. I lay on my new bed for a while. Balto jumps on the bed and accompanies me. My room starts to look a little like my old room. I tried arranging the furniture like it was in my old room, but the walls were bare. My old room's walls had been full of drawings I had drawn and bought.

They had also been decorated with pictures I had taken. Nelly had packed all those drawings and pictures I had had on my wall. They were still in a box on the floor near the foot of the bed.
Before I arrange my pictures, I grab

Balto's bed and pillow and put it beside my bed. Then I grab the box with my pictures and drawings and put it on my bed. I carefully take the drawings out because, even though they are framed, it can still break. I place the drawings on my bed and on the floor. Then I grab nails and start hammering them into the walls. I place the drawings all over the room. Balto looks at me while I do this.

Nelly called me down for dinner just as I was hanging the last drawing.

"Coming," I yelled. Balto leaves the room before I do. I take my time as I walk towards the door and turn around. It starts looking like my old room every time I look at it. I don't know if that's a good thing or bad.

"What's for dinner?" I ask Nelly as I enter the dining room.

"Enchiladas," Nelly responds.

"Yummy," I reply. Enchiladas are my favorite food. Salmon and shrimp are my second favorite.

"Yep, bring up your plate and serve yourself," Nelly uttered. In our family no one sets the table or anything. We just do it ourselves. I walk over to fill Balto's water bowl. I see that he still has food in his other bowl, so I leave that bowl alone.

I get my food and sit at the table. As I sit, I see something at the back of the room. I can't really make it out anything other than its a dark figure. I try to ignore it and start eating my food. My mind goes back to that moment when I thought I had seen something in my room. I try shaking the thought off, but that is impossible. It looms over me like a dark cloud.

"Are you all set for the night?" Reu asks directing to May, Jackson, and I.

"Yeah. It'll be a new change for us," May scoffed.