The Mystery Next Door

The Mystery Next Door- Prologue

Prologue

Rring! Rring! I spin around in my chair and grab my shrieking phone from the desk. “Hello, this is Alicia Cooper, from Cooper Computer Crafts. How can I help you?”

Cooper Computer Crafts is the name I gave my business when I opened it as a twelve year old. It provides me with a profit of around five thousand dollars a month and allowed me to get emancipated as a fifteen year old. It has been a year since I moved out of my house and into one my aunt had left me in her will. I now have a business line (my home phone) and a cell phone. This call had come on my home phone, so I knew it was a customer.

A deep voice says on the other end, “Yes, I was wondering if I could get you install some programs on my computer and run anti virus software, all of the basic things. Oh, and I have a laptop that has a virus on it, and won’t boot up. Can you fix that or do I need to just buy a new laptop?”

“No, I can fix it… I think… Where do you want to meet? I need an initial consultation, then I can work on my own,” I tell him.

“Oh, we’ll meet at my home. The address is thirty four seventeen Rogers Drive. And can you try to get here as soon as possible? I’m going out with my wife to celebrate our first night in our new house,” he asked, giving me excess information. As a computer genius, I hated extra information.

My jaw dropped after processing what I heard. Thirty four seventeen? That couldn’t be. No one had lived there in years; barely anyone knew about the two houses (more like barns) on Rogers Drive. Plus, even if someone knew about them, no one would want them; due to the waterfall separating the two houses, this road flooded a lot. After realizing that I was still on the phone, I replied, “Sure, I’ll be over in a couple of minutes. Um… See you then.” I click the phone off and head for my programming software and anti virus.

Instead of taking a boat across the 30 foot wide river, I climb into a “room” behind the waterfall, and just walk across it. I climb down on the other side, and then knock on the back door. A woman comes to the door and asks suspiciously “Who are you and why are you at my back door?”

I smile and say “I’m Alicia from Cooper Computer Crafts, and also you’re across the river neighbor. Nice to meet you.”

She opens the door and grins at me. She replies, “Sorry, our old neighborhood wasn’t as friendly. I’m Kim Collins, nice to make your acquaintance. Please come in, I’ll show you to our computer.”

I follow her to their, at least I suppose it is, office, but I can’t tell because every room looks the same, like a box storage area. I sit down in a chair in front of the computer and a laptop and then a man (the one I talked to on the phone I think) tells me everything he wants on his computer and shows me what’s wrong with his laptop.

After he leaves with his wife for their “date night,” I decide to look around before starting. The first few rooms I explore are the same as the office, filled with unpacked boxes. Then I wander through an arched doorway and everything seems to be a paradise. They have a huge kitchen with three pantries, a sink big enough to wash a child of seventy pounds in, and an eight burner stainless steel stove with a refrigerator twice the size of the usual to match. My curiosity gets the better of me, and I open the fridge. It has four gallons of water, five peaches, ten apples, two oranges, and three bags cherries. I grab a cherry and rinse it off. I pop it into my mouth, and as soon as I bite it, flavor erupts into my taste buds. Not only are they nice people, but they are the best fruit pickers that I’ve ever met. I open a pantry to find a plate so that I can get more cherries and get another shock. They have two boxes of every cereal known to man, from Corn Flakes to Banana Cheerios to Oops All Berries. At the bottom were probably a hundred Next I look through a pantry filled with non perishables until I get to the candy bar section. They had to have any candy found in a grocery store, and even some that I thought had been discontinued. I saw a box of Mars Bars missing a few and couldn’t help myself. I grabbed one and then opened the last pantry, finally finding the plates. I grabbed one and put three handfuls of cherries on it.

I walk back to my workstation, drop off the food, and go back to exploring. If I thought the kitchen was paradise, the living room was the place people in paradise dreamed of going to. It had two couches on either side and in the middle were six recliners on two different levels. Directly in front of the seats was a movie theatre screen. My jaw drops at the sight; I have to force myself to not stay and relax.

I walk over to the stairs and nearly run up, wondering what will be there. When I see seven rooms, I am slightly disappointed, since I know that they’re all just bedrooms. I decide to go in anyway. The master bedroom just has boxes, as do five out of six other bedrooms. Just as I thought my exploration was about to end, I walk into a room that must have been their son’s. One wall had a stage type thing on it, and the stage held two guitars, a drum set, and a microphone, he was obviously a member of a band. A multitude of other instruments, including my favorite, the flute, were stored in a huge closet behind the stage. Another one of the walls was just plain black, with his bed resting against it. The wall with the door on it had a huge TV, but was painted red. The last wall had a name painted on it in a creative font that was made of all sharp lines. The name read “Felix,” and the rest of the wall was splatter painted.

“Boo.”

I scream and nearly jump out of my skin. I turn around and see the most gothic boy in the world. He has long black hair that fell to his shoulders and was rustled as if he had just rolled before coming into this room. His eyes were black, but they were obviously contacts; they were slow when moving with his eyes. He has 5 o’clock shadow, making it seem like he hasn’t shaved in days, maybe weeks. His black t-shirt hugs his arms, but it isn’t overly tight. His jeans are black as well, giving him a hoodlum look.

The boy laughs and says, “First you invade my room, then scream when I come back to my rightful place? Who are you and why are you in my house, or, more specifically, my room?”

I stammer, “I’m, um, a girl your dad hired to fix your computer. My name is Alicia, my alibi will check out. And I’m in your room because, um…” I rack my brain for a reason why I shouldn’t be in the computer room, “because I needed to use the bathroom.”

He points towards his door and says “There’s a river outside. And a house across it. You can see yourself to the bathroom.”

I narrow my eyes at him and say “I’m fine, thanks. And just f y I, that’s my house. Don’t come over.”

Felix shakes his head and says “Whatever. If my parents come home, you never saw me. I’m not supposed to be here now anyway.” He walks out his door, then turns back and asks, “Can you pass me my jacket? It’s on a hook behind the door.”

I take him his jacket and follow him downstairs. I go back to the office and get back to work.