Nine Thirty

Chapter 1

"Cara! Wake up!" my little brother screams. "What do you want Max?" I said with a sigh. "We're here!" he yelled. "Oh great." I said sarcastically.
I didn't want to move to a different city. I had trouble making friends in my hometown that I've lived in for over 10 years, let alone a new city.

"Aren't you excited honey?" my mom said from the front seat. "Well, I guess I am, a little..." I said. "You'll be fine, you're really going to like our new house!" my mom said.
We drove down winding roads, passing little towns on the way. We made a sharp turn on Fairly Street, and followed a narrow path up to the new house. It was a relatively big house, with large windows and a one person swing set in the front yard.
My brother jumped out of the car and ran up to the front door, followed by my parents and I. My dad handed Max the key, and he unlocked the door. He ran around the whole house yelling "new house! new house!"

I brought my luggage up to one of the 4 bedrooms in the house, it was a medium sized room with one window and a small closet. My brother's room was right next to mine, his bedroom was the same size as mine, the only difference was that he had a small tv. It wasn't anything fancy, it looked like it had been there for a while.
I heard my brother running around the house, and I decided to check out the house as well. I walked back downstairs, and my parents were unpacking a few boxes. "How do you like the new house honey?" my dad asked. "It's pretty nice." I said.

I didn't hear my brother running anymore so I went to see what he was doing. "Max? Where are you?" I yelled. I heard a small thump in the coat closet near the front door. I started slowly turning the knob on the closet door, when I heard a louder thump coming from inside the closet again. I quickly swung the door open- "Arrgggg" my brother yelled and jumped out of the closet. "Max! You scared me!" I said with a little giggle.

"What was all that screaming?" my mom yelled from the kitchen. "I jumped out of the closet and scared Cara!" my brother yelled back with a chuckle. I heard my mom laugh and tell my dad that we were crazy. "Hey Max, why don't we go and check out the swing out front?" I asked. "Yeah! That sounds awesome!" Max said.
We went outside and max hopped on the swing. "Push me!" he yelled. "Okay, okay." I said. It wasn't very sturdy, but it was enough to hold my brother's weight.

20 minutes later, my mom called us in for dinner. My parents ordered some pizza to celebrate the move and the new house. My brother had four slices of pizza and probably one whole litre of Pepsi. Max loves pizza and soda for dinner, we don't have it very often so I guess he took advantage of that privilege. After dinner Max and I went up to our rooms to get ready for bed. It was 8:47pm when we kissed our parents goodnight. I ruffled Max's hair and said goodnight. I closed the door to my room and picked up my phone, I had two missed calls from my best friend Mileena. I called her back at 9:03pm, she answered and ranted about everything. When I finally got a word in, I told her about the new house. By the time I hung up it was almost 9:40pm, when I heard something outside. It sounded like an ear piercing screech, I sat up a bit on my bed. I heard the noise again, and again. Max ran right into my room and I jumped. "Max what are you doing?" I asked nervously. "Cara, I'm really scared I heard screaming outside!" he said.

"It's okay Max, it was probably just an animal or something." I said. I tried to be brave for Max's sake, but I was terrified as well. "Cara look out the window...please." Max whispered while hugging me tightly. "Okay Max, don't worry everything is going to be okay" I reassured him. I slowly pulled back the curtain covering my window, I looked over at Max and he had little tears streaming down his face. I didn't see anything outside at first, but then through the corner of my eye, I saw something dash across the front lawn. I quickly closed the curtain, Max looked really concerned and frightened. "Did you see anything Cara?" Max said, sniffling. "No..no..I-I..Didn't. " I said quietly.

"Are you okay Cara?" Max asked. "Yeah, yeah I'm fine." I lied, trying not to freak Max out. " Max, I'm going to look outside one more time, maybe you should sleep with me tonight." I said. "O..okay." max said. I took another quick peek outside and I saw someone outside. I couldn't make out a face, but I knew that the person was walking towards the house. "Max go get mom and dad!" I said strictly. Max ran down the hall and called out to our parents. "Mom! Dad!" Max yelled. They came rushing into my bedroom, and we told them what had happened. My dad poked his head through the curtains but saw nothing outside. He saw how pale and scared we looked, and knew we were telling the truth.

We spent the night in our parent's bedroom. Max and I didn't get much sleep, but thankfully nothing else happened that night. In the morning we went downstairs into the kitchen for breakfast. My mom was making bacon and eggs with some toast and juice. "Hi mom." I said. "Oh hi sweetie! You're up already?" she said enthusiastically. "Yeah, Max and I were pretty shaken up last night." I said hesitantly. "Oh yes. Honey are you and your brother alright?" "I know you were scared, but I think you were just tired, and your eyes were playing tricks on you." my mom said. "Yeah, you're probably right mom." My mom was right, I was just tired and overwhelmed from the move and the new city and everything. On the other hand, was my mom just trying to comfort me? Did she see what I saw but just didn't want to freak me and Max out?