Death Lane

Chapter 1

"Mom why did we have to move?" Jason asked as we left our house in the city and moved to middle of the woods about an hour north of our old house.

I'm K. My real name is Katelynn, but everyone calls me K in school - well, used to. I'm 15 and I have an 8 year old brother, Jason, and an infant sister, Emily. Our parents divorced in the past month so we are now going with mom to live on the outskirts of a town on Death Lane. Truly, I want to know who named this road. Why would someone name it Death Lane?

The only things I was happy about was that the house was nice and huge (hopefully it will keep Jason away from me when I didn't what to be with him), and we were going to have Wi-Fi and I still had all of my really valuable items while the other ones were with dad; we got to see him every other weekend.

When mom works weekdays, we get ourselves on the bus, and since I get out of school earlier than Jason I watch him when he gets home. Mom told me that she was going to keep Emily at grandma's until I get home and then grandma will drive her over. Mom says that once I get my license I will end up just driving to school then drive to grandmas to get Emily.

"K, can you take this one, I'm exhausted from driving back and forth and-" K finished her mom's sentence.

"-and work and Emily and the divorce, I understand mom" I told Jason for only the 8th time instead of 23rd why they had moved. As I told Jason everything, I saw him play with Emily's little tiny hands.

As mom drove, I sat shotgun and sang my heart out to every country song I knew. Jason was in the right back seat with Emily in the middle. He was mesmerized at how small Emily's hands were compared to his. Emily didn't seem to fuss one bit the whole car ride. The car was crammed with the last of the belongings. I did a goodbye Facebook post as we were almost there (I forgot to so it while we were still in the city). Right after I posted it I got a text from Tim Hathaway, my dad. I always have to put full names or I go crazy. My mom is like that too, I think that's were I got it from.

Dad: U there yet?
Me: Not yet
Dad: Txt me when u r
Me: Don't worry I will
Dad: luv u
Me: luv u 2
Ugh, he's so over-protective.

Mom slowed to turn on Death Lane. Every time we turn I get a shiver down my spine. We pull up to the gorgeous house that I know we will be living in. This is only the second time Jason and I have been here, first for Emily, and I don't know how many times for mom. I grab Emily out of the car after Jason shoots himself out and runs to look around and find his ball he left here last time.

"Hey sis, did you have a nice car ride?" As if Emily was going to answer me. I know she wasn't going to, but it's still cute to talk to her. I watch and see Emily emit a huge yawn yet still keep her eyes closed. As I enter the house I see mom staring around at the place.

"Hey precious," mom said as soon as she saw her. "You remember where her room is?" She said looking directly at me I could see the tiredness in her eyes. I nod. "Then please, take her up there and place her in her crib and set up the camera and baby noise thing."

"The monitor?"

"Yeah, then come back down and watch Jason, I'm going to take a nap."

"Alright, mom."

As I walked up the winding staircase, I felt a sense of pride. I didn't usually do this with dad always being around but I've always known what to do. I reached the top of the stairs and turned right, went to the end of the hall and saw the pink paint on the walls and dark red carpet. I set the carrier on the floor and picked up Emily from it, placed her in the crib and let the lullaby pacify her to sleep. Luckily she didn't need her bottle just yet. I set up the camera that was linked to mom's phone and grabbed the older yet super loud monitor and headed downstairs. On the stairs I almost fell forward but I managed to get myself balanced. I went out the door and found mom on the porch watching Jason. I handed the monitor to mom.

"Oh thank you so much, sweetheart. Can you wake me up at 5:00 p.m? I still need to get some forms done before Monday when you and Jason start at your new school."

"5:00 sounds good."

"Thank you," she said and walked in and up to her room, which was just right of Emily's.

It was only 3:00pm in the afternoon on a Saturday.

"2 hours of sleep meant 2 hours of no parents at our backs." I mumbled.

I ran outside and found Jason with a stick and hitting a rock like a baseball. He stops and waves me over.

"I heard mom say she was going to take a 2 hour nap! What do you want to do?" He asked me.

"I say we roam the trails and find a good spot for a fort. What do you say?"

"Oh, that sounds like fun!"

"And if we do find a good spot, I'll make large enough so we can have a lot of friends in it at once"

"Yippee!"

"You got your 'compass skills' on?"

He nodded with joy. He never forgot the path that he had just taken. With him you wouldn't need a breadcrumb trail.

When we were walking he asked me to quiz him in his wildlife skills. So I would listen for a bird and ask him what is was; he was excellent at doing this. Every time we passed a paw-print of an animal he would try to guess what it was. He was not very good at this yet so I decided to take a picture of each of them, then we would go home and look them up to see if he was right. After 20 minutes of looking around, I found a great spot for a fort. Jason walked a little farther and found what looked to be an old fort. It was strange, the fort looked like it was burnt and there were ashes all around it yet nowhere else was the evidence of fire. And the weirdest part was it looked like it was just built, sturdy and strong.