Arcade | s.m (✔️)

One

"Five minutes, are you excited?"

"Thrilled."

"Way to stay above the line, Rosie." My oldest brother murmurs, and I instantly roll my eyes at him. He had been laying down in the back, eating all of our snacks as I helped with navigation the entire time, and even drove when my mom had to rest.

What has Cole done? Eaten all of my Twix bars.

"Now Cole, you know 'Mary's just tired right now. We haven't all been able to sleep this whole time." My mother says, calling him out.

"Actually, if anyone here's been helpful, it's been me." He replies, obviously joking.

"Do you always lie this much?" I ask, and I watch as he shrugs.

"Are you always such a pessimistic prick?"

"Cole!" Mom scorns, and I laugh.

"It's okay Mom, I doubt Cole even knows what pessimistic means." I say in whisper voice, definitely loud enough for everyone in the car to hear.

"Oh, fu-"

"We're here!" My mom says loudly, and I watch as she drives into the parking lot of our new "home".

Yikes.

Not that it was torn apart, or I could see cockroaches in every space possible. In fact, it was a good size for Mom and I to live in, with Cole coming every now and then from college.

But this house looked freaky. Like, the "a little girl died in this home and her vengeful spirit still lingers on to this day" type of freaky.

"Oh, its perfect." My mom says, smiling as she gets out of the car, before her phone rings and she picks it up.

"I call the room with the biggest pentagram." Cole whispers in my ear, not wanting to ruin our Mom's mood.

"Only if I get all the possessed dolls in the basement." I whisper back, and get out of the car.

"Well, the moving van will be here tomorrow morning." My mother tells us, and I raise an eyebrow.

"Tomorrow? Wait, how are we sleeping tonight?" I ask.

"Well, we have blankets. Not like we'll need them, it's scorching hot outside."

"So we're sleeping on the ground." Cole states, and my mother shrugs, looking at Cole weirdly.

"You can of you'd like, though I'm not sure you'd want to. I'll be sleeping in the car."

"I call the back!" I yell loudly, and my brother raises his hands in surrender.

"Calm down, before the neighbors think you're a freak." He whispers, and only then do I notice two teenage guys walking past our house.

"You guys related to Marge?" One of them says, referring to my Aunt Margaret, who's house this actually belonged to.

We would be staying here until things got "sorted out" is what my Mom said.
What she meant by that? Until she finally graduates college and gets her job as a nurse.

My mother was no Highschool drop out. But in her first year of college, she had Cole, and decided it would be better to focus on raising him with my father.