Happiness

Chapter 1

*Under Editing*

Cate's POV

I grab the last of my things and close the trunk of my car. I fumble with the things in my purse trying to find my keys.

I was the last one to arrive to my older cousins birthday party and I didn't know what would happen since I haven't seen them in a while. 

"Hey Caity, stop being such a slow poke and get inside already!" I heard a familiar voice call from the garage. The only people who call me Caity are my older cousin Tabby (@lynn_tabby) and my younger cousin (no relation) Matt.  Everyone else calls me Cate. No one calls me Caitlyn unless they are being serious. 

I smiled at his comment and turned around to face the door to the garage. " You are more of a slow poke then I will ever be!" 

He smirks and I hear him mumble something about how wrong I was as I found my keys at the bottom of my purse. I lock the car and start walking towards the garage when Matt races out the door complaining how slow I was. He ripped the bags out of my hands and took them in his own, pulling me inside.

" Why are you in such a rush?!" I exclaim as he throws all of my bags down the wooden stairs. Gladly I didn't bring anything too fragile with me in those things. 

" I wanna show you something!" He exclaims and basically pushes me down the stairs. We turn the corner and are met with the sight of Matt and Travis's cousin Nate and his girlfriend Lexi. I noticed what they were playing by the sound of the game on the tv. GTA San Andreas. Matt told me to not look at the screen just yet and I obeyed.
"Nate, go back to that one building." Matt tells Nate. I hear some fumbling with the controller sticks and after the noises of the controller stopped I was told to open my eyes. I did as I was told and turned my attention to the screen. I saw the background of an old run down building and a purple stick floating right next to the character in the game. I froze in my place knowing exactly what it was. My cousin's play this game all the time and Every time they made in appropriate jokes about the 'items' in the game.

 I tore my attention quickly away from the screen and looked at everyone. Matt was giggling like a little school girl while Nate was trying holding in his laughter and as for Lexi, she just looked really uncomfortable. I put my hand on the back of my neck awkwardly and rolled my eyes at them. I know what is going to happen next. I should stop being so surprised on why they bring me down here as soon as I get here every visit.

"And cue Travis." I announced and turned around.
Travis like usual ran out of the dark laundry room that was located at the bottom of the stairs and jumped into the air shouting "It's the purple dildo!" Pretty loud. He scans the room waiting for reactions and it was just the same as last time accept I had a slight smile on my face. I couldn't help it. They have those laughs where they are funnier than the joke they put out there.
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I couldn't help but feel a bit uncomfortable when I arrived. I loved being at my cousin's house again but something was off. We had all gathered into the dining room to wish Travis a happy birthday. He was turning 14.

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"Happy Birthday to you!!!!!" We all ended our singing for Travis and he blew out his candles from his Michigan State cake. My aunt took the candles off the cake and started getting ready for it to be served with the help of her sister, " Aunt" Becky. Becky was Matt and Travis's aunt and since Matt and Travis are our cousins, she wasn't our aunt.

When the ladies were getting the cake and ice cream all set up all of the kids including my siblings came downstairs. 

There were 3 adults, one of them being Nate's older sister Stephanie, her friend Bethany, and Stephanie's boyfriend. All of them were in their twenties while Nate is 16, Lexi is about that age too, Travis is officially 14, I'm 12 turning 13 in a couple months, Matt is 12 next month, Holly is 11, Connor is 10 not next month but the month after, William is 2 or three years younger than Connor ( William is Travis and Matt's younger cousin) and Claire is 2 or 3 years old who is Williams younger sister. 

One of the things Travis and Matt got for Christmas last month was these big soccer nets and since they were downstairs we got to play with them. Matt and I were going one on one with each other while Connor , Travis and Nate played GTA with Lexi watching and Holly supervising/playing with Claire while William would go up and down the stairs running all over the place. 

Matt was winning (only because I let him ) 5-4 in our mini game of soccer. Even though they were cleaning out their basement we had some room to play a game. Nate got up and started intruding in our little game. I didn't know much about him. The only things I knew was his age, his birthday ;  the day after Cinco de mayo that's how I remember; he lived in the exact same area as Travis and Matt, and I'm pretty sure he plays soccer. We have all gotten together for a while now only for Matt and Travis's birthdays once a year and that was about it. Other than that we never really had the chance to play the game of get to know you. 

Nate jumped in the game and stole the ball from Matt causing him to fall to the floor and the soccer net tipping over, switching to the back side of the net. Nate did some random trick and had the ball end up in his hand as Matt didn't like how he just crashed the game. 

They sat and argued a bit and eventually Matt gave up moving over to the sitting area to watch Connor play GTA.

Nate and I started passing the ball to each other and doing random tricks as well. I felt really uncomfortable. Something was wrong. I happen to look up and saw a figure in my uncles office which was right next to the laundry room. I looked over at Nate who had the ball in his possession.

"What? He asked juggling the ball with his knees.

I stared at him for a moment. Not too long though because it would just be awkward. 

"Nothing." I mumbled and tore eye contact with him. 

Nate became distracted by him juggling the ball and I walked closer to the office. I knew no one was suppose to be in there so I went to investigate. I came into the view of the room and saw no one in the room. I walked in and scanned the room. No one. I walked in when no one was looking and didn't dare to touch anything. I heard a small bump in the middle area where there was storage that connected the laundry room and my uncle's office. 

I made my way out of the small area and into the laundry room. Since the door was open from Travis's grand entrance, I had to be careful to not get caught. I went passed the door without getting spotted and scanned the laundry room. Besides the office, this room had to be the creepiest due to a stain filled shower and a little attic with a crawl space nearby. 

I turned my attention to the attic and as soon as I did I heard that bump again, but it was louder. It's closer. I watched carefully not daring to walk any closer than I already was to the attic. At this point I would just get out of there but something was pulling me closer in and I couldn't pull back. 

I watched carefully and saw something come through the wall of the attic doorway. It didn't walk out of the room it walked through the room. I stood their holding in my breath. The figure came closer and closer. The closer it go my heart started beating faster and faster. The figure stopped when it was only a couple of feet away from where I was frozen to the ground. I felt as if something was pulling me to do what I did next. My hand was lifted up and it grabbed my phone out of my pocket and without even looking it turned on my flashlight and shined it up to the figure. 

I felt as if I was released from whatever was pulling me to do the second I shined the flashlight on the figure.

It was him. How could he be standing here right now?