A New Estate - Crimson Peak

Modern AU

My excitement over my new house was immeasurable.

It had taken me years of begging for overtime and even longer of saving up from my little bookseller job to get this place and now it was finally mine.

Each week I'd check to make sure the place was still up for grabs, my spirits lifting each time I saw that it was still vacant.

Over the years I'd had a few heart attacks whilst glancing at the listing and seeing it finally occupied, only for it to be back up about a month later, if that.

No reason stated, but I didn't need to know any previous owners reasons for leaving, I had my own for wanting that specific home.

That lot was where the once amazingly dilapidated Allerdale Hall stood.

Although now it was nothing like how it was documented back in the late nineteenth century, the original manor had been torn down and many years later the land had been covered with something more suited for the growing population and expanding town that was spreading further into the once vast nothingness.

I had read in a book I'd ordered into work that some of the newer house had pieces of the original manor still salvaged and built into the structure.

After reading one Edith Cushing's more biographical books, another one I'd ordered into work after stumbling across her ghost stories, I knew that I needed to get this place.

With luck, I'd managed to scrounge my way here and now my heart sang with pleasure.

The new neighbourhood had so far proven to be amazing, although one of the neighbours had proven to be a little surly, Old man Harris had barely offered a grunt to my cheery greeting as I carried boxes into my new home.

I'd only learned his name was Harris when his wife had scolded him for being so grumpy by snapping his name.

It was no skin off my nose though, I preferred keeping to myself anyway.

It had, however, been lovely when she'd popped over with a homemade Victoria sponge cake with fresh cream, I'd almost died and gone to Heaven.

Over the course of the days she had proven to be a delight, clearly they were an odd couple who worked perfectly and that just warmed me.

I had yet to meet my neighbour on the other side, all I'd learned was that he was called Jonathan and he seemed to be one of the younger residents of the street who preferred to be alone.

A man after my own heart.

I'd wasted no time to get set up for decorating, by the second day I had planned out each rooms design and by the third everything was sorted and ready to get going.

My excitement pushed past the typical procrastination I'd seen spewed on my online profiles about the mundane acts of packing and decorating a new home.

With a wide smile, I had plugged in the small radio and had tuned it into the first half decent sounding radio station I could find.

Then I was ready to start taping up the skirting boards and putting down newspaper for protection against the fresh paint, the radio was turned up to a level that I hoped was loud enough for me to hear clearly but also to not disturb either of my neighbours.

Time seemed to fly by and before I knew it, it had reached one thirty in the afternoon and I had been decorating for about four hours.

As Billy Idol cried his Rebel Yell for More, More More, I set foot into the kitchen to wash the paint off my hands and grab a well earned bit of food.