Scratching The Surface

Chapter 5

A.N.: To prevent future confusion because I know it may work differently in some countries. The ground floor is the first floor. The floor above it is the second (or that's how it'll go in this story because that's how I'm used to things here in America)

The second day in the house, Piper was left alone for the first time as Jason took the girls to their check-up at the doctor's office. She offered to stay home to work on the house, to hang pictures and finish unpacking all their clothes. When she was done with that she went up and began to work on the girls' room, sweeping all the dust up and organizing their things so it didn't look like everything was packed away.

The room they had picked for the girls to share was a medium sized bedroom that had been empty besides the rocking chair in the corner and the faded purple wallpaper that clung to the walls. The chair freaked Piper out a little but she kept it in the corner, setting up some of the kids' stuffed animals on it. It didn't move by itself and seemed pretty sturdy, and looked to be handpainted. It was actually one of Piper's favorite things about the house.

"There, that looks better," Piper muttered to herself, wiping her moist forehead with the bottom of her shirt. It hadn't taken long to set their room up but it seemed to be more work than she was used to. Back at the apartment she cooked and cleaned and watched the girls (which proved very tiring), but never actually did physical labor much except for cleaning up after the girls. There wasn't much they were allowed to work on. The landlord had made it known that they weren't allowed to install anything or change the apartment up one bit. So it had been pretty simple and carefree.

Nothing about this new house was simple. It was large and old, with enough space for the kids to run off and get lost in. Not to mention that slightly...off feeling. It felt like it wasn't her house to live in.

A large thud from above her shook her out of her thoughts and caused her to start slightly. She hadn't even peeked into the third floor yet, knowing she would never need it for anything as long as they lived there.

Piper almost wrote it off as the wind before it happened again, this time louder. It almost sounded like someone was jumping with all their weight, trying to get her attention to them. It didn't sound like an animal or something had fallen, but as if a person was up there waiting to strike.

A person...in her house.

"There isn't even money to take." Piper looked around before quietly walking to her room, getting Jason's gun out of the bedside table. It was one of the first things they unpacked, loaded and ready to fire at will. As long as the girls couldn't reach it, Piper enjoyed having it. It made her feel safe (no offense to Jason, but she liked being able to rely on herself).

Piper made her way to the staircase at the end of the hallway, holding the gun out with shaking hands. She knew how to shoot it and to aim well but didn't necessarily like the idea of killing anybody. That's why she had taken that class at her college. She knew where to shoot to hurt but not kill, to disarm and to disable. It turned out to be pretty easy.

The stairs leading to the third floor had the same red carpet on them but didn't creak as she ascended them. They seemed less used but more kept up, the wood clean besides dust and not stained. She hated stains in wood, especially the one on the kitchen floor.

Piper got to the top of the stairs and looked around the shadowed hallway, frowning at the new layout this floor held. It seemed like a new hallway branched off every couple of feet, filling the space with a never-ending amount of doors. The hallways up here were decorated differently also, with benches here and there and large paintings of who Piper assumed to be the first owners. Sometimes, a tapestry hung from the ceiling to the floor.