Illusion

Chapter 1 : Dinner Plan

Feng Huiyin's POV

We had been on the road for several miles, and our cars were still the only two cars to be seen. I was leaning against the car window, closing my eyes, trying to sleep my problems away. But every time I close my eyes, I saw the same pictures again and again; smiling Wang Qing, which just worsen my headache. I decided just to sit back up and looking out the window.

"Oh, you're finally up!" Dayu chirped happily behind the wheel.

"What? I fell asleep?" I looked away from the window to Dayu. It didn't feel like I slept at all.

"Duh! You slept for two hours." He peeked at me for a second before looking up to the road again and asked, "Feeling better now? You seem really upset before." He really hadn't change at all. He just had to stick his nose into all of my problems.

"I'm good." Was the only thing I said. I heard him sigh but I wasn't really in the mood to talk with him. I looked at the rearview mirror and saw Qing's car still following us. I only decided to drive with Dayu because I couldn't face Qing after what I had discovered before at home. All of this was Dayu's fault. He must have seduced Qing with all his might to make my life miserable like he always had.

"We're here! Welcome back pretty princess." Dayu winked at me as he drove us through the welcome sign of the valley. Never thought I would be back to this country side again. By country I meant the Hood River Valley, where Dayu and I were born, where I spent 20 years of my life before I moved out and go to the college in the city, away from my family.

We were driving past our high school and turned south, driving away from the city center and drove past the old Victorian houses, farmhouses and apple orchards before we pulled into a familiar driveway and parked outside a rusted gate.

Dayu went outside quickly to open the gate while I was gawking at the mansion in front of me. I remembered a beautiful mansion by the river, not some run down haunted house. Chunk of the sandstone trim had fallen clean off the brick façade and the bricks were pitted. After opening the gate, Dayu went inside the car again and drove through the gate and parked the car several meters from the house, followed by Qing behind.

We all went outside the car and took the suitcases with us to the house. I heard Dayu and Qing talked about the house, but I had no intention to open my mouth, so I walked in front of them, leading the way.

We had to walk up the hill before we reached the house. We passed an old apple orchard that looked like it was suffering from fire blight. I had the feeling that all the surrounding plants were creeping toward the house.

I stopped in front of the massive front door, which looked like it needed to be repaired as soon as possible before it collapsing over the nearly demolished stairs in front of it, to wait for Dayu to unlock the door.

"Beautiful, isn't it? This house looks like a castle!" Dayu remarked as he opened the door.

"Yeah, it's wonderful. Is this an octagon house? I believe these type of house was a trend in the mid-nineteenth century." Qing replied while he was observing the mansion. Typical architect, interested with these kind of boring thing.

"Yes!" Dayu said, his face shining with excitement. "I didn't think you will know about that!"

Right now they were clearly seeing a magical fairy-tale castle while I saw an abandoned haunted house.

Inside, this house was a like a museum that never taken care of. It looked as if my grandparents never bought anything more modern than the 60's. Everything was original, like the house itself. The floral prints were bold and the furniture simple.