Shining Hill

Chapter 2

Annette's first reaction to seeing their aunt's house was to hold her breath and stare.

Organized chaos, if there was such a thing, was defined by the house's yard.

There were things growing around the house, all of it wild and untrimmed. Ivy climbed up one side of the house and onto the roof. A weather vane, which looked like a fairy pointing at something, was bent at an angle and creaked every time the wind blew lightly. Creepy looking lawn ornaments, all made of clay, were placed every three feet just inside the iron fence. The iron fence had intricate iron work between the bars, different symbols and designs that attached one another into a beautiful picture of interconnecting lines. The tops of the posts were shaped as spades, pointing upward, as though guarding the house from unseen forces. Throughout the garden were different statues that were made from a variety of different materials and shaped into a variety of different creatures.

Everything seemed to be everywhere, but everything was there for a reason, or Annette supposed. She could see the patterns among the fray, so her aunt must have been doing something.

Zander scrunched up his nose when he saw the towering monstrosity. To him, it looked like a death trap.

"How the hell can anyone live in that? It looks like it's going to fall over," he grumbled under his breath, just loud enough so Annette, who stood next to him, could hear.

Annette was silent, her eyes captivated by the house, studying it like it was a page from one of those seek-and-find books she loved as a child. Where is the cup? She thought humorlessly to herself as she studied a stone deer that stood silently next to a beautiful willow by the side of the house.

The house stood like a sore thumb in a long line of delicate little homes with lawns all nicely trimmed. No other house had a crooked weather vane, nor did they have crazy statues about their lawns. Their gardens were all neatly trimmed, and their fences were all wood or plain metal bars.

Annette looked at the two houses on either side of this master piece and couldn't help but think that neither one could compare to its magnitude.

And so, it stood as a monument for abnormality, and laughed in the face of normality.

Annette blinked and looked away from the house. She wasn't sure where that had come from, but she was sure that it must have been from something she had read. She tapped the bottom of her chin in thought as her eyebrows drew together. She hummed in consideration, gaining the attention of Zander who had been staring at one of the statues which seemed to stare back at him.

"What?" Zander asked.

Annette's fogged over eyes blinked and cleared as she looked at him.

"Huh? Oh, I was just thinking."

Zander stared at her a moment.

"My worry for your damn mental health keeps giving me a fucking headache," Zander said drily.

"At least I know you care," Annette replied, earning a snort from Zander.

He nudged her, smirking as a ghost of a smile touched her lips, a smile that was not quite a smile, and then he turned away from her.

Zander walked towards the car where Diana had parked in front of the house. Diana was opening the trunk, and Zander helped her take out the luggage as Annette slowly walked to them, trying to think of the book that the sudden intrusive thought could have been from.

"Neat house, huh? I swear, it just gets wilder every time I look at it," Diana said cheerfully as she set the bags on the ground.

Zander gave her a look when Diana wasn't looking, almost one-hundred percent certain that she was crazy. A happy kind of crazy, but crazy, just like everyone else Zander seemed to know.