The Four Sisters

Chapter 1

   "It has to be haunted."  

   It was the first words out of Parker Lang's mouth as she stood in front of the old Victorian house. It had clearly seen better days. It was painted a muddy brown, and it smelled like rotting garbage outside. The sisters were all standing on the sidewalk and staring up in horror at what was supposed to be their new home.

  "People were definitely murdered here," Spencer said jokingly as they looked at the porch that was covered in dead leaves, trash, and she didn't want to know what else, but something certainly smelled dead. She shuddered imagining what they mind find once they waded into the mess.

  "Shut up," Victoria said in a heated whisper. "Do you want Charlotte to be able to sleep here?"

  "I'm not a little kid," Charlotte objected as she stood in her tight jeans and a big gray t-shirt – apparently her idea of work clothes. Along with a pair of pointy black boots that she said made her feel like a witch as apparently all of her friends were going through a 'Wicca' phase which Spencer knew meant they all were buying books on Amazon with pentagrams on the front and looking up spells to make their boyfriends like them more.

  "You still sleep with the light on," Parker said. "Don't worry. I'm sure it isn't too haunted. Probably just some creaking doors and shit like that. I'm sure blood won't be pouring through the walls or anything."

  "You watch too many old movies," Victoria said as she looked at the house with distaste all over her face. "We should just sell it. It's way too much of a mess."

  "No!" Spencer objected. "We can fix it up!"

  "Do you know how much money is probably going to have to be put into this thing?" Victoria demanded.

  "Grandma left us enough money to fix it up though!" Charlotte piped up as she pulled at her older sister's arm who was still looking up at the house like it was making her ill.

  "That money is going into your education," Victoria said sternly. 

  "Oh please," Parker objected. "We're already drowning in student loans so why bother? It'd be like throwing a bucket of water on a raging fire to use that money towards college. It could fix this place up though, and then we could sell it for a big ole' profit."

  "We could sell it as is," Victoria said. "Look at the size of this thing, and the neighborhood. We could each get a nice chunk of change."

  "But we wouldn't be able to afford to buy anything in the city after we split it up," Spencer said as she took a tentative step towards the crumbling concrete steps out front. They stretched across the scraggly, weed covered lawn. There were also crumbling, concrete planters that were filled with rain water and sludge now, but Spencer could already imagine them blooming with flowers.

  "True," Victoria admitted grudgingly. "Even the small apartments down town are insanely expensive. They would still be out of our price range. We could rent."

 "I'm sick of renting," Charlotte said and made a face. "You know I want a cat!"

 "I don't," Parker said and made a face back at her. "Cats smell."

  "So do you," Charlotte said with a smirk.

 "My idea is that we move in here, we fix it up, and we sell it once the girls graduate college," Spencer said easily as she'd already gone over this idea in her head, but she'd waited to see the house to voice it. "I'm sure it isn't too bad inside. It's been locked up for ten years, but Grandma took great care of her house – so Mom said."

  None of the grandchildren had even been inside the house even though it was where their Mom grew up. Spencer hadn't even known where her Grandmother lived as their Mom Janet refused to talk to her Mother. Janet would tell stories about her horrible childhood with her over-bearing Mother that ran every aspect of her life, and how she couldn't wait to get out of the very house they were standing in front of and imagining living inside.